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to vindicate that patronage: amid various fluctuations we have still preserved its general character.

With the commencement of the volume just concluded, new arrangements were adopted, which were thought likely to ensure and extend the reputation possessed by the Universal Magazine. With little hesitation we can bid our subscribers and the public look back upon the last volume as a pledge of what our future exertions will be. We have established a correspondence with eminent scholars in different parts of the kingdom; and with their aid, united to that of our voluntary contributors, we feel confident that the Universal Magazine will become distinguished for its learning, wit, amusement, and information.

The "Theatrical Recorder," which under its present form, is entirely a new feature in our work, has been honoured with an approbation that sufficiently convinces us of its interest and utility. In our Criticisms we confine ourselves to such works as may offer something advantageous in the way of selection, instead of heaping together an undistinguished mass of titles and cursory strictures. To our correspondents we beg leave finally to observe, that their contributions will be judged with every possible candour: to insert them, is our pleasure; to be compelled to reject them, our pain.

January 13th, 1808.

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UNIVERSAL MAGAZINE. MAGAZINE.

N° L.—VOL. IX.]

For JANUARY, 1808.

[NEW SERIES.

"We shall never envy the honours which wit and learning obtain in any other cause, if we can be numbered among the writers who have given ardour to virtue, and confidence to truth."-DR. JOHNSON.

FROM

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

EARL MOIRA.

reigne

him. The probability of this receives ROM the sterility of patrician vir- an additional claim to belief from the tue it is pleasing to turn to so following curious grant to be found eminent a character as Earl Moira; a in Weaver's Funeral Monuments: nobleman no less conspicuous for what 1 Wyllyam Kyng the thurd yere of my belongs to his rank, than for a rare assemblage of every manly and inter- Give to thee Paulyn Roydon Hope and esting virtue. Birth, wealth, and titles, too often obtain the homage With al the landes up and downe, which should be paid only to desert, From heven to yerth from yerth to hel at least in a certain way, and from a As truly as thys kyng ryght is mine certain class of men: but the voice For a cross bow and an arrow

Hopetowne,

For the and thyne ther to dwel.

of praise, when unanimous, who When I sal come to hunt on Yarrow; shall turn a deaf ear to? and where And in token that thys thynge is soothe is he who has thought to fix a stigma I bit the whyt wax with my tooth upon the name of Moira? Proud dis- Before Meg, Maud, and Margery tinction! and more truly noble than And my thurd son Henry. any honor which royal munificence, Sir Marmaduke Rawdon, Knight, stretched to its utmost, could bestow, was a staunch loyalist, and a most Strings and garters, ribbons and stars, active and intrepid commander in the are but gewgaws in the eye of reason unfortunate reign of Charles I. Sir and philosophy; the courtly parasite George Rawdon also, the first baroobtains them, and the powerful fa- net, was famous for his loyalty and vourite; they decorate vice or reward eminent services in Ireland during insincerity: but the homage of a na- the great rebellion. As a mark of

tion, its consentaneous avowal of ex- the royal favour, he was, in 1665, alted virtue, is a never-fading wreath created baronet of Moira in the of glory that blossoms on the brow county of Down. Sir John Rawdon, of him who acquires it, and descends in March 1717, married Dorothy, with untarnished lustre to his poste- daughter of Sir Richard Levinge, rity and as the preservation of a pre- Speaker of the Irish House of Comcious jewel in the midst of robbers mous, and afterwards Chief Justice of enhances the merit of the action, so the Common Pleas of that kingdom. to remain unsmirched in the miry He was succeeded by his son John, roads of courts supposes a singular who was created Lord Rawdon in degree of caution, steadiness, and 1750, and Earl Moira in 1761. The principle. present Earl was born Dec. 7, 1754. The house of Rawdon is of consi- The early life of Lord Moira was derable antiquity, though it is not not without some indications of his ascertained whether it was settled in future character. At the age of ten England before the conquest. There years he received a wound in his leg, is a tradition, however, preserved in by the bursting of a brass gun belongthe family, and which is corroborated ing to a little battery with which he by their coat-armour, that seems to was attacking a ponderons folio voimply the first of the name in England lume. His education was liberal, and came over with the Norman, and he exhibited, while at school, the commended a band of archers under natural bent of his mind, above all,

he expressed in various ways, that American war Lord Rawdon was haughty and inflexible firmness which conspicuous; and his continued exerhas ever belonged to him.

tions at length produced a serious indisposition. He embarked for England, but on his passage the vessel was captured by the Glorieuse and carried into Brest. Shortly after, he recovered his liberty and landed in England, where, in acknowledgement of his meritorious services, he was created a British peer and appointed aid-de-camp to the king.

On the death of his uncle, the Earl of Huntingdon, he succeeded to the estates of that ancient and noble family, and by permission of the king he assumed the name and arms of that house. By the death of his father, June 20, 1793, his lordship succeeded to the title of Earl Moira.

On quitting school, he made a short tour on the Continent: but the war with America breaking out, his lordship immediately embraced the opportunity of indulging his passion for a military life, and embarked for that country. He was lieutenant in the fifth company of grenadiers, at the memorable battle of Bunker's Hill, where he received two shots in his cap, and was one out of seven only of that company who escaped unhurt. The conduct of our young hero on that occasion was so conspicuous, as to make a strong impression upon the mind of General Burgoyne, who, in his dispatches to the British government observed, "Lord Rawdon has About this time he was appointed this day stamped his fame for life." commanding officer of a body of He was afterwards present at the troops encamped near Southampton. storming of Fort Clinton. In 1778 These troops were originally intended he was advanced to the rank of Lieu- to assist the royalists in Britanny; tenant Colonel in the army, and Ge- but the situation of the allied forces neral Howe having resigned, he was in Flanders rendered it necessary to appointed adjutant-general to the send a reinforcement thither. This British forces commanded by Sir was an enterprize of considerable Henry Clinton. In this capacity he hazard, for the whole country was in proved himself not only brave, but possession of the French. His lordactive and judicious; and rendered ship, however, landed at Ostend, and, most essential service in the hazardous in the very face of a formidable foe, retreat of the British army through succeeded in effecting a junction with the Jerseys from Philadelphia to New the Duke of York. Had it not been York. He afterwards embarked with for the error in which the enemy rehis troops for Charlestown, and served mained for some time, respecting the during the siege of that place. On strength and number of his troops, this occasion he conducted himself and the celerity and dextrous address with so much judgment, and exhibited with which all his movements were so many proofs of distinguished va- conducted, the French must easily lour, that notwithstanding his want of have overpowered him. He joined years, and consequently his presumed the Duke of York at Malines, near want of experience, he was appointed Antwerp, and was received by his to the command of a separate corps in royal highness with every mark of the province of South Carolina. The cordiality and friendship. American General Gates had invaded He soon after returned to Engthe province, and Lord Rawdon's land, and was again consigned to object was to maintain his position a state of inactivity. It was a rethere till the arrival of Lord Corn- proach to the ministers that such a wallis, in which he completely suc- man as Lord Moira should remain ceeded. unemployed, at a time when vigorous Such premature judgment, skill, measures, cool judgment, and deand bravery, would justify every con- cided courage, were so necessary to fidence and every reward: and though the kingdom. But the mean jeait does not usually happen that reward lousy of talents which so invariably or confidence is the result of desert, characterised the mind of Pitt, was yet in the case of his lordship equity the reason why this distinguished seemed for a moment to resume her nobleman remained in privacy. A seat. In the whole course of the nominal command at Southampton,

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