II \LIFAX. OBOKQE MONTAOIT, EARL OF. 



HALL, BASIL, CAPTAIN, R.N. 



n e so o e oowng year, on e acquson o e com 

 eecDdancy by the Tories, he was removed from the House of 

 mon* by being created Baron Halifax (with remainder, failing his 

 issue male, to Qorge Montagu, son and heir of his eldest bro 



kins'. serriee, thai h ge the law to the rest, which ho did always 

 with tree* spirit, bat sometimes with too assuming an air ; " " which," 

 HJhjnlni Mr. Speaker Onslow. in note, " <lia him infinite hurt, and 

 towsred at but hu credit very much in the HOUH of Commons." 

 Lord Hardwicke, in a not* on the Mm* passage, affirms, that for two 

 seetioa* together Montagu did not exert bimaelf in the Home (for 

 what unarm Hardwicke doea not know), but suffered Mr. Harley and 

 hii friends to Uke the load, even while be continued in the king's 

 errviee. He is alao anaertcd to bare lost some credit about this time, and 

 to hare been thought to bar* beharcd meanly, by stating in the House, 

 ia on* of the debate* on the Irish grant*, some information which had 

 been communicated to him in confidence. On the mollification of the 

 ministry in November 1699, Montagu was removed to the auditor-skip 

 of UM Exchequer, and his places of first lord and chancellor were 

 gfoa*, the former to Lord Tankerville, the latter to Mr. John Smith. 

 In the sod of the following year, on the acquisition of the complete 



Com- 

 is own 



male, to Qorge Montagu, son and heir of his eldest brother, 

 Edward Montagu). Thin, it seems, wag insisted upon by Harley, the 

 new manager of the House of Commons. The title of Marquis of 

 Halifax bad just become extinct by the death of the son of the first 

 marquis [SAVILE, OSOBQE] ; and, according to Lord Dartmouth, in a 

 note on Burnet ('Own Times,' ii 108), Montagu took his title in 

 grateful remembrance, as he pretended, of the old marquis, who, 

 Dartmouth says, had first brought him into business by recommending 

 him to be a clerk of the council : " but," he adds, " generally thought 

 more ont of vanity (of which he had a sufficient share), in hopes of 

 raising it to as high a degree as bis benefactor had done." 



Lord Halifax was impeached by the new House of Commons in 

 April 1701, along with Lord Somere and the earls of Portland and 

 Orford. The question was carried in the House by a vote of 186 

 against 163 ; but the impeachment was not prosecuted, and on the 

 24th of June the charges were dismissed by the Lords. (See the 

 proooedings in the 5th volume of the ' Parliamentary History,' and 

 in the 1 4th volume of Howell's ' State Trials.') The articles exhibited 

 against Halifax wen six in number 1, That he had directed a grant 

 to the value of 13,0002. to pass to Thomas Railton, Esq., in trust for 

 himself, out of the forfeited estates in Ireland ; 2, That he had received 

 to his own use lOOOt a year ont of the said grant; 3, That, while 

 chancellor of the Exchequer, he had obtained and accepted of several 

 other beneficial grants to or in trust for himself; 4, That in 1697 he 

 had procured a grant to Henry Segur, gentleman, in trust for himself, 

 of wood from the Forest of Dean, to the value of 14,0001. ; 6, That 

 while he waa chancellor of the Exchequer he hod obtained for his 

 brother Christopher the office of auditor, in trust, as to the profits 

 thereof; for himself ; 6, That he had advised his Majesty to enter into 

 the two Partition treaties. In bis answer Halifax maintained that the 

 grants from the Irish estates and the Forest of Dean were legal, and 

 were also not of the value charged ; and there was nothing wrong in 

 procuring the auditonhip of the Exchequer for his brother, to be 

 held by him till he should himself be ready to step into the office ; 

 and that, as to the Partition treaties, he was rather opposed to than in 

 favour of them. 



In 1703, after the accession of Queen Anne, Halifax was again 

 attacked by the Commons on the charge of having been guilty of 

 hretdh of trust in the management of the public accounts while he 

 waa chancellor of the Exchequer ; and an address was voted to the 

 queen requesting that she would be pleased to give directions to the 

 attorney-general to prosecute him. But he was again protected by 

 the Lords ; and after some altercation between the two houses the 

 matter was dropped. The proceedings are given in the ' Parliamentary 

 History,' vi. 127, &c. Though out of office during this reign, he con- 

 tinued to take an active part in the debates of the House of Lords, 

 especially distinguishing himtelf in 1707 in the defence of the union 

 with Scotland. Lord Dartmouth however complains (note on Burnt t, 

 Own Times,' ii. 481) that he and Lord Wharton brought up a familiar 

 style with them from the House of Commons, " that has," says his 

 lordship, been too much practised in the House of Lords ever since, 

 where everything formerly was managed with great decency and gooc 

 manner*." To Halifax also belongs the credit of having first moved, 

 and taken the most active part, in the project for the purchase of the 

 Cotton manuscripts and the establishment of a nublic library, out of 

 which erentually came the British Museum. (Burnet, ' Own Times, 

 it 440.) 



Having always kept np a connection with the Hanoverian family 

 Lord Halifax was found, on the death of Queen Anne, to be one of the 

 nineteen persons appointed by the new king to hold the government 

 along with the seven great officers of state till bis majesty should come 

 over. On the 14th of October 1714 he was raised to the dignities of 

 Earl of Halifax and Viscount Sunbury, and was restored at the came 

 tune to his former post of first lord of the Treasury, bis office of 

 auditor of the Exchequer being given to his nephew. But he died of 

 an inflammation of the lungs on the lth of May in the following year 

 He left no issue, so that his earldom and vucounty became extinct 

 but he was succeeded in his barony according to the limitation by his 

 nephew George Montagu, who a few weeks after was made Karl of 

 Halifax and Viscount Sunbury by a new creation. The ton -f the 



second Earl of Halifax died without issue in 1772, when all the 

 honours became extinct 



Halifax was one of the most consistent of the Whig party to whom 



e are indebted for the Revolution, the Hanoverian Succession, and 



he Union with Scotland. It is evident also, from the detail that has 



been given, that he was a person of great general ability. But his 



ibility was marred by his excessive vanity and ambition : and Marl- 



>orough hardly spoke too strongly when he raid, " I agree with you, 



.onl Halifax has no other principle but his ambition ; so that he 



uuhl put all in distraction ruth* r than not gain his point." (Letter 



a the Ducheos of Msrlborotigh, February 7, 1709.) With regard to 



iis literary standing, it is evident he was much more a man of action 



than of any remarkable powers of thought ; and what ho lias written, 



whether in verse or prose, is of very little value. A list of hii . 



s given by Walpolo in his ' Royal and Noblo Authors.' His character 



as a patron of literature has been drawn with some severe satiric 



auches, under the name of 'Full-Blown Bufo,' by Pope, in his 



Prologue to the Satires.' 



HALL, BASIL, CAPTAIN, R.N., was born at Edinburgh in 178S. 

 His father. Sir James Hall, Bart., of Dunglaas, was President of tin- 

 lioyal Society of Edinburgh. He was the author of an ' Essay on the 

 Origin, Principles, and History of Gothic Architecture,' published in 

 L813, and a frequent contributor of scientific papers, chiefly on pco- 

 ogical subjects, to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Sir James Hall 

 was married to Helen, a daughter of the fourth Earl of Douglas. 



Basil Hall entered the royal navy in 1802; in 1808 received his first 

 commission as lieutenant; in 1814 was promoted to the rank of com- 

 mander; and in 1817 he was made a post-captain. The opportuniticn 

 which the naval profession affords both for scientific pursuits and the 

 study of men and manners in various climes happened in Captain Hall's 

 case to lead him into scenes of more than usual interest ; or perhaps 

 it would be more correct to state that his eager and indefatigable pur- 

 suit of knowledge induced him to seek every means of extending tin- 

 sphere of his observations. In 1313, when acting commander of the 

 Theban on the East India station, he accompanied Sir Samuel Hood, 

 the admiral, in a journey over the greater part of the bland of Java. 

 Soon after his return to England he was appointed to the command of 

 the Lyra, a email gun-brig, in which he accompanied the expedition 

 which took out Lord Auiherst as ambassador to China. While tin- 

 ambassador waa pursuing his journey inland to Pckiu, Captain Hall 

 in the Lyra visited the places of greatest interest in the adjacent scan, 

 and on his return to England in 1817 he published ' A Voyage of 

 Discovery to the Western Coast of Corea, and the Groat Loo Choo 

 Island in the Japan Sea.' There is an appendix to the work, which 

 contains charts and various hydro-graphical and scientific notices. A 

 second edition was published in 1820, in which the scientific details 

 are omitted; and in 1827 the work appeared in a still more popular 

 form aa the first volume of ' Constable's Miscellany.' In this < 

 there ia an interesting account of Captain Hall's interview at St. 

 Helena with the ex-emperor Napoleon. Sir James Hall (Captain Hall's 

 father) had been the emperor's fellow-student at Briennc, and was the 

 first native of Great Britain whom the emperor recollected to have 

 seen. Captain Hall was next employed on the South American station 

 in command of the Conway. The period was one of great interest to 

 the Spanish colonies of South America. 



Having returned to England early in 1823, Captain Hall published 

 'Extracts from a Journal written on the Coasts of Chili, Peru, and 

 Mexico, in the years 1820, 1821, and 1822,' with an appendix contain- 

 ing a memoir on the Navigation of the South American station. 

 There are also appendices which contain various scientific notices ; 

 and a paper by Captain Hall ' On the Duties of Naval Commanders- 

 in-Chief on the South American Station before the appointment of 

 Consuls.' In 1825 be married Margaret, youngest daughter of the 

 late Sir John Hunter, Consul-general for Spain; and in April 1827 

 he and his wife and child sailed from Liverpool for the I 

 States, where they remained above a year, during which Captain Hall 

 travelled nearly nine thousand miles by land and water conveyances. 

 In 1829 he published his ' Travels in North America,' 8 vols. 8vo. 

 He next published ' Fragments of Voyages and Travels.' They form 

 three aeries, each of three volumes, 12mo. In 1834 he met at Home 

 with a sister of Mrs. Dugald Stewart, who having married 

 PnrgtUll, an Austrian nobleman, had resided many years at her 

 Bchloss or cattle of Heinfcld, near Gratz, in Styria. He accepted an 

 invitation to visit the countess, and his book, ' Scbloss Heinfeld, or a 

 Winter in Lower Styria,' was the result of his notes during his resi- 

 dence there. Captain Hall supposes that Die Vernon, in Sir Walter 

 Scott's novel of ' Rob Roy,' was sketched from Miss Cranstoun, which 

 was the maiden name of the countess. Captain Hall's hut work waa 

 published at the end of the year 1841, in three volumes, under the 

 title of ' Patchwork.' It consists of detached papers, which embrace 

 recollections of foreign travel, incidents worked into short tales, and 

 a few essays. 



Captain Hall was a Fellow of the Royal Societies of London and 

 I'xliuburgh, and a member of the Astronomical Society of London. 

 The following is a list of some of his scientific papers : ' An Account 

 of the Geology of the Table Mountain ; Details of Experiments made 

 with an invariable Pendulum in South America and other places for 

 determining the Figure of the Earth ; Observations mode on a Comet 



