BOOKS.

THE EARL OF DUNDONALD'S SERVICES IN CHILI, PERU, AND BRAZIL.*

THEERE is a growing opinion that the "trade of war" is only le- gitimate when national; that a man is not justified in looking upon arms as a profession which he may This like law or phy- sic, wherever he finds "an opening." This was not the theory in earlier ages; nor was it in our own times with even strict people, provided the amateur fought on the right side, by which was meant the side taken by the censor. The old Tory looked with evil eye on the volunteer engaging in some Revolutionary cause ; but it was the politician who really was censured, though the words might be launched against the mercenary." It was the same with the Whig-Radical of five-and-thirty years ago. A man who joined the Spanish republicans was upheld as a friend to freedom while an individual who had volunteered to serve in the Bourbon invasion of Spain, would have been denounced as a disgrace to his country and mankind.

The Earl of Dundonald's acceptance of service under the Chili= Government in 1817, did not pass without comment at the time, and indeed contributed to the "Foreign Enlistment Act" of those days, if it did not produce it. Many persons not strong politi- cians, though by nature moderate,. entertained doubts as to the propriety of strangers interfering m the quarrels of foreigners. Political enemies of course made no allowance for a sailor's yearn- ing for active life in his profession, or for the feelings of mili- tary men which then prevailed, as they do still. The worst mo- tives and objects were charged urn the hero of Basque Roads. If one half of what political fanatics said was true, the fault was indeed grievous—.

"And grievously has Caesar answered it."

The moral of this book is the treatment that a foreign officer experiences from native jealousy, alien habits, and the unavoid- able differences with which men of different blood, breeding, and lifelong training look at the same things. The absurd pride, the national jealousy, and the listless habits of the European Spaniard, still more degenerated in the South American Creole, as well as the difficulties that really did beset the Revolutionists, had no doubt something to do with the impudent and base ingratitude Lord Cochrane experienced after his unexampled services. Still the causes alluded to were at the bottom of the whole ; and always must be when a man of genius, or even men of courage and energy embark in enterprises where the object is to defeat overwhelming odds, and evolve order out of chaos. To take service under an established _government and in a regular army, such as Austria

for example' is an undertaking free from the troubles Lord Coch- rane had to encounter. It has its regular pay and its regular promotion ; but slender prospect of the prizes of glory—and that prize was about the only one the South American services fur- nished.

The jealousy Lord Cochrane encountered was rather factious or political than military. What professional difficulties he met with were chiefly from Englishmen or Americans who had like himself joined the crusade of liberty". with, in the case of Bra- zil, the treason of the old Portuguese. The native mariners were so exceedingly ignorant, the reputation of the great seaman so high, that few wilful obstacles arose in that quarter : "to hear was to obey." The opposition he -encountered and the enmities he raised were owing he intimates to his singleminded efforts towards the public service his disregard of dominant factions, and the opposition he offered. b..: their selfish purposes. Even from them he met with small nautical opposition, beyond not supplying him properly, which perhaps they could not do. In fact, Lord Coch- rane s plans were so much beyond their comprehension, and he generally kept them so secret, that the first idea they had of them was the news of their execution. Neither do we think that the Admiral had much to complain of so far as wordy acknowledg- ments went. Whatever the Governments might think, say, or intrigue in private ; they publicly discharged their debts, at least while he remained in America, so far as praise would pay. Their shortcomings were in the more substantial line. Prize-money, about which we hear quite enough, was applied by the admiral to the necessities of the fleet and the payment of the seamen, and very little of it was ever afterwards touched by the captors. Vessels, stores, and similar public property, were seldom paid the compliment of being carried to account; if they reached that stage, the European adventurers almost invariably had to be satisfied with a sight of the figures. In Brazil, when Lord Cochrane had dis- bursed prize-money for Provincial purposes' and could not get re- paid, he took upon himself to write to the local junta that "no bills, debts, nor claims of any kind beyond the current expenses of go- vernment, should be paid till this prior claim" of the officers and seamen was discharged. That senate of Jeremy Diddlers, how- ever, had long forestalled all such orders, by establishing the principle of not paying for any thin. For what are called in English official language " extraothinaries," it was of course useless to look—" no compensation for the severe wounds received during the capture of the Esmeralda, was either offered or re- ceived—though for these all States make separate provision." The most ordinary payment from the Creole governments, was the extraordinary affair. Nor did the pecuniary troubles stop here.

• Narrative of Set-Hee, in the Liberation of Chili. Peru, and Brazil, from Spanish an" Portuguese Domination, by Thomas, Earl of Dundonakl, C.C.S., Admiral of the Red; Rear-Admiral of the Fleet, Sze. In two volumes. Published by Ridg- way.

When Lord Cochrane returned to Europe he was involved in liti- gation for seizures of vessels in the South Seas. And in short so far from making any thing by the " Crusade of liberty in [this) quarter of the globe," he was considerably out of pocket in place of receiving any thing for my efforts in the cause of Chili= and Peruvian independence, I was a loser of upwards of 25,000/." Towards this, after thirty years' of memorializing, backed by Lord Palmerston, he appears to have received 6000/. He does not seem to have lost money out of pocket by the Brazilians, but his claims to prize-money and pension, and his right to pay, have been de- nied and evaded to this time. The rhyme says-

" Give a thing, and take a thing,

You'll have the devil's gold-nng," but his Satanic Majesty must increase his trinkets, if he is to supply the Chilians and Brazilians. The Republic granted the liberator an estate, and took it back again when he left the coun- try. The Emperor of Brazil, Pedro the first, gave Lord Cochrane a property to support the title of Marquis of Maranham, but the Ministry and the Senate evaded the formal conveyance; so that Don Pedro's good intentions were never realized, though the au- thor has no doubt that they were entertained.

The predominance of controversy, and of controversy on the more necessary than heroic topics of pay and prize-money, mili- tates against the general attraction of the book. However, it is a singular exhibition of public incompetence, selfishness, want of principle, or even of common honesty, as well as of the total absence of what is called fair play. It would be worth America's while to publish a revised and condensed edition, as a reason for any an- nexation in esse, or in pane' —past, present, or future. For much there is no excuse. Still discontent was inevitable on both sides. Think of the offhand, straightforward, indefatigable British sailor, brought into close contact with the pompous, proud, incapable, lazy, unprincipled, and climatically degenerated. Don, with a cross, (who knows ?) of the Indian or Negro. In the midst of the fetes and speeohifyings that heralded the hero's arrival in Chili, the great seaman had to remind the Supreme Director "that our purpose was rather fighting than feasting." The Ad- miral was compelled to write to the Brazilian Ministry such a series of " secret and confidential" despatehes touching the state of the fleet, its officers, and crews, as must have been exceedingly unpalateable, however true ; nor could his incessant representa- tions and demands have been altogether agreeable, though doubt- less well founded. Then Lord Cochrane acted with an inde- pendence, and took upon himself powers, which, though necessary to success, and miraculously successful, could not have been pleasing to Iberian pride, especially as he was opposing the sordid and ambitious objects of unpatriotic men' and resisting their bribes. In all this, we are far from meaning that the Admiral was wrong; we only mean he was not "making things pleasant;" and that much of this arose from the nature of the foreign service. An opinion can scarcely be formed of his high-handed measures, ex- cept upon a full knowledge of circumstances, now no longer at- tainable, if they ever really were to third parties. We cannot, however, follow his lordship's reasons for leaving Maranham on a "northerly run" for his health, and finally reselling Portsmouth. It may be that the state of spars,_ provisions' the weather, pre- vented his attempt to return to Rio, when beyond the latitude of the Azores but the question still arises, what took him to the Azores from his station on the coast of Brazil ? The fright to the Portuguese which followed his "approaching the shores of Portu- gal, might or might not be advantageous. But beyond all doubt the proceeding was illoonsidered, and gave a colour to the

Brazilian envoy's suspicions, that the Admiral had sailed for Eng- land in his master's man-of-war, to negociate a fresh engagement with the Greek patriots. The narrative of Lord Cochritne's Services in the Pacific, is not

presented so effectively as it has been by previous writers, owing to its being overwhelmed by the controversial discussions. Historyproduces its powerful impression by sinking time and trifles, bringing great events close together, and presenting them unencumbered by secondary particulars. The capture of the Esmeralda, moored under the fortifications of Callao, protected by 300 land guns, block ships, and a picked crew of seamen and marines who slept every night at quarters' and moreover de- fended by a boom intended to deny access to the harbour, was as dashing an affair in its way as Basque Roads. The conquest of Valdivia exhibits an example of professional dexterity and profound calculation in preparation with superhuman daring in the execution, scarcely to be paralled. The seamanlike skill, tho readiness of resources, the promptitude and pertinacity which with ill equipped forces, cleared the Pacific of the Spanish navy by incessant pursuit and harass, as well as by capturing and destroying, give an example of patience and perseverance that does not always accompany dashing qualities. Yet these warlike suc- cesses lose their impression in the statement, from being em- bedded in documents, stories, and controversies, relating to per- sonal grievances and pecuniary shnffiings. The nautical strategy and tactics by which the Portuguese fleet and soldiery were forced and frightened home from the Brazils, is more complete and effective in the telling ; because it is an uninterrupted story, the disputes scarcely beginning. till the great campaign was finished. It may be remarked that neither the Brazilian nor Pa- cific military miracles could have been effected against any other civilized peoples than the Spaniards and Portuguese.

Although the nature of the work militates against its attrac- tion for popular reading, passages of general interest turn up here and there. Meanness and all ill-qualities were the charac- teristics of the South American patriots, yet there were exceptions, and the greatest was met at the very outset.

"My advent was regarded by the captains of the squadron with great jea- lousy, the more so, as I had brought with me from England officers upon whom I could place implicit reliance. It so happened that two of the Chili= commanders, Captains Guise and Spry, had shortly before arrived from Eng- land with the Hecate, which had been sold out of the British navy, and bought by them on speculation. The Buenos Ayrean Government having declined to purchase her, they had brought her on to Chili, where the Go- vernment took her and received her former owners into its service. These officers, together with Captain Worcester, allorth American, got up a cabal, the object of which was to bring about a divided command between myself and Admiral Blanco, or, as they expressed it—' two commodores and no Cochrane.' Finding that Admiral Blanco would not listen to this, theyper- suaded one or two of the inferior ministers—whose jealousy it was not diffi cult to excite—that it was dangerous and discreditable to a republican Go- vernment to allow a nobleman and a foreigner to command its navy, and still more so, to allow him to retain his title ; the object being to place Ad- miral Blanco in the chief command, with myself as his second—by which arrangement, as he had not been accustomed to manage British seamen, they expected to control him as they pleased. Admiral Blanco, however, insisted on reversing our positions, offering his services as second in command, in which arrangement I gladly acquiesced. This insignificant squabble would not be worth narrating, but for its bearing on subsequent events ; as well as enabling me to confer a pleasing testimony to the patriotic disinterestedness of Admiral Blanco, who is still one of the brightest ornaments of the Repub- lic which he so eminently aided to establish."

Here is a little family story, exhibiting a "chip of the old block."

"Lady Cochrane, with her children, had returned from Santiago to Val- paraiso, to take leave of me on embarkation. She had just gone ashore, and the last gun had been fired to summon all hands on board, when, hearing a loud hurrah near the house where she resided, she went to the window, and saw our little boy—now Lord Cochrane, but then scarcely more than five years old—mounted on the shoulders of my flag-lieutenant, waving his tiny cap over the heads of the people, and crying out with all his might, 'Viva

podria ." J.beinob being in a frenzied state of excitement. effild had slipped out of Lady Cochrane's house with the officer, in- sisting on being carried to his father ; with which request the lieutenant, nothing loth, complied. To the horror of Lady Cochrane, she saw her boy hurried down to the beach amidst the shouts of the multitude, and, before she could interfere, placed iu a boat and rowed off to the flag-ship, which was at the time under weigh, so that he could not be sent ashore again ; there being no alternative but to take him with us, though without clothes —which were afterwards made for him by the sailors—and with no other uttendance save that which their rough but kindly natures could administer."

"In this action my little boy had a narrow escape. As the story has been told by several Chili= writers somewhat incorrectly, I will recapitu- late the circumstances.

"When the firing commenced, I had placed the boy in my after-cabin, looking the door upon him- but not liking the restriction, he contrived to get through the quarter-gallery window, and joined me on deck, refusing to go down again. As I could not attend to him, he was permitted to remain, and, in a miniature midshipman's uniform, which the seamen had made for him, was busying himself in handing powder to the gunners. " Whilst thus employed, a round-shot took off the head of a marine close to him scattering the unlucky man's brains in h face. Instantly recover-

ing his iself-possession, to my great relief, for believing him killed, I was spell-bound with agony, he ran up to me, exclaiming, I am not hurt, papa : the shot did not touch me. Jack says, the ball is not made that can kill mamma's boy.' I ordered him to be carried below ; but, resisting with all his might, he was permitted to remain on deck during the action."

The Patriot General an Martin was commander-in-chief of a Chili= army destined to "liberate" Peru. When by aid of the fleet, with as much assistance from his own army as his procrastinating and cowardly spirit would permit it to render, the Spaniards were expelled from the capital and adjacent dis- tricts, San Martin dubbed himself Protector, concentrated all power in his own hands' and established a far worse tyranny than that of the Spaniards. This is a spice of him. "Limit was at this time in an extraordinary condition, there being no less than five different Peruvian flags flying in the bay and on the batteries. The Protector had passed a decree ordering that all Spaniards who might quit the place should surrender half their property to the public treasury, or the whole should be confiscated and the owners exiled. Another decree imposed the penalties of exile and confiscation of property upon all Spaniards who should appear in the streets wearing a cloak; also against any who should be found in private conversation ! The punishment of death was awarded against all who should be out of their houses after sun- set; and confiscation and death were pronounced on all who possessed any kind of weapons except table-knives ! A wealthy lady in Lima was so an- noyed at the rigour of these decrees that her patriotism overcame her pru- dence, and having called the Protector ill names she was compelled to give up her property. She was then habited in the garb of the Inquisition—a garment painted with imaginary devils—and taken to the great square, where an accusatory libel being fastened to her breast, a human bone was forced into her mouth—her tongue being condemned as the offending mem- ber—and then secured ; in which state, with a halter round her neck, she was paraded through the streets by the common hangman, and afterwards exiled to Callao, where after two days she died from mental anguish arising from the treatment she had received."