family. His whole life gives a flat negative to such a supposition. Suicide, in the estimation of every well educated man of the present day, is an act of the basest cowardice; and cowardice never formed any part of the character of Sir Samuel Romilly. Having now, as I trust, cleared him from even a scintilla of suspicion of being a moral agent in the perpetration of this frightful act, allow me for a moment to speak of him as he was, such as I have known him for more than twenty years; for I shall never cease to hold him up to the student in every profession as the model of all that was great and good.

He was a man of the highest honour, of the most unshaken virtue and honesty, of the noblest and the most unbending principles, and of the most undaunted courage.

He was a man that, for any of the great principles that he held, would have been burned at the stake.

He was a man of the most indefatigable attention, and of the most laborious habits, of the most extensive knowledge in his profession, and of high accomplishments out of it.

As an orator, from the enlarged and comprehensive view he took of every subject, he was one of those rare instances that have shone equally in the Senate as at the bar. In him every righteous cause had not only an able advocate, but a most anxious and zealous friend. Amiable and gentle as a lamb towards his friends; generous but terrible as a lion to his enemies.

With all his great attainments and splendid talents, he was the most modest and unassuming man alive. His manner was most elegant, dignified, and impressive. I have seen him, standing up in Westminster Hall, as manager of the Commons of England, in an impeachment, at one moment with all the calmness and dignity of a public prosecutor, and at another, while the assembled learning and talents of the nation were hanging upon his tongue, I have heard such bursts of indignation from him, that any man in England, however high in station, should have dared to enter the House of Commons, the very sanctuary of liberty, and there refuse to account for the public money, that the accused, as well as his judges, and the whole audience, have been perfectly electrified by his lofty and commanding eloquence.

I have seen him in the House of Commons painting the injustice of the slave trade, and misery of the wretched, unknown, unpitied negro, till the whole House has been not only in tears, but have been actually convulsed and sobbing like children. I think his grand apostrophe to Mr. Wilberforce the night that the abolition of the slave trade was carried, will never be forgotten by those who heard it. These, and such as these, were the public trophies of his splendid fame. But his un

wearied exertion to obtain justice for the injured creditor, by making the landed property of the gentlemen of England answerable for their tradesmen's bills and other simple contract debts; his bold exposure of the total want of science, and, of course, of the glaring injustice of mitigating our sanguinary penal code, by setting up a vacillating practice in direct opposition to the law; and his exposure of the sophistry of Arch-Deacon Paley, in defending such a system from his moral chair; as if it were better and wiser that the lives of men should depend, not upon the defined and declared law of the land, but upon the undefined and undefinable notions, tempers, prejudices, and opinions of each individual Judge,—are the peculiar traits that distinguish the integrity and public services of this great lawyer. Instead of having the ambition, as too many of his profession had, of fathering new statutes that should add the penalty of death to other offences than those under which our sanguinary code already groans, his ambition has been to bring the law back to something like a science, and to stop the wasteful effusion of human life.

These, and such as these, will be the never-dying memorials of his name. Humanity will hail him as her darling child; and as long as the language and history of England shall endure, so long will the name of Romilly be bedewed with the grateful tears of the wise and good in all ages and in every clime.

To speak of his private character will be, I fear, beyond my powers of utterance on this occasion; for having known his lady, even before he knew her, having known the whole circumstances of his most honourable and most happy marriage, having ten years thereafter spent some time with them under the roof of the very gentleman, in the Isle of Wight, where the first act of this deep tragedy began, and there witnessed their supreme felicity, I can add my testimony to that of the good Dumont, of having seen the most expressive looks of tenderness towards his wife and children. from this excellent man—such looks, indeed, as were the guarantees that such a man could never knowingly have cast his children as orphans upon the world.

But orphans they will not be. The universal grief that this event has spread so far and wide, has made them already the children of the nation; and by the nation, as long as they live, will they be cherished, respected, and beloved.

N. B. It is intended that this Institution shall publish the following works in numbers, at one shilling a number, for the use of the different classes, as well as for the use of other seminaries of learning, provided a sufficient number of subscribers shall send their names and address, either to the Institution, or through their book

sellers, to the publishers of this first number, (postage paid,) to indemnify the expence of printing, specifying the work for which they subscribe; any person being at liberty to withdraw his subscription upon giving three months notice before the following number appears.

1. A Gothic Grammar.

2. A Gothic Dictionary.

3. An Anglo-Saxon Grammar. 4. An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary.

5. A summing up of the learning of the first class, from two to three o'clock, with the authorities.

6. A summing up of the learning of the second class, with the authorities.

7. A summing up of the learning of the third class, with the authorities.

8. Report of any extraordinary or anomalous medical cases that shall have occurred to the knowledge of this Institution.

AN

ARGUMENT

ON

MILITARY OBEDIENCE.

BY A HALF-PAY OFFICER.

"A monarch makes such a distribution of his authority, as never to communicate a part of it without reserving a greater share to himself; hence the private officers of military bodies are not so far subject to their general, as not to owe still a greater subjection to their sovereign." MONTESQUIEU.

"In England the supreme law, the law of the land, is bounded in its sublime extent only by the light of nature and the commentary of revelation; and this supreme law stands in the place of the sovereign of Montesquieu."

ANON.

ORIGINAL.

LONDON:

ÓN

MILITARY OBEDIENCE.

OPINIONS different from the writer's, on the subject of military obedience, have lately been carried so far into practice, and have been expressed by persons of so high authority, that he has been induced to reconsider his own views. He publishes them because he believes the opinions he opposes to be illegal and dangerous. To avoid the imputation of being desirous of inflaming the public mind this essay was begun to be written in Latin; but it appearing probable that the little attention which under any circumstances it might attract, would then be entirely lost, the vulgar tongue was adopted. The fear of being important borders on the ridiculous; but the subject of the following pages is not below contempt, however ineffectively it may be treated. It is, however, hoped that the form in which the publication is made will justify the claim to be considered an advocate for cool although earnest discussion.

One of the Judges of the Court of King's Bench is reported to have said on a late trial, that the soldiery neither are, nor ever ought to be, a reasoning body: and the Grand Jury of a northern county is understood to have thrown out certain bills of indictment, on the ground of the accused being soldiers, subject to indisputable command, and not to be arraigned for acts of obedience. Principle and practice are here consistent. If the dictum of the Judge be sound, the decision of the Jury may be supported; but it is contended, and it is the object of the following pages to show, that the views thus entertained of the soldier's duty and responsibility are

erroneous.