he was blackballed unanimously; but now came the dilemma!-who was to communicate this fact to Fitzgerald? it was certain death to the person who did so. Admiral Stewart was deemed by the club the most proper person to make the announcement, but declined; but at last a waiter was requested to "beard this lion in his den," and made known to him the fact, that as there happened to be one black ball, his name would have to be put up again. The story is a long one, and to go through with it, would occupy too much space-sufficient to say, that Fitzgerald forced his way with imprecations into the club-room, and with insulting menace inquired of each individual member, if he had been the one who had "dropped a black ball into the urn by mistake?" No one confessing to the impeachment, there sat the bully, calling for drink, giving toasts, maintaining his seat in the room the entire evening-such was the terror his name and character inspired. He made no second effort to intrude, the police having had instructions to attend, in case of a repetition of the outrage.

Fitzgerald, upon visiting Paris, was presented (with shame be it said) to the French king, Louis XVI., by a BRITISH Ambassador, and with the announcement, that the "Gentleman "(?) presented, had "fought eighteen duels, and always killed his

men." Louis turned with disgust from the wretch, and indignantly expelled him the presence, with an intimation that if he got into a quarrel in France, he would be turned out of the country in twenty-four hours.

After the discovery of the steel cuirass upon his person, in his duel with Major Cunningham, and loathed and pointed at as a diabolical miscreant, he seems to have retired to his Irish property, and there leagued with a gang of blacklegs and disgraced men, to have lived a life of violence and outrage; and spurned with contempt from every honest man's door, he was at last, for a closing crime, the monstrous murder of two neighbouring gentlemen-a Mr. Macdonell and a Mr. Hypson -apprehended, tried, convicted, and executed! Twice the rope broke in the attempt to hang him -twice he fell to the ground, supplicating with despicable meanness for even a "five minutes" longer of life, he lived a murderer, and died a coward. Such was the end of Fighting Fitzgerald, a man who in himself exemplified the axiom, that there is no rule without an exception. Moralists tell us, that no human being but has in some far away remote recess of the heart, a something of redeeming quality-George Robert Fitzgerald had not one.

LORD LYNEDOCH.

It is a common belief that a military education is absolutely requisite to make a great commander; yet Cromwell, who was one of the most successful generals which this or any other country has produced, not only "never set a squadron in the field" till he was past the age of forty; but as he led the life of a country gentleman, with the slight divertisement of brewing for the public benefit, it is not likely he could have been otherwise than totally ignorant of all that belongs to military science. In Lord Lynedoch we have another axample that genius is alone sufficient to make a great leader without any previous schooling in the technicalities of the profession, provided always that this high qualification is accompanied by the felicitas, or good fortune, which Cicero urged as one of the points that should recommend Pompey to the Romans for the command of their armies against King Mithridates. We would even say, that the orator did not go far enough when he

set down fortune as the fourth only of the qualities requisite to a great general; for of what avail are skill, valour, or authority, unless the soldier have good fortune to bear him out in his undertakings?

-an accident may at any time defeat the best efforts of his three first essentials. But in making these remarks we are anticipating matters, and remarking upon what the gallant soldier finally was, before we have shewn how he became so, or according to the homely but significant illustration, putting the cart before the horse.

Lord Lynedoch was the third son of Thomas Graham Esq., of Balgowan, co. Perth, by Lady Christian Hope, the sixth daughter of Charles first Earl of Hopetoun. His birth took place at the family seat in 1750. Tracing his genealogy to a yet higher source, we shall find that he could boast of as martial a descent as the most illustrious families in either portion of the island: for amongst the members of his house, he had to reckon the celebrated Marquis of Montrose, and the no less warlike Dundee, more familiar perhaps to southern ears as Claverhouse, or Graham of Claverhouse, the uncompromising enemy of the Covenanters.

By the early death of both his brothers, young Graham became the heir apparent to the family estate. From the same accident he was all at once the object of undivided attention to his parents,

and thus received a more careful education than he might otherwise have done, for the youngest sons of our days seldom find their portions in life measured out to them after the fashion of Benjamin's mess, but exactly the reverse; instead of being five times larger than that of their elder brother their share is generally speaking ten times less, not much, it is to be feared, to the increase of brotherly affection. Under such favourable circumstances his mind acquired a decided bias towards literature, as well as the peaceful occupations of a country life, and his classical attainments are said to have been considerable. An extensive tour upon the continent served to complete what had been so well begun at home.

In 1774, his father dying, he succeeded to an ample property, with what is not always, or even often, the concomitant of wealth, a mind which nature no less than previous habits had admirably fitted for its enjoyment. Before the year was over, he married the Hon. Mary Cathcart, second daughter of Charles, ninth Lord Cathcart, on the same day that her sister Jane was united to John, Duke of Athol. No children resulted from this union, which in other respects was so happy as to become the envy or the admiration of all who knew them. Possessed of enough for the comforts, and even for the luxuries of life, with no unsatisfied