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S:
.POLITICAL AND MILITARY EPISODES
IN THE
falter pjilf 0f t^e (Bigj^teentb Ccnturij.
DERIVED FROM THE
LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF
THE RIGHT HON. JOHN BURGOYNE,
GENERAL, STATESMAN, DRAMATIST.
EDWARD HARRINGTON DE FONBLANQUE,
AI'THOR OF " THR ADMINISTRATION OF TI»F. BRITISH ARJVIV," MI'IION AND »'K(HKI.I," "THK LIFP. AND I.AIIOIRS OK AI.B^NV F<>NBI.A N<)fR," KTC, RXr
WITH PORTRAIT. ILLUSTRATIOXS, AND MAPS.
Itonbon: MACMILLAN AND CO.
1876.
•j
[ The Right of Translation and Reproduction is Reserved^,
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• •• • ••■•»
PREFACE.
The daughters of the late Field-Marshal Sir John Burgoyne entrusted me with the duty of preparing a biography of their grandfather from such letters and documents, many of them of a very fragmentary nature, as had been preserved in the family.
The other sources of information of which I have availed myself have been conscientiously acknowledged by a reference to their authorship.
Something more, however, than a general expres- sion of obligation is due to an accomplished descend- ant of the subject of my memoir, as well as to her husband, Colonel the Honourable George Wrottesley, to whose judicious advice and kindly assistance I have been deeply indebted throughout the performance of
my task.
E. B. de F.
London, December, 1875.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
EARLY CAREER. 1 729 — 1 76 1.
Injostice done to the memoiy of General Buigoyne — False reports con- cerning his birth— His true parentage — His education at Westminster — Enters the army — His marriage with Lady Charlotte Stanley — Res angusta domi — Retires from the army and goes abroad — His military shidies in France — Is reinstated in the army — ^Joins the expeditions against Cherbourg and St. Malo — Raises the 1 6th Light Dragoons — Remarks on Light Cavalry— Burgoyne*s regimental orders — His literary style — Volunteers for service against Belle Isle — Valedictory verses — The capture of Belle Isle Page i
CHAPTER II.
THE CAMPAIGN IN PORTUGAL. 1 762.
Colonel Buigoyne elected M.P. for Midhurst — The family compact — France and Spain invade Portugal — An English contingent embarks for Lisbon — State of the Portuguese army — Lord Tyrawley and Count la Lippe — Colonel Mauvillon on English troops — Burgoyne appointed Brigadier- General — Severe discipline — Position of the invaders — The victory at Valentia d' Alcantara — Burgoyne*s despatch — Complimentary letters — Curious official correspondence — Buigoyne promoted to a full Colonelcy— The afiair at Villa Velba — Conclusion of the campaign.
Page 27
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CHAPTER III. |
AN INTERVAL OF PEACE. 1763— 1774,
The Seven Years* War and its cost — ^Burgoyne receives the thanks of Par- liament— Visits the German battlefields — His correspondence with Lord Chatham and Sir Gilbert Elliot — His opinion of Continental armies — Gives offence to Horace Walpole — Is appointed Governor of Fort William — His social popularity — Is returned for Preston — Election riots — Burgoyne indicted and tried — The sentence — Richard Arkwright — An election joke — Burgoyne attacked by Junius— His political con- duct— Debate on the Falkland Islands — On the Royal Marriage Bill — The East India Company — Burgojrne impeaches Lord Clive — His speech — The result Page 53
CHAPTER IV.
AMERICA. 1^7$.
Political feeling in England and the colonies— The King's views— Popular opinion— Mercenary writers— Samuel Johnson and Dr. Franklin — Party feeUng — Reinforcements dispatched to America —Charles Fox remon- strates— ^The three Generals — Burgoyne's reasons for accepting a command — His feelings towards the colonists — His speech in Parlia- ment— His memorandum — His appeal to the King— Arrival in Boston — General Gage's proclamation — Burgoyne*s correspondence with Lord North and General Hervey — The battle of Bunker's Hill — Butgoyne's account of it to Lord Rochfort and to Lord Stanley — Washington appointed Commander- in-Chief— General Charles Lee — His correspon- dence with Burgoyne — Questionable morality — General Gage and Washington — Boston festivities — Burgoyne's plan of operations — His letter to Lord Geoi^ge Germain and to Mr. Thurlow — Mr. John Adama — Precarious condition of Boston garrison — Military mal-administration ^Burgoyne returns to England Page 107
CHAPTER V.
CANADA. 1776.
Thoughts on the War in ^»wn!fa— Burgoyne embarks for Canada — Mer- cenary troops — The Canadian campaign — ^The enemy defeated and pursued — ^Ticonderoga— Sir Guy Carleton — General Phillips— Burgoyne
Contents. xi
returns to England. — Out of favour at Court — Appointed to command the northern army — His plan of operations — Want of army transport.
Page 207
CHAPTER VI. burgoyne's campaign. 1777.
Objects of the'expedition'— The force required — The line of march — Trans- port and corvia — Composition of the army — Generals Phillips, Reidesel, and Eraser — The Red Indians — ^Ticondcroga invested and taken — Elation of the King — Despondency of Washington — Burgoyne is offered the red ribbon — Declines the honour — Correspondence with Lord Derby — Pursuit of the enemy — Burgoyne's proclamation — Murder of Miss McCrea by Indians — Unjust accusations — Correspondence with Sir Guy (^arleton — The flank march — The German troops— Reduction of Forts George and Edward — Letter to Lord George Germain — No
; news of General Howe — Expedition to Bennington — Failure of Colonel St Leger's expedition — Maltreatment of prisoners by the Americans — Correspondence with General Gates — Ticonderoga garrisoned — A letter from General Howe — The Passage of the, Hudson. . . . Page 236
CHAPTER VII.
SARATOGA. 1 777.
American armies collecting— Difficulties of the march — The action at Stillwater — Mens aqua in arduis — Burgoyne's forces reduced — News from Sir Henry Clinton — Captain Scott's expedition — Communi- cations abandoned — Failing supplies — Reasons for advancing — Weary times — ^The battle of Saratoga — After the battle — Funeral of General Frascr— Lady Harriet Ackland — Letter from General Gates — A Council of War — Negotiations opened — General Gates' terms rejected— The Convention — ^The surrender — The march to Cambridge — Despondent letters — Congress declines to ratify the Convention — The sick and cap- tive troops illtreated — Buxgoyne prefers charges against the American commandant — The Court Martial— Letter from Sir Henry Clinton — Buxgoyne's application to Congress — A letter from Washington and from General Gates — The parole— Burgoyne embarks for England — Reflections on the campaign. • Pagt 283
raosiei
•H''i'ri:
ipinion in England — Lord
[oyne,— who U defended
jx, Colonel Barri, and
Wrot tesley — Bu r^oyne
,- -_- -j^^_— Is refused on inquiry
1^ jJMiPline is otdeted back lo
ird Dacre and from Mr.
-Letter from Charles Fox
'|torted and the result—
' of tht ExpidUion-~\%
-Re-
Pagi 340
..s.:i::|::s:-£-
%'^Af^^^-^W:^'«ftki Oak!-Thi Urd of
il ;^l£r«j— Remarks on Come-
ilical satires . Pagi 3S9
id and Privy Councillor his friends — His corre- ippointed Colonel of the iQcial difficulties — Speech ling the King's livft—\& rliGcations — Lord Com- of his son sisty-five years of the division — Bur- ...'■Irial of Warren Hastings I^^I^etters from Borke and
Cofitents, xiii
Fox — Threatened war with Spain — Burgoyne's last tender of active service — Debates ou army administration — The limits of a soldier's obedience — Vote of censure on Major Scott — Correspondence with Sir Joshua Reynolds— Failing health — Burgoyne's last speech in Par- liament— His death — His will — His unmarked grave . . Pa^e 408
APPENDICES.
A. Letters of Frederick the Great
B. Extracts from a despatch of General Howe's.
C. General Burgoyne's plan of the campaign of 1777.
D. Strength of General Burgoyne's army. £. Speech to the Indians.
F. General Burgoyne's proclamation.
G. State of the army under General Gates.
H. Court-martial on Lord George Germain, and other matters relating to him.
i»
ILLUSTRATIONS, Etc.
PORTRAIT OF GENERAL BURGOYNE ........ Frontispiece.
T0/actJag9 FLAN OF THE ENCAMPMENT AND POSITION OF THE ARMY
UNDER HIS EXCELLENCY LIEUT.-GENERAL BURGOYNE AT
BRif.MUS HEIGHTS ON HUDSON'S RIVER, NEAR STILLWATER 292
Keproduced from tne original Map (pubiisnea in 1779 m Oeneral our- gqyne'sSfate of the Rxpedition from Canada) by the papy retype process, under the direction of Captain Abney, Royal Engineers.
FUNERAL OF BRIGADIER-GENERAL FRASER 296
FLAN OF THE POSITION WHICH THE ARMY UNDER LIEUT.- GENERAL BURGOYNE TOOK AT SARATOGA $02
Reproduced from the orinoal Map (published in 177$ in General Bur- goyne's StaUo/the ExptdUioHfrom Canada} by the poipyrotype process, under the direction of Captain Abney, Royal Engineers.
FACSIMILE OF LETTER FROM GEORGE WASHINGTON .... 329
lii|itii'SJ:.
3k jg'l^'iSc M'|i|{^'lfi|^'£Kfi^i i^e eminent American M'^ik^'fOJ^Ki^illM^B>>^t''nted Tor tluU of Jfr.
■2s:^K^.^:ffaifti«^(;^Jefel^.>- Scotch rebelUon of
^^•!!!w^L^^"f«;.^T^(ix/ "i6th" Bt^ment. glNlrafeT inveited comnuu to
firTi9%Swil," riad " Uetidftns."
"SSuffi'Hervey," fVttrf "General
AS^'i^Aere repeated. OmiL
^; ZsgZ ^mI I*^ ;'^®SpS«?^«e," reirf " ninety-nine,"
POLITICAL AND MILITARY
EPISODES
IN THE
FIRST HALF OF THE REIGN OF GEORGE III.
CHAPTER I.
BURGOYNE'S EARLY CAREER. 1729 — 1761.
TT Is not only "the evil that men do" that lives after them, while "the good is oft interred with their bones," but too frequently a solitary misfortune is. so severely visited upon the memory of a public man as to outweigh and bury in oblivion the fruitful services of a lifetime.
General Burgoyne had undoubtedly earned some claim to public recognition, as a writer and a politician as well as a soldier, in each of which capacities he had attained, if not an eminent, certainly a more than average position among his contemporaries.^
^ Lord Macaulay describes Burgoyne as " a man of wit, fashion, and honour, an agreeable dramatic writer, and an officer whose courage was never questioned, and whose skill was, at that time (i773)» highly esteemed." (Essay on Lord Clive, Edinburgh Review, January 1840.) Lord Mahon says : — ** In war his bravery was never questioned, and in civil life he was gifted with many high accomplishments ; a fluent speaker in Parliament and an agreeable writer of plays." — {History of England, vol. vi.) Horace
CHAP. I.
1 729-1761.
« •
Political and Military Episodes,
CHAP. I.
172^-1761.
But while his military, political, and literary services are forgotten, his name has gone down to posterity, and will, in time to come, continue linked with the national calamity in which he bore a prominent, though no blame- worthy part : the surrender of the army under his com- mand to an American general.
General Burgoyne has fared ill at the hands of con- temporary writers. Those who supported the war against America denounced him as the cause of their failure ; those who opposed it condemned him as an instrument of tyranny; while among the masses it soothed the national pride to cast the odium of a great public disaster upon the incompetence of an individual rather than to attribute it to the injustice and folly of Government and people, or to the inherent vices of a bad cause.
As a man who has been unjustly convicted of a crime receives, when his innocence is established, the royal pardon for an offence which he did not commit, but no compensation for the sufferings he has undergone, so General Burgoyne, though ultimately he fully vindicated his professional reputation, could not remove the pre- judice and injury which a long and powerful persecution had produced against him. All men had listened when he was accused; only his friends cared to hear him exonerated.
Burgoyne, the hero of Valencia d* Alcantara ; Burgoyne,
Walpole, no friendly critic, for he disliked Burgoyne, declares TX^ Heiress to be "the most genteel comedy in our language." American writers, with rare exceptions, bear generous testimony to the merits of the general whom they defeated. Neillson says : ** Burgoyne appears to have been a humane and honourable man ; a scholar and a gentleman \ a brave soldier and an able commander. Some of his sentiments have a higher moral tone than those in common with men of his profession, and have probably procured him more respect than all his battles."
r
Injustice done to the Memory of Burgqyne,
the trusted friend and colleague of Fox and Burke; Burgoyne, the popular poet and dramatist; Burgoyne, the honest and eloquent champion of oppressed India, is forgotten ; — ^but where is the Englishman or American who does not remember Burgoyne of Saratoga ? ^
There are few pages in modern history which English- men of a past generation would so gladly have blotted out of their national records as those which chronicle our long and fruitless efforts to subdue the American colonists by force of arms, when an arbitrary and unjust policy had goaded them into rebellion. It is owing probably to this reluctance to dwell upon events so little creditable to our political or military reputation, that historical justice has failed to remove from the name of a gallant soldier the slur cast upon it by an unscrupulous Ministry, in the hope to divert from themselves the responsibility for the disgrace and disaster incurred through their own recklessness and folly.
The lapse of a century has blunted the susceptibility of Englishmen in all that relates to that unhappy struggle, the incidents of which we can now recall, if not without regret, at least without bitterness or resent- ment. We have survived alike the humiliation of defeat, and the sense of injury over our loss ; for we recognize that victory in such a cause — had it been
CHAP. I.
1729-1761.
1 It is noteworthy that nearly 100 years after the convention of Saratoga, ihe name of Burgoyne became again connected with an event which, although of no political importance, may yet be classed among national calamities : the loss of her Majesty's turret ship Capiaitty which foundered during her trial trip in the Hay of Biscay in 1870, burying in the waves her gallant commander, Hugh Burgoyne (the General's grandson, and only son of that great and good man, F'ield-marshal Sir John Burgoyne), with her crew of 500 English sailors. Captain Burgoyne, who had while serving as a midshipman during the Crimean War earned the Victoria Cross by an act of exceptional ^Uantry, was at the time of his death one of the most accompl'ished and popular ofSicers in the Navy.
B 2
rx
Political and Military Episodes,
CHAP. I.
1729-1761.
possible — would have proved to us a curse rather than a blessing ; and that the nation, which the injustice of our forefathers called into existence, has within one century- become prosperous and great, almost beyond example, without impairing the welfare or the power of the British Empire.
Modern historians, rising above the mist of party feeling and personal prejudice, have, in dealing with his share of the American War, treated Burgoyne more fairly ; but the motives, the circumstances, and the in- numerable details which go to make up the sum of personal actions, are so minute as to elude the wide grasp of the historian, and it becomes the function of the less ambitious biographer, by supplying these links^ not only to supplement history but to do justice to individuals.
It is always a grateful task to right an injured repu- tation, and I shall feel gratified if I should succeed in removing unmerited aspersions from the memory of a gallant soldier and loyal gentleman ; such, however, is not the main object of this work. The career of Burgoyne is one possessed of much public interest, and calculated, from the character and position of the men with whom he lived in intimate relations, and the events in which he took a more or less prominent part, to throw light upon the social and political history of his time.
John Burgoyne was born in the year 1722. His father was the second son of the third baronet of the name, and his mother the daughter and heiress of a wealthy London merchant named Burnestone. It is curious that a piece of idle gossip, originally traceable to no higher source than the loose tongue of a jealous
'His Parentage,
woman, should have given rise to the belief that General Burgoyne was of illegitimate birth. Horace Walpole, in one of his ill-natured letters, endorses the scandal,^ and asserts as a fact that he was a natural son of Lord Bingley ; and this statement, from its not having elicited any public contradiction, has come to be generally accepted. Several of the obituary notices, in recording his death in 1794, perpetuate the calumny ; in a short sketch of his life, prefixed to a collection of his dramatic and poetical works, published in 1808, it is quoted as probably true ; and in a critique on his writings which appeared in the Morning Herald of 25th September, 1823, it is stated that Burgoyne's birth was doubtful or obscure, with an allusion to the report connecting him with Lord Bingley. Later biographers and historians have without exception adopted this story ;' and even a writer so habitually accurate and conscientious as Earl Stanhope has fallen into an error which a little inquiry would have avoided, for the fact of Burgoyne having been born in wedlock is beyond all dispute,'
1 See Last Journals and Letters to Dr. Mason, Walpole adds that ** Lord Bingley had put Burgoyne into the entail of the estate ; but when young Lane came of age the entail was cut off." Lord Bingley died in 1730, leaving an only daughter, in favour of whose husband, Mr. Lane, the title was revived in 1762. It is now extinct
* Mr. Bancroft, in his Histtry of the United States (vol. v.), not only records the scandal in the coarsest terms, but goes so far as to attribute Burgoyne's readiness "to sacrifice life and political princijjle" (though on what occasions he showed the latter disposition is not stated) to his 'Marling object of effacing the shame of his birth by win- ning military glory with rank and fortune/' It is a pi(y that so ingenious a theory should fall to the ground for want of the slightest foun- dation in the fact upon which it rests. Mr. Prescott throughout his work speaks of Buigoyne in terms of unjust disparagement ; in this respect he ! stanfls almost alone among American writers, most of whom express themselves of the English general whom their army defeat e<l in warm and generous terms.
' A reference to the Baronetage will suffice to establish the fact, but this
CHAP. I.
1 729- 1 761.
»'£■•=•=•— a.^ •;§»-
Episodts.
')'# il'ttk?l$tS4$^*o his mother, it must AS^8U||||»giWkgJg^re of which the lav lff{@'S^^'fi^S(JSt^f^'' ^^" under no cir- 'S^^^S^P^'Jl'wIl^harge of illegitimate M^i^||i||^^M4$fi^ver, that his parents rB{9^.'<lb''^J>apMtltSjbtonate terms, or that
J| H'^'iS J|m)|?h(!|9is fully confirmed by
tt^lS^SfOW H'^^i' written by Miss
_j^ i¥»?r^4|[| gftfi'Elizabeth Warburton,
'trji^i'^ ♦ " sipumbo' t%ih, 1823.
«i^:^tsi(aHi*^b*^^»^o vent my rage (not at
'W- '^ -*i -*i ^" 3^' ^-^^r
.tagc doetnot appear to b>ve
lis point, he has pemiifted me ting stfllement : — "GcDeral Horace Walpole's innuendo, baronet, of Sutton, bj Anna e. In Kimbet's Baronetage, ssue of the third baronet of
;hter of Bumestone and
ifilCBm's Baronetage, 1805, and in
'■~*pn, of the Heralds' Collie,
Ji«^ven with the addition, 'and
IQme, Commander in Amerioi '
% Ntinsi is, I fancy, beyond
iixth Baronet, named his
■I^Jiis esUle, and that Sir John
executor. The question is
but the fad of the tcanda)
^ngth of Walpole's gos^p
of his position and
without
"«S4f-^9'B'»S"l»S"'s!i*'el<^^'»l^ Sir John Bu^oyne.
f^nt" 'if 'if 'if 'if 'if •*■ •«■ •*•
The letter is addressed to
False Rumours,
you, but) at the Morning Herald of to-day,^ in which there is an article relating to your father that moves my ire, and which I think we might contrive to have con- tradicted in some parts, and cleared up in others. It speaks handsomely of him and his writings in the main, but expresses astonishment that nothing should be known of the origin and early life of a man of so much celebrity. You would suppose from what is said that his birth was obscure ; and it alludes to a report that he was a natural son of Lord Bingley, in which there was not one word of truth. I dare say you remember old Mrs. Carr, of this place, who knew him from his earliest years, and whose parents lived in great intimacy with Mr. and Mrs. Burgoyne, his parents. Your grandfather, I'm sorry to inform you, was one of those many fine gentlemen about town who contrive to run through their means, and finish their days in the King's Bench. He was at one time a captain in the army, and was the second son of Sir John Burgoyne (third baronet of the family) by Constance, daughter of Richard Lucy, Esq., of Charlecote, in Warwickshire. Your grandmother's name was Burneston. She was a co-heiress, and brought a good fortune, which, however, her husband dissipated. She was exceedingly beautiful, of which she had great remains when I knew her at more than seventy years of age. Her intimacy with the Carrs continued as long as Mrs. Carr, a highly respectable woman, lived. Lord Bingley also lived intimately in the same set, but not so
* The passage referred to is this : — **It is curious that a man of such celebrity as a writer, a senator, and an officer as the late Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne, should be found among the number of those of whose youthful days no memorial has been preserved. Neither the time, place, nor circumstance of his birth are known. Even his parentage is doubtful. He is said, though upon what authority does not api:>ear, to have been a natural son of Lord Bingley, who died at an advanced age in 1774*"
CHAP. r.
1729-1761.
8
Political and Military Episodes,
CHAP. I.
1 729- 1 761.
his lady, whose ungovernable temper and malignancy oT disposition rendered her a dangerous as well as dis- agreeable associate. It happened that when your father was christened, Lord Bingley was one of the sponsors ; upon which Lady Bingley raised a story to poor Mrs. Burgoyne's disadvantage, which, at a later period, in some minds gained a footing, in consequence of Lord Bingley bequeathing your father a handsome legacy as his godson. But Mrs. Carr (my old friend) assured me there was not the slightest truth in the story ; and she added: — *My mother was so particularly nice in the choice of her acquaintance ' (of which she gave a strong instance) 'that I'm very sure if she had seen the least impropriety in Mrs. Burgoyne's behaviour, she would not have continued in friendship with her.'
" So much for your father's birth and parentage. I wish Mr. Montagu Burgoyne would take the matter up, so far as to make known the relationship he bore to an old and honourable house, of which he was indeed a member ; and I think it not unlikely, if he sees the article in the Herald^ that he will do so."
John Burgoyne was educated at Westminster, where he formed that intimacy with Lord Strange, the eldest son of the eleventh Earl of Derby ,^ which was destined to exercise so powerful an influence upon his life and fortunes. He entered the army at an early age, and succeeded to a troop in the 13th Dragoons in 1744, His intimacy in Lord Derby's family had led to a strong attachment being formed between him and Lady Char- lotte Stanley, which ultimately, about the year 1743, while he was quartered with his regiment at Preston,
* Lord Strange never succeeded to the Earldom, having died during his father's lifetime in 177 1 ; his son Lecame twelfth Earl in 1776.
Retires to France,
resulted in an elopement. The marriage was an impru- dent and unequal one. The young soldier of fortune, who had inherited little from his father beyond his extrava- gant tastes, was no suitable match for the daughter of one of England's greatest peers; but in contravention of the rule in such cases, the union proved exceptionally happy for both, and the letters and private papers that have been preserved in the family afford touching proofs of Burgoyne's deep and unaltered affection for his wife after the lapse of many eventful years. Although the Derby family at first resented the marriage, they soon became reconciled with Burgoyne, whose friendship with Lord Strange ended only with their lives.
With all his natural gifts and social accomplishments, however, the young soldier was unequal to solving the problem of how to enable two persons to live upon means which had proved insufficient for one, and in 1747, the res angustce domi obliged him to retire from the army and take up his abode on the Continent. There are unfortunately no records relating to his seven years' exile, the greater part of which he passed in France, having settled near Chanteloup, the magnificent residence of the Due de Choiseul. " Here," Miss Warburton says, in the letter already quoted, " commenced the intimacy of your father and my aunt with the Duke and Duchess of Choiseul, which ceased only with their lives. They went together on a tour of pleasure into Italy ; and at Rome Ramsey took the portrait of your father, which Mrs. Horton afterwards had. ... I shall ever regret your father's memoir by his own hand not being forthcoming, as he would have been able, from his long intimacy with the ex-Minister of France,^ to have thrown great light
' There is some confusion here. At the lime Burgoyne went to live abroad, Choiseul, or, as he was then, the Comte de Staiuville, was only
CHAP. I.
1 729. 1 76 1.
lO
Political and Military Episodes,
CHAP. I.
1 729-1 761.
Upon events very interesting both to England and to France."
It is not a little remarkable in how great a degree John Burgoyne possessed the faculty of inspiring attach- ment in all those with whom he came in contact, and how strong and lasting his friendships were through all the changes and vicissitudes of his long life. He appears to have been essentially a lovable man.
His knowledge of the French language, which was extolled by some of his military contemporaries (it being in those days by no means a common accomplishment), was probably acquired during these years ; but his cor- respondence in that language, although it subsequently improved, does not at this time show him to have mastered its idiomatic difficulties, and his earlier French compositions had very much the character of what Mn Kinglake^ calls " continental English." It sufficed, how- ever, to enable him to make his way in foreign society, as well as to study the military literature of France, and to instruct himself generally in the science of war. These pursuits may have contributed to his anxiety to be restored to a profession which he had left with regret, and which had always been congenial to his tastes. The reinstatement of an officer in the army after his having retired from it for many years, was, however, even in those days of irresponsible patronage, a rare, if not an un- precedented step, and there can be little doubt but that the exception made in his favour was due to the interest
twenty-eight years of age, he having been bom in 1719 ; but he had already been employed on several important diplomatic missions. He did not become a Cabinet Minister until a later period, though, thanks to Madame de Pompadour, he enjoyed great Court favour. He died in 1785. ^ Eothen, The reader may remember the happy remark on this sub- ject : " Where will you find more terse Saxon English than in the Duke of Wellington's French despatches ? "
Reinstated in the Army,
II
of the Derby family, who, in common with two or three other great Whig houses, exercised an all-powerful in- fluence in the State under the two first Georges.
Be this as it may, in 1756 John Burgoyne was gazetted junior Captain of the nth Regiment of Dragoons, a position which, as appears from a letter written by him to his commanding officer, Major Warde, was conferred with a view to early professional advancement
" I cannot help saying," he writes on 23rd November, 1757, "that the circumstance of serving undergo many men whom I had commanded appeared so disagreeable to me, when my friends proposed my entering a second time into the army, that I should not have suffered any application to be made for me had I not had good assur- ances that I should not long continue a captain, and had I not flattered myself that my situation would have procured me in that rank in the regiment as many indulgences as could be made consistently with the good of the service. I have great reason to believe that I shall not be disappointed in the first of these expectations, and I return you a thousand thanks for the manner in which you deal with me in regard to the last."
At this time all Europe was mapped out into large military camps, and while the main body of the English forces engaged in the Seven Years* War was operating under Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick in Germany, the British Government had organized several joint naval and military expeditions against the French coast.
In 1758, Captain Burgoyne served under the Duke of Marlborough in the attack upon Cherbourg, the basin and fortifications of which we destroyed.^
CHAP. I.
1729-1761.
* The absence of discipline among the English troops employed on this expedition was very conspicuous, and great outrages were committed upon
12
Political and iluitarj Episcfes,
CHAT, L
1729-1761,
He was also present at the uDfortunate expedition in the same year against St Malo. of which he has left a concise and graphic descnptioa in a private letter.
The force was under command of Lieutenant-General Biigh and Admiral Howe. The former, contrary, it appears, to the ad\'ice of his na\^ colleague, disembarked the army on an unfavourable point of the coast, without having informed himself of the strength or position of the enemy. " Two days after the landing," writes Burgoyne, ** 2i deserter came in from the enemy who informed the Generals that the Due d^Aiguillon, with an army double our number, was within six miles, and that he was pushing to get between Matignon, where the gross of our army lay, and the sea. Our situation now* became critical, and an aide-de-camp was despatched to Lord Howe to countermand the provisions, and to make a disposition to embark the troops early next morning. Lord Howe, as soon as it was day, had brought the bomb-ketches and frigates as near the shore as possible in a circular bay,^ about an English mile in extent ; the right bounded by a steep hill, with a village on the top ; the left by a range of high rocks, which stretched a con- siderable distance into the sea. On the top of the beach ran a breastwork, cannon-proof, that had been formerly thrown up to oppose a descent ; beyond this was a plain of about a quarter of a mile, terminated by a range of hills on the side of which were two works and the village of St. Quest. By the time half the rear brigade of the army had gained the beach, the first column of the enemy appeared on the top of the hill. We began embarking as fast as possible, beginning with the
ihe inhabitants of Cherbourg, in spite of all the efforts of the Commanden- in*chief, who had guaranteed the lives and properties of non-combataQls. See Mahon*s Ilisiory of England. * The Bay of St. Quest.
Fatal Attempt on St. Malo.
13
Dragoons and youngest regiments. The Guards and Grenadiers of the Line, who were to cover the retreat, were drawn up close to the breastwork, and stretched from one end of the bay to the other. About nine o'clock our bombs began firing, and the first shells that were thrown took effect on the top of the hill with some success. When the enemy began to descend, which was about nine o'clock, all the frigates gave him their broadsides, and from this moment it was a continual fire till the whole affair was over. About ten the enemy opened a battery of cannon on the top of the hill, which did not hurt us much. Soon afterwards C. and myself, who were upon the right of all, perceived a very large body pushing with great expedition upon the hill on the right, in the intention to flank us. Of this we immediately informed the Generals, but received no order how to act, and were obliged to determine upon our own authority to wheel the divisions we commanded so as to front the enemy. A short time afterwards I received orders to lead 300 men up the hill, but this was countermanded before I had got forty yards, and the whole battalion was ordered to occupy the rocks upon the left, towards which another column of the enemy was advancing. About twelve the enemy poured down from the village of St. Quay and from the hill on the right, in the face of all the fire from the frigates and bomb-ketches. The fire of our Grenadiers did great execution while they were forming, but they advanced with resolution, and the ammunition of our men being wholly expended,^ they were obliged to quit the breastwork. During the whole of these proceedings
* This is not the only proof of the utter want of military preparation
and foresight, for in another part of this letter, Burgoyne mentions that
only three waggons had been landed for all purposes of transport for a force
of K^ooo men, while " the sick and wounded alone could not have been
. properly contained in a dozen."
CHAP. I.
1729-I761.
rif .I'M ?■■a4ili^a^9.1f.
:-S--S-:*:-2
§sense, may up to this
^]^K:^stSa in our service. The
s had done admirable
lia^a^pa^ljte field ; the Dragoons,
|: infantry mounted for
tiCmr^Cvice ; and during the
^'n in the beginning of
_|; sJo^^^Sight horse were raised
^^•^^tl^-i^ not then learnt the
'■'-S*^Mt*^'|f^'nots by bodies of
^w^lcgn-^feSi have played so im-
« l&:^i^^<|?iE5Df war.
.:|:I::k:«::i:
»^SS>kBnMt^a|a^^liind, strip[>ei1 of all his miliUr; EBap9^8i*'mlS^?^a«osl as wverely blamed by his
jj. . jj. .^. .^. .^(. .^. -jj. .5.
Burgoynes Light Horse,
IS
According to a French military writer,^ it was the example of Frederick the Great which first led us, in common with themselves and other European powers, to introduce this arm : and the choice of Burgoyne for the organization and training of one of these regiments, though owing to his comparatively junior rank and standing it created some jealousy at the time, was fully justified by the result. By unremitting attention to the drill and discipline of this force, he soon succeeded in bringing it to the highest degree of efficiency, and in attaining a quickness of movement without the sacrifice of regularity, never before attempted in a mounted corps.
The King gave him repeated proofs of his approbation, and George the Third, after his accession, used to take a particular pleasure in reviewing ** Burgoyne's Light Horse," as the corps was commonly called.
The following extracts from a Code of Instructions drawn up by Colonel Burgoyne for the guidance of his officers, shows, not only the minute care which he bestowed upon every duty connected with his command, but also the importance which he, in contradistinction to the ordinary military martinet of his time, attached to
^ Major Rocquancourt, author of Cours d^Art et d^Histoire MUiiaire (Paris, 1 841). But the Prussian king had himself learnt his new cavalry tactics from the example of the Austrians, whose Hungarian Hussars enjoyed a high reputation; and from Charles XII. of Sweden, whose chevaux ligers had in the preceding century greatly contributed to his successes. It is related of these by Nolan in his Cavalry Tatties (London, 1854), that they had pursued the Saxons in their retreat into Silesia under Schulembourg, for nine successive days without unsaddling, a feat which to the colossal men and horses of the Prussian cavalry must have appeared incredible. The great Frederick took an exceptional interest in the practical development of this arm, and in writing of the value of Light Cavalry as a means of observation and intelligence, uses an expression which has since grown into a military proverb: ** Ce sont vos oreilles et vos yeux." See CEuvres Militaires d< FridhicII. (Berlin, 1851).
CHAP, I.
1 729-1761.
1
Ws' -
16
Political and Military Episodes.
'K
i^.
CHAP. I. 1729-1761.
intellectual culture arid moral influence as instruments of discipline : —
'* The officers of the isth Regiment of Dragoons being as much particularized by their youth and inexperience as by their rank and fortune, some instructions which seem superfluous to older soldiers become necessary to many of them ; and any hints which may tend to pro- mote the King's service or the credit of the corps, will be acceptable to all of them. It is proposed, therefore, to throw together in the first place whatever may occur relative to the conduct of officers of a new dragoon corps in general ; and afterwards to endeavour to point out the particulars which regard each several station. It is not intended to offer anything in the following sheets as the orders of a commanding officer, but as the senti- ments of a friend, partly borrowed and partly formed upon observation and practice." ...
Promotion from the ranks to commissions did not appear to Colonel Burgoyne within the bounds of pos- sibility, and he lays it down as an understood proposition that "the ranks of corporal and sergeant should be considered as the most signal honour and reward that a man from the ranks could attain," as, indeed, in those days it was ; but, because of this being the case, he enjoins the nicest discrimination in the advancement of private soldiers to the non-commissioned ranks, and he proceeds in a semi-philosophical tone, curiously at vari- ance with modern military instructions, to argue upon the best methods of training the soldier for the superior positions, recommending a medium course between the great Frederick's brutal system of coercion and the laxity of French discipline.^
' Thomas Campbell, in his history of Frederick the Great, states that after the Seven Years' War, the French, attributing the military efficiency
Instructions to Officers,
17
"There are two systems which, generally speaking, divide the disciplinarians ; the one is that ol training men like spaniels^ by the stick ; the other, after the French, of substituting ^the point of honour in tlu place of severity. The followers of the first are for reducing the nature of man as low as it will bear. Sight, hearing, and feeling are the only senses necessary, and all qualities of reason become not only useless but troublesome. The admirers of the latter, who commonly argue more from specula- tion than practice, are for exalting rationality, and they are commonly deceived in their expectations. The German are the best ; the French, by the avowal of their own officers, the worst disciplined troops in Europe. I apprehend a just medium between the two extremes to be the surest means to bring English soldiers to perfec- tion. Without entering into philosophy, one reflection will suffice to show why an Englishman will not bear beating so well as the foreigners in question. In the one instance, reason is never called forth by education. A stranger to the rights of a fellow creature, inured from infancy to slavery, ignorance, and hardship, the recruit verges upon the state of mere animal instinct before he enters the service. In the other, before the indiscriminate use of the stick can be quietly submitted to, the man must be divested of all the favourite ideas of his country, implanted in childhood, and fostered by the laws of liberty, custom, ease, and plenty. It must be confessed, the German method, when the subjects to be operated upon are proper, is by much the most easy and short ; and officers might be of great assistance in forming a
of Prussia to the severity of their criminal code, attempted to introduce it into their army, to the disgust of the officers, one of whom, having been obliged to condemn a soldier to twenty-five lashes, witnessed the execution of the sentence, and then plunged his sword into his own body.
C
CHAP. I. 1729-1761.
i8
Political and Military Episodes.
CHAP. I.
I729-I761.
corps without many more ideas than the men they command. To succeed where minds are to be wrought upon, requires both discernment and labour ; but for an encouragement to the effort, it may be depended upon that mechanical valour will always be surpassed by national spirit and personal attachment where disci- pline is equal. Admitting then that English soldiers are to be treated as thinking beings, the reason will imme- diately appear of getting insight into the character of each particular man, and proportioning accordingly the d^rees of punishment and encouragement."
Swearing at the soldier is prohibited as "faulty, if for no other reason than that it is condemned by the articles of war," and, although the maintenance of a strict line of demarcation between officers and men is impera- tively enjoined, "there are occasions, such as during stable or fatigue duty, when officers may slacken the reins so far as to talk with soldiers ; nay, even a joke may be used, not only without harm but to good purpose, for condescensions well applied are an encouragement to the well disposed, and at the same time a tacit reproof to others.*'
On the other hand, while exacting the strictest sub- ordination of officers on duty, Colonel Burgoyne insists upon their complete social equality in private intercourse. "Any restraint upon conversation (off parade), unless when an offence against religion, morals, or good breeding is in question, is grating, and, though I may differ from some gentlemen whose abilities as officers I venerate, I will venture to affirm that it ought to be the charac- teristic of every gentleman neither to impose nor to submit to any distinction, but such as propriety of conduct or superiority of talent naturally create." Those who in the present day cavil at recent legisla-
Military Studies.
19
tion in the direction of improved education among military officers, will be surprised to find that Colonel Burgoyne, a century and a quarter ago, was disposed to exact quite as much general knowledge from regimental officers as the most ardent of modern reformers.
" The two last wars have filled the army with excellent officers from the year 1743. The military science, which in the course of the long peace had degenerated into the tricks of parade and the froth of discipline, has been attentively considered both in theory and practice ; and to the honour of the cloth be it said there are few sets of officers now to be met with where an ignorant man could converse upon his profession without exposing himself. A short space of time given to reading each day, if the books are well chosen and the subject pro- perly digested, will furnish a great deal of instruction. To those who do not understand French, I would re- commend a serious and assiduous application till they attain it. The best modern books upon our profession are written in that language, and in foreign service gentlemen will find themselves at the greatest loss if they do not both write and speak it readily. I should be sorry, nevertheless, to engage them so far in that pursuit as to neglect the study of our native tongue. An officer ought to write English with swiftness and accuracy. He ought also to be well versed in figures ; from con- tempt of the latter, numberless inconveniences arise. I mention, as one of the most trivial, a false return which officers will continually sign if they trust the figure part to a sergeant
" The study of mathematics is so well known to be of utility in a military life, and the recommendation of it to youth so universal, that it is needless to enforce it. I shall only say that so much of engineering, as regards
C 2
CHAP. I.
I 729- I 76 I
20
Political and Military Episodes.
CHAP. I.
1 729- 1 761.
the construction of a breastwork or the attack of a redoubt, may be necessary for light dragoons ; but, ex- clusive of these and much higher purposes, one great advantage which attends an application to this science is that it strongly exercises the mind, and common reading becomes a relaxation after it If a man has a taste for drawing, it will add a very pleasing and useful qualification ; and I would recommend him to practise taking views from an eminence, and to measure distances with his eye. This would be a talent peculiarly adapted to the light dragoon service."
It was recently related of the commanding officer of a cavalry regiment that on the inspecting general expressing disapproval of the condition of the troop horses, he replied that he was not a veterinary surgeon. Colonel Burgoyne would have dealt very summarily with such a man, for he laid it down as a rule that an officer could never properly enforce a duty on the part of his subordinates which he was unable to perform himself in case of need ; and seems to have been of the opinion of one of the best cavalry officers of our days, that no man was fit to hold a commission in a mounted corps who could not shoe a horse.*
" I come now to a point of the utmost importance in the dragoon service, though, in general, much neglected : — the study of horsemanship. This term is in the com- mon acceptation of it confined to the grace and art of riding ; but to take it in the large sense, comprehends the knowledge of every article that concerns the horse or the rider; a knowledge as necessary to a dragoon officer as is that of the construction of a vessel to a seaman. The defects, common to be observed, proceed
^ The late Colonel Jacob of the Bombay army, who was killed during the Indian mutiny in the assault on Delhi.
Horsemanship.
21
from want of attention to the first elements upon which the science depends. I will venture to affirm, for ex- ample, though it may seem a paradox, that there is many a gentleman able to carry a dressed horse through every lesson of the man^ge^ with grace and even exact- ness of hand, who are totally ignorant of the principles upon which a common bit and curb act upon the mouth. The reason is, they have been used to have everything adjusted by their groom, and their riding-master has taught them how to give their aids without ever informing them why the horse obeys them."
To bring this matter home to our purpose, how frequently may we see, even in old and celebrated regi- ments (at least in parties which have not been looked over by a field-officer or a riding-master), bits ill fitted, accoutrements slovenly put on, twisted stirrups, saddles out of their places, &c., while an officer at their head, exactly equipped and a good rider, is wholly unconscious of anything amiss.
There is but one way to prevent the reflections which such oversights bring upon an officer and the corps, and that is not a very difficult one. Let every officer make himself thoroughly acquainted with every minute part of the accoutrements, consider the purposes' they severally serve, and look critically over every man at the troop parade. Thus they will not only soon find their eye become offended with anything out of its place, but the men, by being so constantly set right, will acquire a nicety and a pride about their equipment which they will never lose, and which will add greatly to their appearance as well as to more essential advantages. There is an opening at present among the dragoons for a regiment to gain credit by an attention of this sort.
I hope I shall not appear finical, if I recommend to
CHAP. I.
I729-I76I.
22
CHAP. I.
1 729- 1 761.
Political and Military Episodes.
officers sometimes to accoutre and bridle a horse them- selves till they are thoroughly acquainted with the use of each strap and buckle. I submit to the consideration of those who may possibly think such an employment a degradation, whether a reproof from a field officer, or, what is perhaps worse, a criticism from a judicious spec- tator, would not give them more pain. I cannot dismiss this point without advising every officer who is master of the French language to read * Les Institutions Mili- taires de la Poti^re.' The other points necessary to con- stitute a horseman, in my sense of the word, and not at all below the attention of a gentleman, are a competent knowledge of farriery, and, what might be reckoned a branch of it, in feeding horses for health and business. The small allowance given by the Government for corn sometimes makes the latter a matter of great moment, and the opportunities which will frequently arise of rescuing a noble animal from the hands of an ignorant and cruel blacksmith, will make an application of the former very agreeable."
Burgoyne appears always to have been fond of writing, a predilection not uncommon among soldiers of our days, but rare in his time ; and he was fastidious and ornate in his style. The drafts of many of his letters are almost illegible from alterations and corrections, and in his correspondence on the most trivial matters, he seems to have aimed at an ambitious literary standard. There is a letter of his extant, addressed to a captain in his regiment, and endorsed " To Sir William Williams on the only dispute that was ever between us," the concluding paragraph of which runs thus : —
" Having now fully explained myself upon your letter, I assure you, dear Sir William, from the bottom of my heart, I have no wish more sincere than that you may
Literary Style,
23
apprehend and believe that I mean to profess myself zealous for the honour of the corps in general, and earnest in my inclination to cultivate your acquaintance in par- ticular. I esteem your ardour for the service; I love your ingenuousness ; I am sensible of your talent ; I condemn your impetuosity."
There is something ludicrous in the employment of this highflown language in the discussion of the qualifi- cations of a corporal, and the necessity of an additional drum in the regimental band, but a stilted and inflated style was the prevailing literary vice of those days ; and although Horace Walpole, who never lost a chance of having a fling at Burgoyne, dubbed him ** Pomposo," his writings do not suffer in comparison with those of most of his contemporaries, or with the speeches of men of far higher pretensions to purity of style.^
In 1760, the 1 6th Light Dragoons were ordered to hold themselves in readiness for embarkation to join the allied forces under Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, in Germany, but these orders were countermanded. In the following year two troops were ordered to embark for the expedition against Belle Isle, when Burgoyne, whose rank disqualified him for the command of a detachment of his corps, joined the expedition as a volunteer, greatly.
J Colonel Wrottcslcy in his admirable Life of Field- Marshal Sir John Burgoyne^ says with much truth in reference to the style of General Bai^yne : — " The warmth of imagination which occasionally led him into bombast in his public documents, is toned down in his private letters to a natural depth of feeling and simplicity of manner which reveal the charm that captivated his contemporaries."
The most exaggerated of Burgoyne's effiisions, such as the American proclamation of 1777, is not after all more florid than some of the writings of Burke, or the speeches of Chatham, the effect of which does not appear to have been marred by what Horace Walpole, whose style was singularly free from such blemish, calls the ''redundancy of images."
CHAP. I.
172^1761:
24
Political and Military Episodes.
CHAP. I,
1729-1761.
as it appears, against the wish of his wife, whose anxieties he attempted (with what success does not appear) to sootlie by the following lines : —
*' Still does my obstinate repine,
And reason's voice reprove ; Still think him cold who would combine i,'
Philosophy with love. Try then from yet a nobler source
To draw thy wished relief ; Faith adds to reason double force.
And mocks the assaults of grief. By her, fair hope's enlivening ray,
Patience, and peace are given ; Attend her calls ; resign, obey,
And leave the rest to Heaven ! The power that formed my Charlotte's heart
Thus tender, thus sincere, Shall bless each wish that love can start,
Or absence foster there. Safe in the shadow of that Power,
I'll tread the hostile ground ; Though fiery deaths in tempest shower,
And thousands fall around. And when the happy hour shall come,
(Oh ! speedy may it be !) That brings thy faithful soldier home
To love, content, and thee ; Pure may our gratitude ascend
To Him who guides our days, And whilst He gives with bounteous hand,
Accepts our bliss for praise ! "
The force employed against Belle Isle consisted of ten ships of the line, under Admiral Keppel, and about 6,000 men of all arms,^ under General Hodgson^ who,
^ It is not easy to understand why cavalry were employed upon these raids, and more particularly in the siege of a fortified place on a small island. The use of this arm appears, however, to have been general in ever)' description of warfare, quite irrespective of its character, and one of our best cavalry regiments was almost annihilated while engaged in the attempt to put down an insurrection among the runaway Spanish slaves, in the jungles and inaccessible mountain passes of Jamaica, during what was called the Maroon War.
Attack on Belle Isle.
25
writing to the Secretary of War, from on board his Transport, off St. Helens, on 29th March,* speaks dis- paragingly enough of the condition of his troops, and urges, among other complaints, the paucity of officers as " intolerable." " In one regiment alone," he writes, ** no less than fifteen officers are absent, and among others the major and five captains."
The first attack on Belle Isle, on 7th April, failed, the English troops being repulsed with a loss of 500 men ; but they subsequently effected a landing on a part of the coast considered inaccessible, and, therefore, weakly guarded, and invested the citadel of Le Palais, the garrison of which, after a gallant defence, capitulated on the 7th June, and marched out through the breaches with the honours of war.
Burgoyne happily escaped the " fiery deaths " invoked in his verses ; not so, however, his friend, the Sir William Williams, before mentioned, who commanded one of the troops of the light horse employed on this service. He was shot by an advance sentry of the enemy, having, it is supposed, lost his way while reconnoitring.
In his report of this officer's death, to the War Office, General Hodgson mentions : —
•* He had some papers and two of Drummond's notes of ;£^ioo each in his pocket, which the Chevalier de St. Croix, commandant of the citadel, sent me yesterday by a drum."
The "Annual Register" records of Sir William Williams that he was " the third gentleman of fashion whom in this war the love of enterprise had brought to an honourable death in these expeditions to the coast of France."
' This report, with many other official documents referred to in the conrse of this work, is to be found in the archives of the War Office.
CHAP. I.
1729-1761
a »-
■^S^ Episodes.
force remained restored to France 763-
less than 6,000 Id and wounded in this
P^elher of wounds oi sickDess,
litr'
i^ost by the huid of tbe a i^Hio fell vtcttnu to privaiii "*** igeraenls. See tool-ni
• ••rtaiBJitS^BioWlviciims W privations of
CHAPTER II.
CAMPAIGN IN PORTUGAL.
1762-63.
BURGOYNE returned home towards the end of 1761, when he was elected member of Parliament for the borough of Midhurst ; but before he could take his seat England had declared war with Spain (January, 1762), and his regiment receiving orders to hold itself in readi- ness for foreign service, he eagerly seized the opportunity of taking part in active operations on a larger scale than any of which he had yet had experience.
During the preceding year the Due de Choiseul had succeeded in forming the Bourbon confederacy, known as " the family compact," and he now did his utmost by threats and cajolery to detach Portugal from a neutrality which was supposed to afford exceptional advantages to England.
In March 1762, the French and Spanish Ministers, at Lisbon, presented a joint memorandum to the Portuguese Government, urging the King to enter into an alliance which their Sovereigns had felt it necessary to form in order "to curb the pride of the British nation which aspires to become despotic over the sea." To this document, which was couched in a tone of studied
CHAP. II.
1 762- 1 763.
|
*■■• ^ |
• |
|
4 "" f |
28 |
|
s |
CHAP. II. |
Political and Military Episodes.
1 762- 1 763.
menace, and which concluded with a hint that a pow-erful army was already concentrated on the Portuguese fron- tiers, a categorical answer was demanded within four days.
The King of Portugal replied in moderate but firm language, refusing to take up arms against England, and expressing his determination to repel force by force should his territory be invaded, and the English Govern- ment, in fulfilment of its obligations to a loyal ally, engaged to furnish a subsidy in money and a contingent ' of seven or eight thousand British troops ^ in aid of the defence and independence of Portugal.
Mr. Pitt graphically described the nature of our co- operation, fn reply to some objections raised in Parlia- ' mcnt to our undertaking the cause of Portugal, when he ' said, " I do not mean that we should carry the King of I Portugal on our shoulders, but only that we should set him on his legs, and put a sword into his hand."
Indeed, in anticipation of the threatened action of France and Spain, the Conde de Oeyras, better known by his later title of Marquis de Pombal, the enlightened Prime Minister of Joseph the First, had been for some time engaged in organizing a national army, for which purpose he had obtained the assistance of English officers. The veteran general, Lord Tyrawley, directed this service in his joint capacity of ambassador and com- mander-in-chief; but he would appear to have wanted both the genius and the inclination for the successful performance of such a task. Shortly after his arrival in Lisbon he wrote to Mr. Pitt that the Portuguese forces were a mere rabble, and the Spanish army little better ; adding, " Ten thousand disciplined troops upon the
* The force actually eitibarked was, according to oHicial returns at the 1 War Office, 7,164 officers and men of all arms.
Count La Lippe,
29
frontier might take their choice whether they would inarch upon Lisbon or Madrid." To create a force capable of defending this country against the allied armies of France and Spain, out of a disorganized mass of half armed peasants, required a master mind, and such was found in the general whom Oeyras succeeded in enlisting in his country's cause, the reigning Count of Schaumbui^ Lippe, then a field-marshal and master- general of Artillery, under Prince Ferdinand of Bruns- wick in Germany.^
A younger son of the reigning count of a small princi- pality in North-western Germany," Wilhelm La Lippe had from childhood upwards shown a marked predilection for a military life, together, with what is far less common, an extraordinary aptitude for military science. His father was a kinsman* and a frequent guest of George the Second, at whose court the boy was born in 1724, and where he received his early education. He was subsequently sent to study at Geneva, and in 1742 obtained a commission in the foot guards from the King of England, under whom he fought at Dettingen, dis- tinguishing himself by his intrepidity and his coolness under fire.* During the twenty years of the almost
^ Carlyle says in his History of Frederick the Great^ that on the appointment of Count La Lippe to the command of the Portuguese army, •*Tyrawley resigned in a huff," but there is reason to believe that he himself suggested the choice of one with whom he had served, and whose merits he appreciated, to supersede him in the performance of an uncon- genial duty.
' Schaumburg Lippe, in contradistinction to the adjoining territory of Lippe Detwold, bordered by Hanover and Westphalia, has an area of about 210 square miles, and a population of less than 3o,ocx>.
'He was a son of George L, by the Duchess of Kendal.
^ Count Schulembourg, under whom La Lippe subsequently served in Italy, punished what he described as rashness, by sending him on detached duty on the eve of a general action, as a hint that an officer had no business to be shot uselessly. Militdr Conversations Lexicon^ Leipsig.
CHAP. II.
I 762- I 763.
«
30
Political and Military Episodes.
CHAP. II.
1762-1763.
uninterrupted warfare which followed, William la Lippe sought service wherever military experience or honour could be gained, nor did he allow his unexpected suc- cession to his little sovereignty to interfere with his chosen career. On the conclusion of the Seven Years War, however, the prospect of a lasting peace relegated him to his civil duties, and he retired to his dominions, where, following the ruling passion of his mind, he established a high school of military science,^ in which he himself presided over the mathematical class. He also devoted himself to the working out, upon the small scale of which his principality admitted, a theory which has since been developed with the most important results upon the history of Europe. Starting with the proposition that man was by nature a fighting animal ; deducing from this that wars were inevitable, and that in war national defence was the first duty owed by the citizen to the state, he endeavoured practically to solve the problem of exacting military service without un- nessary detriment to national industry, or, in other words, how to create the largest possible army at the smallest possible cost.*
General Gneisenau, who was, in the sturdy Blucher's campaigns, what Moltke was in Prussia's latest war, thus speaks of the results of La Lippe's labours in a letter addressed by him to Varnhagen von Ense : —
" You have praised the Count La Lippe highly,* yet not as befits his merit. He was far greater than you re-
^ The Wilhelmstein Academy for the training of Artillery and Engineer officers.
' Count La Lippe expresses these views in his Mhnoires sur la Gutrre df/enswe^ of which a few copies were printed at Biickebourg, and one section of which is entitled " The art of protecting a small State against a greater Power."
■ With reference to Von Ense's DenkmaaU published in Berlin in 1824.
His Military Genius.
31
present him. I formerly stayed some time in his capital of Biickebourg, and have read his manuscripts in the archives there. All our systems of national armament with its Landwehr and Landsturm, the whole modern method of making war, this man thus thoroughly worked out ; in its greatest principles and smallest details he had learned and practically taught it Just think what kind of man he must have been whose genius could thus forecast the most vast requirements of war, so that their realisation in latter days actually shattered the whole power of Napoleon himself/*^
Two generations later, the yet more complete develop- ment of La Lippe's theory again broke the power of a Napoleon, and established Prussia in the rank of the first military power in the world.
La Lippe*s private character was in no wise inferior to his military genius. General Schamhorst, one of Prussia's bravest soldiers, and best tactician, had been his favourite pupil at Wilhelmstein, and he thus speaks of his patron and benefactor shortly after his death in^i 776 : —
" Seldom have there been united such entire goodness of heart with so many fine qualities of mind. He never left the distressed without relief, nor the widow and orphan without care for their condition. Every expense of his small court was reduced, in order that he might enjoy the happiness of making others happy. Towards those about him, he was very agreeable and courteous. In his school he was at once organizer, inspector, bene- factor, and friend. He made many a young man happy, and his lessons are already bearing fruit."
Such was the man who now left the scene of glorious
CHAP. II.
1 762- 1 763.
' Das Leben des Generals von Schamhorst Von G. H. Klippel : Ldpsig, 1S70. For an admirable critique on this work see the Edinburgh Review for October, 1874.
I ■'• » - f «
32
Political and Military Episodes,
CHAP. II.
1 762- 1 763.
achievements under the great Frederick to infuse military ' spirit and discipline into the disorganized and discour- aged ranks of the Portuguese army, and to enable them to offer a front to the overwhelming force threatening to invade their territory. It was a formidable task, but La Lippe was not a man to be deterred by difficulty.
" The best artillery officer in the world^ — a man of ex- cellent knowledge and faculty in various departments ; strict as steel with regard to discipline, to practise, anc conduct of all kinds ; a most punctilious, silently supercili- ous gentleman of polite but privately irrefragable turn of mind." This politeness must have been not a little outraged, when, seated at a banquet given to him by the Portuguese Generals, La Lippe found that the valets waiting at the table were the captains and lieutenants under his command.* The Portuguese army had at this time fallen into a state of complete disorganization ; and though PombaVs energy* had enabled him to initiate considerable administrative reforms, and to have brought a force of 60,000 men under arms, the condition of these troops must have appeared lamentable enough to La Lippe, whose set vice had been passed among the best disciplined and most highly organized army then ex- isting. His estimate of the artillery may be gathered from the fact that he offered a prize to such gunners as should strike the flag attached to the pole of his tent,
^ Carlyle's Frederick the Great^ Vol. 6.
■ Varnhagen von Ense in his " Denkmaale" says that the officers of the Portuguese army at this time frequently followed mechanical trades in order to maintain themselves ; that Captains were tailors, and their wives washerwomen ; that General officers gave their servants commissions in the army in lieu of wages ; and that the guards on duty at the King's palace in Lisbon would, with outstretched hand, and on bended knees, beg alms from passers by.
• The English Minister at Lisbon reported in 1760, that Pombal com- bined with his functions of Prime Minister those of Commander-in-Chief.
A German View of English Troops.
33
and this practice was carried on during the return dinner which he gave to the Portuguese Generals, and at which he presided much in the manner of Diogenes, when he seated himself in front of their target to escape the shafts of inexpert archers.^
Even the English contingent, though they must have appeared to immense advantage in comparison with their allies, were a somewhat heterogeneous mass, for, by the side of picked corps such as Burgoyne's Horse and the Grenadiers, there were a number of hastily raised and undrilled levies, officered by volunteers of little experi- ence ; while the jealousy of the inhabitants of the peninsula to anything approaching to foreign influence or pretension contributed a powerful element of discord to the difficulties of La Lippe's command.
Colonel Mauvillon, a German engineer officer, serving on the staff of Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, in his interesting history of that General's campaigns®, dwells upon the difficulties attending the command of an army composed of various nationalities, and in the course of his strictures, he gives the following unflattering descrip- tion of the English contingent serving in Germany during the Seven Years' War : ^
" Braver troops there cannot indeed be found in the world when in the battle field and under arms before the enemy ; but here ends their military merit. In the first
* Varnhagen von Ense says that La Lippe, who had made strong efforts to abolish duellmg m the Prussian army, found the spirit of the Portuguese officers so abject and cowardly that he not only encouraged the practice among them, but threatened to dismiss any officer who should submit to insult without demanding redress by sword or pistol.
' Geschuhte Ferdinands, Herzogs von Braunschweig LUneburg, Leipzig,
1794. ' Prince Ferdinand himself entertained and expressed a far higher
opinion of the value of his British troops, to whom he was indeed deeply
indebted for his successes. |
D
CHAP. 11.
1762-176:.
I ■J*.'" •;'.
34
Political and Military Episodes,
CHAP. II.
1762-1763.
* place, their infantry is composed of so indiscriminate a conglomeration of men, that it is difficult to maintain even a shadow of discipline among them. Their cavalry is indeed differently constituted, but a foolish love for their horses makes them astonishingly rapacious after forage ; ^ so that in this respect they will exhaust a dis- trict far sooner than the Germans with whom a limit may be fixed.
" Officers* commissions among them are all had by purchase, and the consequence is, that their officers do not trouble their heads about the service, and with few exceptions, understand absolutely nothing whatever about it ; and this goes on from the ensign to the general Their home customs incline them to the indulgences of life, and nearly without exception, they all expect to have comfortable means of sleep. This disposes them to acts of neglect of duty which would sound incredible if related. To all this is added a quiet, natural arro- gance which tempts them to despise the enemy as well as the danger. It is well known how much these people <iespise all foreigners : this of itself renders their co-opera- tion with troops of other nations very difficult"
That Lord Loudon's ^ soldiers despised their Por- tuguese allies is more than probable ; nor, to do them justice, do the latter appear to have grudged their British comrades the honour of the foremost place whenever fighting was to be done. Count La Lippe, however, recognised in them — what our own experience
1 Field-Marshal Sir John Burgoyne in his Military Opinions (page I 433) expresses a very much less favourable view on this point ; and is , dis|)osed to attribute the habitual falling off in the condition of our troop horses on active service to the fact that "the characteristic disposition of our countr>'men is peculiarly unfavourable for the care of horses," and that " the Englishman has been declared proverbially to be the worst horse- master in the world."
3 Lord Loudon was in immediate command of the British ccntin^ent
Severity of the Military Code.
35
confirmed when half a century later the Engh'sh and Portuguese fought side by side — that their defects as soldiers lay more in the want of efficient leaders than in an absence of individual courage, or of a capacity for discipline ; and when he placed at their head English officers, in whose conduct and skill they had confidence ; when moreover he put arms into their hands, and gave them food and clothing, and even money at times, some- thing like a military spirit began to display itself.^
To Burgoyne, who had embarked for the Tagus with his light horse, early in May, and who now held the local rank of Brigadier-General, the organization of his brigade of 3,000 men, of whom nearly two-thirds were Portuguese, must, in spite of his love of soldiering, have been an irksome task, and his general orders indicate the formidable difficulties with which he had to con- tend, not only in bringing the native levies into militaiy subordination, and maintaining good relations between them and their allies, but in restraining the predilection of the English troops for wine and plunder.
Discipline was necessarily severe in such an army, but Burgoyne, while he repressed crime with a stern hand, and by a scale of punishment graduated down- wards from " summary execution " to '* working for three days under the engineer without pay," showed a solici- tude for the soldiers* comfort in marked contrast with the indifference on this point of which there were too many examples among the military commanders of his time. The penal code in the army was in those days barbarous enough, though hardly more so than in
^ I n a manuscript on this campai(;[n in the British Museum, the following passage occurs relating to the cheerful endurance of the Portuguese infantry :
*' La plupart usant bientdt leurs souliers, ne laissoient pas de marcher gayement dans ces chemins de rochers aigus, laissant partout des traces de leurs pieds ensanglant^s/*
D 2
CHAP. II.
1 762- 1 763.
. 'fit ?-1ifft'''?''§- *>■"*'■
i'MMiifi'm
he difficulty and the
^ordination in an armed
class disposed
comparison may be
law. Still it
how frequent were
what amounted
conditions, of
lan endurance.'
ftaken entirely in the
the very existence
favour by an influential
ilation. The expul-
I^J^nd the barbarous and
JtfcJ^ for the attempt which
3g5^ng's life, had aroused a
;*sition to his measures
•By far too conscientious
enemy of corruption
■B^rhatred of the cla.sses
~ lance of abuses : the
Jioth of which brought
|*ii>^n the dependence and
to the British Contin- e Count de San Jago,
en pleased lo approve of the
the Ihree first for desertion,
^ntenced to de^th, and two to
irder proceeds thus without a
iMtJgt pill in execution to-moirow iC^Ehe piquets of all the corps lo ..mic "latiirday, the Infantry to
Position of the Invading Armies.
37
" You may depend upon receiving the best of in- telligence of the enemy's motions ; but hitherto the Conde de San Jago has found it very difficult to get good intelligence. It's odd, you'll say, when every peasant might reasonably be supposed to be a spy for him. These do not look on the Spaniards as their enemy ; they think their cause the cause of the Jesuits and the cause of God. The people of condition, the excellencies and the Hidalgos have so insuperable a hatred to the minister, as to sacrifice their king, their country, and even their honour, to feed it. I have, how- ever, the happiness here to be under as honest a man as ever lived, with as good a heart as it is possible to imagine."
Burgoyne's brigade had been at this time pushed in advance with a view to watching the enemy, who was already in overwhelming force, and in possession of strong positions within Portuguese territory. The united Spanish and French ^ forces amounted to about 42,000 men, with ninety-three pieces of cannon, under the Marquis de Saria, who early in the spring had advanced upon the frontier in three divisions. A portion of the northern division under Brigadier-General O'Reilly had, before the declaration of war, crossed without opposition into the province of Tras os Montes, and on the 9th of May captured Mirando the capital, and shortly after- wards Braganza and other towns, with the design of marching upon Oporto. The second army corps had entered Portugal by the province of Beira, and after a short siege taken Almeida, an important fortified town
^ The French Goveniinent had promised a large contingent, only a portion of which was provided, and though a considerable number of French officers served in the campaign, the main body of the invading army was composed of Spanish troops. These, however, greatly out- numbered the joint Portuguese and English forces.
CHAP. II.
I 762-1 763.
ivmu
ilStHiW^@LW.€t4Bll|ipi'epared to remove ^BflSi'CBSiWt^SCw&^^ff* ftt" Government hastily
twenty miles from
composed of 14,000
of cavalry and
was concentrated
$pg the approaches to
the invading army in
of checking
precarious and insuf-
a^;^;c[j^qp^i
small English -[ ^— B-«»-,w; Bs-'OK n •«»-iw;-BW" •"-" gucrilla bands S^ kfet^^'^^^^i^^^^^^'^f P"''^^''^ passes, suc- ^S^'^'^^^^'^^^^^'^S^"^*^'^^ considerable loss, l^;V^>abandon their design , important as it was, leration with the two
^^July that the allied !J:1^I£^^^cith his head-quarters idway between Lisbon [9aj|t!^3c^:£^^ a condition to take "rfifi' was but imperfectly t^tt of the invaders in j|: cavalry and artillery. >^'<^nce in force into the >'i2^'i<S4icd battle under cir- ^Kidvantageous to the " 'i#?*'^ ^ "^^ which La _ ^:£^:hazards. To prevent 'Sf^^A'^ps was his principal •if '^po" attacking the !'T?!f.'I :^"^|:^o|(iiPcSJi:stremadura, and to
?WiW
1^1
Valentia d' Alcantara,
39
Burgoyne he entrusted the execution of his bold design.
The advanced lines of the third corps of the enemy lay within the circuit of a few leagues around Valentia d'Alcantara, a walled frontier town, which from its favourable position had been selected as the base of offensive operations in the south. It was also the prin- cipal supply dep6t, and contained a park of artillery and considerable magazines. La Lippe's plan was to detach a force to destroy the magazines at Valentia : then to advance upon the Spanish supports at Selvorino and St Vincent ; and finally, by pushing on to Ponte San Pierro and the passages of the Xevora, to cut off communication with Badajoz.
Burgoyne's dispositions were admirably made. By a forced march he struck across the mountains of Castel da Vida, without allowing the enemy to gain intelligence of his movements ; but delayed by the slowness, if not something worse, of his Portuguese Infantry, and the non-arrival of the force ordered to co-operate with him in the advance beyond Valentia, he found it impossible i to carry out the plan as laid down. While its execution had appeared feasible he had displayed the foresight of a prudent General ; now that it was hopeless he trusted to the dash of the sabreur to strike an effective blow, and charging at the head of his Light Horse, he carried the enemy's position. The story of this brilliant exploit is best told in his own modest despatch : —
" According to my intelligence, I was to find the town situated in a plain : the principal entrance there, one on the Pitteranha road (which was that I marched), to the east ; one on the great road to Alcantara, on the west ; and one towards the mountains, on the south ; on the north* only some small inlets.
CHAP. 11.
1762-1763.
frfi^'Sr*"
1- .v
40
Political and Military Episodes,
CHAP. II.
1 762- 1763-
"I was informed that the patrols were not regular, nor at a distance ; that there were no advanced piquets, no barricadoes, and that the only guard was in the great square.
" The disposition that I made was as follows : —
" I ordered the troops to march in two columns to the heights of Pitteranha, which are the boundaries of Por- tugal, and about half way between Castel da Vida and Valentia : from thence, there being but one narrow road to the plain above mentioned, I ordered Major Luttrell, to whom I had given the command of the Portuguese Grenadiers, to proceed to the plain, from whence he was to get, with all possible diligence, round the town to Alcantara road. His division was headed by a party of the country cavalry, supported by an officer and twenty-four English light dragoons ; to cut to pieces, or make prisoners any patrols they might meet : the flanks were covered by armed peasants and the irregular infantry.
" Lord Pulteney with the British grenadiers was ordered to form the attack on the Pitteranha road.
" The Portuguese irregulars were to take post opposite the entrance on the side of the mountains, and endeavour to make themselves masters of some houses at the entrance of the town on that side.
" The English light dragoons were, upon their arrival in the plain, to form on the north side, from whence Colonel Somerville had orders to detach a captain's command on the road to Alcantara, and another on the road to St. Vincent's, which were the only passages by which the enemy could retreat, or from which he could receive succour. He was to remain with the rest of the corps ready to support wherever necessary. .
" My idea was to attack on the three sides at once ;
Burgayne^s Despatch.
41
and I had given the Alcantara side to the Portuguese, though the longest march, to reserve the English for a rush into the town, in case I should find we were dis- covered, wbile the different divisions were taking up their posts.
" About four miles short of the town I found a convent which was a very strong post, and I left in it a hundred men.
" About the same time I perceived with much dissatis- faction that my guides had greatly deceived me with regard to the distance ; they assured me at Pitteranha, I had an hour of dark more than I wanted, and pressed me to stay longer, to avoid falling in with the patrols, which they said retired a little before day. Contrary to my expectation, I found the day coming on fast, and that the sun would be risen before the foot could pos- sibly reach the town : I thought it therefore expedient to lay aside entirely my first disposition, and carry for- ward the light dragoons, who by a brisk gallop might possibly still effect a surprise, or at worst stop up the avenues. I accordingly went on with that corps at three- quarters speed without molestation, and the advanced guard, consisting of forty men, led by Lieutenant Lewis, finding the entrance clear, pushed into the town sword in hand.
** The guards in the square were all killed or made prisoners, before they could use their arms, and the ends of the streets were possessed with very little resistance.
" By the time the body of the regiment was formed in the square, a few desperate parties attempted an attack, but all perished or were taken. The only firing that remained was in single shots from windows, which did not continue long after the grenadiers came up. I was obliged to treat the people who persisted in it
CHAP. 11.
1 762-1 763.
42
Political and Military Episodes,
CHAP. II.
1 762- 1 763.
without quarter, and at last got some priests, whom I forced through the town, to declare that the town should be set fire to at the four corners, unless all doors and windows were instantly thrown open. Before they had proceeded down one street, the people had seen their error, and all was quiet.
"I detached the dragoons into the country to pick up all who had escaped ; they brought in a good many horses; a detached serjeant and six men only fell in with a subaltern and twenty-five dragoons, unbroken, and prepared to receive them; they killed six and brought in the rest of the men prisoners, and every horse of the party : believe me, my Lord, this is no exaggeration of the Colonel, but real fact. I brought off prisoners, Major-General Don Michael de Irunibeni and Kalanca, and his aide-de-camp, one colonel and his adjutant, two captains, seventeen subalterns, and fifty- nine privates. There were taken and brought off besides three colours, and a large quantity of arms, and a great many more, together with ammunition, destroyed.
** I also brought away hostages for the good attendance and safe delivery of my wounded, and for the payment of a year's king's revenue for sparing the convents and town.
" The light in which Count La Lippe has taken this affair gives me the highest pleasure and confusion ; his approbation gratifies my ambition, but at the same time I am conscious that the chief merit of the success was due to the admirable, though not uncommon valour and activity of the troops I had the honour to command. I am persuaded I shall give your Lordship satisfaction, when I inform you that Colonel Somerville^ distin-
' The officer in acting command of the i6th Light Dragoons, in conse- quence of Colonel Burgoyne holding the rank of Brigadier.
Effect of tJtc Victory,
43
guished himself in this affair in the manner his best friends could wish ; he had an opportunity of displaying his judgment, his spirit, and humanity ; and I do not know for which of those qualities he deserves most commendation."
The effects upon the campaign of the surprise of Valentia must not be measured by the comparatively small importance of this affair as a military operation. The capture of a garrison, and the destruction of a battalion, could not seriously affect the fortunes of the invading army ; but it had nevertheless an important moral result in giving heart to the Portuguese nation, who were at this time sinking into a state of hopeless despondency, and in raising the military reputation of the English in the eyes of their allies. In a struggle for national independence against overwhelming odds^ isolated acts of conspicuous gallantry are perhaps better calculated to inspire hope and confidence than more important but less obvious successes, and this may account for the extraordinary elation of the Portuguese over Burgoyne's feat. The Colonel of Dragoons charging with a squadron the head-quarters of an army, the young Lieutenant galloping into a strong hostile garrison sword in hand, at the head of forty men ; and the sergeant and six men making prisoners of a Spanish officer and twenty-five dragoons, recall some of the exploits which made the name of a Prussian Uhlan so formidable in the late war with France.
The effect of Burgoyne's success is shown in the compliments showered upon him.
" Extrait des Ordres de Jour, 29 aodt, 1762 : —
"Monseigneur le Marechal croit de son devoir de donner part i Tarm^e de la glorieuse conduite de M. le Brigadier Burgoyne, qui apr^s avoir march^ 15 lieues
CHAP. II.
1 762-1 763.
^'V - / ■
9 '-
» .« . •
.».
44
Political and Military Episodes,
CHAP. II.
1762-1763.
sans relAche, a emportd Valencia d'Alcantara, I'^p^e a la main ; fait prisonnier le g^n^ral qui flevoit envahir TAlentejo ; d^truit le regiment Espagnol de Seville, prit troisdrapeaux, un colonel, plusieursofficiers de distinction, et beaucoup de soldats. Monseigneur le Mar^chal ne doute point que tous ceux qui composent Tarm^e, ne prennent part k cet 6v^nement, et que chacun, k propor- tion de son emploi, ne s'efforce d'imiter un aussi bel exemple."
The Prime Minister of Portugal writes to La Lippe on the 2nd September : —
" Le Roy en s^ait k V. E. le plus grand gr6, esp^rant qu'elle fasse parvenir k la connoissance de M. le Briga- dier Burgoyne combien Sa Majesty a 6t6 ^difi^e de la sage&se et de la bravoure avec lesquelles il a conduit la m^me affaire, et lorsque les drapeaux seront pr^sent^s k Sa dite Majeste, elle rendra k M. de Bourgoyne et aux dignes officiers anglois, qui les ont pris, la justice de les juger k eux appartenants, pour les envoyer \k ou bon leur semblera."
Three days later, " Monsieur de Bourgoyne " receives from King Joseph a diamond ring under cover of the following letter : —
** A Bellem, U 6"« Septemhre,
" Monsieur,
" Le Roy ayant out avec un sensible plaisir par les relations de Son Excellence Monsieur le Conte Reg- nant de Schaumbourg Lippe, la prudence, la bravoure, et la rapiditd, avec lesquelles vous avez conduit, et con- clO, Tassaut de Valence d' Alcantara, m'ordonne de vous tdmoigner par cette lettre, combien Sa Majesty a ^t^ ddifi^e de votre conduite dans cette . affaire, et le gre qu'EIle en sgait k vos sages dispositions.
*' Pour vous donner une preuvc plus r^ele de la satis-
Complimeniary Letters,
45
faction que Sa dite Majeste a de votre personne, EUe m'ordonne aussi de vous marquer, que les trois drapeaux, qui luy ont 6t6 pr6sent6s, sont d6pos6s i la Secretaire d'Etat de la Guerre, comme k vous appartenants. Et k fin que vous puissiez avoir le plaisir de les envoyer en Angleterre (si cela peut vous 6tre agr^able) ils seront remis a celuy, qui se l^gitimera avec un pouvoir sign^ de votre main pour les recevoir.
"Le Roy m'a ordonn6 encore de vous remettre la bague qui accompagnera cette lettre, en vous signifiant de sa part, que Sa Majesty vous Ta destin^e comme un petit souvenir de Taction de Valence, que vous avez si bravement conduite ; et comme une marque de son affection Royale k votre ^gard.
" Dans mon particulier, j'esp^re, que vous croirez de moy la grande part que je prends k tout qui peut con- tribuer k votre gloire.
" Et j'ai rhonneur d'etre, avec la consideration la plus parfaite,
" Monsieur,
** Votre tr^s humble et tr^s ob^issant serviteur,
"Le Conte d'Oeyras.
"Monsieur de Bourgoyne,
Brigadier des Armies de S. M. B."
CHAP. II.
1 762- 1 763.
Count La Lippe, in his despatch to Lord Bute, after detailing the character of his plans, says : —
"General Burgoyne in consequence continued his march, and attacked Valentia the 27th in the morning, with all possible valour and conduct ; and carried the place first with his own regiment sword in hand.
"It is an unspeakable mortification to me, that the intended plan could not take place, but the admirable behaviour of the few British troops upon this expedition.
•i^
^^^"^■-: ■'
46
Political and Military Episodes,
CHAP. II.
1 762- 1 763.
and the remarkable valour, conduct, and presence of mind of Brigadier Burgoyne, could not but give me infinite satisfaction, and it is my duty to mention this officer to your Lordship as a most excellent one, and extremely worthy of his Majesty's remembrance."
Carlyle always, in spite of his honest denunciation of shams, prone to measure merit by success, writes in allusion to this affair: —
"The Burgoyne who begins in this pretty way at Valencia d'Alcantara, is the same who ended so dis- mally at Saratoga within twenty years. Perhaps with other war offices, and training himself in something suitabler than parliamentary eloquence, he might have become a kind of General, and ended far otherwise than he did." 1
Shortly before his embarkation for Portugal, Burgoyne (who certainly never fell into the error of under-rating his claims) had made application for the rank of full colonel in the army, upon which Lord Bute wrote to him on the 1 2th April, 1762, handsomely expressing his great regret that he had failed in obtaining that rank for him, in consequence of the number of Lieutenant- Colonels senior to him.
We who live in days when it is not the practice (in official correspondence) to base claims for professional advancement upon anything short of personal merit, and when political interest is never allowed (in public docu- ments) to direct the bestowal of government patronage, must be startled to find how openly and candidly an officer could, a century ago, in addressing a superior authority, found his demand for promotion upon private or parliamentary influence. Writing to Mr. Townshend,*
' Frederick the Greats vol. 6.
* The Honourable Charles Townshend, Secretary at War.
A Curious Official Correspondence.
47
on the loth August 1762, Burgoyne expresses his dis- satisfaction at not having been included in a recent pro- motion, and proceeds in a tone of reproach and in- dignation : —
" My friend Brudenell, Mr. Clinton, and Mr. Fitzroy, are the only persons ever mentioned to stand between me and that preferment upon the pretensions of family support. Upon any other ground^ I sJiould blush to ask it, and I doubt not that the gentlemefi who have succeeded likewise waived the claim of service. Had military merit been in question, some of the gentlemen preferred must together with me have waited for the provision of older and more experienced officers above them ; but when the Government thinks proper to allow family weight and protection to take place, I will be bold to offer my claim, from the honour of Lord Strange's application, upon the same list as Mr. Clinton and Mr. Fitzroy, and my want of success will give me more pain as a slight to my patron, than as a disappointment to myself.'*
Mr. Townshend replies to this in an apologetic tone, which, if somewhat unusual in a communication from a minister of the crown to a subordinate, certainly in- dicates the personal regard in which Burgoyne was held :—
" Sir,
•* War Office, 19M September ^ 1762.
" I have the honour of your letter dated the loth of August, and I own the manner of it surprises me extremely ; I will answer every part of it with truth and exactness. You complain of your disappointment to find yourself left out of the promotions, at the time that Lieutenant-Colonel Fitzroy, Lieutenant-Colonel Boyd, and Lieutenant- Colonel Brudenell, were made Colonels ; and you hope your appointment of Brigadier in
CHAP. II.
1 762- 1 763.
48
Political mid Military Episodes.
CHAP. II.
1762-1763.
Portugal is not the plea urged to explain your not having the rank. When you lately did me the honour of applying to me, I told you I would represent your wishes to the king, and should be happy to assist you on your own account, and to oblige your friend Lord Strange. I then instantly obeyed your commands, and I told you the answer His Majesty gave me. Since that, Lord Strange has himself applied to His Majesty ; and if Lord Strange will instruct me to represent to the Crown, that the promotion of the gentlemen named by you, is contrary to the answer he received from His Majesty, I will again obey his commands, and again assist you, to the utmost of my little power. This is the footing upon which Lord Strangers personal solicitation has left it. I have very lately seen Lord Strange, and if he had, in any degree, suggested to me, that he saw the promotion, and His Majesty's answer to him, in the light you do, I should not have suffered one day to have passed, without acting upon his remonstrance.
•* You have used many expressions, in your manner of writing to me, which I confess hurt me ; they hurt me, not only as I have merited very contrary returns from you, but as I have ever had a personal regard for you as a man as well as an officer. I am now obliged to say, and flatter myself you will here convince Lord Strange, I am not cold in any interest or to any person he re- commends and loves ; my life and conduct will be a full answer to that charge. You will certainly act prudently in employing the interest of those whom you believe most able, and think most willing to support your claims. My breast tells me, that when you have made that choice, however you find many more able, you will not find one more willing than myself. You will forgive me if I write in the style of a man much hurt, for I
Lord Bute,
really am extremely, as you are the last person in the army from whom I should have expected to receive expressions of reproach and distrust.
"I am, with great respect, " Sir, " Your most obedient and most humble servant,
" C. TOWNSHEND. "Brigadier Burgoyne, at Lisbon."
49
CHAP. II.
1762-1765
Burgoyne's success at Valencia, however, enabled him to add to his previous claim that of good service done in the field, and Lord Bute, on the 2nd November, announces to him his promotion in these gratifying terms : —
" Sir,
"I hope you will excuse my not answering your letter sooner. I thought the most agreeable manner of doing it was by procuring you the rank you wished, which His Majesty very readily consented to, out of regard to Lord Strange, and your own merit ; permit me, sir, to congratulate you on the very brilliant manner in which you have conducted yourself ever since your arrival in Portugal ; and on the success that has attended it. Count La Lippe has indeed done you ample justice; and his Excellency's letter was of no small use in pro- curing what I so much wished. I am happy to observe, sir, how your own gallant behaviour has in the eyes of the army justified the mark of favour His Majesty has conferred.
" I am. Sir, with great regard,
" Your obedient humble servant,
" Bute.
«
''London, N<yv. 2nd, 1762."
E
F^-rW ' i-
SO
Political and Military Episodes.
CHAP. II.
1 762-1 763.
After the capture of Valencia, Burgoyne's Brigade was employed in watching the enemy's manoeuvres on the frontier, and of preventing the threatened passage of the Douro by the force which was gradually closing in upon La Lippe*s army.
In September, La Lippe slowly retreated before D*Aranda*s division, which took Castello Branco, a strong place commanding the passage of the Tagus ; and shortly after, though Burgoyne continued obstinately to dispute the ground, Villa Velha fell, thus laying open the defiles of St. Simon, and the main approaches to the capital. In the meantime a Portuguese brigade under the Conde San J ago, which had formed the gar- rison of Castello Branco, was in full retreat, covered by an English force under Lord Loudoun. In order to harass the rear of the latter, the enemy detached a large body from Villa Velha : Burgoyne, who, in accordance with La Lippe*s policy of gaining time, in the hope that the approaching rainy season would check the advance of the invaders, continued to watch the camp of Villa Velha, had noticed that the enemy, elated by his recent successes, showed carelessness in guarding his position. This circumstance, together with the weakened state of the garrison in consequence of the withdrawal of the troops sent in pursuit of Lord Lou- doun, seemed to him to offer a tempting opportunity for striking a severe blow by a surprise, which he planned with much skill, and executed with his usual vigour. On the night of the 5th of October, Colonel Lee,^ in obedience to instructions from Burgoyne, crossed the
^ This is the Colonel Lee who subsequently, as Washington's second in command, fought against the British army in America, and was taken prisoner by a detachment of the identical Light Horse which he now led into Villa Velha. See Chapter IV.
The Attack on Villa Velha,
51
Tagus with a force of two hundred and fifty British Grenadiers and fifty Light Dragoons, reached the camp unperceived, and after inflicting great slaughter, spiking six guns, destroying magazines, and carrying off a large number of pack-animals, regained his position with only a few trifling casualties.
The loss inflicted upon the enemy at Villa Velha was so severe as to compel him to remain inactive while awaiting reinforcements ; but towards the middle of October an advance in force against Abrantes was decided upon, and La Lippe's despatches show the importance which he attached to the vigilance of Bur- goyne in frustrating this design.
By the cautious defensive warfare adopted, the enemy was kept at bay until the early part of November, when the rains set in with unusual severity, rendering the roads, bad enough at any time, impassable for artillery. The invading army accordingly commenced to recross the frontier, and La Lippe's troops retired into winter quarters.*
Thus ended the campaign in Portugal,^ the renewal
^ A short time afterwards a considerable body of Spanish troops recrossed the frontier and attempted to take Marvas, an important fortress garrisoned by a small English detachment under a Captain Brown, who was summoned to surrender, but replied by sending a cannon shot into the midst of the force surrounding him, and succeeded in holding out until relieved by reinforcements, when the enemy retired with loss. I regret being unable to trace the individuality of Captain Brown, who merits a more distinctive title.
3 Among other sources of information relating to this half-forgotten campaign, it is right to mention Heinrich Schxfer's '* History of Portugal" (Gotha, 1854), in which many details of this period are quoted from a MS. of Count La Lippe. From certain points of resemblance, I am led to believe that this is identical with an anonymous paper among the Rojral MSS. in the British Museum (George III., No. 236), entitled " M^moires de la Campaigne de Portugal en 1762," in which Burgoyne is repeatedly referred to in terms of high commendation.
E 2
CHAP. II.
1 762- 1 763.
liMii
■"'"Sir Qe^mclusion of the Peace
iiSVfBtlSi the end of the year,
igimeiit for England,
tied him as that of a
'gfskilful general
CHAPTER III.
AN INTERVAL OF PEACE.
1763-1775.
The Seven Years' War, the conclusion of which, now ratified by the Peace of Paris, enabled Europe once more to sheathe the sword, was but an episode in a series of wars which had occupied England, in common with the principal continental powers, during more than one half the period which had elapsed since the accession of Queen Anne in the beginning of the century.
In these wars England had not only put forth her full strength on land and at sea, but had lavished her wealth and credit in subsidizing foreign levies^ to cc-operate with her armies wherever these might be engaged.
The cost of these wars had been enormous, ^ and
CHAP. III. 1763-1775.
^ At the end of 1762, the number of foreign legionaries in British pay amounted to 57,762 men, while the total force of British Artillery did not exceed 3,000, and the corps of Royal Engineers numbered only sixty men.
• The National Debt, which on Queen Anne's accession, in 1702, amounted to fourteen millions, had in 1762 reached the sum of 130 millions ; but this difference does not nearly represent the actual expendi- ture incurred ; the cost of the Seven Years' War alone being computed a^t 112 millions, the greater part of which was raised by direct taxation. The loss of life was on a corresponding scale. The Annua/ Register (1763, page 50) quotes the loss of seamen and marines alone, during this war,
•..-■ V 7^
, *
\,. '
54
Political and Military Episodes,
CHAP. III.
'763-1775.
although less exhausted by her sacrifices than the con- tinental states, England lost no time, after the formal conclusion of peace, in disarming to an extent which their geographical position did not allow her late allies or adversaries to emulate. In the course of these sweeping reductions,^ the disbandment, among other cavalry corps, of Burgoyne*s Horse was contemplated, but the design was abandoned, it is said at the instance of the king ; for George the Third continued to show a marked predilection for this corps, of which, early in this year, he appointed Burgoyne Colonel-Commandant.*
The newspapers of the time make frequent mention of His Majesty's inspections of the 15th and i6th Light Dragoons, brigaded together. It was on the occasion of one of these reviews at Wimbledon, in the course of this year, that he conferred upon them respectively, the title of " the King's " and " the Queen's" Light Dragoons.* The favour which Burgoyne long enjoyed at court was doubtless in a great measure due to his having brought his regiment to so high a state of efficiency as to make it as much a pageant in peace as it had proved formid- able in war.
Early in this year Burgoyne had taken his seat in the House of Commons, and was present when he and his corps received the thanks of Parliament for their conduct
at 184,893 men, and by a rough calculation, computes that these figures represent 32,805 widows, and 67,610 orphans.
* The standing army was in this year reduced to 40,000 men, for service in England, Ireland, and the Colonies.
• Burgoyne*s commission as Colonel in the army was dated 8th October, 1762; that of Colonel-Commandant, i8th March, 1763,
8 The formation of the 15th Light Dragoons had been entrusted to Colonel Elliot, who served in command of this corps with great distinction under Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick ; and at a later period, earned high honour by his defence of Gibraltar. He was raised to the peerage as Viscount Heath Id and Baron Gibraltar, and died in 1790.
Peaceful Pursuits.
55
in Portugal; and during the interval of twelve years* peace which now ensued, he threw himself into political life with all the ardour which had hitherto characterized Lis military career. Although by nature gifted with great fluency of speech — which in later life not unfre- quently rose to the dignity of eloquence — he did not as yet speak much ; but among his papers of this period there are indications of his extreme diligence and application in the study of different political sub- jects, and more especially those connected with the affairs of the East India Company, in the discussion of which he afterwards took so conspicuous and honour- able a part
Nor did parliamentary labours and professional study furnish sufficient occupation for Burgoyne's active mind. From early childhood he had " dallied with the Muse," though hitherto his literary efforts had not soared be- yond %fers de sociM^ and other occasional pieces,^ many of which were written at this time. The ruling passion of his mind, however, continued to be directed to arms, and in 1765 he proceeded to visit the scenes of the late wars on the Continent, with a view to the compo- sition of a military work on the subject.
The following letters are among his correspondence of this period. They are curiously characteristic of the flowery and verbose style and of the exaggerated sen- timents and expressions which were then in vogue. It could only be in days when Johnson wept over Clarissa Harlowey and Edmund Burke sat up all night to finish the last volume of Evelinay that a request for a letter of introduction could be granted and acknowledged in such terms as these : —
^ A consideration of Burgoyne's literary labours will form the subject of a separate chapter in this work.
CHAP. III.
1763-1775-
so
Poliiical and Military Episodes.
CHAP. III.
'763-I775-
From the RIGHT Hon. William Pitt to Colonel
BURGOYNE,
" Sir, — It is with very particular pleasure that I obey your wishes in sending you inclosed a letter for Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick — a letter which General Bur- goyne could httle want to a Prince well informed of all actions of ^clat throughout the whole theatre of the late extended war, and which is sure to be well received from the hand that is to deliver it.
" I will not attempt at present to give expression in any degree to the extent of what I feel from the friendly assurances of the sentiments with which you honour me ; little as I have merited such a favourable suffrage where you, sir, so kindly attribute deserving, I can only beg you to be persuaded that if to be pro\a and '^ppy in the honour of a justly valued friendship can give a kind of pretension to it, I shall hope you viil not find me without some title to the place you are so good to give me in yours.
" Accept, dear sir, many warm wishes for your health, pleasure, and satisfact'ou in the tour you are going to make ; wherein you will, agreeably to yourself, and usefully to > our country, add to the rich stock of mili- tary treasures already your own, fresh matter of present contcmplaiion and of future action.
** I have the honour to be,
" With the truest esteem and consideration,
" Dear Sir, " Youi most obedient and affectionate humble servant,
" William Pitt.
"Burton Pvnsent,
''July ye is/, 1766."
The Earl of Chatliaiiu
57
From Colonel Burgoyne to the Earl of Chatham.^
" My Lord, — The letter I had the honour to receive from your Lordship at the time I left England, together with one inclosed for Prince Ferdinand, required a warmer acknowledgment than I could find terms to make, and that debt has been increased by the reception so distinguished a mark of your Lordship's countenance procured me at the Court of Brunswick. But howsoever flattering or advantageous have been the effects of your friendship, it is in the possession of it that I exult ; and not to wrong my feelings, I must still trust to the conceptions of a great and benevolent mind, and not to my own feeble expression, to represent that respect, that gratitude, and that zeal with which I solicited, with which I embrace, and with which I study to cultivate, the sentiments your Lordship professes towards me.
" I beg you, my Lord, to accept my congratulations upon your peerage, and upon your engaging in the adminis- tration, as those of a man who takes the truest interest in everything that leads to your glory and satisfaction, and who looks up to your lights and counsels for the salvation of his country. I mov ^ not a step upon the Continent without seeing the impression your Lordship's name makes. It is a touchstone that no German hypo- crisy can resist ; and the conversation at every court upon the present arrangement of affairs in England betrays their disposition towards us. With those who partake in the satisfaction of the friends of Great Britain and your Lordship, there are not wanting those who are industrious to propagate the malevolence of our party writers, for the prejudices and the follies of our country are dispersed over the world with every wind
CHAP. III.
1763-1775-
^ Willtam Pitt had been raised to the peerage in this year.
58
Political and Military Episodes,
CRAP. III.
1 763- 1 775.
that blows ; and what at home is made use of to em- broil and disunite every class of the people, is retailed at second-hand abroad, and serves, as far as our enemies can make it do so, to depreciate and disfigure his Majesty's measures; but these are but the vapours of an hour, and they will fly like tHose which have often attended, but never obscured your Lordship's conduct.
"Able and vigilant as is his Majesty's minister at Berlin, it would be very impertinent in me to mention my observations upon the present politics or occupations of that court. The circumstances that particularly have engaged my reflections as a soldier, I shall communicate to your Lordship, if I have the honour to be admitted to your conversation at my return to London.
" Since my arrival at Dresden, I have been confirmed in what I before had reason to believe relative to a meeting proposed between the Emperor and the King- - 1 Prussia. The one wished a personal interview to (jratiiy his curiosity ; the other, to penetrate into the character of a young monarch, who. if what is reported of his talents, his application, ..nd his ambition be true, will soon becoiiv a prir.vipal object of the attention of Europe. Tii*. I.inpress prevented the meeting.
" However distant and transient will be the view I can expect to have of this Prince, I cannot resist the desire I have to see him. I propose viisiting the camp he is forming near the ground of the battle of Colin next week, and I shall go from thence to Vienna, which place I shall leave about the last week of September, and hope to reach England by way of the Rhine and French Flanders, in October.
" I take the liberty to mention my route in order to introduce my most humble offers of service in case I
Colonel Ellyott,
59
can be made useful, in the course of my progress, to Government or to your Lordship. " I have the honour to be,
" With the most profound respect, attachment,
" and sense of obligation, "Your Lordship's most obedient humble servant,
"John Burgoyne.
"Dresden, 2isfAugus/, 1766.'*
From Colonel Burgoyne to Colonel Ellvott.*
** Head-quarters of the Bohemian Army at Teutchbrod,
"9/>4 September^ 1766.
" Dear Sir, — The situation in which I found your son at Brunswick was so satisfactory to the interest I take in your happiness, that I determined to give myself the pleasure of writing to you upon that subject ; but I deferred my letter in hopes of being able to add some accounts that might be entertaining to you, relative to the objects of niy journey.
"I had the good fortune to reach Brunswick just in time to deliver your paquets before Mr. Ellyott began his progress with his governor and some of his com- panions, during the recess of the academy, of which I dare say he has informed you. I saw enough of him in the few hours he pould spare me, to make me heartily regret the loss of his company ; and my opinion of him was confirmed by what I heard from the Duke of Bruns- wick, who is well informed of everything that passes at the academy, and from many others whose judgment in matters of education I thought good. I am able to assure you, sir, without deviating from the sincerity of real friendship, that your young Royal Dragoon is the distinguished example of the academy, both in diligence and in talents to make diligence of good effect. If he
^ The name is variously spelt throughout their correspondence.
CHAP. III.
1763-1775-
re
60
Political and Military Episodes.
CHAP. III.
1 763- 1 775.
should fail your expectation in any article, the fault will be in the master and not in the pupil. There is one branch among the multiplicity of his applications wherein I could wish him better assisted ; I am afraid neither the mounting of the manage nor the master is equal to the rest of the establishment of the academy. The other masters are of the kind that you would wish them ; those in particular who teach French and mathe- matics are excellent. I shall lengthen this account no further than to add that even in the short conversation I had with Mr. Ellyott, his morals, his goodness of heart, and his filial duty and affection were discernible in a degree that charmed me, and that gave a very solid foundation to my friendship for him.
** Since I left Brunswick I have had the most agree- able progress imaginable. Every step I have taken has been to a soldier classic ground, and I have wandered over it with enthusiasm. I have had the good fortune to go over many of the great scenes with very intelligent officers who were present in the actions ; I have been assisted with the best plans, and have conversed with most of the principal actors on both sides. I stayed at Berlin long enough to see the best of the Prussian army, and made some stop at Dresden, from whence I made excursions to the many different camps of the King of Prussia, Prince Henry, and Marshal Daun, in that neighbourhood, and afterwards passed by Maxen and Pirna to Aussig ; I passed some days in those moun- tains, tracing with extreme amusement the positions and marches of both armies during different periods of the late war, till I came to the ground of Lowositz, from whence I went to Prague, and from thence to the ground of Colin. Upon coming to this neighbourhood, I found the Emperor's prohibition of all foreign officers, and
The Emperor of Germany,
6i
even of those of his own generals who were not on duty, was put rigidly in execution. To ask leave that had been refused to men of the first rank was in vain ; but by a little intrigue, a good deal of perseverance, and perhaps more assurance than I ought to boast of, I have succeeded to be present incognito at the practice of the principal manoeuvres. The Bohemian army consists of thirty thousand men ; the Moravian army which is at Iglau, a day's march from hence, consists of about twenty- five thousand. The Emperor divides his time between the two. Marshal Lacy commands under his I. M., but the manoeuvres are planned by General Loudoun, whom the King of Prussia has done the honour to couple with his brother Prince Henry in estimation of military abilities, and declares them the only generals who never made a fault in the course of the last war. The manoeuvres are calculated to show the Emperor all the great parts of war, and are executed with a precision hardly to be conceived. The infantry exceed everything I have seen in every branch of their business; the cavalry are very rapid, but I think them short of per- fection in many articles ; the general officers appear to me very knowing. My paper does not suffer me to en- large, but I shall with great happiness have the honour to communicate to you all I can observe here at my return. In the meantime I will request you not to mention having heard from me, as I have not yet wrote to certain men at home who might possibly think I neglected them.
" I have the honour tp be, with great respect,
" Dear Sir,
" Your most obedient servant,
*'J. BURGOVNE."
CHAP. III.
1 763- > 775-
62
Political and Military Episodes,
CHAP. III.
1763-I775-
The first results of Burgoyne's studies and researches on the Continent are summed up in the following paper, which, even after the lapse of a century, cannot fail to prove of interest to the student of military history : —
Observations and Reflections upon the Present Military State of Prussia, Austria, and France.
■
( Written in the Year 1766.)
PRUSSIA.
" To maintain a numerous army has long been the great object of policy in the house of Brandenburg. The establishment for peace in the late reign amounted to a hundred thousand men ; and a foundation was then laid for the discipline which has since rendered the Prussian arms the most formidable in Europe.
" The acquisition of Silesia, and the powers of uncom- mon genius, furnished the present king with resources to double the numbers ; and his early experience in war enabled him to strengthen and enlarge whatever was weak or insufficient in his fathers institutions. He continues to superintend every branch of the service, and by his presence and unremitted attention invigo- rates and supports a system which can hardly be any longer improved.
" The Prussian exercise is more talked of than under- stood. The management of arms which is chiefly meant by the term exercise in common conversation, is now reduced (one short motion of compliment excepted) to loading and firing : a battalion fires with cartridge nine times in two minutes. The Prussian exercise in the larger and more proper signification, comprehending all evolutions that battalions or squadrons can perform.
TJie Prussian Army,
63
is well worthy reflection. The Prussian method of manoeuvring is founded upon a few general, plain prin- ciples. The art and beauty of it consist in making the utmost simplicity in the movement of small parts effect the finest and most complicated movements of great bodies. The highest conceptions of the King of Prus- sia's mind can be instantly executed by the most stupid part of mankind. The constant daily labour of the Prussian parade is applied only to acquire the manage- ment of the ramrod and the military step ; by the one quickness of loading is effected, and all movement depends upon the other. The cavalry does not make a figure equal to the infantry ; it is not highly mounted nor well appointed ; neither is it trained upon the excellent principle which makes the infantry so fine, of forming the small parts separately and perfectly, and joining them by degrees before the whole machine is put in motion. It is not that the defects in the com- position and in the management of it are unknown, but the necessary economy interferes : this branch of the establishment could not be rendered perfect accord- ing to its present numbers without a great augmenta- tion of expense, or incroaching upon the other services. Nevertheless the king, whose eye will not be satisfied with mediocrity in any part of his troops, requires extra- ordinary velocity in the movements of his cavalry, for which neither men nor horses being duly prepared, a day of exercise sometimes produces as much mischief as a slight action.
"The Prussian cavalry of the line seldom distin- guished themselves in the late war, their spirit was often questioned, and whole corps were sometimes dis- graced. The reason is plain ; they wanted the mecha- nical valour of the infantry resulting from order,
CHAP. III.
1763-1775-
t.
64
Political and Military Episodes,
CHAP. III.
1763-1775-
regularity, and subordination. The hus.sars and light troops succeeded better, because the same want was in their enemies, joined to inferiority in composition and in numbers. These regiments continue to be better in their kind than the heavy-armed ; they are more easily mounted, are sustained at a less expense, and are more the object of the king's attention.
" The Prussian Artillery is formed upon a great scale, exercised with the utmost assiduity, and provided with every utensil and store necessary for immediate and active service. Horses sufficient for the whole train are marked and registered, and distributed among the peasants, who are allowed the use of them upon con- dition that they are well foraged and are always fortli- coming. Inspections are made occasionally, and in case of a horse suffering by want of care, the peasant is obliged to make him good. By these means agriculture is assisted, and this numerous and expensive body main- tained in the best order for draught work without trouble or cost to the state.
" In the dress and outward appearance of the Prussian troops there are m.any absurdities ; they may be pro- nounced such without arrogance, if they are considered as introduced not by error, but by design, to amuse and mislead the observations of strangers, a supposition the more probable because they do not prejudice nor inter- fere with the essentials of their system, and may be altered or laid aside at pleasure. It is not so with those who take the change. They adopt the fopperies as the essentials, and make everything give way to them. Thus while the Prussians keep within themselves the most judicious regulations of economy, and the finest discoveries and improvements in tactics, all the minutiae of their service are dispersed through the world, and a
Mechanical Soldiers,
6s
thousand practices are introduced under the sanction of their parade, that are frivolous, whimsical, and in- convenient.
" The excellence of the Prussian troops appears the more extraordinary when we consider the disadvantages attending them unknown to other stsites. The ranks are filled up, perhaps more than a third part, with strangers, deserters, prisoners and enemies, of various countries, languages, and religions. They cannot there- fore be actuated by any of the great moving principles which usually cause extraordinary superiority in armies ; they have neither national spirit nor attachment to their prince, nor enthusiasm, nor hopes of fortune, nor even prospect of comfortable old age to inspire them.
'' In an army thus composed it is wisdom and sound policy to sink and degrade all intellectual faculties, and to reduce the man as nearly as possible to mere ma- chinery, and indeed as nature has formed the bulk of the King of Prussia's native subjects, that task is not very difficult. But it is impossible to close this observa- tion without touching upon the mistake of those who prefer this plan, when the disposition of their country. offers the best groundwork of national character or publick .spirit The King of Prussia deprived of such principles to work upon, turns his defects to advantage, and substitutes a species of discipline wherein the mind has no concern ; many of his disciples suppose his neces- sity to be his choice, and destroy a great, solid, natural foundation to build upon one merely artificial.
" The first principle of the Prussian system is subordi- nation, and the first maxim ' not to reason, but to obey.* The effects of these are attention, alertness, precision, and every executive quality in the officers, which assisted by the constant exercise of the soldiers upon the soundest
F
CHAP. III.
1763-1775.
66
Political and Military Episodes.
CHAP. III.
1763-1775.
principles of tactics, enable the troops to practise with wonderful ease and exactness, manoeuvres that others hardly admit in theory ; from these at the same time may in part be accounted for a striking observation, that the vigour of the army is in the subalterns and non-commissioned officers, who are undoubtedly the best in the world : it seems to decline as the ranks ascend, and as other qualifications than those of mere execution become requisite.
" Most of the generals who eminently possessed the great parts of their profession, perished in the war, or are worn out by the fatigue of it, or have sought occa- sions to retire ; the greatest part of the present set have recommended themselves by their assiduity upon the parade, and are men of very confined education. The severity with which command is carried ; a long atten- tion to trivial duties ; the smallness of pay in the lower ranks; the oeconomy of the table imposed upon the higher; the want of the French language, and many other causes which prevent the intercourse officers of other countries enjoy with superiors and strangers, concur to keep the mind contracted ; and Prussian officers, by- length of time and experience, only become more expert artificers to prepare and sharpen a fine weapon, diligent and proud to put it into the hands of their master in the most perfect order, awkward and ignorant if compelled to employ it themselves.
"The history of the late war will justify the assertion, that the Prussian school, excellent as it is to form men for executive parts, does not succeed better than others to form men of conduct. Set aside princes and foreigners, who drew their instruction apart, generals of a high form will not appear to exceed the number of extraordinary natural geniuses, which in a certain space of time, and in
Recruiting Difficulties,
67
a certain portion of people, providence bestows on every country, and they break forth with a light that no dis- advantages of situation or of education pan overwhelm or darken.
** If this survey of the Prussian army be just, it will be found, after giving all possible credit to the discipline and the exercise, that its most formidable powers exist in the king, or in his brother Prince Henry. All the energy of action and of expedient is in them, and when- ever they fail, and the direction of that stupendous machine falls to princes of the common cast, it must soon appear how intimately the principles of decline are blended and interwoven with its apparent strength. The greatest. of these, and indeed the parent of all the rest, is present to the mind through every observation, viz : the stretch and overgrowth of the military establishment comparative to the resources of the State. The difficul- ties of recruiting alluded to above, are not to be described. Not only every species of decoy and cajolement, but sometimes violence is employed to draw men from other countries. Hence the evil of desertion, which in spite of every precaution the genius of man can devise, is supposed to amount in time of peace to nearly a fifth of the army every year. In war it is much more consider- able. The army is more harassed with precautionary guards against their own soldiers, than against the enemy ; and after an unsuccessful action, the number missing usually trebles the number to be accounted for by death or capture.
*' The military chest is not more easily supplied from natural pecuniary strength than the corps from natural population ; yet the readiness of the troops, and all other stores would be useless without an ample provision there. The most grievous burthens are imposed upon the people,
F 2
CHAP. III.
I763-I77S'
68
Political and Military Episodes,
CHAP. III.
17631775
the most extraordinary efforts of financiers are tryed for this purpose. Hence a languor of industry and manufac- ture, general murmur, dejection and depopulation. The army is recruited by stratagem, and paid by oppression.
" The designs of the king are not within the fathom of common conjecture, nor is his character to be attempted upon common observation. He is jealous of prying eyes in all his employments. If he means to manoeuvre ten thousand men in private, he shuts up a country as effec- tually as his palace ; at Sans-Souci, his retirement is so strict, that sometimes for a month together he is seen only by his valet de chambre,
" There may possibly be more causes for these seclu- sions than mere love of solitude or application to busi* ness ; perhaps they sometimes cover secret excursions, and his majesty may be at some hundred leagues dis- tance, when at Berlin they suppose him in his cabinet ; perhaps long-continued intense efforts of the brain, joined to a natural violence of temper, throw him into a state which he may wish to conceal.
"Those who would draw probable plans from his situa- tion might consider his coffers filling with the most rapa- cious solicitude, which passes over all propriety, all principle of common policy, all suggestions of benevo- lence. They might observe magazines formed on the Elbe, the troops compleat in camp equipage, the artillery furnish'd, and every circumstance in readiness to take the field with an hundred and sixty thousand men with- out one day's note of preparation to his neighbours ; on the other hand, they might reflect that if the king's plan was merely to secure his defence, he could not more effectually awe his enemies than by a manifestation of his powers to attack : that conscious of the difficulties attending his pecuniary measures, diffident of his sue-
The A ustria n A rmy.
69
cesser's talents, or desirous from real good will or political prudence, to save a new monarch from odium, he may- wish during the remainder of his life and of his abilities to collect and establish a strength of his own creation equal to a long series of exigencies.
AUSTRIA-
"The emperor's army shows all the natural advan- tages the Prussians want ; the sources of men and money are great and natural ; the officers have liberality, the soldiers have national spirit ; there is sufficiency and ex- cellence in every part of the basis ; it is the superstruc- ture alone which has hitherto been defective ; the military strength of tfee court of Vienna has been kept depressed by deficiency of abilities in the department of finances, misman^ed pomp, a general spirit of profusion, and want of a warlike prince ; the troops have been ill paid, ill appointed, and ill disciplined ; the military plans have been unwisely concerted in the cabinet, and the com- mands injudiciously conferred in the field ; yet with all these disadvantages, such is the force of native zeal and good will, the Austrian troops in the course of the late war were sometimes victorious, always respectable.
" The present emperor appears to be of a disposition to change the scene, and of a capacity to draw out and employ all the latent vigour of the state. This young monarch^ has so much reserve in his temper, that those who approach his person the nearest, may perhaps be at a loss to develope his character truly. That he has talents and application is manifest to the most distant observation ; and a speculatist would perhaps remark, that his talents are of the kind which usually spring from
^ Joseph II., who succeeded to the throne in 1765.
CHAP. III.
1763-1775.
^o
Political and Military Episodes.
CHAP. III.
i763-»775.
ambition, and are found chiefly to predominate, and to be cherished, in minds occupied in deep designs, and capable of the most determined perseverance.
''It is well known that the object upon which the Emperor is most intent as a ground-work for all his plans, is a reformation of economy in every branch of government. He began with the attendance upon his person ; all the walking furniture of his court is dis- missed, and the only splendour retained is military, viz. : the imperial guard, composed of gentlemen who have the rank of lieutenants, and the noble Hungarian guard, mounted and equipped as hussars for the escorts of the royal family. In the first of these corps, a scheme has taken place by which the greater part of the expense will be saved ; the gentlemen are appointed lieutenants in regiments as vacancies happen, from whence they draw their pay, continuing the duty in the corps of guards. It is true those regiments become deficient of an officer for duty, but as they are to consist of four battalions, one of which will be always in garrison, that deficiency will not be felt. The Hungarian guard is also very magnificent but not the less martial, and there seems only to want the concurrence of the Empress Queen* to give to the court of Vienna as military an appearance as that of Berlin.
" The other reforms the emperor has made in every department intrusted to his absolute control, have been so minute and rigid, that some people have supposed them directed rather by avaricious passion than by policy; but the general tenor of his conduct will not justify such an imputation. He seems, indeed, intent upon establish- ing the greatest military power in Europe, and for that purpose to explore every source of revenue, and jeal-
^ Maria Theresa.
General Officers,
71
ously to lead each separate product undiverted to one great channel; but when collected, to let the current flow with strong and extensive operation to every branch of the establishment.
" It might be curious for those who would trace the distinction between political frugality and real avarice in rearing and guiding military institutions, to compare the conduct of the emperor with that of the present minister of Portugal,^ upon a supposition tliat they are actuated by those different motives.
" The plans of both are to augment, to new model, and to perpetuate an army. Their ideas of publick savings to effect those purposes are also alike, extensive over the whole mass of government^ and pervading its minutest parts ; but if these sentiments of their charac- ters are just, the one to the most parsimonious ceconomy in the parts that will bear it, will join a liberal appro- priation of funds to the parts that want it, particularly the two most expensive, a great train of artillery, and a well-composed body of cavalry. The other, overcome by his ruling passion, will be found to counteract his own purposes ; and while he broods over the hoards of the state with the gratification of a private miser, the plans of one of the greatest military geniuses of the age will starve at the vitals.
"There are no less than three hundred and thirty- eight general officers in the imperial army. It must be confessed this class is not without the failings we see in other services : some are superannuated ; others owe their preferment (and have no other pretensions to rt) to family rank and court intrigue ; many have risen by gradual seniority without faults, and without merits, whom it would be unjust to put by, yet whom the state can
^ The Marquis de Pombal. I
CHAP. lit.
I 763- I 765.
72
Political and Military Episodes,
CHAP. III.
1763-1775-
never employ for great purposes. After all these deduc- tions, many remain fit to form and to conduct great armies and great enterprises : men of solid knowledge and much experience, instructed by a vicissitude of re- cent events, by errors of their own, and the abilities of their enemies.
"Among these, Field-Marshal I*acy has distinguished himself, a man of detail and precision ; ingenious, reso- lute, and indefatigable. He is charged at present, and seems to be chosen with great judgment for that em- ployment, with the superintending of the whole reform in appointment, exercise and discipline. Sometimes men of this cast are not so excellent in the conduct of the field as in that of parade ; should this be the case, the Austrians possess a treasure in General Loudon.
" No man's abilities can have a more honourable testi- mony than the king of Prussia gives him in classing him with Prince Henry, and declaring them the only two generals he has known who never made a fault
" In taking a view of the rest of the general officers in the Austrian service many of the most distinguished characters will be found among men of Irish extraction; and in the lower ranks the army swarms with the off- spring of the best Roman Catholic families of that kingdom — high-spirited, intrepid, nervous youth, re- taining a hankering desire after their own country, feel- ing themselves worthy of it, and possessing a thousand qualities to make the policy regretted which drives them from it.
" It may not be improper to observe here that every Roman Catholic service in Europe abounds with this race, full of the same spirit and of the same passions; and should means be found in future times of exigency to open a door without danger to the state to receive
i
A rHllery,
73
these emigrants into British pay, for any destination and upon any terms reconcileable to their religion and honour, those who have conversed most with them abroad will not hesitate to foretell that they will flock to your standard, and bring home a stock of military acquire- ments highly desirable to any power. They are like robust plants that are rather improved than impaired by an early change of situation ; under cautious manage- ment they might become an ornament and a strength to their native soil, and would leave a vacancy where they were removed, not easily to be filled up.
"The artillery and the infantry have employed the most time since the emperor's accession ; the former was put upon a very fine footing in respect to its oeconomy some time before by Prince Lichtenstein who is at the head of it He formed the scheme of taking into the hands of government the exclusive privilege of making and vend- ing gunpowder ; and the extent of the dominions and the general passion for the chase make the consumption of that article so great that not only the current service of the artillery is supported, but founderies and stores are yearly supplied by it.
"The arsenal at Vienna is not shown to strangers without particular leave, and there is yet more jealousy in producing anything in it that is new. Of this nature are some pieces of a late construction which they call cannon for cavalry ; they are six-pounders, with a carriage extraordinarily long and the wheels low ; it is pretended that they will cross ditches, or pass the most uneven ground without overturning.
" The plan for the infantry is that each regiment shall consist of four battalions, each battalion shall consist of six companies of fuzileers, and one company of grena- diers, each company of an hundred and fourteen men,
CHAP. Ill;
I763-177S-
74
Political and Military Episodes.
CHAP. III.
1763-1775-
non-commissioned officers and drummers included. In time of service the fourth battalion of each regiment is to supply the garrisons, and at the same time to serve as a nursery of recruits and a deposit of convalescents. Officers who are infirm or who are uninstructed in their duty, are thrown into this battalion.
" Considerable changes are making in the clothing and appointment of the infantry. They have adopted a cap], in the place of a hat, something after the idea of Marshal Saxe. Its use is to let down and cover the ears and neck in inclement weather. It is under con- sideration to substitute a jacket instead of a coat with light cloak, which is to be carried when not worn rolled upon the top of the knapsack. They make use at present of the Prussian gaiter made of soft, black, woollen cloth, but it is proposed to try the Hungarian trowser and a half boot without a stocking : whatever contrivances may at last take place, the object of contemplation in every circumstance of the clothing is to unite as much as possible, lightness, warmth, and ease.
** In the exercise of arms and the military step, the Austrians differ but little from the Prussians ; they are not yet arrived at the extraordinary steadiness of the latter under arms, but cannot fail of soon attaining it, with the advantage of seeing their ends compassed with good will and little severity. They are likewise short of their model in some circumstances of discipline, but are making expeditious progress to surpass it, inasmuch as zeal, emulation, and honour, with equal subordination, will out-go any diligence arising from dread of punish- ment or other slavish principle.
" Altho' the cavalry has not been much worked upon in publick, no time has been lost in laying the ground plot for raising it upon a new model. Great studs are
Cavalry.
75
established in Bohemia and Hungary, furnished with stallions and mares from all countries at the Emperor's expense in order to breed horses for the army. These studs are carefully superintended, the different breeds and crosses are tried, and those will be multiplied which appear best adapted to the climate and soii, and to the use they are intended for ; by these means there is reason to expect the emperor will not only in a few years pre- serve within his country large sums, which have hitherto gone out of it for the remount, but he will also possess the best cavalry upon the continent. He already is supplied from the kingdom of Hungary and the frontiers of Turkey with an excellent race for mounting hussars and light troops. It is intended that each regiment of horse shall consist of a thousand, divided into seven squadrons with one captain, one captain-lieutenant, two lieutenants, two second lieutenants, and one standard- bearer to each squadron. They will preserve in their equipment their present cuirass, backpiece and helmet, and wilt be armed with a carbine, pistols and long sword. The regiments of dragoons and hussars will likewise consist of a thousand each, and be armed as at present, except that part of each squadron are to have the mus- queton. These pieces are of a singular construction, they are one foot nine inches and-a-half in the barrel, the barrel enlarges gradually towards the mouth, which is flattened in order to scatter the balls horizontally. The piece weighs seven pounds, and carries as many pistol balls as a common blunderbuss.
" The emperor's army consists at present of fifty-eight regiments of infantry, of four battalions each ; eighteen regiments of cavalry of seven squadrons each ; thirteen regiments of dragoons, and twelve of hussars of the same numbers ; a very great train of artillery, and a consider-
CHAP. III.
1763-1775-
76
Political and Military Episodes.
CHAP. III.
1763-1775-
able corps of engiaeers. There is besides a great number of Sclavonians, Croats, and other irregulars always ready, but never paid or exercised except when employed.
" The views of the house of Austria may not perhaps be so difficult to penetrate as are those of the king of Prussia. The recovery of Silesia is at the heart of every individual in the Austrian dominions, and they will be ready at all times to sacrifice blood or fortune in that cause. Perhaps advancement in age, experience in mis- fortune, and growing habits of devotion may have over- come at present in the mind of the empress-queen the natural ambition of her house, and the ardour with which her sex usually pursue personal resentment ; and as affairs are now circumstanced, she may wish to see the evening of a troubled life pass undisturbed. But should the death of the king of Prussia, or his incapacity to act, or any change in the politicks of Europe present a favourable occasion, it is not to be supposed a young emperor full of martial fire will leave the sword undrawn, or suffer the general fervency and wish of his subjects to subside ; probably in such circumstances the empress would resume her wonted disposition, but should she not, war will be popular, and notwithstanding the power of the purse and of civil government, the emperor, sup- ported by popularity, and at the head of perhaps t\iv'o hundred thousand troops, can be restrained by nothing but filial piety and decorum, from forcing her concurrence. This prince, like Hannibal, imbibed enmity in his cradle. In the loss of Silesia he has been taught to consider the rights of his family violated, their honour injured, their revenues usurped, and he is urged to war by every motive that can influence an heroick or a selfish disposi- tion. When we add the reflection how much more prone youth is to precipitancy than to sloth, it will seem more
The French Army,
77
probable that occasions will be anticipated than let slip, to try the new arms of the Austrian troops, and that it is impossible under any supposition that the peace between Austria and Prussia can be permanent
FRANCE.
" The military state of France is too well known to make a detail of it pertinent upon the present occasion, neither can any tntelligence of the measures of that power, for the improvement of their military, be wanting to the ministers of Great Britain. Such few reflections, therefore, will be only mentioned as peculiarly strike a soldier's mind, relative to the motive, the progress, and the probable success of those measures.
" France has always looked with an eye of pride on her military powers, the apparent superiority derived from the population of the country, and the martial turn of the nobility has made her kings ambitious, and her councils troublesome and dangerous to Europe. Never- theless, the greatest armies France has brought into the field have generally disappointed expectation ; they have mouldered away without action, they have been defeated in their purposes by intestine dissension and personal pique, and they have frequently lost a victory they had in their hands by mistaken, rash, or unpunctual execu- tion of orders. The want of subordination and discipline has long been supposed the cause of all their misfortunes. " The present minister,^ now labouring to remedy these defects, is a man of lively talents and sanguine temper — vigilant, secret, ambitious, enterprising; with activity often resembling precipitancy, and perseverance that may sometimes be termed obstinacy ; actuated by national
^ The Due de Choiseul.
CHAP. III.
1763-1775.
78
Political and Military Episodes,
CHAP. III.
X763-1775.
and by private pride, and feeling more sorely the loss of honour in the late war, than the expense of blood, of treasure, or of dominion.
" The projects of such a minister will more frequently owe their success to vigorous execution than to nice discernment ; and this idea may be applied to the present occasion. It might appear to minds of a speculative and cautious turn that the French character would bear the old principles of glory and duty to be wound up to a height that would answer the purpcfees of the strictest disciplinarians; or that tf an entire new system, whose characteristick is severity, was found absolutely necessary, the alteration should be effected by degrees and the design disguised and assisted by all the colour and appearance of the old rooted doctrine. It would occur to those reasoners, that to tear up a tree in order to raise one of another species in its place is inconvenient, tedious, and dangerous ; but that by a skilful introduc- tion of new powers, nature might be led to an alteration without risk or violence — the antient stock loses its original properties in the product of the gfraft — it shoots imperceptibly into a change —
' Miraturque novas frondes et non sua poma. '
The more violent measure is adopted in France, and the Prussian severity of command together with the free use of the stick, is without preparation established among men of impatient spirits habituated to all the prejudices of punctilious honor, and even in the lowest class, re- garding a blow as an irreparable disgrace. The effects which might have been expected are come to pass. The allurements of novelty, the confidence of youthful minds, and the operation of reward and punishment from the court, have gained to this system some real and
ChoiseuFs Military Reforms.
79
many affected partizans ; especially among the young nobility at the head of regiments ; among the more ex- perienced and advanced it has to combat not only the prejudices, but the judgment of age ; and among the common soldiers, it is received with repugnance that causes at present an incredible desertion.^ Upon the whole, the progress of this system, driven by authority and checked by ill-will, presents to the mind the image of a ship in full sail with a beam across her head ; it carries all the show^ of speed with a concealed impedi- ment to counteract it. Nevertheless it would be rash to pronounce that the zeal of a warm, industrious, deter- mined, absolute minister will not overcome all obstacles, if life and a duration of power give him time ; but the attempt is so far bold and hazardous, that should it fail, the affairs of the army will probably be in worse condition than they were before it was made, as the relapse is usually more desperate than the original disease.
** Besides the general reformation of discipline which regards the whole army, the ministry is particularly in- tent upon the improvement of the cavalry, a branch of the military now rising into general estimation upon the experience of the late war from a state of dormancy into which it had been thrown by some modern generals who neither understood to prepare nor to use it.
"The prospect of success in this endeavour is neither speculative nor hypothetical ; it is demonstrably clear that the French are not only at more expense and pains, but are also more advanced than any power in Europe in training their cavalry. The superior schools are under direction of very able men, and are attended with un- common assiduity. Detachments from every regiment are perfected there, and inferior schools are established
^ See ante, page i6, et seq.
CHAP. III.
I7^3->77S.
8o
Political and Military Episodes,
CHAP. III.
« 763- 1775-
in every regimental quarter; thus the whole body working upon the same principles, when a number of raiments assemble they are not only uniform in their exercise and manoeuvre, but any backwardness in the progress of their improvement is immediately discernible ; whereas when latitude is allowed in the execution of any circumstance, idleness and inability are often covered, and the inferiority of one corps to another passes only as a difference of practice.
" In contemplating this extraordinary application to the cavalry, it strikes a soldier that there is something more in the minister's mind upon that subject than the mere idea of general military improvement.
" This species of arms is especially important for some kinds of invasive war, where success depends upon rapid progress ; where sustenance is to be acquired by keeping all small parties of the enemy aloof, and by embracing and keeping in awe a large circuit of country ; where intelligence is difficult to be obtained, and where a formidable opposition is to be expected from arms of the same nature.
"Cavalry, it is true, may also be peculiarly useful where so great an extent of coast as that from Bayonne to Dunkirk is exposed to a superior naval power, and where opportunities might happen for a small de- barkation to submit the space of many leagues to con- tribution or devastation before a body of infantry could arrive to check it ; but the known former intention of invading these kingdoms, the contrivances absolutely brought to perfection for the conveyance of cavalry, and the enterprising disposition of the minister are all cir- cumstances rather to confirm the persuasion, that how- ever necessary he may find it at present to preserve the peace at any rate, however distant may be the period
Superiority of English Horses,
8i
requisite to ripen his projects, yet that he has that period in expectation, to open an offensive war in Great Britain or Ireland.
" In the meantime it is for the contemplation of the experienced and the able in the last-mentioned branch of arms, how far science and labour will operate upon bad niaterials. It is with exultation a Briton observes, that our breed of horses is not only superior to any the French have, but to any they can have, unless they draw them from our stock. It is with the same senti- ment he reflects that the king possesses in his service very many distinguished cavalry officers, and there only wants that some inconveniences be removed which con- strain and keep back the service, and perhaps some regulations made to keep the price of horses within the compass of regimental funds, to enable the cavalry of Great Britain not only to retain its present superiority, but to rise far beyond any strength it has yet shewn.
" Perhaps it may not be too digressive to observe here that tho* the dragoons and light troops of most of the States upon the Continent find a remount at home, or draw it at a moderate expense from Poland, it cannot properly be said that there are more than three species of cavalry of the line, or what is usually termed heavy armed cavalry, in Europe, viz. : the English, the Spanish, and the Portuguese, for they are from the same stock ; and the Holstein or North German, Danemark, Sweden, Holland, and a few other neighbouring States, which have sufficiency for their own remount within themselves, need no distinction, because their climate, their soil, and their intercourse have rendered their breed precisely the same. France, Austria, Prussia, and even Russia, if I am rightly informed, draw their large horses at a vast expense from Holstein and the adjacent countries, and
G
CHAP. III.
1 763- 1 775-
y Episodes,
(^MiTs, numbers alone make
^ Circumstances will be
§ by his studs to form
rofits as expected by
hjficial superiority in the
imstances will be more
exportation of stallions '
these scattered obser-
it will thereby appear
5, or at least intently
'^W| or hostile preparations.
nee, and the spirit of
li^Wr'iSadllol'bllxzWdfiiD unshaken, that while
es of Europe become
itE^l!pE:¥?bWKtilDay be found universally ^^fl^» *S* *S* *S* *S* *^*
i;5i?:i:tife-SJ0gac&it there IS a copy in s&»:3ii^g|j^|^ij||;-5^» 2a correspondence between
eral, La Motte Fouquet,
*•«*' "S" •'«'»
-Sr af^^ *2* '*'"*'* ph forms the subject of
QWd:WcrP})4&«||>t:iipien, but has since been,
i^lE^C^fclDciptltcluded in " Les CEuvres
b'shed in Berlin in i86i,
ins of his works. The
ligfjiJ2i3Si:5'I^<=I^^^Ix^c^^ not appear in print;
w±m::^fF&n*'^WtJ'^a^^^, and the whole subject -S- •H* -S- -M» *'ii'' "M* "M* • ss • -
f(i^t^^«||tm>]iM^xm^ manner, the papers as
n m the appendix/
Letter from Lord Chatham,
83
The following is Lord Chatham's acknowledgment of Bui^oyne's "Reflections and Observations." Con- sidering the relative position of the two men, the terms in which his letter is couched are more than flattering, and indicate the high estimation in which Burgoyne was already held.
CHAP. III.
1763-1775.
From the Earl of Chatham to Colonel
Burgoyne.
** Monday, December 14/A, 1766.
" Dear Sir, — I will not attempt to tell you how much pleasure and how much instruction I have received from the perusal of the Observations, &c., which you was so good to send me. It would not be less difficult for me to describe the sensations which the honour of the letter accompanying the Observations have filled me with. Allow me to offer, in one hasty line, more real acknowledgments than the longest letter could contain ; and to assure you that I count the minutes while indis- pensable business deprives me of the pleasure of seeing you. If Wednesday morning next at eleven should suit your convenience, I shall be extremely happy in the honour of seeing you at that time.
** I am, with the truest esteem and most distinguished consideration,
*• Dear Sir,
'• Your most faithful,
*' And most obedient, humble servant,
" Chatham."
The following letter affords an honourable proof of that high sense of military duty which Burgoyne dis-
G 2
•>^
84
Political and Military Episodes.
i7(yS'^775'
CHAP. in. 1 played throughout his life, and shows how firm he could be in resisting powerful political and social influence when exerted against what he believed to be the interests of the public service. The officer, whose application for the appointment of aide-de-camp to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland he so justly opposes, was a nephew of Horace Walpole, whose frequent and spiteful disparagement of Burgoyne in after life may possibly be due to this cause :
From Colonel Burgoyne to Lord Townshend.^
"My Lord, — An intimation of a desire from your lordship is to me a command. Inclination and respect
j would give it that force were your lordship's rank and power unconcerned, and I must return your lordship my most sincere acknowledgments for the attention you have honoured me with in making me a party to the favour you design Major Walpole. But while I am sensible of the motives of generosity and of kindness upon which your lordship acts towaj'ds him, 1 cannot help complaining aloud of the impropriety of his solicita- tion. The major has already thrown a year s duty upon Lieut-Colonel Somerville, a diligent and meritorious officer, who acquiesced in his application to the king for
I that absence upon his promise of attendance for an equal space of time at his return ; and though he may recon- cile it to his own mind to make a sinecure of the post which ought to be the most active in the army, I am sure, with the sentiments your lordship possesses towards the service, you would think me unworthy the situation I hold were I to submit without remonstrance to a slight upon my regiment, or an injustice to my other field-officer.
^ Then Lord- Lieutenant of Ireland.
Horace Walpoles Nephew,
85
"Could I look upon the major's military interest as concerned in this event, this opposition to his wishes, though a duty, would be painful to me ; but he must have an opinion very different from mine, both of your lordship's friendship and of the credit of a soldier, to suppose any preferment he may have in expectation would not meet him with as much readiness from your lordship and as much grace to himself, at the head of his corps, as in the function of an additional aide-de- camp.
" If after this representation, Major Walpole thinks proper to persevere in his application, I have only to hope that he may speedily find from your lordship's patronage a rank more worthy of his attention, and that an opening may be made in my regiment for a major whose views of future preferment will rest upon a diligent discharge of a present trust.
" If I have presumed, my lord, to express myself warmly and freely upon this subject, I hope you will admit my love of sincerity as an apology ; and that you will believe me actuated by the same principle when I assure your lordship of the attachment and high respect with which
" I have the honour to be, " Your lordship s most obedient, humble servant,
"John Burgoyne."
In 1768 the king conferred another mark of favour on Burgoyne, by appointing him to the government of Fort William, North Britain, an honourable and lucrative post then rarely held by an officer under the rank of general, and which, together with the emoluments of his other military appointments and the fortune to which
CHAP. III.
1763-1775-
86
Political and Military Episodes.
CHAP. III.
« 763-177 5
his wife had about this time succeeded, afforded him the means of indulging his refined tastes and his love of society, not only of the fashionable and the gay by whom he was fitted, but of all who were eminent in literature and art, and among whom he was equally welcomed.
With a handsome person, a manner the charm of which neither man nor woman could, it was said, easily resist, a genial, kindly nature which drew all hearts 'towards him, a ready wit, a cultivated mind, and the prestige derived from his reputation as a soldier, a speaker, and a poet — many a man more highly favoured by fortune, might have envied Burgoyne his position.
He was a favourite at court. The Derby family, who had at one time resented his alliance with a member of their house, had learnt to love him, and vied in showing him kindness and in advancing his interests; high military authorities consulted him ; eminent politicians courted his support, and literary men were pleased to call him one of themselves.^
Burgoyne's youth had not been free from cares and anxiety; his later years were darkened by a great sorrow ; but at this period he basked in the full sun- shine of life. Happy in his home, universally popular in society, successful in his profession, rising into pro- minence in Parliament, all surrounding circumstances justified him in indulging in the hope of eminence in public life and of gratified ambitions in time to come.
^ Among his friends of this time was Sir Joshua Reynolds, who had painted his picture, in 1766, and of whom Mr. Tom Taylor says in his Life of the great Painter : — ** Burgoyne he had not only painted, but must have been in the constant habit of meeting in the Green Room of Drury Lane, at the dinners of the Thursday Night Chib, at the Star and Garter, at every place of amusement where the gay, the witty, and the well-bred of London were gathered together."
Tlu Preston Election,
87
On the occasion of the General Election of 1768, the Earl of Derby and the Corporation of Preston,^ — ^a borough under the direct influence of the great Whig peer — held opposed political opinions; the latter body professing not only high Tory principles, but being sus- pected of Papistical and Jacobite sympathies. They accordingly put forward Sir Peter Leicester* and Sir Frank Standish to contest the seat with Lord Derby's nominees, Colonel Burgoyne and Sir Henry Hoghton.* Although the two latter received a very large majority of votes, the returning officers declared the Corporation candidates to be duly elected on the ground that the votes of all others than " freemen " were null and void. On petition, however, a Committee of the House of Commons again confirmed their original decision, and pronounced in favour of Burgoyne and his colleague.
This election had created intense excitement not only because of the political questions at issue, but since it involved the important question as to " whether the Earl of Derby or the Corporation of Preston was to nominate members to represent the borough in Parliament"*
* Under ancient charters the Corporation and such ** freemen ** as they chose to admit into their guild, claimed to possess the exclusive right to the political franchise of the borough. During the seventeenth century, however, this monopoly was called in question, when a Committee of the House of Commons decided that the right of electing members of par- liament was not limited to the mayor and burgesses but extended to "all the inhabitants." This vaguely- worded decision, which actually conferred upon Preston the privilege of universal suffrage, was upheld by the House on several subsequent occasions, and the right of "all the inhabitants " to vote remained in force until the Reform Bill of 1832 defined, and in this instance restricted, the classes entitled to the franchise.
• The son of Sir John Byrne by the sole daughter and heiress of Sir Francis Leicester, whose name he had assumed in 1744. His eldest son was created Lord de Tablcy.
• Of Hoghton Tower, Lancaster ; now de Hoghton,
* See History of the Parliamentary Representatives of Preston, by W. Dobson, Preston, 186S.
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The town was crowded with armed bands and great rioting with bloodshed and destruction of property took place. "An inhabitant," writing to the Gentleman s Magazine (March, 1768), says:
" The contest here is attended with imminent danger. I have just escaped with many friends. The country is now up in arms, and the town is abandoned by our men. The cry is, 'Leave not a single freeman alive.* God knows where this will end. I think to-night or to- morrow will be fatal to many. This is shocking work in a civilized country."
Burgoyne was, among others, indicted for having in- cited his supporters to acts of violence. The trial took place in the Court of King's Bench, before Mr. Justice Yates, in April, 1769. Burgoyne admitted having gone to the poll with a loaded pistol in each hand, but urged that this was in self-defence, " the Corporation mob " having been furnished with similar weapons by the Mayor from an arsenal established at the Town Hall. He was, however, found guilty, and sentenced to a fine of £\yQOO ; narrowly escaping the additional penalty of imprisonment
Among those who voted for Burgoyne on this occasion was Richard Arkwright, who had recently arrived at Preston, and was engaged in putting up his first spinning jenny in a room in the Free Grammar School, which the head master had lent him for that purpose. He was at this time in such destitute circumstances that a subscrip- tion was raised to provide him with a decent suit of clothes to appear in at the poU.^
Burgoyne continued to represent Preston until his death. Local annals have preserved an anecdote con-
* The incident is related in the History of Preston^ by Baynes, 1825.
rr
Trottiiig the GeneraL
89
nected with his election in 1784. A party of his political opponents assembled in the bar-room of an inn, proposed playing a joke upon him, or, as they called it, "trotting the General." A woollen manufacturer of the name of James Elton accordingly pulled out a valuable watch, and giving it to Burgoyne's servant requested him to take it to his master and request him to inform them if he could tell them the time of day. Burgoyne, un- able, as we all probably are, to discover the point of the joke, but seeing that a liberty was being attempted to be taken with him, placed the watch and a pair of pistols upon a tray, and desired his servant to accompany him to the persons who had despatched him upon the message. Arrived at the tap-room, he asked each of the assembled party whether he was the owner of the watch. In view of the pistols no one was found to acknowledge the ownership, whereupon Burgoyne said : " Since the watch belongs to none of you gentlemen it remains my property," then turning to his servant he presented it to him saying, " Take this watch and fob it in remembrance of the Swan Inn at Bolton." The chronicler states that Elton, whose stupid joke had thus rebounded upon himself, bore the name of Jemmy Trotter to his dying day.^
In one of his violent attacks upon the Duke of Grafton, Junius fell foul of Burgoyne on the subject of the Elec- tion of 1768, accusing the duke of having sold a patent place, and given the proceeds, amounting to ^^3,500, to Burgoyne, " to reward him, I presume, for the decency of his deportment at Preston, or to reimburse him, per- haps, for the fine of one thousand pounds, which for that very deportment the Court of King's Bench thought
1 The story is told in the History of Bolton-U- Moors, by P. A. Whittle, 1856.
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proper to set upon him. It is not often that the Chief Justice and the Prime Minister are so strangely at vari- ance in their opinions of men and things." *
Whether or not Junius had any grounds for this charge no excuse can be offered for the insinuations conveyed in the following paragraph : —
" Perhaps the noble Colonel himself will relieve you. No man is more tender of his reputation. If any man, for example, "were to accuse him of taking his hand at a gaming table, and watching with the soberest attention for a fair opportunity of engaging a drunken young nobleman at piquet, he would undoubtedly consider it an infamous aspersion upon his character, and resent it like a man of honour. Acquitting him, therefore, of drawing a regular and splendid subsistence from any un- worthy practices either in his own house or elsewhere, let me ask your grace for what military merits you have been pleased to reward him with a military govern- ment? He had a regiment of dragoons which one would have imagined was at least an equivalent for any services he had performed. Besides, he is but a young officer considering his preferment, and except in his activity at Preston, not very conspicuous in his profes- sion. But it seems the sale of a civil employment was not sufficient, and military governments which were in- tended for the support of worn-out veterans, must be thrown into the scale to defray the extensive bribery of a contested election."
An ungenerous allusion to these remarks having been made in the House of Commons,* Burgoyne said that "If the wretch, Junius, is now lurking here in any comer
1 Letter xxxiv, 12th December, 1767. To the Duke of Grafton. • On the Clivc Committee, when Wedderbum, the Solicitor-General, who took a very prominent part in Lord Clive's defence, bid Burgoyne
An Attack by Junius,
91
of the House, he would tell him to his face that he was an assassin, a liar, and a coward/'^
Burgoyne was too completely a man of fashion not to fall in with the prevalent vices of his age, and he may have been addicted to high play ; but the imputation conveyed in these passages was so scandalous and so palpably unjust as to elicit a defence and a remonstratnce even from the pen of one so unfriendly to him as Horace Walpole.
That Burgoyne owed his seat in Preston to Court in- fluence is extremely improbable ; for in the first place, the borough was under the influence of the Derby family ; and secondly,- the position which he at this time main- tained in the House of Commons was too completely independent to admit the belief of his being a nominee of the Government. Although the personal obligations under which he felt himself to the king induced him generally to support the measures of the Court, he seems to have had no political sympathy with Lord North. This, indeed, he declares in a letter which he wrote to his constituents in 1779, in which, after reviewing his past parliamentary services, which he describes as " A consti- tutional support of the Crown, a liberal reliance upon those who conducted the public measures, but an in- dependent claim to free opinion and free conduct on every occasion," he adds: "I had thus found myself obliged sometimes to oppose the measures of the Court, and, though I bore respect to Lord North's character, no two persons not in direct enmity could live at a
(with a direct reference to the letters of Junius) reform his own conduct before he turned reformer.
* It may be inferred from this that the suspected author actually was a member of the House. Among those to whom the letters of Junius were at this time attributed was Lord George Sackville ; but it could hardly have been him that Burgoyne had in his eye.
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greater distance when I was asked to take American service in 177 S"
Much as he valued Court favour, and knowing how severely the king resented opposition to his measures on the part of his personal friends, Burgoyne did not hesitate to vote against the ministry when he disapproved of their proceedings. Of his political independence he gave a prominent instance on the occasion of Lord North asking the House to ratify his negotiation with Spain in the affair of the Falkland Islands. A Spanish admiral had in the summer of 1770, made a descent upon Fort Egmont, forcibly expelled the small English garrison,
\ and to prevent communication with the fleet, taken the rudder off the only British vessel in the harbour.*
, Reckoning upon the support of France, the Spanish
I Government justified the action of their agent, and more than six months elapsed before England succeeded in extorting a tardy and inadequate reparation, clogged
! with pretensions which Lord North himself had at first declared to be inadmissible. Burgoyne denounced the treaty as derogatory to the national honour, and in the
I course of a spirited speech,- said :
I ** Spain gave fifteen minutes to an officer to evacuate
1 a garrison ; Great Britain slept four months after the insult. It has been the fashion to maintain (I have seen it in print, and I have heard it in conversation) that military men were prejudiced judges in questions of this
; nature. Sir, I disdain the idea, and denounce it in the name of my profcssioa The man who would wantonly
j promote bloodshed, who upon private views of advantage
i * Captain Walsingham, in the course of this debate in the House of ! Commons said that if the Spanish Admiral had attempted to remove the i rudder from a ship of his, he would have thought it his duty ** to knock
I his head off.*'
1 « "Parliamentary Reports," I3lh February, 1771.
The Falkland Islands.
93
or ambition would involve Europe in war, would be a promoter of ferocity — a disgrace to his profession, to his country, and to human nature. But there are motives for which a soldier may wish for war ; these are a sense of satisfaction due for an injury inflicted; a desire to make a return to our country for the honours and rewards we receive at her hands: a zeal to be the forward instru- ment to battle for the honour of the Crown, and the rights of the people of Great Britain." ^
The Government measure was, however, carried, and the king writes to Lord North :
"The great majority is very creditable for the ad- ministration. The seeing Colonel Burgoyne's name on the side of the minority appears so extraordinary that I almost imagine it was a mistake." ^
When in the following year the Royal Marriage Bill was introduced, Burgoyne voted in its favour, and the king thanks Lord North for having called his attention to this fact, adding that "had he (Burgoyne) failed to do so, I should have felt myself obliged to name a new Governor for Fort William,"^ so that His Majesty thought it consistent with his duty to withdraw from an officer a reward conferred for distinguished military service, in the event of such officer presuming in his place in Parliament to oppose any political measure introduced by the ministry.
* In the course of the debates on this subject in the House of Lords, Lord Chatham, in moving for the production of papers, laid it down as a rule that in matters of such import, the House should never accept the word of the responsible minister.
* Donne's North CorresponJence,
' This was the established practice of the king, which had led to a dis- cussion in 1 765 with regard to the dismissal of General Conway and other military officers who were deprived of their employments as a penalty for having voted against the ministry in their places in Parliament. Lord Rockingham endeavoured to obtain the support of Mr. Pitt in making such
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Political and Military Episodes.
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At this time Burgoyne appears to have gained the ear of the House ; his speeches were fully reported and discussed by contemporary politicians ; and when the malpractices of the East India Company and their ser- vants challenged the notice of Parliament, the manage- ment of this great question seems to have been spon- taneously conceded to him, as a member whose knowledge of the subject, and whose capacity and influence would enable him to deal with it successfully.
It has already been stated that at an early period of his parliamentary career, Burgoyne had given much attention to Indian affairs, and some of his papers on the subject of the East India Company at that time, possess much interest, if only from the contrast they present to the existing state of things in our Eastern Empire.
The following are his thoughts on the financial con- dition of the Company at a time when their capital was but a little over three millions, and the price of stock stood at 160 :
" There is no rational or honest method of redeeming the East India Company from its present distress for want of money, but by getting some indulgence in point of time from their present creditors by pointing out the means of doing justice to them afterwards. This must be done by a diminution of their own expense, and by a plan of frugality in the management of their affairs both at home and abroad.
"The first step, and that which is the most imme- diately within the power of the proprietors, is to reduce
proceedings the subject of charges of a breach of privilege, but the great Whig statesman deprecated so extreme a course as " touching too near upon prerogative." See Albemarle's Memoirs of the Marquis of Rockingham^
For another instance of such arbitrary conduct, see the removal from his command of the Marquis of Lothian, in Chapter X.
The East India Company.
95
their own dividend to six per cent, per annum, if not lower. This reduction will at the same time free them from the annual sum of ;^400,ooo to Government, which with what they thus save of their own dividends amounts to a saving of ;^6oo,ooo annually. If the cause of the evil were removed, which is a very extensive con- sideration, this alone would in two years free them from their present incumbrances — but every other method which has been or can be suggested, will be found upon examination fallacious and destructive for the following very plain and simple reasons :
" 1st. It is impossible to produce anything out of nothing. The Company have no money, and therefore it is impossible they should pay any to their creditors.
" 2nd. They have no credit, and therefore they can borrow none. This, however, is a circumstance very much in their favor, as it puts it out of their power to increase their present misfortune, which is that of being already too much in debt.
"But of all the methods that have ever been suggested for furnishing them with ready money for present relief, that of extending their capital is the most thriftless and ill-considered. Their capital is now ;f 3,200,000; we shall suppose that they extend it to ;^4,ooo,ooo. The money given in by the new subscribers for that purpose is not to be employed in any way that is profitable in trade, but is to be immediately doled out to the proprietors themselves, or to the British Treasury, or to defray ex- penses already villainously incurred. But these new subscribers, although they bring no new addition to the annual profits of the trade, must receive their share of them in common with the other proprietors, and that annual sum of money which being divided among the holders of ;^ 3,200,000 stock gave each of them a
CHAP. Ill*
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Political and Military Episodes,
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dividend of \2\ per cent when divided among the holders of ;^4,cxDO,ooo must afford them a proportionably smaller dividend, and this not a temporary diminution, but such a one as must continue during the existence of the Company.
"But who is there in the present scarcity of money who will voluntarily engage his property in so grossly a mismanaged and bankrupt Company, and which as I have just now shown, must become more unprofitable by their entering into it } The price of stock is now about 166 per cent., and yet people who have money to lay out in stock do not choose to purchase it at that price, although they know that the whole profits of the trade and revenues are to come to them as shares of a stock of no more than ;^3, 200,000. Were this stock in- creased to ;^4,0(X),ooo, I believe it would be difficult to find purchasers for it at the low price of 100 per cent. What a noble harvest would such a scheme produce for the Bulls and the Bears, and what a crop of ruin for those who were not perfectly in the secret ! A minister who would be concerned in a business of this sort would deserve to be hanged, and I am confident that if Lord North thinks of it at all, it is from his not being at all acquainted with the ways of 'Change Alley.
" I therefore return to the proposition with which I set out, that the most profitable plan for the proprietors is to lessen their own dividends, which they may do without consulting Lord North or any projector whatsoever. That, indeed, and all other methods will be ineffectual if the rapacity of the servants abroad and the knavery of the Directors at home is not checked, instead of becoming by impunity more and more enormous."
In another paper which he endorses as " A short ac- count of the political conduct of the East India Com-
Tlie East India Company.
97
pany's servants," he points directly to the necessity of a constitutional check upon the action of the Company.
" In examining the charters granted by King William III. and his successors to the company of merchants trad- ing to the East Indies, we find amongst other privileges, tho^e of building forts, of training soldiers, and of pro- viding themselves with all the necessary implements for carrying on war by land and by sea. But we find, at the same time, that all those warlike powers are, with r^ard to their use and intention, put under the strictest limitation.
** Those charters accordingly prohibit the trading com- pany from employing their arms, or performing any acts of hostility without just catise, which they fully explain to be the repelling of invasion, reprisal of goods forcibly taken from them, and other motives merely of defence and retaliation. No sanction is given by any of those charters to wars carried on for the acquisition of booty or territory, but on the contrary, they are carefully pro- hibited, and in a variety of dear and distinct terms, as if it were meant that every acquisition of that sort should be considered as an infringement of the charter and a breach of the covenant then virtually entered into between the Crown and the Company.
" But* in the sealing of those charters it was not suffi- ciently CO." .'Jered that they were in themselves only pieces of dead parchment, without eyes to see transgres- sions, or hands to punish them ; and that when certain stipulations were made with the Company, there ought to have been at the same time a constant inspection and control provided for their observance. Without such provision, all conditions in a contract are nugatory and virtually null and void."
H
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1
98
Political and Military Episodes,
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An outline of the machinery necessary for the exer- cise of an efficient State supervision is then given, and the highest testimony that can be borne to the justice and soundness of Burgoyne's views is to be found in the fact that not only the principles which he enunciates but the practical details for carrying them out were for the greater part adopted by William Pitt when, in 1784, he brought in the bill which led to the creation of the Board of Control.
It is not a little to Burgoyne's honour that he was among the very first to raise his voice against the rapacity and unscrupulous proceedings of the founders of our Indian Empire, and that it should have devolved upon him to bring under the notice of Parliament the corruption and breach of faith which cast so dark a slur upon the brilliant career of Lord Clive.
On the 13th of April, 1772, he accordingly moved for a Select Committee to enquire into the affairs of the East India Company ; his speech on the occasion was as follows : —
" Mr. Speaker, — I rise in consequence of the notice I gave the House, to make motion of as serious importance as I believe ever came under your consideration, to the interest and the honour of the nation ; to its interest, inasmuch as the influx of wealth from India makes a vital part of our existence ; to its honour, inasmuch as the most atrocious abuses that ever stained the name of civil Government, call for redress.
" For the substance of this motion I shall make no apology. I believe it to be reasonable, I know it to be parliamentary. If any excuse be necessary for bringing it so late in the session, it is due from others, to whose situations, had they thought it expedient, it more natur- ally fell to take the lead. For my insufficiency to treat
Burgoyn^s Motion for a Committee of Enquiry.
99
it as it deserves, to state this great subject with that arrangement of matter, and that propriety of argument and inference which could best justify the under- taking, I require more apology than words can ex- press for the patience of the House under these inabili- ties, I shall want more than their candour ; I shall want their favour, their indulgence, I might almost say their prejudice.
"As the first step, and to remove at least any un- favourable impressions that may be conceived of me, I shall beg leave to state to. the House the motives and principles upon which I act.
" At the opening of the session, I heard with satisfac- tion and with gratitude the attention of Parliament directed from the throne to this great object. As the session advanced, 1 came every day to the house with expectation of seeing some data established, some pre- mises laid for framing a great extensive political arrange- ment for India, coinciding and harmonizing, as far as might be, with the principles and spirit of this constitu- tion, dispensing the blessings of well-regulated govern- ment in those remote regions, and wealth and prosperity in Great Britain. I never conceived it possible that Par- liament could be called upon by any men whatever, to apply a remedy without any information of the disease — to pass an Act upon divination — to give upon trust a vote of justice and regulation to the India directors as we give a vote of credit to the Crown, leaving them the judges of the exigency and the application.
" It would be disorderly now to enter into a discussion, or to give a prejudgment upon the Bill which is to be presented in the course of this day ; but I will say that any Bill calculated upon the present narrow and rotten system of Indian Government must be probably a
H 2
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destructive measure, and at best a mere temporary ex- pedient— a poor, paltry, wretched palliative.
' It will but skim and film the ulcerous part. While foul corrnptioD, mining all beneath, Infects unseen.'
" Therefore, sir, when I heard notice given of bringing in this Bill, and nothing else proposed, I considered the proceeding with astonishment, I listened to the comments that were made upon it in public, and applied to all quarters of the House, with indignation. Sir, I do not believe those comments were founded — but I am ready to confess that I think a dread of labour, a passive sub- mission to difficulties, a spiritless acquiescence under evils that we all know and that we all feel, are too much the characteristics and the reproach of the times. Supineness upon this occasion will confirm those dis- graceful sentiments in the opinion of all Europe. We shall not only be degraded as politicians, but as men. I do not assume more feeling than others, but in con- sidering the numberless circumstances, too apparent, I fear, to the House, that disqualify me for stepping for- ward, I feel one qualification to encourage me. I stand separate and clear from every concern and interest in person and property that could be supposed to warp the mind from pursuit of the great object. I think it incum- bent upon me in this .stage of the business to explain myself to the House upon this point, in the clearest and most strenuous terms ; and I pledge my veracity, my duty to the House, my fidelity to my country, every claim of honest fame, every sentiment that in every man's mind can constitute his idea of the term honour, that I act in this motion unconnected with any man whatever, unconcerned in every interest, unintentioned of every purpose that might arise from it, other than a fair.
His Speech.
lOI
a free, a direct, an impartial, a temperate, but an effectual enquiry ; to present to Parliament a comprehensive view of the existence and extent of the evils under India Government ; and thereby to enable them in their de- liberate wisdom, to apply an effectual remedy. I have dwelt upon this subject not only for my own sake, but for the success of the motion ; for if I can give to my conduct the fair mark and stamp of sincerity, I shall remove at least that coldness and backwardness towards the motion that might arise from suspicion of the mover. " Having cleared my ground thus far, I can proceed with more confidence to explain my purposes. I mean to move an enquiry into the nature, state, and condition of the India Company, and of the British affairs in India. By the first part of the motion, I mean to give powers to a committee to enquire into the constitution of the Com- pany, into the purposes for which it was framed, and the powers with which it was invested ; I would then pro- ceed to the management of those purposes and powers ; see where have been deviations, where there have been abuses ; where the evils have unavoidably arisen from the latent errors in the constitution, where they have flowed from the casual misconduct of servants ; and the enquiry will be thus naturally brought by the last part of the motion to a view of the present disorders, civil, military, moral, and political; that chaos where every element and principle of government, and charters, and firmauns, and the rights of conquest, and the rights of subjects, and the different functions and interests of merchants, and statesmen, and lawyers, and kings, are huddled together in one promiscuous tumult and confu- sion, natural to the jarring operations of powers the most discordant and incompatible. To sift and examine these several materials, many of them excellent in themselves,
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and dangerous only by being confounded, will be the only means to enable the controlling and creative power of legislature to new model and arrange them, and to give them for the future permanent regulation and direc- tion to their proper ends.
" It would be needless and unfair to enter into a further display of the apparent state of the Company at present. Clouds and darkness rest upon some parts of it — upon others there is too much light.
*' Gentlemen will be ready to ask, do I mean hostility to the Company ? I disclaim all idea of hostility ; I mean by an investigation of facts to discover the com- mon danger and the common interest of the Company and the nation ; to hold up the mirror of truth to the Company, wherein they may see themselves and their affairs as they are, and judge in concert also with the nation, what measures of reformation will best enable them to fulfil the trust reposed in them ; for I hold every trading company, and that of India in particular, to be trustees for the State, acting upon terms beneficial to themselves.
** As to the servants, I scorn the thought of proceeding upon a vindictive principle towards any of them. I believe many of them to be men of integrity ; others to have been led astray by such sorts of temptation as human nature cannot resist. The greater part of the evils will be found to be deeply rooted in the constitu- tion which is framed to excite and give play to the vicious passions of men. I would not, at the same time, check my enquiry' for fear of stumbling upon a criminal ; should such crimes appear as would make it a duty in Parliament to take notice of them, chastisement will be justice not hostility. I only mean that chastisement is not the object or end of my intention. When means
His Speech.
103
can be found to make the offence impracticable for the future, example of the offender is unnecessary; therefore, Sir, let errors, or let crimes (if such there be) sleep where they can do so without infringement to our duty ; with my consent, let them sleep for ever, buried beyond the search of human eye, and over-shadowed with the trophies of public services or of private virtues.
" But, Sir, I shall perhaps be told that the object and end of my enquiry is to throw the whole affairs of the Company into the hands of the Crown, from which the death blow to the constitution is most to be apprehended. I have no such purpose. If legislature has not powers and wisdom so to model and regulate the sovereignty of the State in India, or so to delegate its powers as to prevent influence of the Crown in England, let it never be attempted. I will join issue with the gentleman who upon a former occasion asserted that India and Great Britain had better be swallowed up in the sea than liberty endangered by any exercise of undue weight given to the Crown that might make it preponderate over the other branches of the State. Though a servant of the Crown, I am not less a servant of the public : it is my confidence and my happiness that I serve a sovereign to whom I shall most effectually recommend myself by serx'^ices to the public ; but had it been otherwise, I trust I should have been found to bear a heart devoted to this constitution, and capable of making any sacrifice to support it I scorn therefore the idea of acting a part upon any undue principle. Let resolutions grow out of facts, — let remedy spring from resolutions, — I only contend that if by some means sovereignty and law are not separated from trade, the words of the honourable gentleman to whom I alluded before will be a prophecy,
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and India and Great Britain will be sunk and over- whelmed never to rise again. But charters, Sir, I shall be told are sacred things, — they are so ; and to touch them with the hands of the Crown, or any other single branch of the legislature would be sacrilege. Charters are sacred, — so are crowns, — so is yet more sacred the religion of the country ; but when by a long series of abuses, the one is degenerated from her first beauty and simplicity to the grossest bigotry and superstition ; when the other by a course of corruption, is perverted from the only principle upon which free government can exist for the good of the people, — has any wise legislature, has this legislature hesitated to apply a remedy ? We sit here at this hour in the full enjoyment of our civil and religious liberties, happy examples of the powers and of the rectitude of our ancestors, in reforma- tion and revolution. Upon this principle, therefore, and upon this alone, that an unprecedented concurrence of circumstances has produced an unprecedented exigency, would I apply the doctrine of the reformation and the revolution to the India Company's charters ; and I would blend that doctrine with every consideration of equity and compensation, to satisfy the interest of the parties concerned, while it applied to the common inte- rest and common salvation of India and Great Britain.
" Need I urge any further excitements } The fate of a great portion of the globe, the fate of great States in which your own is involved, the distresses of fifteen millions of people, the rights of humanity are involved in this question. Good God ! what a call ! The native of Hindostan, bom a slave, — his neck bent from the very cradle to the yoke, — by birth, by education, by climate, by religion, a patient, submissive, willing subject to Eastern despotism, first begins to feel, first shakes bis
Impeachment of Lord Clive,
105
chains, for the first time complains binder the pre-emi- nence of British tyranny ! '*
He then proceeded formally to move for a Select Committee of thirty-one members, and although the Government was opposed to the enquiry, the Committee was ultimately granted without a division, and sat through the summer. The report was brought up on the 3rd May, 1773,^ and Burgoyne in the course of a rather remarkable speech, said that " it contained the recital of crimes which it shocked human nature even to conceive," and wound up with a formal impeachment of Lord Clive for having abused his power, and betrayed the trust reposed in him in India, in having "illegally acquired the sum of ;^234,ooo, to the dishonour and detriment of the State."
The influence of the East India Company was at that time already very considerable in the House of Com- mons, and although the directors had now no personal feeling in favour of their agent, they were deeply inter- ested in resisting enquiry into the conduct of their affairs. The King had too high an appreciation of the great services rendered by Lord Clive, not to view with displeasure the public exposure of his delinquencies. Clive had moreover warm and influential friends in the Cabinet, and in the House of Commons party feeling was sacriflced to the prevailing sentiments of personal sympathy or indignation.
Strong efforts were accordingly made to defeat Bur- goyne's intentions, and although he succeeded in carr>'ing
' In a letter to Mr. Holroyd, Gibbon, the historian, writes on the 19th May, 1773: — **Thc House sat late last night; Burgoyne made several spirited motions, that the territorial acquisitions of India belonged to the State ; that grants to the servants of the Company were illegal ; and that there could be no true repentance without restitution.'* — Gibbon's Correspondence,
CHAP. III.
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io6
Political and Military Episodes,
CHAP. III.
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his resolution, its effect was neutralized by a second resolution moved by Wedderburn, the Solicitor-General, and agreed to by the House, tliat Lord Clive had " at the same time rendered great and meritorious services to this country."
Lord Macaulay says : — ^" The Commons voted the major and minor of Burgoyne's syllogisms, but they shrank from drawing the logical conclusion."^
It was perhaps, under the very peculiar circumstances of the case, a judicious compromise, and Burgoyne, to whose nature vindictiveness was unknown, was probably not displeased to find that while he had been instru- mental in vindicating the national honour and good faith, he had done so without the personal sacrifice of one to whose genius and valour England was deeply indebted. He had stated that he was actuated by a sense of justice and not of hostility; that it was not so much to punish crimes as to render their perpetration impracti- cable in the future that he was striving ; and that if crimes were discovered, he was willing that they should "sleep for ever beyond the reach of human eye, and overshadowed with the trophies of public services."
Such had indeed been the result of the enquiry, which in spite of the unpopularity which attended it, he had conducted with courage, temper, and impartiality, and with a degree of judgment and eloquence which greatly raised his reputation in the House of Commons.
" **Lord Clive," Edinburgh Review^ January 1840 :— In this well-known Essay, the great historian graphically describes