204 
was fling upon this wretched island. 
There were at the time near 10,000 persons 
-none of them confined in buildings— 
that was superfluous; the rock was their 
prison—coasted perpetually by an English 
brig and afew Spanish boats. No shelter 
fromthe weather had these miserable 
wretches, but what they were able them- 
selves to fabricate from the few trees that 
‘gteéw upon the rock, and a hatchet, the 
only one upon the island, which was hired 
and used by turns. With the exception of 
two or three, the whole party were not 
merely in rags, but nearly naked, and hun- 
dreds absolutely so—unshaven, and co- 
vered with filth. Provisions were scantily 
supplied by a vessel from the Spanish 
coast, the arrival of which was very far 
from regular, and once during Guillemard’s 
residence it came not for several days, 
owing to some quarrel among the com- 
missaries. The scene that followed is 
horrible; every atom of eatable matter 
was quickly exhausted; the second night 
150 died from madness ard hunger: the 
next day an ass, the only one on the 
island, who had long been spending its 
strength in their service, was sacrificed, 
cut up, and distributed at the rate of two 
ounces to three men. The following night 
a tremendous storm drenched or swept 
away their huts, and 300 more perished. 
All were resigning themselves to madness 
or despair, believing the government had 
abandoned them to so horrible afate, when 
the victualling-brig arrived with a supply 
for eight days. ‘These are some of the 
horrors of war, of which the world knows 
little, but which ought on all occasions to 
be dragged into light, to shame the rulers 
of mankind and enlighten their subjects. 
The conduct of these destitute creatures 
was admirable. They organized a govern- 
ment, and every thing was managed even 
with gravity and decorum. Every non- 
commissioned officer was a member of 
council.. Crimes were punished with se- 
verity—that of theft particularly. Guille- 
mard had great difficulty in saving the life 
of one who had stolen a morsel of bread— 
the highest offence that could well be 
committed in sucha community. Quar- 
rels were settled by uninterrupted duels. 
Swords and fire-arms, of course, there 
were none ; but here and there one had a 
razor. ‘These were fastened upon sticks 
an inch thick and three feet long, and 
served them for weapons. When blood 
was drawn, the fight terminated, and 
honour was satisfied. 
The great object was occupation, and, 
Frenchmen-like, they had a thousand 
resources, which no other people upon 
earth would have thought of. If the over- 
powering misery did not repress all dispo- 
sition to merriment, one might smile at 
some.of, these resources; one-half was 
employed in teaching something or other 
to the other half. £28 al xp 
Monthly Review of Literature, 
[ Aue. 
Nothing was seen on all sides, but, teachers, of 
music, mathematics, languages, drawing, fencing, 
above all, dancing and single-stick... In fine weather, 
all these professors gave their lessons at a spot they 
called the Palais Royal, quite close to each other- 
It was quite common to see a poor devil half naked, . 
and who had often not partaken of food for twenty- 
four hours before, singing a very gay air of a country- 
dance, and interrupting it from time to time; for the 
purpose of saying, with infinite seriousness of de- 
meanour to his pupil, dressed in the remains of 2 
pair of drawers—‘‘ that’s right, keep time, with 
your partnér. wheel round, hold yourselves grace- 
fully.” ' 
Guillemard himself was not idle., After 
furnishing himself with a hut, and con- 
federating with three of his comrades, to 
keep the object of escape steadily in view, 
set about giving theatrical exhibitions. A 
large tank was cleared out for the purpose, 
and the audience descended by a ladder. 
Guillemard had no books; but trusting to 
his recollection, and filling up the gaps 
with his own inventions, he got up several 
pieces, distributed the parts, superintended, 
performed and executed all—made con- 
siderable gains, and exhilarated his fellow- 
prisoners. These performances were in- 
terrupted by the scene of famine to whicl 
we have alluded; but on the arrival of 
provisions they were quickly resumed and 
continued, till one of his comrades brought 
at last the intelligence that three men had 
drawn a boat upon the shore, and were 
fast asleep alongside of it: they quickly 
hastened to the spot, seized and bound the 
men, leaped into the boat,,and had the 
good fortune to reach the Spanish coast, 
not far from Tortosa, which the Frencls 
were at that time besieging. 
Sheridaniana, or Anecdotes of the Life 
of R. B. Sheridan; his Table-talk, and 
- Bons-mots. 1826.—The most completely 
superfluous book, we were going to con- 
tent ourselves with saying, that ever felk 
under our critical notice; but we ‘mock 
our own eonvictions, and the interests of 
our readers, if we do not add, the most 
impudent specimen of the Buwilington 
Street pufferies. Affecting to depreciate 
Mr. Moore’s performance—charging him 
with shewing off his own wit instead’ of 
exhibiting Mr. Sheridan’s—with neglecting: 
what was equally brilliant and aceessible— 
making these yery defeets the pretence for 
his own publication, as this Colburn-com~ 
piler does, one-half of the book is posi- 
tively Mr. Moore’s own. The rest con+ 
sists of Miss Lindley’s feeble exculpation’ 
of her girlish flirtations, through forty! 
pages; cullings from Michael Kelly, and’ 
the dirty sweepings of the public» prints- 
Of the few—the very few anecdotes which 
we do not remember to have seen’ before, © 
though they have probably been in print© 
over and over again, some do'not belong toy 
Mr. Sheridan at all; and what: means" of” 
authenticating the rest have we?) jin) 98! 
A mighty fuss is made to prove that! Mrov= 
Sheridan had a heart. Who supposedhim): 
