HENRY THOMAS LOWRY CORRY.

Another of the links which bind the present generation to a past that is already historical has been mapped asunder. By the death of the Right Honourable Henry Thomas Lowry Corry, England loses a patriotic citizen, a statesman of ripe and mature experience, a wise councillor, and an able and vigorous administrator. He passes from among us in the fulness of his years, and will be accompanied to the "silent land" by the gratitude of his country, the regrets of hie party, and the affectionate homage of a large circle to whom his many virtues and graces of intellect and character were more intimately known than to the general public. A well-known figure disappears from the House of Commons, in which so much of his life was passed, and which had come to regard him with that respectful veneration which long services awaken, and which is the tribute to the possession of rare qualities of head and heart, exercised and applied for the country's benefit. The year in which Mr. Corry was born (1803) takes us back to the time when the great Napoleon was ELM in the height of his power, and overetrode Europe like a Colossus. His early youth was passed during the period when British patriotism was aroused to universal fervour and the national passions had welded the country together under the fiery glow of martial feeling. The younger son of the second Earl of Belmore, he was trained to the service of his country from his youth upwards amid the sights and sounds which must have contributed to infuse that pride in British citizenship which in the early part of the present century was not the anomaly it has unhappily since come to be. Educated at Christ Church, Oxford, ho graduated in honours in the year 1824, and two years after that entered Parliament. He was returned in the Conservative interest as member for the county of Tyrone, and has continued to represent the same constituency during the long period of forty-seven years which has since elapsed. A parliamentary experience of nearly half a century has never found him faithless to his party, or otherwise than willing to devote himself to the work his country might require of him. Comptroller of the Royal Household in 1834-5, he was made a Junior Lord of the Admiralty in Sir Robert Peel's Administration a few years afterwards. He continued in this office from September, 1841, till February, 1845, and from that date till July, 1848, he was Secretary to the Admiralty. The disruption of the Conservative party which then occurred interrupted his official career. For twelve years he was a stranger to the responsibilities of power, and only on the formation of Lord Derby's second administration did he return to office. He resumed his old post as Secretary to the Admiralty in March, 1858, and continued to discharge the duties incumbent upon him with zeal and energy till the resignation of his chief in 1859. When the late Lord Derby returned to power for a third time Mr. Corry became Vice-President of the Committee of Council. But this was only for a few months. The Admiralty was his natural sphere. It was there he had done his work and won his laurels, and when he was made First Lord of the Admiralty on the 8th of March, 1867, it was felt that he had been called to the office for which by special training and mature experience he had been abundantly qualified. Since the return of the Conservatives to the Opposition benches Mr. Corry has been no idle member. The careful and exhaustive speeches in which from session to session he has reviewed the Admiralty management of the present Government were distinguished by that fulness and minuteness of knowledge which more than anything else attracts the respect of the House. If the manner of his utterance was not such as to commend his matter by the graces of eloquence and rhetorical display, yet the amplitude of detail and the accurate information he was able to bring to bear upon the subjects he criticised never failed to give point to his remarks, and made it no easy matter for the First Lord of the day to hold his own against his exposures of official negligence, or the blunders of incompetence and presumption. Considering his experience and familiarity with special subjects, his great acumen, and his solidity of judgment, it may indeed excite surprise that Mr. Corry did not attain to the higher eminence of a still more prominent position than he held. The cause of this, in so far as it was not due to the modesty of a somewhat retiring disposition, must be sought in the defect already hinted at. Mr. Corry was not an orator. His weak voice and rapid utterance made it difficult to follow him, and those who know the place and power of oratory in the House of Commons will easily understand that such defects should have militated against his advancement to more responsible offices. Yet we are inclined to think he found his true place—the place for which his nature best fitted him, and which was most in consonance with his character and disposition. From early life he had the training of a naval reformer, and those who know the inner circle of official experience are best aware how truly he was that in the best sense of the term. He had beyond most men that characteristic of genius which Carlyle says is its greatest element—the faculty of taking trouble. His was a genius for details, though he was never smothered under the weight of his own materials, but was able to group his details under principles. That indeed was the secret of his influence with the House. Those who beard his great critical speeches will remember how his mode of speaking illustrated this speciality. He spoke from notes carefully written out beforehand, which furnished the skeleton round which, in an easy conversational style, he grouped his comments. and sometimes in this manner he would continue pouring forth his multitudinous stores of illustrative facts, critical observations, exposures of shortcomings or deficiencies, and exhibition of the mischievous effects of his opponents' naval policy, for two hours at a time. His long and unobtrusive career of faithful service is closed. "After life's fitful fever he sleeps well." [Globe - Friday 07 March 1873, p.7]