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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS OF EMINENT PERSONS. 



BARRY ST. I.EGER. 



ALTHOUGH genius may not have lived 

 to accomplish all of which it was capable, 

 or to have performed, in the maturity of 

 manhood, that which we had a right to an- 

 ticipate from its earlier efforts, we should 

 not let it sink into a premature grave with- 

 out some slight history of what it had at- 

 chieved, and some notice of what it has pro- 

 jected. We do not like to see talent pass 

 from the face of society, that has been de- 

 lighted with its exertions, unhonoured by 

 some tribute to its memory ; nor, to snfFe? 

 the recollection of its existence to be effaced, 

 as easily as that of the many who have 

 passed through life, without having performed 

 one act to distinguish them from the mass 

 of their fellow-creatures. Had the subject 

 of the present memoir been permitted a 

 longer life, instead of having been con- 

 demned to a premature death, he would, in 

 all probability, have established a character 

 by his literary labours, which would have 

 made the proudest biographical work glad to 

 have enrolled his name among the history 

 of those whose works have earned for them 

 a deathless name. As it is, the few works 

 Mr. St. Leger has left us, are too excellent 

 of their kind, and have entitled their au- 

 thor to too great a reputation, for us to per- 

 mit his life and death to pass unrecorded 

 among his literary contemporaries ; and it 

 is with a melancholy pleasure that we con- 

 sider it among the eludes of our office to 

 devote a few of our pages to the purpose of 

 preserving some reminiscences of the talents, 

 which, like those of Mr. St. Leger, have 

 been cut off by death before they had 

 reached their maturity. 



Francis Barry Boyle St. Leger was the 

 son of a most respectable Irish family of that 

 name, and very nearly connected with seve- 

 ral distinguished families, both in England 

 and Ireland. The youngest child, he was 

 from his infancy rather the favourite of his 

 mother, the Honourable Mrs. St. Leger; 

 and, to this circumstance, as well as to the 

 precocity of his own mind, that very early 

 introduction to society which gave such a 

 character to his future life and manners, is 

 perhaps to be attributed. His father, being 

 the intimate friend of Francis Lord Guild- 

 ford, introduced Mr. Barry St. Leger, even 

 while an infant, to the distinguished circle 

 at Wroxton. This circle consisted of the 

 principal of the whig party in politics, .and 

 of all that was eminent for genius and lite- 

 rature of the day. Here it was that Sheri- 

 dan let loose the flood-gates of his wit ; and 

 that John Kemble condescended to play the 

 inferior parts in the pieces which were got up 

 in their private theatricals, and the subject 

 of our present memoir frequently acted, as a 

 child, the most prominent part in the piece 

 in which Mr. Kemble took the inferior cha- 

 racter. The precocity of his mind made 



him a general favourite with the circle ; ami 

 from this early introduction to society he 

 derived those ideas and knowledge of life at 

 a very early period, which, under ordinary 

 circumstances, are only the result of years 

 and experience. Here too, from the liberal 

 political principle which he heard discussed, 

 he imbibed those notions of politics which 

 in his mind generated that true indepen- 

 dence of principle, which is of no party, 

 and upon which he acted, frequently to his- 

 own detriment, throughout the remainder 

 of his short life. From the powers of enter- 

 tainment which at this early period he 

 evinced, he became not only the pet of the 

 Guildford family, but of the whole circle 

 that then frequented Wroxton ; and allowed 

 to mingle in their meetings with more than 

 the privileges of a man, he saw so much of 

 society, and with a discrimination so much 

 beyond his years, that at a very early period 

 he entered into active life with a better 

 knowledge of society than falls to the lot'of 

 many of twice his age. 



He commenced his education at Rugby, 

 in the expectation of completing it at col- 

 lege ; a high civil situation in India, how- 

 ever, being offered to his friends, it was 

 accepted for him ; and thus entering early 

 into active life, he completed his education 

 in the world. At seventeen he went to 

 India, where unforeseen circumstances threw 

 him into the performance of more arduous 

 duties, and into situations of so much con- 

 sequence and responsibility, that his life in 

 India used to be a subject of wonder to him- 

 self, when additional experience made him 

 more sensible of the high offices he had per- 

 formed at so early an age as seventeen. 

 The customs of the country, however, as ill 

 accorded with his recollections of Wroxton 

 comforts, as what he called the tyranny and 

 the injustice of the Eastern government, 

 did with the principles of liberty which he 

 had imbibed in that circle. He now there- 

 fore determined to throw up his situation ; 

 and with the full knowledge of the arduous 

 task before him in this country of fighting 

 his way even to competence, through all the 

 fag of the English bar, he sacrificed the 

 certainty of a large fortune to his indepen- 

 dence of principle, came back to England, 

 and entered himself a member of the Inner 

 Temple. From this period his literary la- 

 bours commenced. Independently of writing 

 for various periodical publications, he be- 

 came the editor of the Album, a work set on 

 foot, and published by Mr. Ascham, the li- 

 brarian, of Bond-street, to whose kindness 

 in this early stage of his short career, Mr. 

 St. Leger has frequently expressed himself 

 as being greatly indebted. 



In 1823 he wrote Gilbert Earle, which 

 was published by Mr. Charles Knight, of 

 Pull Mall East, another esteemed friend of 

 the author. This book at once ranked him 



