first in the work of kindness
was Lord Brougham, an inflexible and terrible opponent. May the
generosity of the deed be ever recorded to his honour! Colonel Perceval,
one of the chief ringleaders of the Irish Orangemen was another; he
sought the bedside of the sufferer, and consoled his closing hours.
Proffers of aid on a large scale were made by his old opponents; but the
stern and disinterested man died in his poverty, accepting only those
acts which aided and soothed the closing scene. It was bitterly but
too justly said by an eloquent writer, an old opponent of poor Steele,
"Ireland gave him words, England deeds; Ireland took his life, England
gave him a grave."

In August, Captain Marryat of the royal navy, whose early life had
been full of heroic adventure, and whose latter days were honoured by
successful authorship. His "Diary in America" gave just displeasure to
the American people, and betrayed a national invidiousness unworthy of a
literary man and a British naval officer.

Mr. Edward Baines, the proprietor of the _Leeds Mercury_, and for many
years M.P. for Leeds. This indefatigable and able man entered the town
of Leeds a poor printer, and earned his first wages there through the
influence of Mr. Obadiah Williams, a cloth manufacturer, a man of shrewd
judgment of character, and whose benevolent disposition prompted
him continually to generous actions. Mr. Baines worked as a
journeyman-printer on the _Leeds Mercury_, then a mere local paper; he
ultimately became the proprietor, and under his management it became one
of the most ably conducted papers in the kingdom, and had a wide-spread
circulation. Mr. Baines represented Leeds as successor to Mr. Macaulay,
and as representative of that town was one of the most useful members of
parliament. He was not a man of refined bearing or mental cultivation;
as a public speaker he was ungainly in manner, his pronunciation common
and provincial, his voice monotonous, and his style dry and commonplace;
but he was serviceable, practical, pertinent, experienced; and the
soundness of his judgment, and the weight of his character, gave force
to what he said. His son, Matthew Baines, Esq., a barrister, became a
member of the cabinet, and another son, Edward, became proprietor of the
_Leeds Mercury_, and an enlightened leader of the dissenters of the west
riding of York. He sustained the business reputation of the paper,
after his father's decease, and raised it to a much h