BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 267
misfortune, after a sharp combat of an hour and a half, to have expended every
shot that we had of our artillery. Under such circumstances we were of course
compelled to surrender.”
According to his own account, Colonel Campbell at first experienced most
honourable and humane treatment from the authorities at Boston. A sudden
change, however, followed. In a letter addressed to General Howe, and forwarded
to him through the hands of the Council at Boston, Colonel Campbell
thus describes his situation :-
.
I Concord Gaol, February 14, 1777.
* *
“ I am lodged in a dungeon of twelve or thirteen feet square, whose sides are black with the
grease and litter of successive criminals. Two doors, with double locks and bolts, shut me up from
the yard, with an express prohibition to enter it, either for my health or the necessary calls of nature.
“ Two small windows, strongly grated with iron, introduce a gloomy light to the apartment, and
these are at this hour without a single pane of glass, although the season, for frost and snow, is
actually in the extreme. In the corner of the cell, boxed up with the partition, stands a *
which does not seem to have been cleared since its first appropriation to this convenience of malefactors.
A loathsome black-hole, decorated with a pair of fixed chains, is granted me for my inner
apartment, from whence a felon was but the moment before removed, to make way for your humble
servant, and in which his litter to this hour remains. The attendance of a single servant on my
person is also denied me, and every visit from a friend positively refused.”
I . * *
It was in this loathsome dwelling that Colonel Campbell pencilled the sketch
of ‘‘ General Buttons Marching to Saratoga with Plunder.” During the Colonel’s
confinement, a variety of events had occurred unfavourable to the British interest,
-among others, the surrender of General Burgoyne and his small army, at the
heights of Saratoga, on the 17th October 1777. General Buttons is accordingly
represented on his march from the “field of spoil;” and, it must be granted,
he has contrived to make the most of his limited means of conveyance.
The cruel treatment of Colonel Campbell and other British officers by the
Americans originated in the law of retaliation, which they considered themselves
warranted in adopting by the conduct of the British towards Colonel Ethen
Allan and General Lee, in treating them not as prisoners of war but as criminals.
As soon as the Congress was informed of the capture of General Lee, they
offered six field-officers-of whom Colonel Campbell was one-in exchange.
This the British General (Howe) refused. It was contended in Findication of
the British, however, that even waiving the peculiar relation in which the prisoners
stood, as having violated their allegiance, they had proper attendants, and were
comfortably lodged.
The imprisonment of Colonel Campbell continued till the exchange of
prisoners was effected in the month of February following-the capture of General
Burgoyne having led to a speedy and amicable arrangement.
268 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
KO. CVIII.
MR. JOHN WRIGHT,
LECTURER ON LAW.
MR. WRIGHT was the son of a poor cottar in Argyleshire,' who, by smuggling
between that coast and the Isle of Man, was enabled to maintain his family for
many years in comparative comfort ; but, finding his " occupation gone," in
consequence of the strict prohibitory measures enforced by Government, a short
time prior to the transfer of the sovereignty of that island in 1768, he left the
Highlands and settled in Greenock. Here the future " lecturer on law," who
had been bred to the humble occupation of a shoemaker, manifested an uncommon
desire for knowledge. Whilst employed at his laborious avocation, his
mind was generally engaged in study. It is told of him, that to aid his memory
in acquiring a knowledge of the Latin language, and not having the command
of writing materials, he used to conjugate the verbs on the wall of his work-room
with the point of his awl.
Having mastered the rudiments of the Latin tongue, he removed to Glasgow,
where, with no other assistance than the proceeds of his labour, he entered
a student at the University ; and, notwithstanding the manifest disadvantages
under which he laboured, made rapid progress in his studies. Indeed, so
decided was his success that he soon found himself almost wholly relieved from
the drudgery of shoemaking, by giving private lessons to his less assiduous
class-fellows-many of whom, being the sons of noblemen and wealthy commoners,
remunerated him liberally for his instructions. The views of our scholastic
aspirant being directed towards the Church, he was in due course of time
licensed to preach ; but finding himself destitute of patronage-and perhaps
aware, from a deficiency in oratorical powers, that he might never become popular
in the pulpit-he yielded to the advice of several of the professors, whose
friendship his talents had secured, and set about attaining a more thorough knowledge
of the higher branches of mathematics, which at that period were not considered
so essential as they now are to the student of divinity.
After having attained, if not the reality, but what was in his case much
better, the reputation of knowledge in this new study, Mr. Wright removed to
Edinburgh, where he commenced teaching mathematics and the science of military
architecture. This proved a very lucrative speculation, a great number of
young men about Edinburgh being at the time preparing to go out to India.
With the view of ultimately pushing himself forward to the bar, Mr. Wright
1 In the minutes of the Faculty of Advocates, Mr. Wright is described-"eldest son of the
deceased Mr. John Wright, of the parish of Kilfinnan, in Argyleshire."
