"After passing many years of life in the painful investigation of human
offences, it is with peculiar satisfaction that I find myself
commissioned to commemorate, in this Assembly, a character of virtue
without example--a character, at once so meek and so sublime, that, if a
feeling spirit had been poisoned with misanthropy from too close a
contemplation of mortal crimes, this character alone might serve as an
antidote to the word of mental distempers, and awaken the most callous
and sarcastic mind to confess the dignity of our Nature, and the
beneficence of our God. In stating to you the merits of HOWARD, I might
expatiate with delight on the various qualities of this incomparable
man; I might trace his progress through the different periods of a life
always singular and always instructive. I could not be checked by any
fear of overstepping the modesty of Truth in the celebration of Virtue,
so solid and so extensive, that the malevolence of Envy could not
diminish its weight, the fondness of Enthusiasm could not amplify its
effects. But I must not forget that there are professional limits to my
discourse. It is incumbent on me to confine myself to a single object,
and to dwell only on those public services, that peculiarly endear the
name of Howard to the liberal and enlightened community in which I have
the honour to preside.

"It was in the capacity of a Minister to Justice, that the pure spirit,
whom it is my glory to praise, first conceived the idea of those
unrivaled labours that have rendered his memory a treasure to mankind.
In discharging a temporary office, that exposed to him the condition of
criminals, he was led to meditate on the evils which had grievously
contaminated the operations of Justice. He perceived that Law herself,
like one of her most illustrious Delegates (I mean the immortal Bacon),
was grossly injured by the secret and sordid enormities of her menial
servants: that Captivity and Coercion, those necessary supporters of her