PITT.
By John Morley. [In preparation.
PEEL.
By J. R. Thursfield. [Just published.
DAILY NEWS:—“A model of what such a book should be. We can give it no higher praise than to say that it is worthy to rank with Mr. John Morley’s Walpole in the same series.”
MACMILLAN AND CO., LONDON.
FOOTNOTE:
[A] The reader must be warned at this point that the battle of April 12th, 1782, has been the subject of a long and angry controversy. It was promoted partly by the zeal of certain Scotchmen, partly by the filial piety of General Sir Howard Douglas, the well-known writer on gunnery, son of Sir Charles Douglas, who was Rodney’s captain of the fleet. The matter in dispute was the respective claims of Clerk of Eldin and Sir Charles Douglas to the credit of inspiring or guiding the Admiral at the critical moment of the battle. As is usually the case, the controversy has been marked by much angry contradiction, much confusion between matters of fact and matters of opinion, much lax use of words on both sides. Of the witnesses quoted, some are only accessible at second hand, some were boys at the time of the battle who gave their evidence years afterwards; one who was not a boy, and told his story immediately afterwards, is suspected, because he had reasons of a personal character to regard Rodney with animosity. I have not thought it necessary to enter into the controversy in this narrative, but have endeavoured to the best of my ability to make the battle out from all the evidence, and tell it as, to me, it appears to have passed. The bulk of the evidence will be found in the Quarterly Review for January 1830, the Edinburgh Review for April 1830, the United Service Magazine, vols. xi. and xiii., and in the various Statements of Sir Howard Douglas. Full accounts of the battle are to be found in Beatson’s Annals, vol. vi., in Captain White’s Naval Researches, and in Captain Matthews’ plans of the naval battles of the war. These two officers were both present.
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