sars, and placed in command of the Severn district; from which he was afterwards removed to the command of the South Western district, and in that capacity resided at Winchester until the year 1807, having in the year 1803 been raised to the rank of General. In the latter part of 1807 he went back to the Continent, and from that time until the conclusion of the war took an active part, though returning to England at intervals, in the prosecution of the war against France, in conjunction with the Prussian army. He fought in several important engagements, and at the close of the war he resumed possession of Hanover in the name and behalf of his father. In 1813 he had been appointed a Field Marshal in the British Army (together with his brother the Duke of Cambridge); and Jan. 22, 1827, he succeeded the Duke of Wellington in the command of " the Blues;" but when, on the accession of William IV. all the Horse Guards were placed under the immediate authority of the Commander. in-Chief, the Duke of Cumberland took umbrage, and resigned his Colonelcy.

His Royal Highness was nominated a Grand Cross of the Bath at the enlargement of that order, Jan. 2, 1815; he received the order of St. Andrew from the Emperor of Russia in 1819.

The Parliamentary career of the Duke of Cumberland commenced in 1800, when he made his first speech in opposition to the Adultery Prevention Bill, contending against the proposal to make the law more severe, as affecting woman, by prohibiting the marriage of an unfaithful wife with her seducer after divorce. In 1803 he seconded the address in reply to a royal message asking the co-operation of Parliament for resisting the encroachments of France. On that occasion he condemned in strong terms the lawless ambition of Napoleon, and urged the adoption of vigorous measures for the maintenance of the national dignity. In 1804 he supported the Bill for enabling the King to employ the voluntary services of the Irish militia in Great Britain, in the event of an invasion, expressing a hope that it would tend to draw more close the union between the two countries. In 1810 he stoutly opposed the ministry in the debate on the Regency Bill. In 1808, in presenting a petition from the Dublin Corporation against the Roman Catholic claims, he announced that deliberate opposition to the demands of the Romanists to which through life he consistently adhered. The Marquess Wellesley's resolution in 1812 drew from him a reaffirmation of his previously expressed determination; and when, after the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, to

which likewise his Royal Highness was strenuously opposed, the Emancipation Bill of 1829 was introduced, he came from Berlin, where he was then residing, for the express purpose of opposing it. He denounced the ministers who had introduced it as "" men never again to be trusted." He declared that, having for one and thirty years followed an undeviating line of conduct in regard to the established constitution in Church and State, he found it impossible to countenance a measure which shook that constitution to its foundation, and which would unprotestantize the country. The feelings and principles by which he was guided he thus expressed to his friend Lord Eldon : "I will act, as I believe my sainted father would wish me to act, and that is, to oppose to the utmost the dangerous measure, and to withdraw all confidence from the dangerous men who are forcing it through Parliament." The subsequent constitutional changes, especially the Reform Bill, the Municipal Corporation Reform Bill, and the New Poor Law Bill, he resisted, though with less warmth and energy, both by his votes and occasionally by his speeches.

The determined part which the Duke of Cumberland acted as a politician, the high conception which he had of the dignity of his royal birth and station, the contempt which he felt, and which he never cared to disguise, for popular opinion, and the hostility which he manifested on all occasions towards the Liberalism of the age, coupled with a certain abruptness of manner, to which his frequent and protracted residences abroad no doubt contributed, rendered his Royal Highness extremely unpopular, and made him the butt of many vile and malignant attacks upon both his public and his private character. The most remarkable and the most disgraceful of these attacks was the horrible imputation thrown out against the Duke in connexion with an attempt upon his life made by his valet, Sellis, in June 1810, who, on being foiled in his murderous design, destroyed himself. The jury empannelled to inquire into the death of the suicide, having by their verdict of felo-de-se pronounced those insinuations unfounded, the Duke treated the calumnies industriously circulated against him with contempt, until at last, in 1832, they assumed so tangible a shape in a work of historical pretensions, that his Royal Highness saw fit to bring his slanderers to account in a court of justice, and to appear himself in the witness-box on the occasion. The verdict pronounced on that occasion was a triumphant refutation of the atrocious charge.

Another, and though in one sense less gross, yet equally disgraceful calumny, was the imputation cast upon his Royal Highness during the latter part of the reign of King William, of a desire of tampering with the army through the Orange Societies, of which he was the Grand Master, with a view to alter the succession. This accusation, to which Mr. Joseph Hume lent his parliamentary countenance, and which led to angry debates in both Houses, was put an end to by a letter addressed by the Duke of Cumberland to the Chairman of the Committee appointed to investigate the whole affair, in which he distinctly denied that he had been a party to the introduction of the Orange system into the army, and stated that he was not aware that the blank war. rants signed by him as Grand Master, had been applied to such a purpose. The perfect loyalty with which the Duke proceeded to the dissolution of the Orange body, in deference to the opinion expressed by the Government and by Parliament, presented an additional proof of the unfounded nature of the aspersions to which he had been subjected.

His connexion with the Orange body gave the Duke of Cumberland great influence among the Protestants of Ireland; and the claims of old affection which they had upon him were not forgotten by his Royal Highness, after he had ascended the throne of Hanover; as was proved on the occasion of the famine, when he forwarded to the British Relief Association 20007., one-half as King of Hanover, the other in his capacity as Chancellor of the University of Dublin,-which office he had occupied from the year 1805.

The Duke of Cumberland married, on the 29th of May, 1815, at Strelitz, his cousin, the Princess Frederica Caroline Sophia Alexandrina, third daughter of Charles Louis Frederick, late reigning Duke of Mecklenburgh-Strelitz, who had been married twice before, first to Prince Frederick Louis Charles of Prussia; and secondly, to Prince Frederick William of Solms-Braunfels. The marriage was subsequently repeated at Carlton House on the 29th of August in the same year. This union, though contracted with the consent of the Prince Regent, was disap. proved of by Queen Charlotte, who refused to receive the Duchess, and persisted in her determination in spite of all remonstrances, both from the Royal Family in this country and from her own relations in Germany, as well as from the Ministry, and from the King of Prussia. At this time the House of Commons refused to increase the Duke of Cumberland's annual allowance from 18,000l. to 24,0007. (as

was done to the Dukes of Clarence, Kent, and Cambridge on their marriages,) but a provision of 6,000l. per annum was voted to the Duchess in the event of her being left a widow. It was not until 1829, towards the end of the reign of George IV. that the Duchess of Cumberland was presented at the English Court. The issue of this marriage was a daughter still-born in Jan. 1817, and a Prince, born at Berlin on the 27th of May, 1819, who has now succeeded to the throne of Hanover as King George the Fifth.

On the demise of King William IV., on the 20th of June, 1837, the Duke of Cumberland, as the heir male, succeeded to the German dominions of the family, which at the pacification of Europe had been erected into a kingdom.

In Hanover the rule of King Ernest was really popular. Though on his ac. cession he cancelled Professor Dahlmann's Constitution, which had been granted by King William IV., he was supported by a powerful party, which all the storms of the last revolution, and the lapse of so many years, still find struggling for their privileges. But his subsequent administration of affairs acquired for him the affection of the people. He did much for the material interests of the kingdom, and the spirit of his internal government was, by contrast at least, freer, less continually suspicious and vexatious to the subject, than that of any other German state. In 1840 he conceded a new Constitution, which was gratefully received, and has since been the law of the kingdom; for King Ernest stood firm during the convulsions of 1848: he did not concede everything, but what changes were made in common with all the other states were adhered to, and still exist, though in most other parts of Germany they have been greatly modified or wholly withdrawn. A certain strength and decision of character stood the late King in more stead than policy; and it was one great advantage that, whatever he said or did, the people could always understand him.

The King of Hanover was bereaved of his Queen on the 21st June, 1841 (a memoir of her Majesty will be found in our vol. xvi. p. 202); and the loss of sight under which the Crown Prince suffered threw a gloom over his domestic circle. In 1843, however, the Crown Prince was married to the Princess Mary of Saxe Altenburg, and he has now issue a son and two daughters.

The King of Hanover took leave of this country shortly after he had taken his oath of allegiance in the House of Peers to H. M. Queen Victoria. He did not attend her Majesty's coronation; and we

believe he rarely visited England afterwards, perhaps never except in 1843, when he is remembered to have dined with his old Conservative friend the late Sir Charles Wetherell, at his chambers in Stone Buildings, Lincoln's Inn. Sir Charles was engaged as his advocate in his claim to the Crown jewels of Hanover, a question that is not yet finally decided.

The King of Hanover has left a will written with his own hand, and dated the 9th of December, 1842, of which the following is a passage:

"I have no objection to my body being exposed to the view of my loyal subjects, that they may cast a last look at me, who never had any other object or wish than to contribute to their welfare and happiness, who have never consulted my own interests, while I endeavoured to correct the abuses and supply the wants which have arisen during a period of 150 years' absenteeism, and which are sufficiently explained by that fact."

The body was consequently laid in state within the royal palace and in front of the throne, on the 21st and 22d of November; when all his Majesty's subjects were allowed admission. The funeral took place on the 26th. On the previous evening a solemn service was celebrated in the chapel of the palace. At midnight the coffin, accompanied by that containing the remains of the late Queen, was conveyed to the palace of Herrenhausen, escorted by the first dignitaries of the kingdom, and by detachments of the Royal Guard. The King, with the Princes Royal of Prussia, attended the funeral, and on that account was absent from the opening of his Chambers, being "unwilling to omit giving, by his personal attendance at the funeral of an old friend and illustrious ally, a public testimony of respect for the exalted virtues of the late King," who went to Berlin to the funeral of his late Majesty FrederickWilliam III. The funeral was also attended, on the part of Queen Victoria, by three officers of the Royal Household.

MARSHAL SOULT.

Nov. 26. At his chateau of SoultBerg, aged 82, Nicolas Jean-de-Dieu Soult, Duke of Dalmatia and Marshal-General of France.

It was in 1769, the year which gave birth to Wellington and Napoleon, that this famous soldier of fortune first saw the light, at St. Amand, in the department of Tarn. His father, who was a notary, seeing that he had no taste for his own profession, allowed him to enter the army. He entered the Royal Regiment of Infantry in 1785, where he was soon remarked by his aptitude for the functions

of instructor. He was made non-commissioned officer in 1790, and then passed rapidly through the intermediate grades, until he reached that of Adjutant-General of the Staff, when General Lefebvre attached him to his own service, with the grade of Chief of Brigade. In that quality he went through the campaigns of 1794 and 1795 with the army of the Moselle, and owed to his talents, as well as to his Republican principles, a rapid promotion. Successively raised to the rank of General of Brigade, and then to that of General of Division, he took part in all the campaigns of Germany, until 1799, when he followed Massena into Switzerland, and thence to Genoa, where he was wounded and taken prisoner. Set at liberty after the battle of Marengo, and raised to the command of Piedmont, he returned to France at the peace of Amiens, and was named one of the four Colonels of the Guard of the Consuls

Napoleon had detected his talents, and from this period the name of Soult is rarely absent from the history of Europe. He fought in every war, almost in every field, if not with invariable fortune, at any rate with unchangeable skill. Though not personally a favourite of the Emperor, he was among the first of the Generals selected for the dignity of Marshal in 1804, and the first of the Marshals advanced to the distinction of Peers.

It was Soult who disciplined that immense levy which was held on the heights of Boulogne to be launched against the cliffs of Kent; and when the invasion of Britain was commuted for the conquest of Austria it was Soult who led the main column of the grand army, and who on the field of Austerlitz was charged with the execution of that mighty manoeuvre which decided the fate of the campaign. It was Soult who secured the semblance of victory at Eylau, and whose judgment was permitted to influence the wavering resolution of Napoleon. When the terrible disaster of Moscow had to be repaired by the strategic achievements of Lutzen and Bautzen, it was Soult who was summoned from Castile to the Emperor's side; and when the rout of Vittoria had cleared the Peninsula of invaders, it was he who was detached again from the plains of Leipsic for the protection of uncovered France. There were other Marshals for whom Napoleon had a greater liking, but whenever the crisis required a sure right arm or an independent head the first appeal was to Soult. Less intuitively scientific, perhaps, than Ney or Suchet, without the fiery dash of Lannes, the reckless impetuosity of Murat, or the extraordinary tenacity of Massena, he nevertheless united

in himself the various qualities of an independent commander in a greater degree than any of his colleagues. His were the fewest mistakes, though not the fewest failures, for it was his fortune to be selected as the peculiar antagonist of that General before whom even the star of his Imperial master was to set. That through a great part of his career he was unsuccessful is no more than saying that he had Englishmen for his adversaries, and Wellington for his opponent. Yet he fought a good fight. If he was surprised at Oporto, none could have retreated with more admirable skill; if he was driven from the Pyrennees, none could have defended those passes with more redoubtable courage. With the coolness and vigilance which never forsook him, and which were, perhaps, his most characteristic qualities, he disputed every inch of French ground against his advancing enemy, and closed the Peninsular war under the walls of Toulouse with an action which his countrymen are fain to accept as a victory.

Shortly after that event, he signed a suspension of arms, and adhered to the re-establishment of Louis XVIII. who presented him with the Cross of St. Louis, and called him to the command of the 13th military division, and then to the Ministry of War (December 3, 1814). On the 8th March following, learning the landing from Elba, he published the order of the day which is well known, and in which Napoleon is treated more than severely. Three days after he resigned his portfolio as Minister of War, and declared for the Emperor, who, passing over the famous proclamation, raised him to the dignity of Peer of France, and Major-General of the Army.

After Waterloo, where he fought most energetically, the Marshal took refuge at Malzieu (Lozère), with General Brun de Villeret, his former aide-de-camp. Being set down on the list of the proscribed, he withdrew to Dusseldorf, on the banks of the Rhine, until 1819, when a Royal ordinance allowed him to return to France. He then went to live with his family at St. Amand, his native place, and on his reiterated representations his Marshal's baton, which had been withdrawn from him, was restored.

Charles X. treated Marshal Soult with favour, creating him knight of his orders, and afterwards making him Peer of France. After the revolution of July, 1830, the declaration of the Chamber of Deputies of August 9 excluded him from that rank, but he was restored to it four days later by a special nomination of Louis Philippe, who soon after appointed him Minister of War. In that capacity he devoted his GENT. MAG. VOL. XXXVII.

talents as an administrator to the reorganization of the army under the critical circumstances in which the revolution of July had placed France. As President of the Council of Ministers (a post he filled at two distinct periods) he was one of the firmest, most intelligent, and most devoted supporters of that liberal and constitutional throne to which France owed eighteen years of repose and order. In Sept. 1847, he wrote a very affecting letter to the King, begging him to accept his resignation of the functions of President of the Council, in which he was replaced by M. Guizot. In resigning himself to this painful separation, the King gave the Marshal a striking testimony of his regret and of his gratitude in re-establishing for him the ancient dignity of Marshal-General of France-last held by the great Turenne.

When the revolution of February had broken down the throne which he had so nobly served, the Marshal confined himself more strictly in his retreat, and refused to contract any engagement with the new powers which succeeded it.

He was the last survivor of Napoleon's marshals; and, with the single exception of Bernadotte, he may be regarded as the most fortunate of them all. He never, it is true, became either a King or a Prince; but he survived to enjoy exalted rank, ample income, and remarkable consideration to the close of a long period of years. There was a momont, as is credibly related, when his brain, like those of others, was turned by the vision of regal titles, and the soldier who could not hold Oporto against a British division had been contemplating at that very moment the assumption of the crown of "Lusitania." But these reveries were soon blown to winds, and from that time Soult concentrated his energies with unswerving fidelity on the work before him. That he was a cruel as well as a formidable enemy Spanish history but too loudly testifies. There was some excuse, perhaps, to be found in the peculiarities of a guerilla campaign; but if what Soult did can be justified, it is clear that everything is permissible in war. Englishmen however, are not apt to exercise a vindictive censure on the military tactics of foreigners, and when the old antagonist of Wellington actually appeared in Piccadilly as the representative of France at the coronation of an English Queen, he was received with a fervour of welcome shared by none other of our titled visitors.

Count Reventlow was sprung from one of the most illustrious families of the Scandinavian peninsula, and he carried with him in all the relations of life the spirit and deportment of a high-born gentleman. He had served his Court with distinction in the capacity of Minister Plenipotentiary in Brazil, in Portugal, at Vienna, and lastly in this country, where he found a people entirely congenial to his tastes, and a reception suited to the natural cordiality of his own character. He laboured, with complete success, to improve the relations between Denmark and Great Britain. His unflinching assiduity and patriotism were incessantly engaged in providing for the defence of his country, whilst his firmness and just pride in her national rights would admit of no compromise in the sovereignty of her territories. He united to a singular degree a manly impetuosity and frankness of character with a perfect mastery of the details of his profession, and an exact attention to the rules and observances of diplomatic life more common in the last century than in our own.

After many months spent in uninterrupted labour, he retired a few weeks ago to the estate of Sir James Matheson, in the island of Lewis, to pursue those fieldsports for which he retained the characteristic attachment of youth. No one who saw him starting full of spirit and energy, in the vigour of a green old age, could have imagined that he was to return no more; and the close of his life, which took place in Glasgow, on his way back from the Hebrides, was as abrupt as it is distressing, having been caused by a spasmodic affection of the heart. The Countess Reventlow and his two daughters were fortunately in attendance upon him at his decease. The body of foreign ministers in this country has seldom possessed a more upright and able member -jealous of its independence, but punctilious in its duties; and whilst his memory will long be preserved in the affectionate relations of his family and of his private friendships, he has deserved the highest honours his own country can pay to her statesmen, and is attended to the grave by the sincere respect of those who had known him in the land to which he was accredited by two successive Sovereigns of Denmark.

His body was conveyed from this country in a Danish vessel of war.

LORD DE BLAQUIERE.

Nov. 12. At Norwood, in his 74th year, the Right Hon. William de Blaquiere, third Baron de Blaquiere of Ardkill, co. Londonderry. (1800), a Baronet of Ire

land (1784); a General in the army, and Great Alnager of Ireland.

His lordship was born Jan. 27, 1778, the second son of John first Lord de Blaquiere, by Eleanor, daughter of Robert Dobson, esq. of Anne Grove, co. Cork.

He received his Captain's commission Aug. 1, 1793; was appointed to the 25th Light Dragoons Sept. 19, 1795; Major in the same regiment Feb. 1, 1798; Lieut.Colonel in the army Jan. 22, 1801; Lieut.Colonel in the 71st Foot, July 30, 1809; Colonel in the army, 1810; Major-General, 1813; Lieut.-General, 1825; and General, 1841.

His lordship succeeded to the peerage, April 7, 1844, on the death of his elder brother John the second Lord, who was unmarried.

He married Sept. 16, 1811, Lady Harriet Townshend, fifth daughter of George first Marquess Townshend; and by that lady, from whom he separated in June 1814, and who died Nov. 7, 1848, he had issue two sons-John his successor, and the Hon. William Barnard de Blaquiere, a Lieutenant R.N.; and one daughter, Rose, who died in 1818 in her fifth year.

Lord de Blaquiere had been suffering for some time under a painful disease, on which small-pox supervened, and from the nervous excitement which was the result he put a period to his existence by shooting himself. An inquest was held on the body, when a verdict of " Temporary insanity" was returned.

The present Lord, who was formerly Captain in the 3rd West India Regiment, was born in 1812, and married in 1849 the youngest surviving daughter of John Christie, esq. He is the possessor of the celebrated yacht America, which so successfully outstripped all her English competitors at the late Cowes regatta.

REV. SIR HENRY BROUGHTON, BART.

Nov. 3. At Broughton hall, Staffordshire, the Rev. Sir Henry Delves Broughton, the eighth Bart. (1660) of that place.

He was the second son of the Rev. Sir Thomas Delves Broughton, the sixth Baronet, by Mary, daughter of John Wicker, esq. of Horsham, Sussex.

He was a member of Jesus college, Cambridge, B.A. 1801, M.A. 1805; was presented by his father to the perpetual curacy of Broughton, co. Stafford, in 1803; and to that of Haslington in Cheshire by his brother in 1829.

He succeeded to the baronetcy on the death of his brother Sir John, a General in the army, Aug. 9, 1847.

He married June 15, 1807, Mary, only daughter of John Pigott, esq. of Capard; and had issue five sons: 1. Sir Henry