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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



There was oue, however, whose friendship commeuced with 

 him at Westmiuster, and was only severed by death. We 

 allude to young Lifford, a noble, open-hearted, generous crea- 

 ture, who was ever looked upon as the sou of the late Duke of 

 York. " Old Lennox" and Lifford were inseparables, regular 

 "cronies," the Damon and Pythias of the school. At an early 

 age the latter got a commissiou in the 52nd Light Infantry, 

 was severely wounded at Redinha, and died shortly after. 

 With his latest breath, poor Lifford urged his old school-fellow, 

 then Eatl of March, and serving on the staff of Wellini;tou, 

 to deliver into the hands of the Duke of York liis trusty 

 sword. Need we say that this injunction was implicitly fol- 

 lowed, for, upon his returning to England Lord March gave 

 the dying gift to the reputed father of his lamented comrade. 

 Poor Lifford, of him might the survivor say, in the lines of 

 Hallcck : 



" Green be the turf above thee. 

 Friend of my ' youthful days,' 

 None knew thee hut to love thee. 

 Nor named thee but to praise." 



Before we take leave of Westminster, we must not omit to 

 mention, that in a memorable contest between the Town boys 

 and King's scholars, arising from an oM custom, now happily 

 obsolete, that of slucing one another, and which always led to 

 a general fight, the hero of this memoir was appointed com- 

 mander-in-chief on the side of the Town boys, and led on his 

 forces with a bravery and judgment that quite won the hearts 

 of his young followers. The affray alluded to was so serious, 

 that the authorities wisely put an end to this annual battle. 



Shortly after leaving Westminster, the Earl of March en- 

 tered the army, tlieu in his eighteenth year, as an ensign in 

 the 8th Garrison Battalion, and was appointed extra aide- de- 

 camp to his father, at thai period Lord- Lieutenant of Ireland; 

 but he sighed for an active life, and having "longed to follow 

 to the field some warlike lord," quitted the gaieties of Dublin 

 to join the army in the Peninsula, as aide-de-camp to his 

 father's friend, the Iron Duke. Here he remained until 1814, 

 and was present at all the actions that took place during that 

 eventful period. In January of the above year Lord March 

 left the staff to do duty with the gallant 52nd, Lifford's old 

 corps, to which regiment he had been appointed as a captain 

 during the preceding year. Within a mouth he was severely 

 wouuded at Orthes, while leading his company to attack the 

 left of the height on which the right of the enemy stood. 



And here we must digress, for the purpose of recording 

 an anecdote of the late Duke of Wellington, whose raalignera 

 falsely accused him of having been devoid of feeling. Our 

 readers are probably aware that, except upon one occasion, the 

 great warrior escaped without a wound. At the above men- 

 tioned action, however, his Grace received a severe contusion 

 upon his hip-bone from a spent ball, which prevented hia 

 directing in person the last movements of hia army upon that 

 day ; but he did not leave the field, until Soult had sounded a 

 retreat. Upon reaching his quarters, the preeent Dr. Hair, at 

 that time a staff surgeon, was sent for, and Wellington's first 

 inquiry waa after the Earl of March, who had been present 

 with him at the battles of Buaaco, Fuenles D'Onor, Sala- 

 ra-inca, Vittoria, the Pyrenees, storming of Cuidad Rodrigt, 

 B.Hdajoz, and St. Sebastian, and the action at Vera. Dr. Hair 

 in reply stated, that although the young nobleman's wound 

 was severe, there was still a gleam of hope, as he had witnessed 

 similar cases where the sufferers had recovered. The Duke's 

 next anxiety was to be sufhciently recovered to resume in per- 

 son the pursuit of the enemy on the following morning, and 

 expressed a fear that the stiffness occasioned by the coutuBion 

 wonld for a time prevent him mounting his horse. A simple. 



yet eflicacious remedy was applied, and at an early hour in the 

 morning after the battle, his Grace, supporting himself by two 

 sticks, crossed the street from his own quarters to those of hia 

 former aide-de-camp, and hobbled into the room where Lord 

 March still remained in a most precarious state. Dr. Hair, 

 who, overcome with fatigue and anxiety, waa extended upon 

 a mattress, started up at the entrance of the Duke, and made a 

 sign that the wounded officer was asleep. For a few 

 seconds Wellington leant agaiust the mantelpiece, over- 

 whelmed with the most poignant grief. Suddenly Lord 

 March awoke, and recognizing his chief, faintly expressed a 

 hope that he had been successful on the previous day; the 

 reply in the aflirmative was conveyed in downright plain Eng- 

 lish — " I've given thera a d ■ good licking ; and I shall 



follow it up." The exhausted youth then turned to doze 

 again ; and as the duke left the room tears trickled down the 

 cheeks of the warrior when he took leave for the last time, as he 

 feired, of his protegee — the son of one of his deirest and belt 

 friends. 



Another anecdote connected with the Duke of Richmond 

 occurs to us. He was sent upon one occasion by Wellington 

 with an order to the Royal Fusiliers, who were suffering 

 greatly from the enemy's fire. Just as he reached this dis- 

 tinguished regiment, he observed that some of our guns had 

 ceased firing. Passing the artillery officer, he mentioned the 

 object of his mission, and suggested that if he would only con- 

 tiuue to pour souse grape into the enemy's cavalry, the Fusiliers 

 would get rid of a formidable enemy. " Enemy's cavalry !" 

 said the artillery officer : " they belong to the German Legion." 

 "You are wrong," responded the young aide-de-camp. "I 

 am confident they are French. Remember, I have no orders 

 for yon to fire ; but if you ceased under the impression that 

 they were friends, not foes, I advise you again to blaze away !" 

 la a second the hint was taken, and the firing renewed 

 when, much to the satisfaction of the artillery, the Fusiliers, 

 and Lord March, the French— for French they were — retired 

 to the rear. 



In " Hart's Army List" — one of the most complete works 

 of the sort that ever emanated from the press — we find the 

 duke's services reported as follows : — 



" On the 24th July, 1810, the present Duke of Richmond, 

 then Earl of March, joined the Duke of Wellington as Aide- 

 de-camp and assistant military secretary, and remained with 

 him until the year 1814. He was present with his chief at 

 the battles of Busaco and Fuentes D'Onor, the storming of 

 Cuidad Rodrigo and Badajoz, battles of Salamanca, Vittoria, 

 and Pyrenees, first storming of St. Sebastian, action at Vera. 

 At the battle of Orthes, Lord March was, as we have pre- 

 viously stated, in command of a company of the gallant 52nd. 

 At Quartrc Bras and Waterloo he was on the staff of the 

 Prince of Orange, late King of Holland." 



His Grace's political life commenced in 1812, when he was 

 returned to parliament as member for the city of Chichester, 

 which he represented until 1819, when he took his seat in the 

 House of Lordp. Upon the dissolution of the Wellington 

 administration, in 1830, he accepted the oflice of Post Master 

 General, with a seat in the cabinet, in the government of the 

 late Earl Grey. In 1834 the Duke of Richmond, Earl of 

 Ripon, Sir James Graham, and Mr. Stanley (now Earl of 

 Derby) seceded from office ; the cause of their resignation was 

 a division of opinion with the rest of the cabinet as to 

 the propriety of confiscating part of the property of the 

 Irish church to other than Protestant ecclesiastical purposes. 

 As a supporter of Church and State, the Duke felt he 

 could no longer act with a party who, according to his views, 

 were undermining the Protestant Church. As a friend to the 



