88 



Monthly Review of Literature. 



[JAN. 



Colonel Napier's volumes, and the author 

 of Cyril Thornton's Peninsular Annals, as 

 having appeared since his book was written, 

 leading the reader to conclude these gen- 

 tlemen would confirm his invidious state- 

 ments at least the former will not. 



Even as a dictionary, with his limitations, 

 the book is incomplete. There is no notice 

 of Kellerman, Lavalette, Duroc, Carnot, 

 Brune, &c. 



Waverley Novels Rob Roy ; 1829 



It is not an easy matter for Sir Walter Scott 

 to take manum tabula, when once he begins, 

 and few would wish it otherwise, for no touch 

 of his pencil is without effect. Here his 

 purpose was simply to give some account of 

 the occasion of the tale, and the sources of 

 his materials, and he goes over again the life 

 of his hero, only stripping it, as he goes, 

 of a little of its romance. In the novel, Rob 

 was fill daring and resolve, with a spice of 

 generosity in his composition, though that 

 rather the effect of calculated contempt than 

 of the pure impulses of nature, and a man 

 who plundered by wholesale, and was lavish 

 on the same scale. In the story he shows 

 more of the peddling rogue he dilutes his 

 audacity with a dash of discretion he is 

 shirking in danger, and bullying out of it. 

 The preface, one of considerable length, 

 embraces the story of the outlawed clan of 

 the Gregors the oppressions they suffered, 

 and the revenges they took. Covering large 

 tracts on the Highland borders, the counties 

 of Argyle and Perth, as the Gregors did, 

 their neighbours, the Earls of Argyle and 

 Breadalbane, by their influence with the 

 crown, 'got these lands entered in their own 

 charters, and took forcible possession as" 

 opportunities occurred. These encroach- 

 ments, of course, the Gregors resisted, and 

 the resistance was by their powerful enemies 

 represented at court as acts of invasion and 

 robbery. Mary, and her son James, alike, 

 legislated against them in the Draco-spirit of 

 the times, and finally forbade the use of the 

 very name, and assembling together of more 

 than four at a time. Mingling rather than 

 merging in the neighbouring clans, they, in 

 consequence, became Drummonds, Buchan- 

 ans, Campbells, &c. in name, but continued 

 Gregors still, in heart, and still unitable for 

 clan purposes. In the civil wars they, in 

 common with other Highlanders (why should 

 they fight with each other, when the war 

 opened lowlanders to plunder?) they adopted 

 the royal cause ; and at the restoration, had 

 influence enough to get the iniquitous statutes 

 against them repealed, but not enough to keep 

 them so. Their re-enactment was speedily 

 smuggled in again, but the enemies of the 

 Gregors were no longer able to enforce them 

 with the old severity. Of this clan, which 

 of course inherited a sense of their wrongs, 

 was Rob, not chief, but a chieftain. Born 

 somewhere about 1670, till the reign of 

 queen Anne, he mixed the profession of 

 drover of Highland cattle, and exactor of 



black-mail, when he chose to declare him- 

 self insolvent; and absconding with money 

 in both pockets, the property of those who 

 had entrusted him with commissions, con- 

 fined himself to the less inglorious, but equally 

 profitable mode of plundering by raids. In 

 the rebellion of '15, Rob's conduct was 'a 

 little equivocal: on what specific ground 

 does not appear, but the principle must be 

 obvious. He died about 1740, leaving five 

 sons, t\vo of whom became conspicuous, in a' 

 manner natural enough one was outlawed for 

 sundry acts of violence, and the other caught 

 and hanged for the abduction of a young 

 woman possessed of considerable property. 



Tales of Four Nations. 3 vols. I2mo. ; 

 1829 The author of these not uninterest- 

 ing, nor ill-written tales, must have been 

 hard run for a title " Tales of Four Na- 

 tions" implies a union and connection, 

 which the reader will not find. The writer, 

 though a novice in scribbling, should have 

 felt, in the case of others, the chilling effect 

 of a name that expresses nothing distinctly 

 should have anticipated the curl and pish 

 of contempt it excites the sort of stum- 

 bling-block it throws at the threshold just 

 where common prudence, to say nothing of 

 common policy, would suggest the most 

 conciliating care on the part of a new can- 

 didate. 



Of and concerning the said " Four Na- 

 tions," here are five tales two, comme de 

 raison, description of English scenes ; and 

 one, each, of French, German, and Mexi- 

 can. With the exception of one of the 

 English tales and the Mexican, they have 

 some claim, it seems, to the dignity of facts, 

 and, of course, in the same proportion forfeit 

 the honours of invention. The tale of most 

 pretension, at least so far as length indicates 

 pretension, called the Hunter's Oak, is a 

 tale of the English Roses, in which king- 

 making Warwick, King Edward, and black - 

 visaged Clifford, play over again some of 

 their old pranks, with others which " they 

 knew not of." Warwick, at his glorious 

 castle, has two beautiful daughters the 

 youngest of whom, the prime charmer, is 

 betrothed to Beaufort, Duke of Somerset 

 (all among the great folks !) ; but political 

 interests, after the defeat of the Lancas- 

 trians, at Towton, prompt Warwick to bring 

 about an union between Clifford and the 

 gentle girl. Accordingly, Clifford, in at- 

 tendance on Edward, visits the castle, and 

 prosecutes his course of courtship with a 

 roughness quite suitable to his recorded 

 character, but not very well calculated to 

 smooth obstructions presented by a pre- 

 occupation of the young lady's affections. 

 To afford the gay king fitting entertain- 

 ment, a tournay is proclaimed, and War- 

 wick, confiding in the vigour of Clifford's 

 arm, announces the hand of his youngest 

 daughter as the prize of the victor. Beau- 

 fort, in disguise, of course, attends the lists, 

 and equally, of course, defeats the arrogant 



