Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 43.djvu/31

 ceremony was prohibited; but, Pacifico's house happening to stand near the spot where the burning usually took place, the mob in a state of excitement tore down and burnt the dwelling and its contents. Pacifico claimed compensation, not only for his furniture, &c., but also for lost papers relating to his claims on the Portuguese government, and laid his damages at the exaggerated sum of 26,618l. At the same period Dr. George Finlay [q. v.], the historian of Greece, had also a claim against the Greek government. The Greek ministry delaying to make compensation in these and other cases, Lord Palmerston, in January 1850, sent the British fleet to the Piræus, when all the Greek vessels and other ships found within the waters were seized. The French government, then in agreement with England, sent a commissioner to Athens to endeavour to arrange terms. This attempt at conciliation, however, resulted in a quarrel between France and England, and the French ambassador, M. Drouyn de Lhuys, withdrew from London. The House of Lords, on 18 June 1850, by a large majority, passed a vote of censure on Lord Palmerston for his conduct in this matter, but the resignation of the ministry was prevented by a vote of the House of Commons on 29 June, when there was a majority of 46 in favour of the government. Ultimately Pacifico received one hundred and twenty thousand drachmas for the plunder of his house, and 500l. sterling as indemnity for his personal sufferings. Thus ended an event which nearly evoked a European war, and disturbed the good relations between England and France.

Pacifico, who finally settled in London, died at 15 Bury Street, St. Mary Axe, on 12 April 1854, and was buried in the Spanish burial-ground, Mile End, on 14 April.

[Hansard's Debates, 1850, and particularly Palmerston's Speech on Pacifico's claims, 25 June 1850, col. 380–444; Correspondence respecting the demands made upon the Greek government in Parliamentary Papers (1850), Nos. 1157, 1179, 1209, 1211, 1226, 1230, 1233, (1851), Nos. 1297, 1415; Finlay's History of Greece, 1877, vii. 209–214; McCarthy's History of our own Time, 1879, ii. 41–62; Gordon's Thirty Years of Foreign Policy, 1855, pp. 412–25; Ashley's Life of Lord Palmerston, 1876, i. 176–227; Jewish Chronicle, 19 April 1854, p. 15; Gent. Mag. June 1854, p. 666.] 

PACK, DENIS (1772?–1823), major-general, is described as a descendant of Sir Christopher Packe [q. v.], lord mayor of London, whose youngest son, Simon, settled in Westmeath, Ireland. Denis, born about 1772, was son of Thomas Pack, D.D., dean of Kilkenny, and grandson of Thomas Pack of Ballinakill, Queen's County (Notes and Queries, 1st ser. v. 118). On 30 Nov. 1791 he was gazetted cornet in the 14th light dragoons (now hussars), and served with a squadron of that regiment which formed the advance guard of Lord Moira's force in Flanders in 1794. Pack volunteered to carry an important despatch into Nieuwpoort, and had much difficulty in escaping from the place when the French invested it. He was subsequently engaged at Boxtel and in the winter retreat to Bremen. After that retreat the 14th squadron was transferred to the 8th light dragoons, to which it had been attached. Pack came home, obtained his lieutenancy in the 14th on 12 March 1795, and commanded a small party of dragoons in the Quiberon expedition, during which he did duty for some months as a field-officer on Isle Dieu. He received his troop in the 5th dragoon guards on 27 Feb. 1796, and served with that regiment in Ireland in 1798. He had a smart affair on patrol near Prosperous with a party of rebels, who lost twenty men and eight horses (, Hist. Rec. of Brit. Army, 5th P. C. N. Dragoon Guards, p. 47), and commanded the escort which conducted General Humbert and other French officers to Dublin after their surrender at Ballinamuck. He was promoted to major 4th royal Irish dragoon guards from 25 Aug. 1798, and on 6 Dec. 1800 was appointed lieutenant-colonel 71st highlanders. He commanded the 71st at the recapture of the Cape of Good Hope in 1806, where he was wounded at the landing in Lospard's Bay, and in South America in 1806–7, where he was taken prisoner, but effected his escape. Subsequently he commanded the light troops of the army in two successful actions with the enemy, and in Whitelocke's disastrous attack on Buenos Ayres, in which he received three wounds.

In 1808 he took the regiment to Portugal, commanded it at the battles of Roleia (Roliea) and Vimeiro (, Wellington Desp. iii. 92); in the retreat to and battle of Coruña; and in the Walcheren expedition in 1809, in which he signalised himself by storming one of the enemy's batteries, during the siege of Flushing, with his regiment. He became aide-de-camp to the king with the rank of colonel on 25 July 1810, was appointed with local rank to a Portuguese brigade under Marshal Beresford, and commanded it at Busaco in 1810, and in front of Almeida in May 1811. When the French garrison escaped, Pack pursued them to Barba del Puerco, and afterwards, by Sir Brent Spencer's orders, blew up the defences of Almeida (cf., v. 202–