LIFE OF GENERAL SIR WITJJA M NAPIER.*
ONE of the most delightful of children's books which our memory recalls to us was the history of a family of young redbreasts, exhibiting the development of their respective characters from the first rupture of the eggshell to their final fortunes in the great world of birds. Robin the eldest was a passionate and pugnacious fledgling, and when he first left the nest occasioned constant anxiety to his parents by his overbearing disposition. On the very first day of his mingling in general society an audacious chaffinch pecked up a morsel of a worm which Pater- famil-a3 had designed for him, whereupon we are told Robin im- plored his father" to fly upon the chaffinch and tear his heart out." Into that robin, we suspect, the soul of some ancient Napier must have migrated. Had either of the two brothers, Charles or William, been redbreasts, that assuredly is how they would have acted. The lives of both are but one long record of similar manifestation of spirit; they passed their whole time in resenting wrongs which were often not wrongs at all, and consumed vast quantities of ink and paper in the vain attempt to tear out somebody's heart. This in the language of their admirers becomes "a burning hatred of injustice," "a magnificent impatience of oppression," and we know not what other fine things. We trust we are not behind the rest of the world in hatred of injustice and oppression ; but we protest against the violent ebullition of this sentiment being made the theme of special admiration, as if every one who was less violent must of necessity be less sincere.—whereas the truth often is that the one man is not a whit behind the other in his detestation of wrong, but only that he allows himself a little more time for determining what wrong is, and whether it has really been committed.
The Napierian type of character is Amazonic rather than heroic. A feminine vein runs through it. But unfortunately for them- selves, while possessing all that unreflecting simplicity of pur- pose which belongs to women, they were deficient in that tact which is necessary to make it tolerable or successful. Tact is woman's logic. And her straight-going vehemence without this is like a steam-engine without a driver. And ouch, generally speaking, was the course of the two Napiers. They went on crashing through the world, through thick and thin, looking neither to the right nor to the left, satisfied of the rectitude of their own aims, and constantly doomed to experience a truth, which they never took to heart, that what seems the shortest way to one's object is often in reality the longest. Over and above the common family temperament, William Napier had the artistic and literary character more strongly developed in him than his brothers, and shows proportionably greater sensibility in all the circumstances of life. This is particularly conspicuous in the letters which he wrote to his family during the Peninsular War, though, indeed, the dislike of his profession which is evinced in them is hardly greater than is to be found in the correspon- dence of his brother Charles.
The Radicalism of the two brothers, which was doubtless prompted to some' extent by what they conceived to be the miserable condition of the people in the earlier part of the pre- sent century, arose chiefly, we believe, from that innate consti- tutional dislike of" bigwigs" which is at the bottom of so many men's politics. The Napiers had, on the other hand, no taste for the demagogue, and between their aversion to aristocratic potentates and natural disgust for vulgar ones, they found very few men in their own day with whom they could truly sympa- thize. Although their sensitive natures made them far more alive to all the horrors of war than is commonly the case with soldiers of such eminence and experience, they still loved the army and all its traditions, and had formed a high estimate of the character of the British soldier. Thus the depreciation of military men, which was a prominent article of the Radical creed some five-and- twenty years ago, created an impassable gulf between them and the leaders of the peace party ; and the memorable controversy between Sir William Napier and Mr. Cobden, who had ventured to call in question the loyalty of the men towards their officers, will long remain on record as a witness of it.
The present volumes are the work of one who was admitted to close intimacy with Sir William Napier duiing the last twenty years of his life ; but his name is not given to the public. The editor is Mr. Henry Bruce, the Vice-President of the Committee of Privy Council, who married Sir William's daughter Norah, and he appears to have executed his task with considerable judg- ment. What we mean is that few or no allusions of any cense- ' uence are left unexplained ; and that no private papers have been of General Sir William Napier, SAB., Author of "History of the Peale-
ax ," arz. Edited by H. A. Bruce, M.P. In two sobs London: Murray.
inserted which it would have been more prudent to withhold. One reads the book through very easily, seldom or never being compelled to turn back to earlier pages for explanation, or to read on in the dark trusting to subsequent enlightenment. The work, however, should rather be-called the correspondence of Sir William Napier than his life, as it consists chiefly of letters con- nected together by a very thin thread of narrative. It is not free from the fault which is usually to be discerned in works so composed: we mean that it would have escaped a certain degree of tedious- ness had the matter contained in a good many of the letters been condensed into the narrative. The plan of allowing the subject of a biography to speak for himself as much as possible has no doubt its advantages. But it may be, and often is, made only an excuse for slovenliness. And we cannot say that these two volumes have never made that impression on us.
Sir William Napier was born at Celbridge, in Ireland, on the 17th of December, 1785, and died at Claphani on the 12th of February, 1880. He was the younger brother of Sir Charles Napier, the conqueror of Scinde, whose life he published in 1867, having previously written a history of the &nide war. But he is of course best known to the public by his great military classic, "The History of the Peninsular War." He served in the 43rd Regi- ment through most of Wellington's campaigns, and was engaged in several great battles. The story of the three brothers at Busaco, related in the "Life of Sir Charles" but not repeated here, is probably familiar to our readers, but will bear to be quoted once more. Charles Napier, "advancing on the 4th of March, 1811, met a litter of branches borne by soldiers, and covered with a blanket, What wounded officer is that?' ' Captain Napier [George], of the 52nd—a broken limb.' Another litter followed. 'Who is that ?"Captain Napier [William], of the 43rd, mortally wounded.' Charles Napier looked at them, and passed on to the fight in front."
Wherever indeed there was hard fighting there were the Napiers in the midst of it, and Sir William himself got more than his fair share of wounds. He had a bullet in his back to his dying day, which occasioned him acute pain at intervals, and he was knocked about "on and off," as Captain Cuttle would have said, through the whole five years of the war. So that it does seem a little hard that he came out of it only a regimental major with the brevet rank of lieutenant-colonel. We have already mentioned the letters which he wrote home during his period of service. The constant complaints with which they are filled would in any other man be effeminate. For instance :—January, 1811, "I am a soldier unfitted for any other profession, and yet I took up my present one lightly and without consideration. I detest it; we are but licensed murderers, and the most brutal ferocious sentiments are- constantly expressed, and actions of the same stamp are constantly committed, by us and our allies." "I am condemned to a profession I dislike by religion, honour, and necessity. At the same time I, who can feel well the happiness of a domestic life, am nearly cut off from every chance of being so fortunate." April, 1812, " I am grovelling in misery and wretched- ness." May, 1812, "lam perfectly dead to all the feelings of glory that I used to have, and so little pleasure do I feel in command of troops that if the Duke would allow me to sell my commission I should go." We are told in various passages of these volumes of the passionate bursts of grief to which Sir William used to give way. We would not call them unmanly, but still the pic- ture of a modern English gentleman rolling in convulsions of grief and watering his couch with his tears, however serious the occasion, is not altogether edifying. lEneas himself does not seem to have wept more copiously or facilely than this member of an aristocracy with whom emotion is voted a mistake.
He was present with the Army of Occupation in France, and on its return to England in 1819 he went upon half-pay, and resolved thenceforth "to seek for distinction in literature." He had not the money to buy the step when it was offered him, and this circumstance of course was the immediate reason of his leaving the army ; but as Lord Fitzroy Somerset (Lord Raglan) offered to lend him the money, it is scarcely probable that in spite of his independent character he would have refused the loan had he really been in love with his profession. He was probably tired of it. He felt other powers within himaelf, and his domestic tastes strongly inclined him to a step which would prevent future separation from his family. At first Napier seems to have been inclined rather towards art than literature :—" After retiring on half-pay Colonel Napier took a house in Sloane street, and spent much of his time in painting and sculpture. In these pursuits, as in all others, he showed extraordinary perseverance. As a preparation he devoted
himself to the study of anatomy and of the Elgin marbles, and his statuette of Alcibiades is proof of the progress he m de. He became an accurate and vigorous draughtsman, was no mean colourist, and in the opinion of artists of great eminence his natural powers and his indefatigable industry would have raised him to the foremost rank of living painters and scupltors, had be not been irresistibly led to exercise his talents in another field." An article which he wrote in 1821 upon Jomini in the Edinburgh Review seems to have revealed to him the extent of his own powers, and henceforth literature became his business. As was only to be expected, he very soon had a row with Jeffrey. He wrote an article for him on the "Politics of Switzerland." Jeffrey treated the copy sent in as so much raw material, and constructed out of it something quite different from what Napier had intended. The latter at once wrote to Jeffrey in a tone of violent indignation, and, in spite of all the editor's excuses, remained fixed in his resolution to publicly disclaim the article. He, however, wrote several articles for the Edinburgh Review after this. The late Lord Langdale was the man who first suggested to Napier his his- tory of the Peninsular War while taking a walk with him in Bat- tersea Fields in 1823. His wife encouraged the idea. 'With characteristic energy he set to work at once, and the publication of his first volume drove every rival from the field. He had been threatened with two rather formidable ones, the • Duke of Wel- lington himself, and his Quartermaster, Sir George Murray. The Duke had proposed to himself "a plain didactic history," to be published after his death. And Sir George Murray, it is to be presumed, had conceived the idea of one more like Napier's own. But they soon found out that it was hopeless to cope with such a candidate, and though they refused at first, as was very natural, to hand over their own private papers to him, it would seem that he had no reason ultimately to complain of any essen- tial information being withheld.
Napier was a hot politician, and took an active part in the Reform agitation of 1830-32. He declined six or seven offers of a seat in Parliament on the score of want of means ; but he attended public meetings freely, where be spoke with eloquence and vigour. Indeed, so violent were his opinions on this sub- ject supposed to be, that it was thought possible he might lead fifty thousand men upon London to intimidate Ministers. It is needless to say how idle was such an apprehension, or that Napier was as loyal a man as any living. He was extremely wrath at the imputation, and especially at the idea of his "co- operating with a Birmingham attorney and a London tailor against the Duke of Wellington," a cause of anger which is rather amusing in this assertor of the dignity of the people. Al! this time he was pushing his history through the press, but so gloomy a view did he take of the prospects of the country that he almost despaired of completing it, and wrote to prepare his wife and children for emigration either to France or America. Whichever way the struggle ended, lie feared it would be fatal to liberty,—another proof of the unpractical character of his mind and the impulsiveness of all his judgments.
The history was finished in the year 1840, and the biographer gives a very good account of the impression which it made upon the public. It of course involved Napier in an interminable correspondence with officers or their surviving relatives who imagined themselves unfairly treated in it. But these contro- versies are wholly void of general interest, and it is a pity that so much of them was introduced. The author's great services and abilities began at last to meet with some reward. He was made a Major-General, and received the Governorship of Guernsey. He had the satisfaction of recording his brother's great exploits in India, and of vindicating his cousin the Admiral from the censures cast upon him for his conduct of the Baltic fleet. Thus he lived in his element to the last, and we strongly suspect there must be letters in existence relating to the scene between the Admiral and Sir James Graham in the House of Commons which are perhaps unfit for publication.
He died on the 12th of February, 1860, in the seventy-fourth year of his age, and his widow, who was niece of Mr. Fox, and to whom he was married in 1811, on the 25th of March following.
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