Recent Deaths of Notable Persons.

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 548, 16 July 1851, Page 2

Recent Deaths of Notable Persons.

Since we last published an article under this heading, — (an interval rendered longer than usual by the piessure of more urgent matter), — the obituaiy lists in the journals which have reached us have included a considerable number of distinguished names. A few of them have been incidentally mentioned in our columns ; but we desire to keep up our custom of adding to our usual summaries of general intelligence, from time to time, a moie regul.ir necrological catalogue of "notable persons :" — and, peihaps few records of the occmrences of the day have a moie peculiar and sinking' inteiest than the enumeration (inteispersedoccasionally with brief biogtaphical notices) of those who—after occupying for a season on the stage of life a position of prominence, — have passed av\ay ftom the view of the spectator, to be seen no more ; and who aie likely to be remembered, for a longer or shoiter period on account of the conspicuous part they have played in the world's theatre, and the manner iv which they have played it. The aristocracy lias lost some of its leading membeis. We notice first, the Duke of Newcastle, to whom we devote an entire paragraph, and might well devote an entire article, if it were only because he was one of the few remaining specimens of the race of old, staunch, uncompiomising Tories, now nearly swept away before the onward march of modern liberalism. Eorh. in secular and ecclesiastical politics it was the guiding principle of his life not to " meddle with them who are given to changes." He resisted the Reform Bill so strenuously, as to draw upon him the popular wrath, one manifestation of which was the burning of his fine castle near Nottingham, by a mob in October, 1831. He was opposed to Catholic Emancipation, and to the claims of Protestant Dissenters. He carried his High Ohurchism so far as to forfeit his Lord Lieutenantcy of Nottingham, rather thar insert in the commission of the peace the name of a gentleman appointed by Government, but to whom his Grace objected on account of his not being a member of the Fstablished Chwch ! What the Spectator calls " the lasting consistency of his antique prejudices," won for him a measnie of respect even from those who were far fiom sympathizing with his views. It was believed that he spoke sinceiely when (in an aufobiogiaphical introduction to a pamphlet which he published in 1839,) he said, "I endeavoured to discover the Uuth, and if I failed, it was not fiom want of intention, but from want of capacity. This couise I have continued to puisue fiom the eaihest period of my entrance into life up to the piesent hour." Accordingly, as it is justly obseived by the Watchman, " the transparent purity of the moth es which actuated his public conduct, and the unvaiying consistency with which, to the close of his life, he clung through evil report as thropgh good, to the pnnciples which he had conscientiously adopted at the commencement of his political career, weie such as to disarm the hostility, and secuie the admiration of the bitterest opponents of his views." His Grace, who for some yeais had " through disgust," abstained from taking part in the proceedings of Pailianient, died at Clumber Paik on the

12th of Januaty, in the 67th year of his age. His son ami successor in the Dukedom far surpasses his father in ability, and ceitainly is not exposed to the same charge of obstinate adlieictice to antiquated opinions, — the Kail of Lincoln being well known to have pnned himself an apt pupil in the Peel school of "expediency " The death of the Marquis of Northampton, which took place at Castle Ashby, in Northamptonshire, in January, also claims a separate paiagraph on account of the loss ■which the scientific woild has sustained in the lrnoval of that eminent and amiable nobleman, lie was Piesident of the Royal Society, (an office in which he succeeded the Duke of Sussfx in 183&), Piesident of the Archaological Society, one of the earliest suppoiters of the British Association for the advancement of science, a liberal supporter of the fine aits, and a distinguished geologist and mineialogist, having collected one of the finest mineralogical museums in the kingdom. In piivate life, he was "emphatically one who laid himself out for the good of others." The Daily News says, — ' { Few men have left this word with a reputation so high, or so generally regretted by all, from his most intimate fiiends to the poorest labourer on his estate." An affecting circumstance is that his death is believed to have been hastened by the shock his sensitive temperament expeiienced from the death of his son-in-law Viscount Alfohd. The late Maiquis is succeeded in his titles and estates by his eldest son, the Earl of Compton. Other breaches made by death in the aristocratic circles may be more briefly summed up. Viscount Alford (whose demise has been just referred to) was the eldest son of Karl Brownlow, and Giand-nephew of the Earl of Bridgewattr, who bequeathed to him a large fortune on condition that he obtained the title of Marquis or Duke of Bridgewater \ in the event of the Crown's not conferring the honour, the Egrrtons of Tatton,to inherit the estates. He was member for Bedfordshire, having given at the election as an exposition of his political principles that, though a Conservative, he would support Lord John Russell, " if he does not prove to be made of too squeezable materials."., .In his thirty- second jear, Lord Buroiiersii, eldest son of the Earl of Westmoreland, .In Dublin, at the early age of nineteen, the Marquis of Hastings. His death was occasioned by a slow fever, oiiginating in an accident that occurred to him a few weeks previously in Liverpool where he was almost drowned. His Lordship was an ensign in the 52nd Regiment of F00t... At the Barracks, Fermoy, Lord Robert Taylor, second son of the Marquis of Headford. His death was owing to the rupture of a blood-vessel in the lungs, produced by a blow which his lordship received from a man with whom he humanely lemonstrated because he was cruelly beating a dog. He had very recently exchanged from the Guaids to the 49th Regiment ..The Rev. Lord William Somerset, brother of Lord Fitzroy Somerset, and uncle of the Duke of Beaufort. He was a Canon of Bristol, and held two valuable Church livings The Viscount de Torre de Moncorvo, Portuguese Ambassador at the British Coiut. From the fifteenth yeat of his age, he had been connected with diplomatic matters, sciving in vaiious Continental States. Twenty-two years of his life, however, were passed in England, where he was held in high esteem. The veterans of our old campaigns are thinning off,— many of them having lived, however, (like their Great Captain himself) to an age which may be regarded as very extraordinary, when we remember the vicissitudes and hardships through which they passed. We now find two honoured names in the military deathroll. Field Marshal Thomas Grosvenor died, in January, at Richmond on the Thames, at the venerable age of eighty -seven. He entered the army in 1779 at the age of fifteen ; served with his regiment in Holland and Flanders, and afterwards in the expedition to the Helder in 1799 ; received the thanks of Patliament for his services at Copenhagen, along with Lord Cathcart, General Finch, and Sir Arthur Wellesley ; was appointed Colonel of the 65th Regiment in 1814; and was honoured with a Field-Marshal's baton, Nov. 9th 1846. He sat in several Parliaments as member for Chester, and afterwards for the borough of Stockbridge, and was a prime supporter of Conservative principles ... Sir Willougiiby Gordon, G.C 8., was also dead. He entered the army in 1783 ; in 1812 the Duke of Wellington appointed him Quaiter-Master-General in the Peninsula, and there as in other scenes, he saw and did good service. He " was much esteemed for lus uibanity and soldier-like qualities." Literature has sustained its losses. Amongst the chief was the death of Mr. W. H. Maxwell, whose Stories of Waterloo, Wild Sports of the West, Forlunesof Hector O'Holloian, and other woiks, have obtained an almost universal celebrity amongst the leaders of light literature. His career was a veiy \aried one. In eaily life, he had been a Captain in the British army. Subsequently he entered the church, and was for some years Piebendary of Balla, a wild paiish in Connaught, without any congiegation or cure of souls attached to it, " though" says a wiiter in the Globe, " it aflbided what he was admirably capable of dealing with, plenty of game." The same admiring writer adds,-— "Of a warm-hearted, kind, and manly temperament, he made friends of all who came within the range of his wit, or the circle of his

acquaintance. He was the founder of that school ■which counts the Hurry Lorreqvers and olheis among its humble disciples ; but the Story of Mj/ Life, and IV /Id Spot is of (lie West will not be easily surpassed, in their peculiar qualities of that gay, off-hand, and rollicking s'yle of penmanship, of which he was the originator." His once vigorous health had of late broken down, and he letiied to the village of Musselburgh, near Ediu mrgh, wheie he died. , . . Mis. Shelley was also dead. She had vaned and peculiar claims on attention, — ■ as the daughter of William Godwin and Mary W llsionicrai- r ; as the wife of the poweiful but unfoitimale (would that he had been only unfortunate!) Percy Byssue Shelley ; as the friend of Loid Byron ; and, rnobt of all, as the author of the wild and wonderful romance of Fi itnkenslcin, which, with all its Lults, has laid as strong a hold upon the minds of a mul» tilude of leaders as perhaps any work of fiction in our day .... We notice also the deaths of Mr. 11. Gilfillan, writer of much pleasing ballad poetry ; and Mr. James Hadfili.d, who w3ff" on the establishment of the Morning Chronicle for upwards of twenty yeais, and of whom that journal declaies, *' On all matters connected with Parliamentary history, precedent, and etiquette in particular, he was a peifect encyclopaedia of information." Mr. Haofield had been in early life secretary to Jeremy Bentmam, who acknowledged his sense of the value of his young friend's services by bequeathing to him a magnificent libraiy.

Evangelical Alliance Lectures. — The First of the Lectures intended to be given 1 y Ministers and Members of the Alliance — (in accordance with the Resolution of the General Meeting, of which we this day .publish a Report,) — was delivered last evening by the Rev. Thomas Bundle, in the Presbyterian Church, to a very large and deeply attentive auditory. The subject was the injurious effects of Intemperance in relation to Religion. Devotional exercises, conducted by the Rev. John Inglis, preceded and followed the Lecture. It was stated that due notice would be given of the next Lecture of the course of which this was the commencement.