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illustrative of the costume of various classes of the inhabitants of the countries which the author visited, or representing the most striking edifices that offered themselves to his notice. These are coloured in imitation of drawings, and being copied from designs taken on the spot, they afford the reader nearly as correct an idea of the objects delineated, as could be acquired by actual observation.

Dr. NEALE'S" Letters from Portugal and Spain; comprising un Account of the Operations of the Armies, under Sir Arthur Wellesley, and Sir John Moore, from the Landing of the Troops in Mondego Buy, to the Battle of Corunna;" display an accomplished, and superior mind, and are replete with interest. The proceedings of two British armies, by which the expectations of the country were so cruelly disappointed, are not indeed a grateful theme to the patriotic mind; but still it must be anxious to trace the causes of that disappointment, and eagerly seize any information which may tend to elucidate the subject. But exclusive of the political interest of the volume before us, its contents are vaJuable in many other points of view, as will appear from the correct character, which the author has himself given of them. The subjects, which have principally engaged his attention, are, he informs us, the positions and operations of the armies in Portugal and Spain; Occasional descriptions of the face of both countries; which descriptions, by the way, are accompanied with twelve drawings, traits of the character of the inhabitants; and, as might be expected, remarks on various occurrences, connected with his own profession.

Dr. Neale, accompanied the brigade of General Anstruther, which landed on the Portuguese shore, only three days previous to the battle of Vimiera. Of that engagement, he gives an animated account from his own observation. It appears, that the opinion of the officers, in general, respecting the measures adopted, subsequently to that victory, very nearly corresponded with that, which was so loudly expressed by the public voice at home. It is said, (observes our author) that had Sir Arthur Wellesley been permitted to follow the tendency of his own judgment, the campaign in Portugal would, in all probability, have terminated as gloriously for the British arms, as it had commenced. It is said, to have been Sir Arthur's decided opi

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nion, that the French army might have been pursued, in its retreat, by the five brigades, on the left wing of the army; while the three brigades, on the right, ought to have been pushed on to the heights around Torres Vedras, a very strong position, and which they must have reached before Junot should come up, with the broken remains of his troops. Had this measure been adopted, Junot must either have taken another, and circuitous road to Lisbon, or he must have fought a second battle, in the defiles near Torres Vedras, which would most likely have ended in the entire destruction of his army. In this opinion, Sir Arthur Wellesley was overruled by Sir Harry Burrard, who alledged, as reasons for his dissent, the reduced state of our small body of cavalry, and the wretched condition of the artilleryhorses.

Yet I must observe, that in general, the officers seem to regret, that Sir Ar thur Wellesley's advice, was not followed; and every account which we have since had, respecting the miserable plight in which the French troops entered the town, after their defeat, proves the justness of the grounds upon which Sir Arthur had formed his decision.

On the conclusion of the Convention of Cintra, the author proceeded to Lisbon, and, after a short residence in that city, set off with the army, under Sir John Moore, for Spain, which be attended during the long and fatiguing march to Sahagun, as well as in the harassing and destructive retreat from that place to Corunna. For the details of these movements, and the description of the places visited by the Author, with the force which he accompanied, we must refer to the work itself, which presents a dreadful picture of the hardships sustained by our unfortunate troops, during this disastrous, and, we had almost said, inglorious campaign.

We shall terminate our notice of a work, from which we have derived no inconsiderable pleasure and information, with transcribing one of the letters which will enable the reader to form some idea of the manner and abilities of the author.

"Fearful," says he, "that you have received a false impression of the con duct of the British troops towards the Spaniards, I could wish to lay before you the real state of facts, promising that every possible allowance ought to be made for the irritation of our men's minds, produced

produced by the retreat. Indeed, during the whole campaign, they evinced as much humanity and generosity, as of bravery and heroism.

"But reciprocal ignorance of langnage, and diversity of religious customs and local prejudices, were perpetually interposing to frustrate the endeavours of the officers to preserve amity between the soldiery and the Spaniards. Besides, as in Gallicia and the North of Spain there is more specie than real property: our soldiers were frequently incensed, at finding that the offer of a dollar would not induce a peasant to part with a morsel of rusty bacon, a few garlic sausages, or a bit of bread, which often, in fact, were not intrinsically worth one third of the sum. On arriving on an evening at their villages, after a most fatiguing march, wet to the skin, yet expiring with thirst, these unfeeling mortals often refused, when requested by our men, to run to the adjoining fountain for a pitcher of water, or to procure a few heath-roots to make a fire. Hence frequent bickerings ensued, and some times a few blows, which the Spaniards generally deserved. That the breast of the British soldier is incapable of wanton cruelty, and is warmed by the best af fections, I could convince you by several anecdotes; but you may judge of his character by the following:

"At the battle of Vimiera, our men who belonged to the pickets, and who had fallen down wounded, were passed over by the French in their advance, but were inhumanly stabbed by them in the limbs or trunk afterwards. How did the British behave towards them under the same circumstances? Their first act, on coming up with a wounded Frenchman, was to unsling the canteen from their shoulders, and pour a portion of its contents into his quivering lips. This hap pened in innumerable instances. I will then go on and ask, what such men may effect, if properly managed, and ably led on? Do you not recognize in them the real descendants of that handful of brave men, who, conducted by a Black Prince, in two succeeding summers, chased from shore to shore of their extensive realm the forefathers of the myrmidons who are now ravaging and depopulating Europe? Can you have any difficulty in believing, that our army might soon, with a little management, be made equal to that of vain-glorious France? It is already equal, and more than equal, in every thing but numbers. MONTHLY MAG. No. 187,

Consider the facility with which, upon all occasions, we vanquished the foe, when not absolutely overpowered by numbers.

"Our battalion officers are at present, and have long been, esteemed the best in Europe. Our artillery is, at length, much superior to that of France; and inferior as our Commissariat must always be to that of a continental army, yet, with a little attention, it might soon be rendered nearly as effective. As to the French Generals of the present day, they are mostly ignorant and uneducated men, and in every respect inferior to the Generals of the English army. How then, you will naturally ask, has it happened, that they have over-run the greater part of Europe? Partly from the general corruption of their opponents, and their weak and bigotted policy; but chiefly from the force of opinion, which has done more for them than all other caus 28. The opinion of every nation, oầy gen alone excepted, seems to be that the French, especially with Bonaparte at their head, are invincible. And I must add, that, by the most minute attention to geographical and topographical details, they have acquired a method of combining a series of complicated move ments, with a degree of mathematical certainty, a thing never before attempt ed. With each corps d'armée are two or three men, named imperial geographers, who, with the largest and best maps in Europe under their eyes, direct the march of every detachment, and compute the half hours, nay minutes, which will be necessary to effect each movement.

"Hence their attacks are characterized by a simultaneous impulse and rapidity, which at first sight appears as tonishing. How much have we not lost from a defect in this species of knowledge? Consider the failure of our first attempt on Seringapatam, and our last march to attack Buenos Ayres. Nay, during our last retreat in Spain, should it not have been known that it was impossible for the enemy to get between us and the sea by any lateral road on our left, and that, before he could come round our right, he must have beaten and dispsrsed Generals Crawford and Altent's brigade, and the Marquis de la Romana's army? Sir John Moore, it is presumed, would not have retreated so rapidly through the strongest country in Europe, had it not been for a defect of knowledge such as that of which I speak. "As to the force of opinion already 4T mentioned,

mentioned, every day shews us more and more its paralysing effects. Let the modern Alexander make but a promise, we already begin to believe it half accomplished. If he should say: 'I will crown Berthier at Constantinople, and place my eagles on the minarets of Jerusalein before the end of August," immediately half the newspapers of Europe will say: Alas! 'tis all over with Turkey and Syria! But it is time to awake from this sort of lethargy, and make use of com

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mon sense.

"Let Austria say to her soldiers: Nobility shall no longer be necessary to qualify my people for becoming officers; fight with courage and energy, for the contest is no longer for me solely, but for your country and yourselves.'

Let Spain dismiss her miserable juntas, and say to Palafox and Cuesta: You are invested with plenary powers; call forth all the resources of your country, and drive our invaders across the Pyrences. These things done, victory would again fly from the eagles of Napoleon, and the baffled armies of Gaul retrace in terror their steps to their native Jand."

This interesting volume concludes with a copious Appendix, consisting of corre spondence and official papers, relative to the operations in Portugal and Spain.

MISCELLANIES.

First in the miscellaneous class we make no hesitation to place the "Letters from a late eminent Prelate to one of his Friends." Comprising a selection from the epistolary correspondence, of Bishops WARBURTON and HURD.

On a blank page in the first of the five port-folios, in which the originals of these letters were contained, the following en try was inserted.

"These letters give so true a picture of the writer's character, and are, besides, so worthy of him in all respects (I mean, if the reader can forgive the playfulness of his wit in some instances, and the partiality of his friendship in inany more,) that, in honour of his memory, I would have them published after my death, and the profits arising from the sale of them, applied to the benefit of the Worcester Infirmary.

R. WORCESTER."

"January 18th, 1793." Among the more valuable of these letters. we reckon the 64th, in which Bishop Hurd recites his own personal bistory; the 81st, the 87th, the 93d the 169th, and the 187th-ine of these, with parts

of two others, we shall transcribe as specimens.

Letter LXXXVII.-" I ought rather to rejoice with all who loved that good man lately released, than to condole with them. Can there be a greater consolation to all his friends, than that he was snatched from human miseries to to the reward of his labours? You, I am sure, must rejoice, amidst all the tenderness of filial piety and the softenings of natural affection; the gentle melancholy, that the incessant memory of so indul gent a parent and so excellent a man will make habitual, will be always brightened with the sense of his present happiness; where, perhaps, one of his pleasures is his ministering-care over those which were dearest to him in life. I dare say this will be your case, because the same circumstances have made it mine. My great concern for you was while your la ther was languishing on his death-bed. And my concern at present is for your mother's grief and ill state of health. True tenderness for your father, and the dread of adding to his dist esses, absnlutely required you to do what you did, and to retire from so melancholy a scene.

"As I know your excellent nature, I conjure you by our friendship to divert your mind by the conversation of your friends, aud the amusement of triffing reading, till you have fortified it suffici ently, to bear that reflection on this com mon calamity of our nature, without any other emotion than that occasioned by a kind of soothing melancholy, which perhaps keeps it in a better frame than any other kind of disposition.

"You see what man is, when never so little within the verge of matter and motion in a ferment. The affair of Lasbon has made men tremble, as well as the continent shake, from one end of Europe to another; from Gibraltar to the Highlands of Scotland. To suppose those desolations the scourge of Heaven for human impieties, is a dreadful reflection; a..d yet, to suppose ourselves in a forlorn and fatherless world, is ten times a more frightful consideration. In the first case, we may reasonably hope to avoid our destruction by the amendment of our manners; in the latter, we are kept incessantly alarmed by the blind rage of warring elements. The relation of the captain of a vessel, to the Admiralty, as Mr. York told me the story, has something very striking in it. He lay off Lisbon ou Bishop Hurd's father.

this fatal 1st of November, preparing to hoist sail for England. He looked towards the city in the morning, which gave the promise of a fine day, and saw that proud metropolis rise above the waves, flourishing in wealth and plenty, and founded on a rock that promised a poet's eternity, at least to its grandeur. He looked an hour after, and saw the city involved in flames, and sinking in thunder. A sight more awful mortal eyes could not behold, on this side the day of doom. And yet does not human pride make us miscalculate? A dranken beggar shall work as horrid a desolation with a kick of his foot against an ant-hill, as subterraneous air and fermented minerals to a populous city. And if we take in the universe of things, rather with a philosophic than a religious eye, where is the difference in point of real importance between them? A difference there is and a very sensible one in the merit of the two societies. The little Troglodytes amass neither superfluous nor imaginary wealth; and consequently have neither drones nor rogues among them. In the confusion we see caused by such a desolation, we find, by their immediate care to repair and remedy the general mischief, that none abandons himself to despair, and so stands not in need of Bedlam's and coroners' inquest; but as the poet says,

• In this 'tis God directs, in that, 'tis man.'

"And you will say, remember the sovereignty of Reason. To this I reply, that the common definition of man is false: he is not a reasoning animal. The best you can predicate of hun is, that he is an animal capable of reafon, and this too we take upon old tradition. For it has not been my fortune yet to meet, I won't say with any one man, but I may safely swear with any one order of men, who ever did reason. And this I am afraid our friend Towne will soon find to his cost."

Letter XCIII" I was very much a boy when I wrote that thing about prodigies, and I had never the courage to look into it since, so I have quite forgot all the nonsense that it contains. But since you mention it, I will tell you how it came to see the light. I met many years ago with an ingenious Irishman at a coffee-house, near Gray's-un, where I lodged. He studied the law, and was very poor; I had given him money for many a dinner, and at last I gave him those papers, which he sold to the booksellers for more money than you would

think, much more than they were worth. But I must finish the history both of the Irishman and the papers. Soon after, he got acquainted with Sir William Younge, wrote for Sir Robert, and was made Attorney-general of Jamaica: he married there an opulent widow, and died very rich, a few years ago here in England; but of so scoundrel a temper, that he avoided ever coming into my sight, so that the memory of all this intercourse between us had been buried in silence till this moment. And who should this man be but one of the heroes of the Dunciad, Concannen by name?

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The papers had a similar fortune. A few years before Curl's death, he wrote me a letter to acquaint me, that he had bought the property of my excellent discourse, and that, as it had been long out of print, he was going to reprint it, only he desired to know if I had any additions or alteration to make, he should be glad of the honour of receiving them. The writer and the contents of his letter very much alarmed me. So I wrote to Mr. Knapton to go to the fellow and buy my own book of him agam, which he did. And so ended this ridiculous affair. Which may be a warning to young scrib blers."

Letter CLXIX.-" You say true, I have a tenderness in my temper which will make me miss poor Stukeley; for, acquaintances, there was in him such a not to say that he was one of my oldest mixture of simplicity, drollery, absurdity, ingenuity, superstition, and antiquarianism, that he often afforded me that kind of well-seasoned repast which the French call an Ambigu, I suppose, from a compound of things never meant to meet to gether. I have often heard him laughed at by fools, who had neither his sense, his knowledge, nor his honesty, though it must be confessed, that in him they were all strangely travested. Not a week before his death he walked from Bloomsbury to Grosvenor-square, to pay me visit: was cheerful as usual, and as full of literary projects. But his business was (as he heard Geekee was not not likely to continue long), to desire I would give him the earliest notice of his death, for that he intended to solicit for his prebend of Canterbury, by Lord Chancellor and Lord Cardigan. For," added he, 'one never dies the sooner, you know, for seeking preferment."

An "Appendix" contains five letters from the Honourable Charles Yorke, which had previously been in part ust by Bishop Hurd, in the life of Warburto

In justice perhaps it may be right to say, that the latter of these prelates ap pears, altogether, to more advantage than the former, in the correspondence. Mildness and submission seem to mark Hurd; while Warburton strides like a Colossus, dispensing his dicta like the very high-priest and oracle of learning. He is at once witty, eloquent, and dictatorial. His letters occasionally place him in points of view far more favourable than any other of his writings.

A work of no small interest, in point of reference, will be found in the "Inder to the First Fifteen Volumes of Archæologia;" printed by order of the So. ciety of Antiquaries of London; and compiled by their secretary, Mr. NICHO LAS CARLISLE. This Index consists of two parts, each arranged in alphabetical order. The first contains the names of persons, to which, not only the titles of nobility, and the different degrees conferred by the universities, are added, but also other occasional marks of distinction. The second part contains the names of places, and of subjects. In this arrangement of the Index, particuJar care has been taken to notice the prominent passages of each communication, by which method a general acquaintance with each treatise is readily obtained. In order to facilitate research, the leading titles of the antiquities discovered in England, are here classed under their respective counties. Those of the antiquities in Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, will likewise be found under their several heads. In the same manner the description of ancient coins, inscriptions, stations, and memorable incidents, are each brought under one view; and as far as the compiler has been able, every subject is noticed in a manner, intended to afford the easiest access to the valuable information contained in the first fifteen volumes of Archæologia.

"The Bibliomania; or, Book-Madness; containing some Account of the History, Symptoms, and Cure of this fatal Disease: in an Epistle addressed to Richard Heber, Esq." by the Rev. THOMAS FROGNALL DIBDIN, will be found to contain a great deal of curious information, bere and there mixed with good-natured, satire and anecdote.

The first eminent character, Mr. Dibdin observes, who appears to have been in fested with this disorder, was Richard de Bury, one of the tutors of King Edward the Third, and afterwards Bishop of Durham; a man who has been uni

formly praised for the variety of his erudition, and the intenseness of his ardur of book-collecting. The Earl of Surrey and Sir Thomas Wyatt, Dean Colet, Leland and Roger Ascham, are the next persons enumerated as notorious for the book-disease. In the reign of Elizabeth, Mr. Dibdin adds, "If we are to credit Laneham's celebrated Letter, it had ex. tended far into the country, and infested some of the worthy inhabitants of Coven try; for one Captain Cox, by profession a mason, and that right skilful,' had as fair a library of sciences, and as many goodly monuments, both in prose and poetry; and at afternoon could talk as much without book, as any inn-holder betwixt Brentford and Bagshot, what degree soever ke be."

While the country was thus giving proofs of the prevalence of this disorder, the two Harringtons (especially the younger) and the illustrious Spenser, were unfortunately seized with it in the metropolis.

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In the 17th century, from the death of Elizabeth to the commencement of Anne's reign, it seems to have made considerable havoc: yet, such was our kindness to it, that we scrupled not to engage in overtures for the purchase of Isaac Vossius's fine library, enriched with many treasures from the Queen of Sweden's, which this versatile genius scru pled not to pillage without confession of apology. During this century, our great reasoners and philosophers began to be in motion; and, like the fumes of tobacco, which drive the concealed and clotted insects from the interior to the extremity of the leaves, the infectious particles of the Bibliomania set a thousand busy brains a thinking, and produced ten thousand capricious works, which, over-shadowed by the majestic remains of Bacon, Locke, and Boyle, perished for want of air, and warmth, and moisture.

In the reign of Anne, Maittaire and Harley, Earl of Oxford, are introduced, followed by a host of collectors, the ana lyses of whose catalogues form a princepal feature of the work.

Having enumerated and more particslarly described the symptoms of the da ease, which Mr. Dibdin says are instantly known by a passion for 1. large po per copies; 2. uncut copies; $. illustrat ed copies; 4. unique copies; 5. copies printed upon vellum; 6. first editions; 7. true editions; 8. a general desire for the black letter; be proceeds to say a

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