

NAPIER. SIR CHARLES JAMES, O.C.B. 



NAPIER, LIEUT.-GEN. SIR WILLIAM. 



411 



performed in UM region* of the Baltic, d-claring. among other things, 

 that wrUun a month be would be in Croustadt, On roiching UIOM 

 parts however b found or fancied that the fortrem of CronaUdt was 

 impregnable; he returned home without having gained any laurrli 

 except by the destruction of the petty town and fort of Bomanund ; 

 bat he was able to announce that he had brought home his ship* 

 uninjured a valuable service no doubt, but the first time probably 

 that sorb a claim to honour wai put forward by on English admiral 

 in time of war. 



On returning to England however in November 1855 he was elected 

 to represent the borough of Southwark in the place of the late Sir 

 William Mulesworth. He hd sat for Harylebone in the parliament 

 of 1841-47, when he had signalised himself by repeated attacks on the 

 ministry of the day. He now commenced a system of attacks on 

 Sir James Graham and the rest of the ministry of Lords Aberdeen 

 and Palmerston, declaring that his failure at Cronstadt was owiog to 

 UM fact that he was fettered by unfair restrictions and not adequately 

 supplied with ttores from home, while his fleet was inadequately 

 manned. The result was the waste of much valuable time in fruitless 

 recriminations between the home ministry and their commander- 

 in-chief. He has also lost no opportunity of assailing his employer*, 

 and everyone who differs from him, through the columns of the 

 'Times.' He has since visited Russia and declares that tho Russian 

 admiral Constantiue quite agreed with him as to the impregnability 

 of Cronatadt: he has also announced his intention of publishing an 

 account of his Baltic expedition, with notes of bis recent visit to 

 Rossis. As a member of the House of Commons he is a supporter of 

 UM ballot, an extended suffrage, and administrative reform in all 

 departments. 



NAPIKR, SIR CHARLES JAMES, Q.C.B. (cousin of the preceding), 

 was the eldest son of Colonel the Hon. Q. Napier, comptroller of 

 accounts in Ireland, by the Lady Sarah Lennox, daughter of Charles, 

 second duke of Richmond. He was born at Whitehall on the 10th of 

 Auguit 17S2. Having received his early education under his father 

 in Ireland, be obtained his first commission as ensign in the 22nd foot 

 before he bad completed his twelfth rear, and first saw active service 

 during the Irish rebellion of 179S, and again in the insurrection of 

 1803. In 1606, having obtained his company, he joined the British 

 forces in Spain, and commanded the 50th regiment of foot during the 

 terrible retreat on Corunna under Sir John Moore, on which occasion 

 he received five wounds and was taken prisoner. Being allowed to gu 

 to England on parole, be found his friends actually in mourning for 

 him as dead, and administering his effects; and he employed his 

 period of compulsory inactivity by writing on colonies, colonisation, 

 and military law, and an essay on the state of Ireland. In 1809 he 

 gain joined the British army in the Peninsula as a volunteer ; he 

 bad two horses shot undrr him at Coa, and was severely wounded at 

 Busaco ; he also took part in the bard-fought battle of Fuentes 

 de Onoro, and in the second siege of Badajoz, as well as in a consider- 

 able number of Irtsrr akirmUhe*. In 1813 we find him serving in a 

 floating expedition on the coast of the United States, and occupying 

 his time by the capture of American vends, and frequent descents 

 upon UM coast. He returned to Europe a few days too lute to be 

 present at the battle of Waterloo, though he took part in the storming 

 of Cambray, and accompanied the British nrmy to Paris. 



Not long after this, while stationed in the Ionian Inlands, he was 

 appointed governor of Cepbalonia. Here his administrative powers 

 were first developed ; and the success of liis governorship is proved 

 by the fact that to the day of his death the Cephalone.<e called him 

 their father,' and tent to him an annual tribute of the produce of 

 their vines. While holding this pott he joined with Lord P.yrou in a 

 scheme for the deliverance of Greece. He was shortly afterwards 

 superseded an event which he regarded, whether rightly or wrongly, 

 an a great affront and indignity. 



Aftr a tbort command of the military district of the north of 

 England, in 1838 and 1889, Sir Charles Napier, uow a major-general, 

 wa ordered in 1841 to take command of the army in llengaL ThU 

 was the turning-point of bis career. At Bombay he attracted attention 

 by his eoergstio plans of military reform, to which he eonti.. 

 dtvuVe himself until UM appointment of Lord Kllciibnrough to tho 

 goveroor-cenmlshii< of India. At his suggestion Sir CharUs Napier 

 drew out UM plan of an Afghan campaign. Scind- at this time was 

 in a very disordered condition, and the British influence and prestige 

 bid bsen much impaired by UM disasters in CabuL The Ameers of 

 Mod* wan perfidious, and as they would U bound by no treaty he 

 resolved to subdue them by open attack. From the first his plans 

 were emiMoUy tooosssfuL He blew up the fortress of Emaum Uhur, 

 which was always deemed impregnable. Having accomplished this 

 exploit, wbiob, was characterised by the late Duke of Wellington as 

 ooe of the most curious sad extraordinary of all military feats, he 

 pressed on, tad ith a very inferior force in point of numbers routed 

 UM Ameers at Mecaoee. February 17 IS 13. In a few days the army 

 took posMtsion of Hyderabad, and outflanking Shers Mohammed (sur- 

 Bttned UM Lion) by a dexterous mano-uvrr. drove him from the field 

 with prodigious slaughter. Having now become master of Uie fair 

 territory of Scin.le, Sir Charts* .Napier aet vigorously to work to 

 improve iu condition. He re-organised the native society, re-dis- 

 tributed UM colleetorates of taxes, ameliorated the native law, put 



down tho ' suttee ' system, and set the tenure of laud on a more equal 

 and judicious footing. Whilst in the midst of carrying out these 

 reforms Lord Elleuboioiigh was recalled by the Kost India Company, 

 and Sir Charles Napier felt that he had lost hut bent friend and sup- 

 porter. His Indian services are thus summed up, in the words of M< 

 brother Sir William Napier, in his ' Narrative of the Administration 

 of Scinde : ' " Two years only elapsed since he quitted Sukkur to 

 make war on the Ameers, and in that time he had made the march to 

 K'maum Qhur in the great desert, gained two great battles, reduced 

 four large and many smaller fortresses, captured six sovereign princes, 

 and subdued a great kingdom. He created and put into activity a 

 p.-riuaiieut civil administration in all its branches, conciliated the 

 affection of the different races which inhabited Sciudc, had seized all 

 the points of an intricate foreign policy, commenced a number of 

 military and other well-considered public works, and planned still 

 greater ones, not only suited to the exigences of the moiut nt, but 

 having also a prospective utility of aim." And all these works he 

 performed in spite of a press of correspondence, long journeys on 

 camels and horseback beneath a tropical sun, and under frequent and 

 severe attacks of illness, at the age of sixty-three, and in spite of 

 every mortification that malice and intrigue could devise aiiniiist him. 

 Unwilling to leave Scinde without some permanent proof of his 

 ascendancy over the popular mind, and the consciousness of having 

 contributed to its temporal prosperity, he persuaded tho people to 

 change the feudal system of laud-tenure for that of landlord and 

 tenant-, considering that such was the best plan of forming loyal sub- 

 jects by raising a class of farmers and small landholders attached to 

 the government by ties of a personal and pecuniary interest. 



In 1847 Sir Charles Napier returned home, and met with an enthu- 

 siastic reception ; but ever ready at the coll of duty, he re-embarked 

 for India in March 1849, at the suggestion of the Duke of Wellington, 

 on hearing of the then recent reverses which we had sustained in the 

 Sikh campaign. Happily however on his arrival at Bombay he found 

 that the tide had turned, and that his military services were, no longer 

 needed. There was no enemy to contend with in the field, and no 

 principality to administer ; so he set his active mind to work forthwith 

 to carry out a system of military reform, bin immediate object being to 

 school the luxury and extravagance of the British officers iuto a simple 

 and severe mode of living. In this work he was partially successful. 



He returned to England in 1 850, but his health and spirits were 

 fast failirg, and the last time that he appeared in public was on the 

 occasion of the funeral of his friend and patron the Duke of Wellington, 

 in November 1852. He died of a gradual decline at Oakland-, lii.s 

 seat, near Portt-mouth, on the 29th of August 1853, like a gallant 

 soldier, under the old colours of the 22nd regiment ami other trophies 

 of his European and Indian career, and was buried in the ground 

 attached to the garrison chapel at Landport, near Portsmouth. Sir 

 Charles Napier was twice married first, in 1827, to Elizabeth, 

 daughter of John Oakley, Esq., of Deal, Kent, by whom he hod two 

 daughters ; and secondly, in 1835, to Frances, daughter of William 

 I'hilipps, Esq., and widow of Captain R. Alcock, li.X. A bronze statue 

 of the conqueror of Sciude bos been erected by subscription in 

 Trafalgar-square. 



* NAPIER, LIEOT.-QEN. SIR WILLIAM FRANCIS PATRICK, 

 K.C.B., was born in 1785 at Costletown, near Celbridge, iu the county 

 i'f Kildare, Ireland. He is the third son of the Hon. Colonel George 

 Napier, by bis second wife, Lady Sarah Lennox, seventh daughter of 

 the second Duke of Richmond, and is brother to the late Generals Sir 

 Charles James Napier and Sir George Thomas Napier. Ho entered 

 the army as ensign June 14, 1800; became lieutenant April 18, 1801 ; 

 and captain June 2, 1804. He served at the siege of Copenhagen and 

 battle of Kipge in 1807, in Kir John Moore's campaign in Spain in 

 1808-9, and in the subsequent war in the Spanish peninsula from 1809 

 to its termination iu 1814. He was present iu 1810 at the combat of 

 Altui ida on the Coa. where he was wounded, and at the battle of 

 liusaco. In March 1811, during Mosxena's retreat from Portugal, he 

 was engaged in the combats of Pombal, Rtdiuha, Cazal Nova (where 

 be was severely wounded), and Foz do Aronoe ; and in May at tho 

 battle of Fuentes de Onoro. He attained the rank of major May 30, 

 1811. He was engaged in the batUe of Salamanca in July 1812. He 

 became lieutenant colonel November 22, 1813. He was at the passage 

 of the Huebra in November 1812, and of the Uidaasoa in October 

 1813. He was engaged in the combat of Vera, at the battles of the 

 Nivelle and the Nive, and was wounded in defending the churchyard 

 of Arcangues. He was again engaged in the battle of Orthes. He 

 served also in tho campaign of 1815, but does not appear to have been 

 at the battle of Waterloo. He received the gold medal and two claxne. 

 for his services in the battles of Salamanca, the Nivelle, and the Nive, 

 in which he commanded the 43rd regiment of li-lit infantry ; and the 

 silver medal with three clasps for Butaco, Fuentes de Onoro, and 

 Orthes. He was present in many minor actions, and received other 

 wounds besides those before mentioned. 



In 1828 Lieutenant-Colonel Napier commenced the publication of 

 his ' History of the War in the 1'eninsula and the South of France, 

 from the year 1807 to the year 1814.' The volumes came out in 

 succession till the work was completed in 1840 in 6 vols. 8vo. Jle 

 attained the rank of colonel July 22, 1830 ; and that of major-general 

 .November 23, 1841. From April 1842 to January 1848 he wag 



