HORNER, FRANCIS,
an able parliamentary speaker and political economist, and one of
the early writers in the Edinburgh Review, was the eldest son of a
respectable linen merchant in Edinburgh, who was himself a native of
England, and was born in that city August 12, 1778. At the High
School of his native place, he showed great application and
proficiency, and attained the distinction of being dux of the
rector’s class. His first Latin master was the eccentric William
Nicoll, the convivial friend of Burns, but the rector was the
learned Dr. Adam. At the university of his native city, under the
auspices of the celebrated Dugald Stewart, he made great progress in
his studies. Robertson the historian was then the principal, and the
respective chairs were filled by Professors Dugald Stewart, Playfair,
Joseph Black, John Robison, Blair, Dalziel, Monro, and Gregory.
After leaving the university, he spent some time with a private
tutor in England, the Rev. John Hewlett of Shacklewell, for the
purpose chiefly of acquiring a purely English accent. After his
return to Edinburgh he studied law, physical science, political
philosophy and English composition. To improve himself in the
latter, he systematically read the purest English classics, and
exercised himself in translating from good French authors. He seems
to have acquired considerable knowledge of Italian and Spanish
without the assistance of masters. The historians, philosophers, and
economists stood higher in his favour than the poets and imaginative
writers. He became a member of the Literary, Speculative, and other
societies, being admitted a member of the Speculative at the same
time with Henry afterwards Lord Brougham, and both took an active
part in the proceedings of that Society. Among his associates at
this time were Lord Henry Petty, afterwards marquis of Lansdowne,
Francis, afterwards Lord Jeffrey, Brougham, John Archibald Murray,
afterwards a lord of session, his schoolfellow, fellow-student, and
friend and correspondent through life, Lord Webb Seymour, a younger
brother of the duke of Somerset, and the Rev. Sydney Smith. For one
of his subjects in the Speculative Society he chose “the circulation
of money;” and in conjunction with Dr. Thomas Brown and some others
he engaged, while still a law student, in translating the political
and philosophical works of Turgot, which were afterwards published.
In the
summer of 1800 he passed advocate, but he very soon acquired a
rooted dislike of the practice and usages of the court of session,
and after having walked for above a year the boards of the
parliament house, his daily attendance in which gave him a constant
headach, he resolved to quit practice there and qualify for the
English bar. He accordingly entered at Lincoln’s Inn. Having joined
the whig party in 1806, when Lord Henry Petty was appointed
chancellor of the exchequer, he and the earl of Lauderdale exerted
their influence on behalf of Mr. Horner, who, through Lord Kinniard,
was returned member of parliament for St. Ives. At the following
election, however, he lost his seat, but was returned for St. Mawes,
through the Grenville interest. Before this time he had appeared as
counsel at the bar of the house of peers in Scotch appeal cases, and
he seems to have soon obtained in this department a large share of
professional employment. From his first appearance as a member of
the house of commons, he was recognised as a man of ability and
information, and as one likely to rise. Through the patronage of
Lord Minto he obtained the place of one of the commissioners for
investigating the claims upon the nabob of Arcot, though without
salary.
Having
been called to the English bar, he chose the western circuit, and
was, though slowly, in the way of obtaining a fair share of
business. But his reputation as a member of parliament advanced far
more rapidly than his character as a lawyer; and this squared with
his inclinations and ambition, which had ever strongly prompted him
to figure in public life, whatever became of his pecuniary
interests. In the session of 1810 he distinguished himself by his
speeches on the state of the circulating medium. He was afterwards
placed at the head of the Bullion committee, and made a most
elaborate, though unsuccessful, effort for the return of cash
payments. In May of the same year, he supported Alderman Combe’s
motion for a vote of censure on ministers, for having obstructed an
address to his majesty from the Livery of London.
He continued to
take a prominent part on the opposition side of the house in all the
important discussions of the day, particularly in those of the
regency question; but by constant application to business, his
constitution, never very strong, at last gave way. For several years
before his illness assumed the decided character of pulmonary
disease, he had occasionally suffered from a complaint which
perplexed the physicians whom he consulted, both in London and
Edinburgh. An uneasiness amounting to difficulty of breathing was
one painful symptom, yet the disease was declared to be neither
water on the chest, nor tubercular consumption. Dr. Baillie alone
rightly conjectured the real nature of the unwonted complaint to
which Mr. Horner, without any apprehension of his end being so near,
fell a victim. It was an enlargement of the air-cells of the lungs,
and a consequent condensation of their substance, a form of disease
so unusual that Dr. Baillie had known only of three cases of so rare
a disorder, and these not in his own practice, but from examining
anatomical collections. In company with his brother, Leonard,
secretary to the Geological Society, for the recovery of his health
Mr. Horner went to France, and afterwards proceeded to Italy,
without deriving any benefit from the change. He died at Pisa,
February 8, 1817, in the 38th year of his age. A monument
was erected to his memory by his friends in Westminster Abbey, and
his Memoirs and Correspondence in 2 vols, 8vo, edited by his
brother, Mr. Leonard Horner, was published at London in 1843.
Subjoined is his portrait from a painting by Sir Henry Raeburn.
[portrait of Francis Horner]
