DEATHS OF EMINENT PERSONS.
Many persons celebrated in arts and arms were removed by death in this eventful year. On the 6th of January the country lost the services of Sir Thomas Usher, C.B., K.C.H., Rear-admiral of the White, and naval commanderin-chief on the Irish station. This gallant sailor was born near Dublin, in the year 1779, and was said to have been a descendant of the great Archbishop of Armagh, whose name he bore. He was the officer who, when a post-captain, brought the great Napoleon to Elba after his abdication. The day following saw the decease of Admiral Sir Robert Laurie, who had also seen much service.
On the 19th of January, at Bradenham House, Buckinghamshire, died Isaac Disraeli, Esq., aged eighty-two. This gentleman was the son of a Venetian merchant, who had long been settled in this country, and was the father of Benjamin Disraeli, who occupies so important a place in the politics and literature of the day. Mr. Isaac Disraeli was a literary man of much eminence, his chief work, “The Curiosities of Literature,” having won for him a great reputation. In his day, literary history and criticism were but little valued, and he conduced much to a higher appreciation of that department of letters. He was the author of many pieces of great merit in the periodicals of the day. He also published many separate treatises which met with great public favour, such as “A Dissertation on Anecdotes,” “Essay on the Manners and Genius of the Literary Character,” “Miscellanies, or Literary Recreations,” “Calamities of Authors; including some Inquiries respecting their Moral and Literary Characters,” “Quarrels of Authors, or some Memoirs for our Literary History; including Specimens of Controversy to the Reign of Elizabeth,” “Inquiry into the Literary and Political Character of King James the First,” “Commentaries on the Life and Reign of Charles the First,”—the University of Oxford conferred upon him the degree of a doctor of the civil law for this production, which it absurdly called “Optimi regis, optimo defensori” “Amenities of Literature,”—this work he wrote when blind, his daughter acting as his amanuensis; he notices eloquently and feelingly her devoted services. Mr. Disraeli was the friend, of literary merit in the obscure and unfortunate, in which he was the rival of Sir Robert Peel, as his son Benjamin became in the career of parliamentary oratory and politics. He married, in 1802, Miss Basseni, of Brighton, aunt to the celebrated architect Basseni, and who became the mother of the celebrated leader of the tory and protection party in the commons, after the decease of his less able predecessor, Lord George Bentinck. Few men ever pursued literature, for its own sake, with more heartiness than Isaac Disraeli. It was no wonder that his son should set out in life with the ambition of writing a great book, and being a great orator—an ambition which can seldom be realised by the same man, requiring mental qualities so different.
At Tunbridge Wells, in his eighty-fifth year, died General Frederick Maitland, who had seen many fields of war, and had always distinguished himself. During this month, in which death was so busy with eminent persons, especially in the profession of arms, there died also, at Edinburgh, Pringle Stoddardt, Rear-admiral of the White, and Lieutenant-general Sir John Maclean, officers who had served in almost every clime, and always with honour.
The eminent persons who died in February were Major-general Carlo Joseph Doyle; Major-general William Goodday Scott, Governor of Quebec; Lieutenant-general Sir Thomas Reynel, the sixth baronet of the kingdom of Ireland, K.C.B., and K.C.H.; Dr. Hamley, Archbishop of Canterbury, and primate of all England; the Honourable James William King, Rear-admiral of the Red, seventh son of the second Earl of Kingstown, of Mitchelston Castle, Ireland; the Right Honourable Lord Graville Charles Henry Somerset, a privy-councillor, and M.P. for Monmouthshire; Rear-admiral Inglefield.
In March, Rear-admiral Warren; Major-general Sir W. Gosset, Bart., Serjeant-at-arms attending the House of Commons—he was a native of Jersey, and had seen some active service; at Aix-la-Chapelle, John Burke, Esq., the compiler of the “Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the United Kingdom,” “The Commoners of Great Britain,” “A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the landed gentry of Great Britain and Ireland,” “A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies of England,” “A general Armoury of England, Scotland, and Ireland,” republished under the title of “Burke’s Encyclopaedia of Heraldry,” “Heraldic Illustrations, comprising the Armorial Bearings of all the principal Families of the Empire, with Pedigrees and Annotations,” “The Royal Families of England, Scotland, and Wales, and the Families descended from them.” This learned and laboriously-compiled collection of heraldic works gained for the author great and well-merited fame.
At Brompton, a western suburb of the great metropolis, died Madame Guizot, at the age of eighty-three. This lady was a native of France, but joined her son, who was exiled with his king, Louis Philippe, whom he had served too faithfully, but faithlessly to his country. Madame Guizot was a lady of indomitable will, and abounding charity; she was most remarkable for her unconquerable and zealous attachment to the Protestant Church of France.
In April several very eminent persons were removed by death: among them was Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick, LL.D., F.S.A. He was the author of several works of considerable reputation: “The History and Antiquities of the County of Cardigan;” he united with Captain Smith in producing a book on the subject of the costume of the early inhabitants of these islands. He also published “A critical Inquiry into ancient Armour as it existed in Europe, but particularly in England, from the Norman Conquest to the Reign of King Charles the First, with a Glossary of Military Terms of the Middle Ages.” Several arch geological works were subsequently written by him, and he left behind him the reputation of a profound antiquarian.
In May, the death of some valuable persons took place. Baron Ashburton, who, as a cabinet minister and a financier, and in one instance as a negotiator, earned distinction. Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, of Haddington, distinguished as a writer, especially in the region of fiction; also Sir William Hotham, Admiral of the Red.
June saw an equal number of famous men laid low. Among them none was more remarkable than Tom Steele, an ardent follower of O’Connell, and his “head pacificator.” Steele was a gentleman and a Protestant; he had studied with great success at Cambridge University, and was a proficient in mathematics. He began life with bright prospects; talents, education, connections, and property—all were his. He wrecked all in the service of Ireland, as he believed—in the service of an Irish faction, as the event proved. Steele burned with indignation at the disabilities of his Roman Catholic fellow-countrymen, and joined in every exertion to obtain them justice. He conscientiously believed that Ireland could never prosper while in connection with England, and he struggled for their separation. O’Connell and his party had ulterior objects—the ascendancy of their religion, and the persecution of Protestants; but Steele’s honest nature refused to believe what was so opposed to their professions, notwithstanding the warnings which he received from many whose experience of that party, and of Ireland, qualified them to offer him counsel. He was only undeceived shortly before his death, which took place at Peel’s Coffee House, Fleet Street, London, where he had taken up his abode in sickness and in poverty, his fortune and his heart broken. He felt bitterly the desertion of his old confederates, and much bitter censure has been heaped upon the Irish Catholic and Repeal party, for thus abandoning the man they had flattered and used when he was in the heyday of his prosperity. It must be admitted that every one in Ireland said “poor Tom Steele!” when his sorrows were heard of, and his death was announced; but none came to the rescue, and few words of sympathy were afforded to him. It is but just to say that Ireland was at that time in the throes of a revolutionary struggle, and all were forgotten who dropped for a moment out of public view. Besides, the distress of the country spread alarm and grief on every side. These circumstances will, in great measure, account for the neglect which Ireland showed to her sinking patriot. But a similar excuse cannot be offered on behalf of the eminent and wealthy Roman Catholics of England, of Irish repeal members of parliament, and of other prosperous Irishmen in England attached to that party. As soon as the distress of the brave and patriotic man was known to his former opponents, English and Irish, they literally rushed to his relief, for all believed him to be an honest man and a pure patriot. Among the first in the work of kindness was Lord Brougham, an inflexible and terrible opponent. May the generosity of the deed be ever recorded to his honour! Colonel Perceval, one of the chief ringleaders of the Irish Orangemen was another; he sought the bedside of the sufferer, and consoled his closing hours. Proffers of aid on a large scale were made by his old opponents; but the stern and disinterested man died in his poverty, accepting only those acts which aided and soothed the closing scene. It was bitterly but too justly said by an eloquent writer, an old opponent of poor Steele, “Ireland gave him words, England deeds; Ireland took his life, England gave him a grave.”
In August, Captain Marryat of the royal navy, whose early life had been full of heroic adventure, and whose latter days were honoured by successful authorship. His “Diary in America” gave just displeasure to the American people, and betrayed a national invidiousness unworthy of a literary man and a British naval officer.
Mr. Edward Baines, the proprietor of the Leeds Mercury, and for many years M.P. for Leeds. This indefatigable and able man entered the town of Leeds a poor printer, and earned his first wages there through the influence of Mr. Obadiah Williams, a cloth manufacturer, a man of shrewd judgment of character, and whose benevolent disposition prompted him continually to generous actions. Mr. Baines worked as a journeyman-printer on the Leeds Mercury, then a mere local paper; he ultimately became the proprietor, and under his management it became one of the most ably conducted papers in the kingdom, and had a wide-spread circulation. Mr. Baines represented Leeds as successor to Mr. Macaulay, and as representative of that town was one of the most useful members of parliament. He was not a man of refined bearing or mental cultivation; as a public speaker he was ungainly in manner, his pronunciation common and provincial, his voice monotonous, and his style dry and commonplace; but he was serviceable, practical, pertinent, experienced; and the soundness of his judgment, and the weight of his character, gave force to what he said. His son, Matthew Baines, Esq., a barrister, became a member of the cabinet, and another son, Edward, became proprietor of the Leeds Mercury, and an enlightened leader of the dissenters of the west riding of York. He sustained the business reputation of the paper, after his father’s decease, and raised it to a much higher place as a literary journal. Few good men have had sons so worthy of their sire.
In August also died George Stephenson, Knight of the Order of Leopold, F.B.S., the originator of our railway system. This eminent engineer is a rare example of a self-taught genius. Born of parents too poor to give him any schooling, at eighteen years of age, when full grown, and following the occupation of a fireman, he was not ashamed to commence his education at an evening school. His steady industry and unconquerable perseverance ultimately won for him a position second to none in his profession. Looking at the influence of his labours on the whole human race, there are few names on the pages of history so pre-eminent as that of George Stephenson.
On the 21st of September, Lord William George Frederick Cavendish Bentinck, M.P. for Lynn, was suddenly removed by death. He was found dead in the grounds where he had been walking alone. As leader of the opposition, his death, so unexpected and so painfully sudden, made a great sensation.
In November Lord Melbourne, who had filled the office of premier in the beginning of her majesty’s reign, departed this life. The queen was much indebted to the courtly and constitutional skill of this nobleman in her first essays of government. He was her majesty’s faithful subject, minister, and friend, and she was justly much attached to her preceptor. He was too indolent, and too little acquainted with the tone and temper of the whole people for the office of premier. He was, however, a man of superior intellect and extensive culture, and was well versed in constitutional law.
Dr. James Pritchard, the celebrated naturalist and ethnologist, died in this month.
The death of Colonel Sir Frederick Augustus D’Esté, K.C.B., son of the Duke of Sussex by Lady Augustus Murray, daughter of the Earl of Dunmore, was the last decease of a remarkable person publicly noted in this year. The marriage of his royal highness without the consent of the crown rendered it invalid, and Sir Augustus was unable to obtain the inheritance or title of his father.
Thus terminated the events of 1848 which admit of record in a work like the present. The year expired leaving England on the whole stronger, and more confident in her stability and power. The whirlwind which had swept over the nations, shaking down the trophies and glories of antiquity which had remained after the first great French revolution, did not affect England—she heard its fury, but felt not its power.