sort of subjects are they likely to prove? Will the Portuguese discipline have given them habits of order? Will the spectacle of a country, torn by faction, and alternately tyrannized over and plundered by whichever happens to get the upper hand, have improved them as British subjects? especially when a good deal of this has been effected by their own immediate assistance? The naturally wandering and unsettled life of a soldier renders it difficult to induce even those who have been under the mild but firm restraints of British discipline, to resume the habits of the mechanic or agriculturist. Where then is the probability, nay, where is the remote chance, of those men who are daily deluded into the service of Portugal, returning with better habits than those of banditti and outlaws? Such of them as have served in the British army must necessarily compare, with no small disparagement and contempt, the motley and mercenary crew of foreigners and adventurers placed over them as leaders, with the high-minded and respectable officers, under whose judicious and well-sustained authority they first learned their military duties; nor will the raw recruits probably form more advantageous opinions of the officers under whose direction they find themselves on landing in Portugal. The recurrence of frequent mutinies sufficiently proves the wretched condition of the Portuguese armies, and the irregularity of their pay and supplies, must necessarily render the soldiers oppressive and violent towards the unhappy peasantry of a country agitated and convulsed with all the evils of anarchy. It is almost fearful to think of the return of any considerable number of these nurselings of confusion and outrage, when either their own caprice or the termination of the contest in which they are unhappily engaged, shall pour them back upon their native shores, a lawless and demoralized band, reckless of consequences, with nothing to lose, and ready to engage in the most mischievous and dangerous enterprises, for which plenty of instigators will be found among the zealous improvers of the British constitution. London mobs have lately made great progress in the march of intellect. A certain Colonel Macirone, in the laudable design of transplanting his Italian patriotism into this country, published some defensive instructions for the People, who accordingly, with due deference for so worthy a teacher, laid aside their national character on a late occasion, and plunged the dagger of the assassin into the breasts of men who were with exemplary resolution and steadiness endeavouring to preserve the peace, and maintain order. Are we not likely to import a few more Macirones, and a few more hundred of his desperate disciples, whenever Don Pedro dismisses his hired army, to find their way back to their own country and pick up their living the best way they can? It is one of the most unaccountable and most dangerous features of the present state of affairs, that in their restless search after novelty, and anxious wish to prove wrong and erroneous whatever has been done by their predecessors in office, our rulers contemptuously reject all the lessons to be learned from experience. Thus, in encouraging the existence of a class of persons hitherto unknown in England, such as the wild adventurers who have gone to study civil war in Portugal, they seem resolved to forget the well-known fact, of the Belgian revolution having been mainly and originally instigated, and likewise eventually matured and carried into effect, by the emissaries of the king of the French, several hundreds of whose soldiers were in and near Brussels, disguised as peasants for a length of time previous to the breaking out of the contest, as well as during its continuance. There is another very important light in which a wise government should view the subject of foreign enlistment. In deference to the popular clamour, great relaxations have taken place in the penal code of the British army; so much, indeed, is the actual power of the officers of all ranks diminished, that it is only by the most indefatigable and unremitting attention to the details of their duty, that they are able effectually to preserve that regimental discipline which has hitherto been the admiration of the world. Indeed, to those who are at all acquainted with the severity of the punishments by which discipline is maintained in the French, and other continental armies, it is a matter of surprise how our officers manage to keep their men under that restraint, without which the soldier becomes the oppressor instead of the protector of his countrymen. It will scarcely perhaps be credited, that by the returns of the French army for the last year, it appeared that nearly 300 men had suffered death for military offences; but in France it must be recollected there are no provincial newspapers which would venture to give pathetic narratives of the last moments of these" unfortunate men;" and as a great proportion of these executions take place quietly in the military prisons, little is known or thought about them; and the military vanity of the nation is such, that the soldiers of a French regiment would rather concur in wishing to keep the fate of a comrade from public notice, than promulgate his having died in a manner they considered to reflect discredit upon their corps. All this may, perhaps, be very suitable to French habits, and may do very well for preserving French discipline, such as it is; but the attempt to imitate the apparent lenity of their system as regards minor and corporal punishments in our army, cannot too much be avoided, whatever Mr. Hume and other patriots may say to the contrary. And that the speeches of those gentlemen have a strong tendency to excite discontent, and make the soldiers suppose their discipline too strict, there can be no doubt. Is it not, therefore, evident, that if anything is likely to produce desertion, it is the encouragement of Portuguese enlistment, at the very moment when such mischievous harangues may be supposed to be producing their effect? In the Portuguese armies, there are now some discharged men from almost every regiment in our service; and many commanding officers have already detected correspondence from these adventurers, endeavouring to induce their comrades to desert and join them, on the faith of high pay, and promotion as non-commissioned officers. The adjutant of the Pedroite Lancers at this moment, is, in fact, no other than a non-commissioned officer, of remarkably good previous conduct, and perfect acquaintance with his duty, who deserted some months back from a distinguished cavalry regiment. The natural fidelity, and real patriotic feeling of the British soldier have hitherto prevented this mischief spreading to any great extent; but that is no compliment to the prudence or foresight of government; nor can it be any lasting security, in case the present course be pursued, of endeavouring to destroy all the soldier's remain ing faith in their care for his welfare, by gradually depriving him of support in sickness, want, and old age, when discharged, either too old to learn new means of subsistence, or too infirm for common labour. But perhaps government take the same view of desertion as their friends at the head of affairs in Belgium, where we find one of their public journals announcing, with congratulation, that "during the last month desertion has materially decreased; indeed, not more than 160 soldiers have absented themselves from the — brigade during the last month, and the greater part of these have merely gone into the interior for the purpose of seeing their friends and families, which, it seems, they were not aware was a breach of military regulation." The sequel goes on gravely to state, that orders have been sent to the mayors of the frontier towns to remonstrate with any deserters who may desire to pass through their districts; which, it is expected, will entirely prevent desertion to foreign territory. What a truly primitive view of Belgian naïveté, and the Arcadian character of these amiable and domestic soldiers! and in what a paternal and interesting light do the mayors, (or Don Keys of the Low Countries,) appear! A great Belgian booby, with his blouse over his uniform, enters a frontier village, making no secret of his deliberate intention of desertion; but first resolves on a substantial meal at the public-house. Scarcely has he begun cramming, stuffing, and drinking, when in comes the mayor, calls him a "brave Belge," kisses him on both sides of his great, unmeaning face, remonstrates on his quitting a service of glory and a land of liberty, treats him to another gallon of sour beer, and packs him back to his regiment. So much for Belgian discipline and Belgian government. But this way of being treated like a naughty child would be far more offensive to a stout English soldier than a much more rigorous but manly system. As the "braves Belges" are, however, become the mere slaves of the French, it may be quite as well they should remain as bad soldiers as they have been for these many years past. War, civil war, as usual, has now broken out in Spain; and probably, in a very short time, we shall have workhouse detachments, and "fine athletic young men," enlisting as merrily for the Spanish contest as they have done for the Portuguese. Lord Grey will naturally repeat, as he did before, that he knows nothing about it, except through the newspapers; and all will do very well till the parishes discover they have a good many cripples to maintain, and the police that they have some very difficult characters to deal with in London. That the evil may there stop, we sincerely hope; but it is a hope unlikely to be realized, unless ministers awake in time to a sense of their improvidence. Great and serious danger must otherwise be anticipated; and it will probably be too late when Piget incepti excussaque pectore Juno est, Sed non idcirco flammæ atque incendia vires W. NARRATIVE OF THE EXHUMATION OF THE REMAINS OF MAJOR ANDRÉ. BY J. BUCHANAN, ESQ., H. M. CONSUL, NEW YORK. British Consulate, New York, August, 1833. MR. EDITOR,-In compliance with the urgent suggestion of several officers of high rank in the army, I send you a brief narrative of the facts connected with the removal of the remains of the unfortunate Major André, from the place of his suffering at Tappan, in this State, to the Abbey, there to rest, surrounded by the ashes of the illustrious men who died in the performance of duty in the service of their country. If any one circumstance more than another leads me to accede to the numerous suggestions for years pressed upon me, it is the consideration, that this measure strikingly illustrates the high and chivalrous character of one who was peculiarly the soldier's friendthe ever-to-be-lamented Duke of York. For my own part, I question if the military annals of any country furnish such an instance of tender solicitude to heal the distress, which must arise in every British bosom, when reading in our history the fate of André; and pardon my saying I am not aware of any reward ever bestowed more calculated to cherish amongst the officers of our army the ambition of well-earned fame,-of a fearless devotion in the performance of perilous duty. It has been justly presumed, indeed known to many, that I had preserved the documents relating to the interesting event; not anticipating, however, that I should have been so often and earnestly solicited to publish them, nor, indeed, meaning that they should go forth to the world. Two circumstances have at all times prevented my sanctioning their publication: the respect due to the feelings of the surviving relatives of the sufferer, and the prominent place necessarily occupied by myself in the transaction. These considerations are even now so little abated, that I still feel reluctant to incur the responsibility of making the narrative public. However, I yield to better judgment; and as I have no pretension as a writer, I pray that my style may be pardoned. The facts are stated with perfect fidelity, and much is omitted, which, though interesting, I deem proper to leave out. The state of New York, by a resolution passed in the legislature during the session of 1818, directed, that the remains of General Montgomery, who fell at Quebec, should be removed from that fortress, where they had been buried with military honours, and deposited in New York. The excitement arising from that act, and the jealousy which had grown out of the late war between Great Britain and the United States, led, necessarily, to observations springing from such unkindly feelings; and I was hourly annoyed by contrasts drawn from the conduct of the state of New York, as to the remains of General Montgomery,-while those of the British soldier, who was sacrificed in the service of his country, in the flower of his youth, (by a doom, which, in the judgment of many, might have been commuted,) were abandoned and neglected. The grave of Major André was at the place of his execution, in an open field, with only a heap of stones to mark the spot, as the trees alone would not have pointed it out; and it was an additional reproach that his body had not been even removed to the neighbouring buryingground, and a monument, however humble, erected over it. Influenced by these observations, (and my own feelings, which participated largely in their truth,) I was induced, in the month of April, 1821, to address a letter to his Royal Highness the Duke of York, then commander-in-chief, with a proposal to remove the remains of Major André to a place of public interment, or to place a suitable monument on the spot where they reposed. In due course I was honoured with a prompt communication, dated Horse Guards, May 16, 1821, from Sir Herbert Taylor, in which he was pleased to state-"That he was directed to convey to me his Royal Highness's sincere acknowledgments for the communication I had made, and to assure me how sensible his Royal Highness was of the liberal and patriotic feeling which had produced my proposal, that the bones of the brave and unfortunate Major André should be collected, and should receive that tribute of respect which is due to the remains and to the memory of a meritorious officer, who had suffered an ignominious death in the honourable discharge of his duty. His Royal Highness most readily directed that I should take such steps as I should consider most advisable for collecting Major Andre's bones, and for having them securely conveyed to Halifax, whence they could be brought to England in one of his Majesty's ships of war, with a view to their being deposited in Westminster Abbey, as his Royal Highness had communicated with the Dean of Westminster, in relation thereto; a copy of whose reply he was pleased to inclose for my information." The note from the very Reverend the Dean to his Royal Highness was in the following words:" There is something so pleasing in the proposal made by Mr. Buchanan, that I am persuaded there can be but one feeling as to the propriety of adopting it; I therefore send you, for the information of his Royal Highness, my immediate concurrence, and shall inform the Chapter I have done so." Upon receipt of Sir Herbert Taylor's letter, I addressed a note to the late greatly-esteemed and justly-lamented De Witt Clinton, the then governor of the state of New York, praying his Excellency's permission to comply with the orders of his Royal Highness: in reply thereto, I was honoured with a note, of which the following is a copy: "New York, 30th July, 1821. "SIR, I have received a communication from you relative to the conveyance of the remains of Major André from this State to Great Britain, and I have the honour to state in reply, that our laws interpose no obstacle to this measure. "I am, Sir, with great consideration, "To J. Buchanan, Esq., "His Britannic Majesty's Consul, New York." In consequence of the publicity given to the intended exhumation, numbers of British subjects expressed a wish to attend on the occasion, in order to manifest their feelings of respect for the unfortunate, but highly-esteemed victim of war. Among the many communications, I should not be doing justice to the memory of the late excellent Captain Phillips, did I not on this occasion give an extract from his letter, as to his attending the exhumation. |