JOHN BURGOYNE was a distinguished cavalry officer in the reign of George II. On the 10th of May, 1758, he was promoted from captain in the eleventh dragoons to captain-lieutenant and lieut.-colonel in the second foot guards; and his talents and experience occasioned him to be selected, in the following year, to form and discipline a corps of light cavalry, (now the sixteenth, or the Queen's lancers,) of which he was appointed lieut.-colonel commandant. Previous to this period light cavalry was little known in the British army, the value of that _arme_ had, however, become appreciated; and the discipline, dexterity, and efficiency of BURGOYNE'S horsemen soon attracted admiration, and he received from his sovereign repeated and conspicuous testimonies of his royal approbation. In 1762 he was sent with his regiment to Portugal, where he served as brigadier-general, and he acquired distinction under the Count La Lippe and the Earl of Loudoun, whose despatches bore testimony of his gallantry and zeal for the service, in the warmest terms. He was appointed in 1763 colonel of his regiment, which was honoured with the title of the _Queen's light dragoons_; and in 1772 he was promoted to the rank of major-general; he was also appointed governor of Fort William. When the British colonies in North America revolted against the mother country, he was placed on the staff of the army in America, and he joined the troops at Boston a short time before the battle of Bunker's Hill. In 1776 he served under Lieut.-General Carlton in Canada, and in the autumn of that year he was promoted to the local rank of lieut.-general in America.