LETTER LVI. ILLNESS AND DEATH OF BRIGADIER-GENERAL ANSTRUTHER.—SIR JOHN MOORE: HIS PUBLIC LIFE:-INTERESTING ANECDOTE :ELEGANT TRIBUTE PAID TO HIS MEMORY BY THE DUKE OF YORK. Gosport, February 1809. I HAVE just been favoured, my friend, with your kind letter, and shall endeavour to supply you with such information as I at present possess, on the points you alJude to. As to the illness and death of General Anstruther, the accounts you have heard are far from correct. I first saw him on the evening of the 10th at Betanzos. He was evidently labouring under inflammation of the lungs; but was relieved by losing blood. On visiting him early on the following morning, he was no better, and I was a good deal alarmed to find that he had hardly any recollection of what had passed the preceding evening. He had been advised to travel in a carriage to Corunna. That convey ance, however, could not be procured, and he was obliged to ride on horseback-a circumstance which was to be lamented, as the morning was cold, and he was inclined to perspire. He informed the gentlemen about him, that he had been for twenty-two hours on horseback, during which time he had tasted nothing, except a bit of sea biscuit and a drop of rum; and that at length, quite worn out with fatigue, he had thrown himself down in a field, and slept for about an hour in the rain. To this circumstance he attributed his illness. On the 11th, after his ride to Corunna, he was much worse. He was again bled, without his symptoms being alleviated. The disease ran its course very speedily, uninterrupted by any of the remedies employed. The delirium, apparent almost from the first attack, speedily increased, and on the night of the 14th he was no more. During the interval of morbid aberration of mind, he showed the ruling passions strong in death. He often talked of the military positions along the coast of the Asturias and Montana. At intervals, he spoke to his friends, whom he knew and named.—In common with the rest of the army, I deplore his death.-He was by all allowed to be an excellent officer, and a worthy upright man. Of the life of our late lamented Commander-in-Chief, I can send you but an imperfect account. He was, as you perhaps know, a son of Dr. Moore, the physician and admired author. He accompanied his father during his tour through Europe with the late Duke of Hamilton. Between that nobleman and the General there existed the warmest friendship, which the death of the former alone dissolved. Mr. Moore having chosen the profession of arms, rose rapidly through the subordinate steps: and after distinguishing himself particularly at the siege of Calvi, in Corsica, (June, 1792), he accompanied Sir Ralph Abercromby to Barbadoes, in 1796. Here he obtained the rank of Brigadier-General; and, together with his friend Brigadier-General Hope, reduced the island of St. Lucie, on the 25th May, in the same year. On the conclusion of Sir Ralph Abercromby's campaign in the West Indies, he returned with that General to Europe. Possessing the friendship and confidence of Sir Ralph, he accompanied him, first to the Helder, and afterwards to Egypt, in both which campaigns he was wounded. ? On returning to England, his Majesty conferred on him Y Y the order of the Bath, as an honourable recompense for his important services, and he was appointed to command at Shorncliff, in Kent. He was next, unfortunately, selected to command the army sent to assist Sweden, the circumstances attending which are still veiled in mystery. A friend of mine, who was near Sir John Moore when he fell, tells me, that Major ** **** immediately ran up to him with a blanket, which he had procured from a soldier of the forty-second, to carry him off the field. On requesting the General's leave to unbuckle his sword, lest its weight should be painful to him, he replied, with a faint smile" No, my dear Sir, I cannot consent to that, there is room enough in the blanket for me and my sword: suffer it to remain, if you please!" I shall subjoin to this letter, a copy of General Orders which have just been issued; they convey a very elegant tribute to the memory of our late Commander-inChief: GENERAL ORDERS. "The benefits derived to our army from the example of a distinguished Commander, do not terminate at his death; his virtues live in the recollection of his associates, and his fame remains the strongest incentive to great and glorious actions. "In this view, the Commander-in-Chief, amidst the deep and universal regret which the death of Lieutenant-General Sir John |