Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 8.djvu/303

Rh enviable mark of my country's regard. This honest ambition is now fully gratified, and I am more than ever bound to try to merit the good opinion of the house."

Having been relieved from his military duties at Cadiz in the summer of 1811, General Graham joined the army under the Duke of Wellington, where he was appointed second in command. But a complaint in his eyes, by the use of a telescope in the glaring atmosphere of Spain, and frequent writing by candle-light, obliged him to quit the army while it was employed in the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo. He returned to England, where he obtained a cure, after which he rejoined the British forces in the Peninsula, and commanded the left wing at the battle of Vittoria. His able services during this conflict were honourably mentioned in the despatch of Wellington on the occasion. After this he continued to share in the subsequent movements of the campaign, and commanded at the siege of St. Sebastian, where he obtained possession both of the town and castle—the former by capitulation, and the latter by storm. He also commanded the left wing of the British army when it crossed the Bidassoa into the territory of France, upon which he succeeded in obtaining a footing after a desperate resistance. In the following year (1814) he was appointed commander of the British forces in Holland, where he made an unsuccessful siege of Bergen- op-Zoom. It was no wonder that he should have failed against a fortress so strong, and so bravely and skilfully defended. Sir Thomas Graham had already shown that he was a brave, prompt, and effective soldier, fitted for all the emergencies of an open field, and able to win a decisive victory, even under untoward circumstances. But he had not learned war as a science; and to conduct such a siege would have required a thorough acquaintanceship with the whole mathematics of military service. It was only by such men as Bonaparte or Wellington that Mantua could have been reduced to a surrender, or Badajoz taken by storm. His failure at Bergen-op-Zoom, however, neither detracted from the estimation in which he was held, nor the public honours that awaited him ; and in May, 1814, after having received the thanks of Parliament, he was raised to the peerage by the title of Baron Lynedoch, of Balgowan, in Perthshire, with a pension of 2000. He had previously, during his course of service, been created a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath* and afterwards a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Michael and St. George. He was also a Knight of the Tower and Sword in Portugal. But the return of peace also brought with it an honour of an exclusively peaceful character; this was the Lord Rectorship of the University of Glasgow, which was conferred in full senate, by the votes of the enthusiastic students, upon the chivalrous victor of Barossa.

The course of Lord Lynedoch's life was now one of unobtrusive tranquillity. He had sought nothing more than forgetfulness amidst the din of war, and found in it rank and fame. In 1821, he received the full rank of general; in 1826, he was removed to the colonelcy of the 14th Foot; and in 1829, he was appointed governor of Dumbarton Castle, an office with a salary of only 170 attached to it, but still it has always been accounted of high honour in our country. "Sir William Wallace," said the valet of the Duke of Argyle, "was governor of it in the old wars of the English, and his grace is governor just now. It is always intrusted to the best man in Scotland."

The latter part of the life of Lord Lynedoch, as the infirmities of old age grew upon him, was spent chiefly in Italy ; but the visit of her Majesty Queen