Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 50.djvu/416

 manently Lord Lucan in the command of the entire British cavalry in the Crimea, with the local rank of lieutenant-general. Although family reasons made him at first reluctant to accept the post, he returned to the Crimea without a day's unnecessary delay.

The original splendid force of cavalry which had landed in the Crimea in 1854 had, by the time Scarlett assumed chief command in 1855, been almost annihilated by the sword or by the rigour of the climate. Large drafts of recruits had been sent out to fill up the gaps, and by dint of unremitting labour and barrack-field drill even in presence of the enemy, Sir James by the spring of 1856 brought them to a satisfactory condition of efficiency. ‘But even in 1856,’ he used to say, ‘I would not have ventured with them to fight another Balaclava.’ At the conclusion of the war Sir James Scarlett was appointed to the command of the cavalry in the Aldershot district; thence he was transferred to Portsmouth, and in 1860 was gazetted adjutant-general to the forces. In 1865 he was selected for the prize of home appointments, the command of the Aldershot camp. During the latter part of his tenure of office the brilliant successes of the Prussians in their wars with Austria and France had caused a revolution in tactics. A modification in modern conditions of warfare necessitated a modification in instruction. ‘No doubt this is necessary,’ said the veteran regretfully, ‘but I am too old to go to school again and to unlearn the lessons of my life. I had best leave the task to younger men.’ In his closing years he was one of the last surviving types of the blue and buff school of tories. In 1869 he was created a G.C.B., and on 1 Nov. 1870, on resigning the Aldershot command, he retired from active duty. He died suddenly in December 1871.

Sir James Scarlett married Charlotte, daughter and coheiress of Colonel Hargreaves of Burnley, Lancashire, but left no issue. His portrait, by Sir P. Grant, belongs to Lord Abinger, and a model, by Matthew Noble, is in the National Portrait Gallery, London.

[Private information; Kinglake's Crimea, in which the account of the charge of the heavy brigade was declared by Scarlett to be inaccurate in details.]

 SCARLETT, NATHANIEL (1753–1802), biblical translator, born 28 Sept. 1753, was educated at the Wesleyan school, Kingswood, Gloucestershire, and at Merchant Taylors' School, which he entered in 1767. He became a shipwright, afterwards an accountant, when he projected the ‘Commercial Almanac.’ eventually a bookseller in the Strand, and publisher of ‘The British Theatre.’ Originally a methodist, he became a universalist, under the preaching of Elhanan Winchester, and a baptist through the influence of Winchester's successor, William Vidler [q. v.] In 1798 appeared a version of the New Testament, ‘humbly attempted by Nathaniel Scarlett, assisted by men of piety and literature.’ The basis of this was a manuscript translation by James Creighton, an Anglican clergyman. Once a week Creighton, Vidler, and John Cue, a Sandemanian, met Scarlett at his house, 349 Strand, to revise this translation. The final arrangement, dramatic in form, with introduction of speaker's names, also the headings and notes, are entirely Scarlett's work. The book is a useful curiosity. It was called ‘A Translation of the New Testament from the Original Greek,’ 1798, 12mo, plates; there are two distinct engraved title-pages, bearing the same date. Scarlett contributed both prose and verse to the ‘Universalist's Miscellany;’ from it was reprinted ‘A Scenic Arrangement of Isaiah's Prophecy, relating to the Fall of … Babylon,’ 1802, 4to, in verse. He died on 18 Nov. 1802, aged 50.

[Universalist's Miscellany, 1802; Monthly Repository, 1817 p. 193, 1818 p. 6; Notes and Queries, 4 June 1884.]

 SCARLETT, PETER CAMPBELL (1804–1881), diplomatist, born in Spring Gardens, London, on 27 Nov. 1804, was youngest son of James Scarlett, first baron Abinger [q. v.], and of Louisa Henrietta, daughter of Peter Campbell of Kilmory, Argyllshire. General Sir James Yorke Scarlett [q. v.] was his brother. After being educated at a private school at East Sheen and at Eton, he proceeded to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1824. He had been intended for the bar, but Canning seems to have persuaded his father to send him into the diplomatic service. Accordingly on 10 Oct. 1825 he became an attaché at Constantinople in the suite of Sir Stratford Canning [q. v.] Removed to Paris on 1 June 1828, he was a witness of the revolution which ended in the flight of Charles X on 16 Aug. 1830, and was for a time made prisoner by the mob. He was appointed paid attaché to Brazil in February 1834, and left England for Rio on 2 Aug. 1834. In the course of 1835–6 he made an excursion across the Pampas and Andes, a full account of which he published