he greater
part of young Irish gentlemen, who have their fortunes to raise chiefly
by their own efforts. London gradually unfolded to his view all her
irresistible charms; the ligaments which tied him to his native home,
grew every day more and more slender and weak: the dictates of common
sense and prudence, in this one instance at least enforced by the
attractions of pleasure, pointed out the vast superiority of England to
the oppressed, impoverished country which he had left, as a field for
genius and industry to work upon. Having a prepossessing face and
person, and manners frank, conciliating and firm, he soon extended his
acquaintance to a wide circle of friends, whose advice conspired with
his own taste to bring him to a determination, in consequence of which
he settled near the metropolis, and became a practitioner in surgery and
physic. While he was successfully engaged in this career, he was
introduced to some of the great men of Leadenhall-street, by whom he was
appointed to the lucrative office of inspecting-surgeon of the recruits
destined for the service of the East India Company. In the discharge of
this duty it fell to his share to visit the ships preparing for a voyage
to India, and of course to mingle with the company's servants of all
ranks and conditions, by whom he was in no common degree beloved and
respected--by the higher order for his agreeable and manly
deportment--by the lower for his tenderness and humanity. Though he
lived in England, he viewed his own country with a laudable fond
partiality; and being constitutionally benevolent, and having a heart
"open to melting Charity," and a hand prompt to indulge it, it may
reasonably be conjectured that in his office of inspecting-surgeon he
was exposed to many sharp attacks upon his feelings; the far greater
part of the recruits who came under his inspection being unfortunate
Irish youths who had thrown themselves upon a strange world, destitute
of every thing but health, youth, and bodily vigor. By such objects, the
sympathy of such a warm heart as that which beat in doctor Cooper's
bosom, could not fail to be strongly excited, and it was pretty
generally believed that his family had less reason than his unfortunate
countrymen to exult at the goodness of his nature. Nor was his
philanthropy confined to those wretched children of misfortune, the
recruits; many young Irish gentlemen who were going to India as cadets,
experienced his kindness also, bu