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fuse the king his just prerogative of conferring favor and rewarding "merit. I know," says he, in the Irish House of Commons, "that the "word pension gives great offence "to some gentlemen of delicate ears "and delicate feelings; but, for my "part, I have lived too much in the "world to suffer myself to be imposed upon by a word or a name. "In every other country in Europe "a pension is considered as the most "honorable recompense which a subject can enjoy. I speak of "free countries such as our own. "I know that in Sweden a pension "to a person who deserves well of "the state is the most honorable acknowledgment of his merit, a recompense which implies haste and eagerness in the sovereign authority to confer a reward where a "reward is due; to seize the earliest opportunity of recompensing Fit, not coldly waiting for a death or removal, not marking the winding sheet of a decrepit old man in "office as the only passport to retribution and gratitude. A pension," says he, "is infinitely more honorable than a sinecure office; the one loudly speaks its meaning; but the other hypocritically lurks under a supposition "of duty where there is nothing ** to do."

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"

"As a minister at a foreign court his qualifications were of the first rank. By his extensive knowledge of men and things, by address and management, he could make himself master of intrigues and projects while yet hatching, and exhibit them to his court in all their various bearings. It was the opinion of many of his friends, that the minister could not have employed the talents of Lord Macartney to a better purpose in the service of his country, than as a negotiator at the dif

ferent courts of Europe, few men being perhaps so well qualified in every respect for such situations as he was.

Throughout a long and active life, and with a very extensive and intimate acquaintance among the leading characters of various administrations and oppositions, he had the resolution to keep himself totally unconnected with party in po litics, the spirit of which, however gentle and good tempered the individuals who compose it might be, is always productive of violence and ill humour, which were so contrary to his disposition. This party spirit he considered as tending only to impede the public service, by embar rassing government, to create dissensions among intimate friends, and to unite the bitterest enemies and the most jarring dispositions. But a respectable opposition in parliament he conceived to be among the most efficient and salutary checks on any abuse of power in those who are entrusted with the administration of the government. The speech he made on this subject in the Irish House of Commons is not unworthy of being recorded. "I most firmly hope," says he, "never to see opposition crushed. In a free government like ours, I hope al

ways to see an opposition to a cer"tain degree; but it is an opposi"tion to check, not to enchain; to

balance, not to overturn; vigi"lant but not jealous; spirited, not "violent: neither vindictive nor

government is what no man of sense or common honesty can ap"prove. An opposition of this sort "reminds me of a fable I have some"where met with: An angel car"ried a simple European to the regions of Asia, where a hundred "thousand Turks stood in battle array against a hundred thousand *Russians. The man asked what was the cause of the war? To "which the angel replied, because "these men wear hats and those "wear turbans. I fear, Sir, we should not be able to assign a bet"ter reason for our present wordy "warfare than that some gentle64 men chuse to sit on that side of "the house and others on this side. "As to those indeed who have lost

places and want to recover them, "it is no wonder they should be "angry when out of office since

"

they were so when in. But those "sound patriots whose only inquiry "is, from whom does the question "proceed? who have no opi"nion of their own as to the right or "the wrong of any measure, those gentlemen remind me of Mr. Ba"con's pupils at whist, who were told that, whenever they were at a loss what to play, they "should always play clubs, and I "make no doubt the good gentle"men I allude to will play their clubs against government to the "end of the game. Let no gen "tleman however imagine that I have any wish to cut off opposi"tion. I know it is most salutary "when the greatness of the occa"sion demands it, when the time promises its efficacy, and the sincerity of the opponents secures “them both success and honor. It "has been hinted that I esteemed * opposition a rope of sand. I have seen such oppositions, made of

up

men with different passions, dif"ferent pursuits, without concert in council, or unity in action; where "the firmness of individuals caused "the weakness of the party, which agreed in no one point but the ob

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stinacy of wanton opposition."Such is indeed a rope of sand; "but when men unite on public not "on private views; when indivi"dual advantage is sacrificed for the general good; when there is a har mony of council and a steadiness "of action; when neither accident "nor disappointment can make "them lose sight of the great object "before them, and the firmness of "each individual is exercised to "add strength to the whole-then, "I say, that opposition is not a rope of sand, but a chain of ada"mant."

"In the Irish House of Commons he was considered as an able and energetic speaker, studiously avoiding any of those sallies of passion, impetuosity, and personal invective which were but too common in this assembly; he fought the battles of his principal with great good humor, and with equal success; he seldom failed, by the introduction of some pleasant story, to keep the house in temper, and divert any petulance or peevishness from mixing in the debate. In the latter part of his life, he attended the English House of Peers on questions of mement whenever his bad state of health would allow him, but he ne ver spoke on any question; he used to say, that if ministers would give more of their attention to what was to be done rather than to what was to be said, on any occasion, the country would be no sufferer by the loss of a few fine speeches.

Few men were more conver

sant

sant in polite literature than Lord Macartney, and his acquaintance was sought by the first literary characters of his time. With Dr. John son, Edmund Burke, David Hume, and all those who used to meet at Sir Joshua Reynolds's, he was particularly intimate. He was one of the original members of Dr. Johnson's Literary Club, which he continued to frequent with great pleasure in the latter years of his life whenever his health would permit him, and he was a member of the Royal and Antiquarian Societies of London. He was fond of social tonversation, but reading was to him a never failing source of delight; a book was not merely a luxury; it was an article of the first necessity. It was rare to find him, when alone, without a book or a pen in his hand. He was considered, when a young man, as a sound classical scholar, and to possess a critical knowledge of the ancient poets and historians. It appears, from the correspondence of several eminent characters, that he was himself no mean poet, and that he took great delight in courting the acquaintance of the Muses. In his letters to the late Mr. Charles Fox, when a student at Oxford, he strongly recommends history as the best polisher of the manners, and the best introduction to the knowledge of the human heart. "Livy," says he," is written in a style that "must charm every one. He is "master of our passions, and catches "the soul by surprize. Look at "that admirable passage where Co"riolanus going to embrace his mo"ther, she stops him with sine pri

tomist of the human heart. The unadorned easy style of Xenophon he preferred to that of Cæsar: but of Homer and Virgil he always speaks in raptures; the latter indeed he could almost repeat by heart.From a letter of the late Charles Fox to him, dated Oxford, 13th February 1765, it would appear that in the early part of his life he had no taste for mathematics, and that he valued them lightly. His opinion however must have greatly changed in this respect, on entering upon business, for no man could be more convinced than he was of the transcendant utility of what are usually called mixed mathematics as applicable to so many of the common and important concerns of life; and he was sufficiently acquainted with most of the modern sciences to make a conversation on their subject interesting both to himself and to others. His memory was of the most retentive kind, and had stored up an abundant supply of anecdotes relating to persons and events, to times present and past; and the pleasing manner and genuine good humor, in which he could relate a story, seldom failed of communicating to it an additional interest. By some peculiar arrangement, or classification of objects in his mind, he contrived to recollect the date of an event as correctly as the more important circumstances connected with it. It was observed of him at Turin, that he was much better acquainted with the history and connections of the Italian and French families he met with there than they were themselves; indeed so won derful was his recollection on points of genealogy, that there was scarcely a person of any note mentioned by sacred or profane writers, whose history and connections were not per

fectly

fectly fresh in his memory. When he passed the Hague, on his way to Petersbourg, Sir Joseph Yorke, then minister at that place from the court of London, invited all his brother ministers to meet Sir George Macartney at dinner. The conversation, as might be expected, turned on the affairs of Europe; and although some of the company were pretty well hackneyed in the diplomatic service, and Sir George but just entering upon his career of public life, yet it was observed that he was much better informed with regard to the respective courts of Europe, than any of the ministers were themselves who represented them.

"He had a peculiar facility in extracting information from those he conversed with, even where there might be an unwillingness to communicate it; but whatever knowledge he obtained in this way, he used to consider as problematical until corroborated or contradicted by other sources; thus the information he procured on subjects connected with his official situations

was generally considered, in the department of state to which it was transmitted, as superseding all former information on the same points.

"It is thought by some of his friends, and, indeed, has been confidently asserted by others, that he had employed some part of the latter years of his life in drawing up a connected narrative of the events and transactions, in which he had borne a principal share, with memoirs and anecdotes of distinguished characters. But it appears, from the best authority, that nothing of this kind was found among his pa-. pers; nor any notes or memorandums that could warrant such a conclusion. The only writings of Lord Macartney that were digested by him into any thing like the shape of regular treatises, may be said to consist of three articles, namely, An Account of Russia in 1767: An Account of Ireland in 1773; and a Journal of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the EmpeTor of China."

"D

AVID HUME, the second son of Joseph Hume, esq. was born at Edinburgh on the 26th of April, O. S. 1711. His ancestors, for several generations, had been proprietors of a small estate called Ninewells, lying on the river Whitwater, about five miles to the east of Dunse, in the county of Berwick; and this estate is still enjoyed by 1807.

their posterity. At a short distance from Ninewells, stands the mansion. house of Kames, which belonged to the late Henry Home, who, under the title of lord Kames, officially as sumed by him as a lord of session, or judge of the supreme court of justice in Scotland, is so well known in the republic of letters, as a philosopher, a lawyer, and a man of

C

taste.