1830.] The Club Room. 429 



better officered, disciplined, and conducted, than ours, though they 

 were always beaten ; and that ours were but a herd of unruly clowns, 

 wild asses, or uncollared bull-dogs, is what I have been endeavouring 

 to impress on this infatuated country for the last five-and- twenty 

 years. 



Sir Ronald. The work is coxcombry from the first page to the last. 

 The man's dedication itself is enough to settle his pretensions to " taste 

 or common sense." To the Duke of Wellington by one who feels, 

 what ? in the name of all that is rational is it respect for his Grace, 

 or honour for the British soldier; or, what is better than either, a 

 British sentiment for the triumph of England in the best cause ? No ; 

 but he feels " why the soldiers of the tenth legion were attached to 

 Caesar." 



Megrim. My dear general, recollect the fearful strength of the 

 temptation to a " Staff-man," to show to wondering mankind that he has 

 actually been at a grammar school, nay, has soared so far above the 

 ordinary reach of mortals, as to have read Caesar's Commentaries, even 

 in a translation. 



Icicle. Besides, as a mere matter of taste, the whole work is a labour 

 for effect. He cannot give the statement of a quarrel between two don- 

 key drivers, without throwing it into the picturesque ; he fabricates his 

 camp rabble into heroes of romance ; and makes his campaign under the 

 walls of Ciudad Rodrigo, or Badajos, more like a campaign under the 

 walls of Troy. Of his tactics I can, of course, pretend to no professional 

 judgment; but they appeared to me too perplexed for professional use, 

 or for any use but to puzzle himself to have all the merit of an ancient 

 oracle, an obscurity expressly calculated to save the credit of the shrine, 

 let the event turn out what it may. Did you know Moore ? 



Sir Ronald. Thoroughly ; and lamented him as a brave officer and a 

 friend. But his true vindication is not to be found in the rash and 

 headlong panegyric of Napier's book. Extravagant praise necessarily 

 excites jealous inquiry ; and if any stain can rest on Moore's manly 

 memory, it will be from the breath of the giddy protection that flings 

 itself with such fierce folly on his tomb. 



Friezland. He was a capital topic for the debaters on our side, for all 

 that. While he seemed likely to beat the French, we abused him ; and 

 when the French hunted him to Corunna, we abused the ministry. 



Sir Ronald. Moore had but one fault. Brave as he was in the field, 

 he was the coward of a newspaper. He could never face the rumours of 

 the coffee-house. If the art of printing had been extinguished for the 

 year of his Spanish campaign, he would have marched upon Madrid, 

 have, ten to one, beaten the French, and Napoleon along with them, 

 roused the Spanish nation by the million, and shortened the war by half 

 a dozen years ; but every arrival of the post from England was worse 

 than the march of a new French corps d'armee to him. His error was 

 first the six weeks wasted at Salamanca. Napier pleads that he was 

 kept in ignorance of the state of Madrid, by Frere's letters. But had he 

 not a whole crowd of idle aides-de-camp to send to Madrid and gain 

 intelligence for himself? 



Then came the news of Napoleon's advance upon him. This threw 

 him on his route to the mountains ; and the first impression on his mind 

 was, evidently and fatally, how he should carry his army untouched to 

 the parade in Hyde-park. Napier pleads, that the retreat was hurried 

 through Gallicia by ignorance of the roads ; but in the six weeks wasted 



