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Show ceffes {hould put too quick an End to the War; :mel that he may not feem to fufpeCt this without Grounds, he defires to know, If /aft Year's Bloody Batte/ ?VM fo well concerted, {15 it.might have been; and if there was an abfolttte Necejjity to fray Two DaJ' within fight of the Emmy for a fe?!J Troops, that never engag' d when they came and :give 'em fo much time to throw up (uch tt~equal Fortrej}es before we attack' tl them? l iittle thought to have feen the Bartel of Tanim inlhnc'd for a Countef-ftep defign'd to hinder the EffeCt of our former SJ.lccelfes, when:. it was it felf fo great a one ; but it :(hews the Abfurdity of thei~ Caufe, when ViCtory it felf is made a Crim9; and they nttempt to pr.ove a General defigns to prolong t11e War, becaufe he has endeayour'd to force the Enemy to put an End to 1t by a new Defeat. This is a ftrange way of arguing indeed, peculiar to the Caufe, ~nd its worthy Defenders. It is a. kliown ~aymg, Jliflorite ratio non reddztur; but lt feems, 1t now inuft not be allow' d. A General has been often call'd to give an · Account how he came to lofe a Batte!; but to be accountable for winning one is fomething new; and if ViCtories had not been fo common; we fhould hardly have.. been fo difficult; we {hould haye underflood the Value of a lingle ViCtory, and been thankful for it; but the Number it feems has niade us fo nice, !that. we had rather not hav.e them, if they are not.ju!l to our Minds ; 1f they are not of as much Confequcnce as Blenheim, or as cheap .as Ramellin or Oude,,. rde. I would be glad to know, if ever any one F'rencb Writer treated the Bartel of Landm with that Contempt that rhefe Gen- -tlemen' [ B] tlemen do that of Taniers ; or thought th~ ~ghting it a Crime in the General, becaufe It was dear bought, and had little other Confequence but the gaining what Arlus calls unprofitable Honour. On the contrary, never V1Ctory was fomucp maO'nify'd ·the Tongues and Pens of that Nation ~ere fdr many Years full of nothing elfe ; and yet thofe who were at that Bartel, will tell you that theFrencb did not only Iofe as many Me:1 as the Confederates , but double or treble their N umber; and the Allies recover'd that Defeat fo foon, that in Six Weeks time they had a bet~ ter Army than before the Batte!; and all the ufe the French made of their ViCl:ory was w take CharleroJ, tho' the Batte! was fou~ht in 'J~ne ; aConqueftonemayeafily fuppolethey m1ghc have made, without the purchafe of fo dearaVietory; astheymadethofeof Mons.and Namur, Places of much more Importance. Now let us fee whether the ViCtory of Taniers be on any Account Inferior to that of Landen.. That it exceeded it in Honour Arlus h1mfelf allows; for he o-rants that i11 all the Wars of immemorial Time, ~here n~·ver 'JJJd! a Batte! {or1ght, ?vhere mortal Men gai11'd fucb immorta./ Hunour: And whether he will allow it or n?t ~ 'ti~ as certain, 'twas more valuable alfo 1111ts Confequence, and the Advantage the Co_mmon Caufe reap'd from it; forA-tom was ev1demly a greater Conqueft in it felf and of more ufe to us when Brabant had no o: ther Cover, than Charleroy could be to them · befides Cbarleroy might have been had with~ out La~den ' but Mons could not have been had Without Taniers · and tfJO' that Batte! was not fought till the l~ft of Auguft , Mons had E 2 not |
