The Press.
London, England, 1857-02-07 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

He was in his twenty-second year when the
last sentence was written, and could certainly
have had no just cause of complaint, as he
writes on the next page :

Green has offered me a thousand guineas and his com•
pany in the 67th, for mine in the staff corps.

He professed dislike for the army, though it
must be evident to every one that it was the
profession for which his temperament and
talents peculiarly fitted him. At all times he
was a consistent, angry, and desperate
grumbler ; and he seems to have professed
extreme Radical opinions for no better reason
than that he might abuse everything and
everybody, particularly the Government under
which he served. Sir William absurdly sup-
poses that the Napiers were regarded with
dislike by the Ring on account of the refusal
Lady Sarah, their mother, had at first given
to his suit.

The Napiers were of a good stock. They
traced their lineage on the father's side, writes
Sir William, " to the great Montrose, and the
" still greater Napier, of Merchiston, inventor
"of logarithms " Why greater ? Would Sir
William hold that Professor Wheatstone is
more illustrious than his hero, Sir Charles ?
Lord Napier, grandson to the mathematician,
lost his lands fighting for Charles 1., and
never had them restored. The father of our
Napiers—the fighting brothers—the Hon.
George Napier, was a distinguished officer, of
whose care they were early deprived. By
their mother, the Napiers were nearly allied
to the Holland connection. But after her
husband's death she seems to have lived in
straitened circumstances. Charles obtained a
commission in the Duke of Wellington's regi-
ment, the 33rd, in 1794, and as he was born in
1782, he could at the time have been but
twelve years old. He was not, however, en-
gaged in active service till fifteen years later,
when, being major of the 50th, the command
devolved on him, through the absence of
Colonel Walker. This regiment was incor-
porated by Sir John Moore into his army for
the invasion of Spain, and Napier bore his
part worthily in the advance and memorable
retreat of that expedition. At Corunna he
gallantly led his regiment into action, was
severely wounded, and taken prisoner.
Napier's narrative of his part in the battle is
one of the most interesting portions of the
book. We are not sure that Napier showed as
much skill as courage in his advance. When
he asked Moore to be allowed permission to
advance, the general replied, " No, they will
" fire on our own pickets in the village." Ulti•
mately, Napier moved his regiment forward
without express orders, and unfortunately got
exposed to the fire of some of our own troops.
The young major writes :

Three or four men were killed at my side, for the breast-
work was but a slender protection, and two were killed by
the fire of our own men from the village behind. The
poor fellows kept crying out as they died—" Oh, God !
Major, our own men are killing us! Oh, Christ God! I
am shot in the back of the head." The last man was so,
for he fell against me, and the ball had entered just above
the poll. Remembering then that my father hau told me
he saved a man's life at the siege of Charleston by pulling
a ball out with his finger before inflammation swelled the
parts, I thought to do the same, but could not find it, and
feared to do harm by putting my finger far in. It made
me feel sick, and the poor fellow being laid down, con-
tinued crying out that our men had killed him, and there
he soon died.

The whole narrative is wonderfully graphic
and thrilling. On regaining his liberty
Napier joined Lord Wellington's army, and
was disposed to severely criticise his general's
proceedings. Under date of 15th June, 1810,
we read :

Waited yesterday on Lord Wellington, who was very
civil, and signed my certificate of exchange. Dined with
him. He told me the French made the most regular
retreat he ever saw at Rorica and Talavera. Query, did
he follow their example? People say his march from Tala-
vera to Alemtejo was very bad ; but those who criticise
generals do not always know their motives of action, and
often have motives of their own for criticising ; never-
theless, we must think; and I think Lord Wellington
committed a great error in that campaign by trusting to
the Spaniards after what Moore experienced ; and
another in advancing too far when his retreat might be
cut off. He was wrong, also, I think, in fighting when
victory did him no good, and defeat must have destroyed
him : his information was bad, and he trusted it too im-
plicitly.
- - -

There spoke out the' presumptuous Napier
spirit. He continues :

135

Again : why did he stay in the destructive marshal of
the Alemtejo until nearly the whole of his army fell from
sickness? It is not easy to comprehend all this, and I
have heard no good answer to it. Every officer I have
seen and spoken to about the matter has told me the same
story, viz., that the battle of Talavera was lost if the
French had made one more attack ; and that the whole
army expected to be beaten next day. Now, Lord Wel-
lington might have had ter, battalions more in the fight,
viz., Lightbourne's and the two Cranford's brigades. Why
were they in the rear? The thing is not easily explained
to his advantage • he did not expect a battle, and yet had
the French delayed a few days he must have laid down his
arms or been cut to pieces. Altogether his general opera-
tions are difficult to be defended.
At a subsequent date it is added, with scarcely
less presumption, of Lord Wellington :

He is a much better general than I suspected him to be
that is, he has profited from his former errors : that be;
has made them no one can doubt who hears the conversa-
tion of the army. He is not popular, less so even than
was supposed. However, he will not commit himself
again, and that is comfort for those in England.
Elsewhere are vehement denunciations of all
the generals engaged in the Peninsular war,
and the remark :
The French are our masters in war as to all but courags
and bodily strength.

With such disposition to grumble, it is on the
whole rather matter for wonder that Napier ad-
vanced so well as ho did, than that his promotion
was not more rapid ; but Sir William writes in
grandiloquently radical phrase :

As Courts are proverbially fur more vengeful than
grateful, it was not surprising that a man whose very
existence had been an offence to royal pride [an allusion
to George IlFs. courtship of Lady Sarah], a man of whose
near kindred one had severely checked royal indiscipline
in the navy, a second had endangered royal life in a
duel [Colonel Lennox], a third had died an unsuccessful
insurgent [Lord Edward Fitzgerald], a fourth had been
the most impassioned orator of his age in opposition to
royal encroachments [Charles Fox] ; it was not surprising
that such a man should meet with disfavcur,—enmity it
could scarcely be called.

There is but one comment to be passed on
such passages. They are rank nonsense.
The Napiers, with great merits, lacked one—
modesty; and hence in their Insufferable
pride, and their exaggerated opinion of their
own superiority, they were led to suppose
themselves ill-treated, and to set themselves
up in opposition to authority above them.
Against the assertion of the Court disfavour
to the Napiers may be set the fact that on the
death of their father, Mr. Pitt conferred pen-
sions on his widow (Lady Sarah), and on his
daughters—a gracious act, which Sir William
is compelled to acknowledge was a great relief
to her loving sons.
Fortunately the Napiers could fight as well
as grumble. Besides Charles, there were in
Wellington's army his brothers, George and.
William,—and all were courageous as steel,
and nobly emulated each other in pursuit of
honour, fearless of danger. At Busaco,
Charles had his jaw shattered by a bullet.
Before his wound had healed he was again on
duty, marching with Wellington's army. Sir
William relates :

Thus, advancing on the 14th of March, Pill, he met
a litter of branches, borne by soldiers, and covered with
a blanket. What wounded officer is that? Captain
Napier, of the s'2nd, a broken limb, it was thought so
then. Another litter followed. Who is that? Captain
then.

Napier, 43rd, mortally wounded, it was thought so
Charles Napier looked on them, and passed on to the
fight in front.

The statement is dramatic, but scarcely
borne out by the entries we find in Napier's
own journal :

11th March LlBll]—A. sharp affair between the light
division and the enemy's rearguard, this day. We lost
four hundred killed and wounded here and at Redinha.
My two brothers commanded the companies chiefly en-
gaged, and are both severely wounded.
He adds, of course :
The ignorance and imprudence of Sir Wm. Erskine
said to have been conspicuous—and Colonel Drummond.
is not extolled for military qualities.
A little further on we read :
Our generals, or whoever is in fault, ought to be shot;
the whole army is disgraced England will
begin to see that our generals are---

The significant blank is left by Sir Wil-
liam for the imagination to supply. Charles
was made a lieutenant-colonel in his 29th
year, but there was infinite grumbling on his
part that the promotion was so long delayed,
and his biographer naturally backs up all his
complaints. Charles then served against the
United States in 1813, after the establishment
of peace studied in the military college at

136

Farnham, and for eleven years subsequently
held military command in the lonian Islands.
His quarrel with the Lord High Commissioner,
Sir F. Adam, at last grew so high, that he
returned to England.' When the Chartists
grew dangerous, in 1839, he was, despite his
radicalism, or perhaps in consequence of it,
appointed to the command of the Northern
District, and, though professing the strongest
sympathy with the political opinions and
grievances of the Chartists, engaged with his
usual energy in preparations to give them a
thorough pounding should they attempt to
give effect to their doctrines. Passages like
the following curiously jumble each other :-
27th April [lB39].—Would that I had gone to Australia
and thus been saved this work, produced by Tory injua•
tice and Whig imbecility.
May '2nl.--With some dragoons and infantry this neigh-
bourhood can be kept in check, but both arms are neces-
sary ; dragoons alarm, and slash without killing, and if
they are too roughly handled, the infantry will soon end
the business; rockets also are good bullets, and do
not kill.

It is difficult on reading his journal to say
which was strongest, his grumbling desire for
the Charter, or his wish to have a good fight
with the Chartists :

1839, May s.—One good thrashing will cool their
courage; even the Devizes affair was a damper, and if
they deal with me, it will be far worse, for the blow must
be as decisive as musket and ba3onet can make it.
May 2.s.—The Government should be prepared to con-
sider the Charter in Parliament, and cuitivato the good-
will of the people.

The radical and the soldier continually
alternate in the journal :

The people should have universal suffrage, it is their
right ; the ballot also, it is their security and their will,
and therefore their right also ; and the new poor•law
should be reformed.

Poor people! They will suffer ! They have set all
England against them and their physical force : fools!
We have the physical force, not they. They talk of their
hundred thousands of men. Who is to move them, when
1 am dancing round then► with cavalry and pelting them
with cannot•shot? What would their 100,000 men do
with my 100 rockets wriggling their fiery tails among
them, roaring, scorching, teasing, smashing, all they come
near? And when in desperation they broke to fly, how
would they bear five regiments of cavalry careering through
them ? Poor men ! poor men I How little they know of
physical force.

Evidently our Chartist General was ready
for his work. Let one extract more from this
unpleas.int portion of the book suffice. The
radical speaks :

If Government means to defend the Throne, it must
make preparation by giving the people their rights
What is to be done? Why feed the people, and give them
votes, short Parliaments, ballot ; give them their rights.
Then the soldier has a word to say :

Cavalry are only useful to bully a mob, and save the
lives of those who compose it by dropping them a little,
instead of destroying them by firearms. I have been long
preaching to the Government to unite both arms, but they
will not, though they give me no refusal.

During his command he was at loggerheads
with the Government on the subject of his
pay. He might have been in the right ; though
it is certain that he could not exist without a
grievance. In 1841 he was offered an ap-
pointment on the Indian staff, which he
gladly accepted, and, thenceforward, a new
career was opened to him. The second volume
conducts us to his conquest of Scinde, in
1843. He was exactly the man to stand no
nonsense, and he made short work of the task
set before him. His subsequent career is
reserved for two other volumes. We wish the
work had been more comrressed. Much of
Sir Charles's writing is tedious, and, from the
excessive turbulence of spirit it displays, the
reverse of agreeable reading. That " sane
idea of madness," of which he speaks himself,
unpleasantly colours much of his composition.
He was an exceptional character, possessed,
'without doubt, of great military genius, but
totally wanting in that serene tranquillity and
modest depth, commonly characteristic of
the highest and most estimable order of
minds.