Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 8.djvu/200

148 than that so many acknowledgments should have rewarded it, at a season, too, when gallant actions at sea were events of every-day occurrence.

Soon after, war was declared against Denmark; and on hearing of this, Sir A. Cochrane concerted measures with General Bowyer for the reduction of St. Thomas, St. John's, and St. Croix, islands belonging to the Danish crown. In a few months the whole were captured, along with a valuable fleet of Danish merchantmen. His next service was in the reduction of Martinique, where he co-operated with General Beckwith; and for this acquisition, he and his gallant land partner received the thanks of both Houses of Parliament. The reduction of Guadaloupe followed, in which both commanders joined, and were equally successful; and in 1810 Cochrane, in reward of his services, was appointed governor and commander in chief of Guadaloupe and its dependencies. In this situation he continued till 1813, when a war with the United States called him once more into action. He was appointed to the command of the fleet on the coast of North America, and on assuming office, he shut up and watched the ports of the United States with a most vigilant and effectual blockade. Soon after this the universal peace ensued, which has only of late been terminated, and in 1815 Sir Alexander Cochrane returned to England. He was raised to the rank of full admiral in 1819, and held the office of commander-in-chief at Plymouth from 1821 to 1824.

The brave old admiral, like the rest of his cotemporaries of the land and sea service, was now obliged to change a life of action for one of repose, and find enjoyment in the tranquillity of home, and the pleasures of social intercourse. In this manner he passed the rest of his days, honoured and beloved by all who knew him. His death, which occurred at Paris, was fearfully sudden. Accompanied by his brother he went, on the morning of the 26th of January, 1832, to visit his daughter, Lady Trowbridge, for the purpose of inviting his young grand-children to an evening entertainment; but while he was affectionately caressing them he suddenly started, placed his hand on his left side, and exclaiming to Mr. Cochrane, "O brother, what a dreadful pain!" he fell back into his arms, and instantly expired.

—This excellent physician and physiologist was the fifteenth child, and seventh son of Mr. George Combe, brewer, at Livingston's Yards, in the suburbs of Edinburgh, and Marion Newton, his wife, and was born on the 27th of October, 1797. After being educated in the initiatory branches at a private seminary, he was sent at the age of eight to the High School of Edinburgh, and having continued there at the study of Latin and Greek for five years, he went to the university, where, in the course of two seasons, he contrived to forget what Latin he had learned at school, and become a respectable Grecian. But with all this teaching of dead languages, his own was allowed to shift as it might, so that, although he could read Homer, he was unable to pen a tolerable ordinary epistle. Like many others under a similar process of teaching, and who have risen to distinction in the world of authorship in spite of such a perverted education, Andrew Combe, by the diligent self-cultivation of after years, acquired that mastery of the English language and excellence in composition, which his works so fully attest. After he had passed a sickly taciturn boyhood, and entered his fifteenth year, it was fitting that he should announce the future profession he meant to follow; but to every question on this head from his parents, his invariable answer was, "I'll no be naething." They understood these two negatives in the Scottish