"I do not, however, feel discouraged, but in a most happy quiet mind; more determined to work, than anxious about the result; desirous of success, for your sakes, and able to bear defeat, alleviated by your sympathy; but, if reading can avail, I will be prepared."

After the examination was over, he says,

"I never had such a contest. The Examiner could not decide in the Hall, so we were obliged to have two hours more this morning; however, I can congratulate you once I venerate Optics for what they have

more.

*

done for me in this examination."

* *

"I was strongly pressed to play at billiards yesterday, which of course I refused t, and was successful enough to persuade the person to employ his evening in another way. He is a strong instance of their injurious effects. He told me that when he was in town, he went regularly three times a day to the billiard table, and that playing at 4d. a game, on an average, cost him 10s. a day. It is the most alluring and therefore the most destructive game that ever was invented. I have heard it remarked, and have indeed remarked it myself, that if any Collegian commences billiard playing, he ceases to do any thing else. I have been employed all this morning in reading history. I find that this study is useful, not only in itself, but also in giving a habit of reading everything with accuracy. Every day brings us new accounts of disturbances in the remote parts of the country, I am almost inclined to fear there will be a rebellion. I have been thinking a great deal lately of what I should do in case the corps were again established in College. There is to me no question so dubious or perplexing, as whether resistance against danger from an enemy is allowable: however, if I can trust my own determination, I shall not be at all swayed by the example of

+ He had given a promise at Earlham not to play at billiards while at college.

1802-1807.

SUCCESS AT COLLEGE.

27

others, or by the disgrace which would attend a refusal to enlist."

A day or two later, he continues:

"I was extremely tired at the Historical Society, on Wednesday night. I was made President, and you cannot imagine the labour of keeping a hundred unruly and violent men orderly and obedient. The all-engrossing subject here at present, is the prospect of a rebellion, if I may say the prospect when I think there is the reality. Every day we hear of fresh murders; and the Bishop of Elphin, who is of the Law family, declared openly in the Castle-yard, that in the five and twenty years he had resided here, the people in his diocese were never in so desperate a state of rebellion.

On his return to England for a short holiday, he says,

"London, Jan. 23. 1807.

"It is a very great pleasure to me that I can tell you some news, which I think will delight you. In the first place, I have arrived here, safe and sound. In the second, I have for the twelfth time secured the Premium, and Valde in Omnibus."

On the 14th of April in the same year he received his thirteenth premium, and also the highest honour of the University, - the Gold Medal. With these distinctions, and the four silver medals from the Historical Society, he prepared to return to England. At this juncture a circumstance occurred which might have turned the whole current of his life. A proposal was made to him by the electors to come forward as candidate for the representation of the University, and good grounds were given him to expect a triumphant return. No higher token of esteem than this could have been offered to one

without wealth or Irish connection, and without the smallest claim upon the consideration of the University, except what his personal and academical character afforded. Such an offer it was not easy to reject, and he was, as he says at the time, "extremely agitated and pleased by it." He weighed the pleasure, the distinction, the influence, promised by the political career, thus unexpectedly opened before him; and he set against these considerations, the duties which his approaching marriage would bring upon him. Prudence prevailed, and he declined the proposal. His friend Mr. North writes to him:

"I think all hearts would have been in your favour, if you had made your appearance and still they cannot convince themselves that you intend to go boldly through with your resolution- Come then, my guide, my genius, come along!' You were mistaken in thinking Fortune (in one sense) a necessary qualification for a college member; there is an honourable exception for the Universities."

Mr. Buxton, however, had come to a deliberate decision, and it was not to be shaken. He reached England at the end of April, and in the following month his marriage took place.

In one of his papers he thus alludes to the closing circumstances of his academical career:

"On May 13. 1807, I obtained the object of my long attachment-having refused, in consequence of the prospect of this marriage, a most honourable token of the esteem of the University of Dublin. The prospect was indeed flattering to youthful ambition, to become a member of Parliament, and my constituents men of thought and education, and honour and principle, my companions, my competitors,those who had known me, and observed me for

years.

1802-1807.

HIS MARRIAGE.

29

"I feel now a pride to recollect that it was from these men I received this mark of approbation,- from men, with whom I had no family alliance, not even the natural connection of compatriotism, and without high birth or splendid fortune or numerous connections to recommend me. I suspended my determination for one day, beset by my friends, who were astonished at the appearance of a doubt, and having closely considered all points, I determined to decline the intended honour, and from that day to this, thanks to God, I have never lamented the determination."

CHAPTER III.

1807-1812.

ENTERS TRUMAN'S BREWERY.—OCCUPATIONS IN LONDON.-LETTER

THE first few months of Mr. Buxton's married life were passed at a small cottage close to his grandmother's seat at Bellfield, and in the neighbourhood of his mother, who had contracted a second marriage with Mr. Edmund Henning, and had left Essex to reside at Weymouth.

His expectations of wealth had been disappointed, and he found that his fortunes must depend upon his own exertions. After deliberate consideration, he relinquished the idea of following the profession of the law, and entered into negotiations in different quarters, with a view to establishing himself in business. For a while these were unsuccessful, and during this time he suffered severely from the pain of present inaction, and the obscurity that rested on the future.

In after life, when referring to this period, he said, "I longed for any employment that would produce me a hundred a year, if I had to work twelve hours a day for it." Nearly a year passed away before his anxieties were brought to a conclusion. The winter was spent at Earlham, where his first child was born.