HORNER, FRANCIS, was born on the 12th of August 1778, in the city of Edinburgh, where his father was a merchant. Ile was educated at the High School of Edinburgh ; in 1792 he matriculated at the University of Edinburgh, where he pursued his studies till the summer of 1795. He was then seventeen years of age, and being disposed to select the law as his profession, his father sent bins to England, and placed him under the care of the Rev. John Hewlett, of Shacklewell, Middlesex, in order that he might get rid of his Scottish dialect, and gain some experience among strangers, as he had hitherto constantly lived at home. He returned to Edinburgh in November 1797, and having fixed upon the Scottish bar as his profession, at the age of twenty he laid down for himself a scheme of study which included almost every branch of science and literature. He studied Scotch law with his friend Henry Brougham, and with another friend, Lord Webb Seymour, he studied metaphysics and political economy.
In 1802 Horner began to have thoughts of exchanging the Scottish, for the English bar, and in April of that year be came to London in order to observe the proceedings in the courts of law, and fix his determination. His friendships and political opinions had associated him with the rising Whigs in Edinburgh ; be was now received with alacrity by men of congenial opinions in London—by Mr. Abercrombie, Sir James Mackintosh, Sir Samuel Readily, and others. He resolved to attach himself to the English bar, and in the spring of 1803 he took up his permanent residence in London. It was an eventful and a stirring time. The French war was again breaking out, the king's sanity was doubtful, and the Addington administration was giving way before the cross-firing of Pitt and Fox. Horner was not allowed to remain an unengaged spectator. As hie abilities became more known, his connections with the leading Whigs were extended. On the death of I'itt in 1806 the government was placed in the hands of Lord Grenville and Mr. Fox. Homer accepted a scat at the Board of Commissioners established by the East India Company for settling the Nabob of Arcot's debts, an unsalaried office, which however was to be remunerated at the close of the investigation. On the 23rd of June 1806 Lord Henry Petty made him an offer, through the inter vention of Lord Kinnaird, of a ministerial seat in the House of Commons, which, after consultation with his friends, was accepted, and in November 1806 he was returned for St. hes. Fox had died in September, and the old Whig party, which he had held together, immediately fell to pieces. A new parliament was summoned, and met on the 15th of December. This parliament was very short-lived.
A change of ministers took place on the 24th of March 1807; parlia ment was prorogued on the 27th of April, and was immediately afterwards dissolved. Homer did not obtain a seat at the general election, but in the following July wes elected for the borough of Wendover through the interest of Lord ("Arrington. lie spoke little at first, on matters of hue-Meta only, and briefly. By degrees he began to take a part in great questions. Ile entirely coincided with the Whig party in their condemnation of the seizure of the Danish fleet ; be differed from them in their shrinking policy on the question of the Spanish war. In May 1809 be resigned his seat at the Board of Com missioners for investigatine the debts of the Nabob of Arcot, in come queuce of finding its duties interfere too much with the pursuit of hi? profession. On the 1st of February 1810 Homer made a motion for an inquiry into an alleged depreciation of bank-notes. The subject was one which be bad studied extensively, and he made a decided impression on the House, lie was appointed a member of the Bullion Committee, and by the part which he took in it, by his share in drawing up the report, and by hie speeches on the question in the House, be acquired a solid reputation and a position and influence there which lee afterwards rather augmented than diminished. On
the Itegency question he spoke on the side of his friends with great power and effect In the negociations for the formation of a ministry by Lord Grenville in 1811, Homer was offered the situation of one of the Secretaries of the Treaenry, but he declined the offer. In the general election in 1812 he was not returned as a member, but by the intervention of Lord Grenville he was elected for St. Maws, through the interest of the aferquie of Buckingham. In the sessions of 1813 and 1814 he took a prominent part in the debates, and became one of the acknowledged leaders of his party. He took advantage of the opening of the continent in 1814, and made the tour of Geneva and the north of ltaly. In the great crisis nrising from the return of Bonaparte from Elba, when Lord Grenville urged the necessity of a war, and Lord Grey deprecated the haste with which the country seemed disposed to enter upon it, Mr. Homer supported Lord Grey, and the difference of opinion seemed to be so irreconcileablo that he offered to surrender his seat, but the Mnrquis of Buckingham declined to accept his resignation. On the 25th of June 1816 he made his last speech in parliament, in favour of the Catholic claims, and against the harsh treatment Mbich Ireland had experienced from the government of this country. Symptoms of a pulmonary disease had already begun to show themselves in his constitution, and he was advised by his physicians to spend the winter in the South of Europe. Accom panied by his brother, Mr. Leonard Horner, he set out on his journey, and arrived at Pisa iu the latter part of November. His disease grew rapidly worse, but he had no suspicion that it was dangerous, and lie continued to lay down for himself plane for future studies of the most comprehensive extent. On the 6th of February his difficulty of breathing came on with increased severity. lie died on the 8th of February 1817. His body was opened, and his complaint was found to be, net consumption, but induration of the substance of the lungs and enlargement of the air-cells to an extraordinary extent He was buried in tho Protestant cemetery at Leghorn, where a marble table tomb was erected to his memory by his father. At one of the ends of the monument is a likeness of him in relief, of the size of life, by Chentrey. A marble statue of him, also by Chantrey, is placed in the north traneept of Westminster Abbey, the cost of which was defrayed among his personal and political friends. It is one of Chantrey's but works, and indeed one of the finest portrait-statues in the Abbey.
The character of Horner's understanding was that of vigorous reasoning in pursuit of important and often difficult truth. He had no wit, and made no pretence to any. His knowledge was extensive, and his judgment accurate, not only in the various branches of politi cal economy, but'in a great many other departments of literature. He was one of the projectors of the 'Edinburgh Review,' and wrote many articles for it. As a publio man his independence was unques tionable; his integrity, sincerity, and moderation were acknowledged by all parties. Ho was modest, free from pretension, and equally free from any kind of affectation or any trace of rancour. As a public speaker he was grave and forcible, without imagery or any of the accessories of oratory, but with an earnestness and evident sincerity of manner which produced an effect greater than he could have done by any appeals to the imagination or the passions.
(Memoirs and Correspondence of Francis Rosner, M.P., edited by his brother, Leonard Homer, Esq., F.R.S.)