Miscellaneous.
We regret to announce the death of Lord Holland, after a very short illness. So lately as Tuesday, he was in better health and spirits than
usual ; on that day he walked in his grounds at Kensington. On Wednes- day morning, however, at nine o'clock, he experienced a severe and alarming attack of illness, which threatened the worst consequences. Dr.
Chambers, Dr. Holland, and Sir Stephen Hammick, the medical ad- visers Of the family, were immediately culled in, and remained with him until he expired, at six o'clock on Thursday morning.
Lord Holland had assumed the name of 'Vassal, but his children re- tained the family name of Fox. He was born in November 1773, and had consequently almost attained his sixty-seventh year. He mar- ried, in 1797, Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Richard Vassal, Esq. ; and by her had issue several children, the eldest of whom surviving, time Honourable Henry Edward, now Lord Holland, was born in 1802.
The late Peer was only son of the second Lord Holland, the elder brother of Charles James Fox ; and leaves an only sister, the Honour-
able Caroline Fox, unmarried, surviving him. Lord Holland was a
Privy Councillor ; and was Chancellor of the Dutchy of Lancaster during the Administration of Earl Grey, front December 1830 to July 1834, and subsequently in Lord Melbourne's Administration of July 1824 and April 1835. In addition, his Lordship was Commissioner for the Dutchy of Cornwall, a Commissioner for Building Churches, Recorder of Not- tingham, and a Fellow of the Royal Society and Society of Arts. The Morning Chronicle gives the following sketch of Lord Holland's public career and political aptitudes- " Ilis maiden speech in the House of Lords was delivered on the 9th January 1798, in the debate on the Assessed Taxes Bill. It was a speech of great pro- mise; and the admirers of Charles Pox were delighted to trace, in this first effort of Lord Holland, a resemblance, both in matter and style, to his distin- guished relative. In time course of years the resemblance because more and more striking. " From the time of the No-Popery cry in 1807, down to a few years back, when bodily infirmities seem to have pressed heavily on his Lordship, he took a most active part in the proceedings of the house of Lords. There was hardly a question on which he did not deliver his sentiments ; and his speeches bore evidence of extensive reading and profound thinking, while they were enlivened with flashes of wit, which, like that of Charles Fox, was perfectly free from ill- nature. His ideas seemed to struggle for utterance, and the first impression on a hearer was that of pain at the effort which Inc witnessed. But every feeling of this kind was S0011 host in the contagious warmth of the speaker, to whom no one could listen unmoved. His whole heart appeared in every thing that fell from him ; and he appeared always full of his subject, and never to be occupied with himself. His ardour and generous overflow of soul left no one listless timr a single minute; and while it often happens to mach more finished orators than Lord Holland that the close of their speeches is eagerly welcomed, no one ever wished his Lordship to sit down. Such is the difference between the mere rhetorician and the man who appears to speak from the fulness of his heart. His fine countenance, too, which was always an index to the various emotions by which lie was agitated, added powerfully to the effect of his language. " Lord Holland seldom entered on questions of speculative politics. We doubt even whether he approved of Parliamentary Reform, on any other ground than the necessity of conceding what the people were bent on obtain- ing. He was distrustful of abstractions, and looked with apprehension to ex- periments on organical reform. While he was a strenuous advocate of civil and religious liberty, loathed whatever partook of oppression, and was always the foremost to denounce every infraction of right, every attempt to invade the sanctuary of the conscience—he seemed to have doutits whether orga- nical changes might be conducive to the promotion of the objects at which he aimed. He certainly was not the dupe of the theory that three independent powers could coexist in harmony ; and we are much mistaken if several of the articles in the early numbers of the Edinburgh Review, in which that theory was combated, and the various forces of the constitution were stated to centre in the House of Commons, did not originate with his Lordship. " The period during which Lord Holland distinguished himself in the House of Lords was that of the vigour of Earl Grey, and of the Marquis of Wel- lesley, of Lord Grenville, Lord Liverpool, and several other great speakers. As an orator, he was greatly inferior to Earl Grey, Lord Grenville, and the Marquis of Wellesley ; the first of whom, in particular, in his best days, WRS one of the best speakers who ever opened his lips in the House of Lords. But there was a peculiar raciness in all that fell from Lord Holland which fully compensated for the higher cast of oratory possessed by the speakers to whom we have alluded.
"In bearing this testimony to the effectiveness of Lord Holland as a public speaker, we should be outraging the truth if we attributed to him large views or indications of a great grasp of mind. Ile was, however, acute and varied, and full of the most happy illustrations ; and what he urged was always most apposite to the question before the House. He was, perhaps, happiest in his attempts to expose intolerance, of which in every shape he was an enemy. His efforts in the cause of religious liberty were not confined to the House of Lords; and we believe the. Emancipation Act was not a little promoted by the labours of his Lordship a meetings eetings of i Dissenters, to induce them to join n the great work.
46 It would be superfluous to offer any remark on his Lordship's well-known benevolence. By universal admission, he was one of the kindest and must generous of men ; and we fear his loss will not soon be supplied in this metro- polis." The death of Lord Holland is perhaps of more political importance at the present monument than it would have been at any former period of his public existence. He has been generally understood to have led a sort of Cabinet opposition to Lord Palmerston upon the Turkish ques- tion, and to have not only favoured, but vehemently seconded the ob- jects of the French Minister upon that question. He has even been lately pointed at by a Ministerial journal, which espouses the Pahnerston views of Foreign policy, as intrianina. with M. Thiers for the defeat of that policy winch the majority of the British Cabinet had determined upon. It may, we suppose, be presumed, that whoever may be chosen to fill his place, if given a seat in the Cabinet, will not vote against Lord Melbourne and Lord Palmerston in the Cabinet Council. Lord Holland's office, however, (that of Chancellor of the Madly of Lan- caster,) is not always a Cabinet office ; and, as the choice of a Cabinet colleague might at this momeut be rather an embarrassment, it is very possible that no new Cabinet Minitaer may be appointed in Lord Hol- land's room.—Morning Post.
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