report on the state of the defences of the kingdom. This, however, was opposed by the Duke of Richmond, who declined to allow him to serve. The fiery Engineer at once retorted with a letter even stronger than the one which had caused his former court-martial, and not satisfied with sending it to the Duke, he published it in the "Gazetteer." There was now nothing to be done but to bring him again to a court-martial, which was accordingly done. The Court was presided over by Lord Southampton, and Colonel Matthew Dixon of the Royal Engineers was one of the members. It sat on June 26th and 29th, 1789, and he was sentenced to be deprived of rank and pay for six months. On this court-martial the AdjutantGeneral remarked :- "His Majesty, after expressing his concern that an officer of Colonel Debbieg's rank and experience should a second time have lost his sense of discipline and subordination, adverted to the lenity of the sentence, which His Majesty was graciously pleased to attribute to the opinion entertained by the Court Martial of Colonel Debbieg's former services and professional merit. His Majesty wished upon the same ground to have found an opening for the interposition of his royal clemency, but in support of good order and for enforcing a good observance of that deference and respect which officers of an inferior degree owe at all times to those who are superior to them in rank and command, His Majesty has thought it necessary to confirm the sentence of the Court Martial." This incident is referred to in the "Rolliad," in the lines beginning "Learn, thoughtless Debbieg, now no more a youth, The woes unnumbered that encompass truth; Nor of experience, nor of knowledge vain, Mock the chimæras of a sea-sick brain." "So shall thy comfort, with thy days increase, Debbieg was made a Major-General in 1793, Lieutenant-General in 1798, and General in 1803. In 1799 he was retired by being posted to the Invalid Engineers, and in the following year the King granted him an allowance of 12s. a day in consideration of his past services. This was in addition to his Invalid pay of 18s., and his pension of 20s. a day. He died in 1810. There is no doubt that PART IV.] Debbieg was a man of great gifts, and had he been blessed with a little more suavity and judgment, he would probably have left behind him a reputation far more widely extended than he did. It is very certain that, had he not been held in high admiration for his talents and services, he would not have escaped so easily from the effects of his oft-repeated fits of insubordination. MAJOR-GENERAL SIR ARCHIBALD CAMPBELL, K.B., was gazetted Practitioner Engineer and Ensign on February 8th, 1758, and promoted Sub-Engineer and Lieutenant on March 17th, 1759. Between the years 1758 and 1762 he was employed in three expeditions to the coast of France, and in the West Indies at the capture of Guadaloupe, Dominica and the neighbouring islands (vide Part I., Chapter VIII.). In 1763 he was promoted to the grade of Engineer Extraordinary and Captain-Lieutenant. In 1767 he was sent to the East Indies, where he served as Chief Engineer of Bengal till 1775, with the On April 1st, 1771, he, in local rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. company with other Engineers who were stationed in India, was removed from the home establishment and transferred to the books of the East India Company. His career as an Indian Engineer was a brilliant one, and gained him a high reputation. Fort William, the citadel of Calcutta, was constructed from his designs, as well as several other important works. During this time he was enabled, like so many others, to amass considerable wealth, with which he returned home in 1773, and henceforward his connection with the Engineers entirely ceased. He went into Parliament as member for the Burghs of Stirling in 1775. On the outbreak of the American rebellion he raised at his own expense a regiment of Light Infantry, which was named the 71st Regiment of Highlanders, and of which he was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel. He set sail with his regiment in May, 1776. The calamity which then befel him may be best given in his own words in a report to General Howe, dated June 19th, 1776 :— "On the 16th June the George and Annabella transports, with two companies of the 71st Regiment of Highlanders, made the land of Cape Anne after a passage of seven weeks from Scotland, during the course of which we had not an opportunity of speaking to a single vessel that could give us the smallest information of the British troops having evacuated Boston. On the 17th at daylight we found ourselves opposite to the harbour's mouth of Boston, but from contrary winds it was necessary to make several tacks to reach it. Four schooners, which we took to be pilots or armed vessels in the service of his Majesty (but which were afterwards found to be four American privateers of eight carriage guns, twelve swivels, and forty men each) were bearing down upon us at four o'clock in the morning." Then follows a short description of the engagement, at the close of which the enemy bore away. 66 As my orders were for the port of Boston I thought it my duty at this happy crisis to push forward into the harbour, not doubting I should receive protection." "As we stood up for Nantasket Road an American battery opened upon us, which was the first serious proof we had that there could scarcely be many of our friends at Boston, and we were too far embayed to retreat." The four vessels that had attacked them in the morning, with the addition of two others, now once more engaged them— "Although the mate of our ship and every sailor on board, the captain only excepted, refused positively to fight any longer, I have the pleasure to inform you that there was not an officer, N.C.-officer or private man of the 71st but what stood to their quarters with a ready and cheerful obedience." The fight went on till all their gun ammunition was exhausted, when they were compelled to surrender. He concludes his letter by dilating upon the good treatment and civility shown him by the people in power at Boston. This, however, did not last long, for on February 14th, 1777, he addressed a letter to Sir William Howe, in which he gives a piteous description of the treatment he was receiving in the common gaol of Concord"because his Excellency had refused to exchange Genl. Lee for six field officers, of whom I happened to be one, and that your Excellency had put that officer under custody of the provost." As a matter of fact, General Lee was to have been tried and executed as a deserter, and the ill-treatment of Campbell and others was the consequence. The upshot was that Lee was eventually placed in the position of a prisoner of war, and the rigour of Campbell's treatment much mollified. He was at length exchanged, and arrived in New York in May, 1778. In the winter of that year he was placed in command of an expeditionary force for the conquest of Georgia. In this he was completely successful; the enemy was driven out and the province occupied within three months. In 1780 he was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Jamaica, and two years later Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief of the island. Here he performed his functions so much to the satisfaction of the inhabitants that on his departure he was presented with a very handsome service of plate. In 1785 he was appointed Governor of Madras. "This day, October 17th, General Campbell set sail from this port in the Earl of Talbot Indiaman, for the Government at Madras."("Gentleman's Magazine," 1785, p. 829.) Prior to his departure his Majesty created him a K.B. He remained at Madras till 1789, when he resigned the Government on account of ill health. He had in fact never recovered the rigorous two years' confinement, when a prisoner of war in America. This, however, was possibly not the only cause of his return home, for we read in the "Gentleman's Magazine":"Sir Archibald Campbell arrived in the Manship Indiaman on the 18th June off the Lizard. He sailed from Madras on the 7th February. The dissention which has for a long time subsisted between Earl Cornwallis and Sir Archibald Campbell is the cause that the latter resigned a situation which he could not honourably hold consistent with his own feelings." His term of government seems to have been on the whole a very brilliant one : "To protect a weak and extensive frontier, to discipline a detached army, and to provide resources in a lately desolated country, fell to the lot of Sir Archibald Campbell. Skilled in every branch of military science, with knowledge matured by experience in various countries and climates, indefatigable in all public duties, and endued with a degree of worth and benevolence which attached to him all ranks in the army, and excited voluntary exertion in every officer to second the zeal of his general, he had a task to perform which, though great and complicated, was not beyond the reach of such distinguished talents. Granaries were established on the frontier and other stations in the Carnatic, containing supplies for near 30,000 men for twelve months, and furnished in such a manner as to provide against the exigencies of famine or of war without incurring additional expense to the public; a complete train of battering and of field artillery was prepared far surpassing what had ever been known upon the coast; a store of camp equipage for an army of 20,000 men was provided; the principal forts were repaired and more amply provided with guns and stores; the cavalry were with infinite difficulty completed to their full establishment, and a general uniformity of discipline and movement was established in the Cavalry, in the Infantry, and in the Artillery. During the government of Sir Archibald Campbell, the revenues of the Presidency of Fort St. George, including the acquisition of the Guntoor circar, and the additional subsidy from the Nabob of Arcot were increased from £960,000 to £1,400,000 a year." -(Dirom's "Narrative of the Campaign in India," 1793.) On his return to England he met with the most flattering reception from the King, and was at once re-elected M.P. for the Stirling Burghs. In 1790, when a rupture with Spain appeared imminent, the Government consulted him in the most confidential manner as to the organization of the army, and offered him its chief command. This, however, he was compelled to decline, as his health had completely broken down. On March 31st, 1791, he died at the age of 52, and was decreed a public funeral in Westminster Abbey. "The procession consisted of twelve porters on horseback, a plume of feathers a hearse drawn by six horses, and fourteen mourning coaches, drawn each by four horses, and the chariot of the deceased. The pallbearers were the Duke of Argyle, Earl Stanhope, Viscount Stormont, Lord F. Campbell, Sir W. Fawcett, and Mr. C. Campbell." ("Europ. Mag.," 1791, p. 319.) A monument was erected over his remains in the north aisle of Westminster Abbey. THE DURNFORD FAMILY. The extraordinary fact that no less than four successive generations of this family have found representatives in the Corps of Royal Engineers, renders it appropriate that our Biographical Sketches should contain some allusion to this par excellence Engi neer race. ELIAS DURNFORD entered the Corps in 1759, and rose to the rank of Colonel in 1793, dying on service in the West Indies in 1794. He embarked with Lord Albemarle's expedition in 1763, and served with distinction at the sieges of Belleisle and Havannah. At the capture of the latter place he was appointed Aide-de-Camp to Lord Albemarle. For many years he was Surveyor-General of West Florida. He commanded the garrison of Mobile in 1781, when it was besieged by a vastly superior force under Don Galvez. After a gallant defence he was compelled to surrender, and with his men became a prisoner of war. He was subsequently Chief Engineer at the siege of Martinique, and at the reduction of Guadaloupe and St. Lucia in 1794. He died shortly afterwards at Tobago. His younger brother, ANDREW DURNFORD, was commissioned into the Engineers in 1769, ten years after Elias. He served throughout the American War from 1776, holding the Staff appointment of Deputy Assistant Quartermaster-General in Georgia and West Florida, whilst his brother was LieutenantGovernor there. In 1785 he was appointed Chief Engineer of the Works at Chatham. A few years later he was chosen to construct |