Monthly Review of Literature, 



[JAN. 



Colonel Napier, is driven, in denying the 

 heroic devotion of the Zaragozans ! and the 

 hypothesis has at least the advantage of 

 being one not likely to encounter refuta- 

 tion." The sarcasm is flat, but the censure 

 is just. 



Nor, on the other hand, is Southey's ten- 

 dency to exaggerate, or at least his readiness 

 to adopt, the most invidious or outrageous 

 statements, unobserved by the author, 

 though not so often exposed as it deserves. 

 In the defeat of the Spaniards, by Bessieres, 

 at Rio Seco, the loss seems to be generally 

 estimated at about 5,000. Mr. Southey 

 states, on what he calls the best authority 

 which appears to be that of the neighbouring 

 priests that the number of the slain, alone, 

 amounted to 27,000. " The absurdity of 

 the calculation, were it worth while," ob- 

 serves Cyril Thornton, " might be easily 

 demonstrated by a reductio ad absurdum" 

 which means, we suppose, there were not 

 so many Spaniards in the field. 



With the author's own narrative and judg- 

 ments, generally, we are little disposed to 

 find fault. The Duke of Wellington is, of 

 course, his Magnus Apollo, though he scru- 

 ples not to censure the battle of Rolica, as 

 gratuitous. " The object for which it was 

 fought, a more skilful general," he says, 

 "would unquestionably have obtained with- 

 out bloodshed." Nor, again, that of Tala- 

 vera, as one to which the great captain owes 

 little of his military renown. 



Sir John Moore is judged, perhaps, with 

 some severity, for which compensation is 

 made by eulogizing him for qualities un- 

 connected with his profession. He was 

 amiable, but incompetent : it comes to this, 

 though wrapt in abundance of qualifying 

 phrases. An ignorant ministry plunged him 

 into difficulties, from which he had not ta- 

 lents to extricate himself. He began inaus- 

 piciously, by dividing his troops, and thus 

 bringing himself into the necessity of con- 

 tinuing at Salamanca, a whole month, inac- 

 tive he retreated with more haste than was 

 necessary might, more than once, have 

 fought with advantage, before he was com- 

 pelled, &c. 



The first act of Sir Arthur Wellesley, 

 after taking the command in chief, was 

 crossing the Douro, and routing Soult, 

 which the author relates without one word 

 of the cause which led to so easy a victory. 

 Colonel Napier, we remember, insists at 

 some length on the conspiracy of the officers, 

 at the time, against Napoleon, and their 

 success in blinding Soult as to the advance 

 of the English commander. Does Cyril 

 discredit this story, or was he ignorant of 

 the fact ? 



The retreat before Massena is ably and 

 distinctly described, and due credit is given 

 to the English commander on the manage- 

 ment of it, and for his dispositions at the 

 battle of Busaco. But the lines of Torres 

 Vedras call forth all his admiration. This 

 was Wellington's hour of triumph. For 



this he was indebted wholly to his own fore- 

 sight ; and it was effectual. By the way, 

 we have never seen these celebrated lines 

 so well described. Here is a portion of the 

 description : 



Lisbon stands at the extremity of a peninsula, 

 the neck of which is crossed by several rugged 

 and mountainous chains, stretching from the Ta- 

 gus, in a semicircular direction, towards the sea 

 a distance of about thirty miles. Along these, 

 considerably below the point where the river 

 ceases to be fordable, two lines of defence had 

 been selected one considerably in advance of the 

 other both of the greatest natural strength. To 

 add to their security, the whole resources of 

 military science had been lavished. Mountains 

 were scarped perpendicularly; insignificant 

 streams were dammed into inundations ; forts of 

 the most formidable description were erected on 

 the heights ; all roads by which the enemy could 

 advance were broken up and obstructed, and at 

 every part enfiladed with cannon ; new ones 

 were formed fo facilitate the communications of 

 the defensive army ; the weaker points of the 

 position were strengthened by the construction ol 

 works and retrenchments batteries were planted 

 on posts inaccessible ; and every measure had 

 been adopted by which the position could be ren- 

 dered favourable for offensive operations, when- 

 ever such should be assumed, &c. 



In the battle of Albuera, fought by Be- 

 resford, the commander is treated sharply 

 and contemptuously. Had he not had the 

 good fortune to be seconded by more skilful 

 officers, Cole and Stewart, absolute destruc- 

 tion was inevitable. 



Occasionally, and that very rarely, French 

 officers are spoken of with some respect ; 

 but, generally, the tone is supercilious and 

 contemptuous ; and he is too ready to attri- 

 bute, what manifestly is attributable to 

 want of discipline and harmony to want of 

 skill. He evidently thinks very meanly of the 

 best of them. But, nevertheless, these An- 

 nals of the Peninsular Campaigns is the least 

 exceptionable book that has yet appeared on 

 the subject. 



Health ivithout Physic or Cordials for 

 Youth, Manhood, and Old Age, including 

 Maxims, Moral and Facetious, for the 

 Prevention of Disease and the Attainment 

 of a Long and Vigorous Life, by an Old 

 Physician. 1830 The tone of the book 

 is a little too flippant and petulant for an 

 old man, but perfectly in correspondence 

 with that of an old compiler. Old Phy- 

 sician, the want of individuality, proves the 

 writer is not nor is he, probably, of the 

 profession at all. The book, moreover, in 

 some conformity with the title, is more a 

 book of moral remedies than of medical pre- 

 cepts. Its materials, of course, are deriva- 

 ble from a hundred sources, but those origi- 

 nally, were medical ones for medical men 

 are, almost exclusively, the only people who 

 pay any attention to the effects of external 

 things, or even of internal feelings, upon 

 the human frame ; and strange it is, that 

 it should be so, interested as every person 



