The Sun.
London, England, 1848-09-23 00:00:00

DEATH OF
LORD GEORGE BENTINCK

We published yesterday the melancholy intelligence of the
sudden death of the above respected Nobleman. We regret
to state that last evening accounts were received by the Mar-
quis of Titehtleld, at Harcourt House, corroborating the com-
munisation, though the precise particulars of the melancholy
event were not mentioned. It appears his Lordship left
Welbeck Abbey on Thursday afternoon, on foot, with the
intention of wanting to Thoresby Park, the seat of Earl
Manvers, about five miles distant from Welbeck, his Lord-
ship having engaged to dine with the Noble Earl. Not
arriving at the hour he was expected, search was made for
him in the neighbourhood, and about nine o'clock in the
evening the lamented deceased was found, by his own ser-
vant, quite dead in a field through which his path to
Thoresby lay. The Noble Lord's friends are said to have
lately observed a marked change in his appearance, and
some anxiety has in consequence been felt on his behalf.
"What the immediate cause of his Lordship's decease may
have been is of coure at present uncertain, but from the ab-
sence of any apoplectio tendency there seems great probabi-
lity that it may have arisen from disease of the heart.
We have received the following corroborative particulars
from the vicinity of the spot where the lamentable catas-
trophe occurred :

SHEFFIELD, FRIDAY MORNING.

Lord George Bentinck was last night, at eleven o'clock.
found dead in a field near Welbeck Abbey, the seat of his
father the Duke of Portland. I gathered my information
this morning at the Crown Inn, gotherham, and I have as-
certained beyond doubt that it is correct. I should have gone
over to Welbeck to make further inquiries, but the distance
is too great to admit of my returning this afternoon. While
at the Crown Inn, which is the head inn at Nottingham, I
gathered the following particulars from several individuals
separately, and their accounts entirely agreed. They say that
a stable-man from Welbeck Abbey arrived at the Crown
Inn, that morning, with a horse and gig, in time for the four
A.M. down train to the north. He said he
was going to Edinburgh to inform Lord Henry
Bentinck (who is out shooting in Scotland) of the
sudden death of his elder brother, Lord George Ben-
tinck. The statement he made was—that yesterday after-
noon, Lord George Bentiuck, having an appointment to dine
•at Thoresby Park, the seat of Earl Manvere, and being a
good pedestrian, set out on foot from Welbeck Abbey, in-
tending to walk across the fields to Thoresby Park, a dis-
tance of five or six miles. A man servant was at the time
dispatched with a horse and gig to take thither a change of
dress, &c., for his Lordship. Lord George did not arrive at
Thoresby Park at the appointed time, whereupon inquiries
were made of the servant as to the cause of the delay. He
said in reply, that before he left Welbeck he saw his Lord-
ship crossing the park, and afterwards, as he was driving
along the road, he observed him walking on in a field situate
about three miles on the road. Time rolled on, and as his
Lordship did not arrive, the servant drove back to Welbeck
to ascertain whether he had returned thither; but finding
that such was not the case he again drove back to Thoresby
Park, thinking that Lord George might by that time have
arrived. Nothing, however, had been seen of him, and conse-
quently several servants were dispatched in various direc-
tions for his Lordship. His Lordship's own servant pro-
ceeded along the footpath to Welbeck, and after walking
soma distance he saw, on approaching a gate, a human body
stretched on the ground. On going close up to the object he
discovered that it was the body of his master, Lord George
Bentinck. Life was quite extinct. Soon afterwards the
body was removed to Welbeck in a drag, and the servant
who found the body was immediately dispatched with a
horse and gig to Rotherham, to take the train at Masborough,
for the north, as already mentioned. Before leaving Rother-
ham he ordered post-horses to be in readiness to-night to
take forward to Welbeck Abbey Lord Henry Bentinck, in
case he should arrive by train this evening.
The following brief note from Manchester will show how
deeply this melancholy event is felt in that important city :
" The greatest possible excitement prevails in this city in
consequence of the rumoured death of this distinguished
Nobleman, but which it 13 hoped will turn out not to be
founded on fact.

"The report is, that the Noble Lord was to have dined
last evening with Earl Maavers, at Holme Pierrepont, Not-
tinghamshire, and that as his Lordship did not arrive in
time, a messenger was dispatched to Welbeck Abbey to in-
quire the cause. The messenger, it is said, found the Noble
Lord dead in a field through which a footpath passes from
one mansion to the other."

(From the Times.)

A remarkable man, who not yet three years ago suddenly
entered the political world, has been still more suddenly
withdrawn. Lord George Bentinck is gone. Of all the
public characters of the day there was no one of whom we
less thought to hear this melancholy announcement. Young,
energetic, contidOnt, hopeful, persevering, full of indigna-
tion, opening new quarrels, and provoking new antagonists
every day, his Lordship was commencing, so it seemed, a
long and vigorous career. About a year since he made an
attempt to retire from his new and uncongenial position.
He summoned his party, and urged them to elect another
chief. The offer only brought out the nakedness of the land
and the hopelessness of the cause. Whether for a principle
or a man the search was equally unsuccessful. With cha-
racteristic chi'elry his Lordship resumed his desperate post,
and has ever Since worked it with an energy that might
have raised a soul under the ribs of death. Under
the ribs of protection, however, he has worked in
vain. There is too much reason to fear that three sessions
of overwhelming toil have worn and torn the fibre
that promised otherwise a green old age. The man
whose heart was with huntsman and hound, the racer
and the starting-post, under some strong and almost
unaccountable impulse devoted himself for three years to
days of calculation and nights of debate, to the study of
blue books, to the investigation of arithmetical errors and
moral inconsistencies. For three years he sustains the un-
equal strife, and then sinks in a moment as he treads the
springy turf and breathes the balmy air of his first boyish
haunts on his father's domain. We would not willingly
trespass either on the secret purposes of Providence or on
the secret recesses of individual character. But there was
an almost superstitious element in his Lardship's mind,
which, as it prompted him to take a providential view of
public affairs, lends a peculiar light to his own extraordi-
nary carter. Men are sometimes called instruments in the
hands of Heaven, and are said to be raised up, employed, and
laid aside. Whatever the purpose, no instance suggests
those ideas so much as Lord George's three years of party
reign. Taken from the turf and placed suddenly in the
senate, pressed into a service alien from his nature and pur-
suits, performing just one mission, failing of this purpose, yet
incidentally effecting objects far beyond his thought,
and then removed at the very moment when the
situation which first invoked him appears to be
passing away, it is not easy to class him with
the common race of politicians. Even at the outset of
his career every one was struck with its singularity. That
he should sustain it, and that so much should turn on his
individual efforts, seemed still more wonderful. The con-
clusion is now the strangest feature, as it is also the most
melancholy incident of the whole. But what has Lord
George Bentinck done? and what has he not done? He
has not carried one point of his avowed crusade. He has
not saved one iota of agricultural protection, and what is
more the results have hitherto belied his most confident
predictions. He has not had better success in the more
difficult and complex ground of commercial and colonial
protection. He has not made an effectual resistance to the
liberal and progressive tendencies of the country. He has
not carried any of his specific plans. It would be difficult
to say what he has done, or even proposed, that would en-
title him to a place in the lowest rank of statesmen. Yet,
as the chief of a party, hastily gathered by his energy,
his boldness, his uncompromising spirit, and reckless
determination, he has done what no statesman could
or even would do. By heading and maintaining an
obstinate secession from the Conservative party, he has
placed the country, now for two years, under a Li-
beral policy. He has made the Whig Premier. We
have often expressed our conviction, and we now repeat
it, that in no other way could we have met the present great
crisis in the world's history. We little know `what our pre-
sent case would have been with a Conservative Ministry and
a Whig Opposition last March. Every month brings out
the value of our present situation. To Lord George Bentinck
more than any other man we owe this happy result. This is
not the only thing Lord George Bentinck has done, nor is it
his most meritorious achievement. Full of the memory and
the wrongs of his first friend and master, he cherished for
twenty years a deep fund of vengeance which time and op-
portunity at last brought out. Haunted by the ghost of
Canning, he has at length exacted terrible reprisals from
those who first baffled, then borrowed, the policy of that
statesman. After a long interval, a similar occasion and, as
Lord G. Bentinck thought, a similar inconsistency, occurred.
It was an accident rather than a result of character or of
political creed that Lord George Bentinck took up the
quarrel of the Protectionists. To punish inconsistency, to
vindicate pledges, to save partisans from the disgrace of
wholeeale and compulsory conversion, and make the convert
suffer the penalties of change, were the objects he had most
at heart, and in those he succeeded. It is as a political
moralist, not as a statesman, that Lord George Bentinck has
succeeded. Hel has been the rod of faction. Ile has pu-
nished both the party and the man. He has done some other
things. With a peculiar taste for investigation, and a gene-
ral suspicion of trickery, he has made numerous attacks on
the pious frauds, if such there be, of modern statesmanship.
False figures, got up cases, twisted chronology, convenient
suppressions, were the objects of his rigorous scrutiny and
relentless denunciation. He has made some successful
exposures. But we would rather place his suc-
cess • in the vigilance he has roused, and the
terror with which he has surrounded official dis-
honesties as long as his name shall be remembered.
As the political results of Lord George Bentinck's career
have been exclusively negative, it is almost needless, and is
certainly premature, to inquire into the probable conse-
quences of his death. While his Lordship has been dividing
the Conservatives, there has been an increasing unanimity
of the House in favour of liberal measures. The political
world now presents a very different distribution of parties
feom that which the repeal of the corn-laws broke up. Could
'We suppose that Lord George's followers would take this op-
portunny of making up their quarrel with their old leader,
they would have to take him, not only without pledges, but
without even a distinctive cause. That they should wish to
be
at
party,
rt
thYe' and, if possible, a successful one, is likely enough.
But rfieant state of politics Lord George Bentinck's
friends will hind it difficult either to accomplish, or even to
know the object of their ambition. Time, however, will soon
shift the scenes, introduce new dramas, and re-arrange the
parts. The curtain has dropped on Protection. Its hero is
no more. Nothin
moralities assertedgannr remains but friendship avenged,
, most peremptorily commanded.
(From the ChroaUk. 3
The melancholy eventwhich
w_ e announced in a late edi-
tion of our paper yesterday
regret willbt
thein e
mindsawakened
f a onell
classes s en -
timent of sincere and deep
of our readers. The sudden death ofan eminent public man
—cut off in the very }Ana and flowerarof his days, and.in;the
prizes
hopes of friends
midst of a career at whose goal the a
asnof an honourable
and admirers had placed the highest
moral s
ambition—is, under any circumstances,
sympathies
appeals too impressively to the elementary occurrence that
mated .by
to admit of other emotions than those naturallnyisix
a mournful example of the uncertainty of human
the evanescence of human expectations. We can moste'tranlyd
add, that in the case of the untimely removal of Lord Geour-
Bentinck, there is much to enhance those regretful feelings
which spontaneously arise in every well-constituted mind, ,2,1
witnessing so signal an instance of the frail tenure on which
all earthly hopes and blessings are held. While it would be
affectation to endeavour to seem forgetful that the
Noble Lord had grave faults, it needs but the most ordi-
nary candour to acknowledge that he bad many excellent,
and some admirable qualities; and we are persuaded that
those who most widely dissented from the opinions with
which he had identified himself, those who were most
strongly convinced of the injurious tendencies of the policy
of which his name had become the symbol, and even those
who most emphatically disapproved of certain objectionable
peculiarities in his public demeanour, will not be the last to
appreciate the talents and virtues which gave him more than
one valid claim to the respect and good will of his country-

men. The character of Lord George Bentinck's mind was
not one that imposes any difficult task on the psychological
analyst. His faults and his excellences were alike patent to
superficial observation. On the one hand, his indiscreet and
headlong advocacy of an exploded economical theory, his
general immaturity of thought and judgment, and his un-
justifiable bitterness of language and deportment towards
political opponents; on the other hand, his untiring industry
his indomitable courage and perseverance, his extraordinary
aptitude for mastering the details of a subject, and his con-
sistent and unwavering fidelity to a cause which he doubt-
less believed to be that of truth—such are the main
elements of the mixed impression which the deceased Pro-
tectionist leader has left on the minds of his countrymen.
We are not aware that we can make any material addition
to the preceding enumeration; bit we may, perhaps, offer
some remarks that will conduce to a correct and impartial
valuation, both of the infirmities and of the good qualities
exhibited in his brief political career, considered with refer-
ence to the circumstances in which be was placed, and the
relation in which he stood to his Parliamentary contempora-
ries. If we are not much mistaken, a dispassionate estimate
of the peculiar position which Lord George Bentinck occu-
pied during those two years which may be said to have con-
stituted the whole of his political life, will be found to justify
a somewhat different distribution of the lights and shades of
his Lordship's public character, from that which first presents
itself on a hasty and one-sided view. We are inclined to
think that the better qualities of his mind and character will
be seen to stand out in fuller relief, and that his obvious
faults will appear materially extenuated, when due allow-
ance is made for the fact, that events suddenly placed
him, in the eighteenth year of a comparatively inert par-
liamentary line, at the head of a large and exasperated
political party. To a man of an eager and impulsive tem-
perament, little accustomed to that self-discipline of speech
and temper which parliamentary leadership demands, and
which can scarcely be learned but in the school of daily and
hourly experience, there could not be a much more dangerous
trial. Lord George Bentinck'a position, since the spring of
the year 1846, has
.been one in which his constitutional
faults were not only totally unchecked by the guiding or re-
pressive influence of sedater coadjutors; but were fostered
and stimulated by the certainty that boundless applause
awaited every display of extemporised political acquisitions,
and of bitter party feeling. Few public men, probably,
possessing the native ardour of temperament requisite for the
leadership of a broken and dispirited party, would have sus-
tained less injury from that perilous promotion than did
Lord George Bentinck. Certainly, still fewer could
have equalled the energy and ability which he undoubtedly
displayed, under difficulties calculated to damp and depress
the most self-confident enthusiasm. Violence of language,
crudity of thought, error of statement, misapplication of facts
to theories, and of theories to facts—these can scarcely sur-
prise us in the raw and inexperienced leader of a very nume-
rous and very angry party, who had all his political know-
ledge to acquire on the spur of the moment. The marvel is,
that under circumstances so singularly disadvantageous, Lord
George Bentinck was able to exhibit so many of the talents
and qualifications—if not of a statesman—at least of an ex-
pert and able orator and politician. Thus, while the de-
ceased Nobleman's characteristic failings
_were, to a very
large extent, attributable to the peculiarities of his position,
his virtues were all his own. On the more agreeable
aspects of his public career, we need scarcely dwell at length.
We believe the general verdict of Lord George Bentinck's
political opponents will bear us out when we say, that while
an impetuous temper frequently hurried him beyond the
limits of propriety and right feeling in his attacks on those
who differed from him, his own political course was entirely
free from those meaner faults which he was too prone to im-
pute to others. We are not aware that any act of shabbi-
ness was ever associated with his name. It must be added
that many of his political opinions and leanings indicated an
essentially generous nature. On all subjects involving the
principles of religious liberty, he continued to the last faith-
ful to his first liberal couvictions. It was especially honour-
able to him that he made no effort to conceal or com-
promise his earlier opinions on topics of this class after
be had become connected in the closest relations of in-
timacy with a party to whom they were utterly dis-
tasteful. The open and manful avowal, at so recent a
date as the general election of 1847, of the policy of
endowing the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland—
and, yet more, the support which he gave, at a still
heavier cost, to the measure of Jewish emancipation—must
never be forgotton by those who would pass a just and true
judgment on the deceased leader of the country party. Nor
can we omit to advert, with peculiar satisfaction, to the cir-
cumstance that his last public act was a stern and peremp-
tory refusal to accept " popularity" in Ireland on dishonour-
able terms. In general, we may say that Lord George Ben-
tinck was amply endowed with the virtues which are com-
monly found in connexion with party violence and passion,
and of which these are, in a manner, the distorted and exag-
gerated image. We have spoken freely and frankly of this
remarkable man, as we totally abjure the authority of that
wel-known canon which would restrict obituary criticism
to one-half of the facts that present themselves for ethical
judgment. We will only say, in conclusion, that we believe
Lord George Bentinck's brief political career—strongly ad-
verse, as it: has been, to the prevailing tone of public feel-
ing and conviction—has left, on the whole, no unkindly im-
pression on the minds of his countrymen; and that, even
apart from the mournfully-abrupt and premature termina-
tion of his course, which at once hushes party passion, and
obliterates the recollection of party animosities, an indul-
gent and generous verdict awaits his name and memory.
(From the Herald.)
The assassination of Mr. Spencer Perceval, and the sud-
den prostration of Lord Liverpool, are the only events of
modern times in England which at all resemble, in their
suddenness, and their momentous results, the loss sustained
by the country yesterday, in the death of Lord George Ben-
tinek. It is true that his Lordship occupied no office or post
of responsibility. His departure does not impose on the So-
vereign the necessity of reconstructing the Government. For
the moment, all things may proceed in their accustomed
course. Lord George occupied no other position than that
of a simple Member of Parliament. But still, such was the
rank and position to which his own powers had raised him,
that we have no doubt that both Lord John Russell and Sir
Robert Peel are sensible of a vast change in their own stand-
ing, circumstances, and prospects, the moment the announce-
ment reaches them, that " Lord George Bentinck has been
found dead in Welbeck Park." There has, perhaps, scarcely
been an instance, in any previous history, of a fame and
position of power being wrought out for himself by any
man, under circumstances resembling those of this
eminent leader. Youths such as Pitt and Canning have
been trained for the grand goal of supremacy—have been
helped forward by all kinds of factitious devices; and, hav-
ing genius and energy, have won the prize which they and
all their friends desired and expected them to win. But it is
a very different thing for a man to remain in Parliament for
twenty years, content with a seat on the back benches;
neither imagining himself nor being imagined:by-any one else
to possess more than ordinary powers ; and then, when called
forth by an emeegency, to step into the front rank at the re-
quest of his friends, and there to find, and to show, instan-
taneously and without effort, talents which fill his opponents
with fear, and his fellow-combatants with admiration. Ta-
lent, however, is not the object of our especial admiration, or
we might be dragged at the chariot• wheels of a Sheil or a
Macaulay. To hear a man eloquently proving " the worse to
be the better reason" fills us with much more disgust than
pleasure. From any man whom we would follow, we
should require that he would ably maintain and defend sound
principles. In one respect, as our readers will remember, we
have questioned the correctness of Lord George Bentinck's
views, and have declined his guidance. But in the general
policy of the Conservative party we ever found him an ear-
nest, sincere, and most efficient combatant; and we have
frequently assigned to him the meed of warmest praise for
his most laborious and most successful efforts. It is the
weakness of the Conservative party, and the strength of the
Radical—that while the representatives of the latter are ge-
nerally chosen for their talents, the representatives of the
former are too often chosen merely for their rank, or wealth,
or virtue, or general estimation. Take 100 of the chief
county Members of England, and compare them with 100 of
the representatives of the large towns ; and while three-fourths
of the wealth and of the worth will be found in the first
class, three-fourths of the business-talent will be found in the
second. Hence it was that the eminent, the remarkable
talents of Lord George Bentinck, in dealing with matters of
trade and finance, proved so singularly valuable to his party.
Few of the countytMembers bad qualified themselves at all
for taking a leading part in such discussions; and hence,
until Lord George arose from among their ranks, they were
palpably overmatched by the Bowrings and Villierses, the
Brights and Cobdens. But in another respect Lord George
claimed a still higher praise, in thatihe set a still more useful
example. So soon as he found that he was required to la-
bour, he became a truly laborious Member of Parliament.
This, to the Conservative party, was both a vast advantage
and a noble model. Too many of the country gentlemen of
England "do their counties' the honour of representing
them." Rio many plainly declare that rather than toil for
the public welfare, they would set off for Naples or for Rome,
and the county—and the country also—might go to perdi-
tion ! But Lord George Bentinck, so soon as he found that
labour was required, and required of him, hastened to give it ;
and most
mstemorys
success-
fullyiandg. i ve
Theit heh
idgihde, s
tmost d unremittingly,
truest
tri
bute d o
found in the fact—a fact which none will in their hearts
deny—that his death is an event which may change the
destinies of the empire. We see not what may be the re-
sult. Doubtless the retainers of Sir Robert Peel will exult •
ingly cry, " Now that you Protectionists have lost your osty
man of *business, you must come back to us." But we are
not yet reduced to that state of desperation. Many there
are in the Conservative ranks who possess talents, if they
could but see it their duty to devote those talents, as Lord
George devoted his, to their country's service. Let such
pause and ask themselves, whether this event is not to them
a thrilling call. When was England more in want than
now, of a man fitted to lead her Senate in high and honour-
able courses ? And will any one tell us that no such man
exists ?

(From the Post.)
There is but too good reason to believe that Lord George
Bentinck is no more. Such details as have reached us will
be found elsewhere : they are vague and general, but we
fear, nevertheless, that they leave no reasonable doubt of the
melancholy event. Feelings, to which we could not hope to
give adequate expression, crowd upon us while we announce
the lamentable death of this distinguished man. Cut off, by
an inscrutable dispensation of Divine Providence, when his
labours had begun to achieve their proper appreciation by
the public mind, when there scarcely remained a doubt that
he was destined to be the founder of a new, an honest, and
an uncompromising system of domestic and commercial policy
—it is impossible at this moment to calculate the irreparable
loss which' the demise of Lord George Bentinck will occasion,
to the country. To his afflicted family, or to those who en-
joyed the honour and happiness of his personal friendship, it'
would be impertinent to dwell on the bereavement they
have sustained. As a man irreproachable in private life,
he must be deeply regretted by all who knew his virtues ; as
one in whom were recognised the ability and courage that
placed him in the front rank of the protectors of British in-
dustry and the promoters of British interests, the privation
affects the empire at large. It was of a great man that the
great orator of his day affirmed—" Nihil erat in ejus of a-
tionibus nisi sincerum, nihil nisi siccuneatque sobrizan." The
praise which Cicero awarded to Cotta is pre-eminently the
due of Lord G. Bentinck. He was, of all public men of his
age, without doubt, the most practical statesman. He
never sacrificed a friend to a trope, a cause to a meta-
phor, nor a principle to the hope of office. He under-
stood by politics the art of making a nation great, a
people happy. He was a politician only because he was
a patriot, and earned by his honesty the respect of those
whom even he failed to convince by his reasoning. Indeed,
he could count his warmest admirers in the camp of his op-
ponents. His single-heartedness, his self-devotion, his
firn dis-
interestedness,e won him what was better than troops of
9, the approval of the suffering millions whose interests
he pleaded—alas I—in vain. In his nature no mean nor
resentful
the high passion had a place. He was willing to relinquish
position he had acquired in the House of Commons,
when
he apprehended that, by maintaining it, he should im-
conflict. peril greet at w cause that had summoned him forth to the
led. Ilis ambition had
to serve in the ranks he had so often
no taint of meanness nor self-seeking
about it. It was that
that
of ambition which a noble intel•
lect might entertain
p,
the
thad detected the hollowness of
modern statesmanship, insincerityet of its professions, and
the blindness of its anticipations.
and despairing, the Broken, scattered, dis-
heartened,ty found its salva-
tion in the daring courage, the e(l..7itit),eacrl sentiments, the un-
flinching heroism, of Lord George Bentinck. Ile save their

flag once more to the winds. He once more proclaimed the
truth that essentially they were the popular party, because
their political action had for its object the popular good ; and
he gathered them once more together to resist once more that
sweeping tide of capitalism and money-loving which
threatens our country with the horrors of a plutocracy.
Lord George Bentinck's name will not be forgotten when
the reaction visibly approaching becomes reality—when the
working classes come to mark by whom it was their
cause was first forcibly advocated, and the shabby
pretences of their mock friends distinctly exposed.
He leaves behind him a reputation which Ministers
might envy—which the smiles and frowns of Courts could
neither give nor take away. His name will be revered when
the bustling actors who now tread the boards of political life
are forgotten, and England, adopting a happier policy than
that to which she has at present pledged her troth, shall re-
cognise the patriotic virtues which inspired the eloquence,
sustained the exertions, and elevated the character of Lord
George Bentinck. Let this be the consolation of his mourn-
ing friends—
" To live in hearts we leave behind,
Is not to die."
(From the Advertiser.)
We have this day to record, which we do with much regret,
the death of Lord George Bentinck. The melancholy event
took place at Thoresby Park, in the county of Nottingham,
on Thursday afternoon. The Noble Lord's death was
sudden. He had been in perfect health an hour or two be•
fore it took place. The cause is understood to have been a
fit of apoplexy. The particulars, so far as they have
transpired, will be found in another part of our impres-
sion. The death of Lord George, in the very prime of
life, and at a time when he filled so large a space in the pub-
lic eye, will produce emotions of deep regret in all parts of
the country ; for though wanting in that sugacity, that judg-
ment, and that tact which are necessary elements in the
character of a statesman, he was a man of very considerable
abilities, and possessed that fine, frank, open manner, and ge-
nerosity of nature, which never fail in this country to inspire
respect, no matter what the politics of the party may be.
The Noble Lord was a Tory of the old school. He gloried in
his attachment to Conservative principles, and was always
ready to submit to any personal sacrifice which his adher-
ence to his views might call on him to make. He was an
honest politician, which is more than can be predicated of
the great majority of our present representatives. Those who
considered the Noble Lord mistaken in his views, always
accorded to him the credit of being perfectly honest. There
was, too, a manliness about him, which rendered him
a great favourite with his countrymen. He was in-
capable of a mean or unworthy action. Whatever he felt,
he expressed ; whatever he thtught, he said. There was
nothing of cunning in his nature; nothing of duplicity in his
composition. You saw the man in every word he spoke.
Language was with him the utterance of his real sentiments
and feelings. Anything in the shape of dissimulation was
foreign to Lord George Bentinck's nature. In truth, he
was much too open, honest, and candid, ever to have suc-
ceeded as a politician. It was said that he aspired to the
Premiership. %V c know not on what grounds the allegation
rests; or whether there exist any grounds for it at all. One
thing is clear—he never could have filled that office. Apart
from the ultraism of his views as a Tory, he lacked the lead-
ing qualities necessary in the man who would aspire to so ex-
alted a situation. He knew nothing of Parliamentary tactics.
The straightforwardness of his manner, and the openness
of his bearing, would have proved fatal to his possession
of the Premiership for many weeks, even bad
circumstances raised him to that prominent position. We
have spoken of the Noble Lord's devotion to extreme Con-
servatism. It is due to his memory to say, that, though a
party
man, it was from no factious motives that he identified
himself with those with whom he acted. Conservatism was
with him synoymous with patriotism. He potently believed
that protection to commerce and agriculture was indispen-
sable to the prosperity of the country. Free trade and com-
mercial ruin were, in his view, convertible terms. Lord
Eldon saw the sun of England's glory set for ever, when
Catholic emancipation became the law of England. Lord
George Bentinck saw the ruin of England's agriculture and
commerce in the free-trade measures of 1846. The memorable
day which witnessed the adhibition of the royal signature to
the Corn Bill of Sir R. Peel, was, in his view, the blackest
in the annals of England's history. To this opinion
he adhered with steadfast attachment till the last. There
was a sturdy consistency in his views and in his conduct in
the House of Commons, which extorted admirati, n from the
very worst of his traducers. His political principles were,
indeed, a part of his nature. The wan could not be severed
from his sentiments. His heart was in his creed. Hid was
no cold calculating faith. He embraced his views with fer-
vour, and was at all times ready to sacrifice for them ease,
personal interests, and, greater still, the friends he most
esteemed. One of the most remarkable characteristics of
the Noble Lord's mind was the great facility with which he
amassed, arranged, and stated the facts connected with the
questions which he brought before the House. His apti-
tude for dealing with the statistics of a subject was ex-
traordinary. Perhaps, no speech ever delivered in the
House of Commons excited greater or more general surprise,
for the speaker's mastery of the statistical bearings of the
question, than did the celebrated speech of Lord George
Bentinck in favour of Government aid to Irish railways.
What made this memorable display of his Lordship's intimate
acquaintance with the question all the more remarkable was,
that he was not before known to have turned his attention to
it. The speech took the House and the country by surprise.
Mr. Hudson and the other railway Members candidly con-
fessed, that on railway subjects, though they had made
those subjects their special study for many years, the
Noble Lord left them far behind. They were, indeed, no-
where. But it is unnecessary to dwell at greater length
on the Parliamentary career of the Noble Lord. To
the party with whom he so closely identified himself
his loss will be irreparable. Apart from his talents, his posi-
tion in society as the son of a Noble Duke invested him
with an importance which would not have attached to a man
of even greater abilities, occupying a less elevated place in
society. The extreme Conservatives can ill afford, in their
present paucity of both numbers and talent, to lose the lead-
ing man amongst them. The only man of mark who now
graces the ultra-Tory or Protectionist ranks is Mr. Disraeli.
tint though a good speaker and brilliant debater, he wants
that standing in society which is necessary to give a man
weight in the House. Lord George's death will, in all pro-
bability, be followed by the breaking up of the extreme sec-
tion of the Conservatives. At any rate, we know of no one
among them who is likely to keep them long together.

BIOGRAPHY OF LORD GEORGE
BEN TIN CK.

(From the Times.)

With feelings of deep regret, and doubtless, also, with no
little surprise, the public will learn that the valuable life of
one of the most prominent politicians of the present day has
been prematurely brought to a close. In a second edition
we published yesterday, we stated that a messenger had ar-
rived in Nottingham, at about half-past nine o'clock that
morning , announcing the death of Lord George Bentinck,
occasioned, as there was then every reason to believe, by
apoplexy. It appears that his Lordship left Welbeck Abbey,
the seat of his father, on foot, and unaccompanied, at three
o'clock on Thursday afternoon, intending to proceed a dis-
tance of about six miles to Thoresby Park, the residence of
Lord Manvers, where he had an engagement to dine. As
Lord George had not arrived at the time he was expected
inquiries were set oa foes', and he was found, at
nine o'clock, on the footpath, suite dead. The de-
ceased, though commonly called Lord George Bentinck,
bore nevertheless the baptismal appellations of Wil-
liam George Frederick Cavendish. He was born on
the 17th of February, 1802, and was therefore at
the period of this most lamentable event in the 47th year of
his age. His Lordship was the fifth child, but the second
surviving son, of the present and fourth Duke of Portland.
It is probably known, if not to every reader, at least to a
considerable number of those who will peruse this article,
that the family of which the Duke of Portland is the head
has not been very long settled in this country. A certain
William Bentinck, of Overyssel, in Holland, was first page
of honour, and subsequently confidential adviser to William
Prince of Orange. Atter the accession of that Prince to the
British throne, he was created a Peer of England, and his
successor in the peerage became, in the year 1716, Duke of
Portland. The third Duke was a well known politician in
the reign of George 111., and though scarcely deserving to
be called a statesman, filled the highest political offices, hav-
ing been Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland,and twice Prime Minis-
ter. His son, the present Duke, inherited the honours and
estates of the family in the year 1809, having previously
married the eldest daughter and coheir of Major-Gene-
ral Scott, of Kalcomie, and of this marriage the Noble
vt he or
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Lord just deceased was one amongst nine children. Al-
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upon those who occupy a similar position in the great fami-
lies of our aristocracy. It did not therefore become neces-
sary
for him to engage with much ardour in the
pursuit
of
any laborious profession ; still it was thought desirable that
he should have some avocation, and we therefore find that he
entered the army, and eventually attained the rank of major.
But the war had reached its close when the deceased noble-
man was a boy of 13 years of age. The profound and well.
cemented peace which has now lasted three-and-thirty years
offered to him no prospect of profit or promotion in the pro-
fession of arms; and he loved strong excitement too much to
endure the monotony of home service, while he valued the,
enjoyments of elegant society too highly to endure a banish-
ment to the jungles of Hindostan ; so that, though he spent
some years in the military service of the Crown, the circum-
stances of his early life presented many considerations to in-
duce him, while yet a young man, to seek for advancement in
the civil departments of the State.
The celebrated George Canning, who had married Miss
Scott, the aunt of Lord George Bentinck, found in his Lord-
ship one of the best of his several private secretaries, for he
bad all the adroitness, delicacy of manner, knowledge of
human nature, method in business, shrewdness in negotia-
tion, and skill in epistolary correspondence, which such an
office is generally supposed to require, while it presented to
his Lordship one of the most favourable opportunities that
could possibly arise for entering into a public career. Look-
ing at the course of his life for the last four or five years, it
seems almost incomprehensible that he should have lacked
the moral courage, or the persevering industry to sustain him
through a brilliant political course. At that time, however,
he failed, and it was not till he sickened of other occupations
that he engaged with the requisite fervour and earnestness
of purpose in the pursuits of statesmanship and ambition.
Itdoes not appear that he was returned to Parliament dur-
ing the administration of his uncle, Mr. Canning; but in
six months afterwards he succeeded his uncle Lord
W illiam Bentinck as Member for Lynn Regis; and un-
til suddenly removed from this life, he continued in the
representation of that—not very important—constituency,
the period of his incumbency somewhat exceeding 20 years;
yet, strange to say that he—one of the greatest celebrities of
the present House of Commons—remained amongst its ob-
scurest Members during five-sixths of the time that he en-
joyed a seat in that assembly. Not that he went on from
session to session in apathetic disregard of the prizes which
political eminence offer to those who become candidates for
that species of distinction. On the contrary, he made one or
two attempts which were considered by superficial observers
as grievous failures, but which, to better judges, seemed
indications of the ability that in more recent years gave
him the leadership of the Protectionist party. During
the period to which we now refer, Lord George made
no strenuous attempts to rally or to recover his lost ground ;
on the contrary, he seemed irretrievably to sink under
the consequence of his ill success; and though he re-
tained his place among the silent representatives of the na-
tion, he suspended his claim to assume a position amongst
its orators and statesmen. But meantime where did he seek
solace under his discomfiture? Certainly where the world
would least expect to find such a man—on " the turf." To
readers in general it would convey information of little in-
terest to recapitulate the wonderful horses that be possessed,
the skill and science in the art of breeding and jockeyship,
which made him celebrated amongst men whose talk is of
the Derby, or the St. Leger, the Oaks, or the Cup. In a
word, let it be said that he is understood to have bad almost
all the qualifications which make a man eminent in the
sporting world—unrivalled judgment in horseflesh, singular
shrewdness in penetrating the arcana of a racing stable,
matchless rapidity in calculating all imaginable chances, and
indomitable determination to expose and punish as many as
possible of the infamies which even yet continue to disgrace
the good Old manly English sport of hone-racing.