Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume III.djvu/393

 BUCKINGHAM 387 tenant from a fever brought on by a sudden cold after a fox chase. Buckingham's private life was of the most profligate character, and in reckless indulgence he surpassed even the most abandoned of Charles's court. It was by him that Louise de Querouaille, afterward duchess of Portsmouth, was brought to the king as his mistress ; and he also introduced Nell Gwynn and the actress Davies to the royal favor. His own intrigues were numberless and of the vilest character. He lived in open adultery with the countess of Shrewsbury, and killed the earl her husband in a duel ; the countess is said to have stood by in the disguise of a page, a witness of the murder. Buckingham had brilliant wit, but he was quite as famous for his fondness for low buffoonery and mimicry. Many anecdotes of his adventures show the lasting enmities he made by this propensity. His resentment was always deep and lasting, and he was utterly unscrupulous in seeking revenge. There is little doubt that he was concerned in a plot for the murder of the duke of Ormond, who had contributed to his temporary degradation in 1666. Buckingham wasted an enormous fortune in the most reck- less extravagance, and died in comparative poverty, though by no means in such destitu- tion as Pope, in his desire to point a moral, has represented in the well known lines on the subject in his "Moral Essays." He died without issue, and was the last of his branch of the Villiers family. Several dramas and other literary works left by him, including poems, speeches, and a " Satire against Mankind," were collected in a volume in 1704. He is said to have introduced the manufacture of glass into England from Venice, but this is doubtful. BUCKINGHAM, or Buckinghamshire, John Shef- field, duke of, an English statesman and poet, born in 1649, died Feb. 24, 1721. He suc- ceeded his father Edmund Sheffield as third earl of Mulgrave in 1658, early acquired some distinction in the navy and army, became a knight of the garter and a gentleman of the bedchamber under Charles II., served a little while under Turenne, commanded the expedi- tion to Tangier, was a member of the privy council and lord chamberlain under James II., and acquired under King William (1694) the title of marquis of Normanby. According to Walpole, he was an early lover of Queen Anne, who appointed him lord privy seal, and created him duke of Normanby and of the county of Buckingham in 1703. Several editions of the works of Buckingham appeared between 1723 and 1740. His " Essay upon Poetry " was at first published both in English and Latin, and translated in 1749 into French. The highest compliment conferred upon his " Essay on Satire" was the castigation inflicted in con- sequence of it, at the instigation of the earl of Rochester, upon Dryden, who was supposed to have had something to do with the author- ship ; but this is denied by Walter Scott, who says that " Dryden's verses must have shone among Mulgrave's as gold beside copper." Dr. Johnson praises his memoirs as lively and agreeable, but does not speak so highly of his other works. He was eulogized by Koscom- mon, Pope, and Dryden, and erected a monu- ment to Dryden in Westminster abbey. On the death of his son Edmund (1735) the du- cal title became extinct. His third wife, the countess of Anglesea, was a natural daughter of James II. Her grandson, Sir Constantino Phipps, inherited the Mulgrave and Normanby titles and estates. The duke left an illegiti- mate son, who was called Charles Herbert, assumed the name of Sheffield, and became a baronet; he was the great-grandfather of the present Sir Robert Sheffield. BUCKINGHAM, James Silk, an English traveller and author, born at Flushing, near Falmouth, in 1786, died in London, June 30, 1855. He was educated for the church, but went to sea, and was for several years master of a vessel. In 1813 he was engaged by the pasha of Egypt to determine the best site for a canal across the isthmus of Suez; but after he had traced the course of the ancient canal the project was abandoned, and he was commissioned to pur- chase ships in India and establish a trade be- tween that country and Egypt. Having failed to accomplish this, he assumed command of a large ship belonging to the sultan of Muscat, to be employed in the China trade on the sul- tan's account. In 1816 he established a jour- nal in Calcutta, but was expelled from India on account of his censures of the Indian govern- ment. He returned to London, and establish- ed the " Oriental Herald " and the " Athenae- um." Between 1822 and 1830 he published his " Travels in Palestine," " Travels in Ara- bia," "Travels in Mesopotamia," and "Travels in Assyria and Media," and subsequently two volumes on Belgium, the Khine, and Swit- zerland, and two volumes on France, Pied- mont, and Switzerland. He delivered lectures throughout the United Kingdom on British In- dia, against the company's commercial policy, against impressment of seamen, intemperance, the corn laws, and other important subjects. Joining in the popular agitation of the reform bill, he was in 1832 elected member of parlia- ment for Sheffield, and retained his seat till 1837, after which he travelled extensively in America, lecturing on temperance and anti- slavery. He published his travels in ten octavo volumes, three being devoted to the northern United States, three to the slave states, three to the eastern and western states, and one to Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. In 1849 he published a volume on " National Evils and Practical Remedies," in 1851 became pres- ident of the London temperance league, and in 1855 published the first two volumes of his autobiography, but died before the work was finished. A few years before his death the East India company had granted him a pen- sion of 300, and he also had a literary pen- sion of 200 from the crown.