1810.] Account of the 
vevery period of ‘his life. In 1773, when 
he was but twenty-three years old, his 
‘Nove of adventure, and his thirst of know- 
edge, induced him to accompany his 
friend Constantine Lord Mulgrave, in 
his voyage towards the North Pole; but 
the was so harassed with sta-sickness, that 
he was under the necessity of being landed 
in Norway, and of wholly abandoning his’ 
purpose. In 1778, he became a Major in 
the Norfolk Militia, then quartered at 
Bury in Suffollz, where, by his intrepidity 
and personal exertion,* he quelled a dan- 
gerous mutiny, which had. broken out3 
Notwithstanding he was highly beloved by 
the regiment. On one of the mutineers 
‘laying hold’ of a part of his dress, he felled 
‘him to the ground, and put him into con- 
inement; and, on his comrades after- 
wards surrounding him, and insisting on 
the release of the delinquent, he drew 
his sword, and kept them at bay, till 
a party of his own company. joined 
and rescued him. ‘Soon afterwards, 1a con- 
sequence of his being obliged to remain for 
several hours'in wet clothes, he was seized 
with a dangerous bilious fever, which nearly 
deprived him of his life. In the autumn of 
that year, partly.with a view-of restoring his 
chealth, he went abroad, and spent .the two 
following years in Switzerland and Italy. 
Previously to his leaving England, he was 
schosea 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 
<engagements in consequence of his Par- 
liamentary business, aid the important 
officcs which he filled, he wasa very fre- 
quent attendant at the meetings of that 
espectable society, {for which he always 
expressed the highest value,) from 1781 
0 near the time-of his.death. So early 
as the year 1769, when he was at Ox- 
ford, and had not yet attained his twen- 
tieth year, the late Blarquis Townshend, 
then Lord Lieutenant. of Ireland, whom 
he twice visited during his residence in 
hat 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 honeurable sentiments, . which 
afterwards umiformly :regulated his conduct. 
Xn 1782 he came into Parliament, where 
he sat for twenty-eight years, at first for 
* OF bis dauntless,couraze many instances 
anightbe given. In May 1785, he ascended 
from Moulsey Hurst in a balloon, with Mr. 
Sadler; and in 4792, having visited the 
army engaged in the siege of Walenciennes, 
the surveyed all the works with the most 
yminute attention, in company. with Captain - 
now Colonel) Thornton, and approached so 
sear the enemy, that he was often within 
the seach of their cannon 
late Mr. I Vindhame 
Norwich, and afterwards for various hoe. 
roughs; and he so early distinguished 
himself in the House of Commons, that he 
was selected by Mr. Burke iv June 1784, to 
second his motion for a representation: to 
his Majesty on the state of the nation. In 
the preceding year, he had. been appointed 
principal Secretary to the Earl of North- 
-ington, then constituted Lord Lieutenant of 
Ireland; and in that capacity he visited 
Dublin in the spring of 1783. and intended © 
to have accompanied his Excellency when 
he afterwards opened the session of. Pare 
liament there in October5* but being pre- 
vented by illness, he relinquish-d his oiliceg 
and his friend the Hon. fhomas, Pelham 
75 
- (now Earl) of Chichescer,) was appointed 
. Seovetary in his room. from the time of 
his coming into Parliament to the year 
1793, he wsually voted with the Opposi- 
tion of that day; but he never was what 
is calleda thorough party-maa, frequently 
deviating from those to whom he wis in 
general attached, when, in matters of im- 
portance, his conscience directed him to 
take a different course from them ; on 
which account, his virtues and talents were 
never rightly appreciated by persons of 
that. description, who frequently on this 
ground vainly attempted to undervaiue 
him. After the rapture between Mr. Fox 
and Mr. Burke, in conseguence of the 
French Revolution, Mr. Windham attached . 
himself wholly to the !attcr, with whom | 
he had for many years lived in the closest. 
intimacy:; and of whose genius and virtues 
he had always the, highest admiration. 
Being, with him, thoroughly convinced of 
the danger then impending over his country 
from the measures adopted by certain classes 
of Englishmen, in consequence of that tre= 
mendous convulsion,. he did not hesitate to 
unite with the Duke of Portland, Lord 
Spencer, and others, in accepting offices. 
under the administration in which Mr.-Pitt 
then presided. On this arrangement Mr. 
Windham was appointed Secretary at War, 
with a seat.in the Cabinet, an honourable 
distinction ‘which had never before been an- 
* When about to visit that country in his 
oiRcial capacity, he called on Dr. Johnson 5 
and tn the course of conversation, lamented 
thac he should be undex the necessity of sance 
tioning -practices of which he could not 
approve. ‘¢ Don't be afraid, sir, said the 
Dector, with a pleasant smile, ‘*you will 
soon make a very pretty rascal.”"—=De. Johne 
son in a letter to Dr. Brocklesby, written 
at Ashbourne, in 1784, says: **Mr. Winde 
ham has been here to see me—he came, I 
think, forty apiles out of his way, ane staid 
about a day and ahalf; perhaps | make the 
time shorter than it was. Such conversation 
I shall not have ‘again till | come back to the 
rezions of literature, and tiere Windham is_ 
inter stellas luna mjnores?? Evxr. 
nexed 
