6

Lord Rosslyn, we believe, never published but one work, to which his name was affixed; this made its appearance in 1793, and was entitled, Observations on the State of the English Prisons, and the means of improving them; communicated to the Rev. Henry Zouch, a Justice of the Peace, by the Right Hon. Lord Loughborough, now Lord-high-chancellor of Great Britain.'

His lordship feeling the infirmities of age coming fast upon him, retired from the post of chancellor in 1801, with a pension, and was succeeded by Sir John Scott, now Lord Eldon. By sobriety, regularity, and temperance, he doubtless prolonged a feeble existence, but at length died suddenly at Baileys, on January 3d, 1805, in the seventysecond year of his age.

His lordship never had but one child, a son, born October 2d, 1793, who died soon after. The earldom was therefore extinct, but the barony descended, in compliance with the tenor of the patent, on his nephew Sir James St Clair Erskine.

According to Mr C. Bulla, his lordship was a great benefactor to the French emigrants. On being told one day that the chancellor of France was distressed by not being able to procure the discount of a foreign bill, he observed: “The chancellor of England is the only person to whom the chancellor of France should apply to discount his bills." The money was immediately sent, and Lord Rosslyn remitted annually to the French chancellor a sum of equal amount.

Charles, Marquess Cornwallis.

BORN A. D. 1738.-DIED A. D. 1805.

THE family of Cornwallis, or Cornwalleys, has been settled during many centuries in the county of Suffolk, and appears, like many other of our noble houses, to have originally derived its wealth from commerce. Thomas Cornwalleys, to whom we trace it, was a merchant, and sheriff of London during the 14th century. The martial spirit which has distinguished this family appears to have been elicited during the wars with France; John, who accompanied the lord-high-admiral, Surrey, to the continent, and distinguished himself greatly before Morlaix, was dubbed a knight-banneret in the field of battle, in the presence of the whole English army. It is this promising officer, we believe, who is praised by Sir Richard Baker in his Chronicles of the Kings of England,' for his extraordinary gallantry and good conduct.

Charles, the sixth baron, second earl, and first Marquess Cornwallis, was born December 31, 1738. After receiving the necessary degree of instruction to enable him to be sent to a public school, he became a member of Eton, from which seminary he went to the university of Cambridge, and was entered of St John's college, by the name and title of Lord Brome. Little is recorded of his early years, except that having, while intoxicated, told Rigby, secretary to the earl of Sandwich, in the pit of the opera-house, that his noble employer was a pickpocket, he was compelled to atone for his offence, by making an apology in Hyde park the next morning. 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.

His birth, rank, and connexions in life, of course opened the way for him to very rapid advancement, and accordingly we find him, in 1761, acting under the marquess of Granby, as one of his aides-de-camp, with the rank of major. 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. Anterior to this he had obtained a seat in the house of commons for his patrimonial borough of Eye. On the demise of his father, in 1762, he of course vacated his seat in the house of commons, and became an earl of Great Britain. Three years after, he was appointed one of the lords of the bed-chamber. In 1766 he received a regiment, the 33d foot; on the 14th of July, 1768, he married Jemima, daughter of James Jones, Esq., by whom he had two children.

Lord Cornwallis at an early period of life displayed the independence of his character, for he carefully and judiciously distinguished between his duties as a peer of parliament, and his professional avocations as an officer in the army. From the very beginning he exhibited the greatest reluctance to the contest with our colonies in America; and he was one of four peers who joined Earl Camden in opposing the bill for extending the legislative power of Great Britain to our transatlantic provinces. It was on this measure that Mansfield, the chief-justice, is said to have sneeringly observed, " Poor Camden could only get four boys to join him!" In the case of Wilkes, the subject of this memoir protested against the vote by which privilege was taken away in the case of libel. But notwithstanding Lord Cornwallis had set his face against those coercive measures which led to the fatal contest with America, he yet deemed it his duty to repair thither when called upon in an official capacity. Accordingly, no sooner was his regiment ordered for embarkation, than he took leave of a most virtuous and affectionate wife, who, through the intervention of his uncle, Frederic Cornwallis, archbishop of Canterbury, had obtained for him the king's special leave of absence. In 1776 we find him detached at the head of a body of troops against Fort Lee, with the rank of major-general. Finding that place evacuated, he penetrated into the country, and took possession of New Jersey; but as the hearts of the people were averse to the cause, -which they considered as that of the British ministry rather than of the British nation,-he repaired to New York, at the end of the campaign, with the view of returning home and explaining the nature of those obstacles which precluded the possibility of subjugation. He was detained, however, by the disasters that occurred at Trenton, whither General Washington had repaired at a period when his army was supposed to be annihilated and his cause desperate, and by one bold and decisive action balanced the fate of his native country. Having collected a body of troops, Lord Cornwallis immediately marched against that wary commander, who no sooner received notice of his approach than he made preparations to decamp during the night, subsequent to a slight cannonade. After having surprised an American post, and displayed several other brave but ineffectual efforts of gallantry, Lord

Cornwallis embarked with the English commander-in-chief for the Chesapeak, and remained for some time with the body of the army when it had obtained possession of Philadelphia,-a conquest to which he himself contributed not a little by his gallant conduct at the passage of the Brandy-wine.

The subsequent period of the war proved uncommonly barren of incident having, however, in the mean while, acquired the rank of lieutenant-general, he embarked under Sir Harry Clinton-who had succeeded Lord Howe-for Charlestown, which soon after surrendered to his Britannic majesty's arms. The command of the whole province of South Carolina now devolved upon him; but by this time the war had become hopeless, for Burgoyne had surrendered at Saratoga, and the king of France was immediately after prevailed upon to declare himself the ally of the United States. No sooner did General Gates learn that so important a city as Charlestown had fallen into the hands of the English, than, alarmed for the fate of the Southern states, he immediately collected a body of troops, and advanced against the victors. This officer, who had already overcome one army, flattered himself with the hopes of being able to surprise another; but he was mistaken, for Lord Cornwallis, instead of waiting for, advanced against him with an inferior force; after a sharp but ineffectual discharge of musketry, the English advanced with fixed bayonets, and broke and routed the enemy; seven pieces of cannon, a multitude of baggage-waggons, and a thousand prisoners, served in a military point of view to palliate the convention of Saratoga. Yet, on the other hand, abstracted from the particular merits of the army, our victory served only to perpetuate the delusion at home, and finally led to the most fatal as well as melancholy results. 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. It was with this view the latter advanced with a formidable body of troops; but he was met, and beaten 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, having declared for the English, had become one of the most formidable partizans with whom America had now to contend. This having been accordingly effected by means of Simcoe and Tarleton, it was hoped that they would be able, with their joint forces, to capture the Marquess de la Fayette, who had unsheathed the maidensword of a French noble in behalf of American liberty. But this being found impossible in consequence of his sudden retreat, Lord Cornwallis withdrew, and soon unhappily found that this very fate was reserved for himself and the troops under his command. By an unfortunate series of events, supplies having failed, and a retreat being considered as impossible, this gallant commander was at length obliged to capitu

late at Yorktown.

The following is a copy of a letter from Earl Corn

wallis to Sir Henry Clinton on this occasion :—

"YORK TOWN, VIRGINIA, October 20th, 1781.

"SIR, I have the mortification to inform your Excellency, that I have been forced to give up the posts of York and Gloucester, and to surrender the troops under my command, by capitulation, on the 19th instant, as prisoners of war, to the combined forces of America and France.

"I never saw this post in any very favourable light: but when I found I was to be attacked in it in so unprepared a state, by so powerful an army and artillery, nothing but the hopes of relief would have induced me to attempt its defence; for I would either have attempted to escape to New York by rapid marches from the Gloucester side, immediately on the arrival of General Washington's troops at Williamsburgh, or I would, notwithstanding the disparity of numbers, have attacked them in the open field, where it might have been just possible that fortune would have favoured the gallantry of the handful of troops under my command: but being assured by your Excellency's letters, that every possible means would be tried by the navy and army to relieve us, I could not think myself at liberty to venture upon either of these desperate attempts; therefore, after remaining for two days in a strong position, in front of this place, in hopes of being attacked, upon observing that the enemy were taking measures which could not fail of turning my left flank in a short time, and receiving on the second evening your letter of the 12th of September, informing me that the relief would sail about the 5th of October, I withdrew within the works on the night of the 29th of September, hoping, by the labour and firmness of the soldiers, to protract the defence until you could arrive. Every thing was to be expected from the firmness of the troops; but every disadvantage attended their labour, as the work was to be continued under the enemy's fire, and our stock of entrenching tools, which did not much exceed four hundred when we began to work, in the latter end of August, was now much diminished.

"The army broke ground on the night of the 30th, and constructed on that night and the two following days and nights, which, with some works that had belonged to our outward position, occupied a gorge between two creeks or ravines, which came from the river on each side of the town. On the night of the 6th of October they made their first parallel, extending from its right on the river to a deep ravine on the left, nearly opposite to the centre of this place, and embracing our whole left, at the distance of six hundred yards. Having perfected this parallel, their batteries opened on the evening of the 9th, against our left; and other batteries fired at the same time against a redoubt, over a creek, on our right, and defended by about one hundred and twenty men of the 23d regiment and marines, who maintained that place with uncommon gallantry. The fire continued incessant, from heavy cannon, and from mortars and howitzers, throwing shells from eight to sixteen inches, until all our guns on the left were silenced, our work much damaged, and our loss of men considerable.

"On the night of the 11th they began their second parallel, about three hundred yards nearer to us," &c. &c. &c.

After detailing the particulars of an attempt to escape, by means of sixteen boats, to the Gloucester side, in consequence of the progress of the enemy, Lord Cornwallis proceeds as follows:

"Our works in the mean time were going to ruin, and not being able to strengthen them by abbatis, nor in any other manner than by a slight fraizing, which the enemy's artillery were demolishing whenever they fired, my opinion entirely coincided with that of the engineer and principal officers of the army, that they were in many places assailable in the forenoon, and that by the continuance of the same fire for a few hours longer they would be in such a state as to render it desperate, with our numbers, to attempt to maintain them. We at that time could not fire a single gun; only one eight inch, and a little more than a hundred cohorn shells remained; a diversion by the French ships of war that lay at the mouth of York river was also to be expected. Our numbers had been diminished by the enemy's fire, but particularly by sickness; and the strength and spirits of those in the works were much exhausted by the fatigue of constant watching and unremitting duty.

"Under all these circumstances, I thought it would have been wanton and inhuman to the last degree to sacrifice the lives of this small body of gallant soldiers, who had ever behaved with so much fidelity and courage, by exposing them to an assault which, from the numbers and precaution of the enemy, could not fail to succeed. I therefore proposed to capitulate; and I have the honour to enclose to your Excellency the copy of the correspondence between General Washington and me on that subject, and the terms of the capitulation agreed on," &c.

But the capture of a second army did not put an end to the contest; and it might have been as long and as inveterate perhaps as that waged by Spain against Holland, had not the minority in parliament at length triumphed, and Lord North been forced to resign all those official situations which had enabled him to continue the struggles in express opposition to the wishes of the people.

Lord Cornwallis was well-received on his return to England, where he soon after obtained the honourable and respectable situation of Constable of the Tower. During the interval of peace that followed the American war, the noble earl may be said to have remained in a state of domestic privacy, if this can be properly observed of a man who, in addition to the duties of a legislator, was invested with an important official employment. He, however, was destined soon after to be again called into a more public line of action, and this too in a different hemisphere to that on which he had hitherto distinguished himself.

The East India company, from factors, had become sovereigns in India, and at this period may be said to have possessed more subjects than the king of Great Britain, under whom they held their charter. But as the possessions extended their difficulties increased; and while they were threatened on one hand with a combination of the native princes, they were supposed, on the other, to suffer not a little from the peculations and mismanagement of their own servants. To remedy these evils, it was determined by the government, if possible, to select a chief, who, to military talents, added a knowledge of business, and united with an unimpeachable integrity, a firmness of conduct that might atone, and at the same time appal abuse and defy treachery. It was on this occasion that the eyes of all men were turned on Lord