Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 35.djvu/410

 :: vol. i. 4to.
 * 1) ‘Letters between the Rev. James Granger, M.A., and many of the most eminent Literary Men of his Time,’ Lond. 1805, 8vo.
 * 2) ‘First Impressions, or Sketches from Art and Nature, Animate and Inanimate,’ Lond. 1807, 8vo.
 * 3) ‘Excursions in the Counties of Kent, Gloucester, Hereford, Monmouth, and Somersetshire in 1802, 1803, and 1805; illustrated by Descriptive Sketches,’ Lond. 1807, 8vo; 2nd edit. Lond. 1814, 8vo, with twenty-four beautiful plates.
 * 4) ‘Anecdotes of the Manners and Customs of London during the Eighteenth Century; including the Charities, Depravities, Dresses, and Amusements of the City of London during that Period; with a Review of the State of Society in 1807. To which is added a Sketch of the Domestic and Ecclesiastical Architecture, and of the various Improvements in the Metropolis, illustrated by fifty Engravings,’ Lond. 1808, 4to; another edit. Lond. 1810, 8vo.
 * 5) ‘Anecdotes of the Manners and Customs of London, from the Roman Invasion to the Year 1700, illustrated by eighteen Engravings,’ Lond. 1811, 4to. This and the previous work were reprinted, 5 vols. Lond. 1811, 8vo.
 * 6) ‘Miscellaneous Anecdotes, illustrative of the Manners and History of Europe during the Reigns of Charles II, James II, William III, and Queen Anne,’ Lond. 1811, 8vo.
 * 7) ‘An Historical Sketch of the Art of Caricaturing, with graphic Illustrations,’ Lond. 1813, 4to.



MALCOLM, JOHN (1769–1833), Indian administrator and diplomatist, fourth son of George Malcolm of Burnfoot, in the parish of Westerkirk, Dumfriesshire, a member of a younger branch of the Malcolms of Lachore, Fifeshire, by his wife Margaret, daughter of James Pasley of Craig, Dumfriesshire, was born at Burnfoot on 2 May 1769. His brothers Charles and Pulteney are separately noticed. By tradition ‘the scapegrace and scapegoat of the family,’ a quick and daring boy, John left the Westerkirk parish school at the age of twelve. His father, ruined by untoward speculations, had already placed three sons in the public services. In July 1781 John Malcolm's maternal uncle, John Pasley, a prosperous London merchant, visited Eskdale and took the boy with him to London, hoping to place him in the East India Company's service. For a short time he put him to school under a Mr. Allen, and then procured him a nomination, and before the end of the year took him before the directors. The interview is famous. The directors were for refusing a commission in their army to a child not yet thirteen. ‘Why, my little man,’ said one, ‘what would you do if you met Hyder Ali?’ ‘Cut aff his heid,’ said the boy laconically. He was passed at once, and his commission made out and dated October 1781. He remained some months longer at school, and sailed for India in the Busbridge in the autumn of 1782.

He landed at Madras in April 1783, and was first appointed to do duty with a regiment at Vellore. His first service was as ensign in command of two companies of sepoys, who escorted to a place of safety the English prisoners surrendered by Tippoo Sahib under the treaty of 11 May 1784. The next six years were spent as a half-educated, high-spirited boy would be likely to spend them. ‘Boy Malcolm,’ as he long continued to be called, was a good horseman and a good shot. He got into debt and he got into scrapes, and, being proud and penniless, was often not far from starving. But he learnt his duty, and that so well, that at the age of nineteen, though still only an ensign, he was adjutant to the wing of his regiment, the 29th battalion of native infantry, stationed at Masulipatam, and by the end of the year had paid off his debts and forsworn gaming. In 1790, with the renewal of war, his career began.

His regiment, which was ordered to cooperate with the troops of the company's ally, the nizam of the Deccan, took part in the siege of Copoulee, and then joined the camp of the nizam's main army. There in 1791 Malcolm became intimate with the British diplomatic corps of Hyderabad, and was fired with the ambition of joining the diplomatic service. ‘A careless, good-humoured fellow, illiterate, but with pregnant ability,’ he threw himself with such zeal into the study of Persian that he speedily mastered the idiom. He looked out for, but narrowly failed to get, diplomatic employment. In the autumn he was compelled by shattered health to descend to the coast for two months, but in 1792, being now a lieutenant, he joined the camp of Lord Cornwallis before Seringapatam, and was appointed Persian interpreter to the nizam's troops. Thus, after an uninterrupted term of nine years' service, he closed his regimental employment, and he was never afterwards employed otherwise than on the staff or in command. His health, however, was far from re-established, the war was over, and in February 1794 he embarked for England on furlough.

The voyage restored him. He landed in 