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In 1857 Six William
Napier published his Life of Sir Charles Napier in four volumes. It was
composed in the midst of great bodily and mental suffering, and in the
expectation that death would interfere and prevent its completion. In
spite of certain defects of taste and arrangement, due mainly to these
circumstances, the book is remarkable, like all the author’s writings,
for the force and grandeur of its language and for the spirit of
passionate herp-worship which animates it throughout; but it was far too
long to obtain the durable popularity which the reputation of the writer
and the interest of the subject deserved.
There are few men in the world’s history about whom four volumes are
read by a generation that has not known them. Least of all can such
assiduous devotion be expected where, as in the present case, the man
has been limited to a field confessedly too narrow for the full exercise
of his powers. And yet, if Sir Charles Napier’s career does not possess
any great historical interest, a brief record of his life and opinions
may still be well worth the attention of his countrymen.
“Disce, puer, virtutem. ex me verumque laborem,
Fortunam ex aliis.”
The man to whose military genius Wellington appealed to save India—whose
capacity for government excited the admiration of Sir Robert Peel—of
whom Lord Hardinge, with all his experience, military and civil, said,
“he had the rarest combination of great qualities of any of our
contemporaries,”—should not be allowed without a protest to sink into
oblivion, or be remembered merely as an eccentric and unmanageable
officer.
His character was essentially of ^he heroic type. He exercised a
fascination over the popular mind which was, perhaps, out of proportion
to anything which Fortune allowed him to accomplish. He occupied a place
apart, and would have seemed in some respects hardly to belong to the
age in which he lived, had it not been that he inspired the people
wherever he went with the belief that, whatever his differences with men
in power, he was moved by the most intense devotion to themselves and to
the cause of every one who was poor or oppressed.
Sir William Napier’s four volumes were constructed almost entirely out
of his brother’s journals and letters, and in consequence his book
contains the bulk of the materials for the present volume. But the
general arrangement and treatment of the subject differ in many respects
from Sir William Napier’s work; and he is not responsible for any
opinions expressed in the course of the narrative, except such as are
actually attributed to him. In addition to the copious writings of Sir
Charles and Sir William Napier, the admirable articles in the Quarterly
Review (January 1857 and October 1858), attributed to Mr. Elwin, and
such incidental notices of Sir Charles Napier as have appeared in later
works connected with India, I have had the advantage of conversations
with General Sir M. MMurdo, who was Sir Charles Napier’s son-in-law, and
served on his staff during nearly the whole of his Indian career, and
with the late Sir Bartle Frere who ruled Scinde for seven years and had
special oppor- tunities of estimating Sir Charles Napier’s work. In the
account of the transactions which led up to the conquest of Scinde I
have relied upon the letters and despatches of the various actors
published in the Correspondence Relative to Scinde presented to
Parliament in 1843 and 1844.
Life of General Sir
Charles Napier G. C. B. (pdf)
The Life and Opinions of General Sir
Charles James Napier, G.C.B.
By Lieut.-Gen. Sir W. Napier, K.C.B. in four volumes (1857)
Volume 1 |
Volume 2 |
Volume 3 |
Volume 4
The Conquest of
Scinde Of Major-General Sir Charles James Napier
By Major-General W. F. P. Napier |
