man and the scholar. His general manner, deportment, and behaviour, were amiable and prepossessing; his disposition was naturally courtly. He always evinced a desire to pay a due respect to persons in superior stations, and certainly contrived to move in a higher sphere of society than any other English artist had done before him. Thus he procured for professors of the arts a consequence dignity, and reception, which they had never before possessed in this country. In conversation he preserved an equable flow of spirits, which rendered him at all times a most desirable companion, ever ready to be amused, and to contribute to the amusement of others. He practised the minute elegancies, and, though latterly a deaf companion, was never troublesome.

As to his person; in his stature sir Joshua Reynolds was rather under the middle size, of a florid complexion, roundish blunt features, and a lively aspect; not corpulent, though somewhat inclined to it, but extremely active; with manners uncommonly polished and agreeable.

In conversation, his manner was perfectly natural, simple, and unassuming. He most heartily enjoyed his profession, in which he was both fortunate and illustrious; and I agree with Mr. Malone, who says he appeared to him to be the happiest man he had ever known. He was thoroughly sensible of his rare lot in life, and truly thankful for it; his virtues were blessed with their full reward.

CHARACTER OF JOHN HORNE TOOKE.

From his Memoirs, by Alexander Stevens, Esq.

In point of stature, Mr. Tooke did not exceed the middle size; but nature had formed him strong and athletic. His limbs were well knit, compact, and duly proportioned: and he might be said to have been comely rather than handsome, in his youth. His features were regular, and his hair, towards the latter end of life, was generally combed loosely over the temples, and cut close behind. His eye was eminently expressive; it had something peculiarly keen, as well as arch in it; his look seemed to denote an union of wit

No

and satire. When he first Burveyed a stranger, he seemed to take a peep into his heart; and in argument it was difficult to withstand the piercing sharpness of his vision, which appeared but to anticipate the triumph of his tongue. one was ever better calculated for colloquial disputation; or that duel-like controversy, exhibited by two disputants, when pitted together, with the breadth of a mahogany board only between them. In such an arena, he was invincible! wit, humour, learning, temper, genius-all came in aid of argument, and when he made his most deadly thrusts, it was with a smiling countenance, and without any seeming effort or emotion. For a larger theatre, perhaps, he was not equally calculated. His voice was not sufficiently powerful for a tumultuous audience. He neither possessed the dignified

majesty of the old, nor the amazing volubility of the new school. That flexibility of features which gives the power, and that rare, but precious faculty, proceeding from art or nature, which affords the means of expressing all the passions in succession, appear to have been wanting. Yet, deficient as he might be in respect to those qualifications, he is said in the senate to have been listened to with attention, and on the hustings, at Covent Garden, he always experienced a marked and uniform degree of applause; for there he had recourse to that broad humour in which the multitude delights, and those bold, sweeping assertions, those daring and unmeasured charges, which are suitable to the genius of a popular audience.

The sarcastic remark of Mr. Wilkes, in early life," that the parson never laughed," was, in some degree, verified in his latter years. It was evident, that no one could tell a story, or enjoy a joke better; but he seemed in general to keep his passions in abeyance, and seldom or never exhibited signs of that obstreperous and convulsive merriment which others so frequently display and enjoy. The character of his countenance seems to be admirably pourtrayed in the following lines:

He reads much; He is a great observer, and he looks Quite through the deeds of men

In many parts of his character, he seemed to reconcile contradictions. In general he spoke as if destitute of feeling; and, for the most part, acted as if made up of sensibility; in fine, he united in himself, what king William declared to appertain only to the duke of Marlborough; "the coolest head, with the warmest heart."

Gay, lively, and full of pleasantry in general conversation; on politics alone he was bitter, vituperative, and inflexible. On those occasions, however, he seemed to be actuated solely by conviction; and it is no small praise, that, without regarding popularity, he was constantly on the side of liberty.

Originally open, communicative, and confiding, he had, in the course of time, become close, reserved, and suspicious. The experience of a long series of years had, doubtless, taught him caution, and even distrust, in respect to public men; for, in the bloom of youth, he had experienced the treachery of one friend, while, in the decline of life he had nearly been cut off from society by the enmity of another; and yet, in behalf of the former he had sacrificed his fortune; while he had heartily embarked in the same cause with the latter, and fought in the thickest of the battle without any prospect of reward after the victory.

That he was devoid of guilt, in respect to his conduct at the commencement of the first American war, the general voice of the nation seems to have long since determinrious, in attempting to stop the ed; that his conduct was meritoeffusion of the blood of those con

our country."

The king immediately drew his sword, the baron rushed upon him, and seized him round the waist, while colonel Silfversparre took the sword out of his hand: the king then cried out, "They are going to murder me, help! help!"-They endeavoured to reassure the king, and he promised to be more composed if they would return his sword; he was told that in this respect he could not be gratified, nor be permitted any more to interfere in the management of the kingdom.

The duke of Sudermania took upon him the government. The change was immediately proclaimed, and received with acclamations by the people. Hardly any revolution was ever brought about with greater facility. No tumult ensued; no blood was shed in any part of the kingdom, and not a single murmur expressed at the dethronement of the king.

At two o'clock in the morning, the king was conveyed to Drottningholm, and a few days after to Gripsholm.

equanimity of disposition very rarely to be met with in persons whose pursuit is universal reputation, and who are attended and surrounded in their perilous journey by jealous competition." His native humility, modesty, and candour never forsook him, even from surprise or provocation, nor was the least degree of arrogance or assumption, visible to the most scrutinizing eye in any part of his conduct." He was not annoyed by that fluctuation of idea and inconstancy of temper which prevent many with equal desire for fame from resolving upon any particular plan, and dispose them to change it, even after they have made their election. He had none of those eccentric bursts of action, those fiery impetuosities which are supposed by the vulgar to characterize genius, and which frequently are found to accompany a secon dary rank of talent, but are never conjoined with the first. His incessant industry was never wearied into despondency by miscarriage, nor elated into negligence by success. All nature and all art combined to form his academy. His

NOLDS.

on the wing, comprehensive, vigorous, discriminating, and retentive.

him.

With respect to his character as a man, to say that sir Joshua was without faults, would be to bestow on him that praise to which no human being can have a claim; but when we consider the conspicuous situation in which he stood, it is surprising to find that so few can be discovered in him; and certainly he possessed an

torpid. He had a strong turn and relish for humour in all its various forms, and very quickly saw the weak sides of things. Of the numerous characters which presented themselves to him in the mixed companies in which he lived, he was a nice and sagacious observer, as I have had frequent occasions to remark,

There was a polish even in his exterior, illustrative of the gentle

nected with us by every tie dear to a nation, will scarcely be doubted at the present day. To those who decide by events alone, it still remains to be proved whether the contest with France has been advantageous or injurious, and consequently, whether his opposition to it was politic or imprudent; but, as to his innocence, in regard to the charge of treason, this will not admit of any doubt, as it has been confirmed, not only by the verdict of a jury, but by the concurring assent of the whole nation.

That he who quarrelled with Mr. Wilkes for his bad faith; who attacked lord Mansfield for his illegal decisions; who opposed Mr. Fox on account of his coalition; and boldly, but fruitlessly, urged the charge of apostacy against Mr. Pitt, should have created a multitude of enemies, cannot excite much surprise. This, perhaps, will assist in solving the paradox, by enabling us to discover why he, who was uniform in his politics, should be detested for double dealing; why one, constantly actuated by principle, should be termed a hypocrite; and why a man attached to the constitution in all its forms, should be branded with the name of a republican.

In point of disinterestedness, no man of his age can be put in competition with him; all that he obtained in the cause of the public, consisted of fines, imprisonment, and persecution. For opposing the fatal contest with America, he experienced a long confinement, and was obliged to redeem himself from protracted captivity, by a consider able mulct. For objecting to the subsequent war with France, he

From the exercise of his profession, he was precluded by chicanery and oppression, originating in the petty jealousy of a great judge, and the servile compliance of the benchers of the Inner Temple; while, from a seat in parliament, he was actually cut off, by an act of political proscription, wholly unexampled in the annals of British legislation.

It could be no common man, against whom such extraordinary measures were recurred to! It could be no common man, to whom his greatest enemies, as well as his best friends, seemed anxious before their death, to unite in paying a public and a private tribute to his worth; as was the case with Wilkes, who was eager to acknowledge his virtues in the face of the people; and Thurlow, who, after he had run the race of ambition, courted his acquaintance in the peaceful shades of retirement.

That he was somewhat intractable and unaccommodating as a politician cannot fairly be denied; and in this, perhaps, he but too much resembled Fletcher of Saltoun, the celebrated Scottish patriot. In a free country, the solitary efforts of a single individual can effect but little; it is by a combination of means, and of efforts, alone, that any thing advantageous can be achieved for the commonwealth. Caius and Tiberius Gracchus had the laws and the constitution of Rome on their side; and yet, by neglecting this obvious maxim, they were sacrificed,