617 



HUME, JOSEPH. 



HUNT, JAMES HENRY LEIGH. 



518 



the most part confined to the preparation of official papers, which ma 

 nevertheless have exercised a greater influence upon society than coul 

 have followed from the publication of his opinions. He wrote 'howeve 

 several valuable papers upon subjects connected with commerce, whic 

 appeared from time to time in the ' British and Foreign Review." On 

 of these papers, on the timber trade and duties, may be said to hav 

 exhausted the subject. He is better known as the author of a serie 

 of letters which, under the signature ' H.B.T ,' appeared first in th 

 'Morning Chronicle,' acd have since been collected, and more tha 

 once reprinted. These letters contain, within a very small compass 

 the most admirable and unanswerable arguments for those changes in 

 our fiscal system which have since been carried out, and for which hi 

 labours essentially cleared the way. Mr. Hume's style partook of th 

 characteristics of his mind, which was vigorous and original. 



HUME, JOSEPH, was born at Montrose in the year 1777. Hi 

 father was the master of a small coasting-vessel, and after his deat 

 his widow supported herself by keeping a ehop in Montrose. Havin 

 received the merest rudiments of educatiou, including Latin and 

 smattering of accounts, at a school in his native town, he was appren 

 ticed in his fourteenth year to a surgeon. In 1793 he entered th 

 University of Edinburgh for the purpose of prosecuting his medica 

 studies ; and having taken a medical degree, and passed the Londoi 

 College of Surgeons, he was appointed surgeon to an East Indiaman 

 ill 1797. He distinguished himself not only in his medical capacity 

 but also by acting as purser on his voyage out, and conducting a nios 

 complicated business in a very successful manner. On reaching India 

 he mastered the native languages, and, in addition to his functions a* 

 an army surgeon, he became Persian interpreter, commissary-general 

 and pay-master and post-master of the forces in the prize agencies 

 It is said that he owed the first step of his promotion to his knowledge 

 of chemistry, which enabled him to detect the presence of damp in 

 the government stores of gunpowder on the eve of Lord Lake's 

 Mabratta war. Nothing is more surprising than the amount of hare 

 work performed by the young civilian at this time, and its success 

 enabled him to return to England in the prime of life with a 

 fortune of about 50,0001. On returning to England he commences 

 studying the history and resources of Great Britain, and acquire 

 that insight into the condition of both the government and people 

 which formed the foundation of his subsequent exertions in the cause 

 of reform. In the same spirit ho visited a large portion of the 

 Continent, and made a tour through Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Greece 

 and Kgypt, to increase his stores of political experience. 



In 1812 he entered parliament under the auspices of the late Sir J 

 Lowther Johnstone, Bart, as member for Melcoinbe Regis, which now 

 forms part of the borough of AY ey mouth, but failed to secure his 

 re-election in the autumn of the same year. In the interval betweeu 

 this date and 1818 he became acquainted with Place, Mill, and other 

 disciples of the ichool of Jeremy Bentham ; and devoted considerable 

 time and energy to the foundation of savings banks and of schools on 

 the Lancasterian system. He was also a candidate though an unsuc- 

 cessful one for a seat at the Board of East India Directors. In 1818 

 he re-entered parliament as member for the Montroae burghs, for 

 which he continued to sit without interruption until 1830, when he 

 was chosen by the constituency of Middlesex. He represented that 

 county during all the period of agitation which preceded the passing 

 of the Reform Act down to 1837, when he was defeated, but returned 

 through the influence of Mr. O'Connell for Kilkenny. In 1841 be 

 contested Leeds without success; but in the following year was 

 re-elected for his native Montrose burghs, which he represented down 

 to his death, a period of thirteen years. 



For many years Mr. Hume stool nearly alone in the House of 

 Commons as the advocate of Financial Reform : indeed in the cause 

 of reduction of taxation and public expenditure no man ever did so 

 much practical good as Joseph Hume, through a long career of perse- 

 verance and industry. Disregarding the fashion of the age and the 

 opinions of the world, he adhered in the smallest matters to what he 

 thought just and right. In most of the political and social move- 

 ments of the last quarter of a century he was an important actor : 

 the working man eats bread which ho helped to cheapen, walks 

 through parks which be helped to procure fur him, and is in a fair 

 way to attain further educational advantages in consequence of his 

 exertions. He more than once refused to accept office under Liberal 

 governments, and he devoted a part of his own wealth to the social and 

 political objects which he had in view. His speeches delivered iu 

 parliament occupy in bulk several volumes of ' Hausard's Debates.' 

 He incessantly advocated reforms of our army, navy, and ordnance 

 departments, of the Established Church and Ecclesiastical courts, and 

 of the general system of taxation and the public accounts. He early 

 advocated the abolition of military flogging, naval impressment, and 

 imprisonment for debt. With little active assistance, he carried the 

 repeal of the old combination laws, the laws prohibiting the export of 

 machinery, and the act for preventing mechanics from going abroad. 

 He was unceasing in his attacks on colonial and municipal abuses, 

 election expense*, the licensing systems, the duties on paper and 

 printing, and on articles of household consumption. He took an 

 active part in carrying Roman Catholic emancipation, the repeal of 

 the Test and Corporation Acts, and in the passing of the Reform Act 

 of 1832. A remarkable passage in his life was his discovery, in 1835, 



of an extensive Orange plot, commencing before the accession of 

 William IV. An account of this transaction, in all the minuteness of 

 detail, will be found in Miss Harriet Martiueau's 'History of the 

 Thirty Years' Peace.' 



The health of Mr. Hume began to break soon after the parlia- 

 mentary session of 1854, and he died at Burnley Hall, his seat iu 

 Norfolk, on the 20th of February 1865. At the time of his death ha 

 was a magistrate for Norfolk, Westminster, and Middlesex, aud a 

 deputy lieutenant for the latter county. As a proof of the general 

 esteem in which he was held, we may add, that in the House of 

 Commons speakers of all parties took 'occasion to pay a tribute to his 

 character. He married a daughter of the late Mr. BurnWy, by whom 

 he left a family of several sons and daughters. His eldest sou is 

 Mr. Joseph Burnley Hume, barrister-at-law. 



HUMMEL, JOHANN-NEPOMUK, a composer and performer on 

 the pianoforte highly distinguished during the present century, was 

 born at Presburg in 1778. At a very early age he received instructions 

 iu music from his father, a master at the military institution of Wart- 

 berg, and evinced so decided a talent that, when he had scarcely com- 

 pleted his seventh year, he was sent to Vienna, and placed under 

 Mozart, who, though he had a natural repugnance to teaching, took so 

 promising a genius into his house as a pupil, where he remained two 

 years, and imbibed much of the knowledge and laid the foundation of 

 that fine taste which at a later period of life were developed in so 

 striking and profitable a manner. In his tenth year he set out on a 

 visit to the principal cities of Germany, Denmark, and Holland, and 

 reached London in 1791, where he was much noticed, aud had the 

 honour to perform at Buckingham House before the royal family. 



At the expiration of six years Hummel returned to Vienna, pursued 

 the study of composition under Albrechtsberger, and further improved 



wealthy and powerful prince at their head, Hummel took au active 

 part in the management, and produced several successful operas. 

 In 1811 he withdrew from the prince's establishment, aud wholly 

 dedicated the next five years to the lucrative branches of his 

 profession. 



In 1816 he became Kapellmeister to the King of Wiirtemberg, in 

 whose service ha remained till the year 1818, when he engaged him- 

 self in the same capacity to the Grand-Duke of Weiumr, which 

 appointment he retained to the close of his life. But his duties at the. 

 court of Weimar were not of a nature to prevent his frequent journeys 

 to other countries. In 1821 he made a very profitable visit to St. 

 Petersburg and Moscow, aud two years after to Amsterdam. In April 

 1830 M. Hummel arrived in London, and immediately gave a coucert 

 at the Hanover-Square Room, which was so crowded, and his perform- 

 ance of his own compositions made so great a sensation, that it was 

 Followed by two other concerts in May and June, which were as fully 

 attended as the first This success iuduced him to return in the 

 spring of the following year, when he also gave three concerts ; but 

 trusting too much to his individual exertions, they proved rather less 

 ittractive- than those of the preceding season. Iu 1833 he repeated 

 ais visit to London, and a single concert convinced him that his popu- 

 arity had deserted him : he was no longer new, and hud no connection 

 a supply the want of that novelty for which in our fashionable circles 

 ;here is so insatiable a thirst. M. Hummel returned to Weimar, and 

 lad the order of the White Eagle conferred on him. He died of 

 water on the chest, in October 1837, leaving a widow aud two sons 

 amply provided for by a good fortune acquired by his talents and 

 accumulated by his prudeuce. M. Hummel's compositions are very 

 mmerous. Of his operas, 'Mathilde von Guise' is the beat; and in 

 lis two masses in D minor and E flat are clever and charming 

 movements. But his reputation will rest on his pianoforte works : 

 ome of these will not soon be forgotten, particularly his beautiful and 

 masterly concerto in A minor. 



HUNT, JAMES HENRY LEIGH, was born at Southgate in 

 Middlesex, October 19, 1784. Hia father, by birth a West Indian, had 

 married an American lady, aud was residing in North America when 

 he war of Independence broke out. Taking the loyalist side in the 

 trife, he was obliged to flee to England, where he took orders in the 

 vuglish Church, aud was for some time tutor to Mr. Leigh, nephew of 

 he Duke of Chandos. Of several sous Leigh became the most dis- 

 ingui-hed : he was educated, as his friends Coleridge, Charles Lamb, 

 nd Barnes, afterwards well known as editor of the ' Times,' had been, 

 t Christ's Hospital, London ; and even while there ho revealed his 

 atural genius for literature by numerous attempts in verse, some of 

 rhich were published in 1802 by his father, under the title of ' Juvc- 

 ilia, or a Collection of Poems written between the ages of twelve aud 

 ixteen.' After leaving Christ's Hospital, at the age of fifteen, he was 

 or some time iu the office of one of his brothers, who had become au 

 ttorney, and afterwards he had a situation in the War-office. While 

 n these employments he contribute.! to various periodicals; writing, 

 uore especially, theatrical criticisms aud literary articles for a weekly 

 ewspaper which had been started iu 1805 by his elder brother, Johu 

 unt. Of his theatrical criticisms, which were iu a style then quito 

 cw, a selection was published iu 18u7 iu a more lasting form, in a 

 olumo of ' Critical Essays on the Performers of the London Theatres.' 



