30 DECEMBER 1899, Page 3

Mr. Treloar sends a most apposite quotation to Wed- nesday's

Times. It appears that in 1810 the public very strongly blamed Sir Arthur Wellesley for his conduct of the war in the Peninsula. The Court of Common Council even petitioned the King to institute an inquiry as to his course of action, and charged him with "profiting by no lessons of experience, and exhibiting with equal rashness and ostenta- tion nothing but a useless valour." Something very like these words are in the mouths of hundreds of amateur strategists at the present moment. Yet three years after 1810 Wellington was regarded as a national hero and the greatest commander of his age. Let the example of the Common Council be a warning to the men who declare that all our generals in the field are incompetent, and ought to be removed.