OUR PORTRAIT GALLERY.-NO. XL.

THE RIGHT HON. SIR HENRY POTTINGER, BART., G.C.B.

INDIA has long been one of our great schools, as well for statesmanship as for arms; and it is often observed how very large a proportion of our eminent public men she trains for the service of the empire. This has been ascribed, and doubtless with much reason, to the experience and habits of self-reliance acquired by an early acquaintance with affairs of vast importance; but we are disposed to see a still more efficient cause in the simple fact, that nowhere is merit more singly appreciated than in the service of the East India Company. It is not that our Asiatic realm is an Utopia of purity, or our home government a model of corruption, but we believe that the need of real talents, and actual acquirements, is more directly felt in India, and that thus the true interests of its polity are more uniformly looked to, than the family connexions, or parliamentary or party considerations which have so much influence in the mother land. One of the many points of interest in the career of the illustrious subject of our present memoir is, that he owes his advancement wholly to himself. Every step of it was, as we shall see, truly and hardly earned. He has never been one of those who have done a little and gained much; on the contrary, his latest, most brilliant, and thoroughly successful service remains to this hour acknowledged, but as we, and as, we are satisfied, the public feel, unrequited.

Sir Henry Pottinger, the fifth son of Eldred Curwen Pottinger, was born at his father's mansion, Mount Pottinger, in the county of Down, in the year 1789, and is descended from an old English family, the Pottingers of Berkshire, settled there and at the Hoo, Herts, since the Conquest. Some members of this family represented Reading in parliament in the seventeenth century. Many of Sir Henry's ancestors were distinguished in the various wars of England; one of them, as we find, at so remote a period as 1471. He was married to a relative of the Earl of Warwick, commanded a chosen body of horse at the battle of Barnet, and fell close to his great leader, while with him attempting, by one bold charge, to retrieve the fortunes of the day. The elder branch of this family moved to Ireland in the seventeenth century; and one of them, Edward Pottinger, led a body of mercenaries who did good service in the wars of the north of Ireland, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. His descendant, Thomas Pottinger, was the first sovereign of Belfast, named in a grant of a corporate charter to that town, in 1661, and was also high sheriff of his county when William the Third landed in Ireland, when, by his activity in supplying the army with men, money, and provisions, he materially assisted his advance to the Boyne. Edward, the sheriff's brother, had the honour of conveying the king to Ireland, but sailing the day after he had landed his Majesty, for the purpose of intercepting certain ships which were coming from France with supplies for James, he was lost, with all his crew. This Edward's eldest son intermarried with the Lady Mary Dunlop, grand-daughter of the Earl of Dundonald; and the eldest son of their union, Thomas Pottinger, became the husband of Frances, daughter of Eldred Curwen, Esq. of Workington Hall, Cumberland, and M. P. for that county. The first child of that marriage was the Eldred Curwen Pottinger already named as the father of Sir Henry. It may be thought that the public care little for pedigree. This, however, is not the case; we all feel that we know a man better when we are acquainted with his family, and the subject is not without some interest of a psychological description. We are curious to see how far the temperament of an individual is influenced by his ancestry, and, though far from being materialists, we may add, that in consequence of constitutional peculiarities, our characters are, in truth, often more than half-formed before we are

born. With this view before us, we may farther observe, that the mother of Sir Henry was nearly related to that knightly soldier, Sir Robert Rolle Gillespie, well known for his services in the East; and having thus shown that the subject of our memoir comes "by," as the Gypsies say, "the four sides" of a brave and vigorous race, we close the topic of his family history.

Sir Henry Pottinger received his early education at the Belfast Academy, then conducted by the much-regarded Dr. Bruce; but a strong predilection for the navy led to his going to sea while yet very young, and in 1801, he made a voyage as a midshipman. In 1803, he went to India, having, through Lord Castlereagh, procured an appointment in the naval service there. On his arrival, some friends of the family interfered, and prevented his joining that branch of the service, while they wrote home asking his friend Lord Castlereagh to make him out a cadetship. In the mean time, he was placed at the college then existing in Bombay, to enable the military servants of the company to acquire a knowledge of the eastern languages, and there, by his energy and application, laid the foundation of the great attainments by which he was afterwards distinguished. He made such marked proficiency that he was soon selected as an assistant to teach the other cadets. In 1805, his appointment arrived from England, and in 1808, he accompanied Mr. Hankey Smith, brother of the late Sir Lionel Smith, on a mission to Scinde. The mission effected nothing worthy of notice; but the talents of Mr. Pottinger, and his great intelligence in collecting useful information, attracted much attention. About this period, the government of India became much alarmed at the prospect of Napoleon's invading India through Persia, a plan which he was long known to have entertained, and was apparently then about to put into execution. His ambassador had been received with distinguished attention at the Persian court, and his emissaries were actually engaged in gaining a knowledge of the localities. To meet those movements, Sir Hartford Jones was sent from England as ambassador to Persia, and Sir John Malcolm was deputed as envoy there from the government of India. The instructions with which the latter was provided, directed him to ascertain the nature and resources of those countries, through which an European army might march to Hindostan, and with this object, sanctioned his employing, as political agents, such officers as he thought proper. On this becoming known, Captain Charles Christie, an officer of tried intrepidity and discretion, and Mr. Pottinger, volunteered their services to explore the countries between the Indus and Persia, and their offer was accepted. Little was then known of these wide regions save that they were, for the most part, peopled by fierce and fanatic races. "The first tribe of Belochees you meet with," said a Candahar merchant to Mr. Pottinger-and he knew them well" are the Bezunjas, who care not for the king, the khan, God, or the prophet, but murder and plunder every person and thing they can lay hands on.' This was not encouraging, but it was not likely to deter men who had undertaken a public service, and for whom, indeed, danger and adventure had their own charms.

The plan which the travellers adopted was this. There was at Bombay, a Hindoo of respectability and of some wealth, who was for many years contractor for supplying the cavalry of the Madras and Bombay Presidencies with horses. He agreed to accredit them as his agents, and it was arranged that, furnished with letters and bills by him, they should proceed to Kelat the capital of Beloochistan, as if to purchase horses. They were afterwards to pursue such a route as circumstances might point out. The Hindoo contractor also sent one of his own men to accompany them to Kelat, and thus enable them the better to support their assumed characters. They had with them, besides, two Hindoostanee servants who were bound to them by large promises, and who, in many difficulties, proved honest and true.

On the evening of the 2nd of January, 1810, disguised as horse-dealers, they embarked in a small native boat at Bombay. On the 7th, they made the coast of Guzeratt, and on the 15th that of Scinde. Entering the bay of Sonmecanee, to the westward of Scinde, they, on the six