13 W Cambridge Term begins. 14 T Oxford Term begins. 15 FLlandovery Horse Fair. 16 S 17 Second Sunday af. Epiphany.r 8 ON sets. 18 M Banwell (Somerset) Fair. 19 T ABERYSTWITH ST. CH. (3 days). r 7 58 2 8 11 20 W 3 31 r 8 s 4 1627 5 1111 49 9 0 18 0 45 s 4 1929 7 1 1 10 1 36 159 2 23 s 4 22 1 6a50 2 46 39 3 53 s 4 25 3 9 31 4 14 4 37 27 W Chesterfield Fair. 28 T RIDGWAY CLUB C. M. (2nd day).'s 4 4011 5 20 29 F Mercury rises 7 h. 13 m. A.M. 30 S CLYDESDALE COURSING M. LORD GEORGE BENTINCK, M.P. ENGRAVED BY J. B. HUNT, FROM A PORTRAIT BY M. CLAUDET. We might perhaps find stronger proof for introducing the portrait of Lord George Bentinck than we shall rest content with in at present so doing. It is not as the new light blazing forth so suddenly in the political horizon; not as the able and worthy opponent of the great statesman of his time; not as the acknowledged leader of a powerful and respected party; not as the high-principled advocate or indefatigable patriot, that we here publish the excellent likeness we have obtained. It is not for any of these attributeshowever noble and exalted they may really make their possessor-but rather as the most accomplished sportsman of the age, and as the very keenest turfite the annals of British racing ever produced; as the adventurous spirit who ordered posters on, to take Elis down to Doncaster to win the Leger; as the proposer of amendments that he himself was the first to put into practice; as the uncompromising enemy to every species of shuffling and rascality; and as the owner of race-horses who facilitated for the whole public those opportunities for enjoying the pastime that so chosen a few had hitherto alone expected. On these grounds is it that we pay our tribute of respect to Lord George Bentinck, confident that every sportsman will re-echo our opinion, while assured that none will question his right to the position he has gained, as few could equal the claims he has shown for it. William George Frederick Cavendish Bentinck, more commonly known as Lord George Bentinck, was born at Welbeck, on the 27th of February, 1802, and is the second surviving son of that good man and true sportsman, his Grace the Duke of Portland, by Henrietta, eldest daughter and coheiress of the late Major-General Scott, and sister of the Dowager Viscountess Canning. The earlier part of his lordship's life was in no way indicative or preparatory to the publie standing he was destined hereafter to occupy; for up to his seventeenth year his studies were pursued altogether at home-a custom, though, far from general at that period. The profession to which his disposition would appear to have first inclined him was that of arms; and accordingly, we have him entering, somewhere about 1819, as a cornet, in the Tenth Hussars. By this time, however, the opportunity for the young soldier to distinguish himself was nearly gone; and what with two general reductions in four years, and those two following almost immediately after the commencement of his campaign, it was quite as much as Lord George, by various exchanges and purchases, could keep on active service. Indeed, in 1822 he would seem to have somewhat compromised the Dragoon by going into the Forty-first, with the after-intention of accompanying his uncle, the late Mr. Canning, just appointed Governor-General, to India, in the capacity of military secretary. The melancholy decease of Lord Castlereagh, and the immediate call for Mr. Canning as leader in the lower House, with the seals of the Foreign Office placed in his keeping, interrupted this course at the very last moment-so late even that the luggage of uncle and nephew had already been sent on board their frigate, the "Jupiter." In this change the subject of our memoir so far participated as to continue with his illustrious relative as private in place of military secretary, but without any of the emolument appertaining to the office. Having ably fulfilled the duties of this honorary appointment for nearly three years, it was thought advisable for his lordship to resume his original pursuit; and in 1825 we have him exchanging once more from half-pay to the Second Life Guards, with whom, though, he did not remain much more than twelve months. The cause of his leaving was certainly rather characteristic. In riding one day off Newmarket Heath with the late Duke of York, perhaps even as great a lover of racing as Lord George himself, the Commander-in-Chief, with that gracious manner which so generally distinguished him, made his brother-turfite the presentation of an unattached majority then vacant. This was the last step and place Lord George took in the service; for only two years later he was elected member for Lynn, for which borough he still sits; and in 1835, seeing no hope of action or advancement, retired in toto from the army-list by selling out. Having so far followed Lord George Bentinck as "an officer and a gentleman," it now becomes our more especial duty to consider his character as a "gentleman sportsman." The inclination for field and other eminently national sports, although only fully developed within these few years, had long and surely shown itself; the turf, however, at first not holding that ascendancy over other amusements which in after time it so signally obtained. Indeed, if any, in the opening days of Lord George's career, could boast of a preference, it was the chace, for which for some considerable period his lordship evinced all that active energy in participation that he subsequently transferred to its more costly companion. For many seasons, we believe, he might have been reckoned something very like a six days a-week man, backed with the further recommendation that he rode to hounds, and not at men. In fact in all his pursuits, Lord George Bentinck has strictly confined himself to their purely legitimate and proper use; and so in the field he figured only as a good-that is to say, a farabove-the-average-rider, when, had his aim been the lead, and not the hunting, he might no doubt have been classed with the brilliant. In shooting, again, he was always content with the fair-play performances of spaniels, pointers, and setters, in making up a moderate bag, rather than call in the aid of biped beaters and overstocked preserves to fill the carts and swell out the list. In boating, and other recreations of the kind, Lord George also played a good part; and in short, when a young man, arrived at no mean proficiency in most of those pursuits likely to interest and test one of his spirit and ability. Still his lordship's great forte, and, as some good people until very lately were charitably inclined to think, his only grand point, was the turn for racing-a passion that worked equally to his own fame and the advantage of the sport he so warmly affected. As the son of a nobleman always fond of a little racing, it was but natural to find |