JET, 



. 23.] MY BROTHER'S DEATH. 225 



dieted for murder. I must have written to this effect 

 to my uncle, Mr Lowndes, who then lived in London ; 

 for I find by a letter of his that such must have been 

 my hallucination. 



Early in 1800, Peter had got his commission as 

 ensign in the 85th Eegiment, and was ordered to 

 embark at Portsmouth with troops under the com- 

 mand of General St John. On the 31st of March I 

 had written to Stuart, then living at Whitehall, to 

 tell him of my grief at parting with Peter, and that 

 I felt more than ever disinclined to remain in Edin- 

 burgh and to work at my profession : 



" I still continue more and more to detest this 

 place, and this cursedest of cursed professions. He 

 (Peter) will see you as he passes through London, 

 and I really wish you could manage to procure some 

 letters for him. He does not know what station his 

 regiment is to go to, and has a number of recom- 

 mendations on chance already. One or two more in 

 the same way (I mean whether he knows and can tell 

 you where he is to go or not), will do quite well." 



I have said that I was so distracted by this dread- 

 ful blow, that I wanted to have Mr Campbell brought 

 to justice. My father would not hear of any such 

 proceeding, and my uncle was equally against it. He 

 wrote to me as follows : 



" LONDON, 1st November 1800. 



" MY DEAR HENRY, No one can lament more sin- 

 cerely than I do, the very unfortunate event which 

 is the subject of our correspondence. If I had not 



VOL. i. p 



