S25 



MOORE, SIR JOHN. 



MOORE, THOMAS. 



82C 



illusions : yet the intelligence was followed by tome indecisive move- 

 ments on the part of the British general against the advanced corps of 

 the enemy under Soult, until he suddenly ascertained that the whole 

 of the disposable French armies in the Peninsula were gathering to 

 surround him. Rejecting all hope of the defence of Portugal, he 

 commenced a rapid, if not too precipitate, retreat to Coruna : the 

 sufferings and disorders of which, conducted as it was in the depth of 

 a levere winter, and through the mountainous region of Gallicia, will 

 long be remembered in our military annals. Its disasters were close. 1, 

 on the 16th of January 1809, by the battle of Coruna, in which the 

 troops, though previously to all appearance exhausted and disorganised, 

 were reanimated, by the exertion of their gallant leader and their own 

 native valour, to inflict a decisive repulse upon their pursuers. Their 

 triumph was dearly purchased by the loss of their commander: the 

 circumstances of whose death may challenge and support a comparison 

 with the most illustrious examples of heroism in ancient and modern 

 times, with the last moments of an Epaminondas, a Bayard, or a Wolfe. 

 He probably had little desire to survive the mental agony which he had 

 suffered in so disastrous a retreat ; he expressed great satisfaction that 

 the enemy were beaten ; he reminded his sorrowing friends " that he 

 had always wished to die in that way ;" and his expiring words breathed 

 a hope that " the people of England would be satisfied that his country 

 would do him justice." 



The personal history of Sir John Moore has been written at some 

 leii'.'th in a memoir contained in the third volume of Gleig's ' Lives of 

 British Military Commanders ;' and in a Life of him by his brother, in 

 2 vols. 8vo, 1834 : but elaborate investigations of his List campaign 

 may be found in the justificatory ' Narrative ' of his brother (London, 

 4to, 1809), and in a criticism on it in the second volume of the ' Quar- 

 terly Review;' in Southey's 'History of the Peninsular War," vol. ii. 

 (Svo ed.); in Sir John Jones's 'Account of the War in Spain and 

 Portugal ; ' and in the first volume of Napier's ' History of the 

 War in the Peninsula,' which the author, a zealous and ardent 

 partisan, has consecrated to the eulogy of Moore, and to the able 

 defence of bit operations. 



The operations of the memorable campaign in which Moore had so 

 gallantly fallen were canvassed after the event with all the virulence 

 of faction by conflicting parties, who either desired to shift the blame 

 of failure from the government on the general, or to transfer it from 

 him to his employers. Scarcely indeed has the question, which must 

 determine Moore's claim* to the character of an able commander, been 

 impartially treated eveu to this day. The noble and graceful virtues 

 of his private life, his lufty and generous sense of honour, his chivalrous 

 courage, his forgetfulness of himself, and his enthusiastic devotion to 

 the service of his country, even his enemies have been unable to deny. 

 In stations of subordinate command, he had also unquestionably 

 displayed very considerable talents, and a perfect acquaintance with 

 the science of his profession. But until the campaign of 1808-9 he hod 

 never held the chief command in the field ; and the fact whether he 

 possessed the highest qualities of military genius must be tried by his 

 conduct in that arduous service. He was placed in a position of the 

 utmost difficulty ; with an army which, though full of courage, was 

 young in action, and not inured to privation ; with an inexperienced 

 staff, and a commissariat wretchedly defective ; without the means of 

 obtaining either information or supplies, in a country where warfare 

 has, in all ages, been attended by peculiar difficulties ; called upon to 

 aid a nation, as full of blind presumption and ignorance as its rulers 

 were of imbecility and treachery ; and opposed to armies ably com- 

 manded, thoroughly organised in every department, long seasoned to 

 warfare, and immensely superior in numbers. These were difficulties 

 under which any but the commander of first-rate ability and unshaken 

 confidence in the resources of his own comprehensive intellect was 

 sure to rink ; and that Moore was not found equal to them is no more 

 a subject uf reproach upon his zealous and gallant spirit, than that 

 nature had not endowed him with the genius of a Fabius or a 

 Wellington. He wanted in fact that perfect undoubting trust in 

 himeelf, in every adversity, which is characteristic of the greatest 

 commanders, and belongs to the very highest order of minds. He 

 disbelieved in bis own ability, and overrated that of his opponents. 

 From the fir*t to the last, he desponded of fortune, and foresaw only 

 di-a-ters: he hesitated only in vigorous action, and decided upon 

 nothing but failure. The Duke of Wellington has generously said, 

 that he could discover only one error in Moore's campaign, in not 

 providing fur retreat when he advanced against Soult : but the neglect 

 of preparation for an orderly and gradual retrograde movement 

 through the strong country of Gallicia was only indicative of the same 

 absence of all hopefulness, which had already pronounced Portugal 

 it-elf indefensible. How the events of the following campaigns refuti'd 

 this opinion need not here be said ; but Moore, in bin despair and 

 dread of responsibility, abandoned every thought except the preserva- 

 tion of the army. 



That he achieved this object without dishonour is sufficient to 

 redeem all the errors, if such there were, which had attended his 

 career; and it should ever be gratefully remembered to his glory, 

 that, when there were those under his command at Coruna who dared 

 to utter hints of a convention with the French for obtaining permis- 

 sion to embark unmolested, he indignantly spurned the proposal, as 

 unworthy of a British army which, amidst all its sufferings, had never 



mown defeat. He welcomed indeed a battle as the surest means of 

 clearing every stain from the dubious character of his retreat; he was 

 .8 doubtless of victory on the coast of Coruna, as he had been appre- 

 tensive of destruction ia the interior of Spain ; and in that last act of 

 undaunted firmness, he put a seal with his blood to a whole life of 

 magnanimous devotion. 



MOORE, THOMAS, was born in Aungier street, Dublin, on the 

 28th of May 1779. His father was a small tradesman, and both his 

 parents were Roman Catholics. He was early placed at school under 

 a Mr. Whyte, who paid much attention to elocution, who was fond of 

 dramatic representations, and in whose school R. B. Sheridan had 

 once been. Moore, a quick and lively boy, became a favourite pupil, 

 and as early as 1790 exhibited his talents in reciting an epilogue at a 

 private theatrical entertainment : other dramatic exhibitions weie got 

 ip by his parents, for which he wrote epilogues or prologues. When 

 first began to rhyme, he says, he cannot remember; but in 1793 

 ae contributed two poems to the ' Anthologia Hibernica,' a Dublin 

 magazine, which were inserted, to his intense gratification. In this 

 year the restrictions which prevented Roman Catholics from studying 

 at the Dublin University were removed, though all honours and 

 offices were ttill denied them. His mother, who wished him to be a 

 lawyer, induced his father to enter him at Trinity College in the 

 summer of 1794. At college he pursued the usual studies with 

 tolerable success, gaining several marks of distinction, though, feeling 

 an inability to write Latin hexameters, he substituted on one occasion 

 some English verses, which were approved of by the judges, and for 

 which he received a reward. He continued also to write verses for 

 the 'Anthologia' while it existed, and afterwards for other publi- 

 cations. He learned to play the piano from his sister's teacher, 

 Italian from the priest of the family, and French from an emigrant 

 acquaintance. In the second year of his college attendance he soared 

 yet higher, and wrote a masque with songs, which was performed in 

 his father's drawing-room. 



Born a Roman Catholic, accustomed from infancy to hear the 

 wrongs of his fellow-religionists descanted on, influenced by his friend- 

 ship with Emmett and others, and perhaps soured by his pretensions 

 to a scholarship in the university being unavailable on account of his 

 faith, it is little to be wondered at that he took a lively interest 

 though fortunately he was too young to be made an active participator 

 in the plots preparatory to the rebellion of 1798. He was examined 

 before Fitzgibbon, the vice-chancellor; but as he could honestly avow 

 himself ignorant of any plot, he was discharged. He at length took 

 bis degree of B.A., and left the university ; but he had already com- 

 menced a translation of the so-called odes of Anacreon, a specimen of 

 which he laid before the provost of the college, Dr. Kearney, with a 

 hope to obtain a classical premium. Dr. Kearney thought the trans- 

 lation good, but that the subject was not likely to be patronised by 

 the Board. Moore was then entered at the Middle Temple in London, 

 whither he went, scantily supplied with money, to study law. In 

 London be was introduced to Lord Moira, Lady Donegal, and others ; 

 he moved in a fashionable circle ; he published in 1801 his ' Odes of 

 Anacreon ;' and of course paid little attention to his legal studies. His 

 next publication, in 1802, was ' The. Poetical Works of the late Thomas 

 Little,' for which he received 60(. They were severely blamed and 

 much read, and their somewhat loose morality did not prevent them 

 from securing him friends, on account of their poetical ability. In 

 1803, by Lord Moira's influence, he was appointed to a government 

 situation at Bermuda. In January 1804 he arrived there, having 

 stayed upwards of a month at Norfolk in Virginia. He at once found 

 that the situation did not suit him, and in March he left Bermuda, 

 appointing a deputy to fulfil his functions. He then journeyed over 

 a part of America, going from New York to Virginia, and back by 

 Philadelphia and Boston to Niagara and Quebec. With the society in 

 America he was much dissatisfied, and recorded his sentiments in 

 some satirical poems. In November 1804 he was back in England. 

 Here he expected much from Lord Moira's patronage, but only suc- 

 ceeded in getting the appointment of barrack-master in Dublin for his 

 father. In 1805 he published ' Odes and Epistles,' which being in a 

 similar style to the Little poems brought upon him the castration of 

 Jeffrey. This occasioned a bloodless duel, the cause of much merri- 

 ment at the time, and led to a firm friendship between the combatants. 

 He was now leading a life of fashionable excitement among the aris- 

 tocracy of England, a visitor to Lord Moira at Donington Park, and a 

 constant guest at Lansdowne House and Holland House. As early as 

 1797 Moore's attention had been attracted to Bunting's collection of 

 Irish melodies, and at intervals he had written words for several of 

 them, which he was accustomed to sing himself with much effect. In 

 1807 he entered into an engagement with Mr. Power to produce a 

 work founded on them, in whicu he was to adapt the airs and furnish 

 the words, while Sir J. Stevenson was to provide the accompaniments. 

 This work was not completed till 1834, and upon it his true fame 

 will rest. His amatory poems, though sweetly and playfully written, 

 will always give offence to persons of good taste ; his satires, however 

 succe'sful in attacking ephemeral subjects, will periih with the events 

 to which they allude ; but the melodies, combining beautiful words, 

 purer morals, and good music, will have a lasting existence. They 

 have an entirely original character ; they have not the vigour, the 

 truth to nature, and the deep passionate feeling of our other great 



