Charles, Duke of Richmond.

BORN A. D. 1764.—died A. D. 1819.

CHARLES, son of Lord George Lenox by Lady Louisa Kerr, daughter of the marquess of Lothian, was born in 1764. His early predilections were for the army, and he obtained a commission in the Coldstream guards, of which, in 1795, he became colonel. In 1803 he was nominated to the command of the 35th, and in 1814 he attained the rank of general. His duel with the duke of York, while an officer in the guards, has been already noticed.

When his father retired from the representation of Sussex, he succeeded to his seat, and gave his support to Pitt's administration. In 1783 he married Lady Charlotte Gordon, daughter of the duke of Gordon, by whom he had fourteen children. In 1808 he was appointed viceroy of Ireland, which dignity he held for the space of six years. His administration, with the present duke of Wellington as his secretary, was not very unpopular in Ireland; although it is alleged that his grace's influence was chiefly exercised through the hospitalities of his table.

On quitting Ireland, his grace and family removed to Brussels; and both he and his son, the present duke of Richmond, accompanied the duke of Wellington's suite to the field of Waterloo. Soon after this event, the duke was appointed governor-general of British North America. His administration commenced auspiciously, but was soon terminated in a very melancholy manner. It appears that his grace, who was exceedingly fond of tame animals, had received a slight scratch from a tame fox, or a lap-dog. No evil symptoms manifested themselves for several weeks, and the accident had been entirely forgotten : but on the morning of the 25th of August, 1819, his valet, on entering his sleeping apartment, "found him alarmed at the appearance of some trees which were near a window where he slept, and which he insisted were people looking in; and shortly afterwards, when a basin of water was presented to him, he exhibited evident abhorrence at the sight of it; and on several other occasions on that day and on the 26th, the same symptoms were but too obvious whenever any liquid was presented, and which, it now appeared, his grace partook of with extreme reluctance. On this day at dinner he had requested Lieutenant-colonel Cockburne to take wine with him; but his grace had no sooner lifted the liquid to his lips, than, unable to control the violence of his disease, he replaced the glass on the table, observing, Now, is not this excessively ridiculous? Well, I'll take it when I don't think of it.' The same evening, an assistant-surgeon, the only one in the vicinity, was sent for, who bled him; and his excellency found, apparently, so much relief from it, that he rose early the next morning, and proposed walking through Richmond wood to the new settlement of that name. had, in his progress through the wood, started off at hearing a dog bark, and was with difficulty overtaken; and on the party's arrival at the skirts of the wood, at the sight of some stagnant water, his grace hastily leaped over a fence, and rushed into an adjoining barn, whither

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his dismayed companions eagerly followed him. The paroxysm of his disorder was now at its height. It was almost a miracle that his grace did not die in the barn. He was with difficulty removed to a miserable hovel in the neighbourhood; and early in the morning of the fatal 28th, the duke of Richmond expired in the arms of a faithful Swiss, who had never quitted his beloved master for a moment. Whilst in this miserable log-hut, reason occasionally resumed her empire; and his grace accordingly availed himself of these lucid intervals to address a letter to Lady Mary Lenox; in which he reminded her that a favourite dog, belonging to the household, being in a room at the castle of St Louis, at a time (five months before,) when the duke, shaving, cut his chin, the dog was lifted up to lick the wound, when the animal bit his grace's chin. The recollection of this circumstance gave his grace but too sure a presentiment (the dog having subsequently ran mad) of his approaching fate; and his grace, therefore, in his letter to Lady Mary, expressed his conviction, (which indeed appears an irresistible conclusion,) that his disorder was hydrophobia. His grace recommended the line of conduct to be observed by his children in the painful situation in which they would be placed at his death; and it is said, requested to be buried in Quebec on the ramparts like a soldier, there to remain. His grace's sufferings were extreme; yet his mind soared above agony. He directed Colonel Cockburne not to attend to his orders any longer; For you see,' said the great man, the state I am reduced to :' and, during a paroxysm of pain, he exclaimed, For shame, Richmond! Shame, Charles Lenox! Bear your sufferings like a man!" This painful scene was soon closed by death. His grace died on the 28th of August, 1819, and was interred in the cathedral church of Quebec. "The death of his grace," says a Canadian writer, "was felt by the inhabitants of Canada as a sensible calamity; for his grace's benevolent and ingenuous disposition had endeared him to the people, and the general tone and character of his administration met with the cordial concurrence of those who were best capable of appreciating its effects. From the system which his grace has pursued since his arrival, there can be no doubt of his ardent desire to elevate these colonies to a rank worthy his great ambition. To agriculture he has given an additional impulse by his liberal patronage and co-operation with existing societies. The husbandman is now pursuing his art with the zeal of an impatient rival: what was before a dull and laborious routine of unproductive duties, has now become the pleasing and lucrative employment of laudable competition. Canals have been projected, and were already in progress under the auspices of this great man; and there can be little doubt of his intention to have intersected the whole country, and improved the advantages which nature has bestowed with a bountiful liberality. While thus employed in laying the basis for an elegant superstructure, he has been diligent in adopting the necessary precautions to secure it from the grasp of omni-voracious ambition. The various fortifications which border its threshold already bid defiance to the most determined aggressor; and while happiness is smiling within, she enjoys the peaceful repose of conscious security. His benevolence was an object of general admiration, and his amiable endowments and conciliating manners had endeared him to his family and friends. In public life he was steady, firm, and decisive in his measures. He was ac

cessible to all who chose to prefer their complaints to him; and when he was compelled to refuse their prayers, he anxiously studied to convey that refusal in terms the least unpleasing to the feelings of the applicant. In private life, his affable condescension was gratifying to all around him; and although he could descend to the social intercourse of the domestic circle, he never lost sight of that native dignity which repelled improper liberties, and checked the forward. In early life, devoted from choice to the profession of arms, he evinced that most valuable of all qualities in an officer,-the power of securing the attachment of those under him. And when he afterwards came to be employed in the more difficult and complex duties of a ruler, he performed the office so as to secure him the esteem and confidence of his sovereign, and the ardent attachment of those people over whom he was placed. A striking instance of this was evinced in his appointment as lord-lieutenant of Ireland. At a time when contending parties, and discontented individuals, distracted the public mind in that country, his grace's behaviour soon produced the happiest result. His affable con

descension pleased all parties; his confidence gained their esteem; and they soon discovered that the chief aim of his administration was to relieve their distresses and promote their happiness. At the present time, though twelve years have elapsed since his appointment to that office, the anniversary of the arrival of the duke of Richmond in Ireland still continues to be celebrated in that country with the warmest enthusiasm, and most gratifying recollection of the event. And this we consider a higher tribute to his memory than 'storied urns or mon"mental epitaph' can ever perpetuate."

Charles, Duke of Buccleugh.

BORN A. D. 1772.—died a. d. 1820.

WILLIAM SCOTT DOUGLAS, Duke of Buccleugh and Queensberry, was born in 1772. He married Harriet, daughter of Viscount Sydney, and succeeded to the family titles and estates in 1812. He did not long enjoy his honours, having fallen a victim to a long-threatened pulmonary affection in 1820. His weak state of health rendered his life comparatively a private one, if indeed a man of his unbounded wealth and influence could be said to enjoy privacy at all. Sir Walter Scott has sketched his noble relative's character in a very pleasing manner. The following is an extract from his eulogy:

"As a public man, the duke of Buccleugh was, like his father, sincerely attached to the principles of Mr Pitt, which he supported on every occasion with spirit and energy, but without virulence or prejudice against those who held different opinions. He held that honour, loyalty, and good faith, although old-fashioned words, expressed more happily the duties of a man of rank, than the newer denominations which have sometimes been substituted for them. He was a patriot in the noblest sense of the word, holding that the country had a right to the last acre of his estates, and the last drop of his blood; a debt which he prepared seriously to render to her, when there was an expectation that the country would be invaded. While Lord Dalkeith, he sat in

the house of commons: we are not aware that he spoke above once or twice in either house of parliament; but as president of public meetings he often expressed himself with an ease, spirit, and felicity, which left little doubt that his success would have been considerable in the senate. His grace was for many years colonel of the Dumfries-shire regiment of militia, the duties of which situation he performed with the greatest regularity, showing a turn for military affairs as well as an attachment to them, which would have raised him high in the profession, had his situation permitted him to adopt it. That it would have been his choice was undoubted, for the military art, both in theory and in practical detail, formed his favourite study.

The

"The management of the duke's very extensive estates was conducted on the plan recommended by his father's experience, and which is peculiarly calculated to avoid the evil of rack-renting, which has been fraught with such misfortune to Scotland, and to secure the permanent interest both of tenant and landlord. No tenants on the Buccleugh estate, who continued worthy of patronage, were ever deprived of their farms; and scarce any have voluntarily relinquished the possession of them. To improve his large property by building, by plantations of great extent, by every encouragement to agriculture, was at once his grace's most serious employment, and his principal amusement. estate of Queensberry, to which he succeeded, although worth from £30,000 to £40,000 yearly, afforded to the duke, owing to well-known circumstances, scarce the sixth part of the lesser sum. Yet he not only repaired the magnificent castle of Drumlanrig, but accomplished, during the few years he possessed it, the restoration, with very large additions, of those extensive plantations which had been laid waste during the life of the last proprietor. We have reason to think that the duke expended, on this single estate, in repairing the injuries which it had sustained, not less than eight times the income he derived from it. He was an enthusiastic planter, and personally understood the quality and proper treatment of forest-timber. For two or three years past his grace extended his attention to the breed of cattle, and other agricultural experiments, a pleasure which succeeded, in some degree, to that of field-sports, to which, while in full health, he was much addicted. Such were the principal objects of the duke's expense, with the addition of that of a household suitable to his dignity; and what effect such an expenditure must have produced on the country, may be conjectured by the following circumstance :-In the year 1817, when the poor stood so much in need of employment, a friend asked the duke why his grace did not propose to go to London in the spring? By way of answer, the duke showed him a list of day-labourers, then employed in improvements upon his different estates, the number of whom, exclusive of his regular establishment, amounted to nine hundred and forty-seven perIf we allow to each labourer two persons whose support depended on his wages, the duke was, in a manner, foregoing, during this severe year, the privilege of his rank, in order to provide with more convenience for a little army of near three thousand persons, many of whom must otherwise have found it difficult to obtain subsistence. The result of such conduct is twice blessed, both in the means which it employs, and in the end which it attains in the general improvement of the country.

sons.

"In his domestic relations, as a husband, a son, a brother, and a father, no rank of life could exhibit a pattern of tenderness and affection superior to that of the duke of Buccleugh. He seemed only to live for his family and his friends; and those who witnessed his domestic happiness can alone estimate the extent of the present deprivation. He was a kind and generous master to his numerous household, and was rewarded by their sincere attachment.

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"In the sincerity and steadiness of his friendship he was unrivalled. His intimacies, whether formed in early days, or during his military life, or on other occasions, he held so sacred, that, far from listening to any insinuations against an absent friend, he would not with patience hear him censured, even for real faults. The duke of Buccleugh also secured the most lasting attachment on the part of his inmates, by the value which he placed upon the sincerity of their regard. Upon one occasion, when the duke had been much and justly irritated, an intimate friend took the freedom to use some expostulations with his grace, on the extent to which he seemed to carry his resentment. The duke's answer, which conceded the point in debate, began with these remarkable words: I have reason to thank God for many things, but especially for giving me friends who will tell me truth.' On the other hand, the duke was not less capable of giving advice than willing to listen to it. He could enter with patience into the most minute details of matters far beneath his own sphere in life, and with strong, clear, unsophisticated good sense, never failed to point out the safest, most honourable, and best path to be pursued. Indeed his accuracy of judgment was such, that, even if a law point were submitted to him, divested of its technicalities, the duke generally took a view of it, founded upon the great principles of justice, which a professional person might have been benefited by listening to. The punctilious honour with which he fulfilled every promise, made the duke of Buccleugh cautious in giving hopes to friends, or others, applying for his interest. Nor was he, though with such high right to attention, fond of making requests to administration. But a promise, or the shadow of a promise, was sacred to him; and though many instances might be quoted of his assistance having been given farther than his pledge warranted an expectation, there never existed one in which it was not amply redeemed.

"Well-educated, and with a powerful memory, the duke of Buccleugh was both a lover and a judge of literature, and devoted to reading the time he could spare from his avocations. This was not so much as he desired; for the active superintendence of his own extensive affairs took up much of his time. As one article, he answered very many letters with his own hand, and never suffered above a post to pass over without a reply, even to those of little consequence; so that this single duty occupied very frequently two hours a-day. But his conversation often turned on literary subjects: and the zeal with which he preserved the ancient ruins and monuments which exist on his estates, showed his attachment to the history and antiquities of his country. In judging of literary composition, he employed that sort of criticism which arises rather from good taste, and strong and acute perception of what was true or false, than from a vivacity of imagination. In this particular, his grace would have formed no inadequate representative of the soundest and best educated part of the reading public; and