MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE. 693 



LARDNER'S CABINET CYCLOPAEDIA. BIOGRAPHY. EMINENT BRITISH MILITARY 



COMMANDERS. VOL. III. LONGMAN AND Co. 



* i . . 



IN regardjMto character and interest, the present volume yields in no way to 

 the most attractive or the best executed of its predecessors. The names of Clive, 

 Cornwallis, of Abercrombie and most of all of Moore, present to the mind of 

 every Englishman a constellation of high talent, tried courage and devotion to 

 the honor and service of their country which must always command admiration 

 and respect. 



Nor have they here found a biographer uncongenial to his task, or unworthy 

 of the honor of doing justice to their deserts, and spreading their hard-earned 

 renown still wider. We say hard-earned, for if we but consider, besides the 

 laborious duties of the active soldier, often rising step by step from his ensigncy 

 on his own merit, the immense study, reflection and observation, which com- 

 bine to make the finished commander, prepared to wield the separate power of 

 an entire power, no one will deny that both contemporaries and posterity should 

 do him full justice. It is the*crown in short of all their toil and ambition ; as 

 in the words the last impressive words of General Moore, " who hoped that 

 his country would do him justice." The life of this great man was indeed the 

 model for a fine soldier ; with the strictest discipline he carried with him an air 

 of almost chivalrous honor and high soul into the then dull uninformed details 

 of an English army. The country, indeed has done justice to his genius and 

 merits : ample justice in the admiration of his character, and a knowledge of the 

 insurmountable difficulties with which a false system and a weak neglectfnl 

 government every where beset his path. The bare incontrovertable facts that 

 he had a mere handful of men to oppose to the gigantic force of Napoleon in 

 person ; that he was crippled for money and all kind of resources from England, 

 with only a rabble of discomfited Spaniards to impede his motions ; and that 

 he yet brought his little army clear through the heart of Spain pursued and 

 beset by numerous French armies ; that he won a great battle, and restored that 

 army to England, is an endearing monument of his greatness, and founds the 

 best title of his country's gratitude and respect. 



On this head, we regret to see that the author has not rightly appreciated his 

 character and deserts, erroneously following the views of his affected censurers, 

 which, had they been adopted, as recommended by Lord Castlereagh's envoy, 

 Frere, must have involved the entire destruction of his little army, and the high 

 military character of its commanders. Nor is it only with regard to his life of John 

 Moore that the author too often ventures to criticise or misinterpret the move- 

 ments and actions off, which it is clear he has not the means of forming a correct 

 judgment ; he commits the same fault in treating of Lord Clive, offering new 

 comments and rules of proceeding which only ample experience, and high com- 

 mand in the same field can authorize a writer in hazarding. 



LARDNER'S CABINET CYCLOPAEDIA. HISTORY. SPAIN AND PORTUGAL. 



IN the present state of political affairs, a condensed review of these two king- 

 doms connot be otherwise than acceptable. It will be found to give satisfactory 

 information as relates to the great questions of foreign and internal policy ; and 

 is more especially interesting at the periods when they stood formost among 

 the European nations in power and conquest, enjoying at the same time a far 

 larger share of freedom than they can boast of having since done. Without 

 reference, therefore, to their actual position, the narrative of their elder and 

 more famed atchievements, whether in arts or arms, as it here thrown out, 

 does no discredit to the taste or ability of the writer ; he has well availed him- 

 self of the authorities and more volumnious materials he had before him, and 

 has adopted a populas style which confers interest on the narrative. 



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