THE LATE MR. HECTOR.
[from A CORRRESPONDENT.]
Died on Sunday afternoon, February 13, 1842, at his residence, Stodham, near Petersfield, Hants, after a short but distressing illness, John Cornthwaite Hector, Esq., for several years the liberal and patriotic representative of the borough of Petersfield.
His decease, until very recently, was not at all anticipated; and when the announcement was made on Sunday evening it produced a deep and mournful impression in the town and neighbourhood. The noble conduct which Mr. Hector had lately displayed, as a banker in the town, had secured for him, on the part of all commercial and honourably minded men, sentiments of the highest respect and esteem; and it is feared that the sacrifices which he made, and the shock which he sustained, induced his illness and accelerated his death.
As a public man, Mr. Hector was a straightforward and determined Reformer. He was one of the most uncompromising friends of the Liberal cause who ever sat in Parliament. His votes were always in favour of every just, humane, and generous measure.
He was a stanch friend of the dissenters, and his votes were uniformly given in support of their just rights and unrestricted liberties. He was never known to record his vote to uphold anything that was narrow, mean, or ungenerous; and these are the men who are urgently wanted, especially at the present period, in the House of Commons.
The loss of Mr. Hector will be long and deeply felt in this neighbourhood, and his consistent and unflinching conduct, while representative of the borough, will secure for his memory the permanent respect of every friend of the dissenters and of the Liberal cause.
Mr. Hector's age was nearly seventy, and he has left a family of seven children. T. W.
Petersfield, Feb. 14, 1842.