the troublesome duties laid on Admiral Keith, during his command on the coast of Egypt. While the troops from Cairo were on their way down to Rosetta, Menou made an offer to get rid of a number of his non-combatants in Alexandria, and sent a brig out of the harbour, under cartel flags, with a large company of "savants," members of the Institute and of the Commission des Sciences et des Arts, who wished to get home with their archaeological booty. "But as I did not consider it [roper," says Lord Keith, in his report to the Admiralty, "to allow any person whatever to depart from a town long since blockaded, and, I hope, immediately to be besieged, I have advised them all to return, and acquainted General Menou that I shall observe a similar conduct towards the invalids and blind if he sends them out, as proposed in his despatches." With grim humour the Admiral offered to surrender to him a company of French comedians who, sent by the French Government to enliven the garrison of Alexandria, had been captured by the British cruisers; but Menou obstinately refused to accept this addition to his garrison. So actively, however, did his Lordship expedite matters for the despatch of the garrison of Cairo, that he was able to announce to the Admiralty on 21st July-"The transports for the reception of the French corps from Cairo are far advanced in preparation, and will be ready before they arrive at Rosetta; notwithstanding we suffer much interruption by the almost constant swell and impracticability of the bar." The embarkation began on 1st August, and was completed, in spite of the enormous quantity of baggage, within eight days; and the convoy, consisting of six of His Majesty's ships and nearly 50 British and Turkish transports, was despatched without delay. Fifth son of Charles, tenth Lord Elphinstone, George Keith, whom history has ranked among the first of British naval commanders, was born in his father's old tower of Airth, Stirlingshire, early in January, 1746, a critical period in the history of Scotland, for only a few miles off the remains of Prince Charles's retreating expedition were intensifying, if possible, the terror and distress of civil war by a final desperate effort to reduce Stirling Castle. His mother,

Lady Clementina Fleming, one of the beauties and toasts of Edinburgh society

in her youth, was strongly imbued with Jacobite principles, and in addition to the extinct earldom of Wigtown, came to unite in herself the two attainted honours of Marischal and Perth. Young Keith was named after his grand-uncle, the Earl Marischal, who had taken part in Mar's rebellion, and was then living in exile at the Court of Prussia, sharing in the favour which Frederick the Great had extended to his illustrious brother, Marshal Keith. Encouraged by the advice of his grand-uncle, Keith Elphinstone followed the example of his brothers, Charles and William, by entering the navy in his fifteenth year, being received as midshipman on board the "Gosport" at Portsmouth, with but slender thought that a peerage and the baton of commander awaited him in the profession he had selected. The commander of the "Gosport" was Captain John Jervis, afterwards ennobled as Earl of St. Vincent, for his memorable defeat of the Spanish fleet. The naval service becoming unsettled by the reduction of the fleet after the peace of Fontainbleau in 1763, Elphinstone served for a short time on board his brother's vessel, under the flag of the East India Company, but again, through the friendly influence of the Earl Marischal, whose attainder had been reversed in consideration of services rendered to England at the Court of Spain, Keith rejoined the Royal Navy as second lieutenant on board the "Trident," from which he passed in 1772 with his first commission as commander of the "Scorpion," of 14 guns, employed on the coast of Minorea and in the Gulf of Genoa. From 1776, when Elphinstone entered upon his first duties on the American station, his career becomes associated with all that is most memorable in the naval history of England, and can only be glanced at here in the briefest manner. He commanded a detachment of seamen on shore in the reduction of Charleston, was present at the attack of Mud Island, November, 1777, and being sent home with despatches from Admiral Arbuthnot, was appointed to command the "Warwick," of 50 guns. On the conclusion of the American war in 1793, Captain Elphinstone returned home, and was elected M.P. for Stirlingshire, having previously sat for Dumbartonshire, after a contest of uncommon closeness carried on during his absence on the American station with Lord Frederick Campbell, brother of the Duke of Argyll. When the war of the

Revolution broke out with France, Elphinstone was again on active service, joining Lord Hood in the Mediterranean, and rendering services worthy of official recognition in the famous descent on Toulon, August, 1793. Rather more than a year later, on hostilities occurring between England and the Batavian Republic, Elphinstone, then Rear-Admiral of the "White," sailed to the Cape of Good Hope, and in conjunction with General Clarke compelled the Dutch, who advanced to the relief of the colony, to surrender at discretion without firing a gun. Pursuant to instructions received from the Admiralty before sailing, Admiral Elphinstone next entered the Indian Ocean, where he first secured to the British Crown the important possessions of Ceylon, Cochia, Malacca, and Molucca; but, on returning to the Cape, captured the entire Dutch fleet, which had been sent out under Lucas, and taken up a position in Saldanha Bay with the view of striking a decisive blow for the recovery of the colony. In 1779 the mutiny at the Nore called out the Admiral's highest qualities in the way of gentle persuasion and concession, coupled with a judicious firmness, necessary to be directed towards the leaders of the revolt. The mutiny was ultimately found to spring from two very different causes-one a well-founded disaffection with pay, provisions, and pensions; second, a dangerous spirit of Republicanism springing directly from the principles and examples of the French Revolution. Scarcely was subordination restored at the Nore, when the Admiral (now Lord Keith) was hurried off to Portsmouth to procure a ship and act as second in command of the Channel Fleet under Lord Bridport, the distrust which had been excited by the conduct of the seamen, as well as the numerous services which were to be performed in the Channel, making the Admiralty anxious to strengthen Lord Bridport's hands. He was ordered to hoist his flag on the "Queen Charlotte," which had been the chief centre of the Spithead mutiny. At the close of 1799 Lord Keith took command in the Mediterranean, which ill-health had compelled Lord St. Vincent to resign. In March he blockaded the harbour of Leghorn in co-operation with the Austrians, and was mainly instrumental, by the rigid blockade maintained, in reducing the French troops under Massena to such straits as resulted in his surrender. Engaged successfully in restoring order

throughout the islands of the Mediterranean, Lord Keith experienced the keen distress of seeing from shore the burning of his noble flag-ship off Capraja, when no fewer than 673 perished in the water or by the flames, and only 156 were saved from the burning wreck. Prominent services discharged later in life were connected with the operations of Abercromby in Egypt, and the command of the Channel Fleet when Napoleon surrendered in 1815. On being transferred from the "Bellerophon" to the "Northumberland," the ex-Emperor repeated his former protestations against being sent to St. Helena, or being treated in any other way than as a distinguished prisoner of war. "I do not (he said to Admiral Keith) voluntarily go from this ship or from England. It is you, Admiral, who take me.” To this the Admiral replied, "I hope, Sir, that you will not reduce an officer like me to do so disagreeable an act as to use force towards your person." He answered, "Oh, no; you shall order me." I replied, "I shall attend you at your convenience in my barge. I beg not to hurry you." This, writes his biographer, Mr. Allardyce, was the last important service that Lord Keith was to perform for his country, and he doubtless felt proud that his public career should be wound up by so memorable an incident. Seventy years of age when he quitted the service, Lord Keith spent other seven active years in improving his estates, and, dying at Tulliallan Castle in March, 1822, was buried in the old church of Overnewton, in his own parish, which he had selected as a mausoleum for his family. Created an Irish Baron in 1797, Admiral Keith was four years afterwards created a Peer of the United Kingdom, as Baron Keith of Barrheath, Dumbartonshire, and presented at the same time with the freedom of the City of London and a magnificent sword by the Directors of the East India Company. Lord Keith was twice married— first to Miss Mercer, of Aldie, Perthshire, in the line of succession to the attainted Barony of Nairne, by whom he had an only child, a daughter, Margaret, who in 1817 married the Count de Flahault, aide-de-camp to her father's last distinguished captive, and in after days attached to the Court of Louis Philippe, as well as of Louis Napoleon. The Countess Flahault died in 1867, three years before her husband, when the Barony of Nairne, to which she had succeeded, descended to

her daughter, the Dowager-Marchioness of Lansdowne. The second Lady Keith was the daughter of Dr. Johnson's friends, Mr. and Mrs. Thrale, the latter afterwards, to the Doctor's distress, Mrs. Piozzi. Born in 1764, she had been dandled, and even partly educated, by Johnson, had, it has been affirmed, refused the hand. of Samuel Rogers, and died in Piccadilly, London, so late as 1857, when she had reached the extraordinary age of ninety-three, the last survivor, and in her youth an adored member, of the once brilliant Streatham circle The materials for Mr. Allardyce's delightful memoir were chiefly taken from the journals, despatches, and official letters of Lord Keith preserved in the charter-room of Tulliallan Castle, Perthshire.

GLASGOW BURGH RECORDS.

APART altogether from his official connection with Glasgow as Town Clerk, there was good ground for expecting that the attention of Mr. Marwick, as Secretary to the useful Burgh Record Society, would soon be turned in the direction of that pile of old deeds and minutes gathered together for centuries by the different law advisers of the Corporation. Their existence was known to many far removed from the circle of immediate official connection. In November, 1832, Mr. John Smith, youngest, presented to members of the Maitland Club a volume composed of selections from the Records between the years 1572 and 1581. Owing to the local interest excited by the information contained in that collection, further investigation was prosecuted, and the result given to another select circle in the shape of a dumpy, but now scarce quarto volume, entitled, "Memorabilia," giving (with the exception of a score of pages at the commencement relating to Ayr burgh) a series of Glasgow notices extending somewhat irregularly from 1588 to 1750. Previous to being printed off in a book form, this latter volume of selections from the minute-books had appeared in the "Courier" newspaper, conducted by