CHAPTER XVII. "O amor! O nascens belli virtutibus heros! ELEGY ON JOHN EARL OF CRAWFORD. "When young, I boldly drew my sword In my sold country's cause, and now in age, Unable to relieve, lament-deplore." JAMES EARL OF BALCARRES. "A memorable age, Which did to him assign a pensive lot, To linger 'mid the last of those bright clouds WORDSWORTH. SECTION I EARL Colin was succeeded by his eldest surviving son, Alexander Master of Balcarres, described in his brother's memoirs as " tall and strong, beautiful and indefatigable, of a cheerful and benevolent spirit, he seemed to love, and was justly beloved by all men for his integrity, vivacity, and goodness. He had entered the army at an early age, and served in Lord Orkney's regiment in Flanders from 1707 to the end of the war, was in all the battles and most of the sieges during that time, was wounded at the siege of St. Venant, and was looked upon by all as an active, intrepid, and skilful officer."—A spirited reply of his is still remembered and cited in illustration of his character. A portion of the British army, in which he had a command, besieging a town in Flanders, was in its turn threatened by a superior force. Voting under these circumstances for perseverance in the siege, he was asked, “What then have we to retreat upon?"—" Upon Heaven!” was his reply, and they ultimately took the town.* The smooth and * Information from the Right Rev. Bishop Low. lofty brow, contrasting, in his portrait, with the stern, haughty, compressed lip-the ideal with the practical struggle of life-the one all inspiration, the other defiance-bear witness to this character, and remind one of the early likeness of Dante.-"He was. in Ireland with his regiment," continues Earl James, "at the time his father and brother were in the rebellion, which made him lose all hope of favour or preferment in the army; he came home, and married Miss Elizabeth Scott, daughter of Scotstarvet,*a woman of uncommon merit and virtue, who loved him and his family, and was beneficent to it even after he was dead." The only one of his letters (with the exception of the last he ever penned) that I have been fortunate enough to discover, affords an instance of the affection with which she concurred with her husband in comforting his aged parent on some occasion when his mind had been painfully agitated by the difficulties that loyalty had entailed on his family. "It was heavy to me," he writes, "to see my dear father so uneasy when I parted with you; let me beg of you that you'll be a little easier, and be persuaded that there is nothing in my power shall be wanting to contribute to your ease and quiet, and that it will be the greatest pleasure of my life to make yours as agreeable as I can, which both nature and gratitude oblige me to."-He proceeds to entreat him, when in want of money during his absence, to apply to his wife for it as readily as he would to himself, and to spare his shyness by communicating his wishes (which she was prepared to comply with) through "the Bishop,"t-a reverend friend, then domiciled at Balcarres, whose sacred character would, alone, have ensured him a welcome in those days of persecution.—“ For God's sake, my dear father," he concludes, "take care of yourself, as you regard the satisfaction of your children—and I may with safety say never son had more kindness for a father, or [with] more reason, than I have,-all the blessings of heaven and earth be with my dear father!" Earl Alexander needed the philosophy of a Christian to lighten the difficulties into which the reverses of former years had plunged his family. His estates were deeply involved, and, preferment in the army being closed against the son and brother of a rebel, it was not till the year 1732 that he attained the highest military The Bishop of Glasgow, I believe. * In 1718. rank he ever enjoyed, a company in the foot-guards. Two years afterwards he was chosen one of the sixteen representatives of the Scottish peerage, an honour he did not long live to enjoy, being I called from this world to a better in 1736. He, too, had a friend-one whom his father's mother would have deemed worthy of that sacred title-one whose name is associated with all that is excellent and amiable-Duncan Forbes of Culloden, the well-known Lord President of the Court of Session, by whom the following letters were received shortly after * "Duncan Forbes," says Lord Woodhouselee, "was in all respects one of the most eminent men of his time. His learning was extensive and profound, reaching even to the Oriental languages; and he had that acuteness and subtilty of parts which is peculiarly fitted to the nice discriminations of the law, but which was always regulated in him by the prevailing principles of his nature, probity, candour, and a strong sense of the beauty of virtue and moral excellence. . . In the eloquence of the bar Forbes outshone all his contemporaries; for he united to great knowledge of jurisprudence a quickness of comprehension that discovered to him at once the strong ground of argument which he was to press, or the weakness of the doctrine which he wished to assail. When raised to the presidency of the court, the vigour of his intellect, his patience in the hearing of causes, his promptitude in the despatch of business, the dignity of his deportment, and, above all, the known probity and integrity of his mind, gave the highest weight to the decisions of that tribunal over which he presided. When to these qualifications we add an extensive acquaintance with human nature, acquired and improved in a most active public life, and uniformly directed to the great ends of promoting the welfare and prosperity of his fellow-citizens, and discharging his duty to God and to his country, we shall have some faint idea of the character of Duncan Forbes."—" In his person,” says the editor of the Culloden Papers,' "Mr. Forbes was elegant and well formed. .. As a husband, father, and brother, he was exemplary; and as a master, affable and indulgent. . . No man was in society more divested of care, or merrier, within the limits of becoming mirth.' . . In his friendships he was sincere and very steady; and those of any merit, with whom he had in the early part of his life been intimate, never found that his elevation to fortune or office occasioned the smallest coolness or distance in him. . . To his friendship the first families were often indebted for advice and assistance; and not a few confided to his integrity the care of their children. . . His knowledge of mankind was deep and extensive; and no man had studied with more success the peculiar character and motives for action of the Highlanders; which gave him great weight among them. This was increased by his boundless generosity. . . He was a sincere believer in, and defender of, the Scriptures, and the doctrines of Christianity; from which he derived a steady incentive to that virtue which he loved and practised throughout life, and rays of comfort in the hour of death."-Such was Duncan Forbes, "one of the greatest men," says Bishop Warburton, "which Scotland ever bred; both as a judge, a patriot, and a Christian."-For further details respecting the life and character of the Lord President, I may refer to the interesting biography lately published by Mr. Burton. He is said to have read the Bible in Hebrew eight times over. his friend's decease; the former written by Lord Balcarres on his death-bed, the latter from the house of mourning by his successor. 66 My dear Lord, 66 'Balcarres, 20th [July, 1736]. "I know upon these occasions it's imagined by some people something should be said, but, as I know both our sentiments upon this subject, I let it alone. With my latest prayers I pray to God to preserve you and yours, and that everything that is happy may attend you. I return you my sincerest acknowledgments for all your favours and goodness to me since the first day of our acquaintance. 66 I go out of the world quite undisturbed; that's a satisfaction they cannot deprive me of. Only one thing disturbs me, the situation of my family in so straitened a way.-Let me, my dear Lord, recommend to your protection my wife and my brother; I know I need say no more to you upon this subject. May the blessings of heaven and earth ever attend you, my dear Lord! 66 "I have lost my loved and worthy brother, and you, my Lord, have lost a sincere and faithful friend. He preserved his understanding to the last, and left the world with a mind clear, easy, and undisturbed, the effects of a life honestly and honourably spent. "Four days before he left us, he took his farewell of all his friends, then caused raise him up in his bed, and, with his feeble hands, writ a letter to you, full of love, gratitude, and esteem, recommending his family to your protection,-then called for me, and spoke of you with the utmost tenderness, and desired me to seek your friendship as the most valuable thing he could leave me. “This, my Lord, is a legacy can give you nothing but trouble, and yet I am persuaded you have generosity enough to accept of it. "I have not a heart to offer you of near his value, but, such as I am, allow me to be always "Your devoted, humble servant, "JAMES LINDESAY."* The legacy, I need scarce say, was acknowledged, as it deserved to be, in a kind letter from the good President :-"No man," says he, "feels more sensibly than I do the loss which you, his friends, his family, and indeed the whole country, have made by the death of your poor brother; the value he put on my friendship in thinking it worth bequeathing to you is honourable to me, though the request, with respect to you, was unnecessary, because you had possession of it long ago, by an undoubted title, your confessed worth." Lord Balcarres having left no children, his brother succeeded to the family inheritance, still embarrassed by Jacobite debt. Blessed, however, with resources in himself, that rendered him independent of the world, and with a guardian angel in his beloved sister, Lady Elizabeth, he was fairly to be accounted happy. A man of deep and ardent feeling, the love that he had shared between his brother and his sister became concentrated on her after that brother's death; both indeed being invalids, they loved each other with a degree of tenderness more resembling that which we may suppose the spirits of "the just made perfect" feel for each other in heaven, than the commonplace affection of busy mortals on earth; they lived each in the other's heart, and were all the world to each other. The following letters (which no one, I believe, but myself, has perused since the death of the correspondents) will, I think, be interesting to the descendants of the one and the collateral relatives of the other, who traditionally reverence the brother as the last of the old knights of chivalry, the sister as the model of all that is amiable and excellent in woman. The remembrance of the year "fifteen," I must premise, was a constant bar to Earl James's promotion; and when he quitted the army after thirty years of hard service and hope deferred, neither * Printed (now for the first time) from the originals, kindly presented me by Sir Charles Ross, Bart., of Balnagowan. |