The memoirs of the author (p. 28,) exhibit him as a man of spirit, who has grappled with difficulties.

A map of St. Domingo, and a por

trait of Toussaint, decorate the work, which, from the advertisement, appears to have reached the third edition.

THE preceding volumes of this work were received with great eagerness of curiosity on the Continent, and were on the point of exposing the city of Hamburg, where they were supposed to have been first printed, to some dangerous altercations with the Russian court. They are said chiefly to derive from a very intelligent agent of the French government, who probably resided in a capacity not unofficial at Petersburg, and to have been continued by a French officer formerly in the Russian service. The original volumes contain such par ticulars of the private life and manners of the more influencing persons at the court of Petersburg, as the translator, from motives of decorum, has often found it necessary wholly to suppress, or to leave veiled in the obscurity of a foreign language. Even in this improved or garbled form the work remains very interesting to the student of human manners; who may learn from it how much the progress of refinement and civilization, the consequent equalization of ranks, and the condensation of a reciprocally influential populousness, contribute to the purifying of manners, and to the diffusion of virtues. It remains very interesting to the statesman, who, in proportion to the absence of political liberty, must accommodate to personal foibles and inclinations, his mode of pursuing the good will and cooperation of foreign cabinets. It remains very interesting to the historian, who, though he may perhaps ascribe some

touches in this sketch to the author's solicitude to blacken the anti-gallicans, will yet find in it a multitude of very curious and recondite particulars.

The first chapter narrates a Persian war, of which little had hitherto been known in Europe: it was instructive and inglorious.

The second chapter treats of the finances of the Russian empire very imperfectly: it appears, however, that the practice of rewarding favourites with sifts of lands and slaves gives occasien

to predatory expeditions for the purpose of taking captives, and is therefore a great impediment to the progress of civilization around the whole Russian frontiers.

The third chapter treats of the Cossacks, or rather Kozaks, a remarkable but oppressed tribe, concerning whom the author thus writes:

"After the death of Potemkin, the last protector of the Cossacks, the immense governiment of Ekaterinoslaf, to which a great part of their country was annexed, fell to the lot of the favourite Zubof. General Khorvat, his relation, was appointed his deputy, and went to reside at Ekaterinoslaf. This Khorvat, the son of a man who died in confinement for his crimes, was avaricious, debauched, despotic, and merciless; in short, he was a real satrap. Other relations, other creatures of Zubof, were likewise put in office: vast tracks of land were given to them in the vicinity of the Cossacks. In 1792, when the Russians, with the traitors of Targovitz, fell on unfortunate Poland, the generals had orders to carry off all the families of peasants which they could lay hold of, and to send them into the deserts of Ekaterinos!af and Ochakof. According to a moderate cal

culation of General W. the number of these families carried off from Volhynia and Podolia, exceeds twenty thousand. The conveyance of these wretched victims presented a horrid spectacle. At one time, troops of children, whose parents had fled or been murdered: at another, fathers and mothers, whose children had perished in the flames, or been dispersed in the shock of arms, or carried off by private robbers. Sometimes marravishers, and separated for ever. Khorvat ried couples became the prey of different received a good share of this infamous booty, which was also participated by his brother and the other creatures of Zubof, Ribas, Al, testy, Gribofsky, Janschin, and a hundred others, It is a well known fact, that Khorvat had 3,000 of these unfortunate beings, Altesty 800, Gribofsky 1,500, Ribas more, One prince Cantakuzene bought some hundreds of them from the Cossacks; and almost

all the land owners of those uncultivated

regions did the same. General Kakofsky sent some thousands of them into the Crímea; but few arrived at their true destination; the greater part perished by the way in

the steppes, because no measures had been taken for providing for their subsistence. The lands of the great plunderers, though very extensive, could not suffice for these new colonies. They had at first asked for men to cultivate their deserts; they soon asked for new lands in order to employ their superabundance of people; and then it was that an eye was cast on those belonging to the Cossacks of the Don. Zubof, the favourite, contrived to represent things in so favourable a manner, that, without any other inquiry, from the recess of her cabinet the Empress, a friend to partitions, traced on a map the singular demarcation. This stroke of the pencil deprived the Cossacks of a great part of their property, their best pastures, and several stanitzas (little towns), which they inhabited for centuries. The tribes, so unjustly despoiled, ventured to murmur; they were driven from their possessions, and obliged to abandon the beloved banks of the Don and the Donetz (little Don), and to leave to the usurpers the pens which had inclosed their herds and flocks; the huts which had protected their families against the frosts; the fields moistened by the sweat of their brow; and the graves of their forefathers. Five or six thousand of these ill-fated creatures were conveyed into the deserts of the Kuban to replace the tribes exterminated by the Russians, or that had abandoned the country on their approach. These unfortunate Cossacks were intended to serve as a barrier against the incursions of the ferocious mountaineers, to be the forlorn hope of the empire. The women and children perished in great numbers on the road; the men revolted; a great many of them were butchered; the rest were dispersed in the deserts of the Kuban. It was in 1794, under the reign of the philosophic Catharine, that these different transplantations of people took place.

"The Cossacks themselves foresee that their total dispersion is in contemplation. They are discontented, dejected, and begin to desert the Russian armies and their fertile plains. Energy is diminishing, and martial spirit is becoming extinct among them, since the Tartars and the Turks, their eternal enemies, are no longer their neighbours; since they no longer fight as a national corps; since they are dispersed in the armies of Kamtschatka, and from the confines of China to the banks of the Vistula; since they have been enrolled in regiments, and subjected to a discipline different from that of their ancestors; since, notwithstanding their signal services, they are still treated like followers of the army, rather than actual soldiers.

"Russia has continually forty or fifty thousand Cossacks distributed in her armies. The tribes of the Yaik and of the Volga, as well as those of Siberia, have generally permanent stations along the line of Caucasus and of Orenburg, &c. The Cossacks of the Don are the most inured to war; and, ANN. REV. VOL. I.

among their tribes, that of Tschuguief is the most renowned. It formed several regular regiments, celebrated for their bravery and their esprit du corps. Potemkin respected them highly, and had composed of them for himself a superb guard: the officers of this troop were well chosen, and often magnificently equipped. Yelovaisky, and a few others of their chiefs, had received some education; spoke French, and even German. Those of their generals who distinguished themselves particularly in the last war against the Turks, were Platof, Orlof, and Yesaef: the first, a very handsome man, had shewn himself devoted to Potemkin, and afterwards to Valerian Zubof, whom he followed in his disastrous expedition to Persia. He was, on his return, broken and degraded by the present Emperor. Denisof, another of their chiefs, of whom we have spoken in the first volume, had likewise acquired a great reputation in the Swedish war, and in the conquest of Poland. Being hoary from age, the soldiers called him silver-head, and had much confidence in him. His nephew, who bears the same name, has the command of the Cossacks sent into Germany and Italy.

"The Cossacks, except their officers, who have a very moderate allowance, have no pay, even in time of war. As we have already said, they are obliged to provide themselves with horses, arms, and clothing. Nothing is furnished them except oatmeal and flour. Frequently even nothing is given them but a sorry biscuit (sukare). Thence those hideous tatters, with which most of them are covered, when they have no opportunity of plundering, and which give them the appearance of beggars and robbers; thence the ruinous condition of their arms, and the bad state of their horses; thence the murders, robberies, fires, and rapine which every where mark their passage, and which, doubtless, would not be so frequent, if a government, less avaricious and less cruel, provided them with even the bare necessaries of life.

"They are armed with a pike from fifteen to eighteen feet in length, which they hold vertically, resting on the right stirrup, and which they couch at the moment of attack. The Cossack makes a very dexterous use of this pike for leaping on his horse. With the left hand he grasps the mane, and, as soon as he has his foot in the stirrup, instead of placing his right hand on the crupper, as is generally done, the pike which he holds serves him as a prop; he makes a spring, and, in the twinkling of an eye, he is in the saddle. The Cossacks have no spurs, a large whip suspended to the left wrist supplies their place. Besides this pike, they commonly have a bad sabre, which they neither like nor well know how to make use of, one or two pistols in a bad condition, and a carbine which they seldom employ.

"Their horses are small, lean, stiff, by no Z

means capable of a great effort, but indefatigable: bred in the steppes, they are insensible to the inclemency of the seasons, accustomed to endure thirst and hunger; in a word, not unlike their masters. A Cossack will seldom venture to expose himself against a Turk or a Tartar, of whom he commonly neither has the address nor the vigour: besides, his horse is neither sufficiently supple, nor swift, nor sure footed; but, in the long run, his obstinate perseverance will tire the most active horseman, and harass the most frisky steed, especially if it be in a large plain, after a defeat. All the Cossacks, however, are not badly armed and ill mounted. Several keep the arms and horses which they may have been able to obtain by conquest in a campaign; but, in general, they had rather sell them preferring their patient ponies and their light pikes. As for their officers, they are almost a well mounted, and many of them have good and magnificent arms, resembling, in that respect, the Turks and Poles. "The Cossacks, if we except the Tschuguief brigade which I have first mentioned, never fight in a line. They are scattered by platoons, at the head, on the flanks, and in the rear of the army, sometimes at consider able distances. They do the duty of advanced guards, videttes, and patroles.. Their activity and vigilance are incredible. They creep and ferret every where with a boldness and address of which none but those who have seen them can obtain an idea. Their numerous swarms form, as it were, an atmosphere round the camps and armies on a march, which they secure from all surprise, and from every unforeseen attack. Nothing escapes their piercing and experienced eye: they divine, as if by instinct, the places fit for anibuscades; they read on the rodden grass the number of men and horses that have passed: from the traces, more or less recent, they know how to calculate the time of their passing. A blood-hound follows not better the scent of his game. In the immense plains from Azof to the Danube, in those monotonous solitudes covered with tufted and waving grass, where the eve meets with no tree, no object that can direct it, and whose melancholy uniformity is only now and then interrupted by infectious bogs and quagmires, torrents overgrown with briars, and insulated hillocks, the ancient graves of unknown generations; in those

deserts, in short, the roaming Cossack never misses his way. By night the stars direct his solitary course: if the sky is clear, he alights from his horse at the first kurgan that chance throws in his way; through a long habit of exercising his sight in the dark, or even by the help of feeling alone, he distinguishes the herbs and plants which thrive best on the declivity of the hillock exposed to the north or to the south. He repeats this examination as frequently as the opportunity offers, and, in this manner, he follows or finds again the direction which he ought to take for regaining his camp, his troop, or his dwelling, and any other place to which he is bound. By day, the sun is his surest guide: the breath of the winds, of which he knows the periodical course, it being pretty regular in these countries, likewise serves him as a compass to steer by. As a new species of augury, the Cossack not unwillingly interrogates the birds: their number, their spe eies, their flight, their cry, indicate to him the proximity of a spring, a rivulet, or a pool, a habitation, a herd, or an army. Those clouds of Cossacks which encompass the Russian armies for the safety of their encampments, or of their marches, are no less formidable to the enemy. Their resistless vigilance, their rash curiosity, their sudden attacks, alarm him, harass him incessantly, and incessantly controul and watch his mo tions. In general action the Cossacks commonly keep at a distance, and are spectators of the battle; they wait for its issue, in order to take to flight, or to set out in pursuit of the vanquished, among whom their long pike then makes a great slaughter.”

The fourth and fifth chapters, which relate to the campaigns of the Russians against the French, contain some parti▾ culars not yet familiar in Europe.

A very amusive chapter of discon nected gleanings is appended, under the title of Historical Anecdotes; and some state papers, translated from the Russian, which throw much light on the spirit of Petersburg legislation, are annexed. There is more of party-spirit in this than in the two preceding volumes; but the reflections of the author, if stained by prejudice, are sharpened by penetration.

THIS eloquent and interesting history opens thus: "In the bosom of the Helvetian Alps was a small republic, which, in order to maintain its ancient liberty, ventured to struggle against a neighbour superior in force. We propose to give an account of the unequal conflict. Neither extent of territory, nor military force, nor influence over the destinies of the world, fell to the lot of this people: its misfortunes have rendered it interesting, its virtues, its courage, its energy; these are become worthy of the pen of history, and of the contemplation of the philosopher.

"Among the celebrated tribes, who first recovered that liberty, of which the very name was lost in Europe, were formerly distinguished the inhabitants of Schwitz. Their exploits won them the honour of giving their name to the rest of Helvetia. As faithful to the freedom they had conquered, as jealous of their glory, they yielded but to force, and abandoned a constitution, under which they had enjoyed five centuries of happiness, only when all resistance was become fruitless. But soon the fame of their misery equalled that of their past felicity.

"This circumstance, no doubt, will suffice to render worthy of our attention the final destinies of this republic of shepherds. If the circumscription of its strength and of its means has not called it to play a brilliant part in history, the manner in which it suffered and fell, will acquire for it the homage of the attentive observer.

"But before we pass on to the events which occasioned its extinction, let us east a glance over the picture of what it was before this deplorable catastrophe." The author then proceeds to a geographic, ethic, and historie sketch of the happy mountaineers, whose misfortunes he is to detail. The predisposing causes of these woes are analysed with great temper, gentleness, and equity. It is shown (in the thirteenth chapter) that the aristocratic, anti-jacobin spirit of the rulers of Bern, had excited great disaf fection among the Vaudois, whom they had oppressed; and that to Steigner is in a great degree to be ascribed that refusal of all redress of grievances, that

haughty, unconciliatory, persecuting spirit, which more than any other cause prevented a timely consolidation and cooperation of the cantons in behalf of their collective independence. Like Ireland, like Holland, Switzerland would have been so united as not to attract an invader, had it been governed by the ardent friends of its liberties, and not by the sophists of the confederated princes. Among those, who, by the purest love of freedom and of their country, by disinterested hazards, by unshaken courage, by eminent talents usefully exerted; in short, by every title but their success, have deserved to be ranked with the Washingtons and Montgomerys of yon emancipated regions, stands foremost Aloys Reding. In the progress of the struggle of independence he became (p. 278) chieftain of the troops of Schwitz, and the soul of the army of the allied cantons. He studied the art of war in the service of Spain, where he had been a colonel. He was lately retired into a solitary valley of his country, where he devoted his leisures to friendship, to the Muses, and to the cultivation of his lands. He desired long before the revolution an ameliora tion in the federal system, and wished his country to enjoy a useful and real liberty. But his heart felt an instinctive antipathy to a revolution made by a foreign power, and a still stronger abhorrence against submitting to French do mination. Such are the motives which induced him to take up the sword, and to shew himself worthy of the Swiss name, worthy of his brave ancestors. The loss he had lately incurred of a young and beloved wife, had left in his soul a profound melancholy, which made him, perhaps, the more covet the hazards and the dangers of battle. Precautious, loyal, brave, patriotic, able to preserve a cool equanimity in prosperity as in adversity, he became, in a short time, the favourite, and the hope of his nation; p. 282. All the frontiers of the ancient canton of Schwitz, except a small part covered by the Muttathal, were now exposed. It was necessary, therefore, to guard a line of twenty-five leagues with 4,000 soldiers, and to make head against French troops superior ip

numbers, who were advancing on all sides. The last ray of the hope of sav. ing the country darkened in such a state of things. "What is left for us now," said the very soldiers in the ranks, "but to die the glorious death of our forefathers?"

So many misfortunes had the effect of winding up enthusiasm to the highest pitch. Old men and children came to partake the glory of sinking with their country. Women, children, assisted to drag the cannon of Lucerne, which were at Brunnen, and bore them across rocks and along frightful roads to Rothen thurm. They were mostly armed with clubs. Many of them wore, as a badge of their patriotism, a knot of white ribband on the head. Wherever they saw a deserter endeavouring to elude by flight the danger of the country, they stopped him, forced him back to the frontier, and to his ranks in the army.

This interesting and feeble sex thus took charge of the interior police of the country, while their fathers, their husbands, their sons, their brothers, guarded the summits of the mountains, and stood firm in the presence of the enemy, and of death. These, intrepid and impas sive as the rocks they stood on, courageously awaited the moment of devoting themselves for the country. They wish ed to renew, on the green heights of Morgarten, the sacred monument of the ancient valour of the Swiss, and to leave to their descendants, if not liberty, at least a memorable example of what the free can do to defend it. As Reding at the head of his band, so Leonidas formerly awaited at the Thermopyla a certain and glorious end.

Aloys Reding, confident in the dispositions of his soldiers, turned toward them, and said: "Brave comrades, dear fellow-citizens, the decisive moment approaches. Surrounded by our enemies, abandoned by our friends, we have only

to determine if we will courageously imitate the example set by our forefa. thers at Morgarten. An almost certain death awaits us. If any one fears it, let him withdraw. No reproof from us shall pursue him. I would rather have a hundred men to be relied on at all events, than five hundred, who by flight would produce confusion, and uselessly sacrifice the brave who stand. As for me, I promise not to forsake you in the greatest danger. Death, and no retreat. If you share my determination, choose two men from among you to make it known, and let them swear to me, in the name of you all, to be true to the cause."

The soldiers, leaning on their arms, heard in silence, and with a religious awe, the words of their chieftain. Some of those manly warriors were seen to weep from feeling, and yet to come foremost, and begin the shout, soon uni、 versal: "We will stand by you to the last man.”

Two men were appointed, who shook hands with Reding in the name of them all, as a pledge of fidelity in life and death.

The progress of the narrative, how ever honourable to Reding and his followers, terminates in the defeat and dispersion of the little army, and in the capitulation of such as could a second time be mustered; they yielded only to an irresistible force. The account is very animating; it is written with a purity and elevation of style, which adapts it for young persons; and we trust it will become a sort of school-book among the Swiss, who study French. A trans lation could hardly fail of being much read; and the distribution of a cheap edition would tend to diffuse that steady preference of independence to foreign subjection, which may soon here too be a matter not of theoretical speculation merely, but of practical conflict.

THE author of this pamphlet seems to have visited America with tory prejudices, and to view with a sort of surprise all the marks of order, stability, pacifickness, justice, public spirit, and progressive prosperity, which he finds there; as if they were not the

natural consequences of a form of government, originating out of the peo ple, and dependent upon it; too poor to bribe, and too weak to compel, the involuntary obedience of its subjects.

The facts, therefore, are unsuspicious