studying the civil law. But the death of Lord Braco in England altered the views of his younger brother, so that he immediately returned home, and became what in England is termed a country-gentleman.

During the life of his father Mr Duff-now become Lord Braco— conceived the outline of a noble plan for the improvement of his patrimonial fortune, which he filled up and completed after the lapse of more than half-a-century. His model and mentor, on this occasion, was the earl of Findlater,—a nobleman who possessed a great and enlightened mind, and whose name and deeds will be long remembered in that portion of Scotland, which at this day reaps so many advantages from his beneficent projects. In conformity to his judgment, which had been ripened by travel and experience, his lordship began to plant; and in the course of a few years, the sides and tops of hills nearly inaccessible and hitherto unproductive began to assume a new and a more advantageous aspect. The sterile soil now appeared verdant, and the uniform dull and barren extent of heath obtained a warmer and a more civilized tint, from the fir, the pine, the larch, the elm, the ash, and the oak, whose united masses for the first time cast a protecting shade along the dreary waste.

His lordship's ambition, nearly at the same time, pointed at a seat in parliament. He accordingly became a candidate for the county of Moray, and sat for some years as its representative. In 1760 he married Lady Dorothea Sinclair, sole heiress of Alexander, ninth earl of Caithness, with whom he obtained a very considerable fortune. In 1763 he succeeded his father, both in honours and estate. Soon after this he purchased Fife-house, at Whitehall, and having a taste for building, expended a very large sum in altering or rather rebuilding it. Indeed, no nobleman in Great Britain possessed, perhaps, so many

seats.

During the political ebullition that succeeded the French revolution, in this country, the earl of Fife, we believe, was an alarmist; and like many others of that description, in order to demonstrate his confidence in the existing government, accepted of an English peerage from it. Accordingly, in 1793, he was created Baron Fife, of the kingdom of Great Britain. This circumstance, however flattering it might prove in one point of view, was yet hostile to his political influence in another, as it introduced Sir William Grant, master of the rolls, to the county of Banff; and it was found impossible ever after to remove him although many successive efforts were made for that purpose.

At length, towards the conclusion of the late war, the earl of Fife openly declared his enmity to Mr Pitt, and the ministers of that day; and as he was known to be an old courtier, well-acquainted with the springs that actuate the conduct of public men, many were led to suppose that he began to anticipate their downfall. On the 2d of February, 1801, he rose in his place, in the house of peers, and spoke as follows:

"It is but seldom I trouble your lordships, but I could not feel myself at ease, were I not to fulfil my duty, in laying my sentiments before you. I rather incline to wish, that the threatened motion for an inquiry into the conduct of ministers, were not now made; but if it should be brought forward, I will most decidedly vote for it. I have no desire either to give offence to his majesty's ministers, or to pay

court to those who oppose them. Nothing can be more improper at present, than to debate whether the war is just, or unjust; necessary, or unnecessary: but I most positively declare one thing, and that is, that no war was ever worse conducted. My lords, I have read the history of this country with attention; I have seen, and been intimate with, all the different parties, from the death of Mr Pelham to the present hour. In this horrid contest, our blood and treasure have been spent in the extravagant folly of secret expeditions; grievous and heavy taxes have been laid on the people, and wasted in expensive embassies, and subsidizing proud, treacherous, and useless foreign princes, who would have acted much better for themselves, had you saved your money, and taken no concern with them. I do not condole with you on your present unfortunate situation, in having no friends. I only wish you had been in that situation at the beginning of the contest. The noble lord who presides at the head of the admiralty, (Earl Spencer,) in his speech, has with much ability done justice to the navy: I most sincerely wish that our ill-spent money had been laid out on our fleets. All those, my lords, who ever heard me speak, or ever read a letter from me on the subject, will do me the justice to say, that my sentiments have all along been the same; and that this has hung upon my mind, from the day the first battalion of the guards marched from the parade for Holland. I lament the present scarcity; but great as our demerits are, it comes not from the Almighty, but from the effects of this ill-conducted war; which I am ready to prove, whenever this question is brought forward. What have we gained by our boasted conquests? If a proper regulation for commerce was made, I wish they were all sold, and the money arising laid out to pay the national debt, and to relieve the nation of those oppressive taxes which bear hard on rich and poor; on their income, their industry, and what is worse, their liberty; and until some of those are repealed, this nation cannot be called free !"

From this moment, his lordship regularly sided with the minority, until a change of ministers took place. When Mr Addington came in, he supported him, and also voted with the Fox and Grenville administration. By this time, however, his eye-sight began to be affected, and being unable to attend the house of peers, on account of this, or other infirmities, with his usual assiduity, he gave his proxy to Lord Grenville.

In

The earl of Fife died in London in the 80th year of his age. point of person, he was tall, genteel, and had been handsome in the earlier part of his life. Although a great economist, he was yet fond of magnificence, which he indulged in respect to houses, servants, carriages, and horses. But it is as a planter that this nobleman bids fair to obtain the respect of the present age, and the gratitude of posterity. By a recurrence to the annual volumes of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce,'-from which he received two, if not three gold medals,-it will be seen, that his labours in this point of view have far surpassed those of any of his contemporaries. He was himself a frequent contributor to the work in question. A long life, chiefly directed to this great object, enabled him a little before his death to have completed the planting of about 14,000

acres in all, and so profitable did this become, even during his own time, that the thinnings alone sold in one year for £1000.1

General Melville.

BORN A. D. 1723.-DIED A. D. 1809

GENERAL MELVILLE was descended from the Melvilles of Carnbee in Fife, a branch of the ancient and noble family of his name, of which the chief is the earl of Leven and Melville. His parents dying when he was very young, his guardians placed him at the grammar-school of Leven, where he soon distinguished himself by a quick and lively apprehension united to a singularly capacious and retentive memory. From this seminary, his rapid progress enabled him to be early removed to the universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, where he continued to apply to his studies with the happiest success. His fortune being but moderate, he, in compliance with the counsels of his friends, turned his views to the study of medicine: but his genius strongly prompting him to follow a military life, and the war then carrying on in Flanders presenting a favourable opportunity for gratifying his natural tendencies, young Melville could not resist the temptation. Without, therefore, the knowledge of his friends, he privately withdrew to London, where he was furnished with the necessary means of carrying his project into effect. He accordingly repaired to the Netherlands; and early in 1744 was appointed an ensign in the 25th regiment of foot, then forming a part of the allied army. Ensign Melville, at the battle of Lafeldt, conducted himself in such a way as to merit being selected by his colonel, the earl of Rothes, to deliver to the commander-in-chief the colours of a French regiment taken by the 25th, on which occasion he was promoted to a lieutenancy.

In 1751 he became aid-de-camp to the earl of Panmure. In 1756 he was made major of the 38th regiment, then in Antigua, where it had been stationed for half-a-century. That island had often been made a receptacle for offenders; and its military force had long been composed of the most disorderly troops. But by the indefatigable zeal of the new major, and from the perfect conviction he was able to inspire into the men that he had their welfare at heart, he at length succeeded in rendering the 38th regiment one of the most orderly in the service: detachments from it accompanied him in the attack on Martinique, as also on the invasion of Guadaloupe, where Major Melville commanded the light infantry. In recompense for his services in Guadaloupe, Major Melville was directed by the commander of the forces, General Barrington, to succeed Lieutenant-colonel Debrisey, in the defence of Fort Royal, which he held until the reduction of the island, when, in addition to the government of that fort, he was appointed lieutenant-governor of Guadaloupe and its dependencies, with the lieutenant-colonelcy of the 63d regiment. Brigadier-general Crump, who was made governor of the new colony, dying in 1760, Lieutenant-colonel Melville succeeded to the government, with the command of the troops. In the beginning

1 Abridged from Monthly Magazine.'

of 1763, Colonel Melville commanded a division in the attack under General Monkton, on Martinique; and, notwithstanding severe illness, was present in the successful assault of the hill and battery of Tortenson. On the fall of Martinique, the remaining French islands, St Lucia, St Vincent, Grenada, the Grenadines, and Tobago, submitted to a summons, on conditions equally liberal with those granted to Martinique.

The conquest of the French islands, the great object of Colonel Melville's anxiety, being now accomplished, he repaired to England, where he found his services and general conduct highly approved. Such was the impression made on the minds of ministers, by his conduct in the West Indies, that, in addition to the rank of brigadier-general in 1763, he was, upon the recommendation of Lord Egremont, appointed by his majesty, on the 9th of April, 1764, to the arduous and important situation, of captain-general, and governor-in-chief of all the islands in the West Indies, ceded by France to Britain, by the treaty of 1763, viz. Grenada, the Grenadines, Dominica, St Vincent, and Tobago: to this appointment was added that of commander of the forces in those colonies.

In the autumn of 1764, General Melville proceeded to his station, carrying out two large store-ships, with articles necessary for fixed settlements in West India islands. Tobago was, at this period, destitute of inhabitants, and almost totally covered with wood: thither, therefore, he first repaired from Barbadoes with the stores, and a few colonists from that island, and employed his stay in preparing measures for the projected settlement of the colony. His next object was to establish British government in all the islands under his jurisdiction, with legislatures formed on principles similar to those of the neighbouring British colonies. During the whole of his government, which lasted about seven years, General Melville only once quitted his post, and that was in 1769, when he returned to England, on business of the highest importance to the security and prosperity of the colonies intrusted to his It is but justice to add, that although General Melville's salary from home, as governor of so many islands, hardly exceeded £1000 per annum, yet he not only refused to accept of the usual salaries from each colony, but gave up many official fees, where he conceived such a step might tend to the advantage of the new colonists. The duties of a major-general throughout the several islands under his command he also punctually discharged, without any allowance or charge whatever on the public on that account.

care.

To present some idea of the spirit by which General Melville was actuated in his administration of affairs, civil and military, in Gaudaloupe, and its dependent islands, the following anecdote may suffice. By the capitulation, the French royal council had been preserved in the full exercise of all its functions and privileges, and the French laws, civil and criminal, remained in their original force: the governor, who was, ex officio, president of the council, was the only British subject in that body. At a meeting of the council, in the capital of the island in 1760, while General Melville was seated at the head of the council-table, the crown-lawyers conducting the business of the day, the governor's ears were assailed by a horrid shriek proceeding from an inclosed area under a window of the council-chamber. Springing instinctively from his seat to the window, he beheld a miserable wretch fast bound to a post fixed upright in the ground, with one leg

strained violently back towards the thigh, by means of a strong ironhoop, inclosing both the leg and the thigh at some distance above and below the knee. Within this hoop, along the front of the leg, was an iron wedge driven in by an executioner, armed with a sledge hammer. Near the sufferer sat at a small table a person habited like a judge or magistrate, and a secretary with paper before him, to mark down the declarations to be extorted from the criminal in agony. Filled with horror at this sight, and regardless alike of the assembly around him, and of consequences to himself, the general, throwing open the window, ordered a sergeant in attendance to rush forward, to prevent a repetition of the stroke on the iron wedge, and to release the wretch from his torture. While this was going forward, the members of the council had surrounded the governor at the window, while the attorney-general of the colony respectfully remonstrated against this interruption of the course of justice, styling it an infraction of their capitulation, which in every other point and title, he acknowledged, had been most religiously fulfilled by the governor. To these representations, General Melville answered that he had always been most solicitous to merit the good opinion of the colony by a conscientious discharge of his duties; but that neither by his natural feelings, nor by his education as a Briton, could he be reconciled to the practice of torture. He concluded by solemnly declaring, that whether torture were, or were not, authorized by the French laws,—such a practice, where he commanded, he never would endure. All the members of the council dined that day with the governor; and although the object of his clemency was reported to have been singularly undeserving, were secretly well-pleased with the occurrence; the only effect produced by it on the minds of the inhabitants at large, of Guadaloupe, and the other French islands, was to increase the popularity of their British commander, who, while he remained in the West Indies, never heard that recourse was again had to torture, in judicial proceedings, either in Guadaloupe, after its restoration to France, or in any other French colony.

Having finally closed his relations with the West Indies, as a governor and commander-in-chief of the forces, with entire satisfaction to all concerned at home and abroad, General Melville seized the earliest opportunity of turning his attention to what had always been his favourite study, military history and antiquities. He had already visited Paris, Spa, &c. but the years 1774, 1775, and 1776, he devoted to a tour through France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, the Low Countries, &c. during which, besides the objects of the fine arts, in which he possessed a very delicate taste, with great sensibility of their beauties and defects, he examined the scenes of the most memorable battles, sieges, and other military exploits recorded in ancient or modern history, from the Pontus Ictius of Cæsar, on the margin of the English Channel, to the Cannæ of Polybius, on the remote shores of the Adriatic; and from the fields of Ramillies, to those of Dettingen and Blenheim. With Polybius and Cæsar in his hand, and referring to the most authentic narrations of modern warfare, he traced upon the ground the positions and operations of the most distinguished commanders of various periods, noting where their judgment, skill, and presence of mind, were the most conspicuous, and treasuring up for future use the evidences of the mistakes and errors, from which the most eminent were not exempted. Relying