1830.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



343 



mised renown. His offer of services was 

 accepted, and he was, in fact, the first per- 

 son who, with his own hands, raised the 

 flag of American independence. Though 

 constantly thwarted by the jealousies of the 

 American sailors, he was never daunted 

 or turned from his purpose ; and supported, 

 as he steadily was by Franklin and the 

 congress, he finally obtained a ship from 

 the French navy, the Bon Homme Richard. 

 In command of this vessel, with other 

 smaller ones, it is well known he beat the 

 Serapis and the Countess of Scarborough. 

 But with the French officers, his conflicts 

 and competitions were not a whit less ha- 

 rassing and vexatious than those with the 

 Americans had been ; and the treacheries of 

 many of them involved him in perpetual 

 dispute, and remonstrance, and disappoint- 

 ment. Full of ardour and self-confidence, 

 lie was constantly planning and urging ex- 

 peditions, till his importunities wearied 

 both America and France the first had no 

 ships, and the last none to spare, and na- 

 tive officers must be preferred. 



His successful conflict, however, with the 

 Serapis, spread his fame through Europe; 

 and Simolin, the Russian ambassador at 

 Paris, recommended him earnestly to the 

 empress for employment in the Russian 

 navy. Paul, as full of ambition as of ac- 

 tivity, caught at the splendid prospect, and 

 seemed able, from the prepossession in his 

 favour, to stipulate for independent com- 

 mands. But again realities mocked his 

 anticipations. He was appointed indeed 

 admiral of the fleet in the Black Sea, des- 

 tined to co-operate in the siege of Oczakow, 

 but he found himself cribbed and cabined, 

 and as usual, the object of jealousy. Po- 

 temkin especially, as intolerant of a rival 

 as himself, and armed with the command 

 in chief, cramped him at every turn, and 

 finally despatched him to St. Petersburgh, 

 under pretence of a separate command in the 

 Baltic. But this was all moonshine he 

 found the empress difficult of access ; ene- 

 mies were busy calumnies spread scan- 

 dalous charges were got up against him, and 

 when he was finally admitted to the em- 

 press, he was met with a smile of apparent 

 cordiality, and presented with leave of ab- 

 sence for two years in reality, exiled. He 

 withdrew to Paris, where he died in 1792, 

 to the last fondly clinging to the hope of a 

 recal to the service of Russia. 



Though pleading the rights of universal 

 freedom as the justification for deserting his 

 native country, and entering the service of 

 America, the real motive was obviously the 

 chance for more profitable, or rather, more 

 conspicuous employment. Brought up in 

 the mercantile service, he had no chance of 

 advancement in the royal navy of England. 

 He was just as ready to quit the Americans, 

 when a brighter prospect opened upon him 

 in Russia. His fate led him, as a fo- 

 reigner, to be perpetually competing with 

 natives, and he had not the accommodating 



art of conciliating rivals, nor authority 

 enough to subdue them too impetuous and 

 overbearing, and urged on by the same 

 kind of confiding and insolent spirit that, 

 under more favorable circumstances, made a 

 Rodney and a Nelson. 



Veterinary Surgery, or the Art of Far- 

 riery, on a new plan, fyc., by J. Hinds, V.S 

 1830 There can be no doubt farriery has 

 materially improved in modern practice. It 

 is but a very few years since that every thing 

 in the shape of science was absolutely un- 

 known in the treatment of horses, medically, 

 or surgically. ' Stuff and oils' constituted 

 the materia medica, and the vocabulary of 

 the farrier the first some drastic purgative 

 for fevers, the last some stinging or scorch- 

 ing embrocation for bruises and lameness. 

 Any acquaintance with the source of the 

 mischief was mere matter of accident, or 

 rough guess work. We remember, in the 

 country, the shoulder of a handsome mare 

 blistered and blanched, and made as bare as 

 your hand, for the cure of a corn. The 

 anatomy of the horse is now more carefully 

 studied, and the symptoms of disease more 

 closely marked, and of consequence less vio- 

 lent and precarious remedies hazarded ; but 

 these amendments make their way slowly 

 into the country. The volume before us 

 seems written with intelligence, and cer- 

 tainly if those who consult it find reason to 

 be as well satisfied with it as the writer him- 

 self is, it cannot fail of proving a valuable 

 possession. Mr. Hinds takes credit to him- 

 self for avoiding technical phrases, while he 

 expresses his apprehensions that his familiar 

 style, as he complacently terms it, may fre- 

 quently appear vulgar to more fastidious 

 ears and eyes than his simpleton ! 



The Lost Heir, and Prediction. 3 vols. 

 1830 The principal tale is very far from 

 being a transparent one a fault in a novel 

 not easily redeemed, though the general 

 grace and occasional vigour of the writing 

 furnish some compensation. The fashion 

 of attempting to excite interest by the per- 

 plexities attendant on foundlingism, is by 

 far too prevalent; and, really, the writer 

 scarcely need have recourse to so stale an 

 expedient. He has a considerable range at 

 command; he. can talk with propriety of 

 Ireland, America, and France, and these 

 might surely supply materials capable of 

 sustaining some weight without propping 

 them up with vulgar mysteries. Of the low 

 Irish and the low American, he has given 

 some admirable scenes, and he represents 

 the pollutions and brutalities of revolu- 

 tionary France very satisfactorily, though 

 not with the vivacity, and perhaps the fide- 

 lity of Dr. Milligan in his Adventures of 

 an Irish Gentleman. 



The Lost Heir comes upon the scene, at 

 a very early age, after the American battle 

 of the Brandywine, with his nurse in a 

 waggon, filled with the wounded, Germans, 

 French, and Swiss. Though escorted by a 



