Royal Military Panorama Office, Orchard-Street, Portman-Square, 30th March, 1814. MR. Pratt's very elegant Original Lines on the Royal Hospital and Royal Military Asylum, on the completion of the "Historical and Topographical Description of Chelsea," was not in time for this Number, but will appear in our next.-Also a Review of "An Address to the British Nation for the purpose of still further diffusing the Love of Military Glory." The "Review of the Calumnies of an American Revolutionist," although inadmissible in a work of this nature, will receive due attention, if referred to those quarters where exposure is necessary, and where his malevolence and knavery will receive their just rewards.-We must, however, observe, that the gentlemanly language of our Correspondent forms a striking contrast to that adopted in the calumnies; the latter is a fair proof of the mind and character of its author. To enable officers regularly to receive the different numbers of this work, they are requested to order them of their respective booksellers in the vicinity of their depôts or stations. The work is forwarded to the principal booksellers of the United Kingdom on the day of publication. Our anxiety to bring down the Gazettes to as late a period as possible, and yet at the same time to render this work generally interesting to all readers, will be seen by the quantity of small type introduced in each Number. All officers having works in the press, are requested to communicate notices of them to the Editor; they will find a ready insertion of the same in this work, Cetus is referred to the 15th clause of the Mutiny Act, for an explanation of the subject to which he refers. His promised favours will be very acceptable, and have due attention. "An Injured Officer."-It is impossible to insert this Letter, as we are not acquainted with the failure alluded to therein. An open and candid communication to the Illustrious Character at the head of the Army, will assuredly acquire for the complainant every redress. Communications relating to the services of the late General Sir William Meadows, Sir Lowry Cole, Lieut.-General Wemyss, and Major-General Mackenzie Frazer, will receive due attention.—Memoirs of these Officers will be given in early numbers of the Royal Military Panorama, The Trial of Colonel Beaufoy will be concluded in our next Number; which will also contain the Memoirs of Major-Gen. Mackenzie Frazer and the late Major-Gen. Anstruther; Correspondence from the Theatres of War; and a variety of Political and Military intelligence.-In it will be also given the Third Part of our valuable Map of France. All The Third Volume of the Royal Military Panorama is now completed. officers, desirous of completing their sets, will be shortly enabled, as new editions of the early numbers are now in the press.-Another Edition of the First Number will be published on the 6th of April. The papers of Amicus were sent agreeably to his directions.-His communications will always command attention. Military Essays, Reviews of Military Works, Biographical Notes, Journals of Sieges, and of every Military Operation, will at all times be particularly attended to; and the authors of such communications may rest assured that the Editor will preserve an inviolable secresy as to their names, and, when requested, will confer with them personally on the subject of their communications. As the Panorama is published in a manner that will always render it not only a useful and necessary, but also an elegant work for the confined library of the Military man, and to deserve a prominent place on the shelves of the scholar and the gentlemen, it consequently requires very considerable time for printing and binding, and it is therefore requested that those correspondents who are desirous for an early publication of their favours, will transmit them at the commencement of each month, directed to the Editor, 33, Orchard-Street, Portman-Square, ROYAL Military Panorama, OR OFFICERS' COMPANION FOR APRIL 1814. MILITARY BIOGRAPHY. GENERAL THE RIGHT HONOURABLE WILLIAM SHAW, VISCOUNT CATHCART, K. T. T HIS officer, descended from a race of gallant heroes, was born at Petersham, the 17th of September 1753, and was educated at Eton, which college he left at an earlier period than usual to accompany his father, Lieutenant-General Charles Lord Cathcart, in 1768, to Russia, his Lordship being appointed ambassador to that Court. During a stay of four years on the Continent, the subject of our present memoir had continual access to the manege of a Russian nobleman, which contained the finest horses; and profiting by the instructions of a most excellent riding-master, he attained, in a superlative degree, perfection both in the theory and practice of horsemanship. On the return of this officer to Great-Britain, he studied law at the University of Glasgow, and became an excellent classical schoJar. On this foundation, perseverance and abilities enabled him even to be called to the Scotch bar, in a most creditable manner.--This, however, was not the sphere in which he was born to shine; and in the year 1777, having come to his title, his Lordship's natural and hereditary genius for the art of war broke forth, and he commenced his military career in North America, by joining the 17th regiment, of Light Dragoons at Philadelphia, in which he commanded a troop The army, during the winter of the year 1778, was not in a state of VOL. IV. B much activity; but the light troops were greatly harassed; and the zeal and activity of Lord Cathcart, as a partizan, are recorded in the orders of the period we allude to. Soon after Sir Henry Clinton succeeded to the command of the army he appointed Lord Cathcart one of his Aides-de-Camp, with Lord Moira, and a firm friendship was cemented between these two gallant officers. On the return of the army to New York, several Provincial Corps were raised, and the command of one was presented by Sir Henry Clinton to Lord Cathcart, with the rank of Colonel in the Provincial Army. This corps was composed of both horse and foot; but his Lordship's modesty would not allow him to adopt the usual custom, of having it called by his own name, and he styled it "The British Legion." As it was not supposed that this rank would be confirmed on officers holding two commissions, being desired to abide by one, his Lordship retained his situation in the line, after having acquired great credit in the command of the British Legion, under Sir William Erskine, and resigned it to his Lieutenant-Colonel, now General, Tarleton, whom he had sought out, and whose fame and glory were acquired at the head of this corps. In 1779 his Lordship married Miss Elliot, daughter of Andrew Elliot, Esq. of New York; and by this alliance his Lordship has had a numerous family. Towards the end of this year he was appointed Acting Quarter-Master-General to the Army, and evinced his capability to fill that important department by the very able manner in which he superintended the embarkation of the troops on the expedition to Charlestown. com The climate of Carolina, however, was found so prejudicial to the health of Lord Cathcart, that he was obliged to quit it previous to the fall of Charlestown.-The sea-voyage recovered him, and, on his return to New York, his Lordship was enabled to take the mand of the 38th regiment, wherein he held the rank of Major, and distinguished himself in an affair at Long Island. A relapse obliged him to return to England, and soon after his arrival in this country, his Lordship purchased a company in the Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards, and for some years held the command of the grenadier company, in which situation he gained the esteem of his illustrious Colonel, the present Commander-in-Chief, and this he has ever since retained. In 1788 he was elected one of the sixteen peers of Scotland, and in 1790 appointed Chairman of the Committees of the House of Lords. The legal education Lord Cathcart had received, eminently qualified his Lordship for the dispatch of busi |
