THE SECRETARY-AT-WAR.1 Ir is probable that the War-office had its origin, like many other departments, in a committee of the privy council. Thomas' Notes of the Rolls. "The first Secretary-at-War was an officer detached from the secretary of state's office: the secretary of state, as is understood, finding the consolidation of the finance of the army inconvenient, got rid of it by establishing a secretaryship-at-war, as a separate and independent branch."-Sir Henry Hardinge. It is probable that the Secretaryat-War was originally a clerk attending upon a committee of council. This I had suspected, because Mr. Blathwayte, who was Secretary-at-War to James II., was in attendance on the privy council when the bishops were called in.-Mr. Thomas Babington Macaulay. The Secretary-at-War is deemed the Military Secretary to the sovereign, and conveys his majesty's, or, as now, the queen's, orders to all the generals and military governors at home and abroad, in relation to the troops and garrisons under their command; and with him they correspond, and to him they make their returns and reports, as well as to the commander-in-chief or the commander of the forces, as the case may be. The trust reposed in this officer is very great. All orders for marching, quartering, encamping, and recruiting the army are signed by him; and all military commissions issue from his office. The Secretary-at-War prepares the army estimates to be laid before parliament, and he is on that account necessarily a member of the house of commons; he is always a privy councillor, and frequently, as now, a cabinet minister. 1 There appears to have been established, about the close of 1620, or at the beginning of 1621, a council or committee for war. Sir William Trumbull, ambassador at Brussells, writing to Sir Dudley Carleton, then ambassador at the Hague, under date of February 19, 1620-1, says: "By other means, you have heard of the newly elected council or committee for war, whereof the earls of Oxford, Leicester, and Essex, are the most eminent persons, to whom are joined the viscounts Canfield and Wilmot, Sir Ho. Vere, Sir Edward Cecil, Sir Edward Conway, and Capt. Bingham."- Holland Correspondence. State Paper Office. It appears, also, that there was a council of war established "for securing Ireland, and the rest of the kingdom, and for putting the navy in readiness." Date, April 21, 1624. See" Commissions:" Sir Joseph Williamson's Collection; First Series, vol. 35. From the Sixth Report of the Commissioners appointed under the act 45th George III. cap. 47, to inquire into and examine the public expenditure and the conduct of the public business in the military departments therein mentioned, it appears that the origin of this office could not be traced. It is clear, however, that the first person whe held the appointment was detached from the secretary of state's office, so intimately connected were the two departments then considered. 1741. Rt. hon. Thomas Winnington. April 27. | 1809. Lord Granville Leveson Gower, afterwards -Kearsley's Annals. [This name does not appear in the au- 1746. Rt. hon. Henry Fox, afterwards lord earl Granville. June 27. 1809. Henry-John, viscount Palmerston. Oct. 27. KING GEORGE IV. 1820. Viscount Palmerston, continued. 1755. Rt. hon. William Wildman Barrington, 1828. Sir Henry Hardinge. May 31. viscount Barrington. Nov. 14. KING WILLIAM IV. THE MASTER-GENERAL OF THE ORDNANCE. THIS officer is always chosen from among the first generals in the service of the sovereign. His appointment was formerly for life, but since the Restoration he holds it durante bene placito; and now usually enters upon office with the party to which he is politically attached, and retires with each change in the responsible advisers of the crown. To the Master-General of the Ordnance is entrusted the storing of all the military magazines in the dominions of Great Britain, and the supply of all the munitions of war to the royal navy that issue from his department. He is colonel-inchief of the corps of artillery and the corps of engineers, and he has a peculiar jurisdiction over all the engineers employed in the several fortifications throughout the realm. The Master-General is not unfrequently a cabinet minister. MASTERS-GENERAL OF THE ORDNANCE. QUEEN ELIZABETH. KING CHARLES II. 1596. Robert, earl of Essex: beheaded in her 1660. Sir William Compton. majesty's reign. KING JAMES I. 1603. Charles, earl of Devonshire. 1609. George, earl of Totnes. 1628. Sir Thomas Stafford. John, lord Berkeley. 1679. { In com mission. 1681. George Legge, afterwards lord Dart mouth. WILLIAM AND MARY. 1689. Frederick de Schomberg, duke of Schomberg. 1693. Henry, viscount Sydney, afterwards earl of Romney. QUEEN ANNE. 1702. John, earl, afterwards duke of, Marl- 1712. Richard, earl Rivers. Jan. 1. KING GEORGE I. 1714. John, duke of Marlborough. Oct. 1. KING GEORGE II. 1740. John, duke of Montagu. July 1. KING GEORGE III. 1763. John, marquess of Granby, afterwards duke of Rutland. 1772. George, viscount Townshend. Oct. 1. 1782. Charles, duke of Richmond, Lenox, and 1783. George, viscount Townshend, again; af- 1807. John, earl of Chatham, again. April 4. 1819. His grace, Arthur, duke of Wellington. Jan. 1. 1670. *George Legge, afterwards lord Dart mouth. Dec. 7.2 1767. 1681. Sir Charles Musgrave, bart. 1687. Sir Henry Tichborne, bart. 1772. 1688. Sir Henry Goodricke, bart. 1702. John Granville, afterwards lord Granville. 1705. Thomas Erle. 1712. John Hill. 1714. Thomas Erle, again. 1717. Thomas Micklethwaite. 1718. Sir Charles Wills, K. B. 1742. George Wade; field marshal, 1743; commander-in-chief, 1745. 1748. *Sir John Ligonier, K. B., afterwards viscount and earl Ligonier; field marshal and commander-in-chief, 1757. 1757. Lord George Sackville (Germaine): dis viscount, and marquess Townshend.2 Hon. Henry Seymour Conway, afterwards commander-in-chief, &c. Sir Jeffrey Amherst, K. B., afterwards lord Amherst, commander-in-chief in 1778, et seq. 1782. Hon. sir William, afterwards viscount Howe, K. B. 1804. Sir Thomas Trigge. 1804. Rt. hon. Richard Fitzpatrick. 1807. Sir Thomas Trigge, again. 1810. Sir Hildebrand Oakes, bart. 1823. William Carr, viscount Beresford.2 1825. Sir W. H. Clinton. 1829. Lord Robert-Edward-Henry Somerset. This office was abolished in 1831. The.duel in which the duke was killed, is one of the most remarkable upon record, and is thus described by the chroniclers of the time: "Sunday, Nov. 15, 1712: A duel was fought with small swords in Hyde Park, between James, duke of Hamilton, and his friend colonel Hamilton, on the one part, and Charles, lord Mohun, and lieutenant-general Macartney, on the other part. Lord Mohun was killed upon the spot, and the duke expired of his wounds as he was being carried by his servants to his coach. Colonel Hamilton was wounded in the foot, and surrendered himself on the 22d; but Macartney made his escape, and large rewards were offered for his apprehension. It was strongly suspected that the duke, after he had slain his adversary, was killed unfairly by Macartney. Chron. of Great Britain. 2 The personages distinguished by an asterisk were subsequently Masters-General. 3 He was restored to favour in lord Bute's administration, and, in 1775, became one of the principal secretarics of state; which office he held during the American war. THE FIRST COMMISSIONER OF WOODS AND FORESTS. THE origin of the Forests belonging to the crown is not to be found mentioned in any record, the New Forest in Hampshire excepted, which, though made by William the Conqueror, is called by Manwood, writing on the Forest Laws, "the New Forest in England." The origin of the Laws for the management of the Forests seems involved in equal obscurity with the Forests themselves.'-Notes from the Rolls' Office. From the reign of Henry III., when the Charta de Foresta was granted, there were two Justices in Eyre, one for the north, and the other for the south, of Trent. Henry VIII. established Courts, which were afterwards dissolved; and James I. appointed Surveyors, and Charles I. a Surveyor-General, of Crown Lands. Numerous statutes were enacted up to the 50th of George III., when the then offices of SurveyorGeneral of the Land Revenues of the Crown and the Surveyor-General of Woods, Forests, Parks, and Chases were directed to be united under a Board of Commissioners, to be named the "Commissioners of Woods, Forests, and Land Revenues." In 1832 (2 William IV. c. 1) the office of Surveyor-General of Works and Buildings was united with this Board, and thus was formed the present consolidated office of Commissioners of Woods, Forests, Land Revenues, Works, and Buildings. The first Commissioner of Woods and Forests is now a high political personage. He is always of the privy council, and sometimes a member of the cabinet. 1 FOREST COURTS. These were, the Court of Woodmote, the Court of Swanimote, and that called the Justice Seat, or Court of the Chief Justice in eyre. The Court of Woodmote was a court held every forty days, and its function was to inquire into all offences that had been done in the forest within that time. The Court of Swanimote, in which the verderors were the judges, was held thrice a year: The first time, for the purposes of clearing the forests of all animals, deer excepted, during the fawning season. The second time, for the admission of swine, &c., into the forests, to feed on acorns and beech-mast, called pannage. The third time, to receive an account of every deer killed, and every tree felled, and to obtain payment for the pasturage of cattle. The Court of Justice Seat was held once in three years, when the rolls of the two inferior courts were presented to the chief justice in eyre, and when all offences were tried.-THOMAS's Notes for the History of Public Depart ments. |