GENERAL, THE RIGHT HON. LORD HUTCHINSON, K. B. Governor of Stirling Castle. LORD Hutchinson is descended from a very ancient Irish family, of the name of Hely, who, in consequence of certain political attachments, had the misfortune to see a large tract of country wrested from them by the strong arm of power; but it was only for a time obscured, and they have now attained a height of affluence and consideration superior to their original greatness. The father of Lord Hutchinson was brought up to the bar, in which honourable profession he acquired fame and fortune, and the latter was considerably augmented by his marriage with the niece and heiress of Richard Hutchinson, Esq. of Knocklofty, Tipperary county. This gentleman afterwards obtained the honourable appointment of Provost of Trinity College, Dublin; which post he filled three years, and, at the expiration of that time, he became Secretary of State, and was the first native of Ireland who for some centuries had enjoyed a situation of such importance. In this department of the state, Mr. Hely Hutchinson acquired sufficient interest to raise his lady to the peerage, with remainder to her children, by the title of Baroness of Donoughmore, of Knocklofty, on which occasion he exhibited a noble and uncommon instance of disinterested affection, by declining the honour of nobility himself. VOL, III. K k Lady Donoughmore was the mother of six sons and four daughters, all of whom survived her. The second son, John Hely Hutchinson, being from his earliest years intended for one of the liberal professions, the utmost pains were bestowed upon his instruction, and, having passed through the course of an enlarged education, he was, at a proper age, removed to Eaton; and in order that every advantage might be afforded him, he was placed under the private tuition of Dean Bond. From Eton Mr. Hutchinson was removed to Trinity College, Dublin, where his education was completed under the inspection of his enlightened and honourable parent. Among the various acquirements that enrich the mind of Lord Hutchinson, it is but just to observe that his refined and perfect knowledge of the French language is pre-eminent, and this acquisition has been to his Lordship an infinite source of utility, it having enabled him to mingle with the principal military men of every continental nation on terms of the most social intercourse. At the age of eighteen, the subject of this memoir, having made his election of that profession, to which he found his talents and inclination best adapted, he was presented with a commission in the 18th Light Dragoons, from which corps he was removed to the 67th Regiment of Foot, and afterwards to the 77th Highland Regt. Captain Hutchinson, with an honourable ambition of becoming distinguished in his profession, commenced a course of military studies at the academy of Strasburg, where he in a short time acquired all the tactical knowledge of the Prussian and French military schools; and on the first appearance of the Republican armies in the field, Captain Hutchinson repaired to their head-quarters, and had the good fortune to be with the army at some very memorable epochas. Captain Hutchinson witnessed the flight of La Fayette, and it is said on surveying the army under the late illustrious Duke of Brunswick, that he predicted its disastrous fate. At the commencement of the revolutionary war, the elder brother of Lord Hutchinson, who had, by the death of his mother, succeeded to the Barony of Donoughmore, raised a regiment for the service of his country, and Captain Hutchinson was permitted to follow his example, by which he acquired the rank of Colonel. During the convulsions which agitated the kingdom of Ireland at that critical period, Colonel Hutchinson displayed much energy of mind, tempered with those milder virtues which become the citizen and patriot; and although he afterwards supported by his vote in parliament the question of the union, yet he always remembered he was an Irishman, and assimilated with his military duties a due regard to unity and indulgence. When Ireland was invaded by a division of French troops, under General Humbert, Colonel Hutchinson obtained much credit for his able conduct in the command of his regiment. At the battle of Castlebar, he was second in command, and assisted in concluding the capitulation signed soon after by the French General. In the year 1792, Colonel Hutchinson volunteered to serve with the army in the expedition to Holland, and he had the good fortune to be employed by Sir Ralph Abercrombie, who had appointed him his supernumerary Aide-de-Camp, in negociations by means of flags of truce, and every thing connected with la diplomatique militaire, in all of which this officer acquitted himself in such a manner as to obtain the esteem of Sir Ralph Abercrombie, which that officer ever after took opportunities to demonstrate. Colonel Hutchinson having acquired the rank of Major-General, he was employed in the second expedition under his Royal Highness the Duke of York, in the year 1799, and had the honour to be distinguished by that illustrious prince in a particular manner, both in the public dispatches, and by private eulogium, and particularly for the bravery displayed by him in leading on Lord Cavan's brigade, when that General, in consequence of an accident, was carried off the field. In this expedition Major-Gen. Hutchinson received a wound in his thigh. It is foreign to the character of this work to introduce events of a political nature, but the subject of this memoir is so highly gifted with the powers of oratory that we are induced to step aside from our accustomed scrupulousness on that delicate point, in order to do every justice to this officer. Early in life Lord Hutchinson was elected a member of the Irish Parliament for the great commercial city of Cork; and, without entering into his particular views or political sentiments, we shall merely offer an extract from a speech on the Union, delivered by him on the 17th of February, 1800, which, for its point, brilliancy, and elegance, has never been surpassed even by the most celebrated orators of this country. "All the arguments I have heard against the union, are addressed to the pride, the passions, the prejudices of an irritable nation, more in the habits of acting from the impulse of quick feelings than fromthe dictates of sound discretion and of sober reason. I am perfectly convinced of the political necessity of endeavouring to preserve a sense of national dignity. It is the source of all pre-eminencethe fountain of glory to nations, and of honour to individuals---the origin of all power, strength, and greatness. I wish, amidst the wreck and ruin which surrounds us, that we had any thing to nourish this noble passion; any thing to sooth vanity or console pride. But the history of this country for the last six centuries, has been the sad degrading melancholy picture of barbarous discord and savage acrimony! of party zeal and sectarian struggle; a fugitive government without fixed principles; a minister without responsibility; a parliament fearless of the people, from whom they did not derive their origin; a triumphant aristocracy and a deluded nation. Your rights were invaded; your commerce annihilated; your constitution lay in the dust. You submitted to be slaves abroad, provided you were allowed to be tyrants at home. Certainly, for the first eighty years of this century, the government of this country was the most arbitrary and oppressive of any in Europe. Every weak habit of the human intellect; every bad passion of the human breast; every base disposition of our infirm nature were called into action; presided at the judgment-seat of justice, and expounded a code, whose monstrous absurdity was only to be equalled by its sanguinary cruelty; a code, unexampled in the annals of civilized man, which put three-fourths of the inhabitants of this country out of the protection of the law; which gave any ruffian, who professed to believe the established religion, a power of invading the property of the innocent catholic, and of seizing on the fruits of his industry. This criminal legislation offered premiums to hypocrisy and perjury, and endeavoured to secure the state by undermining the morals of the citizen. I dwell with little pleasure on this subject, though I am convinced that the infatuated policy of our ancestors has been the great source of the calamities which have afflicted their descendants. Certainly, during the course of his Majesty's long and auspicious reign, a wiser and more liberal line of conduct has been pursued towards this country; but in human affairs it is much easier to commit than to remedy an error: the wisdom of one age cannot always repair the folly of another. Though much of those laws have been repealed, the consequences of a barbarous code are still evident amongst us. The dregs of this deadly poison still remain, and have implanted in too many bosoms those unhappy jealousies, those ill-founded suspicions, those idle fears, those sanguinary passions, which black, malignant, rancorous, religious fanaticism alone can excite. This country has exhibited the singular spectacle of a parliament trampling upon the wisdom, the principles, and the duties of a legislator, and adopting the manners, the tone, and the habits of an inquisitor. "The effects of this system were such as might naturally have been expected; Ireland, in many respects, sunk below the level of other European countries. It was impossible to hope for love to the law, zeal for the constitution, or attachment to the government; for protection is the parent of obedience, reverence and submission are its honourable children. That pure, unsullied, unalloyed allegiance, the vital principle of states, the only solid foundation of legitimate rule, which will not yield to the clumsy chain of force, but is created by benefits, acknowledged by gratitude, and nourished |