Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/834

MOORE He was a doctor by profession, and the son of a Stirling shire clergyman. After taking his medical degree at Glasgow, he served with the army in Flanders, then was attached to the household of the English ambassador at Paris, then practised for five years in Glasgow, next travelled on the Continent for five years with a young nobleman, settled for some years as a physician in Lon don, accompanied Lord Lauderdale to Paris in 1792 and witnessed some of the principal scenes of the Revolution. All classes thus came under his observation, while his pro fession preserved him in an unusual degree from flippant bias. His works attest great shrewdness and sagacity of judgment, and show no small skill in literary presentation. He died at London in 1802. MOORE, SIR JOHN" (1761-1809), the only English general who has gained lasting fame by the conduct of a retreat, was the son of Dr Moore (the subject of the pre ceding notice), and was born at Glasgow on 1 3th November 1761. It was his appointment as tutor to the young duke of Hamilton which procured for John Moore educational advantages by which he profited so much as to be called in after life the most cultivated officer in the army. It was then the fashion for young noblemen to travel from court to court, and Moore accompanied his father and the duke to all the chief capitals in Europe, until he was suddenly ordered in 1777 to join the 51st regiment, in which he had been appointed an ensign. He learned his drill at Minorca, and in 1779 was appointed lieutenant and paymaster in a new regiment recently raised by the duke of Hamilton, with which he served in America till the peace of 1783. In 1784 Moore, though but twenty-three years of age, was returned by the duke of Hamilton as member of parliament for the united boroughs of Selkirk, Peebles, and Linlithgow. In parliament he does not seem to have opened his mouth, though he always voted with the Govern ment ; but he made some useful friends, notably the duke of York and Pitt. In 1788 he was promoted to a majority in the 51st regiment, and in 1790 he became lieutenant- colonel and resigned his seat in parliament. He soon got his regiment in fine order, and in 1792 sailed with it for the Mediterranean. He was too late to assist at Toulon, but was engaged throughout the operations in Corsica, and especially distinguished himself at the taking of Calvi. After the expulsion of the French, Moore became very in timate with Paoli and many of the leading Corsican patriots, which intimacy was so obnoxious to Sir Gilbert Elliot, the viceroy, that Moore was ordered to leave the island in forty- eight hours. Sir Gilbert s hasty conduct by no means met with approval in London, and Moore was gazetted briga dier-general, and ordered to proceed with his brigade to the West Indies. In April 1796 he reached Barbados, and at once became the right hand of Sir Ralph Aber- cromby, the commander-in-chief. The first enterprise was the reconquest of the island of St Lucia, which was com pletely occupied by an agent of Victor Hugues with a mixed force of Caribs, negroes, and Frenchmen. The key of the island was a fortified and almost impregnable height called the Morne Fortune", which was at last stormed, though with great loss, by the valour of brigadier-generals Moore and Hope, who were to be comrades on a yet more memor able field. After this success, Sir Ralph left the island, and appointed Moore governor and commander-in-chief. A difficult post he found his government, owing to the swarms of Caribs and negroes in the woods ; but just as he was on the point of triumphing he fell ill of yellow fever, and was ordered home. In 1798 he was well and again eager to be on active service, and he accompanied his friend Abercromby over to Ireland, where he received the com mand of the Bandon district. In the Irish rebellion of 1798- he distinguished himself by his activity in saving Wexford from destruction after the battle of Vinegar Hill. His services were in universal request, and Abercromby insisted upon his serving with him in the expedition to the Helder in 1799, where he did creditably all that was credit ably done in that ill-managed expedition. On his return from Holland he was made colonel of the 52d regiment, and in 1800 accompanied Abercromby to the Mediterranean as major-general. Throughout the Egyptian expedition he commanded the reserve, and especially distinguished himself at the battle of Alexandria, when he was wounded in three places, and behaved with such distinction that he was recognized uni versally as the greatest English general, now that Aber cromby was gone. The short interval of the peace of Amiens did not injure Moore s prospects, and in 1803 he was appointed commandant of the camp at Shorncliffe. Here he proved his greatness as an organizer, for it was at this time that he organized those light regiments which were to form the reserve in his own campaign and the light division in the Peninsular War. While at Shorncliffe he renewed his intimacy with Pitt, who was then residing at Walmer Castle, and who on his return to office made Moore a knight of the Bath, and consulted him on every military project. Fox, when he succeeded to office, showed the same appreciation of Moore, and in May 1806 appointed him second-in-command to his brother, General Fox, who was ordered with a strong force to Sicily to supersede Sir John Stuart. Moore won but little credit at this time, for there was none to gain, but employed his time, according to Napier, in falling in love with Miss Fox, to whom, however, he never proposed, fearing to be accepted for his position and not for himself. In 1807 he was able to escape from the intrigues of the Sicilian court, and was ordered to Portugal, which he reached too late to make any defence of Lisbon, already in the possession of the French. Ho then went home, and had four months rest, the last he ever had. In May 1808 he was ordered with a force of 11,000 men to Sweden to assist the king against the united forces of France and Russia. The mad conduct of the Swedish king, however, who even went so far as to declare Sir John Moore under arrest when he refused to acquiesce in his plans, ruined any chance of successful co-operation, and the English general made his escape and returned to England. He was at once ordered to proceed with his division to Portugal, where Sir Arthur Wellesley had already landed ; but the appointment of Dalrymple and Burrard to the chief commands was even more of a slight on Moore as a general of European experience than on Wellesley, whose laurels had hitherto been won in India. He regarded himself as personally insulted by the ministers, and especially by Lord Castlereagh, but deemed it his duty to go where he was ordered. He met his reward ; for when, after the excitement caused by the Convention of Cintra, Dalrymple and Burrard went home, he was left in com mand of the largest English army since the commencement of the war. Wellesley had appreciated him, and in an interesting letter (published in the Wellington Despatches) had expressed his desire to use his own great political influence to reconcile him to the ministers and the ministers to him. Now began the glorious three months on which Moore s reputation as a soldier and a statesman must rest. The Spaniards, flushed with their former success at Baylen, regarded Napoleon, who had in person crossed the Pyrenees, as another Dupont, and loudly summoned Moore to a share in their coming victories. Moore knew better what was the value of Napoleon s genius, but he had been commanded to assist the Spaniards, and therefore gave the order to advance. His army marched in four distinct divisions,

and on 13th November 1808 he concentrated at Sala-