297 



MONK, GEORGE. 



MONK, GEORGE. 



293 



had not yet left the ore, nor waa the saltpetre which was to give them 

 powder manufactured. Many articles for which France had hitherto 

 depended on foreign countries were unattainable, and the raw material 

 was to be procured, the methods of working it iu some cages even 

 invented, in all to be described and taught ; while the enemy was 

 almost upon the frontiers. M. Biot, in his ' Essai sur 1'Histoire General 

 des Sciences pendant la Revolution Francaise,' Paris, 1803, has given 

 a summary of what was done : he does not appear to go too far iu 

 saying that the means of procuring iron, steel, saltpetre, gunpowder, 

 and weapons, were created during the reign of terror. And while" the 

 ordinary manufactures were deprived of their materials and of their 

 workmen, all the branches of engineering were also at a stand, from 

 those who could by any process be converted into military men being 

 required for the army. The schools of instruction in these branches 

 had been shut up ; and in such a state was the hope of future public 

 officers when, in great part by the exertions of Monge, the Normal 

 and Polytechnic schools were established : the first for the exigencies 

 of the moment, to accelerate the formation of a supply of good 

 teachers ; the second for the permanent means of formation of every 

 department of engineers. Monge himself taught in both. Considering 

 the present state of theoretical instruction in France, we may form an 

 idea of the improvement which has taken place from the computation 

 of Vauban, who estimated that one-sixth of the expense of fortified 

 places in that country was incurred in providing and instructing 

 proper persons to superintend the constructions. 



Monge accompanied the army in the invasion of Italy, and was 

 largely concerned in those wholesale robberies for which restitution 

 was made in 1815. These however must be charged on the general: 

 while to the commission, of which Monge was one, must be allotted 

 the merit not only of having safely conveyed enormous pictures and 

 statues to Paris, but of having repaired the ravage of time and care- 

 lessness. In some instances pictures painted on wood were planed at 

 the back until the de.-igu was shown, and the remainder was then 

 fixed upon another tablet. Monge also accompanied the expedition 

 to Egypt ; and to him, with Berthollet and Fourier, all the scientific 

 fruit of that uudertaking are due, not only as the collectors, but even 

 as the manual defenders of what they had gained. On the occasion 

 of a revolt at Cairo, in wbich the communication was cut off between 

 the house of the Egyptian Institute and the military power, the savans, 

 headed by Monge aud Berthollet, defended their premises until assist- 

 ance arrived. During this expedition a strong friendship grew up 

 between Monge and the future emperor, which made the former a 

 zealous partisan of the latter to the end of his career. The conse- 

 quence of this attachment was, that Monge was among those who were 

 expelled from the Institute at the final restoration of Louis XVIII. 

 This, and the destruction of the Kcole Polytechnique (since revived), 

 are placed by Dupiu among the causes of his death, which occurred on 

 the 28th of July 1818. 



Besides the works already mentioned, we have the ' Description de 

 1'Art de Fabriquer les Canons,' Paris, an II. ; and ' Feuilles d'Analyse 

 applkjude a la Geometric,' an III. The latter work in the subsequent 

 editions was called ' Application d' Analyse a la Ge'ome trie ' (fourth 

 edition, 1809). 



There is also a large number of memoirs in the 'Me'moires de 

 Turin,' ' Me'moires des Savans Etraugers,' ' Mcmoires de 1' Academic 

 des Sciences,' ' Journal de 1'Ecole Polytechnique,' ' Correspoudance 

 Polytechnique,' ' Auuales de Chimie,' and 'Description de 1'Egypte.' 



The science of descriptive geometry, with its numerous applications 

 to the description of machines, to perspective, architecture, fortifi- 

 cation, & j. &c., might be explained at length, but not with much profit 

 to the general reader. The analytical discoveries of Monge are hardly 

 less remarkable. He first applied the differential calculus to the 

 general theory of surfaces, in doing which he enlarged the bcrunds of 

 that science materially, and added many useful theorems, giving to 

 the consideration of the calculus of three variables all that illustration 

 and clearness which his predecessors had, by means of plane geometry, 

 imparted to the less difficult case of two variables. In this field how- 

 ever he had predecessors aud rivals ; in that of geometry, such as he 

 made it, he had neither the one nor the other. Since the tirno of 

 Euclid aud Archimedes, that science had received no such accession 

 as he furnished ; aud the epoch, which will be known by the name of 

 Monge, will divide its history. 



(Ch. Dupin, Etsai Ifutoriqw tur les Services, <tc., de Qaspard Monge; 

 Brisson, Notice Ifutoriyue tur (leopard Monge; &c.) 



MONK, GEOKGE, DUKE OF ALBEMARLE, second son of Sir Thomas 

 Monk of Potheridge, in the parish of Merton, in Devonshire, was 

 born on the 6th of December 1(508. His father's estate was much 

 eifcumbered, and his circumstances so distressed, that when Charles I. 

 visited Plymouth to inspect the equipment of a Spanish expedition, 

 he was afraid of joining the gentlemen of the county who were desirous 

 of assembling round the king, on account of the menaces of a creditor 

 who threatened to arrest him. George Monk was despatched to offer 

 the under-nheriff money to delay the execution of the warrant. " The 

 under-sheriff accepted the money, promised what was asked, and a few 

 days after, paid doubtless on the other aide, caused Sir Thomas to be 

 publicly arrested iu the midst of the gentlemen assembled on the king's 

 way." (' Memoirs of Monk,' by M. Guizot, translation, p. 5.) This 

 circumstance had an immediate influence on young Monk's life : ho 



dealt so violently with the treacherous under-sheriff, that it became 

 prudent for him to leave England. Sir Richard Greenville, his relative, 

 was on the point of sailing on a cruise before Cadiz, and he embarked 

 with him as a volunteer. Upon the failure of this expedition, he 

 enlisted during the following year in the equally unsuccessful attempt 

 on the Isle of Rhd. Soon after his return from the Isle of Rlie" he 

 entered the service of Holland : " Germany and the Low Countries 

 were at this period the resort of those young Englishmen whose taste 

 or the state of whose fortunes drove them to the profession of arms. 

 He returned to England about the thirtieth year of his age, when the 

 first Scotch war began, enlisted in the king's army, and obtained the 

 rank of lieutenant-colonel iu Lord Newport's regiment." (Skinner's 

 ' Life of Monk.') The conduct of the war, and the manner iu which it 

 was concluded, made him discontented and inclined to emigrate to 

 Madagascar ; but he abandoned the scheme, and was appointed colonel 

 of Lord Leicester's troops sent to quell the Irish rebellion (1642). In 

 the irregular warfare that followed he had considerable success, his 

 power being augmented by the devoted attachment of his troops; 

 there was not, it was said, a soldier ever so sick or so ill shod, who 

 would not make an effort to follow George Monk. When the civil war 

 began, these troops were recalled, and Monk, being suspected of favour- 

 ing the parliament, was sent under a strong military guard to Bristol. 

 Lord Hawley, the governor of the town, passed him on parole to the 

 king ; and the king, satisfied with his professions, permitted him to 

 rejoin his troops, which had reached England, and were engaged in 

 the siege of Nantwich. At Nantwich he was defeated by Fairfax 

 (January 1644), was taken prisoner, and, after some delay, confined in 

 the Tower of London. During the two years that he suffered the 

 miseries of imprisonment aggravated by excessive poverty, events 

 pursued their course ; the king became a prisoner, and the civil war 

 ceased. His known abilities made him now desirable as a partisan. 

 The parliament actively strove to gain him, and at length, overcome 

 by persuasion and gifts of money (Clarendon, vii. 382), he forsook his 

 party, which was no longer in a condition in which he could serve it. 



Monk was now sent to Ireland to command iu Ulster, where he 

 served his new masters greatly to their satisfaction, leaving only one 

 cause for censure, a league with the rebel O'Neill. He had gained the 

 confidence of Cromwell, who determined, on account of his military 

 talents, to make him general of the ordnance, and to provide him a 

 regiment with which he might accompany him in the meditated 

 Scotch campaign. In this service Monk distinguished himself at 

 Dunbar, and was left by Cromwell with 6000 men to complete the 

 reduction of Scotland. It is in this campaign that he is accused of 

 having in cold blood put to death the governor of Dundee aud 800 

 of the garrison. After a short residence at Bath for the benefit of 

 his health, he returned to Scotland (1652) with other commissioners 

 to promote the union of the two nations. Fresh and novel services 

 were soon required of him. He was associated with Blake and Dean 

 in the command of the fleet which was engaged in the war against 

 Holland. Two engagements took place, in both of which the English 

 were victorious : Vau Tromp, the Dutch admiral, was killed, aud his 

 fleet damaged and dispersed. After being rewarded with many honours 

 at the hands of Cromwell and the parliament, he resumed the command 

 in Scotland, where fresh troubles had broken out. 



Before we proceed further with the account of Monk's public acts 

 we must mention some occurrences in his private history, by which 

 his condition was immediately affected. These are the death of his 

 father, which occurred before his imprisonment ; the subsequent death 

 of his elder brother without male heirs ; his succession to the family 

 estates, which he soon relieved from their embarrassments ; and his 

 marriage. When this last event took place it is difficult to ascertain, 

 but it was not acknowledged until 1653, though asserted to have been 

 previously solemnised. His wife was Anne Clarges, the sister of Dr. 

 Thomas Clarges, a physician, a vulgar imperious woman who had 

 previously cohabited with him. "She was a woman," says Lord 

 Clarendon (who must however be pointed out as Monk's assiduous 

 detractor), " Nihil muliebre prater corpus gerens ;" a person "of the 

 lowest extraction, without either wit or beauty." (' Hist. Rebel.,' 

 vii. 383.) The pressing solicitations of the lady, and the probable or 

 actual birth of a child, gained Monk's consent to the union. 



It was in April 1654, after all these circumstances connected with 

 his private history had taken place, that Monk, under the orders of 

 the Protector, marched northwards with the most restless and fanatical 

 portion of the army. He had to contend with Lord Middleton, with 

 whom the royalists had risen in the Highlands, and the people gene- 

 rally, who were discontented and ready for rebellion. His vigilance 

 and activity were remarkable, " The country submitted ; the army 

 did not quit it, till it had, by means of a certain number of garrisons, 

 secured the payment of taxes, which the Highlanders had hitherto 

 thought they could refuse with impunity; and order was established 

 in those sanctuaries of plunder, with such effect, that the owner of a 

 strayed horse, it is said, recovered it in the country by means of a 

 crier." (Guizot, p. 80.) In the autumn he returned to Edinburgh. 

 For five years his residence was at Dalkeith, where he was " ever 

 engaged in business, or iu his planting, which he loved as an amuse- 

 ment and occupation ; he gave access to every one ; listened to every- 

 thing ; had a language for all conditions, all r.mks, and all parties ; 

 kept himself well informed on. all subjects; and ascertaining wlr*t he 



