A CENTURY AGO

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 107, 13 January 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

A CENTURY AGO

STIRRING EVENTS OF 1812. Writing of the advent of the New Year, "Civis," in the Otago Witness, says:—lt is a shy and wistful greeting that we give to 1912. What will this new year bring us? Of late we have grown keen on centenaries, and thereby, much to our advantage, are getting some feeling of historic perspective—thanks be! From the bumptious ignorance which thinks New Zealand a world in itself and the only world worth knowing about, good Lord, deliver us! We may take note, then, that 1912 is the centenary of an "annus mirabilis." In 1812 three great strokes of war resounded through Europe from Wellington and the Peninsula: the storming of Ciudad Rod'rigo, the storming of Badajos, the battle of Salamanca. In 1812 Napoleon invaded Russia, saw Moscow given to the flames, and in the Moscow retreat entered on the down-grade which conducted him to St. Helena. ' At Coblentz, on the Rhine, is a monument which, for shabbiness, looks in keeping with its surroundings, albeit the most curious memorial in Europe. Dated 1812, it is inscribed to Napoleon and the Great Army, then passing by way of Coblentz to the conquest of Russia. At the bottom is a satirical foot-note: "Seen and approved by the Russian Commandant of Colblentz, January 1, 1814." That was after Leipsic, when the eagles were closing in round the carcase, with Elba and Waterloo not far away. Then, too, in 1812 the United States of America, with no navy to speak of, made war on +he victor of Trafalgar —and Trafalgar only seven years gone! We have humiliated ourselves more than enough over the American war of 1812. Three frigates were taken on each side —our own naval losses being amply compensated when, in set duel, the British "Shannon" boarded and captured the "Chesapeake." Ashore, we captured Washington and burned the Government buildings. And if, later, in the repulse at New Orleans, we took a handsome licking, it was at the hands of our own kinsfolk, not at the hands of the foreigner. Altogether, the records of 1812 are of good omen. Lucky shall we be if 1912 uses us no worse.