Staremberg had been recalled before for conduct offensive to the English cabinet; but he was well acquainted with London, and the emperor wished to get him away lest he should put himself at the head of the peace-party in Vienna. Thus the English ministers continued so to conduct their affairs, that, while they gave their money to Spain and their advice to Austria, and both unprofitably, they only excited the contempt of both countries.

From the conference of Erfurth France had been earnest with Russia to take an active part according to treaty against Austria; and Romanzow, who was an enemy of England, increased Alexander's asperity toward that country, but nothing was done against Austria; and when Caulaincourt, the French ambassador at Petersburg, became clamorous, Alexander pretended to take the Austrian ambassador Swartzenberg to task for the measures of his court, but really gave him encouragement, by repairing immediately afterwards to Finland without inviting Caulaincourt. A contemporaneous official note from Romanzow to Austria, was indeed couched in terms to render the intention of Alexander apparently doubtful, but this was only a blind for Napoleon. There was no doubt of the favourable wishes and feelings of the court, the Russian troops in Poland did not stir, and Stadion, far from having any dread of them, calculated upon their assistance in case of any marked success in the outset. The emperor Alexander was however far from inattentive to his own interests, for he sent general Hitroff at this time to Turkey to demand Moldavia and Wallachia as the price of a treaty, hoping thus to snatch these countries during the general commotion. He was foiled by the Austrian cabinet, which secretly directed the Turks sent to meet Hitroff to assume a high tone and agree to no negotiation in which England was not a party: hence, when the Russians demanded the dismissal of Mr. Adair from Constantinople Hitroff was himself sent away.

While the affairs with Russia were in this state, the present king of Holland arrived, incognito, at Vienna, to offer his services either as heir to the stadtholdership, as a prince of the German empire, or as a near and confidential connexion of the house of Brandenburg; but it was only in the latter view he could be useful, and it was evident he expected the Austrian court would make their policy in the north coincide with that of the Prussian court. He said the secret voyage of the royal family to Petersburg had exposed them to mortifications and slights which had changed the sentiments of both the king and queen towards France, and the queen, bowed down by misfor

tune, dreaded new reverses and depressed the spirit of the king. They stood alone in their court, ministers and officers alike openly maintained opinions diametrically opposed to the sovereign, and at a grand council held in Koningsberg every minister had voted for war with Napoleon. The king assented, but the next day the queen induced him to retract. However, the voice of the people and of the army was for war, and any order to join the troops to those of the Rhenish confederation was sure to produce an explosion. There were between 30,000 and 40,000 regular troops under arms, and Austria was assured, that if any Austrian force approached the frontier, the Prussian soldiers would, bag and baggage, join it, despite of king or queen.

In this state of affairs, and when a quarrel had arisen between Bernadotte and the Saxon king (for the people of that country were ill-disposed towards the French), it is evident that a large English army appearing in the north of Germany would have gathered around it all the people and armies of the north, and accordingly Stadion proposed a landing in the Weser and the Elbe. Now England had at that time the great armament which went to Walcheren, the army under Wellington in the Peninsula, and that under sir John Stuart in Sicily, that is to say, she had about 80,000 or 90,000 men disposable; and yet so contriving were the ministers, that they kept Wellington too weak in Spain, Stuart too strong in Sicily; and instead of acting in the north of Germany where such a great combination awaited them, they sent their most powerful force to perish in the marshes of Walcheren, where the only diversion they caused was the bringing together a few thousand national guards from the nearest French departments. And this the reviewer calls the forming a combination of those states in Europe which still retained some degree of independence and magnanimity to resist the ambition of a conqueror.' What a profound, modest, and, to use a Morning Post compound, not-at-all-a-flagitious writer this reviewer is.

Well, notwithstanding this grand' combination,' things did not turn out well. The Austrians changed their first plan of campaign in several particulars. Napoleon suddenly and unexpectedly appeared at the head of his army, which, greatly inferior in number, and composed principally of German contingents, was not very well disposed towards him; and yet, such was the stupendous power of this man's genius and bravery, he in a few days by a series of movements unequalled in skill by any movement known in military records, broke

through the Austrian power, separated her armies, drove them in disorder before him, and seized Vienna; and but for an accident, one of those minor accidents so frequent in war, which enabled the archduke Charles to escape over the Danube at Ratisbon, he would have terminated this gigantic contest in ten days. The failure there led to the battle of Esling, where the sudden swell of the Danube again baffled him, and produced another crisis, which might have been turned to his hurt if the English army had been in the north of Germany; but it was then perishing amongst the stagnant ditches of Walcheren, and the only combination of the English ministers to be discovered was a combination of folly, arrogance, and conceit. I have now done with the review. Had all the objections contained in it been true, it would have evinced the petty industry of a malicious mind more than any just or generous interest in the cause of truth; but being, as I have demonstrated, false even in the minutest particular, I justly stigmatize it as remarkable only for malignant imbecility and systematic violation of truth.

6

The reviewers having asserted that I picked out of Foy's history the charge against lord Melville of saying the worst men made the best soldiers,' I replied that I drew for it on my own clear recollection of the fact.

Since then a friend, the Rev. Mr. Rowlatt, has sent me lord Melville's speech, extracted from the Annual Register (Baldwin's) 1808, p. 112; and the following passage proves the effrontery with which the reviewers deny facts.

What was meant by a better sort of men? Was it that they should be taller or shorter, broader or thinner? This might be intelligible, but it was not the fact. The men that had hitherto formed the British armies were men of stout hearts and habits; men of spirit and courage; lovers of bold enterprise. These were the materials of which an army must be composed. Give him such men though not of the better description. The worse men were the fittest for soldiers. Keep the better sort at home.'

REMARKS

ON

ROBINSON'S LIFE OF PICTON.

'Many there are that trouble me and persecute me; yet do Int swerve from the testimonies.'-PSALM CXX.

Life of Picton,

page 31.

Page 325.

THIS writer of an English general's life is so entirely unacquainted with English military customs, that he quotes a common order of the day, accrediting a new staff officer to the army, as a remarkable testimony to that staff officer's talents. And he is so unacquainted with French military customs, that, treating of the battle of Busaco, he places a French marshal, Marmont, who by the way was not then even in Spain, at the head of a division of Ney's corps. He dogmatizes upon military movements freely, and is yet so incapable of forming a right judgment upon the materials within his reach, as to say, tha sir John More should not have retreated, because as he was able to be at the French at Coruña he could also have beaten them in the heart of Spain. Thus setting aside the facts that at Coruña Moore had fifteen thousand men to fight twenty thousand, and in the heart of Spain he had only twenty-three thousand to fight more than three hundred thousand!

And lest this display of incompetency should not be sufficient, he affirms, that the same sir John Moore had, comparatively, greater means at Sahagun to beat the enemy than lord Wellington had in the lines of Terres Vedras.*

* In a recent number of the Quarterly Review the writer of an article upon the correspondence of Louis the XVIII. quotes me as saying that Massena had one hundred and thirty-five thousand men under his orders, as if he had invaded Portugal with an army of that amount, whereas I have expressly said that he invaded Portugal with sixty-five thousand, the rest being extended as far as Biscay. The assertion of the

Now those lines, which Wellington had been fortifying for more than a year, offered three impregnable positions, defended by more than a hundred thousand men. There was a fortress, that of St. Julian's, and a fleet, close at hand as a final resource, and only sixty thousand French commanded by Massena were in front. But sir John Moore having only twenty-three thousand men at Sahagun, had no lines, no fortifications for defence, and no time to form them, he was nearly three hundred miles from his fleet, and Napoleon in person had turned one hundred thousand men against him, while two hundred thousand more remained in reserve!

Any lengthened argument in opposition to a writer so totally unqualified to treat of warlike affairs, would be a sinful waste of words; but Mr. Robinson has been at pains to question the accuracy of certain passages of my work, and with what justice the reader shall now learn.

1o. Combat on the Coa.-The substance of Mr. Robinson's complaint on this subject is, that I have imputed to general Picton, the odious crime of refusing, from personal animosity, to support general Craufurd;-that such a serious accusation should not be made without ample proof;-that I cannot say whether Picton's instructions did not forbid him to aid Craufurd; that the roads were so bad, the distance so great, and the time so short, Picton could not have aided him;-that ray account of the action differs from general Craufurd's;— that I was only a lieutenant of the forty-third and consequently could know nothing of the matter;-that I have not praised Picton-that he was a Joman hero and so forth. Finally it is denied that Picton ever quarrelled with Craufurd at all; and so far from having an altercation with him on the day of the action he did not even quit his own quarters at Pinhel. Something also there is about general Cole's refusing to quit Guarda.

To all this I reply that I never did accuse general Picton of acting from personal animosity; neither the letter nor the

reviewer is therefore essentially false with the appearance of truth. The same writer, while rebuking the Editor of the Correspondence for ignorance, asserts, that the battle of Busaco was fought between the 9th of October and the 5th of November! It was fought on the 27th of September.

Another writer in the same No. treating of Professor Drumann's work, speaks of following an impulse which is from behind,' a figure of speech which must appear singularly felicitous to those who have watched a puppy dog chasing his own tail; but your Quarterly reviewers are your only men for accuracy of fact and expression!