Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 8.djvu/268

 Both men and officers feel his loss severely, and at this juncture the loss the service has sustained is incalculable.' But those who knew Colonel Fordyce, not only as a soldier, but as a man and a Christian, can truly estimate his loss to his regiment and his country. As chaplain to the 74th Highlanders, I had frequent opportunity of meeting and observing him. I can truly say that, under God, he devoted himself to his regiment and the service. Though not a member of the Presbyterian Church, he was never absent from his pew on the Lord's-day. I continually found him superintending the regimental Sabbath and week-day schools, and could trace his kind advice and charity everywhere among the sick in hospital, the families and recruits of his regiment. On the evening before the 74th Highlanders left Clonmel for the Cape of Good Hope, he called and handed me ₤10 for charitable purposes, requesting that I should not give his name as the donor. Besides this, he had given, through my name, within the three preceding months, ₤15 to other charities. What his other donations were I know not. From what I have heard, they must have been numerous, as I am sure they were unostentatious. The lamentable death of Colonel Fordyce affords me the sad pleasure of acknowledging the benevolence and worth which he would not permit to be made known while he was alive. I feel his death as if it were a personal bereavement, and I pray that our army may be blessed by many such officers. I remain, yours truly,

"Manse, Clonmel, 10th January, 1852."."

As evincing the Christian and philanthropic spirit by which Colonel Fordyce was animated, one or two extracts from letters to the writer of these lines may be given. The following was received after a domestic bereavement:—

" ―,― My having been sent from Dublin with a flying column in pursuit of Smith O'Brien and other rebels, must be my apology for not having written to acknowledge the receipt of the announcement of the deprivation you have sustained, and to assure you of my unfeigned sympathy. I may express my hope that, sustained by the same consolations which you have been so long the honoured instrument of imparting to others, your own bodily health and ability for active exertion may remain unimpaired.

"I need not trespass upon you at this time with any notice of the treasonable proceedings here. The newspapers have given a full account of everything that has occurred; and so far as we (the column of troops) are concerned, we have seen no enemy excepting the continual rain, which is, of course, a very disagreeable one, as we have been marching about and encamped since the 28th July. O'Brien is, as you know, captured, and quietly lodged in jail, and I have no doubt that all thought of open armed rebellion is at an end for the present.

"However it may fare with this unfortunate country, any one of common observation must see that the whole European world is in an unprecedented state; and that whatever may be our exact place in the series of predicted events, some great overwhelming change in the whole structure of human society is impending. My reading of "Elliot's Horæ Apocalypticæ" has been interrupted by my present occupations, before I could get beyond the first volume, or form any opinion as to his system of interpretation of unfulfilled prophecy. Amidst all the changes, present and coming, upon this world, we have individually many warnings to place our hopes on a world where change and cares are alike unknown, considerations which it is superfluous in me to suggest to your matured and practised mind, but which rise naturally as the great