have done justice to his fatherly anxiety for their intellectual and moral improvement, beside his two nephews the Earl of Lonsdale and Mr. Lowther, may be named Mr. Hutchinson of Egglestone, who lately filled the Chair of the Quarter-Sessions in the County of Durham. Mindful of the advice, which had guided his own steps into the ways of pleasantness and peace, in his letters to his youthful relatives he emphatically adjures them to tread invariably the paths of truth and honour, and above every thing to "resolve to be good men." About the beginning of the year 1780, when the Yorkshire Associators met to 'consider what measures might be expedient in the existing critical situation of public affairs,' Mr. Zouch, in compliance with the wishes of his elder brother, was appointed one of their Committee. The emergency was alarming; and that gentleman might venially conceive that the constitution of his Country, which bestows upon a beneficed clergyman a right of suffrage, intends him to exercise his judgement, upon such occasions, in the conscientious appreciation of Ministers as well as of Members of Parliament. Solon, indeed, forbade neutrality to all citizens, in cases of public perplexity; and this maxim was approved, under certain circumstances, by no less an authority than that of the President Montesquieu† himself. But a scarcely less illus *Et quod caput est omnium, ut vir bonus evadas. App. I. p. 357. See his brother's Letter, + La loi de Solon, qui declaroit infames tous ceux, qui dans une sédition ne prendroient aucun parti, a paru bien extraordinaire. Mais il faut faire attention aux circonstances, dans lesquelles la Grèce se trouvoit pour lors. Elle étoit partagée en de très-petits états: il étoit à craindre que, dans une république travaillée par des dissensions civiles les gens les plus prudens ne se missent à couvert, et que par là les choses ne fussent portées à l'extréme. Dans les séditions, qui arrivoient dans ces petits états, le gros de la cité entroit dans la querelle, ou la faisoit.-Dans св trious Athenian has pronounced Her to be the most excellent woman, who is 'least known to the public in the way either of praise or of censure:' and Mr. Thomas Zouch, impressed with the equally delicate sensitiveness of the pastoral character, shrunk from the mere possibility of being regarded as an intriguing or a turbulent priest. Whether he thought that the aspect of the times rendered it perilous to attempt any domestic changes, or that the meditated changes were too considerable for the demands of the occasion, † or (still more probably) that the teachers of religion are called to a nobler occupation, than to fan the flames of political dissension-it appears certain, that he never attended the meetings of the Committee, and after some ce cas, il est naturel de rappeler les séditieux au gros des citoyens, non pas le gros des citoyens aux séditieux.—C'est ainsi, que la fermentation d'une liqueur peut être arrêtée par une seule goute d'une autre. The classical reader will recollect the fine passage, (Espr. des Loix, xxix. 3.) Pietate gravem ac meritis si forte virum quem Pericles, as quoted by Plutarch in his Treatise on the (Virg. Æn. I. 152.) Virtues of Women,' In a Letter to his friend Mr. Harrison, Bishop Watson observes; "As to a Reform in the Representation, I have never seen any plan calculated to do much good." (Life, ed. 4to, p. 525.) See, also, the Conclusion of Burnet's History of his Own Time: "As long as elections are set to sale, so long we are under a disease in our vitals, that if it be not remedied in time, must ruin us at last, and end in a change of government; and what that may be, God only knows. "All laws that can be made will prove ineffectual to cure so great an evil, till there comes to be a change and reformation of morals in the nation; &c. &c." (VI. 209. Edinb. 1753.) Lipsius, however, appears to have carried political indifferentism to an extreme: Hæc unica aut certè summa sapientia est, curare quæ ad sese et ad animum, non satagere de communibus; quæ, ut cum Platone dicam, arexvws ώσπερ εν Ευριπῳ ανω και κάτω φερεται, και χρονον εδένα εν εδενι μεγει. (Ep. ad Lampson. Burm. Syll. I. cxl.) time withdrew his name from their list. Professional elevation could not have been his motive, even if he concurred in it's being at first placed there; for he must have well known, that the loftier objects of ecclesiastical ambition hardly open upon the ordinary candidate, before the grave begins to gape for him; and that so to run as to obtain, was injoined by St. Paul with a view to something very different from wealthy preferments or secular magistracies. Neither does it require any great effort of intellect to infer, from the gradual and almost imperceptible decays incident to every human establishment, that the reforms best adapted to repair them must be equally slow and equally tranquil; and that the highest chance of continuance attaches to those, which have been premeditated by the soberest patriotism, introduced with the greatest modesty, and adopted after the gravest and most deliberate discussion. It is not by precedents culled from the annals of our semi-savage ancestors, even if we could be sure of our authorities, that we are to regulate the affairs of an enlightened and powerful people; but by a careful, and (as far as may be) exact adaptation of measures to circumstances and situations. Tanta molis erat. This, as Dr. Symmons* beautifully observes (in his remarks upon the arduous labour of constructing an Epic Poem) was spoken of a mighty empire, which was to extend over the earth, and to endure for a succession of ages: but an Arab camp may be planted in one day, and it's vestiges may be effaced by the wind of the desert in another. Fresh from the fascinating influences of classical studies, and full of the splendid barbarism of Brutus and the trophies of Miltiades, with no consciousness of *See his able and luminous Life of Milton. * corrupt feeling in himself, and little experience of it in others, is it to be wondered at-I would almost ask farther, with the feeling of Quintilian, is it to be regretted that a young and ardent mind seeks the Eurotas in the Thames, and grasps at the unattainable, undesirable extreme of political freedom? Much of this luxuriance may safely be left to the silent evaporations of time. The passing years, which gradually pilfer from us our noblest powers, leave not the crude conceptions of our boyhood unaltered. Reason and experience unite to repress the exuberances of early statesmanship: and the results would be more generally obvious, but for the weak shame of appearing to adopt under the influence of interest conclusions, which may have been generated by the most virtuous conviction. That such were the grounds of Mr. Zouch's conduct upon this occasion, every thing conspires to prove t. His common-place books abound * Materiam esse primùm volo vel abundantiorem, atque ultrà quàm oporteat fusam. Multum inde decoquent anni, multum ratio limabit, aliquid velut usu ipso deteretur; sit modò unde excidi possit, et quod exsculpi. Erit autem, si non ab initio tenuem nimiùm laminam duxerimus, et quam cœlatura altior rumpat. (Inst. Orat. II. 4.) Rarely, indeed, have traces of liberal expenditure been discovered in him, who was a miser in his youth. ever. "It is, in fact, the greatest of all follies in a Minister to sacrifice independence of character, and decent freedom of opinion, to any consideration whatWhat good does he do by it? Does he hope to advance his fortune? The chances are innumerable against him; the road is blocked up. He brings his little tribute of turpitude, and is not noticed in the crowd of competitors: he grows old, tired with suppressing truth, and smothering conscience; and, at the close of a long life, often finds himself as poor as if he had been honest. It is a wretched game, and rarely or never answers. A man sells his birthright of speaking truth; and does not get even the mess of pottage, which he fixed as the price. On the contrary, to love truth, justice, and human happiness, and to be conscious that (however humble your lot of life) you have never with extracts favourable to constitutional liberty; and the subjoined Sonnet, written in the Library of Wentworth House, and addressed to Lord Milton, is a satisfactory testimony of his public opinions. 'In honour's path proceed, ingenuous youth; Let not Ambition lead thy steps astray: Firm in pursuit of virtue and of truth The sacred glow of patriot zeal display, To emulate his worth: hence shalt thou claim Enrich thy mind with learning's ample store, In 1788, he was appointed Chaplain to the Right Hon. Sir Richard Pepper Arden, Master of the Rolls.* never lost any opportunity of promoting them, is an exquisite pleasure, which any man may command if he pleases. If eminence in the sacred profession to which we are called, can be united to this, it is a blessing for which any man may be grateful: if not, it is our duty to shake hands with mediocrity of fortune, and be honest." (Sydney Smith.) *Of this gentleman, subsequently created Lord Alvanley, the pupil, the friend, and to the utmost of his power the patron of Dr. Zouch, an accurate Memoir is given in the Gent. Mag. for 1804. I. 383. He died in that year, aged 59. Distinguished as an academic (for he was a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge) eminent as a lawyer, and beloved and valued by all who had enjoyed the means of contemplating his private and domestic virtues, Lord Alvanley was to a great degree the artist of his own fortune. But of the dignities of his profession Mr. Pitt was, ministerially, the bestower: and to him, at an hour when the disingenuous and the selfish courtesies of life are alike out of the question, he chose to express his honest gratitude. As what relates to the last moments of such a man, when it can be substantially authenti cated, |