25 SEPTEMBER 1858, Page 16

Mr. HF.NRY WARBURTON, once so prominent among the Whig Radicals

in Parliament, died on the 16th, in his 74th year. He was the son of a Lon- don merchant engaged in the Baltic trade. Educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, he entered himself into trade ; he did not, however, confine his exertions to private life, but took part in public affairs, having been "one of the earliest and principal aids of Lord Brougham in the foundation of the London University." Mr. Warburton entered Parlia- ment in 1826, and took his place among the "Whigs and something more" of that day ; acting with Mr. Hume, David Ricardo, Lord Althorp, and Poulett Thomson. He played a conspicuous part as a kind of moderator and mediator in the Reform Bill agitations, and supported the compromises which facilitated the passage of the measure. Mr. Warburton supported the ballot. But his greatest claim to favour perhaps was the share he took in carrying Penny Postage, and in inducing the Melbourne Government to entrust the working of the experiment to its author Mr. Rowland Hill. Mr. Warburton was forced to resign his seat for Bridport in 1841, because a petition was presented against his return. On this occaison he took an un- usual course. He attended before a Select Committee and revealed the gross coats and corruptions of all his elections for Bridport. Remaining out of Parliament for two years he was once more returned, this time for Ken- dall, in 1843. On the dissolution in 1847 he quitted public life and passed the remainder of his days in retirement. Mr. Warburton belonged to an old and stern school of political economists whose main principles have tri- umphed but some of whose doctrines find little favour in these days.