love or war, and, these unknown, what can be known? Would we not like to be as idle and as well off as a lord chamberlain, or a president of the council? should we not prefer fine estates and pretty partners to half-pay and celibacy?

"Are fair endowments and a beauteous face,
Beloved of none but men of liberal race ?"

Is marching, counter-marching, and bivouacking, in all weathers and climates, sometimes on half-rations, sometimes on no rations at all, so very pleasant a thing? or do you think that it is particularly agreeable to be made, for hours together, a target for the practice of French tirailleurs or artillery? Take away the honour and renown that circumstances justly attach to the braving of toil and danger, and then see who will court them for their own sake; for they are of course to be had gratis every day of the week. You say truly, that of these things you know nothing, for like most men who are neither soldiers nor sailors, you know little more of the world than is confined within your own narrow sphere of action; but we, whose profession has obliged us to look at the world, know enough of the age of iron to be most willing to exchange it for the golden age, whenever you can bring about so desirable an arrangement. Had you only got to the end of the first book of Ovid, we should have been spared the trouble of telling you all this; mark then what the old Roman says, and tell us, if you dare, that things are now better.

"The age of brass was the third age, when men grew ferocious, and breathed only war; but they were not yet entirely corrupted: this was reserved for the age of iron, which was the last. Then it was that crimes of every kind spread over the earth. Modesty, truth, and good faith entirely disappeared, and in their place came deceit, treason, violence, and the base love of gain. Men were no longer content with the fruits spontaneously yielded by the earth; they penetrated into her very bosom, and from caverns bordering on the Styx, brought up treasures that aggravated their unhappy lot, by adding to pernicious steel still more pernicious gold."* Jamque nocens ferrum; ferroque

nocentius aurum.

To put down the soldier under such circumstances, is therefore to break down the only barrier that confines all these evil passions, and to descend at once to the state of anarchy and confusion in which we behold Asia, Africa, and part of America, at this very day, where absolute poverty is the best security for life, and age or deformity the only protectors against slavery.

Oh! but," say you, our intention was to put down the evil propensities of men first, and the soldier afterwards." Such was not your intention, and well you know it was not; for you are, or should be,

*Boileau has some good lines bearing on the same subject.
"C'était peu que sa main, conduite par l'enfer,
Eût pétri le salpêtre, eût aiguisé le fer:

Il fallait que sa rage, à l'univers funeste,
Allat encore des loix embrouiller un digeste;
Cherchât pour l'obscurcir des glosses des docteurs,
Accablat l'équité sous des monceaux d'erreurs,
Et pour comble de maux apportât dans la France
Des harangueurs du tems l'ennuyeuse éloquence."

aware, that to raise Asia, Africa, Australia and central America, even to the level of European civilization, must alone be the work of ages, and can never be effected without arms, and that to make even all such men as Europeans are now, virtuous men, which can alone admit of arms being laid aside, is a gigantic idea far exceeding the mental grasp of those to whom you generally address yourselves: in answer to such a speech, your hearers would most certainly have laughed in your faces, and desired you to commence the reformation at home; and it is pretty generally believed, that no class of men would find it more difficult to lay aside their overweening pride and greedy ambition, to say no more, than even the leading liberals of the age of intellect. Your object was to put down the soldier in order to give the rein, within a compass that you thought your feeble hands could circumscribe, to those passions that it is the soldier's duty to repress: for this you spared neither sophistry nor misrepresentation, and constantly held up the soldier, instead of those passions in which you so amply share, as the sole bar to human happiness, liberty and civilization. As we are aware, that the long habit of viewing political subjects through the mere focus of partyfeeling tends, in the end, to render the able and enlightened as blind as the ignorant and obtuse, we who, as soldiers, are placed far above the influence of such political mirage, will therefore condescend to raise you for a moment to our own level, and show you how close has always been the link that has united the real soldier and schoolmaster, (there are of course quacks of both professions,) and how impossible it has ever been for the latter to make his way, or even to hold his ground, except by the aid of the former: depend upon it, that, for polishing mankind, a single bayonet is worth a whole cargo of primers, It is, or should be, needless to say, that in speaking of soldiers, we mean neither Palikari, Descamirados, nor Carbonari, the soldiers elect of liberalism, but British soldiers, men in a high state of organization and discipline, inspired with proper sentiments of honour, loyalty, and patriotism, and commanded by chiefs, to whom the country and all ranks of subordinates can look up with pride and confidence. If we retain the term soldier, where the subject applies to the armed force generally, it is from mere habit; we willingly yield the step of precedence to our brethren of the navy, to whom, owing to their greater importance to our mutual country, we well know that it is due; but be it fairly understood, that we yield it to no other class of men under the sun, for not only has no other class surpassed us in professional exertions, but with a strong tide of party rancour and misrepresentation against us, we have raised our profession from the state of degradation into which it had fallen, to its present state of honourable distinction. And, fortune willing, we intend to raise it yet higher, for, like Alexander, we acknowledge no limits to the labours of highspirited men, but the want of adequate objects.

The most ancient of all human institutions, of which we have any distinct knowledge, for they have with their effects reached down to our own times, offer a very striking illustration of what we have above said respecting the soldier and schoolmaster. The Brahmins, by assuming that they had sprung from the head of Brahma, whilst the other castes sprung only from the lower and inferior parts of the body, assumed to themselves, in the character of priests and instructors, the

entire direction of affairs; and without claiming regal power as a right, became the real governors by confining the office of instructors to their own caste, and making the soldier, who was supposed to have sprung only from the breast of the god, of an inferior profession. The religion of Brahma forbade the shedding of blood; but though it made men mild in exterior manners, it also made them feeble, and as it neither enfranchised its followers from human frailties, nor disarmed the neighbouring nations, it reduced Hindostan, till its conquest by the British, to one scene of rapine, anarchy and confusion, and naturally entailed upon the Hindoos the yoke of foreign servitude, from which they have never been free. So much for making the soldier a subordinate cha

racter.

As we have here mentioned neighbouring nations, who must always be consulted when peace is to be maintained, we shall, as our pen is in a rambling mood, relate an anecdote, that though little known, bears curiously on our present subject.

Late in the evening of the day on which the London mail brought to St. Petersburgh the news of Lord Macartney's departure for China, the Prince of Dessau, then military governor of the Russian Capital, an office that constitutes the holder a sort of extra cabinet minister, invested with great power, and generally supposed to stand high in the Imperial confidence, was sent for by Catharine the Second, and detained in secret conference by her till the night was far advanced. Their deliberation had already lasted a considerable time, when the Prince's Aide-de-Camp in waiting was desired to proceed immediately to the lodgings of the General of the Jesuits then in Russia, and to bring the holy man forthwith into the Imperial presence. The officer proceeded accordingly, and the churchman, fully aware that in Russia obedience is the first thing, and reflection a matter of secondary importance, rose without murmuring from his bed, hurried on his clothes, and following his military guide was soon ushered into the closet, where the secret conclave was held. After this worthy trio had been together for about an hour, the Aide-de-Camp was again called in; an order for a large sum of money, to be immediately paid in gold by the court banker, was given him; he was also directed to provide a travelling-carriage, horses, couriers, &c. then to hand the money over to the Jesuit, and allowing him as much and no more time than was indispensable for packing up a few necessaries, the soldier was to see the churchman fairly out of the town. All this was executed with military precision, and long before the first rays of the morning sun had gilded the banks of the Neva, the worthy successor of Loyola was already far beyond the gates of St. Petersburgh.

At a time when, even as at present,

"Great events were on the gale,

And each day brought a varying tale,"

the sudden departure of a Jesuit hardly formed half a day's wonder, and years rolled away without his being as much as thought of. At last came the news that Lord Macartney's embassy, owing to some under current which constantly set in and thwarted all his Lordship's exertions and could never be traced to its source, had completely failed; a circumstance that naturally rejoiced all loyal and well-disposed persons from Petersburgh to Lisbon. For this trifling disappointment

sustained by a friendly and allied nation no guns were fired, nor was any marked notice taken of the event at the time. It was only on the return of the General of the Jesuits, covered with Tartar furs, and silks of China, a country in which the Jesuits had always maintained some influence, that suspicions as to the direction and object of his journey began to be entertained; and it was only in private, and after due delay, that courtiers were permitted to congratulate the Semiramis of the North on the ability with which she had counteracted the designs of the perfidious Islanders; every loyal subject on the Continent deeming the defeat of an English project a distinct gain to his own particular country, however remote and unconnected, as in the above case, the matter may be with any Continental interest. This, the liberals tell us, is the natural consequence of our conduct towards the nations of the Continent: only behave well to them, say they, and those nations will be sure to behave well to you; that is, the British alone are grasping and unjust, but foreigners invariably liberal and enlightened.

Without pretending here to write a treatise on the foreign policy of the country, we may just observe en passant, that the British have not in modern times sought to make Continental conquest, and have never for that purpose fitted out fleets and armies against any of the Continental powers; nor did we, when we could, make a proper use of our strength, but made ourselves, on the contrary, the laughing-stock of Europe by our moderation, for which we got no credit whatever. As to the many charges brought against our Government since the peace, for endeavouring to suppress the cause of Continental freedom, we deem them totally undeserving of belief. That neither fleets nor armies were dispatched on such a service we know; and as to modern diplomacy, we confess we hold it cheap, and should hold that spirit of freedom which could be suppressed by a few diplomatic notes, still cheaper. The people of the Continent, who have mostly been brought up under the tuition of Napoleon's bulletins, hate us for our superiority in arts, wealth and arms. There is not, from Calais to Cadiz and Tarentum, or from Archangel to Astracan, a bel-esprit or literateur capable of retaining a few lines of French poetry, who does not apply to us Corneille's invocation against Rowe

"Puissent tous ses voisins ensemble conjurés

Saper ses fondemens deja' mal assurés !

Et si ce n'est assez de toute l'Italie

Que l'Orient contre elle à l'occident s'allie;

Que cent peuples ligués des bouts de l'univers,

Passent pour la détruire et les monts et les mers."

No person acquainted with the Continent and with Continental languages can deny the singular and lamentable extent to which this feeling is carried; for all foreign literature bears the impress of it, particularly, as might be expected, those works written on subjects connected with the history, policy and situation of Great Britain. And yet, to hear our liberals talk, justice, and justice only, is to be expected from Continental states; though, in holding this language, they entirely forget that there have been such men as Philip II. Richelieu, Louis XIV. Alberoni, Göltz, &c. &c.; that even Frederick the Great, when the house of Austria seemed reduced to extremities,

invaded Silesia; that three ladies, the pious Maria-Theresa, the public mistress Pompadour, and the cruel and licentious Elizabeth, afterwards joined to crush him in the face of sworn treaties: they further forget that the enlightened Catharine," whom history still adores," and the liberal Joseph, combined to destroy the unoffending Turks, who though distinguished in modern times above all other nations, Britain excepted, for the honourable maintenance of foreign treaties, were again assailed in our own day both by Alexander the Blessed, and Nicholas the Hopeful, simply because they were thought too weak to offer any very formidable resistance. Our wise men, in talking of Continental justice, also overlook the dismemberment of Poland, a country whose sons once saved Continental Europe; they forget the Robespierres and the Marats, as well as the French Republic that preceded the one founded in 1830. They overlook Napoleon Buonaparte, and do not seem to know, poor innocents, that when we were alone maintaining the cause of freedom against the powers of banded Europe, the liberal and lauded republicans of America struck us as "damned Casca, like a cur behind, struck Cæsar." All experience, all history, and all the workings of evil passions beyond the shores of England are carefully kept out of sight, whenever either radicals or liberals write or declaim on the foreign or military policy of the country; and to hear the imbecile drivelling which they constantly utter on these subject one would really think, that there was no such thing as a fact in the world.

This article has already extended to a length that obliges us to postpone to another opportunity the further progress of the soldier and schoolmaster, as well as the remarks we have to make on the situation in which the extension of knowledge, and the present situation of Europe, has placed the profession of arms in our own country.

A REVOLUTION.

A REVOLUTION of a singularly ludicrous character took place during my residence in one of the ex-colonies of Spain in South America. As I performed rather a prominent part in the farce, I shall endeavour to give the reader a faint sketch of this remarkable affair; but first to explain how I (a stranger and an Englishman) became connected with it.

I was on a visit with an old and esteemed friend at his picturesque villa, about five leagues distant from the scene of this sudden political change, and one morning, having occasion to go to the capital on business, I rose at four o'clock, in order to make the most of the early part of the day, purpos ing to return to dinner. The old cook, (with whom I was a favourite,) notwithstanding the early hour, had prepared a maté* for me, which was

This really agreeable beverage is prepared from a species of tea peculiar to South America, that of Paraguay being the most esteemed. It is a strong bitter, and takes a considerable quantity of sugar, though some use it without this addition, while epicures prefer a milk maté: a large spoonful of the herb being put into a silver or earthen bowl, a proportionate quantity of boiling milk, or water, is poured on it, and sugar added according to taste: it is sucked through a long tube, perforated at the bottom.