1799] 
did not feek thefe qualities in a wife. He 
married a young lady, the daughter of a pro- 
vincial clergyman, poflefted of good fenfe, 
and a moft amiable difpofition; therefore, 
better chofen than if recommended by high 
birth, riches, or beauty: by this marriage his 
Lordfhip has feveral children, the sidett of 
whom, it is reafondble to hope, will emulate 
the virtues of his father. From the moment 
in which Lord Charlemont firft embarked in 
public life, he has invariably promoted the 
beft interefts ofthe country. Heaffected not, 
however, in any inftance, that aebred 
which follows rather the fhewy and infincere 
profefiions of the demagogue, than the wife 
and well-judged reafures of him who ferves 
his country more from a motive of duty than 
a thirft of fame. With him, patriotifm was 
a virtue whith he prattifed for its own fake, 
and without attention to any confequences, 
except the approbation of his own mind, and 
a ftrict attention to the public welfare. The 
virtues and fervices of Lord Charlemont were 
neither unobferved nor unrewarded by the 
public. He was accordingly raifed by the 
unanimous voice of the people, more fully 
and faithfully expreffed than it had been on 
any other occafion, to the moft honourable 
fituation which it was in their power to be- 
ftow, that of commander in chief of an army 
felf-appointed, and {elf-paid, 
80,000 freemen, including all the gentry and 
the nobility of the kingdom. To this com- 
mand of the Old Volunteer army of lreland 
he was for feveral years fucceffively ele&ted ; 
nor did this relation between that eeeabrdt: 
nary body of men and his Lordfhip ceafe until 
a difference of political opinion had arifen, 
which induced him to refign. That ditfer- 
ence arofe on the queftion of admitting the 
Catholics to One icipate in the power of the 
ftate. . The idea was firft broached in an ad- 
dreis from the volunteers of Ulfter to his 
Lordfhip, at a time when they had been fe- 
viewed by him in the neighbourhood of Bel- 
fat. Hein very plain, but very polite and 
refpe&tful terms, exprefied, in his anfwer, 
his difference of opinion on that queftion. A 
difcordance of fentiment, on a point of fuch 
moment, muift have been fatal to that cor- 
diality of affe€tion which had alone recon- 
ciled him to the troublefome, though highly 
honourable, fituation to which he had been 
raifed: he thererore fhortly afterwards, re- 
figned his command. Of 2 reform in the re- 
prefentation his Lordfhip has been long a 
friend, and was among the firft of thofe no- 
blemen and gentlemen who, when the quef- 
tion was agitated, and the great difficulty ap- 
peared to be, how individuals fhould be fatis- 
fied for the annihilation of their property, 
made an offerof a voluntary furrender of their 
‘boroughs to the public. On the queftion of 
the regency, too, he adopted that fid which 
alone was thought compatible with sheinde- 
pendence of Ireland. He was one of thofe 
who, in oppofition to the partizans of Mr. Pitt, 
ailerted the right of that kingdom to appoint 
Account of Lord Charlemont.—Dr. Withering. 
entitled to our regard. 
confifting of 
Qs 
its own regent; and, as they conftituted 
majority in the two Honfes, they accordingly 
offered the regency to the heir apparent. In 
a mind iike that of his Lordthip, cultivated, 
vigorous and pure, error is feldom a plant of 
srennial growth. © The ppinion which he fo 
honeftly entertained, and fo’ boldly avowed 
to the volunteer army of 17845, he feems to 
have fince changed for thofe of a more liberal 
complexion, as he has fince fupported the 
Catholic claim to ‘the elective franchife, 
which Parliament acceded to in 1796, and 
became an advocate for what is called ca- 
tholic emancipation. Of that fy tem of coercion 
which preceded the late infurreCtion in Ire- 
land, his LordfhipMhas been uniformhly the de- 
clared enemy. e, therefore, was one of the 
very few who fupported Lord Moira in his 
parliamentary reprobation of thefe meafures, 
and in recommending thofe of peace and con- 
ciliation. ~Unexceptionable. however, as 
Lord Charlemont’s political conduét has been, 
it is not as a politician that he is exclufively 
He as more highly 
eftimable, perhaps, as a man of tafte and li- 
terature. As a general fcholar he has not 
left his equal in the Irifh Peerage. Pofleffing 
a re{pectable knowledge of the learned lan= 
guages, he was alfo. intimately acquainted 
with thofe of medern Europe, particularly 
the Italian, in which he was an adept. ‘Lo 
his love of letters Ireland owes, in a great 
meafure, the eftablifhment of the only. lite- 
rary fociety (except the Univerfity) which 
fhe poffefies, namely, the Royal Irih Aca- 
demy, which was incorporated by royal char- 
ter in 1786, and of which his Lordihip Das, 
fince its fonddieipny been annually elected 
prefident. Of this office he difcharged the 
duties con amore, conftantly attending its 
meetings, unlefs when ill health prevented, 
prefiding with a father’s care over its con- 
cerns, and occafionally contributing to fillthe 
pages of its tranfactions. In thefe volumes 
his Lordfhip has publifhed three eflays, which 
are highly refpestable; one on a contefted 
paflage in Herodotus; another on an ancient 
cuftom at Meteline, with confiderations on 
its origin; and a third on the antiquity of the 
woollen manufa€ture in Ireland, which he 
has proved from feme paflages in the Utalian 
peets. Thefe, however, conttitute but a 
{mall part of what his Lordfhip has written. 
To fome of his friends he has fhewn, at va- 
rious times, materials for larger works, with 
which it is to be hoped the public will now 
be favopred. Among the lovers and the 
judges of the fine arts he hyld a very confpi- 
cuousrank. At his houfein Rutland-fquare, 
Dublin, was to be feen a moft refpectable 
colleéion of the great mafters in painting and’ 
fculpture, both ancient and modern; anid of 
his tafe in architecture, his termple 6f Ma- 
rino, within a couple of miles of the metro; < 
polis, is a beautifulfpecimen., 
At the Larches, near Birmingham, In the 
58th year of his age, William Withering, 
M.D. 
: ; oF 
F.R.S. member of the Royal Academy * 
* 
4 
Guna 

