head, and Anson as one of its members. Its very first act was to reverse the decision of the former board, and to confirm the commission which Anson had given to Captain Brett (the patent of the board is dated 28 Dec. 1744; the minute confirming Brett's commission is dated 29 Dec.), and on 20 April. 1745, Anson was re-promoted to flag rank, this time as rear-admiral of the white. For a year and a half Anson continued in London, taking a leading share in the work of the admiralty, and, though a very junior member of the board, acting directly as the Duke of Bedford's representative in all matters of executive administration. Beyond the old friendship existing between Lord Chancellor Hardwicke and the Macclesfield family (CAMPBELL'S Lives of the Chancellors, v. 15) it is now impossible to trace the particular interest which Anson could have had; that he had some may be considered certain. In July 1746 Vice-Admiral Martin resigned the command of the Channel fleet; and Anson, now vice-admiral of the blue, undertook the duty and hoisted his flag on board the Yarmouth on 9 Aug. The fleet was very short-handed, for in Martin's last cruise bad provisions and bad beer, scurvy, fever, and small-pox, had caused the death or sickness of an enormous number of men (Martin to Corbett, 3 July 1746; JOANNIS HUXHAMI Observationes de Aere et Morbis epidemicis (1773), p. 341); and now Admiral Lestock, fitting out for the expedition to Lorient, had carried off every seaman that he could find (Anson to Bedford, 11 Aug. 1746, in Bedford Correspondence, i. 137). It was thus the end of the month before Anson could get the fleet to sea; and he then cruised to the westward, off Ushant, hoping to intercept on its return the French fleet, which had gone to Chebucto (the present Halifax) under the Duke d'Enville. The terrible fate of that expedition was not yet fully known; and, though Anson put into Plymouth at the end of October, it was only for a supply of water. 'My men,' he wrote to the Duke of Bedford (28 Oct.), 'begin to be very sickly, and most of the ships very foul, but the hope of destroying some of the enemy's fleet will make me risk health and everything else.' On 4 Nov. he wrote that he hoped to be complete and at sea in two or three days, and to have better fortune in his next cruise. am surprised,' he added, 'that Mr. Lestock, who had such certain intelligence, from the French ships burnt in the bay, of the shattered condition of D'Enville's ships, should not cruise off Ushant for them, as his squadron was not in want of anything' (Bedford Corr. i. 174). VOL. II. I Notwithstanding Anson's haste to get to sea, the French hospital ship and a sloop were all that he fell in with. It was by this time certainly known that the French squadron was in an almost helpless condition, and that if it could be met with, it must be captured. It received, however, warning from a Dutch merchant ship of the neighbourhood of the English fleet, and by keeping to the southward got in-shore of it, and so safely to Brest. The next spring Anson was more fortunate. The French were preparing to send out another expedition to America, and at the same time a squadron to the East Indies. On 29 April the two sailed together from the roadstead of Aix, under the command of M. de la Jonquière, whose energetic behaviour and clever escape in bringing home the shattered remains of the fleet the year before had pointed him out as a capable and a lucky officer. But Anson had early and fairly exact knowledge of the projected expedition, and, in his double capacity of lord of the admiralty and commander-in-chief of the fleet, took care to have with him an overpowering force and such a number of cruisers that it was wellnigh impossible for the enemy to escape him. With his own flag on board the Prince George, of 90 guns, and having with him Rear-Admiral Warren in the Devonshire, Captain Boscawen in the Namur, and others, numbering altogether fourteen ships of the line, he stationed himself off Cape Finisterre, and continued there during the greater part of April, exercising his fleet in forming line and in manoeuvres of battle till then absolutely unknown. On the morning of 3 May the French fleet was sighted, and was successfully pursued. Anson at first made the signal for line of battle, but presently, perceiving that the French were of very inferior force, he made the signal for a general chase and fell on them pell-mell. La Jonquière placed his convoy to leeward, in charge of two frigates, and drew up his squadron in line to meet the enemy; but including two 40-gun ships, a 50-gun ship with only half her guns on board, and four Indiamen, he numbered only ten ships in all. The ships of war fought well, but were speedily overpowered; the Indiamen, with valuable cargoes on board, endeavoured to make off, but were captured afterwards. The defence, however, was sufficient to permit the greater part of the convoy to escape during the night. Amongst the captured ships were the Gloire, of 40 guns, and the Invincible, of 74. When M. de Saint-George, the captain of the latter, went on board the Prince George to surrender his sword to Anson, he addressed him with, 'Monsieur, vous avez vaincu l'Invin D death ended it. cible, et la Gloire vous suit.' Saint-George | the admiralty it should, except in the name returned to England with Anson, and be- and show of it, be the same thing as if you tween the two there sprang up a friendship were there yourself. . . . If Lord Vere's purand correspondence which continued till poses are disagreeable to you, it is very easy to prevent them, by desiring first to know my opinion. . . . You may be assured I will do no act whatever but directly through your hands, which will plainly show people where the power centres, and I think indisputably fix you in the entire management of affairs' (ibid. p. 204). It was shortly afterwards, 25 April 1748, that Anson was married to Lady Elizabeth Yorke, daughter of the lord chancellor. The marriage brought wealth as well as influence. Anson's great superiority of force was mainly due to his own care and forethought; and he made such good use of it as utterly to overwhelm the enemy. A French fleet had been utterly defeated, and some 300,000l. in specie had been captured and carried through London in triumph. I ought to be satisfied,' wrote Anson to the Duke of Bedford, 'but wish he (La Jonquière) had had a little more strength, though this is the best stroke that has been made upon the French since La Hogue.' ItThe whole portion,' wrote Lord Hardwicke was not only a national but a political success, and the ministry, accepting it as such, heaped rewards on the victors. Anson was raised to the peerage as Baron Anson of Soberton, in Hampshire; Warren, the second in command, was made a knight of the Bath; and Boscawen, the senior captain, though of only ten years' standing, was specially included in the next promotion of admirals. In February 1747-8 the Duke of Bedford was appointed secretary of state, and Lord Sandwich became first lord of the admiralty. The duke had virtually assigned the executive administration of the navy to Anson, but now, in the absence of Sandwich in Germany, Lord Vere Beauclerk took the direction of affairs. As captain, as admiral, and in the admiralty patent, Beauclerk was the senior of the two, and may naturally have felt some annoyance at the preference previously given to his junior. It was now Anson's turn to feel aggrieved; he wrote to Lord Sandwich on 15 Feb.: 'In your absence Lord Vere may make as much a cipher of me as he pleases, which you will easily imagine must be very disagreeable to me after the share the Duke of Bedford has allowed me in the direction of affairs afloat and the success which has attended his grace's administration of naval affairs in every branch of the department. Besides, I think the world will see me in a very disadvantageous light. He has been in my way ever since I came to his intended son-in-law, a few days before the marriage, 'shall be paid either in banknotes, or in my draft upon the bank, as you like best.' Notwithstanding the frequent indelicate jokes of Horace Walpole, there is no reason to suppose that the marriage was other than a happy one. No children followed, although a letter from Lord Hardwicke, dated 30 Aug. 1748 (BARROW, p. 208), seems to imply that some such result was expected. If so, however, it ended in disappointment. Anson's public life was meantime devoted to reorganising certain weak points in the navy which the war had brought to light. The marine regiments were to be broken, a new corps of marines under the jurisdiction of the admiralty was to be formed, the administration of the dockyards was to be improved, and, most important of all, a new code of articles of war was to be drawn up and passed through parliament. Within the next few years all these things were done, and done effectually. Dockyard administration no doubt remained for very many years exceedingly corrupt, though not, we may believe, so atrociously bad as in former years. The building of ships, too, was improved, and the establishment of guns and all stores put on a more satisfactory footing. articles of war, as passed in 1749, remained the law of the service till 1865; and the corps of marines, as then planned, and definitely formed in 1755, is the same as at the present day. Of these several measures the chief part of the credit must attach to Anson, who, as we have seen, was placed by Lord Sandwich at the head of the executive, and who in June 1751 became actually, as well as virtually, first lord of the admiralty. This post he filled until the change of ministry in November 1756, and it was thus during his administration that the fleet under Admiral John Byng sailed for the Mediterranean in March, and was defeated off Cape Mola on The 20 May 1756. Anson's whole life and career are utterly opposed to the idea of his having, in this matter, erred through carelessness. We are forced, therefore, to the conclusion that in not ordering a larger fleet to the Mediterranean, he was honestly mistaken, and that in appointing Admiral Byng to the command he was under some undiscoverable influence. We know now that the French, in the spring of 1756, had no idea of invading England or Ireland; but the ministry certainly thought it necessary to keep an overwhelming force at home or in the Bay of Biscay. But the main cause of the failure was the misconduct of Byng, and Anson is directly concerned in the appointment, as commander-in-chief, of a man whom events proved to be utterly unfit for the office. It can only be said now, that this had not been proved in March 1756, that Byng was a man of high-service rank who might almost claim the highest command, and that there was nothing whatever known against him. That afterwards, on Byng's failure, Anson should not be inclined to show him any undue consideration, or to err on the side of lenity, was natural enough. He very probably regarded Byng with feelings akin to personal hatred, as the incarnation of the one great mistake he had made in a prosperous career, and was quite willing that the offender should feel the full weight of the law; but, as a matter of fact, Anson had nothing whatever to do with Byng's trial and execution, which took place under a ministry with which he had no connection. Having gone out of office in November 1756, he did not re-enter till the end of June 1757, when he was again appointed first lord of the admiralty in the Newcastle-Pitt administration. He was thus the chief of the navy when the bootless expedition against Rochefort was sent out in the autumn of that year; and in 1758, when the petty incursions on the coast of France, as at St. Malo or Cherbourg, ended disastrously at St. Cas. In these matters Anson took no part, except in providing the covering force of men-of-war, and in taking command personally of the main fleet, which meantime blockaded Brest, in order to allay some irritation felt by Sir Edward Hawke. It was his last service at sea. During the next year, 1759, this fleet was commanded by Hawke, and put an end to the necessity of blockading Brest by demolishing the French fleet in Quiberon Bay. Anson's share in this brilliant victory was merely that of the home administrator by whose care the fleet was fitted out and supported; he had also the same share in the conquest of Canada and in many other of the events which rendered the year 1759 'wonderful,' not only in Garrick's celebrated song but in the current language of the day (WALPOLE'S Letters, iii. 269, ed. Cunningham, 1861), and the years immediately succeeding memorable in English annals. In June 1761 Anson was advanced to the high rank of admiral of the fleet; but, except to bring over the new queen, Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, he never hoisted the distinguishing flag of union at the main. He died quite suddenly on 6 June 1762 at his country seat of Moor Park in Hertfordshire, and was buried in the family vault at Colwich. The title died with him. His wife had died two years before, on 1 June 1760, and his very large property went to his sister Janetta, wife of Mr. Sambrooke Adams, whose son George afterwards inherited also the family estate of Shugborough, and took the name of Anson. The son of George Adams was in 1806 created Viscount Anson and Baron Soberton, and his grandson in 1831 was made Earl of Lichfield. Anson is undoubtedly best known to posterity by his voyage round the world, the history of which, as written, or rather edited, by his chaplain, Mr. Walters, or in different abridgments, has always been a popular book even among schoolboys. It is to that voyage, and the temper, the tact, and the judgment which he displayed under very trying circumstances, that his further advancement was mainly due. Anson may have been cold in his affections, studious of his own interest, and even selfish; calm, placid, possibly-as his enemies might sayfish-like in his temperament; but he was a careful, painstaking, thoughtful man, of singularly accurate judgment; and much of the more important work which fell to him was work in which a warmer-hearted, warmertempered, more loveable man might well have broken down. And one point which tells enormously in Anson's favour is the fact that so many young officers, trained under him in the Centurion, were afterwards honourably known. In the whole history of our navy there is not another instance of so many juniors from one ship rising to distinction, men like Saunders, Saumarez, Peircy Brett, Denis, Keppel, Hyde Parker, John Campbell. Sir John Barrow has expressed surprise that neither private affection nor public gratitude has ever raised a monument to one who shed such lustre on the name.' This is not strictly correct, for there is in Shugborough Park a sort of triumphal arch which was erected to his memory by his elder brother Thomas. The colossal lion, once the figure-head of the Centurion, after standing for many years in the Anson ward of Greenwich Hospital (BARROW, p. 419), was in 1870 transferred to the playground of the hospital school, and fell to pieces from decay in 1873. Copies of a portrait of Anson, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, are in the National Portrait Gallery, and in the Painted Hall at Greenwich. The original, belonging to Lord Lichfield, was exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery, 1884. [The Life of Anson by Sir John Barrow is by no means free from serious faults both of omission and commission, and is absolutely crowded with mistakes of sheer carelessness, e.g. the misspellings of names. The well-known 'Voyage round the World' bears on the title-page of the 1st edition (1748) compiled from papers and other materials of the Right Honourable George Anson, and published under his direction by Richard Walter, M.A., chaplain of his Majesty's ship Centurion in that expedition,' Many years afterwards a claim was made that the work was written, not by Mr. Walter, but by Mr. Benjamin Robins (Robins's Mathematical Tracts (1761), i., xxxvi, xli); this has never been substantiated except by mere assertion; and though Robins was certainly employed as sub-editor and assistant (Peircy Brett to Cleveland, 3 Jan. 1747-8), there is no reason to doubt the plain statement on the title-page, which was always believed by Walter's children and grandchildren (Notes and Queries, 5th series, iv. 78, 100) and was directly sanctioned by Anson. But in any case, whether edited by Walter or Robins, the book was virtually written by Anson himself, as stated on the title-page, and as affirmed by Anson's friends (Barrow, p. 408). The Journal of a Voyage to the South Seas, by Pas coe Thomas, teacher of the mathematicks on board the Centurion (1745), is an independent account, not always so favourable to Anson. Correspondence of the fourth Duke of Bedford, edited by Lord John Russell (1842), vol. i.; Brit. Mus. MSS. Add. 15955-6-7; and Official Letters and Documents in the Public Record Office.] J. K. L. ANSON, GEORGE (1797-1857), general, was the second son of the first Viscount Anson, and brother of the first Earl of Lichfield. He entered the army at an early age, in the 3rd (or Scots Fusilier) Guards, with which regiment he served at Waterloo. In 1818, while still an officer in the guards, he was elected a member of parliament, and sat in the House of Commons for many years, holding in succession the political offices of principal storekeeper of the ordnance and clerk of the ordnance. In 1853, having meanwhile attained the rank of major-general in the army, he was appointed to command a division in Bengal, and in the following year succeeded to the command of the Madras army, from which post he was advanced to that of commander-in-chief in India early in 1856. General Anson was holding this important command when the mutiny of the Bengal army took place. Hastening down from Simla, whither he had gone only a few weeks previously to recruit his health, he collected a force at Amballa, and marched with it against Delhi, but being attacked by cholera at Karnál died at that place on 27 May 1857. General Anson was a man of unquestionable talent, and although he had never seen war except at Waterloo, where he served as a mere youth, those who knew him best had very high expectations that he would distinguish himself in his profession if an opportunity offered. It has been alleged that he showed vacillation and want of promptitude when preparing for the march upon Delhi; but the allegation has been amply refuted by a distinguished officer (Sir Henry Norman) of the army at the time, and had the best who held an important position on the staff means of forming a judgment. Sir Henry says that, suddenly placed in a more difficult position than has probably ever fallen to the lot of a British commander,' General Anson met the crisis with fortitude and with a calm endeavour to restore our rule where it had disappeared, and to maintain it where it still existed.' General Anson married in 1830 Isabella, daughter of the first Lord Forester, who survived him less than two years. [Hart's Army List; Burke's Peerage; Annual Register for 1857; J. W. Kaye's History of the Sepoy War; Fortnightly Review, April 1883.] A. J. A. ANSPACH, ELIZABETH, MARGRAVINE OF (1750-1828), dramatist, was the youngest daughter of Augustus, fourth Earl of Berkeley, by his countess Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Drax, of Charborough, in the county of Dorset. In 1767, she married Mr. William Craven, afterwards the sixth Earl of Craven, and of this union six children were born. Lord and Lady Craven separated in 1780, and her ladyship left England for France, and travelled in Italy, Austria, Poland, Russia, Turkey, and Greece. In 1789 she published in quarto her Journey through the Crimea to Constantinople,' related in a series of letters. Subsequently she visited Anspach, and took up her abode with Christian Frederick Charles Alexander, Margrave of Brandenburg, Anspach, and Bareith, Duke of Prussia, and Count of Sayn. She wrote to her husband that she was to be treated as the Margrave's sister. She wrote little plays in French for the Court theatre-‘La 6 Folle du Jour' and 'Abdoul et Nourjad and, further to entertain the Margrave, translated into French the English comedy of 'She would and she would not.' Lord Craven dying in September 1791, she was married to the margrave in the following month. In 1792 the margrave sold his principality to the King of Prussia, and settled in England, having purchased Brandenburg House, Hammersmith, and the house and estate of Benham, in Berkshire, which had long been possessed by the Craven family. The margrave died and was buried at Benham in 1806. Walpole, who always expressed his admiration of Lady Craven, and even addressed impromptu stanzas to her, furnished the Rev. William Mason with a lively account of the production of her comedy, the Miniature Picture,' at Drury Lane, in May 1780: She went to it herself the second night in form, sat in the middle of the front row of the stage-box, much dressed with a profusion of white bugles and plumes, to receive the public homage due to her sex and loveliness. . . . It was amazing to see so young a woman entirely possess herself; but there is such an integrity and frankness in her consciousness of her own beauty and talents, that she speaks of them with a naïveté as if she had no property in them, but only wore them as gifts of the gods. Lord Craven, on the contrary, was quite agitated by his fondness for her and with impatience at the bad performance.' Nevertheless it was the year of their separation. In 1785 Walpole wrote of Lady Craven to Sir Horace Mann: 'She has, I fear, been infinitamente indiscreet, but what is that to you or me? She is very pretty, has parts, and is good-natured to the greatest degree; has not a grain of malice or mischief, almost always the associates, in women, of tender hearts, and never has been an enemy but to herself. Her first comedy, the 'Somnambule,' an adaptation from the French, was printed at Walpole's private press at Strawberry Hill in 1778, and acted for a charitable purpose at Newmarket. In 1779 she published Modern Anecdotes of the Family of Kinvervankotsprakengatchdern, a Tale for Christmas, a caricature of German pomposity, dramatised by W. P. Andrews. Others of Lady Craven's plays are the 'Silver Tankard,' a musical farce, produced at the Haymarket in 1781; and the Princess of Georgia,' presented on the occasion of Fawcett's benefit at Covent Garden in 1799. At the private theatre attached to Brandenburg House the margravine produced in 1794 a comedy called the 'Yorkshire Ghost; in 1799 a pantomime called 'Puss in Boots;' in 1805 a comedy called Love in a Convent,' and other works. For these plays the margravine composed the music. As she writes in her Memoirs, published in 1826: My taste for music and poetry and my style of imagination in writing, chastened by experience, were great sources of delight to me.... Our expenses were enormous.' The margravine often took part in the performances at Brandenburg House. In 1796 the comedy of the Provoked Wife' was presented there, Mrs. Abington lending her services as Lady Fanciful, while the margravine appeared as Lady Brute. The comedy was reduced to three acts, and great importance was assigned to the character assumed by the margravine. Mrs. Abington, however, insisted that certain of the excisions should be restored, so that her part of Lady Fanciful should not suffer. The margravine died at Naples in 1828. [Memoirs of the Margravine of Anspach, 1826; Walpole's Letters, 1859; Biographia Dramatica, 1812; Genest's History of the Stage, 1832.] D. C. ANSTED, DAVID THOMAS, F.R.S. (1814-1880), a geologist of considerable reputation in his time, was born in London in 1814, educated in a London school and at Jesus College, Cambridge, where he took his degree in 1836, being afterwards elected a fellow of his college. The earlier part of his life was devoted to educational work. He was professor of geology at King's College, London, and lecturer at Addiscombe and at the Civil Engineering College at Putney. From 1844 to 1847 he acted as assistant-secretary of the Geological Society, and for many years he edited its quarterly journal. In later life, from about 1850, he turned to the practical applications of geology in connection with mining, engineering, water-supply, and the like, and was constantly consulted on such matters both in this country and abroad. He was a prolific author, and some of his geological writings for a time kept their place as standard authorities, while others of a popular character attained a wide circulation. Among the former may be mentioned his Geology' (1844), and among the latter his Great Stone Book of Nature' (1863). He also wrote several books of travel, besides contributing a great number of papers to the Geological Society, the British Association, the Society of Arts, and other societies. His death took place at his residence near Woodbridge, Suffolk, in May 1880. [Engineer Newspaper, xlix. 393; Geol. Mag. 1880, p. 336, or Quart, Journ. Geol. Soc. xxxvii. 43; Journ. Soc. Arts, xxviii. 637.] |