CHAPTER LV.-THE LEGION. For the first few days, indeed, a multiplicity of cares beset the worthy major. There was a despatch to be written to Beresford-another to the supreme Junta-a letter to Wilson, at that time with a corps of observation to the eastward; there were some wounded, to be looked after, a speech to be made to the conquering heroes themselves and lastly, a few prisoners were taken, whose fate seemed certainly to partake of the most uncertain of war's proverbial chances. The despatches gave little trouble. With some very slight alteration, the great original already sent forward to Sir Arthur, served as a basis for the rest. The wounded were forwarded to Alcantara, with a medical staff, to whom Monsoon, at parting, pleasantly hinted, that he expected to see all the sick at their duty by an early day, or he would be compelled to report the doctors. The speech, which was intended as a kind of general order, he deferred for some favourable afternoon-when he could "get up his Portuguese"-and lastly came the prisoners, by far the most difficult of all his cares. As for the few common soldiers taken, they gave him little uneasiness: as Sir John has it, they were mortal men and food for powder" but there was a staff officer among them, aiguiletted and epauletted the very decorations he wore, were no common temptation. Now the major deliberated long time with himself whether the usages of modern war might not admit of the ancient and time-honoured practice of ransom. The battle, save in glory, had been singularly unproductiveplunder there was none- - the few ammunition waggons and gun carriages were worth little or nothing; so that, save the prisoners, nothing re 66 mained. It was late in the eveningthe mellow hour of the major's meditations-when he ventured to open his heart to me upon the matter. "I was just thinking, Charley, how very superior they were in olden times to us moderns in many matters, and in nothing more than their treatment of prisoners;-they never took them away from their friends and country; they always ransomed them, if they had wherewithal to pay their way. So good natured-upon my life it was a most excellent custom-they took any little valuables they found about them, and then put them up at auction. Moses and Eleazar, a priest, we are told, took every piece of gold, and their wrought jewels-meaning their watches and ear-rings. You needn't laugh--they all wore ear-rings those fellows did; -now, why shouldn't I profit by their good example? I have taken Agag, the King of the Amalekites-no; but, upon my life, I have got a French major, and would let him go for fifty doubloons." It was not without much laughing and some eloquence that I could persuade Monsoon, that Sir Arthur's military notions might not accept of even the authority of Moses; and as our head quarters were now at no great distance, the danger of such a step as he meditated was too considerable at such a moment. As for ourselves, no fatiguing drills, no harassing field-days, and no provoking inspections, interfered with the easy current of our lives. Foraging parties there were, it is true, and some occasional outpost duty was performed, but the officers for both were selected with a tact that proved the major's appreciation of character; for while the gay joyous fellow that sung a jovial song and loved his liquor was certain of being retained at headquarters, the less-gifted and less-congenial spirit had the happiness of scouring the country for forage, and presenting himself as a target to a French rifle. My own endeavours to fulfil my instructions met with but little encouragement or support; and although I laboured hard at my task, I must confess that the soil was a most ungrateful one. The cavalry were, it is true, composed mostly of young fellows well appointed, and, in most cases, well mounted; but a more disorderly, careless, undisciplined set of good-humoured fellows never formed a corps in this world. Monsoon's opinions were felt in every branch of the service, from the adjutant to the drum-boy; the same reckless, indolent, plunder-loving spirit prevailed everywhere; and, although under fire, they showed no lack of gallantry or courage, the moment of danger passed, discipline departed with it; and their only conception of benefitting by a victory consisted in the amount of pillage that resulted from it. From time to time, the rumours of great events reached us. We heard that Soult, having succeeded in reorganizing his beaten army, was, in conjunction with Ney's corps, returning from the north; that the marshals were consolidating their forces in the neighbourhood of Talavera, and that King Joseph himself, at the head of a large army, had marched for Madrid. Menacing as such an aspect of affairs was, it had little disturbed the major's equanimity, and when our advanced posts reported daily the intelligence that the French were in retreat, he cared little with what objects of concentration they retired, provided the interval between us grew gradually wider. His speculations upon the future were singularly prophetic. You'll see, Charley, what will happen. Old Cuesta will pursue them, and get thrashed. The English will come up, and perhaps get thrashed too; but -God help us, we are only a small force, partially organized, and ill to depend on. We'll go up the mountains till all's over. Thus did the major's discretion not only extend to the avoidance of danger; but he actually disqualified himself from even making its acquaintance. Meanwhile, our operations consisted in making easy marches to Almarez, halting whenever the commissariat reported a well-stocked cellar, or a well-furnished hen-roost. Taking the primrose path in life, and being, in the words of the major, "contented and grateful even amid great perils." CRITICAL NOTICES. Ireland; its Scenery, Character, &c. By Mr. and Mrs S. C. Hall. No. I. London: How and Parsons. Dublin: Curry and Co. 1840. THE promise of this work has excited considerable expectation, and it is, therefore, rather than with a view of pronouncing a judgment on its merits, that we think it right to notice the first number, which is now before the public. It would be precipitate in us, and unfair both to the book and our readers, to prejudge what the work will be, from the sample afforded by a single number. It is but justice, however, to say, that it has not disappointed us: we expected something good, and we have not been deceived in our anticipation. We think the book ought, and we feel confident it will succeed, for many reasons. We say so, not merely because we consider the high literary character which its authors have at stake, affords a guarantee that it will be well executed. Mrs. Hall's claims to public favour, do not rest solely on her genius; they have also, what in the eyes of many, is a still more solid foundation. Her pen has always been employed in the cause of morality and truth, and in every thing she has written, there is a purity of thought and strength of principle, which never courts popularity, by concealing or palliating what she believes to be wrong. This is a very high merit even in works of pure fiction, by which she is at present chiefly known to the public; but it is of still greater importance in a work like that before us, which purports to draw things as they are, that they should be sketched by a pen which will not soften down vices or prejudices by a shading of affected sentiment, or embellish them with a colouring of jests or buffoonery. The value of an unprejudiced and scrupulous writer about Ireland, can be best appreciated by those who are familiar with the literary caricatures, and misrepresentations of men and things in this country, which, now happily less frequently than formerly, but still not unfrequently, appear, and are received by sensible persons at the other side of the channel, as veritable representations of what they pretend to describe. The work purports to be the joint production of Mr. and Mrs. Hall. The latter is an Irishwoman, born and educated in Ireland, and consequently, it may fairly be presumed, intimately acquainted with the subjects on which she undertakes to write. Mr. Hall is, however, an Englishman; we are fully awake to the absurdity, more than once perpetrated in Ireland, of strangers coming to a country, and upon the strength of a summer month's acquaintance, chiefly with its inns and stage coaches, producing a dogmatic treatise, historical, political, philosophical, and statistical, on its climate, people, &c. &c. ; but we have no such folly to censure in the present instance, the visits of both authors to this country, have been long and frequent, and the fact that one of them writes, in the character of an observer only, is in many respects a recommendation, not merely because he is prima facie unprejudiced, but because he is likely to notice peculiarities of men and things which a native, born and educated among them, would, probably, from their very familiarity, overlook. The book cannot properly be called a tour, though, perhaps, the word would convey as accurate an idea of its contents as any other. The authors state that they do not intend to follow any particular route, but to divide this work into counties, and in pursuance of this plan, they have commenced with Cork. Though a considerable portion of the number is equally applicable to other parts of Ireland, it is, of course, chiefly devoted to the district to which it purports to relate, and the authors have not only collected a mass of curious and interesting information, but given it to the public in a most pleasing form, so free from dryness and insipidity, as not to produce tedium in the most devoted admirer of "light reading," and yet with sufficient solidity to satisfy the most strenuous advocate of seriousness. There are also one or two tales introduced, which are told in Mrs. Hall's best style; and that is no mean eulogium on their merits. We purposely abstain from giving any extract from the number, as the limited space to which our notice must be confined, would necessarily render it too brief to be a fair sample; and we think it better to leave our readers to judge entirely for themselves, than perhaps prejudice the book by a garbled quotation. If it meets with the success which we anticipate, and continues to be conducted with the ability which we expect, we will have pleasure in noticing it hereafter more fully. FRINGS'S FRENCH GRAMMAR. We are led to notice this work chiefly because we believe our own copy of it is one of the very few ever imported into this country, although it has been several times re-printed on the continent, and is very generally used in the higher schools in Prussia. It is the very best French grammar we have ever seen. The ordinary information which, in common with every other grammar it gives, is communicated with great perspicuity. Rules, which in our common school grammars are represented as arbitrary or mechanical, are carefully referred to principles of universal Grammar, and the student who makes use of the book learns much more than the elements of a particular language. We have ourselves carefully read every chapter of the book,-we have also, before drawing up this notice, compared it with the grammars in common use in this country, and we can truly say, that in every respect it is far better. We believe that there are many who have that kind of knowledge of French and German which would make the study of a book, written in one of these languages for the use of those whose native is the other, a very useful exercise. Very useful lessons in the philo Die Französische Sprache in ihren vollständigen Regeln, bearbeitet von M. J. Frings Berlin, Hayn, 1839. sophy of language might be thus accidentally received, which would be lost were our own tongue the only medium of communication employed in learning others. In this grammar every rule is illustrated by a large body of examples,seeming exceptions are carefully noticed, and often, by a subtle analysis, shown to be confirmations or illustrations of the rules they would seem to violate. We suppose there are few learners of French who have not felt the difficulties of determining when the participles are declinable or undeclined. On this subject the volume contains a chapter. written with great good sense, and the difficulties wholly disappear. The work also contains a very useful chapter as valuable to the student of German as of French, in which is considered the order of the arrangement of words in these languages respectively. This is an admirable chapter. The volume is intended not merely as a grammar, but as a class book, comprising exercise book and lessons for the learner in every stage of his progress in short, the entire apparatus necessary for a German learning French, -all but a dictionary. It contains seven hundred and sixty eight closely printed pages the first four hundred and sixty are the Grammar---then follow Exercises of one kind or another---and the last two hundred pages consist of selections in verse and prose from French writers, in every period of their rich literature. The selection is carefully made, and adds greatly to the value and interest of the book. An Index to the entire work is a very striking proof of the industrious application with which it has been prepared. The Index contains references not only to the grammatical rules, (and the examples by which they are illustrated is what pro perly speaking, is Mr. Frings's portion of the book,) but these references are also extended to the selections, every line of which is thus brought again and again before the attention of any one in earnest in learning the language. The work must have been the labour of years, and it throughout exhibits marks of a sound and clear understanding exercised on the subject of the structure of language, and the details of communicating instruction.* The Cashmere Shawl. By Charles White, Esq. Author of "The king's Page." Almack's Re. visited, &c. 3 vols. 8vo. Colburn, London. 1840. THIS is, as its title implies, an eastern fiction; and whether we regard it for the interest of its narrative, the bril liancy of its descriptive passages, or the correct picture it presents us with of Oriental names, is unquestionably a most interesting book. Had it been styled the confessions of a shawl, its nature and extent would more readily have been guessed, it being, in fact, the history of one, from its first state of primitive being upon the hills of Thibet, to its paliny days of after life, when it embraced the fair proportions and snowy shoulders of the bright daughters of Georgia. Those delightful fictions, "The Arabian Tales," followed in later years by "Hope's Anastasius," and the scarcely less admirable novels of Morier, have given the world an insight and a taste for stories of this class. The glowing descriptions of eastern magnificence, the voluptuous abandon of the anderun and the bath, the passionate love, the devoted chivalry, the more than regal pomp, that glitter along the pages, are a gorgeous pageant, that no age rejects, no understanding, however cold, undervalues. With such predisposing claims upon our attention, we opened and read the volumes before us. When we say that we perused them with a pleasure second to none with which we ever read a work of the kind, we shall be only rendering them justice; they bear the decided impress of taste and scholarship, and evince at once a rare power for accurate observation, combined with considerable ability in unravelling a plot. In the present dearth of pleasant reading, these volumes are really a boon, and as such we commend them to our readers, and, in Oriental phrase -what can we say more. The title page of Mr. Frings's grammar describes him as Teacher in Ordinary of French for the higher classes, at the Royal Berlin Gymnasium, of the Graue-Kloster, and also connected with other educational institutions. INDEX TO VOL. XVI. Acteon, the Fate of, by Sydney Whiting, Adjutant's Dinner, the Charles O'Mal- Alvas- -Charles O'Malley-chap. LIII. Anstruther's, Sir R. A., translation of Cashmere Shawl, the-Critical Notice of, Chalmers, Wardlaw, and M'Neile, on Connaught Legends, Review of, 1, 179, Cork-Charles O'Malley, chap. XXIII, Coul Goppagh, Sonnets by, 145 Critical Notices-Lendrick's Elements of the Practice of Medicine, Part I., 126; Dante's Paradise translated by Ichabod De Tocqueville on Democracy in Ame- Digamma, the Homeric, 469. Dinner, the-Charles O'Malley, chap. Free-will Offerings versus Teinds and Tithes, Critical No- Douro, the Charles O'Malley, chap. Downshire-a Tribute, 205. Dramatic Authors' Society, the-Drama- Dublin, the City of, at the Bar of the English Poets, Essays on, No. III., Ho- Farewell, the-Charles O'Malley, chap. Farewells, Two, by E. M. H., 140. |