CHARLES, the first Marquis, second Earl, and sixth Baron Cornwallis, was born Dec. 31, 1738, of an ancient and honourable family, which had been settled during many centuries in the county of Suffolk. He was educated at Eton School, and afterwards entered of St John's College, Cambridge, by the name and title of Lord Brome. Having exhibited an early partiality for the military profession, he entered the army when about 17 or 18 years of age, and in 1758 attained the rank of captain in Colonel Crawford's light infantry. Three years afterwards he accompanied the Marquis of Granby to the Continent, in the capacity of aide-de-camp, and with the rank of major; and in consequence of his good conduct he was soon afterwards promoted to be lieutenant-colonel of the twelfth regiment of foot. At this period he had also a seat in the House of Commons, as the representative of his patrimonial borough of Eye. Upon the demise of his father in 1762, he became a peer of Great Britain, under the title of Earl Cornwallis. In 1765 he was nominated one of the lords of the bed-chamber; and about the same time he was appointed aide-de-camp to his Majesty George III., which gave him the rank of colonel in the line. The favours conferred on him by the court, however, had not the effect of corrupting the natural integrity of his mind. He carefully distinguished between his duties as a senator and as a soldier; and in his capacity of peer of parliament, he displayed the independence of his character in several important questions, by voting against the measures of the administration. From the very beginning, he showed himself inimical to those steps which led to the contest with the American colonies; and was one of four peers who joined Earl Camden in opposing the bill for extending the legislative power of Great Britain to our Transatlantic provinces. He also protested against the proceedings of ministers in the case of Mr Wilkes. In 1766 he was promoted to the command of the 33rd regiment of foot; and two years afterwards he married Jemima, daughter of James Jones, Esq.

But although Lord Cornwallis had uniformly and decidedly opposed those coercive measures which produced the contest with America, he did not hesitate to repair thither, in the service of his country, when his professional exertions were required. Accordingly, when his regiment was ordered for embarkation, although special leave of absence had been obtained for him from the king, he resolved to share the fatigues and dangers of foreign service, and took leave of his wife, who was so much affected by the separation that she sunk under the weight of her grief into a premature grave.

Having proceeded to his destination, Cornwallis took an active part in the subsequent campaigns. Soon after his arrival in America, he served, with the rank of major-general, under Sir William Howe, and distinguished himself as an able and enterprising partisan; in the month of November 1776, he landed on the New Jersey shore; and finding Fort Lee evacuated, he immediately penetrated into the country, and took possession of the province. His lordship, however, soon discovered that this was a contest in which the triumphs of skill, valour, and discipline, were not attended with the usual consequences of victory; and that the nature of the country, and the mode of warfare adopted by the provincial generals, opposed many obstacles to a speedy and successful termination of hostilities. At the end of the campaign he repaired to New York, with the view of embarking for England, in order that he might have an opportunity of explaining to the British ministry the real situation of affairs; but having received information of the disasters at Trenton, he deferred his voyage, and returned to the Jerseys.

The first enterprise of Lord Cornwallis, in the campaign of 1777, was an attempt to surprise an American post in his neighbourhood, in which he partly succeeded. Soon afterwards he received orders from General Howe to abandon the Jerseys; and in the month of July he embarked with the English commander-in-chief on the expedition to the Chesapeake. In several of the subsequent events of this campaign Cornwallis was actively engaged. At the passage of the Brandywine river he commanded a considerable body of troops; and after driving the enemy before him, he entered and took possession of Philadelphia on the 24th of September 1777. From that period he seems to have had little opportunity of signalizing himself until the campaign of 1779-1780, when he embarked as lieutenant-general, with Sir Henry Clinton, on the expedition to South Carolina. At the siege of Charlestown, Lord Cornwallis performed eminent services, having attacked and dispersed a body of militia which was hastening to the relief of the place. On the surrender of the town, the command of the province of South Carolina, with about 4000 troops, devolved upon him. He was opposed by General Gates, who had previously distinguished himself in the actions with Burgoyne, and who was now appointed to the chief command of the provincial forces in South Carolina. Gates, having received intelligence of the situation of the royal troops, advanced rapidly towards Camden, with the design of making an attack on the British lines. Lord Cornwallis, however, having determined not to await the approach of the Americans, left his position, and marched against them with a greatly inferior force. The two armies met on the 16th of August, Cornwallis in a narrow place, where the colonial troops could not avail themselves of their superior numbers. The British general, perceiving the advantage which the ground afforded him, commenced the assault, and the action soon became general. The determined gallantry of the British troops, who charged with the bayonet, at length compelled the enemy to give way, and they were pursued nearly twenty miles from the field. Many of the colonial troops fell in this engagement; 1000 men were taken prisoners; and seven pieces of cannon, together with the greater part of the ammunition and stores of the provincial army, remained in possession of the British. But this success, brilliant as it was, produced no permanent advantage to the cause of the royalists, and was more than compensated by the misfortunes which ensued. In 1781, Lord Cornwallis, having withdrawn with the force under his command into York Town, was surrounded by a numerous American army commanded by Washington; and finding all attempts to repel the besiegers, or to escape through their lines, ineffectual, he was under the necessity of submitting to a capitulation, by which his whole army became prisoners of war.

Lord Cornwallis now returned to his native country. During the political contests which took place in 1782 and 1783, his lordship was deprived of his situation as constable of the Tower, which, however, was restored to him in 1784. For some years following, his talents were not called into exercise by any conspicuous public employment. But when the affairs of India began to assume a very critical aspect, he was selected as the person best qualified to fill the important situation of governor-general; and he was at the same time invested with the Order of the Garter. Soon after his arrival in India, the Company were involved in a war with the formidable sovereign of the Mysore, Tippoo Sultan, son of the famous Hyder Ali. The conduct of hostilities was at first intrusted to the Madras government; but towards the end of the year 1790 the governor-general assumed the command of the grand army, and took the field in person. As the events of this war will be detailed in another part of this work, it is unnecessary for us to recapitulate the narrative here. It is sufficient to observe that, by a combination of vigour and prudence, the contest was brought to a successful termination in the course of two campaigns. Tippoo, beaten in the field, and forced to confine his efforts to the defence of his capital, was at length compelled by necessity to submit to such terms as the British commander choose to dictate, and to purchase peace by the sacrifice of half his dominions, and a large portion of treasure. The power of the sultans of Mysore, the most formidable enemies of the British government in India, was thus effectually undermined, and the train laid for its subsequent annihilation.

At the conclusion of the war in India, Lord Cornwallis returned to England. He was now (1792) created a marquis; admitted a member of the privy-council; and, in addition to his other appointments, he was nominated to the lucrative office of master-general of the ordnance, which gave him a seat in the cabinet. A few years afterwards his talents were again required for the public service. Ireland being in a state of ferment, harassed with insurrection, and menaced with foreign invasion, the Marquis of Cornwallis was invested with the viceregal powers, and assumed the government in 1798. His administration was short but successful: an invading army was made captive; some of the abuses which prevailed in the internal government of the kingdom were reformed, and tranquillity was restored. On the union of Ireland with great Britain, he resigned the government of the country, and returned to England. In 1801 he was appointed plenipotentiary to the congress assembled for the purpose of negotiating a general peace, which terminated in the definitive treaty of Amiens. Having been thus from his early years actively, and almost uninterruptedly, engaged in the service of his country, it might have been supposed that his lordship, who had now attained an advanced age, would have been permitted to pass the remainder of his life in the enjoyment of domestic repose. But the new and extensive acquisitions of the East India Company had brought their affairs into a state of embarrassment; and the talents and experience of the Marquis of Cornwallis pointed him out as the individual most likely to restore order and tranquillity to our territorial possessions in Asia. He accordingly repaired thither a second time in 1805, as governor-general and commander-in-chief of the forces.

On his arrival at Calcutta, he found the finances of the country in a most deplorable state; whilst several of the most powerful of the native princes were still in arms, or preparing anew for hostilities. His first object, therefore, was to adopt a variety of arrangements for the purpose of introducing order and economy into the civil department; and he then resolved to place himself at the head of the army. But at this critical moment our eastern empire was unfortunately deprived of his services. Bodily fatigue, mental exertion, and the vicissitudes of climate, had undermined his constitution; and his health was now so much impaired, that he was obliged to perform his journey by slow and easy stages. Nature at length became completely exhausted; and he died Oct. 5, 1805, at Ghazerepore, in the province of Benares, in the sixty-sixth year of his age. He was buried with great pomp; and every mark of respect was paid to his merit. The inhabitants of Calcutta voted a mausoleum, and those of Bombay a statue, to his memory. His lordship was only once married, and left two children, a son and a daughter.

Marquis Cornwallis was endowed in no small degree with those qualities which lead to distinction both in the cabinet and in the field, and rendered important services to his country as a statesman and a general. In council, he displayed moderation and coolness; in conduct, firmness, resolution, and vigour. In public life, he was distinguished by independence of character and inflexible integrity; in private, he was respected and esteemed for his humanity and benevolence.