[407] Drinkwater Meadows (1799–1869), an excellent performer in comedy of the more eccentric type.
[408] Edgar William Elton (1794–1843) created this part of Beauséant; he also played Romeo, and (with much success) Edgar in Lear.
[409] The disposal of these prisoners was a difficult matter which became acute in the interregnum between the departure of Lord Gosford and the arrival of Lord Durham. Sir John Colborne postponed a decision of the matter, and ultimately the prisoners were dealt with according to the gravity of the case, some being merely bound over, others deported to Bermuda.
[410] Great complaints were being made of the cruelty of the Jamaica planters to their negro apprentices, and Brougham had put himself at the head of an agitation in favour of immediate emancipation. Accordingly the Government introduced a Bill regulating the hours of labour, erecting arbitration tribunals for appraising the value of apprentices desiring a discharge, and forbidding the whipping or cutting the hair of female apprentices, or their being placed on a treadmill, or in the chair of a penal gang.
[411] Street riots had broken out at Lisbon, but the Queen behaved with great courage, and, after Costa Cabral had been installed as Civil Governor of the city, the insurgent forces were dispersed. The occurrence of Donna Maria’s nineteenth birthday on 4th April was marked by an amnesty, purporting to blot out the revolutionary actions of the last eighteen months.
[412] John, second Marquess and fifth Earl of Breadalbane, F.R.S. (1796–1862).
[413] A distinguished Peninsular officer, who had commanded the Portuguese division at Vittoria; Commander-in-chief at Bombay 1825–9.
[414] John, afterwards eleventh Earl of Westmorland, son of John, tenth Earl and Sarah Anne his wife, only daughter and heir of Robert Child of Osterley Park. His sister, Lady Jersey (who died in 1867), succeeded to the banker’s great fortune. See ante, p. 149.
[415] Major-General Sir A. Dickson, R.A., had been Superintendent of Artillery Operations in the Peninsula, and fought at Waterloo, and was Director-General of the Field-train Department.
[416] Vice-Admiral Sir Thomas Hardy (1769–1839), Captain of the Victory at Trafalgar. In 1830 he was First Sea Lord, and, later, Governor of Greenwich Hospital, a post he was holding at this time.