AND FOUR CHILDREN, and womidiug the residue."* Truly, indeed, said Sir Harry Smith, in a speech at a late military dinner in London, "It must be confessed, gentlemen, that ours is a damnable profession."
The refusal of General Taylor to accede to the request of the Mexican General for an armistice, before he knew that either Government had recognized the war he had commenced, has been already mentioned. During the attack on Montere}^ the Governor sent a flag of truce to the General, stating that "thousands of victims who, from indigence and want, find themselves nov/ in the theatre of war, and who would be uselessly sacrificed, claim the rights which, in all times and in all countries, humanity extends.'* He asked that orders might be given that families might be respected, or else that a_ reasonable time might be granted them to leave the city. The General refused to permit any to leave the city ; and, hoAvever much we may * Letter published in the Alton Telegraph.
lament his decision, it must be acknowledged, that owing to the circumstances in which he was placed, his refusal is not open to the same animadvei'sions as that of Scott.
It is an impulse of our nature to regard scenes of suf- fering and of cruelty "with aversion ; but war, by the im- portance it attaches to victory, renders such scenes sources of pleasure, when their subjects are enemies. General Lane, in his despatch (22d October, 1847), thus describes his night attack upon AlUxco : " I ordered the artillery to be posted on a hill near the town, and overlooking it, and open its fire. Now ensued one of the most beautiful sights conceivable. Every gun was served with the utmost rapidity, and the crash of the walls and the roofs of the houses when struck by our shot and shells, was mingled with the roar of our artillery. The bright light of the moon enabled us to direct our shots to the most thickly populated part of the town."