2. In the description of the period considered by me as the close of the action, you have proved incorrectness in detail with regard to the precise character of the charges of your brigade, and the precise line of its advance, including the, to a small extent, erroneous statement of its just appearing on the summit." But you have established the accuracy of the fact, period, general ground, and general character of those charges; have not proved, or scarcely attempted to prove, an error in the account of the movements of the 52d and 71st; and have not established, that before reaching the farm of Rosomme, a mile from the summit of the British position,-your brigade decidedly led the pursuit, or was in positive advance of the line upon which the 52d and the regiment on its right were acting. 3. And finally; against the description of that pre-eminently important period, the crisis, about which alone I am really anxious, and upon which, in my narrative, the weight of description and argument was attempted to be concentrated, you have not proved a single error with regard either to its great features, its minor details, or its precise limits. You justly observe, that "a large branch of laurel was gathered on that day," as large a branch as ever waved beneath the glory of Britain. Let it be remembered, I endeavour to inscribe, especially, the number 52 on one only of its leaves, that which was torn from the bearskin caps of Imperial Grenadiers at the grand crisis of the action. With regard to the others, I desire nothing better than that each should sparkle as brightly as diamonds in the diadem of Persia, with the precise designation of those to whom it belongs. Since the narrative was written, I have seen as much as is completed of Lieutenant Siborn's model. This, in itself, by its chasteness and effect, the magnitude of the scale, the minuteness of its detail, and its extraordinary accuracy in levelling and measurement is, or rather will be, a most interesting and wonderful memorial. But accompanied by a really authentic and detailed history of the events which took place on the ground it so precisely pourtrays would constitute the most useful theoretical lesson of the tactics of battles that ever was presented to the military student, and remain as a more rational, satisfactory, and really splendid monument of the victory of Waterloo, than is the column in the Place Vendôme of the triumphs of Napoleon. The differences of opinion from yourself advanced in the foregoing narrative, are on a subject to which I cannot now be unfaithful. Believe me, therefore, notwithstanding these, to remain, with great respect, Very sincerely yours, GEORGE GAWLER, Major 52d regt. To Lieut-General Sir Hussey Vivian, Bart., K.C.B. &c. &c. &c. I add, first, a certificate from one whose long-tried experience and cool capability of discernment in desperate circumstances are well known to most old soldiers of the Peninsular war: "The station of the 52d, in position before its charge, was marked by a low quickset hedge running across a part of its front. "I could not say positively that the column of the Imperial Guard did actually gain the summit of the British position, but as far as my memory serves me, I think they must have done so, as they were desperately pressing on when the left flank of our regiment came upon them almost immediately after we began to bring the right shoulders forward. We then charged and dashed on at a very rapid pace, until our left flank nearly reached the great road to Genappe; and I am positive that, in the progress of this charge, the regiment was not crossed by the attack of any corps of the allied army, with the exception of a broken body of cavalry. Immediately after this glorious achievement, the 52d, with a regiment in red near its right, proceeded to attack and drive off two or three squares of the enemy, left, I suppose, to cover the retreat of the French army, in which attack I was wounded. "JNO. WINTERBOTTOM, Paymaster (late Adjt.) 52d regt. “Belfast, Aug. 9, 1833.” And secondly, an extract from a letter for which I am indebted to the kind and very soldier-like feelings of Colonel Brotherton. ་་ 'I will with pleasure, in compliance with your request, endeavour to obtain a statement in writing from the French officer, with whom I had the conversation on the subject of the attack led by Marshal Ney at the close of the battle of Waterloo. "If, in the mean time, the repetition of it, as far as my memory serves, can be of any use to you, you are at liberty to avail yourself of it in any manner you may think fit. "Some years ago, not long after the battle of Waterloo, in conversation with a French officer of the staff, who had accompanied the column led by Marshal Ney at the close of the day, we were describing the relative merits of our different modes of attack. I observed to him, that to us it seemed surprising and unaccountable that our gallant opponents should obstinately persist in a practice, which experience must have taught them to be so unavailing and destructive to themselves; viz., their constant attacks in column against our infantry in line. I cited, as a last and conclusive instance, the failure of the attack at the close of the day at Waterloo, where a column composed of such distinguished veterans, and led by such a man as Ney, was repulsed and upset by some comparatively young soldiers of our guards, (for of such I understood the brigade in question to be composed,) adverting also to the singular coincidence of the Imperial Guard encountering our British Guards at such a crisis. 66 Upon which he observed, without seeming in the least to detract from the merit of the troops which the column had to encounter in its front, who, he said, shewed très bonne contenance,' that I was wrong in adducing this instance in support of my argument, or in supposing that the attack was solely repulsed by the troops opposed to it in front; for, added he, · nous fûmes principalement repoussés par une attaque de flanc, très vive, QUI NOUS ECRASA. "As far as I can recollect, these were his very words. "I retain all the feelings of a guardsman, in which corps I served several years, and should feel as jealous of its honours as if still in its ranks, &c." "Cavalry Depôt, August 2d, 1833." The testimony of the French officer is forcible when examined by the rule you lay down, that "those who felt the blow may at least be supposed to know from whence it came *U. S. Journ., p. 322. MODERN GREECE-EXPLOITS OF KANARIS. "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori: At no period of time has the moral and political world been subject to such violent convulsions and rapid changes, as during the existence of the present generation. We have lived, indeed, amidst the shock of conflicting opinions, the paroxysms of warfare, and the convulsive throes. of expiring empires; and the spirit of disaffection is still in fermentation. But among all the "turns out" for constitution-making, none excited greater attention than that of Greece, although its effects were more locally restricted than those of the grander explosions in France, Poland, Spain, and Italy. During the struggle it was somewhat difficult to get a true opinion upon the question; for while the Miso-Hellenists were confined in number, the Phil-Hellenists comprehended, in addition to zealous and principled well-wishers, all the radical levellers of Europe. The first class recited the acts of barbarity, perfidy, and atrocity, by which the Greeks proved their utter want of faith, honour, and morals. The second, with ideas preoccupied by their own imaginations, consider them as the worthy descendants of the heroes and sages of old; and while one party allows them no virtue, the other will acknowledge in them no vice. Both these opinions are absurdly erroneous; they have strong capacities for both, and the inferences have been so sweeping and conclusive as materially to injure their cause. Thus, many a panting hero volunteered to join their standard, heated more by classical enthusiasm and captious vanity, than by a rational view of his undertaking; and quitting the well-organized services of the most intellectual and civilized nations of Europe, fondly dreamed of participating in the glory of again rearing on the sacred shores of Greece a political structure worthy of Solon or Lycurgus, and extravagantly expected that neither a Socrates, a Codrus, a Leonidas, nor a Demosthenes, would be wanting. Those who went abroad with such visionary ideas, and they were not a few, were bitterly disappointed; and returning home, some of them, like Stanhope, wrote dismal Jeremiads to prove the total unworthiness of the present race. But a marvellous ignorance still pervades Europe as to the real merits of the contest, because, in the excitement of the moment, little would gain credit, but what was exaggerated against the Turks, and grossly exaggerated in favour of those who, in the mass, might very properly be termed the mongrel Greeks. The former are undoubtedly a besotted, tyrannical, and contemptible squad, as a people; but the latter are also less remarkable for any good quality, than for cowardice, treachery, perjury, and cruelty,-vices so far from resulting, as their advocates pretend, from the slavery they have undergone, that they were distinguished for them before the Turks became their masters. To a long line of sanguinary, vindictive, rapacious, and weak emperors, succeeded the barbarous despotism and diabolical policy of the FREE REPUBLIC of Venice; and so degraded had these descendants of Pericles, Conon, U. S. JOURN. No. 58, SEPT. 1833. C Lysander, and Miltiades become, that, besides the decay of their moral energies, they had already lost many branches of elementary knowledge; and the architecture, sculpture, medals, paintings, and literature of the later Greeks, form a shameful contrast to those of their illustrious ancestors. The public character, therefore, of the contending parties cannot be held in high estimation-but among the individuals of the two people there is a remarkable difference; and it is found the Turks are the favourites of most of those who have sojourned among them, while the Greeks are generally upheld by enthusiasts acting under the stimuli of classical prejudices and religious feeling; and in true sectarian style, the latter nourished their opinions, and anathematized those of the other party, till to be anti-Greek was synonymous with anti-Christian,-although it would puzzle many of the same enthusiasts to point out the quantum of real christianity existing in the Greek worship, or prove whether it is less idolatrous than that of the Turks. Throughout the late Lord Byron's letters, journals, and conversation, he almost invariably prefers the Turks to the Greeks; while in his poetry his whole energies are employed to laud the latter: the first resulted from his experience, the second was artificially inducted by education. The harrowing atrocities committed by the belligerents have been made a mode of comparison to estimate their morality by; but the statements have been much too ex-parte, and the special pleading too imaginary, to admit of a just verdict. The Turks had never recourse to the press to refute the amplified reports of the enormities which were circulated against them, as well by the Greeks in Germany and in France, as by the holders of Greek scrip in England, for the double purpose of exciting a crusade and raising funds,-assaulting at once the compassion and credulity of the public. Now, though the brutality on both sides was so disgusting as to make us who were on the spot-wish that, like the Kilkenny cats, the parties would eat each other up, we must confess, however unpalatable to that immaculate Hellenian, Mister Joseph Hume, that the balance of infraction of capitulations, indiscriminate butchery, and refinement in cruelty, is on the side of the Greeks. And we may also whisper to him, as well as to a few others misled by a knot of Ionian islanders who were baffled in their designs of pocketing the revenues of those states, that the cause, however holy, was all but lost by the folly, ignorance, and mismanagement, which appeared in the whole expenditure of the Greek loan. It is true, that the very note of preparation, "a Greek insurrection !" carries an amazing prepossession in it; and the active mind revels in all the recollections of that beautiful and interesting country-in the fields of Marathon and Platea, the pass of Thermopylæ, the shores of Salamis, and the crags of Pindus and Olympus * Κορυφας πολυδειράδος Ουλύμποιο." But the professed object of the movement was tarnished to our own view of the affair, by a personal knowledge that a stream of Russian influence was poured through every ramification of the transaction. 'Tis true that, after the foul murder of Czerni-Georgi, this was disclaimed with due diplomatic gravity; but, without taxing the autocrat as being the whole cause of the rebellion, we can positively assert that his being the head of the Greek church, the conduct of Strogonoff at Constan tinople, the intrigues of old Capo d'Istria, the menacing army of 150,000 Muscovites on the borders of Turkey, and the Russian officers scattered about Greece, certainly maintained the cause. As for ourselves, when the rising had actually taken place, we most heartily prayed for its success, but without shutting our eyes to the truth, that an independent state was not likely to be a consequence. We, of course, never imagined that a nation sunk in the degradation of slavery was at once to cast off the brutifying effects of such a state, and emerge in high civilization; but we could not help viewing the point at issue very much in the light of a mere change of masters for the oppressed, and likely to form an addition to the already enormous preponderance of Russia in Europe. Then the barefaced falsehoods which were trumped over Europe were of a nature to induce distrust and circumspection: we were on the spot, and knew of but few of those brilliant victories with which the papers, theatres, and panoramas of London teemed; and in spite of the enemy being both indolent and incapable, it is probable that, but for the secret agency of Russia, and the affair of Navarino, the cause would have been lost by cowardice, disaffection, and want of talent. Nor were the resources of the insurgents so indifferent as to apologize for the inefficiency of their operations. Many of the islands had long enjoyed a literal freedom, insomuch that they entered the arena with a powerful fleet of ships, and a store of wealth acquired by unrestricted commercial intercourse with European countries. The Turkish army in the Morea was barely 5000 men, and yet it gave ample employment to ten times that number of Greeks; and whilst a disgraceful inertness stigmatized most of their military proceedings, the horrors of war were augmented, without any real advantage to the cause of liberation, by the predatory inroads of the insurgent privateers, and the barefaced piracies they recklessly committed. We, therefore, considered the construction of an independent Greek nation as not only improbable, but impracticable, the natives of each petty state differing as much from each other as they do from the Turks; and their statesmen being as turbulent as they are variable, and as artful as they are specious. Recent facts oblige us to retain this opinion-for after foreign powers had settled the war for them, their time has been lost in squabbles and murders; and though our ministers have kindly made England a guarantee for two millions sterling, to place a German dwarf on the mock throne, and have bought for him, of the Turks, a boundary line for another half-million, that he may repose in safety, we predict that it will yet be some time before property is respected in Greece. But we must now quit the considerations into which we have been drawn, and show, that while we entertain no very high opinion of the Greeks, as a nation, we are desirous of appreciating the high merit of some individuals. We have witnessed various instances of admirable devotion and patriotism; and while many were distinguished by sagacity and courage, others, possessing wealth and comfort, ruined themselves by generous contributions to the cause. It is the exploits of one of these heroes, Constantine Kanaris, that we are now about to relate, and the story will be told in very nearly his own words. We should observe, that, at the time of which we shall speak, the Greek fleet consisted of about 180 vessels, of various sizes, and was manned by from 15 to 20,000 seamen. These ships were chiefly fitted out by the spirited |