Directors and apportioned to Sir Charles one-eighth. Still smarting from this defeat, they were now called on to undergo a yet greater humiliation, in themselves nominating the man they feared and hated to the chief command of their armies. When first proposed to them by the Duke of Wellington the recommendation was declined. Sir George Napier was suggested, and reluctantly accepted. But he "loved his country and his brother too well to step into the place of the best man; he refused." Long was the hesitation, and grievous were the faces they made, before they could be induced to swallow the unpalatable physic which was prescribed by the unanimous cry of England; but it was done at length, and Sir Charles was named Commander-in-Chief in India. Even then however the ill-will of the Directors was manifested by their resolving that the Commander-in-Chief in India need not necessarily be a member of the Supreme Council; and that therefore Sir Charles Napier should not be so, thus seeking to deprive him of much of his dignity, and of its accompanying emoluments. But on Sir Charles declaring distinctly, that under such an indignity he would refuse to go to India, even though he had been appointed Commander-in-Chief, the Directors were obliged to submit and to withdraw their resolution. J And so, in less than a year after his return to England, at the age of sixty-seven, suffering most painfully from old wounds, and labouring under a mortal internal disease, Sir Charles Napier again quitted his family and country, and, in the words of Thackeray, "he took his two towels and his piece of soap and his scimitar, and went away to the ship that was to carry him to the sea." With reference to the battle of Chillianwallah, the following letter was written by Sir William Napier : "SIR, Sir William Napier to the Editor of the Times.' "March, 1849. "When an angry sense of disaster in war gets possession of the public mind, the army engaged is judged in mass and condemned as a defeated body, particular instances of virtue being disregarded in the general feeling of mortification. This is not good. Heroism comes out clearer when fortune bears hardly, than when she is favourable; it is then of a sublimer nature, more chastened and purified for immortality. Permit me then, through your journal, to give the world a statement of the touching circumstances attending the death of those intrepid soldiers Brigadier Pennycuick and his self-devoted heroic son, in the recent battle on the Jhelum, introducing it by a rapid sketch of the General's previous services. "He entered the army in 1807. His first campaign was in Java, in 1811, and he was wounded severely, having fought so well as to draw forth the public approbation of Sir. Samuel Auchmuty and the celebrated Colonel Gillespie. "In 1811 he was at the storming of Djokjo Kerta. “In 1813, having command of a small detachment, he displayed such skill and courage, defeating an immense body of insurgents, that he obtained the thanks of the Commander-in-Chief and the Government of Java, and the public approbation of the Governor-General of India, Lord Hastings-no mean judge of military merit. "He fought again with distinction in 1814, at the assault of Boni in the Celebes; and during 1825 and 1826 he served against the Burmese. "In 1839 he fought under Sir John Keane and Brigadier Willshire, at the storming of Ghuznee and Khelat, and was the foremost man to enter the last-named fortress. "In 1841 he marched out of Aden at the head of 600 men, and gave a signal overthrow to the Arabs. "In 1846 he served under Sir Charles Napier in Scinde, and gained the esteem of that General. "In 1848 he commanded a brigade in the Punjaub under Lord Gough; and on the 13th January, 1849, he died in battle, thus closing a career, full of honour, with a soldier's death; and upon his yet warm body fell his young son, a boy worthy of such a father. "Let the moving, the painful, but glorious story be simply told. "The 24th regiment marched on the 13th January against the Sikh army; it was, unsupported, exposed to the full sweep of Sikh batteries and to the deadly play of their destructive musketry. More than one-half of the regiment went down in ten minutes; the remainder, still stricken by the artillery, assailed by thousands of infantry, and menaced by swarms of cavalry, could no longer keep their ground. The elder Pennycuick had fallen, and two soldiers attempted to carry him off while still breathing, but the Sikhs pressed them so closely that, unable to contend, they dropped their honourable burden and drew back. The gallant boy, the son of the noble dead, only seventeen years old, now first aware of his misfortune, sprang forward sword-in-hand, bestrode his father's body for a moment, and then fell across it, a corpse! 66 Such, Sir, is the simple tale of the deaths of that brave old man and his boy; and if it is not sufficient to obtain for them the honest fame for which they fought so well, and died so well,-if it does not swell the hearts and moisten the eyes of their countrymen,-I know not why generous impulses are component parts of human nature. "And the grief-stricken widow, the bereaved mother! Is she single in her sorrows? Alas! no. The widow of the brave Cureton; she also has lost her son as well as her husband on those fatal fields of the Punjaub. Con solation to them must come from God; but the glory of a nation's gratitude and praise should illumine the graves of their husbands and children. "W. N." The next letter expresses a "Soldier's" horror of the interference of "Politicals" with the conduct of a campaign. "SIR, Sir William Napier to the Editor of the Times.' "March 14, 1849. "The letter of Indicus' in your journal of this day seems to me to prove the justice of the public feeling against the employment of the persons called 'Politicals' in India. He says the Politicals implored Lord Gough not to attack the enemy,' and 'wrung from him a promise,' -that 'Sir Henry Lawrence urgently represented,' &c. And in the public despatches we find that Major Mackeson, being in the camp, 'refused to enter into negotiations with Shere Singh;' that 'he informed the Commander-inChief that Chuttur Singh was coming down to join Shere Singh,' and therefore urged Lord Gough to advance and give battle. "I ask if war can be successfully conducted in that manner? Is a commander-in-Chief to be a mere puppet in the hands of half-a-dozen young men, chosen because of their having a smattering of languages, or, if you will, because of their promising qualities? "War is the most precarious, the nicest of all arts; not only because of the intrinsic difficulties of organizing and governing great bodies, but because one General has to contend against the genius of another General and the energy and combined force of his army. It may be said they are therefore on an equality. True, if there are no Politicals' on one side. But, Sir, one General may judge rightly, another wrongly; the last, surely, if he is governed by Politicals,' because secrecy, unity, and promptitude, both of conception and execution, are essential to success; and a blot will be hit with the force of 50,000 men. "If young officers or civilians, elated and vain of being pushed beyond their regular station, and not habituated to command, are suffered to advise,' to 'urge,' to 'remonstrate,' to 'inform,' how can a General thus pestered succeed? If he is a man of genius and energy he will not bear such interference; the submitting to it is proof positive of his incapacity or his weakness. Look not to what Sir H. Lawrence or others have advised; look rather to what happened at Cabul,-to what would have happened in Seinde if the Political' had there been listened to; look to what has occurred in the Punjaub. "When the successors of Alexander disputed for command, Eumenes set up a tent with an altar to that hero, pretending to receive orders from his ghost! The 'Politicals' had better do something of that sort than set up a commander in the flesh who is to move only as they direct. "W. N." Captain Henry Napier, R.N., to Sir William Napier. 66 "May, 1849. Fanny has heard from Charles on his route near Benares; all well. He gives no news, but mentions a letter which he had received from Lady Sale, telling him that the Punjaub was by no means quiet. I have seen a copy of his speech at a dinner given him by the Military Club in Calcutta. It is a calm and somewhat grave and severe address on discipline, and the necessity of kindness to, and increased intercourse with, the native troops, |