SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

Hicrraiy HISTORY, The Conquest of &hide ; with some Introductory Passages in the 'Life of Major.: General Sir Charles James Napier. Dedicated to the British People. By Major- General WY. P. Napier, Member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Military Science. Author of "History of the War in the Peninsula and the South of France." Part II.

VOYAGES AND TRAVELS, T. and W. Boone. Scenes and Adventures in Spain, from 1835 to 1840. By Poco Mae. In two volumes. Bentley. Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition, during the years 1838, 1839. 1840, 1841, 1842. By Charles Wilkes, U.S.N., Commander of the Expedition.

Vols. I. to IV., and Atlas Wiley and Putnam. POETISE, Richard the Third ; a Poem. By Sharon Turner. F.A.S. and R.A.S.L.

Longman and CO.

GENERAL NAPIER'S CONQUEST OP SCINDE.

THE second part of the Conquest of Scinde winds up General Na.. pier's attack upon Lord Auckland's policy, and his defence of Lord Ellenborough's government in general, and conduct towards Scinde in particular. It also contains a summary of the blessings of his brother Sir Charles Napier's administration of the conquered country; a fierce attack upon the fallen Ameers, both as rulers and men ; and completes the censure of Major Outram's conduct as a diplo- matist, whilst doing fall justice to his activity, skill, and intre- pidity as a soldier. The main subject of the book, however, is the campaign in Scinde; in which the author is perhaps more at home, and is certainly worthy of more implicit confidence than in the re- fined and complicated questions of abstract justice, national morality, the rights of the powerful forcing agreements upon the weak, interpreting the alleged violations according to their own pleasure, and measuring the conduct of barbariaus, with whom we sought a connexion, by a standard of morals of which they have no idea,—more especially when we remem- ber the inevitable bias of General Napier in favour of the stronger party. Dismissing the controversial part of the volume with the remark that the fulness of the matter, the clearness of the view, and the vigour of the composition, interest the reader in a remote subject which has ceased to have a current attraction and is yet too near for history, and impress him with a conviction of the honesty of the advocate, if they do not quite convince him of the justice of the cause,—we shall confine ourselves tO the warlike narrative.

This is very masterly; probably unrivalled in literature for vivid de- lineation and scientific exposition. The battles of Homer are described with more living picturesqueness and heroic simplicity of style; per- haps the same, except simplicity of style, may be said of Livy ; but no poet or historian combines such a picture-like presentation of an ac- tion with such a critical estimate of all the proceedings, such a perfect exhibition of the principle by which the fight was won, and so clear and explicit an account of the strategy and objects of the whole campaign. In other writers we have particular excellences ; from Napier we get pic- ture, plan, and diagram. It may be objected that his style is often too forced and rhetorical to gratify a very pare taste, and his efforts to be strong rather too visible. But his rhetoric is not the mere trick of an orator straining after greatness and only reaching grandiloquence. Na- pier's style is the result of strong feelings, venting themselves in striking language : his vigorous diction is based upon a vigorous intellect, a clear conception of his subject, and an ardent and generous spirit, animated by admiration of great deeds, or a sense of what he thinks injustice. If he sometimes exhibits a swelling stateliness, scarcely in keeping with the individual theme,—such as Iago, spiteful and angry, characterizes as "bombast,"—it may, as in Othello, be ascribed to his constant familiarity with

"The plumed troop,

And the big wars, that make ambition virtue.

The royal burner, and all quality,

Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war."

To the same cause may be assigned a " nothing-like-leather " feeling in respect of soldiers, and an unctuous manner in describing the merits of slashing and slaying.

The great excellence of the work, as a military narrative, will be apprehended when we say that it conveys a much clearer idea of the campaign than if the reader had perused all the original lucubrations that have appeared upon the subject. The general strategy of the campaign is too much for us to enter upon, or even an account of its leading events,—the terrific march of eighteen days through the all but waterless desert, to capture and destroy the strong fortress of Emaun Gild; and deprive the Ameers of their basis when they should be defeated; the battle of Hyderabad, and the difficulties and manceuvres that preceded and followed it. The great victory of Meanee, however, was so extra- ordinary in itself, and its principle is so clearly unfolded by General Napier, that we will dwell a little upon this celebrated fight. The number of the enemy exceeded thirty thousand ; that of the British was about two thousand. The battle lasted nearly four hours ; for three hours and a half the combat is said to have been hand to hand : the enemy fought with dauntless courage ; retreated slowly in frowning masses, and for several reasons the pursuit was not continued far. The killed and wounded on the side of the British was under three hundred men; yet the loss of the Belooches was six thousand. The narrative of General Napier furnishes a simple resolution of the strange fact, without lessening the skill or courage engaged. The essence of the matter was this.

Let the reader fancy a broad, deep, dry bed of a river, with high banks, sloping up from the bed, and also from the plain through which the river runs in the rainy season. In this bed and on the banks the centre of the Belooches was stationed: as soon as the British in- fantry could be brought forward, they charged up the bank from the plain, and stood on its top with the en 'a force before and below them. The struggle on the part of the , was to drive our line back ; on the Now the Belooches dosed. their dense masses, and again the shouts and the rolling fire of musketry and the dreadful rush of the swordsmen were heard and seen along the whole line; and such a fight ensued as has seldom been known or told of in the records of war. For ever those wild warriors came close up, sword and shield in advance, striving in all the fierceness of their valour to break into the opposing ranks; no fire of small arms, no push of bayonets, no sweeping discharges of grape from the guns, which were pnt,a... in one mass on the right, could drive the gallant fellows hack: they gave their breasts to the shot; they leaped upon the guns, and were blown away by twenties at a time; their dead went down the steep slope by hundreds: but the gaps in their masses were continually filled 1113from the rear, the survivors of the front rank still pressed forwards with unabated fury, and the bayonet and the sword clashed in lull and freqnent conflict.

THE LEADER OF THE FIGHT.

Nearly all the European officers were now slain or wounded, and several times the Sepoys, wanting leaders, slowly receded; but the General, a skilful horseman, and conspicuous from his peculiar head-gear, half helmet half turban, was always at the point of greatest pressure; and then manfully the swarthy soldiers re- covered the lost ground. Once be was assailed by a chief; but on the instant, Lieutenant Marries, of the Twenty-fifth Native Regiment, was at his side, and slew the Sirdar; whose tomb has been raised by his tribe since, on the spot where he fell. At another period of the fight he was alone for several minutes in the midst of the enemy: they staked around him with raised shields and scowling eyes; but, whether from some appearance affecting their minds, for the Belooches are .veey sopeestinous„ or 'from some -other came, none lifted sword against hire, and he returned to his own people unhurt The Twenty-second soldiers seeing bins thus emerge from a crowd of foes, called to him by name, and gave him a cheer heard distinctly above the general din of the battle! And there are men who think the murmur of their factious calumnies can stifle that heroic soimd I

PERSONAL CONFLICT.

How fiercely the brave barbarians still fought, may be gathered from this. A soldier of the 'Twenty-second Regiment, bounding forward, drove his bayonet into the breast of a Belooch instead of falling, the rugged warrior cast away his shield, and, seizing the musket with his left hand, writhed his body forwards on the kayonet, until he could, with one sweep of his sword—for the Mooch needs no amend blow—avenge himself: both fell dead together.

THE RSTREAlt.

However, the battle was lost for the Ameers, and slowly the Belooches began to retreat; yet not in dispersion, nor with marks of fear: in heavy masses they moved, keeping together, with their broad shields slung over their backs, their heads half turned and their eyes glaring with fury. The victors followed closely, pouring in volley after volley -until tired of slaughtering; yet these stern im- placable warriors still preserved their habitual swinging stride, and would not quicken it to a run, though death was at their heels! Two or three thousand who were on the extreme right, having been sassed by the cavalry untouched, kept their position, and seemed disposed to make anotherrosh. The whole of the British guns were immediately turned upon them, with such heavy discharges of grape and shells that they also lost hope and went off with the others.. Yet so heavy were the retreating masses' so doggedly did they move, so. disposed did they OMB to renew the conffictswhichwould then have been on a level plain, without protection for the British flanks, and without the advantage of the high hank, that the General did net thick it fitting to provoke thern any further.

SOLEMN SELF-QUESTIONHiG.

• That night the English General formed his camp on the plain beyond the Fullalllee: but ere he went to rest himself, he rode to the scene of carnage, and alone, in the midst of the dead, raised his hands to Heaven, and thus questioned himsetf alead—" Am ',guilty of this slaughter?" 'Lis conscience answered Nol

part of the British, to retain and improve their positions At first the com- bat might be hand to hand, in the sense of an equal line of the enemy against ours : but the bullet and bayonet began to tell ; the bodies of the fallenimpeded the ascent of the Belooches up the bank from the river's bed; time was allowed for the intsutry to load and fire ; the balk of the assailants fell before they could reach the top of the bank ; "the bayonet sufficed for those who passed the shot unharmed." As soon as practicable, the artillery was placed in position on our right, and diagonally sweeping the dense masses of the Belooches, carried terrible destruction among them at each discharge. Hence, abstracting skill and courage, the essential cause of the enormous carnage was superiority of arms and quickness in their use. Otherwise, the loss, if not the victory, would have been mire- ctdous.

On this skill and courage it would be superfluous to dilate ; but the plan of the enemy was good. Their right was dthnded by a wood, (sleilcargah—hunting-ground,) rendered by natural and artificial obsta- cles impassable for cavalry, and by a village, held by troops in great num- bers. On their left was another shikargah, bounded by a wall, with only one opening. In this wood were stationed six thousand men ; which were to pour out when the British line had passed, and attack its rear when engaged with the centre. But this position, says the historian, "had a flaw, EM the narrowness of the opening,] which the commander instantly detected."

"The General rode near this wall, and found it was nine or ten feet high; he rode nearer, and marked it had no loop-holes for the enemy to shoot through; he rode into the opening, under a play of matchlocks, and, looking behind the wall, saw there was no scaffolding to enable the Beloochees to fire over the top. Then the inspiration of genius came to the aid of heroism. Taking the grenadiers of the Twenty-second, he thrust them at once into the opening, telling their brave Captain, Tew, that he was to block up that entrance; to die there if it must be, never to give way ! And well did the gallant fellow obez his orders: he died there, but the opening was defended. The great disparity of numbers was thus abated, and the action of six thousand men paralyzed by the more skilful action of only eighty! It was, on a smaller scale as to numbers, a stroke of general- ship like that which won Blenheim for the Duke of Marlborough."

The volume contains innumerable passages of power and interest ; em- bracing the views of the historian upon India, Lord Eilenborough, the Directors, the civil and diplomatic services, treasonable newspaper editors, and many other topics : but as we began with the battle so we will end.

THE FTGHT FROM THE TOP OF THE BANE, AND BELOOCH TALODR.

Thick As standing corn, and gorgeous as a field of flowers, stood the Belooches in their many-coloured garments and turbans; they filled the broad deep bed of the Fullaillee, they flustered on both banks, and covered the plain 'beyond. Guarding their heads with their large dark shields, they shook their sharp swords, beaming in the sun; their, shouts rolled like a peal of thunder, as with frantic they rushed forwards, and full a,gainst the front of the Twenty-second ed with demoniac strength and ferocity. But with shouts as loud, and shrieks as wild and fierce as theirs, and hearts as big and arms as strong, the Irish soldiers met them -with that queen of weapons the musket, and sent their fswemost masses rolling back in blood. • • Then he returned to rest; and slept so soundly, that Major Outruns, returning from his enterprise against the Shikargahs, finding the camp in confusion from E false alarm, went to report it to the General, and was forced to pull him off his bed to awake him.