C H AR A C T E R S. 



765 



made lastly sink into her grave, had 

 not a most unlucky accident inter- 

 Tcned. D;-. Pitcairn, from an inter- 

 nal hurt by a fall, was obliged to 

 repair to Lisbon in the autumn of 

 I7i)8, and did not return before the 

 spring of ISOO. Lord Howe, after 

 his recovery from his long confine- 

 ment to his bed-room, was obliged 

 to use crutches. Such a perpetual 

 memento of his iniirmity, suited not 

 his genius. In the beginning of 

 1799, he grew so impatient of the 

 weakness and pains in his knees, 

 that he could not forbear trying 

 electricity. The experiment had 

 given him such c^onsiderable relief, 

 that he was able to move about upon 

 a horse ; nor did he in the least ap- 

 prehend that this quick restoration 

 of his strength, would be attended 

 with any fatal consequence. 



To London, in a very few days, 

 driven by a sudden emergency, the 

 oarl went himself — never to return. 

 The gout had seized upon his head ; 

 and by the 5th of August, he was 

 no more. He had lived live months 

 and seventeen days of his 74th year, 

 and was buried in the family vault 

 at Langar in the county of ]\otting- 

 ham. 



Needless it may seem to readers 

 in general, after the variety of facts 

 already recited, to set down any 

 further particulars, by which the 

 Ifenius and disjiosition of earl Howe 

 should be more fully displayed to 

 the public. Hut there are still some 

 traits in his character, which it has 

 not yet fallen into the writer's way 

 properly to record. A principal 

 one of these was his penetrating 

 foresight into military events. Three 

 instan<fs of this shall be related. 



When in 1779» '"'i''' Cornvtallis 

 commanded an array in America, 



some at home thought him in a dan- 

 gerous situation, but others not. 

 I asked lord Howe's opinion, who 

 immediately replied, " He did n9t 

 " see how he could escape." This 

 prediction, in a few weeks, was un- 

 fortunately verified. 



In 1791, when thedukeof Bruns. 

 wick, at th&head of a most potent 

 army, was advancing towards Paris, 

 and it was generally imagined no- 

 thing could oppose him, lord Howe 

 said, " he would find it a difficult 

 " matter to procure subsistence for 

 <' such an army in a country per- 

 " fectly hostile." It was soon after 

 this, that, to the utter amazement of 

 the world, the duke of Brunswick 

 retreated. 



When Bonaparte had landed at 

 Alexandria, lord Howe said, " it is 

 " a wild scheme : he will never make 

 " any thing of it." 



Let us now view him in his sena- 

 torial capacity. The steady con- 

 duct of lord Howe was never 

 wrought upon by dissentions of any 

 political characters. He pursued his 

 own line of duty, seldom speaking in 

 public, except when called upon by 

 some pressing occasion. None of his 

 speeches are recorded in the parlia- 

 mentary register, during the whole 

 of the parliament which was dis- 

 solved in 1768. It is not, however, 

 probable he should have remained 

 silent all this while, since he was 

 treasurer of the navy, from 1765 to 

 1770. In the next parliament, from 

 1766 to 1774, the register records 

 one of his speeches, and one only ; 

 which is, when he brought in the 

 petition of the half pay captains in 

 1773. From the election in 1774, 

 he took more i)art ia the debates, 

 both before his going to America, 

 and after his return home. His 



speech 



