to any other, I do not hesitate to declare Sir John Jervis the very best officer in his Majesty's service."

Upon being informed that his title was that of St Vincent, his lordship observed that he was very well satisfied, as "that title belonged to every officer and seaman of his fleet."

February 14, 1799, his lordship was created admiral, and on the 18th of August following, landed in the dockyard at Portsmouth, and went to the house of Sir Peter Parker, where he was waited upon by the mayor, aldermen, and burgesses; when the mayor presented to him an address.

He was afterwards employed in the blockade of Cadiz ; and, in 1801, was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty, in the room of Earl Spencer, which office he resigned in 1804. Although he attended with diligence to the duties of this high station, he was, on the whole, less popular than Lords Spencer and Melville, though those statesmen were not bred to naval affairs. He was particularly accused of a natural partiality for those who had served with or under him. He resigned in 1804, and was succeeded by Lord Spencer.

Soon after the re-commencement of the war, he hoisted his flag on board the Hibernia of 110 guns.

May 7, 1814, he was appointed General of the Royal Marines, and July 19, 1821, Admiral of the Fleet. The whole life of this gallant admiral had been devoted to the service of his country. He was a man of a strong and acute mind, resolute in what he undertook, and unbending in his ideas of discipline and subordination. He was undoubtedly a great commander at sea, of high gallantry and ascendant genius, and highly deserved all the honours the nation conferred upon him. He had attained 89 years, 79 of which had been in the service of his country; he had

been subject to all the infirmities of an extreme old age; his immortal part is fled to happier realms; and he has left behind him upon earth a name that can never die. We could only regret the loss of such a man for the sake of his country; and to his country the law of nature had rendered him no longer useful, except by his example, and the services which he had already rendered; neither that example, nor those services, can perish with him. The British navy has been incessantly improving by those rules which he had prescribed for its management; and British hearts will long continue to be warmed by the contemplation of his steady courage in action, his ardent zeal for the service, and his profound knowledge of naval science. The House of Commons have voted a monument to be erected to his memory in St Paul's Cathedral.

His remains were privately interred, precisely at four o'clock, on Wednesday afternoon, March 26th, in the family vault at Stone. The following is an exact copy of the inscription (in English) upon the superb coffin, which is covered with scarlet velvet :

"JOHN, EARL OF ST VINCENT, Viscount St Vincent, Baron Jervis of Meaford, in the county of Stafford, one of his Majesty's Honourable Privy Council, and Admiral of the Fleet, General of the Marines, &c. &c. Died March 15, 1823, in the 89th year of his age."

RIGHT HON. GENERAL SIR GEO.

BECKWITH, G. C. B.

This highly distinguished officer was the second son of the late MajorGeneral John Beckwith, who commanded the 20th regiment at the battle of Minden, and the brigade of

grenadiers and Highlanders in the seven years war, in both which situations he received repeatedly the public thanks of Prince Fredinand of Brunswick, commander-in-chief of the allied army.

So early as the year 1771, Sir George was appointed to an ensigncy in the 37th regiment. From 1776 to 1782, he bore a prominent part in the dangerous and unfortunate contest between England and her American colonies, and during that period commanded in several surprises of the enemy, and also in storms and captures of various importance, among which may be particularized those of Elizabeth Town, and Brunswick, in New Jersey.

His decision and sound judgment, combined with his knowledge of America, (obtained during these services,) pointed him out as capable of being useful to his country in a two-fold capacity, and from 1787 to the end of 1791, the period of the first arrival of a British minister in America, he was entrusted by Lord Dorchester with a confidential and most important mission in the United States.

The difficulties he here encountered and surmounted, had hitherto tended merely to shew the talents he possessed, and now it was that the British government saw the advantage it would derive by securing to itself the more extended employment of those talents. He was nominated Governor of Bermuda in April 1797, and the command of the troops in that island subsequently conferred upon him in the July following. To those succeeded the government of St Vincent, in October 1804; and in October 1808, the government of Barbadoes and the command of the forces in the Windward and Leeward Caribbee Islands, and continental provinces in South America.

It was at this time that the rapid

strides Buonaparte was making to subjugate Europe, excited apprehensions of the most serious kind; but while victory followed victory, and potentate after potentate gave way before him-in the West Indies he had yet to learn that he was not invincible.

Sir George, (then Lieutenant-Ge neral Beckwith,) by the unlimited powers vested in him, proved that the confidence of his monarch had not been misplaced; having completed his arrangements, on the 28th of January, 1809, he sailed from Carlisle Bay for Martinique, landed on the 30th of that month, and on the 24th of February obtained the entire conquest of that island, the most valuable of the enemy's possessions in that quarter of the globe. The Extraor dinary Gazette which announced this capture, was read with avidity by all ranks of people, and the sight of the French eagles, seen in this country for the first time as the trophy of suc cess, gave an earnest of those splendid achievements which terminated in the complete overthrow of Napoleon's power.

On the 14th of April, 1809, the thanks of the House of Commons, and on the 17th those of the House of Lords, were voted to LieutenantGeneral Beckwith, for "his able and gallant conduct in effecting with such signal rapidity the entire conquest of the Island of Martinique." On the 1st of May, he was created a Knight of the Bath.

The Extraordinary Gazette of the 16th of March, 1810, announced that this brilliant success had been fol lowed up by the capture of Guada loupe, which had capitulated on the 6th of February, and the high esti mation in which these eminent ser vices were viewed by England, not be more strongly characterized than in the leading paragraph of the

can

Lords Commissioners' speech to both Houses of Parliament, on the 21st of June, 1810:-"We are commanded by his Majesty to express the satisfaction he derived from the reduction of the Island of Guadaloupe by his Majesty's arms, an event which, for the first time in the history of the wars of Great Britain, has wrested from France all her possessions in that quarter of the world."

These victories having completed the conquest of the French West Indies, and the inhabitants of those islands beginning to feel and to acknowledge the benefits of living under the sway of the British empire, he returned to Barbadoes, though amidst his military avocations as commander-in-chief, he had never forgotten that his duties as governor imposed upon him the adoption of such measures as could best ensure the happiness and welfare of those entrusted to his charge. The merchants of the West India Islands will long look to his administration of their laws as the brightest times of their history-but it is not to be supposed that such combined and arduous duties could be accomplished without a sacrifice of health. Sir George Beckwith unfortunately experienced this, and in June 1814, determined on seeking a restoration of that blessing in his native country. The last bill presented for his sanction by the legislature of the Island of Barbadoes, was a vote of a service of plate to himself; and deeply as he must have felt so strong a mark of their approbation of his government, "This bill, gentlemen," said he, "is the only one from which I must with hold my assent." At a public dinner given him before his embarkation, the chairman, in proposing his health, passed the most gratifying eulogy on his conduct that language could convey, when he said, "The occasion of

VOL. XVI. PART III.

this day's meeting is the only cause or regret that has ever been felt by the inhabitants during the most unsullied administration which our annals can boast."

Thus followed by the blessings of those over whom he had ruled, he sought his native shores, and flattered indeed must he have been, to find that that mark of estimation for him as a man, and gratitude towards him as a governor, which his innate sense of delicacy taught him to decline whilst in Barbadoes, had been voted to him after his departure. It bears this inscription:

"This service of plate was presented to General Sir George Beckwith, K. B., late Governor of Barbadoes, by the legislature of that island, as a sincere mark of the high regard and esteem in which he has been and will always continue to be held by every inhabitant of Barbadoes. A. D. 1814."

The cost was 2500l.

Whilst his civil services were thus rewarded by those who could best appreciate them, his king still further proved the high sense he entertained for his military ones, by conferring on him an armorial distinction, such as the illustrious Wellington himself alone can boast: "Issuant from a mural crown, a dexter arm embowed, encircled with a wreath of laurel, the hand grasping an eagle, or French standard, the staff broken."

Talents great as Sir George Beckwith's were too rare to be allowed to lie long unemployed; in October 1816, he was called from the circle of private life to take the command of the troops in Ireland; his health had become in some degree re-established, and he did not hesitate a moment in obeying the call. The events of that period are of too recent a date to render it requisite for us to dwell upon them, but we venture to ask of

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those who best know Ireland, and the conflicting prejudices of that unhappy island, if, during the four years in which Sir George Beckwith directed its military strength and watched over its internal quiet, one instance of outrage can be pointed out; and the splendid style in which he supported his rank in Dublin as commander of the forces, is acknowledged by every one who partook of his liberal and extended hospitality.

Sir George Beckwith returned to England at the end of March 1820, and the state of his health now began to shew that the incessant and trying services in which he had been engaged, combined with the baneful effects of a long residence in a West Indian climate, had made slow but too certain ravages in his constitution. He struggled for many months against increasing malady, and at length expired, at his house in Halfmoon Street, on the 20th of March, in the 70th year of his age.

SIR ILAY CAMPBELL.

This venerable person, who ended his long and active life on the 28th of March, in the eighty-ninth year of his age, was born on the 23d of August, 1734. He was the eldest son of Archibald Campbell of Succoth, and his mother was the daughter and representative of Wallace of Ellersly, a branch of the family of Sir William Wallace. He came to the bar in 1757, was made Solicitor-General in 1783, Lord Advocate in 1784, and was soon after chosen member for the Glasgow district of boroughs, which he continued to represent in Parliament, taking an active share in all the important transactions of the time, until he was raised to the chair of President of the Court of Session

in 1789. In 1794 he was placed at the head of the commission of Oyer and Terminer, issued at that disturbed period for the trial of those accused of high treason in Scotland, and the manner in which he acquitted himself on that occasion was highly commended by the English lawyers of the day. He continued to hold the situation of President of the Court of Session for upwards of nineteen years, and resigned his high office in autumn 1808, after having discharged its arduous duties with the utmost ability, integrity, and zeal. But the faculties of his mind remaining entire, he was afterwards chosen to preside over the two different commissions for inquiring into the state of the courts of law in Scotland, which business he conducted with his accustomed industry and talent.

For many years before his elevation to the bench, he had the most extensive practice of his time, and indeed there was scarcely any cause or business of importance in which he was not engaged or consulted. He was particularly remarkable for the excellence of his written pleadings Many of them are perfect models of perspicuity, force, and elegance. The best criterion of his judicial eminence during the long period when he presided on the bench, is the high esti mation in which his recorded opinions are now held by all Scots lawyers. In politics he was a warm admirer of the principles of Mr Pitt; and he enjoyed the friendship and confidence of many eminent public men, particularly of Lord Chancellor Thurlow and the late Lord Melville, with both of whom he was in habits of frequent correspondence.

The anxiety he felt to discharge the duties entrusted to him fully and faithfully, made him desirous to quit public life before age had in any de gree impaired the powers of his

mind; and therefore he resigned the president's chair, while yet in the full possession of that profound and active understanding which had been exerted in the unremitting discharge of his professional and public duties for nearly half a century.

After his retirement from the bench, he resided principally on his paternal estate of Garscube, where the vigour of his mind remained unabated, and, being freed from the fatigues of public life, the amiable traits of his character became more extensively displayed, and increased the admiration of those who had been spectators of his former career. Until within a few weeks of his death, he was constantly occupied with pursuits of various kinds. He took a principal share in the business of the county of Dumbarton, and was much consulted by the magistracy of the neighbourhood, particularly in the late perilous times. He spent much of his time in reading, and in the study of general literature; amused himself with agriculture, and received the visits of those numerous persons in England and Scotland with whom he had been connected in public and private life.

In these occupations, and in the exercise of that benevolence which was a remarkable trait of his character ; possessing, until his last short illness, perfect good health, and a mind as acute as it had been in the vigour of his manhood; loved and respected by every one, and surrounded by his numerous descendants, whom he delighted to assemble under his patriarchal roof, he enjoyed a period of retirement from public life, which, in point of happiness and length of duration, seldom falls to the lot of public characters, and which was the deserved reward of those laborious services that will be recollected as long as the law of Scotland exists.

MR ANGERSTEIN.

At the Woodlands, Blackheath, John Julius Angerstein, Esq. This gentleman, who was descended from a respectable family, was born at St Petersburgh, in the year 1735. About 1749 he came to England, under the patronage of the late Andrew Thomson, Esq. an opulent Russian merchant. In that gentleman's countinghouse he remained for some time, and, when he came of age, he was introduced to Lloyd's by his patron. With good natural abilities and unwearied application, Mr Angerstein quickly became celebrated as a broker and underwriter. His subscription to a policy was quite sufficient to induce other underwriters to add their names. In such repute were his policies, that, for some years after, they were called Julians, as a mark of distinction. It is, therefore, not surprising that he at length reached the summit of commercial fame and prosperity; his reputation being spread to all quarters where commerce is known. In public loans his list was always ranked among the first, and moneyed men were anxious to obtain a place in it. Nor were his exertions confined only to his own benefit. The frequenters of Lloyd's Coffee-house owe to his strenuous ef. forts the accommodations which they at present enjoy. He was the proposer of the issue of Exchequer bills in 1793, by which, at a critical moment, relief was afforded to trade. The Veterinary College would, perhaps, have sunk to the ground, had he not made a vigorous effort in its favour, at a moment when its funds were nearly exhausted; and he was the first to propose, from the fund at Lloyd's, a reward of two thousand pounds to that meritorious discovery, the life-boat. In private life, Mr