to raise a suspicion of his being a Mahometan,' but the phrase strictly implies what might be properly predicated of one who being a professed Mahometan, rendered his sincerity suspicious by his conduct. The phrase occurring in page 253 of the second volume, viz. "A bright conviction that his Christian feeling under trials is a cheering evidence that his piety is sincere," is scarcely intelligible. We would also intimate it as our opinion, that a studious endeavour to avoid the recurrence of the same word, where the identical idea is again to be expressed, marks that over-minute attention to language which rather displeases than gratifies the judicious ear. It ought to be remembered that tautology resides not in the expressions, but in the sense. Sometimes, however, we even detect Mrs. More in the injudicious attempt to disguise her repetitions of thought, by the variation of her phrase, and sometimes affecting the air of antithesis, with a perfect identicalness of idea, by the mere artificial collocation of the words. In a word, for we are anxious to put a period to remarks which are at all unfavourable to what, in general, so strongly engages our esteem and admiration, we wish to see the exclamations towards the end of the work expunged; and that a similar fate should attend the numerous poetical quotations which are made to run into the context with a very, awkward effect. We do not like, in such a work, that trite mode of citing authorities, as that accurate judge of human life, Dr. Johnson, &c.; that acute thinker, Dr. Barrow, &c.' These additions, by way of eulogy, to those great names, are only the idle expletives of common-place. And, in general, we should be better pleased with the mention of historical personages by their simple names, than by such circuitous description as 'the execrable Florentine' for Catharine de Medicis, and 'the sage of Ferney' for Voltaire. We think, upon the whole, she would please more by studying to please less; by condescending less to vulgar taste, and by dressing up her thoughts less in the mode. In the simple majesty of her native perfections, in the graces emphatically her own, this daughter of Sion comes forth with unrivalled lustre ; but she excites in us real regret when, in the mistaken effort to please or astonish, she appears in her bracelets, her chains, her round tires like the moon, and descends to dazzle us with the bravery of her tinkling orna

ments.

Upon the whole, we consider the work which we have had such pleasure in reviewing as a great ornament to the literature of the country, and a most valuable accession to the fund of moral and religious instruction. We are rejoiced to perceive that time has produced no diminution of the powers of this estimable lady;

that there is a vernant vigour and adolescence about her heart which keeps her spirits from ordinary decay; and that for the duties of life, and the interests of humanity, she is yet strong and agile in spite of sickness and suffering.

We are impressed both as men and as Reviewers with the profoundest respect for Mrs. Hannah More and her works; and have treated her in a manner consonant to these feelings. We hope she will meet with similar treatment from other critics whose judgment she will have to encounter. It is to be feared, however, that those who have so severely treated the good and venerable Mrs. Trimmer, will not quietly look on while the zeal of Mrs. More is so busy and so persuasive. Those who have not thought it hard in the cause of their favourite Mr. Lancaster. (whose system of rewards and punishments has certainly seemed wanting in discretion to others besides ' feeble old ladies,') to rake into the language for terms of the bitterest sarcasm to be employed against an aged woman whose infirmities had rendered her but ill-able to contend in the arena with juvenile gladiators; who have thought it not unjust to ridicule the anility' of one, the evening of whose life was setting in the calmest sunshine that an approving conscience can afford, and for the sake of a derisive sentence or two about horn-books and primers, and sixpenny books for children, to suppress the knowledge, as far as in them lay, of those other works of this 'feeble old lady,' which by the purity of their style, and the dignity and utility of their subjects, will probably live long after she will have settled her accounts with her Reviewers in another world, and their hostile criticisms shall be remembered no more in this: we say, that those who have not thought it hard or unjust to deal with a most deserving lady after this manner, and to praise themselves for their tender mercies in not drawing blood from her at every line, will not be very likely to spare another lady who has certainly written many books for the young and the illiterate, and probably very pleasing to mothers and aunts,' and has instructed them on a plan very different from that of Mr. Lancaster. But if any gentleman is to be selected for the task of drawing blood at every line from this respectable lady, we warn him to beware of the recoil of her character, which has been found hitherto sufficient to confound her bitterest enemies.

For our parts we are very well satisfied with this lady's method of instructing the young, and are heartily desirous that her advice may be followed by the manly and the mature. We shall be better pleased to see the societies of this country shaping themselves to the model of her admirable rules of conduct, than copying the wretched côteries of Parisian Mesdames and Mesdemoi

selles, with their retinue of blaspheming philosophers, which some are so fond of describing as good society. Where there is a contract of mutual toleration of each other's egotism, vice and vanity, a society may be raised upon it, in which some may, doubtless, find their entertainment; but what man of moral worth or vulgar honesty in this country could breathe in such society, without feeling the atmosphere pestilential? And where, but in the dregs of prostitution, shall we search, in England, for fit as sociates, in point of moral debasement, for those societies of Paris, in which the names of Du Deffand and Lespinasse were consecrated and adored?

ART. XVII.—A Treatise on the Defence of Portugal, with a military Map of the Country; to which is added a Sketch of the Manners and Customs of the Inhabitants, and principal Events of the Campaigns under Lord Wellington, in 1808 and 1809. By William Granville Eliot, Captain in the Royal Regt. of Artillery.-Egerton, 1810. PP. 244.

THE public opinion in this country respecting Portugal has gradually undergone so great a change, which late events, and the glorious and successful termination of the campaign in the spring of 1811, have converted into a complete revolution of sentiment, that every thing which can throw light upon the ultimate causes of that change assumes a new and peculiar interest. Those causes are by no means ill traced in the little work now before us; and although it must have been read with diminished interest, while the operations of the British army were confined within the small portion of territory in the immediate neighbourhood of Lisbon, yet its accurate details and the sagacity of the conclusions drawn from them, having been completely justified by the event, now assume an importance both with respect to past and prospective measures which they never yet possessed. For these reasons we are persuaded that we cannot bestow a more useful lesson, or a more acceptable present upon our readers, in this moment of national exultation, than by retracing, through a brief summary, those vicissitudes of war and policy, those alternate triumphs of heroism and imbecility, of humanity and cruelty, of generosity and rapacity, through which the brave and interesting Portuguese have toiled and suffered, have been by turns oppressed and relieved, up to the period of their glorious and we trust final emancipation from French tyranny.

Information collected upon the scene, and observations drawn

from experience, are at all times deserving of attention. But when they are communicated by a British officer, who, like Captain Eliot, has had the opportunity of examining with a professional eye the topography of a country, about which we are so much interested individually, as well as nationally; of comparing the present state of the army of that country with its former disorganized condition, and of judging from personal intercourse with the natives, of the public sentiment upon the subject of the contest in which they are engaged, our feelings are if possible quickened with regard to every thing that passes, and our minds are better prepared to weigh the consequences of every event.

Captain Eliot appears to us to have written this work without any party or political bias, and to have made the public service his chief object. He shews that the disposition of the people of Portugal, the natural strength of the country, with the augmentation and improved discipline of its military force, all conspired to encourage us to persevere in those exertions for expelling the enemy, which have at length been crowned with complete success: for to use his own words,

"Whilst the present system of warfare is continued in Spain, which from the appearance of things seems likely to be of long duration, the French cannot spare a force of sufficient magnitude for the conquest of Portugal. Nothing under 150,000 men, I am persuaded, will be able completely to subdue it; even with such a force, the contest may be doubtful, and should fortune, in the first instance, favour the allied army, so large a force would be obliged to evacuate the country for want of provisions and forage for their cavalry." (P. 91.)

The first and two succeeding chapters treat of the topography of the different provinces, and furnish that information in aid of the map, which was so much wanted with regard to Portugal. To give to the other parts of the narrative the connection which appears to us necessary to their elucidation, we shall make our extracts without following the arrangement observed by the author. We shall occasionally introduce information derived from other sources, and add such reflections as suggest themselves to us upon an attentive consideration of this important subject.

Captain Eliot observes, page 94,

"In the war of 1762, when the French were in alliance with Spain, the Count de la Lippe Schomberg was invited by the court of Lisbon to new-model the Portuguese army, consisting at that time (upon paper) of 26,000 infantry, 5,000 cavalry, and 100,000 militia. The latter served without pay. Of the above number of regular troops, the count on his arrival could scarcely collect more

than 10,000 fit to take the field, and those very deficient in point of discipline. The count remained in Portugal too short a time to bring to perfection the plans he had adopted for the improvement of the army. He left the country in the year 1764, returned again in 1767, and left it for good the following year. After his departure, the army again relapsed into its former state of wretchedness; since which time it has continued to decline both in appearance and discipline. In 1797 it consisted of 20,000 infantry, 4,000 cavalry, and 25,000 militia."

With an army of this character, (and the description corresponds with every other account that we have seen), with a government without energy, and under the administration of Monsieur d'Araouja, who not only did not possess the confidence of the nation, but who was strongly suspected of being under the influence of Buonaparte, we cannot be surprised that Portugal should have been subjected to the humiliating conditions of the treaty of Badajos:-or that no greater advantagecould be obtained for her than those arising from the stipulations, which, much to the honour of the British government, were provided in her favour by the treaty of Amiens.

To the same causes may be ascribed the failure of the different overtures which, it is well known, were subsequently made by the British administration to the Prince Regent, with a view' of stimulating him to those exertions, which alone could have justified them in giving him the aid of a British force for the protection of Portugal. Monsieur d'Araouja had placed that' country in a state of tributary vassalage to Buonaparte. He continued at the head of its administration, and our government, despairing of being able to effect such a change of system as would be calculated to bring forth the resources of Portugal, not only ceased to remonstrate, but had acquiesced in the Prince Regent's submitting to shut his ports against the British flag. It was at this period that the advance of General Junot to the capital at the head of a military force made it manifest that the subversion of the throne, and the expulsion of the house of Braganza, could alone satisfy the inordinate ambition of Buonaparte.

"On the 17th October, 1807, the first division of the French troops under General Laborde, destined for the conquest of Portugal, passed into Spain, and was shortly after followed by the main body of the army under General Junot.

"Buonaparte had previously demanded as the conditions on which the Portuguese might still preserve the shadow of their independ

ence:

1st.-A contribution of 4,000,000 of crusades.

2dly. The possession of the Portuguese fleet: and,

3dly. That the ports should be shut against the English.