armament consisting of something less than 5,000 men, of whom onethird were Dutch, the rest English. On the 20th of June, he arrived in Lisbon, where he was joined by the prince of Hesse and the archduke Charles, previous to sailing for the Tagus. This union was so far unfortunate, that it proved the cause of Peterborough abandoning a very brilliant and well-conceived plan for making a dash upon Madrid; but he was compensated in a considerable degree for this disappointment by the reduction of Barcelona, -a task which, but for the inventive genius and extraordinary resources of the English commander, would have been utterly impracticable to an assailing force of six times the number. Almost equally brilliant in conception and execution was the scheme by which he contrived to relieve San Mateo, when hard pressed by the forces under Las Torres. "Among the various qualities required in forming the character of an active military commander," says Mr Gleig, "not the least important, perhaps, is the possession of a hardy and robust constitution: with this, nature had, in a striking degree, gifted Peterborough; for, though slight of form, and delicately fair in his complexion, there was no extent of fatigue or privation which he seemed unable to endure. Night and day he was in the saddle; scarce a patrol, however weak, sallied forth from headquarters, which he did not accompany either in part or throughout; and hence there was not a service performed, of the slightest importance, which he was not personally present to control. With such a leader at their head, we cannot be surprised to learn that every private trooper became a hero. There was not a man in his little corps, indeed, who did not feel that upon himself, in a great degree, depended the success or failure of the enterprise; and hence there was not a man whose energies, both of mind and body, were not, from first to last, exerted to their utmost stretch. It is not surprising that men so acted upon by what may be termed the best spirit of chivalry, should have performed prodigies both of valour and discretion."

There is little doubt, had Peterborough's suggestion been followed throughout, that the fate of the campaign in Spain against the duke of Berwick would have been very different from what it was. But Charles knew not the value of his man; and when Peterborough, in a moment of disgust and disappointment, intimated his intentions of directing his future operations to the assistance of the duke of Savoy, no wish was expressed against the suggestion. His reception at the court of Turin, however, was disappointing, and for some time Peterborough appears to have led a restless and inglorious life, quarrelling successively with the chiefs of the Austrian party, and even with his patron Marlborough,

In November, 1709, he presented himself in London, but kept aloof from court. He did not take any very prominent part in politics, but attached himself decidedly to Harley and the tories. "Time passed," says Mr Gleig," and the increasing influence of the tories opened out to Peterborough prospects of honours more and more brilliant. The wrongs under which he believed that he had so long laboured, were gradually admitted as such in the highest quarter; and the session of 1710-11 brought with it a more than adequate compensation for all his sufferings. The same parliament which refused its thanks to Marlborough, instituted an elaborate inquiry into the conduct of the war in Spain; which it summed up by pronouncing, through its official organ, the

lord-keeper, an extravagant eulogium on the gallantry and good conduct of the earl. Far be it from us to insinuate that the judgment at which parliament arrived was not a correct one. From the tone of this memoir it will have been already discovered, that we regard Peterborough as by far the ablest officer employed in the Spanish war; yet we must be permitted to observe, that commendation from a body which could even indirectly censure the military conduct of Marlborough, need not be rated at an extravagant value. The earl was, however, gratified by the compliment; and became, in consequence, more and more the supporter of the court party, and the enemy of Godolphin and his friends.

"One effect of the changes which occurred about this time in the constitution of the queen's cabinet, was to bring Peterborough again prominently forward into public life. We find him, for example, in 1711, in the capacity of ambassador at Turin, and other courts of Italy, whence he proceeded to Vienna, with the view of softening down certain differences which had arisen between the duke of Savoy and the emperor. He was eminently successful here; so much so, indeed, that not even the death of Joseph, and the uncertainty as to a successor which ensued, operated to hold back Victor Amadeus from taking the field in force. He was rewarded for his services on this occasion by being appointed colonel of the royal regiment of horse-guards,—a dignity which was speedily followed by others neither less gratifying nor less coveted. During the year 1712, he was successively promoted to the rank of general of marines, and lord-lieutenant of the county of Northampton. This was followed by his nomination to the government of Minorca, a post of profit but not of labour, while, on the 4th of August, 1713, the order of the Garter was bestowed upon him."

After the death of Queen Anne, Peterborough retained his generalship of marines, but was in no wise taken notice of by the ministry. He endeavoured to banish ennui by the company and correspondence of the leading wits of the day; among whom he contrived to make a tolerably respectable figure, notwithstanding the deficiencies of his early education; he also became a frequenter of green-rooms, and a dangler after the actresses and singers of the day. At last, worn out in body, and the victim of chagrin and intemperance united, he set out to seek the restoration of his health in a milder climate, but died, in his voyage to Lisbon, on the 25th of October, 1735.

Charles, Viscount Townshend.

BORN A. D. 1674.-DIED A. D. 1738.

THIS eminent man, the eldest son of Horatio, first Viscount Townshend, was born on the 10th of March, 1674. He took his seat in the house of peers on attaining his majority, and became successively lordlieutenant of the county of Norfolk,—a commissioner for treating of an union with Scotland,-captain-yeoman of Queen Anne's guard,-a privycounsellor, and one of the plenipotentiaries for negotiating a peace with France in 1709. His colleague, on this occasion, was the duke of Marlborough. In the following year Townshend, who had remained

at the Hague, again entered into a negotiation for peace with the French government; but, as on the previous occasion, his labours proved abortive. Queen Anne having dismissed her whig ministers, Townshend resigned his embassy, and, on his return to England, was deprived of his post as captain-yeoman of the guard, and censured by the house of commons, in which tory influence at that time predominated, for having signed the preliminaries of the barrier-treaty,-a measure which materially increased his consequence with the whigs. He remained in disgrace at court during the remainder of the queen's reign.

On the accession of George I., whose entire confidence Townshend had previously obtained, he was nominated one of the lords-justices to whom the government was confided until the king's arrival. On the 14th of September, 1714, he was made chief secretary of state, and took the lead in administration until the latter end of 1716, when the king's Hanoverian advisers having prejudiced the royal mind against him, he resigned his seals of office. In the following month he was appointed to the lord-lieutenancy of Ireland; but having refused to go over to that kingdom, he was dismissed in the ensuing April. In June, 1720, he became president of the council, and was appointed one of the lords-justices during the king's visit to Hanover. Shortly afterwards he resumed his office of chief secretary of state, and in May, 1723, accompanied George I. to his electorate.

The death of Stanhope and the disgrace of Sunderland at length left Townshend, and his brother-in-law, Walpole, without any formidable competitors, and their political supremacy was for some time secured by the favour of the king and the approbation of his people. In July, 1724, Townshend was made a knight of the Garter. In 1727 he again accompanied George I. to the continent, and was present at that monarch's decease.

He continued in office after the accession of George II., until May 1730, when, in consequence of various differences that had occurred between him and his coadjutor Walpole, he finally retired from the administration, and devoted himself, during the remainder of his life, to rural pursuits and dignified hospitality. He never revisited the capital after his secession from power, and died at Runham in 1738.

Townshend is described as having been rude in manners,-sanguine, impetuous, overbearing, and impatient of contradiction,-inelegant in language, and often perplexed in argument, but a sensible orator, and always master of the subjects on which he spoke,—generous, disinterested, of unblemished integrity, and perfect honour,—an able man of business, and, notwithstanding his despotic conduct in the cabinet, a kind master, an indulgent parent, an affectionate husband, and a faithful friend. Burnet thus describes him at the period when he was appointed a plenipotentiary to negotiate peace with France:-" Lord Townshend had great parts,-had improved them by travelling, and was by much the most shining person of all our young nobility, and had, on many occasions, distinguished himself very eminently; so he was a man of integrity and of good principles in all respects,-free from all vice, and of an engaging conversation."

He was twice married; first, in 1700, to Elizabeth, only child of Viscount Pelham by his first wife, who, after having born him five children, died in May, 1711; and secondly to Dorothy, the sister of

Sir Robert Walpole, by whom he had six children, and whom he also survived.

Sir William Wyndham.

BORN A. D. 1687.-DIED A. D. 1740.

THIS eminent statesman, chancellor of the exchequer in the reign of Queen Anne, was descended from an ancient Norfolk family, which possessed the lands of Wymondham in that county from a very early period. He was the grandson of Sir William Wyndham, on whom Charles II. conferred a baronetcy. He received his education at Eton, and at Christ-church, Oxford. On quitting the university he spent some years in foreign travel; soon after his return to England he was chosen knight of the shire for Somerset, in which station he served in the three last parliaments of Queen Anne, and in all the subsequent parliaments, until her death.

Soon after the change of ministry in 1710, Sir William was made secretary at war. In August, 1713, he became chancellor of the exchequer. Upon the breach between the lord-high-treasurer and Bolingbroke in 1714, Sir William adhered to the interests of the latter. He endeavoured to attach himself to the Hanoverian party on the death of Anne, but Sir Richard Onslow supplanted him in the exchequer, and in the next parliament he appeared on the opposition side. He strenuously defended the duke of Ormond and the earls of Oxford and Strafford upon their impeachment; and altogether acted in such a spirit of determined opposition to the existing administration, as to draw upon him the suspicion of being connected with the Stuart party. On the breaking out of Mar's rebellion in 1715, Sir William was apprehended and sent to the Tower, but he was afterwards set at liberty without a trial. After this period he still pursued his career of opposition, but upon broader and more general principles. He died in 1740. Pope, with whom he was very intimate, thus mentions him :—

"Wyndham-just to freedom and the throne,
The master of our passions and his own."

Sir William was twice married: first to a daughter of the duke of Somerset, by whom he had a son, who afterwards became earl of Egremont; his second wife was the marquess of Blandford's widow. There can be no question that Sir William possessed very powerful abilities; but his political integrity is not altogether free from suspicion.

John, Duke of Argyle and Greenwich.

BORN A. D. 1678.-DIED A. D. 1745.

THIS able and honest politician, steady patriot, and celebrated general, was born in the year 1678. In 1694, when not full seventeen years of age, King William gave him the command of a regiment. His father,

the first duke of Argyle, dying in 1703, his grace was soon after sworn of his majesty's privy-council, appointed captain of the Scotch horseguards, and one of the extraordinary lords of session of Scotland. In 1704 he was installed one of the knights of the thistle, and in 1705 he was made a peer of England by the title of Baron of Chatham and Earl of Greenwich.

At the battle of Ramillies, in 1706, he acted as brigadier-general, and though but a young man, gave signal proofs of his valour. He also commanded at the siege of Ostend as brigadier-general, and in the same station at that of Menin, and was in the action of Oudenarde in 1708. At the siege of Ghent he commanded as major-general, and took possession of the town. In 1709, at the siege of Tournay, which was carried on by three attacks, he commanded one of them in quality of lieutenant-general, to which rank he had been raised few months before. At the battle of Malplaquet, the same year, the duke of Argyle was ordered to dislodge the enemy from the wood of Sart,-a piece of service which he executed with great bravery and resolutio In 1711 he was appointed ambassador-extraordinary to King Charles III. of Spain, and generalissimo of the British forces in that kingdom.

After his grace's return to England, he did not remain long in the favour of the ministry, for he heartily joined in opposing all the intrigues against the protestant succession; and, in 1713, made a motion in the house of lords for dissolving the union, occasioned by a malt-bill being brought into the house for Scotland; which motion was carried in the negative by four voices only. In the spring of the year 1714, he was deprived of all the employments he held under the crown.

Upon the accession of George I. his grace was one of the nineteen members of the regency nominated by his majesty; and on the king's arrival in England he was immediately taken into favour at court, and made general and commander-in-chief of the king's forces in Scotland. In consequence of this commission, his grace commanded the army when the rebellion broke out in Scotland in 1715. The particulars of this rebellion have been elsewhere related, and it seems only necessary in this place to mention, that his grace, during the whole course of it, exerted himself in an able and successful manner against the enemies of the protestant succession. After having put the army into winterquarters, he returned to London, and was most graciously received by his majesty; but in a few months, to the surprise of all, he was dismissed from all his offices.

In June, 1715, when the famous schism bill was brought into the house of lords, he opposed it with great zeal and strength of argument. In the debate on the mutiny-bill, he opposed any extension of the mili tary power, and urged the necessity of a reduction of the standing army, a step which was by no means agreeable to the court. In the beginning of the year 1719, his grace was again admitted into his majesty's favour, who was pleased to appoint him lord-steward of his household and to create him Duke of Greenwich. In 1722, the duke of Argyle distinguished himself in the house of lords in a very interesting debate on the bill for banishing Dr Atterbury, bishop of Rochester. It was chiefly owing to his grace's persuasive eloquence that this bill passed. In 1726 his grace was appointed colonel of the prince of Wales' regiment of But notwithstanding these promotions, the duke, with patriotic