SUPPLEMENTARY DESPATCHES OF THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON. *
ALTHOUGH this is the " Waterloo " volume of the Supplementary Despatches, so far as that battle and the campaign of 1815 are concerned, the volume contains nothing new of the least importance. Some of our contemporaries have pounced upon despatches as new which were published years ago, and which were well known to every student of the period. These special despatches are recommended to the attention of historical students with as much gravity as if the present Duke had, for the first time, given them to the public. We have even seen the famous memorandum in answer to the commentaries of General Clausewitz treated as a discovery ! There has been much con- troversy as to the place where Wellington and Blucher met. One critic, apparently seeing it for the first time, although it was published many years ago in the "Wellington Despatches," quotes the Duke's statement to Mudford that he met Blucher at Genappe, and seems to regard it as concluaive. But the Duke told Mr. Rogers that he met Blucher at La. Maison Rouge, i.e., La Maison du Roi, close to the farm of Caillou, and Lord Ellesmere, we believe, in the Quarterly Review (No. 140), who derived much information from the Duke, says, "They met on the road to Genappe, near a farm called 'La Maison Rouge,'
' Maison du Roi.' " In fact, the leading British regiment, the -52nd, halted a little beyond Rossomme, and when they halted, Colonel Gawler states, the Duke was behind the regiment. The Prussians were wheeling into the great road, playing "God Save .the King," in honour of the British, and a Prussian officer em- braced the colour of the 52nd. It is not likely that the Duke would pass his own troops, of which none except a German regiment, went further towards Genappe than a point between Rossomme and Maison du Rol. There can be me doubt that it was here that Blucher entered the road and met Wellington, and kissed him as they sat on horseback. It.is to 'General Gneisenau that the world owes the pretty fable of the
* huppkmentary Deipattlies of the Duke of Wellington. Vol. L Murray.
meeting at La Belle Alliance. He first stated it in his o\fficial report, a report full of errors ; and like many other pretty fables, it has had a long life and dies hard. The Duke must have been equally mistaken when he wrote to Mudford that he and Blucher met at Genappe. This statement, indeed, could only be true on the supposition that the Duke went on to Genappe with the Prussians—a statement entirely unsupported and unreasonable. After seeing the Prussians well on their way, he rode back to Waterloo. The sole novelty touching Waterloo in this volume is the reports of Alten. Alton says that after he was wounded, the greater part of his division retired from the field to reform behind Mont St. Jean. He does not state this of his own knowledge, but on report ; yet he is very positive about it. Now this, if true, is a piece of news. There is, however, no reason to suppose it to be true. There is no reason to suppose that the four British regiments of the division under Colin Halkett.ever quitted the field ; nor, indeed, that the Germans did so. The British were certainly there when the Imperial Guard charged up the hill. Yet not a single note on these important despatches is made by the ducal editor. Surely he should have made some commentary on reports containing a statement French writers have not been slow to use. We have no doubt at all that Alten was in error, and that he was misled by some hearsay. That, however, does not exonerate the editor of the Duke's despatches. The critics who quote old despatches as new ones have thrown no light upon these reports of Alten. The general information, not pub- lished before, on the whole scope and movement of events in this momentous period, is extensive and well worthy the attention of the student ; but, although there are gleams of light here and there, nothing appears to alter materially the estimate already formed by the best writers. The volume, indeed the whole series, would have been more valuable had it been edited with skill. That is h work still required to be done.
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