454 



Monthly Review of Lilerahire, 



[Oct. 



jjosal not very likely from such a quarter to 

 be listened to. 



In July, friendly relations with England, 

 which had, indeed, scarcely been broken, 

 were renewed, and the ports of Sweden 

 were thrown open. Till February, hov/ever, 

 of the following year (1813), the Swedish 

 ambassador continued to reside at Paris, but 

 at last receis'ing no explanation, though 

 frequently urging it, on the occupation of 

 Pomerania, he represented the diplomatic 

 intercoiu-se to be, in consequence, now with- 

 out an object, and demanded his passports. 

 These were accordingly granted, and ac- 

 companied by a note, in which Bassano at 

 last alleged the seizure of the French pri- 

 vateer as the cause, though it was notorious, 

 indications of the intention had been mani- 

 fested months before. The note contained 

 some curious implications of censure on Ber. 

 nadotte, and talked of personal enmities, 

 violent passions, and iU-directed ambition. 

 To this communication, Bernadotte wrote 

 the remarkable letter of the 23d of March, 

 1813, the contents of which amounted to a 

 renunciation of all further intercourse, and a 

 declaration of war. The letter is filled with 

 reflections and allusions that must have been 

 gaU and wormwood, BIr. Meredith says, to 

 the bitter spirit of the Empeior — it indig- 

 nantly abandons aU farther attempt at con- 

 ciliating Ins confidence and friendship, and 

 refers him for peace to Russia and England. 



For two years, Sweden, or ratlier Berna- 

 dotte, had been actively engaged in raising 

 and organising the Swedish army, which 

 now amounted to C0,000; and in iMay, 1813, 

 he crossed over to Stralsund with his troops, 

 to wait the arrival of the Russians ; but it 

 was not till the conclusion of tlie armistice 

 of Pleiswitz, that he took the field, at the 

 head of 80,000 Swedes, Russians, and Prus- 

 sians, in the neighbourhood of Berlin. This 

 was termed the combined army of the north, 

 and the active and efficient part it took, to- 

 wards the end of tlie campaign of 1813, is 

 well known. The subsequent conduct also 

 of Bernadotte is too well knov/n to require 

 any further statement — it was never equivo- 

 cal, and had as much been understood then, 

 as is now thoroughly known, of the exas- 

 perating conduct of Napoleon^ and the natu- 

 ral indignation of Bernadotte, no suspicion 

 of the latter's want of sincerity or firmness 

 to the general cause of Europe would for a 

 moment have been entertained. 



The " memorials," which constitute the 

 bulk of the volume, are, in general, little 

 calculated to shew the nutn — most of them 

 are speeches prepared expressly for public 

 occasions, and filled with conventional and 

 customary phrases, smacking strongly of 

 French taste. The directions given to the 

 governor and tutor of his son are interesting 

 ■ — stiU, conceived in the same spirit, and 

 manifestly written for the public eye. But 

 the activity, and the pubhc wisdom of the 

 man are admirable. He has been the re- 

 creator of Sweden. The union of Norway 



has made the peninsula one — commerce 

 extends, popiUation multiplies, agriculture 

 thrives too beyond all precedent there — they 

 grow a/l their own corn now, and canals are 

 stretching across the country, connecting 

 lake with lake, and rendering the country 

 independent of the mouth of the Baltic — 

 that is, should an enemy block up the 

 Sound, the Swedes can get from their east 

 coast to the west, in summer by water, and 

 in winter by ice, and defy the consequences. 



iVJc7io//s's Autographs, completed ; 1829. 

 — Mr. Nicholls has completed his ample 

 collection, consisting, as the title-page ex- 

 presses it, of the autographs of " royal, 

 noble, learned, and remarkable personages 

 conspicuous in English history, from the 

 reign of Richard the Second, to that of 

 Charles tlie Second." The concluding 

 portion is acccompanied with what some 

 prig, with an absurd attempt at precision, 

 termed a " postliminous preface," discours- 

 ing largely and learnedly on the utilities of 

 autograplis — the history of hand-writing — 

 the merits of calligraphy — the previous pub- 

 lications of a similar kind in England and 

 France— followed by a list of the more dis- 

 tinguished collectors and possessors of these 

 inestimable treasures. Some vague notion 

 prevails that the character of the writer is to 

 be got at from his scribbUng manipulation. 

 Shenstone, in one of his letters, says, I want 

 to see Sirs. Jago's handwriting, that I may 

 judge of her tempter. Lavater, too, ima- 

 gined something might be gathered from 

 the same source, as well as from the coun- 

 tenance ; and so lately as 1810, a French- 

 man wrote a volume on " I'Art de Juger du 

 Caractere des Hommes sur leur Ecriture." 

 Blr. D'lsraeli — the only Englishman in the 

 present day of any pretensions to sobriety, 

 and some wUl question his, wlio has in- 

 dulged in similar reveries — while he insists 

 " the vital principal must be true, that the 

 handwriting bears an analogy to the charac- 

 ter," rests it wholly on this ground, " that 

 aU voluntar;/ actions are characteristic of the 

 individual," which comes close to the Dog- 

 berry maxim — writing and reading come 

 by nature. IVIany causes, he allows, operate 

 to controul this natural result, and to such 

 an extent, that he forebodes the " true phy- 

 siognomy of writing will be lost among our 

 rising generation." This is sad twaddle. 

 The whole business is resolvable into imita- 

 tion, accidentally directed. Every body can 

 distinguish French from English writing, 

 b>it is an EngUsh /wjif/ distinguishable from 

 a French one ? Whole schools scratch like 

 their masters. The Harrow boys, for in- 

 stance, it must have been remarked, for the 

 last twenty years have written more or less 

 like Butler. The publication is very hand- 

 somely got up. 



Dr. flavor's Miscellanies, in Prose and 



Verse; 1829 A stout octavo volume, 



made up of occasional papers — some before 

 printed in different periodicals, and others 



