The Life of Sir Samuel Romilly, Volume 1

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J. Murray, 1842 - Biography - 1028 pages

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Page 50 - Of all the celebrated persons whom in my life I have chanced to see, Dr. Franklin, both from his appearance and his conversation, seemed to me the most remarkable. His venerable, patriarchal appearance, the simplicity of his manner and language, and the novelty of his observations, at least the novelty of them at that time to me, impressed me with an opinion of him as one of the most extraordinary men that ever existed.
Page 390 - ... pinus, quotque in flore novo pomis se fertilis arbos induerat, totidem autumno matura tenebat...
Page 130 - je ne crois pas qu'il en existe ; je n'en ai jamais vu.
Page 180 - Religion — language- — interest — affections may, and I hope will yet prove a bond of permanent union between the two countries : to this end, neither attention nor disposition, on my part, shall be wanting.
Page 33 - At a later period of my life, after a success at the bar which my wildest and most sanguine dreams had never painted to me — when I was gaining an income of 8000/. or 9000/. ayear — I have often reflected how all that prosperity had arisen out of the pecuniary difficulties and confined circumstances of my father.
Page 103 - Let me hope, Sir, that if aught in my character impresses you with esteem towards me, if aught in my misfortunes marks me as the victim of policy and not of resentment, I shall experience the operation of these feelings in your breast, by being informed that I am not to die on a gibbet.
Page 453 - I think there is one effect of a standing army which must in time be felt so as to bring about the abolition of the system. A standing army not only diminishes the population of a country, but even the size and breed of the human species. For an army is the flower of the nation. All the most vigorous, stout, and well-made men in a kingdom are to be found in the army, and these men in general cannot marry.
Page 208 - ... for giving me your sentiments on the question, whether any crime ought to be punished with death. The objection you make to the punishment of death, founded on the errors of human tribunals and the impossibility of having absolute demonstration of the guilt of a criminal, strikes me more forcibly than any argument I have ever before heard on the same side of the question. I confess, however, that to myself it seems absolutely impossible, even if it were to be wished (of which I am not quite sure),...
Page 180 - I make it my humble and ardent prayer to Almighty God, that Great Britain may not feel the evils which might result from so great a dismemberment of the empire, and that America may be free from...
Page 21 - ... which lay in perfect harmony basking before it. I delight to see the door open,- that I may recognise the friendly countenances of the servants, and above all, of the old nurse, to whom we were all endeared, because it was while she attended my mother that her health had so much improved. But yet with such means of happiness, and in the midst of enjoyments so well suited to my temper and disposition, I was not completely happy. The melancholy to which I had from my childhood been subject, at...

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