after the dispersion of Parliament, he dined with Lord Lyndhurst at Wimbledon, and sat down under a tree while warm with walking; and upon this followed a feverish cold and rheumatism. On the 18th, Mr. Huskisson called to take leave before his continental journey, and found him in bed. He looked so ill, that his friend observed that he seemed the most in need of change and relaxation; to which Mr. Canning replied, 'O! it is only the reflection of the yellow linings of the curtains.' Mr. Huskisson went abroad the next day, to be brought back by the news of his friend's death.-Two days after this last interview, Mr. Canning removed to the Duke of Devonshire's villa at Chiswick, where Fox died, and inhabited the very room. He did not gain strength, though he attended to business, and on the 25th dined with Lord Clanricarde. He complained of weakness, and went home early. On the 30th he waited upon the King, who was so alarmed at his appearance, that he sent his own physician to him. Some friends dined with him the next day. He retired early, and never left his bed again. His illnessinternal inflammation-was torturing, dreadful to witness; but there was yet much strength left, for he lived till the 8th of August. On the 5th, the Sunday before his death, he desired his daughter to read prayers, according to his custom when he could not attend church. His agony ceased some time before his death, when mortification had set in. It was a little before four in the morning of Wednesday, the 8th of August, when he breathed his last.

"For some few days before, the nation had been on the watch in fearful apprehension of the news; but yet the consternation was as great as if this man had been supposed immortal. Multitudes felt that the life most important to the world of the whole existing generation had passed away. It was a life in which men had put their trust,-(more trust than should perhaps be put in any life,) --from the isles of Greece to the ridges of the Andes. When those who had by their persecution sapped that life now awoke to a sense of its importance, they must have been amazed at themselves that they could have indulged spleen and passion in such a case, and have gratified their own prejudices and tempers at so fatal a cost. But thus it is when men serve instead of mastering their prejudices and passions;-they know not what they do and if they discover what they have done, it is because

it is too late. All the honour that could be given now was given. All the political coteries, the whole country, the whole continent, the whole world echoed with eulogy of the departed statesman. From the most superficial and narrow-minded of his critics, who could comprehend nothing beyond the charm which invested the man, to the worthiest of his appreciators, who were sensible of the grandeur of his intellect and the nobility of his soul, all now joined in grief and in praise; and none with a more painful wringing of the heart than those who had but lately learned his greatness, and the promise that it bore.

"Mr. Canning was fifty-six years of age. He was borne to his grave in the Abbey on the 16th of August. His family wished his funeral to be as private as the funeral of such a man could be; and they declined the attendance of several public bodies and a multitude of individuals: but yet the streets were so thronged (in a deluge of rain) that a way was made with difficulty; and the Abbey was filled: and the grief of the mourners next the coffin hardly exceeded that which was evident in the vast crowd outside. The next morning, the King bestowed a peerage on Mr. Canning's widow. Statues of the departed statesman, and monuments, exist in many places in the world and it is well; but the niche in history where the world holds the mind of the man enshrined for ever, is his only worthy monument.

to us.

:

"One of the strongest evidences of Mr. Canning's power is the different light in which he appeared to the men about him and His accomplishments were so brilliant, his graces so exquisite, his wit so dazzling, that all observers were completely occupied by these, so as to be almost insensible to the qualities of mind which are most impressive to us who never saw his face. To us he is, as Lord Holland called him, 'the first logician in Europe.' To us he is the thoughtful, calm, earnest, quiet statesman, sending forth from his office the most simple and businesslike despatches, as free from pomp and noise as if they were a message from some pure intelligence. We believe and know all that can be told of his sensibility, his mirth, and the passion of his nature and we see no reason for doubting it, as, in genius of a high order,-in Fox, for instance, the logic and the sensibility are so intimately united, that in proportion as the emotions kindle and glow, the reason distils a purer and a yet purer truth. But to us, to whom the fire is out, there remains

the essence; and by that we judge him.

We hear of his

enthusiasms, kindling easily at all times, but especially on the apprehension of great ideas: but what we see is, that no favourite ideas led him away from a steady regard to the realities of his time. We hear of his unquenchable fancy; but we see that it never beguiled him from taking a statesmanlike view of the society spread out below him, and waiting upon his administration of the powers of the government. He was one of the most practical of statesmen; and herein lay one of the most indisputable evidences of his genius. His genius, however, never was questioned. There might be, and there were, men who disparaged genius itself in its application to politics; but there were none who doubted Canning's having it,-whatever it might be worth.

"His faults were, not only unworthy of his genius, as all faults are, but of a nature which it is not easy to reconcile with genius of so high an order as his. Some of them, at least, were so. We may be able to allow for the confidence, and the spirit of enterprise-of adventure,-which helped to obtain for him the name of 'adventurer;'-the spirit which sprang into the political amphitheatre, ready for the combat on all hands, and thinking at first more of the combat than the cause: we can allow for this, because time showed how, when he knew life and its seriousness better, the cause of any principle became every thing to him, and the combat, a thing not to be sought, however joyfully it may be met. The name of adventurer' can never be given to him who resigned office rather than take part against the Queen, and gave up his darling hope of representing his University in order to befriend the Catholic cause. He was truly adventurous in these acts, but with the self-denial of the true hero.

"We may allow, again, for the spirit of contempt, which was another of his attributes, least worthy of his genius. It was but partial; for no man was more capable of reverence; and much of his ridicule regarded fashions and follies, and affectations of virtue and vice but still, there was too much of it. It did visit persons; and it did wound honest or innocent feeling, as well as exasperate some whose weakness was a plea for generous treatment. For this fault, however, he paid a high penalty,-he underwent an ample retribution. Again, we may allow for some of his political acts, such as countenancing restrictions on the press,-from the

consideration of the temper and character of the times, and of his political comrades; but they necessarily detract from our estimate of his statesmanship.

"The same may be said about Parliamentary Reform. It is exactly those who most highly honour the advocates of Reform of Parliament who can most easily see into the difficulties, and understand the opposition, of the anti-reformers in Parliament. But there is no knowing what to say about Mr. Canning's opposition to the repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts. He knew the facts of the case, of course:-his advocacy of the Catholic claims shows that he knew the principle of it. His inconsistency in this case must be regarded as one of the waywardnesses,-one of the faults, at once intellectual and moral (for he alleged no reasons, no plea which he himself would call reasonable)—which are the links that bind down even the greatest to their condition of human frailty.—As for all the rest of him, he was worthy of his endowments and his great function in life. He was an excellent son to his mother, who died, happily for herself, before him,-in March of the same year. He was nearly as large an object in the mental vision of all the leading men of his time as in that of his proud mother, or of his adoring family and private friends. His mind and his name did indeed occupy a great space in the world, from the year 1822 till his death: and when he was gone, there was a general sensation of forlornness throughout the nation which made the thoughtful ponder how such dismay could be caused by the withdrawal of one from amidst its multitude of men." (Memoir prefixed to Speeches.-Bell's Life of Canning.— Pictorial History, &c. &c.)

WILLIAM WINDHAM.

WILLIAM WINDHAM, son of Colonel Windham of Felbrigge, was born in the year 1750. From the age of seven to sixteen he was at Eton school; thence he went to the University of Glasgow for one year, and from thence to Oxford as a Gentleman-commoner of University College. He left Oxford in 1771.

Mr. Windham was in early life on intimate terms with Dr. Johnson, who felt and professed the strongest sentiments of esteem for him. The following expressions from one so little

prone to pay compliments as Johnson was, show what a favourable impression Windham must have made on the old man's mind. They occur in one of the letters printed by Boswell, addressed to Dr. Brocklesby, in which Johnson says, "Mr. Windham has been here to see me; he came I think forty miles out of his way, and stayed about a day and a half; perhaps I may make the time shorter than it was. Such conversation I shall not have again till I come back to the regions of literature, and there Windham is 'inter stellas luna minores.""

Such was Windham in early life, and we learn what he was in more advanced years from Lord Brougham, who speaks of him from intimate personal acquaintance. "His manners were the most polished, and noble, and courteous, without the least approach to pride, or affectation, or condescension; his spirits were, in advanced life, so gay, that he was always younger than the youngest of his company.

"The advantages of a refined classical education, a lively wit of the most pungent and yet abstruse description, a turn for subtle reasoning, drawing nice distinctions, and pursuing remote analogies, great and early knowledge of the world, familiarity with men of letters and artists, as well as politicians, with Burke, Johnson, and Reynolds, as well as with Fox and North, much acquaintance with constitutional history and principle, a chivalrous spirit, a noble figure, a singularly expressive countenance-all fitted this remarkable person to shine in debate, but were all, when put together, unequal to the task of raising him to the first rank, and were, besides, mingled with defects which exceedingly impaired the impression of his oratory, while they diminished his usefulness and injured his reputation as a statesman.”

Lord Brougham goes on to point out Windham's strange love for paradox, which led him to advocate the slave trade, bullbaiting, the worst severities of our then sanguinary criminal code; in short, everything against which the current of popular feeling seemed to set most strongly.

Bentley's celebrated sarcasm upon Boyle [Phalaris Boyle] might be literally applied to Windham; for "his judgment, like other men's valour, had commonly the generosity to espouse the weaker side." He seems to have been a very effective, though very eccentric speaker in the House of Commons, of which he was a member for many years. He was, first, Secretary at War, and then of