The work appears under the editorship of the distinguished Goethe, whose character of it is in every respect just.

"Our young soldier," observes M. Goëthe, "is naturally of a good disposition; he accommodates himself to every thing he meets with; he is obedient, brave, hardy, good-tempered, and honest-with the exception of a slight propensity to plundering-which, however, he always manages to palliate, under the plea of pressing necessity. In short, were we thrown into this course of life, he is just the companion

we should wish for.

"His military career was entered upon without consideration-it was passed through without care: and thus we find the occurrences easily and pleasantly narrated. Want and plenty, good fortune and ill-fortune, death and life, flow equally from the pen; and the book makes a very enduring impression. There is something peculiarly interesting in the adventures of an individual wandering, without any will or purpose of his own, wherever he may be directed by the orders of his superiors, or by stern necessity. We see the gain of one moment lost in the next; and in the back-ground, opposed to very trifling advantages, labours, wounds, sickness, imprisonment, starvation, and death!

"The description of this ever-varying career, is also rendered particularly interesting on this account: that the commonest soldier, seeking his home wherever he goes, is, by means of his billets, as if led by the hand of Asmodeus, introduced into every house, and into the deepest recesses of domestic privacy. Of relations of this nature there is no scarcity in the volume before us."

The Young Rifleman's Comrade, also, has to boast of Goëthe as its Editor. It is the adventures of a young French soldier, commencing with the Peninsula war, interspersed with some animated and humorous scenes in domestic life, and national character, which he met with in his career. We select an extract, by no means a favourable one, as it savours strongly of a determined prejudice in our author; but we nevertheless, whilst we must admit the work to be inferior to either of the foregoing, recommend it as well worthy of perusal.

"The Spaniard is proud, and thinks himself privileged to regard with supreme contempt, the native of any other country: he is extremely vindictive; and having resolved to sacrifice any individual to his revenge, it is with great difficulty his victim can escape. He will treasure up his venom from year to year; and when a more generous spirit would imagine the sense of injury had been wholly blunted, will spring, tiger like, upon his prey. He is in the highest degree, jealous, luxurious, voluptuous; in a word, whatever vices disfigure the human breast, are to be found no where so rife as in the bosom of a Spaniard. Degradingly superstitious, he receives for gospel whatever the knavish monks choose to assert, without daring even to question its veracity. Miracles are with him matters of common place notoriety; and every church is filled with pictures of saints, who are reported to be very liberal of their intervention. There is, however, some brightness on the reverse of the medal. The Spaniard possesses the virtues of sobriety and fortitude. The greatest inconveniences are borne by him with a degree of patience truly admirable; and love of his native land

becomes in his breast a sacred principle; as was sufficiently manifested in the long Peninsula struggle against Napoleon." pp. 37-8.

We now come to the French Serjeant. This little work professes to give the career of the man, Robert Guillemard, who, at the battle of Trafalgar, shot our gallant and ever to be honoured countryman, Lord Nelson. Several of the circumstances introduced are very highly coloured, but nevertheless, it is an interesting and amusing narrative.

He

In 1805, Guillemard was drawn as a conscript, and soon after sent on board Admiral Villeneuve's fleet. was present at the battle of Trafalgar, and afterwards became secretary to Villeneuve, accompanied him on his return to France, and saw him assassinated at Rennes. Guillemard was now ordered to Paris, brought into the presence of Buonaparte, and examined respecting his knowledge of the circumstances attending the Admiral's death. He then joined the army in Germany, was present at the siege of Stralsund, returned to France, fought a duel at Lyons, in which he was wounded; and then, on his recovery, marched again to Germany, fought at Wagram, under the command of the celebrated Oudet, who was mortally wounded in a nocturnal rencontre with the enemy. The Serjeant then marched to Spain, was made prisoner by a band of peasants, and sent to the Island of Cabrera, where six thousand of his countrymen were detained after a detention of several months, he escaped to the coast, joined the French army, then besieging Tortosa, distinguished himself during the siege, was promoted to the rank of Serjeant, and received the then much valued cross of the legion of honour.

He again joined the army in Germany, in 1812, fought in the Russian campaign, was engaged in the battle of Borodino, after which he was made an officer by Napoleon in person; in the evening after this battle he was wounded in a skirmish with the enemy, taken prisoner, and sent to Siberia. He remained in Siberia till 1814, when he was allowed to return. At the time of Napoleon's return from Elba, he was serving in the Duke of Angoulême's army in the South, and saw the massacre of the Protestants at Nismes. Soon afterwards he assisted Joachim Murat (King of Naples) in escaping from Toulon to Corsica, and accompanied him on his expedition to the coast of Calabria, where Murat lost his life. He was sent to Spain in 1823, and shortly afterwards discharged from the service.

Army, Navy, East India Company, Sportsman and Gentleman's Companion, Journal and Remembrancer, Almanack, and Pocket Book for 1827. 7s. By Henry Urban. THIS new publication recommends itself to all officers, as containing information that is not to be acquired in any other way, but at considerable trouble and research, and information which every officer ought to possess.

In addition to the usual contents of Pocket Books, the present work contains British naval and military victories, arranged on an entirely new plan, opposite the days in the Almanack on which they occurred, and the numbers of killed and wounded at some of the principal. Lists of all the officers of the army, navy, and Honourable East India Company's service, who have received honours and rewards, with the date of their earliest commission, and places of foreign service. Battles for which honorary distinctions have been conferred; and a list of corps noticed for services at each. Orders of knighthood conferred on British subjects, with dates of institution, and mottos, rates of pay, pensions, and fees. Army, navy, and prize agents; naval and military departments of Great Britain and Ireland; and other information useful to all officers and parties connected either with the navy, army, or East India Company. Correct lists of peers, members of parliament, and public officers. The Sportsman's Calendar; Gardener's Calendar; Obituary of Eminent Men.

Thus, when we meet in society officers decorated with stars and medals, a glance at Urban, makes us not only acquainted with each particular distinction worn, but likewise the services of the individual. It also reminds us on each day, what battles and victories it is the anniversary of, and consequently is a source of pleasing and useful information, refreshing our memories as to the gallant deeds performed by our countrymen at all periods.

Every naval and military man should, at least for the honour and credit of the services, acquire some knowledge of the career of officers who have been honoured by His Majesty, and this is, perhaps, the most ready channel of obtaining such knowledge.

An Essay addressed to Captains of the Royal Navy, and those of the Merchants' Service, on the means of preserving the Health of their Crews, with directions for the prevention of Dry Rot in Ships. By Robert Finlayson, M.D., Surgeon Royal Navy. 8vo.

THIS little Essay made its appearance in a period (1824) of the most profound peace, when the naval force of Great

Britain had been reduced to its lowest ebb; consequently, it did not receive the attention it merited at the time: indeed, it was not then entitled to the same importance that it would have been, during the late war, when "the British flag, triumphant, waved her Red Lion o'er all watery space." At present, however, there is a belief, that it may soon be necessary to let loose our naval thunderbolts of war in our defence; and in that case, our ships, now lying in ordinary, and those in port, will again be seen "bristling into life and action." We therefore wish to direct the attention of Captains and Surgeons of the Royal Navy to the consideration of this Essay. Its subject matter is of immense importance: the preservation of the health of our seamen, and the prevention of His Majesty's ships from Dry Rot. The first laudable object, says our author, is to be accomplished by substituting dry holy stoning, in lieu of the present system of drenching the decks by washing; whereby, he states, a great variety of acute diseases are contracted, and which ultimately leads to the invaliding of a great number of our seamen; thus diminishing the physical strength of the navy, and increasing the expences of the hospital department.

That there is much truth in this statement we are bound to believe, from the amazing number of men invalided annually, during the last ten years of the late war; chiefly ́ for rheumatism, and diseases of the chest, contracted in the service. This tear and wear of our seamen, is sufficient to call the attention of officers to the subject; but the barriers in the way of a better system being introduced, are more formidable than landsmen would imagine à priori. 1st, The captain has usually been brought up under the washing system, and it is nine chances to one, that he approves of it. 2nd, The channel through which the first lieutenant gains approbation, and sometimes even promotion, is by keeping the ship clean; and this is done chiefly by drawing largely from the element that surrounds him hence, any remonstrance made by the surgeon to prevent such a pernicious practice, is likely to meet with opposition; and as in all departments of life, power is apt to be mistaken for knowledge, it is twenty to one, that the surgeon's injunctions are set aside by the commanding officer. Every department of the navy has made rapid advances in the way of improvement, since the time that Smollett painted the cock-pit scenery with so just a pencil; but perhaps none so much so as in the medical department. His Majesty's order in Council of 1805, entirely upset the old school of doctors and doctors' mates, and

their place was filled by gentlemen of different habits, rank, and education. There are at present upwards of 800 navy surgeons on the list, all of whom must have shown a competent knowledge of surgery and medicine, to the Royal College of Surgeons and Medical Board, previous to their appointment. Out of this number, about 150 have graduated, and wear the honorary distinctions of M. D. to their names. But, perhaps, the talent of the naval medical officer, may best be measured, by the ascendancy they have obtained since the peace, in almost every considerable town in the British empire. The two first Medical Journals in Europe are conducted by navy surgeons; and there are, at this moment, upwards of 100 of this class in excellent practice in the metropolis alone. This may be thought irrelevant, but we only mean to show, that those in power would do well to yield to the suggestions of a medical staff so efficient.

Objections have been raised to holy stoning, on account of the dust it occasions on the lower deck being said to produce consumption; but it will be easy to show that this objection is more specious than real; for if such were the case, every man who travels the highway, would be apt to contract the same disease, since the dust is more abundant and subtle in one place than the other. We shall now proceed to make some extracts from the Essay itself:

Of washing the Main and Quarter Decks. — “The watery operations most usually commence about half-past four, or five o'clock, a. M., and are generally finished just in time to go to breakfast a little before eight o'clock. And as the quality of the officer is frequently estimated by the style in which he performs this piece of service, the greatest pains is consequently taken, on the part of the lieutenant or mate, to give complete satisfaction. When the ship is at anchor, all hands are turned up at half-past four; but when she is at sea, the morning watch only is called. Immediately the watch comes on deck, water is pumped from the main deck, and drawn from the head, and thrown on the main and quarter decks in the utmost profusion; and this is followed (or sometimes preceded) by buckets of sand being strewed on the decks, and the seamen, during the whole of this period, are compelled to work without their shoes and stockings, (although the thermometer may range at or below the freezing point) dragging the large holy stones, working the hand holy stones, pumping and carrying water, and ultimately using brooms and swabs to dry the decks, before going to breakfast." pp. 14-15. "Let us now examine the effects of this system of cleaning the ship on those individuals who have just been turned out from their hammocks, and who have passed three hours and a half of an amphibious existence, previous to going to breakfast. Let us also remember that in this watery circle, the victims of venereal pleasure, who have just completed their six weeks' course of alterative medicine, meet with the Hepatic valetudinarian, after a long residence in a tropical climate; or the friend of his youth, who has a predisposition to, or is already affected with, incipient consumption, &c., all performing their various parts in the watery