"The sun had set, there was no reason for despair, when the two brigades of the enemy's cavalry which had not yet been engaged, penetrated between la Haye Sainte, and Gen. Reille's corps; they might have been stopped by the squares of the Guard, but perceiving the disorder, which prevailed on our right, they turned them. These three thousand fresh cavalry rendered all attempt at rallying impossible. The Emperor ordered his four squadrons de service to charge them, but these squadrons were not sufficiently numerous, the whole division of reserve cavalry of the Guard would have been necessary; the four squadrons were overwhelmed, and the confusion every moment increased."

This charge of the escadrons de service fell upon the right of the 10th Hussars, and was not repulsed without severe loss by the right squadron of that regiment. Thus terminated the final effort of the French and Gen. Müffling, after noticing this movement from the left by the two brigades of fresh cavalry, goes on to say,

"The English army now advanced in lines as at a field-day, the cavalry attacks followed in rapid succession; the four battalions of the guard were like the rest dissolved, and the whole French army exhibited nothing but one great mass of all arms intermingled in the wildest confusion."

In going through the principal actions of our cavalry, during the late war, at the conclusion of which we are now arrived, let it not be supposed that the subject has been treated with all the attention which it merited. We have been able to attempt nothing beyond a hasty sketch of the leading evidence upon which we feel fully able to refute Colonel Napier's proposition, that the British cavalry are of a decidedly inferior class to that of the French. That the latter had brilliant successes when opposed to the half-disciplined armies of the Spaniards, far be it from us to deny ; but were their successes equally decided and brilliant when opposed to the British? and if the latter were sometimes misled by their impetuosity, have we not convicted the French on more than one occasion of even greater want of discretion in their attacks? The nature of the Spanish war was such, that no instance occurred of great bodies of French and English cavalry coming into fair contact and being thus proved against each other; but whenever they did meet in small numbers, the advantage did not remain with the enemy. No cavalry, be it remembered, ever took the field with so little experience of service as ours at the commencement of the Peninsular campaigns, while, on the other hand, the French ranks were filled with veterans, who had served in all parts of the world, under experienced officers, in the constant habit of manoeuvring and commanding cavalry in large masses, and with almost unvaried success.

Some advantage may also fairly be given to the French in the simplicity and practical merits of their system of forming and disciplining their cavalry, a simplicity of more consequence than can be imagined in the field, where confusion is always the principal danger of cavalry. An opinion is said to have been given by the greatest military man of this or perhaps any other age, that, although a single regiment of British cavalry would at any time overthrow a similar force of the French, yet that the latter possessed so much greater facility of manœuvre, combined with steadiness and order, that, should the experiment be tried with larger numbers, the French would have the superiority in proportion as the numerical force was increased on both sides. It has been said, by some bold men, that the celebrated person alluded to, is not well versed in the tactics of cavalry. It would be

about as reasonable to attempt proving to a carpenter, that he is no judge of the excellence or defects of the tools with which he performs his work. It is some elucidation of this subject to observe, that the Prussian cavalry for some years after the beginning of their war with France, were trained upon the system of Von Saldern, of which Dundas was merely the literal translation, but so convinced were the Prussians of the superiority of the French cavalry tactics, after being opposed to them during the few first campaigns, that not disdaining to profit by the enemy's lessons, they laid aside the complicated manœuvres of Von Saldern, and adopted a system grounded upon that of the French, but still farther simplified in its details. To obtain what are called good fighting lines quickly, and to advance and retire with steadiness, and without losing that compactness which is the chief essential of cavalry, must always be the main object. For the purpose of all formations, the less officers are shifting and moving from one flank to another, the less is the chance of error and confusion, a point overlooked in Dundas, or rather Saldern, who sacrificed practical advantage in this case to minute detail and useless preparation, so that not only was there a great deal of shifting about of officers and detaching of numerous markers before any formation could take place, but the time wasted in these operations and in preparatory movements was obliged to be regained by such rapidity and galloping in the actual execution, that the difficulty of preserving order, and accomplishing steady and correct formation of line, was very materially enhanced. The subject of the cavalry manoeuvres has been above two years under consideration of the Authorities, and a Board is now sitting with a view to examine the subject. The President, an officer of excellent judgment and great experience in the field, has been deservedly raised to the highest honours for his services in the Peninsula. He is assisted by general officers of well-earned celebrity, and the inferior members have been distinguished at various times and in their respective ranks in many of the scenes we have endeavoured to record. duty now imposed upon them is most important, and as it could not be entrusted to better hands, there is every likelihood of the cavalry obtaining the great advantage of a system of sound and practical movement, well adapted to the purposes of the field abroad.

The

But to conclude, let us beg to be understood that we do not pretend to arrogate for the cavalry the same absolute superiority over all the rest of Europe, which has been so justly claimed by Colonel Napier for the infantry of Great Britain. The infinitely greater experience which the French cavalry obtained during the wars of the Revolution, have certainly raised them to a greater celebrity than even their infantry. All we assert is the mere fact, that when the British and French cavalry have fairly met, the former have been generally found victorious in spite of many disadvantages, and that Colonel Napier's distinction is neither fair nor supported by evidence, when he so decidedly allots them the second place as regards the cavalry of France-" Non jam prima peto," but we cannot submit to a direct acknowledgment of inferiority. We have rested our arguments upon plain facts, and above all, upon the admissions of our rivals, and we leave it to the candid reader to judge whether we have redeemed our pledge. VINDEX.

THE SERVICES OF THE LATE

CAPT. SIR MURRAY MAXWELL, KNT. AND C.B.

THE late Sir Murray Maxwell was of an ancient Scottish family. His father, James, who sent seven of his children into the Army and Navy, was son of Sir Alexander Maxwell, Bart. of Monreith, and of Lady Jane Montgomery, daughter of the Earl of Eglinton, and uncle to Jane, who married Alexander fourth Duke of Gordon.

Sir Murray first went to sea with his friend and patron Sir Samuel Hood, in the Juno, and was in that ship when Sir Samuel ran into Toulon in search of Lord Hood's fleet, and found himself aground, and surrounded by the revolutionary one, who endeavoured to take possession of him. The miraculous escape of the Juno is matter of history. Whilst belonging to this ship, he was employed in the batteries ashore, at the taking of Corsica, and reduction of Bastia. We now trace him acting Lieutenant in the Nemesis, when she was taken by a very superior French force in the Gulph of Smyrna; and afterwards second Lieutenant of the Hussar frigate, when she was wrecked on the coast of France, where he remained a considerable time prisoner of war.

Having been liberated by exchange, he was made a Lieutenant 10th October 1796; and in December 1802, was promoted to command the Cyane sloop, in which vessel he gave early proof of the promptitude and decision which so marked his after-life, by the detention, on his own responsibility, of two French transports filled with troops, destined to reinforce their West India possessions, and which had departed from France on the immediate breaking out of the war; the news of which had not reached the station he was on. Whilst cruising in the same ship, off Port Royal, he also engaged and beat off two French frigates, endeavouring to get into Martinique. In the following June, he was, with the Cyane, at the reduction of St. Lucia by the ships under the orders of his patron. After this affair he was removed into the Centaur, 74, on board of which ship Commodore Hood had his broad pendant; was present when Tobago, Demerara, and Essequibo, were taken in July and September 1803; and on the 4th August in the same year, his commission as Captain was confirmed, and he was subsequently at the blockade of Martinique, on which occasion his ability was displayed in fortifying the Diamond Rock, and placing on its summit two 18-pounders, hove up from the ship by means of hawsers; this feat was reckoned so extraordinary as to become the subject of a series of engravings at the time, which we have seen.

In April 1804, an expedition under the orders of Commodore Hood and Major-Gen. Sir Charles Green, was undertaken against Surinam. On the 25th April, the Centaur, the Commodore's ship, anchored about ten miles off the Surinam river, and on the following day a landing of a division of the army was effected. Capt. Maxwell and an aidede-camp of the Major-General's, were sent with a summons to the Dutch Governor to surrender, which, on the 28th, he answered with a refusal. After many brilliant exploits, the Governor offered terms of capitulation, and on the 5th of May, the fort of New Amsterdam was taken possession of by an advanced corps under the orders of Brigadier Maitland. This important affair having thus terminated, Capt. Maxwell was sent home with the dispatches; and he afterwards returned

to the West Indies, and commanded the Centaur when the Commodore had struck his pendant. From this ship Capt. Maxwell removed into the Galatea, and was subsequently appointed to the Alceste of 46, formerly L'Universe.

In April 1808, Capt. Maxwell was cruizing off Cadiz, with the Mercury and Grasshopper under his orders, when a fleet of Spanish vessels were discovered under the protection of twenty gun-boats and a train of flying artillery. Off Rota, Capt. Maxwell commenced a vigorous attack, when two of the gun-boats were destroyed, several of the merchant vessels driven on shore, and some captured by the boats of the frigates.

After this brilliant service, the Alceste was employed on the coast of Italy, where Capt. Maxwell assisted at the destruction of various armed vessels and Martello towers. On the 22nd May 1810, a party from Capt. Maxwell's ship stormed a battery near Frejus of two 24pounders, spiked the guns, and blew up the magazine; and a few days afterwards her boats attacked a French convoy, captured four vessels, drove some on shore, and compelled the remainder to put back.

Towards the close of the year, Capt. Maxwell was attached to the in-shore squadron off Toulon; and in the following year was under the orders of the late Sir James Brisbane on the coast of Istria, where he assisted at the destruction of a French brig in the harbour of Parenza.

In November 1811, Capt. Maxwell, with the Active and Unité under his orders, fought a most gallant and brilliant action in the Adriatic, with three large French frigates. His little squadron was lying in the harbour of Lissa, (which island he had fortified,) when the enemy were signalized, and notwithstanding the difficulty occasioned by a strong gale blowing directly into the harbour, he succeeded in warping out the three vessels under his orders. After a warm conflict of two hours and twenty minutes, the Unité succeeded in capturing la Persanne, a French store-ship, of twenty-six 9-pounders and 190 men, and having in her hold 120 guns, and several pieces of brass ordnance. The Alceste commenced action with the other two, but unfortunately having the main-top-mast shot away, dropped astern, when the Active pushed up, and brought the sternmost to action within pistol-shot. The French Commodore, from the disabled state of Capt. Maxwell's ship, made off to the westward; the other having been totally dismasted surrendered, when it was found she had five feet water in the hold, and proved to be La Pomone, of 44 guns and 322 men. In this brilliant action the Alceste had twenty killed and wounded, and the Active thirty-five, her Captain (Gordon) having lost his leg. The Captain of the Pomone surrendered his sword to Capt. Maxwell as the Commodore, but the latter, with equal delicacy and magnanimity, immediately presented it to Capt. Gordon.

Capt. Maxwell's next appointment was to the Dedalus, which ship was unfortunately wrecked, 2nd July 1813, on a shoal near Ceylon, while convoying some Indiamen to Madras.

In 1815, an embassy to China was determined on, and Capt. Maxwell was appointed to the Alceste, which was to convey Lord Amherst.

The Alceste sailed from Spithead 9th February 1816. The details of the voyage to China, the visit to the Loo Choo Islands, with the aid afforded to science by her discoveries in the Yellow Sea and

coast of the Corea, the subsequent loss of the Alceste on the 18th February 1817, by striking on a sunken rock, about three miles from Pulo Leat, in the Straits of Gaspar; the sufferings of the Ambassador, officers, and crew, have been so fully detailed by Capt. Basil Hall, who commanded the Lyra sloop, the consort of the Alceste, and which that scientific and excellent officer dedicated to Capt. Maxwell, as to render a repetition unnecessary. Mr. McLeod, the Surgeon of the Alceste, also published a most interesting narrative of the circumstances. The lustre of Capt. Maxwell's character received even an additional brilliancy from this misfortune; for, to adopt the language of the Court Martial by which he was subsequently tried, "his coolness, self-collectedness, and exertions were highly conspicuous, and everything was done by him and his officers within the power of man to execute.'

The Chinese will never forget the chastisement they received when the Alceste forced through the Bocca Tigris, or Canton river, to receive Lord Amherst on his return from Pekin. The officers and crew were all animated with a similar feeling to that of their heroic Captain, and it is said that on one of the quarter-deck 32-pound shot, some of the young gentlemen had written in chalk, " Tribute from the King of England to the Chinese," and which was actually fired against their flotilla of eighteen war junks, after which their batteries were silenced by a broadside. Captain Maxwell fired the first gun, thus rendering himself personally amenable to the consequences of the attack, as it is well known that the Chinese attach responsibility to the individual whose hand was immediately employed in the discharge.

On the 12th April, the Ambassador, Capt. Maxwell, and the officers and crew of the late Alceste, sailed from Batavia Roads in the Cæsar, a ship hired for that purpose. At St. Helena, Capt. Maxwell had an interview with Buonaparte, who remembered he had commanded the Alceste at the time La Pomone was taken in the Adriatic, when he said to Capt. M. "Vous êtes très méchant. Eh bien! Your Government must not blame you for the loss of the Alceste, for you have taken one of my frigates."

The superstition among seamen for particular days is well known. When the information of the loss of the Alceste was received at Portsmouth, very few expressed surprise, and they said, "We were sure it would happen, for she sailed from Spithead upon a Friday!"

In June 1815, the Order of the Bath was formed into three classes, and Capt. Maxwell was nominated a Companion of the same; and on the 27th May 1818, he was honoured with Knighthood.

A general election occurring this year (1818) Sir Murray Maxwell stood a candidate for Westminster, where, although polling above 4800 votes, he was unsuccessful. During the contest, which was of unexampled violence, he showed such temper, coolness, and good-humour, as greatly to disarm the fury of the mob, who sided with his opponent, until a ruffianly attack upon his life prevented his further appearance on the hustings. The pecuniary losses he sustained on this occasion were so great, that we regret to learn his affairs never subsequently recovered from them.

The East India Company, taking into consideration the services of Sir Murray Maxwell in the voyage to China, and the great losses he had sustained on that occasion, presented him, in May 1819, with 15007. Vice-Admiral Sir Benjamin Hallowell (now Carew) being nomi