to overcome the ardour of Buckingham's temperament: he now sought to retrieve the honour of the country and his own popularity, by a successful enterprize in war, and Charles concurred with him in making vigorous preparations for an effective blow. A second expedition against Rochelle was determined on; he was again preferred to the chief command, and repaired, high in hopes, to hurry on the equipment of the fleet at Portsmouth. There, however, his mortal career was awfully arrested, by a lieutenant in the navy, named Felton, who stabbed him to the heart in the street. He drew the dagger from his breast, exclaiming "The villain has killed me !" and expired. This event occurred on Saturday the 28th of August 1628, and it was much to the credit of the nation, that though the man had been deservedly unpopular, yet the tragical circumstances of his death were reviewed with considerable sympathy. His bowels were interred at Portsmouth, where an affectionate memorial of his name was erected by his sister, the Countess of Denbigh. His body was brought to London, and laid out in state at York House, whence it was conveyed with great pomp to Westminster Abbey, and consigned to a vault under the existing

monument.

This sketch of the life of the first Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, is sufficient to prove that his talents were by no means of the first quality, and that his pretensions were eminently personal-he had a courteous address, gallant bearing, high spirit, prompt elocution, extravagant liberality, a reckless courage, passions the most inflammatory, and insatiable ambition. He was well fitted to acquire and conciliate applause and promotion, but ill gifted to retain them, and though minutely versed in every art and intrigue by which the fortune of a courtier may be advanced, was yet destitute of all strength and prudence to prosper with the acquisition. The only command in which he ever figured was at the head of the disastrous expedition against the Island of Rhé; and if upon that occasion he evinced much bravery as a soldier, he betrayed utter incapacity as a general. As the minion of an unpopular crown severer charges weigh upon his memory; for, if not the sole adviser, he was at least a main stay, and most forward retainer, of those arbitrary principles which distracted the latter years of his life-time; and it can hardly be doubted that the pernicious ex

ample of his domineering movements, must have powerfully tended to confirm the unhappy Charles in the prescription of those measures, which ultimately cost him his head.

The life of Buckingham, however, is not without a few redeeming passages, which it would be unfair to suppress after so full a detail of unfavourable incidents. Thus when in 1626 he carried the crown plate and jewels to pawn in Holland, he had the generosity to add his own stock to the heap. Upon the same journey he also had the taste to become the purchaser of a curious set of Arabic manuscripts, which had been collected by Erpenius, and were at the time put up for sale in Antwerp by his widow. The style of this bargain was characteristic of the man, for he gave for the papers 5007. more than their weight in silver. They were presented to the University of Cambridge, over which, it should have been mentioned in the course of the foregoing pages, that his Grace had the honour of presiding with the authority of Chancellor. He was an extensive collector of scarce coins and masterly pictures, and possessed the finest assortment of both which the country boasted during his life-time. In this pursuit he naturally became the patron of such men as Hurnforst and Lanière; and it is pleasant to add, that he treated them with a liberality truly classical. It is even recorded, that not content with rewarding them honourably for those works he ordered himself, he occasionally made up the deficiencies which the stinginess of King James denied to their labours, and thus parted with sums of 500l. and 3007. Such acts should not be suffered to pass without their reward; and it is grateful to add, that Hurnforst painted a piece, still hanging on the queen's staircase at Hampton Court, in which Buckingham, in the character of Mercury, appears presenting the Arts and Sciences to their Majesties, who are introduced seated on a cloud.

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SECOND VILLIERS, DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM, K. G.

GEORGE VILLIERS, Duke of Buckingham, was born on the 30th of January, 1627, at Wallingford House, in the parish of St. Martin in the Fields, London, and was therefore only a year old when his father, the subject of the preceding sketch, expired under the dagger of Felton. Inheriting at this tender age a patrimony of high titles and ample fortune, he also emulated in process of time that parental prosperity just sketched, and usurped with an effect nearly similar, the confidence of his sovereign and a prominent rank in the history of his country. A nobleman at once learned and witty, he proved both the ornament and disgrace, the pride and envy, of a more talented court; and though his end was less violent than his father's had been, yet, as his fall from place and popularity was fully confirmed, his death may be considered the more unhappy.

The first Duke of Buckingham had not long reposed beneath the honours of the tomb, when his lady embraced the catholic faith, and entered upon a marriage with Randolph M‘Donald, Earl and Marquis of Antrim. This connexion so much offended Charles I. that for some years he refused to see her, and even withdrew her children from her care. The daughter was placed in the family of the Lord Chamberlain Herbert, and the sons, George and Francis, were distinguished by receiving the first rudiments of polite education in company with the young princes. After completing a course of study at the University of Cambridge, they were sent to travel under the tutorship of a Mr. Aylesbury, and with him visited the principal cities of France and Italy. Upon their return home, the civil war was at its height, and the King resided with a divided Court at Oxford. Thither the brothers repaired with their homage to the distressed monarch,

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and after entering Christ-Church College, took up arms under Prince Rupert-a decided step, which was no sooner known in London, than the Parliament passed a vote by which the family estates were declared forfeits, and seized as public property. Matters, however, had not as yet been urged to that extremity between the contending parties, but that an opportunity was found to extenuate the young Duke's conduct upon a plea of nonage. The obnoxious vote being thus rescinded, he again passed over to the Continent, and remained for some time inactive and secure.

By degrees the cause of Charles grew more desperate, and Buckingham felt himself emboldened by a becoming spirit, to make some influential exertions in behalf of a family, from which his own had received all its dignity and fortune, and in favour of a man, to whom he stood indebted for acts of parental interest: he therefore came to England in the course of the year 1648. Upon his arrival, he found the King a prisoner in the Isle of Wight, and the Earl of Holland in arms for his cause in Surrey. Buckingham immediately formed a junction with the latter, and held a command during the unsuccessful recounter at Nonsuch, where his behaviour, though highly gallant, was eclipsed by the heroism of his brother, Lord Francis. This young nobleman, after displaying the most passionate valour, had his horse shot from under him towards the close of the fight, and was obliged to struggle from the fields to the main road on foot, and through overpowering numbers. Finding himself still closely pressed, he clapped his back to an oak tree, and awhile defended himself with eminent dexterity against several horsemen. He was too proud to cry for quarter, and they were too savage to offer it; and at last he fell with nine desperate wounds on the face and forehead. While this scene of honourable death passed in one direction, the duke escaped by another, and arrived unhurt at Neots, whither he was followed with alacrity, and completely surrounded. In this predicament he mounted on horseback, cut his way through the guards, and, after a dangerous flight, reached Prince Charles in the Downs. The whole party then hastened into Holland, and the earthly hopes of English royalty and its dependants seemed finally extinguished. Charles the Ist. was beheaded, Buckingham's estates were again forfeited, and he was reduced to the necessity of converting his father's pictures into a means of support.

At length, the crafty presbyterians who guided the perfidious politics of the Scotch parliament, bethought themselves of compounding their mercenary guilt to the late monarch, by tendering the crown to his son. Charles was well inclined to accept the offer, and Buckingham, of all the English lords in his train, alone exhorted him to risk his person on the issue. The indignities which the adventurous young monarch received from those fanatical creatures are well known, and it is only necessary to observe here, how the good nature of Buckingham so far conciliated their rigidity, that he was the only follower allowed to attend upon the humiliated sovereign, and divert his sufferings by the pointed resources of gaiety and wit. In the bold descent upon England, and at the battle of Worcester, he performed more important acts, but was separated from his master, and like the rest of the dispirited royalists, obliged to retire in privacy beyond the Channel. There he became a volunteer in the service of the French King, and divided his time between the duties of his profession, and short visits to Charles's little court in Flanders, where his attachment was recompensed with the informal honours of the Garter.

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Meantime the English Parliament had awarded the best of his lands to the victorious Fairfax, a general whose political honesty and religious rectitude obtained a well-merited share of esteem from all parties; and whose fame was greatly increased by the generosity which he evinced in treating with many of the late proprietors of forfeited estates. This character, and the exigency of his affairs, encouraged Buckingham, in 1657, to pay a secret visit to England, and make an effort towards retrieving, in some degree, the apparent desperation of his fortune. Arrived in Yorkshire, prospered so rapidly in his views, that before the year elapsed, he was married, at the family seat, Nun Appleby, to the only daughter and sole heiress of Fairfax. The ceremony was performed with considerable splendour: Cowley wrote the epithalamium; and the Duke received back upon the occasion, the greater portion of his rents, with the assurance of far greater wealth upon the death of his father-in-law. A year of domestic happiness and easy life now succeeded in 1658, however, Cromwell began to suspect danger from his liberty, and he was unceremoniously committed to the Tower, notwithstanding the unconcealed displea