kinnon is, indeed, admired in Ireland for his person and courage, but he is adored for his humanity." His person was then so remarkable as to be a theme of admiration, even in a country, which, on the score of manly comeliness, is universally allowed to stand unrivalled amongst the nations of Europe. But those who best knew him were sensible, that, although not unconscious of the influence of a fine person, accompanied by graceful manners, he attached but little consequence to these possessions, whilst he consigned all his leisure hours to literary pursuits, and devoted himself, whenever he could be useful, with the most ardent zeal and activity, to the service of his country. He quitted his staff appointment in Ireland to proceed with his regiment in the memorable expedition, under the Duke of York, to the Helder; and was present in the actions which took place on the 19th of September, and on the 2d, 3d, and 6th October, 1799. In that short campaign, on the retreat of the British army, a favourable opportunity was afforded him of displaying some traits of courage and skilful conduct, with a detachment of the Coldstream Guards, in checking the advance of a much superior body of the enemy. Anxious to seize every occasion of signalizing himself in the career of honour, with the rank of a field officer, he shortly afterwards volunteered his services to Egypt, and took the command for some time in the lines before Alexandria, of the 1st battalion of his regiment: but unfortunately was soon compelled, under the malignant influence of that climate, from a violent disorder, with which he was suddenly seized whilst upon duty in the field, to return to Malta. Being somewhat restored to health, he proceeded to Sicily, and, on his way home through Italy, embraced . an opportunity of visiting many interesting scenes of action, and of surveying all those monuments of ancient grandeur and genius which that country offers to the gratification of a literary taste and love of the fine arts. During the short peace which ensued, he was anxious to increase still further his extensive acquaintance with the Continent of Europe, and spent the greater part of his time in Germany. He attended the reviews at Capel, Dresden, and Potsdam, in the autumn of 1802, and his reception at Berlin was particularly distinguished by the flattering notice which he received from the Royal Family, whilst he was generally considered as one of the most accomplished English gentlemen who had visited that court. His mind, however, was uniformly intent upon such objects only as were most conducive to his professional advancement, and a proportion of his time was uniformly devoted to military studies. On the recommencement of hostilities, he successively accompanied the Coldstream Guards to Bremen, in the year 1805, and on the expedition to Copenhagen, in 1807. In 1809, he proceeded to Portugal, was with Lord Wellington at the brilliant passage of the Douro, and in the subsequent pursuit of Sóult's army, and was in the midst of the sanguinary contest of Talavera, in which he had two horses killed under him, and received several balls through his cloak. Upon the evacuation of that town by the British army, Lord Wellington committed to his charge the care of the sick and wounded, amounting, after the action, to about 5000 men. His situation, however, a day or two afterwards, became peculiarly embarrassing, and required the utmost exercise of judgment to extricate this disabled part of our army from the unprotected state in which- it was was suddenly left, by the unexpected retreat of Cuesta. On this trying occasion, in which little honour could be acquired, though much difficulty was to be surmounted, Colonel Mackinnon executed his arduous task in the most effectual manner which the circumstances would admit. It became absolutely necessary to abandon to the mercy, of the enemy such of the sick and wounded as were incapable of proceeding on foot; for, on application to the Spanish General, he was unable to furnish more than nine cars for their removal, and it was required to march near a hundred miles to Elvas, over a mountainous and inhospitable district of Spain, exposed to a scorching sun by day, and heavy dews by night. The only office, therefore, which it was possible for the Colonel to render this devoted part of his charge, was by an application to the commiseration and generosity of the His correspondence with the commanding officer, to whose power near 2000 British soldiers were to be committed upon that occasion, evinced an intimate acquaintance with the French character; and the singular humanity with which, as it is well known, they were afterwards treated, may, in a great measure, be attributed to the adroitness with which they were consigned and recommended by him to the attention of the enemy. His fortunate and unexpected preservation of those who were capable of being removed, his feeling and judicious conduct through the whole of a distressing march, and in the subsequent superintendence of his charge at Elvas, of which place he was appointed Commandant, will be long felt and remembered by those who derived an immediate benefit from his care and exertions; and the Portuguese governor of the town was so much won and delighted with the whole of his behaviour, as to petition Lord Wellington to continue him in the command of the British garrison, when his Lordship deemed it expedient to remove him to a more useful and brilliant scene of action. Shortly afterwards he quitted Elvas, in the year 1809, and was appointed to the command of a brigade attached to the light division, under General Craufurd, with whom he continued upon terms of the most perfect harmony and mutual esteem, till he was removed, and placed, with his brigade, under General Picton, in the third division of Lord Wellington's army. His friends, and those who were conscious of his qualifications to act in a higher sphere, for which he was so well prepared, now became naturally solicitous that some favourable opportunity might present itself for a more conspicuous developement of his talents than had hitherto been afforded him, when the action with Massena occurred on the heights of Busaco. In this distinguished victory, as will best appear from the dispatches of Lord Wellington, he performed a very prominent part on one of the great points of attack. British soldiers are such admirable instruments in the hands of every officer who commands them, that, to repel an enemy upon any thing like equal terms, will scarcely be considered as an act of conspicuous ability in the person who directs them; but, upon this occasion, his measures were taken with so much skill, prompțitude, and presence of mind, as to have entitled him to the admiration of those who witnessed, and were most competent to appreciate his merits in command. Lord Wellington, immediately after the battle, waited on him, to return him thanks in person; and General Mackinnon's conduct, on that most bril liant day, assuredly will consign his military character to a lasting fame. The next occasion, on which his abilities were called into action, was on the retreat of Massena from Santarem. During the whole of Lord Wellington's ardent and indefatigable pursuit, the light brigade of the 3d division, which he led, was extremely active, and continually employed in turning the left flank of the enemy. It was successfully employed at Redinha, and in attacking and driving the enemy from his position above Foz de Ronzes. At Guarda also the rapidity and unexpected movement of his brigade, at which time General Picton was present, took Massena by surprise, whilst employed in observing the approach of the centre column, composed of General Campbell's divison, and urged the enemy to a precipitate retreat. At the battle of Fuentes de Honore, which shortly afterwards followed, and in which Lord Wellington so skilfully defeated a powerful effort of the French general to force his lines, and throw in succours to Almeida, he was particularly distinguished. The town of Fuentes de Honore had been successively taken and retaken, had latterly fallen into the possession of the French, and was defended by a body of two thousand troops, when he was directed to attack it. Through a narrow avenue of the town he led the 88th, one of the regiments of his brigade, in the most heroic manner; assaulted the enemy behind an entrenchment, and drove them, with great slaughter, from the town, of which the British army afterwards retained possession till the French retired. He next proceeded, with the army under Lord Wellington, to the siege of Badajos; but his constitution was unequal to such incessant exertions of body and mind; and exposure to the severe climate of the south of Spain, during the heats of summer, in the trenches before Badajos, induced some recurrence of a disorder, which he had, ten years before, experienced in Egypt. When the army had removed again to the north, he therefore seized the first moment of temporary inaction to return to England; and, after a few weeks absence, and experienc ing considerable relief from a change of climate, and the use of the Chel. tenham waters, réturned to his station in Portugal. The late memorable siege and capture of Ciudad Rodrigo are re cent in the mind of the public. The ability with which the operations were planned and prosecuted, the rapidity and bravery with which it was carried, are still themes of just and universal eulogiums. It remains only to state the circumstances of General Mackinnon's fall. A short time previous to the attack, which commenced at a few minutes before seven in the evening, he was employed in writing, with the greatest ease and composure, on some familiar subjects, to his friends; and his spirits were remarked by those near him to be uncommonly good; a circumstance of the greatest importance at the impending crisis, when all the faculties of his soul, it might naturally be expected, were to be called into action, and which alone could secure a perfect scope to the exertions of the mind. His directions were to attack the principal breach in the centre of the walls of Ciudad Rodrigo, and precisely at seven o'clock, by the light of the moon, the column (consisting of the 45th, 74th, and 88th regiments) which he commanded, rushed out of the second parallel to the assault, under a tremendous fire from the enemy, exhibiting to that part part of the army not engaged a sight most awful and sublime. The breach which he attacked was found sufficiently large to admit of at least an hundred men abreast of each other, but the enemy had attempt ed to cut off its communication with the ramparts by throwing up a parapet on the left, and by cutting down the rampart on the right; an object, however, which, from want of time, they had not effectually accomplished. When the head of the column had reached the ditch, some trifling delay was occasioned by the deficiency of the number of scaling ladders, an impediment which, though almost immediately removed, afforded an opportunity to the assailants on the left to attack the enemy on the ramparts, and to the columns on the right to co-operate in assaulting the breach. On reaching the summit a grand mine was sprung, and a few minutes after a small one, though fortunately with little effect or injury to our troops. General Mackinnon, having in the most gallant manner completely secured the possession of the breach, and finding no further opposition from the enemy in that quarter, ordered the 88th regiment to the right on the ramparts, and proceeded himself with the 74th to the left. On clambering over the parapet just described, which had been raised as an obstruction to any communication with the rampart, a magazine belonging to the enemy blew up near the breach. The voice of the General had been heard just previous to the explosion by his aide-du-camp, Captain Call, who immediately afterwards received Ensign Beresford in his arms, and was informed by him that he had that instant been blown up. General Mackinnon, it is conjectured, was close to him at that time, as, when his brigade divided on the breach to proceed to the right and the left, he was heard to say to Ensign Beresford, "Come, Beresford, you are a fine lad, we will go together." He was supposed, however, during the whole of the night, to be living, and his body was not discovered till the next morning, wounded and scorched on the back of the head. It was first interred by some pioneers, under the order of General Picton, in the breach; but was afterwards removed by the officers of the Coldstream Guards, and deposited at Espeja with military honours, and the highest mark of attachment to a lamented friend from that respectable corps. Such was the fate of this valuable and accomplished officer. Of his professional talents, the foregoing memorial may furnish some imperfect conception. With the high fortune to which his acquirements and natural talents seemed to have destined him, his ambition was commensurate, and nothing would have diverted him from the pursuit of his great purposes, but, alas! the late fatal demonstration, "that the paths of glory lead but to the grave." Yet his friends, while they lament his death, can never forget how great has been their own loss; for it would not, perhaps, be the language of flattery to pronounce, in one sentence, a panegyric, which, considering the present accomplished state of the service, nothing but the highest pretentions could justify, that he was, perhaps, an officer of the greatest promise in the Briarmy. tish In private life, General Mackinnon was, in the highest degree, estimable and interesting. His person was tall, graceful, and manly; and his cast of countenance dignified, animated, and so singularly expres sive, as to arrest the attention of almost every one who beheld him. He was mild, amiable, and candid in his disposition; temperate and regular regular in his habits; constant in his attachments; kind in all his affections; and remarkable for his modesty, beneficence, and equaniraity. He was married, in the year 1804, to Miss Catharine Call, youngest daughter of the late Sir John Call, of Whiteford, in the county of Cornwall, Bart. by whom he has left two sons, His lady was pregnant of her third child at the time of his death. To his family his loss has been truly irreparable. He was a most affectionate son, brother, parent, and the best of husbands; virtues of which the memorial, it is to be hoped, will be preserved in the imperishable record of the actions of the just, when the magnificent building, which will retain within its walls (by the appointment of a generous and grateful country) the monument of his military fame, shall have sunk in the inevitable dissolution of time, Description of Palermo; with Anecdotes of the Sicilian Court. N the year 1809 I was at Gibraltar. I thence passed to Sardinia, and, after a short stay, to Sicily. The packet landed me at Girgenti, a corruption of the ancient Agrigentum. Nothing can be more picturesque than the country in which is situated this ancient town, or rather the remains of it. It is every where interspersed with vineyards and olive grounds. The ruins, as seen above this scenery, have a very pleasing effect upon the imagination. The temple of the Olympian Jupiter is a mass of ruins. The temple of Concord is in better condition. The new town of Girgenti has a very imposing and beautiful scite: standing upon the summit of a very lofty hill, whence it looks down upon a country as beautiful as a poet or painter can fancy. I hastened onwards for Palermo, with all the expectation of a young traveller; and the images and scenery of the road did not disappoint me.' The great road to Palermo had a very promising aspect as to the general comforts of the country. I met a great number of well-dressed peasants returning from the market. The vineyards which bordered the road were rich and luxuriant ; the hedges in excellent condition, and some neat little country houses might have tempted a weather-beaten traveller to wish himself at rest in one of them. There was altogether an air of comfort, cheerfulness, and rural beauty. After leaving the mountains, and coming down upon the plain between them and the sea, the approach to Palermo is uncommonly delightful. The city appears crowned with numerous domes, interspersed with trees and gardens, which give it an air of inconceivable freshness and gaiety. It stands at the junction of several valleys, and the surrounding mountains are finely picturesque; particularly Monte Pelegrino, which would be a magnificent object in any landscape. The sea also has its charms. Its surface is almost always enlivened by numerous vessels and fishing boats, scattered over it to the ut most verge of the horizon. Their white sails, as seen under a brilliant sun, and a sky of the most lovely blue, can better be imagined than described. Palermo, like the Italian cities, abounds in noble houses and churches. The Via Toledo is almost a street of palaces. The worst, however, is, that the wealth of the owners does not correspond with the architectural magnificence of their mansions. Perhaps this, however, is again compensated by the uncom |