and distinction.  His thirst for knowledge, intense application, and great capacity to acquire, made him conspicuous at school, and in college.  He entered manhood already distinguished by his writings.  While yet very young he travelled in Europe, and for the purpose of mental improvement.  Knowledge was the wife of his heart, and he courted her with affectionate assiduity.  An anecdote is related of him illustrative of his character and attainments.  While in London, he was left alone at his hotel, where none but men of rank and distinction visited, with a gentleman much his senior; neither knew the other.  A social instinct, (though not very prominent in an Englishman,) induced conversation.  After a time the gentleman left the apartment and was returning to the street, when he encountered the Duke of Argyle.  This gentleman was William Roscoe, of Liverpool, and author of “The Life of Leo the Tenth.”

“I have been spending a most agreeable hour,” he said to the Duke, “with a young American gentleman, who is the tallest, wisest, and best bred young man I have ever met.”

“It must have been Mr. Lowndes, of South Carolina,” replied the Duke.  “He is such a man, I know him and I know no other like him.  Return and let me make you his acquaintance.”  He did so, and the acquaintance then commenced, ripened into a friendship which endured so long as they both lived.

Blue eyes, of a peculiar languid expression; yellow hair, lank and without gloss; with a soft sunny sort of complexion, seems ever to indicate physical weakness.  Indeed, pale colors in all nature point to brief existence, want of stamina and capacity to endure.  All of these combined in the physical organization of Mr. Lowndes, and served to make more conspicuous the brilliancy of his intellect.  It has been said, consumption sublimates the mind, stealing from the body, etherealizing and intensifying the intellect.  This was peculiarly the case in the instance of Mr. Lowndes.  As the disease progressed, attenuating and debilitating the physical man, his intellectual faculties grew brighter, and brighter, assuming a lucidity almost supernatural.  At length he passed from time while yet young, leaving a vacuum which in South Carolina has never been filled.  His death was at a time his services were most needed, and as with Clay, Jackson, and Webster; his death was a national calamity.

Conspicuous among the remarkable men of that era was Louis McLean, of Delaware.  He belonged to the Republican school of politics, and was a very honest and able man.  He combined very many most estimable traits in his character; open and frank, without concealment; cheerful and mild, without bitterness, and with as few prejudices as any public man.  Yet he was consistent and firm in his political opinions and principles, as he was devoted and tenacious in his friendships.  He was extremely considerate of the feelings and prejudices of other people—­had a large stock of charity for the foibles and follies