tish peer, was ftrenuous in his oppofition to the meafure; which, at that time, he conceived was adopted and perfifted in by the British ministry, contrary to the wishes, and in oppofition to the remonstrances of a majority of the Irish nation.

He declared in his place in the Houfe of Lords, "that no one would more heartily concur in the "proposed measure* than himself, if it should meet "the approbation of the greater part of the Hiber"nian community; but, as it had excited general "difguft and vigorous oppofition, he was convinced " of the danger of profecuting the scheme. Even "if the Irish parliament should be difpofed to adopt "it, the difinclination of the people ought to be "deemed a fufficient ground for relinquishing it: "otherwife we might nourish in delufive fecurity, a "fecret fire, which might ultimately confume the "vitals of the empire. If he should admit the pro"bability of a change in the difpofition of the people, he must contend, as the measure was to be fufpended, that it was at leaft imprudent to pledge "the British parliament to specific refolutions, which might be fuperfeded by the future relative fituation "of the countries."

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No fooner, however, was he convinced that the union had become equally defirable and necessary to Ireland, than he embraced the opportunity of expreffing that opinion, with the fame manly candour that had marked his firft declaration on the fubject. In conformity with his fentiments on the neceffity of

completing the important undertaking, after it had once begun, we find him oppofing every delay which the enemies of the measure attempted to introduce in the progrefs of the Act of Union through the Houfe of Lords.

In a fubfequent debate, he declared," that the "objections he had urged against the union, were

in a great measure fuperfeded by the late deter"mination of the Irish parliament; and he was "ready to admit that the points of detail were founded, for the most part, on juft and equitable "principles."

Nothing, furely, can be more honourable to a fenator than fuch an independent and unfettered line of conduct. He, who inflexibly binds down his fentiments to follow, on all occafions, any one man's example, may perhaps obtain the character of a steady partifan, but can fcarcely be free from that of a bigot.

Earl Moira is amiable in private, no less than great in public life. His manners are marked by that dignified, yet gracious and winning politenefs, which is adapted to befpeak to any perfon, even at first fight, the true nobleman. Delicacy of fentiment, gallant intrepidity, high honour, and unbounded generofity, have feldom been more confpicuous in any other character, than in that of Lord Moira. His liberality, in fome fignal inftances, was, not long fince, upon the occafion of a fuit at law-in which, however, his lordship had no concern-declared by a judge from the bench-no doubt, upon good ininformation,

formation,-abfolutely to exceed all bounds. His courage and fortitude are not barely the armour of the mind, to be put on only for the perils of warfare, and the darings of battle. They, cafily, and without affectation, accompany him, in all the incidents of ordinary life. One of his friends, witneffing the firmness and indifference with which he endured a fingularly painful operation upon one of his eyes, could, not help expreffing his belief; that-" if "Lord Moira were condemned to be beheaded, "he would certainly beg it, as a matter of favour, "to be first expofed to the torture of the rack!”* The tenor of his lordship's familiar life, has in it much unaffected dignity. He is an early rifer; and his mornings, before the hour for breakfast, are allotted to the dispatch of bufinefs, to the care of anfwering letters-as he receives them, and to the benign task of paying the most gracious attention to thofe numberless applications for patronage or relief, which the reputation of his benevolence naturally invites. His forenoons are, in the country, chiefly

Perhaps there cannot be cited a more striking inftance of that lofty and fearless gallantry of honour, which is the most eminent quality in the character of Earl Moira, than that which was dif played by him, when he had the honour to attend the Duke of York, as his fecond, in the affair with Colonel Lenox. Colonel Lenox, and his fecond, the Earl of Winchelfea, in going to the field, had a poft-chaife difpofed in readiness for escape, in cafe of any fatal event. Earl Moira, then Lord Rawdon, seems to have thought it unworthy of his honour to use fuch a precaution; but went out to the field, with a refolution to abide the confequences, However unfortunate they might prove. C 4

dedicated

dedicated to the amufements of agriculture; into all the detail of which he enters with great eagerness and intelligence. Formerly, when he ufed to take, more frequently, the diverfion of hunting, he was diftinguished as a fingularly fearless rider, and used to outftrip all the country-gentlemen in the chace. He keeps houfe with the liberal hospitality becoming an English nobleman. His table is fplendidly and fumptuously ferved; but he himself partakes of its pleafures with extraordinary temperance. His company ufually withdraw from the dining-room to the library; and the evening is then given, either to converfation, fuch as unites the feast of reafon and the flow of foul, or, perhaps, by every different perfon to private study. Lord Moira himself bas, by reading, by converfe, by an extenfive obfervation of nature and fociety, acquired a store of knowledge fo various, fo juft, and fo profound, as to have been very rarely equalled among, men of his rank and habits of life. He is remarkable as a voracious reader. A new book falling into his hands, feldom fails to engrofs and abforb his attention, till he has thoroughly mastered its contents, and, as it were, has torn the heart out of it. In converfation, he difplays a mingled pride and modeffy; willing to exprefs his fentiments, but fcorning to obtrude, and rarely deigning to defend, them; never dictatorial nor pertinaciously difputative; but fhunning with a dignity, which fometimes borders on haughtiness, to defcend to the level of common converfational difcuffions.

Into the details of bufinefs of all forts he is capable of entering with uncommon patience, difcernment, and perfeverance. If interrupted, however often, by the calls of friendship or of other bufinefs, be is ever ready to leave his unfinished tafk to enter, with the most obliging and entire attention, into the new avocation, while it prefents itfelf; and, then, when this interruption has ceafed, to return to that from which he had been called, with a mind as completely in poffeffion of its former part, as if nothing had interpofed to divert him from it. Even his enemies have never been able to withhold their reluctant homage from his talents and public virtues. It is generally understood, that he might have held high official employments, even in the Pitt administration, if he had not been unwilling to efpoufe the principles, and to affociate himfelf in the refponfibility of its leaders.

Nothing, as it is faid, ever more acutely wounded Earl Moira's feelings, than that breach of the confidence of private friendship, by which his lordship's letter to Colonel M'Mahon was laid before the public. It had been fubmitted to the perufal of certain political friends, under the stricteft injunctions against farther communication, which could be impofed on the honour of a gentleman. Happily, its publication has, with men of candid difcernment, only served to do new honour to his lordship's character. He is, alfo, known to the world as an eminent member of the fraternity of Free Mafons. The bencvolence