lences which so greatly distinguished it; his firmness was apt to degenerate into obstinacy; his confidence in the principles he held was not unmixed with contempt for those who differed from him. His unbending honesty and straightforward course of dealing with all men and all subjects not unfrequently led him to neglect those courtesies which facilitate political and personal intercourse, and that spirit of conciliation which, especially in a mixed government chiefly conducted by party, sometimes enables men to win a way which they cannot force towards the attainment of important objects. Perhaps his most unfortunate prejudices were those which he had early imbibed upon certain matters of Ecclesiastical Polity, and which the accidental circumstances of his connexion with Oxford as Chancellor strengthened to the exclusion of the reforming spirit carried on by him into all institutions of a merely secular kind. Upon the Parliamentary constitution of the country he had no such alarms or scruples; and, although it is certain that he would have reformed it much more gradually than the long delay of the great measure rendered ultimately necessary, it is equally clear that he would have stopped short of no improvement which could be reasonably required, merely because it was a change. For he was in this greatest quality of a statesman pre-eminently distinguished, that, as he neither would yield up his judgement to the clamour of the people, nor suffer himself to be seduced by the influence of the Court, so would he never submit his reason to the empire of prejudice, or own the supremacy of authority and tradition."

There are other statesmen, of Lord Grenville's period, who have equal claims upon our attention. Some, as Burke and Sheridan, were eloquent advocates of freedom of the press; and, impulsively, were exponants of the wrongs of commercial monopoly in India; but to go into those questions at length with the lives of the men who variously made them the theme of Parliamentary controversy would lead us beyond the limits which, at every page, now becomes narrower.There are a few however, such as John Palmer, Romilly, Bentham, &c., who left their impress on the face of time too deeply to be passed over.

SECTION XII.-JOHN PALMER.

Great Britain is chiefly indebted to the subject of this notice for that admirable system of mails by which communication was kept up with such rapidity and unerring accuracy between every part of the three kingdoms, previous to the railway system

and which is probably in operation still. John Palmer was born at Bath in the year 1742. His father was a brewer in that city, and wished him to follow his own humble but lucrative profession. John, however, had more ambitious ideas in his head; and persuaded his father to hand over to him the entire management of the Bath theatre, of which he had become, by some unexpected turn of fortune, the principal proprietor. In the sphere of manager he succeeded beyond even his own expectations, and the Bath stage, under the guidance of a young man scarcely out of his teens, became the cradle of dramatic genius, He soon after extended his efforts to Bristol, and raised the provincial stage there to a respectable eminence.

In 1782 Mr. Palmer presented a memorial to the Lords of the Treasury, in which he pointed out various improvements of which he deemed the post office arrangements susceptible. The Minister of the day was favourable to his proposals, and the scheme, so far as it was put in operation, succeeded beyond even what its projector had anticipated from it. the 5th of May, 1785, we find Mr. Palmer addressing the Premier in a letter of which the following is an extract: "The success of the plan, Sir, I believe, has exceeded both yours and the public's expectation. I am sure it has my own in some points, though not in others, but has not fallen short in one. A circumstance, I believe, as new to administration in the various plans that are submitted to them as a popular tax, which the post tax really is, where the accommodation has been given with it. It incurred no new expense, or inconvenience in the old establishment, even in the trial, but what was occasioned by the opposition from the general office. It conveys the mails in half the time they used to be, and guarded under regulations that will in a great measure enforce themselves; and where it has been carried into execution, has immediately occasioned an increase of revenue to the post office. It having been proved, that it is scarce possible for greater neglect or abuses to prevail than in the conduct of the old post; that in consequence of it, a great share of the correspondence was carried on by coaches, to the detriment of the post revenue; that the new tax, coupled with the old plan, would have increased such defalcation, which, by the statements given in to the Treasury, comparing the great improvement in the revenue from the tax upon the new opposed to the old establishment, has been very fully proved. It was promised in the plan to give the improved expedition and security to the great roads from London, and some of the cross roads, for the payment of threepence per mile, the

allowance for guards, and the exemption from turnpike tolls. The contracts are now made for the greater part, of the kingdom for the allowance of guards and the exemption from turnpike tolls only. Likewise, for all the cross posts, six times a-week, instead of three, so as to make those posts as regular and perfect as the general one. This accomodation will be given to the public, and the arrival and departure of the mails all over the country will now be regular, expeditious, and safe, on plain, certain, and simple principles, instead of the reverse. It will not only save many thousands a-year, in the expense of the riding work, &c., but in consequence of the superior mode of conveyance to any other, add greatly to the revenue, by the increase of correspondence through the post office. In the progress of the business, I have had every possible opposition from the office; I have neither spared trouble nor expense to inform myself in every department of it, so that I may carry my plan completely into execution, and defeat their repeated attempts to ruin it. I have been perfectly open, and kept no one secret from government, or desired one shilling advantage from any contract, but acted in every respect to the best of my judgment for the benefit of the public; nor can I gain the least advantage from my agreement till I have completed the plan over the whole kingdom, as my per centage from the increased revenue by the tax, without the accommodation, will not pay the very great expenses I am obliged to incur in the establishing it.

Mr. Palmer was now appointed Surveyor and ComptrollorGeneral of the Post Office. In this situation he had to encounter the determined hostility of Lord Wolsingham, the Post Master-General, and all his subordinates; and even the goverment appeared unwilling to fulfil its original engagement with him.+ "On this," says the writer of the notice of his life in the Annual Obituary, vol. iv.-" in 1797, Mr. Palmer applied, by petition, to the House of Commons, and a committee was nominated to report on the causes of his suspension, and also on the nature of his agreement. Mr. Pierrepoint, in a very able speech, pointed out the merits and success of Mr. Palmer's plan, which was attended with this peculiarity, that in case of failure, he was to receive no pecu

How like to the treatment of Rowland Hill at a later period!

niary indemnification, and no reimbursement for his expenses. During the forty years preceding his intervention, notwithstanding the great increase of trade and manufactures, the nett revenue of the post office, had experienced no increase whatever, except what was necessarily derived by the enhancement of the rate of postage, and restriction of franks; on the contrary, indeed, taking an average of the nine years preceding the new plan, it had actually experienced a decrease of 13,198 13s. per annum. After the first gleam of success, the projector was obliged to submit to a new agreement, by which he lost £750 per annum, but this was to be followed by every possible facility in the furtherance of his ultimate designs. And yet, the Commissioners appointed by the House of Commons to inquire into this very subject, reported, that Mr. Palmer had experienced 'opposition from the oldest and ablest officers in the service, who represented his plan not only to be impracticable, but dangerous to commerce and the revenue, and it was nevertheless added, that he has exceeded the expectations which he held forth in his first proposal, both with regard to despatch and expense. They further state, that the country has derived great advantage by the new scheme; while the post office revenue had increased since 1783, to the amount of nearly half a million! Mr. Sheridan, on the occasion, supported the pretensions of the claimant as follows: None but an enthusiast could have imagined or formed such a plan; none but an enthusiast could have made such an agreement; none but an enthusiast could have carried it into execution and I am confident,' adds he, 'that no man in this country, or any other could have performed such an undertaking, but that very individual John Palmer.' Dr. Lawrence also observed, in the course of a very energetic harangue, which, like the former, proved ineffectual, That it was to be apprehended, from what he had heard and what he knew, that men of talents, who might hereafter be willing to employ their genius and their industry in the service of the public, would discover, that Mr. Palmer had one fault greater than any which had been pressed against him. This was the fault of an over-hasty and improvident zeal, to do without regard to his own interests, whatever good it was in his power to achieve for his country. Nor ought it to be here omitted, that the joint Postmaster-General, with whom he had many disputes and contensions, on being required to deliver their opinion as to his motives, readily exhibited the most ample testimony on behalf of his character and integrity. At length Mr. Palmer, after an interval of some years, determined,

undismayed by his former defeat, to apply once more to Parliament for redress; and it must be allowed, that he never displayed greater perseverance and abilities than upon this occasion. He had taken care to make his pretensions known from one end of the kingdom to another; he canvassed almost every member of Parliament, either by himself or others, and as his cause was good, and his friends full of enthusiasm, the best founded hopes were entertained of success. His eldest son, Major (now Lieutenant-Colonel) Palmer, who had succeeded him as M. P. for Bath, was intrusted with the management of this delicate and interesting business. Accordingly, on May the 12th, 1808, in a committee of the whole house, after a short introductory speech, it was moved by him, That this House is of opinion, that Mr. Palmer is entitled to £2 10s. per cent., on the nett revenue of the Post Office, exceeding the sum of £240,000, to be paid up from the 5th of April, 1793, and during his life, according to the provisions of his appointment of 1789; deducting the sum of £3000 a-year, received subsequently to the 5th of April, 1793.' This proposition was opposed by Messrs. Long and Rose, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the Attorney-General; but supported by Lord Henry Petty, Sir Francis Burdett, Mr. Windham, &c.; and, after a long debate, carried against Ministers by a majority of 86. In a committee of Supply, leave was soon after given to bring in a bill to secure to the subject of this memoir the benefits of the late vote; and it was soon after moved and carried, that a sum not exceeding 54,7021. Os. 7d. be granted to his Majesty, to be paid to John Palmer, Esq., being the balance of the per centage due to him on the nett revenue of the Post Office, from the 5th of April, 1793, to te 5th of January, 1808.''

Mr. Palmer died in 1818. A higher eulogium cannot possibly be paid than what occurs in the minutes of the evidence of Mr. Francis Freeling, who afterwards presided over the Post Office department:" I always conceived I was best serving the interests of the public, by following the plans laid down by Mr. Palmer."

SECTION XIII. FRANCIS HORNER, AND THE BANK QUESTION.

Francis Horner was the son of a respectable merchant in Edinburgh. He received his education at the high school and university of that city, and chose the profession of the law, in which he gave early promise of future eminence.

When Lord Henry Petty, now marquess of Lansdowne,