Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 6.djvu/269

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ROBERT MORISON.
63

son, don't leave me.' He spoke to the surgeons while they were examining his wound, but was in such pain, he could say little. After some time he seemed very anxious to speak to me, and at intervals expressed himself as follows: 'Anderson, you know that I have always wished to die this way.' He then asked, 'Are the French beaten?' a question which he repeated to every one he knew as they came in. 'I hope the people of England will be satisfied. I hope my country will do me justice. Anderson, you will see my friends as soon as you can. Tell them everything. My mother'—Here his voice quite failed, and he was excessively agitated.—'Hope—Hope—I have much to say to him—but—cannot get it out. Are colonel Graham, and all my aids-de-camp well. [A private sign was made by colonel Anderson not to inform him that captain Burrard, one of his aids-de-ramp, was wounded.] I have made my will, and remembered my servants. Colborne has my will, and all my papers." Major Colborne then came into the room. He spoke most kindly to him, and then said to me, 'Anderson, remember you go to * * * * and tell him it is my request, and that I expect he will give major Colborne a lieutenant- colonelcy. He has been long with me, and I know him most worthy of it.' He then asked major Colborne if the French were beaten; and on being told that they were, on every point, he said, 'It is a great satisfaction for me to know we have beaten the French. Is Paget in the room?' On my telling him that he was not, he said, 'Remember me to him; it's general Paget I mean. He is a fine fellow. I feel myself so strong, I fear I shall be long dying. It is great uneasiness—it is great pain. Every thing Francois says is right. I have the greatest confidence in him.' He thanked the surgeons for their trouble. Captains Percy and Stanley, two of his aids-de-camp, then crime into the room. He spoke kindly to both, and asked if all his aids-de-ramp were well. After some interval, he said, 'Stanhope, remember me to your sister.' He pressed my hand close to his body, and in a few minutes died without a struggle."

Thus died Sir John Moore in the forty-seventh year of his age, after having conducted one of the most difficult retreats on record, and secured the safety of the army intrusted to him. Few deaths have excited a greater sensation at the time they took place. The house of commons passed a vote of thanks to his army, and ordered a monument to be erected for him in St Paul's Cathedral. Glasgow, his native city, erected a bronze statue to his memory, at a cost of upwards of three thousand pounds. The extent of his merits has not failed to be a subject of controversy; but it seems to be now generally allowed by all, except those who are blinded by party zeal, that, in proportion to the means intrusted to him, they were very great

"Succeeding achievements of a more extensive and important nature," says the author of the Pleasures of Hope [Edin. Encyc. art. Sir John Moore], "have eclipsed the reputation of this commander, but the intrepidity and manly uprightness of his character, manifested at a time when the British army was far from being distinguished in these respects, are qualities far more endearing than military fame. They extorted admiration even from his enemies; and the monument erected by the French officers over his grave at Corunna, attests the worth of both parties."

MORISON, Robert, an eminent botanist of the seventeenth century, was born at Aberdeen in the year 1620. He completed his education in the university of that city, and in 1638 took the degree of Doctor in Philosophy. He was originally designed by his parents for the church, but his own taste led him to the study of botany and physic; and his attachment to those sciences finally prevailing over every other consideration, he began to follow them as a profession. His attachment to the royal cause, induced him to take an active part in the political