130 ■ EARL DE GREY'S ADDRESS. [May 28, 18G0. 



If the varied merits of our former President have thus been 

 glanced at, as they were exhibited in public through a long, active, 

 and well-spent life, those who were admitted to his pei^sonal friend- 

 ship learnt to admire in Mr. Hamilton many sterling social qualities, 

 for no one of which was he more remarkable than in the admirable 

 instruction which he gave to his children, who, including one of 

 our Presidents, and other sons distinguished in the civil, military, 

 and naval service of their countrj'-, together with an only accom- 

 plished daughter, are left to mourn his loss. 



The late Lieutenant-Colonel William Martin Lp:ake was born in 

 London on the 14th January, 1777. He was the son of John 

 Martin Leake, a commissioner for auditing the public accounts, 

 and grandson of Stephen Martin Leake, Garter Principal King- 

 at-Arms ; the family name of Leake having been derived from Sir 

 John Leake, the famous Admiral of Queen Anne's reign. 



After preliminary instruction at the Eoyal Academy of Woolwich 

 he obtained his commission in the Artillery in the year 1794, and 

 commenced his professional career in the West Indies. In 1799 he 

 entered the field of his subsequent labours on being appointed to 

 a mission for the instiiiction of the Turks in the use and practice 

 of artillery, and repaired to Constantinople for that purpose. Early 

 in 1800 he quitted that capital for more active service, and it 

 having been deemed advisable by the English Ambassador that the 

 Grand Vizier, then engaged in the defence of the southern pro- 

 vinces of the Turkish empire against the French, should have 

 the assistance and advice of competent English officers. General 

 Koehler, Captain Leake, and others, were despatched to Jaffa. 

 They traversed Asia Minor, and visited the island of Cyprus ; but 

 meeting there Sir Sidney Smith, who had just signed a treaty for 

 the evacuation of Egypt by the French, their attendance on the 

 Vizier was no longer considered essential, and they returned to 

 Constantinople. That treaty not having been confirmed. Captain 

 Leake again proceeded on his way, and ultimately joined the army 

 of the Grand Vizier in Syria, where, in the winter of the same 

 year, he took advantage of his position to visit the greater part of 

 ancient Palestine and Judsea. 



In 1801 he crossed the Desert, and entered Egypt with the 

 Turkish army ; and Alexandria having been surrendered, and the 

 French withdrawn, he received the directions of Lord Hutchinson 

 to accompany the late Mr. William Richard Hamilton (then private 

 secretary to Lord Elgin) into Upper Egypt, for the purpose of 



