SEYMOUR, GEORGE F. 



SOULE, PIERRE. 



678 



Would it ii-.t l)o the first desire of 



in. in to Mvi-i-p tliis tilth away, to drain 



. anil, if possible, to aweoten this land 



dwelling-house .should In.- built '. 



<n tii,. LTr.i! Miu-ition of establishing H Kivcr 



rvaiiry Hoard, tin- pivs.-nt commissioners 



agree with the reoommencUtioiu of th-.- former 

 i ommissiiin, to tho effect thut it is highly de- 

 sirable thut such a Hoard should be established 

 t'r ,-very river-basin ; ns then' resent 



no loeal bodies competent to deal with ques- 

 tion- connected with efficient river conservan- 

 cy, capable of detecting pollutions and enfor- 

 medies, it will be necessary to call into 

 action mi authority possessing greater capaei- 

 ties and powers than those of the existing cor- 

 porate bodies or local boards. The duties of 

 this authority would be of two distinct kind- ; 

 the one would be those of a river police, em- 

 ployed in the detection of offences, and in ob- 

 taining the conviction of offenders: the other 

 would include the investigation of, and decision 

 upon, various works connected with rivers, 

 proposed by either towns or individuals, such 

 as schemes for water-supply, and for the defe- 

 cation, filtration, or utilization of sewage and 

 other polluting matters, while local boards 

 could obtain information on these points only 

 from persons capable of investigating them. 



SEYMOUR, Admiral Sir GEORGE FBAXCIS, 

 G. C. B., G. 0. H., the oldest but one of the 

 admirals of the fleet in the British Navy, born 

 in 1787 ; died in London, January 21,' 1870. 

 lie was the eldest son of the late Admiral Lord 

 Hu.^h Seymour, and grandson of the late Mar- 

 quis of Hertford. He entered the navy early, 

 and was severely wounded on board the Nor- 

 thumberland, in the battle of St. Domingo, 

 before he had reached the age of twenty. 

 In 1809 he commanded the Pallas frigate, 

 which took part in the Walcheren expedition, 

 serving on that and other ships until the con- 

 clusion of the war in 1814 ; was Sergeant-at- 

 Arins of the House of Lords in 1820, and Mas- 

 ter of the Robes to William IV. in 1830. Sub- 

 sequently he was a Lord of the Admiralty, 

 commander-in-chief in the Pacific, on the 

 North- American and West-Indian stations, and 

 at Portsmouth, and Vice-Admiral of the United 

 Kingdom. He was made Admiral of the Fleet, 

 November 20, 1866. 



SIMMS, WILLIAM GILMORE, an American 

 poet and novelist, born in Charleston, S. 0., 

 April 17, 1806; died there, June 11, 1870. 

 Owing to the limited circumstances of his fam- 

 ily, his early education was meagre, but his 

 great fondness for reading made up in some 

 measure for this deficiency, and before reaching 

 his tenth year he commenced writing poetry. 

 For several years he was employed as clerk in 

 a drug and chemical house in Charleston, and 

 his first aspirations were for the medical pro- 

 fession ; but, abandoning this idea, ho left his 

 position at the ago of eighteen, and entered on 

 the study of law. His literary tastes, how- 

 ever, soon drew him from his profession, and 



in 1828 ho became editor and part proprietor 

 i.l' tho Charletton City Gazette, a political jia- 

 IHT iu favor of th.- I'nioii during the period 

 of the nullification c\<-it, -im-nt. The Gazette 

 failed, Involving the proprietor! in heavy 

 niary losses, and Simms, bccomin 

 ened, forsook journalism, mid dcvo:.-d I/ 

 to more direct literary pursuits. Previous to 

 this time ho had published two volumes of 

 poems, and also several fugitive pieces of much 

 merit. In 1833 appeared his "Atala; 

 Story of the Sea," and his first pro- 

 "Martin Faber, the Story of the Criminal; 1 ' 

 the latter, by its success, paving his way to 

 fame and fortune. His writings embraced a 

 wide range, and he seemed equally at home in 

 the several departments of poe*ry, romance, 

 history, biography, and miscellaneous litera- 

 ture. Among his poetical works not mentioned 

 above are, " Southern Passages and Pictures " 

 (1839); "Donna Anna" (1843); "Grouped 

 Thoughts and Scattered Fancies "(1845); 

 " Lays of the Palmetto " (1848) ; two volumes 

 comprising a series of ballads (1854) ; and 

 " Areytos, or Songs and Ballads of the South " 

 (1860). In dramas, " Norman Maurice, or the 

 Man of the People," and " Michael Bonham, 

 or the Fall of Alarus." As a writer of prose 

 romances, however, he was most widely 

 known, and many of his best productions were 

 drawn from either general or local American 

 history. He was the anthor of over thirty nov- 

 els, most of them very popular. As a novelist 

 he excelled in depicting the scenes of real life, 

 and especially life in the South. No Amer- 

 ican novelist has excelled him in thus holding 

 the mirror up to Nature. To the departments 

 of history and biography he contributed a 

 " History of South Carolina ; " " South Car- 

 olina in the Revolution " (1854) ; various arti- 

 cles on the " Civil Warfare of the South ; " 

 Lives of Bayard, Captain John Smith, Gen- 

 eral Marion, General Greene, and others 

 also the biographies of statesmen, soldiers, and 

 authors of South Carolina, in the NEW AMERI- 

 CAN CYCLOPAEDIA. His contributions to mag- 

 azines and periodicals were numerous. lie 

 also took part in politics, and served one term 

 in the Legislature of his native State. During 

 the late war ho wrote many humorous stories, 

 and a novel, entitled " Paddy McGann, or the 

 Demon of the Stump." Mr. Simms was a man 

 of genial nature, and refined and courteous in 

 his manners. 



SOULE, PIERRE, a political leader and di- 

 plomatist, born about 1800, at Castillon, in the 

 Pyrenees, Southern Franco; died at Now 

 Orleans, La., March 1C, 1870. Ho was the son 

 of a lieutenant-general in the republican army 

 of France, and, being destined for the Church, 

 was sent in 1816 to the Jesuits' College at Tou- 

 louse, but subsequently abandoning his theo- 

 logical studies he went to Bordeaux, to com- 

 plete his education. Here he took part in a con- 

 spiracy against the Bourbons, and, the plot being 

 discovered, ho was compelled to fly for refuge to 



