Show THE NEWS OF WATERLOO JEIoiv tile Story of n Great Battle Was Told Before the Bays of clcrapll A year or two ago an enterprising Eng 1 lish publisher got out a reprint of the London Times of June 22 1815 Although its four pages are but sixteen inches long I by ten in width their contents more than their small size form a contrast to I those of the mammoth Times of today In place of being a record of national humiliation I hu-miliation they tell of Englands crown ing mercythe victory of Waterloo I The Times correspondent on this occasion oc-casion was the Duke of Wellington Its only account of the battle is his dispatch II to Lord Bathurst the chief of the War Department dated Waterloo June 19 1815 This dispatch which is compara I tively modest in tone occupies nearly the whole of the second page but the account j of the battle of Waterloo fills less than a column The rest is devoted to the ac I tions at Ligny and Quatre Bras to subsequent I subse-quent military movements and to a short list of the distinguished persons who I were killed and wounded In reference to the part the Prussians took in the bat tie the Duke says I should not do justice to my feelings or to Marshal Blucher and the Prussian army if I did not attribute the successful result of this arduous day to the cordial and timely assistance I received from them II In contrast to this military modesty is the boastful editorial on the next page Here is a part of it U Such is the great and glorious result of those masterly movements by which the Hero of Britain met and f ustrated the audacious attempt of the Kebe Chief Glory to Wellington to our gallant Sol diers and to our brave Allies Bona partes reputation has been wrecked and his last grand stake has been lost in this tremendous conflict Two JIummm CANNON captured in a AND TEN TIROES OF single battle put to the blush the boasting boast-ing column of the Place de Vendome Long and sanguinary indeed we fear the conflict must have been but the boldness of the Rebel Frenchmen was the boldness of dispair and conscience sate heavy on those arms which were raised against their Sovereign against their oaths and against the peace and happiness of their country We confidently confi-dently anticipate a great and immediate defection from the Rebel cause We are aware that a great part of the French nation looked to the opening of this campaign cam-paign with a superstitious expectation of success to a man whom though many of them hated and many of them feared all had been taught to look on as the first captain of the age He himself went forth boasting in his strength and still more in his talent but he did not take into the account that he was to be opposed by abilities superior to his own That unpalatable truth his vanity would not allow him to believe nor would it easily find credit with his admirers but the 18th of June we trust will satisfy the most incredulous Two HUNDRED AND TEN PIECES OF CANNON When or where or how is this loss to be repaired 1 Besides Be-sides what has become of his invincible guard of his admired and dreaded cuirassiers cui-rassiers Again we do not deny that these were good troops but they were encountered by better AVe shall be curious to learn with what degree of coolness of personal courage and self possession Buonaparte played his stake on which he must have been well aware that his pretentions to empire hung It is clear that he retreated nor are we prepared to hear that he fled with cowardice cow-ardice but we greatly suspect that he I did not court an honorable death We I think his valour is of the calculating kind and we do not attribute his surviving the I abdication of Fontainebleau entirely to magnanimity Further on the article refers to Ney asa as-a I perjured wretch and hopes that he and his accomplices in baseness and treason will be left alone as marks for the indignation of Europe and just sacrifices sacri-fices to insulted French honour An official announcement of the victory by Bathurst to the Lord Mayor a list of the killed and wounded headed with the name of Brunswicks fated chieftain some gossip about the battle from a gentlemen gen-tlemen who left Brussels the day after and a few local paragraphs comprise about all the remainder of the reading matter the first and last pages of the small sheet being devoted almost entrely to advertisements The price of the paper I was sixpence |