In June 1808 Torrens was appointed military secretary to Sir Arthur Wellesley, and accompanied him to Portugal. He was present at the action of Roliça on 17 Aug. and at the battle of Vimiero on 21 Aug. He received the gold medal for these victories, and was made a knight of the order of the Tower and Sword by the Portuguese regency. He returned to England in October with Wellesley on the latter's supersession, and resumed his duties as assistant military secretary at headquarters.
Torrens was promoted to be military secretary to the commander-in-chief on 2 Oct. 1809. On 13 June 1811 he was transferred from major of the 89th foot to a company in the 3rd foot-guards. On 20 Feb. 1812 he was appointed aide-de-camp to the prince regent, and promoted to be colonel in the army. On 4 June 1814 he was promoted to be major-general. On 3 Jan. 1815 he was made a knight-commander of the order of the Bath, military division. On 5 April he was appointed to the colonelcy of the second garrison battalion, and removed on 27 Nov. of the same year to that of the royal African colonial corps. On 21 Sept. 1818 Torrens was transferred to the colonelcy of the 2nd West India regiment. On 25 March 1820 he was appointed adjutant-general of the forces. The emoluments of that office being less than those which he had enjoyed as military secretary, a civil-list pension of 800l. a year was bestowed upon his wife to compensate him for the loss.
During his tenure of the appointment he made a complete revision of the ‘Regulations for the Exercise and Field Movements of the Infantry of the Army.’ They were much in need of it, and he accomplished the task in a manner which gave general satisfaction, embodying the improvements which had been introduced and practised by different commanders in recent wars. On 26 July 1822 Torrens was transferred to the colonelcy of the 2nd or queen's royal regiment of foot. On 23 Aug. 1828 he died suddenly while on a visit to a friend at Danesbury, Hertfordshire. He was buried in Welwyn church, Hertfordshire. Torrens married at St. Helena, in 1803, Sarah, daughter of Colonel Robert Patton, the governor of the island, by whom he left a numerous family, including Sir Arthur Wellesley Torrens [q. v.]
A portrait, painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence, was engraved by T. A. Dunn.
[Memoir privately printed; War Office Records; Despatches; Memoirs in Royal Military Calendar, 1820, in Gent. Mag. 1828, in Annual Register, 1828, in Naval and Military Mag. 1828 vol. iv., and in Jerdan's National Portrait Gallery of Illustrious and Eminent Personages of the Nineteenth Century, 1830, vol. i.; Cust's Annals of the Wars of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries; Conolly's Fifiana, 1869; Evans's Catalogue of Engraved Portraits.]
TORRENS, ROBERT (1780–1864), political economist, born in Ireland in 1780, was son of Robert Torrens of Hervey Hill in Ireland, by Elizabeth Bristow, daughter of the rector of a neighbouring parish, Resharkin. His grandfather, Robert Torrens, rector of Hervey Hill, was fourth son of Thomas Torrens of Dungwen, co. Derry, whose third son, John, was grandfather of Sir Henry Torrens [q. v.]
Appointed first lieutenant in the royal marines in 1797, and captain in 1806, Torrens was in March 1811 in command of a body of marines which successfully defended the Isle of Anholt against a superior Dutch force during the Walcheren expedition. He was severely wounded, and for his services received the brevet rank of major. He afterwards served in the Peninsula, where he was appointed colonel of a Spanish legion. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel in 1819, and to that of colonel in 1837. He retired on half-pay in 1835.
In 1815 Torrens published ‘An Essay on the External Corn Trade’ (London, 8vo; 4th edit. 1827, 8vo; new edit. 1829, 8vo), the arguments of which Ricardo considered ‘unanswered and unanswerable’ (Ricardo, Works, ed. McCulloch, 1886, p. 164). In ‘An Essay on the Production of Wealth, with an appendix in which the principles of political economy are applied to the actual circumstances of this country’ (London, 1821, 8vo; Italian edition, ‘Biblioteca dell' Economista,’ i. serie, vol. ii. 1850, &c., 8vo), Torrens was one of the first economists to attribute the production of wealth to the joint action of three ‘instruments of production,’ viz. land, labour, and capital, to show how the productiveness of industry is increased by the ‘territorial division of labour,’ and to state the law of diminishing returns.
In 1818 Torrens was parliamentary candidate for Rochester in the liberal interest. He failed to obtain a majority, and presented a petition against the return of Lord Binning, on the ground of want of qualification, but the petition was voted frivolous and vexatious (15 March 1819). Torrens was returned, with W. Haldimand, for the parliamentary borough of Ipswich in 1826, but was unseated. In 1831 he was returned for Ashburton, when he supported the Reform Bill, on the passing of which he was elected
