both succeeded, but were mere marauding forays, without influence on the general course of operations. In 1782 he proceeded to England, where he was consulted by the king on the conduct of the war, and drew up a very able memorandum, but the suggestions it contained obviously came too late. He also obtained upwards of 6,000l., as compensation for his losses, and a pension of 500l. for his wife. Though much caressed at court, he found it impossible to procure active employment in the British army, and was even obliged to vindicate his honour by fighting a duel with Lord Lauderdale. He again entered into business, first in New Brunswick and afterwards in the West Indies. Though not in actual service, he so distinguished himself at Guadaloupe as to be rewarded by a large grant of land in Canada; he also evinced political prescience in framing, a plan for the conquest of the Spanish West Indies, by exciting insurrection among the Creoles. His commercial enterprises proved unfortunate, and his latter days were embittered not only by self-reproach for his treason, but by pecuniary embarrassments and the dread of want. He died in London on 14 June 1801. The threatened ruin was averted by the exertions and business ability; of his devoted wife. All his four sons by her entered the British service, and one, James Robertson Arnold, an officer of engineers, rose to the rank of lieutenant-general. Descendants of his third son George still exist in England. He had had three sons by his first marriage, whose posterity survive in Canada and the United States.
'It should excite but little surprise that an ambitious, extravagant man, with fiery passions and very little balance of moral principle, should betray his friends and plunge desperately into treason.' This remark of the historian of Arnold's native town leaves little further to be said on the cardinal event of his life. Under provocation and temptation he acted infamously, but his character does not deserve the exceptional infamy with which it has been not unnaturally loaded in America. A civilian soldier, he had imperfectly imbibed the traditions of military honour; and, with his loyalist connections, his desertion may have seemed to him rather a change of party than the betrayal of his country. He was eminent for courage and the strength of domestic affection, and his memoirs contain instances of generosity and humanity which better men might envy. With all these redeeming qualities he was still essentially a bad citizen, turbulent, mercenary, and unscrupulous. Washington's exclamation on hearing of his defection showed that he had no belief in his probity, though he had tolerated his vices in consideration of his military qualities. These were indeed eminent. Arnold's intrepidity, ingenuity, promptitude, sagacity, and resource are even more conspicuous in his miscarriages than in his successes. When his almost total want of military instruction is considered, he deserves to be ranked high upon the list of those who have shown an innate genius for war.
[The principal authorities for Arnold's life are the dry but clear narrative of Jared Sparks in the Library of American Biography, vol. iii., Boston, 1835; and the more copious Biography by Isaac N. Arnold (Chicago, 1880). The latter extenuates everything, the former sets down not a few things in malice, but between the two it is easy to arrive at a just estimate of Arnold's character and actions. See also Miss F. M. Caulkin's History of Norwich, Conn., pp. 409-415; Irving's and Marshall's Lives of Washington; Sargent's Life of Andre; and the historians of the American war of independence in general.]
ARNOLD, CORNELIUS (1711–1757?), poetical writer, was born 13 March 1711, and entered Merchant Taylors' School in 1723. The statement that he became one of the ushers in the school is incorrect. In the latter part of his life he was beadle to the Distillers' Company. His works are: 1. 'Distress, a poetical essay,' dedicated to John, Earl of Radnor, London [1750?], 4to. 2. 'Commerce, a poem,' 2nd edit. London, 1751, 4to. 3. 'The Mirror. A Poetical Essay in the manner of Spenser,' dedicated to David Garrick, London, 1755, 4to. 4. 'Osman,' a tragedy. In a volume of poems published in 1757.
[Robinson's Register of Merchant Taylors' School, ii. 61; Baker's Biog. Dram.; Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus.; Watt's Bibl. Brit.]
ARNOLD, JOHN (1736?–1799), an eminent mechanician and one of the first makers of chronometers in this country, was born at Bodmin in 1736, and not in 1744, as is generally given; his tombstone in Chislehurst churchyard positively states that he died in 1799, ætat. 63. He was apprenticed to his father, a watchmaker in Bodmin, but a quarrel with him led to his going to Holland. In that country he is said not only to have acquired most of his knowledge of watchmaking, but to have learned German, a language which was afterwards of much use to him at court. Leaving the Hague, he came to England, and appears to have made a scanty living as an itinerant mechanic. By the help of a gentleman who was struck
