(Extract.) No. 5.
March 22nd, 1845.
60, Lower Belgrade Street.
I shall feel it due to Mr. Larpent to say at what rate I placed his services.
Never public servant deserved better his hard-earned retirement by honest, zealous, and able services.
(Signed) F. Baring.
I rejoice in having the opportunity afforded me by the publication of these Letters, of recording the public services of an affectionate brother, and of indulging in the remembrance of the many private virtues which were conspicuous in his upright and honourable career.
I have thought it objectionable to alter the language of the narrative, although aware of the many inaccuracies in letters written in the hurry of a campaign (a mode of life foreign to the writer’s habits), and not intended for publication.
I therefore determined to leave the Letters as I found them, thinking that the simplicity of the style and the minute details threw over the Journal a charm of truth and reality which a more studied composition would not have possessed. I have a confident reliance that my brother has related nothing that he did not himself believe to be true, for he was a man of scrupulous veracity, and one not given hastily to record what he had not at the time sufficient warranty to believe to be correct.
The Journal carries the reader, as it were, behind the scenes in the great drama of War. The sufferings of individuals, the hardships endured in a campaign, are scarcely ever recorded by the historian—they are lost in the blaze of glory which surrounds such narratives. In this Journal not only will be seen the miseries which are endured in the attainment of military glory by the soldier, but the still greater miseries of the unfortunate people whose country is the scene of military operations.