It was a proof not only of Mr. Littleton's sense of justice, but of his patient perseverance, at last successful by the aid of a strong party of friends pertinaciously keeping their object in view. In local undertakings throughout the county in which he resided, it need not be recorded that he was active and energetic. In canals, railroads, and all that could promote the general interests of the people of all classes, his lordship was foremost. Chairman of some of the most important undertakings, he considered as well all that was submitted to him by those who were inventors or projectors of anything conducive to the public benefit. He reformed the local currency by his influence, which at one time was little more than tradesmen's tokens under a certain value, and, in short, brought his own clear intellect to bear upon questions, the benefit or the reverse of which involved no light responsibility. He was before his earlier friends generally in his view of political measures, particularly those who seemed only to feel their way and go onward more upon the prompting of instinct than reason.

Mr. Littleton had been one of the more strenuous advocates of parliamentary reform. He saw quite enough under the existing system to convince him of the necessity of a measure which caused the most flagrant abuses. He advocated religious freedom, and ardently supported Catholic emancipation. He was, in fact, a sincere reformer at a time when the clamour was heard on every side of constitutional ruin, on the part of those who did not really understand, or would not do so, in what the constitution consisted. To this he was uniform in giving his support. There is something noble in that consistency which, seeing almost insurmountable obstacles in its way, when compelled to pull up the reins, will not retrograde; that has the conviction it will conquer* in the end, and therefore seldom fails to do so; that can face a reverse with an unshaken spirit, and renew the contest with more than Antean freshness.

That the subject of these observations should have rejoiced at the accession of Mr. Canning to office can hardly be doubted. He saw in that accession the destruction of the hopes of a party whose measures had been as much opposed to the spirit of the age as to the dictates of reason. Whether Mr. Littleton was aware that, at the moment, the tocsin had sounded the knell of extreme Toryism, it is not for us to say. That he supported the measures for the relief of Ireland, whether brought in by his own party or the Tories, was a matter of no question under that quiet, determined spirit of patriotism which marked all his public conduct, shone throughout his whole career, and put to shame, by its own unpretending nature, the waverers and time-servers that were continually crossing his path. There is no higher source of honest exultation for mortal man, than when standing on the verge of life, and casting a retrospective glance towards conduct and action fast fading in the distance, he can say to himself, "I have acted strictly in accordance with both feeling and honour in my passage thus far. I have endeavoured to do my best with the talent that my master entrusted to me. I can only charge myself with those failings inseparable from the nature of man, but in my public duties I have a clear breast." How few statesmen can make such a declaration. Lord Hatherton was one of the few by whom we do not

* Possunt quia posse videntur.

hesitate to express a belief that declaration might have been honestly made.

There was no moral cowardice in his character about that reform from which men of more renown would have shrunk. How Burke would have

discharged a more than volcanic fury of anathemas upon such a sweeping measure, and Windham have again invoked the bull-baiters and cockfighters of the "good old times," to perform a Hockley Hole lustration for the introduction of such an innovation upon the good old constitution. Mr. Littleton, who knew his countrymen well, and was not for denying them the right which belonged to them, upon the clearest grounds of usage and the constitution, had no fear upon the subject of the restoration contemplated by Lord Grey, even had it gone to the full extent which that noble reformer originally contemplated. In the part he took more immediately as the chief in the laborious portion of designating the limits of the places represented, he performed his task, in conjunction with his coadjutors, with his usual assiduity. He was, indeed, one of the leading reformers of the time, invaluable to the ministry from his fidelity to his party, the enlightened character of his views, his close attention to business, and his knowledge of the different phases of feeling and usage in the agricultural and manufacturing districts.

Lord Hatherton was not only an invaluable public man in a political sense, an earnest liberal, but a thorough adept in all that concerned the agricultural and manufacturing interests of his native land. He farmed. largely, and was in a continued interchange of discoveries and improvements with the more noted agriculturists of his time. He was a good scholar, and possessed an excellent library at Teddesley, where he usually kept up his general and Christmas hospitality in particular, in the true style of an English country gentleman, a position in life of which, if all so circumstanced were duly sensible (O fortunatos nimium, sua si bona norint Agricolas !), they would thank God for their lot.

Mr. Littleton was chief secretary for Ireland under the lord-lieutenancy of the Marquis Wellesley, whose daughter was his first wife, and by whom he left a son, Edward Richard Littleton, his successor in his title and estates. Never was there a more difficult time for the fulfilment of both offices than that of his Irish appointment. The agitation for the repeal of the Union was at its height. The lord-lieutenant and secretary were alone in agreement. There were differences in the cabinet, O'Connell wielding all his weapons of annoyance, not without effect. The ruling powers on the spot saw no need of that apprehensive policy which they feared could only tend to exacerbate, and remonstrated unsuccessfully against renewing the coercion bill. The ministry itself was by no means a compact body in agreement, even upon main points. During this emergency, Lord Stanley and other members of the cabinet retired; among them was Sir James Graham. Lord Stanley, since the Earl of Derby, it was said, gave way to the old cry of "the Church in danger,' among other reasons, real or affected, for his desertion of his old principles and friends. In the end, the obnoxious act was introduced, and the consequences foreseen ensued.

It was during these perplexities of the cabinet that Mr. Littleton was accused of making known to O'Connell, in an indiscreet way, at a personal meeting, the disunited state of the cabinet. O'Connell turned

the result to his own advantage. Mr. Littleton had been too open in dealing with a crafty politician, the whole breed of which, in all lands and times, have rarely indeed hesitated to sacrifice a confiding disposition if a profit could be made of it. There was about Lord Hatherton exactly that principle of honour and kind confiding disposition, of which a fully ripe diplomatist or minister, not, like Moloch, unversed in wiles, might sooner make a victim, than of one of his own wary and circumventing temper. It was not possible for Mr. Littleton to do otherwise than give up his post, and the retirement of the ministry followed.

He held no office under Lord Melbourne's administration, though he sat for South Staffordshire. He soon after received the peerage, and certainly no one who had a value for such an honour more deservedly merited it for his public services. It was in 1835 that he was created Baron Hatherton. He was subsequently appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Staffordshire, the duties of which office he performed for between eight and nine years, with his customary assiduity.

Lord Hatherton married a second time, in 1852, Mrs. Davenport, the relict of Edward Davies Davenport, Esq., of Caperthorne, a lady well meriting his lordship's choice, by rendering to him and partaking in return those consolations and comforts which sweeten the later period of human existence, when the days come upon our humanity in which it proclaims it has comparatively so little pleasure.

We know not the exact nature of the complaint which deprived a host of friends and well-wishers, if it were only from the kindliness of his nature, of his lordship's presence. A knowledge of twenty-five years gives us some ground to form an estimate of human character, and we can only look back upon that term with a saddened feeling, and deeply regret his country should have been deprived of him at a time when human life, it has pleased God, has become more protracted than in the days of our fathers. If the manners and feelings of an open-hearted nobleman, one who honoured the peerage much more than the peerage could honour him; if candour, incapacity of craft, generous emotions, a high sense of duty, and strict performance of it; if urbanity of manner, joined with great aptitude for public business, and a sound judgment, a spirit incapable of guile, and a clear understanding of the true interests of the country, were united in any individual character to so great a degree as in Lord Hatherton, the example must be rare, and the magnitude of such a loss be indeed largely felt. We have never encountered-we own it a second example in any walk of life that can be styled his lordship's parallel in those points by which he was most generally known and best estimated.

THE ENGLISH NOBILITY.

THE names of celebrated families form a portion of the national glory, and justly occupy the first place in the pages of history. Honour, above all, is due to the son who worthily represents the title which his ancestors obtained by their services to the country, or the prince, the representative of that country. Respect for ancestors strengthens the feeling of selfrespect, and in this sense the motto noblesse obligé is to be understood.

When we follow in history the career of national celebrities, or regard the varied origin and peculiar fortunes of noble families, we cannot refrain from reflecting on the political, social, and moral influence of the nobility. Is the magic of noble birth increasing or decreasing? Is it a benefit or a misfortune for humanity? Should it be supported in old states or destroyed in new ones? Is it a material component of a constitutional monarchy? Is it adverse to republican liberty? How have hereditary distinctions and old birth benefited civilisation, science, literature, and the arts? When we allow-and it would be difficult to deny it-that the privileged classes have done the state eminent service at certain times, must we, on the other side, declare that their career, like that of the mediæval monastic orders, is worn out, or that it is an impediment to the progress of enlightenment, since we have possessed representative assemblies and liberty of the press? Finally, when was pride in ancestry carried to the highest pitch, and what was its most substantial basis?

At the present day the histories of families are traced more zealously than ever, and not alone in the Old World: the search after genealogical trees has now become fashionable also in the United States. It would be an idle task to defend genealogical studies against conventional accusations. These studies, which are stated to be dry and sterile, are rooted in feelings, inclinations, or prejudices inseparable from human nature. We will not be too eager to trace in this a mental weakness; we remember that Lord Byron was prouder of his birth than of his poems, and that the author of "Waverley" spent his entire fortune in order to found a line of Scotch feudal lords. And yet how chimerical is such a hope? How often is this ambition deluded? The contemporaries of Byron saw Newstead change owners twice, and the Scotts of Waverley have, in the feudal sense of the term, ceased to exist. If we run over the celebrated names of England, we are astonished to see how few of them are represented by male descendants. Chaucer, Shakspeare, Spenser, Raleigh, Dryden, Pope, Addison, Bacon, Locke, Newton, Hampden, Blake, Marlborough, Nelson, Clarendon, Hume, Goldsmith, Burke, Pitt, and Fox belong to the list, and we could lengthen it ad infinitim. The majority of these prominent men have left no descendants.

In our opinion the nobility, based on a social agreement, ceases to exist if it is not confined to very narrow bounds. Otherwise, it resembles the circles produced by throwing a stone into the water, which disappear as they become wider spread. This occurs when the nobility goes on in the female line. In order to judge with what speed the most renowned blood is extended by marriage and female descent, it is sufficient to refer to the great number of persons who indubitably have in their veins a few drops

of the royal blood of England: they are reckoned by tens of thousands. Sir Bernard Burke says, that among the descendants of Edmond of Woodstock, Earl of Kent and sixth son of Edward I., who only left daughters on his demise, were a Mr. Joseph Smart, butcher at the village of Hales Green, and a Mr. Wilmot, turnpike-keeper near Dudley. Jacob Penny, a sexton at St. George's Church, in London, is descended from the female line of Thomas Plantagenet, Duke of Gloucester, fifth son of Edward, and he gave his eldest son, when christened, the name of Plantagenet. Through a single misalliance the ruin of a family is rapidly entailed. In 1637, a son of the great grandson of Margaret Plantagenet, daughter and heiress of the Duke of Clarence, was a soap-boiler at Newport. If this descendant of kings had married and left children, he could have stocked England with ragged or barefooted little Plantagenets. Duke Bernard of Norfolk one day had the notion of inviting all the descendants of the Norfolk, who was the friend of Richard III., to dinner, but gave it up again on seeing, from an imperfect list, that their number exceeded six hundred. All the true Howards have the right of quartering the royal arms, through their descent from Margaret Mowbray, who married the head of their family. In 1854, a genealogical list was drawn up of all the persons quartering the arms of the various dynasties that have reigned in England: the most ignorant amateur in English heraldry is aware how easy it is to prove a descent in the female line from Edward I., Edward III., or Henry III. American genealogists declare that Washington was also descended from English kings. In Corsica, a saint of the name of Napoleon has been found in the calendar for the Bonaparte family, and in the Italian archives a race of Bonapartes, who go back beyond the twelfth century. So much is certain, that every man who can reckon back to the sixteenth member has 65,536 paternal and maternal ancestors, and that in this number there will be the most respected as well as the most unworthy persons.

The Dukes of Northumberland carry their heads as high as if they were descended in the direct male line from the northern Percys. Still that line of the English branch of the family was extinct so far back as Henry I., when Agnes Percy, daughter of the third lord of that name, married the son of the Duke de Brabant, Jocelin of Louvain, who assumed the name and arms of the Percys. No other feudal family has played a more important part, or been more mixed up in the troubles which harassed England. Possessing, as the family did, such large estates and widely extending influence, it was impossible for them to avoid taking part in the political or religious disputes, and they would have required more luck than sense if they wished to be always on the conquering side; but it must be allowed that the Percys had a special vocation for rushing into conspiracies and revolts. At one moment they took part in insurrections, when these came in their way; at others they were the actual originators of them; and among them a natural death in bed was rather an exception than the rule.

The first Earl of Northumberland was killed at Braham Moor, his brother was beheaded, and his son Hotspur killed in the battle of Shrewsbury: the second fell at St. Alban's, the third at Towton, and the fourth murdered in a rebellion: the fifth, it is true, died in his bed, but, to make up for that, his second son was executed at Tyburn, and his eldest died