Our chief objection to this is, that it is too thort for the im portance of the fubject. The fix firft chapters principally confift of parliamentary debates. The feventh comprehends a copious account of the rebellion in Ireland. The predifpofing caufes' of the commotions are well traced; and, in the courfe of the inveftigation, our author takes an opportunity of giving his opinion respecting the state of the public mind, on the fubject of a change of government. The French government, from the first of the conteft with this country, we may indeed fay in the very commencement of it, feem to have been remarkably ignorant of the ftate of the people, and the government with whom they had to contend. They have repeatedly fallen into the error, which fome, indeed, of the tory party in Great Britain have held or countenanced, that all who difapprove, in any degree, of the conduct of minifters in Great Britain are difpofed to a revolution. No error can be more flagrant or more fatal either to be received by an enemy, or cherished by the adminiftration. Of the perfons hoftile to miniftry in Britain, some are so upon mere party motives, that is, attached to the men who wish to fupplant the prefent minifters, and to occupy their ftations; and it is not likely that perfons of this defeription fhould be defirous of a revolution, which muft defeat the very hopes on which they act, and involve the majority and minority in one common ruin. Some again are the remains of the old whig party in this kingdom, who venerate the conftitution, and only condemn the minifters when they fuppofe them to have committed innova tions upon it. Some are in oppofition upon religious prejudices, because they have ever been hoftile to the ecclefiaftical establishmient. None of these descriptions of men, however, are to be regarded as friendly to a revolution. We have, on the contrary, ever affirmed, that the actual republicans in this country are few, and thofe are to be rather confidered as fpeculative than active democratifts. The perfons who are defirous of a change of government in this country are alfo comparatively very few; and these are men of defperate fortunes, or in the lower claffes of fociety. Thefe have ever been our fentiments, and, we are perfuaded, the courfe of events, and the cool judgment of pofterity, will confirm our verdict.' P. 169. We agree with this writer in his diminution of the fuppofed number of perfons defirous of a fubverfion of the prefent go vernment. By the conduct of the rulers of Ireland, before the commencement of infurrection, the following remarks were fuggefted. It would be abfurd to deny that many acts of rigour, we fight, perhaps, fay of cruelty, were committed by the agents of government. Fear and alarm are ftrong paffions, and there are, perhaps, none that actuate the human breast which dispose more to cruel and fanguinary conduct. Several perfons were flogged and otherwife tortured to extort confeffions. Thefe are proceedings of which we cannot approve. Every punishment inflicted without trial is a violation of juftice; and men, who were contending for the government and conftitution of their ancestors, ought to have been the laft to violate that conftitution, whatever the temptation. In the confidence of a good caufe, they ought to have adopted implicitly the maxim--" Fiat juftitia, ruat cœlum;" -with the dignity becoming patriots they ought to have placed themselves upon the defenfive at every point, but not have suffered the flightest violation of thofe facred rights they were fo gloriously defending. We much queftion, whether the policy of thefe proceedings was not as erroneous as the proceedings themselves were blame-worthy. The inferior agents were little acquainted with the great fcheme, on which their chiefs were proceeding; and it is manifeft, that the confpiracy was at leaft not difcovered by the inflic tion of arbitrary punishments. To defeat feditious machinations, rewards are always a more powerful inftrument in the hands of government than punishments. The men who enter into confpiracies are commonly ambitious, and often avaricious. The band is easily broken by holding forth proper temptations to fuch perfons to return to loyalty, and forfake their fellows in iniquity; and, in fact, it was by these means, and not by the other, that Ireland was faved. 'Candour will, however, be cautious in imputing to the government every excefs into which a heated foldiery may be occafionally betrayed; and, on the other hand, if fome acts of grofs feverity were exercised, let it be remembered that the provocations were many. Unhappy Ireland was at this period the theatre of assaslination and outrage. The houses of the peaceable inhabitants were frequently affailed by night by perfons in connexion with the fo ciety of united Irifhmen, and fome refpectable perfons were murdered in the most barbarous manner, without provocation, and, in some instances, without an attempt to defend themselves.' P: 175, The fupineness of the French government, at the time of the rebellion, is thus depicted. It was happy for Great Britain and Ireland at this alarming crifis, that the French government was in the hands of the most incapable politicians, that, perhaps, Europe had ever feen upon the theatre of public affairs. They must have been well acquainted with the ftate in which Ireland was at this time. Wexford was nearly three weeks in the poffeffion of the infurgents, and their armies were, during the whole of that time, able to keep the field, and brave his majesty's forces.-Had the French directory embraced the opportunity, and purfued the plan which was laid out for them by lord Edward Fitzgerald and others of the malcontents in Ireland; had they risked a few frigates and light vessels, with a proper fupply of officers, arms and ammunition, with a few troops to keep the infurgents in fpirits, Ireland would have been loft for ever, and ultimately Great Britain itfelf, fince, we are perfuaded that, in the present state of Europe, both iflands must stand or fall together. They are naturally united, and the interefts of neither will bear a feparation. Providence ordered it better; and ordained that from this moment, and by this one fatal oversight, the enormous fabric of French power, raifed on the ruins of order and of juftice, fhould now commence its decline, and fhould gradually moulder to ruin.' P. 195. We by no means think that the adjunction of a few troops to the rebel army would have occafioned the lofs of Ireland even for a fhort time: to conclude that it would have been loft for ever,' is extravagant. The final obfervations upon the rebellion, and those which concern the propofed union, will probably appear judicious to many readers. • Whatever might have been the occafional or even unjustifiable severities exercised upon fufpected individuals, we mult, in candour, acquit the Irish government of the charge which has, we think, rafhly been brought against them, "of having goaded the people into rebellion." The rebellion was evidently the result of a deep confpiracy laid by a few ambitious and difaffected perfons, who infidiously wrought upon the paffions and prejudices of the lower orders of catholics to promote their own destructive designs. There is much reason to believe that the eyes of the people are now open to the mischiefs into which they had been feduced; and it only remains for government to fway the fceptre of authority with temperance, and properly to blend conciliation with a firm and not timid conduct. The path of peace and prosperity, we now think, is laid open to both parties; and, we truft, they will keep it. As a fovereign remedy for fimilar diforders, a legiflative union of the two kingdoms has been recommended. We own ourselves partial to a unity of government; and we can fee that the plan might ultimately be attended with fome advantages; but thofe advantages are certainly remote, and they cannot be worth the rifk of the finalleft disturbance or difcontent among the people. With respect to the immediate object, we cannot discover in what way a legislative union can be a means of preventing the revival of the scenes which we have now been reviewing. It cannot remove the prejudices of the catholics; it cannot enlighten the people, or relieve them from their burdens. It may indeed, on the contrary, for the moment, tend to increase one of the principal grievances of which the Irish at prefent complain-the expenditure of Irish property at a distance from the country, where that property is acquired. We think, in fine, that there are other measures which would be much more effectual than this in promoting the peace, tranquillity, and welfare of Ireland. If it were poffible to promote, by any means, the transfer of capital to the Irish coaft, and to excite in the people the fpirit of commerce and manufactures; if fome commercial conceffions could be made by the opulence of Britain to the poverty of Ireland; if fchools could be established for the promotion at once of knowledge and industry; if the gentry of Ireland could be perfuaded to embody themselves in a patriotic union for the protection and the aid of the poor; if they could follow the example of a fociety in this kingdom, whofe generous efforts in the cause of humanity are above our praife," the fociety for bettering the condition of the poor;" and if they could reduce to practice fome of the judicious fpeculations of that fociety, we are perfuaded they would effect more towards reconciling the minds of the people to order and subjection than any experiment on the constitution and the government. We have had enough of innovation; and, 'however falutary the plan, we are perfuaded, that, in the prefent temper and condition of the Irish people, "this is not," to use the language of the British minister on another occasion, "this is not the time for reform." P. 198. In the retrospect of continental affairs for the year 1797, we do not perceive any grofs inaccuracy of ftatement. The war of Italy is recounted in a perfpicuous and not unpleafing manner. Of the battle near the Tagliamento we have this ketch. The archduke, with the main army, was fafely entrenched behind the deep and rapid Tagliamento, drawing his provisions from the fertile Frioul, by Gradifca and Goritz, and from the Venetian country, between the Tagliamento and the Alps, which formed a half circle behind him. In this space were fituated the towns of Trevifo, Udine, and Palma-Nuova, to cover his retreat, if, by any unfortunate occurrence, from any extraordinary impulfe of audacity, the French fhould attempt and force the paffage of the river. Had the waters of the Tagliamento continued to flow with their usual volume and impetuofity, the French might have found the enterprise extreinely difficult; but a fudden froft having arrested the thaw, and the torrents on the Glaciers, and the higher Alps, the river had funk fo as to be fordable in feveral places. Buona. parte drawing a favourable augury from this fortunate interpofition of the north-easterly wind, made inftant difpofitions for the pafLage of the river; ordering general Guieux to crofs it to the right of the Austrian entrenchments, and Bernadotte, with his battalions from the Rhine, to perform the fame operation on the left. The whole line ranged itself in order of battle. General Duphot first threw himself into the river, at the head of a brigade of light-in fantry, and foon croffed to the oppofite bank, fupported by the gre nadiers of the divifion under general Ghienx; general Murat, who made the fame movement on the left, was, in the fame manner, fupported by the divifion of grenadiers under Bernadotte. The Auftrian cavalry feveral times charged the French infantry, but were continually repulfed. The whole of the republican army having now paffed the river, had formed itself for a general attack, when the Auftrians, ftruck with terror at the boldness of the enterprife, the fuperiority of the French artillery which they had felt in the fevere cannonade that had preceded, and taken place during the paffage, and by the promptitude and dexterity of the French, fell back on every fide; but, when general Guieux had forced the village where the archduke had established his head-quarters, the rout of the Auftrian army became general. The prince feeing no hope but in flight, withdrew hattily, during the night, to the only retreat which the daring manoeuvres of the French had left him, and secured himself from danger among the ravines of the mountains, leaving part of his artillery, and the towns of Palma-Nuova, Udine, and all the Venetian territory, as far as the confines of Carinthia and Carniola, to the mercy of the conqueror. • The French loft no time in taking advantage of this important victory, although it was impoflible for them to pursue the Austrians as fast as they retreated, and who did not halt till they reached the valley at the foot of the Alps, through which run the Drave and the Murh. In this pofition the archduke once more formed his army; and a fecond time, aided by ramparts of ice and snowy mountains, he thought himself out of the reach of further attack, at leaft till he could get around him the means of making more ef fectual refiftance than he had done at the paffage of the Tagliamento. By taking this pofition, the archduke not only protected the retreat of his artillery, and heavy baggage, but reinforced the paffes amongst the mountains of the Tyrol againft general Joubert, although the provinces of Iftria and the Frioul, as far as the fources of the Ydria, lay open to the French. While the right divifion of the republican army advanced on the borders of the Adriatic, the left wing, under Joubert, was fcaling the Tyrolian Alps.' P. 228. The revolution which dethroned the pope is defcribed with fpirit. After the change of government, the pontiff, fallen thus from his high ftate, became an object of interest and commiferation even to his enemies. Fancy can fcarcely forbear painting him ftalking through the fplendid apartments of the Vatic, lately filled with a proftrate multitude, amidft whom he marched erect with proud and portly step, robed in his infignia of divinity, confcious ftill of his power in the invifible worlds, though his giory had been fhorn of its beams; amidst thefe apartments, now deferted and filent, his mind perhaps meditated with aftonifhed reflection on the chequered tiffue of a long |
