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SMOLLETT. 



that its capture, on tin- 17th, was delayed nil mid- 

 night, particularly as a large body of cavalry were 

 in possession of the passages to the plains, and nu- 

 merous foot soldiers of those to the Dnieper. On 

 account of the strength of the walls (4000 feet in 

 circumference, 15 feet thick, and 25 feet high), 

 with towers at regular intervals, supporting heavy 

 cannon, and the numbers of the garrison, 30,000 

 strong, the assailants suffered greatly; and when 

 the Russians marched out, at midnight, after an 

 eight hours' engagement, to follow the main body 

 under Barclay, the whole city was in flames. The 

 conflagration raged for thirty-six hours. The plan 

 of Napoleon to take the Russian army prisoners in 

 Smolensk, or to cut off their passage to Moscow, 

 was frustrated. More than two thirds of the city 

 lay in ruins. The Russians, according to their own 

 reports, lost 4,000 men; the French more than 

 double that number; the Poles more than 5000; and 

 owing to the devastation of the surrounding country, 

 the scarcity in the captured city was so great, that 

 most of the wounded and the numerous sick died 

 in the lazarettos, and a dreadful epidemic was 

 created. The Russians could not forgive Barclay 

 for having sacrificed this holy city, as they used to 

 call it, this bulwark of Moscow, without risking a 

 general engagement. He, therefore, soon after, 

 laid down his commission, under the pretence of ill 

 health, and was succeeded by Kutusoff. But he 

 had saved the army. The flames of Smolensk, 

 and the outrages of the French soldiers, roused the 

 Russians to revenge, and to the most obstinate re- 

 sistance. 



SMOLLETT, TOBIAS, a celebrated novelist 

 and miscellaneous writer, was born at Dalquhurn,near 

 Renton, in the parish of Cardross, Dumbartonshire, 

 in 1721. He was first taught at the parish school 

 of Dumbarton, and he afterwards prosecuted his 

 studies at the college of Glasgow with diligence and 

 success. Here he contracted a fondness for the 

 medical profession, and was apprenticed to Mr John 

 Gordon of that city. In this capacity he studied 

 medicine and the belles lettres. He occasionally 

 indulged in satirical effusions, not only against 

 those who merited it, but against the more decent 

 and respectable persons whom he knew, and his 

 conversation has been described as a " string of epi- 

 grammatic sarcasms against one or other of the com- 

 pany." In the seventeenth year of his age he wrote 

 a tragedy, called the Regicide, the subject of which 

 was the assassination of James I. of Scotland. 



In 1740, when his apprenticeship was finished, 

 he set out for London to solicit employment in the 

 army or navy, and to bring his tragedy upon the 

 stage. Although the exertions of his friends could 

 not recommend his play to the favour of the thea- 

 tres, they procured for him the situation of surgeon's 

 mate to one of the ships of the line that went out 

 in the unfortunate expedition to Carthagena in 

 1741, under Admiral Vernon.* Disgusted with the 

 navy, our author quitted the service in the West 

 Indies, and resided for some time in Jamaica, where 

 he became acquainted with Miss Lascelles, a beauti- 

 ful woman, whom he afterwards married. 



In 1746 he returned to London, and though a 

 whig in politics, yet the love of his country pre- 

 dominated, and he expressed his feelings respecting 

 the cruelties of the English troops during the re- 

 bellion, in a. poem, entitled, the Tears of Scotland, 



* Smollett afterwards gave an account of this expedition in 

 Roderick Random, and one more circumstantial in Xhe Compen- 

 dium of Voyages, in 7 voU.12mo, 1750. 



a poem written with elegance anil spirit. In tbe 

 same year he published his Advice, & Satire, an 

 acrimonious attack upon several individuals of rank 

 and fortune. In the same year he wrote an Opera, 

 entitled Alceste, for Mr Rich, manager of Covent 

 Garden; but in consequence of a dispute, which 

 exposed the manager to the shafts of his wit, it was 

 neither acted nor printed. In 1747 he published 

 his -Reproof, a Satire, being the second part of the 

 Advice, continuing the same system of inveterate 

 attack upon all the leading personages of the times. 

 In the same year he married Miss Lascelles, who 

 expected a portion of 3000 in West India proper- 

 ty. Trusting to this expectation, he lived elegantly 

 and hospitably ; but being able to recover only 

 small part of the above sum, and that by means 

 expensive litigation, he got into serious pecuniary 

 difficulties, which compelled him to have recourse 

 to his pen. He accordingly devoted his time to 

 literature, and brought out in 1748 his Advent/in:-, 

 of Roderick Random,m 2 vols. 12mo., a work which 

 both bettered his pecuniary circumstances, and 

 widely extended his reputation. The tragedy of 

 the Regicide, already mentioned, was published by 

 subscription in 1749, and he derived from it con- 

 siderable emolument. He went to Paris in 1750, 

 and about this time he composed his Adventures of 

 Peregrine Pickle, with the Memoirs of a 'Lady of 

 Quality, which appeared in 1751 in 4 vols. This 

 work is marked with broad humour, and great 

 knowledge of the world. Real personages and real 

 incidents are often described, as in Roderick Ran- 

 dom, but the adventures, and frequently the lan- 

 guage, were stained with ail indelicacy and immorali- 

 ty that were highly reprehensible. The edition was 

 quickly sold ; another was bought up in Ireland ; 

 and the work was translated into French. Our 

 author received, too, a very handsome sum for in- 

 serting in this novel the Memoirs of Lady Vane, 

 which were furnished by herself, and which gave 

 additional popularity to the work. 



Notwithstanding the great success of Roderick 

 Random and Peregrine Pickle, Smollett seems to 

 have been anxious to quit the profession of an 

 author. He obtained about this time the degree of 

 M. D. probably from some foreign university, and he 

 announced his intention to practise medicine, by a 

 work entitled, An Essay on the External Use of 

 Water, 1752, 4to. In the practice of physic, how- 

 ever, he was not successful, and was compelled 

 again to have recourse to his pen. In 1753 he 

 published his Adventures of Count Fathom, in 2 vols. 

 12mo., but it was neither so ably written nor so 

 popular as its predecessors. Encouraged by a liberal 

 subscription, Smollett published, in 1755, a new 

 translation of the History of the renowned Don 

 Quixote, from the Spanish, fyc. illustrated with 28 

 new copperplates, in 2 vols. 4to. When this work 

 was printed, he made a visit to Scotland, to visit his 

 mother, who then resided at Scotston in Peebles- 

 shire ; and he took an opportunity of visiting vari- 

 ous parts of his native country, particularly the 

 vicinity of Glasgow, the scene of his early affections, 

 where he spent two days with Dr Moore, then an 

 eminent surgeon in that city. 



When he returned to London, he was induced to 

 take the chief management of the Critical Review, 

 a new literary Journal, which began in 1756 under 

 the patronage of the tories, and in opposition to the 

 Monthly Review, which had commenced in 1749. 

 His next work was, A Compendium of Authentic and 

 Entertaining Voyages, digested in a Chronological 



