600 MonlhJj lievlew of Lilcraluie, [T)v.v. 



with difficulty he got through the expense of an academical education at Emanuel, 

 then recently founded by Sir William Mildmay, himself a puritan, as were, of 

 course, all the members during his life. The college has long got rid of the 

 reproach. Hall was a fellow of Emanuel, but in a few years obtained, from 

 private patronage, the living of Halsted, in Suffolk. Accident threw him in the 

 way of young Prince Henry, before whom he preached at Richmond ; and this, 

 apparently, after the prince's death, secured him the favour of James. James 

 employed him on some foreign mission in company with Lord Dorchester, made 

 him Dean of Worcester, and dispatched him as his especial agent to the far- 

 famed Synod of Dort. By Charles he was, early in his reign, made Bishop of 

 Exeter, where he seems to have played bishop with all the dignity and autho- 

 rity of a pope. He was removed to Norwich only a few months before Arch- 

 bishop Williams's protest, which Hall signed, and which led immediately to the 

 expulsion of the bishops from the lords. He shared the general fate of the 

 episcopacy, and died, if not in absolute poverty, in very straitened circumstances, 

 in the year 1656. 



Poland under the Dominion of Russia, by Harro Harrung. 



We know nothing of Harro Harrung, but what he tells us himself; but he 

 gives his name like a man, and so far guarantees the truth of his story. He is, 

 it seems, a Frieslander, and not unknown in the annals of German literature, 

 as the author of "The Student of Salamanca," of "The Mainottes," "The 

 Psariot," &c. The present work, he says, is his twenty-third performance. 

 He speaks of himself as compelled from some indiscretion, committed to serve 

 a friend, to quit his native land ; and with the wide world before him, he 

 resolved to join the Polish troops, which, he was informed, were marching into 

 Turkey. Ihe information proved incorrect — the Poles were not employed in 

 the Russian war, and he found on his arrival at Warsaw, that nothing but the 

 Russian service was open to him. He was permitted neither to enter the Polish 

 service, nor to stay as a private individual, nor to take his leave of Warsaw. 

 The Grand Duke Constantine would have no foreigners in any service but his 

 own. Harro Harrung accordingly volunteered as a cadet in the Russian Lancers 

 — fell ill after a few months, and finally obtained his discharge at the coronation 

 of Nicholas as King of Poland. In the interval — the two years immediately 

 preceding the recent luckless revolution — he had ample opportunities of wit- 

 nessing the conduct of Constantine ; and to convey some notion of the royal 

 Calmuc is his avowed purpose. The style and tone of the writer is not such as 

 to command a full reliance on the soundness of his judgment ; but there seems 

 to be no reason for questioning the accuracy of the facts which he describes as 

 falling within his own knowledge, and for the most part he confines himself to 

 details of that class. 



Nothing can exceed the brutality of Constantine ; and the marvel is, that any 

 bod}' of human beings, soldiers or citizens, could tolerate the rule of such a 

 wretch for a week. Every thing at Warsaw was placed on a military footing, 

 and the discipline enforced of the severest, savagest kind. Constantine had his 

 own eye upon every thing, and, like the Stoic of old, visited all offences, great 

 and small, with the same severity. Officers — except in the mere matter of flog- 

 ging — met with as little mercy or indulgence as the private ; and the citizen had 

 no manner of security. His caprice was law — his humour, and he was for ever 

 in iV^humour, could be soothed by nothing but punishment, which he delighted 

 in inflicting. An absolute and unreasoning obedience to orders and regulations 

 was the sine qua non. He required neither intelligence nor skill — simple com- 

 pliance was the sole virtue prized by him. A Prussian officer wished to enter 

 the Polish service, and by way of recommendation, he was described as an able 

 writer on military tactics. " What," exclaimed Constantine, " is he a writer— 

 an author? Then I will have nothing to do with him. I want men like my 

 Standtmann" — his Hussar-general was present, and made a low bow in 

 return for the f.attering compliment. A general once ventured to solicit the 

 pardon of a " brave officer," who had been guilty of some offence against regu- 



