WIDESPREAD GRIEF AT HIS DEATH. 461 



devoted hearth ! " To me, however, it appears 

 more probable that Lord George died, as he had 

 preferred to live, a lonely and inaccessible man. 

 It would have been easy for him, by lifting his 

 hand, to have summoned to his aid the woodman 

 Evans, and the latter's companion. He could 

 hardly have been unconscious of the near ap- 

 proach of death while leaning against the gate, 

 close to which his body was found. From my 

 intimate acquaintance with his Lordship's char- 

 acter and iron courage, I am convinced that he 

 preferred to die alone. 



It is seldom that the death of a statesman pro- 

 vokes such general consternation, such widespread 

 grief. On the morrow of the announcement of 

 Lord George's death, all the British ships in the 

 docks and the river, from London Bridge to 

 Gravesend, hoisted their flags half-mast high. 

 Every neighbouring port on the Continent, such 

 as Antwerp, Havre, Cherbourg, Bordeaux, and 

 Rotterdam, followed the example set on the 

 Thames. Most of all, however, was his Lord- 

 ship's death bewailed with their customary warm- 

 heartedness and sympathy by Irishmen all over 

 the world. His lofty independence of party ties, 

 exemplified by his support of Catholic emancipa- 

 tion, of justice to Ireland, of a reformed Parlia- 

 ment, and of the removal of Jewish disabilities, 

 gave him a higher place in the public estimation 

 than that won by any of his contemporaries. 



