in three private treaties between the King and the Parliament, which gave him peculiar opportunities of collecting the information that is embodied in these Memoirs. He married in 1638 Miss Dorothy Hutton of York, and in 1647 the widow of Sir William Botteler, who was related to General Fairfax. An Oxford degree was conferred on him in 1639; and in the year following he was elected burgess for Radnor in Wales, but was expelled from the Long Parliament by the republicans. In 1678 he completed a "Discourse on Government," which was edited in 1694 by Dr. T. Smith, a non-juring divine; whose preface was so much marked by his political principles, that he was obliged to retrench it under a threat of prosecution. Sir Philip died in 1682 at Chiselhurst in Kent, to which parish he bequeathed some charitable donation. He left in manuscript these Memoirs of the Reign of King Charles the First, which were first published by Dr. Thomas Smith in 1702, and are now re-edited, we understand, by Mr. Walter Scott.

Sir Philip Warwick displays in this work the talent of an accomplished and the experience of a busy man. Steady to his party, though not bigotted to it, he preserved the esteem of his antagonists; and such was the natural moderation or the equity of his temper, that he could intermarry and intervisit with the family of General Fairfax, without rendering his loyalty suspicious or his home quarrelsome. His narrations have the garrulity and the placidity of age; his details are brought out more for the sake of definition than of colouring: the concinnity of his style indicates that he was accustomed to Italian models, not that he was ambitious of admirable eloquence; and his profusion of petty commentary is oftener read with compla cency than with irksomeness. Like Hume, he inspires pity for royalty, rather than royalism. The Memoirs describe especially at considerable extent the entire reign of Charles the First, and give a more abbreviated and succinct narrative of those transactions subsequent to the King's death, which were connected with preparing the accession of his son.

The character of Charles is as fair a specimen as we can select:

At a time when all the rest of the world was embroiled in war, and heavy laden under taxes; we in our manufactures, shipping, and trading, were reaping the advantages of their ill condition. And it could scarce be otherwise, when we shall give the true character of this highly good, but most unfortunate prince. He was a person,

though born sickly, yet who came, through temperance and exercise, to have as firm and strong a body as most persons I ever knew, and throughout all the fatigues of the war, or during his imprisonment, was never sick. His appetite was to plain meats, and though he took a good quantity thereof, yet it was suitable to an easy digestion. He seldom ate of above three dishes at most, nor drank above thrice:

a glass of small beer, another of claret wine, and the last of water he ate suppers as well as dinners heartily, but betwixt meals he never meddled with any thing. Fruit he would eat plentifully, and with this regularity he moved as steadily as a star follows his course. His deportment was very majestic, for he would not let fall his dignity, no, not to the greatest foreigners that came to visit him and his court; for though he was far from pride, yet he was careful of majesty, and would be approached with respect and reverence. His conversation was free, and the subject matter of it (on his own side of the court) was most commonly rational; or, if facetious, not light. With any artist or good mechanic, traveller, or scholar, he would discourse freely; and as he was commonly improved by them, so he often gave light to them in their own art or knowledge. For there were few gentlemen in the world that knew more of useful or necessary learning than this prince did: and yet his proportion of books was but small, having, like Francis the First of France, learned more by the ear than by study. His way of arguing was very civil and patient; for he seldom contradicted another by his authority, but by his reason: nor did he by any petulant dislike quash another's argument; and he offered his exception by this civil introduction, "By your favour, Sir, I think otherwise on this or that ground:" yet he would discountenance any bold or forward address unto him. And in suits or discourse of business, he would give way to none abruptly to enter into them, but looked that the greatest persons should in affairs of this nature address to him by his proper ministers, or by some solemn desire of speaking to him in their own persons. His exercises were manly; for he rode the great horse very well, and on the little saddle he was not only adroit, but a laborious hunter or field-man; and they were wont to say of him that he failed not to do any of his exercises artificially, but not very gracefully; like some well-propor tioned faces, which yet want a pleasant air of countenance. He had a great plainness in his own nature, and yet he was thought even by his friends to love too much a versatile man; but his experience had thoroughly weaned him from this at last.'

Here we wished for a note. Who is the versatile man that is mentioned in the text? Sir Harry Vane is named soon afterward, as if the author had him in view: but the allusion remains somewhat uncertain.

Throughout this edition, the original orthography is modernized, but not always corrected. The various speeches and emphatic sentences formerly printed in Italics now appear in the Roman character. Notes are occasionally attached which pretend to supply the deficient information of the text, or refer the reader to such supplement: but these notes are not sufficiently numerous and extensive to constitute an essentially important addition to the original narrative; though they display considerable reading in the primary reservoirs of intelligence, quote industriously certain books lately reprinted at Edinburgh, and include several convenient explanations of

passing

passing allusions. Some dexterity seems to have been observed in adding these notes as fast as the printer left his prototype behind, and no faster: for almost every fact occurs at the same page of this and of the old edition; and yet the fresh_impression includes more words in a page than the old one. This is a new but a wise principle of annotation, and is natural in a typographical age, because it renders each successive edition equally convenient for purposes of search and of citation. Some printer by profession no doubt invented this ingenious art of editing by the sheet; so as to bring, if not the single pages, at least every sixteenth, into correspondence. We recommend in future a steady attention to this management in those who reprint old books. The aberration of reference from the text to which a reference is necessary is constantly progressive with the multiplication of editions; and for want of the impression quoted, we are often at a loss to verify a critical passage: but, if every sheet continues to comprize the same precise materials, no variety of indication can mislead farther than a page or a leaf; and the arts of associating ideas are now so well understood, that it is always easy for a practised author to fill up any given lacuna of an inch, or an inch and half, with an adapted

note.

If this edition had contained the Discourse on Government by Sir Philip Warwick, it would have included all the known works of this writer; who is valuable not merely as an historiographer, but as a sample of the man of education in his time; and who carries into all his compositions that tutored manner, which then was considered as essential to the accomplished gentleman, His style delineates his age. In the Secret History of James the First*, to which this volume is intended as a supplement, the omission of Osborne's Advice to his Son is in like manner to be regretted. A reprint of the "Memoirs of Sir John Reresby," here advertized as preparing, in continuation of the editor's design, has since been published.

ART. VI. Relation of the Siege of Tarragona, and the Storming and Capture of that City by the French, in June 1811. By Field Marshal Don Juan Senen de Contreras, Governor of that Fortress at the Time of the Siege. With Particulars of the General's Escape from the strong Castle in which he was confined, his Observations on the Spirit of the People, and the Nature, Stratagems, and Resources of the French Government. 8vo. pp. 100. 58. Booth. 1813.

WE E are here presented with a plain and interesting account of one of the most sanguinary events in this age of battles

* See Rev. for March 1812.

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and

and sieges. After having flattered himself with accomplishing the reduction of Cadiz and Lisbon without placing on the side of Catalonia any thing more than an army of observation, Bonaparte, in the spring of 1811, found it expedient to change his plan, and to direct an overpowering force against Tortosa and Tarragona; which had long been places of refuge and support to the neighbouring inhabitants, who were by far the most active and enterprising of the Spanish nation. When Massena had failed in Portugal, the reinforcements perpetually arriving from France in Spain were added to the eastern army commanded by Suchet; who, without being reputed to possess extraordinary talents, was in high favour with his master, on account of that habit of decision which hesitates at no sacrifice to accomplish its object.

Having succeeded in reducing Tortosa, Suchet appeared with an army of forty thousand men in the end of April before Tarragona, and began forthwith a course of operations which shewed that to preserve the lives of his troops was with him altogether a subordinate consideration. In one of his obstinate efforts to forward his progress by assault, he is said to have lost in taking the small fort of Olivo not fewer than 2000 men. This affair occurred on 29th May; and it was not till two days afterward that the Spanish General in chief, withdrawing from the town, ordered Marshal Contreras to take on himself the command of the garrison. Nothing could exceed the zeal of the troops and of the inhabitants; a zeal which supplied in a great measure the very deficient fortifications of the place, and required to be frequently restrained, but never stimulated: although the garrison had the mortification of seeing both a Spanish and an English force decline to disembark and aid them in what appeared a hopeless contest. After unremitting efforts, the French had, by the 27th of June, effected several practicable breaches, and prepared for a general assault. Contreras, finding his garrison still 8000 strong, had hopes of driving back the enemy by the bayonet, and refused to capitulate. The French, marching up in column, were at first checked, but soon made their way into the heart of the place, the Spaniards being too unskilful to fulfil all the instructions of their commander. The loss on the part of the garrison was not great, Suchet preferring the grant of their lives to the hazard attendant on a conflict of despair: but, no sooner were the French in complete possession of the town, than a general pillage and even massacre took place, on the base calculation in the mind of Suchet, that the exhibition of so horrid a spectacle might have the effect of diminishing the resistance of other places. He had even anticipated this event two days before, and says, in his

report

report of the capture, that the terrible example which he foresaw had been accomplished, and would long resound throughout Spain.

When Marshal Contreras was brought prisoner to the French camp, Suchet affected to charge him in public with the whole bloodshed consequent on the assault; while, in private, he spared no efforts to detach him from the cause of the Spanish patriots, and enlist him in that of his master. The Marshal continuing inflexible, he was carried a close prisoner into France; and, although Bonaparte professed to issue an order to treat him with the attention due to his rank, he was immured in the castle of Bouillon with eleven state prisoners who had long lost all hope of release, notwithstanding the expiration of their prescribed term of confinement. With one of these, however, he found means to escape, and wandered throughout France, sometimes on foot, sometimes on horseback, during eight months. Part of this period was the time immediately subsequent to the disaster of Bonaparte in Russia; and this indignant Spaniard had the mortification to see the unfortunate conscripts obliged, in all directions, to march and obey the mandates of their tyrant. The Marshal arrived in England in June last. The extent of falsehood practised by Bonaparte and his agents was not surpassed even by that of Robespierre. It was announced in all the French papers, and even by authority of government, that a Concordat had been signed in January with the Pope; and the manner of notifying this circumstance was related so directly and circumstantially, that scarcely any part of the public distrusted the authenticity of the statement, the articles being regularly enumerated, and the conditions exhibited in the most specific manner. The result, however, shewed that the Pope remained a prisoner; and he refused, we believe, to submit to sign any thing, or even to receive the Cardinals sent by Bonaparte. Still the practical effect of this manoeuvre was to impose for a season on the French nation, who were much dissatisfied with Bonaparte's treatment of the Holy Father. It facilitated accordingly the vast drain made in the population by the Conscription; the amount of which, in the course of the last year, has probably not been short of 800,000 men!

ART. VII. The Bride of Abydos. A Turkish Tale. By Lord Byron. 8vo. pp. 72. 58. 6d. sewed. Murray. 1813.

Lo ORD Byron has again presented us with a delightful little poem; not, indeed, free from faults, but abounding in beauties which warrant us in bestowing almost unqualified praise. It is necessary, however, that, in offering these com

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mendations,