The Sun.
London, England, 1852-05-04 00:00:00

THE CAUSES OF THE DEFEAT AT
WATERLOO.

The battle of Waterloo was lost not by the army, I
which was never more indefatigable, more devoted, and
more brave, but by the commission of four faults—the
tardiness of Ney on the evening of the 16th in occupying
Quatre-Bras ; the indecision of Grouchy in not marching
towards the cannon of the battle, and neglecting Wavres;
the too great distance left by Napoleon between his
army and his right wing commanded by Grouchy; finally,
and above all, the loss of seven hours of daylight by Na-
poleon on the morning of the 18th, in front of Welling-
ton: fatal hours, which gave time to the Prussians to ar-
rive on the field of battle, and to the French army a se-
cond enemy upon its flanks, before it had vanquished
the first. Of these four errors two must be ascribed to
Napoleon's generals, and two to himself, none to the
troops. Neither his genius nor his resolution are recog-
nind in separating himself from one-tkird of his army,
by an immense and unknown space on his right, without
even verbal communication with this wing; nor when he
hesitated till 11 o'clock in the forenoon before he ad-
vanced to storm Mont Saint Jean, and to deprive Welling-
ton of the hope of being joined by the Prussians, already
in sight on the horizon, but still three hours march from
the field of battle. He left Ney, half a victor upon the
reverse of Mont Saint Jean, to wait for three hours the
mass of the army and the Imperial Guard, instead of
profiting by the breach opened by the Marshal in the
English army, to hurl upon it his centre and his reserve,
and to sweep Wellington, scarcely resisting, from the
field, before Blucher should be in a position to prevent
the defeat of the English. Finally, his decisive impulse
amidst the fire of battle could not be recognized in his ten
hours' immobility on the plateau of Rossomme, and in
his passive inertness behind the hillock' at Mont Saint
Jean, whilst his army was totally sacrificing itself by
mounting to the breach opened by Ney, and waiting
for nothing but the presence and example of its Emperor
to rise above itself and superior to destiny. One of
these faults alone was sufficient to rain an ordinary
army, but all combined destroyed that of France.
Let us add, in order to be just, that Wellington and
his army equalled by their intrepidity the first generals
and the best soldiers in France. The English general
possessed the true genius adapted for desperate
struggles, the determination not to be conquered. His
troops possessed the real genius of defence, passive obe-
dience unto death. The Scotch regiments covered,
without yielding an inch, the spot on which they were
ordered to die.—Lamartine's History of the Restoration of
Monarchy in France.
G.

ALYANIC CHAINS.—We find in a Belgian medical
journal the following curious case, related by M. Henrotay,
a military surgeon. It tuns as follows :—Geerairts, 38 years
of age, keeper of ordnance stores at the camp of Beverloo, in
Belgium, was in the habit of wearing, on account of old
rheumatic pains, a galvanic chain, which was fastened to
his chest. Being, the last summer, close to a spot which
was struck by lightning, he was suddenly seized with a fit of
dyspncea, which lasted frilly a quarter of an hour. As he was
no worse for that attack, he soon forgot the circumstance,
when, on the Ist of May, 1851, whilst reading the paper in
his room, the window of which was open, he was aroused by
a violent clap of thunder. Immediately upon this, the man
had vertigo, he staggered about, was obliged to hold by the
furniture, and was all at once completely deprived of sight.
He had at the time the galvanic chain around his neck.
When seen by the surgeon, there was a great anxiety in the
patient's countenance, the eyes were open and almost mo-
tionless, the pupils dilated and hardly acting, &c. The man
complained of severe headache and giddiness, the pulse was
slow, feeble, and compressible, and a bellows murmur was
heard in the cardiac region. The patient was very thirsty,
and there were nausea, anorexia, and slight pain on
pressure
in the epigastrium. Leeches were applied behind the ears,
sinapisms to the legs, and low diet enforced. As there was
no improvement two days after the accident, a large blister
was put on the nape of the neck, some amelioration took
place, and sight was quite restored on the sixth day.—Lancet.
HOW TO COOS AN EGG.—An egg should not be
boiled ; it should only be scalded—eu/90, coddled. Immerse
your egg in, or, which is better, pour upon your egg boiling
water. For time ; proportion your time to the size and num-
ber of your eggs, and the collateral accidents. If you cook
your eggs upon your breakfast-table more time will be re-
quired. But if you station your apparatus on a good whole-
some bob, where there is a fire, and so the radiation of heat
is less positive, less time will suffice. The latter way is mine,
winter and summer, and the differences of the surrounding
circumstances equalize, or nearly so, the time. I keep one
egg under water 9 minutes; two, 9} ; three, 10 ; and four
nearly 11 minutes. The yolk first owns the power of the
caloric, and will be even firmly set, while the white will be
milky, or at most tremulously gelatinous. The flavour,
superior to anything which a plover ever deposited, will be
that which the egg of the gallinaceous domestic was intended
to have; the substance, that which is delectable to the
palate, and facile of digestion. There is perfect absence of
that gutta percha quality, in the white especially, at once the
result and the source of dyspepsy. I believe that eggs would
be much more patronised and much more wholesome, if
boiling were discarded.— Cottage Gardener.
ALARMING OCCURRENCE AT THE ROYAL ACS'
DEMY.—About mid-day on Saturday a very alarming acci-
dent, which might have been attended with the most diast-
rous consequences, occurred in the apartments occupied by
the Royal Academy in the National Gallery. It appears
that among the preparations for the banquet that evening
was the arrangement of a large number of gas jets near the
roof of the saloon where the dinner took place. Beneath
these jets a large sheet of strained canvas was extended in
order to shut out the glare from the pictures on the walls.
The man in charge of the gas was in the act of testing its
canvas,fragile and ifnram an e
action when a small quantity of ignited spirit of wino fell
upon
Happily, the
the
inaestdanthte canvas were
ww
elsumed, and, beyond the mischief occasioned by the destruc-
tion of the table-cloths and part of dinner paraphernalia
where glee slibris fa; lag ditraligQ * the
Pella blaze.ee
re soon in
a n