A LEADER OF LIGHT HORSE. [TO TEE EDITOR OP TEE
"SPECTATOR.") S132,—On October 26th Captain Trotter's book, "A Leader of Light Horse," was favourably reviewed in your columns. I have lately read that book very carefully, and consider it advisable to deny certain statements which I know to be in- correct, and of which some are absolutely devoid of any foundation. On pp. 159-63, for instances, Captain Trotter makes various charges against the Court of Inquiry which was ordered to investigate Hodson's management of the Guide Corps. These charges, I affirm, from my own know- ledge, to be absolutely unfounded. I claim to be allowed a hearing because I am the sole surviving member of the Court of Inquiry, as also the person to whom Hodson appealed for monetary assistance when the difficulties that arose out of his management of the Guides brought him great trouble; because I was behind the scenes as regards transactions between Hodson and Bisharut Ali, Ressaldar, who served under my command in the 1st Irregular Cavalry; and because I know all the real circumstances which led to Bisharnt Ali's arrest and execution. Captain Trotter's publishers, Messrs. Blackwood, advertised that the book contained much new evidence, which had been detailed with scrupulous accuracy. I can discover little new evidence, but find a rgchavfig of the old assertions which have been challenged and proved to be incorrect by Mr. T. R. Holmes in his "Last Words on Hodson of Hodson's Horse " (English Historical Review, January, 1892), the greater part of which article was reprinted as an appendix to the fifth edition of his " History of the Indian Mutiny." and also by Mr. Bosworth Smith in the appendix to the sixth edition of his " Life of Lord Lawrence." So far from attempting to refute the first-hand evidence which those papers contain, Captain Trotter does not so much as mention them. I have sent Captain Trotter a paper showing in detail the state- ments to which I object, and have given full explanations for his consideration. That paper is too long to admit of my asking you to publish it, nor can it be of sufficient general interest to suit your columns; but I do ask you to grant me space for this letter, in order that your numerous readers may be assured that Captain Trotter's book does not come up to the standard of " scrupulous accuracy," and as silence might be construed into inability to refute the misstatements which it contains. I make this public assertion in the cause of truth, and in justice to the dead who differed from Hodson in life.—
Cannes.
I am, Sir, &c, CRAWFORD CHAMBERLAIN (General).
P.S.—As regards inaccuracies in the book, I may mention two points noted in your review :—(1) Olpherts was not at the siege of Delhi. He commanded a battery at Benares. (2) Sir M. Durand could not have written the poem ascribed to him, as he was about eight years old at the time when (according to the Athenzum newspaper) it appeared in an Indian news-
paper.
[We cannot refuse General Chamberlain's request, but we do not desire controversy on the subject, and trust that if Captain Trotter should desire to reply he will be as brief as possible.—ED. Spectator.]
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