he was not rich in anything but generosity,-fortunately I did not need the friendly assistance, yet he well knew my very limited means. You may tell this example of friendship to anybody." In Sir Willam Napier's judgment of men's actions and motives there was occasionally a tendency to over subtlety, and he would sometimes search too deep for that which might have been found on the surface if he had been content to seek it there. This tendency, however, is very rarely to be met with in his great work, although it does exist in a few instances. The key to the interpretation of much of his character, particularly as to those impulsive feelings which brought him occasionally before the public, is to be found in his intense hatred of oppression and injustice. From his childhood he adopted as his rule of action the motto, "Parcere subjectis et debellare superbos." The readiness with which any story of oppression or wrong was received-sometimes on insufficient evidence-and the fierceness with which it was resented and denounced, all resulted from a tenderness of nature, which, towards the weak and helpless, and remarkably towards women, children, and animals, was absolutely womanly. Yet all excess is evil. A little more patience of mind, a less decided tendency to believe evil of those in authority, especially if they bore a name or belonged to a party in the State which he distrusted or disliked, would have saved him from many a harsh and hasty judgment, and from much self-reproach for pain and censure unjustly inflicted. But his feelings were keen, his nature vehement, and he could not always brook the wise delay and the cool reflection which should precede attacks on personal cha racter. The activity of his mind to the very last was extraordinary. None who might read the clear and vigorous letters which from time to time, up to within a few weeks of his end, he addressed to newspapers or private friends, could at all guess the state of torture in which the writer lay, or could appreciate the sublime victory obtained by the indomitable soul over the weak and helpless body. To him the British army owes much, for having recorded, in the most perfect military history ever yet written, the greatest series of events in our military annals. To him the British people owed the truer appreciation of her own warlike sons by the justice which was for the first time rendered to the great military qualities of her enemies in the field. To him finally, and this would have been his proudest boast, the private soldier owes more than to any other man; for his was the first voice to advocate the right of the private soldier to share individually in the honours, as he has always done in the dangers, of the battle-field; and it is remarkable that this right was first practically admitted and stamped as inalienable by his brother in the despatch of the victory of Meeanee. The love and the reverence with which he inspired those who thus came in contact with him partook of the feelings with which a clansman regarded his chief. Of his own family, where the feelings he inspired are beyond expression here, it is superfluous to speak. But for the numerous friends who used to repair to his bedside to hear words of wisdom, clothed as they involuntarily were with marvellous force and eloquence, his removal has created a gap that can never be filled. But his words and his memory will live in their hearts, and his name will never be forgotten so long as and wherever the English language shall be read. APPENDIX I. CHARACTER OF LADY LOUISA CONOLLY, BY LEAVING the contemplation of feverish excitement, fantastic and complicated subtleties, angry zeal, and dissocial passions, I turn to the records of memory, where are graven for ever the lineaments of one who was indeed a disciple of Christ, and whose character seemed the earthly reflection of his. Wherever there was existence her benevolence flowed forth, never enfeebled by the distance of its object, flushing the least of daily pleasures with its warmth. Her views rose to the most comprehensive moral grandeur; while her calm uncompromising energy against sin was combined with an overflowing sympathy for weakness and woe. She spent her life in one continued system of active beneficence, in which her business, her projects, her pleasures, were but so many varied forms of serving her fellow-creatures; never for a moment did a reflection for herself cross the current of her purposes for them. Her whole heart so went with their distresses and their joys that she scarcely seemed to have an interest apart from theirs. The simplicity of her character was peculiarly striking in the unhesitating readiness with which she received, I might even say, with which she grasped at, the correction of her errors, and listened to the suggestions of other persons. One undivided desire possessed her mind-it was not to seem right, but to do right. What heightened the resemblance between her and the model she followed was, that her counsels came not from a bosom that had never been shaken with the passions she admonished, or the sorrows she endeavoured to soothe. Her character was one of deep sensibility, and passions strong even to violence; but they were controlled and directed by such vivid faith as has never been surpassed. Her long life had tried her with almost every pang that attends the attachment of such beings to the mortal and the suffering, the erring and perverse; and when those sorrows came that reached her heart through its deepest and most sacred affections, the passion burst forth that showed what the energy of that principle must have been that could have brought such a mind to a tenour of habitual calmness and serenity. When every element of anguish had been mingled together in one dreadful cup, and reason for a week or two was tottering in its seat, she was seen to resume the struggle against the passions that for a moment had conquered. The bonds that attached her to life were indeed broken for ever, but she recovered her heartfelt submission to God, and she learnt by degrees again to be happy in the happiness she gave. It was this depth and strength of feeling that gave her a power over others, seldom surpassed I believe by any other mortal. In her the erring and the wretched found a sure refuge from themselves. The weaknesses that shrink from the censure or the scorn of others could be poured out to her as to one whose mission upon earth was to pity and to heal; for she knew the whole range of human infirmity, and that the wisest have the roots of those frailties that conquer the weak. But in restoring the fallen to their connexion with the honoured, she never held out a hope that they might parley with their temptations, or lower their standard of virtue; a confession to her cut off all self-delusion as to culpable conduct or passions. While she inspired the most uncompromising condemnation of the thing that was wrong, she never advised what was too hard for "the bruised reed;" she chose not the moment of excitement to rebuke the misguidings of passion, nor of weakness to point out the rigour of duty. But strength came in her presence; she seemed to bring with her irresistible evidence that anything could be done which she said ought to be done. The truths of religion, stripped of fantastic disguises, appeared at her call with a living reality; and for a time at least the troubles of life sank down to their just level. When our sorrows are too big for our own bosoms, if others receive them with stoicism it repels all desire to seek relief at their hands, but the calmness with which she attended to the effusions and perturbations of grief seemed the earnest of safety from one who had passed through the storm. The deep and tender expression of her noble countenance suggested that feeling with which a superior being might be supposed to look down from heaven on the anguish of those who are still in the toils, but know not the reward that awaits them. Everything petty seemed to drop off from her mind; but she imbibed the spirit of essentials so perfectly, she followed it throughout with such singleness of heart, that its influence affected her minutest actions, not by an effort of studied attention, but with the steadiness of a natural law. Nature and revelation she regarded as the two parts of one great connected system; she always contemplated the one with reference to the other; her views were therefore all practical and free from confusion, and nothing that promoted the welfare of this world could cease to be a part of her duty to God. It was her maxim that the motive dignified the action, however trivial in itself; and all the actions of her life were ennobled by the motive of obedience to an all-powerful Being, because He is the pure essence of wisdom and goodness. In the virtues of those who had not the consoling belief of the Christian, she still saw the handwriting of God, that cannot be effaced from a generous mind; and she used to dwell with delight on the idea that the good man, from whose eyes the light of faith was withheld in this life, would arise with rapture in the next, to the knowledge that a happiness was in store for him which he had not dared to believe. It was not the extent of her intellectual endowments that made her the object of veneration to all who knew her; it was her extraordinary moral energy. The clear and vigorous view she took of every subject arose chiefly from her habit of looking directly for its bearing on virtue or happiness; she saw the essential at a glance, and could not be diverted from the truth by a passion or a prejudice. Hence, also, her lofty undeviating justice; her regard to the rights of others was so scrupulous, that every one within reach of her influence reposed on her decisions with unhesitating trust; nor would the certainty that the interests of those she loved best were involved have cast a shadow of doubt over her stainless impartiality. She could be deceived, for she was too simple and lofty always to conceive the objects of base minds : "And oft, tho' wisdom wake, suspicion sleeps At wisdom's gate, and to simplicity Resigns her charge, while goodness thinks no ill Nevertheless, she generally read the characters of artifice and insincerity with intuitive quickness, though it was often believed she was duped by those whom she saw through completely. Of this she was aware, but she was so exempt from all desire to prove her sagacity that she never cared to correct the misconception; and she held that it was neither useful nor quite justifiable, to expose all the pretences we may discover, till it became necessary to set the unwary on their guard. |