Monthly Review of Literature, 



[FEB. 



by land. In February 1825 they set out; 

 but the land-division, when mid-way between 

 Rangoon and Prome, found themselves 

 obliged to return to Donooben, to aid the 

 detachment by water, which had failed in 

 repulsing the enemy's force; and thus it was 

 not till late in April, the whole of the troops 

 arrived at Prome, about two hundred and 

 fifty or three hundred miles up the Irra- 

 woddy. Here the campaign of 1825 may be 

 said to close. The rains set in early in June, 

 and no farther advance was thought of till 

 November. In the meanwhile, the Bhur- 

 mhese made desperate effortsto assemble new 

 forces. Attempts at negotiation were also 

 made; but the object of the Bhurmhese, in 

 these negocia(ion, was palpably to gain 

 time ; and, in November, an army of seventy 

 thousand was actually brought up before 

 Prome. To these the British commander 

 had only about three thousand Europeans and. 

 two thousand Sepoys to oppose, but they 

 finally routed and dispersed these numerous 

 forces. 



Alter this, which seemed the decisive de- 

 feat, the little armv prepared for marching 

 upon Ava, the capital of the empire; and, 

 by the end of December, arrived at Mellooni. 

 Here the terms of a peace were concluded, 

 but not finally ratified by the King ; and here 

 another force of the Bhurmhese were routed. 

 On the 25th January, 1826, the army again 

 moved forward upon Ava. They were soon 

 met by Dr. Price, one of the American mis- 

 sionaries (who had been thrown into prison 

 on the commencement of hostilities, on the 

 supposition of his being an Englishman), and 

 a surgeon of the name of Sandford, who had 

 been taken prisoner about a month before, 

 commissioned by the government to open a 

 new negotiation for peace, and to take back 

 the terms. They were accordingly informed 

 of the terms ; and the commander promised 

 in the mean time not to advance beyond 

 Pagham-new for twelve days, a place, which 

 he could not possibly reach in less than ten. 

 When within a day's march of this Pagham- 

 new, intelligence was received of a new army 

 assembled, which, to the amount of eighteen 

 or twenty thousand, in fact, they encountered 

 the very next day, the 9th February, and 

 routed as before. Again the army advanced, 

 and finally were met at Yandaboo, only forty- 

 five miles from Ava, by two ministers of 

 state, and peace was concluded, much to the 

 disappointment of the British army, who 

 were looking to the spoils of Ava, as some 

 compensation for (he long and painful harass- 

 ings of three campaigns, to which ignorance 

 or presumption bad exposed them. 



Major Snodgrass left the army at Mel- 

 looni, with the treaty concluded at that 

 place. 



A very interesting narrative has just been 

 published, addressed to the late Mr. Butter- 

 worth, by Mrs. Judson, the wife of one of the 

 American missionaries in Bhurmha, detailing 

 "the miseries suffered by her husband from tho 



cruelties of the Bhurmhese ; with some de- 

 scriptive particulars of the Bhurmhese court. 

 These excellent and resolute individuals 

 still pursuing their purpose have established 

 themselves in Arracan under British protec- 

 tion. 



"Life of Mrs. Siddons, by James Boaden, 

 Esq.; 1827. This gentleman's Life of 

 Kemble, last year, fairly exhausted our pa- 

 tience ; and we turned to these two volumes 

 made, it seems, to match the former 

 with a kind of loathing reluctance, which 

 nothing but our respect for the once conspi- 

 cuous subject of the memoir would enable us 

 to strive against. As our duty bade us, we 

 began at the beginning, and read yes, 

 reader, we read the " Dedication to the 

 King ;" and we trust but one other mortal will 

 read it, may he resolve to discountenance 

 for ever the crawling fawningness of the 

 language. What but disgust, does the writer 

 think, can it excite in a manly spirit to be 

 told to his face, not only that his VIRTUES 

 are read in the GLORIES OF HIS EMPIRE, 

 but that these virtues stoop even to the de- 

 coration of his CAPITAL ; that the vigilance 

 of his MAJESTY'S observation is EVERY 

 WHERE ; and his government, in the atten- 

 tion to the condition of his subjects, PATRI- 

 ARCHAL?* OHE ! 



Then follows an " Introduction,' 5 of seve- 

 ral pages, to account for the author's writing 

 a life before the life terminatesall in the 

 worst possible taste with a deal of talk 

 about Alcides and Achilles; and the impor- 

 tant information that he did not himself ven- 

 ture upon a "justum vohtmen" till he was 

 sixty of course we are to expect the bene- 

 fits of discretion and judgment in full matu- 

 rity. If he had been twice sixty, it would 

 not very much have surprised us. 



But, though we are in no very good hu- 

 mour with Mr. Boaden, the book is better, 

 than the last. He talks himself, we believe, 

 of having benefited by the remarks of the 

 critics, and that be has in consequence made 

 his book more compact no, no, we recol- 

 lectit has more unity, he says. Unlucky 

 phrase for the work, while professing to be 

 memoirs of Mrs. Siddons, actually suspends 

 these memoirs for two hundred and fifty 

 pages, to give the general history of the 

 London stage from 1770 to 1782, the inter- 

 vening years between Mrs.Siddon's first re- 

 tirement and her final return. But the book 

 is an improvement still. When he does get 

 into the heart of the memoir, he sticks to it ; 

 and gives no bad conception of her peculiari- 

 ties and excellencies in some of her leading 

 characters. We could select Lady Mac-? 

 bcth ; not that we incline to attach any im- 

 portance to the opinions of a man, so mani- 

 festly bent upon extravagant eulogy as he is. 

 Mrs. Siddons was, doubtless, an actress of ex- 

 traordinary powers, but that she surpassed 

 all of " woman born," we do not choose to 



* It is with tliis swelling type Mr. Boaden en- 

 forces his flummery. 



