THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND SERVICES OF S1R JAWS

fif`GRIGOR.

SIR JAMES WGRIGOR, Bart., late Director-General of the Army Medical Department, in addition to his valuable professional labours, practical and literary, has done his countrymen no mean service in writing a record of his many adventures and experiences, which can be read from the first page to the last without that sense of weariness which some analogous works produce. This, however, is but very negative praise to bestow on a book which is written in easy but not careless English, with a plain Robinson Crusoe-like state- ment of facts, and which, while indebted to no foreign embellishment,. creates and sustains an interest which the factitious or ornamented narrative often fails to excite. Our admiration for the quiet collo- quial language in which this autobiography is drawn up, may, per- haps, dispose us to be unduly eulogistic. We cannot, however, doubt that it is entitled to high praise, as an agreeable, entertaining recital of some of the leading incidents which occurred in the life of an able,. intelligent, and faithful public servant ; incidents which often deserve telling in themselves, and which are so well told, that we read theni with the same sort of emotion with which we should listen to tidings of more than ordinary importance communicated by a friend who had been present at some tragic scene or had participated in some humorous or, it may be, some perilous adventure.

Sir James M`Grigor was the eldest of the three sons of Colcinhotas

• The Autobiography and Services of BO James NT/rigor, Bart., late Director- General of the Army Medical Department. Will an Appendix of Rotes and Original Correspondence. Longman and Co.

M`Grigor, a merchant of Aberdeen. His mother, Aim, was the daughter of Lewis Grant, of Lethendrey, in Strathspey, Inverness-shire, where the future Director-General was born. Flaying pursued his studies for the usual period of five years at the Grammar School, Aberdeen, young M`Grigor entered the first, or Greek class, of Marischal College, at a period when Campbell, famous for the Hume- miracle controversy ; Beattie, the philosopher and poet ; and Hamil- ton, the mathematician, reflected on that institution an additional

éclat. Disinclined to follow the mercantile career, and fascinated by

the charms of the medical science as well as by a cockade and cocked-hat displayed by a senior student recently appointed

assistant-surgeon to a regiment in Jamaica, Mr. James M`Grigor 4ecided on qualifying himself for the morepacific branch of the military vocation by studying under Dr. French, attending Dr. Mouro's class of anatomy, Mr. Fife's Demonstrations, and Dr. Gregory's practice of Physic. Having. thus finished his medical, and having commenced his political, education, as a disciple of the French revolutionary school—a school which, after entering the army, he entirely deserted — M‘Grigor, seeking his fortune, proceeded to London in the year 1793. On his voyage—for he went by water— his first sea adventure occurred. He had on board a box, containing a skull and some bones of the human subject. One day, when it blew very hard, his luggage got loose, and the frail box burst with all its contents. The sailors declared that the cause of the bad weather was now apparent, and insisted on throwing all the bones overboard. M`Grigor, however, resisting, and the master of the vessel siding with him, he was allowed to retain and repack his bones. Fair weather followed, and the young favourite of iEsculapius, arriving in London, purchased his surgeoncy in the 88th Regiment, or Con- naught Rangers, selecting, by Mr. Greenwood's advice, an Irish in preference to a Scotch regiment, in which the candidates for promo- tion are " too many of them together : they stand in the way of each other." The brief account given in this volume of the mess life at Chatham, of the fatal duel, and of the encounter in which, much to his surprise, M`Grigor was informed he was bound in honour to en- gage, but which was averted by apology, is characteristic of the times. Embarking at Gravesend (1794), the young surgeon sailed with his regiment for Jersey, of which Balcarras was then governor. When he arrived in that island, the French revolution was in its me- ridian. Flying from " the incorruptible" Robespierre, numerous exiles took refuge on its shores. Among them was a pretty, engaging French woman, a marquise, of whom a delightfully. Gallic story is told. Word was brought one day that the marquis had fallen by the guillotine. On first hearing the sad tidings the lady's grief was excessive. The wives of the English officers went to console her; but she was perfectly inconsolable. Now it happened that only a short time before this terrible tragedy the marquise had received a card for a grand ball which the lieutenant-governor was about to give, and had accepted the invitation. Fancy, then, the surprise of her sympathizing comforters when, on the third day after the arrival of the melancholy intelligence, the inconsolable widow suddenly asked them "if it would be proper for her to go to the governor's ball in mourning ?"

Recovering from the typhus fever, so fatal to the British army during the first year of the war, Mr. M`Grigor sailed with his regi- ment to Ostend. Before sailing, however, he narrowly escaped death by explosion. A fire had occurred on board the transport which he was visiting, immediately over the powder magazine. From this imminent peril apparently more than two hundred persons were rescued by the courage and shrewdness of the ship's mate, who leaped down, threw up blankets, pillows, and mattresses, all smoking and some on fire ; and who, after deluging the place with water, which was handed down to him, reappeared, carrying a sailor in a state of stupefaction, whose lighted pipe, it would seem, had fallen out of his mouth upon some straw when he fell asleep. Delivered from this fiery danger, our assistant-surgeon went up the Scheldt to Bergen-op-Zoom, where he landed. From the siege of Nimeguen, of which we have a striking description, the English troops marched to Arnheim. After a journey through North Holland, in the middle of a severe winter, a second attack of typhus, and more than one grim adventure, M'Grigor once more sailed for England, and in due time found himself in revolutionary Norwich, of whose large garrison he had the medical superintendence. We get from this portion of the autobiography a curious peep at the manners and customs of the populace and the military of that republicanized town. Encounters between the soldiers and townspeople were frequent; officers could hardly appear in the streets without being insulted ; and so unpa- triotic was the democracy of Norwich, that there existed there, we are assured, a society for the encouragement of desertion. So effectual were the proceedings of this extraordinary society, that it " was no unusual occurrence for twenty or thirty men of the gar- rison to desert in a night." We must pass over the interview with Colonel Beresford, whose dissatisfaction and rebuke ended in commendation and friendship ; as well as over the. shipwreck and other incidents of the Doctor's voyage to the West Indies. At Grenada an insurrection had broken out, but the force sent thither was such as speedily to regain the whole of the island. In this revolt no excuse can be made for the French proprietors who had sworn allegiance to the British crown. Still, the summary execution of about twenty gentlemen in one day seems an extreme measure; and the conduct of the "ruffian sheriff's officer" may not unreasonably awaken a suspicion that "Justice" may sometimes have been too prompt and peremptory in her demands. "I went," says our indignant autobiographer, "with a strong state- ment of his conduct to the Attorney-General, but got no redress. I

was told the times did not allow scrutiny. into such matters?' More- over, " when the blacks were taken, their being captured with arms in their hands was to the Attorney-General sufficient evidence for conviction." A hideous mortality followed the suppression of the rebellion. "The number that died of yellow fever was four times that of those who fell by the bullet and bayonet." On the homeward voyage (for orders now arrived for the detachment of the 88th to embark) the mate, who replaced the captain of the ship, lately dead of this terrific disorder, pas himself carried off by it. His successor, who was almost always drunk, was deposed, and a Captain Vanda- leur, once a midshipman, was chosen to supply his place. Accord. ingly, " honest Jack Vandaleur" set to work, and, after taking sundry observations, announced that they were approaching the British Channel. The next day he declared that they were in the Channel; and the third day, with a thick fog around them, he told them they were in the Downs.

"At length we heard a ship's bell tolling, which continuing for some time, the attention of all was directed to it. We hailed, and Vandaleur inquired, through the trumpet, ' What ship?' ' The Mary, of New York,' was the reply. Vandaleur then inquired, • How near Dover are we?' Dover,' replied the Yankee; you are in the St. George's Channel, the mouth of the Mersey not far offr" On Christmas-day, 1798, the Connaught Rangers embarked at Portsmouth for India. After serving for a time at Bombay as head of the medical staff, M`Grigor was ordered to Egypt. At Cairo, having. initiated Dr. Shapter and Mr. Moss, the purveyor, in those mysteries of the Indian service with which they were more imme- diately concerned, he returned to his duty as surgeon of the 88th Regiment, in which corps, while quartered at Alexandria, the plague made its first appearance. On the cessation of hostilities with France, the 88th was recalled to England, and in February, 1804, after eleven years' connexion with that regiment, M'Grigor was ap- pointed to the surgeoncy of the. Blues, in the room of Dr. Hussey, promoted to be Deputy Inspector of Hospitals. At Windsor, the corps was honoured with royal notice. The King not only came to their morning parades, but requested to have a troop in the corps of which he would be the captain. To inspect this troop the King came often to the barracks, and by direct questioning got by heart the name, not only of every man, his country and history, but, as our author believes, that of all the women and children in it. Dr. M`Grigor gives a somewhat amusing account of a contemporaneous interview which he had with the King. Entering the mess-room, where the Doctor was sitting at ease, with feet cased in morocco slippers and eyes wandering over the paper which had absorbed his attention, his Majesty expressed his royal sentiments, as he passed the well-furnished side-table, in phraseology that would have done credit to Peter Finder's George III.: "Look, Gordon, abundant breakfast, excellent breakfast ! cold beef, venison pasty, ham and game, tea, coffee, eggs, beefsteaks—hi ! hi ! - excellent breakfast, Gordon." When the King came up to me, adds the narrator, I could only bow profoundly in my slippers. His Majesty, however, was graciously pleased to pass over the uncourtly attire of his medical officer, and merely remarking, "Reading the Gazette!" walked round the other side of the table and went out by the same door by which he entered.

Not long after this, Sir James was offered the headship of a Board in a proposed fourth Presidency in India, with Mr. William Dundas for chief. Harry Dundas, afterwards Lord Melville, then at the head of the Board of Control, had, however, become unpopular, and oppo- sition papers were severe on Mr. Duudas's "infamous job," and his host of " hungry Scotsmen." Mr. Perry, then of the Morning Chronicle, though himself a Scotchman, wittily termed the new presi- dency "Nova Scotia." This key-note was daily resounded, and with such effect, that Dr. M`Grigor was induced to decline the appoint- ment. Promotion, however, came from another quarter. Nominated Deputy-Inspector of Hospitals, first in the northern, then in the

south-west district of England, M`Grigor introduced many reforms into those military establishments. On his return from Walcheren, whither he was next sent to superintend the medical service, in the well-known disastrous condition of the British force there employed, he was summoned before the bar of the House of Commons. His evidence was considered satisfactory, but he appears to have been only too glad to receive permission to retire "from the little gentle- man in the black wig"—meaning Mr. Abbott, the Speaker of the day. In June, 1830, our prosperous Inspector was united in marriage

to Miss Grant, the sister of a "dear friend and distant relation," Sir James Grant. In 1811 his reputation as ail able and energetic officer procured him the appointment to the Inspector-Generalship of the Medical Department of the Army engaged in the Peninsular

war. Proceeding to the head-quarters of the Duke of Wellington, Dr. M‘Grigor discharged the onerous and responsible duties of his post in a manner so satisfactory to the Commander-in-Chief, that at

the close of the Peninsular war he was pronounced by that decisive authority "one of the most industrious, able, and successful public

servants he had ever met with." We regret that we are not able to follow our author in the account which he gives of his Peninsular progress, of the siege and capture of Badajoz, of Colonel Colquhoun Grant, his numerous adventures, and of his personal intercourse with his conquering chief. It must suffice to say that he was a spectator, and in some sense a participant, of more than one magnificent action. In giving a catalogue of the battles at which he was present during the whole of his career, Dr. M'Grigor, besides Grenada in the West Indies, enumerates the storming of Badajoz, the thrice attempted storming of Burgos, the storming of St. Sebas- tian, the battle of Vittoria, that of the Pyrenees, and that on the memorable day when the allied army entered France, after storming the whole chain of redoubts that came in their way to St. Jean. In

1814, after his return from England, the presentation of a costly ser- vice of plate, from the whole medical corps employed with him in the Peninsula, testified to the high estimation in which his merits were held, by his brethren of the army. In the same year he received the honour of knighthood. The year following he was appointed a member of the Medical Board, of which, as Director-General he soon after became the responsible administrator. We must leave to those who are interested in the details of the case to hives- tigate for themselves the plans of improvement in the Army Medical Department which Sir James McGrigor now began to introduce. The autobiography itself terminates at this juncture ; but a supple- mentary chapter traces the sequel of the Director-General's life. Concurrently with the discharge of his official duties, he proceeded to carry out a long-cherished project of instituting a system of me- dical reports and returns of a peculiarly statistical character. This immense repertorium of authenticated facts comprises about three hundred and fifty volumes. To his unremitting exertions and liberality the Museum of Anatomy and Natural History, established at Fort Pitt, Chatham, is chiefly Indebted for its prosperity. As a valuable adjunct to the museum, Sir James also founded alibrary,v/hich contained, aboutnine years ago, no few erthan ten thousandvolumes. To Sir James McGrigor, too, must be attributed the establishment of the Army Medical Friendly Society, as well as that of a second institution called the Army Medical Benevolent Society. The Medico-Chirur- gical Society at Aberdeen also claims him as one of its founders. During his tenure of office as Director-General, Sir James McGrigor received numerous honours. In 1831 he was created a Baronet, and in 1850 he was invested with the Order of a Knight Commander of the Bath. On the institution of the London University, he was appointed by Government a Member of the Council ; and he was thrice, if we mistake not, elected Lord Rector of the University of Aberdeen. Entering, the army as surgeon of the Connaught. Rangers, in 1793, he quitted it as Director-General in 1851, having spent fifty-seven years of his life in active employment. During the whole of this period he exhibited talent, energy, and devotion to duty. In the expedition to the West Indies, under Sir Ralph Abercrombie; during his service in the East Indies ; in the Egyptian campaign, under Sir David Baird; in his Walcheren mission, and his Penin- sular career, he acquired experience, developed abilities, and satisfied professional exigencies in so striking a manner, that his claims to the chieftainship of his own department could scarcely be questioned. His exertions in behalf of the sick and wounded were such as to entitle him to the gratitude of the soldiers. On one occasion, on his return to the camp, when Ile was supposed to be lost, the men and women (who seemed to have disliked his successor as much as they liked him) exclaimed, in the hearing of that functionary and the other officers, "Now your master has come, go home as soon as you can." At another time, when the Doctor was recovering from an attack of fever, he observed about a dozen of the soldiers of the 88th carrying a sheep down to the vessel in which he was about to embark. " Your honour," said an orator among them, "how could we see you so weak and without mutton to make a little broth of ?" A grin on their faces, when they were taxed with stealing the sheep, showed that they were. not able to deny the impeachment. A couple of fowls were next exhibited, and presently a party of the natives appeared in pursuit. Some years after, when Dr. M'Grigor was received by Lord Wellington at head- quarters in Portugal, the Commander-m-Chief laughingly alluded to this misadventure of the Connaught Rangers : "I hope, from your long living with them," said the Duke to the Doctor, "you have not contracted any of their leading propensities, for I hang and shoot more of your old friends for murders, robberies, &e., than I do of all the rest of the army."

Good sense, talent, punctual observance of duty, a temperate life, in days when temperance was an exceptional virtue, no less than kindness, courtesy, and consideration, characterized the admirable writer of. this autobiography. McGrigor, moreover, seems to have thoroughly cleared his mind of cant. A Scotsman, he was naturally prudent, and had ever an eye to the main chance. He wished to get on in life, and he did get on, having the requisite ability and per- severance. He had the true ambition of the Briton ; he liked success; he determined to succeed; he liked wealth in moderation; and he prized titular rank as " the guinea's stamp," not forgetting that " the man's the gowd for a' that." The young assistant-surgeon lived to earn a baronetcy, a pension of more than a thousand a year, a bust among those of the Great Duke's contemporaries in Welling- ton College, and a statue near Westminster Abbey, yet, we believe, to be erected. 'Twas a fair day's wage for a fair day's work.