The Express.
London, England, 1858-03-15 00:00:00

LITERATUER

KR HENRY HAVELOCK, R.C.B.
The life of a man whom each an authority as
Lord Ifardinge pronounced to be " every inch •
soldier and every inch a Christian" is a subjes-t be-
yond which the ambition of no biographer need
aspire. We learn that a deliberately compered
life of the late Sir Henry Havelock, founded o,n
tiosoments, may be looked for in due tune from the
pen of Mr. John Marshman, whose large acquaint-
anise with Indian affairs and intimate knowledge of
the deceased General eminently qualify him to
ladertake that work. In the meantime the Rev.
W. Brock, minister of the Baptist Chapel in Blooms-
bury, comes forward with a biographical sketeh,•l
having especial reference to the religious character
of Havelock, and prepared with the aid of the
family and friends of the General. Without
acknowledging the truth of the position that a man's'
religion is something that can be itstingnished
from his life, and not rather the informing principle
of the whole, without admitting that there is not as
much religion in the common acts of a good man as
in his prayers and " 'sperienoes"—to bor-
row a word of Aunt Chloe—we thank
Mr. Brock for his very acceptable volume.
It is all that it professes to be, and more;
and far from complaining that we have not complete
information of the outward events of Havelock's
career we wondi r that so much should have been
done, and so well, in the short time which the im-
patience of the public has allowed the author. Let
ue say, before going farther, that the value of this
volume is enhanced by an accompanying portrait,
which to our minds is very much more characteristic
and truthful than any we have heretofore seen.
The descent of the family of Havelock has been
speculatively deduced from a Danish origin. The
deceased General was content to know that his
hirents were English, and traced his lineage no
gher than to an honest family which resided in
Lincolnshire. William Havelock, his father, was
born at Guisborough, in Yorkshire, made good his
position at Sunderland, and then married Jane Car-
ter, daughter of a conveyancer of that town. Henry,
their illustrious son, was born at Bishop Wesrmouth,
near Sunderland, on the sth of April, 1795. When
he wee in his fifth year, his father immigrated to the
south of England, and bought Ingress, in Kent In
his sixth year he was sent, with his elder brother
William (killed in the cavalry action at Ramnugger,
1843), as a parlour boarder, to the school of the Rev.
J. Bradley, curate of Swanscomb, in which parish
Ingress was situate& and remained under the care
of that gentleman about three years. Courage and
presence of mind in danger appear in such stories of
his childhood as have survived an arduous and
eventful career. He falls from a tree in Ingress
Park, and is asked by his father whether he was not
frightened "No," is the reply, "I was thinking
about the bird's eggs." He interferes in a fight, to
secure fair play for a schoolfellow, and gets a black
eye. Called to give an account of the disfigurement
to his master he is silent, and takes his thrashing
like a man. He was at this time a great reader of
all papers which came in his way relating to military
affairs, and made himself familiar with the move-
ments of Napoleon. His tendencies towards the pro-
fession of a soldier were already so strongly evinced,
that his mother apprehended disappointment of her
project of educating him for the law. In 1804
he left Mr. Bradley's school for the Charter-
house, and lodged with the Rev. Dr. Matthew
Heine, then head master. Here he had for his
intimate friends the late Archdeacon Charles
Jahns Hare and Sir William Norris, late Chief
Justice of Ceylon, and for contemporaries Coonop
Thirlwall, now Bishop of St. David's; George Grote,
the historian of Greece; the present Lord Panmure ;
Eastlake, the painter; and 'Yates, subsequently dis-
.tiaguished oo the stage. Havelock reached the
fifth form in 1810, in the following year passed
to the sixth, and at its close left the school. As a
schoolboy Henry Havelock feared God, and did what
was right. He and several of his companions were
in the habit of meeting in one of the sleeping coons
of the Charterhouse to read the Bible and pray with

one another; or, as Mr. Brock phrases it, " for re-
ligious Purpose.."
The time having come for choosing some pursuit
in life, the profession of the law was resolved on,
whether elected by the youth in dutiful deference to
the wishes of his mother, or in consequence of an ac-
quired taste and habit of study, we are not informed.
Ia 1614, accordingly, Havelock became a pupil of
Chitty. But while studying the law he followed
with fraternal interest the'active career of his brother
William, who, four years before, had entered the
army, and when Napoleon returned from Elba, he
" yielded," as he himself has recorded. " to the mili-
tary propensities of his race," and asked
his brother to get him a commission at once ;
In July, 1815, Henry was appointed second lieutenant
in the Rifle Brigade, then the 95th Regiment. The
peace which followed the battle of 1815 permitted no
opportunity for that active service to which the
young soldier had looked forward. Between his
nomination and 1823 he travelled in France and in
the North of Italy, read a good deal in a discursive
way, and carefully studied Hindoatanee and Persian
under Dr. Gilchrist in London. He had revolved
upon his course; he would serve in India; whither,
accordingly, he proceeded in 1823, having first ex-
changed into the 131 h Light Infantry.
Havelock's transference to India is a cardinal
point in the history of his external life He himself
was also accustomed to regard this as the most
critical epoch of his existence, but for another reason.
We must here be silent while he speaks. Our extract
is from his own memoranda, in which he is never
mentioned but in the third person :

A far more important event, "as regarded the interests of
the writer, ought to have bees recorded whilst narrating the
emote of 1023, for It was while he arm salting across the wide
Atlantis towards Bengal that the spirit of God name to him
with its offers of peace and mandate of love, which, though
breams time 'sainted, were received, and at Itngth prevailed.
Them was wrought that great change in his soul which has
been reductive of unspeakable advantage to him in time,
and he Baste has secured him happiness through eternity.
We pause here ; the ground is sacred. But from
the distance where we stand we may point out
how suitable for a soldier was that form of the
Christian religion which Havelock tells us be
embraced. He speaks of it as placing him in a
direct personal relation with his Maker. Thus it was
simple, ever at hand, and of tremendous animating
power. He describes it as bringing an in-
ternal peace, the very want of a man called to
hie in betties and tumults. And he calls it a
mAldate of love, a truer and worthier description
than which theologians have never devised. In:lndia,
where he landed with his regiment in 1823, be was
soon recognised as a man who would do what
was right and feared nothing. He devoted himself
to the improvement of his men, studying their
tempers, gaining their goodwill, making them better
soldiers, instructing their minds, and endeavouring
by all allowable means to influence them for their
Ilcod•
la April, 1824, war was declared against the
Burmans, and thither Havelock went as Deputy-As-
sistant Adjutant-General, on the staff of Sir Archibald
Campbell. lie took part in the actions near Ran-
goon, but was compelled by a disordered state of
liver to return to Hiodostan. Upon the restoration
of his health he rejoined the army in the field, and
fought with it at Napadee, Patinae, and Pagham-
Myo. The capture of Rangoon r.mt his influence
over his men to a severe strain, and be spared no
pains to hold them back from th a excesses to which
soldiers are tempted under circumstances like theirs.
"There is no such soldier ia the world as the
English soldier," he was accustomed to say,
"if he an be kept from drink." In accordance
with his principles, he looked about to find a
place where his men might conveniently worship,
sad he succeeded in obtaining a chamber
• A B Sketch of Sir Mazy Havelock, 8.C.8.
lily the Bev. W. Brock. l'itsket earl Co,