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Leader (1850-1860), 20th February 1858, Edition 1 of 2, Page 186, Untitled Article

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      A perfect Shem-ey literature seems to be springing- up . Besides Mr . 3 VtLDDLtBiQN . ' s Li fe ( which we shall notice in full next week ) , Mr . E . S . TkeliAw ^ nff—^ firiead of the poet—lias just put fortk a volume of Reminiscences of the Last Days of Byron and 8 hetleyy to which we shall be glad to g ive our attention ; , and Mr . Hogg , the college friend of Sheixby , who was expelled from the University , together with the poet , for vindicating liberty of coaseieace , and who afterwards wrote n * th&New Monthly Magazine some pleasant papers about his friend ' s youthful days , announces four volumes of recollections And correspondence . The first two will soon appear . We cannot but antieipaterthat this will be the most important and exhaustive work on the subject yet published . We trust , however , that the correspondence will be selected in csucb . a way as to avoid profaning purely private relations—a principle too

      often lost sight of . , -,-, Mr . MuawnoN , by the way , publishes a fragment of an orthodox Essay on Prophecy , the MS . of which he has discovered in Shbixey s handwriting . The fac-simite whieh he gives leaves no doubt as to the authenticity of the penmanship ; but Mr ! Oxenforp , in a letter to the Athenaum , has brought out the simple fact that this is nothing more than a translation from Spinoza s Political Religious Tractate , which one can easily imagine Sheixey devouring with delight in the Marlow days .

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      THE NEW WELLINGTON PAPERS . ** SZ ? £ Stt £ , ^ SSSTt ^^ Sti ^ SZ 5-SJg ! Vol . I . , , This is a publication the importance of which is not to be represented by itracte . Every page and paragraph is valuable We had scarcely antiei-Sed that so mLy Sew documents relative to Wellington ' s Indian career had been- left inedited by Colonel Gurwood . By the extent , the variety , the living interest of these despatches and memoranda , most readers will be surprised * They cover eight years of the Duke ' s campaigns m the south of the Peninsula , and , though referring to the end of the last century and the beginning of the present , have a strong and direct bearing upon contemporary events . An army of volumes had already been marshalled by Colonel Gurwood ; but we havener © a multiplicity of letters and memorials eaually worthy of permanent preservation , as testimony to the genius ott tie statesman warriorto the untiring activity of his mind , to his rapid insight

      . , into Indian politics , and , above all , to the peculiar character of those responsibilities which are imposed upon the masters of India . Upon the voyage out Arthur Wesley , afterwards AVellesley , occupied the unengaged evenings -with framing instructions for the regulation of troop-smps ; in an hour of leisure he devoted himself to drawing up a memoir on the defence and , revenue of Prince of Wales Island ; in the midst of war he studied the commerce of Bengal , and in the field sketched a plan of strategy for the frontiers of Oude . All this belongs to the present no less than to the past ; . we could wish that no one would write on Indian political , civil , or niditary matters without having diligently studied the book . It . is far from being a < lull or dry collection of official despatches ; a large proportion is filled by laminar letters , in many of which , however , the allusions are blunted by the editor ' s sunnression of proper names . This may have been necessary to spare will

      the susceptibilities of individuals , but we trust that a copy pe preserved * L Apsley House with manuscript marginal notes , for a time will come when * he vihole truth must be told oipersons as of events . Until this has beep done no-true biography of the Duke can be written , ; the work is left to a future generation f all that has or can be effected is to assort and arrange the Siateriafe ; but Wellington ' s lift passes vividly before ua while we peruse Sese despatches and memoranda . We see him , in the spring of 1798 , landing for the first time in . India ; within sixty days he is master of the region as a general , a geographer , and a statician ; he shows where and how troops maybe collected , upon what lines they may be moved , how they may be » rovisioned , and against what positions they may most efficiently operate . So * is it long before he acquires a perfect knowledge of the native character , aotffram authority , for it would have misled him , but from observations m which , he seldom erred . " 1 have not yet met with a Hindoo who hud one ~* ^ litav ho writes , after fiximr a momenta ry glance upon the uuld and

      SieebdisgttiBe in which the treacherous cruelty , of the Bengalee is enveloped . The natives , he thought , were not to be dealt with upon , all occasions' - with « nHtnited severity , so as to render the punishment of death a joke , but it is necessary , while quoting the passage m which he states this opinion , to compare it with others directed to the same point ot inquiry . After a longer caaidenae in-India the following was his language : " The repetition of-the crime of rebellion of which be ( toe Aurnial Polygar ) has been guilty renders it necessary that the most rigorous measures should be adopted against luin 4 *^ & Ws . ( adherents ; 1 therefore request that be and all those taken in arms ¦ nith him loarbe punished with death . Lenity towards them would lmve 4 hc moat crwel effects , by encowrag ' mg others to tulce arms and again to plunder and ravage the country » nd murder its inhabitants , " A similar view «• more than once expounded 1 ? but there are also some curious illustrations a . **« ™ lrm « of that unon which tUe I > uke was accustomed to pride

      him-, ¦ msET as high policy . Thus , whom in command at Seringopatam , he received irom the fere Dubois an application to have returned to their husbands the wives of about two hundred Clfxistians and other unmarried Christian "" J ^^ - ^ omen ^ wUo mJllQpdo Saltaun had carried off from their husbands and friends J ^^ Sce ^ who . were , placed , and were then , supposed to be , in bis zenana . " I have mfiwsed to comply with , this xbommmV' wd Arthur Wollesloy * although tlio reftiBuL ie unjusb , because th « < 0 ompa * yr having taken this family under ita protection , ft is not proper th . it » nything should be done : wUiehcan disgrace ft in the eves of the Indian yrorld , which can in the most remote degree cost « . afeade upon the dead , or violate the feelings of thoso who are alive . " Hero is strange morality ; the wholo of the Uitt « p on the subject contains interesting details and suggestions .

      Some of the most remarkable of the despatches are those which refer to the material organization ad . ipted to an' Anglo-Indian army . Upon the employment of light artillery , the opinions of the Duke of Wellington , who was not , as he says , " regularly bred to artillery , " are well known . He might have doubted , perhaps , whether it would be possible to advance th e 24 ^ pounders of a frijiate with the front line of skirmishers , as Sir Williaui Peel and his naval brigade did at the battle of Cawnpore . With reference to that and the other stations on the Oude frontier , the volume contains a memoir of si ngular interest , which may be studied in connexion with the actual war . There is no method of annoying and disarming the enemy so effectual , he affirms , as the establishment of sm « ll fortified posts , not made

      strong enoug h to stand a siege , or "that we hnd any difficulty , m retaking them" if abandoned by our own troops or captured , " but they should be of the nature of the mud forts in the Carnatic , which afford protection to a small body of infantry against a large one of cavalry , and enable officers proceeding with convoys to put them in security almost every night . " After pointing to the value of Allahabad and Futtehghur , and enumerating- the positions at Calpee , Etawah , and Abopshee , he adds , " The Nabob of Oude ought to be called upon either to regulate or to dismiss his ioree , " and " the main object should be to keep the enemy from Lucknow . " In contrast with these elaborate papers , we have some characteristic drafts of letters to be written at large by his secretary . There is one for despatch to Colonel

      Cotton , now Lord Combermere : — That I beg to know what he thinks of Mr . Guthrie , his sergeant ; that in general I have an objection to making officers of people from the ranks ; that I can ' t go to him . — . Arthur Wellesley . Wellington formed an early and accurate opinion of the distinctive characters oiTthe Madras and Bengal troops- Referring to the latter he said , in 1798 : " There is no army that lays claim to the title of disciplined that is in so bad a state ; " while of the former he wrote , under the same date : — " Notwithstanding that their grievances were heavier than those suffered by the officers in Bengal , there was not the same violence of complaint , or any reason to fear the consequences of discontent . " Again : — " To their credit it may be said , that if it had been necessary they would have gone to Bengal and auelleda mutiny for the redress of grievances , in the success of which

      they were more interested than those who mutinied . " But while the distinguished commander surveyed these large subjects his mind was not less occupied with the minutest details of military management , to the lesser points of which he would frequently refer in a very jocular spirit , as when writing on a question of money and provision purchases , he says : — ' If there be any necessity for it , I'll sees if I can ' t beat Ben Roebuck , Esq ., out of the sixty days : Cherry draws on him at thirty . " There is a good deal ot similarly li ^ ht matter in the volume , in addition to that which will prove of more interest to a certain class of readers—details connected with personal incidents and the scandals of the time , such as the harmless duel between Picton and Aston , and the fatal duel in which Aston fell , shot through the of India

      backbone by Major Allen . Indeed , upon the whole state during eight memorable years , upon the force , condition , mid discipline ot the European and native armies , upon the course of politics and war , upon the relations of the British Governments with the several native powers ,, these papers throw a valuable and much-needed light . Nor are the despatches and letters wanting in allusions to the grand movements passing in the general world . That was a stirring and momentous period . When young Wellington arrived in India , Sir John Jervis was bearing down on fc > t . Vincent , and Duncan on Camperdown ; the second coalition against XNapoleon was preparing , and before tlie last date in the volume a great burst of competiu " victories had illuminated the Pyramids , the Nile , the north oi Italy , Harengo , Heliopolis , and Holieulinden . The next volume will traverse five still more important years : it will lead through the buttles of

      Alexandria and Copenhagen ; the rise of the French Jbmperor , the battles Elchingen , Ulm , Austerlitz , and Trafalgar . Wellington himself will assume a more glorious prominence , invading the Mahratta States , lighting the battle or" Assaye , and opening up a vast arena of conquest . To the completion of the book , so far as India is concerned , wo look forward with extreme curiosity ; but the volume before us is in itself invariably interesting as a contribution to history , » s a chapter in the autobiography of the Duke , and as a study ' of Indian affairs , very opportune at this crisis of our Eastern history . The book is essential to the library of every English gentleman , and should be found in till public collections in London and the provinces .

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      LIBERTY OP CONSCIENCE . La Ubertd da Conscience . Par Julea Simon . Deuxi 6 . no Edition . Paris : Uuchette . Tan questions discussed in this book are now more than ever ni Fninoo questions of the day ; for , althoug h the learne d and eloquent author glances over the wholo of Europe , and proves that in no country religious liberty really exists , his labours are of course undertaken with homo views and desires When he went , ut the repeat of the Liberal party , to pruach toleration in Belgium—a task ho accomplished so well that the dofeat of tliu clericals ia in a great measure attributed to him—lie spoke with a toroo and an earnestness which showed that he himself felt tho weight of oppression , that he wus pleading his own cause us well as that of truth . The truth is , that although much talk is . Indulged in on tho equity ol every Frenehmun befoce tho law , that equality does not exist in inuttors oi celiirion . Catholicism , the dominant form of Christianity , haa not only succeeded in vitiating tho law , but daily succeeds in vitiating tho action of the lawr ~ MT « iinon-poi « te-out-tUaM | u ^^^^ of January 14 , 1852 , lays down that it is the duty of the Senate to oppose tho promulgation of all laws which might interfere with ' the liberty o wo i-BhipL-nutAe it obaerved , the liberty of conscience , but the right of all mou to meet and adore their God after their awn fashion . But this article ia me o hypocrisy , like so many other articles of . that . forsworn constitution , ah Franco no public worship can po earned on without preliminary » « iorlf" : tion and this authorisation is nofc granted , like a hcunse , on tho tulliluitmt of certain formalities , but depends entirely on tho arbitrary will of jMnyoifl

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      n ? $ wt , T EC E Ii ¦ E A B E H . [ No . 413 , I ^ j sbrtjary 20 , 1 S 5 & . XctC . ^ — ^_ ^ ^ -j ^ jj , "' --- = ^ . — ^ j : ^ ± _^^ === ^^ :: m = _ =:==== ; ==:: 1--- ::= --.-. „ _____

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 20, 1858, page 186, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2231/page/18/