Previously to this, Lord Keith had obtained a patent as Chamberlain, Secretary, and Keeper of the Signet to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, as Great Steward of Scotland; in addition to which he had become one of the six state counsellors for the same.

At the peace of 1802, Lord Keith returned to England, and struck his flag; but he was not suffered to remain long unemployed. On the re-commencement of hostilities, in 1803, he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of all his Majesty's ships employed in the North Sea, and in the English Channel, as far to the westward as Selsea-Bill. The nature of this extensive and complicated command, consisting at one time of upwards of a hundred and twenty pennants, required that his Lordship should be established on shore, at some convenient station for maintaining his correspondence with the Admiralty Board, and with the commanding officers respectively employed under his orders, in the Downs, at Dungeness, Sheerness, Yarmouth, Leith, and upon the different stations within the limits of his flag; as well as for the purpose of regulating the distribution and stations of the block-ships, which it had been judged necessary to employ for the defence of the entrance to the River Thames; in consequence of which he took up his residence at East Cliff, near Ramsgate, a beautiful marine villa, built by the late Bond Hopkins; occasionally going on board his flag ship for the purpose of reconnoitring the enemy's coast, and directing the attacks which it was thought proper to make on the flotilla destined for the invasion of England.

In the beginning of October 1803, his Lordship made an experiment on a small scale, with a new mode of attack on the gun-vessels in Boulogne, which, to a certain degree, succeeded, and without any loss being sustained on our part.

His Lordship was, on the 9th of Nov. 1805, raised to the rank of Admiral of the White; and continued to hold the extensive and important command which we have described until the month of May, 1807, when the Admiralty having

he struck his flag. In 1812, his Lordship succeeded the late Sir Charles Cotton, as Commander-in-Chief of the Channel Fleet. On the 14th May 1814, he was created a Viscount of the united kingdom. During the period of the second invasion of France by the allied powers, the noble Admiral commanded in the Channel, and by the judicious arrangement of his cruisers, secured the person of Napoleon Buonaparte, who acknowledged that an escape by sea was rendered impossible—an event which secured the peace and tranquillity of Europe.

On the 23d May 1815, Lord Keith laid the first stone of Southwark Bridge.

In 1822 his Lordship was graciously permitted by his Majesty to accept the Grand Cross of the Royal Sardinian Order of St. Maurice and Lazare, for services rendered at Genoa in 1809.

His Lordship died, at Tulliallan house, on Monday the 10th of March 1823, in the 77th year of his age.

Lord Keith married, first, April 9. 1787, Jane, daughter and sole heiress of William Mercer, of Aldie, co. Perth, Esq., and by her (who died Dec. 12. 1789,) had issue an only child, Margaret-Mercer Elphinstone, on whom the English Barony of Keith was settled in remainder, on failure of his Lordship's issue male. He married, secondly, January 10. 1808, Hester-Maria, eldest daughter and coheiress of Henry Thrale, of Streatham, co. Surrey, Esq. the intimate friend of Dr. Johnson, and M. P. for Southwark, in 1768, and 1775. By this lady the Viscount had issue, Georgiana-Augusta-Henrietta, born Dec. 12. 1809.

His Lordship's eldest daughter married in 1817, to Count Flahault, who served as Aid-de-Camp to Buonaparte at the battle of Waterloo.

No. II.

JOHN PHILIP KEMBLE, Esq.

Or the fame bestowed by the stage on its votaries, it may more truly be said than of any other, that it is "a fancied life in other's breath." It exists principally in the recollection of individuals, and can never be satisfactorily recorded. The poet and the painter weave garlands for themselves, that continue to bloom in beauty when they are no more; but the chaplet of the actor, if it does not entirely perish with him, inevitably loses all the freshness and brilliance of its hues. It is not in language to convey an adequate notion of those powers, which, when witnessed, exalt the mind to gaiety, or sink it into anguish, extort laughter from the most saturnine, draw tears from the sternest eye, and irresistibly mould our feelings into whatever shape they please.

JOHN PHILIP KEMBLE was born at Prescot, in Lancashire, on the 1st of Feb. 1757. At the time of his birth, his father, Mr. Roger Kemble, was manager of a company of comedians, who had a regular routine of provincial performances. On the 12th of Feb. 1767, when only ten years of age, young Kemble played, in his father's company at Worcester, the part of the Duke of York, in the tragedy of King Charles the First. He soon after, however, went to a Roman Catholic seminary at Sedgeley park in Staffordshire; where he gave proofs of a great taste for literature. On that account he was, in the year 1770, sent by his father to the University of Douay, in order to qualify him for one of the learned professions. During his residence there, he distinguished himself as a scholar, and his elocutionary

Having finished his youthful studies, he returned to England before he was twenty; and entertaining an unconquerable predilection for the boards, he made that which may be considered his actual debut, in Chamberlain's company, at Wolverhampton, in the character of Theodosius, in the Force of Love; but without much success. His second appearance was at the same place, in the character of Bajazet; in which he produced a stronger impression, and gave a decided promise of those talents which afterwards raised him to unrivalled eminence.

Mr. Kemble next acted at Worcester; and afterwards with Mr. Younger, at the Theatres Royal in Manchester and Liverpool. From that time he rapidly improved in his profession. At length he joined that incomparable old man, Tate Wilkinson, at York; who was delighted with him.

While at York, Mr. Kemble tried a new species of entertainment in the theatre of that city, consisting of a repetition of the most beautiful odes from Mason, Gray, and Collins; and of the tales of Le Fevre and Maria, from Sterne; with other pieces in prose and verse; and in this novel and hazardous undertaking he met with such approbation, that the country has ever since been over-run by crowds of reciters, who want nothing but his talents to be as successful as their original.

About this time, Mr. Wilkinson, having taken the Edinburgh theatre, Mr. Kemble accompanied him to "the modern Athens ;" and established his reputation there, among men of letters, by the composition and delivery of a lecture on sacred and profane oratory, in which he proved himself an able critic, and an eloquent declaimer.

In 1782 he went to Dublin, and joined the company in Smock Alley, then under the management of Mr. Daly. Here he made his first appearance in Hamlet, and greatly distinguished himself. He also performed the Count de Narbonne, in Jephson's tragedy of that name, which had an extraordinary run; and the author expressed, in the strongest manner, his grateful sense of Mr. Kemble's exertions.

But the wanderings of a provincial actor of ambition are only spiral movements round a centre, to which they finally tend. A London audience is constantly looked forward to as the best judge, and the most liberal rewarder of his deserts. Having remained in Dublin for two seasons, Mr. Kemble quitted it in 1783, and repaired to London.

On the 30th of Sept. 1783, he appeared in Hamlet, on the boards of Drury Lane, and at once established himself with the town; although, from the circumstance of Mr. Smith's being then in possession of the chief tragic parts, Mr. Kemble was prevented from displaying the full extent of his abilities until the year 1788; when, on Mr. Smith's retirement, he was left in full possession of the tragic throne.

In 1787, Mr. Kemble formed a happy matrimonial alliance with Mrs. Brereton, daughter of Mr. Hopkins, the prompter of Drury Lane theatre. At the time that Mr. Kemble married this lady, it was asserted that he wedded suddenly, at the instigation of a nobleman high in rank and importance, Lord North, whose daughter had become ardently enamoured of him. It was said that the young lady's attachment could be checked only by its being thus rendered hopeless; and that, to insure Mr. Kemble's compliance with Lord North's wishes, he was promised by his lordship the sum of 4000l., as a marriage portion. To darken the affair, it was added, that when the marriage had been solemnized, the money was withheld. In all these reports there was not a syllable of truth. Mr. Kemble's marriage was one of real affection; and those who knew his mind will readily acquit him of being capable of an act so indelicate, so base, as that which black-tongued rumour would attribute to him. The imputation naturally excited much indignation on the part of Mr. Kemble. On meeting with it in a memoir of himself, he wrote with his pencil in the margin, "A LIE!"

On the secession of Mr. King, in 1788, Mr. Kemble became manager of Drury Lane theatre. In this office, which he held, with the intervention of a short period, until 1801,