publication of his memoirs, Shipp wrote a pamphlet entitled, "Flogging and its Substitutes—A Voice from the Ranks." It was in the form of a letter to the late Sir Francis Burdett, Bart., M.P., who in return sent the author a douceur of £60. Shipp's views did not find general acceptance in military circles at the time; but the substitutes for corporal punishment which he advocated, including a system of pecuniary fines for various military offences, have all been since adopted in the army, and are now in force. About the same time the late Sir Charles Rowan, K.C.B., then Colonel Rowan, one of the Commissioners of the new Metropolitan Police, offered Shipp an inspectorship in the Stepney division, which was gladly accepted. Subsequently he received the appointment of Superintendent of the Night Watch at Liverpool. There he proved himself a most capable and efficient officer. So highly, indeed, was he esteemed in the borough, that when he offered himself for the mastership of the Liverpool Workhouse, early in the year 1833, he was elected to the post by an overwhelming majority of votes. The comfortable competency thus assured to him he did not live long to enjoy. An attack of pleurisy, after a few days of acute suffering, carried him off on February 27, 1834, at the age of fifty-two.

His "Memoirs," as already stated, first appeared in 1829. A reprint, by the same publisher, appeared in 1840. Subsequently another edition, in which the summary of the court-martial proceedings and some other matter contained in the original edition were omitted, and a supplementary chapter added, bringing down the narrative to the date of Shipp's death, was issued by the late Mr. Tegg, publisher, 73, Cheapside, London, in 1843. The present volume is a reprint of the latter work, the text of which has been reproduced in full, and, save as regards the correction of some obvious typographical errors, without alteration. A very few explanatory footnotes have been added, and some illustrations, from authentic contemporary sources, have been introduced, which it is hoped will lend additional interest to the story of the "Extraordinary Military Career of John Shipp."

H. MANNERS CHICHESTER.
London, 1890.

PREFACE

In laying before the public a familiar and unreserved detail of the incidents and adventures of my past life, I trust it will not for a moment be supposed that I am actuated by vanity, or by a desire to make an ostentatious display of my military services. That, in the course of those services, I have exercised some degree of daring, to the merit (if any) attached to which I may justly lay claim, I do not affect to deny; but it is far, very far, from my thoughts, to assume the possession of uncommon fortitude, or to arrogate to myself any degree of heroism superior to that which would be displayed, on occasions which required it, by every brave officer in his Majesty's service.

Having thus, first, disclaimed all intention of boasting of my performances, or of holding myself up as a prodigy of valour, it becomes me next to declare that I do not pretend to afford the reader any important intelligence respecting our Indian possessions, either as regards statistics or politics. Information on these subjects must be sought in the works of writers of far higher pretensions than the humble author of these Memoirs.

My design has been to present the public with a simple and unadorned narration of my own life, from the period of my infancy to the date of my having been, unfortunately, compelled to quit his Majesty's service.

If, among the anecdotes which I have introduced, the eye of criticism may detect many which may be deemed of too trivial a nature, and devoid of that piquancy which can alone confer a value on such light and unimportant materials, I can only plead that I may have been led to over-estimate their merit, from the hearty laughter which they created when they were first noted by me; and I trust it will be recollected that it is a rough soldier who has ventured to think them worthy of publicity. So, also, if in my account of the battles and sieges in which I have had the honour to participate, my details shall appear flimsy or meagre, more especially as concerns the objects of the government of India in the various campaigns in which I have been engaged, be it remembered that I do not profess to know their designs; that my constant occupation in my professional duties afforded me no time to study them; and that it is the subaltern's duty to act, and not to reason.

My Memoirs, such as they are, I leave to the indulgent consideration of a liberal public.

JOHN SHIPP.
Bhurtpore Cottage,
Alpha Road, Regent's Park,
January, 1829.

MEMOIRS OF JOHN SHIPP

CHAPTER I

In the ponderous mouldy register of the little market-town of Saxmundham, in the county of Suffolk—covered with the red remnants of the old worn-out velvet pulpit-cushion of the said village church, into which the Christian religion had been beaten and enforced, both with clenched fist and pointed elbow, and which now plainly told the congregation that it had at last yielded only to Parson Brown's impressive manner and arguments—in this prodigious volume, protected by huge brass clasps, which naught but the rough hand of the man of skulls[2] could force to obedience, after the oft-wetted thumb had aroused some hundreds of gigantic leaves from their peaceful slumber, and the book had opened wide its time-worn pages, there was, and, I doubt not, is still to be discovered, a plainly-written record, setting forth, in most intelligible terms, that I, John Shipp, the humble author of these Memoirs, came into this wicked and untoward generation on the 16th day of March, A.D. 1785. If this register be an authentic enrolment, which I have neither reason nor inclination to doubt, I was the second son of Thomas and Lætitia Shipp—persons of honest fame, but in indigent circumstances, who had both "drank deep" of the cup of sorrow. Of the latter of those dear parents I was bereft in my infancy; and, as my father was a soldier in a foreign clime, thus was I thrown on the world's tempestuous ocean, to buffet with the waves of care, and to encounter the breakers of want.

At the death of my poor mother I was left, with my elder brother, in utter destitution. The advantage which other children derive from the support and good counsel of an affectionate father, we had