were older than himself.  Craufurd was five years his senior, and was a capital soldier.  Picton, who had some of the highest military qualities, was almost eleven years older than his chief, and was little short of fifty-seven when he fell at Waterloo.  Lord Hopetoun was six years older than Wellington.  Lord Lynedoch (General Sir Thomas Graham) was in his sixty-first year when he defeated Marechal Victor at Barrosa, and in his sixty-third when he led the left wing of the Allies at Vittoria, which was the turning battle of the long contest between England and France.  A few months later he took St. Sebastian, after one of the most terrible sieges known to modern warfare.  He continued to serve under Wellington until France was invaded.  Returning to England, he was sent to Holland, with an independent command; and though his forces were few, so little had his fire been dulled by time, that he carried the great fortress of Bergen-op-Zoom by storm, but only to lose it again, with more than two thousand men, because of the sense and gallantry of the French General Bezanet, who, like our Rosecrans at Murfreesboro’, would not accept defeat under any circumstances.  When Wellington afterward saw the place, he remarked that it was very strong, and must have been extremely difficult to enter; “but when once in,” he added, “I wonder how the Devil they suffered themselves to be beaten out again!” Though the old Scotchman failed on this particular occasion, his boldness and daring are to be cited in support of the position that energy in war is not the exclusive property of youth.

Some of the best of the English second-class generals were old men.  Lord Clyde began his memorable Indian campaigns at sixty-six, and certainly showed no want of talent and activity in their course.  He restored, to all appearance, British supremacy in the East.  Sir C.J.  Napier was in his sixty-second year when he conquered Sinde, winning the great Battles of Meanee and Doobah; and six years later he was sent out to India, as Commander-in-chief, at the suggestion of Wellington, who said, that, if Napier would not go, he should go himself.  He reached India too late to fight the Sikhs, but showed great vigor in governing the Indian army.  He died in 1853; had he lived until the next spring, he would unquestionably have been placed at the head of that force which England sent first to Turkey and then to Southern Russia.  Lord Raglan was almost sixty-six when he was appointed to his first command, and though his conduct has been severely criticized, and much misrepresented by many writers, the opinion is now becoming common that he discharged well the duties of a very difficult position.  Mr. Kinglake’s brilliant work is obtaining justice for the services and memory of his illustrious friend.  Lord Hardinge and Lord Gough were old men when they carried on some of the fiercest hostilities ever known to the English in India.  Sir Ralph Abercromby was sixty-three when he defeated the French in Egypt, in 1801.