LETTER XIV.

ON DRINKING.

EXCESSIVE drinking is not less dangerous or less disgraceful to an officer than gaming. What reliance can be placed on him who delivers himself up to this vice? Would you entrust him with a secret commission?—he will divulge it. If you detach him to an advanced post, where he should watch over the security of the army, it is probable that he will not only lose his own corps, but expose the safety of the whole. How can he be sent on a foraging party, to levy contributions, to recounoitre a country, surprise an important post or a distant town; to subdue by force of arms or persuasion, the inhabitants of a particular canton; or to gain a march on the enemy, on which may depend the fate of a great body of troops? All these commissions require an activity, a presence of mind, and a discretion, of which a man subject to frequent intoxication is utterly incapable.

I WILL not recall to your attention all those numerous evils which are consequent on excess of wine: those combats of the Lapithæ*, which intoxication has a thousand times renewed; the sacrifice of the most important duties to that sleep which such nocturnal orgies render necessary; the destruction of the vigour of health, the weakening the memory and the senses, the brutalizing the mind, the habitual confusion of ideas, and the loss of honour:---such are the more prominent traits of this frightful picture. The example of a commanding officer given up to this vice, is generally followed by the subalterns; and if at any time, when invited to these indulgences, they should, either from inclination or complaisance, have been led to imitate it, what. recourse can be opposed to the enemy who might take this very moment to attack them? and what

THE chief of the Lapithæ, (a race descended from Apollo) assembled to celebrate the nuptials of one of their number. The Centaurs (a kindred people) were also invited to partake the festivity. In the course of the entertainment, an insult offered by one of the Centaurs in a state of intoxication, provoked the resentment of the Lapithæ; and the offender being supported by his companions, the quarrel became universal, and ended in blows and slaughter.

orders can be expected from a commander, whose head is confused with the vapours of a night passed in such excesses?

HISTORY, both ancient and modern, furnishes us numberless examples of the misfortunes which this vice has occasioned; and of the disgraceful faults which some of the most renowned generals have committed, in consequence of yielding themselves to it. The Theban conspiracy was owing to the knowledge which the citizens had of the intemperance and drunkenness of those who commanded in the town. The conspirators so exactly arranged their time, as to dispatch the anthinking governors, in the midst of their de bauch, when the total absence of their reason rendered all their courage useless.

THE celebrated elector, Frederic William, marching to the relief of his province, which had been invaded by the Swedes, while he was uniting his troops with the emperor against France, reached Magdebourg with a speed almost incre dible. He caused the gates of this fortress to be immediately shut, and took every possible means to prevent the enemy from hearing of his arrival. Toward evening the army passed the Elbe; and advanced by private ways on the following night, to the gates of Rathenau, which contained

Swedish garrison. The elector contrived to acquaint the baron de Briest, who was in the town, of this movement: and concerted with him privately the best means of surprising the Swedes. Briest acquitted himself of this difficult commission with much address. He gave a great supper to all the officers, who yielded themselves without restraint to the pleasures of the table; and while they were passing their time in drinking to excess, the elector ordered his infantry to cross the Havel in different boats, and to assail the town furiously on all sides. General Daersting, declaring himself to be the commander of a party of Swedes pursued by the Brandebourgers, was the first that entered Rathenau. He instantly dispatched the guard, and the next moment all the gates of the town were forced. The cavalry cleared the streets; and the officers of the place could scarcely persuade themselves, when they awoke from their stupefaction, that they were the captives of a prince whom they fully thought to be then with his troops in the heart of Franconia.

DURING the civil wars in Poland, the Russians laid siege to Skid. The governor, Losnowsky, under pretence of capitulating, obtained a suspension of arms; during which he regaled

the assailants with a profusion of brandy and wine. When Losnowsky saw that the besiegers had drunk to such an excess as to be incapable of defending themselves, he made a vigorous sally, and put them almost all to the sword.

THE duke of Vendome was too much addicted to the pleasures of the table, and to the indulgence of sleep. He performed some splendid achievements in Italy; but it was with the utmost difficulty that he could be prevailed upon, on these occasions to forego his favourite gratifieations; and many glorious opportunities of sig nalizing himself were suffered to slip by; not from the want of courage and valour, but from unwillingness to give up the many hours that he constantly passed in sleep, and at the table.

DRINKING not only brings the greatest dangers in its train, but it frequently urges to actions, which are followed by a remorse that accompanies the offender to his grave. It tarnished the lustre even of all the victories of Alexander; who has left an indelible stain upon his memory by the murder which he committed in his drunkenness, and the remembrance of which distressed him to the last moment of his life:

CLYTUS was one of Alexander's best friends; an old officer, who had fought under his father VOL. I.