Royal military college at Farnham, where he prosecuted his scientific studies with great success. After the death of Ritchie, the African traveller, Captain Denham volunteered his services to carry on the researches begun by Ritchie; and his offer being accepted by government, he reached Memoon in the month of March, 1822.

From Memoon he proceeded to Sockna, and thence to Moorzook, whence, after some delay occasioned by the bashaw's duplicity, he set out for Bornou. On the 17th of February, 1823, he arrived at Kouka. "This," says he, "was to us a momentous day, and it seemed to be equally so to our conductors. Notwithstanding all the difficulties that had presented themselves at the various stages of our journey, we were at last within a few short miles of our destination; were about to become acquainted with a people who had never seen, or scarcely heard of, an European; and to tread on ground, the knowledge and true situation of which had hitherto been wholly unknown." On his presentation to the sheikh of Bornou he soon gained his confidence, and was promised by him all the assistance in his power towards attaining a knowledge of the country and its inhabitants. After passing about two months at Kouka, he inconsiderately joined a hostile expedition sent out by the sheikh against the Felatahs. On the way he passed some days at Mandara, the sultan of which country joined the Bornouese troops, who, together with himself, after burning two small towns, were put to flight and defeated by the Felatahs, at the siege of Musfeia. The situation of Major Denham, in his retreat from the pursuers, was dreadful in the extreme; both himself and his horse were badly wounded; and, after twice falling with the latter, and fighting singly against three or four assailants, he at length lay disarmed on the ground. "At that moment," he relates, "my hopes of life were too faint to deserve the name. I was almost instantly surrounded; and, incapable of making the least resistance, was as speedily stripped. My pursuers then made several thrusts at me with their spears, that badly wounded my hands in two places, and slightly my body, just under my ribs, on the right side; indeed, I saw nothing before me but the same cruel death I had seen unmercifully inflicted on the few who had fallen into the power of those who now had possession of me. My shirt was now absolutely torn off my back, and I was left perfectly naked. When my plunderers began to quarrel for the spoil, the idea of escape came like lightning across my mind; and, without a moment's hesitation, I crept under the belly of the horse nearest me, and started as fast as my legs could carry me for the thickest part of the wood: two of the Felatahs followed, and gained upon me; for the prickly underwood not only obstructed my passage, but tore my flesh miserably; and the delight with which I saw a mountain-stream gliding along at the bottom of a deep ravine cannot be imagined. My strength had almost left me, and I seized the young branches issuing from the stump of a large tree which overhung the ravine, for the purpose of letting myself down into the water; when, under my hand, as the branch yielded to the weight of my body, a large liffa, the worst kind of serpent this country produces, rose from its coil, as if in the very act of striking. I was horror-struck, and deprived, for a moment, of all recollection-the branch slipped from my hand, and I tumbled headlong into the water beneath this shock, however, revived me; and, with three strokes of my arms, I reached the

opposite bank, which, with difficulty, I climbed up, and then, for the first time, felt myself safe from my pursuers." After passing through other dangers and disasters almost as appalling as those just related, Major Denham returned to Kouka, where he arrived in the beginning of May, in a state of extreme wretchedness. In his way back, he relates, the little food he could procure "was thrust out from under Barca Sana's (the sheikh's general) tent, and consisted generally of his leavings. Pride," he continues, "was sometimes nearly choking me, but hunger was the paramount feeling; I smothered the former, ate, and was thankful." "Thus," he observes, on terminating his account of it, "ended our most unsuccessful expedition; it had, however, injustice and oppression for its basis, and who can regret its failure?"

In January, 1824, he obtained permission from the sheikh to visit the Loggun nation, and on the 16th of February he entered their capital, called Kernuk, after exploring a portion of the great internal African lake, the Tchad. Returning to Kouka in the following month, he set out from that place for Tripoli, by way of Lori and Woodie, carrying with him presents from the sheikh of Bornou to the king of England. He entered Tripoli on the 26th of January, 1825; and, a few days after, embarked for Leghorn, accompanied by Captain Clapperton.

His companion having again adventured on African discovery, the task of preparing and publishing the account of their mutual discoveries devolved upon Major Denham, who executed it in a very satisfactory manner, and soon after was appointed governor of Sierra Leone, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He entered upon the duties of his government with great zeal and spirit; but was cut off in a few months by the fatal fever of the country.

"If," says a writer in the United Service Journal,' "if supposed knowledge of the climate, if easy conformity with the aborigines' modes of living (for to that Colonel Denham always turned his attention, and adapted himself); if perfect confidence, from these circumstances, that African atmosphere possessed no perils for him, so inured had he been to all its influences during his wide, wide travels through its burning deserts, and along its steaming shores; if a jocund, happy heart, happy in spreading comfort around him, from his countrymen in the colony, to the rescued native black; and sanguinely putting forward his yet more promising plans, ready to be brought into immediate activity;— if this sense of amply doing the duty he was sent out to perform, animating the natural strength of his fine constitution, could have kept the warm blood unvenomed in that benevolent heart; could have preserved the bright health, which one hour glowed on that manly cheek, and in the next was extinguished in livid paleness; if all this could have sufficed to compass with security the life of man in that colony, Denham would not have died! But the good, the brave, has indeed fallen! and who is safe?' It was on the 9th of June, 1828, that he breathed his last in the government house at Sierra Leone, after a few days' severe illness. Young as he was, he had completed his commission on earth; for his sun, though yet in its early noon, had gone down in a glorious path, and a rich harvest of good works waved over it. The news, when brought to England, did not find a father or a mother to weep for a noble son,-whose growing fame was to reflect honour on their hoary heads no more. They had been, many years before, laid

in their peaceful tombs. But his brother survived; his elder in primogeniture, and, as such, one who, from the time of their revered parents' death, had been a brother indeed,—a friend, a father, to the young and enterprising soldier; he lived but in the happiness and honour of that dear and adventurous charge; and nobly did the indefatigable aspirant repay him with the object of his fraternal cares; for, ere a few years had passed away, Dixon Denham became renowned as a successful as well as faithful servant of his country; also, as an unwearied benefactor to the poor inhabitants of the wildest regions, whithersoever he was sent; and in this true celebrity his not less beneficent and disinterested kinsman found a just recompense, himself a retired man, but frankly enjoying, with an honest pride, the light which shone round his brother's name; for it was the light of integrity, talent, and an intrepid soul."

Sir Edward West.

BORN A. D. 1783.-died a. d. 1828.

THIS eminent Indian judge was educated at Harrow and Oxford. Having been called to the bar, he made himself known and esteemed in his profession by his Treatise on Extents,' or executions at the suit of the king against the king's debtors. In 1815 he published an able Essay on the application of Capital to Land; and in 1826 a tract 'On the Price of Corn, and the Wages of Labour.'

In 1823 he was appointed recorder of Bombay; and in the establishment of the supreme court, was constituted chief-justice. In July, 1826, when it was proposed to adopt the Calcutta regulations for controlling the press, Sir Edward rejected the measure, in the following most constitutional opinion :

"The purport of the present regulation, which is the same as that passed at Calcutta, is to prohibit the publication of any newspaper, or other periodical work, by any person not licensed by the governor and council, and to make such license revocable at the pleasure of the governor and council. It is quite clear, on the mere enunciation, that this regulation imposes a restriction upon the liberty of the subject, which nothing but circumstances and the state of society can justify. The British legislature has gone to a great extent at different times, both in England and in Ireland, in prohibiting what is lawful in itself, lest it should be used for unlawful purposes, but never without its appearing to the satisfaction of the legislature that it was rendered necessary by the state of the country. It is on this ground of expediency and necessity, on account of the abuses (as stated) of the press at Calcutta, from the state of affairs there, and from the exigency of the case, that the Calcutta regulation is maintained by its very preamble; by three of the four reasons of the Court of Directors, upon the appeal; and by the whole of the argument of counsel, upon the hearing of it. (The learned judge here read the preamble to the Calcutta regulation, and extracts from the reasons of the Court of Directors upon the appeal; and also adverted to the arguments which had been urged by counsel upon the hearing of that appeal; for the purpose of showing that the Calcutta

Is it

regulation was avowedly founded upon the allegation that matters tending to bring the government of Bengal, as by law established, into hatred and contempt, had of late been frequently printed and circulated in newspapers, and other papers published in Calcutta.') But what is the preamble to the regulation which is now proposed to be registered in the Supreme Court at Bombay? Is there any recital of matters tending to bring the government of this country, as by law established, into hatred and contempt, having been printed and circulated in newspapers and other papers published in Bombay?' Nothing of the kind ; -the preamble merely recites, that a certain regulation had been passed in Calcutta for the prevention of the publication of such matters. the fact, that such matters have been published in the Bombay papers? Can a single passage, or a single word,tending to bring the government of Bombay into hatred and contempt;' can a single stricture, or comment, or word, respecting any of the measures of government, be pointed out in any Bombay paper? How, then, without such necessity as is stated in the preamble to the Calcutta regulation, can it be expected, that even were the Supreme Court to consent to register it, and an appeal were preferred, it would be confirmed by his majesty in council?-where would be the reasons of the Court of Directors in favour of it?-where would be the arguments of counsel in support of it? Suppose an act of parliament passed to suspend the habeas corpus act in Ireland, on account of treasonable practices in that country; in such case, evidence of such practices would be laid before committees of the two houses of parliament before the act was passed, and the act would also recite them, as the Calcutta regulation recites the evils which it was intended to remedy. But would the fact of such act having been passed for Ireland justify a motion to extend it also to England, without any evidence of any such treasonable practices, nay, when it was well-known that there were no such, or any circumstances to call for it, and with a mere recital of the habeas corpus act having been suspended in Ireland, as the present proposed regulation merely recites that the same regulation had been passed at Calcutta? I am of opinion that this proposed regulation should not be registered."

Sir Edward directed much of his attention to the improvement of the police, and of prison-discipline. He died at Poonah in the month of August, 1828.

Robert, Earl of Liverpool.

BORN A. D. 1770.-DIED A. D. 1828.

ROBERT BANKS, the only son of Charles Jenkinson, afterwards Earl of Liverpool, was born on the 7th of June, 1770. He was educated at the Charter-house, and at Christ church, Oxford, where he was the companion and friend of Canning.

He entered into political life under the auspices of Pitt, who appears to have employed him for a time at Paris in watching the progress of the revolution. He was returned for the ministerial borough of Rye before he had reached majority; but he passed the intervening period on the continent, and took his seat in the winter session of 1791-2.

He proved himself of course a warm ministerialist, and was one of those orators who recommended a "march upon Paris" as the most effectual means of putting a stop to the disorders engendered by the revolution! On the 28th of May, 1796, when his father was created Earl of Liverpool, Mr Jenkinson took the title of Lord Hawkesbury. When Addington came into office, Lord Hawkesbury was appointed foreign secretary; and when Pitt returned to office, he received the seals of the home department.

On the assassination of Perceval, Lord Liverpool reluctantly consented to assume the premiership, the offer of which he had on more than one occasion declined. The only additions to the ministry on this occasion were Lord Sidmouth and Mr Vansittart. Towards the close of the session of 1811-12, his lordship opposed the Marquess Wellesley's motion that the house should pledge itself to take into consideration the state of the laws respecting the Catholics early in the next session. "He would never," he observed, "meet a great question with little shifts and expedients. It ought to be met upon great and general principles. But if, when taken upon great and general principles, he could not see his way to a safe conclusion, he should not be acting justly and manfully, if he did not avow that sentiment, and act accordingly. Were the religious opinions of the Catholics the only obstacle, it would be another affair. But the oath of supremacy, so far as it included an abjuration of all foreign jurisdiction, spiritual as well as temporal, he considered to be a fundamental part of the settlement of the government at the Revolution. It was at that period laid down as an essential principle, that the Protestant government was to be firmly established in these realms. He conceived this to mean, that the power of the state was to be Protestant, and to be so maintained for the benefit of all descriptions of its subjects. If any one political principle were more firmly established than another, he took it to be this:—that the subject of a state should own no allegiance out of that state. He could see no beneficial results from the motion of his noble friend. It was a maxim of his political life, -a maxim confirmed by all he had ever heard, read, or observed,—that, with respect to a great constitutional question, if a stand were to be made, it should be made in limine. Therefore, as he could not clearly see any prospect of a practical conclusion from the present proposition, he thought the true way in point of principle, and the most manly way, was to resist it in the first instance. He would even go further, and say, that if he were disposed to make concession, he would still oppose the motion, because he would never pledge himself to make any great change in the laws without knowing exactly what that change was to be." His lordship persisted in his opposition to the Catholic claims to the last of his political life. In 1817 he supported the suspension of the habeas corpus act. He said that "he regarded it with as much veneration as any one; that he venerated it, not as an act of Charles the Second, but as an anterior and integral part of the constitution. The question was, whether there were sufficient grounds to intrust his majesty's ministers with the power they required for the conservation of the state? Domestic treason was worse than foreign treason. There might, indeed, be circumstances in foreign treason to take away its vital, its deadly stab. Their lordships had proofs of the existence of a system to overthrow the constitution of