The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1860-03-05
&irtutunh 4ispatrt.
MONDAY MORNING.
n>s.h a. Air william, Napier.


Death Of Cir william Napier.
The grave had scarcely closed over Eng
lands greatest essay ut, when she was caile'
upon TO mourn the greatest OF her militar.
historians. Sir WILLIAM NATTER, author o
The ~Campaisus in the Peninsula" died las
month in the .4th year Of his age. He wa
horn 1t Castleton, in Ireland, in the year l.eJ
His father was GEORGE NAPIER, son Of Ior
NArIxR by a second marriage, and his mothe
was the celebrated Lady SARAH LRNNOx
daughter of the Duke OF Richmond, one O
whose sisters was the mother Of CHARLIE
JAMES Fox. The great English statesman
and the Peninsular historian were thus cous
ins.(3erman. Another SON Of this mxrriag
was Sir CHARLES NArIER, the hero of Scinde
There was a third, who was likewise in thu
army, ~ his brothers were, and served with
distinction throughout the Peninsular cam
paign. In early life Lady SARAH LENNON
was the object Of the devoted and honorable
affection Of GEORGE I'LL, then n young King
two or three and twenty, and he wished tt
marry her, but was prevented by reasons o.
State. She subsequently married Sir THOMAS
BRESBuRY. and was widow At the time Of
her marriage with the father Of the three he
roes, one Of whom is the subject Of the present
notice The Duke Of Richmond, the grandfather
OF Fox and the NAPixRs, was a son Of q
daughter Of CHARLES H., whsoe mother was
,he famous Duchess of Portsmouth.
The subject of this memoir entered the AT
my when a lad of only fourteen. Those were
stirring times, and the military was decided.
ly in the ascendant. In 1907 NAPIER wac
with the army, at the taking of Copenhagen
and went along with it to Portugal He par
ticipated in the battle of Vimeira and was
engaged in all the operations that led to the
convention of Cintra, and the surrender OF
JUNoT. Subsequently, when it fell under the
command Of Sir JOHN MOORE, he took part in
all it's dangers, was with it in the advance, bore
his share of the trials which attended upon
Its disastrous retreat, and fought bravely with
1t at Corunna. where his brother, Major (af-
forwards Sir CHARLEs) NAPIER was wounded
and taken prisoner. When the army, after
having been driven out of the peninsula, re-
turned to it in 1869, under the command of
Sir ARTHUR WELLESLEY subsequently Duke
Of Wellington NATTER returned as Major in
the forty third regiment of Light Infantry
and remained with it, fighting with it in all
the battles Of the peninsula, and never leaving
it until the close Of the war in lsl4, at which
time he was its Lieutenant Colonel. The
Light Division" to which he was attached
was distinguished above all others for its gal
lantry, and endurance. At what time he con-
ceived the idea of writing his great work
is not certainly known, but it was first
published In ISIS. Never did any work
produce greater uproar, and never was any
author assailed with greater malignity-
The government was still in the hands of the
Tories, and NAPIER had ventured to denounce
their policy in entering upon the war, and
their manner Of conducting it. He had as
sailed CANNING with not less truth than bit.
terness, and had declared that by a miracle
alone were the people Of Great Britain saved
the necessity of u disastrous and humiliating
peace. The ministry prosecuted the war, &C
cording to him, with a bull headed obs tinacy,
against reason and common sense, and for the
attainment Of an object which they ought to
have regarded rs altogether unattainable, and
which they did attain at last only by a chance,
upon which they had no more right to calculate
than they had to form a system of policy upon
the hypothesis that the earth would open and
swallow the legions Of France He alluded, of
course, to the campaign Of Russia. Besides,
NAPIER conceded to France great herolsm in
the struggle, and greatly abated the bragga.
docio of English chrOniclers by narrating
events as they actually occurred. Still more
did he offend the ruling party by his lofty APP
probation OF NAPOLEON, whom he placed faI
above all other warriors of ancient and mod
ern times, treating with utter scorn the mean
malignity of his enemies who sought to blacken
his character AS a man, and TO detract from
his reputation as a General and statesman.-
absolutely foamed at the mouth
when he ventured to depart far from the
habit Of all who had previously written of
British military transactions. Nothing daunt.
ed, however, he not only refused to retract a
word Of what he had said, but continued to
collect materials for a revised edition Of his
work. In the meanwhile the work itself &C.
q uired an unheard Of popularity and sold with
enormous rapidly. On the Continent it soon
became translated into allEuropean languages,
and it gave unbounded satisfaction to all ex-
cept the Spaniards, with whom he dealt AZ
hardly as he did with the Tories. The French
were particularly grateful to him tor the gem
srous impartiality with which he had mar
rated the events of the war, for they had ex-
pected far different treatment from that which |
they received at his hands. |
At this day the history Of the Penins ular |
is the most popular military work |
hat ever was written; nor is it at all wonder
full that it should be SO. 1t is the most elo- |
q uent narrative which any author ever wrote
Of events, nearly all Of which he not only |
but took part in. 1t combines all |
The excellences which a military history ought |
10 have. 1t is minutely accurate in detail |
md, at the same time, CLOVIS with all the fer |
vor OF a vivid and lofty agination Plans
nan9uvres and operations are explained with |
he precision of CESAR or NAPoLEON, and !
with an elOquence that renders them irresis.
IDLY entertaining His battle pieces are not |
in grandeur by those of HOMER,
md they present in words, pictures more full |
If life than those that glow upon the canvas |
II the greatest painters. Nothing in all his |
DRY can eq ual, and but little in all poetry can |
urpass, his description Of the march Of ma.
poLKoN upon Nta)lPid, the siege of Saragossa,
he retreat Of Str JOHN MOORE, and the storm
ng Of Badajos. The reader seems transported
o the scene Of these tremendous operations to
witness the martial array Of the opposing
orces to hear the uproar of the conflict. and
0 feel as though he were himself personally
Dgaged. The fervtd imagination Of the VIZ.
or sweeps everything before it his tale is
old with an mpetu0us eloquence which il |
s impossible to resist. Much Of this is due
20 doubt, to the fact that he saw what he
,arrates. HORACE tells US that there is ALI
he difference in the world between actually
eeing and merely hearing another tell what
40 has seen and We all feel that the Anabasis
d AkNoPHoN is a very different kind of his
'ory from his Cyropadia
NAPIER was Lieutenant General when he
lied, having been indebted As much to his
'ook' probably, as to his services, for his high
rank. AT any rate be was only Lieutenant,
Colonel when he left The wars. and IN. aga,