The Sun.
London, England, 1860-02-14 00:00:00

THE LATE SIR WILLIAM WIER.

The death of a good soldier and a great historian
cannot be allowed to pass witheut special record.
Had William Francis Patrick Napier been simply
a titled survivor of the Peninsular war, he would
have figured with some note in the obituary of the
year, but his service in the field, gallant as it was,
has been eclipsed by his labours in the study, and
he now stands, and will stand for ages, in the eyes
of his corntrymen as the chronicler of their
country'a greatest exploits. This literary celebrity,
the centroversies by which it was attended, and
tb renown concurrently acquired by other mem-
bers of the family, have served to identify the name
of Napier with the military glories of England, and
to familiarise the minds of thousands with that
prominent character whose departure from the
scene is this day announced.
Despite the remoteness which seems now to
characterise the figures of the great Duke's genera-
tion, Sir William Napier was not of very advanced
age. Though he entered the army in the last cen-
tury, and fought his last fight almost 50 years ago,
he was only 74 when he was overtaken by death.
In his days men began work early. The first of
his nine commissions found him a lad of fourteen,
and he was but little over twenty when he went to
that great war which he afterwards undertook to
describe. His extraction is remarkable enough to
deserve some mention, for one of his grandfathers
was actually the grandson of King Charles 11., and
the other succeeded to the family title while Marl-
borough was conducting the campaign of Ramilies.
In that year, 1706, a certain Francis Scott became
Lord Napier. By a first marriage ho produced a
line of sons, from one of whom descended the pre-
sent Admiral Sir Charles Napier ; by a second
marriage he had a son named George. This
George, in the year 1781, took to wife the Lady
Sarah, daughter of the second Duke of Richmond,
great-granddaughter of the Second Charles, and
previously the wife of Sir Thomas Banbury. From
that union there issued a progeny of heroes, of
whom William was the third.

Shortly after the young ensign's first appoint-
ment, certain military measures were adopted by,
the Government, which produced results of an ex-
traordinary and probably unexpected kind. The
rupture of the peace of Amiens, and the renewal of
hostilities with France, had been signalised by a
menace of invasion on the part of Napoleon, more
overt and more formidable than any which had
preceded. The country was reasonably alarmed,
I and took steps for its defence by building Niartello
towers along the south-eastern coast, and cutting
the Royal Military Canal between Folkestone and
Hythe. Fortunately, something else was done too.
On the heights above Sandgate, on the very place
where the Shorncliffe huts now stand, a small army
of observation was stationed, under the command
of Sir John Moore, and there, in a sort of perma-
nent camp, of which the vestiges remained till the
other day, this force was trained and exerci,ed by
that able general, until the military genius of the
nation acquired a development altogether new.
Among the tactical reforms introduced was one di-
rected to the improvement of light infantry as a de-
sirable arm of the service, and certain regiments in
particular were selected as the objec is of this special
instruction. When, therefore, after the lapse of a
year or two the thunder-cloud on the heights of
Boulogne had been scattered, and the forces of Eng-
land rendered available for foreign campaigns, Sir
John Moore's picked corps appeared brigaded to-
gether in a distinct division. At first, perhaps, no
great importance was attached to the phenomenon,
though there must have been something striking
even in the aspect of these battalions, for Larpent,
when noting in his diary the arrival of troops in
the Peninsula, speaks particularly of a " light
corps" just come—" very fine; much thought of by
the ladies." After a very short time, however,
this " Light Division," with its constituent regi-
ments, the 43d, the 52d, and the 95th, acquired
and maintained such incomparable renown as to
attract the admiration of Europe. Among all
the divisions of the Peninsular army— famous
though they were—this was the most distin-
guished; and in this, happily for himself and for
his History, young Napier served. Exchanges wore
not so common in those days as at present, and it is
with the Light Division, and with the 43d Regi-
met of Foot, that Sir William's active services are
almost exclusively identified. The traces of this
intimate connection are visible in every page of his
" History of tle War," and one of the principal
charms, indeed, of the narrative arises from the
singular circumstantiality and vividness with which
every movement of this celebrated force is depicted.
Readers of all classes will remember the painting of
the story as the 95th—" Barnard's swarthy vete-
rans"—are brought into battle, or when the 43d,
not only in a mass but by companies, and even by
men, are ranged upon the field; though the fall
fervour of the historians's recollections seems to
have been reserved for the 52d, of which even in
his latest volume he speaks as "a regiment never
surpassed in arms since arms were first borne by
men."

If we say that the active service of Sir William
Napier was commensurate with the services of the
Light Division in the Peninsula, we shall have said
quite enough to define and establish his claims as a
working soldier. It is true that he was in the ex-
pedition to Copenhagen in 1807, and that he was
not on the retired list in 1815, but the Peninsula is
the sphere of his duty and his experience ; nor did
he as an effective member of his profession ever
overstep tho capacity of a regimental officer. At
first his promotion was rapid ; but, though he
entered the war a captain, he left it only a lieut.-
colonel, and it was with this rank alone, and upon
the half-pay establishment of the 43d Foot, that he
made his first appearance before the public in the
new character of a military bistoriau.
At what period of his career, or with what in-
ducements he originally conceived the design which
he executed so worthily we cannot say, but from
1824 to 1840 he was unremittingly engaged, as he
himself informs us, upon the " History of the
Pen-
insular War." That history bad not yet been
satisfactorily written. The war itself, disparaged
at first, and but insufficiently appreciated even after
its final triumphs, invited a better pen than it
had found. The great Duke once entertained
the idea of becoming the historian of his own
campaigns, or, at any rate, .of bequeathing the
materials to his executors. Sir George Murray
also thought of entering the field, but Col. Napier
advanced beyond these preliminary conceptions.
He undertook the task, and accomplished it—with
what success Europe now knows. The merit of
this remarkable work is best and most comprehen-
sively expressed in the single fact of its popularity
and its fame ; for seldom has a book been com-
menced with less immediate promise of circulation
or favour. The author had, a good military con-