Victory or Death.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IX, Issue 140, 19 May 1885, Page 3

Victory or Death.

A curious tact in connection with the Britisd Army is that they have always been oblige'! 1 lo figbt aguinst trenienclouH od<]s, ; hut iio iiia'tter what, the odd* were, victory wa«iu variably •on; our side, oj , if jiot victory, anni-hilation-—as lit isandiilai '* v For instance, the .tattle of Agincourt. waa fought m .France Ijetweeii 10,000 .Englishmen aii.l 100,000 Frenchmen. This was rather' lonij odds,; but the Eni>li»h gained Abe day. The battle ' ot Kerkee . was fought and: won m India by 2800 British trUopti against 25;000 Alahratta*, the ; lattier a wUll-arme«i and dicjplined force. Tt'he battle of; Nagpore wns fought . and won by I4OG Britinh troojw and , four gunH against 20,000 Muhruttns V and 35 guns.; The battle of Corivgauiii •■w»» fought and won' by 962 British against ; 28.000, Main aitaa. lii. the /tir.st. Bin mesa war 1500 British troops beat 20,000 r Burmese. All the above wi»ru . pitched battles, aud not fought belaud Ibriifications. Iti the name Burmese war 2000 British troops utterly defeated 10,000 . Burmetie. The battle of 'j'alavera, Ruling the Puninsiilar war, was fim^ht arid won by 25 v 00() i British , against more than double the! numluir of French. At the battle of iAlbiiKia . the British jroner<il had only - 6^ooo troopg on whoni he coii{d jrely to ojijHwe '23.000 of the best t>ooj»8 of Fianci'j and tho British* troops were victorious, bnt at the close; of the fight thate wore ouiy 2,500 left out of the 6,ooo. In the Crimean War, at tho Wattle of Inkerman, 8,000 British soldiers fought for nine hours against an over-whelming force of 60,000 Russiuus with 60 guns. , "The solid mass of the Russian attack/ says Colonel Hawley," was opposed by a thin and scattered line, yt 1 beyond that line the Russians could not go. Over and over again the Russian ttoopY were hurled against the weak red line, but the British would not let them pass. Each time the Russians were forced to retreat" In quelling the Indian Mutiny, m Ashiiutee, m Abyssinia, m iChina, it has always been the same story —always :the odds against ua, sometimes 100 to 1, but the result has invariably been the : same. — English • paper. - : ' ' . . .' ■ . ;