"Is there no bard of heavenly power poffeft, And mount, like Uriel, on the golden beam." P. g. If it would fatisfy the author to tell how often we are condemned to read verfes infinitely inferior to thefe, words worfe chofen, periods worfe arranged, we could produce fuch inftances without number; yet after all we cannot honcitly praife her poem. Beyond the track of common place we never find her wander; and though her memory feems stored with the most approved artifices of poetic ityle, the whole fails of effect. From what caufe this failure arifes we forbear to fay; but we confess that we fee, without pleasure, the intimation of a volume by the fame writer. TRAVELS. ART. 17. The Real State of France, in the Year 1809; with an Account of the Treatment of the Prifoners of War, and Perfons otherwife detained in France. By Charles Sturt, Efq. late M. P. for Bridport, refident in France before the War, and detained nearly eleven Years as a Hiftage. Second edition. 8vo. 168. pp. Ridgway. 1810. Mr. Sturt naturally incenfed against the tyrant, from whofe fhameless injuftice he has been a fufferer fo many years, is indig. nant and aftonished, as well he may be, that there fhould be found in England any panegyrifts of fuch an offender. He difclaims, in a manly way, all pretenfions to elegance and even correctness of ftyle, and profeffes only to offer truth to the perufal of his country. men. "The multiplicity of my private concerns," he fays, “after a painful and long captivity, will not now allow me time to revife what I write; but I claim credit for the truth of my ftatements," Thefe ftatements, rather defultory in the mode of delivering them, go principally to prove thefe points; that France is impoverished and unhappy under the domination of Buonaparte; that the French in general deteft his character, and are ashamed of his perfidy; and that the treatment of the English, whether prifoners of war, or arbitrarily detained, is vexatious and cruel in the extreme. The laft of thefe, indeed, is a fact of which Mr. S. is able to speak by melancholy experience; the others are opinions, collected probably on good grounds, and we doubt not fundamentally true; but not fo implicitly to be received, on on the teftimony of a foreigner, confined in one corner of France, as what he afferts from perfonal knowledge. The following ftatement coincides fo exactly with what we have heard from other quarters, that we cannot doubt the exactnefs of it. "One of the most formidable engines of tyranny in France is the military police, called the gendarmes; they excite the dread and hatred of the whole nation. Their employment is to fearch for murderers, thieves, confcripts; and they are alfo employed to execute the dreadful orders of Buonaparte. This increafes that fear, hatred, and contempt, fo univerfally felt. principled in general, of courfe corrupt and treacherous, they accept your bribe, and betray you afterwards. However their establishment is too important for the fafety of the tyrant's power to be put down; for it is chiefly this honourable corps that fecures him on his ufurped throne. In every town, city, village, or commune throughout the departments, thefe inftruments of tyranny are establithed, and being in general artful men and very poor, they exercife tyranny equal to their ruler To every coffee-houfe, and every place of public amufeinent they have accefs, under the pretence of preferving peace and order; they establish idle and worthlefs people in every public houfe, and hotel, as fpies who make their reports, often from pique and malice, or to prove their zeal. The fame fyftem is established by feducing the fervants of every family to report what is faid at table, of whatever nature; thefe reports, true or false, are fent to the minifter of police, who without notice, and even without enquiry, fends an order to arreft the whole family, often in the dead of night: this dreadful tyranny is exercised fo inftantaneously that the unhappy people are never aware of the blow until it is ftruck. If any obfervations have been made on Buona parte or his government, or on his favourites, they never fee the light again, nor can a friend trace them out." P. 55. Mr. S. gives feveral atrocious inftances of extortion, practifed upon the English detained in France, which fell under his own knowledge. He is of opinion that better treatment for the English can only be gained by retaliation, which therefore he strongly advifes. The whole forms a very curious document. INDIA. ART. 18. A Letter from an Officer at Madras to a Friend formerly in that Service, now in England, exhibiting an unbiaffed Account, and fupported by authentic Documents, of the Rife, Progress, and actual State, of the late unfortunate Infurrection in the Indian Army. 8vo. 116 pp. 35. 6d. Murray. 1810. The late infurrection of a part of the Madras army having been happily terminated with little bloodshed, and the offenders in gr Dd 2 neral neral having experienced the moft indulgent lenity from govern ment, we could have wished that the causes which produced it had also been buried in oblivion. The writer before us appears to be of a different opinion; and indeed his letter was manifeftly written before the ferment of paffions occafioned by this unhappy conteft could have time to fubfide. Admitting therefore (as he does very fully) the guilt of refiftance to the civil authority, and declaring the guilty perfons to have juftly incurred "the extremity of legal punishment," this officer proceeds to relate a number of tranfactions, which, if they do not palliate the conduct of the offenders, certainly throw great odium on the measures of the civil government. Thofe measures (according to the reprefentations of this writer) were, generally fpeaking, injudicious, and, in fome inftances, illiberal and unjuft. Equal, if not greater blame, ap. plies, we think, to the late commander in chief, if (as this author ftates) to maintain that influence of which he had been deprived by a change in the conftitution of the army, he courted popularity with the officers at large, lamented, without referve, his inability to fupport their interefts in council, commented on the degrada tion of the army in the perfon of their commander in chief, and, affuming the character of their reprefentative, induced them, without reflecting on the abfolute abfurdity of the term, to confider the alteration which had been made in the conftitution of the local government as a real military grievance." If fuch was really his conduct, we cannot wonder at the difcontent of the army, but are rather furprifed that it did not produce more extensive mifchief. The author proceeds to fhow the expediency of the commander in chief being (as formerly) admitted to a feat in the fupreme council: but his arguments, in our opinion, only prove that he fhould be confulted by that body in all matters of a military nature, and that his information and opinion fhould have confiderable weight. So far as we can judge, fuch a fyftem would be preferable to that which made him, in all matters, civil as well as military, one of the fupreme government. But this is a queftion out of our province to decide. It would be painful, and is now, we truft, unneceffary, to dwell on the mutual caufes of diffatisfaction, which from that period arose between the civil and military authorities in that country. They are detailed with great perfpicuity, and explained with confiderable ability in the letter before us. It is proper, however, to caution the reader against too implicit a reliance on the reprefentations of this writer. For, although he is decided, and even vehement, on the neceffity of enforcing the fubordination of the military to the civil powers, yet in reprefenting the conduct of the latter, he appears to us rather inclined to exaggerate fuch errors as were committed, and to impute motives which perhaps did not exift. This work therefore, though it may be read for information, fhould not be relied on as authority; as it proceeds proceeds from a quarter where it is not reasonable to expect perfect impartiality. NAVY. ART. 19. The Subßtance of a Speech delivered by the Right. Hon. 1810. The fpeech before us is prefatory to a motion in the House of Peers, for an addrefs to his Majefty, praying that an account of fuch steps if any, as had been taken, in addition to those al. ready communicated, towards carrying into execution the propofals of the Commifiioners of Naval Revifion, might be laid before that Houfe. It ftates the origin, objects, and fome of the proceedings of that Commiffion, in order to fhow that, instead of merely adopting thofe parts of the Reports of the Com. miffioners which appeared to claim immediate attention, and fuffering the remainder to wait for fubfequent confideration. (which feems to have been the courfe purfued by the Admiralty and Privy Council) a complete revifal of the whole fhould take place in a committee of the Privy Council, for the purpofe not only of making fuch alterations in the parts already put in force as experience may have pointed out, but of determining which of the remaining fuggeftions fhould be carried into effect.-It is but juftice to fay that this fpeech, though neceffarily involving dry details, is not wanting in that perfpicuity and ftrength of reafoning which diftinguish the noble fpeaker. Although the propriety of giving the fubject a further confideration was not, we believe, difputed, the motion was deemed, at the prefent period, unneceffary, and was therefore fet afide by the previous question. ART. 20. A Letter from the Right Hon. Lord Viscount Melville to the Right Hon. Spencer Perceval, relative to the Establishment of a Naval Arfenal at Northfleet. 4to. pp. 48. 2s. 6d. Bagfter. 1810. From the nature and object of the Letter before us, it may not perhaps be deemed, ftrictly fpeaking, a fit fubject for literary criticifm; more efpecially as it is founded on one of the Reports of the Commiffioners of Naval Revifion; which, as public do cuments, extending to a variety of official details, it would not perhaps have been decent, nor certainly (within our limits) prac ticable, to difcufs. Yet as, by the publication of this Letter, the noble author feems to appeal, not only to the judgment of the Minifter whom he addrefes, but alfo to that of the nation, we deem it our duty to give a view, however imperfect, of its important contents. This addrefs to the Chancellor of the Exchequer states (in friendly and respectful terms) the urgent neceffity of establishing an extenfive naval arfenal at Northfleet, on the river Thames, grounded on the Fifteenth Report of the Commiffioners for revifing and digefting the Civil Concerns of the Navy. Report has not yet been printed, nor indeed laid before Parlia ment; but the noble author of this Letter, after premifing that nothing contained in it is of a nature to require fecrecy, enters fully into the reafons for the measure therein propofed. The first establishment of a royal dock-yard was, it feems, that of Deptford, in the reign of Henry VIII. who alfo formed two other of our fix naval arfenals, thofe at Woolwich and Portsmouth. That of Chatham, it is flated, was founded by Queen Elizabeth, Sheernefs in the reign of Charles II. and Ply, mouth by King William III. The progreffive advance of our navy, from the earliest of thofe periods, is next adverted to ; and it appears, that its tonnage, at the death of Henry VIII. in 1547, amounted to about 12,460 tons; that it gradually increafed till, in 1809, it was estimated at 800,000 tons; and that, notwithstanding this vaft increase of our navy, not a fingle dock. yard has been added fince the reign of William III. when the tonnage of the royal navy amounted to no more than 160,000 tons. The noble writer, indeed, admits that fome few docks and flips have been added, and fome ftorehouses built; but thefe additions, he infifts, have by no means kept pace with the aug ̈mentation of the British navy. The Letter now calls our attention to the material defects in our prefent dock-yards, in order to prove the neceffity of a new and extenfive naval arfenal. The firft of thefe defects is, the want of a fufficient depth of water in the vicinity of the prefent dock-yards. This, it ap pears, has been afcertained by the reports of very able engineers, and applies peculiarly to three of the four eaftern yards, namely thofe of Deptford, Woolwich, and Chatham. The causes to which it is faccording to all appearance juftly) afcribed, show that it is muft unavoidably increafe, and that it threatens fpeedily to render thefe three yards totally unfit for large fhips of war. The fame defect appears to exift at Portsmouth; but there it admits of a remedy, fo far at leaft as to prevent its increafe. In confequence of this defect, the fhips fitted at each of the four yards enumerated, are obliged to proceed to a confiderable dif tance before they can receive their guns and ftores. The delay, inconvenience, expence, and loffes, arifing from this circumftance, are fully detailed and forcibly urged by the noble author. Similar inconveniences, and an additional expence, arife from the fame cause when fhips are ordered into dock to be repaired, or paid off; and (what feems to us of great moment) this confi deration |