Charles, Earl of Liverpool.

BORN A. D. 1729.-died A. D. 1808.

THIS respectable statesman was descended from the Jenkinsons of Wolcot in Oxfordshire, a very ancient family. His grandfather, Sir Robert Jenkinson, married a wealthy heiress at Bromley, in Kent; his father was a colonel in the army. Charles Jenkinson was born in 1727, and received the first rudiments of his education at the grammarschool of Burford. He was afterwards placed on the foundation in the charter-house, from which seminary he was removed to Oxford, and was entered a member of university college. He took the degrees of B. A. and A. M., and seems to have made himself first known to the public by some verses on the death of the prince of Wales.

In 1753 he removed from Oxford, and possessing but a small patrimonial fortune, he commenced his career as a man of letters, and is said to have occasionally supplied materials for the Monthly Review.' He next commenced political writer; and, in 1756, published A Dissertation on the Establishment of a National and Constitutional Force in England, independent of a standing Army.' This tract abounds with many manly and patriotic sentiments, and has been quoted against himself in the house of peers, on which occasion his lordship did not deny that he was the author, but contented himself with apologising for his errors, on account of his extreme youth. Soon after this he wrote A Discourse on the Conduct of the Government of Great Britain, with respect to neutral Nations, during the present War.' "To this production his rise in life has been falsely attributed; it was indeed allowed by every one to be an able performance; but, like many others of the same kind, it might have lain in the warehouse of his bookseller, and he himself remained for ever in obscurity, had it not been for the intervention of a gentleman of the same county, with whom he luckily became acquainted. Sir Edward Turner of Ambroseden in Oxfordshire, being of an ancient family, and possessing a large fortune, was desirous to represent his native county in parliament. Having attained considerable influence by means of a large estate, and a hospitable and noble mansion, he stood candidate as knight of the shire. He was, however, strenuously but unsuccessfully opposed; for in addition to his own, he possessed the court-interest. The struggle, nevertheless, was long and violent, and it still forms a memorable epoch in the history of contested elections; but for nothing is it more remark able, than by being the fortunate occurrence in Mr Jenkinson's life which produced all his subsequent greatness. The contending parties having, as usual, called in the aid of ballads, lampoons, verses, and satires, this gentleman distinguished himself by a song in favour of Sir Edward and his friends, which so captivated either the taste or the gratitude of the baronet, that he introduced him to the earl of Bute, then flourishing in all the plenitude of power. It is known but to few, perhaps, that his lordship-who placed Mr Jenkinson at first in an inferior office-was not at all captivated with him; for it was entirely owing to the repeated solicitations of the member for Oxfordshire that

he extended his further protection. After a longer trial, however, he became the premier's private secretary, and in some respect a member of his family, participating in his friendship and favour, and living with him in an unrestrained and confidential intercourse.

"Such a connection as this could not fail to prove advantageous; and, accordingly, in March, 1761, we find him appointed one of the under-secretaries of state, a station which presupposes an intimate acquaintance with the situation of foreign affairs, and a pretty accurate knowledge in respect to the arcana imperii in general. He now became a declared adherent of what was then called the Leicester-house party,' by whose influence he was returned to parliament at the general election, in 1761, for the borough of Cockermouth, on the recommendation of the earl of Lonsdale, his patron's son-in-law. He, however, did not remain long in this station; for he soon received the lucrative appointment of treasurer of the ordnance. This he relinquished in 1763, for the more confidential office of joint-secretary of the treasury, a situation for which he was admirably qualified, by his knowledge of the state of parties, and the management of a house of commons, of which he himself had been some time a member. To the Rockingham administration, which succeeded in 1765, he was both personally and politically odious, and he accordingly lost all his appointments; but in the course of the same year, he had one conferred on him by the king's mother, the princess-dowager of Wales, which no minister could bereave him of,-the auditorship of her royal highness's accounts. This circumstance, added to his close intimacy with the discarded minister, awakened the jealously of the patriots; and if we are to credit their suspicions, he became, in the technical language of that day, 'the go-between' to the favourite, the princess-mother, and the throne."

In 1766, by the influence of the earl of Chatham, then lord-president of the council, Mr Jenkinson was appointed one of the lords of the admiralty. Soon after this, the marquess of Townshend, on his being appointed viceroy of Ireland, wished to avail himself of the talents of Mr Jenkinson in the capacity of his private secretary, but he declined this arrangement, and was immediately appointed a lord of the treasury, in which office he continued during the Grenville and Grafton administrations. During this period of his life, he greatly distinguished himself as a financier, and had a large share in the proceedings which led to that important object, the reform of the gold coin ultimately produced by the statute 13° Geo. III. c. 71. On all subjects of finance, fiscal-operation, and political economy, he was in parliament listened to with attention; and the measures he proposed were in many instances advantageously adopted. We also find him taking the lead as chairman of a committee of the house of commons appointed to examine into the affairs of the East India company; which were then in so embarrassed a state that they found it necessary to reduce their dividend from twelve and a half to six per cent. per annum; and on the 30th March, 1772, to apply for a bill to regulate their servants, and to prohibit the governor and council from having any concern in trade. This subject could not, in its multifarious objects of detail, have fallen

Monthly Magazine' for February, 1808.

into abler hands than those of Mr Jenkinson. His reports upon this occasion, particularly in what related to the financial parts of the disquisition, have been considered as models of statistical writing. In 1773 he was appointed, with Lord-viscount Clare and Wellbore Ellis, Esq., joint vice-treasurer of Ireland, and honoured with the rank of privy-councillor ; and when Charles James Fox sold to government the office which he held for life of clerk of the pells in Ireland, Mr Jenkinson was offered this situation in exchange for that of vice-treasurer, an offer which he accepted.

In 1778 he was appointed secretary-at-war. From this post he was of course driven by the same overpowering weight of public feeling united to a most powerful opposition in the house of commons, which finally crushed Lord North's administration. During this season of leisure, Mr Jenkinson took a journey to the continent. In this excursion France was the first object of his attention; there he visited many of the principal people, and became particularly connected with the Duc de Choiseul, then the Gallic prime minister. How long he remained at Paris does not appear; but we learn that in the course of his travels he passed a whole summer in Holland, and another in Ireland. Some part of his leisure is also said to have been devoted to literary avocations; but from these he was, in consequence of the accession of Mr Pitt to the premiership, called again into active life. By this minister he was placed at the head of the committee of privy-council for the management of the affairs of trade and plantations; in a place for which his regular and progressive rise through various other offices most admirably qualified him, he exerted himself for two years without deriving any emolument from his situation.

In 1786 Mr Jenkinson was appointed chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, and soon after created Baron Hawkesbury. During this period also he succeeded to the hereditary title of his family, that of baronet, and to the appendant estates.

In the year 1796, being still president of the committee of trade and plantations, his lordship was offered the rank of earl, a dignity which, after some consideration, he thought it right to accept. To the title of earl of Liverpool was annexed, in consequence of a resolution of the mayor and corporation of Liverpool, the additional honour of being authorized by his majesty to quarter the arms of that town with his own.

After continuing in the high official situation of president of the committee of privy-council for the affairs of trade and plantations until the year 1801, his lordship was seized with a rheumatic disorder, which unfortunately deprived him of the use of his limbs; and finding that he could no longer discharge the various duties attached to his important station, he resigned it. At the time of his decease, which took place on the 17th of December, 1808, he was still clerk of the pells, and also collector of the customs inward for the port of London. His death is said to have been greatly accelerated by an accident which befell his wife, who, about a week before his dissolution took place, was dreadfully burnt, some part of her dress having unfortunately caught fire. He was twice married:-first in 1765, to Amelia, daughter of Mr Watts, governor of Bengal, by whom he had one son, his successor; and on the 22d of June, 1782, to Catherine, daughter of Sir Cecil

Bishopp, Bart., widow of his first cousin, Sir Charles Cope, by whom he had a son and daughter. He is described as having been exceedingly amiable in the relations of private life.

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As an orator, his lordship spoke but seldom, either in the house of commons or peers, and latterly attended but little to public business in consequence of his advanced age and infirmities. Besides the works which have already been mentioned, his lordship was the author of the following: A Collection of all Treaties of Peace, Alliance, and Commerce between Great Britain and other Powers, from the Treaty of Munster in 1648, to the Treaties signed at Paris in 1783,' 3 vols. 8vo. (1785): and A Treatise on the Coins of England, in a Letter to the King, 4to. (1805.) Of his last production, the Edinburgh reviewers spoke in the following terms: "It is pleasing to find one, who must necessarily have been bred among the exploded doctrines of the elder economists, shaking himself almost quite loose from their influence, at an advanced period of life; and betraying, while he resumes the favourite speculations of his early years, so little bias towards errors which he must once have imbibed. It is no less gratifying to observe one who has been educated in the walks of practical policy, and grown old amid the bustle of public employments, embellishing the decline of life by pursuits which unite the dignity of science with the usefulness of active exertion."

Admiral, Lord Cardiner.

BORN A. D. 1742.-DIED A. D. 1808.

THIS nobleman was in a great measure the architect of his own fortune. His father was lieutenant-colonel of the 11th dragoons, and Alan, the subject of this notice, was the eighth of twelve children. He entered the navy at the age of thirteen, and first served as a midshipman in the Medway frigate of sixty guns. From the Medway he passed to the Namur, in which he was present in the Rochfort expedition; and from the latter vessel, to the Dorsetshire, in which vessel he witnessed the engagement with Marshal de Conflans off Belleisle.

In 1766 he received the appointment of post-captain, and took command of the Preston of fifty guns, the flag-ship of Rear-admiral Parry, whom he accompanied to the Jamaica station. He afterwards obtained the command of the Sultan, a seventy-four, in which he took a leading part in the engagement off Grenada with D'Estaing. In 1781 he was appointed to the Duke, a second rate of 98 guns, one of the ships sent to reinforce the fleet of Sir George Rodney, who had meanwhile succeeded to the chief command in the West Indies. Captain Gardiner had the good fortune to join the admiral previous to the memorable 12th of April, 1782. On that glorious day the Duke was second to the Formidable, the flag-ship of Sir George Rodney, and Captain Gardiner was the first to break through the enemy's line of battle, according to the new plan of attack adopted by the British admiral on that occasion. During one period of the action, the Duke, in conjunction with the Formidable and Namur, had to sustain the fire of eleven of the enemy's ships, and their loss was proportionably great.

On board the Duke thirteen men were killed, and fifty-seven wounded Such spirited conduct entitled Captain Gardiner to the particular notice of the commander-in-chief, who was so well-pleased with the exertions of all under him, as to remark, in an emphatical manner, "that he wanted words to express how sensible he was of the meritorious conduct of all the captains, officers, and men, who had a share in this glorious victory obtained by their gallant exertions."

Soon after this a long peace ensued, during which the subject of this memoir appeared sometimes in a civil and sometimes in a naval capacity; having acted as commodore on the Jamaica station, on board the Europe of fifty guns, in the years 1785-6-7-8 and 9, and in 1790 as a lord of the admiralty; he also obtained a seat in parliament. Having been at length raised to the rank of rear-admiral of the Blue, February 1st, 1793, he soon after hoisted his flag on board the Queen of ninety-eight guns, and on the 24th of March he sailed in the capacity of commander-in-chief to the Leeward Islands. Upon the arrival of Admiral Gardiner on this station, Sir John Laforey resigned the command, and returned to England. Soon after this, being encouraged by the disputes between the republicans and royalists in the adjacent colony of Martinico, and earnestly pressed by the latter to make a descent on that island, he determined to give them every assistance in his power. Accordingly, on the 16th of June, after a previous consultation with major-general Bruce, that officer effected a descent with about 3000 British troops, under cover of the ships of war; but finding the democratical party too strong, they were reimbarked on the 21st with considerable loss. After despatching the Hannibal and Hector, of seventy-four guns each, to reinforce the squadron on the Jamaica station, Admiral Gardiner returned home, and arrived at Spithead, October 1st, 1793.

In 1794 we find him as rear-admiral of the White, serving in the channel fleet under Earl Howe, and contributing with his usual intrepidity to the success of the memorable 1st of June. On the morning of that day the English and French fleets being in order of battle, when the British admiral threw out the signal to bear up, and for each ship to engage her opponent, Rear-admiral Gardiner desired his crew "not to fire until they should be near enough to scorch the Frenchmen's beards." The Queen bore a conspicuous part in this action; and Earl Howe in his public despatches made particular mention of Rear-admiral Gardiner. When his majesty afterwards gave orders for a gold medal emblematical of the victory to be presented to certain distinguished officers, he was not only included in the number, but also appointed major-general of marines, and created a baronet of Great Britain.

Sir Alan continued to serve under Earl Howe while that nobleman went to sea; and when Lord Bridport succeeded to the command, his services were considered so indispensable in the channel, that he was uniformly employed on that station for a series of years. He was present, in particular, at the action off Port l'Orient, June 22d, 1795, when the French fleet saved itself from inevitable destruction by a precipitate flight. At the beginning of 1797, when the mutiny took place at Portsmouth, and it was deemed necessary for some persons of authority in the fleet to confer with the delegates, Admirals Gardiner, Colpoys, and Pole, repaired on board the Queen Charlotte, then in the possession of the mutineers. The latter, however, would not enter into any negotia