pedator

JULY 3, 1858.

BOOKS.

BBIALMONT AND GLEIG'S LIFE OF WELLINGTON.* GOOD deal of attention has been drawn to Captain Brialmont's life of the Duke of Wellington in its original French, not less for its own merits, than for its impartiality and fairness—the justice it was said to have rendered the Duke. Ample praise no doubt is given by the Belgian officer to the capacity, industry, honour, and virtue of the Duke of Wellington—though Mr. Gleig demurs to his being ranked as a general second to Napoleon ; but time had already had some effect in softening prejudices. Justice has been done to the character • and achievements of Wellington, though, perhaps, in a bit by bit way, by various Continental writers, including some of the more respectable class of French- men. The distinctive feature of M. Brialmont's work seems to us less its mere justice than its thoroughness and completeness. He has made the career and character of Wellington a study in its length, breadth, depth, and concomitants. It is not only that he has had recourse to the despatches and other leading works, as well as to publications of less authority and importance. He has i mastered and analyzed the available information, and then ap- plied the results to test the character of the man, and bring out the spirit of his plans and actions, just as a jury attends to the evidence and law, to arrive at a true deliverance. In this point of view the work is undoubtedly very remarkable,—seareMng, minute, yet comprehensive. Although called a Life, M. Brialmont's book in its entirety is rather the public career of the Duke of Wellington ; and of this Mr. Gleig, at least for the present, has only undertaken the mili- tary portion, closing his translation and commentary with the battle of Waterloo. This separation of parts has not so incon- gruous an effect as might be anticipated ; because the " civil and political life" of the hero does not begin till the Peace of 1815 and the close of the war really closes the writer's subject. In strictness the book is not more a military biography of Welling- ton than a history of the wars in which he was personally en- gaged. In the narratives the commander has individually scarce- Iva greater prominence than he would have in a military history. Even in the elaborate summaries that follow the Peninsular war and the campaign of Waterloo, with a view of exhausting the elements of the respective subjects, and accounting for the results, the Duke is not biographically more conspicuous than he would be in an historical disquisition, simply because he is the import- ant actor, at least in the Peninsula. Soult, Massena, Marmont, and Joseph, or Jourdan, or whoever may be held responsible for Vittoria, only appeared during an act or two of the drama, and then passed away. Wellington was ever present, and his actions must of necessity become the continued topic of consideration. It is in these separate disquisitions, and the critical observations scattered throughout the narrative, that the real peculiarity of the work and its great merit consist. To readers of the Selections from the Despatches and of Napier's History little novelty will be found in the Indian or Peninsular narratives. So much has been written about Waterloo of a controversial nature, and the battle or rather campaign has been so often described, that not much which is new could be expected there. What the book formally undertakes is to give a condensed yet sufficient account of Anglo-Indian history in which Wellington was directly engaged, with some notice of his brother the Marquis Wellesley's policy; 2. to furnish a history of the Peninsular war ; and this forms a convenient medium between the elaborate fulness of Napier and the popular or special narra- tives of other writers ; 3. in an account of the campaign of Water- loo, to combine the pith of the most probable facts recorded by various writers, into a clear and calm narrative, mentioning in foot notes various improbabilities that have been put forward by writers of some position or claiming some original knowledge. The military experience and studies of the writer pervade all the historical accounts.

The directly critical parts have greater originality and value, because something very like the narratives may be found in other writers, and with greater effect as regards picturesque de- scription. The battle of Albuera, though derived from Napier, is pale by the side of that historian's limning ; we think that seve- ral accounts of Waterloo present the broad incidents of that me- morable day more vividly to the mind; a similar remark may be made upon Assaye. The inquiry into the causes of Wellington's success in the Peninsula, with such small means as he possessed, such grudging support or active opposition as he met from home —and with such overwhelming odds against him, is a very re- markable piece of military and political criticism. While it does

_ Ifietory of the Life of Arthur Duke of Wellington. From the French of M. Bulment, Captain on the Staff of the Belgian Army. With Emendations and Additions. By the Reverend G. R. Gleig M.A., Chaplain-General to the Forces, ,c. In three volumes. Volumes I. and II. Published by Longmans and Co.

[MONTHLY SIIPPLEMENT.] full justice to the Duke's extraordinary labours, and his great abilities, without overlooking his mistakes, it expounds the al- most insuperable difficulties with which the French had to con- tend from the national pride and hatred of the Spaniards, the na- ture of the country, the military mischiefs of the system of requi- sitions, and lastly the moral evils which tainted the whole scheme of Napoleon's conquest. The criticism on the campaign of Wa- terloo is briefer, but equally searching ; and, by the by, M. Brial- mont rather leans to the judgment of Sir Archibald Alison, that the Duke did distribute his forces too widely.

Besides translating M. Brialmont's work up to the Peace of 1815, and not always very felicitously, Mr. Gleig has made con- siderable additions to the text. These interpretations (in brack- ets) occasionally have the effect of alterations, so far at least as stopping the flow of the original narrative, and apparently weakening its connexion. They sometimes take the form of con- troverting Brialmont's conclusions, especially in reference to the discipline of the British army—though Brialmont's estimate, as Mr. Gleig admits, is fully supported by the written accounts of the Duke himself ; at other times they support the biographer's opinions. The larger contributions are of a biographical nature, and form the most interesting portions of Mr. Gleig's additions. Though not in- timate with the Duke, he often saw him, and had some curious con- versations with him ; the present Duke has assisted him with family-documents, and Mr. Gleig has also used his own shrewdness in observing and reflecting. Here are his remarks on the un- certainty which hangs over the place and the date of the Duke's birth.

" It is certainly not a little to be wondered at, considering the place which the subject of these speculations is destined to fill in history, that such points should remain to this day unsettled. And it is scarcely less so that they appear never to have been treated as worthy of a moment's consider- ation, either by the Duke himself or by any member of his family. The truth is, that of the early history of this great man very little is known. He neither kept a journal at any period of his career, nor has he left on record any loose memoranda, such as might be useful to his biographer in the investi- gation of minute details like these. And as he rarely spoke of his boyhood and youth, and never except incidentally, the inference to be drawn is, that boyhood and youth were not fruitful to him in very agreeable recollec- tions."

Mr. Gleig adduces something like a fact in support of this opinion of the joyless nature of Arthur Wellesley's youthful home, namely, the dislike of his mother.

" Though endowed with talents of a very superior order, she was by no means remarkable for her devotion to the amenities of domestic life. Her pfejudices, also, appear to have been strong; and Arthur, her fourth son, was so unfortunate as to become to her the object of something not far removed from aversion. Hence he spent little of his time, as a boy, at home. Being considered, too, as the dunce of the family, no great care was W used in selecting the schools to which he should be sent. When very young, he was placed at a private seminary, somewhere in Chelsea, whence, in a year or two, he was removed to Eton ; but, either because he had been in- differently grounded at the outset, or had no taste in those days for classical study, he appears to have made little progress there, and certainly achieved no distinction. Indeed, his career was so completely devoid of mark of any kind, that no exploit of his, while an Eton boy, save only his pugilistic en- counter with Bobus Smith, seems to be even traditionally remem- bered."

Notwithstanding these reasonings of Mr. Gleig's, the almost total want of materials for the Duke's early life is very extraordinary. While the public is overwhelmed with trivial or ridiculous bio- graphical tales of insignificant persons, really nothing is known of Wellington. When a man arrives at eminence late in life, or even when his path towards fame has been solitary, we see a rea- son for the absence of living traits, or traits of any kind. But Wellington fought the battle of Waterloo in his forty-seventh year : between the age of eighteen and twenty-five, he served in no less than five regiments ; he was a Member of the Irish Par- liament, and aide-de-camp to the Lord-Lieutenant—not con- spicuous public positions perhaps, but enough to bring him into contact with many persons ; yet no one appears ever to have writ- ten down any personal characteristics which struck him in Arthur Wellesley, though many men must have been living after the battle of Waterloo, who could well remember him as a young man, or even as youth and boy. M. Brialmont and Mr. Gleig between them can rout out nothing more than some well-known anecdotes, including the story of his Dublin debts. These last, however, serve to introduce some reminiscences by Mr. Gleig re- specting the finance of a later time.

"The writer of these sentences enjoyed, on several occasions, the great privilege of spending days together with the illustrious Duke in the retire- ment of Widmer Castle. At such timed his Grace did not hesitate to con- verse freely about himself, and, the subject of subscriptions and of charities happening to arise, he once produced his well-kept account-book for the year. It appeared from that document, that he had given away between fsnuary and December considerably more than 40001. I make a point now,' he used to say, ' of paying my own bills, and I advise every one to do the same ; formerly I used to trust a confidential servant to pay them, but I was cured of that folly by receiving one morning, to my great surprise, dune of a year or two standing. The fellow bad speculated with my money and left my bills unpaid.' Talking of debt his remark was, It makes a slave of a man. I have often known what it was to be in want of money, but I never got into debt.' His Grace had either forgotten the affair with the Dublin tradesmen, or, which is quite as probable, the whole story may de- serve to be treated as apocryphal. '

The most curious document in the book is a letter written soon after Colonel Wellesley's return from Holland in 1795, in which he solicits some civil employment, and intimates his inten- tion, if he can get it to withdraw from the army. The " honour- able engagement " refers to Lady Catherine Packenham whom he afterwards married.

" There appears to have been a good deal of pressure upon his mind at this time, from what causes originating there is nothing to show. But pro- bably straitened means and the desire to fulfil an honourable engagement were not without their effect in producing it. Be this, however, as it may, the fact is certain that he seriously meditated retiring from the service, and consulted his brother, the Earl of Mornington, as to the career in civil life which it would be prudent to follow. The result was the following letter to Lord Camden, than which no more interesting or important document has ever been brought under public notice—

'Trim, June 25,1795.

" Lord—I have frequently intended to speak to your Excellency upon the subject with which I am now going to trouble you, and I have always been prevented by the fear that you should imagine that I was press- ing myself upon you in an indecent manner ; but as I told you in London that I should take some opportunity of stating the claims which I thought I had upon the Government of Ireland, I hope you will not con- ceive that I presume upon your kindness and partiality in so doing at pre- sent, as I assure you nothing but the circumstances under which I labour would induce me to trouble your Excellency's Government at any time. " The offices to which Lord Mornington has desired rue to look are those of the Revenue and Treasury Boards; and considering the persons who are at present at those Boards, and those who, it is said, are forthwith to be appointed to vacancies likely to be made at them, I hope that I shall not be supposed to place myself too high in desiring to be taken into considera- tion upon the first vacancy at either of them. If your Excellency and Mr. Pelham arc of opinion that the offices at those boards are too high for me, of course you will say so ; and as I am convinced that no man is so bad a judge of the justice of a claim as he who makes it, I trust you will not be- lieve that I shall feel otherwise towards you than as I have always felt, with sentiments of the greatest regard, and with an anxious wish to render you and your Government every service in my power, in whatever situa- tion I may be placed. With those sentiments I accompanied you to Ire- land, and whatever may be your decision on the subject, I shall retain them. You will probably be surprised at my desiring a civil instead of a mi- litary office. It certainly is a departure from the line which I prefer ; but I see the manner in which the military offices are filled, and I don't wish to ask you for that which I know you cannot give me. " I have now delivered my mind from a considerable burden ; and al- though the necessities under which I labour from different circumstances have nothing to do with the question whether I have a claim to the offices I have mentioned, I again repeat, that nothing but them should induce me to trouble your Excellency's Government at any time.

"' I have the honour to be, my Lord, your Excellency's most faithful and obedient servant, A. WESLEY.'

" We have inserted this letter without presuming to correct even the single clerical inaccuracy which occurs in it, because it is proper that the British people should read the letter, exactly as it was written, which had well nigh cut short the military career of their greatest hero. On what ap- parently trivial accidents the affairs of men depend ! Had Lord Camden re- ceived Colonel Weliesley's application with favour, the latter would have doubtless settled down, and become a highly respectable married man as well as a useful public servant. What would have been the fate of the Spanish peninsula, of Napoleon the First, of France, and of Europe, who shall undertake to surmise:"

Numerous plans and maps illustrate the volumes ; and there are portraits of the principal commanders, about which the less that is said the better.