66 You contrast the qualities of Walpole | Moore to Lady Hester Stanhope, which poswith those of Strafford, in the same spirit sesses a melancholy interest :— "SALAMANCA, November 23, 1808. with which you contrast the scaffold on which the one died by a violent and unjust death with the bed in which the other, full of years, lay suffering by the stone. You might also "I received some time ago your letter of contrast the armor of Strafford with the vel- the 24th October. I shall be very glad to vet waistcoat of Walpole, or the helmet of receive James, if he wishes to come to me as one with the full-bottomed wig of the other. an extra aide-de-camp, though I have already No doubt the qualities displayed in the time too many, and am obliged, or shall be, to of fierce civil contention-in the revolution take a young Fitzclarence. But I have a of opinions and forms of government, are sincere regard for James, and, besides, can much more interesting, much more capti- refuse you nothing, but to follow your advating in description, than the qualities by vice. He must get the commander-inwhich a new dynasty is to be gradually con- chief's leave to come to Spain. He may firmed, and by which peace at home and then join me. He will, however, come to abroad is to be secured. No doubt the cum-late; I shall already be beaten. I am within brous dress in which a corpulent minister four marches of the French, with only a third sweats at a levee in the dog-days is a much of my force; and as the Spaniards have been worse subject for a picture (particularly when one is by Kneller, and the other by Vandyke) than the flashing armor in which a statesman goes to the council in order that he may be ready for the field. But in estimating the characters and conduct of men living at different periods, in apportioning to each their respective merit or blame, justice cannot be done unless due allowance be made for the difference of circumstances imposing different duties, and calling into action different qualities. 66 dispersed in all quarters, my junction with the other two-thirds is very precarious; and when we all join, we shall be very inferior to the enemy. The Spanish Government is weak and imbecile; their armies have at no time been numerous; and the country is not armed, nor, as far as I can judge, enthusiastic. We have been completely deceived by the contemptible fellows chosen as correspondents to the armies; and now the discovery comes a little too late. Charles is not yet arrived; his was one of the best regiTry Walpole and Strafford by the result ments that left Lisbon, and was not intended of their counsels, by their result to the to join us, if I in compassion to his melanmonarchs whom they served, and how pow-choly countenance had not found a pretext. erful would the contrast be in favor of Wal- We are in a scrape; but I hope we shall pole! The test would be an unfair one; but have spirit to get out of it. You must, hownot so unfair as the adventitious circum-ever, be prepared to hear very bad news. stances which you have enlisted in aid of Strafford. Desertion in extreme peril by the prince whom he had faithfully served, an unjust sentence, death on the scaffold, endured with the most becoming and affecting courage; these things naturally attract the pathies of mankind around the person and the memory of the sufferer. Lips compressed in iron resolution, and glances of fire, are very becoming to a hero; they suit the iron times in which Strafford lived; but why not let Walpole laugh the heart's laugh, and nod the approving head,' if the heart's laugh was not out of place, and if, in spite of his enemies, he kept a head wherewith to nod his approbation? sym So far, then, for statesmen. Not only are their days spent in strife, but their succes sors a hundred years later are still at issue as to their merits. It does not appear that warriors are much happier. In the "Miscellanies" we find a letter from Sir John * "Miscellanies," pp. 67-75. "The troops are in as good spirits as if things were better; their appearance and good conduct surprise the green Spaniards, who had never before seen any but their own or French soldiers. "Farewell, my dear Lady Hester: if I extricate myself and those with me from our present difficulties, and if I can beat the French, I shall return to you with satisfaction; but if not, it will be better that I should never quit Spain. "I remain always "Very faithfully and sincerely yours, "JOHN MOORE." * This letter was written on the 23d November. On the 16th of the following Jan uary he fell in his victorious fight at Corunna; and Lady Hester's name was on his lips in his dying moments. Sir John Moore was a gallant soldier and a skilful commander. His country has appreciated the difficulties he had to surmount, and it holds his memory in honor. But his tone of despondency * "Miscellanies," p. 51. contrasts painfully with the hopefulness | under orders and responsibilities. But Nawhich never deserted the Duke of Welling-poleon enjoyed more advantages of this deton. For instance, before dawn on the 18th scription than any other sovereign that ever of June, the very day of the battle of Waterloo, the duke wrote to Sir C. Stuart: Let appeared. His presence, as stated by me more than once, was likely not only to give to the French army all the advantages above detailed, but to put an end to all the jeal "The Prussians will be ready again in the morning for anything. Pray keep the Eng-ousies of the French marshals and their lish [at Brussels] quiet if you can. counteraction of each other, whether founded them all prepare to move, but neither be in upon bad principles and passions, or their fair differences of opinion. The French a hurry nor a fright, as all will yet turn out well." army thus had a unity of action. In pursuance of the system which we have noticed, of testing his opinions by those of others, Lord Stanhope appears to have reminded the Duke of Wellington of his own saying, that the presence of Napoleon in the field was equivalent to a reinforcement of 40,000 men. The duke, who was always a little jealous of any reference to his acts or words, writes as if startled at his own energy of expression, and enters into a practical explanation, which is well worth recording: “Memorandum by the Duke of Wellington. Sept. 18, 1836. "It is very true that I have often said that I considered Napoleon's presence in the field to be equal to 40,000 men in the bal ance. "This is a very loose way of talking; but the idea is a very different one from that of his presence at a battle being equal to a reinforcement of 40,000 men. "I'll explain my meaning. "1. Napoleon was a grand homme de guerre, possibly the greatest that ever appeared at the head of a French army. "2. He was the sovereign of the country as well as the military chief of the army. That country was constituted upon a military basis. All its institutions were framed for the purpose of forming and maintaining its armies with a view to conquest. All the offices and rewards of the State were reserved in the first instance exclusively for the army. An officer, even a private soldier, of the army might look to the sovereignty of a kingdom as the reward for his services. It is obvious that the presence of the sovereign with an army so constituted must greatly excite their exertions. "3. It was quite certain that all the resources of the French State, civil, political, financial, as well as military, were turned towards the seat of the operations which Napoleon himself should direct. "4. Every sovereign in command of an army enjoys advantages against him who exercises only a delegated power, and who acts "These four considerations induced me to say generally that his presence ought to be considered as forty thousand men in the scale. But the idea is obviously very loose, as must be seen by a moment's reflection. "If the two armies opposed to each other were forty thousand men on each side, his presence could not be equal to a reinforcement of forty thousand men on the side of the French army; nor even if they were even eighty thousand men on each side. sixty thousand men on each side, or possibly "It is clear, however, that wherever he went he carried with him an obvious advanas calling that advantage as equal to a reintage. I don't think that I ought to be quoted forcement of forty thousand men under all possible circumstances. "I quite agree that the Duke of Marlborough is the greatest man that ever appeared at the head of a British army. "He had greater difficulties to contend with in respect to his operations and the command of his troops in the field than I had. I had no Dutch deputies to control my movements or intentions, whether to fight or otherwise. But, on the other hand, I had armies to co-operate with me, upon whose operations I could not reckon, owing to the defective state of their discipline and their equipments, and their deficiencies of all kinds. I could not rely upon ten thousand of them doing what five hundred ought to do, or upon their doing anything, much less upon their doing what ten thousand ought to do. The Duke of Marlborough did not labor under this inconvenience. "Then the Duke of Marlborough carried on his operations in countries fully peopled in proportion to their extent. He never experienced any inconveniences from the want of supplies of provisions. It was impossible to move at all in the Peninsula without previously concerted arrangements for the supply of the troops with provisions, means of transports, etc. "The Duke of Marlborough's difficulties were greater than mine in relation to his own operations; mine were greater than his in every other respect. "But this is not all. "The Duke of Marlborough generally, if not always, commanded an army superior to his enemy in the field. The army commanded by me was always inferior, not only in reference to the description of troops, but even in numbers, to the enemy. "But that which I particularly object to is the last paragraph. "I have always, in public as well as in private, declared my obligations to the Government for the encouragement and support which they gave me, and the confidence with which they treated me. year 1781, says that Mr. Fox in the House of Commons constantly wore a blue frockoat and a buff waistcoat. "Nor ought it to be forgotten," says Sir Nathaniel, “that these colors then constituted the distinguishing badge or uniform of the American insurgents." The first witness examined by Lord Stanhope was a very old and steady member of the Whig party, too stanch to trouble himself about reasons-Sir Robert Adair. Sir Robert "I was not the Government, as the Duke of Marlborough was; nor were all the resources of this nation at my command to carry on knew why, except that they were worn by "had worn the colors for years, but never the war which I was conducting, as the resources of Great Britain, in the time of Queen Mr. Fox, but had heard that they were the Anne-military, naval, political, and finan-colors of General Washington's regiment. cial-were at the command of the Duke of Marlborough. The nation at that time were heart-in-hand, bent upon carrying on that war. France was not then so powerful as she was from 1808 to 1814; England was not threatened with invasion; it was not necessary to protect Sicily by an army of twenty thousand men of the best troops. The United States had not been formed, and it was not necessary to defend our vital interests on the Continent of America against their attack. The resources of the country then, instead of being exclusively devoted to carry on the war which I conducted, were unavoidably devoted to other objects. "Besides all this, there was a formidable opposition to the Government in Parliament, which opposed itself particularly to the oper ations of the war in the Peninsula. "It would not be fair to compare the conduct of the Government of the Regency in relation to the war which I conducted, with the conduct of the Government in the reign of Queen Anne. I cannot and never have complained of them; and I should not like to say that I supported the Government more than they supported me.' 6 "In one sense it is true. "It is quite certain that my opinion alone was the cause of the continuance of the war in the Peninsula. My letters show that I encouraged, nay forced, the Government to persevere in it. The successes of the operations of the army supported them in power. But it is not true that they did not, in every way in their power, as individuals, as ministers, and as a Government, support me." * One of the discussions in the "Miscellanies" relates to Blue and Buff; and the question, "Why were these the Whig colors?" is asked by Lord Stanhope in vain. Sir Nathaniel Wraxall, speaking of the *" Miscellanies," pp. 82-86. He had also heard, from some of the philosophical Whigs, who find a reason for everything, that those colors were emblematical of the Revolution of 1688. The Blue, they said, was the old Tory true blue; the Buff was a descendant of the Dutch Orange of King William, but by degrees the Orange the Blue. You see,' he continues, how became Yellow, as harmonizing better with fanciful all this is. In the mean time habit goes its course; and here I am, at the end of so many years, to the great annoyance of my valet de chambre, with nothing else in my wardrobe for him when I die.' Lord Sidney Osborne had heard from the late Earl of Chichester that blue and buff were the colors of the Goodwood Hunt of that day, and were very naturally adopted by the political followers of the Duke of Richmond, and still more so by his nephew, Charles Fox. Lord Macaulay was inclined to think the selection of these colors fortuitous; that is, that Mr. Fox having, without any particular motive or design, commonly attired himself in a blue coat and buff waistcoat, these colors became the fashion among his followers, merely from attachment to him. Mr. Jared Sparks writes from Cambridge, Massachusetts: "It has always been understood here that the American uniform, buff and blue, was adopted from the Whig costume or badges, previously used in England or Scotland." Thus far Lord Stanhope and his correspondents. Leaving it to the Whigs to account for their colors and their opinions,— if they can, we may be permitted to refer to a passage from Sir Walter Scott's notes to the ballad called "The Battle of Both well Bridge," in the "Border Minstrelsy," | Romans, not a conclave of College dons, from which it would appear that the blue but Peel and Macaulay, whose minds are was not as Sir Robert Adair supposed, a Tory color: "Then he set up the flag of red, A' set about in bonny blue." accordingly applied to the subject, each according to the laws of its own nature.* Turning to another recent work,† we find Henry Brougham, in 1812, on the eve of his great contest for Liverpool, in the midst of "Blue was the favorite color of the Cov- the severest struggles in law and politics, enanters hence the vulgar phrase of a true minutely superintending Leigh Hunt's blue Whig. Spalding informs us that when translation of the "Ode to Pyrrha," and the first army of Covenanters entered Aberdeen, few or none wanted [i. e. were with- suggesting fresh delicacies for his version of out] a blue ribband; the Lord Gordon and Acme and Septimius." Thus, also, Mr. some others of the Marquis [of Huntley's] Gladstone has evinced in every possible family had a ribband, when they were dwell-way his abiding attachment to ancient litering in the town, of a red fresh color, which ature; and we have had occasion to notice they wore in their hats, and called it the Lord Derby's very similar tastes, of which royal ribband, as a sign of their love and indeed we hear - but have no personal loyalty to the king. In despite and derision thereof, the blue ribband was worn, and knowledge of the fact that he has recently called the Covenanters' ribband, by the haill given additional proofs. Sir George Lewis's [whole] soldiers of the army, who would not familiarity with antiquity is as well known hear of the royal ribband, such was their as his indefatigable industry in the dispride and malice.' After the departure of charge of his official duties; and his prothis first army, the town was occupied by foundly learned elucidation of the Calabrian the barons of the royal party, and they were once more expelled by the Covenanters, who Inscription, submitted to him by his friend plundered the burgh and country adjacent. Baron Munchausen, has placed him first No fowl, cock, or hen (says Spalding) left among the recoverers of lost tongues. Earl unkilled, the haill house dogs, messens (i.e., Russell, it is certain, once produced a traglapdogs), and whelps within Aberdeen killed edy -and a very sad one; also a novel,§ upon the streets; so that neither hound, which was still sadder. Lord Palmerston messen, nor other dog was left alive that had credit for several excellent jeux d'esthey could see. The reason was this: when the first army came here, ilk captain and prit, which appeared in the "New Whig soldier had a blue ribband about his craig Guide," when Lord Liverpool was minister; [neck]; in despite and derision whereof, and among others for the well-known when they removed from Aberdeen, some lines :women of Aberdeen, as was alleged, knit blue ribbands about their messens' craigs, whereat their soldiers took offence, and killed their dogs for this very cause.' "For a very small man with the Tories Is a very great man with the Whigs." But since he became the New Whig Guide Whatever may be thought of Sir Robert himself, we have not heard of his pursuing Walpole's scholarship, we ought not to for- this vein of pleasantry. We wish we had get that his biographer Archdeacon Coxe room for a pretty Valentine, addressed by assures us that his character at Eton was Lord Macaulay to Lord Stanhope's youthful that of an excellent scholar, and also that daughter. But we have already borrowed he subsequently passed two years at King's too largely from the volume before us, alCollege, Cambridge, being at the time a though we leave behind many papers of the younger son, intended for Orders. We highest interest. Fox, Pitt, and Canning, have often had occasion to refer to the fact as well as Macaulay, were authors of chathat a large proportion of our most distin-rades still extant. We will conclude this guished public men have been men of high desultory paper with an enigma, by the literary cultivation; and attached especially great Lord Chatham, printed from the pa "Miscellanies," p. 112. to the literature of the ancient world, from +"Correspondence of Leigh Hunt." London, 1862. pers at Chevening, the solution of which we | And arms him with courage to bear his diswill leave to our readers : tress. These joined all together will make up the pire; and I presume that this province, which is an important one, will not be left without them. Agriculture itself is in a most deplorable state, the implements of husbandry being of a most primitive nature, being in fact precisely of the same kind as those which were in use hundreds of years ago; which is much to be regrettel, as the soil is very fertile, and if cultivated properly, would yield at least three times the produce it does at present.”—Athenæum. THE many English admirers of the most thoughtful, and perhaps the most original of modern sculptors, will be glad to hear that Mr. Story's chisel has not been idle lately. His chief finished work has been a statue of Judith. Its conception-a remarkable deviation from the common look of flushed exultation and vindictive triumph which Italian artists give-is that of an appeal to Heaven to vindicate the justice of the great deed done. There is no faltering of purpose in the gaze strained upwards, no looseness in the grasp of the sword, but the consciousness of an untold sacrifice, the sense of a gulf between the present and the past, the dilatation of a mind that is pleading with the invisi HORTICULTURE ABROAD.-So soon as it was decided that the Horticultural Society should hold an international exhibition of fruits, cereals and other vegetables, the Council of the Society addressed explanatory letters to the British consuls all over the world. Some of the replies are not without interest. Thus, the consul at Islay, in Peru, writes: "In reply to your letter, permit me to observe that it supposes a much more advanced state of horticulture than at present exists in Peru. Horticulture, indeed, can scarcely be said to exist at all here, - at least only of a very limited kind. There is a little rude cultivation of fruit-trees and garden vegetables; but such a person as a nursery-man, I believe, is not known.' The following is from the letter of our consul at Tabruz, in Persia: "You will understand the difficulty and delay which attend collections of this kind in this country, when I inform you that to obtain good seed of some species of fruits I am obliged to have the latter consumed in my house; the seed one usually finds in the market being of mixed good and bad without distinction, and that to procure really good melon-seed, for instance, a large consumption of the fruit is required, as probably not one melon in five sold in the market is worth eating. In flowers Persia is very poor, excepting in such as grow wild in the mountains, and to which lit-ble world, are unmistakably graven on brow and tle attention is given. The country from north to south produces many kinds of rice of delicious and delicate quality, but as it is not procurable here in the husk I refrain from sending specimens, at least for the present. There are no nurserymen or horticulturists in Persia to whose notice to bring the programme and schedule of the Society which you have transmitted to me.' The consul from Varna reports thus: "I regret to be obliged to state, that after having made diligent inquiries in all the principal towns within my cousular jurisdiction, I have heard that no such class of persons exists as florists, horticulturists or nurserymen, within the limits of my consular jurisdiction up to the present moment; but I have heard with great satisfaction that His Majesty the Sultan has decreed the formation of establishments for the study of the abovementioned branches in various parts of the em attitude. A smaller statue of Hero looking for Leander, torch in hand, is almost faultless in its representation of anxious, doubtful search. The timid, beautiful girl, overmastered for the moment by one sentiment, will probably re-appear in a hundred imitations, and become a household form. Mr. Story is at present engaged on a statue of Saul, the clay model of which has just been completed. Here there was no artistic tradition like the Moses of Michael Angelo - to suggest or warn. The Jewish King is seated, but sits as if he might start up in a moment; his brows are bent as if in thought; his hands play with a sword; his face is working with the disquietude of the evil spirit within, or with the thought of royalty at stake, the deathless type of kingship at feud with prophecy; he is tyrantEastern tyrant, perhaps—but over all heroic.— Spectator, 24 Jan. |