DEATH OF LORD HARDINGE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VII, Issue 442, 28 January 1857, Page 5

DEATH OF LORD HARDINGE.

(From the Times.) It is with very sincere regret that we have to record the death of Field-Marshal Lord Hardinge, which took place on Wednesday, at his country seat, near Tunbridge Wells. Few officers have served so long and with so many opportunities of distinction, and of Lord Hardinge it-must be . said that in the field he was ever found equal to the occasion. We do not claim for the gallant soldier who has thus departed from among us the praise of military genius of the highest order. He was neither a Marlborough a Napoleon nor a Wellington, but the work he had to do he .always performed efficiently and well. From the lowest grade he rose to the very highest rank in the British army by his own deserts. He was not-connec-ted by tiirth .with any noble family, nor with any influential clique in military circles; and yet he became Coinmander-in-Chief. .Slender ' indeed was the chance that Henry Hardinge, the son of a clergyman in the north of England, who entered the army as ensign in the year 1798, should have attained the dignities of Governor-General of British India and of Com-mander-in-chief. It may be said that the accidents of life were on his side, but they were no more so than in the cases •of a .thousand, others who have passed away, their names : unknown.- -The very turning point of his career ; affords evidence that he was a man destined to ; conquer in the battle of •* life. Lord Hardinge used frequently to tell the story how, after the ;battle of Corunna, 'when the' English troops were hurrying' onboard' ship, a staff officer was anxious to gain the friendly shelter of'the^ ■ English .fleet. The keen eye of Marshal Beresford^who was superintending the embarkation,, detected the vigour ■ and:, capacity of a young ; officer who was employing .himself most zeal-, , ously ; in tlmdischarge of his, duty. That young officer was Henry .Hardinge, and.from,that moment his. fortuae was .made. He wasr'equired.'tb' act in the" place df the expeditious staff officer, and Lord Beresford never forgofc his activity arid zeal. At a subsequent period when Beresford was charged with the impor-- ■* tant duty of preparing the Portuguese forces to .take an> active share in the contest with .the1 veteran .troops of Napoleon, he remembered the, | young, officer who had done, such good service on. the beach of Corunna, and summoned him to his aid. He gave him a brigade in the Portuguese service "before he was 25," and after a jtime his foreign grade was commuted for British rank, i :But for this fortunate " accident," as Lord Hardinge used to call it, his-fate might ihave been, according to his own opinion, that of a hundi'ed others. He might have .died a colonel on half-pay after thirty years of hard service in. every corner of the British empire. We doubtif this would have been the case. For men of. so energetic a stamp—so fitted by nature for the career on which they;haye entered—--'acci-dents" are ever occurring,-, which they are ever prepared to turn to account. .There must have been some extraordinary qualities in a man who could rise to such eminent employments without; ever having had— save in the memorable instance of Albuera—the chief direction of any great military achievement in the fields In, the Peninsula Lord Hardinge was always under command—in India he modestly took' the second place under Lord Gdugh—in the recent conflict with Russia his office was rather one of selection than of dii'ecfc participation, and in-his - selection he was not very fortunate. The qualities .which seem to have recommended Lord Hardinge to honour and fame were, in the first place; unflinching courage; in the most terrible trials, or, in.the most .unexpected turns, of war. He was distinguished moreover, by a buoyancy of spirit, by a cheerfulness, by a geniality which made him ever acceptable to those around him. Almost to; the last, when the weight: of years and of lengthened; service was .beginning' to tell upon him, he was a ready .and efficient man. of business.: ;; A .character and habits \ such as these, joined to. unweai'ied zeal and to a never-failing-sense, of duty, will.be sufficient to account for the honours which he attained without insulting the memory of so gallant and deserving a man with fulsome and superfluous flattery. [ : ■ Thelate noble lord was buried •in the chvircli-

yard of the little village of Fordconib. The foundation stone of the. district church there waslaid by Lord Hardxngeon his returnfrom India and he was the main contributor to its building fund. The funeral was strictly, private, as would best accord with the simple tastes and habits of the deceased. The usual heraldic escutcheons were dispensed with, arid the only emblems to mark his rank were the fieldxnarshal's baton and hat, and the sword given to him by the Duke of Wellington after the Peace of Paris, which were borne on the pall. The body was followed from the house at South-park by some of his nearest relatives, and was met at the church by many gentlemen of the neighbourhood, and by a few of his most attached and distinguished friends.