of his elder brother, put General Stewart in possession of the family estate of Garth. To a person less distinguished than he had now become, the succession to a property considerable in its extent, and inherited through a line of ancestors worthy of such a representative, would have conferred that rank and estimation which the world in general, but, above all, the people of Scotland, attach to the hereditary proprietor of a landed estate. But General Stewart had established for himself a character with the world, to which the mere acquisition of a patrimonial inheritance much more valuable than that which thus descended to him could add no consideration; and it is only necessary to refer to this part of his life, because he was now exposed to the temptations, arising from an income which, although sufficient for his exemplary habits of life, was narrow compared with what many in his rank and station enjoyed, to swerve in practice from those principles which he had so powerfully advocated as to the management of Highland estates. But he was not of a mould to yield to such temptations and the tenants on the estate of Garth will long remember and bless his memory, for the kind-hearted and considerate application to them of that wise and humane course which he had recommended to others, and the departure from which it was so much the object of his work to condemn.

The success of his work, and an ardent desire to do justice to the history and character of the Highland Clans, induced him, about this time, to collect materials for a history of the memorable Rebellion in 1745 and 1746. This work he did not live to complete. But he devoted much time to gather from the best sources all that tradition, and the papers of the Highland families implicated in the events of those years, had recorded. In the year 1823, he made a tour through the Highland counties and the Western Isles on this errand. There were, however, many difficulties to prevent the satisfactory performance of the duties of the historian of that civil war. He not only did not complete the task which he contemplated, but it is doubtful whether, even if his life had been prolonged, he would ever have resumed it.

The appointment of General Stewart to be Governor and Commander-in-chief of the island of St. Lucia gave great satisfaction to his friends, as a proof that his merits were not altogether overlooked by the Government; but there were a few, who, on his departure, bade him in their minds an eternal farewell, never expecting to see him more. It was doubtless true, that he had been in the West Indies twice before, and had escaped the malignant effects of the deleterious climate of those regions; but it was

equally true, that he had been long at home, accustomed to enjoy the comforts and luxuries of refined society, and to breathe the pure air of his native mountains; that he was well advanced in life, and that his constitution could scarcely be expected to possess: the same accommodating power as when he was in the heyday of youth. Accordingly, not long after his arrival, he was seized with the fever of the country; and the first attack was, after a short interval, succeeded by a second, which had well nigh carried him off at once, and which unquestionably laid the foundation of the disease that at length terminated his active, useful, and spotless

career.

But, notwithstanding all this, the improvements he had commenced or projected afford a striking proof of his vigour of mind, and honourable zeal in the discharge of his duty. At the time of his death, two churches, one for Catholics and one for Protestants, were nearly completed; a wharf, the only one in the island, was about half finished; and from the 10th of November to the 6th of December, when they were to leave off for the season, no fewer than 1350 persons had been busily at work making roads. Before the General's arrival there was not a mile of cart or carriage way in the country, except what the planters had made for conveying their sugars to the sea-side; the natural consequence of which was, that the cultivation of the interior of the island was wholly neglected, and the insalubrity of the climate thereby increased. Four bridges had also been contracted for, and five more were to have been built in the course of the last year. Nor, while labouring to construct inland communication, did General Stewart overlook an improvement which was still more imperiously called for, in the administration of justice. On his arrival, he found the old French laws still in force, and the courts in the most degraded, if not corrupt, state. His first care was to set about reforming the one, and placing the other upon a more efficient and respectable footing; and in this difficult but necessary task he had made considerable progress, when, on the 18th of December, 1829, death put a period to his active and useful labours. But he has not gone altogether without his reward. By these efforts for the improvement and prosperity of the people over whom he was placed, not less than by his habitual kindness and attention to every one who came within his notice, he secured the esteem and regard of all; while his unexpected and lamented death plunged the whole island in mourning, and affected every one as if he had been stricken by a domestic calamity. "Never did I before wituess," says a friend, in a letter from St. Lucia, "such general

feelings of distress in any community as this melancholy event has occasioned here. Every one is sensitively alive to the irreparable loss the colony has sustained by the death of David Stewart." And, as a farther proof of the esteem in which he was held in the West Indies, it may be mentioned here, that, on the death of Sir Charles Brisbane, Governor of St. Vincent, a number of the most respectable inhabitants sent a vessel express to St. Lucia, with a letter, urging General Stewart to make immediate application for the Government of that island. For many reasons he declined complying with their request, though he could not possibly be insensible to the compliment implied in it.

The illness which preceded the melancholy event was one of great severity, and of eight or ten days' duration. As we have already observed, subsequently to his arrival in St. Lucia, the General had two several attacks of fever, during the second of which his life was for many hours despaired of; but a sound and vigorous constitution at length prevailed, and his health was, to all appearance, pretty well established. The dregs of this second attack, however, appear never to have been thoroughly cleared away; and there obviously remained lurking in his constitution, and liable to be excited into fatal activity by a malignant climate, the elements of that mortal disease, which ultimately deprived his country of his valuable services, and humanity of one of its proudest ornaments. This is apparent from an incidental hint in a letter written by his own hand, so late as the 5th of December, 1829, only thirteen days before his death, and addressed to a friend in London: for although he concludes it by saying that "every body is keeping in good health here," he at the same time. admits that he is himself suffering great annoyance from a boil deep-seated in his ear; and, in point of fact, the excitement and irritation produced by this very boil (a consequence probably of the former attack) affected the brain, and finally proved the cause of death. There can be little doubt, also, that his unsparing, uncalculating activity, and the constant exertion, if not anxiety of mind, occasioned by superintending the multitude of reforms and improvements which he had set on foot, and which, at the time of his demise, were advancing rapidly to completion, must have contributed, in no small degree, to stimulate the action of the morbid tendencies engendered by his former illness, and to cut short a life which had been continually spent in doing good. He died, as he had lived, nobly; retaining his senses to the last, and evincing that calm fortitude and resignation with which the brave and the good meet death. "His end," says a friend, "was like that of the

blessed, calm and serene, without a struggle or a sigh, passing from time to eternity."

After what has been said, it would be a vain and superfluous task to dilate on the merits, or attempt an elaborate sketch of the character, of this truly brave and excellent man. As a soldier, he distinguished himself wherever an opportunity was afforded him, and was ever ready, at the call of his country, to face danger, and fight her battles, in any quarter of the world. As a citizen, and, above all, as a country gentleman, he was distinguished for his public spirit, his active patriotism, and the zeal and perseverance with which he promoted and carried through whatever he deemed calculated to add to the comfort or advance the welfare of the district in which he resided. As a man, he was the kindest, the gentlest, the best: without guile himself, and unsuspicious of it in other men; free from all manner of envy and uncharitableness; upright, generous, and friendly almost to a fault; and probably more generally esteemed and beloved than any other man of his time. On looking around, therefore, we despair of finding any one to fill the space occupied by him. Many there doubtless are with more showy pretensions; not a few, perhaps, who, in several points, excelled him. But, taking him for all in all, - his sterling worth, his undisputed talents, his innate goodness, his unquenchable desire to confer benefits upon mankind, and particularly upon those whom ordinary minds regard with coolness and aversion, we shall never look upon his like again. To the friendless he always proved himself a friend; and misfortune claimed, not his pity alone, but his protection. Straight-forward himself, he hated all manner of dissimulation or chicanery in others; and oppression of any sort he failed not to denounce with an honest indignation that never calculated the consequences to himself. In a word, he combined the sterner virtues with the gentler charities and affections of our nature in such a happy union, that he may be said to have approached as nearly to the character of a perfectly wise and good man, as it is possible in the present imper

fect state to arrive at.

For nearly the whole of the foregoing Memoir we are indebted to the "North Britain." Shortly after the news of the General's decease had arrived, a communication appeared in "The Cale

donian Mercury," from Sir John Sinclair, strongly eulogising the character of his lamented friend, and quoting a letter which the Right Honourable Baronet had recently received from him, dated at St. Lucia, November 20. 1829. From that letter we transcribe the following paragraph:-the General is speaking of the capture of St. Lucia in 1796, in which he participated:

"I landed in a small bay beyond Pigeon Island, in the same boat with General Moore and Colonel Hope (the late Lord Hopetoun and Sir John Moore), who took me, with sixty men of the Highlanders, along with them, to clear the beach and neighbouring woods of a party of the enemy who fired on the troops in the boats. A cannon-ball from Pigeon Island passed Lord Hopetoun's left shoulder, and over my head. He observed that a miss was as good as a mile, to which I cordially agreed; and added, that it was fortunate for me that I was only five feet six inches; as if I were, like him, six feet five inches, I would have been a head shorter, and I would not be, as I am now, able and happy to be employed in writing to you."

From a friend of General Stewart's, to whom we applied for information respecting him, we received an obliging letter, in which it is stated,

“Of the manner in which he exercised the functions of his office, and of the respect and affection with which he was regarded by all who knew him, numerous testimonies might be collected, if there were time to write and receive answers from the West Indies. There is a gentleman in town at this moment from a neighbouring island, who saw General Stewart a short time before his death, and speaks in the highest terms of his kindheartedness and conciliatory manners. Without compromising the dignity which as a Colonial Governor it became him to uphold, he appears to have won all classes by his affability; frankness, and unaffected courteousness of manner. It may not be trivial or irrelevant to state, that, like all his gallant countrymen of the Highlands, General Stewart was very fond of dancing; and in the balls which he gave at the Government House, the brave and lighthearted veteran kept it up with his accustomed spirits, to the infinite delight of the fairer part of his guests. It was even said before he went out, that when some friends hinted at the danger of a tropical climate to one so far past the meridian of life, the General expressed a hope and intention in a few years to come home and take a wife.'

"The subjoined passages in a letter of his, dated 'Government House, St. Lucia, 30th of August, 1829,' are exceedingly charac