HIS EXCELLENCY SIR JOHN MICHEL, K.C.B.,

COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE FORCES IN BRITISH NORTH AMERICA.

His Excellency Lieut. General Sir John Michel, K.C.B., Commander-in-Chief of Her Majesty's Forces in British North America, is the eldest son of the late Lieut. General John Michel, of Dewlish, and Kingston Russell, in the County of Dorset, by his second wife, Anne, daughter of the Hon. Henry Fane, of Fulbrook, in the County of Lincoln. Burke, in his history of the County Families, with delightful frankness, informs us that he was born in 1805, and in 1838 he married Louisa Anne, only daughter of Major General Churchill. His father, as we have said, was an officer of high rank in the army, whose example, very probably gave an inclination to the tastes of his son, for he adopted the profession to which his father had belonged. He entered the service as Ensign on the 3rd April, 1823, and rose with rapidity to the rank of Captain, receiving his Lieutenancy on the 28th April, 1825, and his company on the 12th December, 1826. The steps in his progress to the rank of Major were taken with greater deliberation, for he did not arrive at that good degree till the 6th March, 1840. Two years afterwards he received his commission of Lieut. Colonel, with the command, as we infer, of the sixth Foot. In June, 1854, he was promoted to the full rank of Colonel, and on the 26th October, 1858, to that of Major General. On the 19th of August, 1862, he was appointed Colonel of the 86th Regiment, and on the 4th June, 1865, he succeeded Lieut.

General Sir William Fenwick Williams, Bart., K.C.B., as Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in British North America.

Having adopted the profession of arms, the subject of our sketch seems to have sought the "bubble reputation" with considerable assiduity, and no small degree of success. Fortune, however, had no favors to bestow during the first twenty years of his service. He had not succeeded in arriving at what was then the fighting ground of the British soldier; for in those times, out of India there was little to be done that the Royal troops cared to do. Disturbances in Ireland, riots in England, troubles in Canada, represented duties the reverse of attractive, which most soldiers, having the option, would rather avoid than seek. In India there were then, as there are still, wars and rumors of wars. But the time had not arrived when the subject of our sketch could do inore than read of, or listen to, transactions which were transpiring in that far-off land. Soldiers, like other men, must wait. A British regiment is a massive body, and moves in a large orbit. The cycle of its service cannot hurriedly be described. If, for example, the regiment which our young Ensign joined, had just returned from India, it is not difficult to understand that the roster, by which such matters are supposed to be regulated at the Horse-Guards, could not be otherwise than deliberately got through. In following the geographical order, in moving from post to post, from province to province, round the belt of the British possessions which encircles the globe, it would require at least a quarter of a century for a regiment to arrive again at any given point of departure.

In 1846-7, however, we begin to glimpse the smoke of battle, and the subject of our sketch, we venture to think, began to distinguish the serious from the holiday smell of powder; for he served throughout the Kaffir wars, which commenced then and did not end till 1851-53. A medal and a C.B. lighted the undecorated breast of his coat with their first flash of honor, and created, we should suppose, beneath the surface on which they shone, that thirst

for fame which springs from acquired distinction. They were the nebulæ, so to speak, the glittering promises, which, as time grew older, would gather into a star. The experience of warfare acquired in one continent, was amplified in another. The career

commenced in Africa, was continued in Asia, for we read that Lieut. Colonel Michel's services with the Turkish contingent in the Crimea were sufficiently distinguished to secure acknowledgments from the Sultan, accompanied with the Medjidee of the second class.

Nor did the subject of our sketch halt in the path of fame when that brief campaign was brought to a close. In India, that grand seminary of soldiership, we find him in 1858-9, performing noteworthy services, and especially when in command of troops in central India, where he defeated the rebel forces under Tantia. Topee at Beorora, taking twenty-seven guns, and again at the actions of Mongrowlie, Sindwaho, and Kurari, as well as in the subsequent pursuit of the fugitive rebel bands. For these services he received a medal, and won his star, for he was created a K.C.B. In 1860, in the campaign in China, he commanded a division of the army, and was present at the action of Sinho. For this service he received a medal, with the addition of a clasp for the Taku Forts. We have no means of informing ourselves of the transactions in which he took a part between the close of the war in China, and his appointment to the commmand of Her Majesty's Forces in British North America. The last named duty was not destined to be a sinecure. Almost immediately on his arrival in Canada, he found himself charged, not only with the command of the troops, but with the civil government of the Province, for the duty of administering the government, in the absence of the Governor General, devolved upon him. This responsibility is not ordinarily considered to be burdened with any very disquieting amount of anxiety, for under our system, it is said that he governs best who governs least. There are, of course, certain political duties which must

not, and certain social duties which should not be neglected. The former, it is said, were attended to by Sir John Michel with military precision; and the latter, it is known, were practised with graceful liberality. But along the tranquil course of affairs, an unprovided case, as we conjecture, unexpectedly arose. A prominent member of the administration differed from his colleagues, and tendered his resignation. This fact, with the contingency of a ministerial crisis in reversion, taken in connection with the Fenian conspiracy, may certainly have supplied reasons for restoring the civil government of the Province to the hands of the civil Governor. Whether they did so or not, we have no means of knowing, but the return of His Excellency the Governor General, at a period somewhat earlier than he was expected, seemed to receive an explanation in the supposed wish of Sir John Michel, and the natural one of Viscount Monck, to assume their respective shares of the responsibility arising from the political difficulties within, and the piratical ones without the limits of their two commands. The Fenian menace almost immediately assumed a shape so infamous, that it was considered advisable to place the whole military force of the Province-Regulars, Volunteers, and Militia-under the immediate command of the subject of our sketch. Sir John Michel, having had some acquaintance with auxiliary and irregular forces, was supposed to know how to use them with advantage; and to be able to form, from experience and observation, a just estimate of their value and quality. What that estimate may have been we do not presume to think. If, however, we may judge his thoughts by his words, the opinion of the Commander-in-Chief was as complimentray as it was encouraging. It found expression in the cordial language of public praise, which no volunteer soldier is likely to forget, and the courteous acts of social condescension which no volunteer officer is likely to abuse. There was logical fitness in the procedure; for gentlemen, whom the Queen had honored with her commission, were not unworthy of being guests at the house of her representative.