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opportunity of establishing, in 1783, his long and triumphant administration. In the ensuing year parliament was dissolved, and in the new parliament Mr. Grenville had no seat, but at the next dissolution, in 1790, he was returned for Aldborough.

"In 1791, the undisguised eagerness of the Empress Catherine to seize upon Poland and Constantinople induced the administration to propose in parliament the increased naval force known in history as the Russian Armament.' Mr. Grenville, still acting with Fox, made a motion in Parliament against the measure, which was lost by 208 to 114.

"In 1793, Mr. Grenville, Windham, and Burke, strenuously supported Mr. Pitt and Lord Grenville in passing the Alien Bill and other measures taken by the government for the security of the country. At the same time, they received the support of the Duke of Portland, Earl Fitzwilliam, Earl Spencer, and Lord Porchester, afterwards created Earl of Carnarvon. In 1794, Mr. Grenville was sent with Earl Spencer, as minister extraordinary to the Court of Vienna. The rank of a privy councillor was conferred upon Mr. Grenville in 1798.

"In the next year he was depatched on an embassy to the Court at Berlin, the object of which was to induce the King of Prussia to co-operate with Great Britain and the Allied Powers against the continued aggressions of the French Republic.

The winter had been very severe, and the ice was not yet broken up at the time of his departure, which took place towards the end of January. The ship in which he sailed was called the Proserpine; and in The Oracle and Daily Advertiser of Friday, March 8, 1799, 1 find a very interesting narrative of his ill-fated voyage.

"The following is an extract of a letter from a gentleman who was a passenger in the Proserpine frigate, dated from Newark Island, near where the ship was lost.

"Newark (Newerke) Island,. "Feb. 4. "On the 29th of January we sailed from Yarmouth with a fair wind, in the Proserpine frigate, Captain Willis. Nothing calamitous happened for the first two days on the 31st, we were close up with Heligoland, and got off a pilot. The same night we lay at anchor at the mouth

of the river Elbe. On the following day, we weighed and proceeded a little way up the river, when we touched ground, but after a short time had the good fortune to get off, and proceeded a little further, when it fell a dead calm, and we came to anchor abreast of this island. At this period, so much ice was coming down the river that it was judged prudent to put out to sea; but we had not proceeded far, before we again struck on the sand abreast of the Seahorn Beacon, about two miles from land, where the remains of the ship still lie, without any hope of being ever got off, where she first struck; though surrounded on all sides, every exertion was made to get her off at high water. All her guns, shot, and stores of every kind were thrown overboard, but all endeavors failed; and on Saturday morning (February 2nd) it was resolved that all hands should leave this island. It was half-past one when we quitted her, and we all set off on our march together; but the weather was so intensely cold, that twelve men and boys, and a woman and her child, died by the way. One marine reached the lighthouse, but died soon after, owing to his unfortunately drinking too much liquor. Two of the marines which are missing are thought to have returned to the ship, where they will certainly perish. They were both men of bad character, and went back for the purposes of plunder. We reached this island in about two hours and a half, after a very fatiguing march over the ice. As for myself, I bore it remarkably well, and was one of the first who reached the shore. Mr. Grenville bore it with undaunted courage, and never seemed once cast down by the dangers that surrounded him. Indeed, all belonging to his suite behaved very well, and as for the captain, and officers and men, nothing could surpass their great exertions and good conduct, from the commencement of our misfortunes to the reaching the shore. We have lost every thing; Mr. Grenville has not even a change of linen, but we saved his despatches. The losses of the officers are equal to ours, as they have not a change of clothes. We are obliged to wait at this island till the next tide, in order to take the opportunity of walking over the sands, which are eight miles distant from Cuxhaven. We mustered, on marching, 173 persons, including officers, passengers, and men. The people of Newark Island are exceedingly

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kind to us, and we want for nothing. Mr. Grenville and the gentlemen of his suite are all quartered in the best houses, and mess together. Mr. Grenville is in good health and spirits, and has behaved with great kindness to all around him. I must not omit to inform you, that the loss of H. M. ship was not owing to the neglect of the pilots, as every buoy had been carried away by the ice, and all the landmarks were covered with snow.'

"The crew which behaved so well had been deeply implicated in the mutiny of the Nore, and the admirable discipline of Captain Wallis may be 'estimated by the fact, that when the sentinel at his cabin, seeing his comrades depart, asked, 'What am I to do?' he was answered, Wait till you are relieved.' The escape was chiefly effected by the use of pikes which were on board; and, by the aid of his pike, Mr. Grenville was once saved from perishing in the water. All the despatches were not saved, but he threw some of his most important papers into an official box, and gave them to the messenger from the Foreign Office who attended him ;—the man held the box by a brass ring, and so intense was the cold, that before they reached land the ring had eaten into the bone of his finger. Mr. Grenville brought with him his nephew, now Sir Henry Williams Wynn (our ambassador at Copenhagen), but then a lad, whose life was preserved by the exertions of his uncle.

"Mr. Grenville's perils were not over when he arrived at Newerke; the expedition from that place to Cuxhaven is thus described in a private letter.

"Cuxhaven, February 7th. "We have again experienced a most providential escape, having been, if possible, exposed to more danger and fatigue than before. We stayed at Newerke till yesterday morning, when our landlord thought we should be able to get to Cuxhaven; we therefore set off that morning at seven o'clock, accompanied by seventy men. When we had proceeded half a mile we found some water a foot deep; our guides said it was only a little gully one hundred yards over; we therefore went on, when to our dismay we found that they had mistaken the time of tide, and that we were getting deeper and deeper in the water, which was in some places up to my middle. We waded through it for three miles with a rapid current, as the tide was coming in instead of going out; it froze so hard that our

boots were one mass of ice. The captain and the rest of the men stay at Newerke; they were to have come here this morning, but we sent a person to prevent their coming.'

"For a long time the total loss of the Proserpine was believed in England.

"The mission proved unsuccessful : the Abbé Sièyes persuaded the King of Prussia to adhere to his neutrality, and Mr. Grenville returned to England.

Tom

"In 1800, he was appointed Chief Justice in Eyre South of Trent-a sinecure place worth about 20007. a year. He took an active part in the opposition to the Addington Government, and to the Treaty of Amiens,-on which subject he spoke several times, and voted in the small minority of twenty on Mr. Windham's motion condemnatory of that peace. It was with relation to one of his speeches on the Peace of Amiens that Dr. Lawrence, no mean critic, said to a person from whom I have the anecdote, Grenville made an excellent speech last night, very neat, very short, but just at the right time, and completely to the point; it had a great effect upon the House. Upon other occasions he spoke in detail and with much eloquence and fervour, and had a considerable reputation as a speaker in the House of Commons. In June 1805, Mr. Grenville voted in the majority for the criminal prosecution of Lord Melville. In February 1806, after the death of Mr. Pitt, Lord Grenville and Mr. Fox formed their celebrated administration; in July, Mr. Grenville succeeded to the presidency of the Board of Control on the appointment of Lord Minto to the government of India. In September, on the death of Mr. Fox, Lord Howick was removed from the Admiralty to the Foreign Office, and Mr. Grenville was appointed First Lord. During the short time that he presided over this important office, he was called by Lord St. Vincent, 'a protector of friendless merit.' (See Tucker's Life of Lord St. Vincent, vol. ii. p. 314.) He promoted Captain Wallis, the commander of the Proserpine, and gave his first commission to Sir Charles Napier. In March 1807, George the Third, under a pretext of alarm about the Roman Catholics, broke up the government. After this period, Mr. Grenville considered himself as having withdrawn from public life, but he came down to the House of Commons and recorded his vote on three occasions :-). In favour of Roman Catholic Emancipation. 2. In

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favour of the Repeal of the Income Tax. 3. In favour of his nephew, Mr. C. Williams Wynn, when a candidate for the Speakership, this vote was recorded in 1817, and was the last he gave. In 1818 he retired altogether from Parliament, and from that time till the day of his death lived in the society of his friends and books. Nevertheless he took to the last moment (when the state of Ireland much occupied his thoughts) a keen interest in all that passed in the world he had left. His great age brought with it a consolation granted granted to few. He survived Lord Grenville, the brother whom he admired and loved-but he lived to see all the great measures for the welfare of the state which his brother had so wisely planned, and so eloquently supported, carried into tardy effect, many of them by the party which had maligned the motives and obstructed the execution of his policy. The emancipation of the Roman Catholics-the abolition of slavery-the opening of the Indian Trade-the abolition of the duty on corn-the partial improvement of the state of the Roman Catholic priests in Ireland, must have appeared to Mr. Grenville so many homages to the wisdom of that course of policy of which his brother, himself, and indeed his family, had been, through evil and through good report, the unflinching advocates. His political principles were what have latterly been called Conservative, he had coined to himself "Whig principles,' from an English die,' to borrow, with a slight alteration, the emphatic language of Mr. Burke. Like that great statesman, Mr. Grenville thought highly of the ties which bind public men to act together for the public good: like him, Mr. Grenville distrusted and feared all proposals for sweeping alterations in the constitution of the House of Commons: like him, Mr. Grenville thought any one who taught the people to look elsewhere than to parliament for the relief of their grievances was a traitor to the British Constitution.

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and the expression of his countenance singularly noble. His deep blue eye was shadowed by a large eyebrow, and seemed equally formed for the mildest and most penetrating glances. An attentive observer would have read his character in those glances,-they expressed the steady vigour of his clear and exercised understanding, and the warm sympathies of his gentle and benevolent heart. Those who remember his manhood pronounce him to have been eminently handsome. The portrait of Hoppner, painted at that time, was never satisfactory to them, nor was the bust of Chantrey, executed about the same time; but his old age has been preserved by Richmond, in a picture drawn about a year before his death, in the happiest manner-no light praise of that distinguished artist.

"His mind had not the extent of capacity, the comprehensive grasp and farseeing vision, nor had it the vast attainments in learning and political science, which placed his brother, Lord Grenville, among the first rank of English statesmen ; but his natural endowments and his acquirements were of a very high order. His perception was quick, his understanding vigorous, his reason strong and manly, his memory, like that of all his race, marvellously faithful and swift, and stored with the richest treasures of literature. During the latter years of his life, when forbidden to take his accustomed exercise out of doors, he found the full benefit of this inestimable gift, solacing, as I have often heard him declare, his solitary walk to and fro in his rooms, by repeating to himself the noble passages with which he had from time to time fed his mind. There was oil in his well-trimmed lamp to the last moment; the flame scarcely flickered, but went out at once. While his memory afforded this recreation and support to himself, it was scarcely less delightful to his friends, to whom its treasures were always opened in the most liberal and agreeable manner; for they were set forth with an extraordinary command of language and an admirable choice of expression. To hear the rich variety of anecdote, political, social, and historical,-whether the anecdotes were those which he had heard, and which his strong memory retained, of his father's daystales for instance of the poet Glover, and of General Wolfe-or those which belonged to the stirring times in which he had himself lived, and of which he had been a great part-stories of the illustrious men whose friendship he had shared; recollec

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tions of playing at bowls with Lord Chatham, of dancing with Marie Antoinette, of keeping watch with Burke, Fox, Windham, and General Burgoyne, in Lord Rockingham's house during Lord George Gordon's riot; or of the marvellous effects produced by the giant orators of his day in parliament,-to hear such spoken history as this, from the lips of the old man, eloquent,' was a delight no mere perusal of any chronicle can afford, and of which no description of mine can convey any adequate idea.

"In 1825, Lord Glastonbury died, and left Mr. Grenville all his landed and funded property for his life, with remainder to Mr. Neville, now dean of Windsor. Mr. Grenville, with characteristic kindness and liberality, immediately gave up the landed property to Mr. Neville, who was one of the sons of his youngest sister.

The collection of his rare library afforded him much interest and occupation; it was a pursuit which he began very early in life. He was fond of saying, that when he was in the Guards he bid at a sale against a whole bench of bishops for some scarce edition of the Bible; this was his first essay, and his subsequent success was very remarkable. The British Museum has lately received from his bequest 20,239 volumes, all in admirable condition, bound in excellent taste, and in the best manner; the value of them is certainly above 50,000l. The collection consists chiefly of printed books, not containing above thirty manuscripts; but among them, one remarkable for the beauty of its miniatures, descriptive of the life of Charles V., and painted by Julio Clovio: it cost 4631.

"The most valuable classes of the collection are-first, the Homers; secondly, the Esops, of which there are also some manuscripts; thirdly, the Ariostos: these, indeed, for number, beauty, and completeness of copies, deserve the first rank; fourthly, early voyages and travels; fifthly, works on Ireland; sixthly, classics, both Greek and Latin; seventhly, old Italian and Spanish literature.

"The most valuable single volumes are -1. The first edition of Ariosto, with rough leaves throughout; this cannot be surpassed, it cost 2051. 2. The collection of De Bry's Perigrinations; 3, and that of Hulsius, both unrivalled. 4. Editions by Aldus, on vellum, ali most beautiful, especially the Horace and Petrarca of 1501, and the Dante of 1502. 5. Pre

eminent among the Spanish books, is the Tirant lo Blanch; it cost 100 guineas. 6. The Psalter of 1457. 7. The Bible, without date, but of a date about 1455, the first Bible and the first book ever printed (and this copy is on vellum), of English works. 8. The first edition of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, by Caxton. 9. And one by Wynkyn de Worde of 1498, of which no other copy is known. 10. The first edition of Shakspeare's Collected Dramatic Works of 1623, of its original size, and perfect; this Mr. Grenville considered the pearl of his library, it cost 1377. 11. The Ovid by Azzoguidi, of Bologne, first edition of 1471; it is in two volumes, and cost 2607., and no other perfect copy of it is known to exist.

"It was Mr. Grenville's habit to write on a slip of paper a little historical notice of every book; this was inserted in the first page. The extreme clearness and beauty of the handwriting was worthy of the accuracy and precision of each notice; I subjoin a specimen of them :"NOTE TO THE VELLUM LIVY OF 1469. EDIT. PR.

"This copy of Livy, printed by Sweynheim and Pannartz, at Rome, circa 1469, is the only copy that is known to exist upon vellum. It appears, by the arms on the first page of the history, to have been taken off for Pope Alexander VI., when V. Chancellor of the Roman see, and governor of the monastery of Soubiaco, where these printers took up their abode, and introduced the art of printing into Italy. Pope Al. VI. took the name of Borgia, from his uncle Calistus III., who made him Cardinal; and he was, by Sextus IV., made abbot of the monastery of Soubiaco. The letters L. B. below the arms are probably in reference to his being of the house of Lenzoli by the father, and of that of Borgia by the mother.

"This volume was afterwards in the Benedictine Library at Milan, from whence, at the French Revolution, it was sold to the Abbate Canonici at Venice, and was purchased from him by Edwards the bookseller, at whose sale it was bought by Sir Mark Sykes, in 1815, for £903. At Sir

Mark's death it was bought by Payne, and sold by him to Mr. Dent for £525; and at Mr. Dent's death was again bought by Payne, and was sold by him to Mr. Grenville (for £335).'

"NOTE TO THE FURIOSO OF 1532. ARI

OSTO, ORLANDO FURIOSO. 4TO. FER-
RARA, 1532. ON VELLUM.

"The value of this edition, as the last

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corrected by the author, is sufficiently known. It is of the greatest scarcity on paper, but a vellum copy is among the rarest of Italian books. This had belonged to Conte Garimberti, at Parma. Of the other three, one is in the Barberini Library; one in the Vicenza Library; one with Sig. Valetta. Napoli. All on the same ugly vellum."

"CHAUCER, CANTERBURY TALES. FOL.

2ND EDITION. CAXTON. "The only perfect original copy of this volume, as I believe, is that in the library of St. John's College, Oxford. This beautiful copy of mine, wanting several leaves, I had them supplied in facsimile, by Harris, from the copy at St. John'sit is now quite perfect.'

"No man, however, was further removed from being a mere collector of curious books. The classics of all languages, with the exception of German, were his constant friends, and he read almost every new publication that possessed any merit or interest. The Grenville Homer' is unquestionable evidence that he shared with his eldest brother, and with Lord Grenville (who knew the liiad and Odyssey nearly by heart), his affection for the Father of Poets; but it always seemed to me that Lucretius and Plato were his favourite authors. I have often listened with delight to the clear tones of his voice repeating the verses of the former; and the Dialogues of the latter were, during the last year, constantly in his hand. He was also a constant reader of Seneca and Epictetus, and of the Holy Living and Dying' of Jeremy Taylor; the writings of both the Sherlocks were also favourite studies; in his edition of Dean Sherlock on Death, I have seen written in pencil, read thirteen times in 1846;' and the day before he died he read, twice over, a portion of Bishop Sherlock's sermon on the text May I die the death of the righteous, and may my last end be like his.' It was, doubtless, from these living waters, and from the Divine fountain which fed them, that he imbibed the fortitude and manliness of character which distinguished him to the moment of his last breath. His habits of daily life were marked by extreme simplicity, regularity, and temperance; to these he was, probably, most indebted for the extraordinary vigour of his constitution, which enabled him to say that, during his long life, sickness had never confined him to his bed for a single day. Time never seemed a burden to him,

every hour had its employment, his resources never appeared to fail. The fruit of this admirable order and discipline was a continual cheerfulness and evenness of spirit. He possessed this happy quality in a greater degree than any body I have ever known and it was united with habitual command of temper and unremitting vigilance over himself. The influence of a disposition so formed, and trained upon his daily life, was most constant and most edifying; his was, indeed, jucunda senectus.' He was ever on

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his guard against the moral infirmities of old age; most rarely, I had almost said never, did an expression of peevishness escape from him; but he loved to dwell, in terms of deep gratitude, on his extraordinary immunity from the usual ills incident to length of years. I remember calling upon him one day during the last year, and receiving to the usual inquiries after his health the following answer, very kindly prefaced: There is but one attitude which becomes me, I should be found perpetually on my knees returning thanks for the great blessings I have enjoyed.' In the same spirit he said to his medical attendant, a few days before his death, I am ashamed of sending for you; people will say, Does this old man expect to live for ever?'

"Even this slight sketch would be incomplete without some notice of his perfect good breeding, perhaps the natural, unhappily not the invariable result of the higher qualities which I have mentioned. His was real courtesy, as unlike as possible the tinsel counterfeit which so often passes current for it. The unaffected kindness and frankness of his nature were, indeed, enhanced by his polished manners and noble demeanour, but you never lost sight of the jewel in the gilding; the frame was never too gorgeous for the picture.

Nobody better understood how to exercise the rites of hospitality, every guest felt the equal cordiality of his welcome, and the cheerful warmth of his manner. The last occasion on which I dined with him, but a few days before his death, when his eye was dim, and his natural force abated,' I could see that he exerted himself to receive his guests as usual; but, even when suffering under the illness which destroyed him, he scarcely spoke of himself, or said that his chief malady was being ninety-one.' He died a few days afterwards, on Thursday, 17th of December, 1846, at 7 o'clock in the afternoon, as he was sitting in his

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