quest lessened; in short, he displayed a greater degree of obstinacy than talent, throughout the whole of this enterprise, Even the measures which he took to accomplish the object which he had in view, were not characterized by common prudence or skill; his loss of temper had so completely darkened his understanding, and rendered useless his military talents and experience.

To the general feelings of approbation which the conduct of Sir Sidney Smith on this occasion excited in the hearts of his countrymen, the debates of parliament bore unequivocal testimony. His Majesty himself, on the opening of the session in September following, noticed the heroism of this officer, and the advantage which the nation had derived from his success. The gratitude of the nation, and of both houses of parliament were unanimous; and Sir Sidney, with the British officers, seamen, and troops under his command, received a vote of thanks from both branches of the legisla

ture.

wars.

HORRORS OF WAR.

PERHAPS the sufferings of the people of Saxony have exceeded those of any other country, in consequence of the late In illustration of this assertion, we present our readers with the following extract from a small publication, which narrated the military proceedings in and about Leipsic, during the month of October, 1813, and which proved a successful appeal to British benevolence in behalf of the wretched sufferers. In stating the rapacity of the French soldiery, the narrator proceeds thus :-" It is a great misfortune for a country, when, in the time of war, the supply of the troops is left to themselves by the military authorities, and when that supply is calculated only from one day to another; but this calamity has no bounds when they are French troops who attack your stores. It is not enough for them to satisfy the calls of appetite; every article is an object of their rapacity; nothing whatever is left to the plundered victim. What they cannot cram into their knapsacks and cartouch-boxes is dashed to pieces and destroyed. Of the truth of this statement, the environs of Leipsic might

furnish a thousand proofs. The most fortunate of the inhabitants were those who in good time removed their stores and cattle to a place of safety, and left their houses to their fate. He who neglected this precaution, under the idea that the presence of the owner would be sufficient to restrain those locusts, of course lost all. No sooner had he satisfied one party, than another arrived to renew the demand; and thus they proceeded as long as a morsel or a drop was left in the house. When such a person had nothing more to give, he was treated with the utmost brutality, till at length, stripped of all, he was reluctantly compelled to abandon his home. If you should chance to find a horse or a cow here and there in the country round our city, imagine not that the animal was spared by French generosity; no such thing. The owner must assuredly have concealed it in some hiding-place, where it escaped the prying eyes of the French soldiers. Nothing-absolutely nothing -was spared; the meanest bedstead of the meanest beggar was broken up, as well as the most costly furniture from the apartments of the opulent. After they had slept on the beds in the bivouacs, as they could not carry them away, they ripped them open, consigned the feathers to the winds, and sold the bed clothes and ticking for a mere trifle. Neither the ox, nor the calf two days old; neither the ewe, nor the lamb scarcely able to walk; neither the brood hen, nor the tender chicken was spared. All were carried off indiscriminately; whatever had life was slaughtered; and the fields were covered with calves, lambs, and poultry, which the troops were unable to consume. The cattle, collected from far and near, were driven along in immense herds, as the rightful property of the army, with the baggage, Their cries for food in all the high roads were truly pitiable. Often did one of those wretches drive away several cows from the out-house of a little farmer, who in vain implored him upon his knees to spare his only means of subsistence, merely to sell them before his face for a disproportionate price. Hay, oats, and every species of corn were thrown unthrashed upon the ground, where they were consumed by the horses, or mostly trampled in the dirt;

and if these animals had stood for some days in the stable, and been supplied with forage by the peasant, the rider had frequently the impudence to require his host to pay for the dung. Woe to the field of cabbages, turnips, or potatoes, that happened to lie near a bivouac! It was covered in a trice with men and cattle, and in twenty-four hours there was not a plant to be seen. Fruit-trees were cut down and used for fuel, or in the erection of sheds, which were left perhaps as soon as they were finished. Though Saxony is one of the richest and most fertile provinces of Germany, and the vicinity of Leipsic has been remarkable for abundance, yet it cannot appear surprising, that with such wanton waste, famine, the most dangerous foe to an army, should have at length found its way into all the French camps. Barns, stables, and lofts were emptied; the fields were laid bare; and the inhabitants fled into the woods and the towns. Bread and other provisions had not been sent into our markets for several days, and thus it was now our turn to endure the pressure of hunger. The bakers of this place (Leipsic) were obliged to work up the small stock of flour in their possession for the troops; and all other persons were driven from the doors by the French guards with the butt end of their muskets; though the citizen who came in quest of bread had perhaps twenty men quartered upon him, who all expected him to find wherewith to satisfy their craving appetites."

SIXTY-FOURS IN DISGUISE;

A LONG-BOAT STORY.

"Don't tell me," said Fearnought Weatherall to his watch mates, assembled under the lee of the long boat, every man of whom had an old stocking about his neck, "don't tell me about Sixty-Fours in disguise; I have been on board the Constitution, the Yankees call her Old Ironsides, the pride of Boston; and I have been on board of the United States: they are thundering frigates to be sure, but they are not bigger than the Le Forte was, if they are so big; they don't carry more guns, nor do they carry heavier metal; and yet when we took the Le Forte, we heard nothing about' Sixty-Fours in disguise,'

not we. Our ship, the Le Sybille, you know, was a French frigate before we had her; and I believe she was taken by the Romney, 50, up the Mediterranean. Howsomever, she was what they call an eight-and-thirty, because she had fourteen ports of a side, besides the bridle-port ;-well, and the Guerriere, ' the Macedonian, and the Java, were just the same: they were all looked upon as a match for a French or Spanish 64, especially in any thing of a breeze, you know. But what's the use of talking about the size of a ship, the ship's company is every thing; and if there had not been so many English fighting, as it were, with halters about their necks, on board of the Yankee frigates, they would not have carried the swag as they did. No, no; look how we in the Sybille ripped up the Le Forte, and that, too, in a brace of shakes, although the Le Forte was laid down for an 84, on two decks, and mounted 56 guns, besides swivels, long French thirty-sixes on her main-deck, and forty-two pounder carronades on her quarter-deck and forecastle. Lord have mercy on us! there was smashing work! We got sight of her in the dog-watch, from four to six, and she lay-to for us, thinking we were an Indiaman; and we afterwards heard that her captain made cocksure of us; but he made a Scotch prize, as we shall presently see. Why, the d-d fool let his ship lay like a log upon the water, and never thought of filling to give her steerage-way, until it was too late; but then you know he thought it was an Indiaman he was about to deal with. Howsomever, he paid dearly enough for it, for the first broadside we gave her sent him to Glory!

"We expected tight work, and were prepared for it. It was dark before we got down to her; but not a light was to be seen on board of our ship. As soon as we got within hail she hailed us in French, and then in English; but we returned no answer. She fired a gun, but we heeded it not: and as she was laying-to on the larboard tack, we run down close under her stern, took the bags off our lanterns, and gave her a raking broadside, which, we afterwards heard, knocked out all her lights fore and aft. We then hauled to the wind on the starboard tack, crossed her stern

again, and gave her another raking broad-| side before they had time to recover from the confusion occasioned by the first. We then hove about, and brought-to upon her larboard quarter, and before you could say Jack Robinson, knocked five or six of her after-ports into one; but just at this time a barrel of musketcartridges, I think it was, blew up near our main-mast, which made the Crappos think we were on fire. They manned their rigging to give us three cheers; but we returned the compliment with a whole broadside, which completely dismasted her at once, when they hailed, and begged us to cease firing, as they had struck.

"Never was ship so cruelly mauledour shot went in on the larboard quarter, and out on the starboard bow, leaving scarcely a whole beam in her. We killed 76, and wounded 170 on board of her both her captains, and nearly all of her officers were killed. We had 3 killed and 19 wounded, and our captain died of his wounds at Calcutta, and was buried in grand style, God rest his soul! "But, harkye, nothing was said about " a sixty-four in disguise' then; it was only a frigate taking a frigate our first lieftennant Hardyman was posted; and our master Douglas was made a lieftennant !"

GEORGE THE SECOND AND HOGARTH.

When the rebellion broke out in 1745, the Guards were serving in Germany, whence they were speedily recalled; but as they had been already so much engaged, it was thought hard to send them at once into Scotland. By advice of a general, however, the king held a military levee; at which he made this speech :"Gentlemen, you cannot be ignorant of the present precarious situation of our country, and though I have had so many recent instances of your exertions, the necessity of the times, and the knowledge I have of your hearts, induce me to demand your services again; so all of you that are willing to meet the rebels, hold up your right hand ; all those who may, from particular reasons, find it inconvenient, hold up your left hand." In an instant all the right hands in the room were held up, which so affected the king, that in attempting to thank the company, he burst into tears and retired.

Hogarth having engraved the plate, after his picture of the " March of the Guards to Finchley," he was desirous of inscribing it to his majesty. Accordingly, he took a proof of the print to St. James's, where it was greatly admired by all the nobility, and particularly by the Earl of Harrington, who undertook to present it to the king. But no sooner did the monarch cast his eye upon it, then taking it as an intended burlesque upon his favourite troops, he exclaimed, "You, Hogarth, how dare you ridicule my brave soldiers!" The painter was confounded, the nobles interceded, but all proved cin vain; for the wrath of the king was not to be appeased, and Hogarth, out of resentment, dedicated the print to Frederick of Prussia.

NAPOLEON'S MOMENTS OF GAIETY.

ONE day as he entered the apartments of the empress, he observed a young lady He beckoned to those who saw him to be silent, and advancing softly to the back of her chair, he placed his hands over her eyes. She knew of no one who was likely to behave in this familiar way, except M. Bourdier, an old and respectable man, attached to the empress's household in quality of chief physician, and she immediately concluded it was he. "Have

seated with her back towards the door.

done, then, M. Bourdier," she exclaimed, "do you think I don't know your great ugly hands!"-" Great ugly hands!" repeated the emperor, restoring the use of her eyes, you are hard to please, madame!" The poor young lady, overwhelmed with confusion, withdrew to an adjoining apartment.

66

Being one day in the empress's chamber while she was dressing, he accidentally trod on the foot of the lady who presided at the toilette, and immediately cried out, as though he had himself been hurt. "What is the matter?" inquired the empress anxiously.- -"Nothing, nothing," he replied, whilst he burst into a fit of laughter; " I trod on the lady's toe, and I cried out only to prevent her from doing so. You see my plan succeeded."

London:-Printed by JOSEPH LAST, 3, Edwardstreet, Hampstead-road; and published by W. M. CLARK, 19, Warwick-lane, Paternosterrow; J. PATTIE, 17, High-street, Bloomsbury, and may be had, by order, of all Booksellers, in town and country.

No

between them and their own coast. means of retreat being allowed, a general action shortly ensued, and, by the greatest part of the Dutch fleet, was bravely maintained: a wish on their part was, however, early shown to withdraw from their antagonists, and they kept constantly edging away for their own shore, until their progress was arrested in nine fathom water, off the heights or sand-hills of Camperdown, about three leagues from the land. Vice-admiral Onslow, in the Monarch, bore down in the most gallant style on the enemy's rear, broke through his line, and engaged his opponent to leeward, the wind being dead on the land at west-north-west. Duncan selected the Dutch admiral, De Winter, who had his flag in the Vryheid of seventy-four guns, as his opponent; in running down to her, however, he was opposed by the States-General, a Dutch seventy-four, whose fire the Venerable soon silenced, forced him to quit the line, and then proceeded to the Vryheid, which he engaged for two hours and a half, until that ship was completely dismasted.

The action had now become general between the fleets, with the exception of two or three ships on either side, whose captains preserved a cautious distance. De Winter displayed, in his own person, the most undaunted valour, and was well supported by some of his countrymen; but was compelled at length to yield to superior skill-it would be untrue to say superior bravery. About the same time that Vice-admiral Onslow had silenced his opponent, the Dutch vice-admiral and the whole of his fleet were thrown into complete confusion, and twelve sail struck their colours, and surrendered; but owing to the bad weather which ensued, and the disabled state of our ships, only nine were secured, and these were in such a wrecked condition, that they could scarcely be got into an English port.

This was one of the severest and most decisive battles ever fought between the two nations; and produced an effect upon the maritime powers of Europe, of the highest advantage to the character and interests of Great Britain.

The loss sustained in the British fleet, was upwards of seven hundred killed and wounded: that of the Dutch was never correctly known; but in each of the two

flag-ships there were two hundred and fifty killed or wounded.

De Winter behaved nobly, and was the only person on board his ship that was not either killed or wounded. When conducted a prisoner on board the Venerable, he presented his sword to Admiral Duncan, who gallantly returned it to him with as gallant a compliment. When the two admirals were seen together, it was universally acknowledged that they were the finest looking men in both fleets. After the duties of the day were all done, these brave admirals dined together in the most amicable manner, and concluded the evening by playing a friendly rubber at whist!

It has been remarked, and with some truth, that the laconic manner in which the gallant admiral first announced his success to the Admiralty board, in no small degree resembled the celebrated letter of Captain Walton, written in consequence of his having attacked, taken, or destroyed, a detachment of the Spanish fleet off Syracuse :—

"We have taken and destroyed all the Spanish ships and vessels that were upon the coast; the number as per margin. "Yours, &c.