PASSING NOTES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15553, 7 September 1912, Page 6

PASSING NOTES.

This day, Saturday, is the hundredth anniversary of one of those stupendous crimes humanity lias to clurgo against Napoleon Bonaparte. On the. 7th of September, 1812, was fought tho Battlo of ikrodino, wliich the l'midi call tho Battle of Moskowa, the sccnu of it tho village of Itorodino and the banks of the stream Kuloglia, six miles from the city of Moscow. I havo two French acctnmts of Uic battle, one of them by tho Coinlo de Scgor, a general on Napoleon's sta-fT. Both admit that tho result was doubtful. The Russians had the greater losses, and retired; but retiring was their policy in any case. I copy a sentence or two from an English review article: Iji front of Borodino tho French lay at night thinking upon the results of a battle that would dcoido the fate of two Empires. Before dawn, a drum sounded, the officers called to arms, and Napoleon's exhortation was read, bidding them look forward lo tho posterity thai would say, "lie took part, in the great battlo below tho walls of Moscow." By four o'clock that afternoon full 50,000 Frenchmen and 40,000 Russians had littlo interest in posterity or tho fate of Umpires. "It was my greatest battle," Napoleon used to say in tho miserable penco of oxilo; "1 ought to have died at Borodino." Yes, for a superb denouement, ho should have died there; but tho tragedy was designed for another , ending. At Waterloo, to wit. Judged in its moral aspect, the gratuitous invasion of Russia was a crime. As to its strategy, there exists a Govonteen'th-century couplet: Tho King of Franco with twice- ton thousand men Marched up tho hill, and then marched down again. That was tho strategy of tho Moscow campaign ;—except that Napoleon marched up the hill with twice 300,000 men, and that marching down again ho reached tho bottom with a tatterdemalion mob of 20,000 hunger-bitten, discasc-eiricken scarecrows. lam willing enough lo seo in Napoleon a prodigy of sorts; out when there is talk of his miraculous strategy— tno dazzling, blinding, bewildering splendour of his genii's i" war—l recall the salient facts. ,Ho failed in Egypt; ho failed ill Spain; he failed in Russia, After tho Russian failure, from 1812 lo 1815, as united Europe closed in upn him, Napoleon was Napoleon in Liquidation. That Lord Roscbcry, of all men, should bo a devotee of this gimcrack idol is a thing passing my comprehension. Under chemical analysis the objection of Socialists lo our modest Defence Act and compulsory military training yields one part pure selfishness, three parts pure ciissedness. . Wo are serving out lethal weapons for use in the common defence. But—thanks, no; the Socialist is "not taking any." Ay me! what perils do environ The man that meddles wilh cold iron,— says he to himself, says he. And we arc left to infer that the Socialist more thaji other men is concerned to keen a whole skin. I should have supposed that the Socialist moro than uther men would bo concerned to get possession of a rifle and to learn how to use it. At present what is inino is my own; before it pasws to the Socialist there will be crowns to be broke, there will bo shots to bo fired. I am that "animal Ires mediant" of the French story-book—the animal that when attacked has the ■wickedness to defend itself. In this characteristic lam ono with tho farmer on his freehold, the shopkeeper behind his counter, the working man totting up liis Savings Bank passbook. Tho Day of Armageddon which the Socialist is plotting will declare it. Then why doesn't he learn to shoot?

110 will not learn to shoot, he says, because "the idea has como from the capitalist." This delightful example of what the Americans call " ciisscdness" I find in an anti-militarist speech by Mr Scmple, organiser of the New Zealand Federation of Labour. A most needful weapon is offered him and he won't Lavo it;—"llio idea comes from the capitalist"! Neither shall his son have it: Personally he lind a son who was just coming ot age—i.e., liable lo serve—and so far as ho was concerned the defence authorities would have to walk over his own dead body before titty'would get tho boy.

Mr Semplc, in short,.is M. dc Lcsseps at Ismailia, when the British army was landing in chaws of Arahi, the said army having audaciously penetrated Jf. dc Lcsseps' Canal without leave or license. I qnolo from an article in Blackwood:

51. do Lessops sullenly watched from his office ut knnilia the immenso licet of transports dcfilo bcforo j him; and when the troops began to disembark ho is said to liave taken up his position on the quay, crying out that no English soldier should land except over his dead body. A bluejacket, howorcr, quietly pushed him aside, remarking, "Wo don't ,-wnnl no dead bodies About here, sir; nil you've got to do is to stop baok a bit."

In Mr Scmplo's case some kindly policeman may possibly assist by an argumenturn applied n posteriori,

Just in the place whoro honour's lodged, As wiso philosophers haro judged j Recausc a kick in that place more Hurts honour than deep wounds before.

Regimental nicknames once moro! Trivial though Iho topie seems it belongs in a way lo New Zealand patriotism. The Now Zealandcr lias bis part in tho British Army, its world-wide campaigning, its battles and its sieges ;—is ho not a citizen of the Empire! I accept it as a set-off against the idiotic exclusion of history from our schools—to which exclusion wo probably owe. Uie spawn of "anti-mili-tarists" refusing to register under tho Defence Act—that n good deal of history may be got into the columns of a news- 1 paper. As respects tho British' Army— which is our own Army, and wc are proud of it—you might deduce its history from its regimental nicknames. Even' regiment has one nickname at least, with a barrack-room story to correspond; most regiments have half-a-dozen. On this subject, since the chanoo mention of it in Passing Notes the other week, a number of letters have reached me. They can be presented in pemmican form only—" correspondence condensed." 1 havo not as yet ut command a column purely military.

Occasionally the barrack-room story explaining a nickname lias the look of an ex post facto invention. Myths arise in that way. Liiven some name or custom for which there is no obvious reason, a story grows up to explain it.. " ExSergeant' itoyal Marine Artillery" sends me a story- of this kind. The " Holy Boys," officially the 10th Foot, "got their nickname for playing cards during divine service." This aicrilcgo, favoured by high-backed pews, was betrayed by the jingling of coin, in the piocess of "paying up" during the benediction. So he savs. But 1 prefer another story—namely, that tho gallant 10th aro tho " Holy Hoys" because when campaigning under Wellington in the Peninsula, wearing tho figure of Britannia'on' their caps, they were supposed by tho Spaniards and Portuguese to be a regiment dedicated to the Virgin Mary. It is sad to remember that the "conventional figure of Britannia (with her trident) was modelled from tlw, Duchcss of Cleveland, a court lady of no reputation to speak of, tempo Charles 11. Another correspondent asks, "Can 'Civis' j oblige with the meaning of Kipling's 'Threes about!'"?—referring to the Bar-

rack-Room Ballad "Belts," wherein is described a Dublin street fight between an Irish infantry" regiment and a regiment of " English cavahec" (the 9th -Lancers, ho says)—They called us "Delhi I!cl>cls," and wo answered ''Throes alx>ut!" I tako "Tlirecs about!" to be a cavalry order meaning "Wheel and retire." Used bv the "Delhi Rebels" as a taunt, it would carry the maddening—and doubtless unjust—insinuation that onoe upon a time the 9th Lancers had wheeled and retired when they didn't ought to. If this explanation is wrong, let it bo corrected.

As to the name " Black Watch," respecting which I was questioning last week. I might have learned from any suitable book of reference that the 42nd Royal Highlanders were embodied early in

tho eighteenth ccntnrv fortho purposo of witching tlio politically discontented Hlglllaiuls, and that Uiov were tho " Wnck watch becnuso of tbeir tartan. For an explanation of Iho "'*"■ heckle" they wear, I am indebted to a correspondent)

Dear "Clvi3,"-Tho story ot tho urn Heckle badgo of tho Black Watch is told in tho "Lifo of General Wail- - chope," by Sir George Douglas. General Wauchope wrote in lbira to Miss Jean Muir, whom ho afterwards ' married, as follows:-" Tho red hccklo is what tho old «nd lcrvos; it is our distinguishing mark. .... II happened in 1798. Two pins were just m the act of being takon by the French when a s drasoon regiment was ordered ■• to pioted tlioo guns. Wdl, <hey stark.l forward, but turne<l tail. .So four companies of tho" 42nd who were staunch rushed forward and secured the Runr. Tho dragoon regiment luid a red plmno in its headdress. Tho general in command on tho field look the red plumo froni tho dragoon colonel and gayo it to ours, (lending tho King's approval, which was given. For nigh a hundred years our peoplo havo worn it, and they now treasure it as they do nothing else. . . . Keep it for my sake ns long ns you live, unless in action I run away, when you can throw it away. In December, 1899, seven years after the date of lliis letter, General Wauchope fell in the ill-starred niglit attack upon Cronje's entrenchments at Magcrsfontein. The tale of killed and wounded in tho Black Watch alono was 19 officers and over 300 men. It is tnie that two months later, on tho anniversary of Majuba, we raado Gronjc with his whole commando— 1000 bv count—prisoners of war, packing them off to St. Helena, But that was poor compensation "Protestant," sending me'an evangelical newspaper with flaming headlines proclaiming "tho Pope's Plan to Captures Norwich" (in which city it seems a 'Great National Catholic Congress"' was to bo held during the first week in August), also that " tho Kcnsit Crusado, ever nliyo to the dangers of Roman Aggression, will conduct against it a Great Gospel and Protestant campaign" throughout tho County of Norfolk, asks mc whether 1 think the'clash and crash of these polemics may have produced the Norfolk flood. Tho question is beyond me. A cold douche discriminatingly applied is onething j drowning out a whole county is another, and I should fail to sec the fitness. What chiefly interest* mc in the newspaper sent, is a page of advertisements,—from lodginghousc keepers, most of them. This is a type: QUIET, restful Christian Homo 1 (small)' by the sea. Family prayer. ; Abstainers. 1 Non-smokers. Good cookl in?. Homelv comforts.- ' Fellowship with those' looking for our Lord's re- > turn.—Address, otc., etc. ' . Another offers " High-class Christian boardiiig-hoiisc, war good ministers"; another, a "line invigorating air and exceptional religions advantages"; another, ! "Bright, Christian atmosphere; .temper--1 ancc principles;'close to sea"; and so on. ' By Sydney Smith in the Edinburgh' Rc--1 view "of a century back this pluiiseologi- ? cal pietv was gibbeted as mawkish and nauseating. It is long since I read his 1 article, but I ■ certainly remember the ' "religious hov," advertised to sail (|).V.) ? to Margate on given dates. The same L style persists, it seems. Pity that n goal B cause should be made ridiculous by its ! own friends. It is a question of tasto,but 1 partlv also of iutclligcnco. Even in Dun--0 edin the "Pravcr Chain" superstition still " burdens tho Post Offico letter-carriers. 5 Civis.