for a reconciliation.' Franklin is said to have thought that all was lost by this step of his colleague, but found every thing gained by it.

The Emperor Joseph appears several times in this work; and in the Historical Illustrations are some excellent letters written by him. Two of them, each addressed' to a Lady,' we cannot refrain from copying,

• Madam,

I do not think that it is amongst the duties of a monarch to grant places to one of his subjects, merely because he is a gentleman. That, however, is the inference from the request you have made to me. Your late husband was, you say, a distinguished General, a gentleman of good family; and thence you conclude, that my kindness to your family can do no less than give a company of foot to your second son, lately returned from his travels. Madam, a man may be the son of a General, and yet have no talent for command. A man may be of a good family, and yet possess no other merit than that which he owes to chance, the name of gentleman,

I know your son, and I know what makes the soldier; and this two-fold knowledge convinces me that your son has not the dispo sition of a warrior, and that he is too full of his birth to leave the country a hope of his ever rendering it any important service.

What you are to be pitied for, Madam, is, that your son is not fit either for an officer, a statesman, or a priest; in a word, that he is nothing more than a gentleman, in the most extended acceptation of the word,

You may be thankful to that destiny, which, in refusing talents to your son, has taken care to put him in possession of great wealth, which will sufficiently compensate him for other deficiencies, and enable him, at the same time, to dispense with any favour from me,

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I hope you will be impartial enough, to feel the reasons which prompt me to refuse your request. It may be disagreeable to you, but I consider it necessary. Farewell, Madam,

Your sincere well-wisher,

JOSEPH.'

You know my disposition; you are not ignorant that the society of the ladies is to me a mere recreation, and that I have never sacrificed my principles to the fair sex. I pay but little attention to recommendations, and I only take them into consideration, when the person, in whose behalf I may be solicited, possesses real merit.

Two of your sons are already loaded with favours. The eldest, who is not yet twenty, is chief of a squadron in my army, and the younger has obtained a prebend at Cologne, from the Elector my brother. What would you have more? Would you have the first a General, and the second a bishop?

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In France you may see colonels in leading strings; and in Spain, the royal princes command armies even at eighteen; hence Prince Stahremberg forced them to retreat so often, that they were never able, all the rest of their lives, to comprehend any other

manœuvre.

It is necessary to be sincere at court, and severe in the field, stoical without obduracy, magnanimous without weakness, and to gain the esteem of our enemies by the justice of our actions; and this, Madam, is what I aim at.

Vienna, September, 1787.

'Joseph.

(Extract from the unedited letters from Joseph II., published at Paris, by Persan, 1822.)'

Vol. ii. is occupied chiefly with the affair of the diamondnecklace, and with all the revolutionary horrors which effected the death of the King and the Queen, and others of his family. It has also a large Appendix of Historical Illustrations, Anecdotes, &c., many of them very interesting. We have, however, already gone so much into detail, that it is absolutely impossible for us to extend our remarks and quotations; and we conclude with acknowleging that we have read these Memoirs with satisfaction, as affording strong and direct évidence to the innocence of Marie Antoinette, in those particulars of her life in which she was abominably slandered before and during the Revolution. Providential elucidations of human character, from calumnies currently believed, and not contradicted, are of frequent occurrence in human affairs, and illustrate a striking part of the Divine government, the ultimate and destined triumph of truth.

Our ample quotations will have shewn how the translator has executed his task: but we must add that he has also rendered into English verse the various poetic scraps which occur, with considerable accuracy and address.

ART. II. Recollections of the Peninsula. By the Author of "Sketches of India." 8vo. 8s. 6d. Boards. Longman and Co. 1823.

'HE "Sketches of India" by this author were noticed with approbation in our xcixth vol. p. 157., but his present 'Recollections' are still more picturesque and interesting. Few writers, indeed, who are not poets by profession, have the art of painting in words, with so much vividness and distinctness, the various objects which surround their view. He shews us the Peninsula as it were in a camera obscura; his epitome of nature preserves not only the relative proportions and motley coloring of the scene, but the motion and mutability of life:

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it now sparkles with sunshine, then darkens with storm, and is next variegated with the glittering processions of warfare.

We learn from the Preface that the writer passed about five years in Portugal and Spain during the peninsular war, that is, from 1809 to 1814; sometimes engaged in active service, and sometimes tediously detained by illness or in garrison. He does not attempt a dated journal of his progresses and retreats, but contents himself with describing those places, manners, and actions, which made most impression on his memory: selecting the stimulant moments of his sojourn, and often concealing the orderly thread of time and place, which at such unequal distances served to string together so many precious reminiscences. The book may best be judged by some specimens; and it is scarcely possible to open it without seeing useful and lively remarks, or descriptions indescribably descriptive.

The first reception of the troops at Santarem is thus related :

'After an hour's labour in the morning, finding we made little or no way by water, we landed and marched to Santarem. The situation of this city is very striking; it is built on bold elevated ground, hanging directly over the Tagus, the southern bank of which it completely commands. The regiment was quartered for the night in a convent, and I received a billet on a private house. At the door of it, I was met by the owner, a gentlemanlike looking well-dressed man of about sixty, and of a very mild, pleasing address: he led the way to a neat apartment, and a pretty bedchamber. I was covered with dust and dirt, and declined them as too good; but how was my confusion increased, when my host himself brought me water in a silver basin to wash, while his good lady presented me with chocolate, bearing it herself on a salver. I feared that they had mistaken my rank from my two epaulettes, and I explained to them that I was a simple lieutenant. No; they well knew my rank, but did not pay me the less attention: they perfumed my chamber with rose-water, took off my knapsack with their own hands, and then left me to refresh myself by washing and dressing, and to recover from the pleasing astonishment, into which their cordial and polite reception had thrown me. In the evening my party dined here, and the worthy host presented us. with some magnums of fine old wine, and the choicest fruit. We made scruples; he over-ruled them with true and unaffected hos- « pitality, and we, in return, pressed on his acceptance six bottles of excellent Sauterne, the remains of our small stock of French wine.

Such was my treatment in the first billet I ever entered in Portugal, and such, with very few exceptions, was the character of the reception given by Portuguese of all classes, according to their means, at the commencement of the Peninsula struggle, to the British army: rich and poor, the clergy and laity, the fidalgo K 3

and

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and the peasant, all expressed an eagerness to serve, and a readiness to honour us. In these early marches the villa, the monastery, and the cottage were thrown open at the approach of our troops; the best apartments, the neatest cells, the humble but only beds, were all resigned to the march-worn officers and men, with undisguised cheerfulness. It is with pain I am compelled to confess, that the manners of my strange, but well-meaning, countrymen soon wrought a change in the kind dispositions of this people. When they saw many assume as a right all which they had accorded from politeness, and receive their respectful attentions and cordial services as expressions of homage, due to the courage, wealth, and power of the British nation; - when the simplicity of their manners, their frugality, the spareness of their diet, the peculiarities of their dress, and their religious prejudices were made the subjects of derision and ridicule; when they witnessed scenes of brutal intoxication, and were occasionally exposed to vulgar insult, from uneducated and over-bearing Englishmen ; when, I say, all this occurred, they began to examine our individual titles to their esteem; they were, often, very soon disenchanted; and the spirit which we had awakened in them manifested itself in various acts of neglect, rudeness, and even resentment. The English are admired, not only in Portugal, but over all Europe, as a free, an enlightened, and a brave people, but they cannot make themselves beloved; they are not content with being great, they must be thought so, and told so. They will not bend with good humour to the customs of other nations, nor will they condescend to soothe (flatter they never do) the harmless self-love of friendly foreigners. No: wherever they march or travel, they bear with them a haughty air of conscious superiority, and expect that their customs, habits, and opinions should supersede, or at least suspend, those of all the countries through which they pass. Among liberal minded and well-educated Englishmen, there will ever be many bright exceptions to this general picture; and they perhaps will be the first to confess, that this portrait of my travelling countrymen has not been too highly coloured.'

However mortifying to the national vanity it may be to observe such facts, yet the denunciation of them is the most likely remedy for the evil. Those manners are most polite which are most cosmopolite, which please every where and at all times, and which are free from the unnatural and local peculiarities of particular places and ages. English manners have not this advantage, but French manners have, as must be known to all who have travelled.

My opinions,' says the author, of the moral excellence of soldiers is very superior to that generally entertained; and I think that we should find as much virtue, and as many amiable qualities, among ten thousand soldiers, as among a similar number of individuals, taken, without selection, from the bosom of civil society.

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It will be remarked by those who live among soldiers, that they are charitable and generous, kind to children, and fond of dumb animals; add to this, a frequent exposure to hardship, privation, and danger, make them friendly, and ready to assist each other. Nor are they without a just and laudable pride. The worthless characters who are to be met with in every regiment (and society) are generally shunned; nor have I ever seen an expression of discontent on their countenances at the just punishment of a moral offender.'

The battle of Albuera is well described, militarily, (p. 158. to 160.) and is stated to have been inadequately valued by the historians of the war. The account concludes with these

reflections:

How shall I picture the British soldier going into action? He is neither heated by brandy, stimulated by the hope of plunder, or inflamed by the deadly feelings of revenge; he does not even indulge in expressions of animosity against his foes; he moves forward, confident of victory, never dreams of the possibility of defeat, and braves death with all the accompanying horrors of laceration and torture, with the most cheerful intrepidity. Enough of joy and triumph. The roar of the battle is hushed; the hurry of action is over; let us walk over the corse-encumbered field. Look around, — behold thousands of slain, thousands of wounded, writhing with anguish, and groaning with agony and despair. Move a little this way, here lie four officers of the French hun. dredth, all corpses. Why, that boy cannot have numbered eighteen. years? How beautiful, how serene a countenance! Perhaps, on the banks of the murmuring and peaceful Loire, some mother thinks anxiously of this her darling child. Here fought the third brigade; here the fusileers, how thick these heroes lie! Most of the bodies are already stripped; rank is no longer distinguished Yes this must have been an officer; look at the delicate white ness of his hands, and observe on his finger the mark of his ring. What manly beauty; what a smile still plays upon his lip! He fell, perhaps, beneath his colours; died easily; he is to be envied Here charged the Polish lancers; not long ago, the trampling of horses, the shout, the cry, the prayer, the death-stroke, all mingled their wild sounds on this spot; it is now, but for a few fitful and stifled groans, as silent as the grave. What is this? A battered trumpet; the breath which filled; this morning, its haughty tone, has fled, perhaps, for ever. And here again, a broken lance. Is this the muscular arm that wielded it? 'Twas vigorous, and slew, perhaps, a victim on this field; it is now un nerved by death. Look at the contraction of this body, and the anguish of these features; eight times has some lance pierced this frame. Here again lie headless trunks, and bodies torn and struck down by cannon-shot; such death is sudden, horrid, but 'tis merciful. Who are these, that catch every moment at our coats, and cling to our feet, in such a humble attitude? The wounded soldiers of the enemy, who are imploring British protection from

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