staff, he could not serve under a junior, which would have been the case, had he remained. After the peace of Amiens, the Loyal Essex, in common with all the fencibles, was ordered to England, and on landing at Bristol, in July 1802, this battalion was disbanded.

On the breaking out of the present war, the general again presented his sword, and proposed, if necessary, to raise a regiment, but as it was not then determined to issue letters of service for regular corps, it has not been accepted of.

General Urquhart has been twice married; his first wife was daughter to the Hon. Thomas Thicker, his Majesty's secretary and a member of the council of the province of Massachuset's Bay; by whom he had one son. In 1787 he was divorced from bis lady, since which he became united to Elizabeth, the second daughter of Samuel Cockerell, Esq. of Harwich in Essex.

As a military man, General Urquhart has always been looked upon as an excellent officer, well acquainted with discipline, the customs, and the interior œconomy of the army, of which his late regiment exhibited the most convincing proofs. His private character may be summed up in a few words; he is charitable without ostentation, generous without profuseness, liberal in his ideas, steadfast in his friend. ships, and rigidly a man of his word.

MAJOR

MAJOR RENNEL.

THE office of the biographer must be allowed to be often peculiarly difficult, and not unfrequently accompanied with the most unpleasant sensations. He is obliged to yield, in some measure, to the prevailing opinions of the day, to deal out censure with a sparing hand, and to treat even vice itself with a certain degree of delicacy. But the task is pleasant, when subjects such as the present engage his attention; and the profession of arms is accompanied and illustrated by a profound knowledge of the arts and sciences.

The family of Rennel is of French extraction, and, though suffering like others from the vicissitudes of fortune, was of high repute in the earlier part of our annals. The name is mentioned in ancient records as belonging to one of the Norman knights who accompanied William the Conqueror; and although we will not venture to assert that the subject of the present memoir is descended from this stock, it is certain that our heralds are accustomed to assume the pedigrees of our nobility from documents not more authentic. Suffice it to say, that the tradition of the family enumerates this Norman knight as one of its members.

The father of the major was settled at Chudleigh, in Devonshire, and possessed a property sufficient for the enjoyments of private life, if not equal to the luxuries of a metropolis. This gentleman was of a character which by the inhabitant of a city will be thought

singular,

singular, although of frequent occurrence elsewhere, Possessed of an active and vigorous mind, and having the usual leisure attached to independent circumstances, together with the solitude of a country life, he contracted a passion for reading; but his education being merely that of an English provincial school, he studied with more avidity than discrimination. He had thus collected a mass of miscellaneous matter, of Gentleman's Magazines and old divinity, of voyages and church history, of translations of classic authors, periodical papers, and political pamphlets of the last century. We mention this, as it will be seen in the course of this biography that the character of the son is not without some resemblance to that of the father, and doubtless received its peculiar bias from this cir

cumstance.

Major Rennel was born in the year 17.12, at Chudleigh, the place of his father's residence. He received no other education than that of a free graminar school, in the neighbourhood of the paternal mansion, and unfortunately did not remain long enough there to derive all the advantage it might have conferred. It can never be sufficiently, lamented that the studies of this gentleman were so circumscribed having built so much upon such a narrow basis, what. might not have been expected from his talents had they been cultivated in carly life at Westminster or Eton, and then removed to the genial soils of Oxford or Cambridge?

The circumstances of the father rendering the son's speedy settlement in life necessary, at the age of fif

teen

teen he entered the naval service. He is said to have greatly distinguished himself at the siege of Pondicherry, and to have afforded upon this occasion the first symptom of his peculiar bent of mind. Some sloops of war belonging to the enemy having moored beyond the reach of our guns, in shallow water, Mr. Rennel requested of the captain of his ship the use of a boat, which, as the night was far advanced, was at first refused; but the young midshipman repeating his importunity, and being a general favourite, the commander at length consented. Mr. Rennel accordingly departed, no one knew whither, and accompanied, according to his desire, by only a single sailor. After some interval he returned, and eagerly informed the captain that having observed that the tide was unusually high, he thought that there might be suffi cient depth of water to reach the sloops of the enemy; and that he had borrowed the boat to make the experiment, which had fully answered his conjecture. Having implored his superior officer to lose no time in availing himself of this discovery, the former complied, and the attempt was crowned with the most complete success.

In the year 1766 Mr. Rennel, by the advice of a friend, who possessed considerable interest in the India-house, quitted the navy and entered into the army. He was immediately sent upon active service to India, and in his capacity of officer of engineers distinguished himself greatly. He was accordingly countenanced by the government, and almost in

stantly,

stantly, at least long before the natural course of military promotion, advanced to the rank of major.

It was at this period that he appeared before the public as an author, and one of the first geographers of the day, in his "Chart of the Bank and Current of Cape Lagullas." We have not seen this work, which being only of local utility, and cousequently local interest, has, we believe, not been published in England; but it is said to be no less accurate and ingenious than every thing which has proceeded from him at a subsequent period.

The government of India becoming daily more sensible of his worth, and more acquainted with his peculiar talent, appointed him to an office for which he was singularly adapted, that of surveyor-general of Bengal; an office the emoluments of which were adequate to the labour and skill required in the discharge of its functions.

It was at this period that he published his " Bengal Atlas." The learned had scarcely time to estimate the value of that accurate and elaborate work, before it was followed by " An Account of the Ganges and Burrampooter Rivers." This account is given at Jength in the Philosophical Transactions, to which we must beg leave to refer our readers, as a minute enumeration of it does not suit the nature of general biography. Suffice it to say, that it added much, in the esteem of all learned men, to the reputation of its author.

Our indefatigable countryman now rested a while

from