and aspiring turn of mind, he had served on several foreign expeditions, without disparagement, at least, if not with distinction; he had been Secretary for Ireland during his father's Vice-Royalty; he had taken on many occasions a forward and able part in debate. "Lord "George's fall is prodigious," says a contemporary, writing after the day of Minden. "Nobody stood higher; "nobody has more ambition or more sense.' On the evening of that day so fatal to his reputation Lord George did not scruple to mix with the General Officers at Prince Ferdinand's table; an appearance which, some may think, required full as much intrepidity as to have led his cavalry to the charge. The Prince expressed his surprise to the officers nearest him, but made no public observation at that time. Next day, however, came forth General Orders from His Highness, thanking the troops, and many officers by name, for their conduct in the battle. Lord George's name was not mentioned; an omission in itself sufficiently significant, but he was moreover glanced at in two passages, and in a manner not to be misunderstood. "His Serene Highness orders "it to be declared to Lieutenant General the Marquis of Granby that he is persuaded that if he had had the good fortune to have had him at the head of the cavalry " of the right wing his presence would have greatly con"tributed to make the decision of that day more complete and more brilliant." "And His Serene

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Highness desires and orders the Generals of the army "that upon all occasions when orders are brought to "them by his aides-de-camp they be obeyed punctually, "and without delay."† I am bound in fairness to add that the Prince had been previously offended with Lord George, for his froward and repining temper, and was therefore by no means inclined to soften any charge that might be justly urged against him.‡

Lord George, stung to the quick by this public rebuke,

* H. Walpole to Sir H. Mann, August 29. 1759.

+ See these General Orders at length in the Annual Register, 1759, p. 233.

"Lord George never had the art of conciliating affection. He "had thwarted Prince Ferdinand and disgusted him in the previous campaign." (Lord Orford's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 362.)

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and still more, perhaps, by the general feeling in the army to his disfavour, wrote home for leave to resign his command, and to return. Both these requests were most readily granted. On arriving in England early in September he found himself received by the nation with scarcely less abhorrence or less clamour than Byng. The favour of Lord Bute, and through Lord Bute of the Heir Apparent, were of little avail. He wrote again to the Secretary of State, soliciting a Court Martial. This was promised him, but, on account of the absence of the officers required as witnesses, was postponed until after the close of the campaign. Meanwhile, Pitt declared that he was not satisfied with Lord George's explanations or those of his aide-de-camp*, and Lord George was at once dismissed from all his employments, the command of a regiment, a post in the Ordnance, and the rank of General.

When, in the February ensuing, the promised Court Martial met, a doubt was started (not on Lord George's side), and was referred to the Judges, whether a man no longer in the army could be subject to Military Law. The Judges gave their opinions that, so far as they could then see, the trial might proceed, but they reserved to themselves a further consideration, if any appeal should be made from the sentence. The witnesses were then examined, especially Colonel Fitzroy, Captain Ligonier, and Captain Wintzingerode, the three aides-de-camp of Prince Ferdinand, who established in the clearest manner the charge of orders brought and not obeyed. Lord George's defence turned mainly on a seeming contradiction. between these orders. Captain Ligonier had bid him advance with the whole cavalry, and Colonel Fitzroy with the British cavalry only. At the time Lord George had observed, "Captain Ligonier, your orders are contradic"tory." But then Ligonier had replied, "In numbers only, my Lord; their destination is the same." In like manner Lord George had desired Fitzroy not to be in a

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* Mr. Pitt to Lord G. Sackville, Sept. 9. 1759. Chatham Correspondence. He promised, however, to Lord Bute. "all the offices of humanity, as a most unhappy man." (Aug. 15. 1759) and consented that Lord George should return from Germany by permission, instead of by order.

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hurry. "I am out of breath with galloping," said Fitzroy, "which makes me speak quick, but my orders are positive. The French are in disorder. Here is a glorious opportunity for the English to distinguish "themselves.' Surely, under such circumstances, no General of spirit would have wasted time by asking to consult Prince Ferdinand; no other word than "Charge!" would have burst from his lips.

Lord Granby had been summoned as a witness for the prosecution, but his testimony was marked by compassionate tenderness, softening, or suppressing, so far as truth allowed, whatever could load the prisoner. This tenderness was the more admired since at the army Granby and Sackville had been very far from friends. The evidence of another officer, Colonel Sloper, bore hard upon Lord George. He declared that he had remarked Lord George's confusion at the time, and had said to Ligonier,—and Ligonier deposed to having heard the words,- "For God's sake repeat your orders to that man, that he may not pretend not to understand them, for it is near half an hour ago that he has received "orders to advance, and yet we are still here; but you 66 see the condition he is in!"*

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The defence of Lord George before his judges was skilful and able; his demeanour haughty and undaunted. According to Horace Walpole's narrative," he treated "the inferiority of their capacities as he would have "done if sitting amongst them. He browbeat the witnesses, gave the lie to Sloper, and used the Judge Advocate, though a very clever man, with contempt." † The officers of the Court Martial, however, appear to have fulfilled their duty with equable firmness, — neither softened by his eloquence, nor yet irritated by his pride. Their final decision was, that Lord George had been guilty of disobeying Prince Ferdinand's orders, and that he was unfit to serve His Majesty in any military capacity whatever. Yet, notwithstanding this judicial sentence, notwithstanding the public opinion in support

* Proceedings of the Court Martial, published by authority, 1760, pp. 32. and 171.

† Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 430.

1759.

DEATH OF THE KING OF SPAIN.

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of it, so ambitious a spirit was not easily quelled, and he rose in the ensuing reign to the highest employments in civil affairs.

On impartially reviewing the whole case, and judging (for such is the right of History) the judges, we shall, I think, acknowledge that their decision was equitably founded. The only doubt that arises is, whether Sackville was swayed by one of those panics to which men of quick genius are sometimes prone, or by an envy of Prince Ferdinand's greatness, and a desire to leave the victory of his rival incomplete. The latter motive is alleged by several writers.* My own opinion, I confess, inclines to the former.

The papers of Mareschal de Contades, which had been taken by the victors of Minden, were a few weeks afterwards sent to the press in England. It then appeared that the instructions under which he had acted from Mareschal de Belleisle, as Minister of War, were such as to reflect great discredit on his government; they prescribed in several passages the laying waste of fertile districts and the plunder of peaceable inhabitants.-Lord Chesterfield, amidst his retirement, snatched, it is said, a short interval from illness † to write and publish a letter setting this unwarrantable policy in the strongest light.

To the foreign transactions of this year I must add the decease of the King of Spain, Ferdinand the Sixth, a Prince of excellent intentions, but desponding temper and slender capacity. He was conscious of his own defects, and on one occasion, when a courtier had paid him a compliment on his skill in shooting, he replied: "It "would be extraordinary if I could not do one thing "well!" On coming to the throne in 1746 he had continued his confidence to his father's favourite Minister, Don Zeno Somo de Villa, Marquis de Ensenada, who had

* Archenholtz, vol. ii. p. 22.—Sismondi, vol. xxix. p. 198. &c. † At this time he says to the Bishop of Waterford: "I have been "often within these three months not only too ill to write, but too ill "to speak, think, or move. Now I have a favourable moment of negative health." (Letter, Dec. 9. 1759.) In another letter he writes: "I can only vegetate with the vegetables and crawl with the reptiles "of my garden." On the whole I have great doubts as to the authorship of the tract which is here ascribed to him. (1853.) Coxe, Bourbon Kings of Spain, vol. iv. p. 18. oct. ed.

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-a clerk in a bank

raised himself from an humble rank, ing house in Cadiz, -and who felt a just pride at his rapid and unassisted elevation. Thus, when he received the rank of Marquis, he had chosen for his title the words EN SE NADA, "Nothing of itself." His principal colleague, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, was Don Joseph de Carvajal. The pride of this statesman seemed to lie in the opposite direction; he alleged a princely descent from the Blood Royal of England, and assumed the name of Lancaster in addition to his own. During the few hours that Prince Charles Stuart was allowed to pass at Madrid in 1747 he had skilfully endeavoured to work upon this weakness: "I spoke then, so that Carvajal might hear,- that "there was nobody could be more acceptable to me than "him; says I, in laughing, he is half an Englishman, ""* being called Lancaster! In 1754, the death of Carvajal, and a Court cabal founded upon it, led to the fall of Ensenada; he was exiled to Granada, and his successor was General Richard Wall, a native of Ireland, and lately the Spanish Ambassador in London. On the whole, under these various Ministers, a tone of moderation and impartiality was preserved to foreign powers; the offers of Gibraltar from England, and of Minorca from France, as the price of war, were equally declined; and neither English nor French could obtain any decided or lasting preponderance at the Court of Madrid. Ministers of Ferdinand, however, were not the persons who had most weight with him; still higher in his favour stood the Italian singer and SOPRANO Farinelli. Highest of all was his Queen, Barbara of Portugal. This princess was older than her husband, and far from beautiful; according to the French Ambassador, "her face is such "that she cannot be looked upon without pain."† But so great were, no doubt, her mental charms, that the King ever continued most passionately attached to her. At

The

* Letter to his father, March 12. 1747. Appendix, vol. iii. t "Son visage est tel qu'on ne peut la regarder sans peine. (Lettre du Duc de Noailles à Louis XV., le 30 Avril 1746. Mémoires de Noailles, vol. vi. p. 365.) Of her figure, Sir Benjamin Keene says, "it has a great deal more than embonpoint." Nevertheless, 66 one of Her Majesty's favourite diversions is dancing!" (Bedford Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 6.)