Means by which the Union was carried.

43 many addresses in favour of it were readily obtained. Direct bribery was also employed, but evidently to a very moderate extent; and, on the whole, a majority in the Parliament was procured with less difficulty than was anticipated. On the other hand, the Opposition made every exertion to defeat the policy of the Government; they attempted to bid for the support of the Roman Catholics, subscribed large sums to secure votes, and struggled to excite a patriotic feeling against the Union. It is remarkable, however, how futile were their efforts; and these volumes prove that, in 1799, they were deserted by the mass of the nation, and that Ireland was weary of her actual Parliamentary system. In the spring of 1800 the contest recommenced within the walls of the moribund senate, and it soon appeared that the policy of Lord Castlereagh would be attended with entire success. Majorities of from forty to fifty recorded their votes in favour of the Union, and several members who the year before had been violent against the measure, now read their venal and interested recantations. But if the scene had its vile incidents, it also showed its noble features; and the genius and eloquence of the small patriotic party of Ireland never shone with more conspicuous lustre than in the hour when their native Legislature was extinguished. They were, it is true, mistaken in their faith, and most of them lived to acknowledge their mistake; but history will not easily lose sight of their noble forms rising over that dark spectacle of misgovernment and corruption. And, on the other hand, if history must admit that the means employed to carry the Union were not altogether defensible, let it add that they really promoted the wishes and the interests of Ireland; that the purchase of the Irish Parliament extinguished its corruption, and that, in fact, it was rather an open purchase than a mere evil one-sided compact.

The session of 1800 was the last of the Irish Parliament, and in August the Union became law. Mr. Pitt's policy was so far successful and no great difficulty was experienced in fulfilling the promises of compensation or reward which had been made by Lord Cornwallis. Twelve hundred thousand pounds were paid for the disfranchised boroughs; several peerages and places were conferred; and a large sum was distributed as an equivalent for the loss of official appointments connected with the defunct senate. But when in September, 1800, Mr. Pitt, in conformity with his pledges, brought forward his scheme of Catholic Emancipation, George the Third, as is well known, refused to listen to it; and

* Lord Castlereagh to the Duke of Portland, Feb. 7, 1800. Vol. iii. 182.

accordingly the intended accompaniment of the Union was delayed indefinitely. "It is not true, as has been asserted, that Mr. Pitt was insincere in this conduct, and that he purchased the assent of the Roman Catholics to his policy on the faith of promises which he knew he was incapable to perform. It is certain that his promises extended only to a support of their claims, and this he gave at once and freely; and his sincerity is further attested by the fact that he resigned his office as Prime Minister when he found himself baffled on the Catholic Question. Lord Cornwallis also resigned with him; and thus, so far as regards the probity of his conduct and that of Mr. Pitt, it cannot justly be called in question. At the same time, if Mr, Pitt on this occasion had insisted on the necessity of Catholic Emancipation, and had let the King know that his own influence and that of his followers would be exerted openly against any Government which did not propose this concession, we cannot help thinking that George the Third would have given way, and that Ireland would have obtained a measure of justice which in 1800 she expected to receive, and the delay of which for thirty years has been of great disadvantage to the empire. At least we feel that if, in 1800, Mr. Pitt had withdrawn all support from the Administration of his successor, he would not only have saved his reputation from suspicion, but would have checked George the Third in a line of conduct of which, to this hour, we feel the evil consequences. These remarks apply also to Lord Cornwallis, but evidently he was für less to blame; and, indeed, had he afterwards declined to accept a diplomatic office from Mr. Addington, no charge whatever could be made justly against him.

Lord Cornwallis left Ireland in the summer of 1801, and for a short time continued out of office. But, at the instance of Mr. Addington, he undertook the negotiation of the Peace of Amiens, and for this purpose he went to Paris as plenipotentiary. He had always been averse to the war, which he contemplated with the greatest alarm, and his appointment proves that at this period the British Government was sincerely anxious for peace. At Paris he was of course brought in contact with the First Consul, who, in the St. Helena Memoirs, informs us that, in his judgment, Lord Cornwallis, after Mr. Fox, was the most distinguished of his countrymen. This favourable opinion was certainly not reciprocated, for although Lord Cornwallis did full justice to the military genius of the victor of Arcola and Marengo, and to the reconstructor of society in France, he seems to have viewed him with great distrust and suspicion. It is needless to enter into any details about a shortlived treaty which was broken almost

He dies in India. His Character

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45

before the ink was dry; suffice it to say that, although encoun tered by the keenness and cunning of Talleyrand, who acted for France in the negotiation, Lord Cornwallis fully satisfied the Government by his conduct. He soon afterwards returned to England, and occupied himself with country pursuits, and with the improvement of his estates, apparently without any intention of serving the State again. At the close of 1804, however, the aged statesman, though already suffering from ill-health, was induced to accept the Governor-Generalship of India for the third time, and in July, 1805, he arrived at Calcutta. His mission was to restore a pacific policy in India, which Lord Wellesley had disregarded amidst the splendour of a series of conquests and victories. This mission, however, he was not to accomplish: his strength gave way soon after his arrival, and he died at Ghazipore in October, on a journey to the northern pro vinces. The Company and the Government concurred to treat his memory with signal respect. The Directors granted a sum of forty thousand pounds to his family, and, on the motion of Lord Castlereagh, the House of Commons voted a statue to him in St. Paul's.

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Our estimate of the career and character of Lord Cornwallis may easily be gathered from our previous observations. He was not a general of the first order, but he was a prudent, sagacious, and intrepid commander, who served his country with zeal and ability. For the period between the American war and that with Napoleon, he was probably the best of English generals; and he certainly was thought so by the Government. As a statesman, he was distinguished by justice and probity; he was entirely free from unscrupulousness and duplicity; and he possessed considerable foresight and wisdom. Two great triumphs are undoubtedly his: he established purity of government in India, and he extinguished corrupt government in Ireland. The liberality and mercy he showed in the crisis of 1798 deserve the highest commendation; and with the exception of Lord Castlereagh, perhaps, he urged more strenuously than any other statesman of his time the necessity of a just and conciliatory policy to Ireland. He was, no doubt, somewhat ambitious of office; and it would have been better for his memory had he steadily opposed Mr. Addington's Government when it had pledged itself against Catholic Emancipation. On the whole, his public career is a fine example, not of brilliant success or commanding genius, but of duty fulfilled, and of right done. In private life he was generous and affectionate, with perhaps a slight turn to despondency and complaining, but without any taint

of harshness and malevolence, He was also free from vice in a fashionable age of profligacy, and played his part in the drama of social life with honest English heartiness and manliness, in good report, and with sound discretion.' The son of his most intimate friend, and his near relative, may well feel proud that the publication of these volumes has not only been a most valuable contribution to history, but has elevated conspicuously the character of Lord Cornwallis.

ART. II.-New Pictures and Old Panels. By DR. DORAN. Bentley.

1859.

DR. DORAN is a man of reading and a man of talent. He knows much, can invent much, and has a clever manner of presenting both fact and fiction to his readers. The title of the work at the head of this article is a convenient one for an author of such facilities. It suggests nothing, it may comprehend anything. On looking within the pages of this volume, we find not a word in the way of preface or explanation in regard to the matters of which it consists. In the course of the first sixty pages we become aware of what three of the prominent 'pictures' in this series present, All the characters introduced are historical, and all the incidents and conversations recorded in relation to them are recorded as so much veritable history. Not a hint is given that might lead the reader to suspect the contrary. The persons who figure in these pages, are Griffiths, the Paternoster-row publisher of the middle of the last century, and his wife; Oliver Goldsmith, as a young and needy scribe in their employ; the well-known Dr. Dodd, and his lady;' Mrs. Bellamy, the celebrated actress; John Wesley and Mrs. Wesley. The portraits of these persons are given with fulness and elaboration. They are before us as persons whose dress, countenance, conversation, looks, tones, everything may be analysed minutely. The colours laid on are strong, but the finish is complete. Yet the things said and done by these persons are often so startling, so little like what might have been expected from them, that the reader, as he proceeds, can hardly forbear to ask-is this fact or fiction? If there be authority for it, why is not the authority given? If there be no authority for it, then why is it here, and here without the slightest intimation of its being all so much invention?

Dr. Dodd and his Lady.

47

The most prominent person in the three narratives adverted to is the unhappy Dr., then Mr. Dodd. Early in the morning of one of the July days of 1757, Dodd yawns languidly, we are told, as he passes slowly along the street, with both hands thrust into the pockets of a long-waisted black coat, stained with wine and punch. He has been making a night of it at a neighbour's, and is now wending his way homewards. He looks older than he really is. His actual age, says our author, was eightand-twenty; so that, Dodd having been born in 1729, we are again brought to 1757, as the date of the incidents before us. We are as desirous as Dr. Doran himself, for reasons which will hereafter appear, that our readers should bear in mind that the date is, as stated, 1757. Dodd reaches home. It was, Dr. Doran says, so common an occurrence for him to be abroad all night, that Mrs. Dodd receives him with little or no manifestation of ill-will.

"Moll,' said Mr. Dodd, 'you are late at breakfast. about last night?'

What were you

"What's that to you," remarked the gentle creature. • Mind your own business. When you are a bishop you shall be the supervisor of mine. Will you have some tea ?'

One cup, Mollinda, with a drop of rum in it. I am not well this morning.''

After a while, a pert maid-servant enters, and, without asking leave either of master or mistress, abruptly announces that she is going to see her cousin, Mrs. Bellamy. This Mrs. Bellamy was Mrs. George Anne Bellamy, the famous actress, the illegitimate daughter of Lord Tyrawley; a woman whose autobiography (by the way) is well worthy of a perusal, as containing a sad record both of vice and misery, and of the emptiness and heartlessness of a life of mere world-worship.

Dodd was anxious, at this time, to secure the literary services of a certain bookseller's hack, of whom this Mrs. Bellamy, with whom he is represented as being on terms of intimate acquaintanceship, had spoken to him. He accordingly commissions 'Flippy,' the maid, to take a letter to say that he should like to see the individual in question at her house on the following night; and, as he disposes himself to write the said letter, Mrs. Dodd proceeds to replace the spirits in the cupboard.

'Before corking the bottle, however,' says our author, and when the door was between her and the other two [Mr. Dodd and Flippy'], she put it to her lips, tossed back her head, and swallowed a liberal half-quartern. As she performed this feat, the back part of her head