WARBURTON'S LIFE OF PETERBOROUGH. * AMONG the remarkable men who have
reached the highest top of greatness without being able to sustain themselves there, Peter- borough is undoubtedly the most remarkable, not only for the variety of his accomplishments, but for the greatness of his great- est exploit compared with the means at his disposal To speak of the conquest of Spain during the War of the Succession, is not hy- perbole in relation to his exploits; for by his means the French were driven from Spain, with the exception of a small force under the Duke of Berwick, and this the allied armies under Lord Gal- way and the Portuguese General Das Minas could readily have crushed or expelled if they would have moved. What the final result might have been it is impossible to eay. With the country clear, the Austrian Charles peaceably on the throne, Louis the Fourteenth pressed by the victories of Marlborough and em- barrassed by ill success in Italy, it is a matter of doubt whether his grandson Phillip could have remounted the throne of Spain, unless the folly of the Austrian with the insolence and coil uption of his Germans were as felicitous in losing as in preventing an acquisition.
The successes of Peterborough in Spain, where he captured strong places without artillery and with less numbers than the beleaguered garrison, drove an army like sheep before himself and a few horse- men, and compelled a Bourbon and a Marshal of France to eva- cuate the country on really little better grounds than the terror of his name, has been compared to the exploits of a knight-errant. The almost hopeless hazard of his attempt, the daring courage and the incessant activity that alone enabled him to succeed, certainly read like a tale of enchantment, where everything falls before the destined hero. But there was nothing wild or errantlike in the conception, the plan, or the execution. Every mode was examined, every hazard estimated, the means weighed, failure prepared for, and nothing left to accident except what Wellington calls "the inevitable risk of an action." Peterborough's celebrated capture of Barcelona was the result of deep consideration, frequent personal reconnois- sance, and the perception of a strange engineering error in the con- struction of the defences. The assault was masked by an apparent embarkation, and the enemy, rejoicing at appearances, were hal- looing before they were out of the wood. His subsequent relief of the city when besieged by the French was equally skilful, and more patient ; and had he failed, he had formed three distinct plans to punish if not destroy the French on their return march to Ma- drid. Nor was he only fitted for one kind of -warfare. When divided commands, envy, intrigue, corruption, and German slow- ness, coupled with his own sharp tongue and vivacious manners, had undid nearly all that he had done, and the French had rallied in superior force, he laid down the maxim that the time for action was past for the present ; that the war must be defensive, and a battle avoided, for defeat would be ruin. At a council of war he was unanimously outvoted, and in fact dismiased ; but during his Journey he reiterated his opinion in letters to General Stanhope. "Never men were so industrious to bring things always to the utmost ex- tremities : for I Bee nothing but a battle, which with a disadvantage of our side, is fatal,—no retreat, no security, no after-game, but every man lost ; for, assure yourself, in Castille there is a most violent spiritagainst us, which appears to a degree that could not be imagined."
The fatal battle of Almanza proved the wisdom of Peterborough's advice, and the final surrender of Stanhope with two thousand British troops fulfilled his prophecy. The Spanish war seems to us to prove in Peterborough the pos-
* A Memoir of Charles Mordaunt, Earl of Peterborough and Monmouth; with Selections-from his Correspondence. By the Anthor of "Hochelar,a," and -"The Conquest of Canada." In two volumes. Published by Longnxtu and Co. session of military qualities equal to those of any general that ever lived ; but whether he had them at command, or whether his eccentricity would have allowed of their development under any other circumstances than of difficulties apparently insurmountable, may be a question. In the qualities equally essential to a com- mander—temper, management, and considerate patience with others—he was greatly deficient. Marlborough in Flanders and Wellington in Spain had equal or greater annoyances to put up with from incapacity, sloth, and corruption, and for a longer time ; yet they triumphed over them. They, however, had much greater resources at command, and a position which carried greater weight than Peterborough's. Still it is a question, whether an impulsive temperament, and a quickness of feeling incompatible with the immoveable patience and pertinacity of Marlborough or Wellington, were not essential to enable Peterborough to do what he did, or even think of doing it. There was a touch of Don Quixote and Hotspur in him, as well as of Hannibal. The various pursuits of Peterborough have been alleged against him ; and many things to which he applied himself were inconsistent with courtly ceremony or military state. It was this versatility and contempt of externals which gave him his influence over his men and rendered him popular at home. Perhaps the power of finding interest in almost anything before him might operate against his success in the world, which can only be attained by unceasing attention ; but there was something natural, and philo- sophical too, in his disregard of the forms of society and shows of greatness. Pope in his panegyric has presented the two extremes of his character in their most favourable -view when he paints the hero assisting in the poet's garden :
"He whose lightning pierced the Iberian lines, Now forms my quincunx, and now plants my vines, Or tames the genius of the stubborn plain,
Almost as quickly as he conquered Spain."
Born in 1658 and living till 1735, entering early into life in the court of Charles the Second and the Moorish wars which the pos- session of Tangier entailed, and living in society till the last, Peterborough linked together the ideas and manners of the Com- monwealth with those of men who were the contemporaries of our contemporaries. A soldier, a politician, an orator, a wit, and a versifier, he lived all the days of his long life, and with men and women of every class. He opposed the Stuarts ; he supported the Revolution, and William the Third, and then opposed him ; he was the friend of Marlborough and the Whigs, and then their oppo- nent; and though under a cloud on the accession of the house of Brunswick, he was active in politics, and mingled in the world of letters, fashion, and pleasure, till infirmity confined him to his couch. His biography, however, like his life, is not equal to its apparent opportunities and capacities. Of his earlier career the circumstances are not known, or do not bear narration; his campaigns in Spain are more historical than biographical ; his po- litical life is made to look but poorly in these pages ; and his age resembles that of an old beau. It might be that a posthumous publication has operated injuriously on the work; but this could only have been in details. The plan is complete, and completely carried out. The writing is finished, clear, rapid, readable, but, like Hochelaga, somewhat heavy as a whole, and losing the cha- racteristics of the hero in the style of the writer. The judgment is not unfair, but it is stern ; sufficient allowance does not seem to be made for the age and circumstances of the hero. Those who have only a vague knowledge of the man will get a good idea of his family, adventures, character, and conduct; but those who have already formed their notion of him from scattered notices and nu- merous anecdotes will have in these pages but a fiat reflection of Peterborough the chivalrous, the eccentric, the great, the gallant, the licentious, the lofty, and the little.
Many anecdotes of the Earl are scattered about, some perhaps of doubtful authenticity ; but not very many are preserved in these volumes. The following is a picture of him as cook.
"He frequently gave dinner-parties at Peterborough House, and sometimes entertained his guests with admirable music, in which Bononcini, Martini, Greene, and others of the most famous performers of the day, assisted Anas- tasia Robinson. At other times, he amused and delighted them by relating his adventures in Spain and elsewhere ; which, wonderful as they really were, lost nothing by his mode of relating them. Among other things, he was in the habit of stating that, during the War of the Succession, he had frequently been in danger of perishing for want of food ; and that even when he could get it he was often obliged to cook it himself; he thus became a good artist, and, from the force of habit still sometimes dressed his own dinner. Certain it was that, until disabled by advancing age, he constantly did so. Those who have dined with him at Parson's Green, have seen him at work in a dress for the pur pose, like that of a tavern cook : he usually retired from his company a
an hour before dinner-time, and having despatched his culinary affairs, would return properly dressed to his place among the guests, and astonished them by his wit and varied information."
The concealment of his marriage with the youthful Anastasia Robinson, the musician, is dwelt upon with severity ; though it rather seems to have been a tribute to the prejudice of the tulles than to his own vanity. The following is the biographer's version of its public announcement.
"It was only under the influence of an unavoidable necessity that he at last consented to acknowledge as his wife her, the comfort of his declining years, and of whose gifts and virtues the proude,tmight be proud. As shot chance for his life, he was ordered to the milder climate of Lisbon his wife's care and society were indispensable to him ; and she was determined not to submit to the publicity of travelling with him in that dubious position in which the flower of her youth had withered away. He still hesitated, but she was firm.
"The tardy act of justice was at length performed in a thoroughly cha- racteristic manner. He appointed a day for all his nearest relations to meet him at the apartments over the gateway in Bt. James's Palace: those rooms belonged to Mr. Pointz, who had married his niece, and who at that time was
tutor to Prince William, afterwards Duke of Ounsberland. Anastasia was al- so appointed to be thereat the same time, but had not the least notion of the scene which her eccentric husband had prepared. When all were assembled, Peterborough addressed them with an animation worthy of his best days, and with deep feeling, worthier than he had ever known before. He described a lady who had been gifted by Heaven with every virtue and every endearing quality which woman could possess ; of rare talents and accomplishments, of exemplary patience, of enduring affection, and of spotless purity. He de- scribed how he owed to her the best and happiest hours of his life ; how her society had been his ohiefest blessing in health, and how her tender care bad been his dearest comfort in suffering and sorrow. He confessed how his heart through life had done her the justice that his weak vanity had refused ; how he had loved her, and her alone, with true and abiding attachment. While he spoke, the dying man's voice at times rose with energy, at times trembled with the deepest pathos; and, as he concluded, he took Anastasia by the hand, and led her forth among the survivors of his haughty race as the wo- man whom he had attempted to describe, who had been for long years 'his best friend,' the wife of his bosom. The strangeness and suddenness of the announcement instantly overcame her ; she fainted in the midst of the com- pany, and was carried away insensible."
There is another version quite as characteristic of the man. It rims, that when at Bath or some watering-place he and "Mistress Robinson" were at the Assembly-rooms in the evening : the Earl rose to retire, and ordered "Lady Peterborough's chair " ; on which all the company rose too, and offered their congratulations at the formal announcement of a well-known fact.
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