Page:Viscount Hardinge and the Advance of the British Dominions into the Punjab.djvu/49

Rh the Duke of Wellington's Peninsular army had never attacked a position which they did not take, or defended a position which they did not keep. He remarked that this reminded him of an anecdote told of Napoleon by General Foy: Napoleon was observing that the British force was defending a position in which it had been vigorously attacked. 'Yes,' said General Foy, 'these English always keep a position when they get it.' Napoleon said it was always so. He knew of no instance to the contrary. 'Yes,' said Foy, 'the contrary occurred at the battle of Almanza.' 'But at that battle,' said Napoleon, 'the French army was commanded by the Duke of Berwick, an Englishman, and the English by Ruvigny Lord Galway, a Frenchman.'

The Times, in reviewing the debate, remarked that Sir De L. Evans was specially unfortunate in being answered by Sir H. Hardinge, whose comments were unanswerable, and who retracted nothing.

Sir Henry Hardinge's political views were essentially Conservative. He lived at a time when the excitement of party politics ran high, and when a sharp line of demarcation divided the contending factions in Parliament. A political opponent has described him as a warm but generous adversary, liable to be roused by the slightest imputation, but one who never allowed the sun to go down upon his wrath. When, on his return from India, a dinner in his honour was given at the Carlton Club by the Conservative party, he remarked, in reply to the