The Sun.
London, England, 1858-01-25 00:00:00

SIR COLIN CAMPBELL.

(From the Examiner.)
For three long years the people of England have been
looking out for a general, and they have found one at
last, net among the aristocracy, but in the ranks of the
middle classes, or among themselves. We propose to
give our readers a brief account of Sir Colin Campbell,
who has already acquired so much reputation, and is
likely, if his life is spared, to gain many an additional

soldier of fortune, who has raised himself to the
bead of his profession by pure merit, possessing many
friends, but no patrons, is properly a native of one of
the remote Hebrides, the island of Islay, in the county
of Argyle, his birth in the city of Glasgow having been
portly accidental. At eight years of age he came to,
England for his education, BO that he is more indebted
to England than to Scotland for the eminence he has
since attained. One of his uncles died a c lonel in the
English army ; another, a gallant youth, after whom he
is named, lost his life in ~ur piteous contest with
America, scalped by the Red Indians, a foe less savage
than the sepoys, for they kill only in battle.
Of Sir Colin's pedigree, although with such a man the
matter is one of the smallest consequence, we shall say
a few words, chiefly because it is in itself rather curious.
At the period ~f the Revolution the Highland clans were
still troublesome, and two of them, the >aedonalds
and Macleans, fought a pitched hatt!e for the possession
of Islay, the fairest of the Ilebriles, as well as for the
adjacent island of Jura. The Government of the
Revolution made short work with the combatants by
confiscating the two isles in dispute, end handing them
over to James Campbell of Calder, a near relation of the
Argyle. This powerful chieftain, like a feudal con-
queror, took possession of the islands, planting in them a
colony of Campbells, his kinsmen and clansmen, sad
partitioning; among these the beat lands on a tenni*, at
that time nearly equal in value to the fee simple.
Among the foremost of the families so planted were the
forefathers of Sir Cohn Campbell, and thus, as far as
such a pedigree can confer the distinction, he is of
" gentle blood,"

Let us, if only for mrro curiosity's sake, follow up the
history of the place of Sir Colia's nativity. Sir J. Camp.
bell of Calder, the ancestor of the present Earlsof Cawdor
unable to get from the two islands sufficient revenue to
pay his quit-rent of 500/. a year to the Crown, sold them to
a pr isperous trader of Glasgow, also a Campbell for the
sum of 12,0001., which about one-half the amount of their
present teotal I In the family of this individual, a very
distinguished one, the principal island continued for five
generations, but a few years ago it was again purchased
by a London merchant, the late highly intelligent Mr.
James Morrison, like Colin Campbell, sprung from the
people, and Vie founder of his own great fortune. The
eum paid for it was 450,0001., which is about seven and
thirty-fold what it fetched about 140 years ago.
The Campbells, we may add, were always a very
loyal, very Presbyterian, very diffusive, even very intru-
sive brood. They were originally, or at least their
chiefs were, French or Norman invaders, who, coming
thro,.gh England, seized all they could lay hold of in
Perth, and nearly possessed themselves of all
Ar,:yre. In both counties they became quasi High-
land,.r,, speaking good vernacular, and by way of
accomplishment, now and then bad Scotch, and worse
Encomes amiss to the Campbells.
One of
N
of their countrychiefs, the descendent of the aforesaid
Campbell of Calder, is now a NVe4hrnan. A good
many of them are at present English, even to the height
of being Peers and Chiet Justices, while many are
Yankees, Cant diane, Australians, and Anglo-Indians.
But to return from this digression to the man who is
now engaged in suppressing the mutiny and rebellion of
100,000 trained soldiers, and in putting down insurrec-
tion over an area of a million and a half of square miles,
Sir Colin is now sixty-tour, with the constitution and
activity of forty. He entered the army in 1808, and
his first feat of arms was at San Sebastian ; he led the
forlorn hopo in the assault of that place on the 25th of
July, ISI3.

"I beg (says Lard Lynedocb, in his despatch to the
Duke of Wellingior), to recommend to your Lordship
Lieut. Colin Campbell, of the 9th, who led tVe forlorn
hope, and who was severely wounded on the breach.
Lieut. Campbell's section consisted of twenty-five, and,
with one exception, every man of it was either killed or
wounded.
I. the long period of five-and-forty years which have
since elapsed, Sir Colin Campbell has served his country
in almost every quarter of the globe,—daring fourteen
of them in India and China. How be led his column at
the Alma, spared his men, and defeated the enemy op.
posed to him, is fresh in the recollection of the public, as
suorfpfiasitsyed t
hboyu
shisthousand
n d relief
m etn ponil
posted
as
ttttihehvde
garrison the
is also his conduct at Balaclava. These achievements,
aicitei
ctt an
yiin
nf
These
shee Lucknow,mpaosatiet
rihloyins retreatinmost
a from
movements are
utarbraaebtl
instantly
place
one
fol-
lowedt
fhroewehowever,
ue pr byb have
hisv e
organised
beenrc force
e d far
marches that enabled him to repair
the errors of a lieutenant by defeating an enemy flushed
numbering doubles his own force.
by a moment's succews_e,,L
in t !Militaryhecoullldeullerieopsakr 711
perhapst
ev thate
never
will,these enterprises Sir C, lin Campbell
has displayed an amount of
before exhibited in our Indian warfare from the sublime
of Clive and Coote down to the opposite profound of
Gough and Ellenborough. We except only the two
hat Ales of Sir Charles Napier, but not the one battle
of Great Captain, who wanted when be fought it,
tor it was his first, the quarter of a century's longer
experience of Nap'.er and Campbell. Our Indian battle.,
t• deed,have too often consisted in the mere hurling of
Breish battalions against artillery in position, the re.
Lance being on the heart and arm of the soldier, and not
in the head of the general. The pluck of our forefathers,
before the invention of gunpowder, would have enabled
them to win such fights ae these with Asiatics, eves
with the cross-bow, the pike, or the broadsword.
Sir Colin has done already a great deal, but be has
much more to accomplish ; be has not only to conquer a
kingdom more populous and incomparably more full of
resources than his own native country, swarming with
a e arlike population and bristling with !fortresses
Ho has, moreover, to raise, organise, and dis-
ciptine a loyal and effective army in the room of one that
was formidable only to its employers. The country
prays for the preservation of a life so valuable, and
perhaps rather too freely exposed to danger. The
popular vows are the more earnest, as if Sir Colin
Campbell should unhappily fall, it is impossible to see,
far or near, a commander worthy to succeed him.

LIVERPOOL, Jan. 23.—The Cunard mall steamship
----"-- ---
Arabia took her departure hence for New York to-day-
She bad on board a large mail, a small cargo, and 45
pas- engem
TO
DESPERATE ATTEMPT Muraza.—James Jones
was on Wednesday last fully committed to take his trial
at the next spring assizes at Carmarthen, for attempting,
on Saturday, the 9th inhtant, to murder Margaret Junes,
his sister-in-law, by beating her head with a stone.