1809.] 
This nobleman ought not to pass to the 
Sepulchre of his ancesters without that tri- 
bute which truth owes to superior vir- 
tue, He possessed a highly-cultivated under- 
standing. His mind was stored with no com- 
mda portion of general knowledge, and the 
whole was refined by anexquisite taste. No 
man €ver felcan higher sense of honour; no 
Man ever acted from stronger impressians ef 
moral duty, both as it regards the common 
offices of social life, or as it is enlarged and 
purified by the spirit of that religion which 
he seriously professed. No man _ reflected 
more on the part he was called upon to per- 
form in the world, or acred with greater rec- 
titude on the principles which he had adopted. 
A natural love of trangpillity, a taste for 
the fine arts, and the more flowery paths of 
literature, to which not only the circum- 
stances of his early life, but the bent of his 
genius may have disposed him, and a consti- 
‘tution which never appeared to be calculated’ 
to encounter the fatigues of public business, 
might have combined ts prevent his being en- 
gaged in any of the active departments of the 
State, The embassy to Spain was, we believe, 
during the Marquis of Lansdown’s admini- 
stration, pressed upon him, and he declined 
it. The office of master of the horse to her 
M-jesty was, we have egual reason to believe, 
conterred upon him, as a mark of personal re- 
gard, by the King, and he enjoyed it to the 
close of his life. Hence it is, that this 
“nobleman was only known in the great circle 
of the world, by an appearance suited to his 
rank and office, the distinguished urbanity of 
his manners, and as a lover and admirable 
jadge of the fine arts, ‘in which, as furas he 
those to indulge himself, he may be said to 
shave excelled. Whether it was a mere ju- 
venile caprice which had possessed him during 
his foreign travels, or whether he was in- 
fluenced by his descent from an ancient and 
- distinguished family among the peers of 
France, itis not necessary to consider; but 
his entrance into public life was marked by 
such.a decided preterence to French manners 
and fashions, and his appearance so adapted 
to it, as almost to disguise the exterior of an 
Englishman. But this whimsical propensity 
did not affect his mind or gallicise his cha- 
racter, nor did he render it offensive to others. 
He indulged his fancy ; and when hig inti- 
mate friends made it an object of their 
Bportive sailies, he would enliven them by 
his own good humour, and turn asideany. 
pleasant ridicule by the display of his own 
‘emiable temper. If, however, he had one 
fashionable folly, he had no fashionable 
Vice ; and his leisure hours were passed in 
the pursuits and embellishments of science, 
It was, we believe, at this period, that he 
ete the set of etchings, which are 
lighly estimated by the collectors in that 
branch of art, and which the late Lord Or- 
\ ford mentions in his works asa very beautiful 
_ *pegimenofit, The seach fancy, however, 
Account of the late Lord Harcourt. ~ 
#31 
wore away, and was lost in the easy affabilicy, 
of the accomplished English gentleman. Lord 
Harcourt-considered gaod-breeding as the first 
of the minor virtues, and never deviated 
from it; but as his no:ion of it partook ras 
ther de /a viclle conr, he might be represented 
by those who only knew him in the public 
circles, as an inflexible observer of every rule 
of courtly etiquette; and, especially, at a 
time, when the manners and appearance of 
our young men of fashion and fortume are 
scarcely superior to those of their grooms, 
and very often inferior to chat of their valets 
and butlers. But he had no unbecoming 
pride: his behaviour never overawed the 
poor, nor did it trench upon the easeof fami- 
liar association. His punctilios were. those 
of a refined and dignified benevolence, and, 
never served but as a check to those indeces 
rums, which are ever heid to be inadmissible 
in the sphereof polished life. He might think, 
as many men‘of superior understanding have 
done, that, on certain occasions, it is the duty. 
of rank and station to preserve certain forms, 
and to dress behaviour with somewhat of ap- 
propriate ceremony: and ic may be owing, 
in some degree, to the neglect of those 
forms, which at present prevails in rank and 
station, that a respect for the higher orders 
has so materially diminished among the ins 
ferior classes of the. pecp'e. But, in his fa~ 
mily, among his private friends, in his intere 
course with his tenants, andin all his erdie 
nary avocations, his carriage was such as to 
give pleasure to all who had communication 
‘with him, With his more ennobling quali- 
ties, he possessed a comic elegance of thought, 
anda classical facetiousnéss, which rendered 
his private society infinitely pleasant; and 
even in his nervous moments, for he was oce 
casionally troubled with. them, he would de- 
Scribe himself in such a way, as not only to 
relieve the distress of his friends, but force 
that hilarity upon them which would operate 
also ag a temporary relief to himself. Art 
Nuneham, in Oxfordshire, his country resi= 
dence, and whose native beautys his taste 
had so embellished and improved as to render 
it one of the most admired places in that pare 
of the kingdom, he wus < blessing to all who 
lived within the sphere of his protection ; 
while to the neighbourhood it is weil knowa 
that the village of Numeham is so ordered by 
the regulations he framed —by the encourage= 
ment he afforded—by the little festivals he 
established, and the rewards he distributed, 
as to display ascene of good order, active in- 
dusiry, moral duty, aid humoble piety, of 
which it were te be wished there were more 
examples: though while we offer this te:tie 
mony to the meyits of the dead, it would .M 
become us to pass by those of the living ; 
and we must mention that Lady Harcourt his 
ever had her full share in that constant exer 
cise uf public and private benevolence, which 
gives a benign Austre to the most splendid 
station, To these qualities may ke added his 
capacity 
ne 
