rity, that the precepts it contains are exact and just; and that it is, therefore, at once a book of entertainment and of science. But then comes the summary character, that, although written with much art, it has few beauties.

Secure of applause, and confident of power, Philips now directed his mind to a higher subject, and formed the design of a poem on the Resurrection, and Day of Judgment; but the state of his health precluded all execution of the work. Habitually consumptive, and oppressed by an acute asthma, his infirmity in the year 1707 grew so delicate, that his physicians advised a visit to Bath. Thither he went, dragging a slow disease along with him; and there he suffered many severe conflicts from it, with a cheerfulness of spirit which did honour to the equanimity of his disposition, and the philosophy of his mind. The summer passed over his head, but no alleviation of the distemper came with it, and he proceeded to Hereford to see his mother. Beneath her roof the few hopes of recovery he brought with him soon vanished; during the course of the winter the asthma seized upon his lungs with redoubled fierceness, and he expired on the 15th of February, 1708. His remains were interred in the cathedral church of Hereford, where a Latin epitaph is inscribed to his memory. For one who has done so little, he enjoys a very high reputation—a fortune which may be ascribed, in a great measure, to personal endearment. He seems to belong to that secondary class of writers, who conceive better than they execute—who hit upon a capital plan, but fail to recommend it by proper shades and varied relief. The 'Splendid Shilling' is more an argument for a poem, than a full and adequate performance; and no reader of his 'Cyder' can help deploring the laborious merit he designed, and the ordinary satisfaction he produces.

756

SIR THOMAS PICTON, K. B.

LITTLE comment is required for the parliamentary monument of this officer: it stands near the door in the north transept of St. Paul's, and altogether is a labour of most insignificant fiction inartificially displayed. Gahagan is the artist from whose chisel it emanated. Genius, personified in the statue of a winged youth, leans on the shoulder of an ancient warrior, who is designed to represent Valour, and stands in the act of receiving a wreath of laurel from the hands of Victory. Behind this group is placed a pillar, surmounted with a bust of the deceased. The inscription is as dispirited as the sculpture :--

Erected at the Public Expense

to Lieutenant-General Sir THOMAS PICTON, K.G. C.B. who, after distinguishing himself in the victories of Buzaco, Fuentes de Onor, Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajos, Vittoria, the Pyrennees, Orthes, and Toulouse, terminated his long and glorious military service in the ever memorable Battle of Waterloo, to the splendid success of which

his genius and valour eminently contributed,
on the xviii of June, MDCCCXV.

Picton was a native of Wales, where his family held ancient possessions, and he entered the army as an ensign, in the 12th regiment of foot, during the year 1771. In 1773 he was quartered at Gibraltar, under Eliot, Lord Heathfield, where he obtained a lieutenancy in 1776, and remained engaged in profitable activity until the year 1778. He got his first company in the

75th foot, and was suffered to remain a captain for the term of sixteen years, that is, from 1778 to 1794. In 1783, his head quarters being at Bristol, a mutiny broke out in his regiment, in consequence of which, the men were disbanded, and the officers put upon half-pay, but not before Picton was honoured with the thanks of the commander-in-chief, for his conduct in the emergency.

Year after year now passed tediously away; and Picton, who from the onset of his career was remarkable for professional ardour, led an anxious life, petitioning for a commission, but restricted by economy and retirement. At last, worn out by the disappointments he met at home, he set sail for the West Indies, in 1794, and landing at Jamaica, was fortunate enough to obtain a majority in the 68th foot, from Sir John Vaughan, who at the same time nominated him an aid-de-camp, and soon after made him deputy quarter-master-general of the island, a preferment which involved the local rank of lieutenant-colonel. Two years after, a vacancy occurred at the head of his department, and he aspired to fill it; but another officer was put above him, and he was on the point of returning to England, when Sir Ralph Abercrombie, who had just reached that station with the command of an offensive army, engaged his assistance in the approaching hostilities. The offer being promptly accepted, he took an active part in the reduction of Lucie, where the opinion entertained of his abilities may be estimated by the tenor of a proclamation which required, that all orders coming from Lieutenant-colonel Picton, should be considered as orders coming from the Commander-in-chief. He next received the lieutenant-colonelcy of the 68th foot, with which he fought at the storming of St. Vincent's, then repaired to Martinique with Abercrombie, and after a short interval, returned to England in the same company.

During the course of the same year, Abercrombie resumed his command in the West Indies, and was again attended in his proceedings by Picton. Trinidad being reduced, Picton's services upon that and former occasions were rewarded with the appointment of governor and captain-general of the island. From this period, the year 1786, until 1802, when the administration of the place was put under the control of commissioners, he continued to discharge the duties of his office with a zeal, which secured to him

acknowledgments from the various commanders-in-chief upon the station, and the thanks of the ministry at home. Nevertheless, the circumstances under which he resigned his authority were attended with a popular ciamour, so loud and revengeful as to bring on a court-martial, from which, however, he was honourably acquitted. One fact, in particular, was then established against him, which operated greatly to disparage his character:-it was proved that he had subjected a female slave to the torture of a flogging, for the purpose of extorting from her a confession of some theft she was accused of having committed. An act so repugnant to the humanity of British jurisprudence at first impelled the public to reprobate Picton as a monster of martial tyranny, but the general odium soon died away; for it was clearly shown, that he was all along particularly averse to the proceeding, and was only induced to sanction its barbarity, by the remonstrances of the legal advisers in the prosecution, who cited the Spanish laws by which the island was then governed, and upon their enactments claimed the inquisitional punishment as an undoubted right.

So well satisfied was the War-office with the result of this investigation, that he was made a colonel on the 1st of January, 1803, a command in which nothing memorable is recorded of his conduct. On the 25th of April, 1808, he was promoted to be a major-general; and when the injudicious expedition to Walcheren was projected, during the following year, he was put at the head of a brigade, which assisted at the siege of Flushing, a town of which he subsequently became governor. The disasters of this undertaking, and the mortality which swept away the troops embarked upon it, were enormous: no less than a million of money was expended upon it, and as many as 15,000 men, out of an army of 37,000, were either killed or disabled by the ravages of fever. Considerable praise was bestowed upon Picton, for the solicitude with which he tended the suffering troops, and the kindness with which he assisted the destitute inhabitants; but he was obliged to bend, in his turn, to the pernicious influence of the climate, and returned to England, dangerously reduced by fever and ague.

Scarcely was he recovered from the effects of these enervating disorders, when he was sent into Portugal, and there attached to the staff of the Peninsular army. As soon as his health be

came re-established, he was entrusted with the command of the 3d division. The first occasion in which his services were now found more than usually eminent, was when Lord Wellington, having passed the valley of Mondego, collected all his forces on the Sierra de Busaco, and was there attacked on the 25th, 26th, and 27th of September, 1810, by Ney and Regnier. Various movements were effected with steady alacrity, and much dexterous fighting occurred on those days, throughout the whole lines, during which, Picton, in the right wing, usurped a conspicuous part, and was victorious in every emergency. Two thousand of the enemy were killed upon the field, but the advantages of the British, though decisive, produced no great results. Picton's name was repeatedly mentioned with praise in the Gazette, and in return, he was gratified with the colonelcy of the 77th foot, early in the following year.

After being present at Massena's attack near Fuentes de Onore, he manœuvred his division at the siege of Badajos,* on the 19th

Of the officers who fell upon this occasion, one, Lieutenant Beresford, is commemorated in Westminster Abbey, and two, Majors-general Robert Craufurd, and Henry Mackinnon, in St. Paul's Cathedral. Beresford and Mackinnon were accidentally blown up by powder, and Craufurd was mortally wounded in the breach. Beresford has only a marble tablet, which is placed near the bust of General Paoli, and is thus inscribed :

Sacred to the memory of John Theophilus Beresford, eldest son of Marcus Beresford, and the Lady Frances his wife, Lieutenant in the 88th Regiment of Foot, who died in the 21st year of his age, at Villa Formosa, in Spain, of wounds received from the exploding of a powder magazine, at Ciudad Rodrigo, after he had passed unhurt through eight years in voluntary service of the greatest danger, for which he received the thanks of the Commanderin-chief. Brave and zealous in his military duties, animated by a strong feeling of piety to God, and distinguished by his ardent filial affection and duty to his widowed mother, he has left to her the recollection of his rising virtues, as her only consolation under the irreparable loss she has sustained by his death. Born January 16, 1792, he died January 29, 1812; and was interred with military honours in the fort of Almeida.

'Yea, speedily was he taken away, lest that wickedness should alter his understanding, or deceit beguile his soul.'

Wisdom of Solomon, Chap. iv. ver. 11.

Craufurd and Mackinnon are distinguished together, by a memorial which