1 ing; he attended indifferently to things of small importance; and consequently he was called idle, and for many years of his life decried as idle, by a vast variety of persons VOL. XVI. NO. IIL 19 mind to an elevated level, all beneath which he considered mean and worthless; all above, visionary and extravagant. Popular clamor and aristocratic pretension were alike dis Biographical Notices of Lord Melbourne. London: 1848. THERE are some men, of whom, if we value | who were far less usefully employed than their memory, it is important to produce, as soon as possible after the world has heard that they are no more, a just appreciation. We mean men in whose characters the lights and shadows were in a certain degree vague and unsettled, and whose manner was frequently confounded with a nature or mind of which it was but a false and superficial index. Certain gentlemen in the House of Commons who get up early, who have always their watch in their hand, who rush from committee room to committee room, and rarely miss any division on any subject, are generally considered by their family, and sometimes by their acquaintances, and even ordinary lookers-on, as men of business and activity. The Peer whom we are now mourning, was not a man of this class: his external habits were, in appearance, those of indolence; he went into society in the evening; he had the air of a lounger in the morning; he attended indifferently to things of small importance; and consequently he was called idle, and for many years of his life decried as idle, by a vast variety of persons himself. During this time he read more and thought more than perhaps any person of his own station and standing. His knowledge of the classical languages rendered their most difficult authors as familiar to him as if they had written in French or in English; and his mind was imbued with, and constantly brooding over those writings which best record the eloquence and wisdom of antiquity. In modern history and literature there was hardly any work with which he was not acquainted; and all the nice points and dogmas of theology were perpetually turned over by his inquisitive and speculative mind. His morning's ride, indeed, was often as serious an occupation to him, as were, to Pliny, the two hours which he passed in a dark room, and which he considered, though he was merely thinking, the most important portion of his day's labors. By this quiet process of study and thought he gradually brought his mind to an elevated level, all beneath which he considered mean and worthless; all above, visionary and extravagant. Popular clamor and aristocratic pretension were alike dis tasteful to him; mere honors he despised; | the case with young orators) too studied and "the grand simple" which the famous Duke adorned, he made on this occasion a great of Queensbury, then Earl of March, gave to impression; and if the Whigs had remained George Selwyn as the beau-ideal of taste, was in power, he would have been named to an the characteristic of his understanding. important situation under them. As it was, he followed the party into opposition; and there remained for some time-the bitter and not undistinguished antagonist of the men who had ridden into authority on the old King's prejudices.* Such was the statesman whose career and character we are now about to sketch-a statesman whom it was almost impossible for the public to understand from afar, and whom it was even difficult for those who had only casual opportunities of approaching him to judge with correctness. The late Viscount Melbourne was born on the 18th of March, 1779; being at this time the second son of the first Lord Melbourne, a nobleman not particularly remarkable himself, but married to a lady celebrated in her day for the charm of her manners and the strength of her understanding. The eldest son, Mr. Peniston Lamb, lived much in the world, but took little interest in politics. Mr. William Lamb, intended for a profession, was sent in the mean time to Eaton, Glasgow, and Cambridge; and so distinguished himself at these places by his abilities, that in 1802 Mr. Fox, ever the gracious and politic patron of rising merit, drew the attention of Parliament to the youthful scholar by quoting a passage from one of his university compositions.* In 1805 Mr. Peniston Lamb died, and Mr. William Lamb having thus become the representative of his family, was brought into the House of Commons. His talents, as we have seen, were already known there, and as he took his seat on the ministerial benches, he was selected by the Grenville Administration to move the address to the Crown at the opening of the session of 1806. With an appearance strikingly handsome, a delivery bold and energetic, and a style evidently formed with care, but not (as is frequently *Mr. Fox, March 16, 1802. Character of the Duke of Bedford. The passage is one taken from an essay on the " Progressive Improvements of Mankind," an oration delivered by Mr. Lamb in the chapel of Trinity College, on the 17th December, 1798. Mr. Fox says "I will conclude with applying to the present occasion a beautiful passage from the speech of a very young orator. It may be thought, perhaps, to savor too much of the sanguine views of youth to stand the test of a rigid philosophical inquiry; but it is at least cheering and consolatory, and that in this instance it may be so exemplified, is, I am confident, the sincere wish of every man who hears me. 'Crime,' says he, is a curse only to the period in which it is successful; but virtue, whether fortunate or otherwise, blesses not only its own age, but remotest posterity, and is as beneficial by its example, as by its immediate effects.'" Many years did not, however, elapse without producing great changes in the state of affairs. The illness of King George III., the appointment of the Prince of Wales as Regent, the assassination of Mr. Perceval, and the various attempts which were then made to form a mixed administration, gave a new color to questions, and a new position to persons. Great military successes abroad serious disturbances at home followed. Amidst these events Mr. Lamb gradually ceased to act as a party man, and he and Mr. Ward, afterwards Lord Dudley, became conspicuous for standing, as it were, on the verge of the two contending factions. The latter sat with the Tories, but frequently spoke for the Whigs; the former sat with Whigs, but spoke frequently for the Tories. Both, then young, were listened to with great attention, and held a high position in the House of Commons, where they were frequently complimented for their great respectability, talents, and independence. Their principles were the same-an inclination rather to support the prerogatives of Government than to give any great extension to popular power; but a strong conviction that the Government as constituted should be conducted with justice and intelligence; that all monopolies, whether in trade or religion, ought to be modified or abolished, and that the general policy of our civil administration at home, and of our affairs abroad, should be in accordance with the character of a great empire, eminently commercial and under the In 1807, he seconded Mr. Brand's motion relative to the late change of ministry. In 1810. See Mr. Fuller's motion for the abolition of sinecure offices. See the debates on the Indemnity Bill, 11th March, 1818, and Lord Brougham's speech, of which the following is an extract: "It was a matter of much regret to him, and to those with whom his honorable friend was generally in the habit of acting, that a person of his (Mr. Lamb's) great respect ability-that a person of so much weight in that House and in the country, from his accomplishments, his talents, and his character, should have lent himself to the support of such a measure as that which was now under consideration." |