minds extend only round the small circle which blood or friendship draws, were in him diffused with undiminished warmth over the wide orbit of human existence.

How noble and pure was the ambition of Sir Samuel Romilly we may learn from the following beautiful passages, where he has explained the motives by which he was actuated in his proposed reforms of the criminal law. "It was not," said he," from light motives, it was from no fanciful notions of benevolence, that I have ventured to suggest any alteration in the criminal law of England. It has originated in many years' reflection, and in the long-established belief that a mitigation of the severe penalties of our law will be one of the most effectual modes to preserve and advance the humanity and justice for which this country is so eminently distinguished. Since the last session of parliament, I have repeatedly reconsidered the subject: I am more and more firmly convinced of the strength of the foundation upon which I stand; and even if I had doubted my own conclusions, I cannot forget the ability with which I was supported within these walls; nor can be insensible to the humane and enlightened philosophy by which, in contemplative life, this advancement of kindness has been recommended. I cannot, therefore, hastily abandon a duty which, from my success in life, I owe to my profession; which, as a member of this house, I owe to you and to my country; and which, as a man blessed with more than common prosperity, I owe to the misguided and unfortunate.

"Actuated by these motives, it is not to be imagined that I shall be easily discouraged by any of the various obstacles so commonly, and perhaps with propriety, opposed to every attempt to alter an established law: upon such a resistance I calculated, but am not to be deterred. I knew that my motives must occasionally be misunderstood by many, and might possibly be misrepresented by others. I was not blind to the road where prudence pointed to preferment; but I am not to be misled from comforts which no external honours can

bestow. I have long thought that it was the duty of every man, unmoved either by bad report or by good report, to use all the means which he possessed for the purpose of advancing the well-being of his fellow-creatures and I know not any mode by which I can SO effectually advance that well-being, as by endeavouring to improve the criminal laws of my country. It has been insinuated, that, indebted as I am to the law, commendation rather than censure ought to be expected from me; and it has been asserted, that under the pretext of proposing apparently immaterial alterations, my real object is to sap and undermine the whole criminal law of England. Such insinuations and assertions have not, I am well aware, been made by any of my honourable and learned friends by whom I am now surrounded, and who have witnessed my whole professional life; but they have been made, and, I must of course suppose, have been really believed."

In another speech on the Catholic question, Sir Samuel Romilly has, in the same lofty spirit of philosophical benevolence, described the true objects of human ambition:

"What! is it no hardship to the catholics of Ireland to be told, You may enter, indeed, into professions which are highly honourable to others, but by you they must be followed merely as the means of gaining a subsistence. As to all the proud objects of honourable ambition; as to every thing which can ennoble your labours in your own eyes and in the eyes of others; as to the hope of ever rendering yourselves eminently useful to mankind, or gloriously distinguishing yourselves by services to your country; as to the prospect of establishing a reputation which shall live in the memory of a grateful posterity, of becoming an example which shall serve to kindle the virtues of a future generation, and of leaving a name which your children shall never hear pronounced but with a glow of honest pride and pious exultation; as to all these animating hopes and *Speeches, vol. i. p. 317.

prospects, they must be by you for ever relinquished. You may toil on in the humble situation where gain must be your only object; you may see honours and distinctions distributed to those around you; but you must be for ever precluded from them. That profes

sion which to your colleagues leads to the most eminent station, shall be to you an unhonoured though profitable trade.'

The eulogy pronounced by Sir S. Romilly on Mr. Horner is full of the same noble sentiments, and well expresses the motives by which his own life had been guided. "Of all the estimable qualities which distinguished his character, I consider as the most valuable that independence of mind which in him was so remarkable. It was from this feeling, and from a just sense of its importance, that at the same time that he was storing his mind with the most various knowledge on all subjects connected with our internal economy and foreign politics, and that he bore a conspicuous and most successful part in all the great questions on which it was his duty as a legislator to form or to express an opinion, he laboriously devoted himself to all the painful duties of his profession. Though his success at the bar was not at all adequate to his merits, yet he steadily persevered in his labours, and seemed to consider it as essential to his independence that he should look forward to his profession alone for the honours and emoluments to which his extraordinary talents gave him so just a claim.

"But I should very ill express what I feel upon this occasion, were I to consider the extraordinary qualities which Mr. Horner possessed, apart from the ends and objects to which they were directed. The greatest eloquence is in itself but an object of vain and transient admiration. It is only when ennobled by the uses to which it is applied, when directed to great and virtuous ends, to the protection of the oppressed, to the enfranchisement of the enslaved, to the extension of knowledge, to dispelling the clouds of ignorance and

* Speeches, vol. i. p. 393.

superstition, to the advancement of the best interests of the country, and to the enlarging the sphere of human happiness, that it becomes a national benefit and a public blessing. It is because the powerful talents, of which we are now deprived, have been uniformly exerted in the pursuit and promotion of such objects, that I consider our loss as one of the greatest which, in the present state of the country, we could possibly have sustained."

Amongst all the qualities which combine to form a great and powerful character, there is none more strikingly excellent than that constancy of purpose which, through difficulties and defeats, still presses onward to its object. The mind inspired and strengthened by this lofty principle regards every obstacle that would turn it from its settled purpose, not only without dismay, but with exultation, as conferring additional honour upon the struggle which it is so well prepared to sustain. Maturely weighing the means which it possesses for the accomplishment of its great designs, it finds in the strength of its own unswerving resolution the confidence and the promise of success. The misfortunes, the failures which would deter weaker minds, are turned into instruments of power; and, as difficulties multiply around, they but unite more firmly the energies before which they are destined at length to yield. A man of the most ordinary powers, animated by this principle, will perform a giant's labours; while without it the noblest intellect may expend itself in the triflings of a dwarf. Throughout the whole of his life Sir Samuel Romilly was remarkable for the earnest perseverance with which he applied himself to the accomplishment of his designs. In the various attempts which he made to improve the criminal code, his resolution was frequently put to the severest test. Opposition, neglect, ridicule, and reproach, conspired to deter him from his great and excellent purposes; but never, for a moment, made an impression upon his firm and resolute mind. In one of

* Speeches, vol. ii. p. 167.

his speeches on the subject of the criminal law, he manifests that unbroken energy of character which, even under the pressure of defeat, never doubts of success.

"From the spirit which I have seen, I shall not be surprised, and I certainly will not be deterred, by any vote of this night. I am not so unacquainted with the nature of prejudice as not to have observed that it strikes deep root; that it flourishes in all soils, and spreads its branches in every direction. I have observed also, that, flourish as it may, it must, by laws sacred and immutable, wither and decay after the powerful and repeated touch of truth. It was my lot to hear in parliament a negative upon that bill which was intended to deliver this enlightened nation from the reproach of the cruel and disgusting punishment of burning women alive. It was my lot, again and again, to witness in this house the defeat of those wise and humane exertions which were intended to rescue Englishmen from the disgrace of abetting slavery. But the punishment of burning is no more, and Africa is free. No resistance, no vote of this night, shall prevent my again appealing to the good sense and good feeling of the legislature and of the country. If I live another year, I will renew this bill, with the bill for repealing the punishment of death for stealing a few shillings; and, whatever may be my fate, the seed which is scattered has not fallen upon stony ground." *

The sentiments of Sir Samuel Romilly on the subject of parliamentary reform are explicitly stated in the following passages:

"I give this vote, not from any vain hope of popularity, not from an expectation of being able to gratify those who now influence the public opinion on this subject -but from a sincere and deep-rooted conviction that some reform is necessary. I am a friend neither to universal suffrage nor to annual parliaments. I even doubt whether I am prepared to go all at once so far as to make the right of voting at elections coextensive with taxa

* Speeches, vol. i. p. 478.