prevent your shooting parties in autumn. In that I can see no objection; but if, contrary to my hope, you should find London disagree with you, and should think even this quiet office too much for your spirits, you can then return to retirement. I am most anxious that you should at least make the experiment. I entreat of you, my dear Langlois; I ask it of your friendship; nay, more, I expect it from that long and faithful friendship from which I have never expected anything in vain. — Ever yours most sincerely,
Mr. Benjamin Langlois died on 20th November 1802, aged seventy-five, and was buried at Ashe in Hampshire. Sir Egerton Brydges (Autobiog., ii. 40) has described him as “a good and benevolent old man, with much diplomatic experience, but most fatiguingly ceremonious, with abilities not much above the common.” I do not think that his representatives should be dissatisfied with this estimate of Mr. Langlois; any higher estimate would have implied the qualifications of a cabinet-minister or ambassador, to neither of which eminences he made any pretension. (I am mainly indebted to Sir J. H. Lefroy’s Notes and Documents).
Right Hon. Isaac Barré, born in 1726 (see chap, xxii.), and educated at Trinity College, Dublin, was sent to London, to become a lawyer; but he entered the army. In 1746 he became Ensign, and in 1755 Lieutenant in the 32nd regiment; then came the British invasion of the French territory in America. Barré’s capacity became known to the “immortal Wolfe.” With regard to him, Wolte wrote to Colonel Rickson in the following winter: “By accident I heard of his worth and good sense . . . . I am already repaid for the little I did, by drawing out of obscurity this worthy gentleman. I never knew his face till very lately, nor ever spoke ten words to him before I ventured to propose him as a Major of brigade . . . . We embark in three or four days (Feb. 1758). Barré and I have the great apartment of a three-decked ship to revel in.” Barré with the warmest gratitude always spoke of Wolfe as “my only protector and friend,” “my zealous and sole advocate;” “for want of friends I had lingered a subaltern officer eleven years, when Mr. Wolfe’s opinions of me rescued me from obscurity.” In 1759 Wolfe had a Major-General’s command in Canada, and in May of that year Barré became Adjutant-General with the rank of Major. On the 13th September Quebec was taken, Wolfe was killed, and Barré received a severe wound which destroyed one of his eyes. Barré remained in America till the surrender of Montreal, when he was sent home with the despatches, and arrived in London 5th Oct. 1760. On 29th January 1761 he was promoted to the rank of Lieut.-Colonel, and became Adjutant-General of the British Army and Governor of Stirling Castle. His military prospects were soon overclouded through his entering the House of Commons, “brought into parliament (he himself said) with reluctance on my own part, by the hand of friendship.” The friend was the Earl of Shelburne.
Barré was a proprietor of stock in the East India Company, and so was Lord Shelburne. It was at the meeting of the company that their acquaintance began. Barré’s talents for speech-making and for finance found their first opportunity for exercise, and his Lordship persuaded him to enter the House of Commons. He accordingly became M.P. for the borough of Chipping Wycombe in 1761.
It was Barré’s vote on 15th November 1763 that gave offence. The proceedings against Wilkes as a libeller raised the question of the legality of his arrest by virtue of a “general warrant,” i.e., a warrant not naming him, but describing the species of offenders under which he, and others (also unnamed), might be classed. Barré himself informs us, “When the matter of general warrants was discussed in the House, my conscience directed me to oppose the measure, which I modestly did by a silent vote.” The very next day he was dismissed from his military employments, and ultimately, by a junior Lieutenant-Colonel being promoted over his head, he received a hint to leave the army, and retired without even his half-pay. (It appears from the Grenville Papers that the proceedings were not quite so summary. On 27th November the king was hesitating very much about removing Colonel Barré, who did not get his final dismissal till 7th December — the step being taken entirely in deference to the advice of Rt. Hon. George Grenville, who urged that it would be an additional blow to Lord Shelburne.) Barré’s subsequent career as an opposition member was honourable, serviceable, and magnificent.
In 1765, when the American Stamp Act was passed, he (as was afterwards admitted) alone foresaw its direful consequences. Walpole writes to the Earl of Hertford from Arlington Street, 12th February 1765, “There has been nothing of, note in Parliament, but one slight day on the American Taxes, which Charles Townshend supporting received a pretty heavy thump from Barré, who is the present Pitt, and the dread of all the vociferous Norths and Rigbies, on whose lungs depended so much of Mr. Grenville’s power.” One eloquent passage in Colonel Barré’s speech has never been forgotten in Britain or America, “Children planted by your care?
