and the assembly he warmly espoused the popular side, and was one of the members imprisoned in 1810. During the late American war, he was at the head of the medical staff in the province. He was a sincere friend to the general education of the people, having introduced the first bill for that purpose, in 1814. He was also warmly attached to the improvement of the internal communications, and generally throughout his long career as a member of the assembly, he was animated by a strong attachment to his country, its established constitution, and government. He died at Quebec, on the 26th June, 1830, in the fifty-fourth year of his age.

MR. CHARLES HURST.

MR. HURST was a native of Hampshire, England, and was brought up to the printing business. He came to Canada in the 65th Regiment, from which he obtained leave of absence, after it had removed to Nova Scotia, to work at his business in Quebec. He was afterwards transferred to the 7th Regiment, or Royal Fusileers, in the Quebec garrison, then commanded by his late Royal Highness Prince Edward, Duke of Kent. When a conspiracy was entered into by some foreigners in the regiment against the life of the prince, it accidentally came to his knowledge, and he gave the information which led to the conviction of the criminals, who were, however, pardoned at the place of execution, by the intercession of his Royal Highness. Mr. Hurst was for some time afterwards a serjeant in the regiment, and finally bought his discharge, which precluded him by the rules of the service from the pension to which he otherwise would have been entitled. Having become infirm, he went to live with his son-in-law, Mr. Henry Patton, formerly of the artillery, and captain of the militia, at Valcartier, Canada East, and for many years Mr. Hurst was the only school master in the settlement. He was possessed of that manly independence of mind which prides itself in the discharge of the duties of the individual in whatever rank or station he is placed. He died September, 1837. In the true spirit of an Englishman and a soldier, he was devoted to his king and country, in good and bad fortune, and although his life ended in poverty, he was respected and esteemed by those among whom he lived, and died in the faith and consolations of a sincere Christian.

COMTE JOSEPH DE PUISAGE.

FEW people are aware that this distinguished man once lived in Canada, yet such is the fact. His history is worth reading; he was descended from a noble French family, and was born at Montagne, about 1754. Being intended for the church, he was educated in the seminary of St. Sulpice, but preferring the military profession, at the age of eighteen he entered as a sub-lieutenant into the regiment of Conti, whence he removed as captain into a regiment of dragoons. He subsequently purchased a commission in the Cent Suisses of the Royal Household, obtair ng the brevet of colonel, and soon after the cross of St. Louis. In 1787 he was nominated a deputy from the nobility of Perche to the States-General, when he joined the tiers-état, after having signed the protestation of the 19th of June, and in the Constituent Assembly he always voted with the partisans of political regeneration. In 1791 he was raised to the rank of major-general, and he had afterwards the command of the national guard of Foreux. In 1793, forces having been collected in the northern departments in order to oppose the tyranny of the Jacobins, the chief command was given to General Wimpfen, and the second to Comte de Puisage. Being defeated, a price was set on his head, and he was compelled to seek an asylum i Brittany. There he reorganized the Chouans, formed a military council, and arrayed the whole district in arms against the convention. Aware of the necessity for obtaining foreign aid, the count left his troops under the command of M. Cormatin, and went to London, where he continued several months, and obtained the promise of assistance from the British ministry. He was also invested with unlimited powers by the Comte d'Artois; and though on his return to France, he found that M. Cormartin had concluded a treaty with the republicans, he triumphed over that difficulty, and every preparation was made by the Bretons to join the English and emigrate troops as soon as they should appear on the French coasts. Owing to some intrigues which took place, the measures of the Comte de Puisage were counteracted, and the expedition was diverted to the coast of La Vendée. The disastrous expedition to Quiberon followed, for the result of which the count, whether justly or not, was generally blamed; and finding that he had lost his influence with the adherents of the exiled royal family, he resigned his commission and came to Canada, with a number of French loyalists, where they had obtained a grant of land from the British government somewhere near Toronto, we believe, close where Markham now stands. But the peace of Amiens being

concluded, and the count having received very bed treatment from some of the influential settlers and inhabitants of Toronto, he returned to England; and with a view to remove the odium under which he labored, he published Mémoires du Lieut.-Général le Comte de Puisage, qui pourront servir à l'Histoire du Parti Royaliste Français, London, 1803-6, 5 vols, 8vo. He continued to reside in England till his death, which took place December 13, 1827, in the neighborhood of Hammersmith, Middlesex.

JOSEPH WILLCOCKS, Esq., M.P.P.

THE name of a man who figured conspicuously in the annals of Upper Canada during a portion of the time of the reign of the "Family Compact Party," of whom it may be said, that they persecuted this man to death.

Willcocks was an Irishman of respectable parentage, and had emigrated to Canada in his younger days. He rose rapidly; and about 1803 had become sheriff of the Home District, but was deprived of his office in 1806, for voting against the wishes of the governor at Thorpe's election. He soon became popular with the people, mostly through a suit brought against him by the lieutenant-governor, Mr. Francis Gore, for libel, and in which he was acquitted; he was elected to serve in the assembly, which speed y thrust him into the Toronto jail, then a miserable log hut, for making too free with their affairs. Released from this, he became, like Wilkes in England, still more popular; and, for a while, was at the head as leader of the majority in the assembly. In 1807, he commenced publishing and editing the Upper Canada Guardian or Freeman's Journal, then the second paper in the upper province, which he continued, until the breaking out of the war of 1812 forced him to give up his paper and lay down the pen for the musket, and fight against the Americans at Queenston. Still government treated him harshly; and, at length, thoroughly disheartened and disgusted, he deserted to the enemy, taking a body of Canadian militia over with him. The Americans rewarded his treason by making him a colonel; and his erratic and singularly strange career was brought to a close at the siege of Fort Erie, where he was killed, while planting a guard.

W. A. THOMPSON, Esq.

ASSISTANT COMMISSARY-GENERAL W. A. THOMPSON was born at Quebec in 1786, and died at Dominica, 18th May, 1838. Mr. Thompson entered the commissariat department in the year 1805, and was the whole time in actual service-served during the American war of 1812, and arrived in the West Indies in October, 1801. He was a brother of assistant commissary general, James Thompson, and twin brother of the Honorable Mr. Justice Thompson of Gaspé.

COMTE DE DOUGLAS,

Louis

BORN at Montreal in 1747; died at Paris in 1842. Archambault, Comte de Douglas, it appears, had obtained rank in the peerage of France with that title. He had succeeded, in 1770, his uncle, Charles Joseph de Douglas, Comte et Seignieur de Montréal, in France, who, with one of his brothers, had accompanied Charles Edward in his chivalrous attempt to recover the throne of his ancestors, and was taken prisoner at the battle of Culloden. Thus the French Canadian Comte de Douglas, is said to have sprung from one of the most illustrious families in Europe; and it is stated that his maternal grandfather was governor of Montreal, when Canada was a French colony.

GENERAL SIR GEORGE MURRAY,

WAS a well known gallant British general and statesman; and had been governor of the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. He was born at the family seat in Perthshire, in 1772; was educated at the High School and University of Edinburgh; and, having

entered the army in 1789, he gained great distinction in almost every quarter of the globe for his military achievements, and more especially for the skill and ability with which he discharged, on several occasions, the difficult office of quarter-master-general. In 1812, he was appointed lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada, but, on hearing that Napoleon had escaped from Elba, he resigned that important office, and joined the English army in France. On his return to England, he was appointed governor of Edinburgh Castle; and, in 1819, governor of the Royal Military College. In 1823, he became lieutenant-general of the Ordnance; and was soon after elected M.P. for Perthshire. In 1828, he took office as secretary of state for the colonies. In Sir Robert Peel's administration of 1834-5, he filled the office of master-general of the Ordnance, but lost his seat for Perthshire. At the Westminster election, in 1837, he opposed and was defeated by Sir Lacy de Evans and Mr. Leader. When the Whigs resigned in 1841, Sir George again received the appointment of master-general of the Ordnance. He appeared before the public as the editor of Marlborough's Despatches, 5 vols.; but it is not necessary to speak of him in any other capacity than that of a gallant and successful soldier, and able minister. He died, July 28, 1846, aged 74.

GENERAL SIR GEORGE PREVOST, BART.

THIS distinguished man was born on the 19th of May, 1767. By his own merits he attained a high rank in his profession, being first brought into the notice of his sovereign as a lieutenant-colonel in a battalion of the 60th Regiment, serving in the West Indies; in which situation he distinguished himself at St. Vincent, where he was severely wounded; and for his conduct on that occasion, as well as in the subsequent operations in the West Indies, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier, and had afterwards the government of Dominica conferred upon him as a mark of his Majesty's approbation for his gallant and successful defence of that island against a very superior force of the enemy, as well as for his conspieuous conduct at St. Lucia; in 1803, he was created a baronet. Shortly after his return to England from the West Indies in 1805, he was appointed lieutenant-governor of Portsmouth, with command of the troops in that district. In 1808 he was selected to fill the