1830.] 



Biographical Memoirs of' Eminent Persons. 



125 



one hundred and thirty-nine were against 

 him. 



In the month of March following, Mr. 

 Tierney gave his cordial support to a Bill 

 brought in by Mr. Dundas " to enable 

 His Majesty more effectually to provide for 

 the defence and security of the realm;" 

 and, in reply to a vulgar sneer from a Mem- 

 ber on the Treasury Bench, he added, 

 " that no part or action of his life could 

 justify that honourable gentleman in insi- 

 nuating, that s he was not animated by as 

 cordial a zeal for the welfare and prosperity 

 of his country, as any man who lived in it." 

 In the spring of 1798, he also voted for the 

 suspension of the Habeas Corpus act. Soon 

 afterwards he supported Colonel Walpole in 

 his enquiry into the conduct of the assembly 

 of Jamaica, relative to the transportation of 

 the Maroons ; and in the summer of the 

 same year, in consequence of the melan- 

 choly aspect of affairs in Ireland, he de- 

 clared, " that the minister ought to come 

 down to the House clothed in sackcloth and 

 ashes, to find public affairs in such a cri- 

 tical state in the fifth year of the war, and 

 after an expenditure of about two hundred 

 millions of money." 



It was, we believe, previously to this 

 (Friday, May 25, 1798) that an incident 

 occurred, the consequences of which might 

 have been fatal. During the debate on the 

 Bill for suspending seamen's protections, 

 Mr. Pitt was so far thrown off his guard . 

 a rare circumstance with him as to de- 

 clare, " that he considered Mr. Tierney's 

 opposition to it, as proceeding from a wish 

 to impede the service of the country." Mr. 

 Tierney immediately called the Chancellor 

 of the Exchequer to order, appealed to the 

 House, and invoked the protection of the 

 Speaker. Mr. Addington, who then occu- 

 pied the chair, observed " That if the 

 House should consider the words which had 

 been used as conveying a personal reflection 

 on the honourable gentleman, they were in 

 that point of view to be considered as ' un- 

 parliamentary and disorderly.' It was for 

 the House to decide on their application, 

 and they would wait in the mean time for 

 the explanation of the right honourable 

 gentleman." Mr. Pitt, instead of apolo- 

 gising, immediately said " If he were 

 called on to explain away anything which 

 he had said, the House might wait long 

 enough for such an explanation ! He was 

 of opinion, that the honourable gentleman 

 was opposing a necessary measure for the 

 defence of the country, and therefore he 

 should neither explain nor retract any par- 

 ticle of what he had said on the subject." 



Here, of course, the affair did not end. 

 Mr. Tierney sent his friend, Mr. George 

 Walpole, with a message to Mr. Pitt ; and, 

 at three o'clock, on the next Sunday after- 

 noon, Mr. Pitt, accompanied by Mr. Ryder 

 (now Lord Harrowby), and Mr. Tierney, 

 accompanied by Mr. Walpole, met on 

 Putney Heath. A case of pistols was fired 



at the same moment without effect. On 

 the second fire, Mr. Pitt discharged his 

 pistol in the air. The seconds then -jointly 

 interfered, ai;d insisted that the matter 

 should go no further ; as it was their de- 

 cided opinion that sufficient satisfaction had 

 been given, and that the business had been 

 terminated with perfect honour to both 

 parties. 



Mr. Tierney was a uniform and steady 

 opponent of the war with France ; yet, on 

 the victory of Aboukir, in 1708, he cor- 

 dially acquiesced in the motion for the 

 thanks of the House to Rear-Admiral Lord 

 Nelson, and affirmed, " that no man was 

 more anxious than himself for the general 

 security of the empire ; and that no man 

 ever felt more warmth and animation than 

 he did whenever our Navy was triumphant. 

 His opposition to the war rendered him 

 also an opponent of Mr. Pitt in finance. In 

 that science he was considered, especially by 

 his friends and partisans, to be eminently 

 skilful ; and, for several years, it was al- 

 most his uniform custom to bring forward 

 a serjes of resolutions in opposition to those 

 of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. 



In the debate upon the projected Union 

 with Ireland, Mr. Tierney expressed his 

 opinion that that measure would be the 

 ruin of the liberties of England ; a pro- 

 phetic intimation, which, to a great extent, 

 has been since fulfilled, though not in the 

 light through which it was viewed by the 

 seer. 



In Mr. Addington's short-lived adminis- 

 tration, Mr. Tierney was nominated to the 

 lucrative office of Treasurer of the Navy ; 

 and he became, at the same time, Lieut. - 

 Colonel of the Somerset House Volunteers. 

 On the return of Mr. Pitt to power, he 

 again joined the Opposition. During the 

 Fox and Grenville administration, in 1800, 

 he was first Irish Secretary, and afterwards 

 President of the Board of Control. With 

 the Whigs he quitted office ; and, on the 

 death of Mr. Ponsonby, he became leader 

 of the Opposition in the House of Com- 

 mons. Notwithstanding the severe, the de- 

 served, the merciless castigation, which he 

 bestowed on Canning, on that gentleman's 

 taking office, not only with but under Lord 

 Castlereagh, he, on the formation of the 

 Canning ministry, was made Master of the 

 Mint, with a seat in the Cabinet. He went 

 out with Lord Goderich ; and, since that 

 period, struggling with age and infirmity, 

 though in full possession of all his intellec- 

 tual powers, he has been seen but little in 

 public life. For many years he had la- 

 boured under an organic disease of the 

 heart, with great tendency to dropsy in the 

 chest and limbs, attended with cough and 

 difficulty of breathing. His complaints, 

 however, were so much relieved by medi- 

 cine, that he transacted business, went into 

 company, and retained his cheerfulness to 

 the last. The day before his death, which 

 occurred at his house in Saville-row, on the 



