PROSPECTUS. 



the greatest masters of their art, who, in modern times, have been summoned forth to wield the migl 

 engines of destruction wherewith nation wars against nation. How just is the observation of Jora; 

 one of the most talenti d military writers of the day — ''Jamais bataille ne futplus confusement dec) 

 quecellede Waterloo." On consulting these accounts the public glean little beyond the fact thai 

 Waterloo the allied army stood its ground during the whole day, in defiance of the reiterated attacks 

 the Fi-ench, until t!ie Duke of Wellington led it forward to crown its exertions with the most splem 

 victory. They aiford us but a faint idea of those strategical movements and combinations upon wh 

 the grand design of the campaign was based by the one party, and with which it was assailed by 

 other; and we seek in vain for the development of those tactical dispositions by which the skill of i 

 commanders and the valour of the combatants were fairly tested. From the want of due consecut 

 arrans:ement in the details, and the tendency too frequently manifested to compensate for this deficier 

 by mere anecdotic narration, the motives by which, in the great game of war, the illustrious plaj^ers 

 actuated, are left out of view, while circumstances which especially call forth the skill of subordinate o 

 cersin command, as also the courage, the discipline, and the prowess of particular brigades, regiments, 

 even minor divisions of the contending masses, are either imperfectly elucidated, or, as is often the ca 

 unhesitatingly set aside to make way for the exploits of a few individuals whose deeds, however her 

 they may be deemed, constitute but isolated fractional parts of that great sum of moral energy a 

 physical force combined, requisite to give full effect to the application of the mental powers of t 

 chieftains under whose guidance the armies are respectively placed. TliPse remarks have refereni 

 more or less, not only to the generality of the accounts of the Battle of W'aterloo, with which t 

 public have hitherto been furnished, but also to those of Quatre-Bras, Ligny, and Wavre; the first 

 which, brilliant as was the reflection which it cast upon the glory of the victors, became eclipsed sole 

 by the more dazzling splendour of the greater, because more important, triumph of Waterloo, 

 endeavour to remedy these deficiencies, through the medium of the evidence of eye-witnesses, m 

 willingly and liberally supplied, as well as carefully collated, examined, and, at the same time, provi 

 wherever practicable, by corroborative testimony — every component piece of information being made 

 dovetail, as it were, into its adjacent and corresponding parts — is the chief object of the prest 

 publication. 



The opportunities which Captain Siborne has enjoyed of collecting the data requisite for this higl: 

 important work, have been peculiarly favourable. Having commenced his large Model under the autl 

 rity of the government, he received permission to address himself to the several officers who might ha 

 it in their power to communicate valuable information ; and, with a view to render such information 

 complete as possible, and to substnntiate it by corroborative testimony, he forwarded his applications 

 almost every survivmg Waterloo officer — not limiting his inquiries to any one particular period of t 

 action, but extending them over the whole of the ISattle of Waterloo, as also of that of Quatre-Bras, a 

 of the entire campaign. In this manner he has succeeded in obtaining from the combined evidence 

 eye-witnesses a mass of extremely important matter; and when the public are informed that Captain i 

 borne has also been in unreserved communication with the governments of our allies in that war, cc 

 cerning the operations of the troops they respectively brought into the field, it is presumed that the e 

 traordinary advantages he possesses for a satisfactory fulfilment of his design will be at once ackno 

 ledged and appreciated. 



In reverting, however, to the Model, as connected with the present history, it may not be unimp( 

 tant to add that some objections were raised against the position thereon assigned to a portion of t 

 Prussian troops. These objections induced Captain Siborne to investigate more closely the evidence 

 had received relative to that part of the field ; and tlie result of such re-consideration has been a perfi 

 conviction that an error of some importance, as regards time and situation, did exist. When the JNJoc 

 is again submitted to the public, which it will be very shortly, that error will no longer appear, a 

 the circumstances under which it arose will be fully accounted for and explained in the forthcoml 

 work. 



One remarkable defect which is manifested, without a single excep'ion, in the existing histories 

 this campaign, consists in the want of good plans upon scales sufficiently comprehensive to admit of t 

 positions and movements being duly illustrated. By the application ot the anaglyptograph to accurate 

 executed models, Captam Siborne has succeeded in producing plans ol' the diflerent fields of batt 

 which afford so striking a representation of the features of ground — a representation which has all t 

 appearance of the subject being shewn in relief — that not only the military man who is accustomed 

 examine plans, but the civilian who has never studied any thing of the kind, will be enabled thorougl 

 to comprehend them even in the minutest details. 



To respond to the interest felt in the record of that glorious contest b}' the relatives and friends 

 the combatants, con-ect lists will he appended to the work, of the names of all officers who were jiresei 

 distinguishing those who were killed or wounded. INJarginal notes will also be mtroduced where^ 

 officers' names are first mentioned in the course of the work, explaining, if surviving, their present rar 

 and if dead, the date of their decease, and the rank which they then held. 



A work brought out under such favourable auspices, and grounded upon materials which, considt 

 ing the advanced age of the principal contributors, would at no remote period have been placed beyo 

 our reach, cannot fail to excite, in a considerable degree, the attention of the public ; for which reas 

 no pains will be spared in ler.dering the illustrations fully commensurate with the value and importan 

 of the design. It will comprise two handsome octavo volumes, embellished with beautifull}' execut 

 medallic portraits, and accompanied by a folio volume, containing military maps and exi]uisit<;ly e 

 graved anaglyptographic plans from models expresslii made by Captain Siborne, of the fields of battle 

 Quatre-Bras, Ligny, Wavre, r.ud Waterloo. 



