"Who won the battle of Tel-el-Kebir?" "I, said Cock HAMLEY, I won
Tel-el-Kebir with my Highland Brigade." Mr. INNES SHAND'S life of
General Sir E. B. HAMLEY (BLACKWOOD) is obviously published with chief
intent of placing in permanent form HAMLEY'S claim in respect of this
engagement. It is not a new story. It was published to the world soon
after the event in the pages of a monthly magazine. The article, a
model of terse, lucid, yet picturesque writing, is reproduced in these
volumes. Whether accurate in detailed assertion and induction, or
coloured by strong feeling, it is a melancholy story. Either HAMLEY
was deliberately ignored in the Commander-in-Chief's despatches after
Tel-el-Kebir, or he was under a remarkable hallucination. The affair
is all the more curious since Sir GARNET WOLSELEY, as soon as he was
appointed to the Egyptian command, sought out HAMLEY and offered him
the command of one of the divisions of the expeditionary force.
The secret of the estrangement which soon developed between the two
soldiers is, my Baronite suspects, to be found in the characteristic
fact that the very day the ship conveying Sir GARNET WOLSELEY arrived
at Alexandria, HAMLEY went on board and proposed to show his chief how
the enemy should be attacked. "He did not seem to wish to pursue the
subject," HAMLEY writes in his diary, "and I soon after took leave."
Other incidents, which HAMLEY hotly resented, culminated in the
despatch to the War Office reporting the fight at Tel-el-Kebir, and
ignoring the Highland Brigade, which, in the view of its commander,
had borne the brunt of the battle. Some day Lord WOLSELEY may give
his version of the affair. Meantime it gloomily stands forth in this
record of a strenuous but, on the whole, a disappointed life. It is
pleasant to learn that HAMLEY gratefully recognised in one of _Mr.
Punch's_ Cartoons a powerful incentive to the course of public feeling
which postponed his being shelved under the operation of the scheme of
compulsory retirement by reason of age. The most charming passages
in the book are the correspondence with the late Mr. BLACKWOOD, who
opened to General HAMLEY the avenue to literary fame.
One of my Baronites of Irish extraction writes thusly:--"_A Tale of
the Thames_ is the title of the Summer Number of _The Graphic_. It is
written by J. ASHBY-STERRY, and illustrated by WILLIAM HATHERELL. The
course of the story--or, rather, the watercourse of the story--covers
a good deal of ground, embracing as it does, on both sides,
most places of interest between the Source in Trewsbury Mead,
Gloucestershire, and Hampton Court." Quoth the Baron, "I am all
anxiety to see this tale of the Thames uncoil itself."
The Baron welcomes a comparatively "handy" volume ("handy" relative
term, depending on size of hand) of reference, entitled, _Men and
Women of the Time_, new edition, brought out by Messrs. GEORGE
ROUTLEDGE, edited by Mr. PLARR of Oxford; and the _plat_ that is set
before the public and the Baron appears to be a thoroughly satisfying
one. "The first name for which I naturally looked," quoth the Baron,
"was that of ROUTLEDGE himself, but searching from ROSSI, through
Roumania, to ROWBOTHAM, nowhere did I light upon the name of
ROUTLEDGE. Master MILLAIS is here, also MILLER, likewise MILLS; but I
do not see the name of the author of the _'Arry Papers_, the inventor
of 'ARRY in these columns, of immortal fame. "Name him!" In every
other respect the compilers and publishers are to be congratulated,
and do hereby stand congratulated, on their work by the
ever-appreciative