have been suffered in all the sad variety of pain,' before 150,000 souls could be annually demanded by the destroyer from one nation. It is not the numbers who fall in action, in the heat of blood and enthusiasm of glory, that form this tremendous amount; they are but a small proportion to those who, in the course of every campaign, sink under neglected wounds, want, fatigue, and disease; who die miserably, deprived of the friendly offices which soothe the last moments of life, and without that elation of spirit which in the hour of battle causes insensibility to every thing else. M. Dupin's second volume is principally composed of his account of the military colleges and schools, the fortifications and arsenals of this country, all which he appears to have visited and examined with his usual intelligence. He has also several chapters on the Force Morale,' as he terms it, of the army, in which he takes occasion to condemn the corporal punishment of our soldiery, (the necessity of which this is not the place to determine,) although it has often been maintained to be unavoidable by those to whose judgment and experience M. Dupin must excuse us if we bow, in preference to his opinions, even though supported by the arguments and tender tears of Sir Francis Burdett. M. Dupin appears, from his minute detail of our establishments for military education, to be fully aware of their importance as branches of his subject, and his notice of them will be found highly interesting. After mentioning the colleges at some length, he enters into an account of the practical school for the sappers, miners, &c. at Chatham, under the able direction of Colonel Pasley of the Engineers, who has done much for the service. Instruction is there given on all the points in which we were formerly so deficient -the laying of pontoon and other bridges-the construction of field-works, sapping, mining, &c. The following account of Colonel Pasley's method is worth extracting. 'Onexerce les ouvriers à des manœuvres plus difficiles et plus périlleuses. Le pont de Rochester, au-dessus de Chatham, ayant des piles épaisses et des arches fort étroites, suivant que la marée descend ou monte, il s'établit, au-dessus ou au-dessous de ce pont, un courant ou un contrecourant, d'une extrême vélocité. C'est là qu'on fait faire les manœuvres de pontons, qu'il faut exécuter sur les torrens les plus rapides. Malgré le danger de ces travaux, les précautions sont si bien prises et les moyens si perfectionnés, qu'il n'arrive, pour ainsi dire, presque jamais d'accidens.' 'On doit voir, par tous ces détails, quels soins le département de l'ordonnance apporte à l'instruction pratique de ses troupes du génie. Dans l'exécution de tous les travaux d'exercice, on s'efforce d'atteindre à la plus grande perfection. A mesure que les ouvriers se familiarisent avec les travaux, ils apprennent à faire vîte et bien, ce que d'abord ils ont appris seulement à bien faire.' 'On 'On habitue, avec le plus grand soin, les officiers, les sous-officiers et les soldats à la plus stricte économie dans l'emploi des bois, des cordages, des outils nécessaires aux opérations. On fait tout avec méthode et prévoyance. On blâme, on réprimande, et s'il y a lieu, on punit comme une faute, la négligence, et même le simple oubli, s'il porte sur des objets dont il est essentiel de se munir à l'avance.'vol. ii. p. 77. After the description of our arsenals, which are spoken of with the admiration they so well merit, we meet with the following facts; we quote them with pride, for who can read them without being filled with admiration at the power and resources of the country which was capable of such efforts? 'Pour montrer avec quelle extension le gouvernement britannique a mis en exécution le plan gigantesque d'être le dépôt, la manufacture, la place d'armes et le foyer de la guerre européenne, il suffit de jeter les yeux sur le tableau suivant: Armes fournies aux alliés et aux troupes nationales de la Grande- 'Jusqu'en 1812, la consommation moyenne de la poudre pendant la dernière guerre était de 80,000 barils par an. Mais en 1813 et 1814, la consommation fut beaucoup plus considérable. La guerre d'Allemagne (dit le département de l'ordonnance dans son mémoire déjà cité) avait pris un aspect gigantesque; des nations entières allaient se lever en masse; elles ne manquaient que de moyens d'armement. On n'en sera point surpris, si l'on réfléchit que Buonaparte était maître de toutes les ressources que peuvent fournir les fabriques de Hollande et d'une grande partie de l'Allemagne, tandis qu'il avait deux fois épuisé les arsenaux et les magasins de l'Autriche, et une fois ceux de la Prusse. La population armée de la Russie avait toujours été disproportionée avec ses moyens d'armement. Enfin, les nouveaux alliés comptaient sur l'Angleterre, pour suffire à leurs besoins: et l'événement a prouvé que leur attente n'a pas été trompée.'-vol. ii. p. 127. We ought perhaps, after expressing our favourable opinion of M. Dupin, to point out some of the mistakes into which he has fallen, from inadvertence; for instance, he evidently imagines (vol. i. pp. 77, 78.) that the purchase of commissions is universal in the service, that promotion is not to be had without money, and always to to be procured with it; a supposition which most of our readers know to be perfectly erroneous. There are other errors in his work; it is only surprising that there are so few. We have insensibly exceeded our limits; but before we close the present subject it may not be amiss to say a few words on the alarm which is constantly sought to be excited by the bugbear of a standing army. When such a description of men was little known in the other states of Europe, and England was without foreign possessions, a permanent force during peace might be suspicious and perhaps dangerous; but what has this to do with England in the nineteenth century? To listen to the fearful prognostics unremittingly poured forth on this subject, it might be imagined that we had a million of men arrayed against the liberties of the country. But what is the fact?-For the maintenance of tranquillity in aid of the civil power, in times when the spirit of opposition to all that is venerable in divine and human institutions is roaming through every corner of the land, what is the peace establishment for three kingdoms? The 20,000 men for India cannot be considered as forming any part of the disposable strength of the army; and if we deduct the necessary force to protect the colonies, Canada, the West Indies, the Cape; the garrisons of St. Helena, Gibraltar, Malta, the Ionian Islands, &c., of the total of 81,000 men voted for the year 1821, scarcely as large a force remains for home-service as might be levied in one English county! Would it not be preposterous to talk of danger to a free peopleto a people like the British-from such a cause, even were that force composed of the most unprincipled ruffians of the revolutionary school? But we know, on the contrary, that our army is made up of men of all parties; that there is scarcely a family in the united kingdom without one or more members of it in the service ; and that the officers, connected and intermingled as they are with private life, are as completely its citizens as if they had never worn a sword. In a word, we should feel happy if we could divest ourselves of the persuasion, that many of those who profess such instinctive horror of a standing force, were not infinitely more dangerous to the liberties of the country than the gallant spirits who compose the British army at this day. Look at the habits of these men: far from affecting that air of supercilious pride and disdain for every class but themselves, by which the continental officers and even soldiery are distinguished, there is nothing in their deportment or general conduct which can be at all offensive to the sober citizen. So little assumption of superiority, indeed, is there in our military, that even in Paris, in 1815, after they had entered it in the triumph of conquest, no one could have supposed, from the appearance of the British officers and soldiers in the streets, that that they were other than friendly visitors. Whilst every little act, nay every look, of the Prussian and Russian soldiery was big with insult and contempt towards the French, our countrymen walked among the vanquished in quiet unassuming good nature. We cannot, perhaps, close our extracts and our strictures more appositely than by placing before the reader what M. Dupin says of our military in this respect. 'Le gouvernement britannique a trouvé le secret de constituer une armée redoutable seulement aux peuples étrangers, et qui regarde, comme une partie de sa gloire, l'obéissance à l'autorité civile de sa patrie.' Ces nobles sentimens sont empreints sur la physionomie du militaire. Il n'a pas cet aspect menaçant et farouche que, trop souvent, sur le continent Européen, on prend pour l'attitude martiale. Son regard insolent ne va pas toiser les hommes et les femmes, avec cette arrogance qui semble dire, C'est moi qui suis la force et la terreur . . . .. • Dès qu'un officier Anglais arrive dans la capitale, à moins d'être de service, il quitte ses armes, son uniforme et ses décorations: son costume ne diffère alors pas plus de celui d'un simple citoyen, que le frac tout uni d'un membre du parlement ou d'un prince du sang." 'Aussi, malgré les déclamations des démagogues et des prétendus réformateurs radicaux, qui cherchent à renverser la constitution, les citoyens les plus jaloux de leur liberté ne craignent point l'armée Anglaise, telle qu'elle est maintenant organisée.'-(vol. ii. pp. 35. 40. ART. V.-The Etonian, Nos. I.-VII. THE work before us professes to have originated in a desire of vindicating the fair fame of Mater Etona' from the stigma cast upon it by the alleged deficiencies of a previous publication, claiming, like the present, to be considered as the representative of the wit and literature of Eton. This motive, assisted no doubt by that last infirmity of noble minds,' the desire of appearing in print, induced a knot of unfledged literati, with the occasional assistance of some of their former companions at the University, to set on foot a monthly miscellany, of which the seventh number is now before us. It is obvious that in such a case the common law of literature, by which periodical publications are exempt from the cognizance of each other, is suspended; criticism here is not merely justified, but invited. Though there are many interesting points of view, however, in which the work may be considered, it is our intention, for the present at least, to confine ourselves principally to its literary merits. The Etonian,' by a common fiction, purports to issue from a regularly organized literary confederacy, meeting periodically at Eton; and each number is prefaced with an official report of the sittings sittings of this miniature synod. Of these debates we are compelled to say, that they are much too noisy and Bacchanalian for our taste; and that the attempt to be facetious, which pervades them, is too often nothing more than an attempt.* From this censure we are bound in justice to exempt several of the latter numbers, as well as the sketches of character occasionally interspersed, and which, we think, could not easily be improved. The work itself is divided into prose and poetry; the former consisting of tales, moral essays, criticisms, and delineations of life and manners. Of these, the last-mentioned class form by far the most considerable portion, and may be said to give a tone and character to the publication. They are for the most part, as the uniformity of manner sufficiently indicates, the work of one hand; and the youthful vivacity, the power of humorous sketching, and the knowledge of life and character displayed in them, though somewhat marred in their effect by an inordinate passion for quibbles, which the author pours forth at intervals with a perverse and reckless pertinacity, indicate a talent for light composition, which, if properly cultivated, may raise the young writer to a competition with Geoffry Crayon himself, in a walk of literature at present not much frequented by our countrymen. We may also specify, among his other accomplishments, an elegant facility, which renders even negligence and extravagance graceful, and an occasional tenderness which contrasts very happily with his more mirthful strain. This is indeed a faculty which, by some law of association, seems almost inseparable from genuine humour. Of his prose performances we extract the following specimens; premising that there are several paintings of manners by the same or other artists, which, if our limits allowed, we would gladly cite; such are ' Miseries of the Christmas Holidays,'' A Party at the Pelican,'' Visit to a Country Fair,' &c. 'In a visit which we paid some time ago to our worthy contributor, Morris Gowan, we became acquainted with two characters; upon whom, as they afford a perfect counterpart to Messrs. " Rhyme and Reason," recorded in No. I. we have bestowed the names of Sense and Sensibility. The Misses Lowrie, of whom we are about to give our readers an account, are both young, both handsome, both amiable: nature made the outline of their characters the same; but education has varied the colouring. Their mother died almost before they were able to profit by her example or instruction. Emily, the eldest of the sisters, was brought up under the immediate care of her father. He was a man of We cannot help recommending, likewise, the removal of the unsightly, and indeed somewhat unseemly emblem which at present disfigures the title-page. Why should not the distant spires' and antique towers' themselves grace the front of their own publication? strong |