A hundred years ago
From the 'Spectator. 2 May 1868—Sir Robert Napier, to whom the unexampled success of this expedition [the Abyssinian campaign] is mainly due, will, it is said, be offered a peerage,—which he will probably be obliged to decline, having many children and slender fortune,—will receive from Parliament the usual pension for three lives, and will succeed Sir W. Mansfield as Commander- in-Chief in India. He is the first Engineer, indeed the first scientifically trained officer, ever appointed to independent command, and his success is con- sidered at the Horse Guards almost a calamity. Imagine a man who has studied mathematics, and is unconnected with any great family, being acknowledged in the British Army as a great General! We shall have commands distributed according to capacity next, and then where will the British Constitution be?
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