432 APPENDIX. N T E X. ^lOTE CON'TAIXIXG AX ExTKACT FROM A Lr.TTRH ADDRESSKD BY Colonel Napier, tihc Historian of the Penin- sular AVar, to Lord Fitzroy Somerset. If the forogoing v(jluTiie lias begun to disclose to its readera the entireiiess of Lord Raglan's devotion to the public ser- vice, his more than common swiftness of action, his subtle understanding of the feelings of other men, and his tender- ness for their honest pride, it may be interesting to hear, that some thirt}' years before the time I write of, <]io?e very qualities had been ascribed to Lord Fitzroy Somerset by the Historian of the Peninsular War. Hi a letter of October 1824, which is now before me (but which I never saw until long after the publication of this book), Xapior wrote : — ' My dear Lord Fitzroy, — The lapidity with which
- you have fuliilled 's desires would be extraordinary
' coming from any other quarter, but your accurate know- ' ledge of everything that does or has belonged to the army
- enables you to do before others can ilnrilc. You are well
' aware from the long acquaintance j'ou have had with my ' opinions that I am no flatterer, and that I am not dis- ' posed to express sentiments which I do not f(>el, I would ' certainly rather have my feelings judged of by my actions ' than by my words, but I shoidd be wanting both to you ' and myself if I failed to express ]ny admiration of the ' unabated warmth with which you assist real merit unin- ' fluenced by any consideration but the services of the in-
- dividual. iN'either has the delicacy with which you have
' upon soveral occasions kept back all appearance of per-
- sonal protection been unobserved ])y myself or those
' numerous claimants who have at different times found a ' sure friend in you when they couM lind none elsewhere.'
