Page:The Marquess Cornwallis and the Consolidation of British Rule.djvu/14

8 and Constable of the Tower, was created Earl Cornwallis and Viscount Brome in June, 1753. His son, born December 31, 1738, is the subject of the present memoir.

Charles, second Earl and first Marquess Cornwallis, was educated at Eton; and, according to the custom of the time, entered the army at the age of eighteen. He was sent abroad in 1757 to acquire some technical knowledge, and joined the Military Academy at Turin. Several amusing anecdotes of his life there are given in letters from a Prussian officer, Captain De Roguin, who appears to have accompanied the young Englishman as a sort of travelling companion and tutor. The discipline of the Academy seems to have been fairly strict, and Lord Brome spent his time in learning to dance and fence, studying the German language, and taking lessons in the riding school. After leaving Turin he visited some of the German courts, served on the staff of Lord Granby, and was present at several actions on the Continent, including the battle of Minden. In 1760 he entered Parliament as member for Eye, but in less than two years he succeeded to the earldom, on the death of his father in June, 1762.

Hitherto there had been nothing extraordinary in the career of Earl Cornwallis. He had benefitted by a public school education. His mind had been opened and his taste improved by foreign travel, and he had seen some hard service at Minden, Labinau, and other