ANTHONY HAMILTON.*
Miss Barra Crean—a young Scottish historian who, like many other scholars of her nation, has been encouraged in her researches by the Carnegie Trust—has produced a most competent and attractive study of Anthony Hamilton, the clever Irishman of Scottish extraction who fought for Louis XIV. and wrote, in the name of his brother-in-law, the well-known Mentoires de Grammont with its inimitable if not exactly edifying pictures of the court of Charles the Second. Anthony Hamilton was born about the year 1645, probably in Tyrone, where his grand- father, the Earl of Abercorn, had formed a Scottish colony a generation before. Anthony's father, Sir George Hamilton, had married a sister of the great Duke of Ormonde and had a large family. After Cromwell's reconquest of Ireland, Sir George Hamilton, being a stout Royalist and also a Roman Catholic, felt it expedient to retire to France, whither his brother- in-law Ormonde had preceded him. Anthony, who was then six years old, received a French education and had become thoroughly French when the Restoration enabled his family to return home. His father had done much secret service for the exiled King and was duly rewarded ; his brothers, James and George, were among the gayest cavaliers of the restored Court of Whitehall. His clever and handsome sister Elizabeth married in 1663 the popular French adventurer, the Chevalier de Gramont —whose name, by the way, is persistently misspelt in the memoirs. " La belle Gramont," one of the most engaging of Lely's " Hampton Court Beauties," was courted by two Dukes and other English aristocrats, but she preferred the middle-aged, ugly, and impoverished Chevalier and went with him to Paris in 1664. It is conjectured that Anthony Hamilton served with his brother George in the Royal Guards and that he was dis- missed, with George, in 1667 when the Guards were purged of all Papists. It is certain that Anthony, as well as George, took service with the French King, who was quick to enlist the ex- Guardsmen in a new regiment of " Gendarmes Anglais." In 1671 George was allowed, by virtue of the secret Treaty of Dover, to raise a regiment for Louis in Ireland, and in this Regiment d'Hamilton Anthony served under his brother's command. They fought in the Dutch War and then on the Rhine under Turenne, and at intervals visited Ireland to get recruits with the connivance of the court. George. Hamilton was with Turenne when that great general was killed by a stray cannon-shot in July, 1675. George himself fell a year later in Alsace, while in command of the French rear-guard which was attacked by large Imperialist forces. Louis XIV. disbanded the Regiment d'Hamilton and his three English and Scottish regiments in 1678, and Anthony then went home to Ireland.
When James II. came to the throne, Anthony and his brother Richard, who had served with great distinction in France, shared the favour accorded to Irish Roman Catholics. Anthony took a commission in an Irish regiment and was appointed Governor of Limerick, where he proclaimed his religion by officially attending Mass. When James sought to strengthen his position in England by importing Irish troops, Richard Hamilton became Major-General of the royal army and Anthony commanded a regiment. William of Orange's sudden arrival in Torbay put an end to these Roman Catholic dreams, the army collapsed, and Richard Hamilton was captured. Sir William Temple's son John now proposed that Richard should be sent as a mediator to Tyrconnel, to persuade him to recognize William. Richard went willingly enough, but when he reached Ireland he encouraged Tyrconnel to take up arms for James. The unlucky John Temple was so mortified by the treachery of his Irish friend that he drowned himself or, as a contemporary said, " he took occasion by water to go into another world." Richard Hamilton as Lieutenant-General of a large but disorderly Irish army was sent to capture Derry, and failed miserably.
• Anthony Hamilton (Author of " Memoirs of Count Gramound"). his Life and Works and his Family. By Ruth Clark. London; Lane. pls. net.) Anthony, who had also escaped to Ireland and had become a Major-General, moved with his colleague Macarthy against Enniskillen. He showed some courage at Lisnaskea, where the Protestants of Enniskillen ambushed the Jacobites ; but he was wounded and his dragoons would not charge. Later the same day, when the Protestants again attacked, Anthony and his dragoons fled, leaving the foot to be destroyed. At the Boyne Richard Hamilton was wounded and captured, while Anthony led the Irish horse in their hurried retreat upon Dublin. Richard, distrusted by both sides, was the subject of the well- known anecdote. When he was taken, William asked him whether the Jacobites would still fight, to which he replied : "Upon my honour, I believe they will." " Your honour, your honour ! " muttered William. Anthony went to Limerick, but he was so much disliked by the Irish officers that he thought it best to retire to France. At the instance of Madame de Gramont, Richard was soon exchanged for Lord Mountjoy, then a prisoner in the Bastile, and the two brothers became members of the little court of Saint-Germain, where James II. dragged out his closing years. Through their sister, Madame de Gramont, who despite her Jansenist leanings was a favourite with Louis XIV., the Hamiltons were well received at Versailles. Anthony solaced his enforced exile with literature. He wrote elaborate letters, in the manner of his day, to his eminent friends like the Duke of Berwick. He turned neat verses for the amusement of the court ladies. He composed a few satirical fairy-tales to please his friends. He also wrote the alleged memoirs of his brother-in-law, and these alone were printed in his own lifetime. In his closing years he made some religious verse and, having survived both his royal masters and most of his associates, he died in 1719 at Saint-Germain.
Hamilton's masterpiece, the Memoires de Grammont, is dis- cussed in a very able chapter by Miss Clark. It is almost certain that the Chevalier, before his death in 1707, helped the author to compile the memoirs. They were circulated in manuscript as early as 1712, and were published anonymously in 1713, with the Cologne imprint, though the book was possibly printed at Rouen. Saint-Simon thought that the Chevalier, whom he detested, had really written the memoirs ; Hamilton's authorship was known to few till after his death. It is interesting to be reminded of Madame Necker's remark that three books were characteristi- cally French—Madame de Sevigne'sLetters,La Fonts ine's Fablee, and the "Unwires de Grammont, although Hamilton was an Irishman. Miss Clark helps us to realize the great literary influence exerted by the book in the age of Voltaire and Diderot, and also to comprehend its significance. As she says, Hamilton's contemporaries did not draw a hard and fast line between history and fiction. They liked memoirs which were in part fictitious, and historical romances which were in part true. Moreover, the severity of the censorship compelled authors to veil political allusions under a romantic disguise, which their readers could easily penetrate. Miss Clark records a large number of French historical novels, published between 1670 and 1705, which dealt more or less fantastically with English history. Hamilton was following the French fashion of his day in writing memoirs and in devoting his attention to the English court. It is idle to regard him as an exact historian ; he disclaimed any intention of being one. But he was not a mere romancer, for he had known the people of whom he wrote, and his general descriptions of English manners and his estimates of character were based on personal observation. It would be unsafe to cite him as a witness for any particular episode, but his testimony as to the ways of the Restoration court is essentially true. Although Charles IL and his Ministers were shrewder men than they are commonly thought to have been, their moral standards were low. Pepys and Evelyn agree with Hamilton on that point. Hamilton's witty and cynical picture of a scandalous society was immensely popular throughout the eighteenth century. Voisenon thought that one ought to re-read Hamilton every year. Horace Walpole was an ardent admirer of the memoirs. Macaulay probably knew them by heart. Thackeray made full use of them in Esmond. Time has dulled Hamilton's scandals, but his portraits and his epigrammatic comments are still amusing. The innkeeper, " Swiss by nationality, poisoner by profession, and thief by habit," and the old aristocrat, " great at genealogy like all fools who have a good memory," are only two out of many characters whom Hamilton hits off in a terse and un- forgettable phrase. Miss Clark has done justice to a clever man in her scholarly and entertaining book.
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