BOOKS.
TWELVE SOLDIERS.* THE twelve chapters of this book, contributed by various hands, various also in method and merit, are yet informed by a certain homogeneity : they all celebrate British skill and British bravery. Moreover, they prove one and all —if for the moment we omit Cromwell—that the objects of our strategy have ever been to fight the French and to preserve our Colonies. Marlborough, Peterborough, Wolfe, Clive, Coots Abercromby, Moore, Wellington,—all these fought our great neighbour, and won for us a victorious prosperity ; while the • From Cromwell to Wellington : Twelve Soldiers. Edited by Spenser Wlithason. . lndon Lawrence and Sullen. [10s. 6d.] most of them in fighting France ensured the safety of our Empire across the seas. Indeed, often enough the two objects were but one, and we opposed the French for the sake of our Colonial policy. So, this book brilliantly illustrates the thesis of Professor Seeley, and proves that the expansion of England meant the defeat in Canada, as in India, of our secular rival.
They are great men, these twelve, and great patriots. Crom- well stands apart, not only because he was obliged to lift his arm against his own countrymen, but because he was a wise administrator, as well as a valiant soldier. Above all, he rendered the greatest possible service to the British Army ; he reduced it to discipline. He insisted that character was as necessary to the winning of battles as courage ; he suppressed drunkenness and blasphemy; if he did not succeed in converting the rough soldier into a gentle- man, at least he made him a man, and he proved for ever that the hero is not necessarily a blackguard. The work thus begun by Cromwell was splendidly carried on by Corporal John, who, being also a man of genius, recognised that discipline was the mother of victory. It is idle to compare these two great men, to whom we owe much of our stability, and who established, more than any others, the grand tradition of our Army. Cromwell fought as an autocrat in support of his own ideal ; he was not hampered by hostile Governments nor by intriguing allies. He knew with perfect clarity what he wanted, and he realised his ambition by the force of his temper and the accuracy of his judgment. Marlborough, on the other hand, was hustled at every step by malice and stupidity. The Dutch, whose cause he espoused, did their best to involve him in defeat ; the Ministers at home desired nothing better than his dis- grace. But he fought, and he won, in contempt of all obstacles, because the genius of battle was in his blood, and because, with all his recklessness, he never forgot the necessities and the comfort of his men.
Cromwell succeeded by character and intrepidity. Marl- borough by a surpassing charm, a sparkling genius, an inevitable good fortune. Surely the fairies smiled upon his cradle, since never in his life was he capable of failure. He stamped under foot all the known laws of combat ; the grand conventions of the Grand Monarch appeared to him a set of childish rules, and he was great enough in himself to invent a new and flawless method of strategy. So he recomposed the art of war, and it is from him that all succeeding generals learned their trade. But even more wonderful than his skill was his talent for success. He was everywhere, if perchance he might inter- cept the enemy ; his quick marches are still unsurpassed, and his men followed him in blind confidence, because they knew that he would never betray them. The town that could stand against his siege was never built, and the stoutest wall seemed to crumble at his approach. But he achieved his magnificent victories because he remembered that a general was useless without an army. He ruled his men with a hand of iron ; he would allow no plunder, no marauding ; whatever supplies were necessary were openly bought and honestly paid for. He showed, as Wellington showed afterwards in the Peninsula, that the British method of conducting war was at once more honourable and more efficient. At the same time, though his discipline was absolute, he watched over the com- fort of his troops with ceaseless solicitude. On the mag- nificent march which ended in the victory of Blenheim his care and forethought never ceased. At Heidelberg he had a large supply of shoes, while food and money were stored at fixed points upon the march. Nor was it only his forethought which attached his soldiers ; he had that charm of manner, that irresistible temperament, which made all men, even at first sight, his devoted servants. No man could withstand his fascination, and it is significant that the drivers of the artillery, who in the march to Blenheim performed an unparalleled feat of endurance, were not tried soldiers, but mere workmen, hired by contract. Yet they had seen Marlborough, and they did not disappoint him.
Thus it is that Chesterfield, no mean judge in such matters, aseribed Marlborough's success to his famous irresistibility. "Of all the men that ever I knew in my life," said he, "the late Duke of Marlborough possessed the graces in the highest degree, not to say engrossed them." Yes, it was the graces which, in addition to his military genius, made this hero eminent. He had no parts, as Chesterfield allows ; he was illiterate, and could not spell ; but no foreign poten- tate could face him without recognising his superior grace, his marvellous manner. And he fought battles, and made treaties, and managed all men, save his own Ministers. These, then —Cromwell and Marlborough—make up with Wellington the greatest trio of the twelve. And of Wellington there -is naught to say, except that a generation which lives by his genius is ungratefully apt to belittle him. Yet no praise is too lofty for the hero who fought through the Peninsula; and it is only a strange blindness of affection for Napoleon which persuaded Heine, as it still persuades many an Englishman, to underrate the glory of Waterloo. The mightiest general can do no more than win a battle, and when that battle ensures the existence of a great country, admiration should be loyal and unquestioning. Of the rest, Wolfe, who at Quebec lost his life and saved Canada, and Moore, who won the battle of Corunna, appeal most strongly to our sentiment of romance. But there is not one of the twelve whom we remember with- out pride, and whose exploits did not help to build up our Empire.
Take Baird, for instance, whose march across Egypt was the first undertaken by British troops across an unknown desert. He realised, as Lord Kitchener has realised since, that organisation is the secret of success in war, and though it was not his fortune to keep a hold upon the base of his operations by rails of iron, he did not start upon his enterprise until the minutest details were considered. And it was by a sort of accident that he went to Egypt at all. In February, 1801, he had embarked for Trincomalee, with orders to seize Batavia and Mauritius, when suddenly the plan was changed, and he was bidden to set sail for Egypt, that he might assist Aber- cromby in driving out the French. Arrived at Kosseir, he instantly organised his famous march across the desert,—a march which has shown the way to so many soldiers. To begin with, he sent on advance parties to dig wells, and despatched stores of sheep and biscuits to several dep8ts on the road. But like all pioneers, he was beset with difficulties. The bullocks he had transported from Egypt were useless, and he was compelled to collect a force of camels ; then the mussacks, or water-skins, upon which he relied were found to leak, and the wells did not yield the water that was expected of them. Moreover, he could not communicate with Cairo, and he knew not what was the state of the country. But he kept resolutely on his way ; he moved some ten thousand troops (of whom some six thousand were natives of India) across one hundred and twenty miles of scorching desert, and lost few save by their own fault. His subsequent junction with General Hutchinson at Cairo was a far easier task, and Baird deserves eternal glory because he solved a problem whose solution has since proved invaluable. He is the first in a list of prudent, renowned soldiers which closes with the name of Lord Kitchener ; and he proved, as all those have proved whose achievements are celebrated in this interesting book, that, while strategy is the genius of war, discipline and organisation are its indispensable talents.
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