The Sun.
London, England, 1856-08-11 00:00:00

BIOGRAPHY OF JEAN JACQUES
PELISSIE z;..

I'he War Almanac gives the following bio-
graphy of this extraordinary man, who has just
reached his native land, under such flattering cir-
cumstances
Amiable Jean Jacques Pelissier is a native of the
French soil, and drew his first breath at Maromme, in
the arrondissement of Rouen, in 1794.
" A t the age of 20, he was entered as a student at the
School of Artillery of La Fleche, and after a brief resi-
dence of two months in that institution he was remover]
to the Military School of St. Cyr. In 1815, two days
before the entry of Napoleon into Paris, after his ill-
starred return from Elba, Pelissier was attached to the
artillery of the King's household, with the rank of sub-
lieutenant ; and he was seat soon after to join the 57th
Regiment of the line, which formed part of the army as-
sembled by the Emperor on the Rhine. When the
disbanding took place in August, the young soldier found
that-his occupation was gone for the time being ; and he
was reduced to inactivity till October, when he joined the
departmental Legion of the Lower Seine. At this period
he turned his leisure hours to profitable account, strove
to accomplish himself by study in the science of war, and
attained such proficiency that in 1819, when the corps
d'etat was formed, he gained admittance into it after a
severe examination. Four months later he was attached
to a regiment of hits-are, and, era lone, was promoted
to the rank of lieutenant ; but, in 1821, at his own re-
quest, he was permitted to serve in the 35th Regiment
of the line, in which his elder brother was captain.
" Time passed on, and in 1823, when a French army,
under the Duke d'Angoulerne, at the instigation of the
three Sovere:gos who had signed the treaty celebrated
as U. Holy Alliance, croieed the Pyrenees to suppress
the revolution la Spain, Pelissier, being placed on the
general staff, made the campaign as aide-de-camp to
General Grundler, and was decorated with the cross of
the Legion of Honour, and that of St. Ferdinand of ,
Spain. In 182$, having meanwhile acted in various ,1
military capacities, and attained the rank of captain,
Pelissier made the campaign in Greece, and signalised,'
his valour so conspicuously at the siege of the castle of
Morea that he was rewarded with the insignia of the
Order of St. Louis, and subsequently with the gold cross
of the Greek Order of the Saviour.
" When the Bourbons, on the eve of that revolution
which irrevocably lost them the French crown, sought
to win back popularity by means of a military triumph,
and undertook an expedition against Algiers, Pelissier
went thither with the army, under M. de Bouratont,
and was appointed chief of battalion, and officer of the
Legion of Honour. Returning to France in the autumn
of 1832, he became aide decamp to the general command.
ing the army of observation assembled on the Meuse dur-
ing the expedition to Antwerp.
Pelissier, having meanwhile held several important
commissions, was, in 1839, nominated lieutenant-colonel
and chief of the staff of the 3d Division of the army in
Algiers ; in 1840, he filled the same position in the divi-
sion of the Oran, and was promoted to the rank of colonel
and assistant chief general of the staff in the Algerian
army ; and in 1845, he obtained a wide, though not quite
an enviable, celebrity. The Arab, Bou-Maza, who styled
himself The invulnerable,' after inspiring the Kabyles
with a blind confidence, proclaimed the holy war in the
Darab, and raised the tribes in insurrection. The im-
portance of crushing a movement so formidable without
delay was felt, and means were resolutely used with that
object in view. In this war, while carrying on combined
operations in the west with the afterwards illustrious St.
Arnaud, Pelissier was occupied with the pursuit of the
Ouled Riahs. The latter, finding themselves hard pressed,
took refuge in immense caverns, which served them for
houses, and where it would have been madness for the
French troop': to follow. Pelissier, however, was not
to be thus baffled. He surrounded the caverns with his
soldiers, caused faggots to be lighted and thrown before
the entrance, to convince the besieged fanatics that he
had the power of suffocating them if he chose. He then, '
under the impression that his menaces would have been
effectual, threw in letters offering them life and liberty if
they would surrender. At first they refused ; but after-
wards consented to yield, on condition of the French
troops being meantime withdrawn. The conditions ap-
peared utterly unreasonable, and could not be agreed to,
so more faggots were thrown in to bring the desperadoes
to their senses, and presently a violent dispute arose among
the besieged as to the course they should pursue in their
very critical position. The majority decided on enduring
the worst ; and a few of those who differed from them
contrived to escape. Pelissier, determined to conquer,
but, anxious to spare life, employed some Arabs to exhort
them to surrender; but so determined were these Ouled
Riahs to suffer to the last, that they unhesitatingly fired
on some of their women who attempted to escape from
self-sacrifice. Pelissier thereupon suspended the throw-
ing of faggots, and sent a French officer to hold a par-
ley with the enemy ; but- this messenger was received
with a d stela -ge of firearms. At length, on the second
night of this extraordinary siege--it was on the 19th of
June—Pelissier's patience deserted him ; and he re-
solved to scruple no longer as to the means of victory.
The hour for mercy having passed, the fire was renewed,
and rendered intense in heat ; and, for a time, dreadful
cries and agonising shrieks were hoard from the wretched
inmates of the caverns. Then succeeded a silence, un-
broken save by the crackling of the faggots, and terribly
significant in its import. The French troops on entering
found 500 dead bodies ; and 150 persons so near death
by suffocation, that though instantly brought to the
open air most of them expired. When intelligence of
this military transaction was conveyed to Paris it created
a profound sensation, and excited at once regret and
indignation. But in Algiers it was justified by Marshal
Bugeaud as a military necessity,' rendered imperative
on Pelissier by the orders of his commander-in-chief.
The necessity, it was said, appeared so strong as to
justify, in his eyes, a slight divergence from the strict
laws of humanity, after he had used every effort in his
power to avert a catastrophe so' horrible.
"In the year 1848, when Gen. Cavaignac was armed
with a brief authority, as head of the French Republic,
he appointed Pelissier commandant of the division of
Oran ; and it was from this post, after he bad served in
Algiers during 15 consecutive years, that Pelissier was
transferred, by the Emperor of the French, to the
second command of the forces before Sebastopol, under
General Canrobert. He arrived in the Crimea at that
disastrous period when the allied army was exposed to
the utmost hardship, and to him was assigned the ardu-
ous duty of supporting the artillery and engineers on the
forts extending from the quarantine bastion to the ravine
which leads to the military harbour. He bad occupied
with distinction this position for four months, when
General Canrobert, finding himself unable to sustain his
arduous duties, on the 16th of May requested leave of
the Emperor to be allowed to resign the chief command,
and indicated General Pelissier as the person, from his
skill and experience, best fitted to fill the onerous and
honourable position to which he was forthwith ap-
pointed.

" The change of generals was generally applauded in
the Fi each camp ; and the enterprises since undertaken,
and the signal success with which they have been at-
tended, are indications not to be mistaken of the supe-
rior vigour, the intellectual energy, the iron will, and
the dauntless determination of the commander.
" There can exist little doubt that at the time of his
appointment, no more energetic or experienced officer
than General Pelissier could have been found in the
magnificent army in front of that gloomy stronghold,
which has been described as throwing its frowning
shadows over the waters of the Black Sea." His cha-
racter is stern and vehement, and his personal courage
all but unrivalled. It is narrated that on one occasion,
when in command of a punishment corps, known as the
Zephyrs, he attacked a mud fortress, occupied by Arabs.
His soldiers repeatedly attempted to scale the walls, but
in vain ; for the vigilant foe kept a sharp look-out, and
repulsed every effort. Pelissier grew weary, and lost
patience. Throw me over, and lam sure the company
will follow,' exclaimed he to three or four of the men
around him. The order was obeyed. For some mi-
nutes he was alone among the enemy, and received seve-
ral wounds. He bad, however, correctly calculated the
effect that would be produced by his intrepidity. The
soldiers followed him ; and the mud fortress was taken.
Even in times when strength and courage were the titles
to power and influence, hardly ever was such indiffer-
ence to danger displayed. The bold father of Charle-
magne successfully combating a lion and a wild bull,
and our First Edward leaping his charger over the wall
of a beleaguered town into the midst of a hostile and ex-
asperated garrison, were tame in comparison. We doubt
whether the old chroniclers relate any instance of such
splendid intrepidity.
" For the capture of Sebastopol he was created a Mar-,
shal of France ; and nominated G.C.B. by her Majesty.,

SERIOUS ACCIDENT IN EDINBURGH.

EDINBURGH, Thursday Evening.

At a few minutes past seven o'clock this morning an old
tenement in Leith-wynd, which partially gave way a few
weeks ago, and which was in progress of demolition, fell
to the ground with a great crash. A hollow rambling was
heard within the walls, an immense cloud of dust proceeded
from each of the windows, and finally the entire front
wall gave way, dashing dawn one of the gables of a house
opposite and covering the men engaged in the work of de-
molition. Up to 2 o'clock p.m. nine persons had been ex-
tricated, two of whom were dead, viz., David Moffat (son
of Mr. Moffat, painter, Leith walk) and a labourer named
James M`Lucas. Moffat had been superintending the
demolition of the building, of which his father was one of
the proprietors. The other parties recovered from the
ruins were Peter M`Lachlan, labourer, who has been seri-
ously injured, and who tiow lies in the infirmary; Boswell
Thomson, labourer, likewise in the infirmary, seriously
injured ; John Darling Todrecks, whose hurts were not
very severe ; and David Davidson, an assistant to Mr.
Moffat, who was conveyed to the infirmary, being fearfully
hurt.

The house opposite was partly knocked down by the fall
of the ruin, and a woman and two children have been se-
riously—it is feared mortally—injured. Mrs. Douglas,
whose maiden name is Christina Mason, was going about
her household work, when the wall came in with a crash
upon herself and two children—the one a little girl of two
years, named Mary, and the other a boy of six years,
named John. All these lie in the infirmary in a very cri-
tical state. A child'from one of the neighbouring houses,
which was playing about the street at the time, has, it is
,feared, been killed.

On Saturday, Mr. Wm. Payne, the coroner of London
and Southwark, held an inquest at the Sportsman Ta-
vern, Southwark-bridge-road, on the body of the male
illegitimate child of Sarah Pearce, aged two years and
four months, who died under the following somewhat
remarkable circumstances.

Mr. John Collier, of No. 176, Southwark-bridge-road,
a clerk and collector, deposed that he knew the deceased,
who had resided in the same house with its mother. On
Monday last he heard, upon going home, that the child
had taken an overdose of medicine, which he took in
the next house to that in which he resided. Dr. Humble
was present when be went home, and he remained with
him several hours. Witness sat up with the deceased all
night, and he found that his pulse was beating at 31 to
the minute

Mrs. E iza Harlwicke, a highly-respectable married
lady, residing in the Southwark•bridge road, said thatthe
mother of the deceased had lodged with her for nearly 3
years before she took her present house, and that she was
remarkably fond of the child, and used to call him Wil-
liam Williams. On Monday last the child came into her
bedroom before she was out of bed, and, unfortunately,
as she had to go out, she asked his mother to come in,
and whilst she was away to prepare her (witness's) din-
ner. When she re'urned home she found her medicine
bottle on the mantelpiece, and some of the contents gone.
She spoke to her servant about the circumstance, and
she said that the child had taken the bottle up and had
spilled some of the contents. Finding that he grew
sleepy, she sent for Dr. Humble. In spite of his exer-
tions the child continued to sleep, except when aroused,
and he died on Thursday night. The witness added
that she was in the habit of taking 25 drops of the me-
dicine diluted with water, and had derived immense
advantage from its use.
Sarah Pearce, the mother of the child, said that the
deceased must have gone to Mrs. Hardwicke's bedroom,
have taken the bottle off the mantelpiece, and drunk
some of its contents.

Dr. Humble, of the London-road, proved that he at-
tended the child; who, he was informed, had taken part
of a bottle of chlorodyne, but in spite of all that he could
do for him, including artificial respiration and the use of
the galvanic battery, be died from the narcotic poison,
the chief ingredient being opium.
The jury, after being addressed by the learned coro-
ner, returned a verdict that the deceased was accident.
ally killed through inadvertently taking an over-dose of
medicice of hie own accord.