17 JULY 1886, Page 19

SIR CHARLES JAMES NAPIER.* Tins is an admirable résumé of

Sir William Napier's Life anti Opinions of his celebrated brother ; and distinctly a book of great merit. Mr. Bruce has not slavishly followed his author, if that term be permissible. He has duly "allowed for the wind ;" and has often tacitly or expressly corrected the" burning words" of the great historian. But the picture of Sir Charles Napier, as drawn by himself and his brother, does not vary in its lineaments from that which is here presented. Nor could anything else be expected. The motto which Boswell took for his Life of Johnson applies most closely to Sir William's biography, and no future Mr. Jeaffreson is likely to offer to the public a "Real Sir Charles Napier." Him we have already in his brother's book, and it would be idle to suppose that any fresh light will ever be thrown on his career or character. His career was a singular one, and almost unique. Earning distinction in the battle-field early, he was relegated, before the Peninsular War had fully developed, to the "still-vexed Bermoothes." There he, with characteristic energy and dili- gence, brought a regiment which had become a disgrace to the service, into a state of complete efficiency; and returning thence to Europe too late for Waterloo, his lot was cast for many years

The We of Sir Charles James Napier. By W. Napier Bruce. London : John 188&

in times which gave no scope for his genius for war. As an administrator in one of the Ionian islands, he showed the same ability and energy which he had shown in Bermuda ; but the sphere of his exertions was altogether too small for his genius. And when subsequently he was placed in command of the Northern District of England, where Chartism was smouldering and sputtering, he was able, indeed, to do his duty, but there were no laurels to be looked for. He was approaching the sere and yellow leaf when he had the option given him of a place on the Indian Staff. Fifty-nine years of age, and a martyr to rheu- matism, he consulted his brother William about this offer. The latter wisely advised him to go if he felt a call for such a service ; if not, to remain at home. Sir Charles felt such a call, and the result was that conquest of Scinde which made his reputation as a General, and involved him in hot water for the rest of his life. He resigned his Scindian command in his sixty-sixth year, but before a year had passed he returned to India as Com- mander-in-Chief; the Duke of Wellington forcing him to do so,— " Either you must go or I." There is no need here to recall the events which elicited those remarkable words ; but when Sir Charles arrived, the crisis was over, and it would have been better, perhaps, for himself if he had there and then returned to England. Before two years had passed, a miserable dispute led him to resign, in the Duke's words, "the highest and most desirable situation in the British Army, to fill which he had been appointed in a manner so favourable to his professional character ;" and so his public career ended. As we have already said, there is no fresh light to be thrown on Sir Charles Napier's character and career, but there are some inferences to be drawn and some lessons to be learned from both, which have not been drawn or taught by his brother or by Mr. Bruce. We shall try, with all due modesty we hope—but a critic is unfortunately always obliged more or less to adopt an ex cathedra tone—to discuss very briefly one or two of those lessons and inferences.

It would be raising what it is the fashion to call a merely academic question if we tried to estimate the exact place which should be assigned to Sir Charles Napier among the great warriors of England. Below Wellington and Marlborough, of course ; but above, or below, or side by side with Wolfe, and Clive, and Cromwell, who shall say P And who can possibly care ? we may add. The campaigns of Sir Charles Napier are worth attentive study ; did they—for this is the most practical way of putting the case—teach any lessons which might have been learned with profit by men who have commanded English armies since his day ? The question is not easily answered. Meeanee, no doubt, was a victory compared with which Tamil and Abu Klea might almost be reckoned as defeats. But here comes in the difficulty. Mr. Bruce, following the lead of a writer in Blackwood, insists upon the vast superiority of Sir Charles Napier's line arrangement, as compared with the square formations so much in favour in Africa since Ulundi. We are not indisposed to think that he is wrong ; and we certainly hope most fervently that be is right. Still, it is clear enough that the Beloochees who were beaten at Meeanee did not come, as fighters, within measurable distance of the Soudanese ; and this consideration makes it hard to estimate the precise quality of Sir Charles Napier's general- ship. Brilliant as Wellington's victory was at Assaye, it is impossible not to discount it when 20,000 horsemen in the army opposed to him, rode off the field without striking a blow. It is possible, therefore, that Mr. Bruce may be mistaken in measuring African corn by an Asiatic bushel ; and that the manceuvres which succeeded so splendidly at Meeanee might not have proved so successful against the brave fanatics of the Soudan. The question, however, is one which military men are bound to examine and discuss, and we are glad that Mr. Bruce has raised it.. It is hopeless to suppose that the soldiery of England will not sooner or later be brought again into collision with these fanatics, and the best way of meeting the dauntless savages has probably yet to be discovered. The famous forced march on camels to Emanm Ghur may, we imagine, have had more influence on Lord Wolseley than was entirely beneficial. It was a most successful march, no doubt, and deserved, perhaps, all Wellington's unstinted eulogy. But it is plain that its success was due more to the cowardice of the men who abandoned that stronghold, than to the genius and audacity of its destroyer. One lesson, however, stands out from Sir Charles Napier's campaigns in India, and, we may add, from Clive's and Wellington's, and that is, that when disciplined European troops have to fight with comparatively undisciplined

enemies, the former ought always to attack, no matter what the odds may appear to be against them in doing so. Had Sir George Colley, for instance, supplemented his really brilliant night-march on Majuba Hill with an attack on Laing's Nek, all might have gone well with him.

War is a detestable and ugly game, and Sir Charles Napier, in spite of his military proclivities, bears witness to this fact in language that does not lack energy. But, so far as it is possible to judge the future by the past, war, like the poor, will always be with us ; and campaigns conducted by Generals of real capacity have a value which it is hardly possible to over- estimate. On this ground, if on no other, we can heartily recommend Mr. Bruce's book. Officers, commissioned or non- commissioned, will derive great benefit from its perusal, and the more privates who can be induced to read it, the better. It should be placed at once in every regimental library,—nay, in every public library in the Kingdom, for it gives a clear and altogether satisfactory account of deeds which arc fraught with instruction for this and for many a future generation of English- men. Wellington and Marlborough were, indeed, as we have intimated, far greater Generals than Sir Charles Napier. But, humanly speaking, a study of Napier's exploits and opinions is likely to prove more instructive for English military men, in the by no means dim and distant future, than a minute acquaint- ance with the details of every campaign fought in Europe between Blenheim and Waterloo.

Sir William Napier and Mr. Bruce have naturally, as relatives, not cared to dwell on the defects of Sir Charles Napier's character, and far be it from us to play the advocatus diaboli in the case of such a man. Still, there is nothing to be gained by plastering a great man with whitewash ; and from Sir William's, if not from Mr. Bruce's book, it is clear that Sir Charles was a 4‘ contentions man." Conscious always of a strong desire to do his duty, he was utterly unable to conceive that his opponents were actuated by any but most unworthy motives. This weak- ness, however, would have mattered little, had Sir Charles been able to govern his "unruly member." Unfortunately for his own peace, and for that of those with whom he had to act, he could do nothing of the sort. lf he thought a man a fool, he said so ; and as he happened to think that all who were set in authority over him, Wellington excepted, were fools, his life was vexed with endless botherments. Enemies, enemies real or fancied, were the bane of his existence, and his business might almost be described as making them. Old as he was, and all but worn out with disease, it would be nothing short of criminal to blame him for his second resignation. But the indignation which be felt and expressed at his resignation being accepted is not so easily justified. The foible, however, of believing that a Napier was always right, and every one else always wrong, is one that we need not dwell upon. A much more interesting and instructive phase in his character was his strong imagina- tiveness, and, this no doubt, was at the root of some of his strongest dislikes. It was this which, when he was in command of the Northern District, blinded him to the fact that an English mob—and it is much to their credit —will not, like a Parisian mob, fight against the soldiery. It was this which blinded him to the fact that when Louis Napoleon's Colonels were indulging in silly braggadocio, England was no more in danger from an inva- sion from France than she is now from Japan. It was this which made him say that if he were Emperor of India, he would within thirty years have one hand on Pekin, and the other on Con- stantinople. Readers of Sir William Napier's book will remem- ber many more vagaries of a similar kind, and perhaps we may class amongst them the wondrous prophecy that the Empress Eugenie would be dignified and beautiful from her Spanish blood ; while her Scotch blood would make her "pit doon the beef to bile in its aim brew," which would save the treasury. Here, however, we must stop. Sir Charles Napier was an original man, and his life and opinions, like those of all original men, are well worth studying. Mr. Bruce has made that life and those opinions more accessible than they have hitherto been to the general public, and for this he deserves to be warmly thanked by all who are zealous for the honour of their country.