WALKER, Rev. GEORGE, an Irish clergyman, distinguished for the part he took in the heroic defense of Londonderry against the army of James IL, was born in the county of Tyrone, of English parents, in the early part of the 17th century. He was educated at the university of Glasgow, and, entering the church, became rector of Donoughmore. The early life of Walker was not remarkable. When the Irish army of James II. entered Ulster, and took possession of Kilmore and Coleraine, Walker sought refuge in Lon donderry, the headquarters of " the Englishry" since the times of James I., when the confiscated lauds of the county had been bestowed on the corporation of the city of London, and a Saxon colony, English and Scotch, had been planted there. who had con verted a waste into the richest district of Ireland. The town was fortified sufficiently to protect it from the pike-armed Celtic peasantry, and it had resisted more than one attack. But it was not so defended as to oppose regular troops. Lundy, the governor, was in secret communication with the enemy, and prepared to hand over the town to them; but some of his own officers protested against this course, and the citizens. remarkable at the time for that high spirit which characterizes a dominant race. and the possession of those qualities which made the soldiers of Cromwell famous, deter mined not to yield. The bishop, Ezekiel Hopkins, in vain insulated the doctrine of passive obedience at a conference; he was interrupted by a lad, one of a daring band known as the "thirteen Scotch apprentices," who called out: " A good sermou, may lord—a very good sermon; but we have no time to bear it now." A Scotch fanatic named Hewson urged the Presbyterians not to ally themselves with the enemies of the • covenant; but he was laughed at by his countrymen. The thirteen apprentices closed
the city.gates, and defied the enemy. It was then that Walker, described as an aged clergyman who had taken refuge in the city, encouraged the townspeople to fight to the last. Walker saved Lundy from the rage of the populace, and enabled him to quit the city in safety. Maj. Baker, who soon after died, and Walker became joint-governors, aided by capt. Adam Campbell. The siege is the most memorable in British history It began in April, and lasted till the end of July, 1689. The inhabitants were reduced to the greatest extremities by Langer. but they were sustained to the last by the rousing sermons preached to them by Walker in the cathedral, and the example he and capt. i Campbell set in heading sallyng-parties. When the siege was raised by the English fleet entering the harbor, Walker went to London. He was warmly received at court, thanked by the house of commons, created D.D. by Oxford, and bishop of Derry by the king. Portraits of him were iu every house in England, and his triumph would have been complete had the Presbyterians not thought that their share in the defense of the city was overlooked, and provoked useless controversy. Walker could not be induced to take quiet possession of his bishopric; he would head a troop at the battle of the Boyne, and he was there killed. A lofty pillar bas been erected to his memory at Londonderry, and the Walker club and the Campbell club have kept alive to our times the recollection of the siege. Walker published in 1689 A True Account of the Siege of Londonderry.