These laments are precisely the myriologues of the inhabitants of modern Attica: in the rest of the ceremonies, we may discover a strong analogy to the habits of the Irish and Highlanders fifty years since.

Sardinia is governed by a viceroy, and the laws are administered by thirteen judges and two presidents. Their salaries are very small, and, of course, (though M. de la Marmora does not admit the fact) they are open to bribery. The ten provinces of which Sardinia consists are governed by prefects. The revenues are stated by our author at a much higher rate than we can think accurate, namely, at £110,000 sterling per annum. Azuni makes them only £68,000, when the population was 380,000; and Mr. Galt, who reckons the population in 1811 to have been 500,000, states the revenue at only £80,000. The paper money is only 5 or 6 per cent. below the metallic currency.

There is an institution in Cagliari of a singular kind. The sons of the peasantry are allowed to come into the city, where, in consideration of certain services rendered to the burgesses, they are placed at school, lodged, and fed, and have certain hours allowed them for study. This class of scholars is called majoli; and some of them have risen to high rank at the bar and in the council. The institution is certainly a laudable one; it has been the means of discovering merit and talent in many instances among persons of the humblest condition. Elementary instruction, however, is very rare in the villages, and the two universities of Cagliari are about to be formed into one, for want of support.

Agriculture is in a backward state; the instruments employed seem to have undergone no improvement for ages. The forests, wherever they are not neglected, are destroyed either by the axe or by fire-frequently for the sake of merely growing a small quantity of grass. Bees are decreasing in number-the wax and honey they produce is not sufficient for the annual consumption. The horses do not live long if transported to other countries; the oxen are small; the sheep furnish wool unfit for exportation; and in short, all the quadrupeds of the island, except the goat, seem to be destined to degradation. The principal fishery is that of the tunny.

Of the plates added to the volume we cannot speak highly. As representations of costume, they may possess the merit of fidelity; as works of art, they are beneath notice. A portrait of the author, prefixed to his octavo, is by no means flattering; it is a mere caricature, which (except that the nose is very red) reminds us of the common prints of Robinson Crusoe.

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ART. VI. Memoires ou Souvenirs et Anecdotes. Par M. le Comte de Segur, de l'Academie Française, pair de France. Paris. Emery. 1826. London. Colburn.

THE name of Segur has long sustained a certain degree of distinction in the history of France. The family had for some time professed the Protestant religion, and during that unfortunate period when the principle of civil and religious liberty was so ill understood in France as well as in England, they suffered severely. The principal means of advancement on which the nobility of the old regime in France had to depend, was the patronage of the court. After the death of Henry IV. the royal favour was withdrawn from the Segurs, the family was divided into several branches, and they all became poor. It was not until the time of our author's grandfather that fortune again smiled upon them. He obtained a distinguished reputation in the military career, but his only patrimony consisted of two small estates in Perigord. He had been promised the situation of first equerry to the king by the Duke of Orleans, then regent of France; but by a singular misfortune the duke died of apoplexy as he was on his way to the young monarch's apartment, for the purpose of getting his sign manual to the appointment. Our author's father, however, was much more successful. He married early in life a young lady who was sole heiress to a splendid patrimony in St. Domingo, and after serving in the army with eclat for several years, was raised to the cabinet as minister of war under Louis XVI. in 1780. He retained his office until the year 1787, when the current of state affairs began to be troubled by the approaching storm of the revolution.

One of the chief inducements which seem to have excited the author of these memoirs to the labour of composing them, was that he might have an opportunity of vindicating his father's administration. For the performance of a duty so sacred every praise is due to him. Every reader, of whatever party he may be, will be disposed to afford the utmost indulgence to a pious son upon such an occasion. Nor can we be surprised if he dwell upon many incidents which, though subservient to his purpose, have little interest for those who are not personally concerned in his success. Neither should we much wonder if he seek to attribute to his father a greater degree of energy, and a more brilliant station in the history of his times, than posterity is likely to confirm to him. This is all very natural. But we must own, nevertheless, that political vindications are not precisely of that kind of matter which is calculated to amuse or to instruct in a book of memoirs. We feel this the more, as the author scarcely concludes the defence of his father's administration before he enters on the details of his own embassy to Petersburgh, the great object of which was the negotiation of a commercial treaty between Russia

and France. He enters very minutely into this affair, evidently proud of his diplomacy, and anxious to exhibit the ability with which he conducted it. We know not how far young plenipotentiaries may profit from his discussions and memorials, but to a general reader we presume they will prove any thing but attractive. The style of these Memoires is upon the whole correct, and sometimes approaches to elegance. But even that portion of the narrative which is not taken up with political affairs is frigid. Nothing can be more different from the animated and intense strain of eloquence which distinguishes "The Campaign in Russia," written by the count's son, than the dry and unimpressive tone of the work before us. We fully commend him for having carefully avoided rendering his pages food for scandal and the passions.' In this respect his Memoires stand most honourably distinguished from those of the Prince de Montbarey, for we do not recollect a single line in them calculated to kindle a blush on the cheek of modesty. But considering the abundant opportunities which Count Segur employed of seeing the world, and of conversing with almost every person of note who appeared upon the political stages of France, America, Prussia, and Russia, from the latter part of the reign of Louis XV. down to the present day, we are compelled to say that he has turned those opportunities to little account, so far as his readers are concerned. They would naturally be prepared to expect a great deal from him, after the following pompous announcement:

My position, my birth, the ties of friendship and consanguinity which connected me with all the remarkable personages of the courts of Louis XV. and Louis XVI., my father's administration, my travels in America, my negociations in Russia and in Prussia, the advantage of having been engaged in intercourse of affairs and society with Catherine II., Frederick the Great, Potemkin, Joseph II., Gustavus III., Washington, Kosciusko, La Fayette, Nassau, Mirabeau, Napoleon, as well as with the chiefs of the aristocratical and democratical parties, and the most illustrious writers of my times-all that I have seen, done, experienced, and suffered during the revolution-those strange alternations of prosperity and misfortune, of credit and disgrace, of enjoyments and proscriptions, of opulence and poverty-all the different occupations which I have been forced to apply to, and the various conditions of life in which fate has placed me-have induced me to believe that this sketch of my life would prove entertaining and interesting, chance having made me successively a colonel, a general officer, a traveller, a navigator, a courtier, the son of a minister, an ambassador, a negociator, a prisoner, an agriculturist, a soldier, an elector, a poet, a dramatic author, a contributor to newspapers, an essayist, an historian, a deputy, a councillor of state, a senator, an academician, and a peer of France.'-Vol. i. pp. 3, 4.

It is true that for some reasons which the count has not thought it necessary to explain, he confines his memoirs for the present to the recollections of his youthful days, his voyage to America, and his mission to Russia. But these passages in his life, even accord

ing to his own estimate of it, must have been the most important, and if they be not sufficiently interesting to command much attention, we despair of the livraisons which are still to be disclosed. In selecting a few extracts, which may enable the reader to judge of the general character of the work, we shall be careful to prefer those which have some appearance of novelty; for we have been lately so completely inundated with French memoirs, and those too relating very much to the same period, that it is difficult to find in one of those works a trait of manners, or an anecdote, which has not been already more than "twice told." They all, however, conspire, we apprehend, to prove one fact, that the revolution in France was, at least, accelerated very considerably by that which had been rendered successful a short time before it in America, through the instrumentality of French gold and arms. In considering this question, we have always thought that there was another cause which operated much more powerfully, because much nearer to the theatre of its action, and which has been too much overlooked by historians-we mean the example of England herself, whose Parliament at that time was distinguished by the splendid eloquence of those of its members who advocated the interests of liberty on every occasion when it was assailed. Their speeches were then for the first time circulated regularly in the newspapers, and wherever they were read out of this country they could scarcely fail to leave an impression on men's minds well calculated to lead them first to admire, and next to imitate, those free institutions which not only permitted but demanded from our statesmen the boldest exertions of their faculties. Numerous, and beyond all precedent brilliant were the discussions which rose out of the persecution of Wilks, the impeachment of Warren Hastings, and the insurrection of the American colonies, and which, from particular facts, naturally digressed into general theories of government, and of the means for resisting or expiating its abuses. It was in the ordinary course of things that these harangues should touch the human intellect, and awaken in it vague aspirations, wherever it was not clouded by ignorance and by absolute barbarism. The proof of their incipient effect in France appeared in the general desire that prevailed in the early part of the reign of Louis XVI. for importing some of the customs and fashions of England. Upon this subject Count Segur offers the following sensible remarks:

Montesquieu had first opened our eyes to the advantages of British institutions; the intercourse between the two nations had become much more frequent; the brilliant but frivolous life led by our nobility at court and in the capital was no longer sufficient to satisfy our self-love, when we reflected upon the dignity, the independence, the comparatively useful and important life of an English peer, or of a member of the House of Commons, as well as upon the liberty, at once calm and lofty, enjoyed by the entire body of the citizens of Great Britain.

It has always, therefore, been a subject of surprise to me, that our government and statesmen, instead of reproaching as frivolous and foreign to the national spirit that rage for English fashions which suddenly sprung up throughout France, did not perceive in it the desire of another species of imitation, and the germs of a mighty revolution in the public mind. They were not in the least aware, that while we were destroying in our pleasure-grounds the straight walks and alleys, the symmetrical squares, the trees cut in circles, and the uniform hedges, in order to transform them into English gardens, we were indicating our wishes to resemble that nation in other and more essential points of nature and of reason. They did not remark that the plain raiment, substituted instead of the ample and imposing dresses of the old court, betrayed an unanimous desire of equality; and that, being yet unable to shine like English lords and deputies in public assemblies, we were at least desirous of distinguishing ourselves by equal magnificence in our cirques, by the splendour of our parks, and by the swiftness of our horses.

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'Yet nothing could have been more easy to divine than this simple truth: it was only necessary to converse with the importers of some of these fashions, with the Comte de Lauraguais, the Duc de Lauzun, the Duc de Chartres, the Marquis de Conflans, and many others, in order to learn that it was not to superficial imitations that they intended to confine their views.

However this may be, it is certain that all the young men at court, not excepting even the princes of the blood, allowed themselves to be carried away by the torrent. The queen evinced the most decided dislike of the constraints of our etiquette, and a decided fancy to English gardens, as well as to horse races, at the latter of which she frequently presided.'-Vol. i. pp. 130, 131.

But we quit this subject in order to accompany our author to America, whither he was ordered to go in the latter part of the year 1782, in order to join his regiment. It was his fate that' as a soldier he was to serve a long campaign without battles; that in going to meet the enemy he should find him retreating, and shut up in the most inaccessible fortresses; and that as a traveller he should be compelled to be always running from one place to another, from north to south, and from the frozen to the torrid zone, without ever having it in his power to stay at any of the places most calculated to excite his curiosity.' Of course he found every thing to admire in the natural magnificence of the country, and in the republican spirit which had already made such rapid advances among the insurgent colonists. He thus conveys his recollections of Washington:

His exterior disclosed, as it were, the history of his life: simplicity, grandeur, dignity, calmness, goodness, firmness, the attributes of his. character, were also stamped upon his features and in all his person. His stature was noble and elevated; the expression of his features mild and benevolent; his smile graceful and pleasing; his manners simple, without familiarity.

He did not display the luxury of a monarchical general; every thing announced in him the hero of a republic: he inspired with, rather than