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depredations of the privateers, many of which have been captured by him.

Sir Alexander formerly represented the Scotch district of boroughs, consisting of Dumferline, Stirling, Inverkeithing, Culross, and Queensferry in 1801; he was included in the double return to the second Imperial Parliament (Nov. 12, IS02), the votes having been apparently equal, and on a reference to a committee, he was declared duly elected, while his rival, Sir John Henderson, was foiled. He triumphed, however, in his turn, in 1806, notwithstanding a petition from Sir Alexander and others.

In 1783, the Admiral married Lady Wheate, widow of Sir Jacob, by whom he has had issue three sons and two daughters. One of the former, like the father, was bred in the navy, and is now a post captain. Having been annoyed, while cruising off Porto Rico, by a small fort, he sent his first lieutenant on shore, who stormed and took it, soon after which the powder magazine blew up.

4. THE HON. A. C. JOHNSTONE. THIS gentleman, who is the fourth brother of the Earl of Dundonald, was born about the year 1750, and bred to the profession of arms. While a major, he became a candidate, and was returned for the boroughs of Inverkeithing, Dumferline, &c. to the seventeenth parliament of Great Britain, con

voked in 1790. In 1793 he married Lady Georgiana, a daughter of the Earl of Hopetoun, by whom he had a daughter. On this occasion he assumed the addendum of Johnstone, obtained the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the army, and was appointed governor of the island of Dominica in the West Indies. On this he resigned his seat in parliament, and a new writ was ordered March 31, 1797.

At that period the war with France, the exertions of that country in the West Indies, and what was still more dreadful to the English planters, the total abolition of slavery, by order of the new republic, rendered the situation of the island alluded to above, not a little critical.

Dominica is so situate as to be commanded both by Martinico and Guadaloupe, and when it is recollected that the negroes in this little mountain ous colony, then amounted to twenty thousand, it will be allowed, that a large quantity of combustible materials had been collected within a very narrow space..

Governor Bruce, actuated by a very a very commendable policy, had sent a message by an old femalɛ slave, to the celebrated Farcelle, a French negro, who had fled to the woods, whither he had been joined by many runaways, &c. The late chief justice Matson, while president of the council, insisted on keeping the public faith unsullied with this chief, who, having been allured by the most solemn promises from the fastnesses, in consequence

of this interposition, at length obtained certain lands according to the stipulations agreed to.

During the residence of Governor Johnstone, however, this capitulation is said to have been once more violated,* in consequence of which, Farcelle was sent out of the island; but this, we believe, was with the full and entire consent of the representative body, which we have been told immediately seized on the lands recently granted.

During this gentleman's stay at Dominica, he had some disputes with the assembly, which is said to have transmitted a petition to the King and Council against him; but we believe he was recalled, not on this account, but in consequence of a mutiny in the West India regiment commanded by him.

Freviously to his return, he formed a matrimonial alliance with a rich Creolian heiress, Mademoiselle Clugny Guadet, daughter of the late Baron Clugny, and nearly related to the consort of Bonaparte, who possessed several large plantations in the neighbouring island of Martinico. Soon after his departure, the marriage was formally dissolved by the simple fiat of the French governor, in consequence, no doubt, of orders from home, and immediately on his arrival in England, the subject of this

* It had been stipulated, on the part of this unhappy man, who was unfortunately a French negro, that he should hunt down, reclaim, and return all runaway slaves to their masters; but being upwards of sixty years of age, he was perhaps unable to perform

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brief memoir was tried on certain charges before a court martial assembled at Chelsea Hospital. On this occasion, the colonel is allowed to have acquitted himself with great ability, both in the crossexamination of the witnesses, and in the speech made before the military tribunal just alluded to. None of the charges having been proved by the prosecutor, he was, of course, honorably acquitted." Nothwithstanding this, he was deprived of his battalion, &c. which was deemed a grievance by the public in general, partly on account of his own representation in a spirited pamphlet, and partly in consequence of the animadversions of Mr. Cobbett, who attacked a personage in a high military situation, on that account.

Meanwhile, Mr. Cochrane Johnstone loudly and repeatedly protested against his exclusion, and after having, as has been said, solicited two hundred members of the former parliament in vain, to present a petition to the House of Commons, Mr. Whitbread undertook that office, but without effect.

Meanwhile, the late cabinet having been dissolved, and a general election taking place, the ex-governor,* accompanied by his brother,† presented himself to the electors of Grampound, who

The Hon. G. A. Cochrane, was formerly lieutenant-colonel of the 87th regiment of foot. Another brother (Basil) has lately returned from India, with an immense fortune.

Several of the electors of Grampound first applied to Sir Francis Burdett, who declined to become a candidate: they then begged him to recommend two of his friends.

had determined to assert their independence. Accordingly, after a struggle which is said to have been accompanied with an expence but little greater than the cost of a corporation dinner, they polled twenty-seven votes each, to thirteen on the part of Messrs. Parry and Williams, and were returned by the proper officer.

In August, 1807, the colonel spoke in favour of an enquiry into the situation of Ireland; but what chiefly attracted the public attention, was a variety of motions relative to the sale of commissions, the state of the compassionate fund, &c. which were considered as prefatory to an appeal relative to the hardship of his own particular case; but this, in consequence of circumstances wholly unconnected with it, has never since been either argued or decided upon.

In 1807, the ex-governor returned to the West Indies, where he possesses a considerable property.

GOVERNOR CLINTON.

IT has been frequently observed, that in political contests the lawyers have always been the foremost in the race of freedom. Whether this proposition be granted or not, certain it is, that the fact was fully exemplified in America. At the commencement of the colonial war, the tyro and the prac titioner, the youth as yet ungowned, and the barrister grown hoary in practice, rushed with equal