The Sun.
London, England, 1851-12-02 00:00:00

THE SUN,

SPIRIT of

the PUBLIC JOURNALS

DEATH OF :iiAI:SHAL SOULT.

IIES.—The veults oi the Evelides ail' oeen once
mote for a Merdeal of Ntlp,iieen, rind thy__, flit of gi-
gaGtie rZee sow at lenetn to be cougueel to his tomb.
Oa Wednesday lest Jeen-de-Dieu Soul!, Duke of Dal-
matte and Meishal Geserel of France, expired peace-
telly in the very beems of his nativity, aft r a lin; with
scareely a parallel for eventfulness nod danger. I, was
in 1769, in the year which gave birth to Wellington rind
Napoleon, that this famous soldier of fortune first saw
the light, at St. Aurans, in the department of Tarn. So
obscure was the descent of one destined to figure amongst
the highest dignitaries of his country Putt little has ever
been said of his parentage or extraction. His military
instincts appear to have been developed even before that
extraordinary stimulus which such prepossessions re-
ceived from Republican enthusiasm, for his first like his
last service was under a Bourbon King At the age of
fifteen he entered the Royal Rt giment of Artillery, from
which corps he was speedily transferred, with a lieute-
nant's commission, to a battalion of Grenadiers. Less
advanced, however, than others in years and experience
C ben the convulsions of France opened to ambition and
valeur all the prizes of the world, he was still learning
activity from Hoche and patience from Jour-
dan, while his future colleagues were gather-
ing more brilliant honours on the banks of
the Po. At Fleurus he was }et only a Colonel, hut
even in that capacity he found opportunity for
exercising such seasonable discretion that his military
reputation was established on the field. In those days
treeess followed distinction with almost electrical ra-
pidity. To be noticed in action was to be placed at once
en the path to honour and renown. Colonel Soult be-
came a General of Brigade in 1794, and within four
}ears from that time was intrusted with the command of
a division. His career now lay under the eyes of a man
whose glance fee such discernment was magical, and
whose judgment was seldom biassed by prejudice or
ieeling. Napoleon detected in an instant the talents of
the rising General, and from this moment the name of
Souk is rarely absent from the history of Europe. He
fought in every war, almost in every field, if not with
invariable fortune at any rate with unchangeable
He is included in every list of honours and in every ca-
talogue of Imperial creations. Though not personally a
favourite of the Emperor's, he was among the first of
the Generals selected for the dignity of Marshal, and
the first of the Marshals advanced to the distinction of
Peers. It is almost half a century since ho received his
baton of command, and nearly as long since he first as-
sumed the coronet of a Duke. Even the honours of our
own veteran champion are actually of a more recent
date. It we may trust the narratives of garrulous
and often contradictory biographers, the Emperor ex-
pressed in his later days a somewhat disparaging
estimate of Soult's military capacity; but if we form our
opinion from historical facts, it will be difficult to admit
such a conclusion. Taking one campaign with another,
there was no Marshal of the Empire whose reputation
was so repeatedly and so practically confessed by the
commands with which he was invested. It was Soult
who disciplined that immense but manageable mass
which was held in hand on the heights of Boulogne to
bo launched against the cliffs of Kent, and when the in-
vasion of Britain was commuted for the conquest of
Austria it was Sault who led the main column of the
grand army, arid who on the field of Austerlitz was
charged with the execution of that mighty matQuvre
which decided the fate of the campaign. It was Soult
who secured the semblance of victory at Eylau, and
whose judgment was permitted to influence the wavering
resolution of Napoleon. When the terrible disaster of
Moscow had to be repaired by the strategic achieve-
ments of Lutzen and Be.utzen it was Soult
who was summoned from Castile to the Em-
peror's side ; and when the rout of Vittoria had
cleared the Peninsula of invaders it was he
who was detached again from the plains of Leipsic for
the protection of uncovered France. There were other
Marshals for whom Napoleon had a greater liking, but
whenever the crisis required a sure right arm or an in-
dependent head the first appeal was to Soult. He is
always found in command of the choicest corps, the
strongest column, or the most important post. Less in-
tuitively scientific, perhaps, than Nay or Sachet, with-
out the fiery dash of Latinos, the reckless impetuosity
of Murat, or the extraordinary tenacity of Massena, he
nevertheless united in himself the various qualities of an
independent commander in a greater degree than any of
his colleagues. His were the fewest mistakes, though
not the fewest failures, for it was his fortune to be
selected as the peculiar antagonist of that General before
whom even the star of his Imperial master was to set.
That through a great part of his career he was unsuccess-
ful is no more than saying that he had Englishmen for
his adversaries and Wellington for his opponent. Yet he,
fought a good fight. If he was surprised at Oporto
none could have retreated with more admirable skill; if
he was driven from the Pyrenneee, none could have
defended those passes with more redoubtable courage.
With the coolness and vigilance which never forsook
him, and which were perhaps his most characteristic
qualities, he disputed every inch of French ground
against his advancing enemy, and closed the Peninsular
war under the walls of Toulouse with an action which
his countrymen are fain to accept as a victory. Like
our own great General ho survived to carry into new
scenes and capacities the renown and experience of his
professional liee. Attached by predilection and habit to
the Imperial cause, which he had boldly reasserted at
Waterloo, it was not until 1821 that he was confirmed by
the restored dynasty in his military and social honours.
At the revolutionary crisis of 1831) his Republican in-
stints or his professional ambition survived its such
vigour that ?eL Louis Blanc ventures en some mysterious
hints respecting the capacity to which he might possibly
have been called under the projected institutions.
Either his strength, however, or his fortune failed him,
for he contentedly accepted a seat in the councils of the
Constitutional Monarchy, though his political genius
was not of a cast to acquire more than nominal ascend-
ancy in such Caifinets as those of Louis Philippe.
The last catastrophe of all found him past his time.
Three revolutions aro too much for even French
vitality, and it mattered little to the veteran whether the
Constitution to which his last allegiance was asked was
the twenty-ninth or the thirtieth of the series. With the
single exception of Bernadotte, he may be described,
perhaps, as the most fortunate of all Napoleon's mar-
shals. lie never, it is true, became either a King or a
Prince; but if he lost the prize, he escaped the penalty,
and survived to enjoy exalted rank, ample income, and
remarkable consideration to the close of a long period of
years. There was a moment, as is credibly related,
when his brain, like those of others, was turned by the
vision of regal titles, and the soldier who could not hold
Oporto against a British division had been contem-
plating at that very moment the assumption of the
crown of " Lusitania." But these reveries were soon
blown to winds, and from that time Soult concentrated
his energies with unswerving fidelity on the work be-
fore him. That he was a cruel as well as a formidable
enemy Spanish history but too loudly testifies, and those
who once belaboured an obnoxious General in our streets
might have been reminded that a few years before
they had cheered to the very echo a commander the
least of whose deeds of bloodshed surpassed in merciless
rigour all that was ever reported from Hungary.
There was some excuse, perhaps, to be found in the pe-
culiarities of a guerilla campaign; but if what Soult did
can be justified, it is clear that everything is permissible
in war. Except, however, under the influence of poli-
tical agitation, Englishmen are not apt to exercise such
a practical censure on the military tactics of foreigners,
and when the old antagonist of Wellington actually ap-
peared in Piccadilly as the representative of France at
the coronation of an English Queen, ho was received
with a fervour of welcome which none other of our titled
visitors was permitted to share. This is one of the ad-
vantages of protracted life. Warren Hastings survived
to be saluted by the Parliament before which he had
been for nine years impeached ; Lord Dundonaid out-
lived calumny, and now wears his honours without a
blemish; and Soult, the scourge of Castile and the ex•
terminator of defenceless peasantry, will only bo re-
membered at present as the skilful and chivalrous anta-
gonist of England, the glorious relic of a grand
generation, and the oldest hero of a nation of soldiers.

THE NEWSPAPER STAMP ACT.
DAILY NEWS.—Although the judgment delivered
yesterday morning in the Court of Exchequer, in the
case of the Queen against Bradbury and another, was
e,iven by a majority of three to one in favour of the de-
fendants; and although Dickens's Household Narrative
of Current Events has thereby escaped the screw pres-
sure of the Stamp-office, yet the broad questions in-
volved, and thus nominally affirmed, are really left in
uncertainty. Of the four judges of which the court was
composed two averred that a proper construction of the
Acts of Parliament relating to newspapers admitted of
considerable doubt; Mr. Baron Platt declared that the
dicta of the Inland Revenue
while Board regarding the law
was " utterly pr.eposterous;
considered that judgment oughtwe Mr. Baron Parke
to go in their favour.
Two of the judges, therefore—the Chief Baron and Mr.
Baron Martin—accused the statutes of incertitude; while
the other two proved the accusation by the opinion of the
one flatly contradicting that of the other. The decision
of the three judges,
untaxed, inwhh is ico w hanlloa Mr. Dickens to com-
municatepleasant manner, the news
of each current month to his readers at interval greater
than twenty-six days between each publication, invites
no comment from us; because we agree with it. The de-
cision, however, of the dissentient judge must not be so
passed over. His main argument in reference to the point
at issue—namely, whether a paper issued at greater in-
tervals than 26 days between each publication, like the
Household Narrative, is or is not in law a stampable,.
paper—was, firstly, that, as the 60th of Geo. In., cap.
34, in which such papers are so specified, was Passed, to
extend the newspaper stamp duties over a greater surface
than previously, eo limitation of its operation whatever
could be contemplated by the allusion to periodicals
published at intervals exceeding 26 days. Secondly,
that if the Legislature had intended to exempt such
papers, it would have excepted them in express and in-
dubitable terms. This inferential mode of construing
Acts of Parliament can seldom be relied on; and was
never so much at fault as when employed by the Learned
Mr. Baron Parke. The history of the clause he referred
to, and of the schedule to the latest Newspaper Stamp
Act, prove at once that Learned Judge's misapprehension.
It happeeed in the year 1819, when the former Act was
passed, that a welt•known weekly publication, known
vulgarly as the " Gridiron," but really entitled Cobbett's
Register, was in the height of its bold and abusive career.
At that time the legal definition of a newspaper was
simply a paper containing "reports of public news, in-
telligence, and occurrences to be dispersed or made
public ;" and manifestly a paper like Cobbett's,
which merely commented upon passing events, could
not be brought within the Stump Act. Hence the
60th of George 111., cap. 34, was paned to include prints
putting forth " remarks and observations" on public
n: ws, intelligence, and occurrences in the number of
the taxed. Had no restriction been provided, many
i re spectable and harmless monthly publications then ex-