twenty-first year, he was, at the commencement of the last Irish Parliament, returned Knight of the Shire for the County of Down. The election, in which he was supported by the wealth and influence of his father, lasted for upwards of three months, and is reported to have cost him upwards of 30,000l. He was not long in Parliament until he tried his senatorial talent: the first occasion of importance which occurred for a display of his political knowledge or rhetorical powers, was a debate on the question, whether Ireland had a right to trade to India, notwithstanding the monopoly of the British East India Company. On this question, his Lordship (then called the Hon. Mr. Steward, Lord Londonderry being then but a Baron), ranged himself with the popular party, and delivered a speech in support of the affirmative of the question, in which though he displayed the hesitation, the confusion, and the forgetfulness of a young speaker, yet gave proof of possessing considerable knowledge and a sound understanding. Opposition exulted in this supposed accession to their strength, and endeavoured to secure it by paying to the genius, eloquence, and wisdom of Mr. Steward, the most flattering compliments. It was soon known, however, that Mr. Steward had entered on public life with far other views than that of attaching himself to a party, whose numbers and power were every day dwindling into insignificance, before the increasing and triumphant influence of the Castle; or that of seeking unsubstantial popularity, by voting uni

formly

formly against those who had honours and wealth to bestow. For a few sessions indeed, he did vote generally with the opposition, but even on those occasions the reasons on which his votes were founded, so far as those reasons were explicitly declared, proved him to be rather the hesitating and undecided friend of the Court, than the warm and sincere supporter of the popular cause. Mr. Steward started into public life, gifted, though yet a boy, with the most marked talent at keeping himself disencumbered with explicit avowals of political principles; a coy politician, he coquetted between the minister and the public; neither could reckon on him as a friend, nor would he give either reason to believe, but that, if properly wooed, he might, in time, be won. The growing discontents of the people, and the gradual developement of their purposes, at length made it necessary for his Lordship to assume a more decisive character; accordingly, when the system of strong measures was adopted by the Irish administration, in order to silence discontent by terror, or to extinguish it in blood, we find Lord Castlerea among the warmest of its friends. On the accession of Lord Camden to the Irish Viceroyalty, his Lordship was raised to the honour of a place in the Irish Cabinet, if, indeed, there can be said to be a Cabinet in Ireland, where all the motions of that government are created by impulse from this. At all events, he was honoured with a high degree of the confidence of Lord Camden, partly perhaps, because of the family

connexion

connexion between his Lordship and the Viceroy*; and partly, no doubt, because the talents of his Lordship were useful to his government. On the illness of Mr. Pelham, his Excellency's chief secretary, Lord Castlerea was appointed to discharge the duties of that office until Mr. P.'s recovery; and on that gentleman retiring, either in consequence of continued ill health, or a disinclination to undergo the fatigues and anxiety of so arduous a situation, at a time of so great danger and difficulty, Lord Castlerea was, some time since, officially declared chief secretary to his Excellency, in Mr. Pelham's room. In this office, which his Lordship continues yet to hold, though his patron, Lord Camden, has been so long withdrawn from Ireland, he has conducted himself, for so young a man, with considerable ability. In the troubles of 1798, he displayed much fortitude, indefatigable assiduity, and great steadiness. But his conduct has also been marked by an inflexible severity, rarely found to accompany the ingenuousness of youth. His manners, though courtly and high, are charged with being haughty and supercilious; and it is observed of him, that, forgetting he was an Irishman when he became a minister, he no sooner set his foot within the threshold of the council-chamber than he outstripped all his predecessors, though English courtiers, in the promptitude and zeal with which he seconded the views of the British Cabinet, on his native coun

* An affinity between the family of Lord Londonderry and Lord Camden by marriage.

try.

try. It was certainly not expected, that from an Irishman the proposal would have been first made to an Irish Parliament to annihilate the distinct independance of Ireland, and to reduce the nation, by whom and for whom they legislated into a dependant province on another country. The first proposal, however, of this measure, by my Lord Castlerea, was received with a degree of indignant scorn, which marked either that the Irish Parliament had more of public virtue than my Lord Castlerea and his friends attributed to them, or that his Lordship was but little skilled in that parliamentary management which constitutes, it is said, the chief branch of his official business.

Defeat, however, did not much disconcert the cool fortitude of his Lordship; he resumed his labours under the persevering auspices of the British Minister, to effect a measure which would so much simplify the government of this empire, by destroying the inconvenient independance of one member of it, and throwing a decisive additional weight into the scale of influence in the other. It is probable that these labours will be effective.

Lord Castlerea, a few years since, married a very amiable and beautiful woman, by whom, it is his Lordship's misfortune to have no children. The person of Lord Castlerea is tall, thin, and distinguished by an air of elegance and fashion which bespeak his rank. His voice is full and sonorous, but admitting of little variety. As a public speaker, notwithstanding an assumption of great gravity and

great

great importance, he ranks but in the second class. An excellent education seems rather to have created than improved his powers.

DR. ADAM FERGUSSON.

THE writer of the following article is a native of, the same village that gave its illustrious subject birth, is himself well acquainted with Dr. Fergusson, and has possessed the best opportunities of knowing his history from the beginning. However feeble, therefore, the execution may be, he can vouch for the authenticity of the narrative.

Mr. ADAM FERGUSSON Sprung from the respectable family of Dunfallandy, in the highlands of Perthshire; was minister of Logierait, in the presbytry of Dunkeld. The youngest of a numerous family of children, by a lady of Aberdeenshire, whom he married, was Adamn, born in 1724, at the parsonagehouse. Adam received the rudiments of his education at the grammar school of the village, assisted by his father, who was himself an excellent classical scholar, and bestowed on the tuition of his son, the greater part of the time which remained after the performance of the laborious duties of a very extensive parish. Perceiving the talents of his son even at that early age, to be very strong, Mr. Fergusson determined to send him to a seminary, where, in emulation, there would be the most powerful incen