The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1899-06-09
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/ historians and the critics are discuss
Ing with more energy than ever the
merits of the battle. and lts effects on
the course ~ European history There
.B no event within the century which
appears 10 have had such a marked
effect in fixing the map Of Europe.
Notwithstanding tho many volumes
Of NapoleonIc history that have been
lately published, one more by Henry
E0Trps'yn. q Frenchman. has lately
been issued. The author has had ac-
cess 20 some documents, in the French
War Onno. which have been overlook
ed by other historians with rcforcnca
TO the battle Of Waterloo, he makes
the positive statement that IN making
a disposition Of his troops before the
battle, Wellington had given orders
for the placing Of his forces in groups
along an extended front. II these or
fers had been executed there would
have been, he says, gap between Niv-
eress and Dyle through which Marshal
Ney could have marched, reached
Brussels without firing a gun, and
turned the Prussian flank and defeat
ed Wellington But some Of yelling
tons subOrdinates, being on the
ground, disObeyfd this order and kept
the gap closed II such was the fact.
it appears then that Wellington, in
stead OF attending the celebrated bah
in Brussels given by the Duchess Of
front examining the situation. And If
It be the fact that he was at fault in
his strategy, he is not entitled to the
credit of the victory, but his subordi-
mates are. Criticisms upon the STRAIT
egg of both Wellington and Napoleon
are very common in these days, by
ure to study the topography of the
ground over which the armies march
ed, and are not called to act on the
spur of the moment, as the generals
were. who fought the real battle. Even
the late King Kalakaua. standing, in
1881 upon the summit of the Mound
field Of Waterloo. after reviewing the
situation. pointed out, in the presence
of the writer the buildings of I.a-Haye-
Sainte. and observed that Napoleon
should never have made an attack
upon them in the front. but should
have moved in the rear and he point
ed out with his finger the proper
course that the great French General
should have taken. when the writer
asked His Majesty how Napoleon
could have gotten behind the English,
50 as to make an attack in the rear,
he replied promptly that the English
should have been attacked in the flank
and beaten first.
If the historians and the scholars
are reaching any conclusions in these
latter days, it is that national life is
an evolution. and that the evolution
of all the nations Of Europe moves on
the same lines. 1t follows that whcth-
or the English or the French won the
battle of Waterloo, 1t was mere in
cident in the evolution. AS Professor
Tyler says; If Napoleon had won
the victory. the vast moral forces in
Europe which opposed him would
quickly have reversed the effect of the
battle of Waterloo, and the great En-
peror would have been driven to his
St. Helena"
The study that is absorbinsly fasci-
mating of the strategy of the two gen
erals Is In tracing out their mental
operations. which involved the lives of
many thousands of human beings.
These beings had nothing to say about
the way they should be led out to
slaughter. The least error in making
such grand movements involved an
enormous loss of life.
1t is a singular aspect of the gen
eral thought of the Teutonic and Latin
races, that in spite Of the vast in
crease in the number OF subjects which
attract investigation, and the inability
of any person to master but fraction
of the existing valuable knowledge,
there should be such general desire
to hear again the story of the battles
which occurred almost a century ago.
Napoleon and Wellington. now re.
ioicing in a happy immortality, and
taking their ghostly constitutional
together must smile at the criticism
Of the little people down here, who
have not yet obtained all the facts in
the case and cannot reach the grra'
commanders by telephone.
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