Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 53, No. 328, February, 1843 by Various
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page 30 of 336 (08%)
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fought like freemen rather than like soldiers--that they transgressed
the rules of war by defending one side of a street while the artillery of the enemy, with its thousand mouths, was pouring death upon them from the other--that they struggled too long, that they surrendered too late, that they died too readily, could have been applied to Poland--one fearful instance of success would have been wanting to encourage the designs of despotism! Some of the rights of war are next considered--that of sacking a town taken by assault, and of blockading a town defended, not by the inhabitants, but by a military garrison--are next examined;--in both these cases the penalty falls upon the innocent. The Homeric description of a town taken by assault, is still applicable to modern warfare:-- [Greek: andras men kteinoysi, polin de te pyr amathynei tekna de t' alloi agoysi, bathyzônoys te gynaikas.] The unhappy fate of Genoa is thus beautifully related-- "Some of you, I doubt not, remember Genoa; you have seen that queenly city with its streets of palaces, rising tier above tier from the water, girdling with the long lines of its bright white houses the vast sweep of its harbour, the mouth of which is marked by a huge natural mole of rock, crowned by its magnificent lighthouse tower. You remember how its white houses rose out of a mass of fig and olive and orange trees, the glory of its old patrician luxury. You may have observed the mountains, behind the town, spotted at intervals by small circular low towers; one of which is distinctly conspicuous where the ridge of the hills rises to its summit, and hides |
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