duced Jean of Arc prophesying to Talbot the observation of his illustrious name, and the exclusion of his posterity from the councils of his country." I should not omit to mention the speech delivered by Lord Stourton at this meeting. It was easy to collect from his manner that he was not in the habit of addressing a large assembly, but the sentiments to which he gave utterance were high and manly, and becoming a British nobleman who had been spoliated of his rights. His language was not only elegant and refined, but adorned with imagery of an original cast, derived from those sciences with which his Lordship is said to be familiar. Some of the deputies diued with him after the meeting. They were sumptuously entertained. I had now become more habituated to the display of patrician magnificence in England, and saw the exhibition of its splendor without surprise. Yet I confess that at Norfolk house, where the Duke did Mr. O'Connell, Lord Killeen, and others of our deputation, the honor to invite them, and, in compliment to our cause, brought together an assemblage of men of the highest rank and genius in England, I was dazzled with the splendor and gorgeousness of an entertainment to which I had seen no parallel. Norfolk-house is one of the finest in Loudon. The interior, which is in the style prevalent about eighty years ago in England, realizes the notions which one forms of a palace. It was indeed occupied at one time by some members of the royal family; and the Duke told us that the late King [George III.] was born in the room in which we dined. We passed through a series of magnificent apartments, rich with crimson and fretted with gold. There was no glare of excessive light in this vast and seemingly endless mansion; and the massive lamps which were suspended from the embossed and gilded ceilings, diffused a shadowed illumination, and left the * Mr. Sheil, whose speech at this meeting was a failure—the patience of his audience having been exhausted before he rose adroitly attempts here to explain away the fact. From some cause or other, his voice, naturally shrill, almost wholly failed him, and his auditors were greatly disappointed. — M. The Lord Stourton here mentioned was the seventeenth Baron of that name, the peerage bearing date 1448. The family is Catholic.-M. THE DUKE OF NORFOLK. 225 distance in the dusk. The transition to the great chamber where the company were assembled, and which was glowing with light, presented a brilliant and imposing contrast. Here we found the Duke of Norfolk, surrounded by persons of high distinction. Among the company were the Dukes of Sussex, Devonshire, and Leinster, Lord Grey, Lord Fitzwilliam, Lord Shrewsbury, Lord Donoughmore, Lord Stourton, Lord Clifford, Lord Nugent, Lord Arundel, Sir Francis Burdett, Mr. Butler, Mr. Abercrombie, Mr. Blunt, Mr. Denman, and other persons of eminence and fame.* The Duke of Norfolk came forward to meet us, and gave us a cordial and cheerful welcome. This amiable nobleman is distinguished by the kindness and goodness of his manners, which bespeak an excellent and unassuming spirit, and through all the political intercourse which we had with him the great question, in which he feels so deep an interest, manifested a shrewd sound sense, and a high and intense anxiety for the success of the great cause of religious liberty, from which very beneficial results have already ensued. He has been very instrumental in effecting a junction between the English and Irish Roman Catholics, and has thus conferred a great service upon both. We were received by him with the most gracious and unaffected urbanity. I was struck with the perfect freedom from authoritativeness which characterized most of the eminent men who were placed about me. There is among the petty aristocracy of Ireland * Of these, Lords Grey, Shrewsbury, Donoughmore, Clifford, Arundel, Mr. Butler, and Mr. Blunt, have departed this life. Mr. Abercrombie, then a very obscure man (who worked himself up, from being the Duke of Devonshire's steward), had his employer's interest to get him made Chief Baron of the Exchequer in Scotland, at four thousand pounds sterling a year. It was so much a sinecure, that, in the thirty months he held it, he only tried four cases, thus receiving ten thousand pounds for doing nothing. The sinecure was abolished, and Abercrombie was compensated by a pension of two thousand pounds, which was suspended when he was made Speaker of the House of Commons in 1837 (salary six thousand pounds a year, and one thousand pounds more for a house), and, after two years' service, retired on a pension of four thousand pounds for his own life and that of his son, and a peerage as Baron Dumferline. What renders this more strange is, that this man had boorish manners, no learning, no eloquence, nothing but the Duke of Devonshire's patronage to push him on.-M. infinitely more arrogance of port and look than I observed among the first men of the British empire. Certain of our colonial aristocracy are far more bloated and full-blown with a notion of their own importance. The reason is obvious. The former rest in security upon their unquestionable title to respect. Their dignity fits them like an accustomed garment. But men who are raised but to a small elevation, on which they hold a dubious ground, feel it necessary to impress their consequence upon others by an assumption of superiority which is always offensive, and generally absurd. Lord Fitzwilliam was the person with whom I was disposed to be most pleased. This venerable nobleman carries, with a gray head, a young and fresh heart. He may be called the old Adam of the political world; and England might well exclaim to her faithful servant, in the language of Orlando "Oh, good old man, how well in thee appears The constant service of the antique world! When none will sweat but for promotion." It is impossible to look upon this amiable and dignified patrician of the olden stamp, without a feeling of affectionate admiration for his pure and distinguished patriotism and the warm love of his country, which lives (if I may so say) under the ashes of age, and requires but to be stirred to emit the flashes of its former fire. The natural apathy incidental to his time of life, appears habitually to prevail ovet him; but speak to him of the great interests of the empire-speak to him of that measure which at an earlier period he was delegated by his sovereign to complete-speak to him of Ireland, and through the dimness that loads his eye, a sudden illumination will break forth. For Ireland he entertains a kind of paternal tenderness. He reverted with a Nestorian pride to the period of his own government; and mentioned that he had preserved the addresses which he had received from the Roman Catholic body as among the best memorials of his political life. That he should live long enough to see the emancipation of the Irish people, seemed to be the wish nearest to his heart. It does one good—it is useful in a moral point of view, to approach such a person as Lord Fitzwilliam, and to feel that there is in public men such a thing as a pure and disinterested anxiety for the benefit of mankind, and that the vows of all politicians are not, whatever we may be disposed to think, "as false as dicers' oaths." In describing the impression produced upon me by Lord Fitzwilliam, I have mentioned the result of my observation at Mr. Ponsonby's, where the deputies afterward met him, as well as at Norfolk house. Lord Grey also dined at Mr. Ponsonby's, where I had a better opportunity of noting him. He is some Charles, Earl Grey, born in 1764, was M. P. for his native county of Northumberland, almost as soon as he attained his majority. He soon displayed ability, as a debater on the liberal side, and was associated with Burke, Sheridan, and others, as one of the managers of the impeachment of Warren Hastings. He went beyond Fox in his democratical opinions. On Pitt's death, in 1806, when "All the Talents" formed a Cabinet, of which Fox was the actual, while the Duke of Portland was the nominal head, Mr. Grey (who now bore the honorary title of Viscount Howick, his father having been made Earl Grey in 1802) took office as First Lord of the Admiralty. In October, 1806, Lord Howick succeeded Fox as Foreign Secretary, but the Ministry soon broke up, and, on the death of his father in 1807, he went to the Upper House, as Earl Grey, and warmly defended Queen Caroline in 1820. He remained out of office until November 1830, but on two or three occasions, when a Coalition ministry was talked of, there were negotiations (always ending in failure) to bring in Lord Grey. His personal pride intervened- -as he wanted first place, or none. This, no doubt, made him strongly oppose Canning's Ministry, in 1827-it was 66 most tolerable and not to be endured" that a mere commoner should be Prime. Minister, while Earl Grey was ready and anxious for the office! At last, in 1830, he obtained the prize-because Parliamentary Reform was needed, and, as Mr. Grey, he had suggested a plan some five-and-thirty years before. After a great struggle, Reform was granted-more than Grey actually thought prudent to bestow (having such a horror of democratic inroads that he once publicly declared that "he would stand by his order") but less than his son-in-law, Lord Durham, thought was wise and just. In July, 1834, he resigned office, and took no further part in politics. He died, July, 1845, aged eighty-one. As Minister of the Crown, he had one overpowering fault, which Peel was eminently free from-that of nepotism. It really appeared as if the object of his taking office was to provide for his family, his connections, for every one named Grey. For this he was constantly buited by Cobbett, who published what he called “The Grey List," stating the various offices to which Grey had been appointed, giving the name of each official, and showing that they were the recipients of about one hundred and seventy thousand pounds sterling a year-all, but twenty thousand pounds sterling, being derived from what silent and reserved. It is the fashion among Tories to account him contemptuous and haughty; but I can not coincide with them. He has, indeed, a lofty bearing, but it is not at all artificial. It is the aristocracy of virtue as well as rank. There is something uncompromising, and perhaps stern as well as inflexible in his aspect. Tall, erect, and collected in himself, he carries the evidences of moral and intellectual ascendency impressed upon him, and looks as if he knew himself to be, in the proudest sense which the poet has attached to the character, not only a great but an honest man. And why should he not look exactly what he is? Why should he not wrap himself in the consciousness of his political integrity, and seem to say, "meâ virtute involvo," while so many others, who were once the companions of his journey, and who turned aside into a more luxuriant road, in taking a retrospect, as the close of life is drawing near, of the mazy course which they have trod, behold it winding through a rich and champaigne country, and occasionally deviating into low but not unproductive declivities? This eminent man, in looking back from the point of moral elevation on which he stands, will trace his path in one direct and unbroken line-through a lofty region which has been barren of all but fame, and from which no allurement of ease, or of profusion, could ever induce him to depart. Lord Grey has a touch of sadness upon him, which would look dissatisfaction to a placeman's eye; but there is nothing really morose or atrabilious in his expression. He has found that sorrow can unbar the palaces of the great, as well as unlatch the cottages of the lowly. His dear friend and near ally is gone-his party is almost broken. He has survived life appointments! The truth of these accusations was undeniable, and helped. no doubt, to account for Lord Grey's unpopularity after the Reform struggle was ended. He was an eloquent speaker-seldom warmed into passion o even into excitement, but fluent, correct, and sometimes rather forcible.-- M. * The allusion here appears to be to Fox, who, however, had died nearly nineteen years before. Charles James Fox, born in 1749, was the second soa of the first Lord Holland, by whom he was educated for political life. At the age of nineteen, two years before the legal age, he was elected member of parliament. From 1770 to 1774, he was an advocate of the Ministry, and was |