Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 60, No. 373, November 1846

23

"I beg you to lose no time in sending me, to the Hague, the opinion of our friend mentioned in my letter; for I would be governed by the Whigs, from whose principle and interest I will never depart. Whilst they had a majority in the House of Commons, they might suspect it might be my interest; but now they must do me the justice to see that it is my inclination and principle which makes me act." Marlborough to the Duchess, Nov. 9, 1710. Coxe, iv. 360.

24

Coxe, iv. 405.

25

"Though I never thought of troubling your Majesty again in this manner, yet the circumstances I see my Lord Marlborough in, and the apprehension I have that he cannot live six months, if there is not some end put to his sufferings on my account, make it impossible for me to resist doing every thing in my power to ease him." Duchess of Marlborough to Queen Anne, 17th Jan. 1711. Coxe, iv. 410.

26

Smollett, c. x. § 20.

27

Marlborough to the Duchess, 24th May 1711. Coxe, v. 417-431.

28

Eugene to Marlborough, 23d April 1710; Marlborough to St John, 29th April 1710. Coxe, vi. 16. Disp. v. 319.

29

Lidiard, ii. 426. Coxe, vi. 21. 22.

30

"I see my Lord Rochester has gone where we all must follow. I believe my journey will be hastened by the many vexations I meet with. I am sure I wish well to my country, and if I could do good, I should think no pains too great; but I find myself decay so very fast, that from my heart and soul I wish the Queen and my country a peace by which I might have the advantage of enjoying a little quiet, which is my greatest ambition." Marlborough to the Duchess, 25th May, 1711. Coxe, vi. 28.

31

Marlborough to St John, 14th June 1711. Disp. v. 428. Coxe, vi. 29, 30.

32

Villars' Mem. tom. ii. ann. 1711.

33

Bolingbroke's Corresp. i. 172.

34

"The Duke of Marlborough has no communication from home on this affair; I suppose he will have none from the Hague." Mr Secretary St John to Lord Raby, 27th April 1711. Bolingbroke's Corresp. i. 175.

35

Coxe, vi. 52-54.

36

Kane's Memoirs, p. 89. Coxe, vi. 53, 55; Disp. v. 421, 428.

37

Kane's Memoirs, p. 92. Marlborough to Mr Secretary St John, 6th August, 1711. Disp. v. 428.

38

Marlborough to Mr Secretary St John, 6th August 1711. Disp. v. 428. Coxe, vi. 60-65. Kane's Mil. Mem. 96-99.

39

"No person takes a greater interest in your concerns than myself; your highness has penetrated into the ne plus ultra. I hope the siege of Bouchain will not last long." Eugene to Marlborough, 17th August 1711. Coxe, vi. 66.

40

"My Lord Stair opened to us the general steps which your grace intended to take, in order to pass the lines in one part or another. It was, however, hard to imagine, and too much to hope, that a plan, which consisted of so many parts, wherein so many different corps were to co-operate personally together, should entirely succeed, and no one article fail of what your grace had projected. I most heartily congratulate your grace on this great event, of which I think no more needs be said, than that you have obtained, without losing a man, such an advantage, as we should have been glad to have purchased with the loss of several thousand lives." Mr Secretary St John to Marlborough, 31st July 1711. Disp. v. 429.

41

Marlborough to Mr Secretary St John, 10th August 1711. Disp. v. 437.

42

Coxe, vi. 71-80; Marlborough to Mr Secretary St John, 14th, 17th, and 20th August 1711; Disp. v. 445, 450, 453.

43

Marlborough to Mr Secretary St John, 14th Sept. 1711. Disp. v. 490. Coxe, vi. 78-88.

44

Victoires de Marlborough, iii. 22. Coxe, vi. 87.

45

There were special reasons for the mutual hatred of these two brothers. One of the Amir's wives was a lady of the royal family of Sadozai, who, when the decline of that dynasty commenced, had attracted the attention of Sultan Mohammed Khan, and a correspondence took place between them. She prepared to leave Kabul to be married to him, when the Amir, who was also smitten with her charms, forcibly seized her and compelled her to become his wife. This at once created, and has ever since maintained, a fatal animosity between the brothers; and Sultan Mohammed Khan has often been heard to say, that nothing would afford him greater pleasure, even at breathing his last, than to drink the blood of the Amir. Such is the nature of the brotherly feeling now existing between them. – See Life of Dost Mohammed Khan, vol. i. p. 222, 223.

46

Sale's Brigade in Afghanistan. By the Rev. G.R. Gleig.

47

"By sudden and urgent necessity, the Commissioners understand any case of destitution requiring instant relief, before the person can be received into the workhouse; as, for example, when a person is deprived of the usual means of support, by means of fire, or storm, or inundation, or robbery, or riot, or any other similar cause, which he could not control, where it had occurred, and which it would have been impossible or very difficult for him to foresee and prevent." —Eighth Report of the Poor-Law Commissioners. App. A.; No. 2.

48

In the third volume of Von Schöning's History of the Artillery, we find the following extract from an official report of Captain Spreuth, an artillery officer, dated Königsberg, 18th December 1812. "The 'Grand Army' is retreating across the Weichsel, if indeed it may be called a retreat; it is more like a total rout or disbandment, for the fugitives came without order or baggage. The post-horses are at work day and night. From the 16th to the 17th, 71 generals 60 colonels, 1243 staff and other officers, passed through this place; the majority continued their route on foot, being unable to procure horses; the officers' baggage is all lost, some of it has been plundered by their own men, and we have even seen officers fighting in the streets with the common soldiers."

49

The noted military writer, Carl Von Decker, since General.

50

"Dietro al mio legno, che cantando varca." —Dante.

51

Michel Angelo lived until the beginning of the year 1564, the seventieth after the death of Luigia de' Medici.

52

In the Florentine style, 1474. The Florentine year began at Easter.

53

Michel Angelo was the fourth and last of the sons of Ludovico.

54

The Platonic Academy was established at Florence in 1474. Politiano's death, twenty years later, was the cause of its entire dispersion.

55

"But, perhaps, thy compassion regards with more justice than I thought in the beginning, my pure and loyal ardour, and the passion which thy looks have kindled in me for noble actions.

"Oh, most happy day! if it ever arrive for me, let my days and hours concentrate themselves in that moment! and, to prolong it, let the sun forget his accustomed course!"

56

He was born in 1475.

57

The first sonnet of the collection; that commencing with the celebrated proposition —

"Non ha l'ottimo artista alcun concetto."

58

"Dal mortale al divin non vanno gli occhi

Che sono infermi." * * * *

59

60

61

"La buona coscienza che l'uom franchigia,

Sotto l'usbergo di sentirsi pura." —Dante.

62

"To what am I reserved?" writes Angelo in another piece. "To live long? that terrifies me. The shortest life is yet too long for the recompense obtained in serving with devotion."

63

"Ahi, che null altro che pianto al mondo dura!" —Petrarca.

64

"Ogni altro ben val men ch'una mia doglia!"

65

* * * * "Chi t'ama con fede

Si leva a Dio, e fa dolce la morte."

66

Speech of Sir R. Peel at the Tamworth election, pp. 4, 5. – Ollivier, Pall-Mall.

67

Ibid. pp. 8, 9.