and, after having exchanged to the third dragoons, joined the British army in America, where, in 1779, he was made a full colonel of the former regiment, at the head of which he distinguished himself in several actions, and in one of them, took prisoner the American general, Lee. This exploit struck terror, for a time, into the enemy, and procured Colonel Harcourt the approbation of the king, who, in consequence, appointed him one of his aides-de-camp. In 1782, he was raised to the rank of majorgeneral; of lieutenant-general in 1783; and, in the following year, succeeded to the command of part of the British forces in Holland. In 1798, in which year he was made a groom of the royal bedchamber, he was promoted to the rank of general; and, in 1809, succeeded to his title, and took his seat in the house of peers. On the accession of George the Fourth, he was made a knight grand cross of the Bath, and

carried the union standard at the coronation of that monarch; shortly after which event, he was created a field-marshal. Previously to this, he had been governor of Hull; and he subsequently became governor of Portsmouth, and of Plymouth. He was also the first governor of the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, and was for some years lieutenant of Windsor Forest; and, at the time of his death, which occurred in 1827, was a member of the consolidated board of general officers, and a commissioner of the Royal Military College, and of the Royal Military Asylum. He was a brave soldier, and was as staunch a supporter of government in the senate as in the field. He was much respected by George the Third and his queen, with whom he lived on terms of close intimacy. He married, in 1778, the widow of Thomas Lockhart, Esq., but left no issue.

DENHAM, (Sir JAMES STEWART, Baronet,) the only son of the celebrated political and financial writer of the same name, was born in Scotland in the year 1745; and after having received a military education in Germany, entered the British service at the age of sixteen, as a cornet of the first royal regiment of dragoons. After serving two years under Prince Ferdinand, he gradually

rose to the rank of colonel; and in 1788, being in Ireland, he was commissioned to improve the system of discipline in the cavalry, which he effected with credit to himself, and with benefit to the army. In 1789 he commanded the garrison at Dublin; and, in 1791, was appointed to the command of the twelfth regiment of light dragoons, with which he remained in Ireland until the termination of the rebellion in that country; having previously been raised to the rank of general. As an officer, Sir James Denham is chiefly conspicuous for his conduct during the disturbances in Ireland, which he contributed in a great degree to check, by his energetic and prudent measures. Instead of resorting to military force, he formed a plan for bringing the power of the civil magistrate into efficient action, and he only took the field against the rebels when forbearance became dangerous.

ANDRE, (JOHN,) born in 1751, relinquished his trade of a merchant to join the British army in America, where he soon attained the rank of major and adjutant-general, and was employed by Sir Henry Clinton to carry on a negotiation with Arnold, the American general. In the performance of this hazardous duty, he entered, in disguise, the enemy's lines, one night, when he was taken, and condemned by a court-martial, to be hanged as a spy; which sentence was carried into execution on the 2nd of October, 1780, in spite of the intercession of Sir Henry Clinton and General Arnold, and of the request of Major Andre to Washington, to be shot instead of hanged. He died with great fortitude, saying, a few moments previously to the Americans, " I consider this hour as the most glorious of my life. Remember, I die as becomes a British officer, while the manner of my death must reflect disgrace on your commander." He was much beloved by the whole army, which went into mourning for him; and a monument, by order of the king, was erected to his memory in Westminster Abbey. Major Andre had written, while in America, a satirical poem, called the Cow Chace, on the defeat of two thousand rebels by a small body of seventy refugees; the last canto of which was printed on the very day that he was taken

prisoner. Washington has been much censured for his treatment of this officer; who, however, only suffered for failing in a plot, which, if successful, would have endangered the infant liberties of the American republic.

DESPARD, (EDWARD MARCUS,) was born in 1751, at Queen's County, in Ireland; and, at the age of fourteen, became an ensign in the fiftieth regiment. He soon after obtained a company in the seventy-ninth, and his conduct gained for him the approbation of his superior officers. At the close of the American war, he served in the West Indies, and during twenty years, was detached from the corps, and engaged on several very important services. In 1779, he acted with great credit as engineer in the expedition to St. Juan; and he was subsequently employed on some public works in Jamaica, where his skill obtained for him the thanks of the governor and council, with the appointment of commanderin-chief of Rattan, with that of field engineer, and the rank of lieutenantcolonel. He afterwards, at the head of the inhabitants of Cape Gracias à Dios, retook the principal Spanish settlements on the Black River; for which service he obtained, a second time, the thanks of the governor and council of Jamaica. He attained the rank of colonel in 1783; and, in the following year, was appointed chief commissioner for receiving and settling the ceded territory, and he was also made superintendent of the coast of Honduras. In these parts he obtained many important concessions from the Spaniards; but his interests were soon found to clash with a party of settlers, who preferred certain charges against him, which he went to meet in England. His conduct was declared to have been highly satisfactory, but he was not reinstated in the office of superintendent, which had been, in the interim, abolished. He sought compensation, and soon began to urge his claims with so much violence, that he was confined by government in Cold Bath Fields Prison; afterwards in the House of Industry, Shrewsbury; and ultimately in Tothill Fields Bridewell. After a long incarceration he was set at liberty, when, in a spirit of revenge,

he connected himself with a band of desperate men, with whom he formed a plot for overthrowing the government. Having, however, been betrayed, Despard and his accomplices were taken, on the 16th of November, 1802, at the Oakley Arms, Lambeth, where they had met to deliberate on the project of assassinating the king as he proceeded, on the next day, to parliament. They were all brought to trial on the 5th of February, 1803; and it was sworn in evidence, by one of his associates, that Colonel Despard, speaking of the proposition for murdering his majesty, sprang up, and said: "If no one else will do it, I will-my heart is callous -I have well weighed the matter." The colonel was found guilty; but the jury recommended him to mercy, on the ground of his former services and character; the former of which were attested by Sir Evan Nepean, Sir Alured Clarke, and Lord Nelson. Lord Nelson said: "We served together, in 1799, on the Spanish main; we were together in the enemy's trenches, and slept in the same tent. Colonel Despard was then a loyal man and a brave officer." He was, however, ordered for execution; and after sentence was passed, several clergymen vainly attempted to obtain an interview; his answer to all applications of the kind being "that his mind was made up on the subject of religion." He refused to attend the prison chapel, or to receive the sacrament. On Monday, the 21st of February, he was brought to the scaffold, with six of his confederates, and the deportment of them all was firm, but not indecorous. colonel made a long address to the spectators, at the end of which, the voice of a female (supposed to be the colonel's wife), having exclaimed "he dies for all of you," a loud cheer was given by the populace. The body of the colonel was buried in St. Paul's Church yard, near the north door of the cathedral. He was always remarkable for his bravery, which did not forsake him in his last moments; but the disaffection with which his mind was tainted, had extinguished the loyalty for which Nelson had given him credit. He might have been regarded as a man really desirous of benefitting his fellow countrymen, though with a mistaken

The

notion of the best means of doing so, had not the conduct which led to his execution resulted immediately from a supposed injustice he had experienced at the hands of the then existing go

vernment.

LINDSAY, (ALEXANDER, Earl of Balcarros,) the eldest son of the fifth Earl of Balcarros, was born in 1752; and in 1767, in which year he succeeded his father in the family honours, became ensign of the fifty-third foot, which regiment he joined at Gibraltar. Having passed two years in travelling on the continent, he obtained a majority in the fifty-third foot; and served three years in Canada and North America, under the late Generals Sir Guy Carleton and Burgoyne. After various services, he was raised to the rank of major-general; and, in 1794, was sent to command the forces in Jamaica, where he was also placed at the head of the civil administration as lieutenantgovernor, and returned to England, where he died in March, 1825. He was a most meritorious officer; and, at the time of his death, was one of the representative peers for Scotland, but took no active part in politics.

BECKWITH, (Sir GEORGE,) the second son of the late Major-general Beckwith, was born in the year 1753; and being bred to the army, became, on the 20th of July, 1771, an ensign of the thirty-seventh foot. On the 7th of July, 1775, he obtained a lieutenancy; and, on the 1st of January, in the following year, he embarked, with the same regiment, under the orders of the Marquess Cornwallis, for America; where, on his arrival, he was nominated adjutant to a battalion of grenadiers, with whom he shortly afterwards served in the unsuccessful operation against Charlestown. He next served with the grenadiers, on the following 27th of September, in the memorable battle of Brooklyn; in the action at the landing upon York Island; at the affair of White Plains; and at the storming of the heights of Fort Kuyphausen: soon after which he embarked for Rhode Island, with the corps detached there, which closed the campaign. He rejoined the body of the army, in the Jerseys, in the month of February, 1777, where he

remained till the opening of the campaign; but, on the 2nd of July, purchasing a captain-lieutenancy, he embarked with the fleet for the Pensylvanian campaign, and served at the battles of Brandywine and Gormanstown, remaining under canvass till January, 1778, when the army retired into winter quarters, in Philadelphia. In the May following, he succeeded to an effective company; and, about the same time, became aide-de-camp to the commander of the Hessian troops, General Kuyphausen, and served, as such, at the battle of Monmouth, in Jersey. In 1781, he was ordered, by Sir Henry Clinton, to accompany the notorious Brigadier-general Arnold, in an attack upon New London, in which service he assisted at the carrying, by assault, of Fort Griswold, a strong field-work, having twenty-six pieces of heavy cannon; the loss of the British being ten officers and two hundred men killed and wounded. On the 30th of the following November, he obtained the brevet rank of major; and General Kuyphausen having resigned the command of the Hessians in 1782, he continued for a few weeks with his successor, General Losberg; but in the June of the same year, he was appointed aide-de camp to the late Lord Dorchester, by whom he was employed in negotiating the arrangements that took place with General Washington, for the withdrawal of the British from America, in 1783. In 1786, he went to Canada, in the capacity of aide-de-camp to Lord Dorchester, by whom he was employed, not only in a military capacity, but also in political matters, in the United States; and, on the 18th of November, 1790, his zeal and ability were rewarded with the brevet rank of lieutenant-colonel. In 1793, he was appointed adjutantgeneral to the British forces in North America; on the 25th of August, 1795, he received the brevet rank of colonel. In April, 1797, he was nominated colonel upon the staff in Bermuda; to the civil government of which he succeeded in the spring of the following year, and continued there until 1803, when he returned to England, having, in the mean time, been raised to the rank of major-general. In 1804, he was removed to the staff in the Leeward and Windward Islands, and appointed

governor of St. Vincent's, whither he proceeded. On the death of the cominander-in-chief, Sir William Myers, at Barbadoes, he returned to that island, and held the same office until March, 1806, when he was raised to the local rank of general. About the same time, he was superseded by Lieutenantgeneral Bowyer; but was immediately placed on the staff as second in command, having, on the 30th of August, 1805, been raised to the rank of lieutenant-general; and, in April, 1806, he repaired to his former station at St. Vincent's. In the November of the same year, having held the rank of captain of the thirty-seventh twentynine years, he was appointed colonel of the sixth garrison battalion. In June, 1808, General Bowyer retiring from his post, the chief command at Barbadoes a second time devolved upon him; and, in the following month of October, he was nominated to the command of the forces in the Leeward and Windward Islands. In January, 1809, at the head of ten thousand men, he conducted the operations against Martinique, and obliged that valuable island to surrender in twenty-four days; and, in the summer of the same year, he captured some small islands, called the Saintes; for which services he was rewarded with the military order of the Bath and the colonelcy of the second West India regiment. In January, 1810, he attacked and captured, in eight days, the island of Guadaloupe; immediately after, took St. Martin and St. Eustatius; and, in twenty-one days from the time of his taking the field, he deprived the enemy of all his West India possessions. On the 4th of June, 1814, he was rewarded with the rank of general; and, about the same time, returned to England, for the restoration of his health. In October, 1816, however, he was appointed to the command of the troops in Ireland, which he held during the succeeding four years; having, on the death of the Earl of Lindsey, on the 21st of September, 1818, been removed from the colonelcy of the second West India, to the eighty-ninth regiment. In March, 1820, he returned to England, when the baneful effects of his long residence and arduous services in the West Indies becaine visible on his health, and at length deprived him of

life, on the 20th of March, 1823. High encomiums have justly been passed upon him for his humanity, his talents, and bravery. He never forgot his duty as a governor, but always adopted such measures as would best ensure the safety, happiness, and welfare of the inhabitants intrusted to his charge. The merchants of the West Indies, it is said, consider the period of his administration of the laws as the brightest of their history; and he was so beloved at Barbadoes, that, on his resolving to return to Europe for the restoration of his health, the legislature voted him a service of plate, of the value of £2500.

DON, (Sir GEORGE,) was born about 1754, and commenced his military career as ensign of the fifty-first foot, and after a series of various services abroad, obtained the colonelcy of the ninetysixth regiment. He was aide-de-camp to General Murray, at Minorca, and was placed on the staff of that island during the siege of the castle of St. Philipp, and commanded the fifty-ninth regiment at Gibraltar. He also served under various distinguished commanders in Flanders, Germany, and Holland; and during the winter campaign of 1794, in the last-mentioned country, acted as adjutant general to the British army. In the same year he was appointed aide-de-camp to George the Third, and, on his promotion to the rank of major-general, shortly afterwards, he was appointed to the command of the Isle of Wight. In 1795, being employed in the expedition to the Helder, he was detained a prisoner until 1800; about six years after which he was appointed governor of Jersey. This post he retained until 1814, in which year he was made a full general and lieutenant-governor of Gibraltar, a situation he still continues to hold. He is one of the oldest officers living in the service; and in addition to his other honours, has been presented with the military orders of a G. C. B. and a G.C.H.

TARLETON, (BARRASTRE,) was born in Liverpool, on the 21st of August, 1754, and at first commenced studying the law, but, on the breaking out of the war in America, he entered the army, and having arrived in that coun