Howe, and col. Roger Townsend. On the 26th July 1759, however, the day after the reduction of Niagara, Ticon deroga surrendered, and this paved the way for the subjection of Canada; accordingly, we find that on the 14th of the following month, the long and obstinately disputed post of Crown Point surrendered to the British forces; the 18th of the ensuing September, beheld the chief settlement of the enemy in this part of the globe, the ever-to-be-remembered Quebec, surrendered upon capitulation to our commanders; and in the month of August, 1760, the French army evacuating Isle au Noix, abandoning the Isle Gallot, and Picquet's island, at the approach of general Amherst, Isle Royale being taken by him, and Montreal, the last remaining port of the foe, surrendering on the 8th September following, the whole province became subject to the British government. In the mean time, the island of Newfoundland having been reduced by the French, general Amherst projected an expedition for its recovery. The command of this was intrusted to the late major-general William Amherst (then lieutenant colonel), who, giving effect and action to his brother's plan, happily restored the island to its British owners, and captured the various garrisons which had been stationed by the enemy in the respective posts.

General Amherst now seeing that the whole continent of North America was reduced in subjection to Great Britain, returned to New York, the capital of the British empire, and was received with all the respect due to his public services. The thanks of the House of Commons had already been transmitted to him; and, among other honourable testimonies of approbation, in 1761, he was created a knight of the Bath. He had also some time be fore been appointed commander in chief of all the forces in America, and governor-general of the British provinces there. But shortly after the peace was concluded, he resigned his command, and returned to England, arriving in London December 1763. His Majesty received him with most gracious respect and approbation, and the government of the province of Virginia was conferred upon him, as the first mark of royal favour. In 1768, there appears to have been a temporary misunderstanding between him and his royal master, which, however, soon terminated, as in the end of that year he was appointed colonel of the third regiment of foot, with permission to

continue his command of the sixtieth, or royal American regiment, of four battalions; and in Oct. 1770, he was appointed governor of the island of Guernsey, and the castle of Cornet, with all its dependencies. To these promotions was added the office of lieutenant-general of the ordnance, in Oct. 1772, at which time he was sworn of the privy council. From this period, also, to the beginning of 1782, he officiated as commander in chief of the English forces, though he was not promoted to the rank of general in the army till March 1778, from which period to the time of his resignation, in March 1782, he acted as eldest general on the staff of England. Until his military promotion in 1778, he had no higher appointment in the army than that of eldest lieutenant-general on the English staff. In 1780, he resigned the command of the third regiment of foot, and was promoted to the second troop of horse grenadiers. Besides these military honours, he received the dignity of the British peerage on the 20th May, 1776, by the title of baron Amherst, of Holmesdale, in the county of Kent. His last public services were the means he adopted in quelling the dreadful riots in London in the month of June, 1780. The regulations and instructions of his lordship on this occasion were not less distinguished by wisdom and promptitude than by humanity.

In 1782, on the change of the administration usually called that of lord North, the command of the army, and the lieutenant-generalship of ordnance, were put into other hands. In 1787, he received another patent of peerage, as baron Amherst, of Montreal, with remainder to his nephew, William Pitt Amherst. On the staff being reestablished, he was, Jan. 22, 1793, again appointed to the command of the army in Great Britain, although at that time, general Conway, the duke of Gloucester, sir George Howard, the duke of Argyle, the hon. John Fitzwilliam, and sir Charles Montagu, were his seniors. On the 10th of February 1795, the command of the army being given to the duke of York, an offer of earldom, and the rank of field marshal, were made to lord Amherst, who then declined accepting them, but on the 30th July 1796, accepted the rank of field-marshal. His increasing age and infirmities, had, however, rendered him unfit for public business nearly two years before this period, and he now retired to his seat at Montreal in Kent, where he died August 3, 1797, in the eighty-first year of his age,

and was interred in the family vault in Seven Oaks church, on the 10th. Lord Amherst had been twice married; first, to Jane, only daughter of Thomas Dallison, of Manton, in Lincolnshire, esq., who died Jan. 7, 1765; and secondly, to Elizabeth, eldest daughter of general George Cary, brother to viscount Falkland, who survived him; but by neither had he any issue. His two brothers had distinguished themselves in the service of their country; John, an admiral of the blue, died Feb. 12, 1778; and William, already mentioned, a lieutenant-general in the army, died May 13, 1781. His son inherits lord Amherst's title and

estate.

The character of lord Amherst may be collected from the particulars of his life. His personal merits, however, have been universally acknowledged. He was a firm disciplinarian, but ever the soldier's friend; a man of strict œconomy, and of a collected and temperate mind, and ready at all times to hear and redress the complaints of the army in general. No ostentation of heroism marked any of his actions; but the whole of his conduct evinced the firm simplicity of a brave mind, animated by the consciousness of what was due to himself and to his country. In private life, his character has been represented as truly amiable.1

AMHURST (NICHOLAS), an English political and miscellaneous writer, was born at Marden in Kent, but in what year is uncertain, although by a passage in his Terræ Filius, it would appear to be about 1706. Under the tuition of his grandfather, a clergyman, he received his grammatical education at Merchant-Taylor's school in London; and thence was removed to St. John's college, Oxford, whence he was expelled on a charge of libertinism, irregularity, and his insulting behaviour towards the president of the college. From his own account of the matter, in the dedication of his poems to Dr. Delaune, president of St. John's, and in his "Terra Filius," we may collect that he wished to have it understood, that he was solely persecuted for the liberality of his sentiments, and his attachment to the cause of the Revolution and of the Hanover-succession. Whatever were the causes of his expulsion, his resentment, on the account of it, although violent, was

1 Gent. Mag, 1797.-Smollett's Continuation.-Annual Register; and contemporary periodical publications."

impotent. He made it his business to satirize the learning and discipline of the university of Oxford, and to libel the characters of its principal members. This he did in a poem published in 1724, called "Oculus Britanniæ," and in his "Terræ Filius," a work in which is displayed a considerable portion of wit, intermixed with intemperate satire. The full title of the work is, "Terræ Filius; or the secret history of the university of Oxford; in several essays. To which are added, Remarks upon a late book, entitled, University Education, by R. Newton, D. D. principal of Hart Hall," 2 vols. 12mo, printed for R. Francklin, 1726. Amidst all the malignity and exaggeration with which the Terræ Filius abounds, it contains some curious anecdotes relative to the principles, manners, and conduct of several members of the university, for a few years after the accession of king George I.; but they are to be read with caution. It had been an ancient custom in the university of Oxford, at public acts, for some person, who was called Terræ Filius, to mount the rostrum, and divert a large crowd of spectators, who flocked to hear him from all parts, with a merry oration in the fescennine manter, interspersed with secret history, raillery, and sarcasm, as the occasions of the times supplied him with matter. Wood, in his Athenæ, mentions several instances of this custom; and hence Mr. Amhurst took the title of his work. It was originally written in 1721, in a periodical paper, which came out twice a week, and consists of fifty numbers.

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Soon after Mr. Amhurst quitted Oxford, he seems to have settled in London, as a writer by profession. He published a volume of " Miscellanies," (principally written at the university), on a variety of subjects; partly originals, and partly paraphrases, imitations, and translations; and consisting of tales, epigrams, epistles, love-verses, elegies, and satires. They begin with a beautiful paraphrase on the Mosaic account of the creation, and end with a very humorous tale upon the discovery of that useful instrument a bottle-screw. Mr. Amhurst was the author, likewise, of an "Epistle to sir John Blount," bart. one of the directors of the South-Sea Company in 1720; of the "British General," a poem sacred to the memory of his grace John duke of Marlborough; and of "Strephon's revenge," a satire on the Oxford toasts. Our poet, who had a great enmity to the clergy, and who had early, at Oxford, displayed his zeal against what he called

priestly power, discovered this particularly in a poem entitled the "Convocation," in five cantos; a kind of satire against all the writers who had opposed bishop Hoadly, in the famous Bangorian controversy. He translated also, Mr. Addison's Resurrection, and some other of his Latin poems. But the principal literary undertaking of Mr. Amhurst was, his conducting "The Craftsman," which was carried on for a number of years with great spirit and success; and was more read and attended to than any production of the kind which had hitherto been published in England. Ten or twelve thousand were sold in a day; and the effect which it had in raising the indignation of the people, and in controlling the power of the Walpole administration, was very considerable. This effect was not, however, entirely, or chiefly, owing to the abilities of Mr. Amhurst. He was assisted by lord Bolingbroke and Mr. Pulteney, and by other leaders of the opposition, whose fame and writings were the grand support of the "Craftsman." Nevertheless, Mr. Amhurst's own papers are allowed to have been composed with ability and spirit, and he conducted the "Craftsman" in the very zenith of its prosperity, with no small reputation to himself. July 2, 1737, there appeared in that publication an ironical letter, in the name of Colley Cibber, the design of which was to ridicule the act that had just passed for licensing plays. In this letter, the laureat proposes himself to the lord chamberlain to be made superintendant of the old plays, as standing equally in need of correction with the new ones; and produces several passages from Shakspeare, and other poets, in relation to kings, queens, princes, and ministers of state, which, he says, are not now fit to be brought on the stage. The printer, &c. having been laid hold of by order of government, Mr. Amhurst hearing that a warrant from the duke of Newcastle was issued against him, surrendered himself to a messenger, and was carried before his grace to be examined. The crime imputed to him was, that "he was suspected to be the author of a paper suspected to be a libel." As no proofs were alleged against him, nor witnesses produced, an examination of this kind could not last long. As soon as it was over, he was told that the crime being bailable, he should be bailed upon finding sufficient securities to answer for his appear ance and trial; but these terms being imposed upon him, he absolutely, refused. Upon this refusal, he was re