Parks; which post he exchanged in 1795 for the lucrative office of Auditor of the Exchequer. He filled the important situation of Foreign Secretary, during one of the most arduous and gloomy periods of our history, with industry, talent, and skill. It was a function for which his natural and acquired powers were in many respects well suited. He was skilled in the detail of the politics of Europe: he had studied deeply the law of nations; he was acquainted with modern languages; he could endure fatigue; and had not an avocation or a pleasure to interrupt his attention. He loved business as his father did; it was not merely the result of his ambition, but his amusement; the flowers of imagination, or the gaieties of society, never seduced him astray. There was nothing to dissipate his ideas, and he brought his mind to bear on the subjects before him with its full force.

One of the most important duties required of him was to maintain a stern and undaunted bearing towards the French Directory. In his correspondence with M. Chauvelin, who had been Ambassador in London previously to the death of Louis, and claimed to be still recognised in that capacity, the letters of Lord Grenville were couched in a severity of retort rarely equalled in diplomatic discussion. Of their tone the following, dated the 24th of January, and ordering M. Chauvelin's immediate departure from the realm, will afford a specimen:

"I am charged to notify to you, Sir, that the character with which you had been invested at this court, and the functions of which have been so long suspended, being now entirely terminated by the fatal death of his Most Christian Majesty, you have no longer any public character here.

"The King can no longer, after such an event, permit your residence here. His Majesty has thought fit to order, that you should retire from this kingdom within the term of eight days; and I herewith transmit to you a copy of the order, which his Majesty, in his privy council, has given to this effect.

"I send you a passport for yourself and your suite; and I shall not fail to take all the other necessary steps, in order that you may return to France with all the attentions which are due to the character of Minister Plenipotentiary from his Most Christian Majesty, which you have exercised at this court.

The French government despatched M. Maret to negotiate the neutrality of this country; but so determined was Lord Grenville not to allow the least opening to their influence, that he persisted in refusing that emissary even to visit him, contrary, as was thought, to the opinion of Mr. Pitt.

Lord Grenville's talents as an orator were more than usually distinguished in 1795, on occasion of the attack which had been made upon the King during his passage to open Parliament. He brought in a bill to provide for the safety and protection of the royal person, which gave rise to a long and stormy debate, and afforded ample opportunity to Lord Grenville for the most loyal exertion of his rhetorical abilities. He had the satisfaction of seeing his motion carried by a large majority; and he followed up his success by another bill to suppress the formation or continuance of seditious societies.

Lord Grenville took an active part with Mr. Pitt in promoting the Union with Ireland, and shared with him in giving the intimations, on which the Roman Catholics of that country founded their claims to emancipation. When it was found that government was unwilling to forward those views, the ministry felt themselves obliged to resign their offices. When application was shortly after made to Mr. Pitt, to join the parties then in power, he refused to accede, unless Lord Grenville was included in the arrangement; which proposal being rejected, the negotiation ended. But no long time elapsed, before Mr. Pitt found himself obliged to yield to the urgent necessities of the state, and he again

took his seat as First Lord of the Treasury, in May, 1804, without having stipulated for Catholic emancipation. Lord Grenville, with Mr. Windham, refused to join him; and from that time, until the death of Mr. Pitt in January, 1806, Lord Grenville took a prominent part in the ranks of Opposition.

On Mr. Pitt's death the administration was formed which, though intended to combine "all the talents," and therefore all the means of good government, has since been generally derided by political writers as anomalous, visionary, and impracticable, and sometimes as even monstrous and disgraceful. It was, indeed, extraordinary that when Lord Grenville was the Prime Minister, Mr. Fox should have become his Secretary of State. The perverseness of human nature, and the interests of trading politicians, were directly opposed to so unprecedented a sacrifice of political animosities. It is probable that a mischievous world would not have permitted such a union to exist for long, even if the parties themselves had been determined to the uttermost to abide by it; but the failure is, of course, ascribed to the discordant elements comprised in the attempted union. It was an important obstacle to its duration, that the religious principles of the monarch were directly opposed to the measure to which Lord Grenville considered himself pledged: a party equally zealous as the sovereign in their resistance to the claims of the Roman Catholics proved too powerful for the continuance of the ministry beyond the brief period of thirteen months. During that time Lord Grenville suffered not a little in his popularity, by obtaining an Act of Parliament enabling him to hold, together with the Premiership, the profitable, but nearly sinecure, office of Auditor of the Exchequer, which had been conferred upon him in 1795, and which he retained until his death.

His Lordship did not subsequently accept any more prominent office. In 1802, when the resignation of Lord Castlereagh and Mr. Canning left Lord Liverpool the only Secretary of State, performing the business of the three departments, official letters were addressed to Earl Grey and Lord Gren

ville, proposing the immediate formation of a combined ministry. They were both in the country when these communications reached them. Earl Grey at once declined all union with Mr. Percival and Lord Liverpool, and did not come to town. Lord Grenville, who was in Cornwall, came immediately to town, but the next day declined the proposed alliance, because he should not be able to view it in any other light than as a dereliction of principle.

At the close of the year 1809, his Lordship was chosen Chancellor of the University of Oxford. His predecessor, the Duke of Portland, died on the 30th of October, 1809. On this vacancy the candidates were Lord Grenville, Lord Eldon, and the Duke of Beaufort. The election commenced at ten o'clock on Wednesday morning, December 13th, and continued sitting day and night, without any adjournment, till ten o'clock on Thursday night, when the numbers were declared as follows:

:

The number of those entitled to vote amounted to 1282, of whom 1037 polled. His Lordship was presented to the degree of D.C.L. by diploma nine days after his election; and his installation took place in the Theatre on Tuesday, July 3d, 1810.

Lord Grenville continued in opposition to the government during the war; but on the final defeat of the French in 1814 he heartily congratulated the country on the prospect of an immediate peace, and in the following year supported ministers in their resolution to depose Napoleon. From that time he ceased to take so prominent a part in parliamentary discussions as he had previously done, except during the debates on Catholic emancipation, of which he deemed himself to be enlisted as the pledged and expected supporter.

In 1804 Lord Grenville edited the Letters which had

been written by the great Earl of Chatham to his nephew, Thomas Pitt (afterwards Lord Camelford), when at Cambridge. Besides several Speeches, &c. he also published a "New Plan of Finance, as presented to Parliament, with the Tables, 1806." "A Letter to the Earl of Fingal, 1810.” He also defended his Alma Mater in a pamphlet, against the charge brought against her of having expelled Locke. He enriched an edition of Homer, privately printed, with valuable annotations; and translated several pieces from the Greek, English, and Italian, into Latin, which have been circulated among his friends under the title of " Nuga Metricæ.” His Lordship, as well as his brother, the Right Hon. Thomas Grenville, had collected a very valuable library.

Lord Grenville was the contemporary of some of the greatest men that ever adorned this country; yet his abilities were not eclipsed in their presence. As a statesman he was remarkable for sound practical views. As a speaker he was, perhaps, one of the most powerful debaters that ever appeared in the House of Lords. There was a commanding energy in his delivery, as well as in his style, which never failed to arrest the attention and command the admiration even of those who differed from him in sentiment. It has been said of him, that no orator ever produced so strong an impression by his manner in the first ten minutes of his speech; but the want of variety was a defect which began to be perceived after some time, and which, in the course of a long address, seldom failed to impress itself rather painfully upon the hearer. He always took care to prepare himself on every subject on which he spoke, and his speeches were, therefore, full of matter. He did not possess the fire, the acuteness, and the indignant sarcasm of Lord Grey, but during a long period he was considered second only to his Lordship as an effective debater in the House of Lords; and the two were associated as the heads of the Opposition, with whom negotiations were carried on during several emergencies, when it became necessary or politic to make overtures for a new ministry.