482 Colonel Roche Fermoy on the [Nov. 
which has been contradicted a thousand times in the history of the 
world, it is amusing to remark, that this gentleman, who disclaims all 
foreign assistance, publishes his book in Paris, and appeals, from begin- 
ning to end, to the passions of the French people. A lurking feeling 
possesses him, that all his calculations of internal Irish strength are not 
entirely to be relied upon. In this he is national. 
The author is a Colonel Philip Roche, who, from the place of his birth, 
we suppose, calls himself Colonel Philip Roche Fermoy. Of his history 
we know nothing, but it is probable that he was in the French service. 
The warm praises which he bestows upon the Prussian armies of 1813, 
are something against this supposition, we confess ; but then the praise is 
given principally for the purpose of bolstering up his theory of the 
superiority of a tumultuary over a regular force. His editor informs us, 
that his book, which is most voluminously entitled, “A Commentary on 
the Memoirs of Theobald Wolfe Tone, Major-General in the Service of 
the Republic of France ; in which the Moral and Physical Force of 
Ireland to support National Independance is discussed and examined 
from Authentic Documents,” is published from his posthumous papers— 
but that they were perfectly prepared for the press. The editor gives 
some slight sketches of the history of Colonel Roche’s family, but is 
studiously silent as to the colonel himself—perhaps, therefore, it is merely 
a nom de guerre. ‘This is, indeed, of little consequence. 
The work, which, if we may believe the Courrier Frangais, the Journal 
des Debats, or our Morning Chronicle, and some other journals of the 
same politics, has made some noise, commences by a dedication to “ All 
the Blockheads, Civil, Military, and Ecclesiastical, in the Service of His 
Britannic Majesty,” which is not very valuable, on the score either of 
wit or information, and may be safely passed over. The introduction 
which follows, consists principally of a warm panegyric of Theobald 
Wolfe Tone, whose abilities appear to be here not a little overrated ; and 
this again is followed by a discussion of some opinions on the state of 
Ireland, chiefly by Sir James Mackintosh, who is treated with no great 
civility. These portions of the work, also, present nothing worthy of 
notice. : 
The second chapter undertakes to prove that “ Ireland, in her position, 
and in her forms, exterior and interior, is a fortress of the first order,’— 
and this gives a coup-d’eil of the military position of Ireland, considered 
for the purposes of defence, which may be worth reading :— 
*« The northern district—mountainous almost throughout—many portions of 
these mountains rocky—other portions boggy—others again rock and bog 
intermixed—full of intersections from rivers and lakes—these intersections 
pointing out, to the most inexperienced eye, lines of defence, peculiarly fitted 
to the mode of warfare adapted to irregular troops. In the interior of these 
great aquatic and mountainous intersections, the surface, where it is not bog 
or rock, is, from the minute divisions of farms in Ireland, laid out in small 
portions of arable and pasture lands, the boundaries of which are all formed 
by hedges and ditches, every one of these, from the embankment raised by 
sinking the ditch, forming a defence against musketry; and, if the defenders 
should avail themselves of rear columns of pikes, capable, not only of resist- 
ing, but of punishing the temerity of a charge of bayonets—the hedges forming 
shelter for cattle, that, in a climate, but lightly visited by snow or frost, are 
seldom housed—the ditches being absolutely necessary to carry off the super- 
fluous water, in an abundantly moist climate. 
“ The southern division of Ireland presents, as to its military aspect, “but 
