The Sun.
London, England, 1845-12-08 00:00:00

Mond II ..illt4

LONDON, MONDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1845.

It is to be presumed that the letter of the brother of
the late Major MACKIE to the editor of the United
Service Magazine, which we this day publish, will set at
rest the controversy as to the respective services of the
late Major MACKIE and Colonel Gunwoon at the
storming of Ciudad Rodrigo ; and we hope that the
g tllant Colonel, content with " the distinguished conse-
quences," as he calls them, which have resulted to him
from a mistake, will not further seek to deprive the
brave dead of his well-won fame. The late Major
MACKIE, " so well known for his bravery, worth, and
modesty" (we quote General NAPIER, in his admir-
able " History of the Peninsular War") as a subaltern,
led the forlorn hope at the great breach of Ciudad
Rodrigo. He volunteered for this service under very
peculiar circumstances ; he was not what Colonel (then
Lieutenant) GURWOOD, who led the forlorn hope at the
lesser breach, describes himself as having been, a soldier
of fortune. He was the senior lieutenant of his regiment,
and therefore his promotion was certain ; and his com-
rades expressed surprise at his thus volunteering.
" Why, you must be a captain the day after to-morrow,"
said they, " yet do you still volunteer ?" lie did still
volunteer—he led the forlorn hope—he reached the
citadel where the Governor and garrison had taken
refuge : the rest shall be told in his own words .
" The outer gate of the inclosure being open. I entered
at the head of the party, composed of men of different
regiments, who by this time had joined the advance.
Immediately on entering I was hailed by a French officer
asking for an English general to whom they might sur-
render. Pointing to my epaulets in token of their secu-
rity, the door of the keep, a stronghold, was opened, and
a sword presented to me in token of surrender, which
sword I accordingly received. This I had scarcely done
when two of their officers laid hold of me for protection,
one on each arm, and it was whiie 1 was thus situated
that Lieutenant Gurwood came up and obtained the sword
of the Governor.' We think Major MACKIE is wrong
in this last sentence. It was not the sword of the Go-
vernor which Lieutenant Gunwoor, obtained under these
circumstances ; it was the sword of a French gentleman,
ci-decant Governor of Ciudad Rodrigo, but at that
moment prisoner of war to Lieutenant MACKIE. This
narrative was drawn from Major Racism by a claim
made, after a lapse of more than twenty years, by Colonel
GURWOOD to the honour of having taken the French Go-
vernor-General BARRIE in the citadel, and put forward
by the Colonel in his capacity of editor of the " Welling-
ton Dispatches." Major MACKIE'S narrative, which is
dated October, 1838, is inserted among the justificatory
pieces in the sixth volume of Napier's " History of the
Peninsular War ;" and somewhere about the year 1842 or
1843, after the death of Major MACKIE, the accuracy of
that narrative was impugned by Colonel GunwooD in
the pages of the United Se vice Magazine, whereupon
Major MACKIE'S brother came forward in defence of the
fair fame of the departed hero. Among the corrobora-
tive evidence brought forward in support of Major
MAcKIE's claim, is a letter from Sergeant BRAZIL, who
was of the storming party on the occasion, and " who
saw the door opened and the sword received in token of
surrender, and who expressed his willingness to verify
on oath the evidence he gives." Now, here is positive
and direct testimony in support of Major MACKIE'S
claim, which cannot be shaken by any indirect
evidence. How does Colonel GURWOOD reply to
this evidence thus publicly given ? He prints, not pub-
lishes, a pamphlet, impugning the claims of MACKIE, and
circulates it privately amongst his own friends. The
futility of the arguments he has employed in that
pamphlet have been excellently shown in the letter of
Major MACKIE'S brother to which we have referred,
although we really think that he has paid more atten-
tion to many of them than they deserve. For instance,
Mr. MACKIE is at great pains to show that his brother,
the Major, understood French, because Colonel G UR-
'WOOD makes sundry observations on Major Macsre's
presumed ignorance of that language, and would infer
from that alleged ignorance that the fortress could not

The Town-council of Edinburgh, at a meeting held
last week, took advantage of the presence of Sir C.
NAPIER in the capital of his native country, to confer on
him the freedom of the city, which was done in due form
by Lord Provost BLACK, who expressed the gratification
of his fellow-citizens at finding the hero who fought and
conquered in the cause of freedom on the ocean and in
the field, no less staunch in supporting civil and reli-
gious liberty and freedom of trade in the senate of his
country. His illustrious deeds on the coast of Syria of
course were not forgotten. The allusion to that affair
called forth from Sir CHARLES, in his reply, the following
striking remarks :—" We were sent there by the Go-
vernment, but I regret exceedingly, after what was done
in that country for the alleviation of the miseries of the
people, who were supposed to have been severely
trodden down by MEHEMET ALT—I regret to say that
after having released them from what was called the
tyranny of MERE:are Au, they have unfortunately
fallen into a tyranny ten thousand times worse. There
is nothing in my life which I regret so much as having
had any hand in turning that man out of Syria, and
having allowed the Turks to establish among the Chris-
tian population of Lebanon—the only remnant, I may
say, of Christians in Asia—the most infamous govern-
ment that ever existed ; and this people are at this
moment ten times more oppressed than they were
before." That the Gallant Officer is an excellent com-
mander ; that he has tendered immense services to our
old allies, the Portuguese, and, latterly, inflicted a ter-
rible blow on MEHEMET ALI, no one can deny, but that
he is a profound statesman, or saw clearly the object
of the Whig Ministry in interfering with the Govern-
ment of Syria, is another question. In the simplicity
of his heart he believes that Lord PALMERSTON
sent Sir ROBERT STOPFORD with a powerful fleet to
alleviate the miseries of the Syrian people, and save
them from the yoke of the Egyptian PACHA, while these
were only minor considerations, which never would have
moved the Austrian and English Ministers, independent
of others of a very different character. Their objects
were to prop up the falling dynasty, which has ruled
the destinies of Turkey for centuries, to deprive the
Russians of all pretensions for interference in the great
contest between MEHEMET ALL and his liege Lord, and
to avert, if only for a time, the scramble which must one
day come for the divisicn of the extensive and wealthy
Provinces, nominally under Turkish dominion. And, after
all, whatever Sir C. NAPIER may say, Lord PAL3IERSTON
was right. Constantinople, if the great Powers had stood
by idle, was at the mercy of IBRAIII3I PACHA; he could
have finished in a very brief space the Syrian campaign.
He had beaten the Turkish army in every encounter,
and there was nothing to prevent his triumphant entry
into the capital of the East. But neither Russia nor
France would have suffered such a consummation. They
had selfish views on that head. M. TRIERS wanted
more power in Egypt ; he was anxious to destroy British
influence in that quarter, and revive the schemes of
NAPOLEON for attacking British India on the side of
Egypt. The French, therefore, would not have consented
to the occupation of Constantinople by a rebellious
Pacha, without having received full ♦alue for their
generosity. But what was to be done with Russia ?
The Sovereigns of that country have long regarded
Constantinople with an anxious eye as the richest prize
within t heir reach, and they consider the next reversion of
it as their lawful property. The Emperor NICHOLAS had
a large army at hand ready fur the work ; he
would, therefore, have offered his services to
the GRAND SEIGNOR as a Protector, and as a Protector
he would have obtained possession of the capital. All
these certain consequences the British Government fore-
saw, and, with a promptitude and energy which did Lord
PALMERSTON great honour, they resolved to settle
the question single-handed. They were eminently
successful, and, whatever may be said to.thecontrary,
the influence of both Russia and France at the Ottoman
Porte hag declined ever since. Renewed vigour, too,
appears to have been infused into the councils of that
weak dynasty ; European policy has more influence upon
their decisions, and even in the Lebanon, according
to the last accounts, a step has been taken
of the highest importance, and which MEHE3IET ALI
could not accomplish. By the spirited conduct of the
Turkish Governor, CHERIB EFFENDI, the inhabitants
of the mountains indiscriminately have been disarmed, and
thereby deprived of the power of ravaging and destroying
property and cutting each other's throats. This is a
movement in the right way, and holds out some hope
that Turkey may be regenerated, and that a war for its
partition will not disgrace the annals of Europe. Had
the English expedition, in which Sir C. NAPIER per-
formed such a distinguished part, not been successful,
Russia would have mixed in the affray, and the downfal
of Turkey must have been the inevitable consequence.

The days of the corn-laws are numbered—the people
of England have answered the demand of Mr. COBDEN
and of the League in a manner which it is impossible
to mistake. The national all has been unequivocally
expressed, and it is a matter of infinitely small im-
portance by whom, as Minister of the Crown, the offi-
cial registration of that will may take place. The mea-
sure, by whomsoever proposed and carried, is Mr.
COBDEN'S; and that it will be carried, and that with
out delay, there can bo no doubt, for never have the
British people firmly expressed their determination but
what they have triumphed over all opposition. The
great towns in the north, those hives of industry, have
already spoken out, and now even Bristol, Sir CHARLES
WETHERELL'S Bristol, Mr. MILES'S Bristol, heretofore
regarded as the very Citadel of Monopoly, Bristol has
pronounced against the corn-laws. A free-trade soiree
took place there on Friday, at the Public Rooms, the
spacious hall of which was crowded with a vast assem-
blage of the most respectable inhabitants. The Earl of
DUCIE was in the chair, and Messrs. COBDEN and
BRIGHT were present. The former gentleman made his
364th or 365th speech on the corn-laws, and an admirable
speech it was. It would be well that these 365 speeches
rhould be collected, revised, and published. A book
containing a free-trade lecture for every day in the year,
by Hr. COBDEN, would constitute an admirable " anti-
monopolist's manual." With regard to new arguments
on the subject of free trade, we feel with Mr. COBDEN,
" that now it is a work of supererogation to use them,
for the old arguments, which have stood the wear and
tear of seven years," are still unanswered. They have
produced their effect, and, thanks to their potency, we
shall at length get rid of that " alien" and enemy to
Britain—monopoly. "A lecturer upon the corn-laws,"
said Mr. COBDFN, in his speech at Bristol, " was ad-
dressing an audience in Wales, and in the course of his
speech he felt it necessary to translate the word mono-
poly into Welsh, but he found no little difficulty in the
attempt, for the ancient Britons, it appears, would not
stand monopoly—they fled to their mountains from those
old monopolists, the Romans, and they have no language
to express monopoly. The lecturer was so much at a
loss that he applied to a very clever Welsh scholar for
aid, and the way in which ho expressed the idea in
Welsh is so perfectly descriptive that I will repeat it
for you. The way in which he rendered it Was, A one-
handed bargain.' Now, I don't think that a bad defini-