1825.) 
sophy ; and the literary student, in parti- 
cular, will peruse its pages, we make no 
doubt, as we have perused them, with a 
keen and lively interest. There are many 
portions of the book, it is true, that are not 
entirely new to us—whole pages, indeed, 
which have heretofore made their appear- 
ance, under the title of the German Stu- 
dent, in the Monthly Magazine; but we 
were not, therefore, the less gratified to 
meet with it in its present entireness ; and, 
if space would permit, we could still find 
an unexhausted abundance, well worthy of 
quotation, in our Miscellany. But we will 
confine ourselves to one brief extract from 
the survey, equally affecting and philosophi- 
eal, of the hardships and errors to which the 
yotaries of genius and literature are inevita- 
bly exposed, and then refer our readers to 
the volume itself for that series of events 
and observations of which it is impracticable 
for us to insert even the slightest sketch. 
«* Yet among these men are to be found the bright- 
est specimens and the chief benefactors of mankind ! 
It is they that keep awake the finer parts of our 
souls; that give us better aims than power or plea- 
sure, and withstand the total sovereignty of Mam- 
mon in this earth, They are the vanguard in the 
march of mind; the intellectual Backwoodsmen, 
reclaiming from the idle wilderness new territories 
for the thought and the activity of their happier bre- 
thren. Pity that from all their conquests, so rich in 
benefit to others, themselves should reap so little! 
But it is vain to murmur. They are volunteers 
in this cause; they weighed the charms of it against 
the perils: and they must abide the results of their 
decision.” 
The Two Minas, and the Spanish Gue- 
villas. Extracted and translated from a 
Work “ On Spain,” Written by Captain H, 
Von Brandt, a Prussian Officer, who served 
in one of the Polish Regiments attached to 
the French Arwy during the Peninsular 
War. By A British Orricer. 8v0.— 
This “ weak invention of the enemy” is 
one of those envious shadows which wait 
upon superior virtue, 
** And while they follow prove the substance too.” 
That the superscription ‘ by a British 
Officer,” is an “invention” also, we sin- 
cerely hope; for we should be sorry to be- 
lieve that any one entitled to that charac- 
ter, could lend his agency to the selection 
and circulation of such detraction: nor can 
we but lament that the name of so respec- 
table a publisher as Egerton should appear 
in the title-page. 
**« The following extracts,” says the preface, ‘* are 
from thework of an intelligent German officer, who 
served in the French army during the Peninsular 
War, and who appears to have neglected no oppor- 
tunity of collecting valuable materials for his trea- 
tise ‘ On Spain.’” 
But would any writer, even of ordinary 
candour, have assailed the reputation of an 
iNustrious exile—a martyr in the glorious 
cause of national independence and human 
liberty, with materials collected from such 
a source,— published, too, under the au-- 
spices of a hostile government, at a period 
Montuty Mac. No. 409. 
Domestic and Foreign. 
353 
(the beginning of 1823) when every thing 
that could detract from the reputation of 
the cause of constitutional Spain was in+ 
cense to the unholy despots, who haye con- 
spired for the enslavement of Europe? 
The impugners of auto-biography may tell 
us, peruaps, that what a man writes or 
says of himself is not the best evidence. 
Without pausing to shew that, in some 
respects, it frequently is the best, we shall 
content ourselves with observing that, at 
any rate, it is better than that of his ene- 
my. In the former, we have only par- 
tiality to apprehend; in the latter, both 
partiality and ignorance: of which two- 
fold characteristics, we have evidence 
enough in the narrative now before us. 
Even in those particulars, where misre- 
presentation could minister little to the 
purposes of detraction, this Gallo-German 
biographer of a Guerilla foe seems to have 
been so imperfectly informed, as to evince, 
at once, the little credit that can be due to 
him ; for he makes our General Mina, who 
was but twenty-eight when he succeeded 
to the command [of a band of seven Gue- 
rillas, says the General himself—of a nu- 
merous Guerilla army, his antagonist-bio- 
prapher would persuade us!] the uncle of 
his greater predecessor, Xavier Mina :—“ a 
certain Francisco Espoz, an uncle of Mina, 
under whom he had filled the situation of 
treasurer, master of the horse, and master 
of the household!’? And he would have us 
believe, that to this command he attained, 
in preference of three more meritorious 
competitors (two of them Germans,). by 
means of the possession of his uncle’s 
treasures. Now, at any rate, we should 
suppose, that General Mina must best 
know, whether his first command was over 
seven Guerillas, or 1,200, and whether. he 
was uncle or nephew to the former Mina; 
and we should suppose, also, that these 
were facts which our general could have 
very little interest or inclination to mis- 
represent.—In short, the dates considered, 
of the German publication, and of General 
Mina’s, it should seem that it was in con 
sequence of the mingled ignorance and 
malevolence of the former, that the general 
was importuned to prepare that narrative 
of his life and services, of which his “ Short 
Extract’ (for an abridgment of which sec 
Supplement to the M.M., Vol. 58, p. 610) 
furnishes dates and outlines, at least, that 
may facilitate more accurate inquiry. By 
ayailing himself of these, the editor of “* The 
Two Minas” might have been more honcur- 
ably and more serviceably employed, than 
by translating the refuted forgeries of the 
Prussian press. 
1. State of Ireland.—Letters from Treland 
on the present Political, Religixis, and Moral 
State of that Country. Republished from “ The 
Courier” Newspaper, with Emendations and 
Notes. 8vo. pp. 86. 
2, Observations on the Answers of the Rt. 
Rev. James Doyle, D.D., Titular Bishop of 
22 Kildare 
