George Germaine Cornwallis

“ An unfortunate misunderstanding which occurred at this time between Lord Cornwallis and Lord Buckingham developed the state of feeling existing between the Irish Government and the English Militia, and brought it to a very unexpected crisis.
A detachment of the Bucks had been ordered by the Lord-Lieutenant into the field, and Lord Buckingham, as colonel of the regiment, conceived that he had a right to take the command; but Lord Cornwallis, who looked at these matters with the formality and decision of a martinet, exercised his own discretion in giving the command to another officer. ”

“ I see in their full force all the difficulties that might arise in the contingency of Lord Cornwallis's death. But I trust that danger is as remote as the death of any man can reasonably be said to be. There would be much inconvenience in its being suspected or known that he had a provisional successor named and resident on the spot, because Irish speculation would extend the contingency thus provided for, from the case of his death to that of his resignation. ”

“ It disclaims all idea of hostility; and a friendly correspondence had passed between them since; so that this storm is blown over, at least for the present; and in the meanwhile we are acquiring more strength every day. It is impossible to speak in terms of sufficient admiration of Lord Cornwallis's conduct. ”

“ See letters from him addressed to (a) the Earl of Pembroke, 22nd November, 1620; (b) Secretary Conway, 23rd November, 1623 (Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1619–23, p. 194, and 1623–5, p. 117) .
138. It need hardly be said that Blott’s (Blemundsbury, pp. 357–362) identification of Lewknor’s house with “Cornwallis House, Drury Lane,” the residence of Sir William Cornwallis, “adjoining the grounds of the White Hart Inn ... at the Holborn end of Drury Lane” is a pure fiction. There is no evidence that Sir William Cornwallis ever lived in Drury Lane. ”

“ Lord Cornwallis, however, held a different opinion; but he was so chary in his communications to the Cabinet, that we find Lord Grenville con [Pg 408] stantly complaining of not receiving any intelligence from the Castle, either as to the views of the Government or the events that were passing in the country. "You will easily imagine," he observes in a letter to Lord Buckingham, "I still feel some anxiety for further information, when I tell you that neither from Lord-Lieutenant nor Secretary have we, by this messenger, one word more than you will see in the 'Gazette' published this day. ”

“ Nothing could exceed the beauty of the position selected by the cowled fraternity of Saint George; large bands of whom, lounging away their hours of idleness beneath the funereal junipers in which the retreat is deeply embosomed, were for once aroused from listless apathy by the passing cavalcade of white strangers. ”

“ Young Cornwallis was a person of great distinction; at two he had become an individual with one paramount object in life—not to be treated longer as a baby. It is difficult at two years of age to overawe one's superiors. ”

“ Cornwallis sobbed. “I was what she wanted—I'm her baby; I always was what she wanted. I used to run away from her because she wanted me so tight always. I've thought how I used to run away every one of these days. That's why I let Elaine pull my hair. She's never had Mamma hug her—she's only just had Mrs. Tray—and I let her pull as hard as she could because I was always thinking how was she going to—to live—without any mamma{bar|2}}””
“Cornwallis, stop,” said his father, very gently but very firmly; “grown-up people make mistakes often, but we are trying to do right just as much as you are. ”

“ The privy council placed Cornwallis under arrest in June 1614, and he was imprisoned in the Tower of London for a year. Cornwallis, who was at one time living at Beeston, Suffolk, retired late in life to Harborne, Staffordshire, where he died on 21 Dec. 1629. He was buried in London at St. Giles's-in-the-Fields.
Cornwallis married thrice: (1) Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Farnham of Fincham, Norfolk; (2) Anne or Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Barrow, widow of Ralph Skelton (d. 30 March 1617) ”

“ CALVINISTIC METHODISTS. EVANGELICAL OR SERIOUS CHRISTIANS.
I noticed the name of George Whitfield when speaking of Wesley and his followers, for during a time they acted in unison; Whitfield, however, soon embraced the Calvinistic tenets, and then the friends separated with much of unkindly feeling. Wesley held the doctrines of Calvin in abhorrence, as altogether unchristian and unfounded in Scripture. “I defy you to say so hard a thing of the Devil,” said he with characteristic earnestness, when speaking of the notion that God could arbitrarily create any for eternal reprobation. ”

“ That evening, a wonder far greater than the coming of any mere baby took place in Cornwallis's existence—he went to Grandpapa's to sleep! He had never slept outside of his papa's house before—except at the cottage by the sea which Papa bought some summers—and so he was all excitement when Nellie told him. They had asked Nellie to come, too; Grandmamma was going to let them have the room next to the billiard-room. It was most pleasantly important to pack up, and bundle the velocipede into the tonneau of the Fearless Kerosene, and Nellie liked it, too. ”

“ On the 17th of July a general amnesty was proclaimed, and a few weeks afterwards the French army under Humbert was surrounded and forced to surrender. In 1801 Cornwallis was replaced by Lord Hardwicke, and soon after he was appointed plenipotentiary to negotiate the treaty of Amiens (1802) . In 1805 he was again sent to India as governor-general, to replace Lord Wellesley, whose policy was too advanced for the directors of the East India Company. ”

“ As they sat thus talking, Cornwallis passed the house. He appeared tall and sat very erect, wearing his scarlet uniform, richly trimmed with gold lace and heavy epaulets. Most of the officers, our narrator says, "were rather short, portly men, well dressed and of genteel appearance, and did not look as if they had ever been exposed to any hardship, their skins being as white and delicate as is customary for females brought up in large cities or towns." ”

“ On leaving Cambridge, where he apparently took no degree, Cornwallis obtained a commission in the guards, and some years later succeeded his brother Frederick in the command of the independent company in Jersey. In 1709 the system of parliamentary lotteries was introduced, and Cornwallis is credited with having been the original projector. ”

“ But in 1805 the troubles in India seemed to call for his skilful management, and he was again sent out as governor-general, but lived only a few months after his arrival. Among English public men there have been none more high-minded, disinterested, faithful, and pure, than Lord Cornwallis. ”

“ They drove to a side door, and he and Papa got down and went inside.
“Now, Major, listen to me,” said Papa, not exactly crossly, but in such a way that Cornwallis felt he must be obeyed, whatever came. “Your mamma is ill. She has been ill a long time. She may not know you; she hasn't known anyone for all the long time; she doesn't know that there is a baby—any baby except you. You mustn't mind what she says, and you mustn't mind if she says nothing.” ”

“ Raging like a wounded tiger, Cornwallis destroys all his heavy baggage, and pushes hard after Morgan. The pursuit is urged with unimaginable fury: and Cornwallis gains so fast upon the Americans, encumbered with their prisoners, that on the evening of the ninth day he came up to the banks of the Catawba, just as Morgan's rear had crossed at a deep ford. Before the wished-for morning returned, the river was so swollen by a heavy rain, that Cornwallis could not pass. Adoring the hand of Heaven, the Americans continued their flight. ”

“ On his return from France, Cornwallis retired to Culford, where he lived a peaceful life for three years until a demand was suddenly made upon him to go to India again as governor-general and commander-in-chief, he felt that it was a desperate thing for a man of sixty-six to undertake such a task, but his sense of duty forbade him to refuse, and he left England in March 1805. ”

“ The action affords a remarkable proof of the moral superiority which the victory of the 1st of June, and the known efficiency of the crews, had given to the British navy. The reputation of Cornwallis was immensely raised, and the praise given him was no doubt the greater because he was personally very popular with officers and men. ”

“ CORNWALLIS, Sir CHARLES (d. 1629) , courtier and diplomatist, second son of Sir Thomas Cornwallis [q. v.] , controller of Queen Mary's household, who had been imprisoned by Elizabeth in 1570, was probably born at his father's house of Brome Hall, Suffolk. Nothing is known of him till 11 July 1603, when he was knighted. Early in 1605 he was sent as resident ambassador to Spain. ”

“ On his second advance northward he had the brilliant Greene to contend with, and disasters thickened around him. First his left wing under Tarleton was annihilated by Morgan at the Cowpens, 17 Jan., 1781; then Greene succeeded, in spite of him, in reuniting his main army with that of Morgan at Guilford Court-House, near the Virginia border, and at a great distance from Cornwallis's base of supplies. Thus forced to give battle against superior numbers and in a most disadvantageous position, Lord Cornwallis fought with great skill and as much success as was possible under the circumstances. ”

“ This independence lost him his seat at the board of trade, but his influence remained so great, that he was one of the ten chief persons in Ireland to whom Cornwall is broached the first idea of a legislative union with England in 1798. Cornwallis, in his despatch of 27 Nov. 1798, writes that he had consulted seven leading peers, the attorney- and solicitor-general, and Conolly on the subject, and says that 'Mr. Conolly had always been a decided friend to an union, and was ready to give it his best assistance' (Cornwallis Correspondence ii. 450) . ”

“ Tray (who came and went spasmodically) and Lotty, who cooked, and the runabout, and Star to drive. There was a telephone between the two houses, and a system of inter-domestic dining and lunching far too intricate for me to elucidate, and Grandpapa always came at six o'clock and took Mamma out in the motor, and Cornwallis went regularly on his velocipede to see Grandmamma every day at ten in the morning, and again after his nap at half-past three in the afternoon. It was during one of the latter calls that his grandmother asked him his ideas as to Santa Claus's bringing a baby. ”

“ He is a beauty—too much of a beauty for a boy; but he will never be fit for business. But mothers never think of things in a business way and Mrs. Cornwallis is the main spoke in Cornwallis’ wheel, most assuredly she is.”
“A wheel of domesticity all around I should judge,” laughed Fons. “Cornwallis is no business man.”
“No, Fons—only a counter of other men’s gains—no independent money-maker, so to speak. He would refuse to make money in your kind of [Pg 26] business or mine either. He makes a terrible hullabaloo every time a little ragamuffin gets hurt with blank cartridges or toy pistols. ”

“ With an army much smaller than Cornwallis' he divided it into thirds, plus compelling Cornwallis to divide his own army. Greene knew that Cornwallis, victorious as he might have been, was detached from Charleston and had to live off the land. He would fight a war of attrition and wear Cornwallis down. His strategy worked, although not without fateful moments. He had great faith in his command officers and gave them considerable leeway. They rewarded him with two stunning victories—King's Mountain, North Carolina in October 1780 and Cowpens, South Carolina in January 1781. ”

“ Cornwallis was the first to become sober.
“Well, it's no wonder we feel happy,” he said; “we all know we're all right here today, and all this year we've been crying because everybody thought somebody wasn't.
I don't think that's right in a family.”
Mamma put out her hand and pulled him closer yet (by that same unfortunate collar) .
“Oh, Baby,” she said, “you always knew more than all the rest of us put together.”
“I do when I'm told things I ask,” he replied with dignity.
Just then Norah came in with Elaine's cunning little birthday cake on a silver tray. ”

“ It is no small proof of Cornwallis’s tact in judging of men, that whilst we find him deprecating the employment in independent commands of such generals as the Dukes of Gloucester and Cumberland, Dundas, Burrard (of Cintra) , Coote (of Ostend) , Pulteney (of Ferrol) , Whitelock (of Buenos Ayres) , and Lord Chatham (of Walcheren) , he had always a word of approval for Lake and Abercromby, and in an introductory letter to Sir John Shore, speaks of the lieutenant-colonel of his own regiment, the Hon. Arthur Wesley, as a “sensible man and a good officer.” ”

“ The marquis, who had steadily pursued the earl from Richmond, but always avoiding a general engagement, now resolved to fall upon his rear, when the main body should have passed over to Jamestown Island. Cornwallis suspected this design, and prepared for the emergency. He encamped the greater portion of his army on the main land, as compactly as possible, and sheltered from view by a dense pine forest. He also cast up a fortification on the right bank of Powhatan Creek, by the Williamsburg road, the remains of which, I have just mentioned, are still very prominent. ”