ledged it." Up started the unsuspecting Yelverton, and it was not till after a very eloquent speech that he was apprised of the hoax in which it had originated!-His unsuspiciousness and simplicity of heart were almost infantine. It was a saying of his that he would put no trust in a Kerry-man; giving, as a reason, the following anecdote: "Whilst attending the Tralee assizes I was employed in a single half-guinea case, in which I failed; and a day or two after, as I was travelling alone on the road to Cork, I was waylaid by my clients, reproached for my want of skill, and forcibly compelled to refund the fee!"

Charles, Earl Grey.

BORN A. D. 1729.-DIED A. D. 1807.

THIS gallant officer, and first earl of that name, was born in 1729, and entered the army in his youth. On the breaking out of the American war he served under Viscount Howe, who conferred on him the local rank of major-general. He is represented as having on several occasions evinced as much blood-thirstiness as courage. "One of the most disastrous events which occurred at this period of the campaign," says Miller in his History of the Reign of George III.' was the surprise and massacre of an American regiment of light-dragoons, commanded by Lieutenant-colonel Baylor. While employed in a detached situation, to intercept and watch a British foraging party, they took up their lodging in a barn near Taapan. The officer who commanded the party which surprised them was Major-general Grey: he acquired the name of the No-flint General,' from his common practice of ordering the men under his command to take the flints out of their muskets, that they might be confined to the use of their bayonets. A party of militia which had been stationed on the road by which the British advanced quitted their post, without giving any notice to Colonel Baylor. This disorderly conduct was the occasion of the disaster which followed. Grey's men proceeded with such silence and address that they cut off a sergeant's patrole without noise, and surrounded Old Taapan without being discovered; they then rushed in upon Baylor's regiment while they were in a profound sleep. Incapable of defence or resistance, cut off from every prospect of selling their lives dear, the surprised dragoons sued for quarter. Unmoved by their supplications their adversaries applied the bayonet, and continued its repeated thrusts while objects could be found in which any signs of life appeared. A few escaped, and others, after having received from five to eleven bayonet wounds in the trunk of the body, were restored in course of time to perfect health. Baylor himself was wounded, but not dangerously: he lost, in killed, wounded, and taken, sixty-seven privates out of a hundred and four, and about forty were made prisoners. These were indebted for their lives to the humanity of one of Grey's captains, who gave quarter to the whole fourth troop, though contrary to the orders of his superior officers. The circumstance of the attack being made in the night, when neither order nor discipline can be observed, may apologise in some degree, with men of a certain description, for this bloody scene. It cannot be maintained, that the laws of war require that quarter should be given

in similar assaults, but the lovers of mankind must ever contend, that the laws of humanity are of superior obligation to those of war. The truly brave will spare when resistance ceases, and in every case where it can be done with safety. The perpetrators of such actions may justly be denominated the enemies of refined society. As far as their example avails, it tends to arrest the growing humanity of modern times, and to revive the barbarism of Gothic ages. On these principles, the massacre of Colonel Baylor's regiment was the subject of much complaint; the particulars of it were ascertained, by the oaths of credible witnesses, taken before Governor Livingston of Jersey, and the whole was submitted to the judgment of the public."

The preceding statement is probably too high coloured; indeed the historian allows that quarter was given to an entire troop, at the will of an inferior officer a fact that goes somewhat to discredit the assertion that the commanding-officer ordered an indiscriminate and relentless massacre.

At the termination of the American war he became a member of the house of commons, and was invested with the order of the Bath. In 1787 he was appointed colonel of the 8th light dragoons, but, two years afterwards, exchanged that regiment for the 7th dragoon guards.

Sir Charles was employed as commander-in-chief of the forces sent against the French West India islands, in 1794. His conduct on this occasion was severely scrutinized in the house of commons. On the 2d of June, 1795, a warm debate took place respecting the conduct of Sir Charles Grey and Sir John Jervis. Mr Barham read extracts from the respective proclamations of these two officers to prove that the war was conducted by them in a ferocious manner. He contended that the resistance made by the inhabitants of the different islands was not such as justified military retaliation, or the confiscation of the property of the inhabitants. Their case he compared with that of the inhabitants of Grenada in the last war, which was perfectly similar, but who were not treated with the same severity. After adducing a long catalogue of precedents, to show that in similar circumstances no confiscation had taken place, Mr Barham concluded' by moving that an humble address be presented to his majesty, representing that certain proclamations issued by Sir Charles Grey in the island of Martinique, on the 10th and 20th of May, 1794, contain principles which this house conceive not to be warranted by the laws of nations; that they have excited great alarm in the minds of the West India colonists; and humbly requesting that his majesty will give directions that the same may be disavowed. Mr Manning seconded the motion, and in a speech of some length continued the line of argument advanced by the first speaker. He contended, that neither by the laws of war, of nations, nor the instructions of government, were the late commanders-in-chief in the West Indies countenanced in their unjustifiable proceedings. Mr Grey, in a very nervous, animated, and argumentative speech of considerable length, opposed the motion, and defended the conduct and character of his father. The principal stress, he observed, had been laid by the honourable gentlemen on certain proclamations; but it should be recollected, that the disavowals of the commanders-in-chief of the parts of these proclamations alluded to would do away all that part of the argument which referred to them. He contended, and pledged

himself to prove, that the series of facts brought forward by the honourable gentlemen were positively false. The whole tenor of the life of one of the commanders in question-were there no other evidence— would, he said, be sufficient to prove him incapable of the conduct with which they charged him. The inconsistency of the charge was apparent; a train of evils were represented as arising from the proclamations. Admitting these facts were true, (but which was not the case,) they could not be said to result from the proclamations, as they were never acted on. The commanders-in-chief, he insisted, were warranted in their proceedings by all the known laws of war and of nations; by these it was held, that those who refused to accept terms of surrender, and held out to the last extremity, forfeited their property to the sovereign of the victorious troops. He then read the voluntary testimonial of several officers in vindication of the conduct and character of Sir Charles Grey. These went to establish the gallant, humane, and honourable conduct of that officer in every point of view, and particularly the material fact, that the whites of that island everywhere made the most uniform resistance to the progress of our army. Mr Secretary Dundas said, that from a circumstance which appeared on the face of the papers, gentlemen would be able to form an opinion of his sense of the question. He had been applied to by the West India merchants to procure that measure which was now called for; and though he regretted on any occasion to refuse, in his official capacity, the call of any body of men, he considered that it was incumbent on him, not only to give his negative to the motion, but to follow it up with a proposition which occurred to him on his own view of the subject, and without concert with any person interested in the affair. When the matter was

first mentioned, it was said that it should come in the shape of an inquiry. Every gentleman in that house was entitled to call for an inquiry, and assert facts whereupon to ground it; but now the thing was in a different state, the gentlemen who brought the measure forward had abandoned inquiry, and joined issue on the papers which lay on the table; from them alone, therefore, were they entitled to agree or submit any proposition to the house. With every respect due to the persons who brought the measure forward, he was bound to observe, that the whole detail which they had given to ground their motion was taken from letters suggested by animosity, and offered in such a manner as left the house without the opportunity of examining into proofs to controvert or substantiate them. On various grounds, therefore, he objected to the proposition. To negative the motion, he continued, would not answer the whole purpose he had in view. The most exaggerated calumnies were published against those honourable commanders, who had, in point of fact, performed the most distinguished services, and something was due to them to heal the wounds received from the shafts of malevolence. The house had formerly thanked them for their conduct; the house should refer to those thanks, and record them again, in order that the country might feel, that, notwithstanding the exaggerated misrepresentations, they stood higher in the opinion of the house. To effect this, he would first move the previous question; and if that was granted, he would then move the following resolutions: First, resolved, "That the inhabitants of the French West India islands, not having availed themselves of the proclamations,

it should not be considered as a rule for British commanders to follow." Secondly, resolved, "That the proclamations not having been carried into effect, it was unnecessary to make any declaration about them." And, lastly, resolved, "That this house retains a grateful sense of the distinguished services of Sir Charles Grey and Sir John Jervis, and still adhere to their former resolutions of thanks." Sir W. Scott seconded the amendment for the previous question. On abstract principles of the rights of nations, the learned member said, it would be exceedingly imprudent in that house to come to any specific declarations; and as to the special rights, as referable to the language of the proclamations alluded to, they had no proofs to go upon, nor did it appear that they had been ever carried into effect. The two tribunals in this country which had cognizance of the rights of war and nations, were the board of admiralty and the chamber of appeals; of the latter of which Sir William Blackstone observed, "that their decisions were admired and respected throughout all Europe." He then stated the decision of St Eustatia as applicable to the late conquests, which would also come under their jurisdiction in due time; but as they could not even entertain that kind of evidence which was offered to the house this night, he considered the mode of disposing of it to be to vote for the order of the day. Mr Charles Dundas read several letters written by the deceased Major-general Dundas his brother, highly approving of the conduct of Sir Charles Grey and Sir John Jervis, and expressive of the disapprobation of the booty or plunder allowed to soldiers on such occasions. Mr Sheridan bestowed many encomiums on Mr Secretary Dundas for the manly manner in which he had come forward. After what had been stated in justification of Sir Charles Grey and Sir John Jervis, he hoped that all calumny would be done away, and that the characters of these gentlemen would appear in the most meritorious light to their countrymen. A division then followed on Mr Secretary Dundas's first resolution-Ayes, 64; Noes, 13; Majority, 51. Another division took place on the second resolution-Ayes, 67; Noes, 14; Majority, 53. The resolution for confirming the former thanks of the house to Sir Charles Grey and Sir John Jervis then passed unanimously. This debate sufficiently shows the high estimation in which Sir Charles was held by men of all parties.

As a reward for his services, he was appointed, on his arrival in this country, governor of Guernsey. In 1795 he became colonel of the 20th light dragoons, and, in the following year, was made a general in the army. During the mutiny at the Nore, in 1797, he was selected to direct a meditated attack on the fleet from the works at Sheerness. In 1799 he succeeded General Lascelles in the colonelcy of the 3d dragoon-guards; and, towards the close of the war, he commanded in the southern districts. In 1801 he was raised to the peerage, by the title of Baron Grey de Howick, in Northumberland; and in 1806 he became an earl. His death occurred on the 14th of November, 1807, at Fallowden, near Alnwick. By his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of George Grey, Esq. of Southwick, in the county of Durham, whom he married in 1762, he had several children; the eldest of whom succeeded to his earldom, and now fills a most honourable place, in the estimation of his country, as a statesman and patriot.

Charles, Earl of Liverpool.

BORN A. D. 1729.-DIED A. D. 1808.

THIS respectable statesman was descended from the Jenkinsons of Wolcot in Oxfordshire, a very ancient family. His grandfather, Sir Robert Jenkinson, married a wealthy heiress at Bromley, in Kent; his father was a colonel in the army. Charles Jenkinson was born in 1727, and received the first rudiments of his education at the grammarschool of Burford. He was afterwards placed on the foundation in the charter-house, from which seminary he was removed to Oxford, and was entered a member of university college. He took the degrees of B. A. and A. M., and seems to have made himself first known to the public by some verses on the death of the prince of Wales.

In 1753 he removed from Oxford, and possessing but a small patrimonial fortune, he commenced his career as a man of letters, and is said to have occasionally supplied materials for the Monthly Review.' He next commenced political writer; and, in 1756, published A Dissertation on the Establishment of a National and Constitutional Force in England, independent of a standing Army.' This tract abounds. with many manly and patriotic sentiments, and has been quoted against himself in the house of peers, on which occasion his lordship did not deny that he was the author, but contented himself with apologising for his errors, on account of his extreme youth. Soon after this he wrote A Discourse on the Conduct of the Government of Great Britain, with respect to neutral Nations, during the present War.' "To this production his rise in life has been falsely attributed; it was indeed allowed by every one to be an able performance; but, like many others of the same kind, it might have lain in the warehouse of his bookseller, and he himself remained for ever in obscurity, had it not been for the intervention of a gentleman of the same county, with whom he luckily became acquainted. Sir Edward Turner of Ambroseden in Oxfordshire, being of an ancient family, and possessing a large fortune, was desirous to represent his native county in parliament. Having attained considerable influence by means of a large estate, and a hospitable and noble mansion, he stood candidate as knight of the shire. He was, however, strenuously but unsuccessfully opposed; for in addition to his own, he possessed the court-interest. The struggle, nevertheless, was long and violent, and it still forms a memorable epoch in the history of contested elections; but for nothing is it more remarkable, than by being the fortunate occurrence in Mr Jenkinson's life which produced all his subsequent greatness. The contending parties having, as usual, called in the aid of ballads, lampoons, verses, and satires, this gentleman distinguished himself by a song in favour of Sir Edward and his friends, which so captivated either the taste or the gratitude of the baronet, that he introduced him to the earl of Bute, then flourishing in all the plenitude of power. It is known but to few, perhaps, that his lordship-who placed Mr Jenkinson at first in an inferior office-was not at all captivated with him; for it was entirely owing to the repeated solicitations of the member for Oxfordshire that