420 APPENDIX. motives for narrowly scrutinising the accuracy of the nar- rative, but were able to speak upon some or one of the subjects it touches with the authority of partakers or eye- witnesses. Thence, as was to be expected, there were ad- dressed to me a quantity of communications, some personal, and some by letter. In these communications, the speakers and writers pointed out what they deemed to be errors or omissions. In almost every instance they made their re- presentations with great precision, and with a strikingly rigid adherence to the subject-matter.* But, besides the authoritative criticism of those numbers of men who had been actors in the scenes described, there was the criticism of the periodical press. This was applied to the book, both at home and abroad ; and so diligently, that already the works of the commentators must be many times greater in bulk than the original book. Of the pub- lications which yielded these floods of comment, there were some whose conductors trusted mainly to public sources for the information on which they rested, but there were other conductors of reviews and newspapers who placed them- selves under the guidance of some public man — some min- ister, some soldier, some sailor — who had been what is called " an actor in the ' scene.' " The criticism resulting from this last method was of a composite sort, for it more or less covertly uttered the notions of some public man whose reputation was at stake, but expressed them in the name of the journal through whom he addressed the public.
- I include in this category of communications from individuals
some few which also appeared in print ; as, for instance, one about the age of Sir George Brown, and the way he carried his plumes — another about the exact rank with which Colonel Codrington went out — and one or two more of a less important kind ; but I do so rightly, because these communications had reached me before the time when they got published. I also include in this category the communication from Colonel Norcott, because, though his letter ap- peared in a newspaper, it was a letter addressed to me.
