peculiar kindness and distinction, he conferred on him the honour of knighthood; and created him Grand Cross of the Royal Guelphic Order.

Sir John Macleod was married, in the year 1783, to Lady Amelia Kerr, second daughter of the fourth Marquis of Lothian, and had a family of four sons and five daughters.

It may be permitted here briefly to advert, with his own, to services which were fostered by him, and which, during the period of the war, bore no common character in the army.. His sons were all early taught by him to look up to the service of their sovereign. Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Macleod, who fell while leading on the 43d regiment in the assault on Badajoz, had, from the period of his first entering the army, given constant proofs of his ardent attachment to the service, and a promise of the fame and rare distinction that marked the close of his brilliant career. His services commenced under his father's friend, Lord Cornwallis; he was with him in India when he died, and was the bearer of the despatches to England announcing that melancholy event. He was next employed at Copenhagen, and, finally, in the Peninsula. His character and services are best recorded in the words of the illustrious Commander, who, together with the glory of his own deeds, has transmitted the name of Colonel Charles Macleod to posterity. The following is an extract from the Duke of Wellington's despatch, announcing the fall of Badajoz, in 1812:

"In Lieutenant-Colonel Macleod, of the 43d regiment, who was killed in the breach, his Majesty has sustained the loss of an officer who was an ornament to his profession, and was capable of rendering the most important services to his country."

Every soldier will understand, that if any thing could have afforded consolation to Sir John Macleod, on the loss of such a son, it would have been a tribute of this nature from such Even under the weight of such a blow, it had its influence the patriot father bowed in submission to his

a source.

heavy affliction, and buried his private griefs for ever in his own breast.

Sir John Macleod's second son, George, commenced his service in the navy, under the late Lord Hugh Seymour, and afterwards obtained a commission in the engineers. He was

a most zealous officer, and distinguished himself at the siege of Scylla Castle, at the siege of Ciudad Roderigo, and at that of Badajoz, where he unfortunately received a wound from which he has never ceased to suffer.

His third son, James, was, in the first instance, in the artillery, and employed at Copenhagen, at Walcheren, and throughout a great part of the peninsular campaigns. In 1823 he quitted the artillery, and joined the 41st regiment, and was employed in the active operations carrying on in India, when he fell a victim to the climate at Rangoon,

in 1824.

Henry, Sir John Macleod's fourth son, commenced his services likewise in the artillery, and served in that corps in the battle of Talavera, and the early campaigns of the peninsular war. On the death of Colonel Charles Macleod, the Duke of York offered him a commission in the Line ; and it was while he was serving at the siege of Dantzic, where he had been sent on a special duty, that he was recalled, in order to join the 35th regiment, then with the force under Lord Lynedoch's command in Holland. He was next employed on the staff of the Duke of Wellington's army in the Netherlands, and was severely wounded at Quatre-Bras, in the enemy's attack of the 16th of June. He proceeded subsequently to Canada, on the personal staff of the late Duke of Richmond; and, like his elder brother, it was his misfortune to have to bear to England the despatches announcing his friend and patron's death. He is, at present, on the staff of the army in Jamaica, where he has been employed

since 1825.

The officers of the 43d regiment, anxious to record their respect and attachment to their lamented commander, erected a monument to his memory in Westminster Abbey.

From the general outline that has been given of Sir John Macleod's services, some faint impression may be formed of his character by those who did not know him. The nature of those services does not afford extensive subject for narrative. It will have been seen that he was the spring of action in others, more than a partaker in events that prospered chiefly from his judgment: his was the anxious charge of responsibility, foresight, and superintending control, more than of active participation in what emanated from him; and his services are better recorded in the successes and rewards of others, and in the high name and public estimation of his corps, than in details relating merely personally to himself.

His earliest services commenced in command, and are those which partake most of active character; and drawing public notice and distinction on him, even at that early period of his life, afforded a sure and unerring earnest of those superior qualities that marked his subsequent career. The period at which he served was that of most importance in his country's annals; and his was a mind not to bear an undistinguished part in the records of the time. An unprecedented war, in power and duration, had opened a field for the full developement and exertion of its superior and peculiar qualities. The leading feature of his character was the confidence he inspired in others, and the unbounded trust they reposed in him; and thus, whether called on for counsel, or to act under unforeseen or sudden emergencies of service, he was ever ready and prepared to meet its exigencies. His watchfulness seemed never to sleep, but to be in anticipation of what might occur; and to forestall events by securing means to meet them. "His whole soul," to use a common-place expression, was in his profession. Of every soldier he made himself the friend. To his equals in rank, he was a brother; to those beneath him, a father in kindness and in counsel; and to the private soldier a benefactor, ever watching over his comfort and his welfare. To all he had a ready ear to listen, and a heart and hand to act in their behalf. Throughout his long career he was never known to

act with the slightest approach to severity; and yet he never failed to maintain discipline, to reprove fault, or to check irregularity. He animated zeal, excited energy, and aimed at perfecting discipline, by always appealing to the nobler and the better feelings that prevail in the soldier's character. His influence extended beyond the branch of the service he controlled; his name was a passport every where, and was held in such universal respect, that it imposed emulation of good deeds on all who belonged to him; and the conduct and acts of his sons, however they might reflect on him, were thought of but as a matter of course in them: even at the period of Lieut.-Colonel Macleod's fall at Badajoz, his loss as the son was almost as universally felt as in that of the brilliant officer commanding a distinguished corps. Sir John Macleod's highest praises, however, are those which cannot be told the world. Our private character is always best known and judged by that of our associates and friends; his were among the great and the good. Honoured by his sovereign, respected by all ranks of the army, loved by his friends, and revered by his family, his private life afforded an example to all who love goodness, honour, and benevolence, while his professional career ever pointed to the highest and noblest attainments by which we can serve our country.

From "The United Service Journal."

181

PROFESSOR OF

No. XIII.

DAVID SCOT, M.D.

ORIENTAL LANGUAGES IN ST. ANDREW's;

AND FORMERLY MINISTER OF CORSTORPHINE.

AMONG the many examples which Scotland has afforded of obscure and unpatronised talent overcoming every obstacle, and rising to eminence by its own native force, the late Dr. David Scot, Professor of Oriental Languages in St. Andrew's, and formerly minister of Corstorphine, may be reckoned one. With nothing to cheer him on in his arduous struggles but an insatiable desire for knowledge, he gained ultimately, by his persevering and indefatigable industry, a name and a reputation as a scholar, particularly as an Oriental linguist, which has seldom been equalled in that country, and which will long reflect honour on the church of Scotland.

Dr. Scot's parentage was humble; he was a native of the parish of Penicuick, where his father was a small farmer: but he seems to have been a man of more talent than generally belongs to that rank of life; for he wrote and published a pamphlet, under the signature of a "Penicuick Ploughman," directed against the Dissenters of the day, and especially against Gibb, the well-known author of the "Display," a book in which the sentiments of the sect were embodied.

As a matter of course, Dr. Scot was sent to the parish school, where he soon distinguished himself by the eagerness of his application, as well as by the superiority of his abilities. At the University of Edinburgh his diligence and