Afterwards, in presence of the events of 1830, when it was necessary for the Duke of Orleans to decide either on accepting or refusing the crown, it was Madame Adelaide who acted with boldness, and pledged herself for her brother. She even offered to come to Paris the first, to share the dangers of the Parisians. Since then she did not cease to share and aid the King's high fortune.

The death of her Royal Highness will leave a void in the royal family for which no equivalent can be found. She was not merely the affectionate and beloved sister of the King, his friend, his companion, and his solacer under the many trials which he has experienced, but also a sister to the Queen in every respect. The children and grandchildren of the King, and the Princesses who, by marriage, became part of the royal family, were constant objects of affection and solicitude with Madame Adelaide, whose character was of a kind to command at once love and respect from the domestic circle. She was religious without bigotry, and her serious duties were always characterised by a benevolence as cheerful as it was expansive.

Madame Adelaide was a woman of firm and sound judgment, and of the calmest and most reflective courage. She had visited with her brother Switzerland, England, Sicily, Spain, Malta, Gibraltar, and various parts of Italy; and in her earlier days it was her habit to keep a journal, and to work, like her now Royal brother, at some trade or handicraft, by which, in case of necessity, she could obtain a living. Thus, while Louis Phillippe was as expert a maker of toys and baskets as any journeyman of Nuremberg or Amsterdam, his sister was an accomplished embroiderer and a beautiful maker of lace. She had been for many years privately married to General Baron Athalin, a Peer of France, formerly an officer in the staff of Napoleon, and now one of the aides-de-camp of the King of the French, a very scientific engineer, and one of the most accomplished draughtsmen in Europe. The annual income of her Royal Highness was near 1,800,000 francs, representing a capital of 60,000,000 francs, which, according to her will, are to be thus disposed of: -Two millions to the young Duc de Chartres, second son of the late Duc d'Orleans; ten millions to the Duc de Nemours; a million yearly to various private legacies; and the rest of her fortune between the Prince de Joinville and the Duc de Montpensier. It is said that the Princess has bequeathed to the Duc de Nemours her forests of Crecy and Armainvilliers; to the Prince de Joinville her forest of Arc, in Barrois;

and to the Duc de Montpensier her magnificent estate of Randan, with the chateau, on which she has laid out large sums in extending and embellishing.

The funeral took place at Dreux, on Wednesday the 5th Jan. The King and princes accompanied the coffin to the vault, while the Queen and princesses remained in prayer before the altar; and, before leaving the vault, his Majesty with great emotion kissed the coffin.

THE EARL OF HARROWBY. Dec. 26. At Sandon Hall, Staffordshire, aged 85, the Right Hon. Dudley Ryder, Earl of Harrowby and Viscount Sandon (1809), second Baron Harrowby, of Harrowby, co. Lincoln (1776), a Privy Councillor, High Steward of Tiverton, a Commissioner for Building Churches, a Trustee of the British Museum, a Governor of the Charter House, D.C.L., F.S.A., &c.

The Earl of Harrowby was born in London on the 22nd Dec. 1762, the eldest son of Nathaniel first Lord Harrowby, by Elizabeth, daughter and coheir of the Right Rev. Richard Terrick, Lord Bishop of London.

Since the commencement of the present century at least, there has existed in England, for the service of the state, a sufficiency of men enjoying both leisure and independent fortune; well born and well educated; of dignified bearing and fair fame; of business-like habits and competent knowledge; so far able to wield their pens as to write a despatch or even a pamphlet; so far able to use the faculty of speech as to deliver a fluent harangue; discreet enough in council to support no gross folly, and honest enough in public to defend no flagrant crime; judicious in the choice and vigorous in the support of a political leader. Neither bigoted to ancient practice nor attracted by rash innovation, they pursue the even tenour of their ways in Parliament, in Downingstreet, in the colonies, or in the diplomatic service-performing the duties assigned to them, as good men should, for the honour of the Crown and the advantage of the country. Of this class was Dudley Ryder, first Earl of Harrowby.

Having taken the degree of M.A. at Cambridge, in 1782, as a member of St. John's college, he came into Parliament as member for the family borough of Tiverton, at the general election of 1784, being then in the 22nd year of his age.

The first office conferred on him was that of Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, in Aug. 1789, the Duke of Leeds being then at the head of that department; but early in the following year Mr. Ryder resigned this situation, in or

for any purpose of personal aggrandize ment. Eventually he attained those objects which we must presume entered very largely into the motives that induced him to exchange the ease and independence and tranquillity of a private station for the "pains and penalties" of public life. On the 20th of July, 1809, he was raised to the dignity of an earl by the titles of Earl of Harrowby, in the county of Lincoln, and Viscount Sandon, in the county of Stafford.

In the course of the next year he published a well-written pamphlet on the augmentation of the poorer class of church benefices, and suggested a mode of effecting that object without encroaching on the rights of property or increasing the public burdens; and in 1811 he made a speech in the House of Lords, the substance of which he afterwards published as a pamphlet. The subject of this brochure was a grant of 100,000l. for the relief of the poorer clergy. Again, in 1812, he brought forward a bill for the better support of stipendiary curates; but, owing to the opposition of the law lords and some of the bishops, it proved necessary to postpone that measure till the following session, when it became law. It is well understood that its operation tended greatly to improve the condition of curates serving under non-resident incumbents; and it is generally considered that this "Curates' Act," which is known by his Lordship's name, has tended more than any other statute of modern times to raise the character of the church, and to enable the great religious establishment of this country to withstand the hostility by which, often, since the passing of Lord Harrowby's Act, it has been unsparingly assailed.

When the death of Mr. Perceval, in 1812, led to the formation of the Liverpool ministry, the dignified office of President of the Council was conferred upon his Lordship, which situation he continued to hold until Lord Goderich (afterwards Earl of Ripon) became head of the Government. The first three years of Lord Liverpool's ministry were devoted to the task of bringing the war to a conclusion; and for a considerable time afterwards their chief occupation' consisted in mitigating the transition from war to peace, counteracting the effects of a paper currency, of a cycle of bad harvests, and of a long-continued want of employment for the working classes. The currency, however, was that subject to which Lord Harrowby's attention became more particularly directed; when a committee, therefore, was appointed by the Lords in 1819, the noble Earl was placed at its head. He, of course, prepared its report; and that

important document has often, since then, been referred to as a work of no incon.

siderable authority. The Government, having disposed of this and other questiones vexate, were next called upon to deal with a fresh and formidable undertaking in the shape of a bill "of pains and penalties" against Queen Caroline. Lord Harrowby, as a member of the Administration, supported this measure; but he strenuously opposed the divorce clause.

On the 23d Feb. 1820, a cabinet dinner was to have taken place at the mansion of Lord Harrowby in Grosvenor-square: when the atrocious plot to assassinate the assembled ministers was discovered, it was generally believed from the communications of a man who seemed casually to meet his Lordship in the Park. This was called the Cato-street conspiracy; from a place near the Edgware-road, where Thistlewood and his colleagues were found assembled in a hay-loft.

Of Lord Harrowby's life either in public or in private very little more remains to be recorded. Every one recollects that during the ministry of Lord Liverpool the Roman Catholic claims were regarded as an open question." Of this Lord Harrowby availed himself, and generally supported a measure of relief. Though he had been through life a zealous member of the church of England, he did not oppose, but on the contrary supported, a repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts. On the 17th Aug. 1827, the Duke of Portland kissed hands as President of the Council, and the Earl of Harrowby finally retired from the service of the Crown For some years afterwards he continued to attend the House of Peers, and occasionally to assist in its deliberations by delivering, with his usual good sense and good taste, a few of those just and appropriate remarks by which his speeches in early life were usually characterized. But gradually his attendances became less frequent; at length he began to vote by proxy, and finally was "no more seen in the senate house." Full twenty years have elapsed since his Lordship withdrew from public life to that dignified leisure which he had earned by a career of useful activity, to that repose which the infirmities of advancing years demanded, and to those opportunities for reflection and retrospect which all men desire to enjoy towards the close of their earthly existence.

The Earl of Harrowby married, on the 30th July, 1795, Lady Susan LevesonGower, sixth daughter of Granville first Marquess of Stafford, and by that lady, who died on the 20th May, 1838, he had issue four sons and five daughters: 1. Susan Viscountess Ebrington, married in

and kindly affections-in whom the tenderest feelings were blended with that firmness of purpose and sincerity of principle which are often found associated with gentleness and simplicity. He had ever the strongest reluctance to pass sentence of death; and, whenever duty compelled the stern discharge, he has been seen to shed tears, and often sob aloud in open court. Many will remember his sentence on O'Connell, at the close of the state trials, and the deep emotion he displayed on that occasion. Mr. O'Connell always regarded him as the most constitutional judge on the Irish bench. In the language of Addison, on another great lawyer-His life was in every part set off with that graceful modesty and reserve, which made his virtues more apparent the more they were cast in such agreeable shades. His great humanity appeared in the minutest circumstances. You found it in the benevolence of his aspect, the complacency of his behaviour, and the tone of his voice. His character was uniform and consistent with itself, and his whole conduct was of a piece. His principles were founded on reason, and his notions were no less steady and unshaken than just and upright; and that unwearied diligence which followed him through all the stages of life gave him such a profound insight into the laws of the land, that even from his first appearance in it he passed for one of its greatest masters.' We may add as an illustration of the esteem and confidence reposed in Judge Burton by his friend and patron Curran, that he named him one of his executors."-(Freeman's Journal.)

COLONEL E. S. MERCER.

Dec. 24. At the Royal Marine Barracks, Stonehouse, Colonel Edward Smith Mercer, Colonel Commandant of the Plymouth division of Royal Marines.

Colonel Mercer entered the corps on the 25th of March, 1797; became First Lieutenant, July, 1803; Captain, Sept. 22, 1810; brevet Major, July 22, 1830; Lieutenant-Colonel, July 10, 1837; Colonel, Feb. 12, 1842. He belonged to the Topaz when she engaged two French frigates off Corfu, and served in her boats in cutting out several armed vessels at Santa Maura, in 1809, and also in Albania, in various cutting-out expeditions.

On the 1st Jan. his body was removed to the Royal William Victualling-yard, Stonehouse, preparatory to shipment for the family burial-ground at Lisburne, in the north of Ireland. The Commanderin-Chief of the Western District, General Murray, required the attendance of all officers in garrison off duty at the time.

Two clergymen, with Drs. Yonge and Millar, preceded the body. The pall bearers were Captain Sir Henry J. Leeke, R.N.; Captain Superintendent Toup Nicholas; Colonel Barlow, 14th Regt.; Colonel Creagh, 81st Regt.; and four other officers of similar rank. The Colonel's body was drawn on a 12-pounder gun-carriage by four black horses, and followed by his charger bearing his boots and spurs.

Three of the Colonel's sons were chief mourners; one of them is an officer of the 94th Regt., one in the Royal Artillery, and the third in the Royal Marines. Immediately after came a number of officers of all ranks, in full uniform.

COLONEL PEEBLES.

Jan. 3. At Woolwich, Colonel Thomas Peebles, who succeeded to be second in command of the Woolwich division of Royal Marines.

Col. Peebles had seen considerable service, having been in action with Spanish gun-boats in the Gut of Gibraltar in 1799, and in recapturing the Lady Nelson cutter by the boats of the Queen Charlotte. He was at the blockade of Malta in 1800, at the capture of Admiral Perrée's squadron, and on board the Queen Charlotte when that ship was burnt off Leghorn on the 17th March, 1800. He debarked in command of the marines of the Santa Theresa and Mutine in a successful attack on the town of Finale, and relief of the Austrian garrison; and was at the storming of the Prima Galley (on the night of the 20th of May), chained to the mole-head batteries of Genoa; he was on board the Minotaur, at the capture of Le Pax and Esmeralda, Spanish ships, under the batteries of Barcelona, 1801; was wounded in the Caroline's boats, off Ivica, in action with a French zebeck and Spanish packet, but continued to serve at the blockade of Leghorn. He was with the blockading fleets of Brest, Rochfort, and Cadiz, and was frequently engaged in boat-actions on those coasts. In 1805, when on board the Blanche, in the West Indies, he was severely wounded in an action with a French squadron under Commodore Baudine. He served subsequently in the West Indies, in the Archipelago, and for several years in the staff as adjutant and deputy judge-advocate, and had the gratification of receiving a reward from the Patriotic Fund.

Colonel Peebles's period of service amounted to forty-six years and a half on full pay, and one year and one month on half-pay, having entered as Second-Lieu. tenant on the 12th June, 1799; was promoted to First-Lieutenant Aug. 18, 1804;