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Includes 15 portraits and 11 maps “IT is with great pleasure that we welcome this admirable little book, and its short, clear sketches of some of the great deeds which made the Empire. There have been plenty of attempts to write the story of England’s battles on sea and land in a, language which shall, while plain and easily understood, give a true picture of the events depicted ; but we have never met with one which has proved so successful. The method as well as the tone and temper of the little book before us— it is in size hardly more than a pamphlet—is entirely satisfactory. The writing of “Vedette,” without being pompous or exaggerated, is full of life and colour, and dull must he be who can read its pages without a thrill of pride and pleasure. Only about twenty pages are devoted to each of the twelve episodes chosen from the history of the last hundred and fifty years, and therefore there is little room for minute detail or fine shading. With true literary and historic discretion, however, “Vedette” has seized the important points in each incident narrated, and has made them living and real. Whether it is the fight off Cape St. Vincent, or Lord Hawke’s victory, the night attack on Badajos, or the storming of the Heights of Abraham that is being described, “Vedette” contrives to give us the essentials of the story. Again, he makes the nature of each incident clearly visible, and by a few swift and bold touches, Wolfe or Jervis, Sir Sidney Smith or Sir Philip Broke, stand out before us as they lived an I fought. But this happy result is achieved by no elaborate artifices of style, but by the simplest of devices. “Vedette” has clearly got the historical literature of each event at his fingers.”- The Spectator.
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.
The tales here told are written, not to glorify war, but to nourish patriotism. They represent an effort to renew in popular memory the great traditions of the Imperial race to which we belong. The history of the Empire of which we are subjects—the story of the struggles and sufferings by which it has been built up—is the best legacy which the past has bequeathed to us. But it is a treasure strangely neglected. The State makes primary education its anxious care, yet it does not make its own history a vital part of that education. There is real danger that for the average youth the great names of British story may become meaningless sounds, that his imagination will take no colour from the rich and deep tints of history. And what a pallid, cold-blooded citizenship this must produce! War belongs, no doubt, to an imperfect stage of society; it has a side of pure brutality. But it is not all brutal. Wordsworth's daring line about "God's most perfect instrument" has a great truth behind it. What examples are to be found in the tales here retold, not merely of heroic daring, but of even finer qualities—of heroic fortitude; of loyalty to duty stronger than the love of life; of the temper which dreads dishonour more than it fears death; of the patriotism which makes love of the Fatherland a passion. These are the elements of robust citizenship. They represent some, at least, of the qualities by which the Empire, in a sterner time than ours, was won, and by which, in even these ease-loving days, it must be maintained. These sketches appeared originally in the Melbourne Argus, and are republished by the kind consent of its proprietors. Each sketch is complete in itself; and though no formal quotation of authorities is given, yet all the available literature on each event described has been laid under contribution. The sketches will be found to be historically accurate.