lay fellowships were first established, he was again elected to that for law, and received the unsolicited office of legal adviser to the College." He was afterwards made a King's Counsel. Having acquired a competent fortune by his profession, he purchased an estate, married, and, apparently to gratify his wife, went to reside in London,+ whither also, at a later period, his son-in-law, Gawin Hamilton, of Killileagh, "whose fortune, like that of many Irish gentlemen, had need of nursing," thought proper to retire; and where, accordingly, ARCHIBALD HAMILTON was born, on the 12th of May, 1751, o.s. relating of themselves. To record what they have observed of others is on the whole an easier task, and in most cases more likely to benefit those for whose service or approval they undertake such labour. All books must have some merit of this kind, and that may be called a decent autobiography, which has a good deal of it. This praise cannot be denied the work before us, meagre and defective though it be in many essentials. We shall proceed to give a brief account of it, passing in review the most noted events of a life cast in stirring times, and chequered by unusual vicissitudes of good and evil fortune. We should observe that the memoir was written by Mr. Rowan for the use of his own children, and that it is marked throughout by the utmost frankness of sentiment and plainness of style. There is not the slightest trace of any straining at effect, or attempt on the writer's part to appear other than he was. Much as the reader may regret the scanti-Irishman the thing was impossible. This declaraness of the details, he can hardly avoid placing the most implicit reliance on everything which the modest autobiographer has thought it expedient to tell him. Mr. Rowan's memoir commences, as it is natural that the life of an estated gentleman should, with some account of his ancestors. But with this we have nothing to do, unless to remark that the families of Hamilton, and of Rowan, were both Scottish by origin, and owed their location in Ireland to that (by a certain class of writers) much lauded measure of James I., ycleped the plantation of Ulster. The Hamiltons struck deep root immediately, and spread their branches far and wide. The Rowans doubtless throve also, though in a quieter way, as less appears to be known of their lot in the land of their adoption. William Rowan, however, a sturdy scion of the race, was intended for the church, and sent in consequence to Trinity College, Dublin. Here, though elected a fellow, he refused to fulfil his father's intentions, and resigned his fellowship rather than take the oaths necessary for ordination. "He then attached himself to the study of the law, and some years after, when the Of this period of his life his grandson tells the following characteristic anecdote:- "When going to London to keep his terms, he engaged a seat in the stage-coach from Chester. His fellow-travellers were five Londoners, returning from Chester linen fair. In the course of conversation, they soon became aware of the birth-place of their companion. The conversation turned, as usual, on highwaymen, and a report that there was an Irishman who infested that road, and who let nothing pass him. It was then de Mr. Rowan's whig predilections and associates, as well as his rugged independence of character, appear to have had not a little clared by the Londoners, that they would never submit to be robbed by any single man, whatever might be attempted by an Englishman; but by an character. Mr. Rowan, upon this, determined to tion was followed by numerous jests on the Irish put their vaunting to the test. On the last day but one of their journey, he pretended to have some business to transact with a person who lived a short distance off the high road, and said it would not occupy him more than an hour, and that he would be able to rejoin them the next day, by hiring a horse for one stage. He waited until dusk, then pursued the coach, stopped it, and made them deliver their effects; (I have the inkhorn which served him for a pistol,) and on the next morning at breakfast he rejoined them. During the day the jokes were entirely on Mr. Rowan's side, as he insisted it must have been his The countryman who had robbed them; and they were + He had a house in Rathbone-place, of which, and the free and easy lives of its inhabitants, his grandson supplies us with the following reminis cence "Rathbone-place at that time was the extremity of London, on that side. A large reservoir, which supplied a corn-mill, lay at one end of it, and there was only a foot passage by it from London, which was closed every night. The ground on either side of this reservoir was then divided into several stripes of gardens, fenced from each other by treillages, and occupied by Irish emigrants, who then abounded in Soho, and were accustomed to spend the evenings in singing, dancing, and other amusements of their own country." influence in directing the early tendencies | fellow of Peterhouse College. This gentleman of his grandson and heir, who tells us :— "My grandfather's plan for my education was, that after receiving my early schooling I should be sent to Westminster; but not before I should enter the upper school. Accordingly I was sent to a then famous school, kept at Marylebone, by a Mr. Fountain; and it was my grandfather's custom to send for me every Saturday, to see what progress I was making. Either he expected too much, or I was idle, for I was generally sent back on Monday with a letter, disapproving of their mode of education. A Monsieur De Morand, an emigrant, was French tutor. He had taken a fancy for me, whom he called son petit Malebranche, and frequently has he gone over my lessons with me previous to my weekly examinations by my grandfather. "I now passed two years in my grandfather's house; he was of a choleric habit, while I was giddy and negligent, and therefore this time passed heavily enough; but by his instructions I was prepared for the upper remove of the fourth form at Westminster, of which the head master, who afterwards became Archbishop of York, was the son of his old chum, Major Markham. While I resided with my grandfather, I do not recollect his having ever urged any particular religious doctrine. His chief object seemed to be, to give me good principles, and leave the rest to myself. I attended the Established Church ceremonies with Mr. Rowan; and the chief squabbles which occurred between him and Mrs. Rowan were, that he did not enforce her religious principles upon me with the same energy that he did my scholas tic exercises. "The opinions, however, which had influenced him to decline taking orders when first elected fellow of Trinity College, seemed never to have been shaken, for his will commenced thus:In the name of the one only self-existent Being. In the same instrument he made me his heir, and expressed himself as follows:- From personal affection, and in the hope that he shall become a learned, sober, honest man, live unbribed and unpensioned, zealous for the rights of his country, loyal to his King, and a true Protestant, without bigotry to any sect, I give my property to Archibald Hamilton. He also ordered that I should bear his name in addition to that of my father; that I should be educated at one of the British Universities, and should not go to Ireland until I was twenty-five years old, or should forfeit the income of the estate during such time as I should remain there. "After my grandfather's death, (in 1767,) I was sent to Westminster, and my father quitted his house in Brook-street, and took one from Bonnel Thornton, in the neighbourhood of the school. Mr. Thornton was a man of wit, and an intimate friend of Charles Churchill and Robert Lloyd, to whom he introduced my father, and who afterwards became frequent visitors at our house. These, with Doctor Charles Lucas, from Ireland, and several opposition English members, formed his political circle, and no doubt had an influence on my early sentiments. then possessed two livings near Cambridge, which with his private pupils in the university, formed the chief of his income. His wife, Miss Talkington, possessed sentiments, political and religious, similar to his own, and she agreed with him in the propriety of throwing up those livings, rather than, as he expressed his feelings on the subject, to act a lie weekly in the presence of the God of truth.' "On throwing off his ecclesiastical gown, he retired to Leyden, where he studied medicine, and obtained the degree of M. D. To this most excellent man's care, or rather patronage, I was committed; and I am proud to say, that though I deviated considerably from the line of conduct he pointed out to me, I retained his friendship and correspondence to the last year of his life." Both at Westminster and at Cambridge, Rowan appears to have lived just like the other young men of the time; with somewhat more freak and adventure, perhaps, than is the fashion of our demurer day; and, we dare say, with a proportionate advantage in health and happiness both of mind and body. Had we space ad libitum, and time and an attentive audience at the back of it, we could endite an interesting dissertation on the growing disuse of vivacious (and pugnacious) amusements as an ingredient in education. We would not desire a better text than parts of the volume now before us. Of all forgotten inventions, or arts as old as the creation, there is surely none which men could not better afford to lose than the art of being alive, and yet none appears at present in such danger of being forgotten. Hamilton Rowan, however, seems never to have been in danger that way. A pleasant notice of him, written by Mr. Topham, and published World," a fashionable paper of the in the " time, after dwelling with affectionate banter on his early character for enterprise and intrepidity, concludes in the following terms: "But all this capability of usefulness and fair fame was brought to nought by the obstinate absurdity of the people about him. Nothing could wean them from Westminster. His grandfather Rowan, or Rohan, fellow of Trinity College, and afterwards King's Counsel in Ireland, resided in Rathbone-place, possessed of great wealth, tenacious of his opinions, and absolute nonsense was his conduct to his grandson. He persevered in the school; where, if a boy disaffects book knowledge, his books are only bought and-sold. And after Westminster, when the old man died, as if solicitous that every thing about his grave, but poppy and mandragora, should grow downwards, his will declared his grandson the heir, but not to inherit till he graduated at Cambridge. "To Cambridge therefore he went; where hav"The time for my entering one of the universi- ing pursued his studies, as it is called, in a ratio ties having arrived, and my father's affairs requir- inverse and descending, he might have gone on ing his presence in Ireland, he determined on send- from bad to worse; and so, as many do, putting a ing me to Cambridge, and procured letters of re-grave face on it, he might have had his degree. But commendation to the Rev. John Jebb, then a his animal spirits and love of bustle could not go off thus undistinguished; and so after coolly attempting to throw a tutor into the Cam-after shaking all Cambridge from its propriety, by a night's frolic, in which he climbed the sign-posts, and changed the principal signs, he was rusticated, till the good humour of the university returning, he was re-admitted, and enabled to satisfy his grandfather's will! "Through the intercourse of private life he is very amiable. The same suavity of speech, courteous attentions, and general good-nature he had when a boy, are continued and improved. Good qualities the more to be prized, as the less probable from his bold and eager temper, from the turbulence of his wishes, and the hurry of his pur suits." The reader is greatly mistaken, if he imagines from this, that our hero allowed himself to be kept moping at Cambridge from one end of the year to the other. "Tis true, what time he spent there, he diversified by occasional outbreaks of the kind above described, and so made it pass more pleasantly. But all these, and doubtless they were much more numerous than there any record of, could not satisfy his thirst for adventure. He was not long matriculated when he took a trip to Holland, and some time after accepted a commission in the Huntingdon Militia, which appears to have led him into not a little extravagance. There were, at the time he entered it, half a dozen lords among the officers of the regiment, and though we are told significantly enough, that "when the American war broke out, and the militia was put on permanent duty, the lords retired," they appear to have remained long enough to give Mr. Rowan such a taste for exceeding his income, that he was obliged to borrow money on annuity at six years' purchase. He also tells us,— * Dr. Drummond says it was a coachman, and not a tutor that he flung into the Cam, (if indeed it were not both, on different fitting occasions,) incurring thereby the penalty of rustication. "It was not improbably during its continuance," remarks the worthy Doctor, "that he found a retreat where his time might be profitably spent, under good Dr. Enfield, in Warrington Academy. This, however, is only offered as a conjecture.' (A conjecture confirmed by Mr. Rowan himself, in a subsequent part of the memoir.) it is certain that he was at that celebrated academy, rather as a visitor than as a resident pupil, though the precise time has not been ascertained. He has been heard to say that Letitia Aikin, afterwards Mrs. Barbauld, was his first love!" "But What think you of that, dear reader? Hercules and Omphale were a laughing-stock to the ancients; but (our Irish) Hercules and Goody Two Shoes!-even in the heyday of her prettiness. 'Tis too ridiculous. We are inclined to think A. H. R. was mystifying the Doctor or his infor mant. "From the time I first mounted epaulettes, I paid but little attention to either college rules or exercises; and merely kept the necessary terms." Indeed so little solicitous does he appear to have been on that head, that one summer he accepted the office of private secretary to his friend, Lord Charles Montague, (brother of the Duke of Manchester,) then going out as Governor of South Carolina; and here he witnessed one of those political skirmishes which in so many quarters of the colonial continent, gave notice of the approaching storm. lonies were becoming serious when we left Eng "The bickerings between England and the Co * The land. These were aggravated by many trifles soon after our arrival in Charleston. A statue of Mr. Pitt had been erected opposite the Court House in Charleston, which was surrounded items of expenditure, had voted £45 (?) for paintby an iron railing. The Assembly, among the ing the rails of it. This vote was looked upon by Lord Charles as a direct insult to the Government; and after endeavouring in vain to prevent that sum being included in the account of general expenditure, he dissolved the assembly. manner of dissolving it was thus:-A peace officer, preceded by a drummer, bore the proclamation of the Governor, which was read in the house, and the dissolution took place thereon. writs were issued for a new election to take Each member now returned to his colony, and place. The people returned the same members that they had before elected. These persons being now aware that if their conduct was not would take place, ordered the doors to be closed, and passed the same vote as before, refusing the others entrance. The drummer beat, and in vain the officer read the proclamation in the street; the members within passed all the bills, and then to law. The only resource the Governor now had opened their doors and were dissolved according agreeable to Government, a second dissolution was to refuse his sanction to them, so that the whole year's expenditure of the state was thus left unprovided for. ton, I got a passage to England, on board the "Having spent nearly three months at CharlesSwallow, taking with me a racoon, an opossum, and a young bear. After a very rough passage, I landed at Portsmouth, my racoon dead, my bear washed overboard, and my opossum lost in the cable tier, and I returned to Cambridge." This last passage is pleasantly characteristic of that fondness for pets, which, amid all his trials and peregrinations, never forsook our hero to the latest moment of his life. There was one part of his grandfather's will, which Mr. Rowan appears, most laudably, to have felt no compunction in breaking, and that was the prohibition to visit Ireland. The following sketch of an acquaintance which he made on his return from one of these excursions, introduces us to a remarkable specimen of the adventurers of those days a class not without their own peculiar chivalry, and whom we should greatly wrong if we judged of them by their degerate successors, in any rank of that in these days (like the rest) over-wrought and overcrowded profession. "Notwithstanding the injunctions in my grandfather's will, I made more than one trip across the Channel, to see Ireland, during my minority. Parkgate was the usual port from which passengers sailed for Dublin. Those who chose to go by Holyhead hired horses at Chester, which cost a moidore each; but they only set out when six or eight passengers assembled. "At the ferry of Conway an old woman had a cabin, where she lighted signals for the ferrymen to come over from the town. To get to the boat you were obliged to take guides along the shore, which they said abounded with dangerous quicksands, changing with every tide. This was the first day's journey; the next day you had to cross another ferry to reach Bangor, and then cross over Penmaen Mawr; or if the tide was out, you went along the coast. In one of those journies I met Matthias O'Byrne, whom I esteemed, till his death, as one of my earliest and most sincere friends. He was of an old Catholic family, and had been sent to Germany in his youth, to acquire that education which was then refused to a Catholic at home. His father, who was a wine-merchant in Dublin, died during his absence, and all his property was divided (according to law in those days) among his family at his death. He had entered the Austrian service, and on his father's death he came over to Ireland to receive his share of the property; but his elder brother was a bon vivant, and had dissipated almost the whole of the old man's money. "O'Byrne had now nothing to rely on but a sub-lieutenantcy in the German service, to which, when I met him, he was returning. We travelled together to London in a stage; and having one evening gone to Vauxhall together, we found the Rev. Mr. Bate, editor of the Morning Post, in a squabble with the Honourable Mr. Lyttleton and some of his party, whom he accused of having behaved impertinently to his wife and her sister. Nothing could have been more likely, as they were both fine women, and Vauxhall was a place to which young men were accustomed to go to spend the latter part of the day in search of adventures. Mr. Bate had fixed on Mr. Lyttleton, and lifting his cane, threatened to strike him. This roused O'Byrne's military feelings, which were increased by the physical disproportion of the antagonists, Bate being a strong athletic figure, while the other presented that of an emaciated, but elegant debauché. O'Byrne rushed forward, and with an ejaculation, the tone of which denoted his birthplace, swore, if he struck the gentleman, he would run his sword through his body; but added, if nothing but boxing would satisfy him, he would take a round with him. Lyttleton was by no means ill-pleased to have found a substitute; Bate's ladies accepted of apologies, and O'Byrne was invited to sup with Mr. Lyttleton's party. In the course of the evening O'Byrne mentioned his situation and place of destination. Mr. Lyttleton likewise was to set out for Vienna in a few days; his party consisted of a lady and her maid, and the fourth place in the carriage was offered to O'Byrne, which he accepted. "While on the road, they were overtaken by an express which brought an account of Lord Lyttleton's death. Mr., now Lord Lyttleton, offered to reconduct O'Byrne to London, and invited him to reside in his house until he could procure him a commission in the British service, and promised to assist his promotion. For about one year he remained Lord Lyttleton's guest, and made several friends by his constant good humour and wellplaced eccentricity; but my lord seemed to have forgotten his promises, and O'Byrne felt himself in a state of dependence from which he determined to relieve himself. Count Belgioso, the Austrian ambassador in London, had commanded the regiment in which O'Byrne had served; he waited on him, candidly laid his state before him, and through his interest with Lord Rochfort, the Count procured him an ensigney in the 13th regiment. In that capacity, with a light wallet, and a lighter purse, he marched with a recruiting party to Brighton, and quartered at Shergold's. "A Mr. Salvador, a rich Jew merchant, young, gay, fond of company and play, was confined to his room then by a fit of the gout. He desired Shergold to invite the officer, who had come with the recruiting party, to dine with him. Salvador was pleased with his companion; they chatted, they drank, and they played, and in a short time O'Byrne returned to London in a chaise and four, with about £1000 in his purse. With this nestegg he obtained leave to recruit in London-was proposed at most of the fashionable clubs, where he met numbers whose society he had cheered while he was a visitor at Lord Lyttleton's. He continued to play with the most constant success, nor did I ever hear a whisper against his integrity. He took a house in Pall Mall, and was both invited by, and entertained persons of the highest rank. At one time his success was such, that he realised about £2000 per annum, and had a good sum at his bankers to call on. His prosperity did not change his character; he was never known to be denied to those who had been his early companions, particularly if they wanted his assistance. I must relate one transaction as a proof of his friendly conduct towards a young man, one of his acquaintances. The daughter of a rich citizen, Mr. Jones, at Hammersmith, had become attached to this handsome young man. On his proposal of marriage, the father asked him his means of support, to which he answered evasively; and he recounted this to O'Byrne in despair. 'Well,' said O'Byrne, you did not lose your presence of mind, I hope; come along with me." He took him to his bankers, and desired the whole sum he possessed in their hands, to be laid out in the public funds in his friend's name. 'Now,' said O'Byrne, 'take the old gentleman to the bank to-morrow, and that will satisfy him.' He did so, and obtained his consent to the marriage. Mr. Jones, however, died suddenly, previous to the day on which the ceremony was to take place; the lady was under age, and her uncle (a lawyer) then became her guardian; and as there was no time to be lost, O'Byrne gave him his chaise and the money to convey them to Gretna Green." This, our readers must acknowledge, is a graphic picture in little, and of a character 100, at once so kindly and so chivalrous, so fertile in stratagems d'industrie, and so frank and generous in the use of them, that with all its short-comings, we cannot alto- | on him, and received an invitation for us all to gether refuse it a place in our affection and esteem. For some years after his return from South Carolina, Mr. Rowan appears to have lived much like other young men of fortune. On reaching the age of twenty-five, and succeeding to his grandfather's property, he sold a large sum out of the funds, paid off his annuities, which now amounted to nearly a thousand a year, hired a house on Hounslow Heath and lodgings in London, kept hunters and a carriage, and scoured the country in search of amusement, taking also occasional trips to the continent, for change of air or scene, and sometimes perhaps as a shelter from some too importunate creditor. Mr. O'Byrne was not the only one among his more adventurous countrymen, whose acquaintance he made in the course of these excursions. Of the once famous Count O'Rourke he relates some amusing anecdotes, while after a long avoidance on his part, which speaks well for his discretion, he became entangled in several adventures with the notorious George Robert Fitzgerald, and was at last obliged to become his second in a duel. All these doings are recounted in an easy gentlemanly style, and incline us to regret that our author has not been more. communicative on the scenes of his bachelor days. A life of this kind, however, has its weariness, and it was with alacrity that Mr. Rowan accepted the offer of a commission in the Portuguese service. "About this time (in 1777) I received a letter from my old friend, Lord Charles Montague, saying that the Portuguese minister, the Marquis of Pombal, being anxious to obtain English officers for the Portuguese army, had offered him the command of a regiment, with the appointment of the officers, and that he would appoint me his Lieutenant-Colonel if I was inclined to join them; but in that case I must lose no time in returning to England, as a war was expected between Portugal and Spain, and the regiment would most probably be sent immediately to South America. This destination was most agreeable to my wandering turn of mind, so that in the course of a very short time, Lord Charles, Mr. Blankett, a naval officer, and I embarked in the Lisbon packet, and arrived safe in the Tagus, in high spirits. On entering the river we were informed that the late king had died, a complete revolution had taken place in the politics of Portugal, and the Marquis of Pombal was sent into banishment. Contrary to the advice of his friends, Lord Charles determined on visiting the Marquis at his place of banishment, Pombal, a small village near Coimbra, and for that place we hired mules and guides at Lisbon. "When we arrived at Pombal, we found the Marquis had arrived only a few days before, and was lodged in a private house, having no residence there. Lord Charles immediately waited dine him with the next day. On entering his room, he made a sort of playful apology for his fare and slippers. He reminded me much of Dr. Franklin, reception. He wore an old English bath coat and both in his good-natured remarks and his suavity of manners. Our company consisted of himself, his private secretary, and two private friends. sit down, a female of middle age, plainly dressed, When we were collected at table, and about to came into the room, and without noticing any of us, she advanced to the Marquis, dropped on her knees, received a short blessing, and was introwith everything else, was in the French fashion. duced to the guests as his daughter. Dinner, Lord Charles and Mr. Blankett had some private conference with the Marquis, and shortly after we took our leave. The next morning we departed for Lisbon. "Our party now separated: Lord Charles went to Madrid; Mr. Blankett returned to England; and I accepted the invitation of the officers of the ward-room on board a frigate, commanded by Captain Murray, and going to Gibraltar, and from thence to Minorca. After spending a few days at Port Mahon, I hired a small boat to take me to Marseilles. In this passage I expeperienced rougher weather and worse seas than in all my former voyages; indeed I believe I never had been in such danger before, for the vessel which brought me came there to be broken up. I was now diverted from some other intended excursions, by the arrival of an officer who had travelled from the East Indies, by what they call the overland passage by the Red Sea to Suez, and was in great haste to reach London. He prevailed on me to join him in the purchase of a berline, and accompany him as far as Paris. In arranging our effects in the carriage at Marseilles, I perceived that my companion put several large bundles of papers in the trunk which was to go in front of the carriage. I advised him to put them in the vache; but he would not; so I let him have his own way, which I suspect was not without design; for it appeared he had been recalled to make up the accounts for some post he held under the East India Company, and by the time he got to the India House, all the vouchers, &c., had been so much torn and rubbed in the trunk, as to be perfectly illegible. "I passed nearly a year in Paris. Being always fond of boating, I had brought to Paris a small Thames wherry, which I bought from Roberts, of Lambeth, from whom the Westminster boys hired their boats. I fancied I possessed superior dexterity in its management, and this led me to accompany the cortege that attended the Queen to the palace of Fontainebleau. My boat was indeed taken notice of, for I saw the Queen speaking to the Duke of Lauzun, and pointing it out; but, alas! when I asked him what she had said, he told me the only remark she made was—“ Que cela peut être amusement pour un Seigneur Anglais!"" War being declared on the Continent, Mr. Rowan returned to England, and joined his regiment, at South Sea Common, where it service in this capacity, he got his friend the was encamped. Seeing no prospect of active Duke of Manchester, colonel of his regiment, to request of Admiral Keppel to re |