was appointed commander of the forces in the West Indies, and Captain-General of the Leeward Islands.

Such was his gallant behaviour, and so amiable his manners, after his arrival in the colonies, that the privy-council of Guadaloupe, voted him 2000l. for the purchase of a sword; while the King of France transmitted the Grand Cordon of the Order of Military Merit, as a testimony of that distinguished conduct which had secured Martinique from revolt, and retained Guadaloupe in fidelity to the mother country. But the Lieutenant-General was not long destined to display his talents and abilities, for on the 10th of October, 1816, he was attacked by a malignant fever, which carried him off on the 16th, to the regret of the whole army.

No. VI.

MEMOIRS OF THE LATE MRS. ELIZABETH HAMILTON; WITH A SELECTION FROM HER CORRESPONDENCE, AND OTHER UNPUBLISHED WRITINGS. By MISS BENGER.

2 Vols. 8vo. with an engraved Portrait. 1818.

AFTER some sensible prefatory remarks, tending to prove that biography is calculated for far higher objects, than "to collate facts and dates, and chronicle events," we are told, that "it ought to trace the progress of character," and that "the history of the individual, to be complete, must include the history of his mind, and exhibit all its passions, its prejudices, its affections; whatever belongs to its moral system."

Mrs. Hamilton, while affecting to undervalue birth, yet was not insensible that she was of the family of the Hamiltons of

Woodhall, who “not only boast of being one of the first of the Saxon family settled in Scotland, but of being the stock whence all the branches that have been ennobled in these kingdoms, in France, and in Germany, have sprung."

Her great-grandfather, who was a younger son, from his detestation of the many religious restraints imposed on the Covenanters in Scotland, during the reign of Charles II., settled in a remote part of the province of Ulster, and purchased an estate in the county of Monaghan. Her grandfather after being sometime an officer of cavalry, obtained a civil appointment, and was ruined by the extravagance of a wife, who brought him, what was then deemed, a considerable fortune.

Mr. Hamilton, his son, married an accomplished Irish lady, of the name of Mackay, and the subject of this memoir, together with a son and another daughter, were the produce of a short, but happy union.

Mrs. Hamilton, of whom we now treat, soon after the death of her father, went to reside with her aunt, who had made what in Scotland is termed a low match ; but the pride of ancestry did not render her entirely blind to the virtues of her husband Mr. Marshall, “ to whom might well be applied what the poet Burns has said of an Ayrshire friend; that he held his patent of nobility directly from God Almighty.' “ But though the son of a peasant, he had received the advantages of an education superior to his birth; and as the seed that was thus sown fell into a grateful soil, the sentiments that it inspired would have done honour to the most exalted station.”

Along with this gentleman and his wife, she resided in a solitary mansion near Stirling. While here, her first two years, it seeins, were employed, not in learning tasks, but in receiving more instructive lessons from nature; “ fortunately he had a playmate of the other sex, by whose example she as stimulated to feats of hardihood and enterprise, and, happy > cscape restraint, she readily joined her companion in fordg g the burns in summer, or sliding over their frozen surfaces n winter.”

At length this young lady betook herself to study; her first hero was Wallace; but after she had read Ogilvie's translation of the Iliad, "she idolized Achilles, and almost dreamed of Hector." At length our fair heroine applied herself to poetry; and she received no small degree of instruction and edification from the lectures of Dr. Moyse on experimental philosophy. The first production of Elizabeth Hamilton was the account of a 66 Highland Tour;" her next was the ro

mance of "Lady Arabella Stuart."

Meanwhile her brother Charles had gone to India, in a military capacity. After residing some years there, he returned to England, and died at Hampstead in 1792, at the age of thirty-nine. This loss plunged the surviving sister into grief; but on recovering a little from her sorrows, she determined to follow his advice, and convert her talents to some literary pursuit. This gave rise to the "Hindoo Rajah," which, however, did not appear until 1796; her next production was entitled the "Modern Philosophers," which she finished at Bath, whither she had retired in consequence of a fit of the gout; her third," "Letters on Education," one volume of which appeared in 1801. In the "Memoirs of Agrippina," our author endeavoured to illustrate, by biographical examples, the speculative principles laid down in one of her former works. She now obtained a crowd of friends, some respectable for talents, others for their influence and connections, and to one of them she was indebted for a pension bestowed on her by His Majesty. Her "Letters to the Daughters of a Nobleman," were soon followed by "The Cottagers of Glenburnie."

At length, however, she was attacked with a mortal disease, preceded by an inflammation in her eyes, and after a short illness, breathed her last at Harrowgate, July 23d, 1816, in the 68th year of her age.

This lady has left behind her an excellent character; and it is not a little creditable to her memory, that all her writings were devoted to the promotion of morals and virtue.

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No. VII.

MEMOIRS OF EMANUEL AUGUSTUS DIEU DONNE, COUNT DE LAS

Casas, COMMUNICATED BY HIMSELF; COMPRISING A LETTER FROM COUNT DE LAS CASAS AT ST. HELENA, to LUCIEN BONAPARTE, GIVING A FAITHFUL ACCOUNT OF THE VOYAGE of NAPOLEON TO ST. HELENA, HIS RESIDENCE, MANNER OF LIVING, AND TREATMENT IN THAT ISLAND. ALSO A LETTER ADDRESSED BY COUNT DE LAS Casas To LORD BATHURST. 8vo. 1818.

Among several French princes, who about the close of the eleventh century, crossed the Pyrenees, and animated partly by religion, and partly by a spirit of chivalry, eagerly sought. for, and combated the Moors, we find the name of Count Henry of Burgundy, who founded the kingdom of Portugal. To this gallant chief, one of the ancestors of Las Casas was standard-bearer; and in the most desperate of the seventeen battles in which the Christian Prince proved uniformly victorious, he was indebted for the conquest of that day, to the brave knight who carried his banner, of which a single stripe of silk was all that remained after the action. Henry immediately decreed, that this precious remnant should ever after constitute the colours in the armorial bearing of the hero, to whom he at the same time granted as his share of booty, todas las Casas; or in other words, all the Moorish habitations within sight of the field of battle. Hence the arms, the motto, and even the name of this family.

His descendants having settled in the vicinity of Seville, in the year 1200, Charles de las Casas, was one of the Spanish grandees who accompanied Bianca of Castile in her journey to France, to espouse Louis VIII. the father of St. Louis. Bartholomy de las Casas the courageous defender of the Indians, and a bishop who reflected honour not only on his own order but even on Christianity, was also of this race.

Emanuel Augustus Dieudonné Count de las Casas, “ forms the seventeenth military generation of this family. He was born in the castle of Las Casas, in the province of Languedoc, and after receiving the rudiments of his education from the priests of the Oratory at Vendôme, was transmitted to the military school at Paris. This celebrated seminary has produced many of the chief men who flourished during the late Revolution, such as General Desaix, Philippeaux, Clarke Duke of Feltre, the Hedouvilles, Marshal Davoust, and finally Napoleon.

The Count was originally destined for the cavalry, but his diminutive stature, added to the feebleness of his body, induced him to prefer the sea service. His first cruize was in the grand fleet under Don Louis de Cordova; his first engagement was at the siege of Gibraltar. During the peace, Las Casas endeavoured to improve himself in nautical knowledge by visiting America and the French colonies; and on presenting himself for trial to the celebrated Professor Monge, he exhibited such a variety of mathematical learning, as to be promoted to the rank of lieutenant de vaisseau, in consequence of which advancement, he was placed on an equality with a major in the army. He was now presented at Court, admitted to the honour of riding in the royal carriages at Versailles, &c.

Meanwhile, the Revolution took place, and the Count having emigrated, immediately arranged himself under the banner of the late Prince de Condé. While at Coblentz he was well received in the circles of the Countesses Balby and Palastron, by whom the two French princes “ were then held in subjection."

After the unsuccessful invasion of the late Duke of Brunswick, Las Casas became a wanderer, and among other places visited England, where he taught the French language for the express purpose of obtaining a subsistence. He soon aftor