From an FIELD MARSHAL LORD LIGONIER. oil-painting at the French Hospital, Victoria Park Road, London. (By permission). He had fled from France in 1697, twelve years after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. On the outbreak of the War of the Spanish Succession in 1702 he joined the British Army, and signalised himself by courage during the campaign along the Meuse at the storming of Liege. Having thus started well in his military profession, so well that the illustrious Marlborough commended his valour, he seemed to bearacharmed life and followed the fortunes of the Duke from Belgium up the Rhine, across the Neckar and the Danube, and at the battle of Blenheim 1704, was the only company commander of his regiment that survived. Ligonier was at Malplaquet, and his good fortune carried him safely through the bloodiest battle of the 18th century. For a long period he rested on his laurels, but returned to the field thirty years after the close of the war of the Spanish Succession, when the EmpressQueen Maria Theresa called the world to arms. We find that he was engaged on the River Maine in 1743 as a LieutenantGeneral under George II, at the battle of Dettingen. At Fontenoy, 1745, when the prowess of the British Infantry won the admiration of mankind, he was the military tutor of the young Duke of Cumberland, Commander-in-Chief of the English troops. He thus was practically responsible for the renowned manoeuvre which brought the serried column against the French army, and, still prouder achievement, preserved it intact during its retreat. Of this assault Voltaire says, "If the Dutch had now put themselves in movement and joined the English, there would have been no resource, nay, no retreat for the French army, nor in all probability, for the King and his son." We next find our hero fighting against Marshal de Saxe, whose genius again prevailed over Cumberland at the battle of Lauffeld, 1747. Sir J. Ligonier was in command of the Cavalry although sixty-nine years of age. The impetuosity of his squadrons, who broke through everything in front of them, carried them too far and they were outflanked by columns of foot, and their chief taken. Louis XV., who was with the French army, received him cordially, and used him as an instrument to bring about a peace. "It is said that Ligonier, when surrounded in the battle, endeavoured for some time to pass for one of the enemy's officers and even led the French troops with great alertness to an attack in the hope of effecting his escape; but, unfortunately, the Order of the Bath being observed under his coat, he was recognized and secured,' (Lord Mahon III, 334). The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle put an end to his services in the field. But in his declining years all the honours possible for a soldier were heaped upon him. Thus then, ladies and gentlemen, I have tried to bring back to your memory the most prominent epochs in the military history of the Protestants of France. This is not the place for anything like a discussion of the principles underlying the art of war, than which there is no finer field for the display of all the best qualities of the loftiest souls, and of the brightest intellects in the soundest bodies. Whatever humanitarians may think, war is the test of the manhood of nations: instinctively in all national crises we look for deliverance to mighty men of valour, calm and serene. When death is triumphant around them, with trained and disciplined minds and nerves and muscle, they bring all that is in them, and the profound calculations of the ripest experience and constant study and sharp and rapid powers of perception to controlling the rage of armed strife for their country's advantage. Well might Addison say of the favourite pupil of Turenne in lines which apply to every successful general of modern times and civilized countries in the very horrors of the fight. "Twas then great Marlborough's mighty soul was proved, Amidst confusion, horror and despair, In peaceful thought the field of death surveyed; But even if war And taught the doubtful battle where to rage." The General is the natural king of men. were a greater evil than I believe it to be, the martial deeds of your ancestors would still be a source of legitimate pride. What stern necessity compelled them to do they did well. It was not for rapine or vengeance that they donned the sword and mounted their chargers. They fought for liberty to think and live. "Not to swell one bloated chief's unwholesome reign," but to save their families from outrage, and to keep their faith with their own consciences, they began to study the art under Coligni. And when as exiles they became soldiers of fortune, they fought for the independence of the generous people who received and adopted them. Their laurels were hallowed as being won on behalf of justice, liberty, truth. If on foreign fields and by the rivers of Germany some shed their blood, it was to maintain European freedom, under the banner of England, then "the tutelary angel of the human race." And now, as Britons, you Huguenots are members of the mightiest of all Empires, past or present; you help to govern multitudes of men far more numerous than all the peoples of Europe put together at the time of the flight of your fathers from France; you help to control the destinies of the most powerful instrument for good that ever appeared among men; cherish your duty to old England even as your ancestors did; be faithful to our flag, encourage your sons to emulate, as Englishmen, the finest virtues of their grand-sires; to spurn the base arts of the demagogue, and to hold their lives cheap as compared with the good of their fatherland. Then the daughters of such families, with such examples, such a history, and such surroundings, will be mothers of true men and high spirited women, who will hand down to the twentieth century, the integrity, ability, and courage, that in the 17th and 18th centuries so distinguished Huguenots, and in an especial degree, the Huguenot Commanders. |