PREFACE. FROM the days of Alexander to those of Napoleon Military Fame has been one of the sweetest, if not the most coveted, of human distinctions; and although we read of 'The shepherd kings of patriarchal times, Who knew no brighter gems than summer wreaths, such potentates belong, I fear, but to a fabled age that Arcadia which is born only of the poet's inspiration. From the commencement of authentic or reliable history, battle and conquest have ploughed the soil where civilisation and progress have subsequently reaped a fair and goodly harvest. From the loftiest monarch to his meanest subject war has ever been one of the fatal penalties imposed on life; for, as long as the present world shall last, there will be, I opine, not wanting those who covet their neighbours' lands, and, consequently, owners who object to the sur render of their inheritance. That pax perpetua of which Leibnitz speaks, but which is, alas! found only in 'God's acre,' will never, I believe, dawn upon this earth until our human nature shall change into Utopia, and until the ideal of a Sydney shall be found. From the dark and awe-inspiring Presence that overshadows the realm of the Czars, to the paltry, yet subtle venom of the reptile crew, who, usurping the name of Patriot and of Irishman, crawl over the sister kingdom with a track of seditious slime, there will be incentives to possess le bien d'autrui which can only be met by armed defence and the antidotal remedies of lead and steel. Happily, however, for England, the growth of our vast empire has been like that of the forest oak the dowry of generations; while, certainly of late, annexation and confiscation of territory have been, with few exceptions, more thrust upon us than coveted; while 'The big wars That make ambition virtue' have for many years found little favour with our kings, our ministers, or our people. But the Conservative patriotism, which, with all deference to Iconoclasts of the Parnell and Bradlaugh type, still, as of old, animates the heart and the honest intelligence of these islands, teaches us to maintain the unity, as well as the honour and dignity, of this great empire-won by the courage and enterprise of our forefathers, and bequeathed to us as a heritage, of which, as a nation, we may well be proud. Our Indian Empire, if commenced and founded in invasion and conquest, was a necessity of the time, and the choice of rule lay only between France and England-between Lally Tollendal and Clive-between the Courts of Versailles and Saint James; and, in fact, became simply a question whether Paris or London should give laws and civilisation to the greater part of Asia. If most of our Colonies have grown up in peace and prosperity, they have, even now, to claim very frequently the protection of the mother country; and our men and ships are a necessary part of our integrity of empire. It is not by the holy Gospel alone, nor by the missionary zeal and self-abnegation of our pioneers to remote and savage places, that the barbarian can be tamed into the shepherd or the dweller in cities. He will, even in his gentlest moments, occasionally dine off his missionary, and too often gives a A 2 decided preference to the 'fire-water of the pale faces' rather than to the abstemious teachings of Sir Wilfrid ! If, then, we may admit that war is sometimes a sad necessity, it is well to know that our defenders have not, in our time, become degenerate or unworthy of the old days, when England meant but one small island, and our forefathers' only boundary was the sea that washed our cliffs. The unhelmed front of Harold was pierced by the barbed Norman shaft at Sanglac; but his spirit and Saxon soul hovered over the adamantine squares that held the bloody slopes of Mont St. Jean. Drake, Frobisher, Hawkins, Howard, and Raleigh, come back to our Navy in such sea-captains as Nelson, Hood, Collingwood, and Jervis. The prototypes of Rupert's fiery Cavaliers gallop again with that beau sabreur, Cardigan, in the 'Valley of Death' at Balaclava; while Cromwell's Ironsides' live once more in the British Heavies' that followed Scarlett, and burst like an avalanche through the Ruski's squadrons. To remind us of Créci, Poictiers, and Azincourt, have we not Blenheim, Ramilies, Oudenharde, and Malplaquet, renewed again in Talavera, Salamanca, Vittoria, and Thoulouse? |