The British nation of
this time, in India or elsewhere--God knows no nation ever had more
need of such men, in every region of its affairs! But also perhaps no
nation ever had a much worse chance to get hold of them, to recognise
and loyally second them, even when they are there.
"Anarchic stupidity is wide as the night; victorious wisdom is but as
a lamp in it shining here and there. Contrast a Napier even in Scinde
with, for example, a Lally at Pondicherry or on the Place de Greve;
one has to admit that it is the common lot, that it might have been
far worse!
"There is great talent in this book apart from its subject. The
narrative moves on with strong, weighty step, like a marching phalanx,
with the gleam of clear steel in it--sheers down the opponent objects
and tramples them out of sight in a very potent manner. The writer,
it is evident, had in him a lively, glowing image, complete in all its
parts, of the transaction to be told; and that is his grand secret
of giving the reader so lively a conception of it. I was surprised to
find how much I had carried away with me, even of the Hill campaign
and of Trukkee itself; though without a map the attempt to understand
such a thing seemed to me desperate at first.
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