1829.) Twelve Years’ Military Adventure: 167 
dirk is grown shabby: they stop at the Europe shops, and new ones are pre- 
sented to him by the hands of the young ladies. A ball is given on purpose 
for him. Im short, every possible attention is paid to the little honourable, 
whose noble parents will doubtless seek out the family on its return to England, 
to repay the obligation ; and already had they begun to anticipate the pleasure 
which they should enjoy at the Countess’s fashionable parties, and the advan- 
tages they shou!d derive from being introduced into the beaw monde through 
the means of her ladyship. In fact, Middy was in clover. To be obliged to 
part with their young friend at last was painful. It cost the fair members of 
the family some tears, and gained Middy some caresses, and, what was of 
more value, some substantial tokens ‘of friendship ; and fame went so far as to 
say that he carried away a lock of hair belonging to one of the young ladies. 
Nor did they part without mutual promises to renew the acquaintance in 
England. The next day, as the ship was about to sail, the master, a gruff, 
tobacco-chewing tar, waited upon the family, to thank them for their kind- 
ness—to his son !” 
For some period after this, his life in India was a very active one. 
He was in the expedition to Java, at the taking of Batavia, Cornelis, and 
Sammarang, and on his way back visited Serineapatam. His observations 
upon the natives and the government of India, are in general concise, 
but very shrewd and sensible ; and are always made in a spirit of -can- 
dour and fairness. En passant, he has a word to say about Dr. Leyden :— 
“ Before we left Java we heard accounts of the death of Dr. Leyden, a 
man well known in the literary world, but more as the friend of Sir Walter 
Scott, who has dedicated to him one of his poems. He was a wonderful 
linguist, and an incessant talker ; so that while Nature supplied him with the 
talent of acquiring languages, she also amply furnished him with the dispo- 
sition to give utterance to them. In him great learning and volubility of 
tongue were associated. The reverse we generally find to be the case—those 
who have most to communicate being commonly the most reserved, not 
liking, I suppose, to cast their pearls before swine. Dr. Leyden was besides 
a great antiquary and botanist. He died from exposure to the climate of one 
of the islands to the eastward; but whether in search of heathen images or 
botanical specimens, I could never learn. He was on the medical establish- 
ment of the Madras army; but Lerd Minto, who knew how io estimate and 
to patronize genius, had lately attached him to his person. I once heard him 
call Sir William Jones, in his strong North country accent, “ an eclegant 
humbug.” 
This is in the true taste and tone of a modern Athenian, who could 
not forgive one of the most accomplished scholars and amiable men that 
the nation has produced, for being born south of the Tweed. Without 
meaning to detract from the real merit of Dr. Leyden, who, notwith- 
standing that he has been egregiously puffed and overrated, was really 
_aclever man, we may be permitted to say, that whatever there was of 
humbug in his character was much more apparent than his eelegance. 
The author gets tired of India, and hearing of Lord Wellington’s 
ampaign in the Peninsula, then in its progress, he feels a strong desire 
to join him, quits the East, sails for England, pays a short visit to his 
mother, has his liver repaired at Cheltenham, procures a commission, 
and embarks for Lisbon. 
Notwithstanding the stirring nature of the events in which he now 
became an actor, the latter part of his narrative is much less agreeable 
than the former. The ground has been so beaten, that little new is to 
be said about it, and this he seems to have felt. His description of the 
battle of Vittoria, of the attack on Salamanca, and of the march in 
