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stance, really, if not formally, on the defensive; and that it was in the overthrow of the coalitions formed for their destruction, or the necessary defence of the allies whom previous victory had brought to their side, that the real cause of all their Indian acquisitions is to be found."

It is demonstrative of this total absence of the spirit of aggression, that the Company continued not masters of a foot of Indian territory, beyond the walls of a few trifling factories, for 150 years, from their incorporation by Elizabeth down to the victory of Plassey; and that, in the year 1756, when their chief factory, Calcutta, was seized by Surajee Dowlah, the whole garrison, including clerks and servants, amounted to but 146 people, whom the tyrant flung into one dungeon to die. It is equally remarkable, that from this single act of barbarity followed the ruin of the tyrant and his dynasty; that the horror inspired by the compendious murder first turned the British eye on the East; and that, in the "Black-hole of Calcutta," may be said to have been moulded the massive diadem of our Indian empire.

But in the succession of those conquests the perseverance of the conquerors was as much to be tried as their ability or their courage. Within a few years the British possessions had begun to taste of opulence, and to excite the habitual propensities of the native powers to plunder. The character of gentleness has been unaccountably ascribed to the Indian; for of all the countries, even of the barbarian world, India has been the most embittered by faction, torn by civil war, and trampled by mutual invasion. The native chieftains, knowing no use of wealth but to waste it, of property but to plunder it, or of power but to turn it into an instrument of havoc, lived in constant war, or the preparation for war. Despising the British as merchants, and less fearing than detesting them in their capacity of warriors; and adding to all this the abhorrence created by the brute ferocity of Mahometanism, and the subtle bigotry of the Hindoo, war seemed to be the new, but natural element, in which theinhabitants and the strangers were to live. When the old dynasties were subverted by the sword of a general or the dagger of a slave, the new

possessor of the throne immediately attempted to sustain at once his reputation and his power by war, and chiefly war against the British. Within twenty-four years from the attack on Calcutta, Hyder Ali invaded the presidency, beat the two armies of Baillie and Monro, who had been thrown in his way with singularly inadequate forces, and burned the country up to the gates of Madras. After a long succession of desperate actions, Hyder, at the moment when he had secured the aid of a French fleet, was fortunately swept away by an enemy which neither kings nor armies can resist. He died; yet this desperate warrior, whose life was one scene of stratagem, march, and battle, had survived till the age of eighty-two.

A more fortunate circumstance still was the character of his successor. Hyder Ali himself declared of his son Tippoo, that he would lose all the dominions which his own life of labour had gained. Tippoo had all the courage of his father without his understanding, and all his treachery without his knowledge of mankind. His ferocity plunged him into immediate conflict with the British, and his rashness ensured his ruin.

Mr Alison conceives that the chief part of this ruin was due to his having deserted the military tactics of his father. "He was not equally impressed as his great predecessor with the expediency of combating the invaders with the national arms of the East, and wearing out the disciplined battalions of Europe by those innumerable horsemen, in whom, from the earliest times, the real strength of Asia has consisted. Almost all Hyder's successes were gained by his cavalry. It was when severed from his infantry and heavy artillery, and attended only by a few flying guns, that his forces were most formidable; and it augments our admiration of the firmness and discipline with which the Sepoy regiments under Coote withstood his assaults, when we recollect that they had to resist, for days and weeks together, under the rays of a tropical sun, the incessant charges of a cavalry rivalling that of the Parthians in swiftness, equalling that of the Mamelukes in daring, and approaching that of the Tartars in numbers."

We shall not venture to lecture the clever author on tactics, nor do we

mean to dispute the power of vast tempests and whirlwinds of cavalry, in a country fitted for their operation; but the remark is old and true, that cavalry is, in its nature, a fugitive force, that it can never attack with effect where infantry are on their guard, and that all that can be accomplished, by the most powerful cavalry, is to follow when they march, cut off stragglers when they stray, come to a stand when they face about, and look on while they take fortresses, enter capitals, and make themselves masters of the country. It is not to be forgotten that, though Tartar against Tartar may be a fit match, the horseman has never been able to prevail against the disciplined man on foot; that the Greek infantry uniformly beat the masses of the Persian horse, who were probably superior to any that India has ever seen. The Saracen cavalry could make but slight impression even on the Greek infantry of the Lower Empire. The Tartars, who were in the habit of scouring the Russian provinces every half dozen years, have never succeeded, since Russia established a regular infantry; and, as a case perfectly decisive, the Turks, whose force was especially cavalry down to the fifteenth century, while they had scarcely any antagonists but the levies of the expi

among all nations who have had opportunities of seeing the services compared in actual warfare, is likely to have arisen wholly from the passion for novelty. The example which the historian himself gives, of the total defiance of the immense host of Hyder's cavalry by a few companies of well-disciplined infantry, and to make the evidence more distinct, those companies chiefly natives, had a right to have produced a strong conviction of the superiority of defence on foot. The evident result is, that cavalry is of great value to assist the advance, the retreat, or the maintenance of infantry; but that it is the infantry that must fight the battle, storm the towns, and establish the empire. In the East, cavalry has often done great things; but this was chiefly by the rapidity with which it can pass over great spaces in a short time. Cavalry has marched seventy miles a day in the East-a march wholly beyond the power of foot soldiers and the ease with which it carries its own sustenance, and brings a powerful force to an extremely distant and unprepared point, renders it capable of the most striking enterprises. But Tippoo, who knew from long experience all that cavalry could do, is scarcely to be suspected of having voluntarily risked banglad

themselves compelled to abandon their cavalry as the main branch of their army from the time when they had to face infantry. The Janizaries were raised from their European subjects, or were purchased slaves from the North, expressly for the purpose of forming troops capable of meeting the soldiery of Europe. It is perfectly true that Crassus was destroyed on the plains bordering on the Tigris by the Parthian cavalry; but it was because he left himself without provisions, and, being surrounded by cavalry, was unable to procure them, or move his army till it was exhausted by heat and hunger, and thus compelled to give way. It is equally true that the heavyarmed cavalry of the Crusaders were unfit to follow the light-armed Arab over the sands of the Houran, but their infantry marched through the desert and stormed Jerusalem. We are also to consider whether we may not draw our conclusion too hastily, in supposing that the universal habit of abandoning cavalry for infantry

of misconceiving the true uses of that arm by which Hyder had won an empire. If the Turks have changed their discipline in our day, it is not the first instance of the attempt; Mahmoud is not the only innovator. Ever since Russia and Austria have become formidable to Turkey, the Sultans have attempted to throw their strength into infantry. The jealousies of the Janizaries, who had sunk from soldiers into slipper-makers, citizens, and aldermen of Constantinople, prohibited this change until Mahmoud cut off their heads the only logic, the exclusive mode of argument, which seems to convince a Turk; and raised infantry on the European model. His much greater want of sagacity seems to have been discoverable in his stripping the Turk (the lover of all the pomps and vanities of the eye) of that costume which made him the most splendid of barbarians. The pomp of the Turk's habiliments inspired ideas of pomp, his splendours inculcated the idea of supremacy; and if Mahmoud were now

critical about any thing but the strength of his brandy or the flavour of his claret, he ought to turn his thoughts to the restoration of the shawl, the turban, the diamond-hilted dagger, and the yellow morocco boots, which once made the Turk look like a king, and think himself one-the born lord of the race who wore hats, short coats, and the general mendicant measurement of our European degeneracy.

But these are passing speculations, which we offer as open to every man; and trivial differences of idea, fully consistent with high respect for the manliness and intelligence of the volume. The close of the sketch of Indian affairs gives an admirable solution of an old difficulty in our theories of Oriental triumph. "It has seemed almost inexplicable, to what cause the marvellous progress of the British Indian empire has been owing. It was not to the magnitude of the forces sent out by the mother country, for they were few, and furnished in the most parsimonious spirit. It was not to the weakness of the conquered states, for they were vast and opulent empires; nor to their want of courage and discipline, for they often had all the resources of European art, and often fought with a courage which rivalled the prowess of British soldiers."

He then proceeds to explain the problem, and does it with equal insight into fact and theory. He shows that her means of combating, with resources thus slender, were found in the moral courage and far-seeing sagacity of our Eastern administration, and unconquerable valour of our officers, who brought a degenerate race into the field, and taught them, by their spirit and their example, to emulate the heroic deeds of their European brethren in arms.

The history of the world can hardly exhibit a parallel to the vigour and intrepidity of that political administration, or the courage and daring of those military exploits. Some portion of this is allowed to be due to the virtue and talent of a few of the leading men. But the true cause is to be sought and found deeper.

"Much as the strenuous virtue of individuals may have contributed to the greatness of the British empire in Asia, as it did of the Roman dominion in Europe, it

will not, of itself, explain the phenomenon. This strenuous virtue itself is the wonder which requires solution. How did it happen that Great Britain, during the space of eighty years, should have been able to furnish a race of statesmen adequate to the conception of such mighty projects, of warriors equal to the execution of such glorious deeds? Still more, how was this

constellation of talent exhibited when the state was involved in arduous and bloody conflicts in the Western hemisphere? It was the boast of the Romans that their republican constitution, by training all the citizens to civil or military duties, provided an inexhaustible fund of ability for the service of the state; and that the loss even of the largest army or the most skilful commander could, without difficulty, be supplied by the multitudes in every rank, whom the avocations of freedom had prepared for every pacific or warlike duty. In British India, equally as in ancient Rome, the influence of the same undying energy and universal capacity may be descried. The natives say that the Company has always conquered, because it was always young. And such, in truth, was ever its character."

The secret of both the British and the Roman, has been the constant combination of aristocratic decision with republican energy; the resolution and tenacity of purpose which distinguishes patrician council, and the vigour and inexhaustible resources which are produced in plebeian governments. And it is to the failure of either of those supports, that we shall have to look for the fall of the Indian empire, if it is to fall. The prospect at this moment is gloomy. The enterprises of Russia, a treacher ous and grasping power, and which will yet pay, in many a trial of blood and misery, her insane passion for conquests which she can never keep, and triumphs won only over weakness and barbarism, are turning towards Hindostan. But the worse symptom is at home, in the wretched impolicy which stoops Government to the rabble, and makes penury the policy of the state; which cultivates popularity as the purchase of office, and starves the national establishments, to bribe the beggarliness of partisanship; which gives a bastard influence to the Joseph Humes of this world, and thinks the barter of a Radical vote well worth the hazard of an empire.

We must now return to Europe. From the year 1805 until the year 1808, France had gone on from conquest to conquest; Austria had been all but destroyed, Prussia had been extinguished as a kingdom, and the general face of the Continent, which had been swept by the French invasion like a forest by a whirlwind, exhibited only, in its vast tracts of desolation, the course which had been taken by the storm. This was the dark age of the great conquest; but though the power of Europe seemed to have been broken, and the time had undoubtedly come when a tempered despotism in France might have destroyed every hope of liberty among nations; yet, fortunately for mankind, French despotism grew more violent from hour to hour, and the question was pressed constantly upon the minds of all men, whether it was not better to die in the field, than perish of broken hearts even at the fireside. In this sense, we see something like the operation of retributive justice, the weight of the chain itself tormenting the slave into resistance, and the reckless depression of humankind to the earth, giving a new spring and restorative power to the nations. It is a remarkable characteristic of France, that what she has gained by the sword she has almost universally lost by the sceptre; that, overwhelming all by the boldness of her attack, she has, like a tide, seemed to ebb by the course of nature; that great victories have only taught her to lose kingdoms; and that the boldest ambition in the world has twice, within her own day, brought all the nations of Europe to her capital, and twice made her the public victim of the justice of mankind.

The insults and oppressions heaped by Napoleon upon Austria, at length compelled that power to try the chances of fortune once more. At this period two distinguished individuals came forward in the service of the monarchy; Schwartzenberg, who was dispatched to the Russian emperor, and Metternich, appointed ambassador at Paris. The latter name still stands at the head of European diplomacy, and its illustrious bearer will go down to the future as the second founder of the Austrian throne.

Mr Alison naturally expatiates in the praise of this great sustainer of the peace and power of the balance of Europe, whom he justly characterises as " a statesman, in the widest accep

tation of the word; gifted with a sagaciousintellect, a clear perception, and a sound judgment; profoundly versed in the secrets of diplomacy, and the characters of the leading political men with whom he was brought into contact in the European cabinets; persevering in his policy, far-seeing in his views, unrivalled in his discrimination, unbounded in application, richly endowed with knowledge, and enjoying the rare faculty of veiling those great acquirements under the veil of polished manners, and causing his superiority to be forgotten in the charms of. a varied and intellectual conversation."

But, striking as the services were which this distinguished minister rendered to his country in restoring her from the tremendous losses of the Frenchinvasions, he has since rendered still more important services in suppressing the jacobinism of Europe, in saving Italy from being the seat of civil war, in preventing the bloody feuds of Spain from spreading alike over Italy and Germany; and still more, in showing to all existing monarchs and ministers, that the true way to preserve the public tranquillity is by refusing to traffic with its disturbers, by giving over the profligacy which affects patriotism for the sake of its celebrity to condign punishment, and by sending the conspirator to the chain and the rebel to the scaffold. By this manliness he has saved Austria for the last five-and-twenty years; in the midst of perpetual contagion, with France on one side breaking out every third year into revolutionary disease, with Italy continually nurturing the fever, and with Spain and Portugal before her eyes racked with paroxysms, and dying of their agony, Metternich's simple policy has been no negotiation with the rebel, no traffic with the traitor; cure the jacobin by the scourge if he will be cured if he is not, disable the disturber by the scaffold. He has thus reigned almost without the employment of the scaffold; and the woes of Italy are chiefly retricted to the complainings of bad poets, who hoped to have risen from bad politicians into comfortable placeThus poets have been incarcerated, but the population have been kept in safety; the walls of Spielsberg have sent forth sonnets and tales of woe, but the fields of the Milanese have been kept unstained by blood; Cicisbeism has been perhaps mulcted of some of its heroes by those commitments, but there has been no massacre for this quarter of a century. We condole with Jacobinism, but congratulate every thing else on the exchange!

men.

But the Spanish war had begun. The 200,000 legionaries, whom Napoleon had retained as the garrison of Germany, began to defile towards the Pyrenees; and the hope of trying the chance of battle again revived in the breast of Austria. Formidable preparations were silently but steadily made. A regular army of 350,000 men was supported by an irregular, but brave and tolerably disciplined force of 480,000. Such is the enormous power of the military nations of Germany, even after the havoc of successive and sweeping wars; or rather, such was the horrible calamity of human ambition, which, from the throne of a single despot in France, could thus compel almost a million of human beings to leave their peaceful pursuits for the dreadful chances and sufferings of the field.

Napoleon was instantly aware of the new system of Austrian politics; and he assailed Metternich in one of those curious, and apparently unpremeditated bursts of passion, which he occasionally adopted, to astonish the world by his ferocious candour.

"What, M. Metternich!" he exclaimed in the midst of the circle at the Tuileries" Here is fine news from Vienna! What does all this mean? Have they been stung by scorpions? Who threatens you?what would you be at? As long as I had my army in Germany, you con. ceived no disquietude for your existence; but the moment it is transfer-red to Spain, you consider yourselves endangered. What can be the end of these things? What, but that I must arm as you arm; for at length I am seriously menaced. Have you, sir, communicated your pretended apprehensions to your court? If you have done so, you have disturbed the peace of mine, and will probably plunge Europe into numberless calamities."

This was decisive-the oracle had uttered its voice; and from that moment war must be foreseen. Still, there were hesitations in the cabinet, as they saw the shadows of those tremen

dous hostilities taking a more defined form, and approaching nearer their confines. Napoleon waited but for one event the return of his courier from St Petersburg, announcing the refusal of Alexander to make common cause with England and Austria.

The intelligence came, and the war began by a thunderclap. The great battle of Eckmuhl was fought on the 22d of April. Mr Alison's descriptions of battles are always admirable; they are animated without confusion, and minute without losing the grander characters of the conflict. But he can occasionally use the pencil of a powerful painter of scenery; and nothing can be more graphic than his landscape of this mighty field of batthe before the shock came.

"As they arrived on the top of the hills of Lintach, which separate the valley of the Iser from that of the Laber, the French, who came up from Landshut, beheld the field of battle stretched out like a map before them. From the marshy meadows which bordered the shores of the Laber, rose a succession of hills, one above another, in the form of an amphitheatre, with their slopes cultivated and diversified by hamlets, and beautiful forests clothing the higher ground. The villages of Eckmuchl and Laichling, separated by a large copse wood, appeared to view, with the great road to Ratisbon winding up the acclivities behind them. The meadows were green with the first colours of spring: the osiers and willows which fringed the streams that intersected them, were just bursting into leaf; and the trees which bordered the roadside already cast an agreeable shade upon the dusty and beaten highway, which lay beneath their boughs. The French soldiers involuntarily paused as they arrived at the summit, to gaze on this varied and interesting scene. soon other emotions than those of admiration

But

of nature swelled the breasts of the warlike multitude who thronged the spot. In the intervals of these woods artillery was to be seen; amidst those villages standards were visible, and long white lines, with the glancing of helmets and bayonets on the higher ground, showed the columns of Rosenberg and Hohenzollern already in battle array, in very advantageous positions on the opposite side of the valley. Joyfully the French troops descended into the lower grounds, while the Emperor galloped to the front, and, hastily surveying the splendid but intricate scene, immediately formed his plan of attack."

In the latter part of this engage

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