638 



Monthly Review of Literature, 



too much to generalities, or to great points, 

 for that ; though, no doubt, all that relates 

 to the different campaigns, and to military 

 tactics and battles, is at the least as in- 

 telligible as Sir W's who, with all his 

 reading up for the occasion, undoubtedly fails 

 in this respect. Mr. H. has an irrepressible 

 tendency to digress and dilate ; and we 

 have page after page of discussion such for 

 instance as the effects of sovereignty on the 

 individual the character of popery, &c. i 

 which would make admirable essays, and are 

 certainly fitter for his Table Talk, than the 

 Life of Napoleon. Occasionally, too, his 

 peculiar metaphysics come in, and come in 

 too without discussion, as if every body must 

 assent on the first hearing. On the 18th 

 Brumaire, Napoleon, for once, lost his self- 

 possession. " This," says Mr. H., with all 

 the confidence usual with him, " is easily un- 

 derstood, for no man has more than one sort 

 of courage, namely, in those things, in 

 which he is accustomed to feel his power 

 and see his way clearly." Now, if Mr. H. 

 had been content with saying, in common 

 parlance, no man is equally courageous at 

 all times, or on all occasions or no man's 

 nerves are equally firm at all times or 

 a man is courageous only when he is ac- 

 customed to feel, &c. nobody would have 

 hesitated to go with him. To be sure 

 this would have sounded very like a trite 

 truism ; but then, we really think he has 

 expressed no more meaning than is com- 

 prised in this same truism ; and in this, as 

 is often the case, he is misled by the pecu- 

 liar cast of his own phraseology, and thinks 

 a novel expression indicative of a new 

 discovery. Again " Times, habits of 

 business, and reflection, have made many 

 able men, and modified many indifferent 

 characters." These are Napoleon's words, 

 speaking of Fouche'. Now this, in the ge- 

 neral apprehension of men judging from 

 common experience is the language of 

 common sense ; but common sense is not 

 surely Mr. H's. best attribute. " This," 

 says he, " is not a just view of nature in 

 general, which never changes, nor did the 

 present instance turn out an exception to 

 the common rule." We know not, to be 

 sure, speaking physically, whether nature 

 does change, but then we as little know 

 that she does not change : and if the ac- 

 tions of men change which we suppose is 

 the case, when a different set of motives 

 are operating why then we see no advan- 

 tage in insisting upon a language, which, in 

 the common usage of it, does not correspond 

 with facts, nor with the general conviction, 

 as indicated by proverbial phrases. " Buo- 

 naparte," continues Mr. H., " was fond of 

 playing with edged tools, thinking he could 

 turn their good qualities to account, and, by 

 dextrous management, prevent their harm- 

 ing him" and his success for years, was a 

 pretty strong proof of his ability to do so. 

 Because he finally failed, is it to be concluded 



that he did nothing In this way ? Speaking, 

 again, of Fayette " No man is wiser from 

 experience or suffering, or can cast his 

 thoughts and actions in any other mould 

 than that which nature has assigned them, 

 or so true a patriot would not, after his own 

 and his country's ( hair-breadth 'scapes,' and 

 bleeding wrongs, have tried to hamper the 

 revolution in its last struggles, with the 

 same cobweb, flimsy refinements, that he 

 did in its first outset." What is this but 

 saying that Fayette was insusceptible of im- 

 provement, and therefore every man is ? 



But we defer any thing like examination 

 till the whole is before us. It is sufficient 

 for us to observe that the work is full of 

 vigorous thinking ; and at every page, directly 

 or indirectly, the reader will find materials 

 for sweet or bitter reflection. There is no 

 insipidity in Mr. H. He cowers before no 

 difficulty is deterred by no peril and com- 

 promises none of his convictions ; but sets 

 boldly to work, and sweeps before him the 

 filth and rubbish of prejudice, with much 

 the same sort of resolute and dogged spirit, 

 as that with which Hercules turned the Ache- 

 lous to cleanse the accumulations of the 

 Augean stable. Admiration for the lofty 

 and unbending character, and the varied 

 and vigorous intellect of his hero, has, we 

 doubt not, somewhat warped his better judg- 

 ment, and made him think more highly of a 

 man than he ought to think of a man, who 

 was ready to sacrifice the individual and 

 collective happiness of nations to his own 

 glory, and hi* own glory to his revenge. 



The Siege of Carlaverock, c. <<?., by 

 Nicholas Harris Nicolas, Esq. ; 1828 

 Carlaverock Castle stood in the county, and 

 about nine miles south of the town, of Dum- 

 fries, on the north shore of the Solway Frith, 

 at the confluence of the rivers Nith and 

 Locher, and was the first place attacked by 

 Edward I., in his invasion of Scotland in 

 the year 1300. All who owed military ser- 

 vice were summoned to attend at Carlisle 

 on the feast of the nativity of John the 

 Baptist ; and about the first of July, the 

 assembled troops quitted Carlisle ; and 

 about the 10th or 12th, after a desperate 

 resistance on the part of the gallant little 

 garrison, Carlaverock surrendered to the 

 king. The story of this march, siege, and 

 capture was told, it seems, in metre, in 

 about 1,000 lines, by a cotemporary writer, 

 who, on the strength of a line in the poem, 

 where mention is made of " Ma rime de 

 Guy," is supposed to have been one Walter 

 of Exeter, a monk of some order or other, 

 who is said by Warton, " on good autho- 

 rity, to have written the romantic history of 

 Guy of Warwick about 1292" but how 

 this Carlaverock poem came to be written 

 in French by an Exeter man, is not ac- 

 counted for nor is the matter even noticed. 



The tale is told in the most inartificial 

 manner as like a prose or a rhyming chro- 



