"Dear Sir,
"The letter you favoured me with gives me, at last, an opportunity of congratulating you upon your marriage. I am very sensible it is a state which must be attended by extraordinary expenses, and wish it was in my power to enable you, with perfect ease, to defray them. I would even adopt the mode you propose, of appointing you Quartermaster, if I thought the good of the service required; but as it does not appear to me necessary for every detached company to have a staff annexed to it, I am sure you will have the goodness to excuse my incurring any extraordinary charges upon Government which I could not properly justify.
"I am, with regard, &c., &c."
Another letter which the General had written was to a friend at Woolwich, who superintended the recruiting for the Battalion, which was then much below its establishment. In answer to repeated remonstrances, a few handfuls of men from the other Battalions were sent,—not the best, it is to be feared, if human nature then were like human nature now; and, at last, recruits being no longer obtainable in England, the experiment was tried of recruiting in Ireland, and the first draft was sent to the 4th Battalion. At this time the Irish Artillery, afterwards the 7th Battalion of the Royal Artillery, enjoyed a separate existence, and secured the best recruits in Ireland. The refuse only remained for the Royal Artillery, and the following is the graphic language used by the gallant General in describing the new levies as they landed in New York.
"The drafts have arrived, four having deserted, and one died upon the passage. I should not have been very much afflicted if many of those who landed here had saved me, either by death or desertion, the pain of looking at them, for such warriors of 5 feet 5½ inches I never saw raised before for the service of Artillery.... I presume the reason why so few stand of arms accompanied them was the consideration of these whippers-in and postilions of fellows being unable to bear them: but I must try how far the strength of these diminutive warriors is equal to carry muskets cut down, for they shall never appear, while I command them, otherwise than as soldiers.... Hard times, indeed, and great must be the scarcity of men, when the Royal Artillery is obliged to take such reptiles. I would they were back in the bogs from which they sprang."
In less than a hundred years, had the General lived, he would have seen many of even a worse stamp landing here, to swell the army of New York Rowdies,—men who poison the blood of the American commonwealth, making the great Republic break out into hideous and pestilent sores, which in the eyes of the world deface and hide the beauties it so undoubtedly possesses.
The third and last letter to be quoted is a more serious one; and is addressed to the Right Honourable the Board of Ordnance, at this time very wooden-headed, very obstinate, very devoted to every form of circumlocution. Their officials loved then to snub, and carp, and disallow; to thrust on the festive board at any joyous time some hideous skull of pigheaded queries; and to look with suspicion on any one who dared to think for himself. The officials of the Ordnance have passed away; but who shall say that the type is extinct?
Ah! this gunner who governed New York! He had his rough hours with the rebels, and with the citizens, and with his motley army, but the roughest were when the convoys coming in brought the usual budget of stupendous idiocy, written by clerks who knew not, probably, whether America lay to the east or the west of the Tower, but who felt that their duty was to be to the conscientious officer an eternal nightmare.
The good General, who thought of England's interests before anything else, had recently given permission for the pay of the men to be drawn by bills on Messrs. Cox and Mair, the rate of exchange at the time being such as to leave a handsome surplus to the Government on the sale of the bills. But no sooner did the members of the worshipful Board hear of this, than each particular hair stood on end on each individual head, and a letter was despatched to the General reprimanding him for daring to think of himself. Fortunately Messrs. Cox and Mair protected the bills: but no more were drawn, and the General's scheme for saving his country's money was ruthlessly butchered. As luck would have it, the same mail brought to the General letters of commendation from the King and all in authority; and the confirmation of the rank of Major-General, bestowed on him by Sir Henry Clinton for service in the field. This enabled him to quote the satisfaction expressed by others with his conduct, in the commencement of his letter to the Board, thus giving a point to his next dignified sentences, acknowledging their rebuke. "These marks, my Lord and gentlemen, of your displeasure, and the never having received the honour (notwithstanding my unwearied endeavours to deserve it,) of your declared approbation in any instance since I have been entrusted with the direction of your affairs in this service, cannot fail to give me the most sensible mortification. The extensive and complicated command I have is sufficiently onerous of itself, but under the present circumstances the weight becomes less supportable. I should, therefore, be exceedingly glad if I might be permitted to transfer it over to abler hands, who might probably be more fortunate in giving fuller satisfaction."
It is unnecessary to say that the brainless scribes in the Tower were a little quieter after this, and more sparing of their senseless criticism.