We have been much struck by his picture of the draw

tan at a time look with interest on a rare book, or enjoy
a landscape or a good picture. He is something bettering for the conscription:
an observer of men and their doings. He places before
us the inhabitants of Normandy-from the loutish pea-
santry up to the fashionables. He places before us the
clergy just as they are. He gives us a notion of the tone
of society, its moral feeling, and intelligence. And he
interests us with his reflections upon men, manners, and
the vicissitudes of life. In short, he is an agreeable
companion.

Our first extract shall be the account of his visit to Mont St Michel. A view of this prison forms the vignette to the present volume. It is pleasing, but the engraving scarcely does justice to the original drawing by Mr Banks.

"With some difficulty I found out the prefecture, in a narrow obscure street near the Lycée. It is a large but mean-looking structure, surrounding three sides of a quadrangular court, and the business of the day was carried on in the central portion. On entering beneath the lofty gateway, I found that the great court was already filled with people, who were all crowding towards the entrance of the old palace with anxiety and fear, and every painful feeling depicted in their countenances. There were mothers and fathers come to behold their sons offered up as victims on the altar of war. There also were younger brothers and sisters, and other girls, who seemed to have all the delicate anxieties of love in their sun-burnt faces. In all this vast crowd every eye was turned towards the door, as if ready watching the performance of some sacrifice; and I instinctively assumed a commiserating, melancholy tone, as I enquired of a young woman, whom I met coming out of the door, whether it was there that they were drawing for the conscription. She looked in my face as if to assure herself that there was a being in the world ignorant of what she appeared to know but too well, and replied, almost reproachfully, 'Yes, sir.'

"The scene which now presented itself was singular and beautiful. On the right, the land, running out boldly into the sea, offered, with its rich verdure, a striking contrast to the pale yellow sands beneath. In front, the sea, blue, calm, waveless, and studded in the distance with a few white sails glittering in the sun, ran in a straight line along the yellow plain, which was, moreover, intersected in various directions by numerous small rivers, whose shining "I made my way as well as I could through the crowd, waters looked like molten silver. To add to the effect of which consisted chiefly of women, and entered. The vast the landscape, silence, the most absolute, brooded over it, apartments were thronged to excess, especially about the except when the scream of a seamew, wheeling about drow-fatal door, from which a loud official voice was heard to sily in the sunny air, broke upon the ear. The mount itself, issue, pronouncing the names of the future defenders of with its ancient monastic towers, rearing their grey pin- France,-Eugene, Victor, Alphonse, Alexis; while, at nacles towards heaven, in the midst of stillness and solitude, each startling sound, an answering voice from the crowd appeared to be formed by nature to be the abode of peace, proved that the flower of the Norman youth were about and a soft and religious melancholy. me, replying, perhaps unwillingly, to the call of war. For several minutes I endeavoured to steal a glance of the mysterious apartment whence the stentorian voice of office proceeded; and, upon enquiring among the crowd, was informed that none except those who were to draw could enter. However, confi ling in the name of strangerwhich, au the world over, but especially England and France, is a passport to every place I at length elbowed my way up to one of the grenadiers who were parading backwards and forwards through the throng to keep clear the way to the door, and demanded whether a foreigner might be permitted to be present at the drawing. The man replied, by politely desiring me to walk in; and every body now made way for me.

. "The first apartment after the chapel, which is small, and by no means striking, into which I was led, was the ancient refectory, where there were some hundreds of criminals, condemned for several years to close imprisonment, or the galleys, wearing calico. I never in my life saw so many demoniacal faces together. All the evil passions, nourished by habit, and irritated, not subdued, by punishment, were there, clothed with flesh and blood, and still hungering fiercely after crime. Like Dante and his guide, we made our way through this hell in miniature, a hundred villains scowling at us as we passed, and crossing several passages and small vaulted chambers, entered a still vaster chamber, called the hall of the knights, in which there was a still greater number of ruffians, and apparently of worse character than the others. Here a soldier stood with drawn sword at the door; and the gendarme walked before me with his hand upon his own weapon, ready tocut down any villain who might set upon us. One Countenance which I saw here I think I never shall forget. It was that of a man about forty years of age, small, pale, and haggard, but so expressive of wickedness, that it made me shudder. The ruffian, who was doing something as we came in, just raised himself up to look at us, and keepng the left eye nearly closed, threw so searching, venomous, malignant, and fiendlike a glance at us with the right, that it alinost made me start. Nevertheless, the owner of this infernal countenance was a small, withered, weak man, whom no one need have feared to meet alone in a desert; but his look was like that of a scorpion, odious and deadly. "The apartment in which these miscreants were assembled, was a hall about one hundred feet long, by thirty-five or forty in breadth, and was adorned with two rows of massy antique pillars, resembling those which we find in Gothic churches. From hence we proceeded to the subterranean chapel, where are seen those prodigious columus upon which the weight of the whole building reposes. The scanty light which glimmers among these enormous shafts, is just sufficient to discover their magnitude to the eye, and to enable one to find his way among them. Having crossed this chapel, we entered the quadrangular court, around which the cloisters, supported by small, graceful pillars, of the most delicate workmanship, extend. Here the monks used to walk in bad weather, contriving the next day's dinner, or imagining excuses for detaining some of the many pretty female pilgrims, who resorted, under various pretences, to this celebrated monastery. At present, it affords shelter to the veterans and gendarmes who keep guard over the prisoners below. From various portions of the monastery, we obtain admirable views of sea and shore; but the most superb coup-d'œil is from a tall, slender tower, which shoots up above almost every other portion of the building."

"On entering the room, I saw a long table, extending almost from one side of the apartment to the other, at one end of which sat the officiating person, while a number of military officers, who wore upon their chins the beard of Hercules and frowning Mars,' and various other officials, sat round in conclave. A wooden seat, like a Turkish divan, but considerably narrower, ran round the room, and upon this the conscripts were seated side by side. Upon looking round, I found I was the only individual present not actually concerned in the business of the day. In the centre of the apartment stood the instrument for measuring the conscripts, popularly denominated La Toise,' and by the side of it a gigantic grenadier, booted to the hips, and 'bearded like the pard."

"The person charged with this part of the business now called out the name of one of the young men, and the individual seated at the extreme right started up, and ran barefooted across the room to the table, upon which there was an urn covered by a clean white napkin, containing those little ivory numbers, one of which was to decide his fate. The young man now put his hand into the urn under the napkin, and upon drawing out a number, showed it to the man in office, who in a loud voice made it known to the crowd. I observed, that when a high number was drawn, the drawer appeared to be pleased, and otherwise when it was a low one. The cause of this I discovered afterwards. Of the two hundred and odd whose fate was decided that morning, only the first forty-eight were to serve in the army. All the numbers above were as so many blanks. A list of all those who drew were entered in the register of the department, with the number drawn marked opposite.

"The next operation the conscript had to perform was to step up to the toise, in order to have his height ascertained; and the result was declared with a loud voice by the giant who stood by the instrument. If any one appeared not to be ambitious of getting credit for his full height, the giant put one of his paws upon his back, and the other upon his chest, and thus soon brought him to the perpendicular line. When this part of the ceremony had been performed; the

conscript picked up his shoes and his little cap, and made cates, and a mob of followers, entered the court, and walked his exit by a different door from which he had entered, and up, according to their rank, to their places within the another victim followed. The room thus became gradu-enclosure. When seated round the room, the judges in ally empty, when one of the officials taking up a list of their scarlet gowns, and the advocates in black, they made names and reading it aloud, brought in another batch; and a very respectable appearance; but the scene which followed thus the room was again filled. Then the same process of wofully disappointed us. We had been told that the drawing, measuring, and shoe-and-cap gathering was re- advocate-general, the person who was that day to address peated; and the crowd again ebbed away one by one at the the court in a set speech, was an orator of more than ordiabove-mentioned door. nary powers an orator, who had frequently succeeded, by “I observed that among the young men there occasion-his knowledge of the secret springs of the passions, in meltally entered a man advanced in years, with bald or grey ing even lawyers to tears. He soon stood up with a roll head, and unsteady footsteps, whose appearance would seem of paper in his hand, and read a speech of an hour's length to indicate that he was free from the conscription. Upon to an audience, every individual of which, I am convinced, going up to one of these old men at the urn, the circum- was heartily weary of his prosing harangue for the last fifty stance was explained-they were fathers come to draw for minutes at least. His voice was lugubrious and tremulous, their sons, absent on business. I was particularly pleased as if from a sudden access of grief, or from extreme old with the behaviour of the officers towards these old men. age, though the man was but of middle age, and had not, It was gentle and humane in the extreme. They thee-and- I suppose, any very particular reason for hovering upon thou'd them familiarly, like a brotherhood of quakers, and the verge of weeping. If any one ever shed tears at hearspoke with apparent friendliness of their boys, which was ing him read-for he could not be said to speak-it was exactly as it should be. Their fate, poor old fellows, was certainly from pity or rage. His actions and gesture were hard enough in itself; and I thought that it argued a fine inferior to that of a common methodist preacher, and his spirit in those who thus endeavoured, by an air of kindness person, which, according to Cicero and Quinctilian, should and humanity, to make it fall as lightly upon them as pos be eloquent in an eloquent man, was as inexpressive as a stick. Of the matter of his discourse, it would be unjust to say much, for he took care we should not hear half of it; but as far as I could judge, it consisted of a string of of modern advocates. When the tiresome oration was over, commonplaces on the dignity of the law, and the superiority two or three new judges were sworn in and installed, and the business of the day was at an end.”

sible."

Our readers may feel curious to hear about a French provincial court of justice:

"Passing along the corridor, and entering a small door at the farther end, we suddenly found ourselves in the hall of justice, in a small gallery whence we could look down and see all that might be seen below. Three or four persons were already in the court, and the number increased every minute. Among the crowd there appeared several advocates, who passed into the privileged portion of the apartment, enclosed from the space allotted to the vulgar by a range of high seats. Round the farther end of the court ran three ranges of seats-those next the wall being evidently the places of honour; and in the centre was the president's chair. With a singular disregard of appearances, the public had been admitted before the room, which had been closed for nearly a year, was cleaned or dusted, and even before the stoves, which were just lighted, had warmed the damp air..

The following description and remarks are at once beautiful and just :

"One of the most striking objects which presented themselves, was an immense cross, not less than fifty feet high, painted with reddish brown, like the post of a gate. It stood upon a small stone platform about seven feet high, to which you ascend by steps. Upon this cross was a wooden image of the Saviour painted the colour of life, or rather of death, and having a vast mass of curly black hair hanging down profusely over the neck and brow. Streams of blood were represented trickling over the forehead, from beneath the crown of thorns, from the spear wound in the side, and "The various tables which were ranged round the wall, from the feet and hands. As far as I could judge, the figure were covered with green baize, which looked tolerably well, was rather cleverly executed. Two spears, the one having though somewhat dusty. While we were gazing about us, a piece of sponge on its point, the other naked, sprung up two female domestics for in Normandy women do every from the trunk of the cross, beneath the feet of the figure, thing-came in with small brushes in their hands to stir and touching the cross beam on each side, beyond the exabout the dust, demolish the cobwebs, and put the place intended hands, formed a kind of triangle, with the base uporder. They first removed the green baize from the tables, permost, within which the figure was completely enclosed. apon which a thick coat of dust, the deposition of a whole The single word Jesus,' was written on the cross beam year, now appeared; but when this was brushed off, we over the head of the statue. discovered that they were of marble. When this portion of the business had been performed, one of the female valets retired; first, however, after the manner of the place, making a speech to her learned sister, which, though by no means inaudible, was unintelligible in the gallery.

"As I gazed at this vast idol, for to a Protestant it appears no better, standing up against the sky, and saw the body relieved as it were upon a background of light driving clouds, a sublime feeling swept across my mind. The awful scene which this rude representation was meant to recall to memory, was suddenly and vividly painted upon my ima

were not altogether wrong in setting up these Calvaries. My eyes, however, and my mind have now become familiar with them, and I pass them as coolly as I would pass a milestone; and this appears also to be the case with most other persons, whether Protestant or Catholic. The purpose, therefore, for which they are erected, is not answered." We hope to hear aga in of Mr St John.

"While these important matters were in progress, we observed the advocates below elbowing the crowd, and ma-gination, and I began to think that perhaps the Catholics king towards the door with as fierce a determination to be out first as they could have manifested, had the cry of Fire! Fire!' resounded in their ears. Enquiring into the cause of this sudden retreat, we learned with dismay, that the bell which we just then heard, going ding-dong in a neighbouring church, was calling the lawyers to mass, and that we had yet to wait another good hour before the business of the day would commence. As mass could be heard, or rather seen, every day, we remained where we were, for fear we should lose our places; and the gallery gradually became fuller and fuller.

"At the extremity of the court, directly above the president's chair, was a portrait of Louis XVIII., and on each side upon the walls numerous fleurs de lis, surmounted by crowns. Above these, and not very far from the roof, were two large stone tablets, shaped like those which in pictures are generally represented in the hands of Moses, upon which were the words, Code Pénal. On the left, were other similar tablets, bearing, we supposed, the words, Code Civil but they were invisible from where we sat. On the edge of the table, which stood before the chair of the president, the words, Respect à la Loi,' were written in letters of gold. The gilded ornaments which adorned the seat of the chief of justice, were stuck on while we were there..

When mass was at length over, the judges, the advo

The Quarterly Review. No. LXXXVII. January, 1831.

THE literary articles in this Number are of a very superior description. The review of Southey's Uneducated Poets, is a fine essay-such as we could fancy coming from the pen of a gentleman of the old school, for its urbane and polished manner, and from a scholar, for its taste and discrimination. The article upon Moore's Life of Byron, (by Lockhart, we believe,) is a masterly sketch of the noble poet-worthy the author of the Life of Burns. Will he not write Byron's Life in the same compass? It would be doing good service to literature; and we know of no man alive so capable of the task. In.

Views of Loch Katrine and Adjacent Scenery. By W. B. Scott. Edinburgh. R. Scott, Engraver. 1830. THIS publication has been lying for a considerable time upon our table; and we know not how we came to overlook it. The Views are both designed and engraved by Mr W. B. Scott. He has evidently much to learn, both as a designer and a handler of the graver; but there are indications of sentiment, and an eye to the picturesque, which entitle us to encourage him to follow up his profession. We look, ere long, to see him justify our anticipations.

Tom Thumb; a Burletta, altered from Henry Fielding, by Kane O'Hara. With Designs by George Cruikshank. · London. Thomas Rodd. 1830.

One particular, however, we must dissent from him. "It is on this account, as well as for its intrinsic value, admirawith infinite regret," (the reviewer quotes from Dr Mil-bly adapted for the purposes of parochial, regimental, and lingen,)" I must state, that, although I seldom left Lord school libraries, mechanics' institutions, &c. &c. In saying Byron's pillow during the latter part of his illness, I did this, we conceive ourselves to be pronouncing a high eulonot hear him make any, even the smallest, mention of gium; for there are not many books of which we could religion. At one moment I heard him say,' Shall I say as much. sue for mercy?" After a long pause, he added, ́ Come, come; no weakness! Let's be a man to the last!'" The writer of the review makes the following comment upon this passage:-"We quote this as we find it but certainly with every disposition to hope that the fatal delirium had begun before Dr Millingen heard what he has repeated. Even on that supposition, the case is bad enough." We need not remind our readers, that Lord Byron had more than one attack of delirium ;—that in its accesses, the images which haunted his imagination were chiefly those of battle and its struggles. The words which Dr Millingen overheard, apply perfectly to such a fantasy. We are confirmed in our belief that this was their real meaning, by the whole character of Lord Byron. He was a man forgetful in general of religion, but not without touches of devotional feeling. There was nothing of the defiance of Cain in his scepticism. But such a feeling alone, fostered by habit into a second nature, could have suggested the expressions we are speaking of-expressions which, understood as Mr Lockhart has done, make the soul recoil with horror and dismay. The dissertation upon the origin of the Homeric Poems, in the review of Coleridge's Introduction to the Classics, is ably written. The article upon "The Political Economists," does not deserve to stand at the head of a Number which contains such masterly pieces as those we have above enumerated. The review of Dymond on the Principles of Morality, is nearly of the same calibre. We cannot exactly see the drift of the article upon the Military Events of the late French Revolution. We were not surprised at its concluding declaration of the alarm with which it regards that event. The whole tenor of the Quarterly's politics led us to expect as much. But this is no reason why they should expend their own ingenuity, and the reader's patience, in criticising the blunders, falsehoods, and inconsistencies, which, in the confusion of the moment, and the public thirst for intelligence, found their way into the daily prints. Are there not books enough to cut and carve upon that the Quarterly must pounce upon ? The cleverness of the last article nobody can deny, any more than its sophistry and ill-nature. Aut Croker, aut Diabolus.

A History of the Earth and Animated Nature. By Oliver Goldsmith. With copious Notes, embracing Accounts of New Discoveries in Natural History. To which is subjoined, an Appendix, containing Explanations of Technical Terms, and an Outline of the Cuvierian and other Systems, by Captain Thomas Brown. Parts I. II. and III. Edinburgh: A. Fullarton and Co. Glasgow: Blackie, Fullarton, and Co. e JOHNSON'S prophecy respecting this work is well known. Goldsmith is now writing a Natural History, and he will make it as entertaining as a Persian tale." He certainly succeeded in making it more entertaining than any tale that ever emanated from the brain of the generous bear who passed this judgment upon him. His book is adapted to give the mind those habits of thought, which enable it to take an interest in the enquiries of the naturalist; and there is no work which, in this point of view, we would more willingly see placed in the hands of the young, but for the erroneous opinions it so fre quently inculcates. These are sufficiently neutralized, in the present edition, by the notes of Captain Brown; and our only objection is thus removed. The illustrative engravings are in general correct; and the appendix, if executed in the spirit of the foot-notes, will be a valuable acquisition. This publication is remarkably cheap; and

The Mayor of Garratt; a Comedy, by Samuel Foote.
With an Historical Account of the Mock Election. With
Designs by R. Seymour. London. Alfred Miller.
1831.

THE series of reprints of our best farces, with illustra-、 tions by George Cruikshank, must necessarily amuse. They perpetuate Mathews and Liston. The series "started through Highgate to beat them," of which the Mayor of Garratt is the first, is scarcely of equal merit, but still sufficiently laughable.

MISCELLANEOUS LITERATURE.

THE WALCHEREN EXPEDITION.

By a Medical Officer.

DEPARTURE FROM ENGLAND.'

THE first battalion of the th regiment of foot marched from Margate on the 15th of July, and was embarked at Ramsgate the same day, in four divisions, on board as many transports. The general good behaviour both of officers and men while in quarters, and the knowledge that we were immediately going on the service of our country, excited in the breasts of the inhabitants an interest towards us most gratifying to the feelings of a soldier. About midnight we set sail, and by five o'clock on the morning of Sunday the 16th, we anchored in the Downs, two miles and a half from Deal.

We remained inactive at this station for nearly two weeks. Our time passed monotonously enough, between writing to our friends at home, and paying daily visits to the shore. On the 24th, orders were received by Commodore Owen, that all officers on board the Transports under his command, or, in other words, all who were attached to the division under the Marquis of Huntly, should sleep on board their respective ships. On the 25th, Lord Chatham arrived, and established his headquarters at Deal. These events gave room to hope that we should be speedily under weigh, for we were heartily tired of our situation; the irksomeness of which was not a little heightened by the fact, that every one, high and

war; but none of our military men have as yet favoured us with • We have been inundated lately with memoirs of the Peninsular their reminiscences of Walcheren. The history of that expedition must still be sought in Parliamentary debates of the period, and in a masterly article which appeared in No. XXXIV. of the Edinburgh Review. The series of papers, the first of which is given above, it from the pen of an intelligent eye-witness, who has since risen high in his profession; and who is alike esteemed as a man and a physi cian. We give them, not because we delight any more than others to dwell upon the misfortunes of our country, but because they seem the men who then held the reins of empire. They are matter of well calculated to cast a side-light upon the character and merits of history-Ed. Lit. Jour.

At last the troops were all embarked. They consisted of five divisions-each of two brigades; a division of light troops, of three; and the reserve also of three. Lieutenant-General the Earl of Chatham was, as I have mentioned above, commander-in-chief; Sir Eyre Coote was second in command. Sir J. Craddock commanded "It may, perhaps, be agreeable to our readers to be put the first division; the Marquis of Huntly the second; in possession of the rise and progress of the Board of TrusLord Grosvenor the third; Lieutenant-General M'Ken-tees. The following short history will not detain them zie Fraser the fourth; and