NEY, MICHAEL. 



NET, MICHAEL. 



478 



Newton's course of life was very like that of other divines who have 

 risen to the episcopal bench. He was the son of a person engaged in 

 trade, was a pupil in the grammar-school at Lichfield, and afterwards 

 at Westminster, from whence he removed to Trinity College, Cam- 

 bridge. He was for some years a city preacher, and tutor in the 

 Tyrconnel family, and was in 1744 presented by Pulteney earl of Bath, 

 who was his great friend and patron, to the living of St. Mary-le-Bow. 

 He next became lecturer at St. George's, Hanover Square, prebendary 

 of Westminster, dean of Salisbury, sub-almoner, about 1762 bishop of 

 Bristol, and in 1768 dean of St. Paul's. He died in 1782. Bishop 

 Newton was a prelate of not very remarkable powers, natural or 

 acquired ; but personally he wag without reproach, acceptable in the 

 society of the great, and possessed of a certain amount of general 

 and professional knowledge. 



Bishop Newton is chiefly known by two works : an edition of the 

 ' Paradise Lost,' with notes, first published in 1 749, and his ' Disser- 

 tation on the Prophecies,' of which the first volume appeared in 1755. 

 Both had a certain, perhaps a high, celebrity in their day, but we look 

 in them in vain for much of either acuteness or learning. Both how- 

 ever may be perused by those who are not critical scholars with 

 advantage ; and the critical scholar in English or in biblical literature 

 may meet occasionally with useful suggestions. 



NEY, MICHAEL, Prince of the Moskowa, Duke of Elchingen, and 

 Marshal of France, was born at Sarre-Louis in Lorraine, on 10th 

 January 1769. At the age of thirteen he was articled to a notary of 

 that town, but this occupation not being suited to his disposition, he 

 enlisted in 1787 in a regiment of hussars. He there soon distinguished 

 himself by bis courage and activity, and, after passing through the 

 inferior grades, he became a lieutenant in 1793, and a captain the year 

 following. The skill which he displayed in conducting some partisan 

 warfare in 1794 attracted the attention of General Kleber, by whom 

 he wag surnamed ' The Indefatigable,' and raised to the rank of 

 adjutant-general. In 1790 he greatly contributed to the victory 

 obtained at Neuwied, and distinguished himself in the engagements 

 of Altenkirchen [LEFEBVRK], Montabonr, and Dierdorf, in which last 

 he was made a prisoner. After his exchange he served in 1796 with 

 the army of the Uhine, and after a brilliant exploit at Wurzburg, 

 where with a small body of cavalry he took two thousand prisoners, 

 and obtained possession of that town, he wag nominated general of 

 brigade. In the course of this campaign his courage wag enhanced by 

 his humanity towards the French emigrants who had been taken 

 prisoners, and he enabled them to elude sanguinary decrees of the 

 Directory. In 1799 he again served as a general of division with the 

 army of the Rhine under General Moreau. We can only enumerate 

 the principal achievements which in this memorable campaign added 

 to his celebrity. These are tho capture by surprise of Mannheim (12th 

 March, 179i>), the engagements at Worms and Frankenthal, and the 

 simire of all the enemy's artillery at the battle of Iller (5th June 

 1SOO). He was also present at the battle of Hohenlinden [MOREAU], 

 and his bold attack of a column of the Austrian*, which he drove 

 back into the forest, greatly contributed to the victory. At the peace 

 of Luneville he returned to Paris, where he was received with distinc- 

 tion by Bonaparte, who, the better to attach him to his interest, 

 caused him to marry Mademoiselle Auguio, a friend of Mortens* 

 BeauharnaU. In 1803 he wag appointed minister plenipotentiary of 

 the French Republic in Switzerland ; on leaving that country the 

 inhabitants presented him with a medal in testimony of their esteem 

 for his character and conduct, and the moderation with which he 

 carried into effect the measures of his government. On bis return to 

 Paris the command of a division of the army encamped near Boulogne 

 wag given him, and in 1804 he wag raised to the dignity of a Marshal. 



On the renewal of hostilities with Germany in 1805 the direction of 

 the eighth corps of the army was confided to Marshal Ney. A brilliant 

 achievement in this campaign, the capture by storm of the village of 

 Klchiogen (October 4th, 1805), in which the Austrian", under General 

 Laudou, lout fifteen hundred men killed and wounded and two 

 thousand taken prisoners, was attended with the most important 

 retults. The impetuous courage and persevering skill which this 

 marshal displayed on that occasion had been witnessed by Napoleon, 

 who in commemoration of it afterwards bestowed upon him the rank 

 and title of Duke of Elchingen. 



But it wag perhapg during the Prussian campaign of 1 806 that Ney's 

 military reputation rose to its greatest height. Of the many splendid 

 actions by which he distinguished himself, the chief are, the capitula- 

 tion of the towns of Erfurt (October 15th, 1800) and Magdeburg 

 (November llth, 1806) in which 23,000 prisoners were taken and 800 

 pieces of cannon fell into his possession ; the pasgage of the Vistula, 

 the taking of T'uoru, the total destruction of a Prussian corps at 

 Deppen (February 5th, 1807), the combat of Schmodittcn, by which 

 the retreat of the Russians on Kijnigeberg wag cut off, and, finally, the 

 defeat of the left winij of the enemy at the battle of Friedland, which 

 more than any other movement contributed to the victory. In Sep- 

 tember 1S08, he was appointed to a command of the army in Spain, 

 and he distinguished himself in the various engagements by which 

 Oallicia and the Asturiag were subjected. In Portugal, though under 

 tho orders of Marshal Magg^na, the merit of the capture of Ciudad- 

 Rodrigo (July 10th, 1810) and of Almeida (August 27th, 1810) have 

 generally been attributed to him. He wag also of great assistance to 



Maase'na in conducting his skilful retreat, after his failure in attempt- 

 ing to force the lines of Torres Vedras. [MASSENA.] The different 

 disposition however of these two great generals soon brought on diffe- 

 rences of opinion, which ended in a serious dispute. The result was 

 unfavourable to Ney, who was deprived by Napoleon of his command 

 and recalled to France. 



In 1812 he joined the disastrous expedition to Russia, and had tho 

 command of the third corps of tho grand army. In the course of it 

 he appears to have freely expressed to Napoleon his dissatisfaction at 

 some of his movements, and advised him to winter at Smolenako. At 

 the taking of this city (August 17th, 1812), at the combat of Valentina 

 (August 19th), and, above all, at the sanguinary battle of the Moskowa 

 (September 14th), from which he derived his title of Prince of the 

 Moskowa, he eminently proved himself worthy of the surname by 

 which he was known to the army, of 'Bravest of the Brave.' But it 

 was during the calamitous retreat of the French army that he rendered 

 it the most important service. [BONAPARTE, NAPOLEON I.] One inci- 

 dent in this retreat is peculiarly characteristic of Ney'a intrepidity 

 and perseverance. General Dumas relates that as he was sitting clown 

 to breakfast at Gaubinntn, a man in a brown coat, long beard, and a 

 weather-beaten countenance, entered his room, exclaiming, " I am at 

 last here; General Dumas, do you recognise me?" The general havitu; 

 answered that he did not ; " I am the rear-guard of the graml army," 

 he continued ; " I have fired the last musket-shot on the bridge of 

 Kowno ; I have thrown the last of our arms into the Niemeu, and 

 have come here through the woods. I am Marshal Ney." (Colonel 

 Mitchell's ' Fall of Napoleon,' vol. ii.) 



In the campaign of 1813 Ney displayed his usual courage and 

 ability, and was chiefly instrumental in obtaining the victories of 

 Bautzen, Liitzen. and Dresden. He met however with some severe 

 reverses, and at the battle of Dannewitz (September 6th, 1813) he was 

 signally defeated by the Prussians and Swedes under Bernadotte, then 

 Crown Prince of Sweden, with a loss of thirteen thousand men, forty- 

 three pieces of cannon, and three standards. After this disastrous 

 engagement Napoleon had an interview with Ney's aid-decamp, 

 whom he interrogated respecting the particulars of this misfortune, 

 and explained the causes which led to it to the generals present, with- 

 out giving expression to any feeling of dissatisfaction at the conduct 

 of his lieutenant. " The emperor," says St. Cyr, who is quoted by 

 Alison (' Hist, of Europe,' x. 535), " explained at once lucidly and 

 satisfactorily the causes of the reverse, but without the slightest 

 expression of ill-humour, or any manifestation of displeasure at Ney 

 or any of the generals engaged. He ascribed the whole to the difficulties 

 of the art of war, which he said were far from being generally known. 

 He added that, one d.iy or other, if he had time, he would write a 

 book in which he would demonstrate its principles in a manner 

 so precise they should be within the reach of all military men, 

 and enable them to learn the art of war as they learn any other 

 science." 



After the abdication of Napoleon, in 1814, Ney withdrew from 

 public life and retired with his family to his country-seat. It wns 

 there that, on the 6th of March 1815, he received orders from the 

 minister of war to join the eighth military division, of which he was 

 commander, and which was stationed at Besanfon. Ignorant of tlu 

 motives of the order, he immediately proceeded to Paris, where for 

 the first time he learned the return of Napoleon from Elba. He then 

 willingly undertook the duty which had been imposed upon him to 

 lend his aid for the purpose of opposing the invasion of hU former 

 chief; and on taking leave of Louis XVIII. he assured him that he 

 would bring back Bonaparte in an iron cage. As some doubts have 

 been cast upon the truth of this boastful assertion of Ney, it may be 

 well to state that he himself acknowledged on his trial that he used 

 the expression. On leaving the king he travelled rapidly to Auxerre, 

 where be alighted at the residence of his brother-in-law, the prefect 

 of the department, who had zealously joined the cause of Napoleon, 

 and who made Ney acquainted with all the difficulties likely to attend 

 any support of the Bourbon dynasty, and his own doubts on the 

 subject increased as, advancing towards Lyon, he became more aware 

 of the popular feeling in that part of France. The character of Ney 

 was more fitted for the field of battle than for a political struggle, and 

 it was only in the presence of danger that he showed resolution. Of 

 this Napoleon wag well aware, and he skilfully threw the weight of his 

 influence and entreaties into the balance of Ney's already vacillating 

 opinions. An earnest appeal to the early and glorious reminiscences 

 of the prosperous days of the Empire, coining from his ancient chief, 

 the creator of his fortunes, completely overcame the pledged loyalty 

 of this marshal. " In the night of the 13th of March," said he at hi i 

 trial, " down to which time I solemnly declare my fidelity, I received 

 a proclamation drawn by Napoleon, which I signed.' 1 On the ensuing 

 morning this fatal proclamation was publicly read to the troops, who 

 received it with the most enthusiastic approbation. His defection 

 was speedily followed by that of his whole army. 



On the 10th of June he joined the army at Lille, and was soon 

 actively but unsuccessfully engaged with the British at Quatre-Bras. 

 His conduct at Waterloo elicited equal praise both from friend and 

 foe. His fruitless but resolute attempts at the head of the columns 

 of the guard to overwhelm the British before they could receive 

 succour from the Prussians, are well known. Five horses were shot 



