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On the 2d instant, the infant daughter of Capt. Duncan Grant, Royal Artillery.

At his house, China Terrace, Lambeth, of apoplexy, Alderman Goodbehere. A servant in an adjoining room, hearing her master fall, ran to his assistance, and found him on the floor gasping for breath. She then hastened for Mr. Hyde, a surgeon, living close by, who immediately cupped the deceased, and the worthy Alderman so far recovered that he was able to walk up stairs to his bed-room. An express was sent to inform Mrs. Goodbehere and their son at Brighton, of the severe stroke, and also to bring up Dr. Bankhead, who had long attended the family. In the mean time Dr. Maton was called in, and every thing that skill or attention could do was tried, but a second attack of apoplexy was fatal, and he died about half-past three o'clock in the afternoon. The Alderman was next in rotation to serve the oaice of Lord Mayor, and part of his wines were sent into the Mansion House.

J. H. Burrowes, esq. one of the magis

MEMOIR OF SIR

[Dec. 1,

trates of Marlborough-street Police-office. He attended the office apparently as well as usual. Having occasion to go into the city on business, he was there attacked with a giddiness in the head; he was taken home in a chair, and expired within 24 hours.

At his house in Bread-street-hill, aged 68, the Rev. E. W. Whitaker, Rector of St. Mildred's and All Saints, Canterbury He was the son of Serjeant Whitaker, and received his education at Christ Church, Oxford. Amongst the productions of his pen, which are numerous and valuable, may be reckoned the following, viz. Family Sermons, and Sermons on Education; Four Dialogues on the Doctrines of the Trinity; a Commentary on the Revelations of St. John: a Dissertation on the Prophecies relating to the Restoration of the Jews; an Abridgment of Universal History, &c. But the most lasting monument, as well of his talents as of his kind affections, is the Refuge for the Destitute, of which he was the planner, founder, and joint-treasurer.

While the navy and the army defend the nation from a foreign enemy on one side, the constitution and the laws are intended to protect us from civil tyranny and domestic oppression on the other, and thereby renders the practice of the latter equally respectable with the former; and our common country, ever grateful, reserves honours for them all, and rewards each in a manner at once distinct and appropriate.

The bar is the slow, but certain road to honour in this country, when talents and industry are united; and opportunity is happily afforded for the display and exercise of both. Sir Samuel Romilly, in the same manner as his precursors, Hardwicke, Kenyon, and Ashburton, has been the architect of his own fortune. And if he has not met with that meed of reward from his country which his friends have wished, the cause may be ascribed wholly to himself, in espousing a particular party in politics. But we abstain from entering upon the subject. The family of Sir Samuel Romilly was closely and intimately connected, for more than a century, with whatsoever appertains to civil or religious liberty. By one side, his ancestors consisted of those persecuted men, who, preferring conscience to affluence, in consequence of the revocation of the edict of Nantz, were driven from France by Louis XIV. By the other side, he was connected with the little republic of Geneva. His father, who was an ingenious man, of great eminence in his art, conferred on him a good education; all the rest was achieved by himself. Having been destined for the law, he was brought up expressly for that purpose. Happening to be placed under a respectable gentleman in the Six Clorks' Office, the latter soon discovered

that his pupil possessed more than ordinary talents; and he accordingly advised Mr. Romilly to enter his name as a member of one of the inns of court.

It may here be sufficient to state, that Mr. Romilly directed his attention to the Chancery bar, and soon attained considerable eminence in the slow, but pretty certain road to opulence-that of a respectable equity draftsman. He also went the midland circuit, and his rising fortune beginning to be generally known, his practice augmented apace.

It is a well-known fact, that the first Marquis of Lansdowne was not only himself a man of uncommon talents and penetration, but endowed with a certain peculiar faculty of discovering these qualifications in others. This rare gift, for such it certainly is, was particularly displayed at an early period, in the choice of his associates as the names and reputations of a Barre, a Baring, a Dunning, &c. &c. fully attest. Nor did his sagacity fail on the present occasion: for, many years since, Mr. Romilly was selected by his lordship from the crowd of young barristers, invited by him to his house, and admitted to his friendship. Accordingly, during the long vacation, he was a constant visitor at Bow Wood, the summer residence of that nobleman, and generally repaired thither in company with Mr. Jekyll. Having acquired those habits which usually promote both health and success in life, the subject of this memoir, in Wiltshire as well as in town, was accustomed to rise early, and he was accordingly seen frequently, by peep of day, strolling along the groves which adorn that beautiful and now neglected spot just alluded to, sometimes contemplating the scene around him, but more frequently

1818.]

with a book in his hand, in order to catch those moments for improvement, which others too often waste in indolence.

It was there too, that he first saw his late wife: she was then Miss Garbett, the daughter of a gentleman who had acted, many years ago, as secretary to the Marquis, when Earl Shelburne, and a minister of state. Meanwhile, the declining health of Mr. Romilly, in addition to a longing desire to visit foreign countries, made him resolve to make a tour on the continent. He accordingly passed through France, which then only began to display revolutionary symptoms, and spent a considerable time there. Thence he proceeded to Switzerland, which at that period enjoyed a state of uninterrupted happiness and tranquillity, with an exception of some trifling disturbances in the Pays de Vaud, a country governed by the Bernese, with a degree of rigour that afterwards proved fatal, not only to their own liberties, but to those of all the Helvetic body.

At length, after refreshing his mind by foreign travel, and acquiring a knowledge of the world, our young lawyer returned to England, married the woman of his choice, by whom he had a numerous family, set himself down steadily to his legal labours, and was soon looked up to as a shining ornament of his profession. There is no instance, perhaps, of such a rapid career, or such a sudden acquisition of practice. But the times proved favourable to him, for Sir John Scott was promoted to the woolsack, and the chancery bench, while Mr. Mitford became, first, Speaker of the House of Commons of England, and then Chancellor of Ireland.

Having always exhibited a marked attachment to constitutional liberty, Mr. Romilly, who had by this time obtained a silk gown, with a patent of precedency, was at length selected as a fit person to fill the office of solicitor-general. Accordingly, when Mr. Fox and Lord Grenville came into power together, he was nominated to that office in the beginning of 1806; and having accordingly succeeded Sir Vicary Gibbs, was immediately knighted. It has been asserted, that he was at one time intended, per saltum, to have been nominated chancellor.

It now became necessary that he should have a seat in the House of Commons, and he was accordingly brought in for Queenborough. Notwithstanding the laborious and almost incessant attention required by his profession, both at Westminster Hall, and the chambers of Lincoln's Inn, Sir Samuel determined to discharge his duties as a member of Parliament, with that discrimination and energy peculiar to himself. Perceiving, in the course of his practice, that a number of creditors were, in certain cases, deprived of their just demands, by the intervention of the law relative to landed property, he resolved to attempt a remedy.

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Accordingly, on the 27th March, 1807, he obtained leave to bring in a bill "for making the freehold estates of persons liable to the bankrupt laws, who might die indebted, assets for the payment of their simple contract debts." This proposition was seconded by Mr. Attorney-General (Sir Arthur Piggott), and supported by an eloquent and learned speech from Sir Samuel, which was heard with a marked attention.

On this occasion, a lawyer (Mr. W. Wynne,) hoped the learned gentleman would not stop here, "but apply his mind to a similar consideration in respect to the estate of the living as well as of the dead; yet, on the third reading of the bill it met with a powerful opposition, especially on the part of the Master of the Rolls. On the question of the third reading, there appeared-Against it, 69-For it, 47-Majority, 22.

Notwithstanding the bill was thus lost, Sir Samuel again brought the subject before the legislature, and it received its sanction, under the form of an act "for the more effectually securing the payment of the debts of traders." On this occasion he made a few judicious alterations, and gave a preference to specialty creditors.

On the impeachment of Viscount Melville in 1806, Sir Samuel Romilly was appointed one of the managers, and not only assisted in preparing and arranging the accusatory matter, but, during the fifteen days the trial lasted, paid the most sedulous attention to all the proceedings. After the evidence was produced, Sir Samuel summed up in a speech which occupied the whole of one day, and was listened to with the greatest respect.

On another occasion, the humane and laudable efforts of the subject of this memoir, in conjunction with those of his associates, were eminently conspicuous. We allude to the "Slave Trade Abolition Bill,” at which period his speech was received with such distinguished applause, that the delivery of one animated passage was followed by three distinct plaudits-an event which, perhaps, never occurred before in the House of Commons. Towards the conclusion, he introduced a most brilliant apostrophe, in which he drew a comparative estimate of the labours and the enjoyments of the original propounder of that bill, and the late despot of France.

But in the midst of the career which he had now entered upon, an event occurred which tended not a little to cramp his efforts for the public weal, by diminishing the extent of his legal and political influence. That administration, of which he had formed a part, was soon after dissolved, and he himself was of course prepared to retire from the office which he had exercised with so much moderation; for we have some reason to believe, that during the year in which he acted as King's solicitor-general,

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not one prosecution for libel, not a single solitary attempt to narrow or infringe upon the liberty of the press, took place.

Sir Samuel, however, did not appear to submit to the exercise of the royal prerogative. On the contrary, he rose in his place in the House of Commons, and made a most able defence of the conduct of the ex-ministers.

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In 1807, Sir Samuel, who had long meditated a grand reform in the criminal code, first disclosed his purpose. In order to bottom his proposed alterations on facts, he moved for certain returns, with a view of ascertaining the effects of the old system. From these it appeared, that, in the course of three years only, 19,178 prisoners had been tried for their lives in the United Kingdom, of whom no less than 9,510 were convicted, and 327 executed; while, wonderful to relate, a greater number by five suffered death in Dublin than in London.

On this occasion, with a humanity worthy of himself, he proposed to alter one of our statutes respecting petty thefts. He also wished to introduce a new practice in favour of the innocent. It is well known, that at this moment any one may be imprisoned, tried, and perhaps ruined, both in respect to character and property, on the oath of another, grounded solely on plausible, but ill-founded suspicion.

After some compliments and observations from Mr. Wilberforce in favour of the principle, and a few remarks from Sir F. Burdett respecting the power of certifying, proposed to be ceded to the judges, the new solicitor-general opposed the bill. Notwithstanding this, on the 15th of June, it was moved, "that the House do resolve itself into a committee of the whole House, on the Privately Stealing Bill." This having been granted, Sir Samuel made a very able reply. A clause was then added by the solicitor-general, and the whole was afterwards agreed to stand over to the next session of Parliament.

Sir Samuel Romilly, in person, was tall, thin, and about sixty years of age. His complexion was dark, and his aspect somewhat saturnine, until it brightened up with a smile. He stooped a little, like all studious persons.

The following anecdote of this most revered and lamented man, has come to us from a very respectable quarter. We give it publicity with the more pleasure, that it not only tends to illustrate the mournful circumstances of his death, but casts an affect ing and ennobling light on the moral excellencies of his character. It will perhaps be asked, what anecdote of his life would not tend to make his memory more esteemed, and his loss more regretted? He commenced his career at the bar a young man, liberally

[Dec. 1,

educated, with those high principles of honour, and that susceptibility of amiable and generous sentiment which distinguished his life, but without paternal fortune, and, still more, with both his parents dependent upon his professional success. In this situation he became acquainted with a young lady, the charms of whose mind and person won his affections. His conduct was worthy of his head and his heart. He declared his senti ments to the object of his affections; but added, that he must " acquire two fortunes" before they could be married; the first for those to whom he owed his first duty-his parents; the second for her. The lady knew how to appreciate his merit and his motives, and their vows were mutually pledged to each other. He entered upon his career of profit and honour with that assiduous energy which forms a chief feature of genuine talent. In a comparatively short period he realized a considerable sum, and with it purchased an annuity for his parents. Having put them in possession of this provision for their lives, he formally declared to them, that his obligations to them were now fulfilled, and he was about to enter into other relations, which must exclusively govern him in their turn. He began a second time with fresh spirit-acquired “a second fortune,"-all within a few yearssettled it upon her on whom he had bestowed his heart, and married her. Anxiously attentive to every measure which might tend to prolong a life so essentially blended with his own, Sir Samuel accompanied his lady about the middle of the month of August to the Isle of Wight, where a lingering disease continued to raise his hopes and fears, until they were finally terminated by her death on the 29th of October. To lose Lady Romilly, after an attachment so formed, and after years flown away in the tranquillity of domestic joy, disturbed only by the splendid pursuits of an ambition, synonymous with virtue, was one of those shocks which must be left, undefined, to the imagination of such as know what it is to feel. The day following Sir Samuel quitted the Island in a state of the most distressing agitation, and returned to his house in London, where he arrived on Sunday, Nov. 1. A fever, which appeared likely to affect the brain, gave considerable alarm to his friends and medical attendants; but their anxiety was found wholly unavailing, for on Monday afternoon his most distressing death was ascertained, occasioned by a wound which his disordered hand had given the throat by a razor, and thus prematurely closing his career. His remains were the following week consigned to the silent tomb, together with those of his lamented lady, in the family vault at Knill, in Herefordshire.