The Sun.
London, England, 1847-05-20 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, MAY 20, 1847.

EPSOM RACES.
WEDNESDAY.

The Derby has passed away with no very new or
marked feature to distinguish it from its predecessors.
The main difference in relation to its accessories was,
that the promise of direct railway accommodation from
London bridge to the town of Epsom was fulfilled, and
the result was, that thousands thronged to the races who
would have hesitated to visit them by the route of Nine
Elms and Kingston, or by the more direct and not less
fatiguing one, via " The Elephant." Whilst we, how-
ever, admit that the new channel possessed, at all events,
the recommendation of being cheap, and, in its express
trains, direct, and that the consequence was an unprece-
dented number of visitors, still we cannot grant that
it by any means added to the respectabili'y of the
assemblage, but had evidently the effect of diminishing
the presence of titled and fashionable company. With
respect to the line, we have to regret that the directors
allowed themselves to throw it open without having
provided the requisite accommodation for passengers in
the shape of stations and efficient employes ; for the fear
that great inconvenience, and probably something
worse, would ensue, deterred great numbers from tra-
velling by the new route. The-e evils, however, pro-
duced good, and hence the South- Western Company,
and the job-masters, had a fair share of the profits the
Derby day brings with it. This new division of the
traffic produced another beneficial effect, as it materially
lessened the confusion, stoppages, and danger that used
to prevail when the route was more limited.
The race was advertised for half-past two, long before
which hour the mass of visitors had settled into such
posi•ions as their fancies dictated, the equestrians
locating themselves on the hill in order to witness the
start, others congregating at " Tattenham-corner"—an
interesting point of the race, at which the winner may
usually be selected out of four or five—but the majority
stationing themselves either in or as near the Grand
Stand as possible, thereby obtaining the twofold advan-
tage of seeing the preliminaries of the race and its
issue. The crowd in this quarter was immense, and a
fair proof of the soundness of the policy that led to the
saddling, &c., on the course, and the removal of the
betting ring from the hill to the Grand Stand enclosure,
was offered by the fact that the receipts at the
different stands were on a greatly increased scale.
In touching on the actual business of the day, and the
chief incidents arising from it, we must return to the
Spread Eagle, at Epsom, where the betting men usually
congregate for a couple of hours before they repair to
the Downs. Their number was immense, and their
rallying point the most inconvenient imaginable, i. e.
the area in front of the inn, which by some unaccount-
able eaprioe, they prefer to the undisturbed accommo-
dation of the Subscription-room, opened for their special
use and convenience. The general business was not by
any means heavy, but it was remarkable for the extreme
eagerness with which Conyngham was backed, of course
to the prejudice of The Cossack, who declined to 5 to 1,
kis rival's closing price being only 4 toil. Between twelve
and one o'clock the ring dispersed to re-assemble soon
after within the enclosure of the Grand Stand, where,
amidst the Babel-like din that ever prevails on this
occasion, we collected that Conyngham gradually in-
creased in favour, and at the close was backed at a shade
under 3to 1. Some confusion arose from an unautho-
rised announcement having been made in the ring that
Old Port would not start.; it was not contradicted until
within half an hour of saddling. Mounting, cantering,
&c., having followed within view of the excited assem-
blage, the horses proceeded to the post, and, a
quarter before three, were started without the
slightest failure. We have fully described the
race underneath; it was run in a good old fashioned
style, Cossack having been in advance nearly
from end to end, beating the same horse that he beat
at Newmarket, and by precisely the same distance.
With the exception of the winning one, none of the
crack lots made any figure in the race. We may ob-
serve, in conclusion, that no Des by within our knowledge
has come off so perfectly "on the square." The race
over, there was a tremendous rush fur the refreshment-
rooms, and both in the Grand Stand and in Mr. Care-
less's the supply was scarcely equal to the demand ; it
is satisfactory to state that if some little scarcity prevailed
no complaints were heard of the charges. Three other
races followed the great one, and the day's amusements
were brought to a close in good time. We have only to
add a selection of the principal visitors :
Duke of Rutland, Duke of Richmond, Duke of Beau-
fort, Marquis of Exeter ; Earls of Chesterfield, March,
Granville, Strathmore, Grosvenor, Caledon, Uxbridge,
Glasgow, Wilton, Stradbroke; Countess of Chesterfield;
Lords Maidstone, Suffield, G. Bentinck, W. Powlett, S.
Osborne, G. Manners, A. Lennox, W. Lennox, G.
Lennox, Burghley, Brownlow, Cecil, Bateman, C.
Fitzroy, E. Russell, Vivian, Newport, Stanley,
Drinkald, Fitz-Clarence, Paget ; Sirs R. Pigott,
G. Heatbcote, C. Cockerel!, W. Codrington, J. Hawley,
W. M. Stanley, S. Spry, J. Shelley, F. Goodricke, W.
W. Wynne, Baron Rothschild, Count Batthyany ;
llonourables Colonel and Mrs. Anson, G. Byng, 11.
Forester, H. Pitt, Boyle, Admiral Poulett, &c. &c.

and 7 to 2 agst Chemise. Won cleverly by half a
length, Bletsoe Lass a good third, Tell a moderate
fourth, Sylph fifth, and Bretw•alda sixth, Bedouin
beaten off.
- - -

ASCOT RACES.
We are authorised to state that Alarm will not start
for the Emperor's Vase.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

- -
SIR,—Tuesday's racing ended as I anticipated it
would by the triumphant victory of Flatcatcht r for the
Woodcote Stakes and Crozier for the Craven Stakes.
Most extraordinary success attended my prognostica-
tion, I having in both instances named the first and
second.
A mistake crept into my list of starters for the Derby
in Mathematician, who was scratched on Monday.
As I did in my last epistle, so shall I do to-day, in
giving the list of starting horses for Thursday and
Friday's races, I shall place an asterisk (*) against those
who are in all probability likely to prove the winners.

THURSDAY.
DURDANS STAKES.

Widred
Anna the Third
Binnacle
*Bedlam
Dean Swift

*Queen Mary
Marquis of Conyngbam
Teresina
Pineapple
*Miles's Boy.
ND PLATE.

GRAND ST
yrs. st. lb. yrs. st. lb.
Laundry Maid ...4 8 8 Mr. Martin 3 7 6
*Bravissimo 4 8 4 Sir Simon 4 7 5
Giantess 5 8 2 Alkali 5 7 4
Gannett ...... ..5 8 2 Polka 4 7 0
Little Jack 5 7 13 Eryx 3 6 13
Conjugation ...aged 7 10 Christopher 3 6 8
*Colt by Amato...4 7 10 *Deloraine 3 6 5
Attorney 5 7 8 1 Sultana
And perhaps two or three more.

*lcicle

COBHAM STAKES.
Conceit.
DENBIES STAKES.
Capt. Pepper
*Clemanthe
*Treacle.

Carissima
Satyr
Sarah Sykes

FRIDAY.
OAKS STAKES.
Brown Bess
Miss Whip filly
Maid of Saragossa
Emerald Isle
*Vanity
lonia
Gift
Mangosteen
* Lady Lift
Noiseless
Slander
Jumble.

*Clementina
Filly—Quilt Arnold's dam
Cwachia
Kite
Maid of Motherwell
Exhortation
So Nice
Nannette filly
Palma
Marie Louise
Farmer's Daughter
*The Queen

The remaining stakes—the Members' Plate, and the
Derby and Oaks Stakes—are so much dependent on
those preceding them that it would be impossible to
give a correct list of the starters.
I am, Sir, yours, &e.,
THE SPIRIT OF THE TURF.

May 19.

LITERATURE.

ADVENTURES OF THE CONNAUGHT
BANGERS. 2 Vols. By William Grattan.

Little if anything could be desired with reference to
the victorious campaigns of the Duke of Wellington in
the Peninsula after the masterly volumes of Napier.
Of a purely historical character nothing indeed is requi-
site after the works that have already been published,
but of the anecdotal adventures, of the hair-breadth
escapes, and the personal rencontres of that stormy
epoch much—very much—remained unchronicled. Mr.
Grattan has done well towards the filling up of the
hiatus. As Lieutenant of the Connaught Rangers
during the days when that valorous regiment was ac-
quiring its chief renown and covering itself with im-
perishable glory, he is in a peculiar manner entitled to
command our attention when speaking of the military
achievements of a body of men whose bravery, and
ardour, and audacity, and perseverance, and
success have imparted to them the distin-
guishing title of the Fighting Eighty• Eighth. But
Mr. Grattan is no dry didactic narrator of events. He
can describe a siege or a pitched battle with all the pre-
cision of a Napier and all the minuteness of a Siborne,
if not with the eloquence of a Gibbon or the enthusiasm
of a Tacitus. Beyond this, be tells an anecdote with the
gusto of Harry Lorrequer—proving himself to be a
rare companion over a dish of walnuts and a flask of
Madeira. There is an unction, too, about his humorous
passages that irresistibly tickles one into laughter. And
all the advantages are "set off" by a winning modesty
as regards his own personal .movements, and a delightful
and unaffected-Zonhommie. 4Where, moreover, could a
soldier find a fairer field fbr discursive chat than the
peninsula of Iberia. and Lusitania, when the marshals of
the Emperor Napoleori and the generals of England were
contending for the mister); amidst a fruitful vegetation,
a delicious climate, -and_ a_..distracted people ? And
where could the lovers of military adventure look
for incident, for merriment, for daring, for vicissitude,
and fur a very forgiveabla rascality, if not to the Con-
naught Rangers—the Boys—the Fighting Eighty-Eighth?
Surely nowhere. Mr. Grattan has chosen a glorious
theme, and he has treated it gloriously. The book,
though rambling and discursive to an inordinate extent,
is enthralling from page 1 to page 675. As Phia-like
illustrations to Napier's Peninsular History, these
chapters are excellent and invaluable. They testify in
a brilliant manner to the indomitable. courage, the un-
repining endurance, and the national peculiarities of the
British troops ; but, like the descriptions of all battle-
grounds, they are' mournful in their very pleasantry, and
ghastly in their very facetiousness. We honour Mr.
Grattan, especially because he shovit here and there
throughout his volumes that there is a tender
core to his Heart of Oak that he has a
bosom to feel for the suffering as well as to bear the
brunt of the bayonet—that he can, in no maudlin tones
of affectation, but with a manly candour and explicitness,
lament over the desolations and woes of war as well as
exult over its glory and its heroism. In this respect he
ffects a sort of compromise between Captain I'en and
Captain Sword. As a specimen of the drolleries con-
tained in these adventures, we extract the following
characteristic remarks upon Wellington from the lips of
a Connaught Ranger with the felicitous name of Paddy

"I Well I' said he, now ids all past and gone, and wasn't
it the diva's own dthroll business, the taking that same place ;
and wasn't Long-nose (meaning the Duke of Wellington) a
quare lad to sthrive to get into it, seeing how it was detinded!
But what else could he do, afther all? didn't he recave
ordhers to do it ; and didn't he say to us all, 'Boys,' says he,
' ids myself that's sorry to tbrouble yees upon this dirty
arrand; but we must do it, for all that; and iv
.rees can get
into it, by hook or by crook, be the powers, id 'ill be the
making ov yees all—and ov me too!' and didn't he spake
the thruth? Sure,' says he, did I ever tell yees a lie, or
spake a word to yees that wasn't as thrue as the Gospil?
and, iv yea folly my directions, there's nothin can bate
3 ees?' And sure, afther we got in, was he like the rest,
ethriving to put us out before we diverted ourselves? Not
he, faith. It was he that spoke to the boys' decently.
' Well, boys,' says he, when he met myself and a few more
aising a house ov a thrifle, well, boys,' says he (for he knew
the button), God bless your work ! ids myself that's proud
to think how complately yees tuck the concate out uv
the Frinch 88th, in the castel last night.' Why sir,'
says I '(forgettin to call him my Lord), the divil a Frinch
Connaught Ranger ever was born that the Irish Connaught
Rangers isn't able to take the concate out ov;' and ids what
he said upon the same, splitting his sides with laffin, that it
was thrue for me there wasn't ; and blur-an-ouns, boys, aint
he the man to stand by? Don't he take the rough and the
smooth with us, and wouldn't it be a pity not to give him
his dew? don't he expose himself to the wet and the cowld
with us, lie out on the grass at night, like any other baste?
and aint he afthur kicking the French before him, just as
we'd kick an old foot-ball? Be the powers, whin I see him
commin next or nigh me, my heart gets so big that my body
isn't big enough to hould it, and it jumps up clane into my
throat—to get room l And don't think that I'm romancin,
when I tell yees how he said we tuck the concate out ov the
Frinch 88th ; he said every wcrd ov it, and more too—iv I
could repate it in his own words.'

" replied Cornet' Fagan, what you say is per-
fectly thrue ; we ought to stand by him—and didn't we?
Sure yeas remember how Misther Mackie ran up the laddher
as nimble as a cat, and poor Misther Martin thought to do
the same, till he was kilt I and didn't Captain Seton owe his
life to his being so thin that the French couldn't hit him? and
whin we have such a man to direct us, and such officers to
lade us on, why, what else can we do but folly them through
thick and thin ? '"

With such an opinion of the capacity of their leader,
and with such an aptitude for fingering the trigger
and plunging forward with the pike themselves,
it is not difficult to comprehend how the British
arms became predoniinant over a dejected an-
tagonist and estranged commanders. In review-
ing the campaigns of the Spanish and Portuguese
Peninsula, it must never be overlooked that England
was then enabled to concentrate all her military
strength upon those two countries while France was
battling against the leaguered arms of northern, eastern,
western, and southern Europe. A very mournful sub-
ject is brought under consideration in the present work,
namely, the anomalous character of the immortal
Picton. Though the conduct of that illustrious warrior
was certainly of a very questionable, if not of an entirely
reprehensible, kind towards the 88th Regiment, it is cer-
tain that he has entitled himself to the respectful and
lasting remembrance of his countrymen by his enter-
prising life and his heroic death. Mr. Grattan speaks
antipathy
neu boldly,
behaviour
apvaitnhny and
w to
end his
aswveient apparentrea ee va. rvWe
ererentahas
cannot
nne
0, u 0
tn
resistpo t
en upon
pti het
hat
itee Gn ee nf et:
feeling
of
ae
es
doubtful blemishes in the disposition of a popular hero
like Picton. The hero of Sinde would have afforded
of
Aliwal. To desist,
andhim aanvbenrrydidniaffteernent notion of the care due to privates
the agonised victims of the blasphemies, who note only
see only the laureffilscearsn this • ful
however, abruptly from painful
topic, here is a pictured—na
on
td t soho also
blood, would
who
t the
ar heroon
ly
for the contemplation of those who
the triumphal
telling about the terrific storm of Ciudad Rodrigo:—
" city. It is an symphoniesincident thus author
andho t
:he r notn
" During a contest of such a
the bauble
by medals,tthe
shrieksti hn ehpei pillaged
ai
gg andhetd,
innaantdu battle-fieldr
not
okt etahnuedp
as may be supposed, much was of
necessity left to the guid-
ance of the subordinate officers, if
not to the soldiers them-
selves. Each affray in the streets was conducted in the best
manner the moment would admit of, and decided more by
personal valour than discipline, and in some instances officers
as men as privates had to combat with the imperial troops.
In one of these encounters, Lieutenant George Faris, of the
88th, by an accident so likely to occur in an affair of this
kind, separated a little too far from a dozen or so of his regi-
ment, found himself opposed to a French solOier who appa-.
rently was similarly placed ;—it was a curious coincidence,
and it would seem as if each felt that he individually was the
representative of the country to which he belonged; and had
the fate of the two nations hung upon the issue of the combat
I am about to describe, it could not have been more heroically
contested. The Frenchman fired at, and wounded Faris in
the thigh, and made a desperate push with his bayonet at
his body, but Faris parried the thrust, and the bayonet only
lodged in his leg ; he saw at a glance the peril. of his situation,
and that nothing short of a miracle could save him ;—the
odds against him were too great, and if he continued a
scientific fight he must inevitably be vanquished ; he sprang
forward, and seizing hold of the Frenchman by the collar,
a struggle of the most nervous kind took place; in their
mutual efforts to gain an advantage they lost their caps,
and as they were men of nearly equal strength, it was doubt-
ful what the issue would be. They were so entangled with
each other, their weapons were of no avail, but Faris at
length disengaged himself from the grasp which held him,
and he was able to use his sabre; he pushed the French-
man from him, and ere he could recover himself he laid his
head open nearly to the chin; his sword blade, a heavy,
soft, ill- made Portuguese one, was doubled up with the force
of the blow, and retained some pieces of the Beall and clotted
hair! At this moment I reached the spot with about twenty
men, composed of different regiments, all being by this time
mixed pelf moll with each other. I ran up to Faris—he
was nearly exhausted, but he was safe. The French gre-
nadier lay upon the pavement, while Faris, though totter-
ing from fatigue, held his sword firmly in his grasp, and it
was crimson to the hilt. The appearance of the two com-
batants was frightful!—one lying dead on the ground, the
other faint from agitation and loss of blood ; but the soldiers
loudly applauded him, and the feeling uppermost with them
was that our man bad the best of it ! It was a shocking
sight, but it would be rather a hazardous experiment to
begin moralising at such a moment and in such a place."
As a kind of companion-story to this very ghastly
anecdote, we give the following account of the execution
of deserters:—
"At eight o'clock the division was under arms, and formed
in a hollow square of small dimensions; in the centre of it
was the Provost-Marshal, accompanied by his followers,
with pick-axes, spades, shovels, and all
„the necessary et-
ceteras for marking out and torming the graves into which
the unfortunate delinquents were to be deposited as soon as
they receivd the eland amost imposing of military ho-
nours—that of being shot to death ! In a few moments
afterwards, the rolling of muffled drums—the usual accom-
paniment of the death march—was heard; and the soldiers
who guarded the prisoners were soon in sight. The divi-
sion observed a death-like silence as the prisoners defiled
round the inside of the square ; every eye was turned to-
wards them; but Mangin, from his well-known good cha-
racter, was an object of general solicitude. The solitary
sound of the muffled drums at last died away into silence—
the guard drew up in the centre of the square, and the pri-
soners had, for the last time, a view of their companions
from whom they had deserted, and of their colours which
they had forsaken ; but if their countenances
they to repent seemed were a just
index of their minds,
The three greatly the act
tiles, had committed! men of the 60th were in
their shirts, as was also Mangin, of the 88th, but Curtis
wore the old red rag, most likely from necessity, having,
in all human probability, no shirt to die in; a circumstance
by no means rare with the soldiers of the Peninsular army.
"The necessary preliminialarides,
such as reading the crime,
and finding the sentence, d finished, when the Adjutant-
General announced the par on granted to Mangin, who was
immediately conducted away, and placed at a short distance
in rear of the division ; the rest staggered onward to the spot
where their graves had been dug, and having been placed on
their knees, their legs hanging over the edge of the grave, a
bandage was tied over their eyes; the Provost-Marshal
then, with a party of twenty musketeers, their firelocks
cooked, and at the recover, silently moved iu front of GC
prisoners unt ho reached to within five paces of them, and
then, giving two motions of his hana_the one to present,
the other to fire-
the four men fell into the pit prepared to
-
receive them. The three Germans were dead—indeed they
were nearly so before they were fired at! And if the state
of their nerves was a criterion to go by, a moderate sized
pop-gun would have been sufficiently destructive to have

finished their earthly career; but Curtis sprang up, and with
one of his jaws shattered, and hanging down upon his
breast, presented a horrid spectacle. Every one seemed to
be electrified, the Provost-Marshal excepted ; he, I suppose,
was well accustomed to such sights, for without any cere-
mony, he walked up to Curtis, and with the most perfect
composure levelled a huge instrument (in size between a
horse-pistol and blunderbuss) at his head, which blew it
nearly off his shoulders, and he fell upon the bodies of the
Germans without moving a muscle.
"The ceremony over, the division defiled round the grave,
and as each company passed it, the word Eyes right' was
given by the officer in command, by which means every
roan had a clear view of the corpses as they lay in a heap.
This is a good and wholesome practice, for nothing so much
awakes in the mind of the soldier, endowed with proper
feeling, the dishonour of committing an action which is
almost certain to bring him to a disgraceful end, while it
deters the bad man from doing that which will cost him all
that he has to lose—for such persons have no character—his
life. It was ten o'clock before the parade broke up, and we
returned to our quarters, leaving to the Provost-Marshal and
his guard the task of filling up the grave. Several Portu-
guese peasants crowded near the fatal spot, and so soon as
all danger was past, they flocked to witness the interment,
making, all the time, divers appeals to the Virgin Mary;
but whether they were intended for the preservation of the
souls departed, or their own bodies corporate, I neither knew
nor inquired. _

" ➢tangin, the man who bad received his pardon, was still in
a state of stupor; after the lapse of an hour or so his captain
went to see him ; but the shock he had received was too se-
vere; he had not nerve to bear up against it; he replied in
an incoherent manner, soon fell asleep, and awoke an idiot!
Every effort that could be made by the medical men, and
every assurance of favour from his captain, proved vain—
he became a 'palpable, irreclaimable idiot, and shortly after-
wards died of convulsions."

In justice to the officers and soldiers who'partook in our
Peninsular victories and campaigns, and whose services
have been so long and shamefully unacknowledged, we
transcribe two passages from these volumes. The Duke
of Wellington would evince no little anxiety to ingra-
tiate posterity with his character did he but take a hint
from what follows. The author has just mentioned
Wellington's applications to the Duke of York and to
Earl Bathurst respecting the Waterloo medals, when he
proceeds—
" Now, is there any disinterested man to be found who
cannot, at a glance, discover the cause, the mainspring, of
this wonderful solicitude—this maiden effort of the Duke of
Wellington, to obtain a badge of honour for his army, nine-
tenths of which he had never seen before that day, and who,
as a matter of course, had never laid eyes on him? Is it to
be supposed that he who could, and did, quietly accept the
immense riches, honours, and titles that were showered on
him, and gained for him by the best blood of his Peninsular
army, without once raising his voice in favour of a medal for
his old and tried veterans,—his companions during six years'
terrible war, and victorious in every battle I the men who
had carried him, it may be truly said, on their very shoul-
ders, and placed him in the exalted position he now occupies ;
is it, I say. to be supposed he felt, or could feel,
anyinterest in an army that he had but just
seen, and an army that had fought under his
command for little more than as many hours as his Penin-
sular soldiers had fought for years, except for the gratifica-
tion of his own personal vanity? If not this—but who can
doubt it ?—why did he write to the Duke of York on the
subject? Why! because he had beaten the great man in
person, and he was determined that Wellington' and
Waterloo' should be banded about on the breast of his
hundred thousand soldiers, more than a half of whom had
never seen a shot fired before that day, and many of whom
were not only not in the battle, but knew nothing about it
for a day afterwards; yet all these men—absentees included
—got a medal ! I therefore ask what interest—except to
gratify his own ambition—could he take in this Waterloo
army, or any other army the world could produce, when he
forgot the services, and trampled under his feet the applica-
tion of an army that made him what he now is? But having
written to the Duke of York, as his dispatches avow he did,
why did he not say so in his reply to the Duke of Richmond?
Does he not, in point of fact, deny in his speech that which
we have, printed by his own authority, in his book of dis-
patches? and his assertion that since the battle of Waterloo
not a shot has been fired in Europe' is perfectly contemptible
when adduced as a reason for granting a medal for that
battle, and refusing one for the Peninsula. Why has there
not been a shot (an hostile one we presume the Duke
meant) fired in Europe since then? Because Napoleon was
properly secured after Waterloo, and had he been so secured
after Toulouse Waterloo would never have been fought. But
how did the Duke of Wellington know (for I put the good
and amiable Duke of York out of the question, as also the
Ministers), that there would be no more fighting in Europe?
lie knew not, nor could he know any such thing; but in a
few months after his beating Napoleon (this was the hobby !)
we find his Waterloo army with their medals dangling at
their breasts."

" Had the Duke told the House of Lords," he continues,
" and told the army that he had suggested to the Duke of
York the expediency s,f granting this medal to his Waterloo
army, he would have told that which a great number of
people had never heard before; and he might have added,
with the most perfect safety, that if he had asked the same
favour for his Peninsular army, it would have been as freely
granted as his Waterloo suggestion,—and, his Peninsular
army will add for him, that it would be granted even now
but for the heartless opposition he gives it. But the whole
secret has been already told: Napoleon, the greatest general
of this, or perhaps of any other age, was beaten in person ;
and it would seem that this all-absorbing thought
haunted the Duke of Wellington so early as the night
of the battle, for Captain Sherer tells us, in his history, that
on the night of the battle, when at supper, ' Wellington re-
peatedly leaned back in his chair, and, rubbing his hands
convulsively, exclaimed aloud—" Thank God I have met
him I thank God I have met him."' How different were
Nelson's meek but fervid words after his great victory at
Trafalgar ! The dying hero's last words were—' I thank
God I have done my duty —I hope my country will be satis-
fied that I have done my duty !' But the Duke of Welling-
ton, according to Captain Sherer, was thinking much more
of himself and his beaten adversary than of his country.
However, he did not forget his army, for, as has been seen,
in ten days after the battle, he begged leave to suggest'
(in plain English, he asked the Duke of York to give the
medal, and it was given,) the expediency of giving this
medal to his army."
Mr. Grattan records a multitude of the most inte-
resting and diiersified adventures, savouring sometimes
of the romantic, sometimes of the horrible, and always
of the remarkable. We scarcely know whether to him
the flavour of mulled wines, the smell of gunpowder,
the sheen of' the green herbage, the vermillion
lips of a donna, the elastic amble of a horse,
or the cheers and rush of a forlorn hope
are preferable. Everywhere and in everything he finds
matter for disquisition, and he either "points" an
episode with an Irish witticism, or " colours" it with an
English pleasantry. As a decoction of all sorts of ad.
venture Mr. Grattan has imparted the raciest taste
imaginable to the outpourings of his memory ; and he
has nobly fulfilled a duty incumbent upon an officer
who can write so well—a duty honourable to his soldier's
heart and his soldier's intellect.