three-cornered hat, tye-wig, and ruffles, and his manners were in correspondence with those of a gentleman of the last age. At his table he always said grace with his hands clasped together, and a voice and countenance denoting thankfulness for all the blessings he received. The table-cloth was not removed, and on retiring to coffee, he in the same manner returned thanks to the great Supreme, of whom he never spoke but with the utmost reverence.

He died at his seat, Reigate, Surry, on the 19th of May, 1824. Quanado ullum inveniam parem?

COLONEL DES BARRES.

JOSEPH FREDERIC WALLET DES BARRES, an English military officer and hydrographer, who served and was connected with America for a lengthened period. He was born in 1722, and was the descendant of the Protestant branch of a noble French family, which emigrated to England after the revocation of the edict of Nantes. He received his education under the Bernouillis, entered the royal military college at Woolwich, and was offered the choice of a commission either in the royal artillery or corps of engineers. Preferring immediate active service, he embarked in March, 1756, as lieutenant in the 60th Regiment of Foot, for America, where, having raised above three hundred recruits in Pennsylvania and Maryland, he was ordered to form and discipline them as a corps of field artillery, which he commanded until the arrival of one of the battalions of the royal train from England. In 1757, he commanded a detachment of volunteers against the Indians who had committed depredations in the neighborhood of Schenectady and other frontier towns, surprised the chiefs, whom he made prisoners, and soon after gained their confidence so completely, that they not only were restrained from further acts of hostility, but became useful to the army, in which a corps of them continued to be employed to the end of the war. In 1758 he was engaged in the expedition against Louisbourg, where he had the good fortune to effect a landing in a violent surf, and to take from the enemy an entrenchment, by which the debarkation of the army was greatly facilitated. At this siege he was on a critical occasion ordered to the duty of an engineer, and after the capitulation he employed himself in drawing a chart on a large scale, from papers and plans obtained there, which was found very

useful in the next spring, as the navigation of the river St. Lawrence was then known only to a few Canadian pilots. At the siege of Quebec he served under Wolfe as an aide-de-camp, and was making his report when that great hero received his mortal wound, and fell dying in his arms. By the sad havoc which was made in our army in the campaign of 1759 and the ensuing winter, and in the unsuccessful battle fought by General Murray, 28th April, 1760, it was reduced to two thousand men fit for duty. The fortifications of Quebec being in a dismantled state, the preservation of what had been acquired, as well as the expectation of future conquests, seemed to rest on the operations for its actual defence. The conducting of these operations fell to Des Barres as directing engineer, and here, and subsequently in the reduction of Fort Jacques Cartier and other strong places which completed the conquest of Canada, his endeavors proved highly successful. He afterwards proceeded to Nova Scotia to assist General Bastile in making designs and estimates for fortifying Halifax. In 1762, he served as directing engineer and quarter-master-general in the expedition for retaking Newfoundland, and was honored with public thanks, as having essentially contributed to the recovery of that island. After making surveys of some of its principal harbors, he was ordered to repair to New York, to proceed on reconnoitering excursions, and report observations on the expediency of establishing a chain of military posts throughout the British colonies. In 1763 Lord Colville was instructed to employ him on the coast survey of Nova Scotia, a post in which he continued until 1773; and on his return to England in 1774, the king expressed his commendation of the manner in which his work had been performed. Previous to this, many of the fine harbors of Nova Scotia were known only to fishermen, and Sable Island was a terror to all navigators. The want of correct charts of the coast of North America, for the use of the fleet engaged in carrying on the American revolutionary war, began at this time to be felt; and on Earl Howe representing the immediate necessity of their being prepared, Des Barres was selected to adapt the surveys of Holland, De Brahm, and others, to nautical purposes. These he published in 1777, under the title of the "Atlantic Neptune," in two large folio volumes. In 1784 he was constituted governor of the Island of Cape Breton, with the military command of that and Prince Edward's Island; and soon after he commenced building the town of Sydney, and opened and worked the valuable coal fields at the entrance of the river. From his official position, he was engaged in aiding and removing the royalists from the United States after the war of the revolution. In 1804, he was appointed lieutenant-governor and commander-in-chief of Prince Edward's Island, being then in his eighty-second year. In person he was short, and at the age of ninety-five lithe and active; about which time he talked of making the tour of the United Kingdom, to which

he allotted two years; this performed, he was to commence that of Europe, which he calculated would take three years more; after which it was his intention to return to his native place, and there spend the remainder of his days. He was Captain Cook's teacher in navigation. His death occurred at Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 24th October, 1824, he being then in the one hundred and second year of his age.

MR. WILLIAM BROWN.

To exclude the name of this enterprising and industrious individual who, in conjunction with Mr. Thomas Gilmore, started the first printing press in Canada, would, to say the least be a gross act of injustice to his memory and to the Canadian press.

Nothing is known concerning these two men, except that they came from Philadelphia to Quebec in 1763, having formed the idea of starting a newspaper in this country; that innumerable difficulties beset them in their arduous undertaking, not the least of which was that Mr. Brown had to proceed to England for the proper materials-press, ink and paper; but finally overcoming all obstacles, they brought out the first number of the "Quebec Gazette*" on the 21st June, 1764, with one hundred and fifty subscribers, and thus were the means of establishing "a new and potent element of civilization."

COLONEL PAULUS

MILIUS IRVING,

WHO administered the government of Quebec after the departure of Murray in 1765, and until the arrival of Carleton, was the son of William Irving, Esquire, laird of Bonshaw, Dumfries, and born there on the 23rd September, 1714. He married Judith,

*This paper still exists, being published at Quebec by Messrs. Middleton and Dawson.

daughter of Captain William Westfield of Dover, who died 3rd May, 1793, and by whom he had issue Paulus Æmilius Irving, who joined the army, rose to the rank of general, greatly distinguished himself, and was made a baronet of the United Kingdom; and two daughters, Emelia Susannah, who married at St. George's, Hanover Square, in October, 1796, Joseph Dacre Appleby Gilpin, M.D., who was afterwards knighted; and Judith, who married LieutenantColonel John Irving of the first West India Regiment, whose daughter, Julia Frances, married Sir William Ousely, the distinguished Persian and oriental antiquarian.

Colonel P. Æ. Irving entered the army at an early period, and in September, 1759, was at the siege of Quebec, under General Wolfe, as major in command of the 15th Regiment of Foot, and was wounded on the Plains of Abraham. On the 30th June, 1765, then being commander-in-chief, he assumed the duties of president of the province of Quebec, in the absence of the Honorable James Murray; subsequently, in 1771, he was appointed lieutenant-governor of Guernsey, and afterwards governor of Upnor Castle, Kent. He died 22nd April, 1796.

GENERAL LORD DORCHESTER, K.B.

IF we owe to Wolfe a deep debt of gratitude for the brilliant achievement which added new lustre and victory to our arms, and planted the ensign of Great Britain on this glorious dependency of the empire, where he fought and bled and sacrificed a life his country could ill spare; we assuredly, also, owe much to those brave and gallant men who preserved this land when conquered, through dint of hard toil, watchful vigilance and loss. of blood and life. Yes, we are confident the majority of our readers will also coincide with our feebly expressed opinion that we are assuredly, as true and loyal Canadians, under many and deep obligations to them, and in the category which history brings under our observation, we are sure none is more entitled to be fondly and deservedly remembered than he whose name heads this brief and ill-written notice, and whose life we may say was spent in fighting for the cause of his king in this country, and in anxious thought for the welfare of this province.

Such being the case, the name of Dorchester deserves to be mentioned with the greatest eulogy and praise, for the great services he

rendered Canada in the two capacities in which he served her interests, as commander-in-chief, and as her governor and the preserver of her high destinies.

Guy Carleton, Lord Dorchester (the saviour of Quebec, as he is called) was the descendant of an ancient and honored family, which had lived in Cornwall, England, five centuries previous to the Norman conquest. He was born about the year 1725, and being destined for the army, entered its ranks after completing his studies, and speedily made his way onward in the service. He accompanied Wolfe's expedition to Canada, and was present at the first and second battles on Abraham's Plains, in both of which he displayed such skill and precision in commanding the part of the army under his command, as to leave no doubt on the minds of his superior officers that he would rise to distinction in the profession he had chosen. Being, we believe, specially mentioned in the dispatches of both Townshend and Murray, and having continued under the command of the latter, was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general. In 1767, General Murray having to proceed to England, the government of the Colony devolved on Carleton, who was much liked by the French Canadians and the English (of whom there were then few) generally. In 1770, he proceeded to England on leave of absence, and whilst there, the celebrated Quebec Act passed the Houses of Parliament, and some ascribe it in a great measure to representations he made to the home government respecting Canada, it being well known that he carried home a compiled form of the French civil laws, or Cotumes de Paris, for the consideration of the imperial authorities. In 1774, General Carleton returned to Canada, and took prompt measures to carry out the provisions of his new instructions relative to the act just passed. He had, however, little time to think or act upon this matter, for the next year the Americans, having declared their independence, entered Canada in large forces, with the hostile intention of wresting it from the hands of the English; but they made a sad mistake in their estimate of the man they had to deal with; brave and gallant, and of chivalrous courage, and yet perfectly cool and self-possessed in the greatest and most critical moments, Carleton, although with but 800 men at his disposal---all attempts to coax or coerce the natives to assist him proving fruitless at once took fmeasures to prevent the meditated attack. On the 17th September, Montgomery with his army, amounting to 2000, arrived at Isle-aux-Noix; the fall of Chambly and St. Johns followed, and Carleton, in his endeavor to succour the latter, received a check from a part of the Americans, near Longueuil, which compelled him to retreat to Montreal. Here, anticipating the intention of Montgomery to take possession of the town, he burnt and destroyed all the public and valuable stores, and left the city one way, just as the American general was entering at the other. During the night, he had a narrow escape from