MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.

MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN MITCHELL was born in Stirlingshire on the 11th of June 1785, in the house of his maternal grandfather, Mr George Potter. His father, Mr John Mitchell, was a man of unusual intellectual powers, and occupied most influential positions abroad during the latter part of last century. Early in life he had entered upon a diplomatic career as attaché to the British legation under Mr Elliot, afterwards the Earl of Minto. His ability and sagacity soon attracted the attention of the Government; and as, during the American war and the early revolutionary movements in France, the commerce and trade of the nations in northern Europe were greatly disturbed, Mr Mitchell in 1787, being then Consul-General in Norway, was instructed by the Duke of Leeds, who was then Foreign Secretary, to investigate and report on the actual and prospective state of the maritime trade and other branches of the national industry, revenue, and naval and military forces of the northern monarchies. When his report was read at a meeting of the Board of Trade, of which Lord Hawkesbury was president, Mr Mitchell was much complimented by their Lordships for his ability and the fulness of the information he had collected. Some years later Mr Mitchell was engaged on missions to the courts of Stockholm and Copenhagen, and in 1797 he was sent to Berlin, where King Frederick William III. had just ascended

the throne. On the special invitation of the King, Mr Mitchell spent several months in the Prussian capital, and on his return placed his son John, then a boy of about twelve years of age, in the Ritter Academie at Lüneburg, which then enjoyed a very great reputation, and was open only to the sons of the nobility, and officers holding British Government appointments. Mr Mitchell died in Edinburgh on the 17th of October 1826, leaving behind him the reputation of a most able and accomplished diplomatist.

Young Mitchell, the subject of this memoir, greatly distinguished himself during his stay at the Ritter Academie, and showed a decided taste for the study of languages, geography, and history, and it was specially remarked that for one so young he displayed a most unusual love of order. In 1801 he was transferred to the mathematical academy of Mr Nicholson in London, a man who in his day had acquired some reputation as a writer on scientific subjects, and seems to have exercised no inconsiderable influence on his pupil, who throughout his life cherished a pleasing recollection of this instructor of his youth.

Well prepared for his profession, Mitchell in 1803 obtained his commission in the 57th Regiment, and in the year following his lieutenancy in the Royals. The Duke of Kent, father of her Majesty Queen Victoria, who then commanded the regiment, took great interest in young Mitchell, and had, in fact, expressed a wish to have him in the regiment. Soon after this he was sent to the West Indies. In 1807 he was promoted to the rank of captain in the same regiment, and served with it, at first in the West Indies, and afterwards in the disastrous expedition to Walcheren, and in the siege of Flushing. During the years from 1810 to 1812 he served in the Peninsula, and took part in the battles of Busaco and Fuentes d'Onor, in the action of Sabugal, and in those of the retreat of Massena. In recognition of his services in the battles of Busaco and Fuentes d'Onor, he received the war medal with two clasps. He afterwards accompanied the expedition to Germany under General Gibbs in 1813, and in the same year he was placed on the Quartermaster - General's

Staff, in which capacity he served in the campaigns of 1814 in Holland and Flanders, and went to Paris with the army of occupation. At this time Mitchell, who was acquainted with almost all the European languages, was frequently employed by the Duke of Wellington in his transactions with the Allied Powers.

After the evacuation of Paris by the Allied troops, Mitchell remained with the army in Flanders. Thousands of civil and military employés of the Empire were then returning to France from all quarters full of despair and hatred of the restored Government of the Bourbons. Mitchell himself tells us, how, in the course of duty, he was called upon to superintend the march of these men through some of the British cantonments in Flanders.* As it was his duty to conciliate them rather than to discuss political points, he always comforted the men by expressing his conviction that the army would be well treated, and that the truly French heart of the King, the pride he was known to take in the glory of the national arms, and his sense of what was due to the interest of the country, would make him cherish men who had performed so many brilliant actions, &c. &c. On several occasions parties of these men, evidently deputed by the rest, called upon Mitchell to ask what he thought would be done with them, and whether they would not be sent to St Domingo. These questions Mitchell generally answered by expressing his firm belief that they would be treated as brave soldiers deserved to be; and that instead of making war on their neighbours, they would only have to make love to les jolies Françaises.

When the din of war had ceased, and the work of the sword was done, the disturber of the peace of Europe having been safely lodged at St Helena, Mitchell applied himself with all the vigour and earnestness of his well-cultivated mind to the pursuit of literature, in which he acquired more lasting laurels even than in the practical career of his profession. In the year 1835 he was raised to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, accepting the "unattached" about the same time, and in 1854 to that of

* See Mitchell's 'Fall of Napoleon,' vol. iii. p. 22.

major general. During the long period of peace after the battle of Waterloo, Mitchell always spent a considerable portion of every year on the Continent, partly visiting old friends, and partly collecting materials for his historical works; but after 1848, when he was attacked by a serious illness, he passed most of his time in the house of his sisters at Edinburgh, devoting himself almost exclusively to literature. He died at Edinburgh on the 9th of July 1859, and his remains were buried in the family vault in the Canongate Churchyard. Both the General and his father belonged to the Episcopal Church, to which they remained attached throughout their lives.

Such is the meagre outline of the life of one of the most remarkable men that Scotland has produced within the last century; for the career of a soldier usually presents little that is of general interest, unless he be in a high and commanding position. During the early period of his military life he kept a diary, of which, however, unfortunately only a few scraps appear to have been preserved; but from these it seems that the loftiest sentiments of chivalrous generosity at all times characterised his conduct, and that amid the deafening roar of war his humanity and sympathy with the sufferings of others were never blunted. On the field of Busaco, September 27, 1810, Mitchell writes, contemplating the scene after the battle:—

"The exultation of victory is soon checked by the dreadful and heartrending sight which a field of battle presents immediately after the action. 2000 French lay dead on that fatal hill, and the sight of them was the least horrible—the wounded and the dying dreadful. What though most of them were enemies? Their enmity ceased with their power, and humanity could not but shudder at their sufferings. And how many of them, though foes, cursed in their hearts the cause for which they so bravely fell? But the sorrows of a field of battle are perhaps less felt on the field than elsewhere. The distressed widowmother or orphan, who have to lament a husband or father, and whose hopes of happiness are for ever closed on this side of the grave