762 



STUATFOHD 



STRATFORD DE REDCLIFFE 



adversary into such a position that the chances of 

 victory will be against liiin. ami defeat will entail 

 disasters Iwyonil the loss of the battle. Strategy 

 will lie offensive or defensive according to poUtMU 

 or geographical considerations and the relative 

 strength or mobility of the belligerents. The 

 f.inner will give nil the advantages of the initia- 

 tive to the commander who can adopt it. He will 

 liy invading the enemy's country consume his 

 supplies, and spare his own the horrors of war. 

 He will l>e able to make and carry out his plans 

 unimpeded l>y his opponent, \vlio will be ignorant 

 where the mass of his troops are concentrated, 

 and so must await the attack in a more or less 

 scattered and therefore dangerous condition. Defen- 

 -hc strategy, on the other hand, has ad vantages 

 in facility of supply and transport, free<lom of 

 movement, and power to utilise obstacles. Also 

 a defender becomes stronger as he retires, whilst 

 his assailant grows weaker as he advances, and 

 must leave troops behind him or bring fresh forces 

 into the theatre of war in order to guard his base, 

 of operation!, where his supplies collect, and the 

 lines ofeommiiiiiriitiiiH by winch they reach him. 



The assailant will endeavour to reach his oh/ri-tirr 

 point i.e. some place, generally the capital city, 

 the capture of which will end the campaign or 

 enable him to make a further advance. His troops 

 must be so disposed as to be able to concentrate on 

 important points in numbers superior to the enemy. 

 The latter, on the other hand, will endeavour to do 

 the same, and also to operate against his adversary's 

 communications without exposing his own. As he 

 probably can shift his base and lines of communica- 

 tion more easily than the invader, some advantage 

 will here accrue to him. Also, his troops being 

 generally more concentrated, he can prol>ably act 

 on interior linet e.g. if of four equidistant armies 

 three were on the circumference of a semicircle 

 and the fourth at the centre, it is evident that the 

 latter might defeat any one of the former before 

 it could l>e reinforced by either of the others. 



1'erhaps the most brilliant example of this 

 was shown by Napoleon I. in the first part of 

 the campaign of 1814. Towards the end of January 

 of that year he with 70,000 young conscripts was at 

 Chalons ; to the south 160,000 Austrian* and Rus- 

 sians under Schwarzenberg were advancing from 

 Basel along the valley of the Seine, and to the north 

 60,000 l'riiiaiis under Bliichcr along the Marne 

 from Mannheim, the objective of both being Paris. 

 Napoleon after the indecisive battle of Brienne 

 was defeated by Schwarzenberg at La Rothiere. 

 The latter moved slowly, and Bliicher, thinking to 

 gain Paris first, moved his corps by several roads. 

 Napoleon leaving 20,000 men under Ondinot and 

 Victor to hold the passages over the livers, and to 

 delay Bdnranmbwg still further, carried the 

 remainder rapidly against the scattered Prussians, 

 defeating them in detail at Champanbert, Mont- 

 mirail, and Chateau-Thierry, obliging llliicher to 

 retire to Chalons. He then turned upon Schwar/ 

 enberg, heat him, and had driven him back to 

 Troves by the end of February. The allies were 

 so dispirited that they asked for an armistice. 

 See Lieut J. Bigelow, U.S. cavalry. The Prin- 

 tiptts of Strategy (1891), with other works cited at 

 TACTICS. 



Stratford, a thriving town of Essex, on the 

 Lea, 4 miles KNK. of London. It hail a Cistercian 

 abbey (1134) and the Empress Matilda's three- 

 arched, bow-shaped bridge (removed in 1839) ; now 

 it has a handsome town-hall ( 1869), and is the seat 

 of various and extensive manufactures. Pop. 

 (1861) 10,586; (1871)23,286; (1881)38,606; (1891) 

 42,982. On the opposite side of the I, -a is the 

 parish of Bow, or Stratford le Bow. Pop. (1851) 

 4626 ; ( 1871 ) 26,056 ; ( 1891 ) 40,378. 



Stratford, a port of entry and capital of Perth 



county, Ontario, on the Avon, SS miles by rail 



\V. of Toronto, with railway -shops, woollen mills, 



anil manufactories of machinery, faunin<_' imple- 



. boots and shoes, \-c. Pop. (isltl IH.VH. 



> I rat ford de RcdcliflV. SIK STRATFORD 



c \NMM;. K.< ;.. IJ.C.K. . lirst Vi-eount, the famous 

 ambassador, known as ' the Great Klchi,' was de 

 scended from the Cannynges of Bristol, hut was 

 born in London. 4th November ITSfi, the fifth and 

 youngest child of Stratford Canning, a men-bant, 

 and was first cousin to George Canning the states- 

 man. He was educated at hton, and proceeded in 

 due course as scholar to King's College, Cambridge, 

 where, however, his terms were interrupted by 

 diplomatic appointments, and he did not take bis 

 degree till 1S12, when it was granted by royal 

 mandamus. In 1807 he acted as precis writer to 

 his cousin at the Foreign Office, and in the same 

 year went as second secretary with Merry's mission 

 to Copenhagen. In 1808 he was ap|K>inted first 

 secretary to Sir Roliert Adnir's embassy to Con- 

 stantinople, and succeeded him as minister-pleni- 

 potentiary in 1810. His duty was to counteract the 

 influence of France at the Porte, and he succeeded 

 on his own initiative and without the smallest 

 countenance from his government or the Foreign 

 Office in negotiating the important treaty of 

 Bucharest in 1812 between Russia and Turkey, who 

 were then at war, just in time to release the Russian 

 army of the Danube and enable it to fall upon 

 Napoleon on his retreat from Moscow. This signal 

 service was recognised by Lord Castlereagh's govern- 

 ment, who appointed him minister in Swit/erlaiid, 

 1814 ; there he assisted in framing the Swiss con- 

 stitution, and visited Vienna as commissioner 

 during the famous Congress of 1815. He resigned 

 the mission in 1819, and was immediately ap- 

 pointed minister to the United States, and re- 

 mained at Washington till 1823. In the follow- 

 ing year he was sent on a special mission to 

 Vienna and St Petersburg, connected with the 

 Greek question, and in 1825 went to Constant- 

 inople as full ambassador. Here he witnessed 

 the massacre of the Janizaries, and exerted him- 

 self on behalf of the insurgent Greeks. After 

 the battle of Navarino the embassy was necessarily 

 withdrawn, and, in consequence of serious differ- 

 ences with Lord Aberdeen on the policy to be 

 adopted towards Greece, Canning resigned his post 

 in 1828, but his services were recognised by the 

 decoration of the Grand Cross of the Bath. In 

 1831 he was again sent to Constantinople on a 

 special mission, to draw the lioundaries of the new 

 kingdom of Greece, and on his return was gazetted 

 ambassador to St Petersburg; but the czar, ithoiit 

 alleging a reason, declined to receive him probably 

 because he dreaded so keen an eye at close quarters. 

 In 1833 Sir Stratford went to Madrid on a special 

 mission relating to the Portuguese succession, but 

 his efforts were, as it was foreseen they must be, 

 fruitless. During the intervals in his diplomatic 

 career he sat in the House of Commons as a 

 moderate Tory, or ' Stanleyite, 1 for Old Samm, 

 1828-30; Stoc'kbridge, 1831-32; and King's Lynn, 

 1834-42; but failed to make his mark as an 

 orator or a debater. From 1842 to 1858 he was 

 again ambassador at Constantinople, and built up 

 that extraordinary influence so eloquently described 

 by Kinglake, winch gained him the name of the 

 at Elcht.' He induced the sultan to inaugur- 

 ate a series of reforms, and to authorise numerous 

 improvements in the condition of the Christian 

 rayas, culminating in the celebrated Haiti Iliima- 



yun of 1856, which may be ter d the Magna 



Charta of the Christian subjects of the Porte. His 

 diplomatic skill and his unbounded influence over 

 the Turks were never seen to greater advantage than 



