Enniskillen regiment of foot. He was buried, with great funeral pomp, in Westminster abbey.

Lord Blakeney appears to have been truly brave, generous, and estimable. His conduct in private life was somewhat eccentric. His manners were grave, but not repulsive; his discourse chiefly turned on historical subjects. He never dined with his subordinates; but frequently joined them in a tavern carousal. His favourite beverage was punch; an immoderate use of which, on one occasion, brought on him an alarming paralytic attack. In dancing, he is said to have been a proficient, and often displayed his skill in a jig or a rigadoon, even when old, and notwithstanding he invariably wore broad-toed German shoes, an inch thick in the sole. He was of the middle stature, but strong and muscular. His face was large, and his walk stiff, except during his transient fits of passion,

when all his gestures were violent and rapid. Of money he was so singularly careless, that he suffered the rents of Mount Blakeney, for seven years, to be received and spent by his elder brother; who, at the end of that period, filed a bill in chancery against the general, for £3,000. Blakeney, on receiving intimation of the proceedings, instead of putting in an answer, waited on his opponent's solicitor, whom he so fully convinced of the injustice of the claim set up by his brother, that the lawyer refused to go on with the suit, nor could the plaintiff meet with any one base enough to prosecute it. The general, subsequently, gave the whole income of his estate to another and more deserving brother, Major Blakeney; contenting himself with his pay, and revenue as lieutenant-governor of Minorca, £6,000 of which he had, however, the misfortune to lose by the failure of a London agent.

GEORGE WADE was born in 1673, and entered the army in 1690. In 1704, he was made adjutant-general, with a brevet of colonel, and became a majorgeneral in 1709. Being afterwards appointed commander-in-chief of the forces in Scotland, he laudably employed the troops over whom he was placed, in cutting roads through the Highlands. He was occupied for ten years in the superintendence of this undertaking, the effects of which were eminently beneficial. Several gentlemen made ways from their own residences to the main road; forty stone bridges were built; and in districts where scarcely any habitations but turfhuts could previously have been found, substantial houses for the accommodation of travellers were erected at short distances from each other. The soldiers, many of whom were husbandmen, taught the Highlanders an improved method of tilling their ground; several useful arts were introduced, to which the peasantry had hitherto been strangers; and the English drovers, who had rarely ventured to attend the

fairs beyond the borders, now penetrated, to purchase cattle, into the heart of the country. Wade, on account of his long and arduous services as a roadmaker, was termed, by the humourists of the day, the greatest highwayman in existence; and a classical wag facetiously proposed that the following line from Horace should be inscribed on his tomb:

Non indecoro pulvere sordidus.

In Chambers' book of Scotland, one of the marshal's roads is described as being sixteen miles in length, with only four turnings; and these, it is remarked, were occasioned, not by eminences, but by the necessity of crossing rivers. "Wade," continues the author, 66 seems to have communicated his own stiff, erect, and formal character, to his roads, but above all to this particular one, which is as straight as his person, as undeviating as his mind, and as indifferent to steep braes, as he himself was to difficulties in the execution of his duty. But, perhaps, of all persons who may be little disposed to lift up their

can scarcely be denied to him for his successful exertions, while commander

In 1715, he went into parliament, as member for Hindon; and, in 1722, was returned for Bath, which city he thenceforth represented during the remainder of his life. In 1744, he became commander of the British and Hanoverians attached to the allied army in the Netherlands; but soon resigned his post, apparently in disgust. In the following year, he was placed at the head of a body of troops, destined to act against the rebels in the north, but lingered inactively at Newcastle, as it is said, on account of the inclemency of the season, and the sickness which prevailed among his men, who had recently endured great fatigues in Flanders. His officers appear, however, to have been much annoyed at their enforced indolence, and a paper was dropped in his way, containing the following apt quotation from Shakspeare's King John:

Shall a beardless boy, A cockered, silken wanton, brave our fields, And flesh his spirit in a warlike soil, Mocking the air with colours idly spread, And find no check? Let us, my liege, to arms!

Wade, however, still remained at Newcastle, and the sum total of his services, during the campaign, was a loyal proclamation. But his inactivity appears, in the opinion of government, to have been blameless; for, at the time of his death, which took place about three years afterwards, (on the 14th of March, 1748,) he was a privy-counsellor; governor of forts William, Augustus, and George; colonel of the third regiment of dragoon guards; lieutenantgeneral of the ordnance, and a fieldmarshal. A monument, by Roubiliac, was also erected to his memory in Westminster abbey. He was never married, but left a natural daughter.

It would, perhaps, be rash, with so few materials, to form any positive opinion on his character. Applause

Highlands. Although his conduct in 1745 has not been quite satisfactorily explained, no impeachment appears to exist against his loyalty, or military skill; and it is but fair to presume, perhaps, that he had displayed zeal as well as talent while in command, from the great distinction with which he was treated, up to the day of his death, by government. He was accused of having, under the influence of fear, desired permission to remain at Newcastle, instead of going farther into the north; but this charge appears to be groundless, for he proved, on many occasions, that he was not deficient in courage, and particularly while serving, at an early period of his career, in the island of Minorca; where, at the head of the grenadiers, he most gallantly stormed a redoubt.

Although a notorious gambler, he is said to have been "a worthy man, where women were not concerned." On one occasion, while at a gaming table, having suddenly missed a superb snuff box, which he had just before handed round to the company, he swore that no one should leave the room until it was restored. A search commenced, to which all present submitted, except a shabby-looking officer at his right hand, who, with great humility, had previously solicited the honour of venturing a few shillings against him. "Not all the powers on earth," said this refractory individual," shall subject me to a search, while I have life to oppose it. I declare, on the honour of a soldier, that I know nothing of the box: follow me into the next room and I will defend that honour, or perish." Wade, in thrusting his hand down for his sword, felt the box in a fob, on his left side, where he had usually deposited it, and immediately expressed his sorrow for having exposed the poor officer to unmerited suspicion. pardon, sir," said he, " and hope to find it granted, by your breakfasting with me to morrow." The officer accepted this invitation, and, the next day, thus explained to the marshal his reason for refusing to be searched :-" Being upon half-pay, and friendless, I am obliged to husband my scanty means; I had,

I ask your

yesterday, very little appetite; and as I could not eat what I had paid for, nor afford to lose it, the leg and wing of a fowl, with a crust of bread, I wrapped up in paper, and put in my pocket; the thought of which being found upon me before all the company, was infinitely more dreaded by me than fighting all the room round." "Enough, enough!"

exclaimed Wade; "let us dine with each other to-morrow; and I will prevent your being subjected to such an unpleasant occurrence for the future." On the following day, they again met, when the marshal, who had amassed an immense fortune, presented him with a captain's commission, and sufficient cash for his outfit.

JOHN, eldest son of the first Earl of Stair, by Elizabeth, heiress of Sir John Dundass, was born on the 20th of July, 1673. He received his education, first at home, and, finally, at the university of Edinburgh, where he was much distinguished by his acquirements. His father had originally destined him for the legal profession, but finding, as he stated, that the young man had too much blunt honesty for a courtier, and would never make his fortune by flattering the folly or administering to the vices of the great, he suffered him to gratify his strong inclination to enter the army; for, said the earl, to a soldier dissimulation is not necessary, and plain honest truth not dangerous.

Having entered the Scotch guards, he proceeded to Flanders, for the purpose of studying fortification and gunnery under Coehorn. He soon acquired the notice and esteem of William, Prince of Orange, whom, after the revolution of 1688, he accompanied to Ireland; and served with great credit, as one of the life-guards, at the battle of the Boyne. In 1692, he was made colonel of a Scotch regiment of foot, with which he fought at the battle of Steenkirk; and, having subsequently behaved with much gallantry and skill, as a volunteer, under Marlborough, he was presented, in 1702, with the colonelcy of the Royal North British dragoons. At the assault on Peer, after maintaining a most perilous post, for many hours, with great composure, he was the first to enter the breach, and killed a grenadier who had personally attacked him. At the sieges of Venloo and Liege, he was among the foremost of the assailants who scaled the walls;

and, at the latter, shot a French officer, who was just in the act of cutting down the Prince of Hesse Cassel, afterwards King of Sweden. He subsequently became aid-de-camp to Marlborough; and Prince Eugene, on being introduced to him, in 1704, confidently predicted his future greatness.

At the siege of Schellenberg, in the same year, while in the trenches, several balls entered his clothes, but without injuring him; and soon after the battle of Hockstet, at which he had behaved with his customary valour, he was rewarded with the colonelcy of the Scotch Greys. At the battle of Ramillies he commanded a brigade, and during the enemy's retreat, his regiment is said to have committed such dreadful havock among the French, that, "touched with the sight of the slain, he stemmed the fury of the soldiers, and ordered quarter to be given." On his return to England, he became one of the commissioners for effecting the union with Scotland; and on the death of his father, was elected one of the sixteen representative peers of that kingdom in the British parliament. He was a staunch advocate, in the house of lords, of the Duke of Marlborough, whom he accompanied on his visit to Hanover, and there acquired the notice and regard of the elector, afterwards George the First.

In 1708, he acted as aid-de-camp at the battle of Oudenarde, and, in order to prevent further mischief, gallantly exposed himself to the fire of two bodies of the allied troops, who had mistaken each other for enemies. Being despatched with news of the victory to Queen Anne, her majesty honoured