racterizes and disgraces our two universities, and often induces parents to send their children for education either to Scotland or Germany, he applied himself to his studies with extraordinary assiduity. Even at that period he is supposed to have turned his thoughts towards the formation and construction. of his native language, and to have meditated the plan, from which afterwards he derived so much celebrity in his EПEA IITEPOENTA.*

Mr. H. was destined by his family for the church, and this gracious mother appeared ready to stretch forth her willing arms to receive him; indeed, he was wooed in no common form, for he soon enjoyed the immediate view of her choicest preferments; and, had it not been for the occurrence of some singular events, there can be but little doubt that he might at this moment have reclined at his ease within the stall of a golden prebend, or perhaps have exhibited his mitred head with the Watsons, the Douglasses, and the Porteuses, in the cathedral of a diocese, and the upper house of parliament.

Mr. Horne having entered into holy orders while yet a very young man, obtained the living or chapelry of Brentford. But this was intended merely as a debut, for, as has been already hinted, fairer and better prospects were pointed out to him. His family possessed considerable interest, some of his

* While at Cambridge Mr. Horne took the degree of A.M. and it is not a little remarkable that this was attempted to be withheld by Lord Mumford, a relation of the nobleman (Lord Temple) who afterwards opposed his sitting in the House of Commons.

relations

relations enjoyed appointments at court, and one of them held a confidential situation about a Great Personage. In short, it was so contrived, that a certain Duke was to make a nominal application to his Majesty in his behalf, which was to be immediately followed by ecclesiastical preferment.* Matters were in this train, when some unexpected events of a public nature ensued, and dashed the yet untasted cup from his lips!

The commencement of his present Majesty's reign was such as seemed to augur the most happy prospects to the nation. William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, had carried the triumphant arms of Britain to the remotest quarters of the globe; we were victorious in every sea, and both hemispheres acknowledged our superior skill, bravery, and good fortune. On the other hand, a young prince, who justly gloried in being born a "Briton," by contributing to the independence of the judges, already seemed to exhibit a wish to keep the fountain of public justice pure and unpolluted, and thus promised to become the guardian of that constitution which his ancestors were called in, and he himself sworn, to protect. A sudden change, however, took place in his councils, and new men and new measures were recurred to.

This extraordinary event was accompanied by a correspondent impression on the part of the people, and the arbitrary arrest and imprisonment of Mr.

* Mr. Horne was promised that he should be appointed one of the chaplains to his Majesty, with a prospect of such other preferment as was sufficient to satisfy his wishes. F 3

Wilkes,

Wilkes, then member for Aylesbury, by a general warrant, afterwards declared to be illegal, called forth the energies of the nation, and awakened a degree of jealousy that has never since been allowed to subside.

Mr. Horne was abroad when this occurrence took place; but having imbibed the principles, and inherited the spirit, of an Englishman, his heart was alive to every thing that affected either the honour or the liberties of his country: perhaps the contrast witnessed in the various states through which he passed during his travels, made his own still dearer to him, from the recollection that its boasted preeminence originated in, and could alone be preserved by, the freedom of its government. During the subsequent exile of Mr. Wilkes he visited him at Paris; and, when he was foiled in his attempt to represent the city of London in 1768, Mr. Horne, at his own risk, opened houses for him at Brentford, supported his interests, procured him a multitude of friends, and finally enabled him to triumph, in consequence of being returned to Parliament as one of the knights of the shire for the county of Middlesex.*

It

*“I found you, (says he, in a letter addressed to Mr. Wilkes in 1771, after that gentleman had treated him with no common degree of ingratitude) in the most hopeless state: an outlaw; plunged in the deepest distress; overwhelmed with debt and disgrace; forsaken by all your friends, and shunned by every thing that called itself a gentleman, at a time when very honest men, who could distinguish between you and your cause, and who

feared

It must be allowed, on all hands, that the private character of Mr. Wilkes was far from being immaculate; his cause however was unexceptionable, and no man knew better than Mr. Horne how to discriminate between them, as may be seen by the following quotation from a letter addressed by the latter to the former :

"I was your friend only for the sake of the public cause: that reason does in certain matters remain; so far as it remains, so far am I still your friend: and therefore I said, in my first letter, "the public should know how far they ought, and how far they ought not, to support you." To bring to punishment the great delinquents who have corrupted the parliament and the seats of justice, who have encouraged, pardoned, and rewarded murder: to heal the breaches made in the constitution, and by salutary provisions to prevent them for the future; to replace once more, not the administration and execution, for which they are very unfit, but the checks of government really in the hands of the governed:

For these purposes, if it were possible to suppose that the great enemy of mankind could be rendered instrumental to their happiness, so far the Devil himself should be supported by the people. For a human instrument they should go further; he should not only be supported, but thanked and rewarded, for the good which perhaps he did not intend, as an encouragement to others to follow his example. But if the foul fiend, having gained their support, should endeavour to delude the weaker part, and entice them to an idolatrous worship of himself, by persuading feared no danger, yet feared the ridicule attending a probable defeat.

"Happily we succeeded, and I leave you by repeated elections the legal representative of Middlesex, an alderman of London, and about thirty thousand pounds richer than when I first knew you; myself by many degrees poorer than I was before; and I pretend to have been a little instrumental in all these changes of your situation."

F4

them

them that what he suggested was their voice-and their voice the coice of God:

"If he should attempt to obstruct every thing that leads to their security and happiness, and to promote every wickedness that tends only to his own emolument :

"If, when the cause-the cause-reverberates on their ears, he should divert them from the original sound, and direct them towards the opposite unfaithful echo:

"If confusion should be all his aim, and mischief his sole enjoyment, would not he act the part of a faithful monitor to the people, who should save them from his snares, by reminding them of the true object of their constitutional worship, expressed in these words of Holy Writ (for to me it is so), Rex, lex loquens; lex, rex mutus. This is the cause-the cause-To make this union indissoluble is the only cause I acknowledge. As far as the support of Mr. Wilkes tends to this point I am as warm as the warmest but all the lines of your projects are drawn towards a different centre-yourself; and if, with a good intention, I have been diligent to gain you powers which may be perverted to mischief, I am bound to be doubly diligent to prevent their being so employed."

Mr. Tooke's rupture with Mr. Wilkes soon after involved him in a dispute with the celebrated Junius, a name that will not be forgotten in this country while the English language continues to be that of the nation. In a letter addressed "to his Grace the Duke of Grafton," dated July 9, 1771, Mr. T. is accused of apostacy, and the dereliction of all his former political principles. This assertion did not remain long uncontradicted, for in four days afterwards the memorable reply, beginning with "Farce, Comedy, and Tragedy,-Wilkes, Foote, and Junius, united at the same time against one poor Parson, are fearful odds," &c. appeared in the Public Adver