Best Selling Books by Walter Lord

From the PREFACE. It is not pretended that this book is an exhaustive account of the Lost Possessions of England. Such an account might perhaps be written, but it could hardly be read. If, out of the scattered records of our other lost possessions, some meagre account were compiled, it would be interesting only to the descendants--lineal and regimental--of the gallant men who took part in them. This view was strongly held by the late Sir John Seeley, who kindly revised these essays, and by whose advice these, and no more, are incorporated in this volume. The following were the reasons given by the late Regius Professor of History for advising the author to restrict his work to the contents of this book: Neither the events here recorded, nor the similar events which are only alluded to, have influenced to any considerable extent the course of history. Their importance to us lies in the lessons which they enforce, and these are as easily deducible from the occupations here treated of as from double their number; it is a case where the half is greater than the whole: These lessons are: 1. The advantage to a sea Power like Great Britain of an extended Empire--an advantage very bluntly pointed out to Sir William Draper in the secret instructions furnished to that officer prior to his departure for Manila. 2. The value in Imperial policy of the sound business principle of not throwing away rubbish--as illustrated by Tangier and the present situation in Morocco. 3. The necessity of listening to the advice of the man on the spot--by not doing which we lost Java. 4. The paramount importance of studying local climatic conditions--a neglect of which precaution cost us five thousand men in Cuba. 5. The folly of entrusting important expeditions (even against incompetent enemies) to untried leaders--a folly which cost us five thousand men and the province of Buenos Ayres. 6. The disastrous effects of a weak course of action in equivocal situations--as in the Ionian Islands. The author''s great obligations to the late Sir John Seeley have already been acknowledged; he is further indebted to Lord Leconfield for permission to examine the records in his possession, and to the editors of Temple Bar and the Nineteenth Century for permission to incorporate articles already published by them. 11, New Square, Lincoln''s Inn. December, 1895.

The year was 1814, and within three weeks our "young and not always wise" nation suffered acute shame and was revived by an astonishing victory.