explanatory notes are annexed to each canto, and the description of the battle grounds is made accurate by personal observation of many of them, which I have embodied in the notes. The theatre of that portion of the War which enters into the action of the poem itself presents very felicitous subjects for description, the ground being the gigantic Pyrenees, and the combats there sustained being more like those of Titans than of men. In addition to much oral testimony, the authorities I have consulted are very numerous, and as fidelity has been my constant aim their language will be found frequently cited in the notes. The principal of these are Napier's History of the War in the Peninsula, Southey's History of the Peninsular War, Foy's Histoire de la Guerre de la Péninsule, Gurwood's Despatches of the Duke of Wellington, Jones's Journals of the Sieges in Spain, Belmas's Journals of Sieges, compiled from official documents by order of the French government, Captain Cooke's Memoirs, Captain Pringle's Ditto, Captain Batty's Campaign of the left Wing of the Allied Army in the Western Pyrenees, Gleig's Subaltern, Annals of the Peninsular War, De la Pène's Campagnes de 1813 et 1814, and Pellot's Mémoires des Campagnes des Pyrénées.

A difficulty inseparable from this subject is its great historical and political interest, which although in one respect an advantage in another is a considerable drawback. With events so well known and comparatively so recent it is impossible to take liberties; invention is restrained, and the imagination is confined within limits more strict than the poetical faculty might desire for its operations. If this objection has been felt with regard to Tasso's Gerusalemme, the personages of which were French and Italian counts and princes familiar to the reader of

general history, and whose acts and characters were well known though they lived four centuries before he wrote, it is clearly far more applicable in the present instance. The answer at once is that an entirely different treatment must be resorted to, that celestial machinery, witchcraft, and all analogous means must be excluded, and that actual truth must be made the basis of the whole composition. To truth I have accordingly adhered, and invite the strictest historical criticism, consistent with poetical diction and imagery, of my account of these campaigns. The events were fortunately of that brilliant description, and their theatre, the Pyrenees, so essentially romantic, that the true and the marvellous are here one and the same. Historical accuracy is here an element of beauty; and my minor plot is alone invented, yet is meant to be strictly probable.

Nearly the entire of our modern military system dates from the commencement of the Peninsular War. The cumbrous old system which fought a whole campaign for a comfortable place for winter quarters (a great aim with Turenne) was broken up rapidly by the vigour of Napoléon, and our first débût under the Duke of York had taught us that we must change our plan. In 1808, the very year of our first victories in the Peninsula (Roriça and Vimieiro) the use of hair-powder was for the first time discontinued in the British army. Rifle corps were then first formed-in the first instance as rather a hopeless experiment, our soldiers having been deemed too slow and heavy for this practice; but, as the result proved, with perfect success. From the Polish lancers whom we first saw at Albuera we borrowed the idea of our corps of lancers, as we afterwards took from the French cuirassiers the modern equipment of our lifeguards. The brilliant appearance of our light dragoons astonished the French

on their first appearance in the Peninsula. "Nos soldats, frappés de l'élégance de l'habit des dragons légers, de leurs casques brillants, de la tournure svelte des hommes et des chevaux, leur avaient donné le nom de lindors.”—Foy, Hist. Guerre Pénins. liv. 2. For this rather theatrical display we substituted with better taste in 1813 an uniform similar to that worn by the German light cavalry. The Shrapnell shell, or spherical case shot, (the invention of an English Colonel of that name) was used for the first time during the Peninsular War with great effect.

Amongst the many great services performed by the Peninsular War was raising the character of the British soldier from a very low to a very high standard in the national estimation. The plays of Wycherley, Congreve, Vanbrugh, and Mrs. Centlivre, the tales of Fielding, Smollett, and Defoe, and the graver essays of Dr. Johnson, sufficiently demonstrate that in the time of those writers military men were held in the lowest esteem.

The con

querors of Blenheim and of the Heights of Abraham were currently regarded as debauchees, cutthroats, and dishonest adventurers, and where a more gentlemanly exterior was exhibited, it was commonly united to the silliest foppery. Such from the Restoration to the end of the last century was the common character even of the officers of our army, and the ruffianly brutality of Ensign Northerton towards Tom Jones was perfectly characteristic in an age when undoubtedly it was too true that pimping too often obtained commissions, and it was an accurate general description to say of any chance-met couple of officers that 66 one had been bred under an attorney, and the other was son to the wife of a nobleman's butler." (History of a Foundling, book vii. c. 12). Though there were undoubtedly many officers then of a far superior class, still

the high tone of chivalrous honour in our army, and the general refinement and accomplishment of character, belong to the present century. It is the great praise of the British private soldier that his stubborn will and indomitable energy, his cheerful discipline and unflinching valour, carry him through the most brilliant exploits to a success almost miraculously uniform, without any of those tangible hopes of promotion which inspire the continental soldier. Such noble and manful discharge of duty appears to merit some more adequate reward than the possible working of a miracle which may raise him from the ranks.

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Wellington, in his admirable Despatches, says of the army with which he won these Pyrenean victories: 'I think I could do any thing with them." The resemblance of many portions of these remarkable compositions to those of Cæsar has been more than once pointed out; but the striking coincidence in the present instance has never, I believe, before been noticed: "Non animadvertebatis," says Cæsar, likewise speaking of the exploits of his Peninsular veterans, "decem habere legiones populum Romanum, quæ non solùm vobis obsistere, sed etiam cœlum diruere possent." De Bello Hispanico, § ult.

Even the number of veterans under the command of the ancient and the modern General was nearly the same.

Indomitable energy and hearty courage are an old strain in the English blood. They are thus attested by Cromwell:"Indeed we never find our men so cheerful as when there is work to do." Carlyle, Letters and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell, Supplement. That no specific decoration has yet been accorded to our Peninsular veterans appears a most amazing oversight.

The courage displayed in our Peninsular sieges was of the highest order. There can be no question that, since

the commencement of the world, no military daring, no dauntless valour, has been witnessed, Greek or Roman, Saracenic or Chivalrous, to exceed-perhaps none to equal, that of our storming parties at Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajoz, and San Sebastian. But it is very doubtful whether human life was not unnecessarily squandered, and whether the fire of the besieged should not have been silenced, and their defences in the first instance destroyed. This opinion seems now to be generally maintained both by engineer officers and by experienced officers of the army. The dictum of the great master of the art of fortification is in one respect vindicated, though in another it has been broken down by British heroism: "La précipitation dans les sièges ne hâte point la prise des places, la retarde souvent, et ensanglante toujours la scène." Vauban, Maximes. General Foy, who sometimes emancipates himself from his prejudices against England, and is often candid, while he praises the courage of our men, says that it was needlessly expended, and that the taking of fortified places by the rules of art is reduced to a mathematical problem. But the bravery of our troops is still unquestionable. "On eût dit que les ingénieurs étaient là seulement pour construire les places d'armes desquelles s'élanceraient les troupes destinées à l'assaut ou à l'escalade; et encore eût-on pu à la rigueur, avec des soldats si déterminés, se passer de leur ministère." Foy, Ilist. Guerre Pénins. liv. ii. I must transcribe his testimony as to the conduct of our officers :- "L'officier anglais conduisait les troupes au feu sans effort, et avec une bravoure admirable. ** La gloire de l'armée britannique lui vient avant tout de son excellente discipline et de la bravoure calme et franche de la nation." But Foy adds a stigma which these sieges affixed to our army, and these sieges alone in all our Peninsular campaigns, and the impartiality which