1921 REVIEWS OF BOOKS 287 The History of the British Army. By the Hon'. J. W. Fortescue. Vols, ix and x with a volume of maps. (London : Macmillan, 1920.) This instalment had been somewhat anxiously awaited, and was delayed by the difficulty of providing the maps during the late war ; yet it would have been a mistake to issue them without the maps, which are as good as any issued with the earlier volumes. 1 The period is of the years 1813-15. As before, Sir John Fortescue takes care not to limit himself to the deeds of Wellington. The campaign of Castalla and the siege of Tarragona, the doings of Lord William Bentinck, Graham's descent on Holland and his attack on Bergen-op-Zoom, as well as the American War, receive full treatment. Also he wisely gives a very brief but adequate account of Napoleon's campaigns in Russia, Germany, and France, so that the Peninsular righting may be fitted into the complete picture. • As regards Castalla, where Suchet ought to have been severely punished, and Tarragona, which could easily have been captured, bitter things are said of Sir John Murray. Bentinck also is censured, for he lent troops from Sicily to Murray and recalled them, then came himself to take command and returned to Sicily, then interfered at Genoa. That Welling- ton was angered by the feebleness of these operations in east Spain was but natural. But at least Suchet was kept on the move, and prevented from helping first Joseph, then Soult ; or rather, had an excuse for helping neither, so as to preserve his individual command. It is interesting in these operations to read of the services of so good a Waterloo regiment as the 27th, and of a Waterloo brigadier such as Adam. Graham's cam- paign in Holland in the winter and spring of 1813-14 brings to our notice the raw troops which fought later so well at Waterloo, 2 — they were in garrison in the Netherlands after Napoleon's abdication — and Cooke as divisional general. Graham had a difficult task, for the Russians and Prussians preferred to march on into France rather than clear Holland, and the Dutch, as in 1799, were not ready to.rise. But he played a strong, if risky, game, and with a little luck might have held Bergen. Sir John writes calmly of the American War. He merely refers with short sarcasm to the heated ' scribblers ' of either country, and remarks that the actual combatants really respected each other. He shows how difficult a task our men had to save Canada, the dearth of both soldiers and sailors being considered. The Bladensburg- Washington and the New Orleans expeditions show how poor was the leading of even Peninsular officers when no longer under Wellington's eyes. Perhaps these chapters are as valuable as anything that he has written, for even when the altered conditions are taken into account, the problems of distant overseas campaigns are always with us. Especially it will always be of vital impor- tance to consider how a few regular soldiers should be handled in attacks on non-regulars, brave and good marksmen, but without discipline and without traditions ; if they succeed, as at Bladensburg, it may be in spite of serious mistakes, such as are due to contempt of the enemy ; if they 1 See ante, xv. 570 ; xix. 172 ; xxiii. 173 ; xxvi. 608 ; xxviii. 590. 2 'It is impossible for one who has not deeply studied Graham's campaign of 1814 in the Netherlands to understand how bad Wellington's troops really were ' : x. 405.
