Part 34 (1/2)
”Mr. Brock was not an ordinary man. He was const.i.tuted of materials which would have led their owner to distinction in whatever sphere he might have been placed. Indebted but little to early education, he possessed within himself a faculty of extracting knowledge from every thing that came within his observation; and, gifted with a powerful memory, a reflecting mind, and the art of methodizing and arranging the ideas and information which he acquired, he was enabled at all times to bring a ma.s.s of well digested and pertinent knowledge to bear upon and ill.u.s.trate any subject which he was required to discuss. He had a singular talent for comprehending principles and for seizing information, and arranging and applying it; so that there were few subjects upon which he entered on which he could not lay down sound principles, and ill.u.s.trate and maintain them by sound arguments. Too confident of his strength, and perhaps over-elated with his many victories, he would sometimes venture on untenable ground, and expose himself to the inroads of an able enemy; but these indiscretions were of rare occurrence, and the memory of his temporary checks was generally cancelled by the skilfulness of his retreats.
”If Mr. Brock was thus distinguished for his mental powers, he was no less so by the strength and felicity of his style of writing. He had the rare talent of putting proper words in their proper places. He wrote English with English plainness and English force. There was nothing affected or _modish_ in his manner. He gave his readers an impression that he was clear in the conception of his own meaning, and he made it equally so to them. He aimed at no ornament: the beauty of his writings consisted in their perspicuity and strength. A verbal critic might discover inaccuracies in his compositions, but the man of sense would find in them nothing unmeaning--- nothing useless--nothing vapid. He was not a turner of fine periods--he was not a _fine writer_--but he wrote with strength, precision, and lucidity; and his compositions, even where they failed to produce conviction, could never be read without creating respect for the masculine talents of their author......
”But the main ground on which the memory of Daniel De Lisle Brock must rest its claims on the affection, the respect, and the grat.i.tude of his fellow countrymen, is the devoted--the engrossing love which, during his whole life, he bore to his native land. Every thought, every wish, every feeling of pride or ambition, centered in his beloved Guernsey. She was the idol of his affections--the object of all his solicitude--the glory of his inmost heart. His endeavours for her welfare may occasionally have been misdirected--his objections to change in her inst.i.tutions may have been ill-founded--but his motives have ever been beyond the reach of suspicion or reproach. They were concentrated in the desire for her good. Her people, her soil, her laws, her customs, nay, even her prejudices, were dear to him--they were his household G.o.ds. He wors.h.i.+pped them, he lived for them, and he would have died for them......
”The private character of Mr. Brock presents an embellis.h.i.+ng and graceful adjunct to his public qualities. Bold even to temerity in his acts; firm even to obstinacy in his opinions; entertaining an exalted estimate of the office that he filled, and of the interests that he embodied or represented in his person, he was, at the same time, simple, courteous, and benevolent in his private manner, to a degree that was as honorable to himself, as it was gratifying to those who came in contact with him. Mr. Brock on the bench, and Mr. Brock in private, were distinct characters. In the former position, conscious, probably, of his talents and his authority, he was firm, and sometimes, though rarely, in appearance even imperious; in the latter, resigning himself to the feelings of the gentleman, he was affable, kind, and even diffident. In his privacy he displayed all the attributes of a superior mind. He was entirely devoid of pride and ostentation: his mind was superior to the weakness they denote. He disdained the conventional habits of society, for nature had created him a gentleman, and he needed not the aid of art. He mingled not in that society where he might have received the homage to which his talents were ent.i.tled. He spent his time in study, or in working for the public welfare; his relaxations being in his fields and garden, or in the conversation of casual visitors who, uninvited, occasionally resorted to his unceremonious and hospitable roof. Ardent as he was in political discussions, p.r.o.ne as he was to enter into controversy, the feelings of animosity which he expressed died in their utterance. The adversary of to-day was the welcome guest of the morrow. The hand which had distilled the gall of disputation at one moment, was readily extended in kind fellows.h.i.+p the next. Mr. Brock was probably not exempt from failings, but he had certainly nothing of littleness about him. He respected an honorable and open adversary, more than a flattering and servile friend. His hostility was strong, but it was shortlived: his enmity was vigorous, but it had no memory. In other respects, too, he evinced a generous and benevolent heart. At all seasons and under all circ.u.mstances, his time and attention were willingly devoted to those who sought his a.s.sistance or advice. He was the friend and counsellor of all. Many is the angry feeling he has allayed--many the lawsuit he has prevented--many the family division he has closed. His kind offices were at the command of all. No labour was too great for him, when called on for his a.s.sistance; but if at any time he found himself obliged to reject a claim which was made on him, he so softened his refusal with courtesy and kindness, that the disappointed seldom left him without experiencing a sense of obligation.
”Possessing these characteristics, which are hastily sketched by the pen of a political opponent, Mr. Brock, it must be admitted, was a distinguished man. His sphere of action was limited, but within that sphere he acted an honorable, a useful, and a n.o.ble part. Had he been cast upon a wider stage, there can be little doubt that his talents and his resolution would have acquired for him a more extensive reputation; but, even as it is, his fate is enviable. He sought the welfare of his country, and desired its respect and grat.i.tude as his reward. Both objects have been attained; and he now sleeps, at the close of a long and honorable life, regarded by all his country men as the most able, the most useful, the most disinterested, and the most patriotic of the rulers to which its destinies have ever been committed. No man has been more beloved and respected in his life, and none more regretted at his death. _Peace to his manes!_”
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 161: There are some of the public papers written by Mr. Brock which may be profitably studied as models of this kind of composition.--_Guernsey Star, September 26, 1842._]
[Footnote 162: Mr. Brock was no doubt ambitious, but his ambition was gratified in beholding the advancement of his country. Personal advantage--individual distinction--were things that never occurred to his imagination, or occurred only to be contemned. He might have had an augmentation of salary--he might have received the honor of knighthood--he might have had the sources of fortune opened to him--but these would have brought no advantages to Guernsey, and he rejected them.--_Guernsey Star, September 26, 1842._]
[Footnote 163: The extracts in inverted commas are from the Guernsey _Star_ of Thursday, 29th September, 1842.]
APPENDIX C.
The common ancestor of the Guernsey family of this name was John Tupper, who settled in the island about the year 1592. He was an English gentleman, of German, extraction, his forefather, it appears, having, about the year 1525, fled from Ca.s.sel during the religious persecution in the reign of Charles the Fifth. The elder son of this John Tupper married Elizabeth, daughter of Hilary Gosselin,[164] procureur du roi, or attorney-general--the younger removed to England.
In the memorable year of 1692, John Tupper, Esq., (the grandson of the said John Tupper and Elizabeth Gosselin,) at some expense and risk of capture, conveyed to Admiral Russell, who commanded the combined English and Dutch fleets lying at St. Helen's, the intelligence that the French fleet, under Admiral Tourville, was in the channel. This intelligence led to the battle of La Hogue; and as a reward for this patriotic service, Mr. Tupper was presented by his sovereigns, William and Mary, with a ma.s.sive gold chain and medal, which are now in possession of his heir male; his descendants being permitted to bear them as an honorable augmentation to their arms and crest.
The elder son of John Tupper, who acquired the medal, by his wife, Elizabeth Dobree, of Beauregard, had three sons, of whom the eldest died without issue; the second was Elisha, a much-respected jurat of the Royal Court, who died in 1802, leaving five surviving children;[165]
and the youngest was John, who obtained, in 1747, a commission, by purchase, in General Churchill's regiment of marines, that corps being then differently const.i.tuted to what it is now. He served as a captain at the celebrated defeat of the French fleet in Quiberon bay, by Sir Edward Hawke, in 1759; as a major and commandant of a battalion at Bunker's Hill, in 1775,[166] where he was slightly wounded, and where the marines, having greatly distinguished themselves, won the laurel which now encircles their device; and as a lieutenant-colonel in Rodney's victory of the 12th of April, 1782, having been especially sent from England to command the marines in the fleet, about 4,000 men, in the event of their being landed on any of the enemy's West India islands. At his decease, in January, 1795, he was a major-general in the army, and commandant-in-chief of the marines. Had the honors of the Bath been extended in those days to three degrees of knighthood as they have been since, he would probably have been a knight commander of that order.
The fatality which has attended the descendants of the two brothers just named, will appear in the following brief summary:
1.--Lieutenant Carre Tupper, of his majesty's s.h.i.+p Victory, only son of Major-General Tupper, slain at the siege of Bastia, on the 24th of April, 1794.
2.--William De Vic Tupper, (son of E. Tupper, Esq.) mortally wounded in 1798, in a duel in Guernsey, with an officer in the army, and died the day following.
3.--John E. Tupper, aged twenty, perished at sea, in 1812, in the Mediterranean, the vessel in which he was a pa.s.senger, from Catalonia to Gibraltar, having never been heard of since.
4.--Charles James Tupper,[167] aged sixteen, captain's mids.h.i.+pman of his majesty's 18-gun brig Primrose, drowned on the 17th August, 1815, at Spithead, by the upsetting of the boat in which he was accompanying his commander, Captain Phillott, to the s.h.i.+p.
5.--Lieutenant E. William Tupper, of his majesty's s.h.i.+p Sybille, aged twenty-eight, mortally wounded in her boats, June 18, 1826, in action with a strong band of Greek pirates, near the island of Candia.
6.--Colonel William De Vic Tupper, Chilian service, aged twenty-nine, slain in action near Talca, in Chile, April 17, 1830. The four last sons of John E. Tupper, Esq., and Elizabeth Brock, his wife; and nephews of William De Vic Tupper, Esq., already named, and also of Major-General Sir Isaac Brock, K.B.; of Lieut.-Colonel John Brock, and of Lieutenant Ferdinand Brock, who all fell by the bullet.
7.--Colonel William Le Mesurier Tupper, of the British Auxiliary Legion in Spain, and a captain in the 23d, or Royal Welsh Fusiliers, mortally wounded near San Sebastian, May 5, 1836, aged thirty-two. Colonel Tupper was also nephew of W. De Vic Tupper, Esq., and first cousin of the four brothers last named.
LIEUT. E. WILLIAM TUPPER, R.N.