mple that we can study if we want to know how an English
statesman should train himself to do work of lasting value and how he
should bear himself in the hour of trial. Within little more than half a
century three famous politicians, Peel, Gladstone, and Chamberlain, have
split their parties in two by an abrupt change of policy, and their
conduct has been bitterly criticized by those to whom the traditions of
party are dear. It is the glory of British politics that these
traditions remained honourable so long, and no one of these statesmen
broke with them lightly or without regret. For all that, let us be
thankful that from time to time statesmen do arise who are capable of
responding to a still higher call, of following their own individual
consciences and of looking only to what, so far as they can judge, is
the highest interest of the nation.

CHARLES JAMES NAPIER

1782-1853

1782. Born in London, August 10.
1794. Commission in 33rd Regiment.
1800. At Shorncliffe with Sir John Moore.
1809. Wounded and prisoner at Coruna.
1810-11. Peninsula War: Busaco, Fuentes d'Onoro, &c. Lieut.-Colonel, 1811.
1812-13. Bermuda and American War.
1815-17. Military College at Farnham.
1820. Corfu.
1822-30. Cephalonia.
1835. Living quietly in France and England.
1837. Major-General.
1838. K.C.B.
1839. Command in North of England. Chartist agitation.
1841. Command in India at Poona.
1842-7. War and organization in Sind.
1849-50. Commander-in-Chief in India.
1853. Died at Oaklands, near Portsmouth, August 29.

SIR CHARLES NAPIER, G.C.B.

SOLDIER

The famous Napier brothers, Charles, George, and William, came of no
mean parentage. Their father, Colonel the Hon. George Napier, of a
distinguished Scotch family, was remarkable alike for physical strength
and mental ability. In the fervour of his admiration his son Charles
relates how he could 'take a pewter quart and squeeze it flat in his
hand like a bit of paper'. In height 6 feet 3 inches, in person very
handsome, he won the admiration of others besides his sons. He had
served in the American war, but his later years were passed in
organizing work, and he showed conspicuous honesty and ability in
dealing with Irish military accounts. One of his reforms was the
abolition of all fees in his office, by which he reduced his own salary
from L20,000 to L600 per annum, emulating the more famous act of the
elder Pitt as Paymaster-general half a century before. Their mother,