1834 .] 
 
 Memoir of the Late Edward Walsh , M. D. 
 
 63 
 
 MEMOIR OF THE LATE EDWARD WALSH, M.D. 
 
 PHYSICIAN TO HIS MAJESTY’S FORCES. 
 
 WITH NOTICES OF THE CANADIAN INDIANS, &c. 
 
 Nothing, perhaps, more strongly marks 
 the very extended ramifications of Bri- 
 tish influence and connection at the pre- 
 sent day, than the various scenes in which 
 its military have been engaged, and 
 the various countries they have visited. 
 Like the Roman soldiers of old, there 
 is no region of the earth into which 
 they have not penetrated. This has 
 afforded to its officers, and those de- 
 sirous of information, the ample means 
 of acquiring it ; and the medical men 
 of the army, whose education particu- 
 larly qualified them for profiting by 
 the opportunities, have been some of 
 the most accomplished and best in- 
 formed men in Europe. Of this class 
 was Dr. Edward Walsh, late physician 
 to the forces. 
 
 He was a native of the squth of Ire- 
 land, born at Waterford, where the 
 name of his family occurs among its 
 chief magistrates in the earliest records 
 of the city. Of their military propen- 
 sities a curious anecdote is told in the 
 history of Waterford.* In the reign 
 of Henry VIII. a body of soldiers was 
 raised in the city, and proceeded to 
 the Continent to join the English army 
 then besieging Boulogne. A gigantic 
 Frenchman advanced from the town, 
 and like another Goliah, challenged 
 any man on the opposite side to single 
 combat. It was accepted by Nicho- 
 las Walsh of Waterford, who crossed 
 over a small river that interposed, at- 
 tacked and slew the Frenchman in 
 sight of the two armies, and then swam 
 back to his applauding friends, with 
 his antagonist’s head in his mouth. 
 
 Dr. Walsh was from his birth designed 
 by his father, not for the military, but the 
 medical profession, to which he him- 
 self had early evinced a decided in- 
 clination ; and to this end he was sent 
 to school in England, where it was sup- 
 posed that the classics were better 
 taught at that time than in Ireland. 
 Here he began the practice of his 
 
 future profession much earlier than 
 had been expected. The belief was 
 universal among the peasantry, that 
 the touch of an Irish hand could heal 
 all bites of toads and serpents, as surely 
 as that of the royal hand could cure 
 the king’s evil. People were there- 
 fore brought every day to the school, 
 who had, or fancied they had, been 
 blasted by the puff of a toad, or stung 
 by the tongue of an adder, for the 
 Irish boy to stroke ; and such was 
 their faith in the efficacy of the re- 
 medy, that they all departed satisfied 
 of their cure. The virtue was sup- 
 posed to reside even in Irish wood. 
 He had brought with him a hazel stick 
 which was also in great demand : with 
 this he stood in a crowd of rustics, like a 
 magician, waving his wand, and round 
 whatsoever venemous thing he made a 
 circle with it, it was supposed to be no 
 more capable of passing out than a 
 scorpion from a ring of fire. In these 
 our days, when the school-master is 
 abroad every where with his penny 
 journals, it is hardly conceivable that 
 superstitious credulity could have so 
 existed in any part of England. 
 
 His earliest propensities and pursuits 
 were literary ; shortly after his return 
 home, therefore, he established in Water- 
 ford a literary society, the first of the 
 kind ever attempted in any part of Ire 
 land out of the metropolis. Here, too, the 
 people displayed a similar character- 
 istic of the ignorance of that period. 
 For the first time an electric machine 
 was exhibited by the society, and its 
 apparently supernatural phenomena ex- 
 cited the strongest prejudice against 
 them, as persons addicted to magic 
 and the practice of the black art, which 
 on one occasion had nearly caused 
 serious consequences. A shop-keeper, 
 not remarkable for integrity or the 
 honesty of his weights, lived in a narrow 
 street, opposite the society’s rooms ; a 
 member, who was somewhat of a wag, 
 
 * Ryland, p. 4G. 
 
64 Memoir of the Late Edward Walsh, M. D. [Jan. 
 
 and had as much humour as science, 
 contrived to pass the wire of the ma- 
 chine across the way, and attached it 
 to the cord by which the scales were 
 suspended. On a Saturday night, when 
 the shop was crowded with customers, 
 the man proceeded to weigh some 
 articles called for, but the moment he 
 touched the cord to raise the scales, he 
 received a sudden shock, which seemed 
 to dislocate his arm ; he laid his hand 
 on the counter and wiped his forehead. 
 “ These are sad sudden times,” said 
 he, and then crossing himself, he tried 
 again; again he received a similar 
 shock, and again desisted in the same 
 manner. The persons in the shop 
 were now apprised of the extraor- 
 dinary effect, and gazed intently and 
 fearfully at the man, while he tried 
 a third time to raise the scales. The 
 common people of Ireland attach 
 much importance to the number three, 
 and when he received the third shock, 
 the whole assembly, w ith the man him- 
 self, fell on their knees and began to 
 pray and confess their sins, as under 
 some impending judgment. At length 
 one, more shrewd and composed than 
 the rest, observed the wire, and 
 traced it across to the society’s rooms. 
 An instant excitement of the peo- 
 ple took place, and they rushed out 
 to tear dowm this nest of wizards and 
 magicians ; the members present had 
 scarcely time to escape, but their ma- 
 chines were destroyed by the fanatic 
 mob. 
 
 This society reckoned among its 
 members many ingenious men, who 
 afterwards distinguished themselves in 
 a w r ider field of action. The Genevan 
 patriots were at that time about to 
 settle in the vicinity of Waterford, w r here 
 a new town was built for their reception. 
 The leading men were very intimate 
 with Doctor Walsh’s family, and be- 
 came members of the literary society. 
 One of them, M. Claviere, w r as the friend 
 of Nt^cker, and afterwards became 
 minister of finance under the revolu- 
 tionary government of France, and was 
 one oi the lamented victims of Robes- 
 piere. 
 
 Another who subsequently distin- 
 guished himself, w r as Captain Robert 
 Falkener. This gentleman was for some 
 time stationed in Waterford, and was 
 enrolled a member of the society ; his 
 extravagant dress and affected manners 
 excited at the time strong prejudices 
 
 against him, and he was supposed in- 
 capable of any thing manly or intellec- 
 tual. lie first surprised the people of 
 Waterford by a display of knowledge 
 in the society, and afterwards astonished 
 the w r orld by his professional skill and 
 intrepidity. He was killed while lash- 
 ing with his own hands the bowsprit 
 of an enemy’s frigate to his own, and 
 the country has recognised his high 
 merits, by a noble monument in West- 
 minster Abbey ; had he not been pre- 
 maturely cut off’, he would probably 
 have ranked with Nelson and the first 
 naval heroes of England. 
 
 A third member w r as of a very different 
 stamp ; he w T as a German of tfie name of 
 Kotzwora, distinguished afterwards as 
 the author of “the Battle of Prague” and 
 other popular musical pieces ; he was 
 a universal genius — an artist, a poet, 
 and a philosopher, as well as a musician 
 — and to him really belongs the first 
 claim to a merit ascribed to Paganini. 
 He held a w T ager he w T ould play a dif- 
 ficult sonata on the violin, without 
 either fingers or strings, and he won 
 his bet to the satisfaction of the com- 
 pany, by actually executing it in good 
 style with one finger and one string. 
 His end was as extraordinary as his 
 character; he persuaded a woman to 
 hang him up by the neck for a short 
 time to a door ; some occurrence drew 
 aw r ay her attention, and when she 
 hastily returned to take him down, he 
 w r as dead ; the w r oraan would probably 
 have suffered for this murder, but 
 several others came forward in evidence 
 before the coroner’s jury, and stated 
 that they had often tied him up in a 
 similar manner at his own request, and 
 that the sensation of strangling was 
 an enjoyment he often indulged in. 
 
 Among the permanent residents in 
 Waterford were also many men, mem- 
 bers of the society, who w'ere distin- 
 guished for genius and eccentricity. 
 One of them W'as Henry Plnnket 
 Peters. Ayscough says, “ Wits come 
 men know r not whence, live men know r 
 not how r , and die men know r not where.” 
 Of the origin, means, and end of Peters 
 no one knew any thing, though he re- 
 sided fifty years in the city. He was 
 celebrated as a mathematician, a poet, 
 and a w T riter of the humorous and pa- 
 thetic, in which latter lie rivalled his 
 favourite Sterne, then an author in 
 every one's hands. On the dissolution 
 of the society, he fell from the rank of 
 
65 
 
 1834 .] Memoir of the Late Edward Walsh , M.D. 
 
 life in which he had before lived, and 
 took up his abode in the damaged pot 
 of a glass-house, w r here he was kept alive 
 by the heat of the cinders, and fed by 
 the glass-blowers, who shared their 
 beer with him in return for the amuse- 
 ment he afforded them. One night he 
 w ent almost naked to a poor woman, 
 who let straw-beds in a lane in the 
 city, and said in his usual courteous 
 manner, “ Madam, I am come to pur- 
 chase from you a pennyworth of sleep.” 
 He w r as shewn to a wisp of straw, wdiere 
 he lay down ; when the woman thought 
 he had enough of sleep for his money, 
 she went to awake him — he was dead. 
 As he was known to entertain not very 
 orthodox opinions in religion, and some 
 oung men who were fascinated wdth 
 is manners and conversation had 
 afterwards conducted themselves in 
 a disreputable manner, the serious 
 people of Waterford thought him an 
 incarnation of the evil one, endowed, 
 like the daemon of Lewis’s monk, wuth 
 fascinating qualities to mislead and de- 
 
 stroy ; while the more ignorant and 
 common people, who saw him for half 
 a century living unchanged under the 
 greatest privation, and to whom his 
 death w r as not known, believed him to 
 be the wandering Jew, and think that he 
 is still alive somewhere, and that he will 
 continue to walk the earth till the final 
 consummation of all things.* 
 
 The last we shall mention among the 
 wits of the society was a gentleman 
 of large fortune, full of talent and 
 genius, who frequently delighted the 
 society with his epigrams". There 
 stood at that time, near Waterford, a 
 place of public execution, and the wits 
 made the piers of the gallow's a re- 
 ceptacle for their pasquinades, like the 
 statues of Pasquin and Marforio at 
 Rome. A dignitary of the cathedral, 
 who was not very popular, had built a 
 house on this gallows-green, as if to 
 enjoy from his windows the spectacle 
 of public executions. An epigram, attri- 
 buted to this gentleman, was posted on 
 one of the pillars — 
 
 Non amo te Sabidi. 
 
 Near to the church, with thoughts divine, 
 
 The pious bishop built his palace ; 
 
 But Oh !' what wretched thoughts w ere thine 
 To build thy whim so near the gallow r s. 
 
 The next day the other pier, like Marforio, replied for the Doctor, in an answer 
 by Peters — 
 
 If proverbs are true, and to teach us w:ere given, 
 
 “ The nearer the church is the farther from heaven 
 Instructed by this to the gallows I gang, 
 
 Since the nearer I dwell, the less fear 1 shall hang. 
 
 Smitten with the love of physiology, 
 he went to Edinburgh to study medi- 
 cine forhis amusement, and there became 
 acquainted with the celebrated Doctor 
 Brown, whose theory w r as, that disease 
 was cured and health prolonged by 
 the application of stimulants of different 
 kinds to the continually exhausting 
 powers of the human frame. This 
 practice he, in common with many 
 others at the time, unfortunately adopt- 
 ed, addicted himself to opium, and fell 
 an early and lamented victim to this 
 pernicious Brunonian system. When 
 his friends, with anxious solicitude, 
 would represent to him the injurious 
 effects of this mistaken practice, “ What 
 does it matter,” he would say, with his 
 
 eyes sparkling wdtli the fascinating ex- 
 citement, “ I care not how r soon the 
 lamp of life is consumed, provided that 
 while it lasts I can cause its flame to 
 burn brighter.” He may be considered 
 as one of the first victims, in these 
 countries, who used the Turkish drug 
 to this extent, and so was the precursor 
 of the English “ Opium Eater” in prac- 
 tice, as he was in eccentric genius. 
 
 It is to be regretted that the trans- 
 actions of this ingenious, but hetero- 
 geneous society, should have perished 
 with most of its compositions ; they 
 w r ould have displayed the first dawmings 
 of literature and science in a country- 
 town in Ireland. The only remains 
 are some poetry and essays, afterwards 
 
 * There is a curious Memoir and striking Likeness of him, by Doctor Walsh, in 
 the British Magazine for August, 1830. 
 
 Vol. III. 
 
 i 
 
66 
 
 Memoir of the Late Edward Walsh , M.D. [Jan. 
 
 published in periodicals in Dublin. 
 One of the former was a composition, 
 for which Doctor Walsh had obtained 
 the prize of a silver medal from the 
 society, and it was destined to obtain 
 another also. The Historical Society 
 of Trinity College, Dublin, proposed 
 a prize for a poem on a similar sub- 
 ject, and it was awarded to one of 
 the candidates. It afterwards ap- 
 peared that this was the published 
 poem of Doctor Walsh, for which he 
 had obtained the medal, which the in- 
 genious candidate had found among 
 other supposed forgotten things, and 
 had appropriated to his own use ; it 
 is perhaps the only poem on record 
 that has thus afforded prizes to two 
 different authors. One of the latter 
 has a proposal by Doctor Walsh for a 
 universal alphabet, on the suggestion of 
 Sir W. Jones, and applied as a method 
 to facilitate the instruction of the deaf 
 and dumb. He assumed as a principle, 
 that the primitive alphabets were 
 formed from an outline of the several 
 organs of speech in the act of articula- 
 tion, and he annexed an anatomical 
 diagram of sections of the mouth, lips, 
 teeth, tongue, palate, and nose, being 
 the parts used in modulating the voice 
 as it issues from the glottis, in uttering 
 the vocal, labial, dental, lingual, and 
 palatial sounds, which constitute the 
 elements of every oral language. The 
 resemblance of different letters in vari- 
 ous alphabets was very striking, and 
 afforded the strongest grounds for 
 adopting one common character for 
 
 them all. An outline of this ingenious 
 essay was afterwards published by him 
 in a Dublin periodical ,* and excited at 
 the time much interest. 
 
 About this period, that explosion of 
 the human intellect, from which the 
 world had expected so much in ame- 
 liorating the human condition, by re- 
 moving old prejudices and substituting 
 a more perfect system of things, began 
 in France to assume the horrid garb 
 of anarchy, and degenerate into all the 
 excesses of a bloody democracy. To 
 define the true limits of rational liberty, 
 founded on the basis of the British 
 constitution, he took up his pen and 
 published the “ Progress of Despotism,” 
 a didactic poem in one vol. quarto. His 
 views are best defined by his own 
 words : “ The dominant party, in their 
 zeal for royalty, seem exclusively to as- 
 sign to the monarchical form of govern- 
 ment all the blessings and virtues of 
 social life, and in their abhorrence of 
 what they term French principles, attach 
 to the words liberty, patriotism, and pub- 
 lic spirit, the ideas of anarchy, sedition, 
 and rebellion. On the other hand, 
 the advocates for republicanism support 
 their visionary notions of liberty and 
 equality with all the enthusiasm of a 
 persecuted sect, and prove incontestibly 
 by their cruel and despotic acts, that li- 
 berality and toleration form no part of 
 of their real tenets.” The following 
 proposition on the importance of go- 
 vernment is the theme on which the 
 poem dilates : — 
 
 Man, ever changing with the changing time, 
 Scarce owes a quality to place or clime ; 
 
 Ductile as wax he every pressure takes. 
 
 And is what education mars or makes. 
 
 But that which sways him, gives his mind a bent, 
 Shapes his whole course — is form of government. 
 Him that prime agent only can create 
 Wise, foolish, abject, wicked, good, or great ; 
 And as it shifts in every change we find, 
 
 So shift his actions and so veer his mind ; 
 
 One passion only moves not with the hour, 
 
 Fixed as the polar star— his lust of power, f 
 
 This poem, by permission, he dedi- 
 cates to Charles James Fox, and what- 
 soever sentiments that great man might 
 have entertained of the crude opinions 
 of so young a person, he expressed 
 
 himself highly pleased with the work, 
 and favoured its author with his coun- 
 tenance and friendship. 
 
 After some lapse of time, during 
 which the medical studies of Dr. Walsh 
 
 * Anthologia Hibernica. 
 
 f Prog, of Desp. p. 3. 1. 13. 
 
67 
 
 1834.] Memoir of the Late Edward Walsh , M.D. 
 
 were suspended, and his views directed 
 by his father to another object, he finally 
 proceeded to Edinburgh, and in due 
 time graduated as M.D. ; the reputation 
 of that school of medicine being then 
 so great, that no professional man was 
 held in any estimation who had not 
 studied there. Here he began to exer- 
 cise a talent which had early developed 
 itself. He was a good artist, and he 
 relaxed from his professional studies by 
 sketching the professors, and the lecture 
 rooms, of which he made admirable 
 likenesses. One of them — the School 
 of Anatomy — was published, and exhi- 
 bited a picture as full of life and character 
 as that of Tommy Nero’s dissection, 
 in Hogarth’s Last Stage of Cruelty. 
 Another is a well known picture at 
 the present day, though few, perhaps, 
 are acquainted with its origin. Prince 
 Arthur’s seat, and the romantic environs 
 of Edinburgh, were his favourite retreats 
 for study or reflection. On contem- 
 plating the rocks one day, under the 
 Calton Hill, he made out, on the face 
 of the craig, a gigantic profile, which he 
 sketched as a great curiosity. Many 
 years afterwards, when he met, for the 
 first time. Lord Nelson, on board the 
 Baltic fleet, it struck him that his pro- 
 file was exactly that which he had seen 
 on the face of the rock. On his return 
 to England he published the sketch,* 
 with the monument which was erected 
 just over it. It was generally acknow- 
 ledged a strong likeness of that hero, 
 whose features were thus impressed by 
 the hand of nature on the rock of ages. 
 A fall of a portion of the rock has now 
 obliterated this remarkable curiosity. 
 
 When he took out his diploma, an 
 irresistible propensity to increase his 
 knowledge, by enlarging his sphere of 
 observation, induced him to accept the 
 situation of physician to a government 
 West India packet ; in which capacity he 
 twice visited most of the islands in the 
 Gulf of Mexico, where the yellow fever 
 at that time raged with mortal violence. 
 One of his patients, a passenger for 
 whom he felt a great interest, was 
 seized with it, and he immediately 
 brought him to the summit of the Blue 
 Mountains in Jamaica, where, far above 
 the contagion, they respired a pure and 
 wholesome atmosphere, which imme- 
 diately restored him. This he frequently 
 
 practised with success in subsequent 
 cases ; and he was appointed to a regi- 
 ment at that time quartered in the 
 island, whose surgeon was reported to 
 be dead of the disease. With this he 
 returned to England, but thefirst news he 
 heard on his arrival was, the unexpected 
 resuscitation of the dead man ; so he 
 was appointed to another. Attached 
 to this latter, he proceeded to Ireland, 
 at the time of the rebellion. His regi- 
 ment landed from England at Duncan- 
 non Fort, near Waterford, and arrived 
 on the high ground, above Foulkes Mill, 
 in the County of Wexford, while the 
 rebels, headed by General Roach, 
 were engaged with the army, com- 
 manded by the late Sir John" Moore. 
 Roach had been a Roman Catholic 
 clergyman, and led his congregation 
 from the altar to the field. It was as- 
 tonishing to every military man to 
 contemplate the versatility of talent 
 that suddenly converted an ignorant 
 priest into an able general — and a rude 
 rabble into a disciplined army. They 
 stood for three hours against regular 
 troops, of nearly equal force, led on by 
 one of the best commanders of the day ; 
 and it was always his opinion, that if 
 the brigade, of which his regiment 
 formed a part, had not come up, like 
 Bulow’s, at the critical minute, the 
 event of the battle would have been 
 ultimately doubtful. After this he was 
 present in most of the actions which took 
 place during that melancholy period, till 
 the final surrender of the French, under 
 Humbert, at Ballinamuck. This he 
 considered the most melancholy period 
 of his life. Deeply attached to Ireland, 
 and everything that concerned it, he 
 could not witness the devastation of 
 the country he loved, without the most 
 painful feelings ; nor its character de- 
 graded, by the atrocities so unsparingly 
 perpetrated, without deep regret. 
 
 On the happy suppression of the 
 rebellion, a great military force remained 
 at the disposal of government, without 
 any immediate object to engage its 
 operation, and it was determined to 
 send a part of the army then in Ireland 
 to recover Holland from the French. 
 His regiment was among the number, 
 with which he immediately embarked, 
 and he was one of the first that entered, 
 and the last that left that country. It 
 
 * In Ackerman’s Repository. 
 
68 Memoir of the Late Edward Waltsh y [Jan, 
 
 was the end ' of the year before the 
 forces departed front England, and on 
 their arrival in Holland, the inclement 
 weather of that climate had set in. 
 The first night of his landing was the 
 most perilous of his life. The British 
 were opposed by the French and Dutch, 
 posted on the sand hills which lined the 
 open shore, and after a severe skir- 
 mish, were driven from their position, 
 which was occupied by the British, 
 and they prepared to bivouack on the 
 spot, without anv covering fr6m the 
 tempest of wind and torrents of rain 
 which now commenced. Every man 
 dug a pit for his b'hd in the sand, and 
 took care of himself as he best might. 
 The servants of the doctor and another 
 officer excavated for them a deeper pit 
 than usual, and secured, as they thought, 
 the windward side, by piling the bodies 
 and staking the muskets of the French 
 killed in the action. Into this den the 
 Doctor and his friend crept, and, 
 wrapped in their blankets, thought 
 themselves well provided for. About 
 midnight a sudden gust of the tempest 
 swept the whole before it, and buried 
 the sleeping officers under the heap ; 
 and when their servants came in the 
 morning, not a trace of them was to be 
 found. Providentially, some muskets 
 falling across their heads, allowed them 
 a space sufficient to breathe, till they 
 were dug out of this grave of sand, in 
 which they were all but buried alive. 
 On advancing to Bergen, the Russian 
 division attached to the English army, 
 immediately began, as usual, to plunder 
 the houses, and a ridiculous scene en- 
 sued. Two regiments having quarrelled 
 about the division of the spoil — attacked 
 one another with such weapons as they 
 could lay hands on. Almost every 
 house had a store of round Dutch 
 cheese, which they hurled at each other 
 till the streets were full of these rolling 
 missiles. When the English marched in, 
 immediately after, they gathered them 
 up, and stuffed their knapsacks with 
 their favourite food — their allies prefer- 
 ring the tallow and train oil which the 
 shops afforded. Among his profes- 
 sional experience were several wounds 
 of a singular character. One was that 
 of an officer who was struck by a musket 
 ball on the clavicle, which entered his 
 body at the spot, and disappeared, 
 without the wounded man feeling any 
 
 particular inconvenience. After prob- 
 ing and searching for it in vain, it was 
 given over as hopeless, and the patient 
 left to the chance and danger of such 
 an extraneous substance in his body. 
 The ball, however, was next day dis- 
 covered by the officer’s servant. It 
 had entered the arm, under the axilla, 
 and running between the muscles and 
 the bone, it issued out at the elbow, by 
 an almost imperceptible aperture, and 
 quietly deposited itself in his waistcoat 
 pocket. 
 
 Nothing could be more dissimilar than 
 the commencement and conclusion of 
 this expedition. The army embarked 
 in high health and spirits — a rumour 
 was spread abroad, that an immense 
 treasure had been buried under the 
 Stadt House, at Amsterdam, of which 
 every soldier anticipated his share. 
 They found, however, the Dutch — their 
 supposed allies — luke-warm friends, and 
 sturdy enemies ; and after advancing 
 very near the capital, against the enemy 
 and the elements, they halted on some 
 sand hills for the night, constructing 
 sheds of rushes, and digging holes in 
 the sand, expecting the next to be com- 
 fortably lodged at Amsterdam. Sud- 
 denly an order was issued for the troops 
 to fall in, and the different brigades 
 immediately to form. It was pitchy 
 dark, and the clouds descended in ca- 
 taracts ; yet it was done with alacrity 
 in the midst of this difficulty and confu- 
 sion. But instead of advancing, as was 
 the general opinion, on the capital, the 
 army was ordered to face about, and, at 
 ten o’clock at night, were in full retreat. 
 “ The intense darkness,” the Doctor 
 says, “ was accompanied by deluges of 
 rain — there was no sure footing — all 
 was quagmire ; but the firmest bottom, 
 and, on the whole, the surest way, lay 
 through pools of water, though it 
 was impossible to guess whether the 
 next step would be up to the knees or 
 the neck.”* There were about three 
 hundred women attached to the Eng- 
 lish army ; they were all left behind, 
 and next day fell into the hands of the 
 French, who treated them with their 
 usual gallantry, and sent them back 
 well pleased. The children were par- 
 ticular caressed by them ; and the 
 ragged little urchins returned fancifully 
 dressed in nice new clothes. 
 
 On his return to England, he pub- 
 
 * Narrative of the Expedition, p. 89. 
 
69 
 
 1834 .] Memoir of the Late Edward Walsh , M.D. 
 
 lished a “ Narrative of the Expedition,” 
 in one volume, quarto, with maps and 
 plates. As he had access to the best 
 sources of information, and it was a 
 kind of semi-official work, he confined 
 his narrative principally to the details 
 of the greater political and military 
 events, and generally omitted sketches 
 of personal adventures, which after- 
 wards amused his friends, and would 
 have rendered the work much more 
 interesting. As the expedition, how- 
 ever, was an event of much temporary 
 importance, and his details known to 
 be perfectly authentic, the book went 
 through two editions in the short space 
 of a few weeks. 
 
 An expedition was now planned 
 against Copenhagen, to prevent the 
 Danish fleet from falling into the 
 hands of the French ; and the 49th 
 Regiment was ordered on board the 
 English squadron, to act as marines. 
 Into this regiment the Doctor ex- 
 changed, and he accompanied the 
 expedition. Whatever different opi- 
 nions there may be as to the expediency 
 or the necessity of this proceeding, 
 there can be but one as to its result — 
 that it was as untoward as that of 
 Navarino. The Danes declared they 
 had no intention of giving up their ships 
 to either the French or English, but 
 were as able as they were willing to 
 keep them themselves. The English 
 fleet was, therefore, moored opposite to 
 the town, and the bombardment com- 
 menced with fury. The shells and 
 balls caused frightful destruction in the 
 devoted city. The former penetrating 
 the roofs of houses filled with peace- 
 able citizens, the moment before enjoy- 
 ing tranquillity, burst in the rooms 
 before they were aware of their danger ; 
 and the fragments flying about, com- 
 mitted horrible carnage among women 
 and children — urging the surviving men, 
 in a state of frenzy, to the ships anti 
 batteries, where they fought with des- 
 peration. The ship in which Doctor 
 Walsh w r as embarked — we believe the 
 Ganges — was moored opposite the 
 crown battery, which protects the en- 
 trance of the harbour, where the Danish 
 fleet was laid up. It seemed to be a 
 tremendous attempt for our ships to 
 encounter such w r orks of solid stone. 
 They stood out into the sea, like float- 
 
 ing batteries of masonry, and their balls 
 were so well directed, that they passed 
 in at one side of our ships and out at 
 the other ; and after prostrating every 
 thing they met in their passage, were 
 seen recouchetting along the surface of 
 the w'ater to the Swedish coast. One 
 of them dealt death about it in a very 
 extraordinary manner. Doctor Walsh 
 was examining the arm of an officer 
 which was slightly wounded, and while 
 he yet held his hand, he saw F his throat 
 suddenly cut, without any apparent 
 cause. It afterwards appeared that a 
 ball, from the crown battery, had passed 
 through a depot of tomahawks, and sent 
 them spinning about between decks in 
 all directions. The blade of one of 
 them, driven horizontally, had encoun- 
 tered the neck of the officer, and nearly 
 severed his head from his body in its 
 passage. It was deemed necessary to 
 silence this formidable battery by en- 
 tering it. His regiment w r as ordered 
 into boats for the purpose, and he 
 embarked with it ; not having the most 
 distant hope of ever returning from 
 what seemed to all a most hazardous, 
 and indeed desperate, enterprise. For- 
 tunately, the Danes capitulated before 
 they reached the fortress, and the 
 Doctor escaped with no other wound 
 than his hand shattered by a splinter. 
 
 It was quite amusing, if such a word 
 can be used on so serious an occasion, he 
 would say, to hear the people at home 
 speak of the high regard in which Lord 
 Nelson and the British officers were 
 held by the Danes after the action. 
 In a moment of almost unsuspecting 
 confidence, and wdiile relations of peace 
 and amity, yet actually, as they sup- 
 posed, existed, they were suddenly at- 
 tacked, their fleet sunk, their capital 
 burnt, and their citizens murdered. 
 The feelings of the Danes tow r ards 
 the actors in such an enterprise, were 
 such as are natural to the human heart, 
 such as the English themselves would 
 harbour under similar circumstances — 
 those of unmitigated hatred, horror, 
 and hostility ; and to keep these feel- 
 ings alive, they still show their steeples 
 and churches perforated with balls, 
 which, like the Americans at York 
 Town,* they will not suffer to be re- 
 paired. If any thing could add to the 
 regret for such an untoward act, it was 
 
 * Weld’s Travels, p. 123. 
 
70 
 
 Memoir of the Late Edward Walsh , M.D. [Jan. 
 
 the utter worthlessness of the object 
 when attained. The Danes had never 
 been a maritime power since the time 
 of Turgesius, when centuries ago they 
 carried terror and desolation into these 
 islands. They were then the only 
 maritime power, petty and piratical as 
 it was : but since that they never pos- 
 sessed a fleet that could be an object 
 of alarm. The few ships they had 
 were as much for show as for use. They 
 were laid up in ordinary, the decayed 
 appendages of former respectability ; 
 and the energetic defence of the Danes, 
 was not to preserve what they knew 
 was not w r orth preserving, but to pre- 
 serve what was dearer to them than 
 any fleet — their honour, their charac- 
 ter, and their national independence. 
 It is w r ell known that the painted rot- 
 ten planks we obtained, were hardly 
 worth towing out of the harbour, and 
 scarcely floated to England. Here 
 they generally fell to pieces while 
 lying in dock, or were filled with stones 
 as hulks, and sunk for piers or break- 
 waters : one of them was applied in 
 Dublin to this use. When the harbour 
 of Howthw r as in progress, the long 
 pier w r hich runs towards Ireland’s Eye 
 completed, and the angle about to 
 be turned ; the surge of the sea on a 
 stormy winter’s night, drove several 
 yards of its extremity out of its direc- 
 tion, and into the basin of the harbour, 
 without scattering the stones ; and on 
 this foundation, thus singularly formed, 
 they continued the wall, so that in fact 
 the cast and north piers do not form an 
 angle, but are joined by a cant. To 
 prevent a similar accident the ensuing 
 winter, one of those Danish prizes w r as 
 filled with stones, and sunk near it as 
 a breakwater ;* but the surge soon 
 dispersed this rotten fabric also, w hich 
 w'as not fit to form even the founda- 
 tion of a w r all. It w r as, however, a se- 
 cure place to deposit our plunder, so 
 as that it should never rise up in judg- 
 ment against us. 
 
 On the termination of this affair, the 
 fleet continued for some time in the 
 Baltic, and Dr. Walsh had an oppor- 
 tunity of visiting Russia, where he was 
 when Paul was assassinated. Of this 
 event he used to tell many curious par- 
 ticulars, not generally known. One 
 was as follows : — The Krasnoi Dvoretz, 
 
 or red palace, was a kind of fortress 
 which Paul had built for his personal 
 security, and in w'hich he shut himself 
 up, surrounded by canals, moats, and 
 draw'-bridges. Immediately adjoining 
 this is the summer garden, laid out in 
 w r alks for the recreation of the citizens, 
 and full of w'ell-grown trees, in which 
 a numerous colony of crows had built 
 their nests, so that it resembled an 
 English rookery, except that the crows 
 of Russia are generally silent, and their 
 noise is seldom heard. One night the 
 inhabitants of the neighbourhood were 
 alarmed and kept aw ake by a most ex- 
 traordinary commotion among these 
 birds, w'ho continued till it was light 
 flying about in the greatest agitation, 
 clapping their w r ings, and evincing some 
 powerful impression made on them, by 
 their clamorous and persevering croak- 
 ing. While the neighbours were next 
 morning talking together of this cu- 
 rious circumstance, and w ondering what 
 could have been the cause, the event 
 of Paul’s death in the adjacent palace 
 began to transpire, and then it was 
 found that the noise of the birds had 
 commenced just at the time of the 
 assassination, when it burst out in the 
 most loud and clamorous manner. 
 Birds of this kind have been alw ays sup- 
 posed to be endowed with a wonderful 
 pow r er of prescience and sagacity in 
 human affairs, and this circumstance 
 confirmed it in the minds of the Rus- 
 sians, though it is not improbable that 
 they w’ere only disturbed by the con- 
 spirators passing and repassing that 
 night at an unseasonable hour under 
 the trees, in their way to the palace. 
 Be this as it may, the Doctor always 
 considered it a singular fact, and men- 
 tioned it among the curious things he 
 had witnessed in his travels, always 
 adding, however, to obviate the sus- 
 picion of credulity, 
 
 Hand equidem credo quia sit divinitus illis, 
 Ingenium, aut reruin fato prudentia major.” 
 Virg. Georg, lib. 1 c. 415. 
 
 His regiment was now r ordered to Ca- 
 nada, w here he accompanied it, and con- 
 tinued several years. Of all the regions 
 of the earth, Canada seems most conge- 
 nial to British feelings and habits. 
 The soil and climate are in the highest 
 degree fertile and salubrious. There are 
 some countries, wdiich, from an un- 
 
 Whitelaw’s History of Dublin, vol. ii. p. 1263. 
 
71 
 
 1834.] Memoir of the Late Edward Walsh , M.D. 
 
 known constitution of the atmosphere, 
 seem to be exempt from certain fatal 
 diseases that infest their neighbours. 
 Thus the plague never visits Persia, 
 while it is raging in the adjacent re- 
 gions, nor the yellow r fever Canada, 
 while it is devastating the country on 
 the other side of the St. Lawrence. 
 But of all places, Canada is the para- 
 dise of the British army, who charac- 
 terise it as a country where “ they have 
 double allowance, nothing to do, and 
 wallow T iri dollars and Madeira.” It 
 was the Doctor’s good fortune to be 
 quartered at the Falls of Niagara, a 
 magnificent spectacle, which had been 
 the object of his earliest curiosity, and 
 which he now contemplated every day 
 with feelings of renewed astonishment 
 and pleasure. Some of his sketches 
 of this sublime picture attest the im- 
 pression it made upon his mind. To 
 add to the effect, it frequently happen- 
 ed that buffaloes and other animals, in 
 attempting to cross the river, were 
 caught in the current, and hurried with 
 impetuosity to the falls. Here the 
 loud bellowing of the unwieldy beasts, 
 as they plunged and struggled to extri- 
 cate themselves from the torrent, was 
 in singular keeping with the general 
 character of the scenery. Here also 
 he one day witnessed an event of a 
 similar kind, but of a very different 
 character, exhibiting in a striking de- 
 gree the stoicism and resignation of 
 the Indians. A w r oman was crossing 
 in a canoe a considerable way above, 
 but was caught in the current, and hur- 
 ried on to the aw ful cataract. Finding 
 all her efforts unavailing, and that she 
 was rushing to inevitable death, she 
 made no outcry or gesture of fear or 
 impatience, but laying dowm her pad- 
 dles, she stood up and looked quietly 
 about her ; then taking a bottle of 
 spirits from the bottom of the canoe, 
 she applied it to her head till she drank 
 every drop ; she then wrapped herself 
 in her blanket, took up a pipe, and con- 
 tinued calmly smoking till she shot 
 over the falls, and disappeared for ever. 
 It was here he became the intelligent 
 Cicerone of all strangers, whom he en- 
 tertained at his quarters, and among the 
 rest his distinguished countryman, T. 
 Moore, whom for the first time he met 
 in this remote and romantic region. 
 
 But he had soon an opportunity of 
 contemplating the character of Indians 
 by living a considerable time among 
 them. The small pox is one of those 
 awful scourges that afflict the Indian 
 tribes, and is more fatal in sweeping 
 aw T ay the population than all their ex- 
 terminating w r ars among each other. 
 Of this he has recorded a most afflict- 
 ing incident, communicated to him by 
 an eye witness. “ A distant tribe, in 
 alliance with the Chippaways, had been 
 in a flourishing state, when it was first 
 attacked by this awful pest. In vain 
 their priests, prophets, and physicians 
 attempted to arrest its progress — they 
 themselves became its victims. The 
 survivors shifted their encampments 
 from place to place ; the inexorable pes- 
 tilence pursued them, till the whole 
 nation perished, with the exception of 
 one family, a man, his wife, and child. 
 This * last man’ fled towards the Bri- 
 tish settlements, and was seen to pitch 
 his wigwam at the edge of the forest: 
 but here too his enemy found him. 
 The woman and child sickened and died, 
 and the last survivor dug their grave, 
 and laid them in it : he then sat dowm 
 on the edge, and in this attitude he was 
 found by a passing traveller ; him he 
 requested to cover him up w ith his wife 
 and child, and then giving himself a 
 mortal wound, he flung himself upon 
 the bodies. The Indians seldom, if 
 ever, commit suicide ; but this was an 
 extreme case, which overcame the for- 
 titude even of the Stoic of the woods, 
 the man without a tear.”* 
 
 To arrest the progress and amelio- 
 rate the character of this disease 
 among the Indians, the Doctor, with 
 some other medical officers, w ere sent 
 by government to introduce vaccina- 
 tion. There are certain stations w r here 
 all the tribes who wander over the vast 
 continent, assemble periodically, and 
 remain encamped fora longer or shorter 
 time. One of those was on the shore 
 of the Grande Riviere, which falls into 
 the north side of Lake Erie. Here he 
 proceeded, and found an assemblage 
 of men, women, and children of va- 
 rious tribes, collected from very remote 
 quarters. As they were apprised that 
 he came to administer an antidote 
 against their ruthless foe, the small 
 pox, he had the most cordial and 
 
 Amulet for 1829. 
 
72 
 
 Memoir of the Late Edward Walsh , M.D. [Jan. 
 
 friendly reception. They erected for 
 him a cool and commodious wigwam ; 
 it was constructed of long flexible 
 poles, with each end stuck in the ground, 
 so as to form a circular roof, high 
 enough to stand or walk upright in. 
 The top was covered with skins, the 
 sides with birch bark, and the floor 
 within laid down with mats. They hunt- 
 ed for him every day, and his table was 
 abundantly supplied with venison, fish, 
 wild turkey, pheasants, and other fare ; 
 and he was tempted with bear, racoon, 
 squirrel, dog-flesh, and rattle-snake 
 soup, these being the choicest delica- 
 cies of an Indian mess. They sub- 
 mitted to the process of vaccination 
 with the most implicit confidence, 
 watched its progress with great atten- 
 tion ; and finding every thing turn out 
 as they were apprised it would, and 
 that no pain or sickness supervened, 
 the Doctor gained their entire confi- 
 dence and good-will, and they conti- 
 nued to bring their children to him 
 from the remotest parts, as long as he 
 remained in Canada. 
 
 Their first act of gratitude and con- 
 fidence was, their admitting him as a 
 member of their college of conjurors. 
 This was done by a very tedious and 
 arduous process, in which his patience 
 was severely tested. A small arched 
 hut was constructed, very close, and 
 barely high enough for a person to sit 
 upright. A dog was sacrificed, his bones 
 scraped, and then wrapped up in his 
 skin. On this he was placed sitting 
 near the door, where he was fumigated 
 till he was almost suffocated with to- 
 bacco smoke. A gaunt figure, dressed 
 in cow-hide, was then introduced, who 
 threw a pebble at him, and after sundry 
 other ceremonies, he finally came and 
 spit in his ear, which conferred on 
 him his degree, and qualified him to 
 see sights, dream dreams, swallow' an 
 oak tree, and, what he valued still more 
 highly, entitled him to admission to all 
 those occult rites and ceremonies 
 which are the Eleusinian mysteries of 
 the Indians, and from which all Euro- 
 peans are carefully excluded. 
 
 Of all the ceremonies, such as bore 
 a resemblance to those of the Jews 
 excited his deepest interest and atten- 
 tion. To examine them more minutely, 
 he went to reside for some time at a 
 Shawonese town, near Buffalo Creek. 
 It is very extraordinary, yet very true, 
 that this resemblance is so great as to 
 
 induce many writers of different nations 
 to affirm that they are the same people. 
 Emanuel de Moraez, a Portuguese, 
 asserts that America w r as peopled by 
 the Carthagenians and the Israelites, 
 and that such is the singular conformity 
 of their usages, that nothing but cir- 
 cumcision is wanting to identify them 
 and the latter. George Hoorn, a 
 Dutchman, supposes that the Jew's 
 migrated thither, but after other people 
 had been already settled there, and that 
 it was during a year’s voyage made by 
 the Tyrian fleet, in the reign of Soli- 
 man ; founding his opinion on the place 
 of embarkation in the Mediterranean, 
 as mentioned by Josephus. I. de Laet 
 affirms that tomb-stones w r ere dug up 
 with Hebrew inscriptions ; and P. 
 Martyr, that they have temples, with a 
 sanctuary, called the Holy of Holies, 
 w'here no one but their high priests can 
 enter. But the man who has examined 
 the matter most closely, and collected 
 the greatest number of facts bearing 
 upon the supposed identity of the 
 tw'O nations, is James Adair, an Eng- 
 lishman, who resided among the In- 
 dians for forty years. He supposes 
 that the Hebrew's migrated thither 
 either while they were a maritime peo- 
 ple, or soon after their captivity : and 
 he has collected together such a num- 
 ber of points of resemblance between 
 the ancient Asiatic and the present 
 American races, that it is difficult to be- 
 lieve that the similarity is merely acci- 
 dental. 
 
 He compares them under the fol- 
 lowing heads : — Divisions into tribes — 
 worship of Jehovah — notions of theo- 
 cracy — belief in the ministry of angels 
 — language and dialect — manner of 
 counting time-prophets and high priests 
 — festivals, fasts, and daily sacrifices — 
 ablutions and anointings — laws for un- 
 cleanness — abstinence from unclean 
 things — marriages, divorces, and pun- 
 ishments for adultery — civil punish- 
 ments — cities of refuge — purification, 
 and ceremonies preparatory to war — 
 ornaments — manner of curing the sick 
 — burial of the dead — raising seed to 
 a deceased brother — choice of names 
 adapted to circumstances and times — 
 traditions. To these internal evidences 
 he adds the testimonies of various 
 w riters, and occupies tw'O hundred and 
 forty quarto pages in this extensive 
 discussion. According to the observa- 
 tion of Doctor Walsh, many of these 
 
73 
 
 1834.] Memoir of the late Edward WaUh , M.D. 
 
 identities were fanciful, at least he could 
 not trace the resemblance, except very 
 faintly, as far as his own experience, or 
 the information derived from inquiry, 
 could enable him to judge ; but many, 
 he imagined, were not fanciful, but 
 founded on a most extraordinary coin- 
 cidence of the usages of the two na- 
 tions. Without entering into minute 
 details, the following is an outline of 
 the result of what he himself had an 
 opportunity of remarking. 
 
 The Hebrews were divided into 
 tribes, having particular patriarchal 
 chiefs over them, and they were distin- 
 guished by banners, bearing various 
 devices, according to the direction that 
 “ every man should camp by his stand- 
 ard under the ensign of his father’s 
 house.”* These emblems were inti- 
 mated by Jacob at his death, alluding 
 to the qualities of the persons, “ Judah 
 shall be as a lion’s whelp,” “ Isachar 
 as a strong ass,” “ Dan as a serpent,” 
 “ Napthali as a hind.”-)' Thus it is 
 with the Indians : they are divided 
 into tribes, each having its own patri- 
 archal chief, and an emblematic stand- 
 ard under which they array themselves 
 as “ under the standard of their fa- 
 thers.” These are marked by various 
 animals, the tortoise, the bear, the 
 eagle, the serpent, &c . as denoting the 
 qualities of patience, strength, swift- 
 ness, wisdom, &c. 
 
 The religion of the Jews was a 
 strict Theism. They were ordered to 
 worship at Jerusalem Jehova . , the one 
 only true and living God, and of this 
 God they were forbid to make any 
 likeness : “ Take good heed unto your- 
 selves, for you saw no image when the 
 Lord spake unto you in Horeb. Corrupt 
 not yourselves and make you a graven 
 image or representation of any figure.”^ 
 The Indians acknowledge but one 
 supreme, self-existing deity, whom they 
 call Jo he va , or the great spirit ; a 
 name very similar in sound to the for- 
 mer, and this they do with unadulte- 
 
 rated purity and simplicity. Of this 
 Being they were never known to make 
 any representation, he being, as they 
 say, a spirit, and having no body ; nor 
 do they recognise as divinities the 
 “ host of heaven,” nor defunct men, 
 nor evil demons, nor any other created 
 things. 
 
 The government of the Jews w r as a 
 theocracy. After they were erected 
 into a nation, God was properly their 
 king, gave them their civil laws, and 
 declared his will by their high priests, 
 and “ the breast-plate of judgment, the 
 Urim and Thummim,”$ ornamented 
 with precious stones ; and so they con- 
 tinued for four hundred years, till the 
 Jew’s requested a visible king, like the 
 surrounding nations. And “ God said, 
 they have cast me away that I should 
 not reign over them.”|| The Indians 
 acknowledge no king but Jo he va, the 
 great spirit, and him they consult prin- 
 cipally by a high priest, who wears on 
 his breast a kind of Urim and Thum- 
 inirn, a stomacher worked in figures, 
 ornamented with wampum and beads, 
 in which they suppose some emanation 
 of the great spirit resides, which the 
 high priest talks to, and consults in all 
 doubtful events, to know the will of 
 God, as David, If Hulda the prophet- 
 ess,** and others among the Jews. 
 
 The Jews were particularly addicted 
 to charms and prophecies, and con- 
 sulted on all important events a reve- 
 lation of the intentions of the Deity 
 through such intermediate communi- 
 cation. When Ahab wished to know 
 if he should go up against Ramoth 
 Gilead or forbear, he consulted the 
 prophets, who said, “ Go up, for the 
 Lord will deliver it into the hands of the 
 king ;”f f and this was sometimes ac- 
 companied by a fast, as it was by Ezra 
 at Ahava, “ to seek of Him a right 
 w'ay”JJ for the people. The Indians, 
 whenever they propose to go on an 
 expedition, or engage in any important 
 enterprise, use similar means to influ- 
 
 * Num. ii. 2. 
 
 f Num. xlix. 9, 14, 17, 21. In an old black letter Bible in Doctor Walsh’s 
 family, is a representation of Jacob’s death, and rude pictures of the several designa- 
 tions he gave his sons : these the Doctor used to say were exactly such as the In- 
 dians paint for a similar purpose, particularly the serpfent, the wolf, and such as were 
 common to both, which seemed as if they were cr/pied from his Bible. 
 
 I Deut. iv. 15, 16. $ Exod. xxvii. 30. || 1 Sam. viii. 7. 
 
 ^ 2 Sam. ii. 1. ** 2 Kings xxiv. 14. ff 1 Kings xxii 6. 
 
 U Ezra viii. 21. 
 
 VOL. III. 
 
74 
 
 Memoir of the late Edward Walsh , M.D. [Jan. 
 
 ence their decision. The priest is con- 
 sulted, and the dreamer sees his visions. 
 Having previously fasted for several 
 days, he reports the result. “ Brothers, 
 by the inspiration of the great spirit, I 
 now speak to you, and by him we are 
 prompted to carry into execution our 
 enterprise.” 
 
 The most remarkable religious rite 
 of the Jews was their Passover, insti- 
 tuted by Moses, and observed through 
 the whole period of their history, in the 
 times of Joshua, Samuel, Hezekiah, 
 and after their return from captivity. 
 A lamb without blemish was selected, 
 kept up, and prepared for a certain time, 
 and was slain in the first month, about 
 the fime of the vernal equinox. A 
 bunch of herbs (hyssop) was dipped 
 in the blood, and struck upon the lin- 
 tel and door cheeks, and then the lamb 
 was eaten by all present.* The Indians 
 have a ceremony singularly resembling 
 this, to which Doctor Walsh was by 
 special favour admitted. Preparatory 
 to their great feast, in the spring of the 
 year, not a lamb, for there are no na- 
 tive sheep in the country, but a dog was 
 selected, of the best quality ; he was 
 then kept up and fattened. On a cer- 
 tain day, when the company were as- 
 sembled in an edifice or temple ap- 
 pointed for the purpose, the high priest 
 in his robes brought him forward, and 
 having slain him and boiled him in a 
 kettle, he dipped a branch of the hem- 
 lock pine in the broth, and sprinkled it 
 every where about, not only on the 
 walls and doors, but on the people as- 
 sembled. He then cut the flesn into 
 small pieces on a platter, which was 
 handed round to the company, who 
 partook of it, not so much as a feast as 
 a mysterious religious ceremony. The 
 whole was concluded by a chaunt, of 
 which the burden was “ ya allah ye la,” 
 which exactly resembled in sound the 
 halleluiah of the psalms. 
 
 The Jews were desired, when they 
 killed an animal, to spill the blood 
 upon the ground ; for, says the law- 
 giver, “ the life of the flesh is the 
 blood, and it maketh atonement for the 
 soul.”-)' The Indians entertain opi- 
 nions somewhat similar, though not 
 very clearly expressed, and in practice 
 they always carefully spill the blood on 
 
 the ground, and willingly eat no ani- 
 mal food from which it has not been 
 extracted. 
 
 The Jews had various laws for puri- 
 fication, particularly with respect to 
 women, which were rigidly observed 
 by them.J The same laws are strictly 
 observed by the Indians, whose women 
 at certain times are shut up in sepa- 
 rate huts, and all communication cut 
 off between them and the rest of the 
 community. 
 
 The ecclesiastics of the Jews were 
 paid by tithes. The tribe of Levi had 
 forty-eight cities allotted to them by 
 the others, and Moses says the tribes 
 gave once in three years a tithe or 
 tenth of all they possessed.^ Some 
 resemblance of this usage exists among 
 the Indians. A prophet or seer un- 
 dertakes to bring down proper rains to 
 render the crops abundant every year ; 
 and if his predictions are verified, and 
 his intercession effectual, he receives as 
 his reward a tithe or certain portion 
 of the produce . 
 
 The Jews counted their year by 
 twelve moons, to some of which they 
 gave names indicative of the natural 
 qualities of the season of the year, and 
 they began their sacred year at the 
 vernal equinox. Thus Abib, cor- 
 responding with our March and April, 
 signified green corn, and Ethanim 
 the autumnal or fruit moon, signified 
 robust or full grown. The Indians 
 commence their year at the same 
 period, divide it into twelve moons, 
 named from the qualities of the season. 
 Thus April is called in their language 
 the moon of green plants, &c. 
 
 The Jews never reckoned their dis- 
 tances by space, but by time, as indeed 
 all the Orientals do at the present day ; 
 thus, “ Elijah went a day’s journey 
 into the wilderness”|| — about twenty 
 miles. The Indians never reckon 
 by miles, or leagues, or other 
 measurement of space, but like the 
 Jews, by the time it takes up to 
 perform it — a day’s journey and its 
 sub-divisions. When travelling, they 
 sometimes count by sleeps, making 
 “ the evening and the morning” their 
 designation of a day. 
 
 The marriage ceremonies of both 
 correspond in many particulars. The 
 
 f Lev. xvii. 2. f Lev. xv. 19. 
 |( 1 Kings xiv. 4. 
 
 * Exod. xii. 
 
 § Deut. xiv, 28, 29. 
 
75 
 
 1834 .] Memoir of the late Edward Walsh , M. D. 
 
 Jews purchased their wives, in some 
 measure, by making presents. Abra- 
 ham’s servant, in this way, purchased 
 Kebecca for Isaac, and Jacob, Leah, 
 and Rachel. “ Then the servant took 
 forth jewels of silver and jewels of 
 gold, and raiment, and gave them to 
 Rebecca ; and to her brother and to 
 her mother he gave gifts.”* When a 
 young Indian wishes to espouse a girl, 
 he asks permission of her father ; and 
 that being obtained, he brings or sends 
 the presents intended for the purchase 
 of his wife, and lays them at the door 
 of the wigwam. 
 
 Many circumstances of their fune- 
 rals also resemble. The Jews were 
 particularly attached to the ceme- 
 teries of their fathers. The patriarch 
 Jacob enjoins his sons to bury him 
 in Canaan, in the family sepulchre. 
 “ My father made me swear, saying, 
 bury me in my grave, which I have in 
 the land of Canaan.” And Joseph ex- 
 acts a similar thing from his people, to 
 carry his bones with them when they 
 leave Egypt. “Joseph took an oath 
 of the children of Israel, saying, ye 
 shall carry my bones hence.”f When 
 an Indian dies at any distance from his 
 tribe or nation, there is no duty consi- 
 dered more sacred by the survivors 
 than that of bringing "his body thither. 
 If it be in winter, it is wrapped in 
 skins, and preserved on a stage till the 
 weather enables them to travel, and 
 then it is carried for hundreds of miles 
 to the Canaan of the tribe, and depo- 
 sited with much ceremony in the grave 
 of his father. 
 
 War was the great employment of 
 the Jews. When they went to battle, 
 the “ priest came forth”t and addressed 
 the people, and various ceremonies of 
 fasting and purification w'ere performed, 
 and they carried on their hostilities 
 with the most fierce and exterminating 
 fury.J The Indians practise the same 
 rites before they commence, and in 
 their progress seem actuated by the 
 same feelings and practice, though the 
 motives were so dissimilar. The com- 
 mands of God, and the punishment of 
 a wicked and idolatrous people are un- 
 known or lost to the Indians, if ever 
 they existed among them, and a spirit of 
 
 revenge alone remains as an actuating 
 principle. The Jew r s hewed King Agag 
 to pieces, and exterminated generally 
 their prisoners, because they were ex- 
 pressly ordered to do. so by Jehovah 
 himself. The unsparing Indians imi- 
 tate them, though in a different w r ay 
 and from a different cause. 
 
 Among their traditions are several 
 which seem derived from the Mosaic 
 account of the creation and the fall of 
 man, the agency of woman and the in- 
 troduction of death. One of their Apo- 
 logues is aa follows : “ In the beginning 
 a few men rose out of the ground, but 
 there was no woman among them. 
 One of them found out the road to 
 heaven, where he met a woman. They 
 offended the gTeat spirit, upon w’hich 
 they were both thrust out. The 
 woman was delivered of male twins, 
 and in process of time one of the bro- 
 thers slew' the other.” 
 
 They have a tradition of the deluge, 
 that the w'orld was once under water, 
 which, indeed, the alluvial soil of the 
 whole country w'ould lead them to con- 
 jecture ; but they also add particulars 
 of an ark or canoe constructed, and a 
 dove and a raven sent out of it, which 
 seem derived from some other source 
 than mere natural appearances; and 
 they further add, that fire and not water 
 would be the next agent by which it 
 will be finally destroyed, believing 
 “ that the heavens and the earth which 
 now are, are reserved unto fire.”|| 
 
 Other resemblances no less remark- 
 able could be traced in their language, 
 being bold, concise, emphatical, and 
 sonorous and many of their w r ords, 
 both in orthography and signification, 
 nearly resembling those of the Hebrew ; 
 and generally many parts of their dress 
 and ornaments evince a taste and manner 
 strongly resembling those of the Jew's. 
 
 These and sundry similar circum- 
 stances which he had an opportunity of 
 observing, but which our present limits 
 will not permit us to particularise, in- 
 duced the Doctor to believe that the 
 resemblance w r as not fanciful, and could 
 not be altogether accidental, however 
 inexplicable. He some years after 
 met the late Archbishop of Dublin at 
 dinner, and detailed some of the pre- 
 
 * Gen. xxiv. 53. This circumstance is also alluded to by Hosea, iii. 2. 
 
 + Gen. 1. 2 — *25. J Deut. xx. 2. § Joshua, vi. 21. 1 Sam. xv. 33. and passim. 
 
 || 2 Peter, iii. 7. 
 
76 
 
 Memoir of the late Edward Walsh , M. D. [Jan. 
 
 ceding circumstances, with which he 
 was so much struck, that he requested 
 a memoir from the Doctor on that sub- 
 ject. This, with his usual urbanity, he 
 furnished, but what use was made of 
 it by his Grace does not appear. 
 
 Among the native chiefs with whom 
 Dr. Walsh had formed an intimacy, 
 were two very distinguished characters, 
 Brandt and Tecumseh. The former is 
 well known in Europe as the destroyer 
 of Wyoming, and handed down to the 
 horror of posterity by Campbell, in his 
 Poem of Gertrude. He was a Mo- 
 hawk warrior, and was named Brandt 
 after a Dutch foster father, who took 
 care of the young savage in his infancy. 
 The late Marquess of Hastings, when 
 Lord Moira, seeing him in America, 
 admired his courage and address, be- 
 came his patron, and brought him over 
 to London. Here he was prevailed on 
 to accompany him to a raasauerade in 
 his native costume, painted, plumed, 
 and armed as a real warrior, with one 
 half of his face stained black, and the 
 other red. One of the company, 
 habited as a Grand Turk, doubting if 
 it was not a mere masquerade dress, 
 touched the top of his nose to ascer- 
 tain if he really wore a masque. Of 
 all things, an American Indian cannot 
 bear personal freedoms. Brandt took 
 fire at the supposed insult, uttered his 
 terrific war-whoop, and brandishing 
 his tomahawk, would have cloven and 
 scalped the head of the Grand Turk, 
 had not Lord Moira interfered and ex- 
 lained the mistake. The company, 
 owever, took fright, and the Indian 
 warrior was left to himself, stalking up 
 and down the room in solitary magni- 
 ficence. On his return to America, he 
 w r as employed on Indian affairs, was 
 accused by his tribe of official pecula- 
 tion, and called to account. On this 
 occasion, he requested the interference 
 of his friend, Dr. W alsh, who exerted 
 himself in his favor. His latter end 
 was miserable. He was a man of the 
 most impetuous and ungovernable pas- 
 sions, which were greatly inflamed by 
 ardent spirits, to which, in common 
 with his nation, he addicted himself. 
 On one occasion a violent quarrel en- 
 sued with his eldest son, w ho w r as so 
 exasperated that he attacked his father. 
 They rolled on the floor till the father, 
 drawing his knife, stabbed his son to 
 the heart. He never recovered the 
 
 effects of this murder, but died a short 
 time after, of incessant intoxication. 
 
 Tecumseh had all the energetic quali- 
 ties and none of the vices of Brandt. 
 The Doctor, after stating the past and 
 present state of the American Indians, 
 thus concludes with the character of 
 his friend Tecumseh. “ It is not pre- 
 suming too much to suppose that if the 
 country had not been visited by Euro- 
 peans, they would have emulated, in 
 some degree, the Greek republics. 
 It is true they had no letters, but nei- 
 ther could Homer or his heroes read 
 or write. The Irekees joined the elo- 
 quence of the Athenians to the cou- 
 ruge, frugality, fortitude, and equality 
 of the Spartans. They had no gor- 
 geous temples built with hands, but 
 the sky was their temple, and the great 
 spirit was their God. They fared as 
 well as the Kings of Sparta, wiio eat 
 their black broth at the same board 
 with their fellow citizens, in a building 
 not better than a Mohawk council 
 house. They live in thatched cabins, 
 but so did Phocion and Socrates, in the 
 midst of the magnificence of Athens.” 
 
 “ Many fine specimens of personal 
 appearance may still be seen in the 
 Illenee, Potawotamee, and Miamee 
 tribes. Straight, muscular, clean limbed, 
 erect, and noble figures, and many Ro- 
 man countenances may be noticed 
 among them. The figure of the In- 
 dian warrior in the foreground of 
 West’s picture of the Death of General 
 W olf, gives a good idea of them. Such 
 a figure was the Shawonese w arrior, Te- 
 cumseh, w’ho suddenly appeared on the 
 theatre of events in Canada, and proved 
 that the Indian fire was not yet extinct. 
 He was not only a warrior, but an ora- 
 tor, a sachem, and a prophet. In the 
 late short American w r ar, when hostili- 
 ties commenced on the Canadian fron- 
 tiers, he took up the hatchet and com- 
 manded the Indian allies on our side. 
 He had the address to make his way 
 through several of the United States, 
 and bring off with him many Indian 
 recruits ; but the whole force he could 
 muster did not exceed 650 men. The 
 American General Hull crossed the 
 strait at Amhersberg, and erected the 
 American standard, evidently with 
 a view to make a permanent settlement 
 in Canada ; but he attempted in vain 
 to bring over our Provincials and In- 
 dians — not one of them joined him. 
 
77 
 
 1834 .] Memoir of the late Edward Walsh, M. D. 
 
 Tecumeeh, with his band of warriors, 
 broke up for Lake Michigan, and sur- 
 prised all the American parties along 
 the lake. He burst upon them like 
 another Judas Maccabeus, bringing 
 terror and desolation. He co-operated 
 with General Brock at the battle of 
 Kappohanno, and forced Hull to re- 
 cross the straight. He was pursued by 
 Tecumseh, who attacked the American 
 camp before Detroit, and obliged their 
 general to surrender that important for- 
 tress. In a subsequent engagement 
 Brock w r as struck by a rifle ball, and 
 fell dead from his horse. Tecumseh 
 also fell by a similar murderous shot, 
 but not till the gallant efforts of those 
 heroes had already saved Upper 
 Canada. 
 
 “ Tecumseh was no less a warrior than 
 a politician. The vigour of his physi- 
 cal powers was only surpassed by the 
 energy of his mind. He conceived a 
 practical plan of collecting the various 
 tribes to the West of the Lakes, and 
 founding a confederate red republic. 
 There still remains the brave Na- 
 dowassie nation, with its associated 
 tribes. They are now expert and in- 
 
 trepid horsemen, and the whole hope 
 of Indian independence rests on the 
 possibility of some Indian Gengis, Be- 
 ber, or Tamerlane rising up and organiz- 
 ing those red Cossacks. But those spe- 
 culations are vain. The influx of white 
 emigrants from various countries has 
 «et in so strong, wave impelling wave, 
 that the natives have been literally 
 pushed from their paternal hunting 
 ground, and what remains of them 
 have been driven far into the depths of 
 the wilderness, and the severities of a 
 rude and inhospitable climate. 
 
 “ Their history is mysterious, and 
 their fate is severe. Like the autumnal 
 leaves of their illimitable forests, they 
 are driven before the blast, and gliding 
 from the face of the earth, leaving no 
 memorial on record that they had ever 
 existed. An unlettered race, their 
 laws and customs, their feats in arms, 
 their speeches, their wars, their trea- 
 ties have been preserved on their own 
 belts of wampum, a sealed book to all 
 the world but themselves. No Homer, 
 no Ossian has transmitted to posterity, 
 in traditional rhapsodies, their heroes, 
 battles, and adventures 
 
 Sed omnes jllachrymabiles 
 Urgentur, ignotique longa 
 Nocte, carent quia vate sacro.” 
 
 Ilor. Carm. 1. iv. Od. 9. 
 
 There is a melancholy eloquence in 
 the above sketch, which is the more 
 affecting because it is true. W e are daily 
 exterminating a noble and interesting 
 race of fellow-men, not more by our 
 usurpation of their territory than by 
 the vices, habits, and distempers we 
 have introduced among them. It had 
 been Doctor Walsh’s intention to res- 
 cue the memory, at least, of these inte- 
 resting people from oblivion, as far as 
 in him lay ; and to this end he had 
 collected a vast body of information 
 for a statistical History of Canada, in- 
 cluding its botany, mineralogy, and 
 other scientific subjects, as well as of 
 the habits, usages, customs, and cha- 
 racter of its primitive inhabitants ; but 
 his professional avocations always in- 
 terfered, and the only records of the 
 red race which he has given to the 
 public, are some beautiful views of their 
 country, originally intended for his 
 work, and partial details in different 
 periodicals, from which some of the 
 
 above passages are extracted. Among 
 the information which he proposed to 
 give, were details of the habits and pro- 
 pensities of the wild animals of North 
 America, which he imagined partook 
 more of the energy and sagacity of the 
 aborigines, than those of other coun- 
 tries. To this end, his friendly Indians 
 collected for him a menagerie, which 
 he kept in a domestic state, and his 
 family consisted generally of a black 
 bear, a beaver, a racoon, a snake, a 
 mocking-bird, a humming-bird, and 
 sundry others, who were all amusing 
 and familiar inmates, and of whose in- 
 stincts and capacities he has furnished 
 his friends with many interesting anec- 
 dotes. 
 
 Among the propensities of Doctor 
 Walsh, was always a strong curiosity 
 to observe the instincts and faculties 
 of inferior animals, and to try how 
 far they could be improved by cultiva- 
 tion. When he was young, he and 
 his brothers domesticated several pets, 
 
78 
 
 Memoir of the late Edward Walsh , M.D. [Jan* 
 
 and the house was never without hawks, 
 or herons, or guinea-pigs, or some such 
 favourites. But the greatest, and that 
 on which most pains were bestowed, 
 was a brown water spaniel, called 
 Quail, anecdotes of whose singular 
 sagacity have since embellished a popu- 
 lar annual. One of them was as fol- 
 lows : — John Comerford, an artist, w'ho 
 afterwards became very eminent in 
 Dublin, and was esteemed our Irish 
 Sir Thomas Lawrence, commenced his 
 career in Waterford and Carrick-on- 
 Suir as portrait painter, and among the 
 earliest efforts of his pencil were the 
 portraits of Doctor Walsh’s family ; 
 that of his mother was an excellent 
 picture and a strong likeness, and was 
 ever after the object of the painter’s 
 peculiar regard, from the following 
 circumstance. After the picture was 
 drawn, the original went on a visit 
 to the house of a friend, and Quail, who 
 was particularly attached to her, was 
 very uneasy at her absence. When 
 the picture was sent home, before it w r as 
 hung up, it was set on a sopha, where 
 she used to sit to read and work ; the 
 family could not one day account for the 
 outrageous joy of Quail in the drawing- 
 room, but on looking in, they saw that 
 she had recognised the picture, and 
 was wagging her tail, and frisking about, 
 as she always did, to express her joy, 
 frequently leaping up and licking tne 
 face, a mark of affection she always 
 tried to pay to those she was fond of. 
 After the picture was hung up, she 
 never failed to notice it when she 
 entered the room, and lay for some 
 time before it on the carpet, gazing at 
 it intently, and this practice she con- 
 tinued, till the return of the original 
 quite absorbed her attention from the 
 representation. A writer on natural 
 history mentions a similar fact, the only 
 solitary one that he had ever heard 
 of, as the highest instance of animal 
 sagacity. So thought Comerford ; he 
 considered it the greatest compliment 
 that ever was paid to his pencil, and 
 to the last hour of his life he never 
 failed to pay a visit to the Doctor’s 
 house, to contemplate his handy work, 
 and talk of the curious anecdote. The 
 portrait of the Doctor prefixed to this 
 article, was a sketch made by this 
 eminent artist in one of his periodical 
 visits. 
 
 After a residence of six years in 
 Canada, the Doctor left it with regret, 
 
 visited the United States, and returned 
 to England attached to a regiment of 
 dragoon guards, and proceeded, we 
 believe, with them to the Peninsula. 
 He was subsequently appointed to the 
 staff, as physician to the forces, and in 
 that capacity served in the unfortunate 
 expedition to Walcheren, w'here he 
 suffered severely, in common with so 
 many others, from the intermittent 
 fever engendered in the pestiferous 
 marshes of that island, which periodi- 
 cally attacked him in some form or 
 other, as long as he lived. The state 
 of his health however did not prevent 
 him from proceeding to the Continent, 
 both before and after the return of 
 Napoleon from Elba, and he was pre- 
 sent at the attack on Bergen-op-Zoom, 
 where he had the gallant but obstinate 
 General Skerret under his care. He 
 had been wounded on a former occa- 
 sion, and was altogether unfit for ser- 
 vice, but no persuasion of his physician 
 could induce him to remain in his tent 
 on that fatal night : he led the attack, and 
 was helped limping along by a sergeant, 
 scaled the rampart from his shoulders, 
 and never returned ; he received a 
 W'ound through the body and several 
 contusions from the butts of French 
 muskets after he fell ; he died that 
 night in the hospital of the fortress, 
 where he was confined with other 
 prisoners in that unfortunate attack, 
 without the consolation of his friend 
 and physician, who never saw' him again. 
 The Doctor remained on the Continent 
 till the battle of Waterloo, w'here his 
 medical services were unfortunately 
 too much required for many a disabled 
 friend, and he was finally appointed 
 President of the Medical Board esta- 
 blished at Ostend, with which official 
 situation he terminated his career as a 
 military medical officer, when the Bri- 
 tish army w r as withdrawn from the 
 Continent. 
 
 While in the Netherlands, he had an 
 opportunity of indulging his favourite 
 propensity for the fine arts, by the ac- 
 quisition of a number of excellent pic- 
 tures which however he was not fated 
 to keep. When the country w r as oc- 
 cupied by the French armies, it is well 
 known that they seized without scru- 
 ple every thing worth taking away. 
 Among the rest the Descent from the 
 Cross by Rubens, w'hich had adorned 
 the cathedral of Antwerp ; — the cele- 
 brated Chapeau de paille however had 
 
79 
 
 1834 .] Memoir of the late Edward Walsh , M. D. 
 
 disappeared, and no search of the 
 French could discover it. It after- 
 wards came out, that its proprietor, 
 with several others who possessed 
 valuable pictures, had buried them in 
 gardens and cellars, and on the retreat 
 of the French, they all re-appeared, 
 and the possessors were glad to dispose 
 of many of them for such prices as 
 the English could give and the French 
 would not. In this way Doctor Walsh 
 made many fine acquisitions, and had 
 in his possesion as valuable and genuine 
 collection of the Flemish school as 
 most private gentlemen. But how to 
 convey them to England was the ques- 
 tion which his hospital sergeant under- 
 took to decide : he packed them up 
 in several empty medicine chests, and 
 in this way they were safely conveyed 
 with the luggage of the staff, and de- 
 posited in the King’s stores, where 
 they lay for a long time, as the Doctor 
 supposed, in perfect security, while he 
 was performing his medical duties on 
 the Continent. It so happened how- 
 ever that a very extensive and unjustifi- 
 able attempt had been made to smuggle 
 lace and other articles into England on 
 the return of the troops, and by persons 
 of high rank, to the great detriment 
 of the revenue, and the discovery of this 
 induced them to search narrowly, when 
 many things which officers of the army 
 had supposed were duty free, were 
 seized and confiscated ; — among the 
 rest the medicine chests were opened, 
 a thing never attempted before, and in- 
 stead of rhubarb and calomel, they were 
 seen to contain nothing but Rubens and 
 Vandykes. When the Doctor return- 
 ed to England he found all his treasures 
 carried off, and he never recoverd 
 them ; he had subsequently, however, 
 purchased a few beautiful cabinet pic- 
 tures which he conveyed home in his 
 own luggage, and of them he formed 
 a very pleasing collection, containing 
 some rare and beautiful pieces of Cuyp 
 and other Flemish artists. 
 
 The various climates, classes, and 
 states of society which Dr. Walsh’s 
 duties introduced him to, furnished 
 him with more curious and useful pro- 
 fessional knowledge, than usually falls 
 
 to the lot of those whose practice i£ 
 always stationary. This he was careful 
 to avail himself of, and has recorded 
 many very interesting and extra- 
 ordinary cases. We shall slightly 
 notice one or two : — A soldier of the 
 6th dragoon guards, under his care, 
 was affected with petechiae, like those 
 of typhus fever, which formed small 
 spots all over his body. From a minute 
 point in the centre of those, there issued 
 an exudation of florid blood, particu- 
 larly from his mouth aud fauces, till 
 his whole frame seemed in a state of 
 putrid solution ; yet he seemed free 
 from any complaint, till the excess 
 of the haemorrhage induced a debility, 
 under which he rapidly sunk. This 
 case, with the post mortem examination 
 of the patient, he published at the time, 
 and it seems to have been the first dis- 
 tinct account of a morbid affection since 
 called Purpura Hemorrhagica, which 
 Burserius and Willan had before but 
 vaguely and obscurely noticed.* Ano- 
 ther was the case of a vigorous and 
 robust American farmer, who had been 
 operated on for calculus. An abscess 
 formed near the spot, which, on open- 
 ing, he found to be filled with active 
 insects, exactly resembling small flies 
 without wings ; several other swellings 
 appeared under his axilla, which all 
 contained myriads of the same animals, 
 till his whole body was undermined, 
 and finally consumed by this new and 
 frightful species of morbus pedicularis. 
 
 He now remained at home, a miles 
 emeritus , with the provision of a de- 
 serving officer who had served his 
 country long and faithfully in many 
 countries of the globe. When retired 
 from active life, he formed the delight 
 of his domestic, and a few social circles in 
 Dublin, to which his experience and 
 information, as well as his very kind 
 and amiable qualities, greatly endeared 
 him. Though suffering from a wound 
 and precarious and delicate health, 
 which severe duty and insalubrious 
 climates had entailed on him, he never 
 lost that calm and philosophic cheer- 
 fulness which distinguished his charac- 
 ter ; and though he had encountered 
 such various perils and rough vicissi- 
 
 * Edinburgh Medical Journal, for 1813. The disease appears to have since 
 become more common. A very curious case of the kind occurred in the Finglas 
 Dispensary, which, with others, were published by Dr. Harty, we believe, in one of 
 the Dublin Medical Reports. 
 
80 
 
 Memoir of the late Edward Walsh , M.D. [Jan. 
 
 tudes, and mixed so much with all 
 ranks and modes of* life, he was most 
 modest and unassuming’, retaining in 
 his manners the gentleness and sim- 
 plicity of a child. He thus passed 
 many tranquil and happy years with 
 relations, who looked up to him 
 with the deference and affection of 
 children, and old friends, who re- 
 spected him for his worth, admired 
 
 him for his talents, and loved him for 
 his benevolence, and he calmly termi- 
 nated a meritorious and active life at 
 his house on Summer-hill, Dublin, in 
 February, 1832, leaving behind him, as 
 a writer justly observes, “the character 
 of a man who so passed through the 
 world as to attach many warm friends, 
 and was never known to have an 
 enemy.”* 
 
 * Biographical Notice in the United Service Journal. 
 
 COME AWAY! 
 
 SONG FOR MUSIC, BY MRS. HEMANS. 
 
 Come away ! — the child, whose flowers arc springing 
 Round his footsteps on the mountain slope, 
 
 Hears a glad voice from the uplands singing. 
 
 Like the sky-lark’s, with its tone of hope ; 
 
 “ Come away !” 
 
 Bounding on, with sunny lands before him, 
 
 All the wealth of glowing life outspread, 
 
 Ere the shadow of a cloud comes o’er him. 
 
 By that strain the youth is onward led ; 
 
 “ Come away !” 
 
 Slowly, sadly, heavy change is falling 
 O’er the sweetness of the voice within, 
 
 Yet its tones, on restless manhood calling, 
 
 Urge the Hunter still to speed — to win ; 
 
 “ Come away !” 
 
 Come away ! — the heart, at last forsaken, 
 
 Smile by smile hath prov’d each hope untrue ; 
 
 Yet a breath can still those words awaken, 
 
 Tho’ to other shores far hence they w oo ; 
 
 “ Come away!” 
 
 In the light W'ave, in the reed’s faint sighing, 
 
 In the low sw’eet sounds of early Spring, 
 
 Still their music wanders, till the dying 
 Hear it pass, as on a spirit’s w ing ; 
 
 “ Come away !”