deed, that lord George was always remarkably
slow in his movements of cavalry, on the supposition that if horses are
blown they must be unfit for service, and that the least hurry is apt to
disorder the line of horse to such a degree, as would rob them of their
proper effect, and render all their efforts abortive. This being the
system of lord George Sackville, it may deserve consideration, whether
he could deviate from it on this delicate occasion, without renouncing
the dictates of his own judgment and discretion; and whether he was
at liberty to use his own judgment, after having received the order to
advance. After all, whether he was intentionally guilty; and what were
the motives by which he was really actuated, are questions which his
own conscience alone can solve. Even granting him to have hesitated from
perplexity, to have lingered from vexation, to have failed through error
of judgment, he will probably find favour with the candid and humane
part of his fellow-subjects, when they reflect upon the nature of his
situation, placed at the head of such a body of cavalry, uninstructed
and uninformed of plan or circumstance, divided from the rest of the
army, unacquainted with the operations of the day, chagrined with doubt
and disappointment, and perplexed by contradictory orders, neither of
which he could execute without offering violence to his own judgment;
when they consider the endeavours he used to manifest his obedience;
the last distinct order which he in person received and executed; that
mankind are liable to mistakes; that the cavalry were not originally
intended to act, as appears in the account of the battle published at
the Hague, by the authority of prince Ferdinand, expressly declaring
that the cavalry on the right did not act, because it was destined
to sustain the infantry in a third line; that if it had really been
designed for action, it ought either to have been posted in another
place, or permitted to advance straight forwards by the windmill,
according to the idea of its commander; finally, when they recall to
view the general confusion that seems to have prevailed through the
manouvres of that morning, and remember some particulars of the action;
that the brigades of British artillery had no orders until they applied
to lord George Sackville, who directed them to the spot where they
acquitted themselves with so much honour and effect, in contributing to
the success of the day; that the glory a