which the world calls pleasure. He rose regularly at six o'clock, and was occupied during the greater part of the day, and frequently to a late hour at night, either in study or laborious attendance on his professional and parliamentary duties. What little intervals of leisure could be snatched from his toils he anxiously devoted to domestic intercourse and enjoyments. Moderate in his own expenses, he was generous without ostentation to the wants of others; and the exquisite sensibility of his nature was never more strikingly displayed than in the fervent zeal with which his professional knowledge was always ready to be exerted for the destitute and oppressed,-for those who might seem, in their poverty, to have been left without a friend. Even to the last, when sinking under the weight of domestic affliction, when anticipating as its probable result a wretched life of mental malady and darkness, he was still intent on the welfare and happiness of those around him. The religion of Sir Samuel Romilly was, like his life, pure, fervent, and enlightened. Unclouded by superstition or intolerance, it shone forth in pious gratitude to God, and in charity to all mankind." "How noble and pure," says Mr Roscoe, "was the ambition of Sir Samuel Romilly, we may learn from the following beautiful passages, where he has explained the principles on which he proposed his reforms in the criminal law. 'It is not,' said he, on addressing the house of commons, from light motives, it is from no fanciful notions of benevolence, that I have ventured to suggest any alteration in the criminal law of England. It has originated in many years' reflection, and in the long-established belief that a mitigation of the severe penalties of our law will be one of the most effectual modes to preserve and advance the humanity and justice for which this country is so eminently distinguished.' And he thus concludes the same speech: Actuated by these motives, it is not to be imagined that I shall be easily discouraged by any of the various obstacles so commonly, and perhaps with propriety, opposed to every attempt to alter an established law: upon such a resistance I calculated, but am not to be deterred. I knew that my motives must occasionally be misunderstood by many, and might possibly be misrepresented by others. I was not blind to the road where prudence pointed to preferment; but I am not to be misled from comforts which no external honours can bestow. I have long thought that it was the duty of every man, unmoved either by bad report or by good report, to use all the means which he possessed for the purpose of advancing the well-being of his fellow-creatures: and I know not any mode by which I can so effectually advance that well-being, as by endeavouring to improve the criminal laws of my country. It has been insinuated, that indebted as I am to the law, commendation rather than censure ought to be expected from me; and it has been asserted, that under the pretext of proposing apparently immaterial alterations, my real object is to sap and undermine the whole criminal law of England. Such insinuations and assertions have not, I am well aware, been made by any of my honourable and learned friends by whom I am now surrounded, and who have witnessed my whole professional life; but they have been made, and I must, of course, suppose, have been really believed.'

6

The Right Hon. George Rose.

BORN A. D. 1745.-DIED A. D. 1818.

MR ROSE was born near Montrose, in the shire of Angus, about the year 1745. His father was a clergyman, one of those 'nonjuring ministers' who would not swear allegiance to the house of Brunswick, on account of the pretended right and indefeasible succession in the Stuart line. The elder Mr Rose enjoyed the protection of the earl of Marchmont,―a nobleman avowedly attached to these principles; and to him was confided the education of the earl's son, Lord Polworth.

George, the subject of the present memoir, was taught the rudiments of grammar and arithmetic in his native country; after which he repaired to London, and was placed under the superintendence of an uncle, who kept an academy in the vicinity. At this period he appears to have been not only destitute of fortune, but even of friends; for he entered the civil service of the navy, while yet very young, in the humble capacity of captain's clerk.

The office of the keeper of the records at Whitehall was his first land-appointment: for this he was doubtless indebted to the earl of Marchmont, who now possessed great influence at court. The same patronage, at a later period, obtained for this favourite of fortune the lucrative office of clerk of parliament. When Shelburne became prime minister, in 1782, he had occasion for the official attendance of Mr Rose, and soon found him ready, laborious, and useful. And when Mr Pitt had chased away the coalition ministry, we find Mr Rose nominated to the important office of joint-secretary to the treasury.

Having become member for Christ-church, we find Mr Rose indefatigable in his attendance on, and taking an active part in, all the important debates in the house of commons. We know not in what manner he voted when Mr Pitt made his three motions for a reform in parliament;' but we have reason to suppose, that, being in the secret, he voted and spoke in behalf of the slave-trade, notwithstanding all the arguments for its abolition by his right honourable friend and coadjutor. The member for Christ-church took an active part in Pitt's famous bill for the Prevention of Smuggling.' This led to what was then called 'the Commutation Act,' which, in order to remove the temptation to illicit traffic, by rendering tea cheaper, laid an additional tax on windows!

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In consequence of the part Rose took against Mr Fox, in the Westminster election, the authors of the Rolliad' attacked him with no common share of bitterness, and, as we charitably hope, of untruth, or at least of exaggeration. The following is an extract:

"ROSE, OR THE COMPLAINT.
"ARGUMENT.

"In this eclogue our author has imitated the second of his favourite Virgil, with more than his usual precision. The subject of Mr Rose's complaint is, that he is left to do the whole business of the treasury during the broiling heat of summer, while his

colleague, Mr Steele, enjoys the cool breezes from the sea, at Brighthelmstone, in company with the young premier, &c.

"None more than Rose, amid the courtly ring,

Lov'd Billy,-joy of Jenky, and the king;

But vain his hope to shine in Billy's eyes,
Vain all his votes, his speeches, and his lies;
Steele's happier claims the boy's regard engage,
Alike their studies, and alike their age.

"In one sad joy all Rose's comfort lay,

Pensive he sought the treasury day by day;
There, in his inmost chamber lock'd alone,
To boxes, red and green, he poured his moan
In rhymes uncouth; for Rose, to business bred,
A purser's clerk, in rhyme was little read;
Nor since his learning with his fortune grew,
Had such vain arts engaged his sober view;
For Stockdale's shelves contentedly compose
The humble poetry of lying prose.

"O barb'rous Billy! thus would he begin," &c.'

On the accession of Mr Addington to power, Rose withdrew with Pitt. During his retreat he appeared on the opposite bench for a few months; nay, he even supported the Hampshire petition, presented to the house of commons in 1807, complaining of ministerial influence! Nearly at the same time, too, he differed with his quondam friend, Lord Grenville, about the constitutional propriety of Lord Ellenborough's possessing a seat in the cabinet; and, on all occasious, took an active part in the debates against Mr Fox's administration. But Mr Rose returned soon after to enjoy a fresh accession of power, and new and increasing honours. He had been formerly deputy-president of the board of trade: he now became president, and was also nominated treasurer of the navy, with a salary of £4000 per annum.

Mr Rose was considered either so able in point of finance, or his colleagues so deficient on that subject, that he appears to have been selected by them to answer the report of the Bullion committee, which evinced not only a wonderful degree of financial information, but was drawn up with no common share of precision and ability. Accordingly, on May 6th, 1811, after the late Mr Horner had made a very luminous and very able speech on this subject, in which he chiefly attributed the difference between the mint and market price of gold, as well as the unfavourable state of foreign exchanges, to the badness of our coin, and excess of the paper-circulation, arising out of the impolitic and extraordinary issues of the bank, Mr Rose next in order replied. In the course of a set speech, which he afterwards published, he dwelt on the advantages arising from bank-notes, which he asserted "to be equivalent to money for every common and legitimate transaction in life, except for foreign remittances; and even in respect to these," adds he, "the access to bank-discounts affords great facilities, by enabling the merchant to make provision for heavy payments for exports, and to await a sale for imports, for which, from various causes, there may be no immediate demand." As to the rapid advance in the price of our

From the twenty-first edition of 'Political Eclogues,' published by Ridgway, 1799

commodities, he attributed this not to an excess of bank-paper; for, had they not risen rapidly on the continent, and even in those countries where specie alone is in circulation? He considered the great and sudden rise of the price of corn here as the cause of the advance in other articles; and the rise of that great necessary of life, to advance of importation prices by the acts of the legislature. Yet, with the aid of two millions of quarters of foreign corn, the quartern-loaf did not exceed fifteen pence; whereas, without this assistance, it would have been at 2s. 6d. He denied the position, that our exports were only 33, and our imports 45 millions; he also inferred from tables, produced by him, extending to 1810, that the market-price of gold, and the exchange with Hamburgh, did not depend on the issue of bank-notes. The fallacy of the market-price of gold having been affected by the issue of bank-paper had been already incontrovertibly shown, by the experience of nearly the whole of the last century, as recorded in accounts on which we may safely rely. That the exchange should be affected by it were against all experience, as well as against the evidence annexed to the report. He considered the observations of his friend Mr Huskisson, "on the credit of our public funds," likely to be attended with very hurtful consequences with respect to both foreigners and natives. He states that "the public creditor, on receiving his dividend, is obliged to leave 2s. out of 20s., or £10 in the £100, for the income tax, in the hands of the bank; and is equally compelled to receive the remaining 18s. in bank-paper. A payment in such paper is a virtual deduction from his dividend of 3s. more, or of 15 per cent.; the public creditor, therefore, receives only 15s. in the pound of standard stationary money, and no more!" He then entered into an eulogium of the merits of Mr Pitt, against the charge of "a singular disacquaintance with the principles of public economy;" and concluded by objecting to the plan proposed by the committee; "which, without effecting the object the members had in view, did more than either the decrees or the victories of Bonaparte to execute his designs for our destruction."

Mr Rose was of the middle stature; vigorous, active, indefatigable. He was to the full as laborious as Mr Dundas, without, like him, being addicted to convivial pleasures. He possessed much literary talent, which was displayed to great advantage in 1777, when he superintended the publication of the Journals of the House of Lords,' in 31 folio volumes. In 1794 he became executor to the venerable earl of Marchmont, who bequeathed to him his large collection of books, manuscripts, and coins. The dissertation on Doomsday-book in Nash's History of Worcestershire' is from Mr Rose's pen, and he was the author of the following tracts: The Proposed System of Trade with Ireland explained,' 8vo. 1785; A Brief Examination into the Increase of the Revenue, Commerce, and Manufactures of Great Britain,' 8vo. 1796; 'Considerations on the Debt of the Civil List,' 8vo. 1802; Observations on the Historical Work of the late Right Hon. C. J. Fox,' 4to. 1809; Letters to Lord Melville respecting a Naval Arsenal at Northfleet,' 8vo. 1810; Observations respecting the Public Expenditure and the Influence of the Crown,' 8vo. 1810; Substance of his Speech in the House of Commons,' 8vo. 1811. His speech on Corn Laws in 1814, and on the Property Tax in 1815, were also printed; but this is

supposed to have been done without his authority. He expired on Tuesday, January 13th, 1818, in the 73d or 74th year of his age.

As a legislator, Mr Rose was entitled to great credit for the protection of saving-banks, and his bill to enable parochial and other societies to subscribe for the purpose of supporting their sick and disabled members out of the common stock, instead of becoming paupers. It is also but fair to add that he was a most useful partizan, and that he was never accused, like two of his former colleagues, either of being a public defaulter, or of perverting the public money for the success or gratification of his own private speculations.

Admiral Cornwallis.

BORN A. D. 1744.-died A. D. 1819.

THE HONOURable William CORNWALLIS, fourth son of Charles the first earl by Elizabeth, daughter of Lord Viscount Townshend, was born on the 25th of February, 1744. He was descended from a family who had been settled for many centuries in the county of Suffolk. Having resolved to embrace the naval profession, he was first rated as a midshipman on board the Newark, whence he was removed to the Kingston, in which vessel he shared the glory attendant on the reduction of Louisburg, and acquired those habits of subordination which afterwards enabled him to command others with ability and effect.

In 1759 we find him serving under the gallant Hawke in the Dunkirk; next year he repaired under Captain Digby to the Mediterranean, and being taken on board the flag-ship of Sir Charles Saunders, he was appointed a lieutenant. In the course of 1762 he was nominated to the Wasp sloop of war, with the rank of master and commander; and in 1765 he was made post-captain, in consequence of obtaining the command of the Prince Edward, at a period when he had scarcely attained the age of twenty-one.

It being necessary to reinforce Admiral Howe, who in every part of the American continent found foes instead of allies, while he was menaced by sea with a superior fleet, Admiral Byron was sent with a powerful force to his succour, among which was the Lion of 64 guns, commanded by Captain Cornwallis. But the admiral was retarded, both in Europe and during his passage across the Atlantic, by a variety of sinister events, and no sooner had he nearly reached the object of his destination, than he encountered a storm which dispersed the greater part of his fleet. What contributed to make his situation still more alarming and disagreeable at the critical moment, was the appearance of the Count D'Estaing, who, with a fleet of twelve sail of the line, prevented him joining Lord Howe, and forced him to take shelter in Halifax. Notwithstanding a junction was soon after effected with the rest of the squadron, and a further reinforcement arrived from England before the spring, yet D'Estaing, who by this time had collected an immense naval armament, obtained possession of the island of St Vincent without difficulty, and acquired Grenada also, after a spirited but ineffectual resistance on the part of the British troops. No sooner did the brave but remarkably unfortunate Byron receive intelligence of