pense of shells and round shot; but the quantity of grape and musketry aimed at our particular heads, made a good concert of first and second whistles, while the more sonorous voice of the round shot, travelling to our friends on the left, acted as a thorough bass; and there was not a shell, that passed over us to the trenches, that did not send back a fragment among us as soon as it burst, as if to gratify a curiosity that I was far from expressing.

We went into the cottage soon after dark, to partake of something that had been prepared for dinner; and, when in the middle of it, a round shot passed through both walls, immediately over our heads, aud garnished the soup with a greater quantity of our parent earth than was quite palatable. We were relieved, as usual, by the first division, at ten next morning; and, to avoid as much as possible the destructive fire from the walls, they sent forward only three or four men at a time, and we sent ours away in the same proportions.

Every thing is by comparison in this world, and it is curious to observe how men's feelings change with circumstances. In cool blood a man would rather go a little out of his way than expose himself to unnecessary danger; but we found, this morning, that by crossing the river where we then were, and running the gauntlet for a mile, exposed to the fire of two pieces of artillery, that we should be saved the distance of two or three miles in returning to our quarters. After coming out of such a furnace as we had been frying in, the other fire was not considered a fire at all, and we passed without a moment's hesitation.'-pp. 104-107.

The capture of Ciudad Rodrigo was one of the most gallant things that occurred during the peninsular war. Our author had the good fortune to be one of the officers who headed the storming party, and was thus in the thickest part of the fight, which, with his usual tact, he places before us in his easy and animated description. To this brilliant affair succeeded the storming and capture of Badajos, and, after an interval of some months, the important battle of Salamanca. It is remarked by our author, that the Wellington victories were usually preceded by a grand thunder storm. That which occurred before the battle of Salamanca, was a fit precursor of the bloody day which was at hand. We suppose that the finest military spectacles which the history of war presents, were those that took place, by way of defiance, between the two assembled hosts before they actually rushed to the contest. French, under Marmont, on coming within sight of the allied troops, endeavoured to turn their left, and, in making a counteracting movement, the two armies were marching in parallel lines, close to each other, on a perfect plain, each ready to take advantage of the other, and exchanging round shot as they moved along! Those lines were, however, soon to take a very different direction. Lord Wellington, by one of those masterly movements which decide the fate of nations, rapidly drew a division from his left to his extreme right, and turning the enemy in their attempt to turn him, almost instantaneously routed them with tremendous slaughter. The road to Madrid was then open.

The

We are rather surprised that our Rifleman, who displays, now and then, a scintilla of taste, saw nothing in the Escurial, on his way to the capital, worth looking at, except the apartment in which the Spanish dead Kings live.' The pantheon is certainly a magnificent structure; but the temple, the sacristy, the libraries, and the great hall and stair-case of the Convent, are things not to be met with every day, and at which, at all events, a Rifleman, who was so long accustomed to the bivouac, had but little right to turn up his nose.

The campaign, which had hitherto proceeded so prosperously, became clouded towards its close. The junction of the forces under Soult and Jourdan, and their movement on Aranjuez, compelled the Allies to retreat to Salamanca and Ciudad, followed closely by the French dragoons. Some idea may be formed of the charms of a soldier's life upon a retreat, from the following account of what befel our Captain.

'When the firing ceased, we received the usual order "to make ourselves comfortable for the night," and I never remember an instance in which we had so much difficulty in obeying it; for the ground we occupied was a perfect flat, which was flooded more than ankle-deep with water, excepting here and there, where the higher ground around the roots of trees, presented circles of a few feet of visible earth, upon which we grouped ourselves. Some few fires were kindled, at which we roasted some bits of raw beef on the points of our swords, and eat them by way of a dinner. There was plenty of water to apologize for the want of better fluids, but bread sent no apology at all.

'Some divisions of the army had commenced retiring as soon as it was dark, and the whole had been ordered to move, so that the roads might be clear for us before daylight. I was sent twice in the course of the night to see what progress they had made; but such was the state of the roads, that even within an hour of daylight, two divisions, besides our own, were still unmoved, which would consequently delay us so long, that we looked forward to a severe harassing day's fighting; a kind of fighting, too, that is the least palatable of any, where much might be lost, and nothing was to be gained. With such prospects before us, it made my very heart rejoice to see my brigadier's servant commence boiling some chocolate and frying a beef-steak. I watched its progress with a keenness which intense hunger alone could inspire, and was on the very point of having my desires consummated, when the general, getting uneasy at not having received any communication relative to the movements of the morning, and, without considering how feelingly my stomach yearned for a better acquaintance with the contents of his frying pan, desired me to ride to General Alten for orders. I found the General at a neighbouring tree; but he cut off all hopes of my timely return, by desiring me to remain with him until he received the report of an officer whom he had sent to ascertain the progress of the other divisions.

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'While I was toasting myself at his fire, so sharply set that I could have eaten one of my boots, I observed his German orderly dragoon, at an adjoining fire, stirring up the contents of a camp-kettle, that once more revived my departing hopes, and I presently had the satisfaction of seeing

him dipping in some basins, presenting one to the General, one to the Aide-de-Camp, and a third to myself. The mess which it contained I found, after swallowing the whole at a draught, was neither more nor less than the produce of a piece of beef boiled in plain water; and, though it would have been enough to have physicked a dromedary at any other time, yet, as I could then have made a good hole in the dromedary bimself, it sufficiently satisfied my cravings to make me equal to any thing for the remainder of the day.'-pp. 188—191.

At the commencement of the campaign of 1813, which was to consist of such a brilliant series of victories, the division to which our author belonged was reviewed by their great leader. It did one's very heart good,' he proudly exclaims, to look at our battalion that day, seeing each company standing a hundred strong, and the intelligence of several campaigns stamped on each daring, bronzed countenance, which looked you boldly in the face, in the fullness of vigour and confidence, as if it cared neither for man nor devil.' It was now the turn of the British to become the pursuers; the French literally evaporated before them as they advanced, until they arrived near Vittoria, where the battle, that ultimately hurled Buonaparte from his throne, was fought. A ludicrous circumstance took place at Salinas :

On the early part of the 19th, we were fagging up the face of a mountain, under the sultry hot sun, until we came to a place where a beautiful clear stream was dashing down the face of it, when the division was halted, to enable the men to refresh themselves. Every man carries a cup, and every man ran and swallowed a cup full of it; it was salt water from the springs of Salinas; and it was truly ludicrous to see their faces after taking such a voluntary dose. I observed an Irishman, who, not satisfied with the first trial, and believing that his cup had been infected by some salt breaking loose in his haversack, washed it carefully, and then drank a second one, when, finding no change, he exclaimed,—“ by Js, boy, we must be near the sea, for the water's getting salt!" We, soon after, passed through the village of Salinas, situated at the source of the stream, where there is a considerable salt mauufactory. The inhabitants were so delighted to see us, that they placed buckets full of it at the doors of the different houses, and entrea'ed our men to help themselves as they passed along.'-pp. 211, 212.

We shall not follow Captain Kincaid through the various battles in which he participated after leaving Vittoria, until he reached the banks of the Garonne. It would be, however, an injustice to him and his fearless companions in arms to pass over a very brilliant affair in which they were concerned near the town of Tarbes, in March, 1814:

While we were marching along the road, near the town of Tarbes, we saw what appeared to be a small piquet of the enemy, on the top of a hill to our left, looking down upon us, when a company of our second battalion was immediately sent to dislodge them. The enemy, however, increased in number, in proportion to those sent against them, until not only the whole of the second, but our own, and the third battalion were eventually

brought into action; and still we had more than double our number opposed to us; but we, nevertheless, drove them from the field with great slaughter, after a desperate struggle of a few minutes, in which we had eleven officers killed and wounded. As this fight was purely a rifle one, and took place within sight of the whole army, I may be justified in giving the following quotation from the author of "Twelve Years' Military Adventure," who was a spectator, and who, in allusion to this affair, says, "Our rifles were immediately sent to dislodge the French from the hills on our left, and our battalion was ordered to support them. Nothing could exceed the manner in which the ninety-fifth set about the business. Certainly I never saw such skirmishers as the ninety-fifth, now the rifle brigade. They could do the work much better and with infinitely less loss than any other of our best light troops. They possessed an individual boldness, a mutual understanding, and a quickness of eye in taking advantage of the ground, which, taken altogether, I never saw equalled. They were, in fact, as much superior to the French voltigeurs, as the latter were to our skirmishers in general. As our regiment was often employed in supporting them, I think I am fairly qualified to speak of their merits."

We followed the enemy until dark, when, after having taken up our ground and lit our fires, they rather maliciously opened a cannonade upon us; but, as few of their shots took effect, we did not put ourselves to the inconvenience of moving, and they soon desisted.'-pp. 287-239.

Captain Kincaid is a most fortunate fellow. After earning so many titles to renown in the Peninsula and the south of France, he was called into the field again, by the return of Buonaparte from Elba.

His narrative of the battle of Waterloo is, as usual, highly picturesque and distinct; but that battle has been so often sung in prose and verse, though not oftener than it deserved, that we shall only give the author's introduction to the perils of the day. It reminds us of one of those quiet landscapes which the Italian painters were so fond of opening through a window, when they wished to relieve the eye from the glare of a gorgeous painting

When I awoke this morning, at day-light, I found myself drenched with rain. I had slept so long and so soundly that I had, at first, but a very confused notion of my situation; but having a bright idea that my horse had been my companion when I went to sleep, I was rather startled at finding that I was now alone; nor could I rub my eyes clear enough to procure a sight of him, which was vexatious enough; for, independent of his value as a horse, his services were indispensable; and an Adjutant might as well think of going into action without his arms as without such a supporter. But whatever my feelings might have been towards him, it was evident that he had none for me, from having drawn his sword and marched off. The chances of finding him again, amid ten thousand others, were about equal to the odds against the needle in a bundle of hay; but for once the single chance was gained, as, after a diligent search of an hour, he was discovered between two artillery horses, about half a mile from where he broke loose.

The weather cleared up as the morning advanced; and, though every thing remained quiet at the moment, we were confident that the day

would not pass off without an engagement, and, therefore, proceeded to put our arms in order, as, also, to get ourselves dried and made as comfortable as circumstances would permit.

'We made a fire against the wall of Sir Andrew Barnard's cottage, and boiled a huge camp-kettle full of tea, mixed up with a suitable quantity of milk and sugar for breakfast; and, as it stood on the edge of the high road, where all the big-wigs of the army had occasion to pass, in the early part of the morning, I believe almost every one of them, from the Duke downwards, claimed a cupful.

• About nine o'clock, we received an order to retain a quantity of spare ammunition, in some secure place, and to send every thing in the shape of baggage and baggage-animals to the rear. It, therefore, became evident that the Duke meant to give battle in his present position; and it was, at the same time, generally understood that a corps of thirty thousand Prussians were moving to our support.

About ten o'clock, an unusual bustle was observable among the staffofficers, and we soon after received an order to stand to our arms. The troops who had been stationed in our front during the night were then moved off to the right, and our division took up its fighting position.'pp. 327-330.

The reader, perhaps, will now agree with us that we have not overpraised the Adventures in the Rifle Brigade.' We have placed it in our library by the side of the "Subaltern," and not far from Napier, our Captain being just such a companion as these gentlemen must feel, we should think, at least as much delighted with as we have been.

ART. VII.-1. On Financial Reform. By Sir Henry Parnell, Bart., M.P. 8vo. pp. 352. London: Murray. 1830.

2. On the Distressed State of the Country. By a Merchant. 8vo. pp. 62. London: T. and G. Underwood. 1830.

THERE is, in the two works whose titles we have just transcribed, a greater portion of sound sense, of sterling knowledge, and practical utility, than in all the other books and pamphlets put together which have been published, on the hacknied subjects of finance and distress, during the last three or four years. Sir Henry Parnell's work we look upon as a manual, in its way. It guides us, with a masterly hand, through all the intricacies of the public income and expenditure, and, avoiding the jargon of political economy, it announces the leading principles of taxation, and of the management of the national treasure, in language which all may understand. Such a book as this could only be the result of the most laborious investigation. The difficulty was, to put the materials thus acquired, extensive and complicated as they must have been, into a popular form, which might not only secure to it general attention, but, after informing minds beyond the walls of the legislature, bring them to bear with the force which public