LORD WOLSELEY.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 165, 14 August 1886, Page 4

LORD WOLSELEY.

The London "Truth,!', in a recent issue, containsan estimate' of the military power gf Lord Wolseley, from. a military, officer, who as a member of (the general staff has' had occasion to compare the war record of prominent' eoldievs of every;' nationality, in order to make an estimate o£ their military powers. . This correspondent does not seem to have a very high opinion of Lord Wolseley aa a eoldier. The following, passages from his communication deal with the more salient' points of his Lordships, military career. ' ' . - No more than was the water advance up the Nile i to the Khorti base a military operation in the true sense of the. word, could the Bed River expedition} claim the title. Neither movement was through a hostile region. A- better right to the appellation had the exodus of the; Mormons from - Nauvoo to Salt La^e, since it was continuously molested ■by Indians. The Red River expedition was simply a neat place of transpedition, aided by carte blanche as to expenditure and appliances, and by a continuous .water way, broken only by occasional portages. It shrinks into insignificance before the march across the American Continent, from the Missouri, to the Sacramento, made by General A. S. Johnston's column of United States troops in 1658, and General Kearney's movement of hard marching and harder fighting from' Mexico to California in -1864. But neither Johnson nor Kearney saw fib to gasconnade to his troops about " having been launched into a desert of trees and water," or to tell them grandiloquently that " the expedition might have been one of classic times," expressions in which Wolseley indulged himself. Nor did they care to chronicle their own achievements in the paper of "Blackwood's Magazine," as did he his. As to the accomplishment of its main object, the expedition was a failure. ' Kiel, the leader of the petty insurrection, rode out of Fort Garry a quarter of an hour before Wolseley .entered ifc. King Coffee similarly evaded him, and the Mahdi calculated the consummation of- Wolseley abortivoness with scientific accuracy. It would seem that savages have a neat knack, of amusing themselves at the expense of the commander's dispositions. Of an identical character with the Bed River exp dition was the Ashan tee business. Climate and bush obstructions made the advance arduous, but iv its military features it scarcely merited a despatch. What is to be said of an enemy who at the " battle " of Ordahsu managed to kill bat two men in a force of some 1,200 ? The " crowning victory.." of Amoaf ul was achieved at the cost of three killed out of 1,500 engaged, and it is the victor in such skirmishes who has said that "Jomini never had an independent command in war." Of your Vv"olseloy's " big,drjnk campaign " in Natal I need say nothing, but quote the comment of the local newspaper, that he drowned the "independence, of the colony in sherry and champagne." To the peaceful occupation of Cyprus, already in the possession of Lord John flay, he brought a personal staff so copious that the. only billet that could be invented for a colonel was that of superintendent of interpreters, and a division of Indian troop 3 and "a brigade of white eoldiers, not a battalion of which could have made a day's march for absolute lack cf transport. When, by dint of tortuous intrigues with press and public, he at last accomplished his purpose of being sent out to supersedo Lord Cheimsford in Zululand, he arrived only in time to effect a " settlement " of that territory, so futile and impossible, that it had begun to fall to pieces before it came into full existence. And then came the campaign against the Fellaheen canaille, whom Arabi pretended to command. The day was still young when Wolseley reached the scene of the Kaesassin combat. Graham had received the disadvantage of having beenaurpriped, had broken the impact of Arabi'e attack, had driven the Egyptians back into the intrenchments of the Tel-el-Kebir position, and the English troops were within easy striking distance. Everything was favourable for an immediate assault. Bnt the line of action which common sense and every rule of warfare dictated did not commend itself to your Betruger. There was not in it for him enough of the coupde theatre element. The obvious alternative of turning the Tel-el-Kebir position he rejected ; it would have been effective, but would have been weak in the theatrical element. He preferred the cheaply dramatic expedient of a night march to a surprise assault — a pettifogging tours de force from which the element of risk was eliminated by the worthlessnesa of his enemy. And there was another consideration. How wretched had been the opposition in the previous skirmishes he had superintended had stood befl trayed by the shabbines* of his butcher's biJlfl, which had never hitherto got into double figures. Poltroons as were the Egyptians, in the stress of a sunrise they could not but do some execution, even by mistake, and, in effect, there was at Tel-el-Kebir a mortality of some fifty men out of a command over 13,000 strong. How humorous, with its bit of pathos, too, if the scene at Balmoral on the afternoon of Telel-Kebir, as depicted in your Queen's "More Leaves." To the royal family, palpitating with suspenee, comes Wolseley'a ruggedly truthful telegram, telling how Arabi's position was "most bravely stormed by the guards and line," and how the Duke of Connaught "behaved admirably, leading his brigade to the attack." The women embrace, with tears of pride and thankfulnees. The retainers gather around a table set with " whisky and glasses," Then the Bublimated gillie steps from behind his mistress's chair and bellows for '* three cheers for the Duke of Connaughr, the hero of Tel-el-Kebir I" To have produced this ecenc, even at the expense of the derieion of a nation and an army, must surely be Wolieley's proudest trophy. 1 will say nothing of that story of a failure, the compaignfor the relief of Khartoum. Confronted with difficulties that demanded generalship, his collapse was utter and profound, alike as regards detail and coneummation. He came down the Nile, revealed to the world as the Betruger, pure and simple ; and an expensive mountebank, too, for I estimate that from first to last he has cost you £20,000,000. What have you to show for the money ?

The editor of a child's pa'psr received a .letter from a lady subscriber recently, < in which waa written': "Our Annie died last weak, after reading the -last 'number of your valuable pfeper.": ■< : - - A email child being asked by & Sundayschool teacher : «♦ What did the Israelites do after they Bad crossed/ the Red' Sea ?" answered: "I don't know, ma'am, but I gueea they dried themselves, "