390 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1810. 



till a party of his own company 

 joined and rescued him. Soon af- 

 tern-ards, in consequence of his 

 being obliged to remain for several 

 hours in wet. clothes, he was seized 

 with a dangerous bilious fever, 

 which near!}' deprived him of his 

 life. In the autumn of that year, 

 partly with a view of restoring his 

 health, he went abroad, and spent 

 the two following years in Switzer- 

 land and Italy. Previously to his 

 leaving England, he was chosen a 

 member of the Literary Club, 

 founded by sir Joshua Reynolds 

 and Dr. Johnson (who had the 

 greatest esteem for Mr. Windham) 

 and, notwithstanding his engage- 

 ments in consequenceof his parlia- . 

 mentary business, and the import- 

 ant offices which he filled, he was 

 a very frequent attendant at the 

 meeting of that respectable society 

 (for which he always expressed 

 the highest value) from 1781 to 

 iiearthetime of his death. Soearly 

 as the year 176,0, when he was at 

 Oxford, and had not yet attained 

 his twentieth year, the late mar- 

 quis T()wnshend,then lord lieuten- 

 ant of Ireland, nhom he twice 

 visited during his residence in that 

 country, offered him the office of 

 his principal secretary ; but he 

 declined it in a letter which is still 

 extant, and which very forcibly 

 displays that excellent sense, and 

 those honourable sentiments, which 

 afterwards uniformly regulated his 

 conduct. In 1782 he came into 

 parliament, where he sat fur 

 twenty-eight years, at first for 

 Norwich, and afterwards for vari- 

 ous boroughs ; and he so early dis- 

 tinguished himself in the House of 

 Commons, that he .vas selected by 

 Mr. Burke, in June 1 784', tosecond 

 his motion for a representation to 

 his majesty on the state of the na- 



tion. In the preceding year, he 

 had been appointed principal se- 

 cretary to the Earl ofNorthington, 

 then constituted lord lieutenant 

 of Ireland ; and in that capacity 

 he visited Dublin in the spring of 

 1 783, and intended to have accom- 

 panied his excellency when he af- 

 terwards opened the session of 

 parliament there in October; but 

 being prevented by illness, he re- 

 linquished hisotfice ; andhisfriend 

 the honourable Thomas Pelham 

 (now earl of Chichester) was ap- 

 pointed secretary in his room. 

 F"rom the time of his coming into 

 Parliament, to the year 1793, he 

 usually voted with the opposition 

 of that day ; but he never was 

 what is called a thorough party- 

 man, frequently deviating from 

 those to whom he was generally 

 attached, when, in matters of iin- 

 portance, his conscience directed 

 liim to take a different course from 

 them : on which account, his vir- 

 tues and talents were never rightly 

 appreciated by persons of that 

 description, who frequently on 

 this ground vainly attempted to 

 undervalue him. After the rup- 

 ture between Mr. Fox and Mr. 

 Burke, in consequence of the 

 French revolution, Mr. Windham 

 attached himself wholly to the lat- 

 ter, with whom he had for many 

 years lived in the closest intimacy; 

 and of whose genius and virtues 

 he had always the highest admira- 

 tion. Being, with him, thoroughly 

 convir.ced of the danger then im- 

 pending over his country, from the 

 measures adopted bycertainciasses 

 of Englishmen, in consequence of 

 that tremendous convulsion, he did 

 not hesitate to unite with the duke 

 of Portland, lord Spencer, and 

 others, in accepting offices under 

 the administrationin which Mr.Pitt 



