ORIGINAL MEMOIRS OF DISTINGUISHED

FOREIGN OFFICERS.

In this department of our work we shall endeavour to make the British United Services acquainted with the merits of eminent Foreign Officers, whose Menwirs have not already been before the public.

MAJOR-GENERAL JACOB BROWN,
(AMERICAN ARMY.)

THIS officer was born in Bucks county, state of Pennsylvania, in the year 1775. His first ancestor, in America, Mr. George Brown, was an emigrant from England before the establishment of William Penn on the Delaware river. History has already recorded the labours and the perils encountered by these early emigrants in establishing and. maintaining themselves in the wilderness; and, as all participated in the same destiny, no relation is here necessary to illustrate the experience of individuals.

Mr. Brown, perhaps, received as little disquietude from the inconveniences of his new abode as any one, for he was perfectly independent of the exterior circumstances of life for contentment. His literary taste and acquirement were highly respectable; and being very much devoted to study, he found constant employment in his library, and in the cultivation of his farm; to the latter, he applied only so much of his attention as was absolutely necessary, and in all the relations of business, he was very negligent and unconcerned. In fact, books were his passion; and a few years since, his descendants used to point out a thorn-tree, beneath which he had contrived a shady seat, where more than half his life was expended in study and meditation.

Soon after his establishment in America, when he had selected a tract of wild land, and effected considerable inprovement upon it, William Penn arrived. This great colonist, in locating his settlements, had traced a division, for which he had destined the name of Penn's Manor, and found that the uniformity of the line, including this division, was affected by the tract, which Mr. Brown had under culture. Deeming his own claim to the country paramount to any other, Mr. Penn decided' that the interfering part of Mr. Brown's possession should be sacrificed to his views. But on the appearance of the surveyors to regulate the line of demarkation, the old gentleman, in the true de

termination of his character, assembled his forces, and drove them from his premises. Mr. Penn being a man of quiet habits, and averse to controversy, entered into a negociation with him; the result of which was, that Mr. Brown, in consideration of the cession of a small portion of his possession, should receive a portion of equal value on the opposite side.

Mr. Brown abandoned his native country in an age of intolerance, and the great object contemplated by his emigration, was the attainment of civil and religious freedom. He attained this object; and of the physical inconveniences incident to the change, he was perfectly careless.

His son, Samuel Brown, was, like his father, a man of great energy of mind, but differed from him in his views of life. He became actively engaged in business, which he managed with singular calculation and punctilio, and in a few years amassed a very considerable fortune. He was the first of General Brown's ancestry who professed quakerism. For thirty years he was a member of the provincial Government, in which his correct judgment, and integrity of character, gave him much weight of influence.

John Brown succeeded his father Samuel in the Provincial Government, of which he remained a member until its dissolution by the revolutionary convulsions of the colonies. In him some of the characteristics of his great ancestor revived. He had much of his carelessness and independence, his taste for literature, and devoted nearly an equal portion of his time to study and research. His manners were rough and plain, but his feelings benevolent and liberal. His sentiments and habits were purely English; and during the struggle of the colonies for political independence, he maintained his loyalty of feeling, or rather did not join in sentiment in the opposition to the mother country.Though he was a professed member of the society of quakers, he sacrificed to the scruples of his sect none of the enjoyments of life, to which his disposition prompted. His system of moral government was very much of his own creation, and, if he ever appealed from it, the appeal was directed to his own feelings. In fact, his habits of thought and of action were such as would be expected from a man of very enlightened mind, and independent cast of character.

His constitution was remarkably vigorous, never having yielded a day to the influence of disease until the sickness which terminated his existence. This sickness he contracted in a singular manner: he was exceedingly fond of fox-hunting, and having a fine pack of hounds, used fre

quently to indulge himself in his favourite diversion. One day, when engaged in it, a cold storm came on, and his full bottomed wig, (an indispensable and constant article of his dress) became completely soaked with the rain, which dripped from it into his neck and ran down his back. The chase was considerably prolonged, and the excitement of exercise, with the action of the cold and moisture, occasioned a fever, which proved fatal in a very few days.

He left his son Samuel, the father of the subject of this memoir, in possession of a valuable, flourishing, and unincumbered estate; but he was entirely unformed for business, and destitute of the talent of preserving property or of acquiring it. Soon after the close of the revolutionary war, he embarked the greater part of his property in land speculations and in navigation, but a stagnation of business ensuing, all his enterprizes failed, involving, in their abortion, the loss of the capital he had employed. The misfortune did not terminate here-to rescue himself from the difficulties, induced by the defeat of his plans, he was compelled to sacrifice his patrimonial estate.

Had he applied himself to a learned profession he would have been distinguished, for he possessed, in an eminent degree, two of the requisites for excellence-the passion of study, and the power of memory; but to such a course his feelings and his principles were adverse. He read much, but the mass of knowledge which resulted from it remained inactive on his mind :-he had not the faculty of rendering it subservient to the common purposes of life.

His sensibility was acute, and his feelings generous and liberal to excess; and though his passions were prompt to excitement, and a frankness of expression and of conduct, which exhibited itself on all occasions, was sometime unacceptable to those around him; by the respectable and intelligent he was always venerated and esteemed. Behind his plainness of manner there was a vast fund of facility and goodness, which could be called into exercise by interesting certain feelings-these feelings the subject of this memoir had in youth discovered, and by a judicious management maintained an influence over him through life.

He appeared to most advantage when difficulties pressed on him, and he felt the necessity of resistance: it was on such occasions that he exhibited the most of energy and firmness; although, under the severest trials, his mind was never depressed.

The early life of General Brown was characterized by a thousand wild and extravagant feats, in which he exhibited a boldness, sagacity, and power of achievement, far supe

rior to his years. The following anecdote may afford an idea of his early qualities, before a maturity of age, and the experience of life, had exercised their proper influence upon them:

The father of General Brown had built a school-house on his estate, and employed a teacher for the education of his children. Several of his neighbours subsequently desiring to participate in the benefits of the institution, the number of pupils was augmented to twenty-five or thirty. The male division of the students finding it expedient, during the intermissions of study, to establish a system of government for the preservation of due order and quietude in the community, a code of regulations was instituted, and an executive body, chosen by the whole, was vested with the powers of enforcing them. An article of the code sentenced every one, who violated it, to be expelled from the school-house, and not to be permitted to return until the termination of the recess. One day young Brown had violated the regulations, and, in conformity to their prescripts, was turned out of the house. It was a winter's day, and a cold, penetrating sleet, which was descending, rendered exposure intolerable. After enduring the dampness and chills of the weather until his patience was exhausted, stimulated by their influence, and by the feelings of mortification, incident to his banishment from the house, he meditated a plan for his revenge. He was not long in originating and maturing it. Having assembled a few boys, who happened to be at the moment without doors, he communicated to them the project he had formed, and by a little art gained assurances of their co-operation in its execution.

The school-house had only two windows, which were defended by thick oaken shutters on the exterior, and the door, which was a very substantial one, opened outwards. Having formed into three parties, under the direction of their leader, they made the necessary arrangements, and, on a concerted signal, the blinds of the windows and the door were closed and secured, at the same moment, by strong props. They then proceeded to pile logs against them, until they were so defended as to be capable of resisting any force from within. This being effecter, young Brown mounted the roof, and his party, having collected some barrels and other materials, he so effectually closed the chimney with them, that none of the smoke could escape. There was a tremendous fire below, and the scene of confusion that ensued may readily be conceived. There were about a dozen little children within the house, and

their entreaties became so piteous, that the besiegers yielded to the natural impulse of humanity, and assented to their release ;-but young Brown was determined that his elder brother John, and one John Mott, who had rendered themselves particularly obnoxious by their influence in effecting his expulsion, should not receive the slightest compassion. They therefore partially opened one of the window-blinds, maintaining such a pressure against it that it could not be burst open, and received the young children through the aperture. They then closed it on the others, and abandoned them to their own efforts.

The house was by this time completely filled with smoke, and the desperation of the prisoners became so great, under the terror of suffocation, that they tore up the smaller benches, and mounting the higher ones, forced an opening through the ceiling into the upper story, into which they ascended. But they enjoyed only a moment's respite-the room below was so filled with smoke that it forced through the outlet they had made for themselves, and their new lodgment became as uncomfortable as the one they had abandoned. Suffering impelled them to another effort, and having no alternative, they battered a wide breach through the end of the building. But the director of the blockade had followed the progress of their operations, and provided the necessary means of counteraction. He had arranged his party on the side of the house which they were battering, and as soon as the breach was opened, and the sufferers thrust their heads through to inhale the fresh air, they were assailed with showers of snow-balls and missiles of various descriptions.

The means and hopes of alleviating their situation had now failed, and the besiegers were preparing to release them at their earnest supplication, considering them, as they expressed themselves, "pretty thoroughly smoked;" when, at this critical moment, the school-master made his appearance, advancing in great haste and trepidation, attracted by the shouts of the two parties, and by the volumes of smoke rolling out of an unusual part of the house. Young Brown, with his usual presence of mind, ran to meet him, giving him not a religiously accurate history of the transaction. The school-master was a very credulous man, and reposing implicit confidence in the statement he had received, rushed towards the house, woefully exasperated against the imprisoned party. The besiegers immediately opened the door, and he, having entered, careless of the smoke, took a cow-skin from his desk, and introducing himself through the breach in the ceiling, into the