TRINIDAD : THEN AND NOW. 



109 



" It is known that the fall of this hero was 

 accomplished by a desperate and new example in 

 military tactics and that, at the head of a body of 

 infantry he attacked at the point of the bayonet, and 

 defeated, what had been until that day considered 

 the finest cavalry of Europe ; and no British heart 

 can do otherwise than give the meed to his memory, of 

 having devoted himself to death for the glory and 

 safety of his country. ' ' 



And yet this is the man accused of brutality. I 

 have had, dn my day, a good deal to do with and 

 observe men of all classes and all conditions, and I 

 assert that I have never known a brave man a bully 

 or a tyrant — strict, yes ; but a tryant, never — and 

 that Picton was a brave man is a fact beyond dispute. 

 But neither have I known a bully or a tyrant who was 

 not also a mean sycophant and an arrant coward. 



Among the host of heroes of all ranks, from the 

 little buglers who sounded " the advance " or " the 

 charge," to the generals who headed or directed their 

 brigades or divisions, throughout the whole of the 

 Peninsular or European wars of that time there was 

 no braver or greater hero than Picton, Trinidad's 

 first British Governor, a man who most assuredly 

 laid the foundation of what has become to-day a 

 bright gem in the crown of him who is now our 

 sovereign. 



