and find the letter which suits, and then that only requires to be transcribed. Surely people are in a miserable condition, when, although they do indeed think and feel, they cannot express their thoughts and feelings in words of their own, but find it necessary to seek the aid of books of correspondence. Why should this be the case? We would rather have the worst written letter possible, if it were genuine, than a copy of one of these elegant model letters taken from a book. We have seen many true and tender letters from people who could write but poorly. Now and again letters full of touching simplicity and warmth of affection from humble emigrants in distant lands find their way into type. Deep feeling and pure love are in the heart; but often alas, the difficulty of finding words is an obstacle which prevents their expression. The reader will know Lady Dufferin's beautiful song, "Irish Katy's Letter." all know what it is to have difficulty in finding words in some circumstances; Katy's was a case of this kind, and resembles the predicament Henry V. was in when he made love to his Kate. One of the best instances we know of the failure to find words, was when a certain orator allowed his subject We to run away with him. He was describing a storm, and got into this fix. "The thunder rolled like the thunder rolled, the thunder rolled like, like,-the thunder rolled, and the, the lightning flashed like, the lightning flashed like, eh, like, like-anything!" With these illustrations, which we hope may have proved not only amusing but instructive, this paper must be closed. It is a very thankless and useless thing as a rule to give advice; still, in a very humble way, perhaps, we might be allowed again to advise all those who experience difficulty in letter-writing, or any other form of composition, to read much, get a good dictionary, know the meanings of words, and they will soon be able to use them. It is no disgrace to the man who toils all day with pick and shovel, if he cannot write like a lawyer's clerk, or polish off a sentence like a professor of rhetoric; still we think it much to be regretted that the power to write even the simplest English is so limited. But if the hints thrown out in this paper should induce any one to try to acquire a more extensive acquaintance with our language, the object we have had in writing it will have been served. OUR PORTRAIT GALLERY. SECOND SERIES.-No. 34. THE HON. SIR FRANCIS HINCKS, K.C.M.G., C.B., AND P.C. OF THE DOMINION OF CANADA. IRISHMEN who have emigrated to our colonial dependencies, and by their own ability succeeded in achieving positions of distinction and honour, undoubtedly possess more than ordinary claims to niches in "Our Portrait Gallery." Among those who have thus distinguished themselves, there is not one who ranks higher than the subject of our present memoir, Sir Francis Hincks. As a colonial statesman, the career of Sir Francis has been eminently distinguished and useful. Not only has he occupied the highest political position in the country of his adoption, but he was also employed during a period of thirteen years in the Imperial service, successively as Governorin-Chief of the Windward Islands, and Governor of British Guiana. The branch of the Hincks family from which Sir Francis is descended, we find established in the ancient city of Chester so long ago as the seventeenth century, where they flourished in high repute as merchants. His grandfather was the first to settle in Ireland. He obtained an appointment under Government in connection with the Customs, and removed to Dublin about the year 1764. He married a daughter of William Dix of Chester, in 1766, whose only surviving son, Ebenezer Dix, also settled in Dublin, and was for many years secretary to the Farming Society of Ireland. The father of Sir Francis Hincks, the late Rev. T. D. Hincks, LL.D. -a most distinguished scholar-was for many years Head Classical Master, and Professor of Oriental Languages in the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, and there still survive many of his old pupils, who, from the love and reverence which he inspired, will take an interest in learning something of the career of his son. Dr. Hincks, who died in 1856, at an advanced age, had five sons, who lived to manhood. The eldest, the Rev. Dr. Edward Hincks, once F.T.C.D., afterwards for many years Rector of Killyleagh, in the diocese of Down, obtained a European reputation as a critic on Egyptian and Assyrian archæology. He died in 1866, at the age of seventy-four. The second son, the Rev. William Hincks, F.L.S., was for several years Professor of Natural History in Queen's College, Cork, whence he removed to Canada about twenty-five years ago, to fill the same chair in University College, Toronto, where he died in 1871, aged seventy seven. The third son is the Ven. Thomas Hincks, Archdeacon of Connor, who is still, though at the advanced age of eighty years, in the active performance of his parochial duties. The fourth son, the Rev. John Hincks, died at Liverpool in the year 1836, at the early age of twenty-seven. He had been a distinguished student in the Belfast Institution, and at the time of his death had but recently become the minister of Renshaw-street Chapel, Liverpool. The fifth son, Francis, the subject of this memoir, was born in the City of Cork, on the 14th of December, 1807. He was educated at Fermoy School, and at the Royal Belfast Institution, where he matriculated in 1823, and attended the college classes during the session of 1823-4. Having a decided preference for commercial life, he entered the mercantile house of John Martin and Co., of Belfast, where he remained for five years, at the end of which time he visited the West Indies in a ship belonging to the firm, which was bound to Barbadoes, Demerara, and Trinidad. The colonies named were visited in succession by the then friendless adventurer, who twenty-five years later landed in Barbadoes under the salute accorded to the Governor-in-Chief. Six years later he landed under similar circumstances in British Guiana. After terminating his first voyage, Mr. Hincks returned to Barbadoes, and while there, formed the acquaintance of a Canadian gentleman named Ross, the son and partner of a Scotch merchant and shipowner resident in Quebec, and was strongly recommended by that gentleman to return home by way of Canada. He adopted this advice, and accompanied Mr. Ross to Quebec, where he arrived in October, 1830. Mr. Hincks has often mentioned a circumstance relating to Mr. Ross's family which deserves a passing notice. On his arrival in Quebec he was hospitably received by the father of his West Indian acquaintance, who was a Scotch Presbyterian. On his re-entering public life in Canada, in 1861, he found among the French Canadian supporters of the Government, a gentleman named Ross, whom, on enquiry, he found to be the son of his old acquaintance of nearly forty years previously. This gentleman is the Hon. John Jones Ross, now Speaker of the Legislative Court, and |