Memoirs of the Earls of Granard. By Admiral the Hon.
John
Forbes. Edited by George Arthur Hastings, Earl of Granard. (Long- mans.)—The Earl of Granard publishes in this volume a MS. which has been in the possession of his family for about seventy years. The writer was a brave sailor, not without some literary tastes, who distinguished himself in the Spanish and French wars of the eighteenth century, rising finally to the dignity of Admiral of the Fleet. He died in 179G. For many years he was one of the Lords of the Admiralty, and in that capacity distinguished himself by protesting against the execution of the unfortunate Byng. He tells the story of his family from the time of their settlement in Ireland in a plain, manly style, which is occasion-
ally enlivened by a grave humour. The Granards are descended from
one Sir Arthur Forbes, a cadet of the noble Scotch family of that name, on whom James I. bestowed certain Irish estates, and afterwards a Nova Scotian baronetcy. He seems to have had no little of the peVelvidum ingenium of his countrymen, for after a life spent in fighting, be was killed in a duel at Hamburgh, where he was serving under Gustavus Adolphus, being then seventy-three years of age. The most distinguished of his descendants was George, third Earl of Granard, father of the writer of this memoir. The Earl was a sailor by profession, and saw some service, but the most important events of his life were his diplo- matic employments. In 1733 he went as Ambassador to the Court of Russia. Some of his experiences there are sufficiently amusing; as, for instance, when we are told that the Russian Court, affronted at an expression used by the King of Spain in one of his proclamations, pro- posed to avenge itself by throwing the Spanish Resident out of window, a purpose which would probably have been carried out if the English Ambassador had not warned the intended victim of his danger. This book is an interesting one, and gives some curious and valuable illustrations of history.
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