THE LATE GENERAL SIR WILLIAM NAPIER.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 4, Issue 198, 5 July 1860, Page 4

THE LATE GENERAL SIR WILLIAM NAPIER.

[From the Globe.'] He was born in 1785 at Castletown, in Ireland, and was the son of Colonel the Hon. George Napier, by the celebrated Zady Sarah Lennox, daughter of the second Duke of Richmond.' He is brother of the illustrious conqueror of Scinde. Sir William having entered : the army in 1800,' served at the siege of Copenhagen, * and fought at the battle of Kioge in 1807. He served with Sir John Moore in 1808, and, continuing in the Peninsula throughout the subsequent campaigns, commanded the 43rd Regiment at Salamanca, Nivelle, arid Nice, and was several times severely wounded during the war. He was Lieutenant-Governor of Guernsey, from 1842 4o 1848, and in the latter year was created a military knight, and' became colonel of the .27th Regiment. He was raised in 1851 to the rank of Lieutenant-General. Meantime, Sir William had proved that he could use the pen as forcibly as he had wielded the sword. In 1828 he commenced his publication of The History of, the War in the Peninsula and in the South, of France, from the year 1807 to 1814.” Phis, work, which consists of six volumes, is justly regarded as the most valuable record of the scenes it narrates; and the acuteness, accuracy, and. knowledge of the art of war displayed in its pages are be-, yond- all question. It has been cited as a strong testimony,,, not only to the fidelity of • Sir William’s narrative, . but to his g;enius for military description, that his work is highly ~ prized by soldiers of every grade, from the private to the general. He has been described, as less the historian of the study, than oi the camp—passages of his book are said to ■ have been recounted round watchfires, and told in the trenches before Sebastopol,, and ■ never - without- wanning the soldier’s_ heart, firing his mind,.and.nerving his arm. Sir Wm. Napier is. also author of “ The conquest of Scinde,” and “ Life and Opinions of. Sir Charles Napier,’’ besides treatises on,the Poorlaw and, the Corn-laws, and some reviews and works of fiction. If we say that, the active service of Sir. Wm. Napier was commensurate with-ti e-services of the Light Division in the Peninsula*, we shall have said quite enough-, to define and establish, his claims as a working soldier. It is true that be was in the expedition to, Copenhagen in 1807, and, that he was not on the retired list in 1815, but the ' Peninsula is the sphere of his duty and: his experience ; nor did he as an effective mem: ber of his profession ever overstep the capacity of a regimental officer. At first his pro- - motion was raj id; bpV though he entered the war a captain he left it only a lieut. colonel, ' and it was this rank alon.e, and upon the halfpay establishment of the 43rd Foot, that he made his first appearance before the public in the new character of military historian.

Though he entered the army in the last| century, and fought his last fight almost fifty years ago, he was only seventy-four when he was overtaken, by death on the 12tli.instant, at Scintie House, Clapham .Park. It may be interesting to give the dates of his various commissions. He was ensign on the 14th March, 1800; lieutenant, 18th, 1801; captain, 2nd June, 1804; major, 30th May, 1811; lieutenant-colonel, 22nd. November, 1813; colonel, 22nd July, 1830 ; majorgeneral, 23rd iVovember, 1841; lieutenantgeneral, 11th November, ISSI ; 'and colonel, 22iid Regiment,,l9th September, 1853.

~,(From the Daily News.) The Napiers have a remarkable ancestry. : It seems a strange jumble of names and characters. Henry IV. of France, Charles II of England, the Dukes of Richmond, Charles .Janies Fox, and Lord Edward Fitzgerald are among the relations on the one side of the house, and the great Montrose and John Napier, the iuventor of logarithms, were among the forefathers of the other. Colonel the Hon; George Napier, the father of this band of brothers, was a man of remarkable qualifications in every way; and it was a mystery to his children that he did not attain a higher position in the world than theirs. Two of his sons inherited his noble personal presence, and all the five early gave evidence of the force of character which they believed had marred their father’s fortunes, by exciting jealousy among the publio men of his time. From their mother they inherited the sensibility which is as conspicuous as fprce in them all. Her mother, tea wife of tlie second Duke of Richmond, cl: id of heartbreak within the first year of, her widowhood; and what the strength and vivacity of Mrs. Napier’s feeling were we see by the letters of her son Charles to her and about her,.as they are given in his “ Memoirs.” She was beautiful in youth, and indeed throughout her long life, and venerable in age; and she was an object of public interest early and late—’first as the beloved and .betrothed of George 111., and finally as the mother of Wellington’s Colonels.” The early story is well known —the rejection of the King’s addresses by a girl of seventeen, her subsequent acceptance of them on sufficient'proof of the sincerity of his attachment, the inevitable breaking off of the match for political reasons,, and the long lingering of the affection on one side at least. It seems rather far-fetched to suppose that the family of Colonel Napier was neglected and discouraged by the sons of George 111., on account of the attachment between the respec tive parents; but it is understood that the royal lover was watched with solicitude for years after , all intercourse with Lady Sarah Lennox was broken off: She became the second wife of Colonel Napier. At the battle of the Coa, in July 1810, Sir William was “wounded in the hip, and suffered severely for two months. On the 14th of March in the next year Charles was making the best of his way, bandaged for hisj own terrible wound in the face, received at Busaco, when he met a litter of branches, covered with a blanket, and borne by soldiers. It was his brother George with a broken limb.. Presently he met another litter. It was William, declared to be mortally hurt. Charles looked at the spectacle which met him at the eud of a ninety miles ride, ami rode on into the fight. Wellington might "well relish talking of “my Colonels ” the Napiers Sir William never let pass, among his intimates, such expressions as “ the lower orders,” “ common soldiers,” and the like. He was pacified by the explanation that “order” in this sense did not mean difference of species, las in natural history, but the primitive sense of “rows” in. which some must naturally find a higher and some a lower place; but the other expression lie never would endure. jThere is no such thing as a common- soldier in England, he declared; ours are not “ common soldiers,” though they may be “ privates.”

He had one son.. Nine daughters were born to him, five of whom survive him. His wife, some unmarried daughters, many grandchildren, and all whom his benign domestic temper had attached to him, ministered to his ease and to his intellect as well, so that his decline was gentle. Till a late stage of his life his accomplishments as an artist were a precious resource to him. Others besides his immediate friends will remember his ; statue-r-“ the Death of Alcibiades”—in virtue of which he was made an honorary member of the Royal Academy. His paintings are. no common amateur daubs, but both explain and are explained by the splendid picture gallery of his great historical work.