THE VICTORIES OP THE BRITISH ARMIES,

Is a narrative of the military events of the last war ; beginning with the attack upon Twroo, and coming clown to the battle of Waterloo, but omitting the important campaigns of Lord Lau in India, the discreditable bombardment of Copenhagen; and the ex- peditions against the United States in 1814-15. The chief subjects, consequently, are—the taking of Seringapatam, and Wer.r.EsLev's early battles of Assaye and Argaum ; the expeditions to Egypt under ABERCROMBIE, to Sicily and Calabria under STUART "the hero of Maida "- "'Who filled the sign-posts then like Wellesley now ;" the capture of the Cape of Good Hope ; the whole Peninsular war, including the campaign of Sir Jonx MoonE ; and the different affairs of the Hundred Days, terminating in the final overthrow of NAPOLEON. A hodge-podgc of anecdotes, facts, and remarks, follow the continuous narrative, forming the " Anecdotes illustrative of Modern Warfare" of the titlepage ; and a few valuable military do. cuments are printed in the work,—as FOY'S observations on the character and composition of the French, British, and Spanish armies. The volumes too are illustrated by foot-cuts or notes, explanatory of technical terms ; though sometimes the definition contains phrases as technical as the word defined. Mr. MAxWELL, the author, is well known as a popular describer of military deeds,—rapid, striking, and picturesque in narrative, but with a rhetorical style that approaches the inflated. His own experience has acquainted him with the details of' the camp, the march, and the battle, as well as with the imagery of war, and with the feelings of the soldier in the various exciting situations he is constantly thrown into. When, therefore, he wishes, after the manner of his class, to be more striking than his authorities, or perhaps than the original warrants, he may throw in things that were not there, but his knowledge generally saves him from putting in embellishments that could not have been. He has also had much practice in writing, and his Life of the Duke of WELLINGTON has familiarized him with the greater portion of the subjects in the volumes before us. It will not therefore surprise any one to learn that the so-called Victories of the British Armies is a readable, suc• cinet, and pleasant narrative of the events which it professes to tell, or rather which it tells.

Beyond this praise cannot go. The work is a compilation. The writer has not studied, so as to master, the whole of his subject ; nor fixed the scale upon which every thing should be treated according to its importance, nor, having made all he is going to discourse of his own, produced an homogeneous whole. On the contrary, he has taken up time subjects he was familiar with, and read up ti,r the re• mainder from obvious sources. These causes induced him to em- brace the earlier campaigns of Wi.a.uxoToN in India, and to omit the more important ones of LAKE; to narrate almost. with the mi- nuteness of a report the landing in Egypt, because, we conjecture, he found it so set down ; to avoid the expeditions against Den- mark and America ; and, when he had not formed, or would not venture a judgment of his own, to shelter himself under the quoted decision of others. They have also given a want of consistency and of keeping to his narration in various ways. There are marks too of working to order—the Illustrative Anecdotes at the end are disjointed fragments, evidently placed there to eke out the two volumes : that nothing may be lost, a copious use is made of foot- notes to receive any stray passages, and the text consists of many quotations, even from the author's own works.

As a specimen of the graphic style of Mr. MAXWELL, we may take this account of BRUSSELS ON THE MORNING or QUATRE BRAS. The sun rose on a scene of confusion and dismay. The military assembled in the Place Royale ; and the difference of individual character might be traced in the respective bearings of the various soldiery. Some were taking a tender, many a last leave of wives and children. Others, stretched upon the pavement, were listlessly waiting for their comrades to come up ; while not few strove to snatch a few moments of repose, and appeared half insensible to the din of war around them. Waggons were loading and artillery harnessing; orderlies and aides-de-camp rode rapidly through the streets ; and in the gloom of early morning the pavement sparkled beneath the iron feet of the cavalry, as they hurried along the causeway to join their respective squadrons, which were now collecting in the Park. The appearance of the British brigades, as they filed from the Park and took the road to Soignies, was most imposing. The martial air of the Highland regiments, the bagpipes playing at their head, their tartans fluttering in the breeze, and the early sunbeams flashing from their glittering arms, excited the admiration of the burghers who had assembled to see them march. During the winter and spring, while they had garrisoned Brussels, their excellent con- duct and gentle demeanour had endeared them to the inhabitants; and •' they were so domesticated in the houses where they were quartered, that it was no uncommon thing to see the Highland soldier taking care of the children or keeping the shop of his host." Regiment after regiment marched off, the or gamzation of all most perfect ; the Rifles, Royals, Twenty-eighth, each exhi- biting some martial peculiarity, on which the eye of Picton appeared to dwell with pride and pleasure as they filed off before him. To an indifferent spec- tutor a national distinction was clearly marked : that of the Scotch bespoke a gave and firm determination ; while the light step and merry glance of the Irish militiaman told that war was the game he loved, and a first field had no

terrors for him. Eight o'clock pealed from the steeple-clocks: all was quiet ; the brigades, with their artillery and equipages, were gone, the crash of music was heard no longer, the bustle of preparation had ceased, and an ominous and heart- sinking silence succeeded the noise and hurry that ever attends a departure for the field of battle.

As an example of rhetorical embellishment pushed to absurdity, take THE DEATH 01' PICTON.

But, alas ! like most military triumphs, this had its misfortune to alloy it. Ficton fell ! But where could the commander of the gallant- Third inset with death so gloriously ? file was at the head of his division as it passed forward with the bayonet ; he saw the best troops of Napoleon repulsed; the ball struck him, and he fell from his horse ; he heard the Highland lament answered by the deep execration of Erin ; and while the Scotch slogan was returned by the Irish hurrah, his fading sight saw his favourite division rush on with irre- sistible fury. The French column was annihilated, and two thousand dead enemies told how desperately he had been avenged. This was probably the bloodiest struggle of the day. When the attack commenced—and it lasted not an hour—the third division exceeded five thousand men; and when it ended, it scarcely reckoned eighteen hundred !

Unless our memory falls us, much of this is fudge. A ball pene- trated Picton's brain : of course he instantly fb11 dead, without " hearing" any thing, and unseen by all save his confidential aide- de-camp. That officer dismounting, found that life was extinct ; and, pressed by duty, he could only look around him for some land-mark, which he found in a tree : against this he placed the corpse of his commander, so that it could he easily recovered after the battle ; and then hurried forward to rejoin the troops.

on the occasion of the riots of Birmingham, the Duke of Wel- lington declared in the house of Peers, that he had been " in many towns taken by storm, but never have such outrages occurred in them as were committed in this town only last night." We noted the " exaggeration " at the time. We will now present a few traits of the doings of war, where our author speaks from personal know- ledge, or is supported by other authorities ; beginning with the lesser "outrages," and gradually proceeding.

MILITARY DRUNKENNESS.

Torquemada had witnessed a most disgraceful scene of riot and confusion on the part of the British. Therq immense wine-stores were found and

lplundered ; and it was computed. that at one time twelve thousand men were ying in the streets and houses in a state of helpless intoxication. Nor was the boasted sobriety of the French proof against the temptation these well-stored cellars presented. On their subsequent occupation of the town, &ohm was obliged to stay his march for twelve hours; fbr his own corps numbered more drunkards even than that of Lord Wellington had done.

MILITARY PLEASANTRIES DURING A RETREAT.

The retreat from Burgos was not only remarkable fur the sufferings they endured, but also for the insubordination exhibited by the soldiery. The mass of the army became drunkards and marauders. The wine-stores in the towns and villages on the line of march were broken into, and despoiled of their contents ; and multitudes, through inebriety, either perished. or were made prisoners. In Valderoso alone, two hundred and fifty men were found drunk in the cellars ; and, of course, they fell into the hands of the French. Drunk- enness produced cruelty ; and many of the peasantry, hitherto well affected to the Allies, perished by the hands of infuriated savages, who seemed reckless whether friend or foe became the victim of their ferocity. Napier says, that on the first day's march from Madrid, he reckoned. seventeen murdered pea- sants, either lying on the road or thrown into the ditches.

Turn to "towns taken by storm."

TUE SACKING OF CIUDAD RODRIGO.

After all resistance had ceased, the usual scene of riot, plunder, and confusion, which by prescriptive right the stormers of a town enjoy, occurred. Every house was entered and despoiled ; the spirit-stores were forced open ; the sol- diery got desperately excited ; and in the madness of their intoxication corn- mitled many acts of silly and wanton violence. All plundered what they could, and in turn they were robbed by their m..n companions. Brawls and bloodshed resulted; and the seine men who, shoulder to shoulder, had won their way over the "imminent deadly breach," fought with demoniac ferocity for some disputed article of plunder. At worn out by fittigue and stu- pitied with brandy, they sank into brutal iu=ensibility ; and on the second day, with few exceptions, rejoined their regiments ; the assault and sacking of Rodrigo appearing in their confused imaginations rather like some troubled dream than a desperate and blood-stained reality.

The horrors of Badajoz is an often-told tale : it has been nar- rated before by Mr. MAXWELL ill his Bivouac, as from an eye-wit- ness, and part of his description we then transferred to our co- lumns. By repeating it in the present work, he has given it a stamp of authenticity which it did not possess as a fiction, and we will therefore take one trait from him. Leaving the usual plunderings and burnings, we come to the

GALLANTRIES OF A STORM.

Many a harrowing scream saluted the ear of the passer-by; many a fe- male supplication was heard asking in vain for merry. How could it be otherwise, when it is remembered that twenty-thousand furious and licentious madmen were loosed upon an immense population, among which many of the loveliest women upon earth might be found ? All within that devoted city was at the disposal of an infuriated army, over whom fur the time control was lost, aided by an infamous collection of camp-followers, who were, if possible, more sanguinary and pitiless even than those who bad. survived the storm! It is useless to dwell upon a scene from which the heart revolts. Few fe- males in this beautiful town were saved that night from insult. The noblest and the beggar, the nun and the wife and daughter of the artisan, youth and age, all were involved in general ruin. None were respected, and few conse- quently escaped. The madness of those desperate brigands was variously ex- hibited: seine fired through doors and windows ; others at the church-bells; many at the wretched inhabitants as they fled into the streets to escape the bayonets of the savages who were demolishing their property within doors; while some wretches, as if blood had not flowed in sufficient torrents already, shot from the windows their own companions as they staggered on below.

MILITARY EUTHANASIA.

On entering the cathedral, I saw three British soldiers literally drowned in brandy. A spacious vault had been converted into a spirit-depot for the garri- son ; the casks had been perforated by musket-balls, and their contents es- caping, formed a pool of some depth. These men becoming intoxicated, had fallen head-foremost into the liquor, and were suffocated as I found them.

It may be said that these are probably the statements of rheto- ricians, writing for effect ; or that the Duke of WELLINGTON is not bound by the descriptions of other men. It might be sufficient to reply, that the testimony of every author acquainted with the occurrences gives the same result.; but we have the Duke's ad- mission under his own hand. On the termination. of the retreat front Burgos, he issued a well-known lecture in the shape of a Letter to the Commanding Officers of Regiments, in which he says- " The discipline of every army, after a long and active .campaign, becomes in some degree relaxed, and requires the utmost attention on the part of the general and other officers to bring it back to the state in which it ought to be for service ; but I am concerned to have to observe, that the army under my command has fallen off in this respect, in the late campaign, to a greater de- gree than any army with which I have ever served, or of which I have ever read. Yet this army has met with no disaster ; it has suffered no privations which but trifling attention on the part of the officers could have prevented, and for which there existed. no reason whatever in the nature of the service; nor has it suffered any hardships, excepting those resulting from the necessity of being exposed to the incleinencies of the weather at a moment when they were most severe. It must be obvious, however, to every officer, that from the moment the troops commenced their retreat from the neighbourhood of Burgos on the one hand, and from Madrid on the other, the officers lost all command over the men. Irregularities and outrages of all descriptions were committed with impunity; and losses have been sustained which ought never to have oc- curred."

Badajoz was stormed on the Gth of April : the next day a cool general order was issued to stop the "plunder."

" G. G.

Camp before Badajoz, 7th April 1812.

1. " It is now full time that the plunder of Badajoz should cease." Not succeeding, a something sterner, but equally cool missive, was sent forth.

" G. 0.

2. " The Commander of the Forces has ordered the Provost-Marshal into the town : lie has orders to execute any men he may find in the act of plunder after he shall arrive there."

The outrages at Birmingham continued two hours ; during which the Magistrates and civilians were, no doubt improperly, scattered, or quiescent from ignorance : once assembled, the riot was quelled. At Badajoz, the Duke was on the spot ; he had half an army at his beck ; he had issued orders, obedience to which was required by common humanity as well as military discipline : yet it would appear, according to his own account, that he did nothing for a whole day. "G. O.

" Camp before Badajoz, 8th April 1812.

3. " The Commander of the Forces is sorry to learn, that the brigade in Badajoz, instead of being a protection to the people, plunder them snore than those who stormed the town.

6. " The Commander of the Forces calls upon the Staff-officers of the Army, and the Commanding and other Officers of Regiments, to assist him in putting an end to the disgraceful scenes of drunkenness and plunder which are going on in Badajoz."

To complain of Lord JOHN RUSSELL'S charge of " exaggeration!" The Duke was liable, and deservedly liable, to the last affront which can be offered to a man ; and the quibbling subterfuge about " gutting " and the "bonfire," by which he endeavoured to escape, was as bad as his original assertion.