JOHN SHEFFIELD, D. OF BUCKINGHAM.

JOHN SHEFFIELD, Duke of Buckinghamshire, a nobleman of diftinguished abilities, both natural and acquired, was born in 1649. After the death of his father, Edmund Earl of Mulgrave, which happened in 1658, the care of educating his fon, then nine years of age, was committed to a governor. In the then distracted state of the public affairs at home that gentleman travelled into France with his pupil, who was fo little fatisfied with his tutor's conduct as to difmifs him in a few years*; when the young Earl, find ing himself deficient in feverat branches of learning, took up a noble refolution to fupply that defect by

*We are told that, upon their arrival in France, the governor, with great earneftnefs, cautionéd his ward againf kneeling whenever he met the hoft in proceilion, exhorting him to avoid that compliance with the cuttom of the country as an act of idolatry; that our young nobleman liftening with attention to the charge, refolved to obferve it. It was not Jong before they met fuch a proceffion, which happening to be in the dusk of the evening at the corner of a fireet, to avoid kneeling he made his utmost efforts to flip into a shop fo fuddenly as to fumble over his governor, who had fallen on his knees the moment that the hoft appeared. It would be idle to look any further for the cause of his lofing all his governing authority. However, it is probable the pupil's uncommon Thare of good fenfe would have prevailed fo far as to retain him for the advantage of his literary instructions, if he had not found him very faultily remifs in that part of his charge likewile.

his own industry; and the fequel of these memoirs will in fome measure fhew to what a degree of perfection he finished his defign. However intent as he was to complete that task, his ardent thirst after military glory drew him early into action.

In 1666, at the age of feventeen, he went a volunteer in the firft Dutch war to fea. A conduct fo devoted to the fervice of his country procured him the command of one of those independent troops of horse which were raifed the following year to defend our coafts from the infults of that enemy. He remained in his quarters at Dover till the conclufion of the peace, when thofe troops were difbanded; foon after which, at the next meeting of the parliament in October, though fo much under the age prefixed for voting in the House of Peers, he received a writ to fit there; which being rejected by the House on that account, - he acquiefced not unwillingly, the heat of youth then inclining him more to the affairs of love and gallantry, which, by his own confeffion, he engaged in with too much eagernefs, and even without interruption. However, he did not fuffer his pleasures to deprefs or fink his genius, though he employed his Muse to heighten their relifh *, which in that view was far from being ftrictly chafte. These merits fet him in high favour at Court, by which means he was very serviceable in

* Several of his poetical pieces were written in this interval between the first and fecond Dutch wars.

procuring the Laureat's place in 1668 for Mr. Dryden, whom, as a brother poet, he had taken into his particular friendship. In this interval too nice a fenfibility in the point of honour engaged him in a very fingular quarrel with Wilmot the witty Earl of Rochefter*.

* Being informed that the Earl of Rochefter had said something maliciously of him, he immediately fent a mettled friend of his, Colonel Afton, with a challenge. Wiimot denied the words; and though our challenger was foon convinced his fufpicion was falfe, yet he foolishly thought the mere report obliged him to go on with the quarrel. Since it could not be avoided, Wilmot chose to fight on horseback, and accordingly met our hero next morning at the place appointed; but inRead of one Mr. Porter, whom he affured Afton he would make his fecond, he brought an errant life-guard man whom no body knew. Mr. Afton taking exception to this, especially on account of his being fo much better mounted than they, they all agreed to fight on foot. "But," continues our Author," as "Lord Rochester and I were riding into the next field in order "to it, he told me that he had at first chosen to fight on horse"back, because he was so weak with a certain diftemper that "he found himself unfit to fight at all, much less on foot." At this, which was deemed a plain confeffing himself a coward, his antagonist, whofe anger was appeased by the discovery of the falfeness of the charge which had kindled it, puthed him upon the confideration of the neceffity there would be, in cafe they should not fight, of clearing his own character by telling the truth of the matter. Wilmot fubmitted to the condition, hoping his challenger would not defire the advantage of having to do with any man in fo weak a condition. “I replied," continues our Author," that by such an argument he had fuffici "ently tied my hands, upon condition I might call our feconds "to be witness of the whole bufinefs, which he confented to, " and fo we parted." Mr. Afton, on their return to London, wrote down every word and circumftance of the whole that

At the breaking out of the fecond Dutch war in 1672, he went again to fea, a volunteer under the Duke of York, and behaved fo gallantly at the famous battle of Solebay, that immediately upon his return to London the King gave him the command of the Royal Katharine, the best second-rate fhip then in the navy, a favour which was in the highest degree acceptable to him. But, notwithstanding that, we find him, though at sea, the ensuing year, yet acting in the poft and with the commiffion of a Colonel, having himfelf raised a regiment of foot to ferve in the land forces, fent (with the fleet) under the command of Monfieur de Schomberg, with whom he now lived in a good degree of familiarity and friendfhip. Thefe forces being fet on fhore in the fummer by the command of the admiral, Prince Rupert*,

had paffed, and difperfed it abroad; which being never in the leaft either contradicted or refented by Lord Rochester, entirely ruined his reputation as to courage. So fays our Author; and the feveral challenges which were sent to that Lord afterwards, together with his behaviour on thofe occafions, are a full proof of the truth of the fact in general. However, it can. not escape the reader's notice that the Earl of Mulgrave condemns himself at least equally with his antagonist in this affair in particular.

The whole forces, both fea and land, were commanded in chief by that Prince with the title of Generaliffimo. We have the following account of the quarrel betwixt the land and fed commanders, which occafioned this order of the latter, where by the land forces lay idle at Yarmouth without doing any thing the whole funmer. It seems Monfieur Schomberg, by the advice of our volunteer, and the confent of the captain of the hip where he was, had hung up in the throuds one of the co