IN

VIII.

YOUNG STATESMEN.

IN the difficult work of statesmanship the sage remark of the youngest of the friends of the great patriarch Job is appropriate "Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom." So many interests are involved in national politics, and so many considerations of an international importance require to be fully viewed, that it is scarcely to be expected that youth should possess the necessary sagacity for the conduct of public affairs. Yet, apart altogether from hereditary position, there have been some notable instances of precocious statesmanship in young men. OCTAVIUS (63 B.C.-14 A.D.) became Cæsar when he was only nineteen. He was made triumvir at twenty-two, and he got the proud title of Augustus, as master of the Roman empire the most colossal of the ancient world-when he was thirty-three. He was born 63 B.C., but lost his father when only four years of age. His mother married again, but she superintended the education of her son, as also did his step-father, with the utmost vigilance. His uncle, Julius Cæsar, took great interest in him, and became deeply attached to him. He hoped to make him his son by adoption, and to train him to be his successor in ability. He therefore watched over his education with great care, and personally aided it.

ports came to be known as his, and the Washington brand was habitually exempted from inspection. A most reliable man; his words and his deeds, his professions and his practice, are ever found in most perfect harmony.. .............He had wisdom beyond most, giving him deep insight into the wants of the time. He had clear perceptions of the duty which lay to his hand. What he saw to be right, the strongest impulses of his soul constrained him to do. A massive intellect and an iron strength of will were given to him, with a gentle, loving heart, with dauntless courage, with purity and loftiness of aim. He had a work of extraordinary difficulty to perform. History rejoices to recognize in him a revolutionary leader against whom no questionable transaction has ever been alleged." Among warriors, statesmen, and patriots, Washington was, as Lord Byron said,

"The first, the last, the best, The Cincinnatus of the West."

ARTHUR WELLESLEY (1769-1852), the first Duke of Wellington, entered the army in 1787. His promotion was rapid. He was captain in 1791, major in 1793, and lieutenant-colonel in the same year, when twenty-four years of age. He then fell into the groove of seniority; but he was colonel in 1796, and major-general in 1802. This rapid prómotion was in accordance with the purchase system so long prevalent, and by political influence; but he was a very efficient officer. Before he had attained his twenty-first year he was elected a member of the Irish House of Commons. The fortune of his family was small, and the young officer had to practise economy. He thought debt discreditable, and said, “It makes a slave of a man. I have often known what it was to be in want of money, but I never got into debt."

It was in India that the brilliant career of the national hero began. He went there in 1797, when he was twentysix. He served under General Harris in the campaign against Tippoo Sahib, and was placed in command at Seringapatam. He maintained then the highly honourable conduct which always afterwards characterized him, and said, “I should be ashamed of doing any of the dirty things that I am told are done in some of the commands of the Carnatic." In 1803 he won the battle of Assaye, the hardest fought of any that had ever taken place in India. He found himself in presence of 50,000 men, secured on both sides by villages and rivers, and covered on their front by 128 pieces of cannon. He had less than 8,000, and of these only 1,500 were British, with 17 guns. He made a well-directed attack, and though he lost in killed and wounded 170 officers and 2,000 men, he carried all before him. The victory of Assaye put an end to the Mahratta War, and placed Sir Arthur Wellesley among the foremost military commanders of his own or of any age.

His subsequent career belongs to his mature life; but it fulfilled the auspicious commencement, and he pursued a career of victory amidst many difficulties and against the most successful conqueror in Europe without losing a gun. The Peninsular War called forth all his skill and courage; and the eyes and hopes of the nation were upon him. He fully sustained his character, and was rewarded with unusual honours. He attained the summit of his fame at Waterloo, and, having given peace to the Great Powers, retired at the age of forty-six as the greatest hero of Europe, to survive hist renown for nearly forty years. His high principle was duty, and not glory. He was a Spartan in his personal manners, yet the polished courtier and the popular hero. When he died in 1852 he got a national funeral, and his remains were

laid to rest beside those of England's greatest naval hero, Lord Nelson, in St. Paul's Cathedral, London.

NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE (1769-1821) was born in the same year as his great rival and conqueror the Duke of Wellington. He was a native of Corsica, and educated at the military school of Brienne. He entered the army at the age of sixteen. The French Revolution opened up to his ambitious mind, when he was only twenty, a career equal to his pre-eminent military genius. He had the command of the artillery at the siege of Toulon when he was twenty-four. Before he was thirty he gained the battle of Lodi as commander of the army of Italy, subdued the Italian states, and pushed his conquests over the Austrians till he was within thirty miles of Vienna. He then took Malta, and fought the battle of the Pyramids in Egypt; and although checked there by the British troops, he overthrew the Directory in France, and was proclaimed First Consul in 1799. He took his army over the Alps in 1800, fought the battle of Marengo, and became master of Italy. He was only thirty-five when he became Emperor, and had the Pope of Rome at Paris to grace his coronation. When the pontiff had blessed the crown, Napoleon checkmated him, seized the crown, and put it on his own head, and then on the head of Josephine. In five years after he had fought and gained battles till he was master of Europe from Vienna to Madrid and Naples.

His career was somewhat like that of Alexander the Great, and he had an extraordinary power of fascinating men and of attaching them with enthusiasm to his cause. Though devoid of moral principle and a good conscience, degraded by gross immoralities, his achievements of youth were dazzling with military talent. Glory, and not duty, was his great watchword, and his career, though so brilliant, was entirely without a worthy object.

The loss of his army by the burning of Moscow and the terrible ordeal of the winter did not quench his ambition. A new army was cheerfully afforded him by the French, and he gained the battles of Lützen and Bautzen. The great battle of Leipsic, however, proved disastrous; and the allied powers having become too strong for him, he was exiled to Elba in 1814. Yet in 1815 he escaped, rallied the French people around his standard, expelled Louis XVIII. from the throne, and faced the allied armies at Waterloo. It was an extraordinary instance of personal influence and popularity. The opposing forces, however, under the command of the Duke of Wellington, were too much for him. He lost Waterloo, fled to Paris, and surrendered to the British. He was then only forty-six; but he had changed the political map of Europe many times, and had set up several of his brothers V

and officers as kings, and made himself a terror to England. He died in exile at the island of St. Helena in 1821; but his remains were subsequently taken to Paris, where a splendid mausoleum was erected for them in the Hôtel des Invalides, and where his admirers were so numerous that his nephew was elected President of the French Republic in 1848, and Emperor in 1852.

The system of routine does not afford the same opportunities to youthful command; but there are still instances of precocious ability in all the departments of military service. Marshal NEY rose in youth to be a general officer, intrusted with command. Lord WOLSELEY became a general officer while comparatively young, and was intrusted with high enterprises, requiring military skill, both in Canada and Africa. In the Indian service young officers have frequently distinguished themselves in keen encounters, though promotion came slowly to reward their merit,