"It is with deep concern we have to announce the death of Francis Horner, Esq. Member of Parliament for St Mawes. This melancholy event took place at Pisa on the 8th instant. We have had seldom to lament a greater loss, or to bewail a more irreparable calamity. With an inflexible integrity, and ardent attachment to liberty, Mr Horner conjoined a temperance and discretion not always found to accompany these virtues. The respect in which he was held, and the deference with which he was listened to in the House of Commons, is a striking proof of the effect of moral qualities in a popular assembly. Without the adventitious aids of station or fortune, he had acquired a weight and influence in Parliament, which few men, whose lives were passed in opposition, have been able to obtain; and for this consideration he was infinitely less indebted to his eloquence and talents, eminent as they were, than to the opinion universally entertained of his public and private rectitude. His understanding was strong and comprehensive, his knowledge extensive and accurate, his judgment sound and clear, his conduct plain and direct. His eloquence, like his character, was grave and forcible, without a particle of vanity or presumption, free from rancour and personality, but full of deep and generous indignation against fraud, hypocrisy, or injustice. He was a warm, zealous, and affectionate friend-high-minded and disinterested in his conduct-firm and decided in his opinions-modest and unassuming in his manners. To his private friends his death is a calamity they can never cease to deplore. To the public it is a loss not easily to be repaired, and, in times like these, most severely to be felt."

In the House of Commons, on Monday, March 3d, 1817, LORD MORPETH rose, and spoke as follows:"I rise to move that the speaker do issue his writ for a new member to serve in Parliament for the borough of St Mawes, in the room of the late Francis Horner, Esq.

"In making this motion, I trust it will not appear presumptuous or officious, if I address a few words to the House upon this melancholy occasion. I am aware that it is rather an unusual course; but, without endeavouring to institute a parallel with other instances,

I am authorised in saying that the course is not wholly unprecedented.

He was

"My lamented friend, of whom I never can speak without feelings of the deepest regret, had been rendered incapable for some time past, in conse quence of the bad state of his health, of applying himself to the labours of his profession, or to the discharge of his parliamentary duties. prevailed upon to try the effects of a inilder and more genial climate-the hope was vain, and the attempt fruitless: he sunk beneath the slow but destructive effect of a lingering disease, which baffled the power of medicine and the influence of climate; but under the pressure of increasing infirmity, under the infliction of a debilitating and exhausting malady, he preserved undiminished the serenity of his amiable temper, and the com posure, the vigour, and firmness of his excellent and enlightened understanding. I may, perhaps, be permitted; without penetrating too far into the more sequestered paths of private life, to allude to those mild virtues-those domestic charities, which embellished while they dignified his private character. I may be permitted to observe, that, as a son and as a brother, he was eminently dutiful and affectionate; but I am aware that these qualities, however amiable, can hardly, with strict propriety, be addressed to the consideration of Parliament. When, however, they are blended, interwoven, and incorporated in the character of a public man, they become a species of public property, and, by their influence and example, essentially augment the general stock of public virtue.

"For his qualifications as a public man I can confidently appeal to a wider circle-to that learned profession of which he was a distinguished ornament-to this House, where his exertions will be long remembered with mingled feelings of regret and admiration. It is not necessary for me to enter into the detail of his graver studies and occupations. I may be allowed to say generally, that he raised the edifice of his fair fame upon a good and solid foundation-upon the firm basis of conscientious principle. He was ardent in the pursuit of truth; he was inflexible in his adherence to the great principles of justice and of right. Whenever he delivered in this House the ideas of his clear and intel

ligent mind, he employed that chaste, simple, but at the same time, nervous and impressive style of oratory which seemed admirably adapted to the elucidation and discussion of important business: it seemed to combine the force and precision of legal argument with the acquirements and knowledge of a statesman.

"Of his political opinions it is not necessary for me to enter into any detailed statement; they are sufficiently known, and do not require from me any comment or illustration. I am confident that his political opponents will admit, that he never courted popularity by any unbecoming or unworthy means; they will have the candour to allow, that the expression of his political opinions, however firm, manly, and decided, was untinctured with moroseness, and unembittered with any personal animosity or rancorous reflection. From these feelings he was effectually exempted by the operation of those qualities which formed the grace and the charm of his private life.

"But successful as his exertions were, both in this House and in the Courts of Law, considering the contracted span of his life, they can only be looked upon as the harbingers of his maturer fame, as the presages and the anticipations of a more exalted reputation. But his career was prematurely closed. That his loss to his family and his friends is irreparable, can be readily conceived; but I may add, that to this House and the country it is a loss of no ordinary magnitude; in these times it will be severely felt. In these times, however, when the structure of the constitution is undergoing close and rigorous investigation, on the part of some with the view of exposing its defects, on the part of others with that of displaying its beauties and perfections, we may derive some consolation from the reflection, that a man not possessed of the advantages of hereditary rank or of very ample fortune, was enabled, by the exertion of his own honourable industry-by the successful cultivation of his native talents, to vindicate to himself a station and eminence in society, which the proudest and wealthiest might envy and admire.

"I ought to apologize to the House, not, I trust, for having introduced the subject to their notice, for of that I

hope I shall stand acquitted, but for having paid so imperfect and inadequate a tribute to the memory of my departed friend."

Mr CANNING. "Of all the instances wherein the same course has been adopted, as that which my Noble Friend has pursued with so much feeling and good taste on this occasion, I do not remember one more likely than the present to conciliate the general approbation and sympathy of the House.

"I, Sir, had not the happiness (a happiness now counterbalanced by a proportionate excess of sorrow and regret) to be acquainted personally, in private life, with the distinguished and amiable individual whose loss we have to deplore. I knew him only within the walls of the House of Commons. And even here, from the circumstance of my absence during the last two sessions, I had not the good fortune to witness the later and more matured exhibition of his talents; which (as I am informed, and can well believe) at once kept the promise of his earlier years, and opened still wider expectations of future excellence.

“But I had seen enough of him to share in those expectations, and to be sensible of what this House and the country have lost by his being so prematurely taken from us.

"He had, indeed, qualifications eminently calculated to obtain and to deserve success. His sound principleshis enlarged views-his various and accurate knowledge-the even tenor of his manly and temperate eloquence

the genuineness of his warmth, when into warmth he was betrayed-and, above all, the singular modesty with which he bore his faculties, and which shed a grace and lustre over them all; these qualifications, added to the known blamelessness and purity of his private character, did not more endear him to his friends, than they commanded the respect of those to whom he was opposed in adverse politics; they ensured to every effort of his abilities an attentive and favouring audience; and secured for him, as the result of all, a solid and unenvied reputation.

"I cannot conclude, sir, without adverting to a topic in the latter part of the speech of my Noble Friend, upon which I most entirely concur with him. It would not be seemly to mix with the mournful subject of our present contemplation any thing of a con