elections in Scotland. As little as possible should be said; and it should be given out, that it is merely for the purpose of distributing information. The subject to which this refers was what I wrote about to the Lord Advocate yesterday. He will understand it, and tell you."

About this time Mr Drummond again became seriously unwell, and retired to Brighton. On the 1st January 1835, his friend Robe wrote to Mrs Drummond :

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Though I have not written, I have often thought of you during the late bouleversement; for, indeed, it must have been a most anxious time for you, especially when it was followed by Tom's illness, which I believe you did not hear of till his recovery was progressing. Indeed, I did not know of it myself till then. I have received a letter from him this morning, in which he tells me that he is a good deal better, though he expects his final recovery will be tedious, but unaccompanied by danger. He is a glorious fellow, taking his downfall so philosophically as he does. I am told that his pension was given by Lord Melbourne in the most handsome manner, and that Lord Grey had left a minute about it before he quitted the helm-which was still more flattering to Tom, because it shows they all felt the weight of his claims, though I wish they had felt them heavier.”

The grounds on which the pension of L.300 a-year was given appear from the Report of the Select Committee on Pensions, dated July 24, 1838:

"Lieutenant Drummond was a distinguished officer of the Royal Engineers, whose abilities had been shown, not only in the Trigonometrical Survey of Ireland, and the more peculiar branches of his 'profession,' but in the prosecution of various branches of science, in which he has made useful and interesting discoveries. He was employed by the Government of Lord Grey in procuring the statistical information on which the Reform Bill was founded, as well as in determining the boundaries and districts of boroughs. Those services were rendered gratuitously. He was afterwards employed in pre

paring the Bill for the Better Regulation of Municipal Boroughs. Finally, he was employed from April 1833 to April 1834 as private secretary to Lord Althorp, Chancellor of the Exchequer."

On

By the 15th February 1835, Mr Drummond was so far recovered as to venture back to London. "I am quite well in general health," he writes to his mother, "and nearly so totally, and suffer no other inconvenience than limiting myself to more moderate exercise than I should otherwise be disposed to take. Thursday, as every body knows, the battle begins. I think we shall beat them on the Speaker. The numbers on Saturday pledged to support Mr Abercromby were 318." On the 21st he writes in high spirits to his brother. Of the 318 no less than 317 had voted, and the election of Mr Abercromby as Speaker was carried against the Government. The next triumph of the Opposition was carrying an amendment to the address, which Peel was forced to take to the King, with the discontent of his Commons attached to it. In the end of March, Lord John Russell headed a final attack on the Ministers on the Appropriation question. They were defeated, and Peel resigned early in April. There was a new Melbourne Administration.

In April the portrait of Drummond by Pickersgill was finished, and forwarded to Mrs Drummond, with the following letter from Mr Littleton, who by this time had figured for a while as Chief Secretary for Ireland, under the government of Lord Grey.

"GROSVENOR PLACE, April 10, 1835. "MADAM,-I believe you have been informed that the gentlemen associated with Mr Drummond in the late Boundary Commission resolved, at the conclusion of their labours, to offer to him some testimony of their admiration of the talents he had

exhibited in directing the proceedings of that Commission, and of the great personal regard they entertained towards him.

"After much consideration, it was thought a preferable course to ask him to sit for his portrait, and when finished to present it to you. We found that such a present would be more agreeable to him than any other, and we did not doubt it would be most gratifying to you. Mr Pickersgill, the best of our artists, was accordingly employed to paint a bishop's half-length portrait of him, which he has executed with remarkable fidelity.

"It was our original intention to have had a mezzotint engraving made from it, in order that each of Mr Drummond's fellow-commissioners might have had a copy of it. Lord Althorp, Lord Brougham, Lord Lansdowne, and various others of Mr Drummond's political friends, equally desired to possess themselves of a likeness of one to whom they were attached, in common with ourselves, by a sense of obligations, and by personal regard. But your son so perseveringly insisted on the abandonment of this part of the design, that I was obliged to take upon myself to suspend the order to the engraver, who had actually commenced the work.

It now only remains for me, in the name of all the Boundary Commissioners, to place the portrait in your hands, and to express my hope that it may long remain in your family as a record of the public and private esteem towards your son, entertained by a body who were associated with him in an honourable and highly important public trust.

"The portrait will leave town in a few days.-I have the honour to be, madam, with great respect, &c.

"E. J. LITTLETON."

The Liberal party were now again in power. Drummond was not forgotten. In July 1835 he went to Ireland, with Lord Mulgrave, as Under Secretary. The appointment met with the warmest approval of the press. A new regime was announced for Ireland. Lord Morpeth, who became Chief Secretary, was congratulated on having Drummond for his assistant. "He

could not possibly," said the Examiner, "have an abler or more respectable coadjutor, nor could the new regime have a more efficient supporter, or one more imbued with its spirit." "The situation of Under Secretary in Ireland is no sinecure," said the Sun. "It requires incessant vigilance and an unflinching spirit of determination, combined with a temperate and conciliatory nature. And these are qualifications which Lieutenant Drummond is well known to possess. He is not the man to fall asleep over his duties. We look on his present appointment as a great boon to Ireland, as another convincing proof that Ministers are fully in earnest in their endeavours to ameliorate the condition of that distracted country. Lieutenant Drummond's arrival in Ireland will, of course, create a sensation among the old Tory hacks of the Castle, some of whom are still to be seen with unoccupied looks and tottering frames, crawling about the scene of their departed glory." His immediate predecessor in the office was Sir William Gosset, whose dismissal the Examiner declared "was as good a piece of service as in a single act any Viceroy ever rendered to Ireland."

Drummond set out for Ireland on the 18th of July 1835. A few months later he married Miss Kinnaird, the ward and adopted daughter of Richard Sharp, Esq.,, well known in the literary world for his brilliant conversational powers. The lady possessed great personal attractions, and was, by mental qualities, admirably fitted to be the companion of so gifted and intellectual a husband. She had, moreover, a considerable fortune. Mr Drummond became engaged to her in the first week of June 1835, before he accepted the Irish Under Secretaryship. Having thus become independent of all salaries, he accepted the difficult and responsible post,

after due consideration, and continued to perform its arduous and fatiguing duties solely from a strong and noble wish to be useful to Ireland without any reference to his own advantage. The marriage took place on the 19th November 1835. They were married from Weston House, Warwickshire, the seat of Sir George Philips, where they first became acquainted in the autumn of 1833. After a short tour, Mr Drummond returned with his wife to the Under Secretary's delightful lodge in the Phoenix Park, which thenceforth, to the end, was to be his home. His letters to his "beloved mother," in the period preceding his marriage, are full of tenderness. The deep and sacred wells of feeling are, if ever, opened on such occasions.

The rest of this Memoir consists chiefly of a record of Mr Drummond's exertions on behalf of Ireland.