Holmes, as well as colonel Bainbridge, read in manuscript my account of the battle of Arklow, and declared that it was perfectly agreeable to their own and general Skerrett's sentiments. Why were not the names of captains Dante, Wilkinson, and others, subscribed to this letter, who had been in the battle of Arklow? These appear to have some property, and not to have thought their situation so desperate as to be obliged to take such a step. Perhaps also they had a principle superior to such foul dealing independently of property. Captain Dante, who, having a personal quarrel with my family, might have been gratified with such a signature, declined the honour. That of Holmes was the last signature obtained, a man of no very shallow speculation, who certainly would not make a barter for nothing. This transaction, strange as it may appear to the reader, created not the least surprise in me, because a transaction of a far darker hue had before occurred in a combination of these same officers against me, against whom, I really believe, they were far from having any personal enmity, at a time when the command of the regiment, by colonel Bainbridge's violent sickness, devolved on major Williams. Of this nefarious combination, procured by the interest of a general officer, all powerful, it seems, with them, and counteracted by the generosity of another general officer, a truly worthy man, of a character diametrically opposite to that of the former, I shall give an account hereafter, and I hope that, for the honour of the British army, attention will be paid to this affair by the commander-in-chief. These officers, while they remained in the neighbourhood of Gorey, were in the habit of speaking contemptuously of general Needham, whom they seldom honoured with any other appellation than that of general Needless; and told many stories of piano-fortes, jaunting cars, cows, horses, &c. but one which lieutenant Gibbs related, was so extraordinary that few believed it; that in the plundering of Magauley's shop at Oulart, in the march from Gorey to Vinegar-hill, a scramble was made for the brass money in the till or drawer of the counter. I shall take leave at present of the Loyal Durham Fensibles with this observation, that in no other regiment could ever probably have been more strongly exemplified how much the behaviour of soldiers and subaltern officers depends on the principles and conduct of their commander. Its discipline was really excellent until the departure from it of general Skerrett, its colonel, to Newfoundland. After that, in a long sickness of colonel Bainbridge, and his long absence in England, the change was amazing. One out of many instances may suffice. Mr. Charles Driver, of Gorey, a very eminent bootmaker, waiting on lieutenant Dutton with a pair of boots which he had ordered, and expressing in respectful terms his unwillingness to leave them without being paid, (for good reasons which he had not the imprudence to avow), was ordered by Mr. Dutton into the guard-house, and confined there some hours; and on his complaint, after his liberation, to major Williams, was commanded to go, and be damned, about his business. Mr. Driver was well known to be a very zealous loyalist, whose father had been murdered by the rebels. Whether he has since been paid for his boots I know not. Books printed for T. HURST, 32, Paternoster-Row. Biographical Dictionary of Eccentric Characters. Neatly printed in a pocketSize, on afine vellum wove Paper, and embellished with Portraits of the most remarkable Characters noticed in the Work; Price 4s. in boards. ECCENTRIC BIOGRAPHY; OR, SKETCHES OF Remarkable Characters, ANCIENT AND MODERN, INCLUDING Potentates, Statesmen, Divines, Historians, Naval and Military Heroes, Philosophers, Lawyers, Impostors, Poets, Painters, Players, Dramatic Writers, Misers, &c. &c. &c. The following are among the Eccentric Characters contained in this work. Alexander the Gt. Andrews Lancelot Fisher Mary Littleton Lord T. Aram Eugene Fitzmaurice H. T. Macklin Charles Arkwright Sir Rd. Armstrong John Foote Samuel Metcalf John Bacon John Gainsborough Th. Mossop Henry Bacon Francis Bigg John Butler Samuel Carey Harry Chatterton Thomas Garrick David Mozart Nash Richard |