History of the war in the Peninsula and in the south of France from the year 1807 to the year 1814, vol. 6 — John Shaqi
History of the war in the Peninsula and in the south of France from the year 1807 to the year 1814, vol. 6Napier, William Francis Patrick
History
History of the war in the Peninsula and in the south of France from the year 1807 to the year 1814, vol. 6
Napier, William Francis Patrick
Peninsular War, 1807-1814
For the further exposition of the other numerous errors and failures
of your two first publications, I must refer the reader to my
“_Reply_” and “_Justification_,” but the points above noticed it was
necessary to fix attention upon, because they give me the right to
call upon the public to disregard your present work. And this right
I cannot relinquish. I happened fortunately to have the means of
repelling your reckless assaults in the instances above mentioned,
but I cannot always be provided with your own letters to disprove
your own assertions. The combat is not equal my lord, I cannot
contend with such odds and must therefore, although reluctantly, use
the advantages which by the detection of such errors I have already
obtained.
These then are strong proofs of an unsound memory upon essential
points, and they deprive your present work of all weight as an
authority in this controversy. Yet the strangest part of your new
book (see page 135) is, that you avow an admiration for what you call
the _generous principle_ which leads French authors to _misstate
facts for the honour of their country_; and not only you do this but
sneer at me very openly for not doing the same! you sneer at me, my
lord, for not falsifying facts to pander to the morbid vanity of my
countrymen, and at the same time, with a preposterous inconsistency
you condemn me for being an inaccurate historian! My lord, I have
indeed yet to learn that the _honour_ of my country either requires
to be or can be supported by deliberate historical falsehoods. Your
lordship’s personal experience in the field may perhaps have led
you to a different conclusion but I will not be your historian: and
coupling this, your expressed sentiment, with your forgetfulness on
the points which I have before noticed, I am undoubtedly entitled to
laugh at your mode of attacking others. What, my lord? like Banquo’s
ghost you rise, “with twenty mortal murthers on your crown to push us
from our stools.” You have indeed a most awful and ghost-like way of
arguing: all your oracular sentences are to be implicitly believed,
and all my witnesses to facts sound and substantial, are to be
discarded for your airy nothings.
Captain Squire! heed him not, he was a dissatisfied, talking,
self-sufficient, ignorant officer.
The officer of dragoons who charged at Campo Mayor! He is nameless,
his narrative teems with misrepresentations, he cannot tell whether
he charged or not.
Colonel Light! spunge him out, he was only a subaltern.
Captain Gregory! believe him not, his statement cannot be correct, he
is too minute, and has no diffidence.
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