1830.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



407 



Harry Burrard joined them while the 

 battle of Vimiera was fighting, and Sir 

 Hew Dalrymple a few hours after. Lord 

 Castlereagh, in communicating the event 

 of the battle, invidiously with respect 

 to Sir Hew Dalrymple, applauded the 

 generosity of Sir Harry Burrard for de- 

 clining to take the immediate command, 

 when, in fact, he did not decline. The 

 convention was reported to have been 

 concluded against the consent and even 

 remonstrance of General Wellesley, 

 when, in fact, he recommended it, and 

 his opinion it was, as of one possessed of 

 the fullest information, that was defer- 

 red to. Admiral Sir Charles Cotton was 

 commended for opposing what, in fact, 

 was adopted partly on his very sugges- 

 tion ; and, finally, the king's ministers, 

 in the king's name, announced to Sir 

 Hew a severe censure, though the Court 

 of Inquiry approved of his conduct. 



The truth seems to be, Sir Hew, 

 coming upon the field after the battle 

 had been fought, and a stranger to the 

 scene of action, was driven, perhaps, to 

 the extremities of caution. Decision is 

 naturally looked for in a commander-in- 

 chief, and under common circumstances 

 there is no reason to suppose he would 

 have been deficient in this respect ; but 

 peculiarly situated as he plainly was, 

 the risk of presumption and precipita- 

 tion was to be carefully guarded against. 

 The mistake was in taking too many 

 advisers he should have been content 

 with General Wellesley, who of neces- 

 sity was in the best condition to advise ; 

 nor should he have lost time in seeking 

 the sanction of Admiral Cotton, \vho 

 surely had no co-ordinate authority. 



But the act for which Sir Hew blames 

 himself, and which was the source of all 

 the mischief, was his communicating to 

 Friere, the Portuguese general, a copy 

 of the provisional agreement which 

 agreement, together with a commentary 

 founded on some articles which were not 

 finally confirmed, and others which were 

 not even included in the provisional 

 agreement, were despatched in haste to 

 the Portuguese ambassador in London, 

 and by him communicated to Downing- 

 street, before the conclusive convention 

 reached the government. Upon this 

 perhaps treacherous communication, the 

 government hastily gave expression to 

 their disapprobation, and excited a cry 

 against the unhappy commander as pre- 

 cipitate as it was cruel. 



Sir Hew has written a calm and clear 

 narrative of his whole conduct, which at 

 once exculpates himself from any se- 

 rious error, and throws back upon the 

 vacillations and divisions of the ministry, 

 where they justly belong, the sources 

 of whatever blun'ders were committed. 

 Lord Castlereagh and Mr. Canning 

 could not draw together, and acted 



without consulting each other. They 

 deserved impeachment if ever men did, 

 both of them. The narrative was drawn 

 up by the calumniated general as a fa- 

 mily record, but destined by him at last 

 to be printed in consequence of Lord 

 Londonderry's book, in which he is 

 treated with great negligence, not to- 

 say cavalierly, and with deficiencies of 

 information, not very creditable to one 

 who was at the time, officially, as under 

 secretary of state, in correspondence 

 with him. Sir Hew died before he car- 

 ried his purpose of printing into effect, 

 and the narrative is now published by 

 his son. 



The Death of Ugolino, a Tragedy, by 

 George William Feather stonhaugh, JEsq-.^ 

 of Philadelphia. 'The horrible subject 

 of this tragedy is the death of Ugolino 

 by raging hunger; but the starvation- 

 scene could not of course be protracted 

 to any considerable length ; and the body 

 of the piece is occupied by what imme- 

 diately led to Ruggieri's act of diaboli- 

 cal revenge. The archbishop was at the 

 head of the government. Ten thousand 

 Pisans were still prisoners at Genoa, 

 and an embassy had recently been des- 

 patched to treat for their ransom, and 

 the expences of their maintenance for 

 four years. Ostensibly the archbishop 

 had concurred in the sending of this em- 

 bassy, but privately he set his own 

 agents at work to throw impediments in 

 the way of the treaty for he had no* 

 desire to see these ten thousand citizens 

 return, who were all of the opposite 

 faction. His efforts, however, were not 

 so successful as he had hoped for ; and 

 hearing, in the meanwhile, that a new 

 governor, under the auspices of the Em- 

 peror, was coming, he grew alarmed. 

 He wanted money his old enemy Ugo- 

 lino was still in prison he re'solved, 

 therefore, to offer him liberty in ex- 

 change for his " gold," meaning, after 

 getting his gold, to sacrifice him stilh 

 His thirst for revenge was as insatiable 

 as that for gold Ugolino had murdered 

 his son. Ugolino, however, spurns the 

 condition, and the Archbishop throwa 

 the keys of his dungeon into the river, 

 and leaves him and his children to pe- 

 rish. Some days elapse and the chil- 

 dren die, when "the Archbishop's oppo- 

 nents get the mastery, and Ugolino is 

 drawn up from the dungeon, only, how- 

 ever, to breathe his last dying words. 



The tragedy is the production of Mr. 

 Featherstonhaugh, of Philadelphia, writ- 

 ten in the vain hope of recalling some of 

 the long-lost admiration for the higher 

 branches of the drama. " The stage 

 here," he observes, in a private commu- 

 nication, " is at the lowest ebb, and offers 

 nothing but a re-chauffer of the back- 

 nied horrors of the too-tragical millers, 



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