whole range of heights remained in the possession of the allied army. In the Duke of Wellington's dispatch, dated Toulouse, 12th of April, 1814, Major-General Pack is mentioned as one of the officers, "whose ability and conduct he cannot sufficiently applaud." In this battle, Major-General Pack's brigade had nearly two-thirds of the officers, and upwards of half the privates, killed or wounded.

From his first joining the 14th light dragoons, to the close of the war in the Peninsula, Major-General Pack was constantly employed. He purchased all his commissions, was never on half-pay, and never was absent from service on any duty in which he could possibly be engaged. In the course of the war he received eight wounds, six of them rather severe ones; was frequently struck by shot, and had several horses killed and wounded under him. In the year 1813, the order of the Tower and Sword was presented to him by the King of Portugal; and after the termination of hostilities he was, in January, 1815, created a Knight Commander of the most honourable military order of the Bath; and was allowed the honour of wearing a cross and seven clasps for the following actions, at all of which he had commanded troops, and had been personally engaged; viz. Roleia, Vimiera, Corunna, Busaco, Ciudad Rodrigo, Salamanca, Vittoria, Pyrenees, Nivelle, Nive, Orthes, and Toulouse.

It may easily be supposed, that when the unexpected return of Buonaparte to France from Elba rendered a renewal of hostilities inevitable, Sir Denis Pack was one of the foremost in resuming active duty. In the field of Waterloo he rendered the most important services. On the 15th of June, 1815, he was engaged from the commencement in repelling the attack made by Buonaparte at Les Quatre Bras, and was one of the general officers named by the Duke of Wellington in his dispatch, as having "highly distinguished themselves;" and on the memorable 18th of June his conduct was so satisfactory to the illustrious hero under whom he served, that he was particularly mentioned by His Grace, for His Royal Highness he Prince Regent's approbation. In this splendid and decisive

battle Sir Denis Pack was once more wounded, though slightly.

In August, 1815, the Emperor of Russia conferred on him the decoration of the Second Class of St. Wladimir; and in the following month the Emperor of Austria conferred on him the order of Maria Theresa.

On the 10th of July, 1816, this gallant officer married Elizabeth Louisa, eighth child and fourth daughter of George de la Poer Beresford, first Marquis of Waterford, and sister of Henry, second and present Marquis.

On the 17th of August, 1819, he was appointed LieutenantGovernor of Plymouth; and on the 13th of September, 1822, he was further preferred to the Colonelcy of the 84th foot.

Sir Denis Pack died at the house of Lord Beresford, in Wimpole-Street, on the 24th of July, 1823, to the great loss of the public, as well as of his private friends and afflicted family. As soon as the melancholy intelligence reached Plymouth, the colours at the Citadel, the Dock-Yard, Mount Wise, and St. Nicholas's Island, as well as of all the ships in the port, were lowered half-mast.

368

No. XVIII.

DAVID RICARDO, Esq. M. P.

In the early history of Mr. Ricardo's life there is nothing, the relation of which would be likely to excite either attention or interest. His father, a native of Holland, and of very respectable connections, came over on a visit to this country, when young, and preferring it to his own, became naturalised, and settled here. He entered the Stock Exchange; and being a man of good natural abilities, and of the strictest honour and integrity, made a corresponding progress; acquiring a respectable fortune, and possessing considerable influence within the circle in which he moved. He married, and was the father of a very numerous family, of which David, the subject of the present memoir, was the third. He was born on the 19th of April, 1772; and in point of education had the same advantages which are usually allotted to those who are destined for a mercantile line of life. When very young, he was sent to Holland His father, who had designed him to follow the same business in which he was engaged, and whose transactions lay chiefly in that country, sent him thither not only with a view to his becoming acquainted with it, but also that he might be placed at a school of which he entertained a very high opinion. After two years' absence he returned home, and continued the common school-education till his father took him into business. At his intervals of leisure he was allowed any masters for private instruction whom he chose to have: but he had not the benefit of what is called a classical education; and it is doubtful whether it would have been a benefit to him, or whether it might not have led his mind to a course of study, in early life, foreign to those habits of deep thinking, which in the end enabled him to de

velope the most abstruse and intricate subjects, and to be the author of important discoveries, instead of receiving passively the ideas of others.

It is not true, however, as has been more than insinuated, that Mr. Ricardo was of very low origin, and that he had been wholly denied the advantages of education; a reflection upon his father which he by no means deserved. The latter was always in affluent circumstances, most respectably connected, and both able and willing to afford his children all the advantages which the line of life for which they were destined appeared to require.

In the early years of Mr. Ricardo but little appeared in his intellectual progress, which would have led even an acute observer to predict his future eminence. But after having seen him attain that station, they who have passed through life with him from his boyish days now bring to their recollection circumstances, which, though overlooked as trivial at the time, serve to show that the plentiful harvest was the natural consequence of a genial spring.

In very early life he was remarkable for solidity and steadiness of character. At the age of fourteen his father began to employ him in the Stock Exchange, where he placed great confidence in him, and gave him such power as is rarely granted to persons considerably older than himself. At the age of sixteen he was entrusted with the care of two of his younger brothers, to convey them to Holland; and neither his father nor his mother felt the smallest anxiety for the charge which was confided to him. When young, Mr. Ricardo showed a taste for abstract and general reasoning; and though he was without any inducement to its cultivation, or rather lay under positive discouragement, yet at the age of nineteen and twenty, works of that description which occasionally occupied his attention afforded him amusement and cause for re flection. Even at this time his mind disclosed a propensity to go to the bottom of the subjects by which it was attracted, and he showed the same manly and open adherence to the opinions

which he had deliberately formed, and the same openness to conviction which distinguished his maturer years.

His father was a man of good intellect, but uncultivated. His prejudices were exceedingly strong; and they induced him to take the opinions of his forefathers in points of religion, politics, education &c., upon faith, and without investigation. Not only did he adopt this rule for himself, but he insisted on its being followed by his children; his son, however, never. yielded his assent on any important subject, until after he had thoroughly investigated it. It was perhaps in opposing these strong prejudices, that he was first led to that freedom and independence of thought for which he was so remarkable, and which has indeed extended itself to the other branches of his family.

Soon after he had attained the age of twenty-one, Mr. Ricardo married; and this threw him upon his own resources, as he quitted his father at the same time. The ge

neral estimation in which he was held now manifested itself. All the most respectable members of the Stock Exchange came forward to testify the high opinion they entertained of him, with their eagerness to assist him in his undertakings.

His father's name stood as high as possible for honour and integrity, qualities of the first recommendation in a field where transactions of the utmost magnitude rest upon them as their only security. Sharing this character with his father, and possessing talents and other excellent qualities which had endeared him to all, he embarked with the fairest prospect of success. This success answered his most sanguine expectations; and in a very few years, certainly not wholly without some anxiety at first, he had secured to himself a handsome independence. During this time his mind was chiefly occupied by his business; but as his solicitude for its success lessened, he turned his attention to other subjects.

At this time, or about the age of 25, by the example and instigation of a friend with whom he was then very intimate, his leisure hours were devoted to some of the branches of