situation. The minister, or, as he was then called, the ostensible minister, replied, "that his lordship's request could not at that time be complied with, but that his lordship should have it when he returned." Lord Percy, not having forgot the treatment he had met with in the affair of Sir Andrew Agnew, shortly answered, "that he was too well acquainted with courts to trust to promises, and if he could not have it before he went he must decline going." It must be observed, that at this time there were no less than three blue ribbands vacant; Lord Albemarle's, Lord Chesterfield's, and the Duke of Kingston's. But the real truth is supposed to have been, that the secret ca, binet were entirely hostile to the intended embassy of Lord Percy; they wished to continue the war with America, and therefore when Lord North made the request, they refused it, in order to put an end to the design.

From this time his Grace has not been actively engaged in public affairs, A state of ill health has more than once obliged him to go to Lisbon, for the benefit of the salubrity of that atmosphere. He has principally attended to the improvement of his estates, to the comforts of domestic felicity, and occasionally, when important subjects required it, to his duties in parliament. The measures of Lord North he could not approve; and those of Mr. Pitt, in several instances, he sincerely' condemned. Feeling for the general and permanent interests of his country, he disregarded all local and limited views of temporary ministers, who were created by one breath and extin

guished

guished by another. It did not become an antient, great, and highly dignified peer, to foster the mushrooms that grew and fed on his country.

The late duke commenced, and the present duke has completed, not only the repairs, but almost created three princely palaces. When the late duke and duchess came into the possession of their estate, they found Alnwick-castle was become quite a ruin; its roofs fallen in, its towers decayed, and its walls nearly demolished. They immediately conceived the noble design of restoring this great northern castle to its antient splendour; and the design bath been executed with the happiest success: all the decorations and ornaments, though of the highest magnificence, being of the purest gothic, skilfully adapted to the general stile of the original building; which is every where restored to its antient form and destination, with all the advantages derived from the improved state of the

arts.

Sion-house was also old, ruinous, and inconvenient. It has been perfectly repaired, fitted up, and finished after the best models of Greece and Rome; and now forms a villa which, for taste and elegance, is scarcely to be equalled in the British dominions.

Northumberland-house was likewise in a ruinous state; but it has been thoroughly repaired, and perfected in the noblest manner.

Their Graces found large tracts of land on their estate in the county of Northumberland which had been suffered to run to waste, and were become deserts. For many years the late duke, and the present

duke

duke has followed his father's example, have planted upon these deserts annually from eleven to twelve hundred thousand timber and other trees. In one year has sometimes been planted not less than three hundred acres in one inclosure. The agriculture of the whole domain has been improved and encouraged with the same liberality.

LIEUT. GEN. CHARLES VALLANCEY, LL.D.

FELLOW OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY, AND OF THE SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES OF LONDON, EDINBURGH, AND PERTH; MEMBER OF THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY; OF THE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF PHILADELPHIA, &c. &c.

"it is a pity

THE great Lord Clarendon says, there is not some collection made of the lives and actions of heroical, virtuous, and learned men, in several ages, and of several qualities and qualifications, that there might be as well monuments of the virtue, piety, and learning of all ages, as there will infallibly be of their folly and vice; and then, it may be, there would be as many true histories of very extraordinary men of the latter, and even of the present age, which would inflame others to imitate them, as there are fabulous narratives of those excellent men who lived in the primitive times, of whom we know of very few whose lives were not written till many hundred years after their decease." In compliance with the wish of the noble historian, the following imperfect outline of the life of one of the most extraordinary men of the present age is attempted, in which will be seen the

soldier

soldier and the scholar, characters that mutually support and embellish each other.

Lieutenant-general Vallancey is the descendant of an ancient French family that settled in England in the reign of Charles II. As his father was an excellent classical scholar, he was resolved that his son should taste the pleasures that arise from an early and intimate acquaintance with the best Greek and Roman writers; and in order that so desirable an object might be accomplished in its fullest extent, he sent him to Eton.

In this learned seminary the subject of this memoir became acquainted with the present Marquis Townshend; and notwithstanding the friendship of our school-boy days is but too often founded on a similarity of pleasurable pursuits that vanish with our youth, yet this was not the case in the present instance; for the friendship of young Townshend and Vallancey may be said to have "grown with their growth, and strengthened with their strength."

When the nobleman just alluded to was nominated lord-lieutenant of Ireland, he appointed his schoolfellow to the rank of major of engineers on the Irish establishment. The endowments of nature, and the acquirements of art, had peculiarly adapted him to fill this post. Vallancey was now in the prime of life, a fine personable figure, of a gay disposition, "polite with ease, and free without offence." The viceroy, who had entered into the spirit of the Irish character, was well pleased to find that the major was a great favourite with all the wits that encircled the viceregal

board;

board; and that the Irish ladics were accustomed to call him the handsome Englishman. Vallancey, in his turn, indulged so great a partiality for the natives of that nation, that in the midst of his official avocations he was anxious to catch at every hint that might be united in a general plan for the improvement of the country, particularly the melioration of the wretch ed state of the peasantry, who began to feel the bcnign influence of Lord Townshend's administration an administration that forms one of the brightest æras in the annals of that country, next at least to that of Lord Chesterfield.

The major embraced the first opportunity that pre sented itself to visit the southern and western provinces; and in order to prepare himself for this tour, his first step was to lay aside those prejudices that are imbibed in our native country, and that but too frequently accompany us in our travels through others. He did not expect that his eye would be cheered as he rode along through Munster or Connaught with highly cultivated farms, stately mansions, and cottages adapted to all the purposes of rural convenience and simplicity. He was pleased, however, to find that the plough-share was not as rusty as represented; that such was the richness of the soil, that the very mountains were covered with perpetual verdure; that their wombs teemed with useful metals; that the corn stood thick on the plains, and "sung for joy."

He saw that encouragement was all that was want ing to wing the shuttle, to nerve the arm of industry, to diffuse the streams of wholesome knowledge, and

to