his opponents acknowledged, and on which his friends relied, the independence, the sincerity, the temperance and moderation of his conduct, the modesty with which he bore his faculties, and the gentleness and benevolence which in private and social life seemed to bind him to all around in ties of the tenderest affection and regard,-we must acknowledge that a character more worthy of esteem has not been often displayed to the public eye, and that, if there is anything in the force of example which can awaken congenial virtues in the breasts of others, it may be presumed not to be in effective in a case like this, where the voice of commendation has been so discriminating, so independent, and so unanimous.

Francis Horner was the eldest son of Mr. Horner, a merchant of Edinburgh, and of Joanna Baillie. He was born in that town on the 12th August, 1778. In 1786 he went to the High School at Edinburgh, and was placed successively under the care of Mr. William Nicol and Dr. Alexander Adam: the former well known as the convivial companion of Burns, and the latter distinguished for his classical learning, and esteemed for his amiable disposition. In November 1792 he was matriculated as a student of the University of Edinburgh.

"That seminary," says his biographer, "may be said to have been then at the height of its reputation: Robertson, the historian, was the principal; and among its professors were some of the most distinguished names in science and literature of that period. The chair of moral philosophy was filled by Dugald Stewart;

that of mathematics, by John Playfair; of natural philosophy, by John Robison; of chemistry, by Joseph Black; of Greek, by Andrew Dalzel; and of rhetoric, by the Rev. Dr. Hugh Blair; while, in the medical school, anatomy was taught by the second Alexander Monro, and the practice of physic by James Gregory."

Horner remained at College until the close of the session of 1795, but being now arrived at a time of life when it was necessary to think of his future profession, and having fixed on the "bar," and as it was desirable that he should be freed from the disadvantages of a provincial dialect, it was determined that he should prosecute his studies in England; and he was most fortunate in the choice of his master when he was placed under the care of the Rev. John Hewlett of Shacklewell near Hackney. Here he constantly showed a very early maturity of understanding-read with great diligence and discrimination, and made an unusual progress in the acquirement of knowledge. His letters at this period are such as few boys of nineteen could write, and he already showed a considerable acquaintance with subjects that are little familiar to persons, however studious, at that age. In 1797 he returned to Edinburgh, became, with his friend Henry Brougham, a member of the Speculative Society, and pursued his studies with exemplary diligence and success. In 1799 he made the valuable acquaintance of Lord Webb Seymour, brother of the Duke of Somerset, a person of a very philosophic mind, and of great and various accomplishments in science and learning.† A journal, minute and accurate in its details, informs us of the nature and extent of Mr. Horner's studies, which were sufficiently extensive to reach from metaphysics to poetry, and from political economy to chemistry and geology. He read with great attention Bacon de Augm. Scientiæ as his guide and master in all philosophical pursuits, as containing the most profound and compre

See his sketch of Dr. Adam's character, vol. ii. p. 15.

† See a character of him by Horner, vol. i. p. 75, and p. 176, 7,

hensive views, and as the work of all others which opens the most splendid and extensive prospect over all the realm of science and human learning. About this time (1801) he writes in his journal.

"Neither in philosophy nor in law have I prosecuted any regular object of application. I have, as usual, indulged myself in all the reveries of future achieve ment, future acquisition, future fame; poetry, romantic philosophy, ambition, and vanity conspire to infatuate me in this oblivion of the present; and amid this visionary intoxication I almost feel the powers of actual exertion sink within me. In justice to myself, however, I

ought to note, that these speculations and dreams scarcely ever consist in the representation of external honours to be enjoyed, but in the arrangement of schemes of action, in the systematic distribution of various science to be acquired, in projected improvements of my intellectual powers, and in the systematic direction of this acquired knowledge and of these improved faculties to one great and common end," &c.

In another part of the journal we find him paying a high tribute of praise, but not more high than just, to a work which we always considered to be one which may be advantageously studied, not only with reference to the particular art on which it treats, but to all others connected with it.

"Next to the writings of Bacon (he writes), there is no book which has more powerfully impelled me to revolve these sentiments than the Discourses of Sir Joshua Reynolds. He is one of the first men of genius who have condescended to inform the world of the steps by which greatness is attained; the unaffected good sense and clearness with which he describes the terrestrial and human attributes of that which is usually called inspiration,

Again, he says,

"While I had Burke in one hand, I held in the other Sir Joshua Reynolds's Discourses, endeavouring to apply to my art the admirable criticisms which he delivers upon painting. I have constantly referred to the liberal precepts which he urges with regard to the study and imi

and the confidence with which he asserts the omnipotence of human labour, have the effect of familiarising his reader with the idea that genius is an acquisition rather than a gift; while with all this there is blended so naturally and so eloquently the most elevated and passionate admiration of excellence, and of all the productions of true genius, that upon the whole there is no book of a more inflammatory effect."

tation of the great masters; and I repose with confidence on the idea, that the general rules of excellence in all the arts are the same. Reynolds himself informs us, that he received lessons on painting from conversations with Johnson on poetry."

In 1802 he came to London, having resolved to practise at the English bar; wrote for the Edinburgh Review,* then commenced (Nov. 1802), increased his acquaintance with the society of persons of talent and knowledge, spoke before a Committee of the House of Commons, applied diligently to the study of law, and attended the debates in Parliament. In the next year he describes himself as speaking before the Chancellor in the House of Lords on some subject of Scotch law; and in 1806 he accepted, at the request of Lord Minto, a seat at the Board of Commissioners to adjust the claims of the creditors of the Nabob of Arcot, a seat. vacant by the resignation of Mr. Ryder, and he had already began to chalk out the line of parliamentary conduct he intended to pursue, if a seat should be offered to him.

"Parliamentary distinction," he says, "forms now but a very small part of my object. I cannot give myself up wholly

to political discussions, and I will not do it by halves. Those departments of public business in Parliament, which are con

*See an account of the reception by the public of the first No. of this Review, given by Mr. Horner, vol. i. p. 205.

nected with the studies and knowledge of a well educated lawyer, or relate to the improvements of domestic administration, remain open to me, and in these I have some

desire to be useful, because a great field of utility lies before one in the present circumstances of the country."

He also mentions "Constitutional Law as a parliamentary discussion, the sound exposition of which needs the combined accomplishments of a lawyer and practical statesman, and his ambition was to connect his name with one or other of these branches of public business. In the end of this year he was returned to Parliament for St. Ive's, which he owed to the friendship of Lord Kinnaird. He sat till April, when Parliament was dissolved, and he spoke only twice, and then briefly. In July he was elected, by the friendship of Lord Carrington, for the borough of Wendover; he was then in his 30th year. His next speech was a defence of Mr. Burke from an attack by Mr. William Dundas on the subject of " Offences in reversion." On a subject which in 1809 much agitated the public mind, and affected the character of one of the princes of the blood, Mr. Horner thus expresses himself:

*

"I shall consider the impeachment of the Duke of York by the House of Commons as the death-knell of the constitution. It will keep the whole country in a ferment for months; the House of Lords will acquit; both houses will be looked upon by the public as having concerted this acquittal; and then you have the alternative to expect, of an entire prostration of all public opinion and

popular efforts before the Crown, or a democratical anarchy of which no man can see the end. I think these are distinct public grounds upon which the House of Commons should refuse to im peach the Duke; because the present case is one, not for punishment, but for future distrust and immediate removal, both from the nature of the evidence, and still more from the rank of the person," &c.

When Parliament met in January 1810 Mr. Horner commenced his inquiry into the alleged depreciation of bank-notes, which he afterwards continued to conduct with great ability and knowledge; it was this measure which brought him into general notice as a member of the House, and which was subsequently evinced when the public attention was directed to the important and difficult subject of the currency. In May he spoke on the subject of the notices of actions sent by Sir Francis Burdett, and of parliamentary privilege. He also took part in the interesting debates on the Regency, and in January of the next year, 1811, he was offered, by Lord Grenville, then forming a new administration, the situa tion of one of the secretaries of the Treasury, which he declined accepting. We have not, however, room to pursue, with any minute detail, the course of Mr. Horner's parliamentary career. The two great subjects on which he was most distinguished for his knowledge, and the application of sound principles of reasoning, were the questions of the currency and the corn laws. In 1812 he visited Scotland, and enjoyed the society of those friends with whom he was connected in early life, as Prof. D. Stewart, and Mr. G. Wilson, and others. In April 1813 he was returned for St. Mawe's, and from this time he began to take a more active part in the general debates of the House. In the August of the following year he went on a short continental tour with his brother and Mr. S. A. Murray. In November he was returned, and speaking on several occasions in the House, especially on the subject of the revisal of the civil and military establish

* Mr. Horner never published his speeches, nor except on two occasions, corrected the report of any of them.

ments, upon a system of rigid economy, and on the formation of such a finance establishment as might relieve the finances of the country. He followed Sir James Macintosh and Sir Samuel Romilly in a speech which produced great effect on the treaty of peace signed at Vienna in 1815. On the 25th of June he addressed the House for the last time in the cause of religious liberty and of Ireland. Mr. Horner followed Mr. Canning in a speech in favour of emancipation. It was almost immediately subsequent to this that we hear for the first time of his illness,-symptoms of a pulmonary affection appeared, which could not be arrested, though it appeared in so indefinite and indistinct a form as to perplex his medical advisers and encourage hopes of his recovery even to the last. In the autumn he was living at Dryden, near Edinburgh, but by the advice of Drs. Gregory and Hamilton and others, they advised that the approaching winter should be passed in the softer climate of Italy. On this plan both Doctors Warren and Baillie agreed. His brother, the author of these volumes, accompanied him abroad. Pisa was selected as the most suitable residence in preference to Rome, where he arrived in the end of November. Though very weak, and suffering from pulmonary attacks, he was able to read, to form new and enlarged plans of study, to correspond with his friends in England, to discuss the policy of government, and to urge the necessity of measures of finance suited to the altered situation of the country. On the 4th of February he wrote an account of his health to his father, in which he made a favourable report of himself; the remainder of the melancholy history we must abridge from the words of his brother's narrative. Mr. Horner at no time, not even to the last, apprehended that his disease was likely to be fatal. Indeed he looked forward with confidence to renovated health, and spoke of not being able to resist a visit to Rome previous to his return, but his feelings of returning health were an illusion, his disease was fast approaching its fatal termination, and in four days from the date of the letter mentioned he breathed his last. We shall pass over the very afflicting details of his last attack, and only mention that on the examination of the body by Dr. Vaccà, an eminent Italian physician who attended him, it was discovered that his disease was not consumption, but an enlargement of the air-cells, and a condensation of the substance of the lungs, which the sagacity of Dr. Baillie had suggested as the probable cause of the worst symptoms,-a malady which no medical skill could have cured.*

"Notwithstanding," says his brother, "the symptoms of organic disease, and their long continuance, I had no serious apprehension of a fatal termination. On the contrary, I felt an assurance that renovated health would come with the genial weather of spring in that climate. My brother's cheerfulness, his activity of mind, and absence of all alarm about him.

self, had deluded me into this belief; nor had any warning expression of his acute and watchful physician prepared me for the sudden and afflicting blow which fell upon me, aggravated as it was by all that my imagination brought before me, of the agony of those in my distant home when the sad intelligence should arrive," &c.

We shall now make a few extracts from the journal and correspondence, which at the same time that they exhibit Mr. Horner's power of discrimination in the observation of characters, and the correct estimate he formed

* His disease was condensation of the lungs and enlargement of the air-cells to an extent that there are only three instances of the kind to be found in the anatomical collections with which Dr. Baillie was acquainted. The immediate cause of death was increase of obstruction of the lungs.

of the talents and acquirements of those with whom he lived will convey the still more pleasing impression of the warmth and sincerity of his friendship, and the pleasure which he derived from the enlightened society into which he was so early admitted.

A second party of nearly the same persons which he met, a few days subsequently, enabled Mr. Horner to give some additional touches to his picture.