seemed backward to furnish. General Moore was dispatched to Acre, and afterwards to Jaffa, to require an immediate fulfilment of the engagement; but he found, upon his arrival, that very little confidence could be placed in their professions: on this account, the fleet was obliged to remain two months at Marmorice, to procure those necessaries which were expected to have been in readiness. At last, however, on the 2d of March 1801, the transports arrived in the bay of Aboukir, and on the 3d it was determined to land. The French, in the mean time, were not unprepared to receive them; for having erected formidable batteries on the sand hills that commanded the coast, they opened a destructive fire on the boats as they approached the shore. General Moore, who commanded the reserve, was first ordered to land, and putting himself at the head of his men, he leaped on shore, and was instantly followed by the troops under Major-Generals Ludlow and Coote. With unparalleled bravery they advanced amidst a shower of grape-shot and shells, and, at last, forced the enemy to retire, although they continued to the last to dispute every inch of ground. The landing of the troops, on this occasion, was justly esteemed one of the most masterly atchievements performed during the whole war; and even Bonaparte was heard to declare, that it could not have been surpassed by the ablest Generals in Europe. To the officers who conducted the debarkation every praise was due. The troops had to row a space of six miles in a rough sea, and effect a landing, exposed to a tremendous fire of the enemy, prepared to receive them, and aided by every advantage the place could afford. But to follow the operations of the army in this celebrated campaign, would be to give a regular history of the war in Egypt. On the memo rable battle of the 21st of March, he commanded the reserve; the most im portant post of an army, and that by which the fate of battles is most frequently decided. He conducted it with singular judgment. At the beginning of the action, an attack was threatened on our left, and General Moore had begun to move towards that quarter; but seeing, from the manner in which this charge was supported, that it was merely a feint, and rightly judging that the grand effort was intended to be made in the opposite quarter, he immediately moved towards the right. When, therefore, a few minutes after, the tremendous assault began, which had nearly overwhelmed that part of our army, he was soon in the thickest of the battle. His brigade bore the brunt of the engagement; and while he was conducting his men with the most intrepid bravery against a furious charge of the enemy, he received a severe wound in the head, which obliged him to quit the field. "I regret (says General Hutchinson in his dispatches) the temporary absence from the army of this highly valuable and meritorious officer, whose counsel and cooperation would have been so highly necessary to me at this moment." Some time after this, he was employed in escorting the French to Aboukir after the surrender of Cairo; in which, if it required not great military skill, it required at least no small share of circumspection, to maintain an exact understanding among a motley collection of British, Turks, and French.The last service in which he was engaged, was the siege of the castle of Marabout, in Alexandria, which was attacked by Generals Moore and Coote, and, after a resistance of sixteen days, it surrendered to the British. After the conclusion of the war in Egypt, he returned to Britain, and, about the same time, obtained the Colonelcy of the second battalion of the 52d regiment; and after the death of of General Trepand, he obtained that to which his meritorious labours had of the first battalion. By the campaign in Egypt, General Moore had now brought to maturity those military talents which had commenced with so favourable auspices. He had already distinguished himself in Corsica, the West Indies, and in Holland; he now added fresh laurels to those he had already gained, and fully realized the sanguine expectations that had been entertained of his future professional skill. Following the example and instructions of the immortal Abercrombie, he could not fail to derive all the advantage and improvement which an inquisitive and penetrating mind is ever ready to receive. He had, besides, to contend with some of the bravest troops of France, which, under its ablest leaders, had already astonished Europe by the brilliancy and extent of their conquests. Thus circumstanced, it required all the energy of the British commanders to support the national character, and to testify to their countrymen, that, to superiority of numbers, not to superiority of courage and discipline, the splendid victories of the French were to be ascribed. Whilst almost every officer supported the national reputation, the courage and conduct of General Moore were preeminently displayed on every occasion. The best encomium that can be bestowed upon his services, is to consider the important and dangerous enterprizes in which he was engaged, and the ability with which they were all executed. His Majesty, in consideration of his important services, conferred upon him the honour of knighthood; and, as an additional proof of his approbation, the order of the Bath was conferred at the same time. Sir John Moore, for some time after his arrival in Britain, held an important command in the south of England, and enjoyed, for a time, that repose from more active service so justly entitled him. Upon General Fox quitting his command in Sicily, he was succeeded by Sir John; but this command was of very short dura. tion, and he returned to Britain in the end of December 1807. General Whitelock's trial commenced, he was one of the Generals appointed to preside on that occasion, and from his great professional skill and extensive knowledge, perhaps few officers were better qualified to decide on that disgraceful expedition. In the support of our ally, the King of Sweden, the Ministry had resolved to send a British force to co-operate with his troops, and, accordingly, Sir John Moore, with 12,000 men, sailed for this purpose from Britain about the beginning of April 1807. He reached Gottenburgh about the middle of the same month, and, after leaving his troops at that city, he immediately proceeded to Stockholm, to concert measures with his Swedish Majesty relative to the future destination of the army. From reasons, which have not yet been allowed to transpire, he suddenly returned without affording the assistance that was at first intended. Various opinions have been formed of this unaccountable conduct; but the most probable, and indeed the only explanation that has yet been given for his return, was a demand which the King was said to have made, that our troops should attack a fortress deemed impregnable, and which Sir John could not consistently with his instructions undertake. It was expected that the two armies should have united, and endeavoured to wrest Norway from the hands of the Danes, who seemed very inadequate for its defence. The service to which his Swedish Majesty had destined our troops, was considered by their commander as a wanton and unjustifiable sacrifice of men, in an undertaking which, whatever was the result, could be attended with little honour to his men, or advantage to his ally; and rather, therefore, than expose them to almost inevitable destruction, he abruptly left the Swedish dominions, and returned (June 29th). to Britain. Whatever was the cause of his return, Ministry seem to have been fully satisfied with his explanation; and no sooner had he returned, than he was appointed to a command in the army serving in Portugal, and shortly after, sailed from Britain, to which he was destined never to return. Arriving off the coast of Portugal, he was prevented a considerable time from landing, by the roughness of the sea, till at last this was happily effected, by the uncommon exertions of that able officer, Captain Malcolm, of the Donegal, who covered the debarkation. After continuing some time in Portugal it was at last determined that the troops should proceed by land to Spain, and there form a junction with the troops that were expected to arrive from different routes. On the 11th Oct. the army left Lisbon, and after a tedious and fatiguing march, which the unremitting attention of the commander in chief had in a great measure alleviated, the army reached the eastern part of Leon, where it was expected that all the British and Spanish forces should have been concentrated, and have commenced the most vigorous operations against the French. Sir David Baird had arrived with a considerable force at Corunna about the time the army left Lisbon, but was prevented from landing until he had received the sanction of the central Junta. During this fatal and injudicious delay, the forces, which should have immediately marched to join those already in Leon, were obliged to remain in inactivity on board the transports before Corunna, and thus was lost the favourable moment which might have given a different aspect to the campaign. Nor were the troops under Sir John Moore in much better circumstances; for instead of meeting with that cordial reception and mutual co-operation which had been expected, he was scarcely joined by a single Spaniard of note since his arrival in the country; the well-disposed having joined the patriotic army in different quarters, while the disaffected waited only the arrival of the French to espouse their cause. At last, however, Sir David Baird arrived; but it was only to return again to Corunna. Castanos, on whose exertions in that quarter the principal hopes depended, had been defeated, and by the dispersion of his army no farther assistance from his party was to be expected. Bonaparte was thus enabled to pour an immense army into Spain, and laid siege to Madrid, which was expected to have made a vigorous resistance, and to have checked for a time his farther operations; but after a feeble opposition it capitulated, and thus left him at liberty to prosecute his success without farther molestation. Such a concurrence of events all conspired to render the situation of the army more precarious, and a precipitate retreat was the only alternative left to save them from inevitable ruin. Soult had been dispatched with a large body of forces to bring them to an engagement, or, by making a diversion, retard their march till Bonaparte could arrive, and thus overwhelm them by superiority of numbers. The winter had now set in with extreme severity; the army had to travel the distance of 200 miles over a barren inhospitable country, covered with snow, or deluged with continual rain; harassed by an enemy triple their number attacking their rear and opposing their progress. It was now that his great talents and professional skill called for their full exertion. All the stratagems of war and the resources of his comprehensive mind were here to be called into action. The zeal and ability of the of slaughter of the disordered and bro- officers trained by his example, co- Such was the fate of Sir John Moore !-After conducting his troops through dangers, which, to most Generals, would have appeared insurmountable, animating them by his presence, and encouraging them by his example; and having, at last, prepared the way for an honourable and triumphant return, he fell, when victory was about to crown all his efforts, and reward all his labours. Neither the dangers of the march, nor the almost continual attacks of the enemy, could daunt his ardour, or relax his exertions; he rose with the difficul ties with which he was encompassed, and acquired new courage and vigour from every danger. In the constant en endurance of cold, hunger, and privation of the common necessaries of life; in magnanimity, heroic fortitude, and self-devotion, perhaps no army, either in ancient or modern times, has more conspicuously signalized itself than that under his command. He triumphed over every obstacle and danger, by a happy union of those rare qualities which constitute a consummate commander, and which alone can conduct an army to victory and glory. The troops beheld with admiration their General suffering the same privations, and exposed to the same hardships with themselves; they looked with confidence to a leader, whose attention they had so often experienced, and on whose conduct they could implicitly rely. From this short outline of his life, it will not be difficult to delineate his character. The advancement of the interests of Britain, and the approbation of his countrymen, seem to have been the spring of all his actions; and the whole tenor of his conduct fully demonstrates how far this desire was fulfilled. His soul, an enemy to the mean intrigues by which little minds seek for promotion, glowed with the generous feelings of disinterested patriotism, and taught him to follow only the voice of glory, and the mandate of his native country. Neither the violence of faction, nor the rancour of party-spirit, could ever make him deviate from his course; but looking forward with the consciousness of an upright and virtuous mind, he prosecuted, with unremitting steadiness and ardour, the advancement of his country, and the glory of the troops under his command. "His whole life, (it has been well observed,) was spent among the troops." It will be difficult, indeed, to find any officer whose services have been more constant, whose bravery more conspicuous, or whose zealous exertions have been crowned with greater success. When risen to command, the same talents which had conducted him to eminence, acquired new lustre by a more extensive field for their exercise; and he appears to have courted, with avidity, every opportunity where they could be brought into action in the service of his country. Amidst the wranglings of faction, party spirit has not ventured to attack his memory with her envenomed shafts. His enthusiasm for his profession never allowed him to engage in the politics of the day, wisely judging them incompatible with each other; and thus, while he served his sovereign with fidelity, he gained the approbation of all. Nor was he less amiable in a private than illustrious in a public station. Seldom were greater courage and firmness of character, united with a more feeling heart, or more unassuming manners. The same conciliating disposition and suavity of manners which endeared him among the troops, characterised him in domestic life. While disengaged from the bustle and tumult of a camp, he became the instructive and amusing companion, the affectionate brother, and the dutiful son; when his comprehensive mind, stored with information, and improved by reflection, procured him the esteem and admiration of all who knew him. While his brilliant atchievements, in almost every quarter of the globe, remain the testimonials of his talents and his heroism; his private virtues will long be cherished in grateful remembrance by his friends, who, by long intimacy, could best appreciate them. Although cut off early in life, his measure of glory was complete. To use the words of a brother officer, to whom similarity of pursuits, and congeniality of dispositions had long endeared him, and who, after the fall of his friend, conducted the troops to victory: "Like the immortal Wolfe, he is snatched from his country at an early period of life, spent in her ser- vice.Like Wolfe, his last moments were |