graced; Charles XII. fell doubtfully before | lustrous, and has never paled. It "sets unan obscure fortress; and Napoleon died a clouded in the gulf of fate," an exception, broken-hearted exile on the rock of St. Hean example, and a moral. lena. The star of Wellington has been all "Vanity of Human Wishes." From Bentley's Miscellany. LORD HARDINGE. Now that he, whom the nation with one accord pronounced the foremost man of the age, has passed away suddenly from amongst us-now that the first shock of the event, which, though long looked for, unexpectedly retarded, came upon us at last as a national calamity, has expended itself men's minds are beginning to turn to the living from the dead, and to take stock of our surviving heroism. Eight-and-thirty years have passed since Napoleon's brazen horsemen went down before our British squares on the great field of Waterloo. The boys who fleshed their maiden swords in the Peninsula are now veterans of three score. Year after year has seen some ominous gap in the attendant chivalry at the commemorative banquets of the 18th of June. Death has scored out name after name from that honored list, until few are left upon the roll. Therefore, the more should we cherish those who survive; the Somersets, the Napiers, and the Hardinges, who are still the pillars of our military renown. The country was not ungrateful to the Great Duke-he had every possible title short of royalty itself; he had wealth, and everything that wealth can purchase; he looked out upon you everywhere in marble and in bronze, in oil-color and in mezzo-tinto -and he was, perhaps, the only pluralist in the country, at whose plurality of office no one grumbled or repined. He had all sorts of posts, indeed, salaried and unsalaried. A very harvest of patronage has fallen suddenly into the minister's hands. But the only office, the bestowal of which is matter of much public concernment, is that great one-the Command of the Forces. For many days this was the great topic, VOL XXVII. NO. IV. discussed eagerly in all military circles, and with scarcely less eargerness by the larger circle of the general public. It was a question, too; for the detur digniori principle is not always carried out in practice. But due regard being had to the interests of the army, the interests of the nation, and the relative fitness of those whose names had been announced, and whose chances had been canvassed, no question ought ever to have arisen. The command of the British army is not, like the Chancellorship of Oxford or of Cambridge, or the Governorship of the Tower, a mere honorary distinction-a name, a title, an appendage-but a solid reality. It is a substantive appointment, requiring as much the energies and activities, the very brainsweat and brow-sweat, of a real man, as the Chancellorship of the Exchequer. Prince Albert is deservedly beloved and respected. The Duke of Cambridge has, with laudable zeal and assiduity, devoted himself to the parade duties of his profession. Doubtless, they have all good soldierly qualities in them; and need but opportunity to draw them forth. But in such a practical age, and in such a stirring world as this, opportunity is everything; and men must be judged, not by what they might do, but by what they have done. It would have been a sorry compliment to the memory of the dead-it would have been a sorry compliment to the British army -to fill up the gap which has been left, in any way, but by the appointment to the vacant office of one of the Duke's old companions in arms. In all the discussions which arose on the subject of the vacant command, the most prominent name was that of Lord Hardinge. No name seemed to rise so readily to the lips 32 of men, military and civil, when there was with the charges of the brigades of General any talk of the Duke's successor at the Stewart's division to force the enemy to abanHorse Guards. Judging him not only by don his situation and to retire precipitately, what he had done, but by what he was yet and to take refuge under his reserve." It was capable of doing, men of all classes of so- Lieut.-Colonel Henry Hardinge who discernciety pointed to him as the soldier who was ed the advantage of these movements, and henceforth to occupy the proud position of suggested them; "the young soldier, with Commander-in-Chief of the British army. the eye of a general and the soul of a hero," And, for once, the public were right. Their as Alison, with graphic truth, has described anticipations were not falsified. Their de-him in his record of these events. sires were not disappointed. Lord Hardinge has been appointed to the chief command of the British army. At such a time a few references to the leading incidents of his past career-scarcely pretending to the character of a regular memoir-may be both welcome and useful. At Ciudad Rodrigo, at Badajoz, at Vittoria, where he was severely wounded; at St. Sebastian, at the passage of the Bidassoa, in the battle of the Nevelle and Nive, at Orthes, for which he received his ninth medal ; everywhere was young Hardinge, always at work, always doing good service, save when laid aside for a little space by the severity of his wounds. With the peace came again a brief cessation from active duty; but, on the escape of Napoleon, and the renewal of the war, Wellington, who had watched his career, and knew his worth, attached him to the headquarters of the Prussian army, in a political capacity, with the rank of Brigadier-General, and he became the companion of Marshal Blucher. It was at Ligny that he lost his hand. We give the incident in the words of a contemporary writer, well acquainted with the subject of his memoir "At the sanguinary battle of Ligny, on the 16th June, Sir H. Hardinge again distinguished himself. About 4 P.M. his left hand was shattered by a common shot; but refusing to dismount or leave the A member of a good old loyal Derbyshire family, Henry Hardinge joined his regiment in Canada, a high-spirited boy of fifteen. Some anecdotes illustrative of the ready gallantry, the quickness and generosity of his nature, at this early period of his career, are extant. The peace of Amiens ushered in a brief period of inactivity, and young Hardinge returned to England. But the renewal of hostilities found him attached to the staff of the Quarter-Master-General. He served under Sir B. Spencer in 1807-followed the fortunes of Wellesley in the campaign of 1808 was present at Roleia, and wounded at Vimiera.Then we find him soon afterwards rapidly carrying despatches, in the face of many difficulties, to Sir John Moore -sharing with that chief the dangers of the retreat on Corunna, and not far from his side when he fell; next with Sir Benjamin D'Ur-field, he placed a tourniquet on his arm, and sat ban, as Deputy Quarter-Master-General of the Portuguese army: at the passage of the Upper Douro at the battle of Busaco: then in the campaign under Beresford, ever active, ever doing his duty, ever proving the fine soldierly spirit which animated his slight frame and spoke out from his clear quick eye. He was very young at this time, but he was an approved good soldier; and when, at the battle of Albuera, the fight was going against our over-matched troops-when one half had been mown down by the enemy, and the other half were reeling and staggering under the shock of the outnumbering foe, it was Henry Hardinge, then only twenty-five years of age, who suggested the movement which turned the tide of victory in our favor. "Major-General Cole," says Beresford's despatch, "seeing the attack of the enemy, very judiciously bringing up his left a little, marched in line to attack the enemy's left, and arrived most opportunely to contribute, out the battle, retiring after nightfall with the Prussian army. At midnight, in a hut by rushlight, attended by a single servant, he had his hand amputated. Sir Henry had previously despatched his brother, who was his aide-de-camp, to report to the Duke the fate of the day, and to bring an up the bivouac; when Sir Henry, determining English surgeon. At daylight, the French beat not to fall into the enemy's hand, though faint from loss of blood, accompanied the retreating Prussians. At Wavre he joined the gallant Blucher, who, though still suffering from a fall, and from having been ridden over by a whole brigade of cavalry, got up, and kissing his friend affec tionately, begged he would excuse the garlic (with which he was perfumed) and condoled with him on Ligny; but characteristically added, Never mind, my friend, if we outlive to-morrow, Wellington and I will lick the French.'"* The battle of Waterloo was fought and won, and then came peace indeed-not a mere transient interval of rest, a lull between two *Calcutta Review. storms-but years of peace counted not by units, but by tens; and the soldier became the statesman. Sir Henry Hardinge, for he had received for his services a Knight Companionship of the Bath, was still a very young man-less than thirty. He had established a military reputation of the first class, and now he began to take part in politics. For twenty years he sate in the House of Commons as member for Durham and Launceston. During this time he held office, under Conservative administrations, twice as Secretaryat-War, and twice as Secretary for Ireland. Once too, for a short period, he was Clerk of the Ordnance. All this official training was of great service to him, and he proved himself to be an admirable man of business. The quickness and readiness of apprehension, the keen penetration, the intuitive sagacity, which had distinguished him in the field were distinguishable in the bureau, and over and above these qualities, there was an industry and perseverance seldom to be found in men of such quick parts and vivacious temper. And so, now in office, now out of office-now on the ministerial, now on the opposition side, until the year 1844 dawned upon him, Sir Henry Hardinge held his own, respected by the world, and dearly beloved by all who knew him, foremost among whom were Wellington and Peel. Then came the offer of the Governor-Generalship of India. It was a tempting one. The magnates of Leadenhall-street, in the exercise of a prerogative of which it is to be hoped no legislative interference will ever deprive them, had dismissed Lord Ellenborough from office. It was a stretch of power in the master warranted by a stretch of insolence in the servant. But when the question of the successorship came to be considered, and the crown ministers nominated one nearly connected with the recalled viceroy, the Court of Directors, with something more than common willingness, ratified the ministerial choice. The selection was in all respects a happy one. No appointment could have been more welcome to Lord Ellenborough, whose wounded honor must have received some balsamic relief from the nomination of one bound to him by close family ties; to the Court of Directors, who rejoiced in the opportunity thus afforded to them of demonstrating that the bold course they had taken had not been instigated by any low personal feelings; and to the public at large, who honored the gallantry and confided in the sagacity of the soldier-statesman who had been selected for an office of the highest responsibility from among the foremost men of the age. But by the man so selected the honor was not coveted. It was one that he would never have sought. A little time before he had been offered the command of the Indian army; but he had declined it; and now that this far more brilliant, more tempting offer was made to him, he still hesitated to lay his hand upon the prize. Two days of irresolution, or rather two days of earnest thought and self-commune and counsel with near and dear friends, preceded his acceptance of the most brilliant office that can be conferred on a British subject. But he believed that his services were required by his country, and at the call of his country he went. "I well know," said the leading statesman of the age, whose sudden loss we are even now lamenting; "I well know," said Sir Robert Peel, some years afterwards, "what was the object of my friend Sir Henry Hardinge, in undertaking the government of India. He made great sacrifices from a sense of public duty. My gallant friend held a prominent place in the counsels of her Majesty. He was, I believe, without any reference to party divisions, held in general esteem in this House, as well by his political opponents as by his political friends. He was regarded by the army of this country as its friend, because he was the friend of justice to all ranks of that army. It was proposed to him at a time of life when perhaps ambition is a less powerful stimulus than it might have been at an earlier period. It was proposed to him to relinquish his place in the counsels of his Sovereign, to forego the satisfaction he must have felt at what he could not fail to see, that he was an object of general respect and esteem. He separated himself from that family which constituted the chief happiness of his life, for the purpose of performing a public duty that he owed to his Sovereign and his country, by taking the arduous and responsible situation of Chief Governor of our Indian possessions. He went out with a high military reputation, solicitous to establish his fame in connexion with our Indian empire, not by means of conquest, or the exhibition of military skill and valor, but by obtaining for himself a name in the annals of India as the friend of peace, and through the promotion of the social interests and welfare of the inhabitants." No man knew him better than Peel, or loved him more dearly. Taking the overland route, Sir Henry Har dinge made all haste to India. But he did | dents done on purpose," or by assassination in open durbar. And now the country was governed in the name of a child-prince, by an adulterous chief and her paramour, who could only bribe the army into obedience, and who now were running short of the means of corruption. A weak government is always a dangerous neighbor, especially if it be soldier-ridden. It was impossible to say at what time all this intestine licentiousness might overflow the boundary and run over into foreign aggression. The Governor-General saw this plainly enough; but he saw too that any overt preparations on our part for an anticipated struggle, would precipitate the collision which he desired to retard. So he strengthened the frontier, noiselessly and unostentatiously; pushed up troops to the stations contiguous to the Sutlej, without menace and without parade; and set out with his brilliant staff, civil and military, for the destined theatre of war. He arrived in India towards the close of the hot season in 1844. His arrival was warmly greeted even by men who had indignantly resented the recall of his predecessor; and it is to the honor of Lord Ellenborough that he did his best to bespeak a cordial welcome for the new ruler. "You will be charmed," he wrote, "with my successor. He is a thorough soldier and a thorough man of business. . . I do not know a better man for the station." The early days of his administration were, as he desired them to be, eminently quiet and pacific. Men who know best what are the horrors of war are the least likely to plunge a country into them. Lord Cornwallis and Lord William Bentinck had been the most peaceful of rulers. And now, Sir Henry Hardinge, who had acquired a splendid military reputation in his youth, coveted no new laurels at three-score. He sate himself quietly down at the seat of the supreme government, and devoted himself to the internal administration of the country. The state of native education, the fiscal imposts which pressed most heavily upon the industry of the people; the discipline of the native army, &c., engaged the greater share of his attention. But he was not unmindful of the external affairs of the great empire entrusted to his charge. He was resolute to maintain the country in peace, if it could be done consistently with our honor and our safety; but he did not disguise from himself the fact that he might be unwillingly precipitated into war. But He did not court the struggle, but he was prepared for it. When the Sikhs, suddenly and unpremeditatedly, crossed the frontier, he was there to counsel and direct. That the danger was great is not to be denied. Nor is it to be denied that mainly by his personal presence was that danger averted. Sir Henry Hardinge had gone up to the north-western frontier in a civil capacity. He went as a counsellor, not as a soldier. when the day of counsel had passed—when the question to be solved became a question of military skill and military prowess-he remembered that he was a general officer in the British army, and he believed that his services were required in the field. The chivalry of his nature was not to be repressed. It was not a season for the supremacy of cold caution. There are epochs in the careers of nations and of men, when a tame observance of ordinary rules of procedure becomes sometimes almost criminal. Henry Hardinge, after the first battle had been fought-and it was clearly seen how formidable an enemy was in our frontplaced himself at the disposal of the commander-in-chief, and became his second in command. Sir The result is well known, at least as well as, in the few pages at our disposal, we could possibly describe it. But the history of the great battles of Forozshuhur and Sobraon has yet to be written. These actions live outlined in the picture of Mr. Grant, and the speeches of Sir Robert Peel. Ever since the death of Runjeet Singh the country beyond the Sutlej had been torn by intestine convulsions. It had been the scene of a series of tremendous tragedies, more incredible and revolting than the tragic dramas of the Pre-Shakspearian age, which pleased the coarse appetites of Englishmen in the early days of Elizabeth; and it seemed now to have settled down into a chronic state of unrest. One monarch after another had But it is possible that when all becomes been carried off by secret poison, by "acci-known, the reputation of Sir Henry Har dinge will rest even on a higher pinnacle than at present. And yet, in the lives of either ancient or modern heroes, what passages can be cited more glorious and more touching, than the following from Peel's well-known speech on the victory of Forozshuhur. "From my affectionate regard for this gallant man, (he said) I am proud to be enabled to exhibit him in such a night as that of the 21st of December-going through the camp-passing from regiment to regiment-keeping up the spirits of the men-encouraging them-animating their ardor -and, having lost ten aides-de-camp out of twelve, placing his young son, a boy of seventeen or eighteen years of age, in the front of the line beside him, in order that the British troops might be induced not to fire on the enemy, but drive them back by the force of the British bayonet. It was characteristic of the man. He had two sons present, one of whom was a civilian and the other in the army. On the afternoon of the 21st he sent the civilian to the rear of the army, saying that his presence disturbed him, and that if he refused to retire he would send him away in arrest as a prisoner; but the presence, he said, of his younger son, an officer, whose duty called him to the field, only made the father more des perately resolute in the discharge of his duty. On the 22nd, after the battle was over, he took his eldest son when visiting the wounded soldiers and sepoys; and he showed them a GovernorGeneral of India who had lost his hand, and the son of a Governor-General who had lost his foot, and endeavored to console them in their suffer ings by proving to them that men in the highest rank were exposed to the same casualties as themselves." he passed from one duty to another in quick succession; he brought together all our available military resources; strengthened our armaments at points where they were weakest; provided against the occurrence of accidents which had nearly proved disastrous in the previous actions; and when the time came for the last decisive struggle, and the great battle of Sobraon was fought, there he was again, with his sons and his nephew beside him, the same cool, intrepid warrior that had sate out the battle of Ligny with a tourniquet on his shattered arm. The Punjaub now lay prostrate at the feet of the governor-general of India. The British army marched in triumph upon the capital of the Sikhs; but their raj was not de clared at an end. The time had not then come for the "annexation" of the empire of Runjeet Singh. Sir Henry Hardinge reseated the infant son of the old lion on the throne of Lahore; formed a national administration, to be held in control by the presence of a British officer at the young maharajah's court; and hoped that a strong government might eventually be established in the country of the five riv ers. It is no small thing that amidst so many instances of aggressiveness and acquisitivesuch moderation as this. We are loath to speak ness, history should be privileged to record of anything but of the high principle which regulated the conduct of the victorious chief, act of noble forbearance by even a passing allusion to any meaner springs of action. But they who speak of all moderation as cockney cant, and try the question only in the scales of narrow expediency, should know that at that time Sir Henry Hardinge, if he had desired to take possession of the Punjaub, had not the means of so doing at his disposal, and that in the then crippled state of his military resources, the attempt would have been downright folly. We do not disparage the memory of the-loath to detract from the real merit of this great soldier who has recently passed away from among us, when we write, that nothing in all the flood of incident and anecdote illustrative of his career, excites such deep emotion in the perusal, as these few simple sentences. It was the fashion, with those who did not know him, to speak of Peel as a cold, unimpulsive man; but never, in that great assembly, was a speech spoken more feelingly than this; never did the heart of a speaker appeal more touchingly to the hearts of an audience than on this memorable occasion. The wontedly frigid statesman was affected even to tears. The battle of Ferozshuhur was won, but the Sikhs were not yet beaten. Much work lay before Hardinge and Gough. There wa much to be done in preparation for the crowning struggle; and the governor-general, with characteristic energy and activity, threw himself, body and soul, into it. Day and night his mind was at work, and his limbs were seldom at rest. Lord Hardinge returned to England. Honors had been heaped upon him in his absence, and he reaped his share of more substantial rewards. We do not write that his enemies were in office, for Lord Hardinge had no enemies; but that great political party which did not number him among his adherents-the Whig party--of which Lord John Russell was the chief, were then dominant in the councils of the empire. His reception was most honorable. There was enough in it to gratify the vanity of a much |