criticism, it was his forward movement to Quatre-Bras, leaving a pass like that of Genappe in his rear. We need only glance at Captain Siborne's maps of the ground to be convinced that it was Napoleon's failure to follow up his successes over Blücher rather than the Duke's foresight, that enabled the latter to take up his position at Waterloo after the retreat from Quatre-Bras.

The battles of the 16th are described with admirable precision in the work before us, and many points which had been much debated are fully cleared up. The author's fine defence of Ney- the bravest of the brave'-partakes of the magnanimity of the age of chivalry.

That Napoleon, after a complete defeat of the Prussians, should have allowed them to retreat in good order and without having the least idea of their route; that Grouchy should not have been sent in pursuit till late on the following day, and then under the impression that their route was not only contrary to that they did take, but to the one they would, according to the state of things at the time, be most likely to take-is most unaccountable; and the more unaccountable, as it is so utterly the reverse of the whole career of that unexampled tactician. We are not altogether willing to believe that Napoleon's conduct on this occasion is so entirely incapable of explanation as it appears; but certainly no adequate motive has ever been proposed, and it is left by Captain Siborne, as by all preceding writers, without a single gleam tending to remove the mystery.

The description of the battle of Waterloo is given with adequate minuteness, and in a style that carries the reader along with a feeling of romantic interest: it has all the attractions of a romance. The delay of Napoleon in commencing the attack is well accounted for, and the repeated struggles for the celebrated chateau of Hugomont are most exciting. Of the particulars of the battle and the events subsequent to it till the affair of Issy on the 3d of July, we cannot even attempt a notice. The reader must refer to the work itself.

The eleven plates, viz. two maps and nine plans of the ground, with the respective positions of the belligerent armies, afford every facility for comprehending the details of the operations. These are drawn on the analgliptographic principle, shewing at a glance the relative heights of the ground in the manner that is familiar to our readers from its frequent employment in the representation of medallions in engraving. The drawings are from careful surveys made by Captain Siborne himself; and he is, moreover, known from his model of the field of Waterloo, which has been (and, if we are not mistaken, still is) exhibited at the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly. In fact, an

inspection of that model will greatly facilitate, to unprofessional readers, the ready comprehension of the details of the history of the campaign.

We close our hasty notice of Captain Siborne's work with a conviction that we have derived from it much real knowledge upon many points connected with the Waterloo campaigu, for which we must have looked elsewhere in vain; and we feel assured that such of our readers as may be disposed to follow us in its perusal, will, like ourselves, be sorry to encounter the finis of the second volume.

SCOTLAND A MODEL FOR LANDLORDS.

'SCOTLAND is the best conditioned country in Europe.'-DUKE OF WELLINGTON. WHILE Ireland is ever verging on rebellion, and constantly in misery and blood, and the labouring classes in England, particularly the labourers connected with agriculture, are in a very excusable state of dissatisfaction, or to be plain, are afflicted by severe indigence, Scotland may be said to be generally happy. It is so at present, with the exception of some of the people in the poorest districts, who seem to be suffering from the absence of labour, and the reluctance of landlords to afford the necessary charity. These are hardly a class; they are supposed to be the remains of a class that have now ceased in certain quarters, namely, that of small tenants: whether that class has been extinguished wisely or not, we shall not at present enquire; the first need of an efficient military force may help to solve the uncertainty meanwhile, as we have just said, with this exception, the country is uncomplaining, and for now nearly a century it has been comparatively prosperous and peaceable.

With such an example closely under the eyes of the country and its statesmen, it is strange that the cause of difference should not be enquired into, and the remedies thereby suggested more generally applied. Government after government has found Ireland as it is, and left it so; and though the agricultural distress of England may have been exceeded, its want of prosperity compared with Scotland has long been acknowledged. Under these aspects we cannot perhaps occupy a few pages better than in considering, as from local knowledge and position we are enabled to do, the circumstances that seem to exert so beneficial an influence in Scotland and their applicability to the rest of the United Kingdom. Example is before us ;-that which is most needed is to carry out principles long in practice in the northern part of the island, and to a limited extent in England and Ireland. The moment too is

favourable; the Royal Commission on the tenure of land in the latter country having just made its report, the successful system of the Scottish landlords may be opportunely contrasted with the defective practices of their Irish brethren.

The first measure that we would suggest, not for its novelty, but as the most urgent and imperative, is the universal introduction of leases in the letting of land. In Scotland the holder of the smallest possession in land has his lease; and it is a bona fide one, of which a duplicate is in the hands of the tenant for perpetual guidance; not, as in Ireland, locked up in the keeping of the landlord's agent, and neither used nor meant to be used for any purpose beneficial to the tenant; but to evidence his right to vote at elections, and by the landlord's virtual possession of it, to secure his vote for him. The leases should be for 19, 21, or 27 years; or in special circumstances, for any greater number which these circumstances may render necessary. Improving leases should be longer. They should be of fair portions of land, at fair rents, providing suitable accommodation for the tenants, and stipulating suitable repayments for all improvements made by them, according to an agreed plan, in case of the landlords not taking this task upon themselves and duly executing it. The land should be laid out purely with a view to the best interests of agriculture, and not at all with a view to the political interests or supposed interests of the landlords; and the free and full use of the land according to the rules of good husbandry should be given to the tenants unclogged by any absurd regulations. It is inconceivable what losses England sustains annually from unnecessary restrictions, from open drains, and from restraining the tenants from protecting their fields against the depredations of game; but above all, from retaining land in grass that ought to be under the plough. Millions of acres have been time immemorial in grass (or turf as they call it), yielding only a few stones of hay, or their equivalent in pasturage, that ought to be yielding from ten to twelve quarters of oats, or from six to eight of wheat.

Proper modes should be adopted for adjusting the rents, or at least half of the rents (as in Scotland), according to the price of produce as annually ascertained, so that neither the landlords nor the tenants should thrive too exclusively at the expense of one another. And should the tenant find after all that he has so miscalculated the productive powers of his farm, as to be unable to carry through his contract without ruin to him and his family, breaks in his favour at the end of every five years should enable him to extricate himself at these periods, should he find it necessary, from ordinary causes, and all legislative changes to his disadvantage should entitle him to void his lease

at once. All these provisions, except the last, are and long have been in use in Scotland; and it need not be said, with beneficial effects, for the reasonableness of them is obvious.

With very little exception too they are the regulations that were made the basis of the settlement of the province of Ulster by James the First, nearly two centuries and a half ago. It is this circumstance that made Lord Londonderry declare the other day, at a meeting with his tenants, that their leases are as clearly their rights, as the possession of the land is his. The lease to the tenant is an integral part of the ownership of the lands, in the case of this province, though it is believed half the landlords there have forfeited their estates rather than do what is right; and what is legally the case there should be virtually so everywhere; for the lease is merely written law, and without it there is no law but the arbitrary will of the landlord. Were we to reason this matter closely, more might be said, but it is unnecessary; only those who hesitate to legislate upon this subject as seems necessary to the peace and interests of society, on the ground that they would thereby be controling private rights of property, might just as correctly argue against any modification of the rights of the crown, or against any protection of the public against nuisances from any species of property and no greater nor more destructive nuisance can be conceived than that of a landlord wasting his property by bad management, or rendering it a nest of beggars, or, as it proves in Ireland, at once of beggars and criminals, to the disturbance of general peace. There is another view of this subject:-as the government of the landlord is really the government of his district, so if he may govern as he pleases, do what he will with his own,' then are the landlords the rulers of this kingdom, and not the sovereign or the laws; and they may oppress, pillage, or even exterminate the people from views of personal interest merely, while no one may say to them, What dost thou ?'

It is true the honor of landlords may be pleaded in arrest of any change of the tenure in land; that on many estates tenants are never removed, while they continue to pay their rents and conduct themselves properly. True; but all this is optional. And what is in these cases meant by proper conduct? Exactly what the landlord in his wisdom or his caprice may consider proper; and though rents may not be raised if the tenant give no sign of extraordinary prosperity, it is obvious that in this way the want of a lease is, as it were, a bond against improvement; for the tenant not having a lease knows that improvement would only raise his rent. Landlords of the oldest families are not slack to raise their rents so soon as they think the tenants

can pay them, though the money appearing to come in so freely may only be capital returning that had first been laid out. Hence among other things certainly, the want of energy among English farmers. Landlords themselves saw the comfort of security of possession long before Magna Charta, and at last succeeded in enforcing it; though this was against all right, unless they did it for their tenants as well as themselves, as no doubt they did, or pretended to do, at the time.

In Ireland we know that the honour of landlords is any thing but a protection. We could produce instances of this from all but the highest ranks of the peerage; and the same may be true of the highest, though we do not know it. The tenants there, in consequence, even when prospering, (in their view of that matter,) affect poverty, slovenliness, and every thing likely to avert the notice of the landlord, or any competing farmer; because they know any thing else would only oust them from their possessions, unless they chose to pay exorbitantly for their own improvements.

But to end this question, Do landlords trust their interests to any order of the state? Certainly not. Then why should any order of the state trust their rights to them? and in particular to them and their unknown successors-including perhaps hungry and unscrupulous mortgagees? The question does not admit of argument. The existing system is unnecessary, and it is absurd, and in the last degree prejudicial to the interests. of the state, if not of the landlords themselves.

We will go further. Men falling by inheritance or purchase into possessions of excessive extent, conceive themselves entitled to turn into parks or pleasure-grounds, or to keep in these, and in game-preserves, ponds, &c. whatever quantity of land they may consider for their pleasure or dignity. In this way many thousands of acres of the best land may be and are misapplied, the country in the mean time paying excessive prices for produce to lead to the cultivation of bad land, and denying itself the produce of other countries, while thus deprived also of much of its own. Ought this to be? Ought not the public, on the contrary, to have the power of judging of this subject, and of enforcing that judgment to a reasonable extent? In Ireland, where, from the excess of people depending on land, it is a necessary of life, every insignificant squireen must have his place approached by an avenue half the length of his estate, the poor people making up to him for his extravagance by paying the purchase-value almost of the remainder of his land in the shape of rent. Surely such power ought to be limited, or the country released from all dues upon the import of corn, so that neither indivi