NAPIER'S CONQUEST OF SCINDE.

THE historian of the Peninsular War proposes to write the history of his brother's achievements in Scinde : viewing him first as a politician, (or rather diplomatist,) next as a general, and lastly as administrator of a conquered country. The publication of the first part has been hastened with the object of rebutting charges made, in Parliament and elsewhere, against Sir CHARLES JAMES NAPIER, and through him against Lord ELLENBOROUGH.

The book is characteristic both of the hero and the author. Heart and genius are in every page. It is the work of one of a family which belongs more to the age of chivalry, as it is generally conceived, than to that in which we live. They are soldiers all, enthusiasts in their profession ; courting employment in other countries when they cannot find it in their own ; yet cherishing high notions of truth, justice, and humanity—drawing their swords only for what they believe to be the right cause, and working only by honourable means. They are not satisfied with great deeds being done, but aspire to do them, and resolve that the world should know that they have done them. Greatly enjoying the picturesque effects of the pomp and circumstance" of martial groups, but simple in their own habits, they derive pleasure from such parade chiefly in the consciousness that they are superior to and can control it. With these dispositions and tastes, they combine great military talent, dauntless courage, fervid energy, and soaring imagination.

General WILLIAM NAPIER defends his brother in the same dash- ing yet considerate manner that the latter attacked the Beloochees. He coolly surveys his ground, calculates the force opposed, and having resolved on his plan of operations dashes right forward. He cuffs aside " the HUMES, ELLICES, and BOWRINGS," with a light back-blow from one hand ; Honnouse's " turgid " orations and Howicies " futile " remarks with another ; bears right down upon the Lords KEANE and AUCKLAND and Major OUTRAM, and crushes and scalps them. No man is safe who comes within reach and ap- pears to be hostile to his brother : newspaper editors, " political agents," India Directors, all go down before him like nine-pins. Yet there is no malice in this terrible onslaught. It is prompted by brotherly love alone. The constant aim and end of the author is! to present the brother be idolizes such as he appears to him. He runs the story through even from the boyish days of his hero— tells how kind, how generous, how just, as well as how brave he is. Perhaps this intensity of fraternal affection in part defeats itself: we sympathize with but mistrust it.

The book will be very much read,—no slight praise, for it re- quired all General NAPIER'S clear and concentrated power of narra- tion to bring home such remote incidents to British comprehension ; and it will tell. The scene of action is brought before us with a reality that painting could scarcely go beyond. The actors are made to pass before us as they live,—the voluptuous, enervated Asiatic de- bauchee, yet brave and enterprising by starts; the commonplace experienced "political agent "; the juvenile officers of our Indian army ; the stern, brave, biding-their-time Subandars; the incom- petent Whig Governor-General; and the spare, battered, falcon- eyed veteran, the hero of Meeanee himself. Without implicitly adopting all the views of Sir CHARLES and his brother, (for they are one,) we feel little doubt that their estimate of fate events in India—the causes which produced and the consequences which are to follow them—will be found true in the main. The power of Russia and the personality of MEHEMET are pictured to the life ; and words of warning respecting the character and tenure of our dominion in India are spoken, which none but fools, predestined to throw away an empire, can neglect.

The story of Scinde, which General NerrEa in this thin volume tells so well, and supports by such clenching citations, is too con- densed and rapid for abridgment : our extracts must consist of detached passages.

OPENING OF THE SUBJECT—THE HERO AND H15 FAMILY.

To the British people, who still honour a bold stroke in war, this brief record of a glorious exploit is dedicated. The conquest belongs to the nation, so does the conqueror, and to the people's keeping his fame is committed: they will not fail towards a General whose heroic resolution has renewed the wonders of Poictiers and Agincourt.

Sordid factious writers have described Sir Charles Napier as a ferocious warrior, seeking with avidity the destruction of men ; and to make the re- proach more large, designated him as one of a brood bearing the name, always ready for blows and blood. That he and others of his family have been ready with the sword in defence of their country is true. That they seek to spill blood for strife's sake is false ; and two of them have need to be chary of blows which topple down thrones and change the fate of kingdoms. Dotn Miguel of Portugal, a melancholy exile in Rome—the Egyptian Ibrahim, a fugitive from Syria—the fallen tyrants of Scinde, clanking their chains for the ears of sym- pathizing Englishmen as base as themselves—attest the vigour of their conquer- ors in war : but peace, and the arts of peace, have ever been the aim and study of the man who fought so sternly at Meeanee and Hyderabad : he warred there because peace and his country's cause were incompatible.

THE CRISIS AND THE MAN FIT FOR IT.

Sir Charles Napier, having reached Bombay, was appointed to command at Poonab, and soon attracted public notice by his professional activity; and he quickly detected, and in his letters forcibly depicted, the vices, civil and mili- tary, which had gained such strength under Lord Auckland's government, if they did not originate with it, that the total destruction of the Indian army and the ruin of the Indian empire seemed to be hastening on with giant strides. To give his views at length, and in his own nervous language, would be of little public service now, and might be injurious ; but those views were at the time shown to competent authority at home, and returned to the author of this his- tory, with this remark—" Too true a picture, drawn by a master-hand." But it was at this moment that, for the salvation of India, Lord Ellenborough came, to curb the nepotism of the Directors—to repress the jobbing tribe—to reduce the editors of newspapers from a governing to a reporting class—and to raise the spirit of the army, sinking under insult and the domineering influence of grasping civilians, who snatched the soldier's share and calumniated him through a hireling press.

HOW NAPIER PREPARED FOR FIGHTING THE MATCHLOCK AND THE MUSKET.

To improve the rather neglected discipline of what he truly called "the noble Indian army," he broke from the monotony of formal parades on carefully- levelled ground, and worked his strong division of troops over the neighbouring hills : thus arousing the latent energies of the officers, and making both himself and his troops mindful that they were regular soldiers and not train-bands.

He disabused them also of a pernicious error, which had been inculcated by the newspapers of India, with a pertinacity of falsehood peculiarly character- istic. They said, and belief was given to them though worthy only of unbelief, "that the matchlock of the Affghan and other enemies was superior to the British musket in range and precision." Simply to reason against this widely- spread and assiduously inculcated fallacy, would be, he knew, fruitless. Pro- mulgated with a bad motive, it had been accepted as a truth with dogged cre- dulity. Wherefore be resolved to refute it practically; and to draw attention to the refutation, adopted an ingenious device. Provoking a warm admirer of the matchlock to produce a Marhatta equal to a contest with a musketeer, be meanwhile selected some men and officers of the Sepoys, practised with them himself, until he discovned the best shot, and then daily contended in person with this ,Jan. They were nearly equal; the camp became interested ; bets were multiplied; the partisans of each weapon were fairly pitted against each other, not only for the trial but in the thou of the soldiers: this was the General's object. Thus he bent the stiffen,'

of the prejudice, and at 010 sad of two mouths the eupporter of the -

admitted that he could not win: moreover it was proved, that while the match- lock could only be fired five or six times in half an hour, the musketeer could fire sixty shots, and send twenty home to the mark at 150 yards distance. " Then," to use the General's words, " the matchlock was laughed at, and the Musket got its place again."

HIS WAY WITH THE SOLDIERS.

With a jest he wins the soldiers' hearts, for they feel their General regards them as comrades and not as slaves. Thus, when some insolent and silly young men persisted, insubordinately, to ride violently through the camp and the bazaars, causing frequent accidents, he issued the following characteristic order, bringing ridicule and fear at once to bear on the offenders. " Gentlemen as well as beggars, if they like, may ride to the Devil when they get on horseback ; but neither gentlemen nor beggars have a right to send other people to the Devil, which will be the case if furious riding be allowed in the bazaar. The Major-General has placed a detachment of horse at the dis- posal of Captain Pope, who will arrest offenders and punish them, as far as the regulations permit. And Captain Pope is not impowered to let any one escape punishment, because, when orders have been repeated and are not obeyed, it is time to enforce them ; without obedience an army becomes a mob, and a cantonment a bear-garden; the enforcement of obedience is like physic, not agreeable but necessary."

THE ENGLISH IN INDIA—AND IN CHINA.

The reflux of barbarian power continually menaces British India, producing wars, leading to wars; peace cannot be till all is won. And the necessity for expansion is more urgent, because the subjected people's condition has not been improved in proportion to the extent of the conquest or the greatness of the conquerors. The frame of government, comparatively, not essentially just and liberal, wants the support of benevolent wisdom, and prying enemies must be kept at a distance. This inherent craving for aggrandizement has carried British India to the roots of the Himalayas on the North, menacing or menaced by the moun- taineers of Nepaul ; to the Irrawaddy on the East, grating harshly with the • Burman empire. It has sent fleets and armies to obtain a corner-nest in China for the incubation of commerce : but the eggs will produce the gliding serpent, the ravening kite, and the soaring eagle. China will be overturned, changed in all her institutions ; unless her politic people, acquiring, as they are like to do, the arts of European warfare, thrust the intruding strangers quickly from the land.

THE RUSSIAN IMPOSTURE.

Russia wants a man. If she find him, his views will hardly be turned East- ward. Europe will have more to fear than India. But is Russia really to be feared in Europe ? This is a question easier to ask than to answer. The pro- found falsehood of her Government—her barbarous corruption—her artificial pretensions—the eye-glitter of her regular armies, shining only from the pu- trescence of national feeling—would lead to the negative. Her surprising pro- gress in acquisition of territory within the last hundred years would lead to the affirmative. If we believe those writers who have described the ramifications of the one huge falsehood of pretension which, they say, pervades Russia, her barbarity, using the word in its full signification, would appear more terrible than her strength. Nor can I question their accuracy, having, in 1815, when the reputation of the Russian troops was highest, detected the same falsehood of display without real strength. For, from the Imperial parades on the Boule- vards of Paris, where, oiled, bandaged, and clothed to look like men whom British soldiers would be proud to charge on a field of battle, the Muscovite was admired, I followed him to his billet ; where, stripped of his disguise, he appeared short of stature, squalid and meagre, his face rigid with misery, shocking sight and feeling : a British soldier would have offered him bread rather than the bayonet.