The Sun.
London, England, 1866-06-25 00:00:00

The Late General Scott.

The Spectator's New York correspondent, " a
Yankee," perhaps the best of the many who now
write for the London journals from the commercial
capital of America, gives some interesting facts of
the late General Scott. That general when pre-
senting to his successor iu the command a copy of
his memoirs wrote the inscription, " From the
oldest to the ablest living general." On both points
he was wrong. There were older generals living,
but there were none more able than himself. lie
was abler than Grant, than Sherman, than
Sheridan, than Thomas, than Stonewall Jackson,
than Lee. lie had in a great measure all, and, in
completeness, most of the best qualities of all these
men, except Sheridan's personal magnetism, and
Jackson's high-strung enthusiasm. They had a
great field, and the civilised world as spectators—
he had smaller bodies, and acted in compara-
tive obscurity ; but he acted with such judgment,
sagacity, strength—such calm, well-assured, self-
reliance and readiness of resource, that he was
trusted implicitly by all the army and the whole
nation. When he invaded Mexico he was opposed
by the ablest Mexican of modern days and a united
nation. The American troops were new levies, yet
Scott went on with his little army, fighting battles
as bloody in proportion as any in the late war—
always victorious—and took the capital, supposed
to be impregnable, by a movement no one supposed
that he would make. This he accomplished in half
the time taken by the French generals with their
veteran troops, and the country so di% Ided and
exhausted as to be almost in a state of anarchy and
beggary. When established in the Mex;can capital,
General Scott acted with such forbearance that he
was asked to remain as president, king, or emperor
if he chose. In person General Scott was the

model of a hero—very tall, he stood six feet four
inches without his shoes. In his youth he was
slender though strong, and in middle age his pro-
portions became large and imposing. Then, too,
his face, which was notably handsome in li's early
years, acquired an impressive dignity. llis bearing
was such as became his person and his office, and
in uniform or in mufti he was a most striking
figure either in life or on canvas. Ile was courteous
in manner, and one of the kindest as well as one of
the justest of men. He was never popular, and the
reasons were manifest : for he was vain, reserved,
punctilious, and exacting. His vanity was not
professional, but personal. He was tolerant to the
criticism of his military movements, and would re-
ceive with kind consideration a suggestion from h's
youngest subordinate, but would not pardon to his
next in command a lack of personal consideration,
not to say a liberty. He had no literary ability,
but inordinate literary vanity. He wrote letters
which bore upon their face his estimation of their
importance, but which generally contained some-
thing that exposed him even to ridicule. Woe to
the young man who criticised these. He was vain
of his opinion of Shakespeare, and of the game of
whist. Ilis memoirs rece atly published, which he
might have made of great interest and of enduring
value, are so frivolous and so filled with " ego,"
that it was happily said that they were an error his
country would forgive and forget. He was in-
deed an honourable gentleman--a Virginian who
acknowledged that his first allegiance was due to
the Republic—a Southern soldier who stood by the
flag. Ile died happy in seeing the integrity of his
country maintained, though not by his own hand,
for he was above all jealousy, and happy too in
breathing his last at West Point, a place so dis-
tinguished by historical and military associations,
a spot for which he has done so much, that it might
well be written on his grave,
"If you seek a monu-
ment, look around you."

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE.—This Day.

Lily ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. i
GRAVESEND, Monday Morning.

Arrived, Juno 21.—Rifleman, from Amsterdam; Gorda,
from Sundswall; Furet and Napoleon, from Gravelines;
Fantastic, from Drammen.
Arrived, June 25.—John Mary, from Antwerp.
DEAL, Monday Morning.
Passed, Juno 24.—Atlanta, screw steamer, for New
York; Leda, screw steamer, for Oporto; Queen Bee, for
Otago—all from London.

Passed, Juno 25.—Lavinia, of Guernsey, from the west,
:or Loudon; lianagony, from London, for Pernambuco.

SIR WILLIAM FEP,GUSSON, BART., F.R.S., &c.
—The annual festival of the old students of Ring's Col-
lege Hospital took place on Thursday evening, at St.
James's Hall, Regent-street, Dr. Druitt in the chair.
The
affair was rendered more interesting than on former occa-
sions, in consequence of the presentation of a superb testi-
monial to Sir William Fergusson, in acknowledgment of
the high estimation in which he is deservedly held by the
former and present pupils of Ring's College, many of whom
attended 11.0111 diAant parts of the provinces.