The British military has perhaps been somewhat less happily inspired than the naval muse. Nevertheless the army can boast of some good poetry. "Why, soldiers, why?" the authorship of which is sometimes erroneously attributed to Wolfe, is a fine song, and the following lines written by an unknown author after the crushing blow inflicted on Lord Galway's force at Almanza, in 1707, display that absence of discouragement after defeat which is perhaps one of the most severe tests by which the discipline and spirit of an army can be tried: Let no brave soldier be dismayed For losing of a battle; We have more forces coming on Will make Jack Frenchman rattle. Abundant evidence might be adduced to show that the British soldier is amenable to poetic influences. Sir Adam Fergusson, writing to Sir Walter Scott on August 31, 1811, said that the canto of the _Lady of the Lake_ describing the stag hunt "was the favourite among the rough sons of the fighting Third Division," and Professor Courthope in his _History of English Poetry_ quotes the following passage from Lockhart's _Life of Scott_: When the _Lady of the Lake_ first reached Sir Adam Fergusson, he was posted with his company on a point of ground exposed to the enemy's artillery; somewhere no doubt on the lines of Torres Vedras. The men were ordered to lie prostrate on the ground; while they kept that attitude, the Captain, kneeling at their head, read aloud the description of the battle in Canto VI., and the listening soldiers only interrupted him by a joyous huzza whenever the French shot struck the bank close above them. Finally, before leaving this subject, it may be noted that amidst the verse, sometimes pathetic and sometimes rollicking, which appealed more especially to the naval and military temperament, there occasionally cropped up a political allusion which is very indicative of the state of popular feeling at the time the songs were composed. Thus the following, from a song entitled "A cruising we will go," shows the unpopularity of the war waged against the United States in 1812: Be Britain to herself but true, To France defiance hurled; Give peace, America, with you, And war with all the world. The sixteenth-century Spaniards embodied a somewhat similar maxim of State policy as applied to England in the following distich, the principle of which was, however, flagrantly violated by that fervent Catholic, Philip II.: Con todo el mundo guerra Y paz con Inglaterra. [Footnote 110: Since writing the above it has been pointed out to me that Garrick's song was composed during the Seven Years' War (1756-63).] INDEX Abu'l'Ala, 65 Acton, Lord, and the Turks, 80, 223, 266 Acton, Lord, on the making of history, 432 Adrianople, occupation of, 411 Akbar, Emperor, 40 Alexandria, society at, 228 Alfred the Great, 450 Algeria, French in, 250-263 Alison, 216 Alliteration, 71