JOHN WILLIAM WARD, EARL OF DUDLEY.

OF England's nobles, found in the ranks of England's literati, few were there, and few are there, more highly gifted than the late Earl of Dudley; yet the great talents of his lordship being exclusively devoted to periodical literature, and not having produced one substantive work, it is as difficult to describe as to enumerate his writings-a mere catalogue could only record that Lord Dudley was the author of many of the ablest criticisms in the "Quarterly Review,"-that he delivered some effective speeches in parliament, and that be wrote numerous letters to the Bishop of Llandaff, which the learned prelate edited and published after his lordship's decease. "Yearning," says a writer in the journal above mentioned, "for literary occupation, Lord Dudley distrusted his ability and knowledge to undertake any considerable work; and, fortunately for us, he took Mr. Canning's advice, and refuge in the Quarterly.' An article was precisely the class of composition in which, from his habits and turn of mind, he was most calculated to excel. His constitutional indecision, his indolent procrastination, his too often combined bodily and mental languor,' his want of spirit-stirring sustaining motive, deterred him from sitting down to the continuous exertion of what he called des ouvrages de longue haleine,' hammered out invitâ Minervâ."

The Earl was the only child of William, third Viscount Dudley and Ward, and his wife, Julia, second daughter of Godfrey Bosville, Esq., of Gunthwaite, in the county of York. He was educated by private tutors, in an establishment formed expressly for the purpose, away from the parental roof and parental solicitude; and to that circumstance is attributed his unhappy life and its melancholy termination. Born to rank, title, and unbounded affluence, Lord Dudley possessed talents of the highest order, but the gifts of fortune and intellect were counterbalanced by an organic malformation of the brain, which, riveted by the system of his education, increased with his years, and embittering his whole existence, buried the brightest prospects in the darkness and solitude of insanity. From his private tutor at Paddington, where almost from infancy he had resided, Mr. Ward was sent to Oxford, and entered at Oriel, and here, under Dr. Copleston, his classical education may truly be said to have commenced. After profiting a due term by the lessons of such a teacher, he was transplanted from the fair banks of the Isis to the Athens of the north; and of Edinburgh he always retained the most favourable recollection. Lord Dudley never forgot the instruction and society which he enjoyed under the roof of Dugald Stewart. He was singularly fortunate in his co-pupils, all distinguished men in their high order-Lords Lansdowne, Palmerston, and Kinnaird.

On leaving Scotland, Mr. Ward obtained a seat in Parliament, and entered the political world independent in every sense; bound, in his own words, by no ties of hope or personal interest. For some years he remained a silent listener to the giants of those days, whose powers made him distrust himself, and tremble at the unequal contest. He delighted, it is said, to re-speak

the speeches of Mr. Pitt in private, whom he imitated with singular accuracy of manner as well as language. The new member soon after formed an ardent friendship for Canning, and he may be regarded subsequently as a disciple of that eminent statesman. the formation of the Canning administration in 1827, Mr. Ward, then Lord Dudley and Ward, was appointed Foreign Secretary, and raised to the Earldom of Dudley- an elevation that enabled him to drop the Ward, which had been a constant theme of his merriment, mingled, however, with dislike. "That may be all very well for Lord E-," he would say, "he is a grandee of the first class; but my ancestor was Humble Ward, the goldsmith."

His notions on names are best explained by himself: he had done a friend the honour to be godfather to his child, and there was a difference of opinion whether it should be christened John or William, or John-William, or Dudley.

"About the name, let them do as they like best; I am John and William, the common property of all the world. Dudley, which more peculiarly belongs to me. is equally at their service. I cannot, however, help telling you of a prejudice I have, without by any means wishing it adopted. About names, I am a Romanist, and think that Christian men ought to be called Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter, Paul, Philip, &c, after the blessed saints in the calendar, and not after the family names of profane persons. However, if they fancy an unsanctified appellation, Dudley is not the worst, being, as I flatter myself, rather a pretty name. and, besides, (what I consider to be an advantage,) been familiar to English ears, as a Christian name, for nearly three centuries; during the power of the then house of Northumberland, it was adopted by several families."

Of his extraordinary absence of mind, and his unfortunate habit of " thinking aloud," many amusing anecdotes have been in circulation. It is a fact, that when he was in the Foreign Office, he directed a letter intended for the French to the Russian Ambassador, shortly before the affair of Navarino; and, strange as it may appear, it attained him the highest honour. Prince Lieven, who never made any mistakes of the kind, set it down as one of the cleverest ruses ever attempted to be played off, and gave himself immense credit for not falling into the trap laid for him by the sinister ingenuity of the English Secretary. He returned the letter with a most polite note, in which he vowed, of course, that he had not read a line of it, after he had ascertained that it was intended for Prince Polignac, but could not help telling Lord Dudley, at an evening party, that he was "trop fin," but diplomatists of his, Prince Lieven's standing, were not so easily caught.

Lord Dudley was afflicted with what may not be improperly termed the disease of thinking aloud — that is, of unconsciously giving utterance to involuntary thoughts, which other men confide to the secret depository of their own breasts. An amusing anecdote of this singular failing of the mind is related of his lordship.

Lord Dudley had been invited to the house of a friend, upon the occasion of some great fête, but being a man of early habits, had ordered his carriage at a certain hour, having some miles to travel before he could obtain his accustomed repose. To his great mortification, after repeated inquiries for Lord Dudley's carriage, it had not arrived, and his lordship, as well as others, imagined that some accident must have happened to it. One of the guests, seeing how much his lordship was disconcerted by the event, very politely offered him a seat in his. The gentleman in question had to pass

his lordship's house on his return home, and though he was almost a stranger to Lord Dudley, his rank and position in the county were, of course, well known to him, and the civility was no more than one gentleman would, under similar circumstances, have offered to another. Nevertheless, they had not been seated in the carriage more than twenty minutes, when the peer, who, being tired, had, up to that moment, maintained a most perfect silence, observed, in a low but distinctly audible tone of voice-" I'm very sorry I accepted his offer. I don't know the man. It was civil, certainly; but the worst is, I suppose I must ask him to dinner. It's a deuce of a bore!" He then relapsed into Lis former state of taciturnity, when, after a few minutes, the gentleman, pretending to be afflicted with the same failing, and imitating his lordship's tone, observed"Perhaps, he'll think I did it to make his acquaintance. Why, I would have done the same to any farmer on his I hope he wont think it necessary to ask me to dinner. I'll be damned if I'd accept his invitation!" Lord Dudley listened to him with earnest interest, immediately comprehended the joke which he had himself provoked, offered his hand with much hearty good-will to his companion, making every proper apology for his involuntary rudeness-and from that night, the travellers became inseparable friends.

We shall conclude this sketch of Lord Dudley with a very ably written estimate of his lordship's position an? genius, from the celebrated French periodical work. "La Revue des deux Mondes:"

"There was, about the end of the last century, a house at Paddington, inhabited exclusively by a boy and his tutors, who, constantly beside him, controlli: g his every movement, and subjecting to their dogmas the native liberty of his nature, swathed him in Latin,