simple details collected by Mr Alison. We never before so clearly appreciated the mighty powers of Napoleon his boundless fertility of resource-his calm serenity in the most desperate emergencies his utter ignorance of personal fear-his piercing political foresight the vast fund of miscellaneous knowledge collected by the almost involuntary operation of his perspicacious and tenacious intellect-the rapid and vigorous reasoning faculties, which applied themselves, with the ease and precision of some exquisite machine, to every subject alike which for an instant attracted his attention.

In his seventy-second chapter, Mr Alison has collected a variety of highly interesting details, respecting the private manners and habits of Napoleon. It is scarcely possible to describe the impression which its perusal leaves on the mind. The strange contrast of warm affection and vindictive hatred, of fiery impetuosity and methodical precision, of royal luxury and indefatigable self-denial, of fascinating courtesy and despotic harshness the indomitable pride, the vehement eloquence, the magnanimous power of self-command, the fearful bursts of passion-all combine to produce an effect by which the dullest imagination must be enchanted, but which the most versatile genius might fail in depicting. The interest of the portrait is augmented by those minute personal peculiarities on which the romantic devotion of Napoleon's followers has so often dwelt-by the classical features, the piercing glance, the manners, now stern, abrupt, and imperious, now full of princely grace-even by the small plain hat, and the redingote grise, which have supplanted the white plume of Henri Quatre in French song and romance. We almost sympathize with the attachment of his soldiers, wild and idolatrous as it was, when we remember Mr Alison's simple but imposing narrative of the events of the empire-of the congress of Tilsit, the farewell of Fontainbleau, and the unparalleledthe marvellous march to Paris. It is impossible, in reading the striking details which record the personal demeanour of Napoleon during such scenes as these, not to recall the noble lines in which Southey has described Kehama :-

"Pride could not quit his eye,

Nor that remorseless nature from his front
Depart; yet whoso had beheld him then
Had felt some admiration mix'd with dread,
And might have said

That sure he seem'd to be the king of men ;
Less than the greatest, that he could not be,
Who carried in his port such might and majesty."

ART. II.-The Life of Augustus Keppel, Admiral of the White, and First Lord of the Admiralty in 1782-3. By the Hon. and Rev. THOMAS KEPPEL. 2 vols. 8vo. London : 1842.

IT

T is not often that naval subjects are brought under our consideration;—not that we are not fully impressed with the paramount importance of all that relates to this mighty arm of our power, essential, indeed, for the safety and protection of every part of the United Kingdom at home, and of its numerous dependencies abroad, and equally so for that of our valuable and extensive commerce and mercantile shipping. In fact, it so happens that, during the piping times of peace,' naval events are seldom of that stirring character as to cause much excitement in the public mind; but the biography of such of our brave naval defenders, who may have had the enviable good fortune of signalizing themselves in fight with the enemy, and of being placed in situations of great trust and responsibility, must always command a prominent place in the annals of the British empire.

Already, the lives of Anson, Howe, St Vincent, Nelson, Rodney, and Saumarez are before the public; and the wonder is, that a Memoir of Keppel, the friend and associate of the first three of these, and we may also add, of Hawke, Saunders, and Duncan, should have been so long delayed. The task, however, though late, is now accomplished, and by one who has proved himself well qualified to do justice to the exploits, the character, and the memory of a meritorious and gallant naval officer;-by one who, owing to his first professional choice, is not altogether unacquainted with the naval service; who is descended from the same noble family; and who had access to private as well as official documents, of which he has made a copious and judicious use. In them we find the mental qualities and disposition of Admiral Lord Keppel amply developed-replete with every amiable feature-kind, benevolent, and sincere. He was a man liberal in his political opinions, which were those of his family and most intimate friends-Rockingham, Shelburne, Richmond, Burke, Fox, and many others of the Whig party. And if he was not so fortunate, in his long and successful service of more than forty years, almost wholly spent at sea, as to obtain, as commanderin-chief, any great and decisive success against the enemy, such as is usually designated by the name of victory,' yet he had his full share in the victories of Hawke, Anson, and Pococke; and achieved signal success in numerous enterprizes entrusted to his charge. Equally successful was he in conciliating the good opinion

and obtaining the applause of the public, and of his highly distinguished friends;-gaining a moral triumph over those few of his enemies who might be envious of his well-acquired reputation.

The Honourable Augustus Keppel was the second son of the second Lord Albemarle, by Lady Anne Lennox, daughter of Charles first Duke of Richmond, and was born the 25th April 1725. He entered the navy at the early age of ten years, having quitted Westminster school for the cockpit of the Oxford frigate, passed his first two years on the coast of Guinea, and three in the Mediterranean, in the Gloucester. On his return in July 1740, he was appointed to the Centurion, under the command of Commodore Anson, destined for a voyage round the world. He thus,' says his biographer, 'shared in the hardships and dangers of that celebrated voyage, which for its inauspicious commencement, its strange and protracted disasters, and its final success, is, perhaps, without a parallel in the naval annals of any country.' In the course of this voyage he contracted a steady friendship with that distinguished band of brothers-Anson, Saunders, Brett, Saumarez, Denis, Byron, Parker, and Campbell -which terminated only with their several lives.

The incidents of this voyage are so well known that we pass over our author's summary, (of about sixty pages,) interspersed with a few sentences from Keppel's own journal-noticing only one incident which, with becoming modesty, is omitted in that journal, but mentioned in Anson's Voyage,' and which occurred at the attack of Payta: it is, that one side of the peak of Keppel's jockey 'cap was shaved off, close to his temple, by a ball.' After the action with the Spanish galleon, Anson was so pleased with the conduct of Keppel, that he immediately gave him a lieutenant's commission. On the arrival of the Centurion at Portsmouth, in June 1744, and as soon as paid off, Keppel immediately applied for employment, and was ordered to join the Dreadnought, commanded by the Hon. Edward Boscawen, Old Dreadnought,' as the sailors used to call him- the most ob'stinate,' as Walpole says, ' of an obstinate family.' But Pitt, who is higher authority than Walpole, said of him, When I apply to other officers respecting any expedition I may chance to project, they always raise difficulties-Boscawen always 'finds expedients.' From this ship, in November of the same year, he was promoted to the rank of commander, and appointed to the Wolf sloop; and, in the following December, was advanced to that of captain, and transferred to the Greyhound frigate. Thus, in ten years from his entering the service, that is, at the age of twenty, he obtained what was then called post

6

rank. Soon after he was appointed to the Sapphire, a forty gun frigate.

From this time he was actively employed in cruizing and making prizes, till the Sapphire required refitting; when, on application by letter to the Duke of Bedford, then First Lord of the Admiralty, that he might not lie idle while the Sapphire is laid up; and stating that his Grace must be sensible how ill it 'appears for young officers to remain on shore upon their pleasure, when they might be doing, perhaps, a service to their 'country,' he was appointed to the Maidstone, a ship of fifty guns, in the squadron under Admiral Warren, who, in writing to Anson, says, 'I think Keppel a charming little man.' In his eagerness and anxiety to cut off a large vessel running for Belleisle, and being told by an old pilot that it could be done very easily, his own ship struck upon the rocks of the Pelliers, two minutes after the man in the chains called out five fathoms ;-so intent was he upon the chase, and so uneasy,' he says, 'lest people 'should have thought it was the castle (which had fired upon ' him) he stood in fear of.' The French behaved remarkably well; they sent him and his crew to Nantz, and at the expiration of five weeks he returned to England on his parole. In a letter to his friend Saumarez, he says, I had my fortune before my eyes, 'but eagerness and a bad pilot put an end to it.' A few days after his acquittal by court-martial, he was appointed to a new seventy-four gun ship, the Anson, destined to form one of the squadron under Sir Peter Warren. In writing to Lord Anson, from Lisbon, he says, I find we have lost the Duke of Bed'ford, who now is Secretary of State. I wish our new head may 'be as zealous, and support us as his Grace has done. I have 'not the honour of knowing my Lord Sandwich so well as the 'Duke of Bedford, but whilst I have the happiness to behave 'myself deserving your Lordship's protection, I want no other.'

6

From the Anson, Keppel and all his officers were turned over to his old ship, the Centurion, which, after a thorough repair, was reduced from a sixty to a fifty gun ship. Keppel was highly gratified by this appointment, made by the duke's successor, Lord Sandwich. The Centurion had not only become celebrated from her voyage round the world, but was also considered a crack man-of-war.' 'Among the midshipmen who now 'joined the Centurion, was Adam Duncan, so distinguished in 'after times as the gallant Lord and Admiral of that name. Duncan may be truly said to have received his professional 'education in Keppel's school, having served under him in the 'several ranks of midshipman; third, second, and first lieuten'ant; flag and post captain;-indeed, with the exception of a

'short time with Captain Barrington, he had no other commander 'during the Seven Years' War."

It may be noticed that Duncan was destined, in after life, to sit as one of the judges at the trial of his early friend. The Centurion having put into Plymouth, the commodore, on a visit to his friend Lord Mount-Edgcumbe, first became acquainted with Mr (afterwards Sir Joshua) Reynolds, and was so much pleased with the young artist, that he offered him a passage in the Centurion on the interesting voyage she was then on her way to perform. The beautiful portrait of Keppel which he afterwards painted, and from which an engraving stands as frontispiece to this work, is supposed to have been among the first to enhance the reputation of Reynolds.

During the fourteen years that had now expired since Keppel left Westminster school, his life had almost wholly been spent in active employment at sea, capturing many of the enemy's armed ships and merchantmen. Now, however, he received a notification that he was to be entrusted with a diplomatic mission to the States of Barbary, and to be appointed to the chief command in the Mediterranean, with the rank of commodore. In writing to his friend Anson, then one of the Lords of the Admiralty, he says, 'I have wrote to my Lord Sandwich by this opportunity, whom, with your Lordship, I am greatly obliged to, for your entrusting me with this command.'

One main object of it was to obtain from the Dey of Algiers satisfaction for the capture of a government packet, the treasure and effects on board which, being of very considerable value, were confiscated by the Dey. His instructions were to obtain restitution, and, if this barbarian should be refractory, to use menaces to intimidate him. On the arrival of the Centurion in the bay with other six ships of war, a salute of twenty guns was fired from the batteries, in returning which one of the Centurion's guns, by the carelessness of the gunner, was shotted, which the Dey persisted was done purposely; and this made him not only refractory,' but very saucy. Mr Keppel gives the following anecdote from Northcote's Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds,' which is also mentioned in other publications of the day; but as the commodore does not notice it in his journal, his biographer considers it as dubious. The Dey, surprised at the boldness of Keppel's remonstrances, and despising his apparent youth, 'he being then only four-and-twenty, exclaimed, that he wondered ' at the insolence of the King of Great Britain in sending him an insignificant, beardless boy!' On this the spirited commodore replied, Had my master supposed that wisdom was mea'sured by the length of the beard, he would have sent your