Last Saturday was the centenary of Coruna, where Su John
Moore died at the moment of victory. Charle's Wolfe's' famous and nobly simple poem on Moore's burial has made the name of that great soldier familiar to every schoolboy. Moore's military feat indeed deserved eternal honour. He conceived and carried out the bold plan of cutting Napoleon's communications, and Napoleon, alarmed and already feeling the touch of disorganisation, swept back northwards to secure his lines of communication and accept Moore's audacious challenge. Moore's only course, having achieved his object, was to retreat. His retreat has often been criticised, but that does not concern us now. His desire was to reach the sea, and his small exhausted army did so after the successful action at Coruna. Napoleon never returned south, and Moore thus helped Spain to help herself, and prepared the way for the subsequent campaign of the Duke of Wellington.
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