of those characters, of the modern Procuteius; and his sisters declare, with tears of gratitude and love, that he has been to them a FATHER. His honour and honesty are unimpeachable; they are confessed to be unspotted, even by his most furious political enemies; for, it is impos sible he can have any other; and, in some late family-difficulties, with which the world has nothing to do, have shewn themselves in such purity as to excite the admiration of all to whom the facts were known. His manners in society are polite and easy. He is a perfectly well-bred gentleman. He never gives the slightest offence by introducing his political opinions, nor by his manner of arguing upon them when introduced by others. He discusses them with such philosophical quiet and such a mild and gentle spirit, that a stranger is astonished to have been conversing with so obnoxious a character. In short, I know no defect in this man's heart; and, were you to go from door to door, through this whole county, to collect opinions about him, the worst that you could hear would be, that he maintains a set of what perhaps they might call new-fangled notions about representation, and that he maintains them pertinaciously." To which this most worthy cor respondent adds, "My communication, however short, may perhaps be valuable for the being extracted from the most respectable part of our coun→ ty, who have known the Major from his child

hoad

hood, and though many of them differ from him in political opinion."

In another letter with which the writer has been favoured, a gentleman, who has invariably shewn that he possesses the nicest feelings with the highest sense of honour, and who is very particularly acquainted with the circumstance which occasioned the spirited remonstrance to the Duke of Newcastle, says he is sure that all facts stated therein are accurate: and, after noticing the great talents of the remonstrator, displayed early in his profession, and testified by his great commanders,—his skill as an engineer and a mechanic,—sums up his character in saying, "that he is an excellent writer, voluminous publications may be brought to witness; but I think there is no occasion to refer to more than his late luminous " APPEAL," to ma nifest him a temperate, learned, and eloquent politician. Here is a variety of talents, hardly to be met with in one man: and yet, such is the perverseness of this age, that a true appreciation of his worth must be left to a few friends and a future age."

If any reader should be disposed to say, that these memoirs have more the air of eulogy than of faithful delineation of character, and ask, where are the shades, the foibles, the failings, the vices, to which every son of Adam and of Eve is liable in a greater or a less degree; the writer can give no other answer, than that he knows

knows no more of them than the great variety of persons to whom he has applied for information, and many of whom, from long acquaintance, and even intimacy, could not have been ignorant of them, if they existed; whence he must conclude, that, if Major Cartwright be not one of the best of men, and an ornament and an honour to his country and his species, he must be one of the most consummate, and the most successful, hypocrites upon earth.

R.

THE DUKE OF LEINSTER.

WILLIAM Robert Fitzgerald is the second of his illustrious family who has inherited a dukedom; his father, not only the most ancient earl, but the most ancient peer, of Ireland, was, immediately after the accession of his present Majesty to the throne, promoted, from being Earl of Kildare, to be Marquis of Kildare and Duke of Leinster; (the latter is the eldest son's title of that family.) He is also Viscount Taplow of Great Britain, and as such has taken his seat in the British House of Peers.

His Grace is not less nobly descended in the maternal line:-- his mother, the dowager-dutchess of Leinster, is sister to the present and daughter of the late Duke of Richmond, and thus allied as well to the King of Sardinia as to the two rival

relatives

relatives who had so long contended for the impe rial crown of Great Britain, -those of Brunswick and Stuart.

The Duke of Leinster received the first part of his education at Eton-School; whence he went to the University of Cambridge, and, after taking a degree, visited most of the polite courts of Europe, where the rank of Marquis of Kildare procured him not more attention and respect than his amiable qualities peculiarly commanded.

His Lordship, charmed with the manners, the climate, and the fine arts, (of which he is not only an admirer, but a great patron,) of Italy, spent most of those years, devoted to making the grand tour, in that delightful country. He was upon his travels when the present Marquis Townshend was appointed lord-lieutenant of Ireland, who, in the year 1768, gave the royal assent to the Octennial Bill, which then changed the duration of the Irish parliament, from being perpetual, to the period of eight years. The perpetual parliament was then dissolved, and a general election immediately followed; at which the freemen and freeholders of the city of Dublin nominated the Marquis of Kildare, who was then in Italy, and just entered into the twenty-second year of his age, a candidate to represent them.

This ancient family felt themselves much flattered by the kind partiality manifested, in this instance, by the citizens of Dublin towards their eldest son. They accepted the invitation; the Mar

quis was declared a candidate, and a canvas upon the part of his Lordship immediately commenced.

The contest which took place at this election was greater than any which has since occurred on a similar occasion. One candidate was almost unanimously returned; but the Marquis of Kildare was opposed by John La Touche, Esq. whose father was then living, and was the richest and most respectable banker in Ireland. The firm of his house is yet continued by his sons, (one of whom is John,) and continues to be marked with the same liberality and integrity which has distinguished it for near a century, and given it the character of being, perhaps, the first private banking-house in the empire.

The Marquis being abroad, a gentleman of much celebrity, and at that time well known all over Europe, (the late John St.-Leger, Esq.) became locum tenens for his Lordship, in whose favour the election ultimately terminated after a long contest, which is stated to have cost each of those two candidates above twenty thousand pounds, while Doctor Lucas was returned free of expense.

This parliament, the first assembled after the passing the Octennial Bill, continued almost the full period of its limitation, being called together in

The late Doctor Lucas, an Irish physician of great eminence, a man not less celebrated for his great abilities than his genuine patriotism; and to whose memory the citizens of Dublin have erected a finely sculptured pedestrian marble statue in the Royal Exchange of that city.

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