and further, to get either the information or the thing that I wished to have.' Where private aid failed of the desired effects, he had access to the government; he could obtain countenance and assistance from the public departments, beside removing those many and so often insurmountable obstacles which the forms of office, and the prejudices of official men, plant in the way of literary research."

George the Third was much attached to Sir Joseph; and Lord Brougham remarks on this, that "a common story is to be found in the slight attempts that have been made to write his life, as if the minister were occasionally to employ his personal influence with the King, to obtain his consent to measures which he disliked. I will venture to give this statement very peremptory contradiction. I am pretty confident that he never would have undertaken any such mission; but I am perfectly certain that the King never would have suffered Sir Joseph to approach him on any subject of the kind. This opinion I can state the more emphatically, since my worthy friend Sir E. Knatchbull, who did me the favour of examining this life, gives me the most positive assurance of his uncle never having at all interfered, as the story asserts he did. An interference of a very different description he did exert, and with the happiest results. During the long war, which desolated the world by land and by sea, after the year 1792, he constantly exerted himself to mitigate its evils, and alleviate its pressure upon men of science and upon the interests of philosophy. It was owing to him that our government issued orders in favour of La Pérouse, wheresoever our fleets should come in contact with that unfortunate navigator. When D'Entrecasteaux was sent in search of him, and Billardière's collections were captured and brought to England, Sir Joseph Banks had them restored to him, and without even opening to examine them, as if he feared that any one should profit by any discoveries save their rightful owner, the author. On ten several occasions did he procure the restoration to the Jardin des Plantes of collections addressed to that noble establishment, and which had fallen a prey to our naval superiority. He sent to the Cape of Good Hope to recover some charts belonging to Humboldt, which our cruisers had seized, and in no instance would he suffer the expenses he had undergone to be repaid. He even interfered to remedy injuries which foreign nations had inflicted on scientific men. Broussonet had fled from France to save his life from the

anarchists of Paris. Sir Joseph Banks directed his correspondents in Spain and in Portugal to supply his wants; and he found a friendly purse open to him both at Madrid and at Lisbon. Dolomieu, cast into a dungeon in Sicily by the tyranny of the profligate and cruel Queen, experienced the humanity of Sir Joseph during a long captivity, although his unwearied efforts to obtain his liberation failed of success. His own countrymen, when detained by the arbitrary and perfidious policy of Napoleon, were in repeated instances indebted to Sir Joseph Banks for their permission to return home; and a learned friend of mine, one of the first oriental scholars of the age, the late Professor Hamilton, must have perished at Verdun but for his generous interference. By his interposition the Institute exerted itself in various other cases; and whenever it could be made to appear that a man of science or of letters was among the detained, no very strict scrutiny being exercised either by Sir Joseph Banks or his Paris colleagues, the order for his liberation was applied for and obtained."

Sir Joseph was a man of tall and powerful figure, of remarkable physical courage, and of athletic habits. He retained his bodily activity until the latter years of his long life, during which he suffered grievously with gout. He bore the pains and the confinement occasioned by this malady with remarkable fortitude and cheerfulness. He died at his house in Spring Grove, on the 19th of June, 1820. His eloge was pronounced before the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris by the great Cuvier. (Lord Brougham, ut supra.-Biographie Universelle, &c. &c.)

MARQUIS CORNWALLIS.

CHARLES, the sixth baron, second earl, and first Marquis Cornwallis, was born December 31, 1738. After receiving the necessary degree of instruction to enable him to be sent to a public school, he went to Eton, and, after passing some years there, to the university of Cambridge, and was entered of St. John's College, by the name and title of Lord Brome. He obtained a stand of colours when seventeen or eighteen years of age, and was soon after raised to the rank of Lieutenant, and became a Captain in Craufurd's light infantry by the time he had attained his twentieth

year.

D D

He served abroad during the last part of the seven years' war, as aid-de-camp to the Marquis of Granby. In consequence of his good conduct, he was soon after promoted to be Lieutenant-Colonel of the 12th regiment of foot, and on his return was appointed aid-de-camp to the King, which gave him the rank of Colonel in the line. Before this he had obtained a seat in the House of Commons for his patrimonial borough of Eye. On the death of his father, in 1762, he became an Earl of Great Britain. Three years after, he was appointed one of the Lords of the Bedchamber. In 1766 he received a regiment,-the 33rd foot; on the 14th of July, 1768, he married Jemima, daughter of James Jones, Esq., by whom he had two children.

It is recorded to his honour, that though a general supporter of the administration, he exercised an independent judgment, and voted against ministers on several important questions. More especially, he was opposed to the steps which led to the American war; but when his regiment was ordered abroad, in 1776, he declined to profit by the special leave of absence obtained from the King, and sailed with it, leaving a devotedly attached wife, who is said to have lost her life in consequence of her grief and anxiety at the separation.

He served actively and with distinction, with the rank of majorgeneral, under Generals Howe and Clinton, in the campaigns of 1776-77-78-79 in New York and the southern states, and in 1780 was left in the command of South Carolina, with one thousand

men.

The American General Gates, who had just compelled a large British force under Burgoyne to surrender at Saratoga, marched against Cornwallis, in the hope of surprising him, and obtaining a second triumph. But Lord Cornwallis, instead of waiting for Gates, advanced against him at Camden with an inferior force: after a sharp but ineffectual discharge of musketry, the English advanced with fixed bayonets, and broke and routed the enemy. The capture of seven pieces of cannon, a multitude of baggage-waggons, and a thousand prisoners, served in some degree to compensate for the convention of Saratoga. The enemy having been thus driven out of the province, the victorious General was occupied during a considerable period in arranging its administration, and regulating the different departments, so as to render South Carolina once more a British colony. It was upon this occasion that he first developed

those powers for the management of civil affairs which afterwards constituted so conspicuous a feature in his character.

Congress having recalled General Gates, General Greene was despatched with a view of restoring the province to the dominion of the United States. He advanced with a formidable body of troops; but Cornwallis met and beat him in a decisive engagement at Guildford Court-house. The British commander, flattered by this new success, now determined to act on the offensive. He accordingly took the necessary measures on purpose to form a junction with Arnold, who had declared for the English, and had become one of the most formidable partisans with whom America had now to contend. But the French auxiliaries of the Americans, against whom Cornwallis moved, retreated and escaped his attack. He received a series of embarrassing and inconsistent orders from Sir H. Clinton; and as the enemy's forces were closing round him, he finally moved to York Town, on York River, where he entrenched himself in the strongest way he could. He was there besieged by the French and American forces, assisted by the French fleet under De Grasse, and reduced to surrender himself and his troops prisoners of war, after an obstinate defence, October 19th, 1781.

Full justice was done to Cornwallis's good conduct and bravery by the English Court and public; and on his return to England he was appointed Constable of the Tower.

In 1786 he was made Commander-in-Chief, and Governor-General of Bengal. The possessions of the East India Company were at that time menaced by a formidable confederacy of the native powers, and were also believed to be suffering greatly through the misconduct and incapacity of the Company's servants. In this emergency it was determined by the government, if possible, to select a chief, who, to military talents, added a knowledge of business, an unimpeachable integrity, and an imperturbable firmness of conduct. It was on this occasion that the eyes of all men were turned on Lord Cornwallis; and his Lordship's appointment was hailed with general satisfaction, both in India and at home.

On his arrival in India he applied himself to measures of reform, with an earnestness and integrity that were admitted, even by those who doubted the policy of many of his measures. While he was thus engaged, Tippoo Saib, the Sultan of Mysore, son of our old formidable enemy Hyder Ali, commenced hostilities, by

attacking one of our allies. In the war that ensued, our arms were at first unsuccessful, till Lord Cornwallis took the field himself. He determined on relieving our dominions, and those of our allies, from the attacks of Tippoo, by carrying the war into the heart of the enemy's country. For this purpose he made a bold and unexpected movement; he penetrated through one of the mountain-passes into Mysore, and took by storm Bungalow, one of Tippoo's most important fortresses, in March, 1791. In the following February he laid siege to Tippoo's capital city, Seringapatam; and the Sultan, in order to avert its capture, was obliged to submit to make peace on the terms of ceding half his dominions to the English and their allies, paying a large treasure, and delivering up two of his sons as hostages for the observance of the treaty.

On his return to England, in 1793, he was created a Marquis, and made Master-General of the Ordnance, which gave him a seat in the Cabinet. In 1798, when the Irish rebellion was raging, he was made Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. His humanity and his skill in civil government did more than even his military talents to restore order. He immediately sent a message to the Irish House of Commons, by which he informed them that he had "his Majesty's orders to acquaint them, that he had signified his gracious intention of granting a general pardon for all offences committed previously to a certain time, upon such conditions, and with such exceptions, as might be compatible with the public safety:" and it was properly added, "that these offers of mercy were not to preclude measures of vigour against the obstinate."

Many of the insurgents surrendered and made their peace with the government; those who remained in arms were defeated and quelled; and Lord Cornwallis compelled a small body of French auxiliaries, under General Humbert, who had landed near Castlebar and beaten some of our forces in that town, to surrender to the army which he himself led against them. He put down the rebellion; and he also checked the disgraceful outrages practised by the supporters of government, restored tranquillity, and acquired the good-will of the Irish. In 1801 he was succeeded by Lord Hardwicke; and in the same year, being appointed plenipotentiary to France, he negotiated the peace of Amiens.

In 1805 he was a second time appointed Governor-General of India but he was now old, and infirm in health. He was ill

: