active list of the department,—commander of the Bath, &c., served under Mr. Commissary-General Filder in Balaklava, during the winter of 1854-5, and was present during the Crimean campaign. He has received the Crimean medal and clasps, and at the close of the war he was for some time in charge of the commissariat of the army.—W. H. R.
ADAMS, Hannah, an American lady, born at Medfield, near Boston, in 1756. When only ten years old she lost her mother, and, owing to her father's want of success in business, she was obliged, at a very early age, to support herself by manual labour. Evincing from childhood a thirst for instruction of every kind, she studied with eager attention every book within her reach, and with the occasional assistance of students who boarded in her father's house, she attained an accurate and extensive knowledge of Latin and Greek. While earning a scanty livelihood by giving instructions in Greek and Latin to a few students in divinity, she wrote her "View of Religious Opinions," published in 1784. The work sold well, but the publisher appropriated nearly all the profits. A second and improved edition appeared in 1791, and, through the judicious arrangements of friends, its success more than relieved her for a time from pecuniary difficulties. Her "History of New England" appeared in 1799. Her last and most original work was her "History of the Jews." The profits of her writings, and the considerate efforts of friends, enabled her to spend her declining years in comfort, highly and universally respected. Died at Brooklyn, near Boston, in 1832.—E. M.
ADAMS, Henry William, a major-general in the army at the time of his death. This gallant officer was colonel of the 49th foot at the time of their departure for the East, and he commanded a brigade of General De Lacy Evans' division at the battle of the Alma. He was promoted as major-general on the 12th December, 1854, but ere he was aware of the honour conferred upon him, he received a wound in the foot, in one of the hottest onsets at Inkerman, where he was handling his brigade with his usual gallantry. After many months of suffering, his wound proved fatal, and he died in the month of July, 1855, at Scutari hospital, leaving behind him the reputation of a kind, gallant, and devoted soldier.—W. H. R.
ADAMS, Rev. John, a clergyman, born at Aberdeen about 1750. He established an academy at Putney, and is known as the author of several educational works.
ADAMS, John, the assumed name of Alexander Smith, one of the mutineers who in 1789 took possession of H.M.S. Bounty, and sailed to Otaheite, where most of them remained. Adams and eight others proceeded in January, 1790, to Pitcairn's island, taking with them six male and ten female natives of Otaheite. The oppression of these by the whites soon produced murderous conflicts, which ended in the extermination of the Otaheitan males. One of the whites having succeeded in distilling spirits from an indigenous plant, brought about his own destruction. Another of the three who now alone remained was put to death by the other two for an attempt on their lives. Adams and Young, the survivors, now felt the necessity of religion for the welfare or even existence of any community, and began to hold a regular religious service, and to give religious instruction to all the other members of the colony, now consisting of the females and eighteen children, all under nine years of age. The result was marvellous. Peace and affection soon reigned in the island. The mothers, as well as the children, speedily adopted the principles and practised the precepts of the gospel, and under the patriarchal rule of Adams the community continued to prosper. The island was visited in 1814 by two British frigates, and in 1825 by the Blossom, commanded by Captain Beechey, who has published an interesting account of the settlement. Adams died in 1829, at the age of sixty-nine. After his death the want of an efficient authority was soon felt. An ill-advised proposal was made and adopted for the removal of the colony to Otaheite, which led to melancholy consequences, both moral and physical, but most of its members subsequently returned. The Pitcairn colony, consisting of 190 persons, were recently settled, at the expense of the British government, in Norfolk island, from which the convicts were previously removed. The colonists reluctantly quitted their natal spot, but the inadequacy of its resources compelled them to emigrate.—E. M.
ADAMS, John, of the Inner Temple, a civil engineer of the seventeenth century, who wrote an interesting work, which may still be consulted with advantage, entitled "Index Villaris, or a Geographical Table of all the Cities, Market-Towns, Parishes, Villages, and Private Seats in England and Wales."
ADAMS, John, one of the great leaders of the American revolution, and second president of the United States, was born at Braintree, Massachusetts, in 1735. After studying science and literature at Harvard college, and subsequently completing the usual course of legal training, he was admitted a member of the Suffolk bar, began to exercise his profession at Quincy, and soon obtained extensive practice. Having also, by the death of his father, succeeded to a small estate, which had belonged to his ancestor, one of the original settlers, he married, in 1764, Abigail Smith, a young lady of great intelligence and moral worth. In 1765 he removed to Boston, where his accomplishments, business habits, and public spirit speedily procured him popularity and professional success. At this period (1765) the mistaken policy of the British ministry had produced in the American colonies, and especially in Massachusetts, intense excitement, and a firm determination to resist unconstitutional aggression. Adams had maturely studied the questions at issue between the colonies and the mother country, and threw himself at once, with all the ardour of youthful patriotism, into the contest. The conversation and the writings of his friend James Ortis, who so early as 1760 had begun to sound the trumpet of American freedom, claiming for the colonies, with fearless eloquence, constitutional justice, had produced a deep impression on his mind; and he was at this time one of the few Americans who foresaw and desired that the approaching struggle would terminate in American independence. The great mass of the colonists continued, even after the commencement of the war, to deprecate a separation from the mother country; and confined their claims and aspirations to the enjoyment of those rights which the British constitution guarantees to all British subjects. Though Adams desired, from principle, American independence, his sympathies never ceased to be English. He preferred a republic in America, as best suited to its social condition, but he was far from wishing, and especially on abstract grounds, the overthrow of the British monarchy. In fact, his great wish was to maintain in America English institutions and English principles, minus a hereditary chief magistrate, a privileged aristocracy, and a privileged church. The cause of the first American war was simply the unconstitutional determination of the British ministry, in spite of the memorable remonstrances of Pitt (Chatham), Burke, Barré, &c., in parliament, and of numberless enlightened men throughout the nation, to tax America without her consent. Though the harsh and illegal measures employed in America to enforce commercial restrictions which true political science has shown to be absurd and inexpedient, had produced great irritation, American grievances would have been amicably arranged, but for the infatuation of the ministry in ignoring the inseparable connection between taxation and representation. It is now matter of history that the Americans, in resisting an attempt to suppress constitutional rights, acted in the spirit of our common forefathers, and achieved the triumph of a fundamental principle of the British constitution. In 1765, Adams printed in the "Boston Gazette" the papers afterwards published under the title of "Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law." The same year he supported, along with his friends Gridley and Ortis, before the governor and council, the petition of the Bostonians for the re-opening of the courts, which had been shut in consequence of the general resistance to the Stamp Act. In 1767 he declined the office of advocate-general in the Court of Admiralty, offered to him by the governor. In April, 1770, at the risk of impairing his popularity, he defended Captain Preston and the soldiers prosecuted for firing on the citizens of Boston; yet in May he was elected a member of the State Assembly. From this time his energies were almost exclusively devoted to public affairs. In 1774 he defended, in letters to the "Boston Gazette," the proceedings of the colonists; acted as a member of the Boston committee in preparing resolutions regarding the Boston port bill; and was one of the five deputies appointed by the assembly of Massachusetts to meet deputations from other colonies. These deputations assembled at Philadelphia in September, 1774, and formed the first continental congress. So general was still the feeling in favour of British connection, that Adams was, on this occasion, exposed to great obloquy, from being supposed desirous of colonial independence. When congress reassembled in 1775, the sentiments of the colonists had
