which we commonly put into our own words, we are not aware that we ever copied a line from that or any other paper since we came into existence as a Journal. As to having "weekly copied its articles wholesale," the charge is certainly enough to provoke the patience of a Job, and, considering the quarter from which it comes, has upon us a peculiar et tu Brute effect. The truth is, the Allas has been recently pilfering a little from us-witness its unacknowledged quotation from the Ettrick Shepherd's "Aughteen Hunder and Twantynine," and also its review of the Provincial Scotsman's "Tour to London, Brussels, and Paris," which, in many sentences, was verbatim our own; but, widely quoted as we are glad to see we are, we thought it beneath us to take notice of these peccadillos. Little, however, did we expect so unnatural a return for our forbearance on the part of Master Atlas. We hope he will soon come to a proper understanding of the error he has committed; and if not, we can only say, that we hate such paltry squabbling. PARIS versus LONDON; OR. COCKNEYS OUT-COCKNEYED : EPPING HUNT at a Discount.-We abridge the following from an advertisement in the Constitutionnel of the 2d of January :The chase has been esteemed in all ages one of the most noble and enlivening pleasures; but, in great cities, it has become an exclusive enjoyment of the privileged classes. Those less favoured by fortune must either renounce it altogether, or seek, at a great distance from Paris, a doubtful chance of firing a few shots. The "Compagnie des chasses publiques" aims at bringing this pleasure within the reach of every amateur, in its full plenitude, with all possible convenience, and in every modification of which it is susceptible. A field of four hundred acres, near Courbevoie, a league and a half distant from Paris, affords the public four alleys, which, at all seasons, admit of forty-eight sportsmen at once, with an intervening space of 160 paces between each to prevent accidents. Each ticket of admission confers a right to three hours' shooting in one or other of these alleys, which are supplied from preserves capable of furnishing 300,000 head of game annually, and afford the amateur an opportunity of firing twenty or thirty shots per hour. Coursing matches will be held within the enclosures at stated intervals, and a pack of hounds will admit of occasionally varying the mode of hunting. The park contains, moreover, a preparatory school for beginners, where regular demonstrations will be given, and opportunities afforded of practising upon automatons imitating the modes of flying and running peculiar to different kinds of game. The grand hunts will be regularly announced in the journals. The extensive resources of the company enable it to promise the public opportunities of hunting the fox, the stag, and the wild bear. Fire-arms and other equipments of the complete sportsman may be hired at the establishment on moderate terms. THE VORACITY OF THE SHARK. To the Editor of the Edinburgh Literary Journal. SIR,-I observe, in one of the late Numbers of your entertaining Journal, some account of the Voracity of the Shark. The case of the pocket-book is well known to all West India cruisers, and the other is highly probable, from the known propensity of all fishes to snap at any thing dropped into the water,—a bit of glittering tin being, as you know, an excellent bait for mackerel. But I think the circumstance I am about to relate is still more curious. In the early part of the Revolutionary War, the Telemachus Cutter, commanded by Lieutenant Crispe, (now Captain,) was ordered with dispatches to the West Indies. On nearing his destination, by a change in the state of the weather, it became necessary to shift the jib, and hands were ordered forward on the bowsprit for that purpose. A flap of the sail sent the hat of one of the sailors overboard, and the vessel having considerable headway, it was instantly lost sight of under the bows. In the morning, a large shark was seen nearly alongside; the hook was soon baited, thrown out, and in a few minutes greedily swallowed by the fish, which, after being played about until tired, was brought alongside. A slip noose, on a stout rope's end, was drawn over his head, hauled taught, and in this way he was hauled on board, where the carpenter stood ready with his axe, to chop off his tail,-a necessary operation, as a lively fish of ten or twelve feet long will, unless disabled, soon clear the deck of every thing movable, and perhaps make work for the Doctor. This being done, the sailors attacked him with their knives, and cut off certain portions in convenient rounds or slices, which, though dry food, is by no means disliked by men long confined to salt provision. This is the usual way of treating Massa Shark, and the ceremony was, no doubt, strictly observed in the present instance; but, on opening the stomach to see what it contained, the man exclaimed, " D my eyes! what have we here?—a hatter's shop, by Jove!" And here, indeed, we found entire the identical heavy tarpaulin hat that had fallen overboard the day before. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, A CONSTANT READER. Theatrical Gossip.—A new farce, called "The Phrenologists," has just been produced at Covent Garden, from the pen of Wade. It ap pears to be as little worth as the subject upon which it is founded. The author of "Black-Eyed Susan" has written another drama, called "Sally in our Alley," which has been played with success at the Surrey-It appears that Fanny Kemble's third part is not to be Constance in "King John," as originally announced, but Euphrasia, in the Tragedy of "The Grecian Daughter." She appeared in this character with all due eclat on Monday last. We understand that she has also changed her mind regarding the acceptance of provincial engagements, and is to visit Dublin, Liverpool, and other places. This being the case, we hope for the pleasure of seeing her here. -A Mr Morley is about to make his debut at Covent Garden in Rossini's Opera of "La Gazza Ladra," arranged by Bishop.-A two-act drama, from the pen of Morton, founded on the escapes of Baron Trenck, is in preparation at Covent Garden.-Besides Miss Kemble, it appears that Charles Kemble, Macready (who, we are glad to hear, is convalescent), Dowton, T. P. Cooke, Miss Kelly, and the Elephant, are all to visit Dublin soon.-Mademoisselle Duchesnois, the celebrated French actress, has, by public letter, signified her retirement from the stage.-Liverpool appears to be especially gay at present. Besides two Theatres, they have Ducrow, the Messrs Hermann, Astronomical Lectures, and a Royal Menagerie. We observe a criticism in one of their papers on Miss Jarman, in which the writer says, that she is the reverse of beautiful;" by which we suppose he means to say that she is ugly, and that her acting is not to be compared to that of Miss Ellen Tree, Vestris, or Foote. We are afraid this writer has a kind of Royal Menagerie taste.-Miss Jarman attracted to her benefit here last Saturday night one of the most crowded houses of the season. On the falling of the curtain she was loudly called for, and greeted with three rounds of applause.-Our Pantomime, which has had a very successful run, is now finally withdrawn, the Clown, Mr Taylor, having taken his bencfit last night. TO OUR CORRESPONDENTS. THE length of our review of Moore's Byron, and also of the Ettrick Shepherd's amusing tale, preclude the insertion not only of all the Advertisements with which we have been favoured, but of many other articles, and make the contents of the present Number less varied than usual. There is variety, however, in being less varied. THE EDITOR IN HIS SLIPPERS, No. VI. in our next Number, with which will be given half a sheet of additional matter. As we have not yet had time to look into Mr Dunlop's Pamphlet, we hope we do not put "Proteus" to any inconvenience by keeping it a day or two longer.-We cannot undertake to correct the mistakes into which the periodical alluded to by " P." may have fallen, on the subject of the "Court and Camp of Bonaparte," or on any other subject. We should have read the letter of "Amicus ad aras" with greater satisfaction had it been post-pai d. "Richard Coeur-de-Lion" in our next.-We do not think the "Very mournful Ballad" one of its ingenious author's happiest productions. We shall be glad to receive some poetical contributions from the author of "The Voice of a Dream," in which, we think, there is very considerable promise." The Stranger, a Ballad," and the Stanzas by "M-e," will not suit us.-In our next Number, (which we expect will be an exceedingly good one,) many of our Poetical Correspondents, whom we need not now particularize, will find themselves rescued from oblivion. Of the "Sonnet to Miss Jarman, after seeing her in the Youthful Queen," the first four lines are the best : "Thou art the spirit of a prince's dream; Thy queenlike air, bright form, and glancing eye, And steps of proud command, might well beseem The daughter of a royal ancestry." Edinburgh: Published for the Proprietors, every Saturday Morning. Price 6d. ; or Stamped and sent free by post, 10d. LITERARY CRITICISM. Sibylline Leaves. A Collection of the Modern Itinerant (Unpublished.) Few persons who have visited the northern metropolis can have failed to be struck with those itinerant minstrels who charm us at every crossing with their wood-notes wild, or, as they are termed in our own Doric dialect, "timmer tunes.” We do not allude at present to that interesting orator of the Earthen-Mound, who combines so felicitously attention to our temporal and spiritual needs, bawling alternately, with equal emphasis, "Shoe-ties, a 'penny a-pair!" and "Religious tracts, a ha'p'ny a-piece!" nor to the lady of the unrivalled fiddle-bow, who charms our ears, secure from the interference of the unharmonious police, under the guardian angelship of the Director-General. We speak rather of those last sad remnants of the ancient minstrels, of whom the poet tells how sumptuously they fared wandering from regal palace to baronial hall, and who still exercise their lofty vocation on our streets and highways, under the humble designation of "ballad-singers." There is something primitive in their style of attire; and the rude attempts to add to the pathos of their minstrelsy, by the adjunct of one or more babes -begged, borrowed, or stolen-carries us back to those simple ages when an excess of refinement had not yet drawn a broad line of demarcation between the dramatic and other classes of poetry. They move about, free denizens of nature, amid our highly artificial state of society, like singing birds in the gardens of Versailles; and if they do not, like the blackbirds, occasionally purloin a cherry, they at least afford invaluable opportunities to the assiduous cultivators of the appropriative art. PRICE 6d. ther successful or not, our talented friend will be amply rewarded by the consciousness that he has saved a world of trouble to the Percies, Jamesons, and Chamberses, of a future generation. We believe it is his intention, should the sale of the book prove sufficient to replace the outlay he has made upon it, to lay before the public, ere long, the fruits of his enquiries into the history of the authors of these poems. Having been favoured with a view of every sheet of the present work as it passed through the press, we find pleasure in being enabled to present our readers with a few specimens of its varied and sparkling beauties. In this, we doubt not, the public will recognise another proof of the peculiar facilities we possess for obtaining the earliest and most accurate information regarding all works of national interest. It may be as well to premise, that these poems are composed in a peculiar dialect, in regard to the origin of which, philologists are by no means agreed. It is perhaps rash in us to give an opinion where the greatest geniuses have confessed themselves at a stand; yet it seems to us most probable, that as Homer is generally understood to have taken, from the various dialects of Greece indifferently, the word which best suited him at the moment, so these, our modern bards, have drawn with a large and lavish hand upon the treasures of every provincial vocabulary from the Land's end to John o' Groats, and from the mouth of the Thames to that of the Shannon. Nay, in one respect, they have even surpassed the great father of poetry; for he, with all his daring, shows some remains of a prosaic spirit in his slavish submission to the rules of grammar. In opening the book at random, the first poem that "When we set sail from Inverness, As we arrived at Kempoch point, Not far from Gourock shore." The previous voyage is detailed with considerable minuteness; after which, the poet, in a fit of rapt enthusiasm, hurries over the fatal catastrophe in two bold and energetic lines: The poets who furnish these Pastas and Patons of the highway with numerous verse, to which none but their unmatchable cadences are worthy of giving utterance, have in general, with the modesty of true genius, preserved a strict incognito. They have, moreover, like the ostrich abandoning her egg in the desert, or like the inspired sibyls of old leaving their vaticinations to be blown about by the wind, intrusted their effusions to the uncertain and necessarily perishable keeping of the slips of tea-paper, on which they are printed. This, however, is with a view to their being disposed of at a price so low as hitherto to bid defiance to the eager opposition of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge. It was the similitude to which we have just alluded that suggested to the ingenious editor of the book before us the appropriate title of " Sibylline Leaves." The work is an attempt to present to the public, in a less perishable form, the best of these wild flowers, which have hitherto most unaccountably been left to perish by the wayside. The undertaking is one which inspires us with an admiration too deep to find vent in words; and if we may augur from the direction which public taste has recently taken in the kindred art of sculpture, we entertain❘ He then pours out his whole soul in a succession of mesanguine hopes of the success of this volume. But whe-lancholy pictures: "All by another steam-boat Was the cause that we was drowned." He next indulges in a brief and melancholy retrospect of "To see the sailors' bodies Would grieve your heart full sore; Not far from Gourock shore. On the twenty-eighth of October, When the Comet it was lost." The poet, however, seeks with an admirable and delicate tact to relieve the horrors of the scene, by dexterously directing our attention to the happiness of those who were rescued : "The number of the passengers All out of seventy-five; Eleven of us did come to shore, They that was left alive." the poet's fancy. If the latter, we think a most delicate tact is evinced by making him a person of education; a circumstance which gives an elevation to his character, indispensable in poetry, and which the nature of the adventures he is represented as having been engaged in are scarcely adequate to bestow. The ideal character conferred upon him by this circumstance is, in like manner, amazingly heightened by the skilful introduction of Glasgow in the background, the smoke and essentially mechanical character of that city forming a masterly contrast with his refinement : "I was brought up in Glasgow town- And rear'd most tenderly; Which proved my destiny." We would here advert to a certain melancholy and mysterious grandeur which the author has thrown around We again interrupt the flow of the narrative, to call the the poem, by the doubt as to his own fate which he has reader's attention to a skilful and original musical artifice, created; at one time speaking of himself as one of the to which the very peculiar structure of this verse has been sufferers, and at another as one of those who were saved. rendered subservient. After the word "town," the tune We are left uncertain whether a human being or a dis- is suddenly interrupted, and the performer speaks the embodied spirit sings in our ears; a state of dubiety in-line-" A place I know right well"-which, it will be creased by the alternation of the singular and plural num- observed, rhymes with no other, then, instead of taking ber in personifying the speaker. There is likewise an up the melody where he broke off, he starts the tune unspeakable charm in the frequent occurrence of these afresh at the words "Brought up." Every one must musical words, "Gourock shore,”—it gives a very echo feel the increase of strength given to the poet's illusion by to the seat where grief is throned. The author concludes this identifying of the songster with the scene; but only by a declaration which shows him, dead or alive, to be those who have heard can conceive the startling effect most philosophically inclined, inasmuch as he is evidently produced by the interruption. The song proceeds: one who can take warning by experience: "But never in a steam-boat We will sail any more, To be in danger of our lives, As we pass Gourock shore." "My character being taken down, At the last Assizes I then could find no bail. The judge to me did say,— We are quite aware that the reader, rapt by the impe We know not who is the author of this overpowering monody; but should he be still alive, (the melancholy enmity which whisky holds with the lives of this inspired class justifies the doubt we express,) he may be gratified by the information, that his elegy has been re-tuous flow of the verse, will be apt to think our interjectceived, on various occasions, with the most unbounded applause at the meetings of that erudite and elegant body, "The Roast Pig Club of Edinburgh." Nor need he be in the least inclined to fear that the tribute of admiration was paid exclusively to the merits of the musician, for the song was equally successful when warbled in the rich and pathetic tones of C, and in the somewhat monotonous note of H. We have little doubt, should the poet (notwithstanding our sad foreboding) be still alive, that this gratifying intelligence will meet his eye;-a genius so delicately attempered, cannot fail to be a reader of the LITERARY JOURNAL. The song which next arrests our attention, in turning over at random the leaves of this fascinating volume, is not without a subdued tone of pathos running through the whole; but, unlike that which we have just been criticising, it elevates us by the portrait of a buoyant spirit floating in innate gladness upon the billowy waves of misfortune. It is entitled, "The Convict's Farewell," and commences in a strain of delicate moralizing, which we earnestly recommend to the serious attention of all frequenters of the theatre: "Come all you young men of learning, And warning take by me; I would have you quit night-walking, And shun bad company. Leave off your cards and play-houses, You'll rue your transportation, When you're going to Botany Bay." We are altogether uncertain whether the hero ought to be considered as a real being, or merely a creature of ed remarks tedious; but we cannot refrain from pointing out the bold and original turn of expression in the first two lines of this passage. The intimate acquaintance with the forms of judicial procedure it displays, leading us to infer that the poet must have been the hero himself, or, at the very least, his agent-and the curiosa felicitas and dignity of the judge's speech. It is from this speech, too, that we are led to infer the date of the poem. It wants the energy of the present President of the Justiciary Court, and that hurried flow and mixture of imagery with which he is wont to bid malefactors, acquitted for want of sufficient evidence, " remember that the eye of Almighty God—and of the Police of Edinburgh—is upon them." We are rather led back by it to the days of the amiable Justice Clerk R——, of triad notoriety; and there is a gentleness in the mode of pronouncing the prisoner's doom, admirably according with the soft soul of that distinguished individual, who did not deem it beneath him to shed tears in unison with the dejected Pyper, and to console him even from the bench with the assurance, "that although he was under the disagreeable necessity of pronouncing his banishment from Scotland, yet he (the culprit) might betake himself to England; that England was not such a bad place, for he (the judge) had been there himself; and that he (the judge) would be most happy to give him (the culprit) letters of recommendation, whether he should choose to continue his then occupation of barber, or resume his previous one of chaise-driver; seeing that he (the judge) had ample experience of his (the culprit's) talents for either line of business." These are remembrances of less artificial times, when an almost patriarchal relation subsisted between the judge and prisoner. But to our task. We spare our readers the heart-rending details of the effect produced by his sentence upon the relations of the unfortunate prisoner; quoting only the simple and pathetic exclamation of his venerable mother, "Oh son, oh son, what have you done, We know that some critics have objected to this passage, alleging that such a question is unnatural, inasmuch as the good woman, having been present at the whole proceedings, must have been quite well aware of the nature To us, howof the charges preferred against her son. ever, it seems that the poet has here shown most satisIn the factorily his deep knowledge of human nature. wild agitation of the moment, the sufferer had forgotten every thing. The rest of the poem is composed in a spirit of subdued melancholy, and a manly looking forward to better days: "As we sail'd down the Firth of Forth The twenty-first day of May, And every ship that we pass'd by, I heard the sailors say There goes a ship of handsome lads, And if ever I gain my liberty, With her I mean to dwell If ever I gain my liberty We ne'er shall part again, I'll bid adieu to Van Diemen's land, And adieu to the raging main." What particularly charms us in this collection is, that although an undercurrent of deep feeling, closely bordering upon melancholy, may be traced through all the songs, yet it is never allowed to degenerate into a maudlin sentimentality. These ballads are strongly characteristic of our people there is a severity even in their mirth, but they bear grief like men, bending, not crushed, beneath its load. As proofs of this assertion, we need only refer our readers to the verses entitled " Jean M'Callum, exe : cuted for child-murder," and "The Death of Queen Jean." The last of these poems to which we intend to allude, must either be a translation from the French, or must have proceeded from the pen of some member of a celebrated school of poets, chiefly resident in London. There is a spirit of freedom and toleration in its morality, to which few Scotchmen have attained. The story is of the daughter of an eminent merchant in Dumbarton, who had foolishly listened to the addresses of a neighbouring squire, loving him "not wisely, but too well." In her embarrassment, she applies to her lover, who gives her the following sound advice, relative to her father's affairs: Were not for the arbitrary manner (already alluded to) in which these poets borrow, as suits their convenience, from each and all of our island dialects, we should notice the last rhyme as satisfactorily establishing the London origin of this poem. As it is, however, the peculiar notions of Scottish geography which the verse expresses, is perhaps a surer index. The poet, meantime, does not disturb our feelings for the lovely and unfortunate victims, by any allusion to the fate of their murderer, but leaves him to the wide world and his own remorse, merely telling us of his victim and her child: "The kist it was wide, And the deals they were narrow, And this lovely couple Lies buried in Yarrow." We intended to have stopped here, but a passage which arrested our attention as we were closing the book, seems worthy of citation and a brief comment. A distinguished critic tells us, that there is a mysterious power in the pomp with which Milton sometimes enumerates a long list of names of places or persons, rendering the bare words equivalent to so many pictures. Something of the same kind may be said of the following list of the sufferers in a boat some time ago overset at Tarbet, by the Lady of the Lake steam-boat : "One Miss Bunting, mild, discreet, Who in Hutcheson-town did abide, Enjoyed but two months of a married state, For in Loch Lomond they met their fate." On the whole, we are of opinion that Mr Glass has displayed a degree of taste in the selection of these poems, that adds an additional leaf to the laurel wreath which his original compositions have already bound around his brow. We think these songs likely to circulate as far as the British tongue is spoken. The "Fate of the Comet" will yet beguile the seaman's night-watch off Spitzbergen, and "Jean M'Callum" and the "Convict" awake, by their melodious strains, the echoes of "the long isles of Sydney Cove." Nor will they prove less interesting to the antiquaries of future generations, who, with this book as a manual, will wander among our deserted potteries and mouldering glass-houses, guessing at the uses of long obsolete machinery and enigmatic ruins. After long centuries, the love-lorn maiden's tear will flow for her who lies buried on the banks of the Yarrow-r, and the youth's heart beat high to emulate the manly spirit of him who sailed down the Frith of Forth," all bound for Botany Bay." Narrative of the Discovery of the Fate of La Pérouse ; interspersed with Accounts of the South Sea Islanders. By Chevalier Captain P. Dillon, Member of the Legion of Honour, &c. London. Hurst, Chance, and Co. 1829. 2 vols. 8vo. ONE of the most distinguishing characteristics in the administration of Queen Elizabeth, was the direct encouragement which she gave to the spirit of discovery, so prevalent in England at the commencement of the 16th century. While to this auspicious era we must trace the foundation of that enlightened philosophy, which, spurning the artificial restraints of schoolmen, comprehended in its wide range the varied circle of science, and unfolded a new and infallible directory to human knowledge, to it also we are to look for those eminent improvements in navigation, which led to enterprises so brilliant in themselves, and attended with such beneficial consequences, that they enabled England to emulate, in saved Pérouse and his followers, or at least to have ascertained their ultimate destiny. But the case becomes widely different when an interval of upwards of thirty years has taken place,-when there cannot be the remotest prospect of restoring the luckless voyagers themselves, and when the chance of determining their eventual fate is in every respect problematical. And even suppose the expedition as successful as possible, what would be the real benefit resulting from it? It might gratify a curi some measure, the glory which had accrued to Spain by the previous success of Columbus. Seas and countries, previously unknown, opened to the view of the English mariner, and were eagerly explored. It was under this new impulse that Drake accomplished a task, the practicability of which, by Englishmen, had seemed wholly incredible. His feeble squadron, by sailing round the globe, deprived Magellan, the Portuguese discoverer, of that exclusive admiration which he had enjoyed for sixty years without a single rival. During the subse-osity to a certain extent laudable, but conducing to no truly quent reigns, various efforts were made to complete and enlarge those designs, which had been so propitiously commenced under the direction of Elizabeth. This laudable zeal gradually declined about the beginning of the 17th century, but partially revived under the government of George II., when two voyages were performed by Captains Middleton, More, and Smyth, to discover a northwest passage through Hudson's Bay to the East Indies. Other two voyages, under Captains Byron, Wallis, and Carteret, were undertaken by order of his late Majesty, who also patronised the efforts of the celebrated Cook. important end. It might display perseverance, and fortitude, and acuteness, on the part of him under whose guidance it had been achieved; but we could only regret the employment of these talents in such a Quixotical and profitless service. It might bring an accession of new facts, giving rise to interesting conjectures; or might supply links awanting in the chain of evidence adduced by former voyagers; and founding on these, we might have no moral doubt as to the certainty of the event which they were intended to substantiate. But still, reverting to that event itself,-comparing the anxiety displayed in proving it, with its intrinsic utility when actually proved,— we could not, though applauding the motive in which it Without, however, prejudging, by these observations on the abstract propriety of the expedition, the inherent merits of Captain Dillon's work, we shall now give an impartial analysis of its contents. The labours of the illustrious navigator last named, besides conferring numerous advantages on his own country, had the effect of exciting other nations to similar underta-originated, forget the insignificancy of the ultimate result. kings. Accordingly, it was at this time that Louis XVI., taking advantage of the re-establishment of peace, determined to fit out an expedition to the Southern and Pacific Oceans, in order to complete what Cook, by his premature death, was supposed to have left unaccomplished. To secure the success of this enterprise, the command of the vessels was intrusted to M. de la Pérouse, on account of the celebrity of his naval exploits, and his bold and persevering character. The two frigates, La Boussole and L'Astrolabe, sailed from Brest, in August 1785, and the last dispatch from La Pérouse was dated at Botany Bay, in March 1788. Since that period, no authentic tidings of his fate were received; and, with the view of furnishing these, the present work is laid before the public. How far Captain Dillon's narrative is complete, shall be immediately considered. But in the meantime we may observe, that the subject itself is sufficiently hackneyed, and incapable, we suspect, from its very nature, and especially from the length of time which has elapsed, of being fully or satisfactorily explained. Any opinion on the point, is at best conjectural. Unless it can be established, that by performing a voyage of this description, some improvement is also to be effected in geographical science and nautical astronomy,-or some fresh wonders are to be revealed to the naturalist,-or some new light thrown on the manners and customs of tribes hitherto imperfectly described,-we cannot help regarding it as chimerical and absurd. The voyage of Dentrecasteaux, undertaken three years after receiving the last intelligence from Pérouse, in the words of the unfortunate Louis, not merely "preséntoit une occasion de perfectionner la description du globe, et d'accroître les connoisances humaines," but was calculated to subserve the most humane and philanthropic purposes. That the weight of public affairs should not have occasioned indifference to individual calamity, and that such an expedition should have been fitted out during the bustle and ferment of a mighty revolution in political feeling, was honourable to the National Assembly of France. Even then, however, there could have been little hope for the safety of the ships. Their loss seemed certain. But better hopes were justly entertained as to the crew, who, although shipwrecked, might very probably have effected a landing on some of those numerous islands which abound in the Southern and Pacific Oceans. There are many instances recorded of escapes, under circumstances far more unfavourable. We repeat, therefore, that the voyage of Dentrecasteaux, though perhaps somewhat too long delayed, was highly proper; and had it been conducted with greater decision and more activity, could not have failed either to have The circumstances which gave rise to the present voyage are somewhat singular. In September 1813, Captain Dillon was an officer in the Bengal ship, Hunter, then on a voyage from Calcutta to New South Wales and other places. While at the Fejee Islands, he discovered several Europeans, whom he employed in collecting sandal-wood and beche-de-mer. But a misunderstanding having arisen between the natives and these Europeans a general affray occurred, in which they were all killed except Captain Dillon himself, a Prussian, named Martin Bushart, and one of the ship's company. The survivors, sailing from the Fejees, afterwards arrived at Tucopia Island. Here the Prussian and his wife, with a lascar whom they brought with them, were landed, and the Hunter proceeded on her voyage. In May 1826, Captain Dillon, with his own ship, again came to Tucopia, and learnt that his old companions in danger were still alive. He accidentally observed that the lascar had an old silver sword-guard, which he willingly sold. On examining it, Captain Dillon thought he saw the initials of Pérouse, and his suspicions being confirmed by seeing other articles of French manufacture, he asked the islanders how these articles were procured. They said that the natives of Mannicola, from whom they were obtained, stated to them, that many years ago two ships had arrived at their island; and that these ships being afterwards driven ashore, the articles were saved from the wreck. This statement induced Captain Dillon to sail for Mannicola, but his provisions being exhausted, he abruptly returned to Calcutta. He, however, commenced a correspondence with the Bengal Government, under whose command the present voyage was performed. We certainly expected that the narrative of Captain Dillon would, among the numerous books of voyages now so generally published, have presented peculiar and indisputable claims to public attention. We, at all events, conceived that his statement of facts would be instructive, and capable of elucidating the main design of his expedition. Captain Dillon, however, has thought proper to extend his work to a most inordinate length, and to introduce details uninteresting in themselves, and of no conceivable utility. Indeed, the principal part of the first volume, after reciting his letters to the Bengal Government, is filled with an account of certain private quarrels between our author and a Dr Tytler, a sort of mad doctor, who accompanied the Captain on his expedition, and which terminated in a prosecution before the Supreme |