May 23, 1859.] OBITUARY.— HALL AM— THE EARL OF RIPON. 243 



independence the ever-renewed and ever- varying party-conflicts in 

 history. I know no compositions in which these first conditions 

 of historical worth, copious original research, and equitable cri- 

 ticism, are more constantly combined than in those of Mr. Hallam. 

 And it is, in my judgment, an additional merit that his History is 

 devoted to the gown rather than to the sword ; that he has left to 

 others the exciting tales of battles and sieges, of exhibitions of 

 armed force, either in strategic movement or tumultuous outbreak — 

 pugnas et exactos tyrannos — which have always charmed the popular 

 mind in description, however distressing they may have been, in 

 the reality, to the generations that underwent them. Mr. Hallam 

 has set before us the energies of the unarmed citizen ; the pacific 

 manifestations of the human mind, in its legal and institutional 

 development ; in philosophy, literature, and poetry ; and though 

 last, not least, in those Fine Arts which form the collective bond of 

 sympathy among the present company. To succeed to an historian 

 who to these literary accomplishments added all the social excel- 

 lences of an English gentleman, is a distinction of which any living 

 author may be proud." 



As a Trustee of the British Museum, Mr. Hallam 's just apprecia- 

 tion of works of ancient art, and his thorough acquaintance with the 

 rarest books, were combined in him with the soundest judgment in 

 the management of the establishment ; and when his last illness fell 

 upon him, and deprived the Board of his solid advice, every trustee 

 felt that he had lost the invaluable support of a just and enlightened 

 associate. 



The chronicler who may endeavour to render justice to the 

 memory of the deceased will necessarily dwell upon those records 

 of the Middle Ages which demonstrate how our liberties arose, and 

 then follow out the processes by which our freedom was consoli- 

 dated and maintained, as put forth in that noble work ' The Con- 

 stitutional History of England,' which breathes such a racy love of 

 free and well-balanced institutions. 



It is my humbler province only to indite these few lines expressive 

 of my admiration of the scholar and historian who was an honour 

 to our age, and to record with just pride that I had the privilege of 

 enjoying the personal friendship of the great, good, and virtuous 

 Henry Hallam. 



The Earl of Eipon. — In continuing this Address as usual with 

 some allusions to the Fellows of our Society who have been taken 

 from us in the past year, I will not endeavour to put before you a 



