645 



SMITH, SIR HENRY, BART. 



SMITH, JAMES and HORACE. 



640 



contains a great quantity of interesting matter on these animals. 

 The volume in the same series of books devoted to 'Horses,' was 

 written by bim, and the introduction to the volume on Mammalia. 

 A third volume, on the ' Races and Varieties of Man,' was also from 

 the pen of Colonel Smith. 



* SMITH, SIR HENRY GEORGE WAKELYN, BART., was born 

 in 1788, at Whittlesea, in the Isle of Ely, where his father was iu 

 practice as a surgeon. Having received such an early education as he 

 could obtain at the grammar-school of his native town, he entered tho 

 army iu 1805 as second lieutenant in the Rifle Brigade, and took part 

 in the siege, storming, and capture of Monto Video, under the late 

 Sir S. Auchinuty, and in the attack on Buenos Ayres under Brigadier- 

 General Crawfurd. He was also present at the capture of Copenhagen, 

 under Lord Cathcart. He was afterwards employed with the troops 

 in Spain under Sir John Moore, and took an active part in the Penin- 

 sular war from the battle of Vimiera down to the embarkation of the 

 troops at Corunna. Returning again to the Peninsula in 1809, he 

 took part iu the action on the bridge of the Coa near Almeida, where 

 he was severely wounded, and commanded a company in the pursuit 

 of Massena from the lines of Lisbon, and in one or two subsequent 

 actions of less importance. Having been appointed to the command 

 of a brigade of the Light Division, he was present at the battle 

 of Fuentes de Onoro, and at the sieges and stormings of Ciudad 

 Rodrigo and Badajoz, the battles of Salamanca, Vittoria, Orthes, Tou- 

 louse, and at several other lesser engagements, and in fact in every 

 important battle throughout the war, with the exception of Talavera. 

 We next find him present at the capture of Washington under General 

 Ross, where he was assistant adjutant-general, and was honoured for 

 his gallant conduct on that occasion oy being appointed to bear the 

 despatches to England. His next battle-field was New Orleans, 

 whither he proceeded as military secretary under tho brave Sir 

 Edward Pakenham, who fell in his arms mortally wounded. He was 

 soon afterwards appointed military secretary to Sir John Lambert, 

 under whom he took part in the siege and capture of Fort Bowyer. 

 He returned to England in time to bear his share in the last European 

 battle, and was assistant quarter-master-general to the Sixth Division 

 of the army at Waterloo. He served on the staff from the year 1811, 

 and was deputy adjutant-general successively at Halifax, Nova Scotia, 

 and in the West Indies, whence he was transferred in 1827 to the 

 Cape of Good Hope, and commanded a division under the late Sir B. 

 d'Urban throughout the operations against the Kaffir tribes in 1834 

 and 1835. In 1839 or 1840 he was appointed adjutant-general to the 

 forces in India, and was present in that capacity at the battles of 

 Gwalior and Maharajpore, for which action he was nominated a 

 K.C.B. He also took an active part in the wars against the Sikhs in 

 the Punjab, and was in command of a division at Moodkee, and of the 

 reserve at the subsequent battle of Ferozepore, where he nobly sup- 

 ported the late Sir John Littler in his charge upon the guns of the 

 enemy. A few days later the Sikh forces crossed the river Sutlej near 

 Loodianab, and took up their position at Aliwal. Lord Gough des- 

 patched Sir H. Smith with 7000 men and 24 guns to relieve Loodianah, 

 and this object he succeeded in effecting. On the 28th of January 

 1846 Sir Henry Smith led the main charge in the battle of Aliwal, 

 carrying that village at the point of the bayonet, and capturing all the 

 enemy's guns to the number of 67 ; a success which enabled him to 

 come to the aid of the commander-in- chief, and to join in the final 

 victory of Sobraon (February 10), which crushed the last hopes of the 

 Sikh troops and their leaders, and gave the possession of the Punjab 

 to the British forces. For his conduct on these occasions he was 

 highly commended in the despatches of Lord Gougb, who attributes 

 the victory of Aliwal to his valour and judgment. The same state- 

 ment was repeated by the Earl of Ripon in his place in the House of 

 Lords, in proposing that the thanks of that house should be given to 

 Sir Henry Smith for his distinguished services in India, and it was 

 most fully endorsed by the Duke of Wellington. At the same time 

 Sir H. Smith was presented with the freedom of the city of London, 

 the thanks of the Hon. East India Company, as well as the honorary 

 distinction of the Grand Cross of the Bath and the dignity of a 

 baronet. He had not long returned to England when he was appointed 

 to the colonelcy of the Rifle Brigade, and in September 1847 was 

 nominated governor of the Cape of Good Hope. Here he conducted 

 all the operations of the Kaffir war of 1851-52, and brought them by 

 force of arms to such a successful issue that Kreili was compelled to 

 sue for peace, pledging himself to keep within the Indwe and Kei 

 rivers ; while Sandilli acknowledged his cause to be hopeless, sub- 

 mitted to the governor's terms, and withdrew from Caffraria. In 

 1854 Sir Harry Smith (as he is usually styled) was promoted to the 

 rank of lieutenant-general, and has held since that year the military 

 command of the northern aud midland districts. He married in 1814 

 a Spanish lady, the Donna Juana Maria de los Dolores de Leon, by 

 whom however he has no issue. 



SMITH, JAMES, the great propagator of the system of deep 

 ploughing and thorough draining, was born at Glasgow on the 3rd of 

 January 1789. His father had been in business at Glasgow, in which 

 he acquired some property, but died when his son was only two 

 months old, leaving him in the charge of his mother, who was a 

 daughter of Mr. Buchanan, of Carston in Stirling. After her husband's 

 death Mrs. Smith resided with her brother, who was the manager of 



BIOQ. DIV. VOL. V. 



an extensive cotton manufactory at Deanston, a few miles from Stirling. 

 James Smith received his early education at home, completing it at 

 the University of Glasgow. On leaving the university he returned to 

 his uncle, who had by this time removed to the Catrine Works in 

 Ayrshire, where, in order to attain a thorough knowledge of the trade, 

 he worked through the various grades, labouring with persevering 

 industry for twelve hours a day, with such good effect that at eighteen 

 he was entrusted with the entire management of the works at Dean- 

 ston, into which he subsequently introduced many improvements for 

 promoting tho health of the labourers that were noticed with 

 approval by Mr. Chadwick in his ' Report on the Sanitary Condition 

 of the Labouring Population of Great Britain,' published in 1841. 



But Mr. Smith's attention had been early given to agricultural pro- 

 cesses, and his intimate acquaintance with manufacturing machinery 

 was made available in gratifying his predilection. The Dalkeith 

 Farmers' Club having offered a prize of 5001. for a reaping-machine, 

 Mr. Smith produced one, which, though it was not successful in 

 obtaining the prize, was so ingenious that he was encouraged to pre- 

 pare another in 1813. For this, though an accident prevented his 

 gaining the prize, he received presents from several Scottish agricul- 

 tural societies, and a gold medal from the Agricultural Society of 

 St. Petersburg. He had the management of his uncle's farm, and 

 many of his experiments were eminently successful ; but he could not 

 obtain his uncle's consent to carry out a full development of his 

 theories. In 1823 however he became possessed of the farm of 

 Deanston, about 200 acres of extremely poor land, having a soil not 

 averaging more than four inches in depth, formed chiefly of the de"bris 

 of the old red-sandstone, with a subsoil partly of sandy clay and 

 partly of a compact soil with stones, and the whole interspersed with 

 boulder stones, producing little but rushes in the watery hollows and 

 broom on the dryer portions. The whole of this he intersected with 

 drains, laid at distances of 21 feet and at a depth of 30 inches. This, 

 and a subsoil plough to stir the ground deeply without bringing the 

 subsoil to the surface, produced an effect on the crops that proved the 

 soundness of his theory. In 1831 he published a pamphlet on 

 ' Thorough Draining and Deep Ploughing,' which excited immediate 

 attention among his more immediate neighbours, but it was several 

 years before its merits were generally acknowledged and the practice 

 it recommended was adopted. 



In 1846 Mr. Smith was appointed one of a commission to inquire 

 into the health and sanitary condition of our manufacturing towns. 

 One of his recommendations was the removal of the sewage for agri- 

 cultural purposes : there are many difficulties to be overcome in 

 effecting this, and Mr. Smith gave much attention to plans for over- 

 coming them, propounding several means of singular mechanical 

 ingenuity combined with simplicity. After considerable opposition an 

 act of parliament was passed enabling municipalities to adopt his 

 scheme where circumstances admitted of it. He also suggested several 

 valuable improvements to the Agricultural Society of Ireland, of 

 which he was an esteemed member, as he was also of the Glasgow 

 Philosophical Society, to whose ' Transactions ' he was an occasional 

 and valuable contributor. In political economy Mr. Smith was a 

 follower of Adam Smith, and of course opposed to protection, holding 

 that free competition was the great spur to improvement. After a life 

 of almost incessant activity, he died on the 10th of June 1850, some- 

 what suddenly, having retired to bed on the 9th apparently suffering 

 nothing but an accustomed feebleness, and being found dead in the 

 morning. 



SMITH, JAMES and HORACE, were the sons of Robert Smith, 

 of London, an eminent legal practitioner and Solicitor to the Ordnance. 

 James Smith was born Feb. 10, 1775, in London, where also Horace 

 Smith was born in 1780. James Smith, after receiving a good educa- 

 tion in the school of the Rev. Mr. Burford, at Chigwell, in Essex, was 

 articled to his father, and in due time was taken into partnership. 

 He eventually succeeded his father in the business and in the appoint- 

 ment of Solicitor to the Ordnance. Horace Smith became by pro- 

 fession a stockbroker. 



The first literary productions of the two brothers were gratuitous 

 contributions to ' The Pic-Nic,' a periodical started by Colonel Greville, 

 in 1802. ' The Pic-Nic ' was soon merged in ' The Cabinet,' which main- 

 tained a struggling existence till July, 1803, when it was discontinued. 

 When the ' London Review ' was started by Cumberland, the drama- 

 tist, on the principle of each writer affixing his name to his criticism, 

 James Smith wrote one of the articles, but the ' London Review ' was 

 unprofitable, and was soon discontinued. James aud Horace Smith 

 wrote several of the prefaces to a new edition of 'Bell's British 

 Theatre,' which was published about this time under the sanction of 

 Cumberland's name. They were also contributors from 1807 to 1810 

 to the ' Monthly Mirror,' in which periodical originally appeared the 

 poetical imitations entitled 'Horace in London,' which were subse- 

 quently published in a small volume. Horace Smith wrote several 

 of these parodies, but the larger number was written by James 

 Smith. 



The celebrity, however, which the two brothers enjoyed arose 

 chiefly from the ' Rejected Addresses,' a small volume which was 

 published on the opening of the new Drury Lane Theatre, in October 

 1812. The committee of management had issued an advertisement 

 requesting that addresses, one of which should be spoken on the first 



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