“in the rolls of Heaven, where it will live

A theme for angels when they celebrate

The high-souled virtues which forgetful earth

Has witnessed.”

[Medallion by David Dunbar. Modelled from the marble bust in the

possession of the Bishop of Durham. The original model was taken. from

the life at the Longstone lighthouse, soon after the incident above

recorded, and three years before the death of Grace.]

405.** WILLIAM DARLING. _Lighthouse-Keeper._

[Born 1783. Still living.]

The father of Grace Darling. He succeeded his own father as keeper of

the Coal-light on the Brownsman, the outermost of the Farne islands, on

the coast of Northumberland. In 1826, he was transferred to the

lighthouse on the Longstone, another of the same group of islands.

Solitary, cut off for weeks from communication with the mainland, this

humble man has passed his days in self-improvement. He is intelligent,

quiet, and well-conducted. His children have received a good education

for their position in life, the father being the sole instructor--and

one daughter at least has not thrown discredit upon her bringing up.

[By David Dunbar.]

POETS AND DRAMATISTS.

406. GEOFFREY CHAUCER. _The Father of English Poetry._

[Born in London, 1328. Died there, 1400. Aged 72.]

Notwithstanding the gulf of years, the poetical sire of Shakspeare. He

to whom, in an age which we call dark, the full sun of poetry shone. He

whose lineaments and gesture, transmitted by a contemporary pencil, are

here before us. He whose eye, though downcast, reads the world around

him, as it sounds the interior of Man: whose grave look of thought hides

the soul of mirth. What phase of our various life seems strange to him?

To this he is at home in experience; to that in imagination. With what

Homeric power has he not described the tournament where kings fight in

the lists at Athens! What mediæval romance in the loves of Palamon and

Arcite! What an oriental colour and grace in the Squier’s half-told tale

of the Tartar Cambuscan! You read tale after tale, and wonder which of

the diversified strains was indeed the most native to the heart of the

poet. One critic will tell you--the broad coarse mirth--Never believe

it! See with what lingering and tender fondness he brings out the

sorrowful story of the pure, innocent, and falsely accused Custance,

abandoned to the wild, drifting sea. How patiently he tells the trials

of the patient Griseldis--how sternly the self-doom of those two impious

challengers of death. To Chaucer was given an insight of which nothing

eludes the scrutiny, a sympathy of which nothing lies beyond the

embrace. And in what spring-like vigour and bloom of life that vanished

world rises again before us! What truth! and what spirit! Under his

quill the speech of England first rose into the full form and force of a

language. Look up at him! He seems to be scanning thought and word,

both. Mine host of the Tabard singling him out amongst the pilgrims, for

the teller of the next tale, says of him: “He seemeth elvish by his

countenance.”--Does he?

[For an account of this statue by Marshall, see No. 53, Handbook of

Modern Sculpture. There is an interesting contemporary portrait of

Chaucer in the British Museum, bearing date 1400, from which the idea

of this statue is borrowed.]

407. WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE. _Poet._

[Born at Stratford-on-Avon, 1564. Died there, 1616. Aged 52.]

William Shakspeare stands at the head of those whose intellectual

domain is the spirit of man. This is the master character of his mind,

to which poetry is in him an accidental direction. His insight into man

is his title to universal interest. He is the chief painter of humanity

that the world has seen, combining, at once, perfect intimate knowledge

of human nature, and perfect creative power of representation. The drama

had suddenly awakened in his country, and he obeyed the instinct of his

time, the poetic bent of which was created for him, as he for it. There

were with him, before him, and immediately after him, great poets, with

whom the dramatic elements existed in high native strength and beauty;

but in him alone are those elements mastered, so as to produce entire

works of art, complete in power, and in consistent, though not regular,

form. Sharing the intuition of Aristotle, which makes the action in the

play the root out of which the characters and all else grow, he directs

the stream of events as connectedly as it flows in the human world; and,

as in the world, so in his inspired writing--agents appear born for

their work, as the work to do seems to offer itself to the agents. All

beauties of language, all flights of poetry, all particular scenes and

speeches, powerful and impressive as they may be, are merely

subordinate. No character, how exquisitely or elaborately soever

conceived and finished, is drawn for itself; but one and all are

relative to the scope of the play and to one another. He seems to have

undertaken a great task, and to be seriously and solely intent upon

advancing to its fulfilment. No form of human life is foreign to him;

the most heroic and the humblest, the most illustrious and the most

obscure, of all times, in all places, are in presence before him. He

seizes the spirit of time, place, and theme. Natural, preternatural,

light, weighty, laughter, tears, terror, are all alike to him---all

under his mastery, and flung forth with free power. Grace and gigantic

strength, are spirits equally at his bidding. The learned and the

unlearned are both attracted by his spell. The ignorant feel the

fascination, the erudite have never exhausted the study. His country,

with her innumerable titles to renown, ranks amongst the highest his

great name. With school instruction of the most ordinary kind, by

universal and unerring observation, by profound and intense meditation

of men, with the creative power of the highest imagination, he gave out,

spontaneously, works of that kind whose study makes men learned: and

they are so viewed and studied by all civilized nations, every day more

and more, at home and abroad. In him England competes for the crown of

poetical glory with all other nations of old or modern fame. She has had

other great poets, but they all, besides their own natural offerings,

have brought poetry from other lands and languages, into their own. In

him alone she feels, that what she displays SHE has produced. Little is

known of the life of William Shakspeare.

[From the well-known monumental bust in the church at

Stratford-on-Avon, where Shakspeare lies buried. It was executed by an

artist named Gerard Johnson, very soon after the death of Shakspeare,

and erected between 1616 and 1620. The original is in common

limestone, and was painted to resemble life. The eyes were a light

hazel, the hair and beard auburn: the doublet was scarlet, and the

loose gown black. It was repainted precisely in the same manner in

1749. But in 1793, Malone officiously had it whitewashed, as it now

exists. There is a great resemblance between this face from the

Stratford monument and the portrait published in the first folio of

Shakspeare’s works, by the actors, in 1623. No. 407A is from a very

remarkable terracotta bust, in the possession of Professor Owen, of

the College of Surgeons. It was discovered in pulling down the old

Duke’s Theatre in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, where it was placed over one

of the stage-doors, the bust of Ben Jonson (accidentally destroyed by

the workmen) occupying a corresponding place over the other door.

Shakspeare having been rescued by the timely interposition of Mr.

Clift, Professor Owen’s father-in-law, the bust became that

gentleman’s property, and by him it was given to its present owner.

There are two types of the Shakspeare portrait: the “round-faced,” as

seen in the monument of Stratford-on-Avon, and the “oval-faced” of

Cornelius Jansen. Roubilliac’s bust, and that in the possession of

Professor Owen, are after Jansen. No. 407B is the bust by Roubilliac.

The statues by Roubilliac and John Bell (see Handbook of Modern

Sculpture, Nos. 56 and 9) are conventional, and represent the two

types.]

407A.}

} WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE. _Poet._

407B.}

408. JOHN MILTON. _Poet._

[Born in London, 1608. Died there, 1674. Aged 66.]

The son of a scrivener. In his earliest years he became enamoured of the

Muses, wrote exquisite poetry, travelled in Italy, returned hastily on

the outbreak of the Civil war, and identified himself with the

Republican party. Later in life, and as blindness was deepening upon

him, he was appointed by Cromwell Latin Secretary to the Council of

State. Retiring from politics on the death of the Protector, he would,

under the Restoration, have suffered as a regicide, had not Sir William

Davenant, to his great honour, interposed his own favour with the Court.

So rescued, Milton withdrew into obscurity and poverty, unnoticed and

forgotten. In his solitude and blindness he composed “Paradise Lost,”

which he dictated chiefly to his eldest daughter. The poem was sold to a

bookseller for ten pounds, and was not very popular during the lifetime

of the poet. At one time he took pupils. He was three times married, was

devoutly religious, austere in his morals, and simple in his ways of

life. He is the great epic poet of England, distinguished by the

strength and sublimity of his genius, and hardly less for sensibility to

the graceful and beautiful. Laboriously learned, with an admiration as

intelligent as devoted, of the great writings preserved from Greek and

Roman antiquity, he, more than any other of our poets, has modelled his

works on the type of his illustrious predecessors. He has, of all

English poets, carried art in his writings to the highest pitch, but

neither art nor imitation has tamed the wing of his muse, or impaired

his praise of originality. He knew the greatness of his powers, viewing

them as a gift to be used to the honour of the Giver; and his one

paramount work, the “Paradise Lost,” having for its “great argument,” as

he himself says, “to justify the ways of God to men,” must be regarded

as his oblation, brought and laid on the Altar. He founded and formed

English heroic blank verse,--a measure which, under his hand, rivals in

richness and variety the music of his classical masters; and which alone

could, by its majestic flow and inexhaustible powers of expression, have

sustained the weight and amplitude of his subject. He loved and honoured

Shakspeare.

409. ALEXANDER POPE. _Poet._

[Born in London, 1688. Died at Twickenham, 1744. Aged 56.]

Alexander Pope, the son of a linendraper, and a Roman Catholic, was his

own instructor. He was sent home from school in his twelfth year for

lampooning his tutor, and from that time he gave his teachers no further

trouble. Already, as a boy, a happy versifier--twice happy, for an

indulgent father smiled on his dawning skill--he was, in his maturer

day, and for the remainder of his own century, the leading star in the

sky of our English poetry. He received at the hands of his master,

Dryden, the rhymed ten-syllable couplet. This couplet was not first by

Dryden used harmoniously, forcibly, eloquently--for Hall in his Satires

had done this--but by Dryden it was first raised into the reigning

measure of English song. He sustained in it a free flow and bold sweep,

suitable to his genius. Pope rather chained the movement, stamping even

on his verse the peculiarity of his fine intellectual powers. When we

search for Pope’s characteristic amongst poets, we find that he had

reasoning--which is the earnest,--and wit--which is the sporting--of the

logical faculty, both intimately blending themselves with the poetic

vein. It was, accordingly, to a bright and sharp intellectual action

that he fitted the couplet, apt by its nature for the service. Uniting

to a lively, quick and keen intellect, so much of poetic passion as, in

fact, secured the dedication of a life, he produced works which, by

their mastery, must command admiration whilst the language is read,

although in them, the deliberate skill predominates over the passionate

expression. Viewed from the highest point, he was imitative, not

original. His spirit active and perceptive in the study of his greater

and less predecessors, not self-infused into the contemplation of Man

and Nature. What is most felt as a fire in his verse is the ardency of

writing, the zeal of an artist enamoured of his task: or he accepts and

translates the passion of others, which, not having its home in its own

bosom, does not receive justice there. Our grandfathers and our

grandmothers knew by heart the “Essay on Man,” the “Essay on Criticism,”

the “Moral Essays,” the “Characters of Women” (sparkling with wit and

malice, but adding nothing to the observation and true ideal delineation

of woman), and the “Rape of the Lock,” in which the playfulness, lying

in the verse, exquisitely comes out, and a graceful half-ironical fancy

amuses and captivates, but no steeping imagination subdues or transforms

to its likeness. He introduces us again to Ariel, whom we have known

before, but how different his Ariel and Shakspeare’s. Pope brought

intellective precision into poetry, which should feed on the indefinite

and the vague, and should flower out into the softened and the flowing.

Hence, often when he is the most admirable, he is the most artificial.

410. OLIVER GOLDSMITH. _Poet and Man of Letters._

[Born in Ireland, 1728. Died in London, 1774. Aged 45.]

Poor dear Oliver! What shall we say of him, with his kindly benevolence,

his manly independence, his honest feeling, his childish vanity, his

naughty extravagance, his irregularities, his blunders, his idleness,

his industry, his zeal for the improvement and advancement of the whole

world, and his improvident neglect of himself. Goldsmith had fits of

genius:--moments of an inspiration, or a possession, that appeared to

produce in him powers, not ordinarily there. In the conduct of life he

seemed born to be the world’s victim: he lay under the world. His gifted

pen in his hand, he rose above it. The tender sensibility that indites

his verse agrees too well to his story. The playful humour, and the

sharp, never rough, never malignant, satire, take by surprise. He then

had the laughers on his side--too often, unfortunately, against him. His

poems of “The Traveller” and “The Deserted Village” are a species by

themselves, or each a species. The vein of reflexion, of personal

feeling, and of poetical viewing, with native simplicity of expression

and musical sweetness, is common to the two. The dirge of the deserted

hamlet sowed the seed of “The Pleasures of Memory;” and the wandering

poet, feeding his verse from his travels, was repeated in “Childe

Harold.” Goldsmith’s “Retaliation,” written upon his friends of the St.

James’s Coffee House, in requital of the epitaphs they had provided for

himself, is the most brilliant and masterly summing up of characters in

pointed words and streaming verse that the language possesses. The

“Vicar of Wakefield” is the smiled-at, honoured, and loved inmate of

every English home.

[By W. Behnes.]

410*. ROBERT BURNS. _Poet._

[Born in Alloway, Ayrshire, 1759. Died at Dumfries, 1796. Aged 37.]

The ploughman-poet of Scotland; in whom the labour of the limbs appeared

to invigorate the intelligence, and the bleak air of poverty to cherish

the blossoms of genius. Shakspeare rose from the bosom of the people to

delineate kings and queens. Burns, born some steps lower, dwelt, even in

his verse, to the last, amongst his own order. That is his dignity and

his glory. The life of the Scottish peasant as it remains represented by

his pencil, and in his person, seizes the imagination and the sympathies

of the educated world. He has drawn the heart of the high towards the

low. He has raised the low to their just esteem in the opinion of the

high. But besides this moral aspect, he has gained, as a poet,

immeasurably, by rooting his foot to the fields which he furrowed. The

conflict, so maintained in our thoughts between his social position and

his endowments and aspirations, sheds a continual illumination of wonder

upon his writings. But more! His happiest subjects and strains draw life

and meaning from the soil of which they are the self-sown flowers. Not

merely that solitary agricultural Idyl, with its homely-pathetic and

homely-picturesque--“The Cotter’s Saturday Night,”--but the fanciful

tenderness of his lament over the Daisy and the Mouse;--but the wild and

reckless daring of imagination in that cordial rencounter with the dread

foe Death--that blending of the humorous, the supernaturally grotesque

and the terrific in Tam O’Shanter--of the rustic, the gracious, the

solemn, even the sublime--in the Vision of Coila--these most

characteristic feats of poetical skill and genius--which stand apart,

defying competition and claiming rank for the name of Burns, amongst the

illustrious on Parnassus--all are made possible by originating from and

by reflecting his native condition. His songs are tender, passionate,

musical; chaunting his own or imaginary rustic loves. The torrent of his

spirit, that, pouring along the channels of thought and song, became an

elate and exalting enthusiasm, hurried him on the paths of common life

into excesses, dilapidating the humble home and the proud householder.

He first published his poems--now in every peasant’s cottage throughout

Scotland--in his 27th year, and his fame was instantaneous. Later in

life, the favour and patronage of the Scottish nobility and gentry were

able to confer upon him a place in the Excise, of no less than £70

a-year: in the discharge of which distinguished public function, and in

the enjoyment of which splendid public remuneration--then his only

certain support--the one-laurelled modern singer of the time-honoured

Scottish tongue sank, from his darkening noon, into the grave.

[This Bust is by David Dunbar.]

411. SAMUEL ROGERS. _Poet._

[Born at Newington Green, near London, 1762. Still living.]

A classic inheritance from the entombed past. The living poet who

carried his first production with a trembling hand to Dr. Johnson’s

house in Bolt Court, Fleet Street, and could not find heart to wait for

an answer to his summons when he had knocked at the door; who listened

with delight and instruction to the lectures of Sir Joshua Reynolds; and

who still remembers and relates how, when his father took him to see

Garrick act, he himself punished his boyish impatience by closing his

eyes for a moment, as the great actor was coming on to the stage. It is

nearly seventy years since Samuel Rogers published his first poem, and

he was then a man. He is the Addison of verse. Grace, elegance,

delicacy, softness, are the characteristics of his poetry. He does not

astonish by power, nor thrill by burning passion; but he soothes,

gratifies, and charms all who are susceptible of consolation and

pleasure from polished and complete works of art. His taste is refined

and classical, and all his works have the finish which such taste will

require of the artist possessing it. The rhythm of his poetry partakes

of the character of the sentiment: all is chaste, smooth, refined, and

clear. The descriptions in “Italy” of Italian life and scenery are very

beautiful, and his reflections are at all times pure and elevating. For

so long a life, Mr. Rogers has written very little; but his works are

gems, and have been heightened and improved by labour until scrupulous

thought can do for them nothing more. All poets since the century began

have acknowledged Rogers for a master; and his conscientiousness,

purity, and refinement, fit him for a teacher. He has outlived not only

his illustrious contemporaries, but the great poets who were unborn when

he had reached his prime. The patriarch, in his long protracted

nightfall, still gladdens his memory with the visions of the past,

looking with placid hope towards his all but present future.

[By W. Behnes.]

412. WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. _Poet._

[Born at Cockermouth, 1770. Died at Rydal Mount, 1850. Aged 80.]

The most original of the poetical thinkers whom his day gave to his

country. Her verse, notwithstanding one or two better voices uplifted,

had too long and too patiently worn the character of an imitative

literature. He undertook the championship of a conflict, which was to

reseat legitimate powers on the throne. Born and bred in the northern,

mountain region of England, his first study of men was amongst the

simple-minded, vigorous, independent, and intelligent peasantry of the

dales. The earth, which his young feet explored, lay embosoming its

lakes, rearing crag and steep, as though yet freshly robed in

loveliness, or charged with power, by the Creator’s hand. His instinct

already drew him, even unconsciously, to gather, in _that_ contemplation

of Man and of Nature, and not in books, the materials of his appointed

Art. Solitary, self-communing, self-sufficing, he soon stood in presence

with an educated world, the prophet of a new poetical revelation. He

found, at the first encounter, a prophet’s reward--belief in the few:

from the multitude, mockery and persecution. He lived long enough to be

understood; to see health and strength of his infusing reanimate the too

languid veins of our English poesy. An extreme trust in the worth

inhering in every phase of humanity may have sometimes descended too

low, in the choice of the theme; an excessive zeal of simplicity may

occasionally have stripped the style a little too bare. But his writings

remain distinguished, amongst the lays of his own just elapsed age, as

the most soothing and instructive to the heart of the reader; and for

the generations of poets, rising and to rise, the most warning and

oracular. His strains have been remarkably various in length and weight,

in manner and style. As a portrayer of human nature, he ranks amongst

those who have the most deeply and critically explored the workings of

our mysterious heart and intellectual being. His especial vocation

amongst poets was, in his own view, the disclosure of the affinities

which attract, by feeling, the human soul to the natural world: It

supplying intellectual forms, and We, passion--an intercourse, blending,

if it may be so said, two lives into one. He entered upon his work of

reforming our poetical spirit, in two volumes of Lyrical Ballads and

Other Poems, in the years 1798 and 1807. His life was one long day of

brooding calm--his sunset, lucid and serene.

[Presented to the Crystal Palace by the sculptor, F. Thrupp, and

modelled by him from a cast after death by Chantrey.]

413. SIR WALTER SCOTT. _Poet and Novelist._

[Born in Edinburgh, 1771. Died at Abbotsford, 1832. Aged 61.]

The great magician of the north, under whose fascinating spell millions

in all lands have been entranced and strengthened. His boyish eye fed on

the wild scenes of his native land, and on the mouldering wrecks--here

and there sadly gracing those scenes--of her former sterner, yet greater

day. His boyish heart was cradled in the music of her old wild songs,

then living, and in the rough and bold traditions of her strange and

romantic Past. The joy and the passion which were life to the boy,

became power to the man. With a wondrous dominion suddenly begun, yet

prolonged whilst he lived, he swayed and swept back the spirits of his

generation on a torrent of delight and desire, into forgotten times,

alien to our manner of thinking and of being. But the poet finds one

heart of Man under all the shapes of human existence: one universal

spirit of human life. Transported by the poet, we find ourselves

everywhere with our kind. Reanimated by him, the worn-out and the

antiquated rise new-born and of our time. And Scott, in verse or in

prose, was a poet. The electric telegraph of the press carried his

writings, as they left his desk, over the globe. The excellent French

historian, Augustin Thierry, says that the romances of Scott, by their

vivid and vital representations of the past, have reformed the style and

study of history on the continent, urging and guiding the historian,

instead of chronicling dry facts, to throw himself with a thirsty

inspiration into the bosom of the mighty departed time. A Scottish

traveller in Spanish California told, that a Spanish monk had there

shown him his copy of “Ivanhoe,” and said “Next after my Bible.” We

remember with pain that Scott, to whom the world stands so largely

indebted for some of its purest delights, fell into trouble and

difficulty, and snapped his brain in his noble and manly struggle for

escape. The spot of Scotland which the toil of his genius had won him,

for rooting his family on, when torn from both him and them by a blast

of ill-fortune, was redeemed to them by the reverent affection of his

country---made theirs by a public act which tied even every “book of his

curious learning” to its place on his shelves, in perpetuity. There his

favourite daughter’s daughter and her children now prolong, if not his

illustrious name, his honoured line.

[By F. Chantrey.]

414. ROBERT SOUTHEY. _Poet Laureate._

[Born at Bristol, 1774. Died at Keswick, in Cumberland, 1843. Aged

69.]

An author who has earned imperishable renown in his own country, for the

dignity with which he upheld the literary character, for his virtuous

mind, for his patient, honest industry, and for his masculine prose

writings. His poetical compositions--with the exception of the minor

poems--are too laboured and too long, are too deliberately planned, and

not sufficiently impassioned to be immortal; but they contain,

nevertheless, many fine descriptive passages, abounding in strength and

beauty: the subjects are chosen, and treated, with bold and free

imagination. Southey read too much, and reflected too little; he was an

insatiable devourer of books, and almost a prisoner to his study; hence

he imbibed prejudices, and narrowed his intellectual sympathies: but his

heart was of the soundest, and his feelings of the freshest. In the

distribution of his hours he was most methodical. He had a surprising

memory, a yearning towards the romantic in his literary pursuits, and an

insuppressible vein of humour. He lived and died, comparatively poor,

and he was always a day labourer. Yet he had ever a ready ear for the

tale of distress, and an open hand for all who needed its grasp in the

difficult journey of life. He never murmured at his own inevitable yoke,

and he had self-command enough to refuse a baronetcy, when, towards the

close of his career, he was offered the honour by the Minister of the

day. It is sad to think that the mind of Southey gave way in the decline

of life. When he could read no longer, he walked to his bookshelves with

a vacant soul, and opened the volumes only to look at them, without

being able to derive the least consolation from their pages. He died

honoured, and literary men in England are proud to acknowledge, in him,

one of the worthiest of their order.

[This is a posthumous Bust, by E. H. Baily, R.A., from the marble

which forms a portion of the monument erected to the poet’s memory in

Bristol. It was carved in 1847.]

415. THOMAS CAMPBELL. _Poet._

[Born at Glasgow, 1777. Died at Boulogne, 1844. Aged 67.]

The poetical career of Thomas Campbell began when he was twenty years

old, and was completed before he was thirty-three. He wrote nothing

subsequently to this age worthy of his fame. His earliest work, the

“Pleasures of Hope,” composed in youth, at once established his claim to

be ranked amongst the foremost poets of his time. It brimmed with

promise; and not the least singular circumstance in connexion with

Thomas Campbell’s life is, that the excessive expectation raised by his

first appeal was never satisfactorily fulfilled. The poetic faculty

burned in the “Pleasures of Hope,” which was full of melody, pathos,

animated description, and impassioned sentiment. All needful ardour was

there. There were also to be noted the faults of a youthful

pen--redundancy of diction and incorrectness. Ten years after the

“Pleasures of Hope” he published “Gertrude of Wyoming.” The impulsive

quality was already subdued by elaborate art; and although extreme

beauty and tenderness were here and there in the poem, correctness was

still wanting. Your spirit was entranced with verses, than which, in the

English language, you could find none better, simpler, and sweeter. Yet

for one such verse that was borne away from “Gertrude of Wyoming” a

hundred were forgotten which were not its peers. Campbell had momentary,

true, intense conceptions, and fineness of fancy; he exhibited

felicities of thought and expression that fastened instantly on every

memory; his, too, was an ear of poetical sensibility to the music of

language; but woe to the verse if his poetic utterance came not of an

inspiration--by a seizing theme. “Ye Mariners of England,” “The

Soldier’s Dream,” “The Battle of Hohenlinden,” constituted such themes,

and these small poems of Campbell are consequently abiding treasures in

the literature of the nation.

[By E. H. Baily, R.A. Executed in 1827.]

416. THOMAS MOORE. _Poet._

[Born at Dublin, 1780. Died in Wiltshire, 1852. Aged 72.]

A poet of exuberant fancy, revelling in lavish ornament and gorgeous

painting, and giving utterance to the most ingenious creations, in

language of ineffable, and, occasionally, overpowering sweetness. A

writer of inimitable Irish ballads, which are now plaintive, now joyous,

now pathetic, now fervid, now tender, now fierce, now melting, now

heroic; but always matchless by the graceful flow of the verse, and the

prompt springing of the happiest illustration. Also the author of

satires, brilliant and cutting, but rather the outpourings of a generous

fancy, delighting in its own exquisite self-conscious faculty of

mischief, than the malicious and bitter expression of a vexed and

disappointed mind. Melody and joyance are careering in almost every

syllable that he wrote. He was a passionate lover of music, and when he

sang his own ballads, the effect upon his listeners was electrical. His

most celebrated poetical composition is “Lalla Rookh,” an Eastern

romance, which he wrote “amidst the snows of two or three Derbyshire

winters.” His best prose work, “The Epicurean,” is a masterly

performance, redolent of the perfume which breathes through his verse,

and elevated by a high moral aim. When Thomas Moore died, the impression

left of the man upon the public mind was stamped there by his jocund

muse--a feeling of tenderness and love was associated with the pleasant

memory of “Little Tommy Moore.” Since his death his memoirs and his

diary have been published, and the impression has grown dimmer and

dimmer in consequence. As a man, Thomas Moore, the poet, appears to have

been hardly more heroic than the most prosaic of his kind.

[By Christopher Moore. Executed in 1838, for the late Edward Moore, of

Mayfair.]

417. JOHN WILSON. _Poet and Professor._

[Born at Paisley, 1785. Died in Edinburgh, 1854. Aged 69.]

The son of a Paisley manufacturer. Educated at Glasgow and Oxford. Like

the youth of ancient Greece, he delighted equally in the spoils of the

arena, and in the wisdom of the porch. At Oxford, the first wrestler of

his time, and the gainer of the Newdegate prize for the best poem. His

genius as passionate as his frame was overflowing with the sap of animal

life. Endowed with a lofty and glowing imagination, and with great

critical powers, improved by knowledge. A lover of learning for the joy

it brings, and a hearty sympathizer with the glorious labours of the

great makers of prose and verse, whether in ancient or modern time. He

himself excelled as a worker in more than one of the paths of

literature. His poetry is remarkable for the beauty of its imagery, for

its rich fancy, and for the flow of the verse; his criticisms exhibit a

profound knowledge of the true principles of taste, are eloquent, and

full of generous sentiment; his prose tales of fiction have deep pathos,

and reveal intimate acquaintance with the human heart. As an orator,

John Wilson might have vied with the most eloquent of his contemporaries

had he chosen to compete with them in their own peculiar field; as a

writer upon the manly sports which he so ardently loved, he is

unequalled. His very corporeal substance seems heaving with joy and

physical happiness, as we follow his vigorous, picturesque, and elated

pen, amongst the lochs of Scotland, or the lakes of Cumberland. Wilson

wrote with the zeal of a strong partizan in politics. He would be one,

and could not. His large and universal heart never entertained what are

called political antipathies. His Toryism was his strong and hearty

nature bubbling up and venting itself in loyalty, chivalry, and

affectionate duty. To say that he was opposed to Liberty and Right, is

to assert a monstrous paradox. He was the very incarnation of liberty,

and his giant soul shrunk from wrong, by natural action. In 1818, Wilson

was appointed Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of

Edinburgh. The bust bespeaks the man. It looks like Jupiter. We cannot

gaze upon a more magnificent head.

[This striking and characteristic work is by the late James Fillous of

Glasgow, a fellow townsman of Professor Wilson. It was executed in

marble for the Public Reading Room at Paisley.]

418. GEORGE NOEL GORDON, LORD BYRON. _Poet._

[Born in London, 1788. Died at Missolonghi, in Greece, 1824. Aged 36.]

Assuredly, the most popular, if not the greatest poet of our times. But,

the popularity by no means proof of the greatness. He was an object of

interest on account of his birth, his youth, his misfortunes, his

constant practice of associating with poetry his personal and daily

history, his strongly imagined injuries, his feverish complaints. A

vigorous painter of portraits--that is to say, of two, for he took

delight only in the hero of gloomy passion, and in the heroine of soft

voluptuous beauty--all his pictures more or less reflecting his own

nature, and the nature of woman as it appeared to his refined

sensuality. Byron has described with ineffable grandeur natural scenery,

and has kindled the spirits of men with enthusiasm for the ancient

glory; but we find no solace in his companionship, although he takes us

to streams and mountains visited by the gods. His own distempered image

is too visibly stamped on every scene. Byron affected to be a

misanthrope; yet he cherished the good opinion of men, and shrunk from

their adverse criticism. He pretended that he was isolated from the

world; yet his name and fame were upon every lip. What will last in the

poetry of Byron are the verses uttered in moments of self-oblivion.

Keats complained that Byron made solemn things gay, and gay things

solemn. This was a great wrong, and is hardly repaired by the

tenderness, pathos, sentiment, and passion, that start from his poetry

to go straight to the heart. It was the misfortune of Byron to be sent

into the world without discipline or training of any kind. Had he been

fairly dealt with in his childhood and youth, his life might have been

happier--its course more equable. As it was, his genius was enslaved and

wronged, his career was violent and erratic, his whole nature warped,

and his poetry, instead of being a well-trimmed garden of beauty, had

its choicest flowers entangled and half hidden in unwholesome, gaudy

weeds.

[By Thorwaldsen, but not from the life.]

418A. GEORGE NOEL GORDON, LORD BYRON. _Poet._

[By E. H. Baily, R.A. Modelled from authentic portraits.]

419. DOUGLAS JERROLD. _Writer._

[Born in London, 1803. Still living.]

Before he was eleven years old, he went as midshipman to sea. Returned

to London after two years’ service, and in his boyhood took to writing

dramas for minor theatres. In later life he has produced dramatic works

of a higher kind--his comedies being remarkable for epigrammatic wit,

and sparkling dialogue. His prose writings, generally, are characterized

by trenchant sarcasm, by a vigorous Saxon style, by earnestness of will,

and by an unflinching advocacy of liberal principles. Douglas Jerrold

has been charged with bitterness of spirit, and a malicious desire to

set the poor against the rich. The charge rests upon no good foundation.

He revolts from injustice and oppression; he feels acutely their effects

upon all who come within their operation; and his views are invariably

expressed with all the intensity of his genuine convictions. His pen has

been always at the service of humanity; and his heart is as sound as his

language is plain, direct, and unequivocal.

[Executed in marble, 1852, by E. H. Baily, R.A.]

419*. HENRY TAYLOR. _Poet._

[Still living.]

Known to literature as the author of “Philip Van Artevelde,” a drama for

the study, not for the stage. This dramatic poem is admirably finished,

and contains many beautiful images, and passages of undoubted vigour.

But the polish is too evident, the labour expended too much on the

surface. There is nothing in the work to offend; nothing to take by

surprise; nothing that stirs the human heart to its depths. The author

shall defy you to point out the blemishes of genius on his pages. You

may equally challenge him to produce evidence of the power of genius. In

“Philip Van Artevelde” we are ever within sight of the domain in which

the great dramatists reign supreme, but never in the domain itself. It

is all but a great work. It seems as if only fire were wanting at the

poet’s heart to convey us at once from the region of great talent to the

higher sphere of undoubted inspiration. But the needed warmth comes not.

[By Macdonald, of Rome.]

SCIENTIFIC MEN AND WRITERS.

420. FRANCIS BACON. _Chancellor of England, and Founder of the Inductive

Philosophy._

[Born in London, 1561. Died 1626. Aged 65.]

The son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal under Queen

Elizabeth. Francis was yet a boy when he evinced so keen and lively an

intellect, that Elizabeth was wont to call him her young Lord Keeper. He

rose to the highest distinction in the state, becoming Lord Chancellor

of England. He was removed from his eminence, because he had sullied it

by accepting bribes. He lived ostentatiously, and died leaving many

debts. His name is one of the greatest this country boasts. He is the

father of the modern Philosophy. Standing between two intellectual eras,

he surveyed the past, and predicted the future, of human inquiry.

Reverting his eye, he saw that the most acute and powerful intellects

had, age after age, wasted their strength in investigating physical

phenomena, without fruit either of great ascertained truths, or of

service won from their speculations to human uses. Neither zeal nor

ability had been wanting. He inferred that the method of those elder

philosophers was in fault. Impatient and arrogant, they presumed, upon

the first strong impressions caught from the contemplation of Nature,

oracularly to divine her universal laws. From these laws, affirmed not

established, they proceeded to solve, as best they could, all further

phenomena: for, within these false and hasty conclusions once

recognised, Reason lay thenceforward imprisoned. Lord Bacon said: “Have

patience. Wait upon Nature. Observe indefatigably. Accumulate, without

ceasing, records of the appearances. Verify experiment by experiment.

Set instance beside instance, without sparing, but not without choosing.

Ultimately the law will stand revealed.” What has happened? Immense and

ever-advancing discovery--science created upon science--observers,

without number, conspiring in the most disjoined parts of the civilized

world to solve the same philosophical problems--Nature every day more

and more yielding to man the service of her powers--and the wisdom of

her Author every day more and more discerned in His works--these are the

results which honour the school of Bacon.

[From the monument at St. Albans.]

421. HUMPHREY CHETHAM. “_Dealer in Manchester Commodities._”

[Born 1580. Died 1653. Aged 73.]

An early and generous benefactor to the city of Manchester. One of

Fuller’s “Worthies of England.” He made a large fortune by sending

Manchester commodities up to London; and during his life-time he

invested his gains in the education of twenty-two poor boys. At his

death he left money enough to provide for the suitable education of

forty boys; and he also bequeathed £1000 for the purchase of books for a

general library, as well as £100 for the erection of a building to

receive them. At the present hour 100 boys are educated, maintained, and

clothed, by the munificence of Humphrey Chetham, and more than 23,000

volumes are open to all who desire to improve themselves by reading. The

statue of which the one in the Crystal Palace is a cast, has been

recently raised to the memory of this pious and benevolent man, by one

who, in early life, partook of Humphrey Chetham’s bounty. The name of

the grateful recipient is unknown; but he need not blush to make it

public. The statue may be seen in Manchester Cathedral--a monument of

affectionate reverence and gratitude, as well as of Christian

well-doing.

[For an account of this statue, see Handbook to Modern Sculpture, No.

62.]

422. JOHN LOCKE. _Philosopher._

[Born in Somersetshire, 1632. Died at Oates, in Essex, 1704. Aged 72.]

A stern intellect with a pious and gentle heart. Of a good family. He

studied for medicine; but his delicate health prevented his engaging in

the profession. The study was apparently turned to higher account in

settling his contemplation on the real and the useful. He ranks amongst

English philosophers as the one who first, by his writings, impressed

the fact that the Mind of Man lies before us, if we can attend, as much

a subject for observation and for the investigation of laws, as the

outwardly sensible world. The impulse given by his teaching to the

educated mind of the country was strong and lasting. His successors have

introduced, as might be expected, more method and precision into this

region of speculation. They have confirmed, enriched, and extended the

science, although yet far from having attained that luminous certainty,

and that wealth of profitable results, which wonderfully reward the

inquirers into the physical order of Nature. Besides his “Essay on the

Human Understanding”--for which Locke is called the founder, in England,

of modern metaphysical inquiry--he stood up in other works also, as the

champion of intellectual liberty, vindicating the rights of Reason in

politics and in religion. In the study of the Mind, “he broke the

fetters of the schools,” as Bacon had done for physical science. Locke

was the friend of Newton.

[By Riesback.]

423. SIR ISAAC NEWTON. ASTRONOMER AND PHILOSOPHER.

[Born at Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, 1642. Died in London, 1727. Aged

85.]

This illustrious man was educated at Grantham, and entered Trinity

College, Cambridge, in the year 1660. Before he had reached his

twenty-third year, he had already made various important discoveries in

pure mathematics; amongst others, the celebrated “Binomial Theorem,”

familiar to every tyro, and that most refined and powerful instrument of

scientific investigation, the “Method of Fluxions,” which, a few years

later, was independently discovered by the famous Leibnitz, and given to

the world in the form now universally known as the “Differential

Calculus.” Newton was still young when the fall of an apple gave birth

in his mind to the first germ of “the Law of Gravitation,” which, some

years later, he so beautifully and wonderfully developed. In 1666--his

age twenty-four--he began those experiments with the prism which quickly

led him to “The Decomposition of Light,” and to other optical

discoveries, unfolded in the lectures delivered by him at Cambridge, as

the successor of Barrow, from the year 1669. In his thirtieth year, he

was elected a fellow of the Royal Society; in 1703, its President; and

he was re-elected to this distinguished post year after year, for

twenty-five years. His great work, “Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia

Mathematica,” appeared complete in 1687. It has excited the astonishment

and profound admiration of the greatest philosophers in all nations,

from that time to the present; and no wonder, since, in some respects,

this grand production might almost seem to have resulted from actual

inspiration, and not from the mere day labour of an unassisted human

intellect. The mighty teacher was the originator of views and theories,

upon which the ablest philosophical minds of the last century and of the

present have built their most renowned achievements, yet we are most

admonished by his humility, his religion, and his calm. Newton was

member of Parliament for Cambridge. He was also master of the Mint.

Honour was shown to him living and dead. George I. ordered that his body

should, after lying in state, be buried in Westminster Abbey. What

luminary is without its dark spot? Leibnitz and Newton were the two

greatest men of their age, yet a bitter and lasting quarrel between them

is recorded, for our solemn instruction. It remains to state that the

year in which Galileo died, Newton was born. No interval was suffered

between the extinction of the one essential light and the kindling of

the other.

[By Roubilliac.]

424. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. _Statesman and Philosopher._

[Born at Boston, in America, 1706. Died at Philadelphia, in America,

1790. Aged 84.]

“Franklin” is another word for usefulness, self-denial, frugality,

perseverance, and independence. A poor printer’s boy, who, by his own

unaided powers raised himself from the lowest place of society to the

highest, and contributed alike to the advancement of science, and to the

independence of one of the finest countries of the earth. His discovery

of the identity of lightning and electricity, and the invention of the

lightning-rod; the explanation of the _aurora borealis_ and

thunder-gusts upon electrical principles, are triumphs of the

philosopher. His ardent support of the new Republic, his activity,

judgment, and resources, speak for the statesman and the lover of

liberty. His language unadorned, but ever pure and expressive; his

reasoning manly and cogent, and so concise that he never exceeded a

quarter of an hour in any public address. His correspondence a model of

clearness and compendious brevity. Scrupulously punctual in all his

dealings. An exemplar of economy, and regularity. His life, one of the

most instructive and encouraging studies for youth, since it exhibits

the sufferings, the trials, the power, and the victory of self-command,

temperance and industry, and the reward of genius overcoming all the

difficulties of fortune.

[By Houdon.]

424A. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. _Statesman and Philosopher._

[By Hiram Powers.]

425. SAMUEL JOHNSON. _Writer and Moralist._

[Born at Lichfield, 1709. Died in London, 1784. Aged 75.]

The son of a bookseller in Lichfield. Educated at Oxford, but compelled

to leave the University without a degree, in consequence of the

misfortunes of his father. Then an usher,--and then, marrying,--the

proprietor of a private academy in his native city. He had only three

pupils, but one of them was David Garrick. Master and pupil went up

together to London in search of fortune. Both found what they

sought--the pupil suddenly and brilliantly; the master, after trial,

privation, and suffering. In 1738, Johnson published his first poem,

“London.” Twelve years later, he came forth as an essayist in the

“Rambler.” In 1755, appeared his “Dictionary of the English Language,” a

seven years’ labour; and in 1781, “The Lives of the Poets.” In 1762, a

pension of £300 a-year was settled upon him by King George III. The

tradition of Johnson in society is of a literary and moral dictator--a

character which, as far as he was concerned, implied much rather the

depth of conviction with which he championed great interests, than the

pride of self-conscious intellect, the taste for conflict, or the thirst

of rule; and which the listeners conceded yet more in reverence for the

personal worth of the man, than in submission to his intellectual

superiority. He is one of the manliest and most robust minds in our

letters. From moral sense and religion, from deep natural concern, his

giant will was devoted to the great interests of mankind. He felt in

himself a vocation to sustain these interests, and he was the sturdiest

of combatants in the prosecution of his moral crusade. His style is

stately, nervous, Latin, original, singularly suited to his mind, which

gave a direction to contemporary minds, and largely fashioned the

literature of his time. The prime characteristic of his writings is

unquestionably strong, solid sense, mixed it may be with onesidedness,

but bright with acute reflection. Johnson’s exterior was unwieldy, his

manners were not polished, but a tenderer heart never beat than his own.

He could utter a withering epigram. He never committed a deliberately

unkind act. His house was a hospital for the sick and distressed; he

could not walk the streets without emptying his pockets into the hands

of beggars, and his great heart melted under a tale of sorrow and

injustice. He had strong prejudices, and although sincerely pious, was

superstitious. He loved to speak in aphorisms, and we still quote his

sayings, as attributing to him something of the dignity and weight of an

oracle. His life influenced his age. After his death he still exercises

his influence, for he has given occasion to the most perfect and amusing

biography in the language.

425A. SAMUEL JOHNSON. _Writer and Moralist._

[This statue, by J. Bacon, R.A., is at the South End of the Nave, on

the East Side; for account of which, see Handbook to Modern

Sculpture.]

426. ADAM SMITH. _Philosopher and Political Economist._

[Born at Kirkaldy, in Scotland, 1723. Died, in Edinburgh, 1790. Aged

67.]

This great master in the science of political economy was the son of an

Officer of Customs, and studied first in Glasgow, afterwards at Oxford.

He had feeble health, and was of studious habits. In 1748, a lecturer,

in Edinburgh, upon Rhetoric and the Belles-Lettres; and in 1751,

appointed Professor, first of Logic, and then of Moral Philosophy, in

the University of Glasgow. At this period of his life he published his

“Theory of the Moral Sentiments,” a work in which he regards Sympathy as

the foundation of all morals. In 1763, resigning his Professorship, he

became tutor to the young Duke of Buccleuch, with whom he travelled on

the continent for several years. He subsequently retired to his native

village, where he passed ten years of his life in close obscurity,

study, and fruitful meditation. In 1776, he issued from his cell to pour

light for ever into the busy world. In that year was published his

memorable “Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.”

This monument of industry, observation, sagacity, learning, and

acuteness, continues the one great hand-book of political economists.

The leading points which Adam Smith laboured to urge in his “Inquiry”

are--That labour is the only source of the wealth of nations; that

wealth does not consist in the abundance of gold and silver, but in the

abundance of the necessities, conveniences, and enjoyments of life; that

it is sound policy to leave individuals to pursue their own interest in

their own way, and that every regulation intended to force industry into

particular channels, is impolitic and pernicious. The justice of these

axioms has, after years of argument, denial, and resistance, received

general acknowledgment in England; and Adam Smith is the author of one

revolution in the world’s progress, and a benefactor of his kind. His

reasoning is not always sound; but the base of his fabric is

unassailable, and the illustration which constitutes its ornament, is

amongst the happiest ever employed to give life and light to a solid

structure. Adam Smith is the great practical philosopher of an age and a

people, craving for his philosophy more than for any other, yet wanting,

most of all, the philosophy which shows the soul of a man as the most

precious of all his estates, and teaches him the husbandry of it. He

died, having won a competence, and fulfilling a government appointment.

[This plaster cast was formerly in the collection of Sir Thomas

Lawrence.]

427. JOHN HUNTER. _Surgeon and Comparative Anatomist._

[Born in Scotland, 1728. Died in London, 1793. Aged 65.]

When John Hunter was twenty years old, he could scarcely read or write;

but he could make chairs and tables. At the time of his death,

forty-five years afterwards, he was the first anatomist in the country;

and he left behind him a museum--the work of his own rare intelligence

and industry--which the government purchased for the sum of £15,000, and

conferred upon the Royal College of Surgeons. Hunter came to London,

from his carpenter’s shop in Scotland, in order to serve as anatomical

assistant to his brother William, who had already established a

reputation as an anatomist, and was doing well. In a few months John had

made sufficient advance to be able to give instruction in the

dissecting-room. He then studied on his own account, went to Oxford, and

became a surgeon. Intense application, profound observation, ceaseless

experiments, and masterly skill and judgment, enabled him in time

considerably to enlarge the knowledge of surgery, and to make valuable

discoveries in connexion with his favourite science of comparative

anatomy. He was, for England, the first great leader in the Science of

animal life. He was a bold and clever operator; he wrote several

professional treatises; and, besides being Surgeon Extraordinary to the

King, he held the offices of Inspector-General of Hospitals, and

Surgeon-General. His name is honoured in the profession to which he

belongs, and he is justly regarded as the great and worthy guide and

pioneer of all the seekers and successful discoverers, who since his

time have explored the same paths.

[By Flaxman.]

428. JAMES WATT. _Improver of the Steam-Engine._

[Born at Greenock, 1736. Died 1819. Aged 83.]

It has been said that the genius of Watt, as displayed in his mechanical

inventions, has contributed more to show the practical utility of the

sciences, to extend the power of man over the material world, to

multiply and expand the conveniences of life, than the works of any

other individual in modern times. His was a rare mechanical genius. It

had been nurtured from his infancy at home; where he lived, as a boy, in

solitary retirement, cultivating observation and reflexion, and kept

apart from other boys by weak bodily health. It may be affirmed that his

whole life was one long day’s labour, for his enlightened industry never

ceased. When a mere child, he would take to pieces and reconstruct every

toy that came in his way. At nineteen he went to London, and placed

himself with a maker of mathematical instruments there, making delicate

instruments for his employer with his own hands. “With those same

hands,” says M. Arago, a little fancifully, since the head now took the

place of the hands, “he afterwards constructed those colossal machines

which in Cornwall, and on the ocean, perform the service of millions of

horses.” But the improvement of the steam-engine, until it attained its

highest point of perfection, is not Watt’s sole claim to the title of a

discoverer. Without knowing a note of music, he constructed an organ,

and in a great measure solved the problem of _temperament_. He invented

the press for copying letters; he introduced the process of bleaching by

the aid of chlorine; he explained the composition of water, and the art

of warming by steam. The extent, variety, and accuracy of Watt’s

knowledge were amazing. No subject seemed foreign to him, and upon every

subject he spoke as if that alone had all his life engaged his

attention. Sir Humphrey Davy declared that Watt stood upon a higher

elevation than Archimedes. Great as were his powers, he was a man of

child-like candour, and of the greatest simplicity.

[By Flaxman.]

429. SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH. _Historian and Metaphysician._

[Born in Scotland, 1765. Died, 1832. Aged 67.]

A strong and shrewd intellect: determined by native impulse and aptness

to the metaphysical speculations, which, in the country where he was

born, make regularly an important part of a liberal education. He sought

and maintained the character of a dispassionate inquirer, reading

extensively and carefully weighing conflicting opinions. More a student

than a man of action; yet, even in study, his energies clogged by a

natural indolence. Mackintosh, though descended from Jacobites, was a

Whig. In 1791, he wrote a defence of the French Revolution, in answer to

Burke; but, in less than four years, confessed that bitter experience

had overthrown his generous argument. Adopting the law as a profession,

he received promotion in India at the hands of his political allies.

After seven years’ service, entered Parliament. He wrote an admirable

“Dissertation on the Progress of Ethical Philosophy” for the

“Encyclopædia Britannica,” and he was engaged on a “History of the

Revolution of 1688,” when he died. A man of great learning,

philosophical clearness, and fine perception. Yet his works lack method

and elegance, and fail, from the absence of these qualities, to do

justice to the intellect that fashioned them.

[By Christopher Moore. Executed in 1829 for Lord Nugent.]

430. FRANCIS JEFFREY. _Critic and Essayist._

[Born at Edinburgh, 1773. Died, 1850. Aged 77.]

One of the founders, and for many years the editor, of the “Edinburgh

Review,”--a publication which he enriched by his essays on poetry and

general literature. He had an acute, ingenious, and spirited intellect,

a sensibility of taste, and a constant flow and vivacity of style; but

his apprehensions in literature and the arts, were rather trained and

authorized than free and original. He had a leaning, scarcely a special

gift, to speculate on the questions of the Mind--questions early and

familiarly brought before him, as rife in the Scottish school in which

he was educated. The influence of Jeffrey upon literature and public

opinion, during his life-time, was very great--partly from the character

of the Review which he governed, partly from the independence,

brilliancy, and ability with which he maintained his principles of

taste. Many of his criticisms contain the soundest views, and are

eloquently written: others have been signally refuted by time and the

public verdict; and their style is defaced by wanton and unjustifiable

flippancy of language. Jeffrey studied for the law, and, being always a

liberal in politics, was promoted by his Whig friends to the Scottish

bench. With the reputation of a brilliant and ingeniously argumentative

speaker, he disappointed, in the House of Commons, the general

expectation. He was esteemed a very kind and friendly feeling man.

[By Christopher Moore. Executed in 1846.]

431. FRANCIS BAILY. _Astronomer._

[Born at Newbury, 1774. Died 1844. Aged 70.]

Originally a stockbroker. One of the founders of the Astronomical

Society, and for many years its President. Also Fellow and

Vice-President of the Royal Society. Author of many astronomical works;

amongst others, of a volume detailing the repetition of the Cavendish

experiment for the determination of the earth’s density.

[Executed in marble, by E. H. Daily, R.A. Posthumous. 1848.]

432. WILLIAM YARRELL. _Naturalist._

[Born in London, 1784. Still living.]

The author of “A History of British Birds,” and of various papers on

subjects connected with natural history. Is treasurer to the Linnæan

Society of London.

[By Henry Weigall.]

433. GEORGE STEPHENSON. _Engineer._

[Born 1781. Died 1848. Aged 67.]

A sturdy plant of English growth. A working mind born ripe for its time.

An uncultivated power endowed with immeasurable capability. The story of

George Stephenson reads well for his country, well for himself, well for

the high faculties which Providence has given to man, irrespectively of

birth, station, education, or any accidental condition. His parentage

was of the poorest. He could not have begun his race at a more distant

point from the goal of fortune. He did not even start with his fellows

in open day, under the bright sun, on the earth’s surface. He was a

pit-engine boy, and his pay was twopence a day. It was a great rise for

him when he was made stoker, and he was on the high road to prosperity

when he found himself breaksman. Promoted to the office of engineman, he

declared that he was “now a man for life.” He first made known his

mechanical genius in the service of Lord Ravensworth, when he repaired

and improved, as an amateur, a condensing pump-engine, which had baffled

the skill of some professional engineers. Having been, for a time,

occupied in laying down some unimportant lines of rail, he went to

Liverpool to plan a line of railway between that city and Manchester. He

held out great inducements to enterprize, and made unheard-of prophecies

of success. He even undertook that a locomotive should accomplish ten

miles of distance in every hour. We must not be surprised that the

people called him “mad” for proffering the assurance. Similar madmen had

preceded him,--Columbus, Galileo,--the inventor of gas, the discoverer

of vaccination and others. The line, as we know, was made,--the

experiment tried. Stephenson was right, a locomotive can travel at the

rate of ten miles an hour. The rise of Stephenson was now rapid as the

strides of his own locomotives. He took the lead at once in railway

engineering; became a great locomotive manufacturer, an extensive

railway contractor, a large owner of collieries and iron-works, and a

man of mark in the nation. Our railway system is the result of the

multiform operations of his strong practical mind. Stephenson disputed

with Sir Humphry Davy the invention of the safety lamp. Other claimants

are in the field. We shall never know the discoverer, any more than we

shall learn the birth-place of Homer; and George Stephenson may spare

the extra laurel from his iron crown.

[By Christopher Moore, 1831. Executed for Robert Stephenson, Esq.]

434. WILLIAM FAIRBAIRN. _Millwright and Engineer._

[Born at Kelso, on the Tweed, 1789. Still living.]

This eminent engineer settled as a millwright in Manchester, in 1815,

and distinguished himself at once by his practical improvements in the

construction of mills and workshops. To his early efforts, in the

science of mill architecture, may be traced much of the improved taste

now displayed by mill-owners in the manufacturing districts. His latest

achievement in this direction is the magnificent structure at Saltaire,

near Bradford, Yorkshire. He was an early builder of iron ships in

Manchester, Hull, and London. His experiments, designs, and

superintendence, were available in the construction of the Conway and

Britannia Tubular Bridges. Mr. Fairbairn, besides his title to respect

as a mechanical engineer, and a great improver in the specific sciences

to which he has devoted his life, is a contributor of much valuable

knowledge through the medium of the press. He is the architect of his

own fortunes, and is remarkable, in an age of remarkable engineers, for

his great energy, skill, taste, and discrimination.

[By J. E. Jones.]

435. SIR JOHN HERSCHELL. _Astronomer._

[Born 1790. Still living.]

The worthy son of a celebrated sire. Educated at Cambridge, where he

easily distanced all who competed with him for the honours of that seat

of learning. Like his father, Sir John has devoted himself mainly to

astronomical pursuits; but he has penetrated with ardour into every

field of science, and illuminated by his genius all the ground he has

trodden. He is a consummate mathematician, an accomplished chemist, a

profound philosopher, a master of his native language, and of style. In

1834, he proceeded to the Cape of Good Hope, for the purpose of making

observations in the southern celestial hemisphere, and continued there

for the space of four years. His “Preliminary Discourse on the Study of

Natural Philosophy,” is amongst the most beautiful, eloquent, and useful

of modern publications. His treatises on Sound and Light show a profound

application of the highest order of mathematics to physical subjects of

the most subtle, delicate and ethereal character. Herschell, more than

any other man of this day, has contributed to uphold and increase

England’s scientific renown; his learning and accomplishments are

universal, and his constant zeal in the diffusion of knowledge amongst

all classes,--amongst the very humblest as well as the very

highest,--constitutes a right to our gratitude and respect equal to that

established by his philosophic labours and infinite acquirements. Sir

John Herschell is Master of the Mint. Sir Isaac Newton held the post

before him.

[From the marble by E. H. Baily, R.A. 1848.]

436. MICHAEL FARADAY. _Natural Philosopher._

[Born 1794. Still living.]

This illustrious scientific man is the son of a poor blacksmith, and was

in early life apprenticed to a bookbinder, at which craft he worked

until his twenty-second year. His great delight in electrical researches

brought him into acquaintance with Sir Humphrey Davy, whose assistant he

became in the laboratory of the Royal Institution, where Faraday himself

in time rose to the dignity of Fullerian Professor. The discoveries of

Faraday in several branches of science have placed him in the very

highest rank amongst European philosophers. The most difficult and

abstruse points in connexion with light, heat, electricity, magnetism,

and the laws of matter, have been simplified to an extraordinary degree

by the force of his sagacity and singular acuteness. As remarkable as

his genius for discovery, and for the detection of the hidden operations

of nature, is his admirable faculty of exposition. No living man

approaches Faraday in the easy power of communicating the results of the

most subtle investigation to a miscellaneous audience. Passing through

his lucid understanding, every subject, however abstruse or abstract,

becomes simple, clear, and attractive.

[By E. H. Baily, R.A. Executed in 1823.]

436*. MARY SOMERVILLE. _Mathematician and Astronomer._

[Still living.]

One of the few women who step out from the limits which seem naturally

assigned to their intellectual avocations, to compete with men in

theirs. One of the fewer who do so, deserting none of their proper

tasks, forfeiting nothing of their proper character. A profound

mathematician and astronomer; a delicate inquirer into natural

phenomena. Her work on “The Connexion of the Physical Sciences” spreads

out, in a form designed for the uninitiated reader, but not for the

inattentive, a large variety of impressive knowledge, on some of the

most interesting laws of the natural world. Her manner of writing is

remarkably simple, descriptive, clear and exact.

[By Macdonald. Executed in Rome, 1848.]

437. WILLIAM WHEWELL. _Philosopher._

[Born at Lancaster, 1795. Still living.]

The Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, and at this moment the

greatest ornament of that celebrated university. He has been tutor in

the college of which he is the Head, and Professor of Mineralogy.

Subsequently appointed to the Chair of Moral Philosophy, which he still

occupies. A great promoter of the study of this branch of human

learning, both by his writings and his oral lectures. Has contributed

valuable essays on the subject of education, with especial reference to

the studies of his own university. Has enriched mathematical and

physical science with many original investigations; is the author of a

great work on the History and Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, and

of many scientific treatises exhibiting the application of the higher

mathematics to natural philosophy. The vigour, activity, vivacity, and

quickness of his intellect is extraordinary: his memory, in relation to

almost every branch of literature and science, is rich to overflowing,

and his faculty of conversation brilliant. The mind of William Whewell,

by natural, impetuous action, invades all territories of knowledge, and

grasps at a dominion forbidden by the term allotted to human life: but

that mind, clearly and beyond all doubt, has power to grapple and to

deal effectually with all that it has time to apprehend and seize. It is

not to be wondered, that the temper of so ardent a spirit should be

hasty: that its nature is frank, generous, and noble.

[By E. H. Baily, R.A. 1850.]

438. SIR HENRY THOMAS DE LA BECHE. _Geologist._

[Born in London, 1796. Still living.]

Distinguished himself early by his geological researches in England,

France, Italy, and the West Indies. In 1835, the government instituted,

at his suggestion, a Geological Survey of Great Britain, in conjunction

with, the Ordnance Survey, and subsequently extended it to the United

Kingdom, with Sir Henry as Director General. This post he now holds, in

conjunction with the direction of the Museum of Practical Geology, and

of the Government School of Mines. The author of many highly esteemed

works and memoirs on geology; and has rendered good service to the

state, by directing his knowledge to practical and educational purposes,

and by inducing politicians, seldom ready to advance in a scientific

direction, to found institutions of a high intellectual type.

[By E. H. Baily, R.A. 1845. From the bronze deposited in the Museum of

Economic Geology, London.]

439. THOMAS CARLYLE. _Writer._

[Born in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, 1796. Still living.]

Critic, Philosopher, Essayist, Censor: the criticism acute,

penetrating,, severe; the philosophy idol-worship; the essay-writing

picturesque, striking, animated, and strongly coloured; the censorship

furious, testy, useless, if not unmeaning. Saturated with German

metaphysics, full of German literature, and delighting in the German

form of expression. If Thomas Carlyle would throw off his foreign

affectations, and forget _himself_ in his labours, he would be one of

our most instructive, useful, convincing, and admirable writers; for his

heart is large, his intellect strong, and both heart and intellect have

long striven to inculcate human love amongst men, and to build, upon

mutual affection, high deeds, and benevolent aspirations. But Thomas

Carlyle, pen in hand, never did forget himself at any one instant of his

life, and never will. To use one of his own Germanisms, he is the very

incarnation of “Ich.” An instructed author will hold the balance fairly

between his subject and his reader, dealing with each with intelligent

reference to the other. Carlyle usually cares nothing either for his

reader or his subject, but swallows up both. Whatever he shows us, we

chiefly see Thomas Carlyle. “The French Revolution” is the best of his

works! His pictures, there are startling, wonderful, and highly painted;

his eloquence is inspiriting, and his imagery grand. As a social and

moral Reformer, he beats the air, belonging to that humblest order of

architects who are clever enough at destroying houses, but have no power

to set up others in their place. Yet the influence of Carlyle has been

great, both in England and America. He has forced men to think--he has

appealed with irresistible power to their better natures--given vigour

and direction to their impulses, and torn the veil from quackery as

often as the evil thing has crossed his manly and indignant path. Sad

thought that so serviceable an arm should be clogged with fetters of its

own forging--that an almost boundless capacity for good should be

restricted by a tether of its own fashioning.

[By H. Weigall.]

440. FREDERICK CARPENTER SKEY. _Surgeon._

[Born at Upton-on-Severn, 1798. Still living.]

Professor of Surgery to the Royal College of Surgeons of England:

Surgeon to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital and other institutions. The author

of a work on “Operative Surgery,” in which a strong and humane plea is

put forward against the use of the knife until the last extremity; and

of the Hunterian Oration for 1850.

441. RICHARD OWEN. _Naturalist._

[Born at Lancaster, 1804. Still living.]

Owen, Faraday, and Herschell are England’s living representatives of

science, and are so esteemed throughout Europe. Comparative anatomy,

founded by Cuvier, has been perfected by Owen, and to him is due the

great merit of raising that science in England to a position that

commands the gratitude and admiration of the whole scientific world.

This illustrious philosopher commenced life as a midshipman, but his

career was quickly arrested by the close of the American war in 1813. In

order to re-enter the profession, he adopted the medical profession, and

became the pupil of Mr. Baxendale, a surgeon in Lancaster. In 1824, he

matriculated in Edinburgh. In 1825, he came to London, and passed the

Royal College of Surgeons in 1826. Under the advice of his friend,

Abernethy, Owen gave up all thoughts of the navy, and accepted an

appointment at the College of Surgeons, where for ten years he laboured

at completing the catalogue of John Hunter’s magnificent museum. The

enormous labour was achieved in 1840. Since that time every form of

animal life, from the Sponge to the Man, has been submitted to his

sagacious mind, and upon every subject he has thrown illumination. The

mere enumeration of his contributions to the literature of natural

history would in itself be a task. His “Treatise on the Homologies of

the Vertebral Skeleton” has been received with great favour by

anatomists and physiologists. His histories of “British Fossil Mammals

and Birds,” and of “Fossil Reptiles,” the treatise “On the Nature of

Limbs,” on “Parthenogenesis, or the successive production of procreative

individuals from a single ovum,” have each brought fresh laurels to his

brow. Cuvier asked, “Why should not natural history one day have its

Newton?” We answer, “It has found Richard Owen.”

[By E. H. Baily, R.A. 1840.]

442. BENJAMIN DISRAELI. _Writer and Politician._

[Born 1805. Still living.]

The author, at an early age, of “Vivian Grey,” a novel. Has since

published many interesting works of the same kind, the most popular

being “Coningsby,” a book in which the political views of the writer are

interwoven in the tale of fiction. Mr. Disraeli has acquired greater

fame as a politician than as an author. By his own efforts, and by the

force of his great genius, he has risen to one of the highest offices of

state, having for a few months served his country as Chancellor of the

Exchequer. Mr. Disraeli is unequalled in the House of Commons for

sarcasm and invective; but he has other, better, more useful, and more

lasting qualities of a statesman. If the moral weight of Mr. Disraeli in

the country, is less than his talents would seem to claim, public

opinion is not so much to blame as Mr. Disraeli, for the discrepancy

between his acknowledged ability, and his place in the world’s

estimation.

[By W. Behnes.]

443. THOMAS BRASSEY. _Railway Contractor._

[Born at Buerton, near Chester, 1805. Still living.]

One of the chiefs of the aristocracy that has risen in these latest

times upon the foundations of commercial enterprise. A prince of the

new dynasty, whose dominion extends wherever civilization is fostered by

the Rail, and whose coronet is of iron. He commenced life as a surveyor

at Birkenhead, and his first connexion with a railway was a contract to

supply the stone for a viaduct of the “Manchester and Liverpool.” Since

that time his labours have been incessant and extraordinary, both in his

own country and out of it. Since 1846, he has, upon his own

responsibility and credit, constructed upwards of 500 miles of railway,

representing an aggregate of £9,250,000 of contract money. In France and

Spain, his joint contracts with Mr. Mackenzie were for 189 English miles

of road, and for nearly £3,000,000 sterling. His engagements, in

Scotland and England, with Mr. Mackenzie and Mr. John Stephenson, from

1844 to 1851, comprised 511 miles of railway, and an aggregate of

£7,200,000. His hands are still full, and his men are carrying out his

behests in all parts of the world. In more senses than one the career of

Thomas Brassey may be described as princely. The “Barentin” viaduct, of

27 arches, on the “Rouen and Havre” line tumbled down when all but

completed; and the casualty involved a loss of £30,000. Mr. Brassey the

contractor was neither morally nor legally responsible. He had

repeatedly protested against the material used in the structure, and the

French lawyers maintained that his protest freed him from liability. The

contractor was of a different opinion. He had contracted, he said, to

make and maintain the road, and no law should prevent him from being as

good as his word. The viaduct was rebuilt at Mr. Brassey’s cost. For the

construction of this stupendous work (accomplished in seven months)

16,000,000 bricks were required, of which 14,000,000 were new, and made

on the spot. Thomas Brassey is beloved by his countless retainers.

Riches, power, influence, and dominion, have not touched his sound and

feeling heart. We dare to speak truth of this living worthy, for his

life is in all respects one of the highest examples we can offer to our

generation, absorbed as we are in the production of great industrial

undertakings, and, above all things, intent upon the pursuit of wealth.

[By J. E. Jones.]

443*. WILLIAM DARGAN. _Railway Contractor._

[Still living.]

Born at the beginning of the present century, of humble parents, in the

county of Carlow, Ireland. After leaving school, was placed in a

surveyor’s office. Then served with Telford the engineer, on the

Holyhead-road; afterwards engaged, on his own account, in forming the

Howth Road, and some canal works in other parts of Ireland. Since the

introduction of railways he has been the chief maker of the iron paths

that traverse the sister kingdom. When all the works shall be completed,

which owe their construction to his skill, ingenuity, and industry,

nearly a thousand miles of railway will be due to his enterprise.

William Dargan is not only a railway contractor, but a railway owner, a

steam-packet proprietor, a flax grower, and a farmer. Whilst too many of

his fellow-countrymen have been engaged in destroying--as far as in them

lay--the elements of industry in Ireland, he has laboured to develop her

resources, and to rouse the physical energy and the self-respect of all

classes. He is a patriot, not a partizan--not an Orangeman, nor a

Ribbandman, nor a Repealer, nor a Protestant-ascendancy-man, but a

true-hearted Irishman, a useful citizen, a loyal subject. If Sir Robert

Peel could have counted a dozen Dargans amongst his coadjutors in

Ireland, he would never have had cause to reckon the government of that

portion of the United Kingdom, amongst his insuperable “difficulties.”

The greatest work of the patriotic Dargan remains to be mentioned. He

placed £20,000 at the disposal of the Committee formed in Dublin, for

the construction of a Crystal Palace in that city. Before the Palace was

ready to receive the contributions of all nations, William Dargan had

contributed a much larger sum. He has his reward in the affectionate

gratitude of the Irish people--in the approving smiles of his

sovereign--in the lasting good wrought by his act in the land of his

birth.

[This statue, by J. E. Jones, is at the south end of the nave.]

444. SAMUEL WARREN. _Lawyer and Writer._

[Born in Denbighshire, 1807. Still living.]

Is the author of “The Diary of a Physician,” and “Ten Thousand a-Year,”

in the department of fiction, and of a work on the Study of the Law. Mr.

Warren was originally educated for medicine. He has risen to the rank of

Queen’s Counsel in the profession which he subsequently adopted; and his

writings have acquired a wide popularity. The genius of Mr. Warren lies

especially in the detection and dissection of character, in which he

exhibits great skill and power.

[By Henry Weigall.]

445. EDWARD SHEPHERD CREASY. _Historical Writer._

[Born in Kent, 1812. Still living.]

Educated at Eton, where he obtained the “Newcastle Scholarship.”

Subsequently proceeded to King’s College, Cambridge. In 1837, called to

the bar. Is Professor of History in University College, London, and the

author of some able historical works.

[By E. G. Papworth, jun., by whom it is presented to the Crystal

Palace.]

446. JUDGE HALIBURTON. _Lawyer and Writer._

[Still living.]

Off the bench, better known under his assumed name of “Sam Slick.” He is

a judge of Nova Scotia. In 1835, first appeared in a Canada paper as the

author of a series of letters, illustrating the Yankee character. In

1842, was Attaché in England to the American Legation; one result of

this appointment was the publication of “Sam Slick in England.” Sam’s

pen continues from time to time to enliven and amuse the world, and to

set it broadly grinning. He has infinite humour, a rollicking, racy,

uncontrolled style, an exuberance of animal spirits, great acuteness,

much worldly sagacity, and marvellous good sense under all his fun. A

genial satirist, and one of those who have the best succeeded in making

the low, corrupted, half-provincial, and half-slang language of an

inferior social class serve literary use.

[By J. E. Jones.]

447. EDWARD FORBES. _Naturalist._

[Born at Douglas, Isle of Man, 1815. Still living.]

One of the most eminent of our scientific men, remarkable for his

originality, sagacity, lucid research, and general scientific

attainments. Studied at Edinburgh, and afterwards lectured there on

Natural History. Joined, in 1841, the Hydrographical Survey of the

Ægean, under Captain Graves, R.N., and made important discoveries

respecting the laws of bathymetrical distribution of marine animals and

plants. In 1842, explored the antiquities, geology, and natural history

of Lycia. During this expedition the sites of eighteen ancient cities

were brought to light. In 1845, appointed Naturalist to the Geological

Survey of the United Kingdom, and in 1851, a Professor of the Government

School of Mines. President of the Geological Society, one of the Royal

Commissioners of the Great Exhibition, and author of numerous works and

memoirs on geological, zoological, and botanical subjects. In 1854, upon

the decease of Professor Jameson, raised to the Chair of Natural History

in the University of Edinburgh.

[By E. H. Baily, R.A.]

SOLDIERS AND STATESMEN.

448. WILLIAM MURRAY, EARL OF MANSFIELD. _Lord Chief Justice._

[Born at Perth, in Scotland, 1704. Died in 1793. Aged 88.]

This great lawyer and upright man was the fourth son of David, Lord

Stormont. In 1718, being thirteen years old, he travelled to London on

the back of a pony, and went to Westminster school. In 1723, he

proceeded to Oxford. At both places of learning he was distinguished for

his industry and classical attainments. Afterwards entered at Lincoln’s

Inn, and in 1730 was called to the bar. He gradually made his way

upward. In 1742, Solicitor General; 1744, Chief Justice of the King’s

Bench; 1776, advanced to the dignity of an Earl. Other events are worthy

of record. During the Gordon Riots of 1780, the Protestant mob, thinking

him favourable to the Catholics, burned his house to the ground, and

cruelly destroyed a valuable collection of books and manuscripts. He was

the principal victim of the merciless assaults of Junius; and he is

remembered in the law books, as the chief justice who, in the celebrated

case of “Rex _v._ Almon,” arising out of one of Junius’s Philippics,

attempted in vain to withdraw the cognisance of the question of libel

from the jury, to vest it in the court. In politics Lord Mansfield was a

Tory; as a judge he recognised nothing but his duty to his sovereign and

his country; and he must always be regarded as one of the greatest men

that have adorned the judgment-seat in England. He possessed an amazing

clearness of apprehension, vast learning, and marvellous perspicuity of

exposition. His love of justice was the sole passion that absorbed his

otherwise calm nature, and his integrity was spotless. In law, as in

religion, the mind of Mansfield was essentially liberal. It was a saying

of Burke’s that Murray--superior to the technicalities of his

profession--still made the liberality of law keep pace with the demands

of justice and the actual concerns of the world, conforming our

jurisprudence to the growth of our commerce and of our empire. He was

thus the founder of the commercial law of England, which before his time

had no existence. Brave as a lion on the bench, Mansfield exhibited

unaccountable timidity as a statesman. He quailed before Lord Chatham,

whose schoolfellow he had been, and who mercilessly opposed him from the

school to the grave. The illustrious rivals now lie quietly side by side

in Westminster Abbey.

[From the statue in Westminster Abbey. Executed in 1801 by Flaxman.]

449. WILLIAM PITT, EARL OF CHATHAM. _Statesman._

[Born 1708. Died at Hayes, in Kent, 1778. Aged 70.]

A grand Minister, an idol in the memory of the nation, but failing in

some of the elements of true greatness, for he was haughty, overbearing,

inconsistent, insolent, obstinate, and petty. The statesman who would

never be seen on business, except in a full dress coat and tie wig--who

never allowed the highest considerations to interfere with his constant

study of effect--who, in opposition, anathematized men for attempting

that which he himself, in power, was the very first to carry out--who

never suffered his under secretaries to sit in his presence--who never

blushed at the most barefaced and vehement self-contradiction, can

hardly be ranked with the very highest characters that adorn the pages

of History. Yet he was superb withal, and potent in his influence upon

the age in which he lived. He had tremendous earnestness; his thoughts

blazed in his mind, and were communicated in burning words to his

listeners. He had the faculty of uttering great truths, in language that

carried not only conviction to every understanding, but enthusiasm to

every soul. He had a noble person--an eye like an eagle’s--a voice of

thunder. His oratory was splendid, and his speeches maintained some of

their power when transferred to paper. He was always terrific. He began

his career as a Cornet in the Blues, and entering Parliament as member

for Old Sarum, in 1735, he so astonished Sir Robert Walpole by the

violence of his assault, that the astute Minister was fain to intreat

some one “to muzzle that terrible Cornet of horse.” The great glory of

Chatham, as Minister, consists in the war policy which he advocated and

upheld to the great advantage and pre-eminence of his country. In spite

of all his errors he was adored by the people. He could feel and act

with true nobility, and the multitude were touched by the lofty

sentiments by which he was himself animated. Almost his whole fortune

consisted of private benefactions. The Duchess of Marlborough left him

£10,000, and Sir William Pynsent bequeathed him £3000 a year, and

£30,000 in ready money. He opposed the war with America, but with his

latest breath denied the right of the colony to independence. Whatever

he did, he was still the most popular man in England. Proud and

domineering as he was in public, his private character, as Lord

Chesterfield declared, “was stained by no vices, and sullied by no

meannesses.” In his own household, by his children and dependents, he

was beloved for his gentle kindness. The statue before the visitor is

highly characteristic of the man. “Graven by a cunning hand,” says

Macaulay, “it seems still with eager face and outstretched arm, to bid

England be of good cheer, and to hurl defiance at her foes.”

[The original model of the statue by J. Bacon, R.A., in Westminster

Abbey. It will be found at the South end of the Nave.]

450. EDMUND BURKE. _Orator, Writer, Statesman._

[Born at Dublin, 1730. Died 1797. Aged 67.]

Coleridge, speaking of Edmund Burke, has said that “he referred

habitually to principles--he was a scientific statesman.” He is by far

the most philosophic politician that ever dealt with public affairs in

England. He takes rank with those who have applied their genius to the

transactions of their own fleeting day, in order to extract from them

truth, wisdom, and instruction for all ages. Gifted with gorgeous

eloquence, he spake like a prophet. We read his words, which we are told

fell as he uttered them upon dull insensate ears, and are astounded to

find how nearly, under altered circumstances, they concern ourselves.

Our descendants shall peruse the same syllables with the same living

interest, desire, and benefit. Châteaubriand has asserted that when Fox

spoke in the House of Commons, he and all strangers could not keep back

their tears. When Burke rose, the act was a signal for general flight.

We can understand the difference. Burke walked sublimely in advance of

his contemporaries; Fox was abreast of them, sharing in their

prejudices, and, it may be, inflaming their passions. Burke had great

knowledge of men and books, an imagination rich to overflowing, and

although a philosopher and a theorist, business-like habits. His genius

was unmatched in the House of Commons, and his industry did not fall

short of that of the most plodding member of that assembly. He was the

son of a Dublin attorney, and in early life found favour with Lord

Rockingham, who, bringing him into Parliament, allied him to the Whig

interest. The connexion was subsequently broken off, when. Burke, in

alarm at the frightful results and portents of the French Revolution,

strove to preserve Liberty by holding her back from the too ardent

embrace of her professed friends. His “Reflections on the French

Revolution” was the most memorable treatise of the time; and it was

followed by others as remarkable for splendid diction, as for the

profoundest philosophical thought. When starting into life, Burke wrote

his celebrated essay on “the Sublime and Beautiful,” and set on foot the

“Annual Register,” the historical portion of which he wrote for many

years. He would have been raised to the peerage but for the premature

death of his only son, of whom he was very fond. His character has been

variously estimated. There is no reason to doubt that he was as

conscientious, as honest, and as sincere, as he was mighty in his high

mental endowments.

[By Christopher Moore, 1850.]

451. GEORGE WASHINGTON. _First President of the United States._

[Born in Virginia, United States, 1732. Died, 1799. Aged 67.]

If we were asked to single out from ancient or modern story one bright

unsullied example of true greatness, of perfect patriotism,

disinterestedness, consistency, and self-devotion, it would be difficult

not to select George Washington. England, that suffered by his acts, has

reason to be proud of his surpassing glory; for he came from the common

stock, and he wrought the liberty of his country by the exercise of

virtues dear to all Englishmen, and--let us dare to say--characteristic

of their race. He received the most ordinary education, for he lost his

father when ten years old; and he had to make his way in life by his own

best efforts. At the age of eighteen he was appointed surveyor, in

Virginia, to Lord Fairfax. At twenty he was Major in the colonial

militia. In 1775, he took the command of the army in America against

England. How he acted from that hour until 1783, when the treaty of

peace was signed,--what intrepidity he exhibited,--what wisdom, what

coolness, what courage, what moderation, what rare self-command under

defeat, for, fighting at great disadvantage, he lost more battles than

he gained,--is known to all. In 1789, he was elected President of the

United States. As chief of the government, he declined all remuneration,

save the bare payment of his official service: he had shown the same

abstinence when in command of the army. In 1796, worn out by the labours

and anxieties of his momentous life, he laid down his power and withdrew

into privacy; but not until he had delivered to the American people, as

his last public work, his solemn advice for their future

self-government and conduct. His words of weight may be read to-day with

singular advantage by the millions who enjoy the inappreciable blessings

of freedom and prosperity, which his good right hand, sound heart, and

sagacious judgment, chiefly secured to them. If hero-worship may be

pardoned, he shall be forgiven--for his offence shall induce in him only

humility--who kneels before the quiet, unpretending shrine of

Washington.

[By Canova.]

451*. WARREN HASTINGS. _Statesman._

[Born 1732. Died 1818. Aged 86.]

Descended of an ancient and honoured line, seated at Daylesford, in

Worcestershire, but ruined by taking the King’s side in the civil war.

The boy, motherless, from his birth, and left in the hands of his

grandfather, the impoverished incumbent of the parish, was sent early to

the village school, and taught his letters with the peasantry. At seven

years old, as he basked on the bank of the little stream that ran

through the domain of his fathers, the thought of repossessing the lost

inheritance broke on his imagination. The vision of the child was the

single personal aim of the man’s life. What a life, ere the vision took

reality! At 10 he was placed at Westminster school, at 17 he sailed with

a writership for Bengal. His courage and intelligence, when the English

authorities had fled from Calcutta, with his services in Clive’s army,

raised him rapidly to distinction, and in ten years after setting foot

on Indian ground, he was member of Council. At 32, he returned, with a

moderate fortune, to England: and--that given and spent--at 36, back to

India. At 40, Governor of Bengal. At 41, Governor-General. Ere the five

years of his appointment had elapsed, he was more! He had overthrown his

mortal foes in the Council: and was Lord Paramount of British India. In

his 53rd year, his reign ceased. What had it been? With a resolution

which no dangers and no difficulties could daunt, with a genius for

resource, fertile in proportion to the demand, with a sagacity that

disabled opposition and commanded success, with a self-possession calm

in every tempest, he had taken in hand a set of provinces imperilled by

their disorganization and by terrible enemies: and he left a constructed

and fortified empire. What had been his means? Good and ill. He had

stood between the rapacious rulers and the feeble ruled, and was alike

beloved by both. A civilian, he held the heart and allegiance of the

army. But in India he had used Indian powers. He had not amassed money

corruptly, but he had corrupted with it. He had extorted treasure, he

had broken faith, he had authorized and instigated cruelty, he had

violated justice to shed guilty blood, he had held the ordinary moral

laws suspended, for the safety and the aggrandizement of the dominion

committed to his sway. Called to answer before the highest tribunal in

the land, by all the intellect, eloquence, and power of a great party in

Parliament, he was acquitted after a process of unheard-of duration,

reaching through many years: but ruined by the costs. Partially

compensated by the India House he retired to the ancestral home which,

according to his early resolve, he had taken care to secure. Here for

years he lived a tranquil, happy life in the midst of books, which he

loved, and of endeavours to improve English cultivation from his

experience in India.

[By J. Bacon, R.A.]

452. CHARLES JAMES FOX. _Statesman._

[Born 1748. Died 1806. Aged 58.]

This great orator and popular statesman, like his rival William Pitt,

was trained from his youth for political life. He was the son of Henry,

first Lord Holland, and received his education at Westminster, Eton, and

Oxford. His acquaintance with ancient and modern literature was

extensive, his taste highly cultivated, and his literary ability great.

Had he not been a politician, he might have won high distinction as a

scholar; or, had he not been constitutionally indolent, have reflected

lustre upon his public deeds by labours in more classic fields. There

was a difference of ten years in the ages of Pitt and Fox; Pitt being

the younger man. Both were second sons: both had been sedulously

prepared for the great arena by their ambitious fathers. Pitt began his

work as a Reformer, but quickly turned aside into the ranks of the

Tories. Fox, starting into life under the wing of his Tory parent, spoke

and voted against Wilkes; but quickly repenting of his act, threw

himself into the arms of the Whigs. And then the battle between the two

rare combatants was well fought out unto the end--Pitt dying in harness

in 1806, Fox following him the very same year. Fox was a Liberal, as the

name was in his time understood by the great Whig families--an

aristocrat with popular ideas, sympathizing with progress, but holding

fast to the pillar of the constitution, every stone of which he

jealously upheld. On every great subject he stood opposed to Pitt; he

inveighed bitterly against the war with France, as he had formerly

steadily opposed the rupture with the American Colonies. He was a

speaker of extraordinary power; his oratory being bold, argumentative,

impassioned, and unpremeditated. His followers were attached to his

person, and in private life he was beloved, for he had an affectionate

and noble nature, clouded by sad weaknesses. He was a desperate

gamester, and a lover of pleasure to excess. At St. Ann’s Hill,

withdrawn from the heat of conflict and dissipation, to his quiet and

beloved garden--to his friends and his books, he was more faithful to

himself, and to the good gifts of Providence within him.

[By I. Nollekens, R.A.]

453. JOHN PHILPOT CURRAN. _Lawyer._

[Born near Cork, 1750. Died in London, 1817. Aged 67.]

Of very humble parentage. Obtaining a sizarship, he received his

education at Trinity College, Dublin, free of expense. He went to

London, and entered himself as student at one of the Inns of Court.

Called to the bar in 1775. His brilliant qualities soon brought him into

notice. He was employed to defend various persons charged with political

offences, and his eloquence, his wit, his withering sarcasm, and

touching pathos, carried all before them. In 1784, he obtained a silk

gown, and took his seat in the Irish House of Commons as member for

Doneraile. When the Whigs came into office in 1806, he was made Master

of the Rolls in Ireland. This office he held until 1814, when he

resigned it and secured a pension of 3000_l._ a-year. He then visited

England, and took up his residence in London, where he died. He was a

popular advocate, and a most successful debater. His personal appearance

was as deficient in grace as his intellectual powers were splendid. His

country, which loved him when living, lamented him when dead, and

perpetuated her love and her grief by the erection of a public monument

to his memory.

[By Christopher Moore. 1841. Executed for his monument in St.

Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin.]

454. LORD ELDON. _High Chancellor of England._

[Born 1751. Died 1838. Aged 87.]

A great lawyer. His legal learning, it is said, has never been

surpassed, If it has been equalled. For many years of his long life he

sat on the judgment seat, and in the councils of his Sovereign. But the

fame of Eldon as a politician has not survived him. He was narrow-minded

and narrow-hearted. Lord Brougham has summed up his political faith when

he says, “he was alike the determined enemy of all who would either

invade the institution, or extirpate the abuse.” He worshipped things as

they were. Whatever existed--whether a rotten borough, a sanguinary

enactment, or an unjust civil disability--to the mind of Lord Eldon it

formed part of the “British Constitution,” and that Constitution had in

his eye a sanctity, like religion. No argument was admitted against this

iron and immovable belief. Hence, though all men respected his

sincerity, all enlightened men pitied his bigotry, and felt it as a

public relief when he departed in his ripe old age. He was the last

great man of the remorselessly obstructive school to which he belonged.

As Lord Chancellor, his decisions have obtained great respect, but he

was generally so long in arriving at them, and hesitation and doubt

formed so marked a characteristic of his judicial character, that the

pecuniary losses and human misery for which he became responsible were

considerable. Lord Eldon was of humble origin, and his chances of

promotion seemed in early life so remote, that he was actually at the

minute of quitting London in despair when he received the brief that

took him on to fortune.

[By Chantrey.]

455. HORATIO NELSON. _Lord High Admiral._

[Born at Burnham-Thorpe, in Norfolk, 1758. Died at Trafalgar, 1805.

Aged 47.]

The most famous of sea-captains, and the darling of his country. He

fought the sea-half of the world’s greatest war. England has a just

pride in her Wellington, whose memory she honours. Towards Nelson she

looks with a tenderer recollection, and her heart moves when she thinks

of his services and renown. As Captain in 1794, he conducted a siege at

Calvi, and lost an eye. In 1797, crying to his men “Westminster Abbey or

glorious victory,” he captured the San Jose and San Nicolas, at the

battle of St. Vincent. In the same year he lost his right arm at

Teneriffe, and twelve months afterwards he received a wound in his head

at the glorious victory of the Nile. There was in truth very little left

of the man--yet all of the hero--when, in 1805, a cruel shot at the

battle of Trafalgar, killed him in the very hour of triumph to his

fleet, of delivery to his country. His death was felt in England as a

personal, as well as national calamity, and was mourned by the whole

people as by one man. Gentle as a woman; brave as a lion; devoted to his

country; fighting her battles with a passionate ardour that consumed and

obliterated all personal considerations; loyal; pious;--these are some

of the qualities that combined to form the character of Horatio Nelson.

He was always insignificant in person; and after his slender frame had

been battered about by the enemy, his appearance in the honoured uniform

which, his services had won, was most singular and striking; for he

looked like a skeleton clothed in cumbrous magnificence. Yet the

influence of this reduced, war-beaten figure was electrical. All who

came within its atmosphere partook of its own nature. The followers of

Nelson could and did achieve miracles, because they had unbounded faith

in the power of their chief--in his heroism, resolution, and

determination at all times to win. Nelson was beloved by his sailors. He

lies buried in St. Paul’s.

456. WILLIAM PITT. _Statesman._

[Born at Hayes, in Kent, 1759. Died 1806. Aged 47.]

It has been well said that the life of William Pitt, the second and

favourite son of the magnificent Earl of Chatham, had neither springtime

nor autumn. It knew neither the fresh delights of boyhood, nor the

tranquil happiness of age. His father had trained him from his very

childhood, like an athlete, for the feverish arena of politics. Before

he was twenty-one, he stood a gladiator armed; and from that age until

his comparatively early death he knew no rest. He was twenty-four--a

period at which our English youth are quitting college, and looking

around them for a profession--when he became Prime Minister of England.

For seventeen years, in the midst of broil and battle, of discontent at

home and warfare abroad, this great man held the place which his eagle

ambition had chosen for its eyrie on the rock, defying opposition by his

commanding eloquence, by the fertility and grandeur of his resources, by

his singular financial ability, and by his unquenchable energy. In 1801,

he descended from his lofty seat in order to make way for a Minister of

peace; but in 1804, all hope of peace being blasted, he was again

summoned to direct the councils of the nation, and again he exercised

all his varied powers for the development and consummation of the

policy, which, right or wrong, he deemed essential to the safety of

England, and to the tranquillity and freedom of the world. Two years

after his return to office, he fell a victim to his life-long labours

and to an hereditary gout, nourished by intemperate habits. It is

somewhat curious that Pitt, the cherished head of the aristocratic and

Tory party, had expressed himself in favour of nearly all the principles

which the liberals of subsequent times have struggled, not fruitlessly,

to uphold. He was friendly to Church Reform, to Financial Reform, to

Parliamentary Reform, and to the removal of disabilities on account of

religious belief. He died at the same age as Lord Nelson; and as to Lord

Nelson, so to him, a public funeral was decreed. The sum of forty

thousand pounds also was voted to pay his debts. Whatever had been the

faults of Pitt, he was not avaricious. He had made no money by the

State, for he had ever been the most unostentatious of men. The

character of his eloquence was unlike that of his father. It was

logical, dignified, equable: now rising into indignant invective, and

now taking the shape of the keenest and most cutting sarcasm; but always

self-possessed. It did not burst in torrent from an overflowing fount of

wrath and passion like the submerging oratory of Chatham. The form of

Pitt was gaunt, his countenance harsh, and his action ungraceful. He

was, in many respects, one of the greatest Ministers our country has

ever seen. His rapid comprehension was well described by his tutor, who

said that he seemed to him to justify the doctrine of Plato, that the

act of learning is reminiscence only, and not acquisition. He was the

favourite of the nation: Fox of a party.

[By J. Nollekens, R.A.]

457. GENERAL JACKSON. _President of the United States._

[Born in South Carolina, U.S., 1767. Died at Nashville, in Tennessee,

1845. Aged 78.]

The son of an Irish emigrant. He was originally destined for the Church:

but he quitted school to take part in the War of Independence. The war

over, he adopted the law as a profession, and became judge in Tennessee,

as well as Major-General of the Forces of the same state. In 1815, as

Major-General of the United States, he gained a decisive victory over

the English at New Orleans. In 1821, appointed Governor of Florida, and

the next year elected member of the Senate for the state of Tennessee.

Elected President of the United States in 1828 and again 1832; so that

he was at the head of the American government for the space of eight

years. An ardent democratic chief throughout life. His presidency was

distinguished by the development of democratic tendencies, of the spirit

of territorial extension, and by the marked encouragement of the

slave-holding interest. He successfully opposed Congress in the matter

of the United States Bank, regarding it as a monopoly in the State

injurious to the general interests of the people. Jackson was a man of

Roman virtues, a true patriot, and of uncompromising integrity, simple,

and austere. Straightforward and blunt as a soldier.

[By Hiram Powers.]

458. HENRY WILLIAM PAGET, MARQUIS OF ANGLESEY. _English Field Marshal._

[Born 1768. Died 1854. Aged 86.]

A distinguished, brave, and gallant military commander. In 1793, served

in Flanders. Later, won honour in Spain, especially by the skill with

which he covered General Moore’s retreat. At Waterloo, where he

commanded the whole British cavalry, he lost a leg. He was

member of the government under Canning, and in 1828--a memorable

epoch--Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. Again held this appointment under

Lord Grey, in 1831.

[By Christopher Moore. 1840. Executed for W. H. Curran, Esq.]

459. ARTHUR, DUKE OF WELLINGTON. _Soldier and Statesman._

[Born in Ireland, 1769. Died at Walmer Castle, 1852. Aged 83.]

The third son of the Earl of Mornington, and of Anna, daughter of

Viscount Dungannon. Received his early education at Eton--then studied

at the military school of Angers, in France; and in 1787, entered an

infantry regiment as Ensign. Later became by purchase Lieutenant-Colonel

of the 33rd, and in that regiment took part in Holland in the campaign

of 1794. His first great military exploit was at the beginning of the

century, in India, where his brother was Governor-General, and where,

fighting in the war against the Mahrattas, he annihilated at Assaye an

army of 60,000 men, with only 12,000 troops. From this period until his

defeat of the French army, and the overthrow of Napoleon on the field of

Waterloo (1815), his career was a series of triumphs. Many comparisons

have been made between Napoleon and Wellington; all are unnecessary, and

from the purpose. There is no resemblance whatever in the two

characters. If it is contended that Napoleon was the greatest military

hero of his time, it is sufficient for the admirers of Wellington to

state, that after the English captain had beaten, one upon another, the

great Marshals of Napoleon, he conquered Buonaparte himself, and put an

end for ever to his splendid authority and terrible misrule. Madame de

Staël has said, speaking of Wellington, that “Never was so great a man

made out of such small materials.” Another writer has remarked, that in

him “common sense amounted to genius.” A third tells us that he

accomplished everything by that system of self-subjugation which made

every wish, desire, aim, and object of life subordinate to a paramount

and an ever-present sense of duty. We may gather a notion of the true

character of Wellington from such criticism. There was nothing brilliant

and overpowering in his genius; but he commanded respect, and won

greatness by the wisdom of his combinations, the steadiness of his will,

the simplicity of his aim, and the pertinacity of his course--his mind

being once made up as to the direction to be taken. Wellington had

boundless influence over his men, because he had irresistible power over

himself. He knew better than any other great captain what not to do: and

having resolved upon the propriety of inaction, no consideration, no

amount of obloquy, blame, or reproach, could incite him into action.

When he undertook command in Portugal, it was his conviction that the

enemy were to be finally defeated by a passive policy on his part at

starting. For months, against general opinion, he persisted in that

policy; and after it had succeeded beyond all expectation, once a-foot,

he advanced resolutely with his troops, scoured Portugal and Spain,

drove the French before him, followed them into France, and never

slackened until he had caught Napoleon, and chained him to the rock of

St. Helena. Into the field of politics Wellington brought the same

policy to play. He knew when to act on the defensive, how long he might

defend with safety, when it was prudent to retreat or capitulate upon

honourable conditions. The life of Wellington, from his boyhood until

his death, is an instructive lesson for his countrymen. His daily

habits, as we all know, were of the simplest; and his business-like

activity was the most remarkable characteristic of his old age. In

manners Wellington was soldierly and rough, but he was fond of children.

He had few intimate male friends, but he has left behind him a

correspondence that shows the delight he took in opening his mind

freely, on the most delicate questions of State policy, to more than one

of the gentler sex. A great contemporary poet, a friend and warm admirer

of Wellington, has said that this illustrious, and in many respects

perfect man, had one infirmity that brought him down to the level of us

all--“he could be angry.”

[By Henry Weigall. This was the last bust for which the Duke sat. It

was modelled in four sittings, the dates of which were August 6, 9,

11, and November 18, 1851.]

459A. ARTHUR, DUKE OF WELLINGTON. _Soldier and Statesman._

[Colossal Bust presented by the sculptor, H. Ross.]

460. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. _President of the United States._

[Born at Boston, U.S., 1769, Died 1848. Aged 79.]

Educated in Europe. At a tender age, private secretary to the American

Minister at St. Petersburgh. In 1794, appointed by Washington,

Ambassador to the Hague. In 1809, Ambassador to the Court of Russia.

Subsequently Ambassador in London. In 1825, President of the United

States. His administration worthy of his life, which was pure,

disinterested, and strictly honest. Upon his death in 1848, he left a

reputation for integrity, independence, and manly straightforwardness,

second only to that of Washington. His habits to the last simple and

unostentatious, and his industry remarkable. His exterior was cold, but

fire glowed within, for his nature was as earnest as his oratory was

fierce. He had a tenacious memory, great knowledge, and the faculty of

speaking forcibly, clearly, and to the purpose. One of the worthies of

the Great Republic.

[By Hiram Powers.]

461. LORD MONTEAGLE. _English Peer._

[Born 1790. Still living.]

Comptroller-general of the receipt and issue of Her Majesty’s Exchequer.

Before he was raised to the peerage, Lord Monteagle, as Mr. Spring Rice,

sat in the House of Commons, and filled various offices of

State--amongst others, that of Chancellor of the Exchequer.

[By Macdonald, of Rome.]

462. WILLIAM HUSKISSON. _Statesman and Financier._

[Born in Worcestershire, 1770. Accidentally killed, 1830. Aged 60.]

A distinguished statesman, whose commercial views, early in the present

century, were considerably in advance of those of the political party to

which he was attached, and who strongly advocated the principle of the

measures carried at a later period by Sir Robert Peel. He served under

Pitt, and afterwards was President of the Board of Trade. He was

accidentally killed by a train, at the opening of the Manchester and

Liverpool Railway.

[For account of this statue, the original of which is at Liverpool,

see Handbook of Modern Sculpture, No. 29.]

463. JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY, BARON LYNDHURST. _Ex-Chancellor of England._

[Born in Boston, U. S., 1772. Still living.]

The son of a celebrated painter. After having studied at Cambridge,

where he took high mathematical honours, he was called to the bar, in

1804. In 1826, Master of the Rolls; in 1827, Lord Chancellor. Has held

this last high office at three distinct periods of his life. Lord

Lyndhurst is remarked for the extraordinary lucidity and quickness of

his understanding. His mind has the utmost facility in grasping the most

intricate and involved points of any case submitted to it; and his

facility of exposition is as perfect as his perception is acute. Hence,

though not the greatest of the lawyers who have dignified the woolsack,

he has always been the most agreeable and popular of Lord Chancellors.

He is eloquent without labour, and convincing without vehemence--in many

respects a master of oratory. In his eighty-third year, his polished

intellect has lost none of its lustre. It has all the vigour, in debate,

which it possessed half a century ago. Lord Lyndhurst at first took side

with the Liberal party in politics, but he soon became a follower of Sir

Robert Peel, and with that Minister he remained to the last.

[By W. Behnes.]

464. LORD ASHBURTON. _English Peer._

[Born 1774. Died 1848. Aged 74.]

The head of the great mercantile house of Baring. As Ambassador to

America during the government of Sir Robert Peel, Lord Ashburton

concluded the treaty between England and the United States which settled

the much-vexed “Oregon question.” His marriage with an American lady

attached an interest to his person in America, and his high character

gave him weight and authority at home.

[By Macdonald, of Rome.]

465. DANIEL O’CONNELL. _Orator and Lawyer._

[Born at Cahir, in Ireland, 1775. Died at Genoa, 1847. Aged 72.]

The great Irish agitator. A man of extraordinarily powerful talents and

influence. His oratory, especially adapted to sway the hearts of an

Irish multitude, obtained for him a rule throughout Ireland that has

never been equalled. Thousands upon thousands of his fellow-countrymen

were content to be governed by his will for good or for evil. The

unprecedented opportunity was used by Daniel O’Connell, less for the

advantage and happiness of his afflicted country, than for his own

selfish ends. When the wrongs of Ireland clamoured loudly for redress,

O’Connell was an agitator with a righteous cause sustaining his great

eloquence. When those wrongs were in course of remedy--were remedied--he

was still an agitator, but unsustained by any cause save that of his own

pecuniary necessities. It is lamentable to think how much good might

have been effected by the energies of O’Connell, and to what deplorable

straits his policy had reduced Ireland before death took him from it.

Had it been as much to his personal and pecuniary interest to render his

country contented, peaceful, prosperous, as to keep her in a ferment of

discontent, discord, and semi-rebellion, O’Connell would have proved one

of the greatest benefactors of his kind. As it was, he left behind him a

name, which is not uttered with opprobrium--simply because it is already

nearly forgotten. The associations connected with his memory have

nothing in common with the new epoch of tranquillity, order, and steady

industry, upon which Ireland has entered. O’Connell was not so eloquent

in the House of Commons as out of it. He was born for the multitude. His

power of invective, his faculty of humour, his facility of illustration,

his familiar tones, his burly form, his winning voice, were all elements

that go to make up the successful demagogue.

[By J. E. Jones.]

466. JOSEPH HUME. _Political Reformer._

[Born at Montrose, 1777. Still living.]

Has sat in the House of Commons for upwards of forty years. Was educated

for the medical profession, and is member of the Colleges of Surgeons of

Edinburgh and London. Acted in India as Persian interpreter to the army,

during the Mahratta war, from 1802 to 1807. Joseph Hume is a consistent

Reformer, and by his steadiness, earnestness, and faithful adherence to

the principles of his life, has secured the respect and good-will of all

political parties. When he entered parliament, his views were considered

extreme and theoretical. Many of these views have been gradually adopted

by the leading statesmen of the time, and there is every probability

that Mr. Hume will outlive all his grievances. He is a rigid economist,

and a thoroughly honest politician.

467. HENRY, LORD BROUGHAM. _Lawyer, Statesman, Educator._

[Born 1779. Still living.]

A name that will be identified for ever with the advances in

civilisation made in this country, during the first half of the present

century. For the great reforms effected in our criminal law, for the

impetus which has been given to education among all classes, we are

chiefly indebted to the influence of Lord Brougham, and to the

indomitable exertion of his strong, practical, energetic, and versatile

mind. He has been Lord High Chancellor of England; but his legal

attainments constitute his very smallest title to respect. He is a great

orator, a man of science worthy of taking rank with scientific men, a

metaphysician, an historian, an essayist. He has addressed himself to

every branch of knowledge, and is distinguished in all. Before he was

elevated to the peerage he was one of the foremost men in England,

honoured for his resolute and fiery opposition to abuses of every kind,

and beloved for his eager anxiety to remove the shackles from the negro,

and every disability from the limbs of his fellow-creatures nearer home.

Social elevation has not added to the popularity of Lord Brougham, for

the ermine has in part withdrawn the idol from the people. All his

magnificent qualities are depressed and dwarfed beneath his coronet. His

eloquence is not so overpowering nor so thrilling, his sympathies for

the classes below him are apparently deadened, his respect for his

“order” proportionately increased. He has ceased to be “the first man”

out of doors, without becoming the first lord within. If he has not

survived his reputation he has manifestly damaged it. Yet for his former

permanent and vital services to his country, his name shall be held by

Englishmen in lasting, grateful, and affectionate remembrance.

[By Deer.]

467A. HENRY, LORD BROUGHAM. _Lawyer, Statesman, Educator._

[An admirable seated portrait statue, by E. G. Papworth, Sen., which

will be found at the South end of the Nave, Presented by the

sculptor.]

468. MARTIN VAN BUREN. _Ex-President of the United States._

[Born 1782. Still living.]

A lawyer, and an active politician in the democratic interest. From 1812

until 1820, a member of the United States Senate, during which time a

keen supporter of the war with England, and, for a short period,

Attorney-General. In 1828, Governor of the State of New York--then

Secretary of State in the cabinet of General Jackson. Vice President in

1832, and during General Jackson’s second term of office. In 1836,

elected President by a large majority. The principal measure of his

administration was the re-establishment of the independent treasury. In

1840, again nominated for the Presidency, but defeated by General

Harrison, the Whig candidate. Since the close of his presidential term

in 1841, Mr. Van Buren has lived in retirement. His popularity was not

so great at the close as at the beginning of his political life.

[By Hiram Powers.]

469. JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN. _American Statesman._

[Born at Abbeville, in South Carolina, U.S. 1782. Died at Washington,

1850. Aged 68.]

Of Irish descent. Educated at Yale College, and studied law at

Lichfield, in Connecticut. In 1807, admitted to the Bar. In 1811,

elected to Congress. Secretary of War in 1817; and from 1825 to 1832,

Vice-President of the United States. He asserted that the American

constitution was a mere federal treaty, from the conditions of which an

individual State might at any time withdraw itself, if the inhabitants

of the State so desired. This dangerous principle was combated by

Webster, and--luckily for the Union--with success. Calhoun had great

eloquence, and rapid powers of generalisation. He was inflexible in

integrity, firm of purpose, energetic, laborious, and endowed with a

high sense of honour; devoted to his country, with an inextinguishable

love of liberty. A moderate democrat, nevertheless, and a free-trader.

In person he was tall and lank; his face indicated great firmness of

character and determination. His manner of speaking and of gesticulation

was remarkable. He would walk constantly up and down during his

discourse, his right arm moving all the while regularly backwards and

forwards, like the pendulum of a clock.

[By Hiram Powers.]

469.* DANIEL WEBSTER. _American Statesman and Orator._

[Born, in New Hampshire, U.S., 1782. Died 1852. Aged 70.]

Descended from one of those pilgrim-fathers of New England, who

emigrated, in 1636. A lawyer. In 1813, took his seat in Congress for New

Hampshire, war then raging with England. He advocated the war with

fervid eloquence. In politics a “Whig,” a term corresponding to our

“Conservative.” An avowed opponent of the Democratic party, but a still

stronger friend to the true interests of his country, and, like our own

Sir Robert Peel, preferring these to a dogged and an injurious

persistance in his own preconceived political views. Hence, though no

friend to slavery, Webster carried on no bitter crusade against it; and

hence his conciliatory policy which, in dealing with the unhappy

institution, maintained, through difficulty and danger, the political

Union that contributes so largely to the strength and greatness of the

American people. The oratory of Webster was of a high order: the most

classical that America has yet displayed. It was powerful,

argumentative, and as remarkable for passion, as for logical acumen. He

was also a scholar, with a refined taste, and deeply attached to the

literature of the old country. In person he was thick-set and burly. The

countenance indicated force, without delicacy of taste and perception:

but in this respect the countenance of Daniel Webster belied his mind.

His death, at the close of a vehement career, was serene and happy.

[By Hiram Powers.]

470. SIR FREDERICK POLLOCK. _Chief Baron of the Exchequer._

[Born in London, 1783. Still living.]

Educated at Cambridge, where he obtained high mathematical distinction.

Has been Attorney General.

[By W. Behnes.]

470.* SIR HENRY POTTINGER. _Diplomatist._

[Still living.]

Went to India as Cadet in 1804, and became Major-General in the East

India Company’s service. During his long sojourn in India he fulfilled

many appointments. In 1841, selected by the Government to proceed to

China as Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary for the adjustment of

the differences then existing between the two empires. Amongst his other

rewards for his success in this mission, he received from the House of

Commons a pension of 1500_l._ a-year. Afterwards Governor of the Cape of

Good Hope: now Governor of Madras.

[By J. E. Jones.]

471. HENRY JOHN TEMPLE, VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. _Statesman._

[Born 1784. Still living.]

A Minister under many governments. Secretary-at-War from 1809 until

1828. Foreign Secretary, with a slight interval of repose, from 1830

until 1841. Again Foreign Secretary in 1846. At the present moment, Home

Secretary in the administration of Lord Aberdeen. A statesman of vast

knowledge and acquirements; of sterling business habits; quick and

decided in action. An admirable debater, with a facile, ready, but not

lofty eloquence. The upholder of constitutional government wherever his

name and position have acquired influence in the world. Friendly to

efforts made abroad for the recovery of liberty, he has been held in

terror by those who would still keep liberty in chains. Of all living

Ministers, Lord Palmerston is the most personally popular. He has served

with many parties, and yet is no party man. The Whigs do not love him;

the Conservatives cannot claim him; the Radicals own him not. Yet the

eye of England glances involuntarily towards him as one with qualities

to be exercised on great occasions, in the interests of his country. We

cannot enumerate his followers; but his admirers are countless. He has

many practical virtues that constitute a bond, uniting him to

Englishmen, and make him an object of interest in the national mind. He

is bold, outspoken, courageous, patriotic; genial in temper, and

unaffected in intercourse. He has infinite “pluck.” When he strikes, he

hits straight and effectually. In self-defence his “parry” is

inimitable, and always successful.

[Executed in 1846 by Christopher Moore.]

472. SIR ROBERT PEEL. _Statesman._

[Born near Bury, in Lancashire, 1788. Died in London, 1850. Aged 62.]