THE LATE LORD BLANTYRE.
Tins amiable and lamented nobleman, who met his death so tragically at Brussels, was born at Edinburgh in the year 1775. He lost his father when he was only eight years of age ; but happily this loss was in a great measure supplied by the tender and enlightened care of a most ex- cellent mother, who spared no pains nor expense to give her children the best education, as well as to train them in the ways of religion and vir- tue. ' And in reward of her exertions, she had the satisfaction, before her death, of seeing them rise to a high degree of respectability,—three
out of four sons in particular (a thing which seldom occurs in any one family), having, after much severe and meritorious service in different parts of the world, attained the rank of Major-General ; in which cha- racter they were presented together at a levee held by his late Majesty, to whom Lord B. was well known, on his visit to Scotland. After com- pleting his education at Cambridge, his Lordship entered the army in the 19th year of his age ; and so eagerly did he press forward to acquire, in scenes of danger, the experience that might enable him to serve his country with success and honour, that he repeatedly sold out of one regiment and bought into another at a considerable sacrifice of money ; and in one instance (the expedition to Holland in 1799) of rank also, with a view to be present in active service. He was long aide-de-camp to General FRASER in Portugal; he served, as just stated, in the ill- fated expedition to Holland; he was chosen aide-de-camp by General Sir CHARLES STUART in the prospect of that expedition to Egypt the command of which afterwards devolved on Sir RALPH ABERCROMBIE ; and when the British troops were withdrawing from that country, he accompanied Sir JOHN STUART, who afterwards acquired such cele- brity at Maida, on his being sent there for the purpose of making the final arrangements necessary on that occasion ; after which he went on a special mission to Constantinople. In 1807 he accompanied the expe- dition to the Baltic, and in 1809 he joined the army in Spain under Lord WELLINGTON with his regiment, the second battalion of the Forty-second, in a high state of discipline ; and there he continued to command it (and not unfrequently the brigade of which it was a part), for about three years, having been present in the battle of Bunco, of Fuentes d'Onore, where he was honourably mentioned, in Lord WELLING- Toles dispatch, as having repulsed a regiment of cavalrythat had broken in upon the British infantry; at the siege of Badajos, and in almost all the hard service of that period, till the once powerful and fine-looking body of men which he commanded, was reduced to a mere skeleton. And, to show the sense which the Commander-in-Chief had of his merits, we may add, that a public order of thanks of the most flattering kind was issued to him and his regiment on his leaving the Peninsula. After such severe and long-continued service, especially when a per- son of his rank and fortune had cheerfully renounced domestic ease and comfort to perform it, and had performed it gallantly, it was expected by his friends that some mark of honour would have been conferred on him, corresponding to his merits. It happened however to him, as it does to many other brave officers who do not traffic in parliamentary in- terest, and are too high-minded to be for ever proclaiming their own merits personally or by their friends in the ear of power. The only reward which he received, was his being placed, on the new modification of the Order of the Bath, in a humble situation among the Knights Companions ; whilst dozens who were junior officers, and had not seen one fiftieth part of his service, were made Knights Commanders, or otherwise preferred to him. On this subject, however, he always pre- served a dignified silence; and it is but justice to the present Adminis- tration, several of whom knew well his merits as a soldier, to say, that, in lately offering him the command of the forces in Scotland, they have shown their willingness-to make amends for the neglet t.
On his return from Spain he lived retired as a country gentleman,
attending chiefly to the improvement of his estates, t.0 year 1819, when symptoms of insubordination having shown themselves widely in the manufacturing districts of Scotland, he was solicited by Lord LIVER.. POOL'S administration to take upon him the office of Lord. Lieutenant of Benfrevishiie. But, as he differed somewhat in political opinion from that administration, and was at, the same time in delicate health, and un. fortunately averse, from a sort of constitutional shyness, allied to the most amiable sensibility, to public appearances, he at first declined the office. Being, however, pressed by Lord LIVERPOOL, who repeatedly wrote to him with his own hand, he at length consented to accept of it ; but on the express condition that his doing so was in no respect to compromise his political independence. And what signal service he rendered to his country, when he did enter on the discharge of his duties as Lord Lieutenant, is well known, and will long be gratefully remembered in that part of Scotland where he lived ; for it was chiefly owing to his firm and dignified, but at the same time cool and conciliatory conduct, that the county of Renfrew, and especially the town of Paisley, were saved from being the scenes of amfusion and bloodshed. Of this, indeed, as well as of the general excellence of his character, no better proof can be given than the unanimous resolution, adopted at a numerous meeting of the county, held last week on purpcise, to erect a monument to his memory. In his political opinions Lord BLANTYRE rather leaned to the side of opposition, but at the same time he never allowed any political bias to influence his vote, which was frankly given to whatsoever candidate he thought most fit to represent the Scottish peerage. lie was himself elected one of their representatives, during the administration of Lords Grenville and Grey. The Scottish peers of that day met in Holyrood. house, and, by votes and proxies, solemnly elected sixteen of their num- ber, of which he was one, as fittest to represent them in Parliament.. But a few months after, the Ministry being changed, and Parliament dissolved, they met again in Holyrood-house, and elected sixteen peers perfectly different, with the exception of two, who were not perhaps in.. tractable, as their representatives ; and from that moment the effect pro.. duced upon a mind of such high and independent feeling as Lord ELAN. TYRE'S, was such, that, although often solicited to become again a candi- date for the representation, and with a certain prospect of success if he had done so, he never would consent to it.
In addition to his claims as a public character, this lamented noble- man was highly distinguished for the virtues of nriwate life. His affec- tionate and exemplary conduct, as a son, a brother, a husband, and a. father ; the excellence of his character, founded on religions principle, and the warm sensibilities of his heart, united as they were in him with a peculiar elegance and sweetness of manner ; and his delicate attentions to every one, but chiefly to those who needed most to be encouraged and brought into notice, endeared him to his relations and friends, and mader him an object of pre-eminent respect wherever he was known.
In 1813, soon after his return from Spain, he married an amiable young lady, the grand-daughter of the late Admiral Lord RODNEY, with whom be continued to live in a state of the greatest domestic comfort. and happiness, and by whom he had an interesting family of nine child- ren; the youngest, twins, being born only three months before his un- timely death. Having paid a visit to Scotland, as soon as he could after the birth of these infant, (the object of which was chiefly to accelerate the finishing of his new and elegant mansion at Erskine, on the Clyde, with a view to his taking up his residence in it next summer.)). he had
just returned to Brussels as the Dutch troops were approaching it, and found himself again in the bosom of his family, who, as may well be sup- posed, at that time of general alarm, received him with the most cordial• welcome, and clung to him as their guardian angel. But alas l he had not time to remove them to a place of safety ; and on the morning of the- 23d of September, having gone to a window in an upper room of his house, and at a time when no danger was apprehended, to look out for
an instant on the Dutch troops who were advancing through the Rue Royale into the Park, he was struck in the neck by a musket-ball, fired obliquely from the corner of the Park, which divided the carotid artery*, and, by the effusion of blood which it caused, deprived him in a few mo- ments of his life, his family of its affectionate guardian, and society of one- of its brightest ornaments.
It has been generally said, that Lord BLANTYRE was killed by a random shot. The fact was otherwise. The shot which killed him was discharged by a Dutch soldier, in the wantonness of power, and without' provocation (for, at that time, as eye-witnesses can abundantly testify,• there was no firing from any house in the Rue Royale, nor resistance offered by the few citizens who -were falling back in front of them)—not with the aim, it may be, of killing Lord BLANTYRE, but most certainly•
with the aim of killing the individual who was seen looking out of a window in his house. And, in this respect, the act was quite of a piece with the whole conduct of the Dutch officers and soldiers during their attack on Brussels. No sooner did they enter the Rue Royale, than they seemed to consider every person who was not in their own ranks, and who presumed to look at them from a door, window, or round the corner of a street, as a rebel, and levelled at him accordingly : and when they had reached the Park, instead of boldly attempting, like the Garde Royale at Paris, with Marmont at their head, though engaged in a bad cause, to penetrate into the city, and scour the streets, at all hazards, they hid themselves behind trees, and in the vast excavations or hollows on the south side of it; and there, like true cowards,they continued to fire under shelter, for four days, upon the only part of Brussels that lay directly within their reach, without compromising their personal safety; and that was precisely the finest part of it, and the part, too, inhabited by the best friends of the Government, the most respectable English and Belgian families. And when, at length, they were forced out of their lurking-places into a disgraceful retreat, they wreaked the vengeanceof
their disappointmenton every thing that came in their way. A glance of the eye, or the least inquiry, might have satisfied them, that Lord BLAN..
TYRE'S house was inhabited by some family of note ; but to this they paid no attention. On the contrary, being a corner house, in the street opposite the great gate in the middle of the Park, was more open to their attack than most others ; and, of course, they directed their fire parti- cularly towards that quarter, and continued it through the whole day, after he was killed ; while-his poor lady, now a desolate widow, absorbed in the depths of her grief, and heedless of every sort of danger; was sitting by the body, from which she could not be removed, wi hin reach of their shot. Nos was this all : for next morning, after a
friend (whose house, on-* other side of the Park, had Wen turned'. into a sort of headquartei) had proceeded under an escort, which' he had procured from the Dutch officers, and• with the permission of the citizens, to Lord BLANTYRE'S place of residence, to ascer- tain the state of his family, and bad on his return reported that the husband and father, a nobleman and a soldier, was lying a corpse, and his poor family in the deepest affliction, they renewed their fire upon it, and continued to fire for four hours, till the family, by the kind exer- tions of one of the citizens, were taken though a back window, by a ladder, (a cannon-ball having penetrated the apartments just as the last was escaping), and conveyed to the cellars of a neighbouring house. And let it be remembered that, during all this time, the citizens offered no provocation to the Dutch, by either entering or firing from Lord BLasr- TYRE'S house. On the contrary, they respected his family, and know. ing what had happened, they considered that abode of affliction to be sa- cred ; and no one ever attempted to enter it until the family were re- moved. If therefore WILLIAM the First has lost his claim to the fair provinces of Belgium (as we doubt not he has for e(es), we must add that he has most richly deserved it ; for a more highly impolitic, barbarous, and cowardly attack than that made on the city of Brussels, under his auspices, is not on the records of modern warfare.
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