1827.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



85 



reality, becauso his fictions must be easily 

 detectible ; but in the case of one of no 

 kind of distinction among his fellows, we 

 are without any security. With respect to 

 the memoirs before us, professing to be 

 those of a common soldier, we have not 

 even the name, and if we had, we should 

 be but where we were. Are these memoirs, 

 then, to be considered as utterly unworthy 

 of regard ? No : unknown to fame, as the 

 writer is, he comes forth, like the Young 

 Rifleman, under the auspices of Goethe 

 a name of splendid authority through the 

 literary world of Europe. He is the avowed 

 editor. He must know something of the 

 writer; he must have inquired into the 

 character of the man, and have ascertained 

 the genuineness of the production, before 

 he committed himself so far as to lend the 

 weight of his name. Whether Goethe himself 

 has assisted we know not the bbok bears 

 marks, we think, of patching and polish- 

 ing. The general association of thought, 

 and the general run of the narrative, indi- 

 cate a man who is simply able to tell what 

 passes before his eyes. The occasional re- 

 finements, thepanni purpurei scattered here 

 and there descriptions of external nature 

 and varieties of feeling look like the work 

 of another mind. 



The subject of the memoirs was the son 

 of a butcher, and born in the neighbour- 

 hood of Strasburg. His earliest recollec- 

 tions concern the sufferings of his family 

 on the bursting of the French revolution 

 his father's imprisonment as an ' aristocrat,' 

 his mother's and brothers^rlight to Man- 

 heim, and their subsistence by public cha- 

 rity. In 1806, he was drawn a conscript 

 at Strasburg, and for some time not sent 

 upon active service. In the latter part of 

 1807, he went to Spain with the force 

 under Murat, and was present at the mas- 

 sacre of Madrid, on the memorable 2d May. 

 He was with the troops which marched to 

 Toledo to suppress the tumult there, and 

 was afterwards one of the 14,000 of Du- 

 pont's division, which surrendered to the 

 Spaniards in Andalusia. The difficulties 

 and privations of the soldiers, from the first 

 moment of their entrance upon the Spanish 

 territory, must have been horrible, and, if 

 any thing could check the passions of men, 

 the description might be instructive. The 

 rage with which the French were every 

 where received, seems beyond all parallel- 

 corresponding, indeed, with all we have 

 authentically heard, but no where, perhaps, 

 so emphatically given, or marked by so 

 many striking facts. After the surrender 

 of Dupont, the prisoners were conveyed to 

 Majorca, and from thence to Cabrera, a 

 small island, or rather ridge of rocks, a 

 little to the south of Majorca, an account 

 of which our readers will recollect, as the 

 remarkable scene of the French Serjeant's 

 memoirs. The narrative before us confirms 

 the Serjeant's statement. He enters more 

 particularly into the organization of the 



captives ; he was among the first who were 

 thrown upon the island the Serjeant came 

 in one of the after divisions. After a resi- 

 dence of three years on this prison-island, 

 worn and wearied with privation and ennui, 

 he entered the English service, and joined 

 the German legion then in Sicily, where he 

 continued till the restoration of the legiti- 

 mate Sovereign of Naples, in replacing 

 whom upon the throne the German legion 

 was employed. The filth and profligacy of 

 Palermo are described in a lively manner ; 

 but the description, of course, must be 

 received with some distrust. The writer, 

 from his station, could mingle only with 

 the lowest, and he concludes, of course ig- 

 norantly, that what he does not see, must 

 be like what he does see. From Naples he 

 passes to Genoa, and from Genoa to Eng- 

 land. At Portsmouth he remains for some 

 time after the German legion was broken 

 up, and in 1818 enters into the service of 

 an English officer, and comes to London. 

 The style and tone in which he speaks of 

 London, and the manners of London, will 

 enable us to estimate the standard by which 

 he judges of Spain and Sicily. After a 

 short stay in London, he sails in a Conv 

 pany's ship, the Cabalva, for China. The 

 Cabal va was wrecked off the Mauritius, and 

 the crew saved themselves on a sand-bank, 

 from which perilous situation they were, 

 after long sufferings, finally rescued : tlie 

 details of this voyage and disaster are taken 

 from the journal of a young German, who 

 was a midshipman on board, and constitute 

 the most interesting part of the book. He 

 returns to the English shores, and speedily 

 revisits his native home. 



The Last of the Lairds ; by the Author of 

 the Provost, fyc. fyc. ; 1826. With our mir 

 feigned respect for the author, it is reluc- 

 tantly we give expression to any feeling of 

 disappointment ; but the unconcealable fact 

 is, that the ' Last of the Lairds ' is rather a 

 dull performance. The quaintness of phrase- 

 ology in which he delights, whilst fresh, had 

 something like a charm in it, but, like all other 

 charms, its fascinations vanish by familiarity. 

 The characters too, which he delights to 

 delineate, never were of a very attractive 

 kind, and certainly not of a kind to bear a 

 frequent re-appearance. The Lust of the 

 Lairds is simply a very foolish person, with 

 little or no peculiarity worth recording. 

 He is involved in pecuniary embarrass- 

 ments, merely by living beyond his means, 

 as we say; but which he, having lately 

 visited the Athens of the North, the seat 

 of political economists and everlasting scrib- 

 blers, attributes to the ignorant or the in- 

 sidious dabbling of the Government with 

 the currency. Mr. Rupees, a wealthy na- 

 bob, has a mortgage upon the estate, and 

 is upon the point of foreclosing an event 

 which must finish the Laird. The Laird's 

 sole expedient for ' ridding the seals from 

 the bonds ' is writing his life, as many 

 others have done before and some, as he 



