: 
258 Eulosy on the late Duke of Bedford, by Mdr.. Fox. -[April 1, 
3¢.. There was fomething in that cha- 
rafter {o peculiar and ftriking, and the 
juft admiration which his virtues com- 
rmanded, was fuch, that to expatiate upon 
them in any detail is as ‘unneceflary as - 
upon this occafion it would be improper. 
‘That he has been much lamented and ge- 
nerally, cannot be wondered at, for furely 
there never was a more juft occafion of 
public forrow. To lofe fuch a man !—at 
fuch a time!—fo unexpectedly !—The par- 
ticular ftage of his life too in which we 
fott'him, muft add to every feeling of re- 
gret, and make the difappointment more 
-gevere and poignant to all thinking minds. 
Had he fallen at an earlier period, the Pub- 
lic, to whom he could then (comparative- 
ly-fpeaking at leaft) be but little known, 
would rather have compaflionated and con- 
doled with the feelings of his friends and 
relations, than have been themfelves very 
feverely afflicted by the lofs. It would 
have been fuggefted, and even we who 
were the moft partial muft have admitted, 
. that the expeétations raifed by the dawn 
are not always realifed in the meridian of 
life. If the fatal event had been poftponed, 
the calamity might have been alleviated by 
the confideration, that mankind could not 
have looked forward for any length of 
time to the exercile of ‘his virtues and ta+ 
lents. But he was fnatched away at a mo- 
ment when fociety might have been ex- 
pected to be long benefitted by his benevo- 
Jence, his energy, and his wifdom ; when 
we had obtained a full certainty that the 
progrefs of his life would be more than 
an{werable to the brighteft hopes conceived 
from its outfet; and when it might have 
been reafonably hoped, that, after having 
accomplifhed ail the good of which it was" 
capable, he would havedefcended not im- 
maturely intothe tomb. He had, on the 
one hand, lived long enough to have his. 
character fully confirmed and eftablifhed, 
while, on the other, what remained of 
life feemed, according to all human ex- 
pectations, to afford ample {pace and fccpe 
for the exercife of the virtues of which that 
character was compofed. ‘The tree was 
old enough to enable us to afcertain the 
quality of the fruit which it would bear, 
and, at the fafne time, young enough to 
promife many years of produce. The 
high rank and fplendid fortune of the 
great man of whom Iam fpeaking, though 
not circumftances which ~in themielves 
either can or ought to concilate the re- 
‘gard and efteem of rational minds, are yet 
in fo confiderable as an elevated fitua- 
tion, by making him who is placed in it 
mere powerlul and confpicuous, caules 
= 
4 
iar 
his virtues or vices to be more ufeful or 
injurious to fociety. In this cafe, the rank 
and wealthy of the perfon are to be attend- 
ed to inanother anda very different point of 
view. To appreciate his merits juitly, 
we muft confider, not only the advantages, 
but the difadvantages, connetted with fuch 
circumftances. _ The dangers attending 
profperity in general, and high fituations 
in particular, the corrupting influence of 
flattery, to which men in fuch fituations 
are more peculiarly expofed, have been the. 
theme of moralifts in all ages, and in al} 
nations; but how are thefe dangers increafed 
with refpect to him who fucceeds in his 
childhood to the firft rank and fortune 
in a kingdom, fuch as this, and who, 
having loft his parents, is never approach- 
ed by any being who is not reprefented to 
him as in fome degree his inferior ! 
Unlefs bleffed with a heart uncommonly 
fufceptible and difpofed to virtue, how 
fhould he who has fearce ever feen an 
equal, have a common feeling, and a juft 
fympathy, for the reft cf mankind, whe 
feem to have been formed rather for him, 
and as inftruments of his gratification, 
than together avzth him for the ‘general 
purpoles of nature? Juftly has the Ro- 
man fatirift remarked, 
Rarus enim fermé fenfus communis in illa 
Fortuna. 
This was precifely the cafe of the Duke 
of Bedford, nor do I know that his edu- 
cation was perfectly exempt from the de- 
feéts ufvally belonging to {uch fituations ; 
but virtue found her own way, and on the 
very fide where the danger was the great- 
eft, was her triumph moft complete. 
From the blame of felfifhnefs no man was 
ever fo eminently free. No man put 
his own gratification fo low, that of others 
fo high, in his eftimation. ~ To contribute 
to the welfare of his fellow citizens was 
the conftant unremitted purfuit of his life, 
by his example and his beneficence to 
render them better, wifer, and happier. 
He truly loved the Public; but not only 
the Public, according to the ufual accep- 
tation of the word ; not merely the body 
corporate (if I may fo expre{s myfelf) which 
bears that name, but Man in his indivi- 
dual capacity, all who came within his 
notice and deferved his prote€tion, were — 
objets of his generous concern: From 
his ftation the {phere of his acquaintance 
was larger than that of moft other men 3 
yet in this extended circle, few, very few, 
could be counted to whom he had not 
found fome oceafion to be ferviceable, To 
be ufcfal, whether to the public at Jarge, - 
whether 
