down the river till he reached Lake Erie; by this means he disappointed their hopes of surprising his army.

"If I could have completed the tour intended, viz. from Detroit to New Orleans, thence to New York, and thence to Detroit again, whence I set out, it would have been a circuit little short of five thousand miles."

While in America, Captain Morris lived in great intimacy with General Montgomery, who was his companion and fellow-soldier for some years: that Montgomery, who with great talents for war, and a mind that bespoke the hero, united an ardent desire of celebrity, and fell, according to the opinion of some of his admirers, as gloriously in America as Hampden his countryman had done in England *.

The seeds of that cause in which he afterwards most zealously engaged, began now to spring into existence it originated, as is well known, in the attempt to tax our unrepresented colonies; soon after which, the most loyal portion perhaps of the whole empire, during the administration of Lord Chatham, appeared in open revolt, in consequence of the short-sighted policy of his feeble and contemptible successors.

Captain Morris, who had beheld the colonists taking arms, and fighting side by side with the British regulars against the common enemy, returned to England in 1767, after witnessing a most astonishing reverse; for, in the course of a short

*" Montgomery falls!-Let no fond heart repine
That Hampden's glorious fate, great chief, was thine
Alike shall freedom consecrate thy name," &c.

but

but eventful period, he beheld twenty-four regiments in revolt; at the same time, a general Indian war; all the British provinces, one only excepted, in a' state of insurrection; and the very slaves of the southern states, as if unconscious of their own chains, vociferating "Liberty, property, and no stamp.

act!"

In 1769, two years after his return to his native country, aving felt a desire to settle in life, he married Miss Chubb, the daughter of a respectable merchant at Bridgewater in Somersetshire, by whom he had six children, one of whom is now serving as a captain at Ceylon. On this occasion he left his regiment in the city of Cork, the very place where he had first joined it; and thus retired, after an active life of twenty-one years, which would now qualify an officer for the rank of lieutenant-general, without having attained a majority in the usual gradations of

service.

Having thus closed his military career, it may not be deemed improper to consider the subject of this memoir in a different point of view. When a student at Winchester, he appears first to have imbibed a taste for letters, without which, if the latter portion of his life had not been rendered dull, dreary, and monotonous, it would at least have proved less tolerable and less pleasant both to himself and his friends. It was, and still is customary, we believe, to have recitations of verse at this college at certain stated periods. When no more than twelve, he distinguished

I

stinguished himself on one of those occasions by his readings, and was afterwards borrowed by the different chambers.

On his return to the paternal mansion, he brought his taste for the classics along with him, which, instead of affording pleasure to his father, seemed to render him dissatisfied; for he had conceived an idea, that but one language ought to be acquired by a British officer, and that language was French. He therefore appeared very uneasy whenever he saw a Greek book in the hand of his son, and at length insisted on his visiting the continent; exacting at the same time a promise to obtain a thorough knowledge of his favourite tongue before his return.

Captain Morris accordingly repaired to Paris, at the age of twenty-one, having obtained leave of absence for that purpose while at Kinsale. Immediately on his arrival, with all due filial attention, he set himself earnestly to work, to fulfil the intentions of his father; and knowing that French was pronounced with peculiar grace and purity on the stage, he frequented either the play or opera house every night. This circumstance also inspired him with a taste for theatrical performances; and he began from that moment to speak and write relative both to the drama and the dramatis persona, with no small share of critical

acumen.

"The player," says he, in a letter to a friend," most resembling Garrick of all I have seen, was Le Kain. He was of a small stature, like Garrick, but inferior to him in voice, face, and shape. He had much of his imitation: like him, too, he always went be

yond

yond nature; but his recitation was greatly superior to that of Garrick; though in this he was excelled by a contemporary, La Noue.

"Du Menil, who appeared with him, eclipsed him by her acting, but by that only. I shall be pronounced very extravagant, when I declare to you, that I think tragedy was born and died with Du Menil; and you will no doubt be amazed, when I acquaint you that I never saw her since I was twenty-one years of age. I indeed constantly attended the French theatre for fifteen months; but, from prejudice, was so disgusted with what I saw for the three or four first weeks, that nothing but the solemn vow I had made to a father, then in his grave, that I would make myself master of the French language, could have made me persist.

"O, unfortunate English travellers! who, visiting Paris while Du Menil flourished, had not so strong a motive as I had to stimulate you to persevere in your attendance and attention! If the world ever afforded me a pleasure equal to that of reading Shakespeare at the foot of a water-fall in an American desert, it was Du Menil's performance of tragedy.

"If Garrick was abler," continues he, "now and then, to snatch a grace beyond the reach of art,' as Pope has said of writers, Du Menil had it in her power to do it whenever she pleased.

"One actor, and one only, have I heard deliver a speech of length with any resemblance of the manner of Du Menil: I mean Mr. Pope in the character of Castalio, when he curses woman. There was that torture of mind, that energy and rapidity, which man, in the rage of disappointed love, must ever experience and use. The house felt the truth and force of the representation, and great applause ensued. I was as much pleased with the audience as with the performer, being convinced that, if tragedians would lead the way, the public would follow them to the temple of taste."

The literary labours of the subject of this memoir would fill many volumes; but a part only of his works has been published. Racine's Phædra, in which he had so often seen and admired the heroine 1805-1806.

of

of the French stage, still remains in manuscript, as well as the Satires of Juvenal*, two only excepted.

Like most men who possessed any degree of sensibility, and were acquainted with the horrors of the ancient French despotism, he hailed the halcyon days, falsely, but confidently promised by the National Assembly, of which he then augured favourably: "Awful the sages sit, like demi-gods of old;

But demi-gods were warriors big and bold:
Pacific heroes these, with minds of giant mould."

In an "Ode addressed to the French army," he pays the following compliment to his native land: Distinguish'd Britain! happy shore!

66

Where kings and priests can cheat no more;

Where open'd minds mistake not false for true,
But show respect, where most respect is due,

And honour kings and priests alone, who virtue's paths pursue:
In thy rich fields and flow'ry plains,

Lord of himself the peasant reigns:

While some the vassals of proud masters live,

Whose av'rice scarce the means of life will give;

Nay, some like sheep, within their pen,

To lands are fix'd, for lords to fleece;

Who prosper by the vast increase

Of pamper'd hogs and famish❜d men.

"Thrice happy Gaul! the golden age renew;

Not the poetic, but the true,

From Albion's honour'd isle the heav'nly plan you drew;

* Sat. IV. and XIV. These, with several other poetical productions, were published in a thin 8vo volume, by Ridgway, in 1791. The same bookselier also printed the life of one of his friends, with whom, we are sorry to find, he does not live in the same intimacy as heretofore.

Ere