Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1890 edition. Excerpt: ... COUNTER-REMARKS TO MR. DUDLEY MONTAGU PERCEVAL'S REMARKS UPON SOME PASSAGES IN COLONEL NAPIER'S HISTORY OF THE PENINSULA WAR. "The evil that men do, lives after them." In my History of the Peninsular War I assailed, and very justly, the public character of the late Mr. Perceval. His son has published a defence of it, after having vainly endeavored in a private correspondence to convince me that my attack was unfounded. The younger Mr. Perceval's motive is to be respected, and had he confined himself to argument and authority, it was my intention to have relied on our correspondence, and left the subject matter in dispute to the judgment of the public. But Mr. Perceval used expressions which compelled me to seek personal explanation, yet fruitlessly, because he, unable to see any difference between invectives directed against the public acts of a minister, and terms of insult addressed to a private person, claims a right to use such expressions; and while he emphatically "disavows all meaning or purpose of offence or insult," does yet offer most grievous insult, denying my title to redress after the customary mode, and explicitly declining, he says from principle, an appeal to an/ other weapon than the pen. It is not for me to impugn this principle in any case, still iess in that of a son defending the memory of his father; but it gives me the right which I now assert, to disregard any verbal insult which Mr. Perceval, intentionally or unintentionally, has offered to me or may offer to me in future. When a gentleman relieve himself from personal responsibility by the adoption of this principle, his language can no longer convey insult to those who do not reject such responsibility; and it would be as unmanly to use insulting terms towards...
