ters.

energies of evil. This certainly evinces either a great deficiency of taste, or very limited powers of conception. The gloomy phantasmagoria of his pencil, though differing in form and costume, are all of one character, or rather of one cast; for the sentiments and feelings which lord Byron attributes to the personages in his poems, do not constitute them charac There is no individuality of feature in his portraits. He describes admirably a certain class of emotions; but these should have been imbodied in character, rather than described;" and his characters should have been developed by their actions. As there is no individuality in his conceptions, so there is little variety. It should seem that one strongly imagined personification had taken possession of the poet's mind, so that whatever be the scene or the story, this ideal actor is still the hero of the drama.

We are far from depreciating lord Byron's genius. In energy of expression, and in the power of giving to words the life and breath of poetry, we think he is almost unequalled by any contemporary. We conclude that his powers are circumscribed, from the way in which he has employed them, rather than from any other circumstance. To go down to posterity, however, as a great poet, something more than genius is requisite. There must be a high and holy ambition of legitimate fame; there must be a moral discipline of the intellect and feelings: the good, the true, and the beautiful, must, as ideal archetypes, occupy the visions of the poet; and he must be the partaker of an elevating and purifying faith, by which his mind may be brought into contact with things unseen" and infinite. All these requisites must meet in a great poet; and there must be an appearance at least of approximation to them, in the character of any one that aspires to maintain, by means of his writings, a permanent influence over the minds and sympathies of his fellow men. There must be at least the semblance of virtue, or of the love of virtue."

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MISCELLANEOUS SELECTIONS.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF MARSHAL NEY.

[Abridged from the French.]

DURING the long wars which for more than a quarter of a century have desolated Europe, marshal Ney has been associated to all the victories, which have signalized the French armies. History will decide whether so much valour and so many military virtues, will be able to efface a moment of forgetfulness and a single instant of error.

Born at Sarre-Louis, February 10, 1769, of an honest, but not very opulent family, marshal Ney embraced early the profession of arms; before the revolution, he enlisted as a volunteer in the fourth regiment of hussars; his vivacity, his strength, his skill in managing a horse, decided him to give a preference to the light cavalry. His activity, zeal, and great intelligence, were not long in distinguishing themselves, and after having passed successively through all inferior ranks, he was made captain in 1794; it was then that he became acquainted with general Kleber. The frankness of his manners, and his military air, pleased this general, who soon appointed Ney to the command of a squadron, and employed him near his person. He intrusted him with several missions, in which he acquitted himself with the greatest success.

He particularly signalized himself at the passage of the Lahn in 1794.

Being placed two years after in the division of general Collard, with the army of the Sambre and Meuse, his valour and boldness were remarked in the battles of Altenkirchen, Dierdorff, Montabor, and Berndorff. He assisted in the affair of the village of Obermel, which was taken and retaken four times in two days. On the 24th of July, with 100 men, he took prisoners, near Wurtzburg, 2000 of the enemy's soldiers, and got possession of a considerable quantity of stores. At Zell, at the head of four hundred horse, he sabred 900 of the enemy. The 8th of August, he forced the passage of the Rednitz, defended by fourteen pieces of artillery, and got posses sion of Pfortzein, where he took seventy pieces of cannon; soon after this brilliant action, he was appointed general of brigade.

In the following campaign, Ney repulsed the enemy at Glessen, and pursued it to Steinburg, but repulsed by superior

force; and constrained to yield to numbers, he retreated: his horse was killed under him; he was made prisoner. The army of the Sambre and Muese was then commanded by general Hoche, who had a great esteem for general Ney, and who soon obtained him by exchange; on his return to the army, he received the rank of general of division.

The command of the cavalry of the French in Switzerland was confided to him, and he powerfully contributed to the victory gained by the French armies on the Thur, May 26,

1799.

Shortly after, general Ney was opposed to prince Charles; he fought against him, and took Manheim. In the action, the advanced guard of the army had been surrounded near Lauffen; Ney came to its assistance, put the enemy to flight, and made 1500 prisoners.

In 1800, general Ney was employed in the army of the Rhine, as commander of the fourth division, which occupied Worms and Frankendal. The fifth of June he gained the battle of the Iller, and took all the enemy's artillery.

Soon after general Ney was charged with the command of the bodies of troops dispersed between Huningen and Dusseldorf; in less than eight days he made thirteen attacks, which all succeeded, and gave him the facility of causing all the regiments under his orders to cross the Rhine at the same moment. While this passage was effected, the general, at the head of 9000 men, marched to the walls of Frankfort, where he routed 20,000 Mayencais, in English pay, who had been joined by 2000 Austrians. He then returned to pass the Maine near Mentz. He passed as a conqueror, overthrowing all that opposed him, again took possession of Manheim, Heidelberg, Bruchsal, Heilbron, and reached the walls of Stutgard, without experiencing the least check. These bold movements obliged Austria to evacuate a part of Switzerland, and thus contributed to the victory of Zurich.

Employed successively under the orders of general Massena in Switzerland, under general Moreau in Germany, general Ney, after the peace of Luneville, was charged with the general inspection of the cavalry. He soon left this office for a mission to Switzerland, as minister plenipotentiary.-At the epoch of the projected expedition against England, he was appointed commander of the camp of Montreuil.

General Ney received the reward of so much glorious service; he was included in the first promotion of marshals by the imperial government.

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The war between Austria and France having again broken out in 1805, furnished marshal Ney an occasion to signalize himself by new exploits.-He left the camp of Montreuil for Germany, with his corps d'armee. On his arrival there he gave battle at Elchingen (which afterwards gave him the title of duke)-in this action he displayed all the resources of skill and valour. He remained master of the field of battle, and gained a complete victory.

After the capitulation of Ulm, marshal Ney conquered the Tyrol, and made his entrance into Inspruck on the 7th November, 1805. He then marched into Carinthia, where he remained until the peace of Presburg.

At the famous battle of Jena, marshal Ney commanded the 6th corps of the grand army; his skilful dispositions, and his heroic courage, contributed to the gaining this memorable battle, where the French armies covered themselves with immortal glory.

Marshal Ney was then charged with the blockade of Magdeburg; this important fortress capitulated on the 9th November, 1806. The garrison were made prisoners, and there were found in the fortress 800 pieces of cannon, and immense magazines.

It was marshal Ney who, after many bloody combats, took, in 1807, the town of Friedland, which has given a name to one of the thousand victories which have rendered for ever illustrious the French arms.

After the peace of Tilsit, marshal Ney conducted his army into Spain. It was in that fatal war that the marshal, having to combat innumerable obstacles, which the natural difficulties of the country, and exalted patriotism of the inhabitants opposed to him, constantly displayed the military skill, the prudence, and the valour of the greatest captains.

During the retreat of the army in Spain, marshal Ney constantly commanded the rear guard; and on this occasion, as well as on many others, France owed to his valour the prescr vation of so many thousands of her bravest defenders.

After this retreat the marshal was called to the command of a corps d'armee in the disastrous campaign in Russia. Without entering into a detail of the many bloody actions which happened in this campaign, and in which marshal Ney took so distinguished a part; without speaking of that victory at Moskwa, which gave the duke of Elchingen the title of prince, which the conqueror and the conquered alike conferred on him, we shall merely call to mind that this illustrious and generous warrior saved the wrecks of an army, pursued at

once by fire, hunger, and all the horrors of a climate where a speedy death was the last wish, and seemed to be the only hope of the soldier.

It was at this epoch of mourning and consternation that marshal Ney crowned in some sort his military career, and deserved to be placed at the head of the battalions of heroes whom he alone knew how to preserve for France. We shall pass rapidly over the campaign of 1813, where marshal Ney, in the midst of innumerable reverses, always showed himself worthy of his great reputation-we shall not even stop at the battle of Lutzen, where he fought like a hero-we shall only name the desperate day of Leipsic, and we shall leave to history the care of relating the high deeds of the prince of the Moskwa, at the different battles of Troyes, of Champ-Aubert, of Soissons, of Monterea, of Craon, of Laon, of Arcis-sur-Aube, and of La Fere Champenoise.

Marshal Ney has been present in more than 500 actions or pitched battles, and in this long career of glory and of danger he has never disgraced the noble title of the bravest of the brave, which had been conferred on him.

When, in the month of March, 1814, Buonaparte, who had retired to Fontainebleau, wished to carry on negociations with the allied monarchs, marshal Ney was charged to signify to the ex-emperor that he had ceased to reign in France; soon after he made his submission to the provisional government.

When the king entered France, the prince of Moskwa, was named a member of the chamber of peers.

His majesty then entrusted him with the government of the 6th military division; he exercised those functions in the name of the king till March 14, 1815, the period at which he unfortunately joined the standard of Buonaparte.

In the last short campaign of the month of June, marshal Ney had again occasion to show his wonted valour; we shall borrow his own words to relate the result of the disastrous day of Waterloo.

[Here follows Ney's letter to Fouche, which is already before the public.]

The allied troops, in virtue of the convention signed the third of July, occupied Paris.

The king returned to the capital the eighth of the same month.

Marshal Ney thought fit to remove from it: it appears that he had at first the intention of taking refuge in a foreign country; but having experienced difficulties as to passing the frontier, he retired into Auvergne, in the environs of Aurillac,