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"shrunk from no hazard: his resources of argument and declamation were inexhaustible: his personal applications had every diversity of address and persuasion: his very moderate pecuniary means were freely devoted and his measures and exertions to preserve good order, and prevent all violence, beyond that of language, on the popular side, proved how well he was qualified to manage the populace, and how much influence he must have previously acquired over their minds. This care to prevent violence was strongly contrasted with the conduct of the government party, who hired and embodied a gang of ruffians for the purpose of perpetrating it. In consequence, several unoffending persons were desperately wounded, and one man was killed. Horne's zeal and intrepidity were eminently displayed in his unsuccessful efforts to bring to justice the criminals in this and one or two other deeds of partly similar nature. Why such efforts should be unsuccessful, when those criminals were ascertained, it is not difficult to conjecture. The share he took in this contest would be to him of the nature of an experiment on his own powers; and the manner in which he had borne himself through so various and turbulent a warfare, would greatly confirm and augment his consciousness of extraordinary strength. While this would tend to impart a tone of provocation and defiance, the exercise of so ardent, and, in his constant opinion, so virtuous an hostility, excited a passion for war which could not in a mind constituted of such 'stern stuff' as his, become extinct as soon as the particular occasion was past. A heated piece of iron retains its power to burn longer than slighter substances. The passion was prolonged in a keen watchfulness to find an enemy, and a fierce promptitude to attack him. When we add to this, that from his childhood his hatred had been directed against the sins of governments, we shall not wonder to find him, from the period in question, the unrelenting persecutor of statesmen, and their corruptions, and their adherents. Among the first objects of this inextinguishable spirit of war was a right hon. person of the name of Onslow, a member of administration, who was publicly called to account for an imputed delinquency in so peremptory style, that he was provoked to make his ultimate answer by a prosecution. Horne, defeated at first, stoutly fought the matter through the courts to a third trial, in which he was completely victorious; and it was a victory over a much greater personage than his immediate antagonist, for he defeated Lord Mansfield, and in a manner so marked and decisive that it must have caused that personage extreme mortification. This was a proud commencement of that series of interviews which Horne was destined to have with his lordship, under the relation of judge and culprit, and might contribute not a little to his maintaining ever afterwards such an attitude of intrepidity and equality as no other man did, in the same relation, to the great despot of law."1

In 1770 he quarrelled with his quondam friend Wilkes, and a most vituperative correspondence ensued betwixt these two worthies. His biographer admits that, in general estimation, Wilkes was the victor in this contest; but a very able critic has given it as his opinion "that Horne's part of the correspondence, though it may not completely vindicate himself in all points, perfectly explodes his opponent to atoms."

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Junius in his celebrated Letters' espoused the cause of Wilkes; but Horne took up this new and more formidable antagonist with great promptitude and boldness; and in the opinion of most, came off victor. His next efforts were directed to the important object of making public the proceedings of the legislature. The house of commons long resisted the attempt, but were at last obliged quietly to submit to this infringement of their rights.

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In 1773 he resigned his vicarage of New Brentford, and again betook himself to the study of a more congenial profession, the law. For some time after this he remained in comparative obscurity, until an incident occurred of which he availed himself with great boldness and consummate ability. "Mr Tooke, a moderately wealthy political friend, whose name he was afterwards authorized to assume, sought his advice in a case that appeared desperate. In consequence of purchasing an estate called Purley, (from which Horne's great philological work took its title) he had been involved in a vexatious litigation about manorial rights with a neighbouring gentleman of great influence, who had betaken himself at last to the decisive expedient of an act of parliament. The bill which was in progress was highly unjust; but through some such fatality, as would never have happened before or since in such a place, it was going forward with the most perfect success, in contempt of every effort made to place the matter in its true light; and appeared certain of the final sanction of the house of commons on the third reading,-appointed for the very next day to that in which the case was despondingly stated to Horne. His answer was, If the facts be as you represent them, the house shall not pass that bill.' He immediately suggested an expedient which would perhaps have occurred. to no other man in England, and took on himself the execution of a hazard which very few would have been willing, for the sake of either friendship or public justice, to share. He immediately wrote, in language the most pointedly offensive, an attack on the speaker of the house of commons, the noted Sir Fletcher Norton, with reference to the bill in question; and obtained its insertion in the newspaper, rendered so popular by the letters of Junius, on the condition, of course, that the printer, when summoned to account, should produce the author. The object of this proceeding was, to compel the house to a much more full and formal attention to the subject of the bill, than it had previously been induced to give; and at the same time, as an equally necessary thing, to give its virtue the benefit of having the censorial attention of the public strongly fixed on its conduct. He was confident that by doing this he should frustrate the parliamentary measure, and then, for the consequences to himself, he had courage enough to take his chance. The next day a great sensation was manifest in what might be called the political public; and, as he had foreseen, the attention of a full house was called, in precedence to all other business, to the flagrant outrage on its dignity,-a dignity so vulnerable by a plain charge of misconduct, though it had not been injured in the least by the misconduct itself. After a fine display of generous indignation a summons was sent for the instant appearance of the printer. He obeyed, and, as he had been directed, immediately gave up the name of the criminal in chief, who had taken care to be already in the house, prepared to confront, probably with very little trepidation, the whole anger of

the august assembly. A momentary silence of surprise and confusion followed the announcement of his name, which was come to be almost synonymous with that expression of recognizance, 'the enemy.' On being called forth, he disavowed all disrespect to the speaker whom he had libelled, calmly explained the motives of the proceeding, and then made such a luminous statement of the case of his friend, that the schemers and advocates of the injustice were baffled, the obnoxious parts of the bill were immediately thrown out, and several resolutions were moved and carried to prevent all such precipitate proceedings for the future.' There is no punishing conquerors, however offensive may have been their conduct. After a very slight formality of detention in custody he was set at liberty, on some pretended inconclusiveness of proof against him." Mr Tooke evinced his admiration of Horne's talents and gratitude for his exertions, by bequeathing a considerable sum to him in his latter will, and authorizing him to assume his name. An advertisement in the newspapers, signed with his name, proposing a subscription on behalf of the widows and children of those American soldiers who fell in the battle of Lexington, or, to use his own words, were "Englishmen inhumanly butchered by the king's troops for preferring death to slavery," brought upon Horne a prosecution, and in the month of July, 1777, he was found guilty of libel, and sentenced to twelve months imprisonment, and a fine of £200. After the expiry of his imprisonment, he applied for admission to the bar, having now kept the number of terms requisite; but his application was twice rejected by a majority of the benchers of the Inner Temple. He now purchased a small estate near Huntingdon, and applied himself to the study and practice of agriculture. In 1782 we find him advocating Pitt's scheme of parliamentary reform, with great zeal and ability, although the measure fell short of his own views and wishes.

In 1786 he published his celebrated philological work entitled 'The Diversions of Purley,' in one 8vo. volume. It was subsequently enlarged to two quartos. In 1790 he stood as a candidate for the representation of Westminster, in opposition to Fox and Lord Wood. On this occasion he polled 1700 votes; and he improved the opportunity to present his memorable petition to the house of commons, in which he boldly censured its corrupt practices.

In 1794 he was arrested on a charge of high treason. The ministry at this time employed a number of reporters, or spies, through whom they endeavoured to learn the real sentiments of suspicious political characters. "One of the latter," says Mr Stephens, "attached himself to Mr Tooke, and was a frequent visitor at Wimbledon. His station and character were calculated to shield him from suspicion, but his host, who was too acute to be so easily duped, soon saw through the flimsy veil of his pretended discontent. As he had many personal friends, in various departments of government, he soon discovered the views, connexions, and pursuits of his guest; but, instead of upbraiding him with his treachery, and dismissing him with contempt, as most other men in his situation would have done, he determined to foil him, if possible, at his own weapons." "He accordingly pretended to admit the spy into his entire confidence, and completed the delusion, by actually rendering the person who wished to circumvent him, in his turn, a dupe. Mr Tooke began by dropping remote hints relative to

the strength and zeal of the popular party, taking care to magnify their numbers, praise their unanimity, and commend their resolution. By degrees he descended to particulars, and at length communicated confidentially, and under the most solemn promises of secrecy, the alarming intelligence that some of the guards were gained; that an armed force was organized; and that the nation was actually on the eve of a revolution. After a number of interviews, he at length affected to own, that he himself was at the head of the conspiracy, and boasted like Pompey of old, that he could raise legions merely by stamping on the ground with his foot.'"

The Wimbledon joke was a serious matter at Whitehall. Horne was arrested and committed to the Tower, whence he was transferred to the Old Bailey. He greatly rejoiced in the opportunity thus afforded him of making a public display of his political principles, and prepared himself to encounter the lord-chief-justice, in a speech, the tone and temper of which may be gathered from the opening sentences. "My lord-The intentions of your lordship, and of those by whom you are employed, are sufficiently barefaced and apparent to me; and no man who has read my petition to the house of commons can doubt of the motives and causes of this prosecution against me. The minister pledged himself solemnly to the house that I should be punished. And thus he keeps his word. My lord-I have the same taste of sweet and bitter in common with other men. I love life. I dislike death. But I believe there never was, and I trust that I shall find there never will be, in my mind, a single moment's hesitation or reluctance to lay down my life deliberately and cheerfully in defence of the rights of my country; and I never was more ready to do it than now." It concludes thus: "My lord-I will die as I have lived, in the commission of the only crime with which I can be charged during my whole life-the crime of speaking plainly the plain truth. And I doubt not that I shall plainly prove that I never spoke more truly than I do now, by pleading to this indictment-Not guilty. I shall surely one day be tried by God; and, in spite of all appearances to the contrary, I will hope now to be tried fairly by my country." This speech, however, was not spoken as it originally stood, his hostility having been mitigated by the complaisant attention shown him by the court. The trial ended in his almost instant acquittal.

In 1796 he again stood for Westminster, in opposition to Fox and Sir Allan Gardener, but was unsuccessful. In 1801, however, he entered the house of commons as member for Old Sarum, on the nomination of Lord Camelford. The ministry prevented his resumption of his seat, after the dissolution in 1802, by an act declaring the future ineligibility of persons who had been in holy orders. During the short period of his privilege he conducted himself with great moderation and good sense.

He spent the remaining years of his life at his seat at Wimbledon, in the cultivation of letters and rural pursuits. He died on the 18th of March, 1812. In point of stature, he did not exceed the middle size; but nature had formed him strong and athletic. His limbs were well-knit, compact, and duly proportioned; and he might be said to have been comely, rather than handsome, in his youth. His features were regular, and his hair, towards the latter end of life, was generally

The first display of talent in the infant mind of West was curious, and still more so from its occurring where there was nothing to excite it. America had scarcely a specimen of the arts, and in a Quaker's house, his child had never seen a picture or a print: his pencil was of his own invention, his colours were given to him by an Indian savage, -his whole progress was a series of invention,-and painting to him was not the result of a lesson, but an instinctive passion.

In 1745 one of his sisters, who had been married, and had a daughter, came with her infant to spend a few days at her father's. When the child was asleep in the cradle, Mrs West invited her daughter to gather flowers in the garden, and committed the infant to the care of Benjamin during their absence, giving him a fan to flap away the flies from molesting his little charge. After some time the child happened to smile in its sleep, and its beauty attracted his attention. He looked at it with a pleasure which he had never before experienced, and observing some paper on a table, together with pens and red and black ink, he seized them with agitation, and endeavoured to delineate a portrait,—although at this period he had never seen an engraving or a picture, and was only in the seventh year of his age. On the return of his mother and sister, Mrs West, after looking some time at the drawing with evident pleasure, said to her daughter, "I declare he has made a likeness of little Sally!" and kissed him with much fondness and satisfaction. This encouraged him to say, that if it would give her any pleasure, he would make pictures of the flowers which she held in her hand; for his genius was awakened, and he felt that he could imitate the forms of any of those things which pleased his sight.

Soon after he was sent to school in the neighbourhood, and during his leisure hours was permitted to draw with pen and ink. In the course of the summer a party of Indians came to Springfield, and, being amused with the sketches of birds and flowers which Benjamin showed them, they taught him to prepare the red and yellow colours with which they painted their weapons. To these his mother added blue, by giving him a piece of indigo. His drawings at length attracted the attention of the neighbours; and some of them happening to regret that the artist had no pencils, he inquired what kind of things these were; they were described to him as small brushes made of camel's hair fastened in a quill. As there were, however, no camels in America, he could not think of any substitute, till he happened to cast his eyes on a black cat, when, in the tapering fur of her tail, he discovered the means of supplying what he wanted.

In the following year a Mr Pennington, a merchant of Philadelphia, came to visit Mr West. He noticed the drawings of birds and flowers round the room-unusual ornaments in the house of a Quaker-and heard with surprise that they were the work of his little cousin. Of their merit, as pictures, he did not pretend to be a judge, but he thought them wonderful productions for a boy entering on his eighth year; and being told with what imperfect materials they had been executed, he called Springfield, in consequence of discovering a large spring of water in the first field cleared for cultivation; and it was near this place that Benjamin West, our illustrious painter, was born. When the West family emigrated in 1699, John, the father of Benjamin, was left to complete his education at the Quaker's school at Uxbridge, and did not join his family in America till 1714.

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