mious and delicate, he had the sensibility of a woman; and, without much appearance of strength, his limbs retained the flexibility of youth to the last. When outward excursions were impracticable, he would do what he called his exercise* with the facility of a boy. My sister, seeing this for the first time, remarked afterwards it was quite beautiful, and a friend lately asserted he was the most graceful man he ever saw. There was no change in his hearing, memory or understanding, during the perhaps forty years of our acquaintance. On the evening of his death I was accidentally there, or Mrs. Dyer would have been (quite unusually) entirely alone at the moment when he died, without a struggle, on her arm. He had been rather sleepy for some time, as he occasionally was, but was walking very well towards his chair, when he exclaimed, "Dear me!" His left hand seemed to quiver a little-she put him into it—there was a slight noise in his throat-and all was over!

He was dark, small in person, and neatly made. Charles Lamb used to say he never saw any very bright eyes that were pleasant but Dyer's; and he had a peculiarly meek and benignant expression about the mouth. His features were regular. He was not the least bald, and his wife took great pride in his luxuriant silver hair. When well-dressed, and he was never otherwise after his marriage, he had most strikingly the look, as he always had the behaviour and mind, of a gentleman. There is an excellent portrait of him by Meyer.

Learning so loved him and so fondly nurs'd,
That she was even jealous from the first
Of worldly wisdom; and the boy resign'd
To her and to Benevolence his mind.

Gentle, though fighting on through life for truth,
Old age could not bereave his heart of youth-
His thirst for knowledge blindness could not chill,

His charity no time, experience, kill

Warmly he often prais'd, but faintly blam'd:-
And, saying this, O need GEORGE DYER be nam'd!

MATILDA BETHAM.

THE LATE LORD HOLLAND.

THERE are some exalted characters which no one thinks of describing, on account of their perfection. There are some deaths on which all are for a time silent, because all are deep mourners. This may account for there having been scarcely an attempt to do justice to the memory of the late Lord Holland, until the appearance of the last number of the Edinburgh Review (CXLVIII. for July), in which there is a sketch of his history, mind and manners,-a masterly but (for the reader) a too brief sketch. We cordially recommend the whole article; it is evidently drawn up by one who enjoyed the rare felicity of Lord Holland's society, and was familiar at Holland House. To such as have not immediate access to this No. of the Edinburgh,

Always asking leave of any lady present, as he invariably did when he took his pipe.

filis eye-brow and whiskers remained quite black.

which is unusually rich and attractive in its contents, we present the following extracts.

"Those who most dissent from his (Lord HOLLAND's) opinions must acknowledge, that a public life more consistent is not to be found in our annals. Every part of it is in perfect harmony with every other; and the whole is in perfect harmony with the great principles of toleration and civil freedom. This rare felicity is in a great measure to be attributed to the influence of Mr. Fox. Lord Holland, as was natural in a person of his talents and expectations, began at a very early age to take the keenest interest in politics; and Mr. Fox found the greatest pleasure in forming the mind of so hopeful a pupil. They corresponded largely on political subjects when the young lord was only sixteen; and their friendship and mutual confidence continued to the day of that mournful separation at Chiswick. "Under such training, such a man as Lord Holland was in no danger of falling into those faults which threw a dark shade over the whole career of his grandfather, and from which the youth of his uncle was not wholly free."

"In statement, the late Lord Holland was not successful; his chief excellence lay in reply. He had the quick eye of his House for the unsound parts of an argument, and a great felicity in exposing them. He was decidedly more distinguished in debate than any Peer of his times who had not sat in the House of Commons. Nay, to find his equal among persons similarly situated, we must go back eighty years-to Earl Granville. For Mansfield, Thurlow, Loughborough, Grey, Grenville, Brougham, Plunkett, and other eminent men, living and dead, whom we will not stop to enumerate, carried to the Upper House an eloquence formed and matured in the Lower. The opinion of the most discerning judges was, that Lord Holland's oratorical performances, though sometimes most successful, afforded no fair measure of his oratorical powers; and that, in an assembly of which the debates were frequent and animated, he would have attained a very high order of excellence. It was, indeed, impossible to converse with him without seeing that he was born a debater. To him, as to his uncle, the exercise of the mind in discussion was a positive pleasure. With the greatest good nature and good breeding, he was the very opposite to an assenter. The word 'disputatious' is generally used as a word of reproach; but we can express our meaning only by saying that Lord Holland was most courteously and pleasantly disputatious. In truth, his quickness in discovering and apprehending distinctions and analogies was such as a veteran judge might envy. The lawyers of the Duchy of Lancaster were astonished to find in an unprofessional man so strong a relish for the esoteric parts of their science; and complained that as soon as they had split a hair, Lord Holland proceeded to split the filaments into filaments still finer. In a mind less happily constituted, there might have been a risk that this turn for subtilty would have produced serious evil. But in the heart and understanding of Lord Holland there was ample security

Among these contents are an extraordinary article, extending to 56 pages, on "The Port-Royalists," in which there is an admirable depth of thought and of pious feeling, united with a singular power of writing;-a dissertation on "The Administration of Justice in India," which ought to be studied by every member of the new Parliament;-a masterly analysis of some statistical reports on "Education in America-State of Massachusetts," with reflections on home-prospects and home-duties; and an essay on the "Grounds and Objects of the Budget" of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Rt. Hon. F. T. Baring, on the part of Lord Melbourne's Government, in which the general proposal of Ministers is successfully defended, and the "Sugar-Question," in particular, is settled to the conviction of all who have understanding, or whose prejudices are not roused into operation by zeal for their own sordid interests or those of their immediate connexions.

against all such danger. He was not a man to be the dupe of his own ingenuity. He put his Logic to its proper use; and in him the dialectician was always subordinate to the statesman.

"His political life is written in the chronicles of his country. Perhaps, as we have already intimated, his opinions on two or three great questions of Foreign Policy were open to just objection. Yet even his errors, if he erred, were amiable and respectable. We are not sure that we do not love and admire him the more because he was now and then seduced from what we regard as a wise policy, by sympathy with the oppressed; by generosity towards the fallen; by a philanthropy so enlarged, that it took in all nations; by love of peace, which in him was second only to the love of freedom; by the magnanimous credulity of a mind which was as incapable of suspecting as of devising mischief.

To his views on questions of Domestic Policy, the voice of his country1. men does ample justice. They revere the memory of the man who was, 1 during forty years, the constant protector of all oppressed races, of all persecuted sects-of the man, whom neither the prejudices nor the interests belonging to his station could seduce from the path of right-of the noble, who in every great crisis cast in his lot with the commons-of the planter, I who made manful war on the slave-trade-of the landowner, whose whole heart was in the struggle against the corn-laws."

"How shall we express the feelings with which his memory is cherished by those who were honoured with his friendship? Or in what language shall we speak of that House, once celebrated for its rare attractions to the furthest ends of the civilized world, and now silent and desolate as the grave ?"

"The time is coming when, perhaps, a few old men, the last survivors of our generation, will in vain seek, amidst new streets, and squares, and railway-stations, for the site of that dwelling which was in their youth the favourite resort of wits and beauties-of painters and poets-of scholars, philosophers and statesmen. They will then remember, with strange tenderness, many objects once familiar to them-the avenue and the terrace, the busts and the paintings; the carving, the grotesque gilding, and the enigmatical mottoes. With peculiar fondness, they will recall that venerable chamber in which all the antique gravity of a college library was so singularly blended with all that female grace and wit could devise to embellish a drawing-room. They will recollect, not unmoved, those shelves loaded with the varied learning of many lands and many ages; those portraits in which were preserved the features of the best and wisest Englishmen of two generations. They will recollect how many men who have guided the politics of Europe--who have moved great assemblies by reason and eloquence--who have put life into bronze and canvas, or who have left to posterity things so written as it shall not willingly let them die-were there mixed with all that was loveliest and gayest in the society of the most splendid of capitals. They will remember the singular character which belonged to that circle, in which every talent and accomplishment, every art and science, had its place. They will remember how the last debate was discussed in one corner, and the last comedy of Scribe in another; while Wilkie gazed with modest admiration on Reynolds' Baretti; while Mackintosh turned over Thomas Aquinas to verify a quotation; while Talleyrand related his conversations with Barras at the Luxemburg, or his ride with Lannes over the field of Austerlitz. They will remember, above all, the grace-and the kindness, far more admirable than grace-with which the princely hospitality of that ancient mansion was dispensed. They will remember the venerable and benignant countenance, and the cordial voice of him who bade them welcome. They will remember that temper which years of pain, of sickness, of lameness, of confinement, seemed only to make sweeter and sweeter; and that frank politeness which at once relieved all 4 B

VOL. VIII.

the embarrassment of the youngest and most timid writer or artist, who found himself for the first time among Ambassadors and Earls. They will remember that constant flow of conversation, so natural, so animated, so various, so rich with observation and anecdote; that wit which never gave a wound; that exquisite mimicry which ennobled, instead of degrading; that goodness of heart which appeared in every look and accent, and gave additional value to every talent and acquirement. They will remember, too, that he whose name they hold in reverence was not less distinguished by the inflexible uprightness of his political conduct than by his loving disposition and his winning manners. They will remember that, in the last lines which he traced, he expressed his joy that he had done nothing unworthy of the friend of Fox and Grey; and they will have reason to feel similar joy, if, in looking back on many troubled years, they cannot accuse themselves of having done any thing unworthy of men who were distinguished by the friendship of Lord Holland.”

DR. SHEPHERD'S SPEECH TO PRESBYTERIAN MINISTERS. SIR, Liverpool, August 5, 1841. I CANNOT but think it a pity that the Speech I send you herewith, should not be inserted in one of our established periodicals. It ought not to have only an ephemeral existence. Whatever many may think of the passage which we have printed in italics, we shall all agree in admiration of its energy and effectiveness, as well as of the eloquent Veteran who can thus resume his arms, when his country and his cause appear to him to demand that the Swinton should take the field, no less than the Gordon.

J. JOHNS.

Speech of the Rev. W. Shepherd, LL.D., at the Provincial Meeting of the Presbyterian Ministers of Lancashire and Cheshire, held at Manchester on the 24th of June, 1841.

"Extremum hunc Arethusa mihi concede laborem."-VIRGIL.

MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN,- I sincerely wish that the Committee who have kindly undertaken the office of arranging the order of this festival, had delegated the task of responding to this toast (Civil and Religious Liberty) to some person less advanced in years than myself-to some individual endowed with a greater degree of mental and bodily vigour than I can at present lay claim to. Gentlemen, I believe that I enjoy the " painful pre-eminence" of being the Father of the Provincial Meeting of the Presbyterian Ministers of Lancashire and Cheshire; and, in addition to the burden of the weight of years which this circumstance implies, I am still oppressed by the effects of a late severe and painful indisposition.

But, gentlemen, even the grey-headed Chelsea pensioner, when his country is threatened with invasion, grasps his long-suspended musket; he pipe-clays his old cross-belts; he cheerfully undertakes, at least, garrison duty; and readily exerts the utmost of his remaining strength in defence of the dearest interests of his native land.

Gentlemen, I now appear before you in the character of the retired soldier, resuming his arms in the crisis of special danger. I believe it is well known to every gentleman here present, that during the days of my youth, and the strength of my maturer years, I exerted myself to the utmost of my ability, and that oftentimes in the face of no small personal danger,

* Rev. R. Brook Aspland, of Dukinfield.

in the defence and in the propagation of those principles of civil and religious liberty to which we are now doing honour; and perhaps your partiality will excuse an old man's boast, when I venture to say, in the words of my favourite poet, "militavi non sine gloria." But about ten years ago, for reasons which I then stated in public, I withdrew from the arena of politics, and exclusively devoted myself to the discharge of my ministerial duties and the offices of private life.

Gentlemen, I then thought myself justified in so doing, because, at the period to which I have just alluded, the "day-star of liberty" seemed to be culminating to the ascendant. The abuses of political monopoly had become the subjects of general reprobation, and were condemned by the unanimous cry of the population of the three kingdoms of which this empire is composed. The truth and the value of the principles of civil and religious liberty appeared to be acknowledged throughout the length and breadth of the land; and it seemed to be admitted as an axiom in politics, that those principles must be the polar-star by which every prudent minister of the British Crown must try to guide the vessel of the state into the haven of tranquillity and peace.

But, gentlemen, "a change comes o'er the spirit of our dream;" for surely a dream it must have been. Yes; whilst we were fondly imagining that the principles to which we annually pay our tribute of respect were safe under the protection of general acceptance, we have beheld them violently impugned-not by the frenzy of the mob-not by the ravings of the rude and uneducated multitude-but by men of rank, by men of eminent station in society, by men of learning-in short, by luminaries of the University of Oxford. Yes, by men of this description have been lately propounded (and that in the most formal manner) those principles of religious bigotry, the constant tendency of whose energies is to give a dangerous support to the doctrines and the practices of civil tyranny. I say a dangerous support; for a reference to the annals of history will furnish abundant proof of the fact, that though spiritual tyranny at first engages on the side of civil despotism in its hostility against the rights of men, merely as an auxiliary, -in process of time its growing power qualifies it to become a principal; and at length, when the people are sufficiently besotted by a course of sophistic lecturing, accompanied by appeals to their baser passions, the Church, as is at this moment the case in Scotland, has the hardihood to grapple with the State.

The coryphoeus of these assailants of the principles of civil and religious liberty dispenses his poison from the eminence of an academic chair, for he is no less a personage than the Rev. W. Sewell, Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Oxford. And here, gentlemen, let us pause for a moment, to reflect upon the vast extent of the sphere of the science of morals. That science comprehends, in the countless assemblage of the objects of its discipline, the whole race of mankind, as they appear in successive generations upon the surface of the earth. The sphere of that science extends even "extra flammantia monia mundi"-beyond the limits of the visible world; and comprehends in its circumference the world of spirits and its denizens, from the lowest of celestial intelligences to the angels and archangels who constantly circle the throne of God, rejoicing in the blissful influence of his immediate presence. Nay, with reverence be it spoken, within the circumference of that sphere may be said, in a certain sense, to be comprehended even the Almighty himself, whose resistless power we believe to be guided by the dictates of the most impartial justice.

And, gentlemen, what, do you imagine, does this grave divine lay down as the foundation of this august, this extensive and infinitely important science? He does not found it, like Balguy, upon the abstract fitness of things; nor, like Paley, upon the principle of utility; nor, like the Bentham