THE MEMOIRS OF GEORGE ELERS.*
THEss are the Memoirs of a perfectly undistinguished man who served in the 12th Regiment of Foot (the present Suf- folk Regiment) from 1796 to 1812, a period when the entire world was ringing with the clash of arms, without taking part in one of the innumerable campaigns which England was con- ducting in every quarter of the globe, or hearing a shot fired in anger that was worthy of the name. Though the Memoirs, which were originally compiled in old age as an occupation for many idle hours, and for the private information of a nephew, are not without passing references to some of the chief persons and acts of the times, they add nothing of any value to the history of the period, and are remarkable only because it seems incredible that any contemporary of the Napoleonic epoch should wax so little eloquent upon what was undoubtedly the most stirring of all the military dramas. Captain Elers's papers furnish but one more illustration of how commonplace to the commonplace man is the chronicle of his own time, and how completely such a mind misses the • Xamoirs of George Elm, Captain 12th Regiment of Foot, 17774842. Edited by Lord Xotuson and George Lereson-Gower. London: W. Heinemann. Et2a. net.]
importance of events which are making history. During those meetings of the States-General which were so pregnant in effect upon France and upon all the world, Louis XVI. was mainly interested in the prospects of his day's hunting. Similarly, when England was deepest in her memorable struggle with Napoleon, Captain Elers is thinking of the noble families with whom he is distantly connected, and storing his mind with the tittle-tattle and high society scandals of a London season.
Nevertheless, these Memoirs entirely justify their publica- tion by Lord Monson and Mr. George Leveson-Gower. In the flesh Captain Elers was probably a bore ; he was certainly not among those of a past generation whom, could the dead be recalled to us, we should be anxious to meet. But he gives a faithful picture of private life in the Army of his day, in India and at home, and as a human document his Memoirs are both interesting and convincing.
The opening chapters deal with his parentage and child- hood. He is careful to record the noble origin of his family in Germany, and his connection with the Hungerfords of "Black Bourton, in the County of Oxfordshire." From the letters which form part of the appendix it appears that his gifted cousin, Maria Edgeworth, shared this turn for genealogy, which is exaggerated in her also to a quite ridiculous extent, unless. indeed, the authoress was writing these letters down to the level of one who had become in later years an impecunious and crotchety old beau. For although originally of some substance, the family had declined in fortune, and George Elers entered the Army as a poor man, and without influence. He was able to purchase a lieutenancy and an outfit, which, he tells us with pardonable pride, cost him 2300, and included "six regimental jackets, besides dress coats, great coat, shirts about twelve dozen, and everything in the same proportion." Aware, he tells us, of the effect of first impressions, he took great pains to be dressed well on his first appearance before his Colonel, and accordingly was "dressed in black coat and waistcoat, white worsted panta- loons, and neat Hessian half-boots, with a crape hatband." He was ushered into his Colonel's dressing-room, where the Colonel was putting the last finish to his toilet. "He shook me by the hand, eyed me most critically from head to foot, said I turned out well, and finished by asking me the name of my tailor." The Colonel in question, Hervey Aston, was, like his friend Arthur Wellesley, a Lieutenant- Colonel by patronage at twenty-seven. He was a leader of fashion and the best-dressed man in the Army. "His store of clothes in India was immense, and included fifty to a hundred pairs of boots and two hundred jackets. His tailors were Croziers, of Panton Square, and they used to take him home thirty coats at a time. And if they did not fit him exactly he used to kick them out of the room." Such was, and is, the importance of dress in the Army ; yet Colonel Aston was the close friend of Wellesley, and a promising soldier. After all, Stapleton-Cotton painted and perfumed like a prima donna, and Picton fought at Quatro Bras in a top-hat!
This military Apollo was killed in a duel a few years later in India in circumstances which seem extraordinary even in that age. A duel on an affair of private honour was, of course, a matter of everyday occurrence, and the current view was hardly exaggerated by the Irishman who addressed the mess one evening after dinner as follows :—" By Jesus! gentlemen, I am conscious you must have the meanest opinion of my courage. Here have I been no less than six weeks with the regiment, and the divil of a duel have I fought yet. Now, Captain Craigie, you are the senior Captain of the regiment, and if you plase I will begin with you first ; so name your time and place !" But Colonel Aston fell over an affair which arose out of his ruling as commanding officer. He waived his rights as Colonel, and was shot by one of his own Captains who thought he was aggrieved over a matter of discipline. In most other respects the life portrayed in these Memoirs is so strikingly similar to the Army life of the present day that it seems incredible that duelling should have been tolerated. But it was, of course, advocated to the last by the Iron Duke, who, however, appears to have thought this particular duel quite unnecessary, and it was, at any rate, the alternative to the present system of "ragging." If duels between officers on professional disagreements were still the
rule, what a brood of pistol-balls the Natal Campaign would have brought forth !
Of the future Duke we catch some interesting glimpses in these Memoirs. The writer saw a good deal of him in India owing to a mutual friendship with Colonel Aston, and on the death of this officer he for a time shared his quarters. The picture he gives us does not help us to a milder judgment of a character which is known to have been highly unattractive, and which, in spite of the fact that he always led them to victory, made the great Duke one of the most unloved of generals. There is an interesting description on p. 101 of a failure at Seringapatam, which but for the generosity of General Harris, and the private influence which Colonel Wellesley commanded, might, Captain Elers believes, have there and then ended his military career. Although he appears to have had a high opinion of his own military powers, and these formed the constant topic of dis- cussion at his table to the accompaniment of an applauding Staff, we hear that in May, 1801, Arthur Wellesley's highest ambition was to be a Major-General ! We doubt if such modesty is borne out by a career which was ambitious, and even jealous, to a degree. Among the letters at the end of the volume we find a correspondence between Captain Elers and the patron of bygone days, in which it is evident that the former considered himself a friend forgot. The great Duke was not, as a rule, forgetful of services rendered to him, although his definition of good service was somewhat exacting, and we must admit that his early acquaintance with him gives poor Elora no claim at all to subsequent recognition. No doubt, as Elers alleges, his want of influence and the death of his friend Aston deprived him of any chance of a General's epaulettes, but we suspect that during his connection with Wellesley he had his chance, and that he was tried and found wanting. There is no evidence in his own Memoirs, at least, that he cared at all about the professional side of soldiering. He retired in disgust as a Captain in 1812 shortly after his return home, at a time when Arthur Wellesley was but beginning to build up the super- structure of his fame. He died in Jersey in 1842 as a rather pompous and querulous old gentleman, having spent his last penny and a little more. His latest letter to his cousin and patron, the then Lord Monson, very characteristically describes with the most evident satisfaction a. grand ball at St. Heliers,—" all the Beauty and Fashion of the island present, a superb supper, and the finest French wines."
So lived and died in all probability ninety-nine out of a hundred men of the English upper middle class in the great Napoleonic epoch. To a large degree they were the product of their time, and their shortcomings are the manifestations of the burden of war and of empire. Government stocks at 48, land and corn at a premium, and ten years' garrison duty in India- Result,—George Elers, and the Duke of Wellington.
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