Review of Revieivs, l/i/13. 



CHARACTER SKETCH. 



135 



self first on the staff of commander 

 after commander in successive cam- 

 paigns, and afterwards he was always 

 told off to execute delicate missions in 

 which tact was as much required as 

 soldiership, and diplomacy as courage. 



IMPERIAL FEDERATION. 



Lord Wolseley was a great advocate 

 for Imperial Federation. At the same 

 time, his experience in the self- 

 governing colonies of the Canadian 

 Dominion and his opportunities for ob- 

 servation under many Governments in 

 many lands, had convinced him that 

 the more you leave localities to settle 

 their own affairs, the better for both the 

 localities and their affairs. His ideas of 

 an Empire seem to me to be pretty much 

 like those of Mr. Rhodes — viz., a series 

 of practically independent Republics, 

 whose foreign policy and whose Army 

 ;incl Xavy are all controlled by a 

 supreme central representative assembly 

 meeting under the shadow of the Im- 

 jierial throne. His sympathies, as befit 

 a Wolseley, were intensely popular. The 

 Wolseley s have always been Liberal, 

 and even revolutionary, in their politics. 

 Sir Charles Wolseley was one of Crom- 

 well's thirteen lords, and was much 

 trusted by the Lord Protector. Another 

 Wolseley, c f ter whom the Orange 

 Lodge is cal led, commanded under W' il- 

 liam III. at the Battle of the Boyne. 

 Sir Charles (Lord Wolseley's kinsman) 

 was about the only country gentleman 

 who supported the Chartists, and was 

 sentenced to eighteen months' imprison- 

 ment at Birmingham for his share in the 

 Chartist agitation. 



HIS READING AS A BOY. 



Lord Wolseley's father, grandfather, 

 and ancestors for a long time back had 

 all been soldiers, and he took to soldier- 

 ing naturally as the profession to which 

 he was called by birth. Almost as soon 

 as he began to read he devoured books 

 of history and military works. When 

 a boy he saved up his pocket money to 

 buy military books. One of the first 

 which he ever bought, which made a 

 deep impression on his mind, was a 



volume containing reflections upon 

 military matters by Napoleon. One 

 sentence in that book impressed itself 

 indelibly on his mind — viz., : " Fron- 

 tiers of States are of three kinds — a 

 river, a mountain, or a desert. Of the 

 three the desert is by far the most im- 

 penetrable." " I little thought at that 

 time," said Wolseley, " that it would 

 ever be my lot to campaign in a desert. 

 No one who has not been in the desert 

 can appreciate fully the force of Napo- 

 leon's maxim." 



THE FIGHTING VALUE OF FAITH. 



Speaking of the flghting value of 

 fanaticism. Lord Wolseley said that in 

 the Mutiny he had fought hand-to-hand 

 with fanatics, who are of all people the 

 most dangerous to hght with. Fanatics, 

 meaning men w^ho are nerved up by re- 

 ligious enthusiasm to such a pitch that 

 they have lost all care for their own 

 lives, and who go straight for you, are 

 the most formidable foes in the world. 

 Twenty thousand fanatics such as those 

 whom the Mahdi hurled against the 

 English troops in the Soudan were far 

 more to be dreaded than three times 

 that number of French or German 

 troops. No continental troops would 

 have ever faced the Are which almost 

 failed to check the onward rush of the 

 }klahdists. " Give me," said Lord W^ol- 

 seley, " 20,000 fanatics, and I am not 

 by any means sure that I could not 

 take them through the Continent, re- 

 gardless of any numbers that might be 

 put upon the fleld against them. It is 

 the same with English gentlemen. Give 

 me 20,000 English gentlemen, and I 

 will march them to the other end of 

 Europe and back again." " Of course," 

 he said, laughing, " this is nonsense, if 

 you take it too literally ; but you have 

 no conception of the terror which 

 20,000 resolute men, who always go for- 

 ward and never turn back, would have 

 in the hearts of armies many times that 

 number. The sentiment of honour jn 

 an English gentleman is as good a 

 fighting force as religious fanaticism. 

 There is a great deal of hollowness 

 about modern armies. The real soul of 

 the army consists of comparatively 

 few." 



