Author: James Andrew Broun Ramsay Dalhousie

Publisher:

Published: 2015-07-09

Total Pages: 494

ISBN-13: 9781331065456

Excerpt from Private Letters of the Marquess of Dalhousie By a codicil to his will, couched in solemn words, the Marquess of Dalhousie forbade the publication of his private papers until a period of fifty years had passed from the time of his death. Those fifty years have come and gone, and there appears to be no reason why the present generation should be any longer denied the privilege of looking more closely into the career, and seeing more clearly the character, of a man whose life is an enduring example of talent devoted to the service of his country, and of duty done to the utmost, with full knowledge of the consequences to himself which that utmost would surely bring. Fully to understand the character of a great man whose life has become part of a nation's history, and the motives which governed his actions; clearly to discern the secret of his success or of his failure, and to perceive where human nature triumphed or was overcome by force of will, needs something more than a mere chronicle of his actions and their results, near or remote. This need is supplied in some cases by autobiography or confessions; in others, by diaries or private letters. The letters contained in this volume were written by Lord Dalhousie to Sir George Couper, Bart., his oldest and dearest friend, though twenty-four years his senior. Captain Couper of the 92nd Highlanders, as he then was, had been A.D.C. to his father, General the Earl of Dalhousie, in the Peninsula, 1812-1814, and won promotion at Vittoria. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.