THE public have reason to be obliged to Major Gawler for his publication of "The Crisis of Waterloo." The Ajincourt of modern times would otherwise have wanted its completest illustration. The events of a great battle are frequently variously represented. Where all is energy and expectation, and where many great affairs are being simultaneously transacted-where so much depends upon an accurate description of the particular position occupied by the several troops at each point of time during the conflict, and where the slightest deviation from strict correctness may lead to errors of so much moment, it is not surprising that very considerable diversity should prevail in the statements of even those remarkable occurrences which would seem altogether removed from the possibility of misrepresentation.

The particular part of the action referred to in the pages of the Crisis, is that where Sir Hussey Vivian made the gallant charge which completed the rout of the enemy. Bonaparte had collected and concentred his masses of reserve the flower of the French army,

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for a final, and, as he intended, decisive effort, when, lo! they met the British squadrons, and were scattered like dust before the wind. whole world has ever since been loud in its praises of this gallant movement; and there is no country in Europe, or, we might almost add, the world, in which Sir Hussey's name is not coupled with recollections of the high and the heroic daring which could alone have enabled him to accomplish so distinguished a service. But, it seems, without any reason at all,-as Major Gawler, eighteen years after the battle, undertakes to demonstrate that the charge in question was not made by the cavalry, but by the infantry; and that the credit of it is not due to Sir Hussey Vivian, but to the gallant fellows then composing, and the gallant officer then commanding the 52nd regiment. The Major's statement goes to show that this regiment, to which he belongs, completely repelled the advance of the French, who were, in point of fact, defeated when Sir Hussey charged them and put them to the rout.

many years; and, accordingly, he has put in a counter-statement to that of Major Gawler, As it is our intention

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to act the part of unbiassed arbitrators, we will content ourselves with suffering each of the gallant officers to speak for himself, and merely offer such occasional observations as may enable the reader to decide between them.

The portion of the allied position which was the scene of the final struggle may be described as nearly the left half of the chord which subtends the angle of the two great roads, the one leading to Genappe, the other to Neville. "It was occupied," says Major Gawler," beginning from the left, first, by a brigade of Brunswickers; next by Sir Colin Halkett's brigade of the 30th, 33rd, 69th, and 73rd regiments; then Major General Maitland's brigade of the 1st Guards, and lastly, projecting beyond it to the right, but engaged in the decisive contest, stood Major General Adams' brigade of the 2nd and 3rd, 95th, the 52d and 71st regiments. Of these, Maitland's and Halket's brigades, having occupied nearly the same ground from the commencement of the action, and having been hotly engaged on the 16th at Quatre Bras, were now very much reduced and exhausted; and the battalions of the 95th, not complete at first, by covering a part of the front, and by losses previously sustained in opposing the skirmishers of La Haye Sainte, had become very small as compact bodies. From the want of sufficient cover from the enemies artillery, in the regular course of the line, the two centre brigades were posted considerably to the rear of those on the flanks; the connexion between the right of the Guards and the left of the 52d being kept up by the reserves of the 95th. The Duke had perceived the concentration of heavy columns to the right of La Belle Alliance, and to oppose a more solid resistance to their evidently approaching attack, had ordered all the infantry corps between the two great roads, to be formed from two deep into four deep lines. Vivian's, Grant's, and the remains of the household, Ponsonby's and Dornberg's brigades of cavalry were at the same time brought together to the right centre, and posted in the hollows to the rear of the infantry."

Upon the latter part of this statement, Sir Hussey thus observes :

"This is inaccurate. Grant's and Dornberg's brigades were, I believe, on the right, where they had been very much exposed, and had met with very

heavy losses; as a proof of it, Grant himself had three horses killed under him; Lord Edward Somerset had collected the remains of his (the household) brigade, and Sir William Ponsonby's (who had fallen) behind the position. The number so collected scarcely formed two squadrons. When moving from the left of the line to the right centre, on passing this body I spoke to Lord Edward, who informed me that these were the whole of the men left of those two brigades, so severely had they been engaged during the day. Lord Uxbridge had himself led my brigade from the left, (where it had suffered but little, having been exposed only to a cannonade and a distant fire of musketry,) and posted it immediately on the crest of the position, to the right of the road to Genappe, where the 10th and 18th hussars formed into line, and the first German hussars in reserve; the left of the 18th touching nearly to the high road. This will give an accurate notion of the ground we occupied, and which, on the plan attached to your statement, I should consider as being on a line with and immediately behind that you have assigned to the Brunswickers, and extending to the right towards Hougomont."

This brings matters to the precise moment of Napoleon's last advance, and the entire question at issue will depend upon the relative correctness of these two statements. We must observe, that Sir Hussey confines his observations to what passed under his own eye. He claims authority for nothing more than what was transacted within his own sight, or by his immediate orders; and to that he is amply entitled; the more especially when he informs us that he has always "kept journals” of the occurrences in those campaigns which he has served; and that not only did he enter, in his general journal, the events of the day of Waterloo, but, in a separate memorandum, he recorded the proceedings of the brigade under his orders. He also, on the morning of the 19th passed over the ground where the final conflict took place, for the purpose of ascertaining, with all possible precision, the line of advance of his own brigade, and the extent of the victory. Sir Hussey, it will, therefore, be allowed on all hands, is a competent witness. We believe Major Gawler is one of the last men who could insi