as flattery. He has long since retired; but the name still flourishes. For myself, I cannot but hope that the labours of sixteen years have given me some ground of my own to stand upon; but I have no doubt that the circumstance of my bearing the name of my venerable relative occasioned my earlier services to be received with partiality. On the nearly identified regulations of Harrow and Eton I formed my system, not as a servile copyist, but as a free and faithful follower. But while I adopted their course of study and modes of management, I have from time to time introduced such deviations, as difference of local circumstances, and the facilities of a less extensive concern induced me in the exercise of an independent judgment to approve. But in my changes and additions, as well as in my adoptions, I have endeavoured to adhere to the spirit when departing from the letter.

The list of Harrow worthies, in all departments, ecclesiastical, civil, and military, did my limits allow of its transcription, would furnish a triumphant evidence of practical utility. Among the earlier names are those of Baxter the philologist and antiquary, and the critic Dennis, more celebrated than well esteemed.

Bruce the Abyssinian traveller, Orme the historian of Hindostan, and Hamilton the author of Ægyptiaca, form no mean triumvirate in an interesting department of literature. Sir William Jones was the Crichton of his age. In the naval and military department, we have the names of Lord Rodney, Lord Hastings, and Colonel Ponsonby,

whose noble career was prematurely terminated in the field of Waterloo. Of official statesmen our harvest is abundant: Lord Wellesley began at Harrow, and finished at Eton; to whom add, the late Spencer Percival, Mr. Robinson the present Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Peel the present Secretary of State for the Home Department, the Duke of Manchester, Lord Westmoreland, Lord Palmerston, and Lord Harrowby. The labourers in the unproductive field of opposition are also not a few independently of names which shall be reserved to grace other than the political department, there are those of the Duke of Grafton, Lord Euston, Lord Althorpe, the Duke of Hamilton, the Marquis of Douglas, Lord Archibald Hamilton, Lord Duncannon, Lord Grosvenor, and many others of later standing. To Richard Brinsley Sheridan that happened which never happened to any other man: on the same evening he was in three places at once; he was entertaining crowded audiences with his School for Scandal, and Duenna, at the two theatres, and making one of his most brilliant displays of eloquence in the House of Commons. Among those of the nobility honourably distinguished for classical pursuits and acquirements, may be mentioned the late Earl of Denbigh, the present Earl Spencer, and the Earl of Hardwicke who edited the collection called "Athenian Letters." In another department of literary pursuit we have the Earl of Aberdeen, the

* All but Lord Wellesley are exclusively Harrovians.

president of the Antiquarian Society; Mr. Taylor Combe, secretary to the Royal, director of the Antiquarian Society, and keeper of the antiquities and coins in the British Museum. The Duke of Devonshire is among the most distinguished collectors of books, and works in the fine arts, in this collecting country. The Earl of Elgin brought into England (we need not enter into controversy) the finest specimens of Grecian sculpture existing. Among lawyers, we have Mr. East, the celebrated reporter, and a name which cannot be mentioned without deep regret. The failure of Sir John Richardson's health, and his unavoidable retirement, have grievously disappointed his profession and his country. His promotion was entirely owing to his great talents and unspotted virtues. The acuteness of his conception, the clearness of his understanding, and the soundness of his legal principles, led the public to look forward to the most substantial benefits from his judicial services: and though the profession of the law is too well stocked with talents and integrity to allow the secession of any individual to be irretrievable, it is a national loss that the interpretation and application of the laws should have devolved for so short a time on such a man.

This catalogue might be extended to many more pages; but such extension would be out of place. I will close it with two names, which will only perish, the one with the records of classical learning, the other with English poetry, in the very highest ranks of which his works will stand to the

last, when personal malignity, always pursuing the obliquities of superior genius, shall have expended its stock of exaggerated imputation. You will anticipate the names of Dr. Parr and Lord Byron.

The zeal with which I have defended our public establishments should not subject me to the suspicion of looking with a hostile or jealous eye on the extensive projects of education now afloat. To the unlimited diffusion of knowledge, whether through the channel of philosophical institutions for mechanics, or the erection of a university in London, I wish success, and predict it from the growing spirit of the age. It is to be hoped that soon there will not be a totally uneducated person in this country. The effect of this, so far from being a reasonable subject of alarm, would be as advantageous to the higher as to the lower classes of society. There ought to be no danger, lest the peasant should tread on the heels of the courtier. The education which the working population of a country can possibly receive, must always be limited by their circumstances. The nature of those circumstances will always prevent it from being educated up to the higher ranks. Their knowledge must be of a practical, money-getting order. When once they advance beyond mere rudiments, the ornamental must always be left for the more fortunate. Give them all the education they can possibly receive, no evil consequences can result from its extension. The only danger that could arise, would be in the very improbable case of the gentleman's education being lowered to their stand

ard. But even in the equally improbable case of the general standard being so raised, that their average knowledge should equal or surpass that of gentlemen now, it would still be our own fault i they were educated up to the education of gentlemen then. With the start which the constitution of society has given us, a constitution undergoing a modification, but not a subversion, from the peculiar spirit of the times, with the means of selecting the most valuable assistance, with a large portion of leisure, and a comparative exemption from the anxieties arising out of hazardous subsistence, we should deserve little compassion if we suffered the energies of poverty to rival or overmaster the indolence of advantageous position. Should the cultivation of the popular mind rise above the most cowardly anticipations of those who see more danger in improvement than in deterioration, no harm would really be done, but on the contrary much good for unless in the improbable and disgraceful alternative of the higher classes degenerating in proportion to the improvement of the lower, the education of the poor could scarcely be extended without forcing the rich also to extend theirs. But the education of the common people cannot be so extended as to engender any prejudicial confusion, provided the education of the higher classes, however it may become necessary to enlarge its range, continue to be, as it now is, mainly directed to what we are in the habit of distinguishing by the title of polite literature or elegant attainment. The superior advan