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naturalist and his associate, with a correct recital of the whole occur, rence, excepting the appendages of watch, zecchins, and locket.

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Young man," said Kleber gravely, "is this a subject of merriment to you? Who knows whether you or I may not be deprived of

he was and unexpectedly? He was not your enemy; perhaps as suddenly 192 to a mother or sister. God help them! these suffer

most from war. The heart of the far-distant is the scene of its most cruel devastations. Leave the papers: you may go: call the interpretertib 9d 1972 97 at t

at He entered.off Read this letter."

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My

y adored Henry"..... "Give it me," cried the general; he blew a strong fire from his pipe and consumed it. Read the other"-My kind-hearted and beloved son read the last line only."

Stop: The interpreter answered, "it contains merely the name and address."

2

I asked no questions: read them, and write them down legibly. He took the paper, tore off the margin and placed the line in his snuff-box.

Give me that paper in pencil, with a mark of sealing-wax on it.

He snatched it, shrunk, and shook some tobacco on it. It was no sealing-wax. It was a drop of blood; one from the heart; one only; dry, but seeming fresh. vol. i. p. 129.

Had there been a predominance of such passages as these, they should have protected the work from our censure; but on the contrary, the volumes in general are characterized by a spirit of pugnacity which, while it takes all its tenderness from criticism, satisfies us that rebuke is wholesome. The objects of this spirit are sufficiently multifarious, but the nearest are the most trampled upon. Our opinion of Italian society, though milder than Mr. Landor's, would not have led us to take up our abode amongst the Italians. Yet Mr. Landor has not chosen ill for himself. We know well that it is a fitting abode for men who like prodigiously to talk of freedom, but never to see it about 'them; for men whose dependants are expected to shout liberty once in seven years, and go home to shake at an angry look; whose key-note is the independence of mankind, and to whom any thing in mankind but abject servility is insufferable. It is natural enough then, that Mr. Landor should make his home in the midst of a society which is his perfect scorn; amid venality, bad faith, suspicion, cowardice, the prostration of private and the extinction of social virtue, (i. 184.)-where the national religion rests on peculation and fattens on vice, (vol. i. p. 185.)—where the native women have lost all delicacy of character, and even the English women are chiefly those who are little respected at home, arrogant, presumptuous, suspicious, credulous, and speaking one of another

more

more maliciously than untruely z* (vol. i! p? 190!)—where virtues and duties are vicarious; (vol. i. p.210.) where the most trifling of all pursuits is called virtú, every thing excellent is pelegrino, softness is morbidezza, a dinner is served up alla contemplazione, and a lamb's fry is cosa stupenda; where a patriot is a man unfriendly to all established government, who would loosen all the laws as impediments to the liberty of action, with a reserve of those which secure to him the fruits of rapine and confiscation; (vol. ii. p. 140.)—where the aristocracy are the children of sharpers from behind the counter;-where counts and marquesses are more plentiful than sheep and swine, (vol. ii. p. 248.) where the judges are bribed with harlotry-and where robbery and murder come off triumphant-Here, we repeat, Mr. Landor has done wisely to domesticate. It is in such an Utopian retreat as this that philosophers of his cast seek an asylum from the contact of honest independence and the restraints of a well ordered society. Ito

In a conversation (vol. i. p. 251.) between the author and the Abbé Delille, there is much minute criticism upon French poetry On this occasion Mr. Landor, being manager as well as performer, takes care to allot the best part to himself, and the abbe cuts a very inconsiderable figure. Indeed it may be observed that whereever Mr. Landor is one of the interlocutors, the responses of the other have about the same proportion of vigour and sagacity,I that obtains in the more elementary dialogues between Tutor and Charles. The abbé, therefore, stands forward as the feeble prope of French poesy, in whom we can admire nothing but the meek-s ness with which he endures the contemptuous attacks of his adversary; and in this game between the right hand and the left, it is} amusing enough to observe the exultation of the winner. French } poetry may be better defended, provided the right ground be taken; and in order to this it is necessary at once and without reserve to relinquish the cause of all tragedies and heroics, of all senti mental and romantic poetry in the language. We should then come to the sylva of the country, to the madrigals, epigrams, vers d'amour, baisers, and to the strongest point of defence, the s works of Boileau, which Mr. Landor, with his usual ill fortune, d has chosen as the main point of sattack. Boileau is the most¶ successful of French poets, because the chose those walks of ɔ poetry for which only the French language is fitted. He was the fair rival of Pope in all his writings except the Epistle to Eloisa; for from any attempt at poetry of an impassioned cha racter the Frenchman judiciously forbore. It is not our design,

This elegant form of invective was used by one whose language of reproach was discriminating as well as severe, and to whom we beg to give it back; quasi rixantes, stupra et flagitia invicem objectavere, neuter falsò.'-Tac. Hist. i. 74.

for

I

for it is highly unnecessary, to support the reputation of Boileau against the criticisms of Mr. Landor. They tend to convince the incredulous that an author who published many volumes has written sundry bad lines and weak couplets. They also show that he did not employ a finer modulation of rhythm than his native language admitted. We know, somewhat better than Mr. Landor does, the incurable infirmities of French verse, and the spirit of pedantry by which the tragedians crippled it still further, substituting bad mechanism for natural disability. But we bring forward these facts in favour of Boileau,* and not against him. With regard to the particular defect instanced, it is true that the French heroic is necessarily divided into two cadences, but it is not necessarily, nor indeed is it often, confined to those two. One line day Soupire, étend les bras, ferme l'œil, et s'endort,'

may express four actions each by its respective movement, and one can scarcely read it without perceiving that it sounds as it ought. By some accident, however, Mr. Landor has come to a just conclusion upon the general subject, and the most unlearned adversary and the worst directed attack shall not tenipt us to say a word in defence of French versificationle of sur

Amongst other incongruous personages, who meet in Mr. Landor's pages, we have to number Samuel Johnson and John Horne Tooke. They could only have been brought together by some such stratagem as effected the meeting between Johnson and Wilkes. Mr. Landor is ignorant of Tooke's sentiments in ascribing to him a panegyric upon Johnson's Dictionary, for which he entertained more than his ordinary portion of spleen. In all literary history, (not less disgusting than political,) we know of nothing more pitiful than Tooke's comment, whether for the envy which leads him to make light of a work which he was peculi arly capable of estimating, or for the miserable hypocrisy with which he endeavours to dissemble his spite by declaring that he could never read the preface without tears. Dignified, noble and pathetic as that composition is, beyond all others wherein great authors have adverted to themselves and their works, we refuse to believe that it ever moistened the eyes of Horne Tooke. The Dictionary, no doubt, was capable of improvements, and has received them from other hands, according to the old allegory that

If Boiled scarcely have given had quarrelled with his ve his native tongue, and indulged in Latin like Mr. Landor, to his classical vein in such verses as these, which describe the effect of Buonaparte's conquests Atqui mollior ala servitutis

Certe gentibus incubat receptis

Quod ferrum fuit antea, ecce plumbum.'~ii.

p. 189.

or as those which we find vol. i. p. 227, and which we suppose are also meant for

Latin.

the

the dwarf sees farther than the giant provided he stand upon the giant's shoulders. Tooke accuses Johnson of being defective in a scheme of etymology which Johnson never proposed to accomplish. It was not a part of Johnson's design to give the roots of English words; he did not pretend to trace them to their aboriginal country, but only to the country whence they last transmigrated. Examples of this practice are adduced in the Ersa Tregosτa, as if Johnson were answerable for not executing a plan which Tooke only contemplated, and which is equally defective after all. That part of the Dictionary will not be complete till the words are traced, not only to the language whence they first came, or to that whence they last came, but also in chronological order through every language of their intermediate progress.

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Mr. Landor's mind is a self-constituted court of oyer and terminer, ready to try all causes which may come before it; and this court being composed of the most heterogeneous elements, and profoundly ignorant of the extent of its proper jurisdiction, passes upon each and every matter at issue, and upon all parties litigant, a sudden, peremptory, and unqualified sentence. The French nation, we find, are only to be restrained from mischief by the most rigid government, they must be scourged into good humour, and starved into content. You Spaniards' (this judgment is delivered in a dedication to General Mina, vol. ii. p. viii.) You Spaniards have committed two great errors; the first in not removing to Cuba six or seven hundred known and proven traitors, condemning three or four of the most eminent to death; .... Now, to speak seriously on a matter of life and death, we hold this to be one of the most inexcusable passages in Mr. Landor's work, inasmuch as the circumstances adverted to existed very recently, and may exist again, and the measure recommended is practical and feasible, and in truth exactly that measure which, should the circumstances again exist, the parties concerned would be most in peril of adopting. In civil wars the very name of treason ought by all parties to be especially avoided. They whose partizans suffer the punishment of treason, must in turn inflict it, and retaliation once at work will overthrow all judicial difficulties, till executions are aggravated into murders, and these multiplied into massacres.

If we have any thing more to observe, it is upon a conversation between Maurocordato and Colocotrini, in which Mr. Landor brings his poetical and military experience to the aid of the Greeks.

The notes which I intended for this conversation were numerous; but as they contained some particulars which I think it imprudent to divulge at present, I shall insert some verses in their place, not very remote from the subject.'-vol. ii. p. 234.

The

The verses are consummately prudent, for they divulge no meaning whatever. With all Mr. Landor's caution, however, some of the military measures which he had suggested to the Greeks are of so efficacious a nature that he cannot resist showing them off. The principal ruse de guerre which he recommends to them is to surprize the Turks when they least expect it, by throwing away their muskets and taking to bows and arrows. (vol. ii. p. 217.)-Equal astonishment is to result from the adoption of cork, armour, than which it appears nothing is more cool and refreshing, (vol. ii. p. 223.)In common prudence Mr. Landor ought to have put these stratagems into verse. On the contrary they are expounded to all the world in Mr. Landor's easiest prose: for aught we know, the Turks may get hold of the bows and arrows first, and it is awful to think on the fate of the defenceless Greeks, left with nothing but steel and gunpowder, when the Turks should fall upon them with bows and arrows in their hands and cased in cork! སྙ,,,ar!, ༣,༨༡༩

In conclusion, whatever measure of absurdity there may be in Mr. Landor's work, we desire to do him full justice: there is also in it a good deal to be admired, and some little to be approved homona od torm

ART. XI-A Sketch of Old England by a New Englandman, a Series of Letters to his Brother. 2 vols. 12mo. pp. 305. 250. New York. 1822. TRUTH, though not always palatable, is always wholesome, and nations, like individuals, ought to be grateful for the intelligence which detects and the skill which remedies their diseases, although the medicine should be bitter or the operation painful. In this spirit we approach the consideration of the Sketch of Old England by a New Englandman;' and although we cannot but regret that he has found so much to blame, we are still thankful that we have fallen into the hands of so enlightened, so liberal, and so candid a censor. We must not conceal, however, that the object of this amiable writer is not the instruction or improvement of Old England; our share in the benefit which his work is to do mankind is only incidental and inferential: his great motive is to raise the Americans in their own opinion and that of the world, by contrasting their freedom, happiness, civilization and refinement, with the slavery, bigotry, ignorance, barbarism and misery of this unhappy and degraded nation. How far it was necessary to publish two volumes to stimulate American modesty into a better opinion of American society, we do not pretend to say, but we can venture to pronounce that the portion

of