Henry Morse Stephens

“ It is that immense mass of letters that prove the real greatness of the statesman, and disprove De Retz’s portrait, which is carefully arranged to show off his enemy against the might of Richelieu. To concede that the master was the greater man and the greater statesman does not imply that Mazarin was but a foil to his predecessor. It is true that we find none of those deep plans for the internal prosperity of France which shine through Richelieu’s policy. Mazarin was not a Frenchman, but a citizen of the world, and always paid most attention to foreign affairs ”

“ Turenne's fame rests on his military achievements; as a man he was not more distinguished for his virtues than the duke of Marlborough, whom in many respects he resembled. He had indeed the calmness of all philosophic, cold-minded temperaments, but few other praiseworthy qualities. As a politician he holds no high place. ”

“ He had perceived with alarm Montcalm's plan for hemming in the progress of the English towards the west, and for uniting the French colonies of Canada and Louisiana. He chose his officers with great care; most of them were young men burning for distinction, of whom Wolfe was the type, but over them he set Amherst, who, though very young, was chiefly distinguished for his absolute self-control. Wolfe, Pitt knew, was half-mad with enthusiasm, and might in a fit of enthusiasm run his army into a very perilous position. ”

“ The Fronde over, Mazarin had to build up afresh the power of France at home and abroad. It is to his shame that he did so little at home. Beyond destroying the brick-and-mortar remains of feudalism, he did nothing for the people. But abroad his policy was everywhere successful, and opened the way for the policy of Louis XIV. He at first, by means of an alliance with Cromwell, recovered the north-western cities of France, though at the price of yielding Dunkirk to the Protector. ”

“ No one ever less 'beat about the bush' : he went straight to his point with a directness which sometimes earned for him the reputation of brusqueness, or even of want of consideration for other people's feelings. ”

“ On or even before her husband’s death she retired to St Cyr, and had the chagrin of seeing all her plans for the advancement of the duke of Maine overthrown by means of the parliament of Paris. However, the regent Orleans in no way molested her, but, on the contrary, visited her at St Cyr and continued her pension of 48,000 livres. She spent her last years at St Cyr in perfect seclusion, but an object of great interest to all visitors to France, who, however, with the exception of Peter the Great, found it impossible to get an audience with her. ”

“ He was partly compensated for his defeat by a great meeting in the Drapers' Hall, of which company he was a liveryman, where he was presented with a gold snuff-box, an address, and two hundred guineas, and in 1820 he was once more elected M.P. for the city. George IV was always intimate with him, and stayed at his house at Ramsgate in 1821 when on his way to the continent. Curtis was fond of the sea, and the whig and radical wits were never tired of laughing at the sumptuous fittings of his yacht, in which the king often accompanied him in his cruises. ”

“ When the Duke of York returned to England, his successors, General Harcourt and General Walmoden, proved incompetent, and on General Abercromby, who commanded the rear column, fell the real burden of the retreat of the dispirited troops before the impetuous onset of the republican army. Under him Lieutenant-colonel Wellesley commanded the 33rd regiment, and learned his first lesson in the art of war. On his return to England in the beginning of 1795 he was made a knight of the Bath, and, almost to his own surprise, found himself considered his country's greatest general. ”

“ Turenne's four campaigns in Germany, which largely contributed to the peace of Westphalia, have always been regarded as models in the art of war. In June 1644 he crossed the Rhine at Breisach, and was marching against the Comte de Mercy, the Imperialist general, who was at Freiburg, when he was superseded by the Due d Enghien, better known by his later title of the Prince de Conde. D Enghien, after fighting the three days battle of Freiburg, left the army again to Turenne, who took Philippsburg and Mainz, and then went into winter quarters. ”

“ He had inherited his desire for the humiliation of the house of Austria in both its branches, his desire to push the French frontier to the Rhine and maintain a counterpoise of German states against Austria, his alliances with the Netherlands and with Sweden, and his four theatres of war—on the Rhine, in Flanders, in Italy and in Catalonia. ”

“ Officers and men stood about looking for their general and waiting for orders, and then rode away from the guns in tens and twenties, in twos and threes. Cardigan had played the part of a hero, but not of a general. Great was the excitement in camp after the charge. Lord Raglan was profoundly displeased; some blamed Lord Lucan, some Cardigan, others General Airey, who had only written the order, and others Captain Nolan. In truth, no blame could be fixed on any one. Cardigan faithfully obeyed the order he had misunderstood. ”

“ His government had not been brilliant, but it had been just and financially prosperous, and if he had left dangers lurking on the north-west frontier in the power of Scindia and Holkar, and the triumphant rajah of Bhurtpore, he had had the courage to draw back from a chance of great fame, to do his duty. To compensate him for his supersession the king had sent out to Sir George, by Lord Minto, the insignia of the Bath in Oct. 1806, and he was shortly afterwards nominated governor of Madras. ”

“ When Abercromby came to the front in the campaign in Flanders, England had not a single great or even tolerable general, unless we except Lord Cornwallis, and her army was in a terrible state of degeneration. When he died, after having served in every important campaign, he left many a worthy successor and an army second to none in everything but equipment. ”

“ Hyder Ali, who had made himself rajah of Mysore, rushed like a whirlwind over the Carnatic, and by his defeat and capture of Colonel Baillie at Parambakam had Madras at his mercy. Warren Hastings at once suspended Governor Whitehill, and despatched Coote with full powers and all the money he could spare to Madras, while he ordered all the troops available to march down the coast under the command of Colonel Pearse. Coote reached Madras on 5 Nov. 1780, and on 17 Jan. 1781 marched northwards from Madras with all the troops he could muster, in order to draw Hyder Ali after him. ”

“ He formed a regular school of officers, of whom may be mentioned John Moore, John Hope and Robert Anstruther, and James Kempt, his adjutant-general, quartermaster-general, and military secretary in Egypt, Hildebrand Oakes, Thomas Graham, Rowland Hill, Cradock, Doyle, Edward Paget, and his own sons, John and Alexander Abercromby—as goodly a collection of officers as ever were formed by any general. It is more difficult to breathe the spirit of military prowess and military discipline into an army than to win a battle ”

“ He does not appear to have distinguished himself more as a colonial governor than as a soldier, and fell into the hands of a clique at whose bidding he subdued the maroons on the island with such thoroughness that it was called cruelty, and on an outcry being raised in parliament he was recalled from the West Indies in 1814. Major-general Ainslie, for he had been promoted previous to his recall, was now free from any active employment. Nature had designed him for a savant, not a soldier. ”

“ Landrecy was closely invested by the Austrian and English armies, when a corps of 10,000 Frenchmen moved from Cæsar's camp to raise the siege. Their march was so rapid that they were close to the allied lines, and on the point of taking the emperor himself prisoner as he was riding along the road almost unattended, when General Otto perceived the danger, and ordered the only cavalry he had at hand, namely, 160 of the 15th light dragoons and 112 Austrian hussars, to charge the French, in order rather to save the emperor than to defeat the enemy. ”

“ The regiment was in splendid condition, so much so that whenever a European regiment arrived in India it was always sent to the quarters of the 71st to learn how a regiment should be conducted in India; but the men were now drafted into various other regiments, and only the officers and headquarters returned home. On his way to England Colonel Baird touched at the Cape and was implored by Lord Macartney, the governor, to remain there as brigadier-general, for the opposition of both officers and men to Sir David Dundas, who commanded in the colony, was so great that a mutiny was expected. ”

“ In the great political movement in Ireland of 1784, Drennan, like all the other Ulstermen who had felt the influence of Dugald Stewart, took a keen interest. His letters to the press, signed ‘Orellana, the Irish Helot,’ attracted universal attention. In 1789 he moved to Dublin, where he soon got into good practice, and became a conspicuous figure in the social life of the Irish capital. Drennan was a member of the jovial club of the ‘Monks of the Screw,’ a friend of Lysaght and Curran, and well known for his poetical powers. In politics he continued to take a still deeper interest ”

“ In Ireland he displayed no very great political ability, but succeeded very happily in pleasing all parties and making himself extremely popular. In 1756 the seven years' war broke out, and all England demanded that Mr. Pitt should be placed at the head of affairs; he absolutely declined to serve under the Duke of Newcastle, who had been prime minister ever since the death of his brother, Henry Pelham, in 1754, and the influence of the great whig families was strong enough to prevent the king from at once making Pitt prime minister. ”

“ As a man of sense and education he can never have expected his plot to succeed. According to the evidence given at his trial by spies, Despard's idea was to win over some of the soldiers of the guards, and with their help to seize the Tower and the Bank of England, assassinate the king on his way to open parliament, and stop the mails going out of London. The whole plan is so ridiculous that it cannot be regarded seriously; but the government arrested Despard and forty labouring men and soldiers, who were mostly Irish, at the Oakley Arms, Lambeth, on 16 Nov. ”

“ When Evans took command of the legion at San Sebastian in August 1835, he found the result of this disapprobation in the utter unfitness of many of the men for service, and he declared at a later period that 2,300 of the 9,600 men whom he had under his command were so crippled by disease and infirmity that they never appeared in the field. The Spanish government utterly neglected the legion, and Evans rendered great services in Spain at the head of a corps which was at no time adequately equipped with either munitions or the necessaries of life. ”

“ When it was evident that the French attack was upon the English front, Adam's brigade was slowly advanced to be able to take in flank any attack in column made on the English right centre. Accordingly, when the Old Guard advanced in the final attack of the day, Adam's brigade, and notably the 52nd regiment under Colonel Colborne, suddenly fired upon its flank as it advanced, and charged it. It has been asserted that by this charge the 52nd regiment, that is Adam's brigade, for his regiments were all together, won the battle of Waterloo, and not the English guards. ”

“ The reasonable object of ambition to a man is to have his name transmitted to posterity for eminent services rendered to his country and to mankind. Nobody asks or cares whether Hampden, Marlborough, Pelham, or Wolfe were knights of the Garter. Of all things at present I am most anxious to hear about you. The packet that was coming to us overland, and that left England in July, was cut off by the wild Arabs between Aleppo and Bussora' (ib. i. 236) .
The outbreak of the third Mysore war for a time stopped the progress of Cornwallis's peaceful reform in Bengal. ”

“ The campaigns of 1793, 1794, and 1795 in Flanders served to prove that the English army was unable to cope with the enthusiastic French republicans, and that York was not a born military commander. His staff, and especially his adjutant and quartermaster-generals, Craig and Murray, were chiefly responsible; the duke showed himself brave but inexperienced, and there is much truth in Gillray's caricatures and Peter Pindar's squibs, which represented him as indulging too freely in the prevalent dissipation of his officers. ”