sent out for erection in the Isle of Bourbon, by Mr. Brunet. The eighth plate is intended to illustrate the construction of the cranes usually employed in our docks, quays, &c. The plates from No. 9. to No. 11. are occupied with details relating to the docks in the port of London, and the twelfth with the port of Dundee: the thirteenth relates to the Caledonian Canal: the fourteenth, to a description of the Bell-rock and other light-houses; and the fifteenth, to the ports in Scotland and docks of Liverpool. All these are neatly and accu rately executed; forming with the text a splendid work, of which we are aware that we have given rather an imperfect account, but which we earnestly recommend to the attention of English readers.

ART. XV. Histoire et Description des Iles Ioniennes, &c.; i. e. A History and Description of the Ionian Isles, from the fabulous and hercie Ages to the present Times. With a new Atlas, containing Charts, Plans, Costumes, Coins, &c. By an Officer sent on a Mission to these Isles. Revised, and introduced by a preliminary Discourse, by Col. Bory de Saint Vincent. 8vo. pp. 428. Paris. 1823. Imported by Treuttel and Co. Price 12. 16s.

THE 'HE officer of rank, a Monsieur S***, to whom we are indebted for this work, appears to have been sent on service to the islands which he describes, for the purpose of facilitating inquiries concerning them. M. Bory de St. Vincent's introductory discourse is a high-flown panegyric on its merits; which is concluded by a third contributor, an anonymous homme de lettres, who takes up the unfinished manuscript of the original writer, which left off with the appointment of General Berthier in September, 1807, as Governor-General of the Septinsular Republic under the protection of the French empire, and who brings his meagre and angry narrative down to the present period. The body of the work is composed in the plain and simple style which well becomes the annalist, being pithy and pregnant. It is divided into six books: the first giving the fabulous History of the Islands of Corfu, Cephalonia including Ithaca, Leucadia, Zante, Cerigo, and Naxos; the second embracing the Period which elapsed from the fabulous Ages to the Arrival of the Romans in Greece, that is, from the Year 600 to 230 before Christ; the third proceeding from the First Expedition of the Romans, to the Occupation of the Eastern Empire by the Latins in the Year 1203 of the Christian Æra; the fourth relating the History of the Seven Isles under the Government of their Dukes, to the Death of Soliman II. in 1556; the fifth continuing it down

to

to the present Period; and the sixth, which is statistical, supplying an Account of the Population, Productions, Commerce, Manners, Religion, &c. of the Islands.

An entire absence of all political feeling, which distinguishes the main body of the history, forms a striking and favorable contrast with the acerbity of expression which is directed against this country by the Colonel in his preliminary discourse, and by the anonymous author of the sixth chapter of the fifth book. These two writers cannot conceal their mortification, but even "bite their thumbs" in vexation that the Ionian Isles have passed under the protection of Great Britain out of the pure, disinterested, and generous hands of France; in which we might fancy that the young almond-tree, in all the pride and beauty of its bloom, afforded but a feeble emblem of their prosperity.

It is the political and maritime importance of these isles,' says the Colonel, and not the richness of their soil and softness of their climate, which gives value to them in the eyes of a cabinet that is regardful of the future. In the possession of an industrious people, these islands may become not only an impregnable bulwark to the Archipelago and the Bosphorus, but the focus of an extensive smuggling commerce. That Venice did not feel this in the period of her splendor is very natural: the art of conquering indeed was at that time known, but the full value of conquered countries was rarely appreciated. Or that Venice, in her latter days, has done nothing to draw from her possessions in the Adriatic what she might have expected from them, was because she was hastening to decay: but England is, at the present moment, in the plenitude, in the very apogee of her power, and will not supinely hold such dangerous positions. The rocks of Cerigo may be bristled with cannon like the rock of Gibraltar; and unhappily, the relations with the East, which the English have already usurped, seem destined for ever to be the exclusive domain of a nation of merchants. This nation, essentially inimical to the industry of all others, must, in her selfish policy, oppose the incipient exertions of that industry, wherever a wise liberty would contribute to its expansion. Thus we may explain the very remarkable predilection of the philanthropists of Albion for the Crescent; and any people, who reckon on the assistance of such friends of humanity towards consolidating liberal institutions in their infancy, will learn sooner or later, to their cost, as the Ionian islanders have found, what sort of support they have to expect from England.'

How far any part of the reproach contained in this paragraph is just, we shall not now inquire, since our opinion as to the conduct of the British government with regard to the Septinsular Republic has been stated on a former occasion

* See M. R. vol. c. p. 417., for an account of M. de Bosset's work on Parga.

but

but did it not require a most marvellous degree of assurance, on the part of any Frenchman, to reproach England with refusing to consolidate liberal institutions in their infancy, at the very moment when the armies of France were overrunning Spain with the hope of destroying them?

The tone and temper in which the sixth chapter of the fifth book is written are very much the same with those of the preliminary Discourse. In the six years during which France had possession of the Ionian isles, nothing very memorable. occurred. The inhabitants, it seems, had then a halcyon time; happy under a wise and enlightened administration, they enjoyed an undisturbed tranquillity; and the cup of felicity would have overflowed, if they could but have resumed all their commercial transactions. Notwithstanding the unruffled mildness of the French dominion, however, so fickle and inconstant were these islanders, that they actually grew very impatient under it, and would not be easy till they threw it off; and this disturbs the composure of their anonymous annalist, who concludes that they were very justly punished for their ingratitude-in having such a governor as Sir Thomas Maitland. We certainly wish that they had been favored with a · better, but humbly conceive that this may now be effected without transferring the islands themselves to the protection, all wise, liberal, and mild as it may be, of the Bourbons of France. The Atlas contains 16 charts and plans, &c. beautifully lithographed by Lasteyrie.

ART. XVI. Histoire de la Nation Suisse, &c.; i. e. A History of the Swiss Nation, by M. HENRY ZSCHOKKE; translated from the German by the Rev. CH. MONNARD, &c., Professor of French Literature in the Academy at Lausanne. 8vo. pp. 391. Geneva and Paris.

TH HIS popular compendium of the Swiss history appears to be a valuable and meritorious publication, and is written in a brief and energetic style. Those portions are most detailed which display the spirit of independence in the cantons, and the beneficial effect of those whose interests are launched in the same cause being united in heart and hand. It exhibits with great perspicuity the evils which rankled in the heart of Swisserland, while exclusive rights and feudal privileges, the relics of barbarism, separated the different classes of inhabitants; and M. ZSCHOKKE describes in a very forcible manner the strong contrast which existed between the real state of the country, and its apparent freedom and prosperity.

• The

The whole of Swisserland,' says he, presented to the view of foreigners the appearance of an earthly paradise, inhabited by happy and peaceful mortals: but they saw the beautiful verdure of the vallies, and not the barren rocks; -the majesty of the Alps, but not the destructive avalanche. They admired the pomp of the diets, without perceiving their discords; the statues of William Tell, without discovering slavery in the cottages; the progress of instruction in the towns, without observing the remaining barbarism in the country; every where, fine names and great words, and saw not every where narrow views and mean actions.

A political combination of small towns, not being able to enrobe themselves in the brilliancy of virtue, hoped to gain dignity by surrounding themselves with the obscurity of mystery. The liberty of the press appeared to them to be an abomination, and publicity of judgments to be the ruin of the state. The news-papers therefore were condemned to silence on all the affairs of the country. What was done by the Grand Turk or the Great Mogul was known: but the people were ignorant of all that was passing at Zurich, Berne, or Schaffhausen.

They called indolence the love of peace; and the consciousness of that weakness which would make them tremble at the idea of a courageous enterprize, they styled moderation. They intrigued with courts for pensions, titles, gold-chains, and orders, and boasted of the independence of their country. They blessed themselves for the happiness and tranquillity of Swisserland, while to ages of civil wars had succeeded an age of conspiracies and revolutions.'

The successive disturbances and insurrections, which convulsed the different states of Swisserland till the overthrow of the antient confederation in 1798, proved the justice of the author's remarks, and shew how little the outward appearances of that country were justified by its real condition. M. ZSCHOKKE speaks uniformly with indignation of the abuses which characterized the antient partial system; and our readers, we think, will concur with him in deploring that there should still exist, in different cantons of Swisserland, the abominable practice of putting supposed criminals to the rack, and extorting confessions of their guilt. How infamously this vile engine of tyranny was used at Berne, in 1749, on occasion of the conspiracy against the Grand Council, is familiar to all readers of history: but we had indulged the hope that, amid the changes, good and evil, which the French Revolution effected in the cantons, and the subsequent progress of general knowlege and information, the laws relating to torture had been expunged from every code throughout the states.

M. ZSCHOKKE's remarks on the folly and obstinacy of the privileged classes, which made even the intervention of a foreign nation acceptable to the great body of the people, and

gave

gave the French a pretext of coming as friends and liberators when they overwhelmed the antient provinces, contain much intrinsic good sense. The best and only effectual way of preventing violent revolutions, in any country, is for the governors to consult the real interest of the governed; and to foster such moderate and temperate measures of reform, as may adapt old institutions to the improved condition and new exigencies of society. To those who have been accustomed merely to coloured portraits and rhetorical declamations on the antient state of Swisserland, we recommend the study of the compendium before us: it will perhaps do much to satisfy them of the inherent and radical grievances which deformed the system.

The parts of the volume, which we should be most inclined to disapprove, are those which a Swiss patriot would probably deem not only excusable but praiseworthy. We mean the full recitals of all those particulars in the early history of the cantons, which hold a middle place between realities and fictions, as if they were plain and undoubted facts. Every nation, however, has its fabulous period; and we see no other reason to object to these tales, if they help to inspire a generous sense of independence, and a feeling of attachment to country, than that the paramount consideration of truth renders it necessary for a line to be always drawn between that which is known as fact, and that which is only desired as agreeable.

ART. XVII. Le Catholicisme et le Protestantisme considéres, &c.; i. e. Catholicism and Protestantism considered in a Political View. 8vo. pp. 80. Strasburgh. 1823. Imported by Treuttel and Co. Price 3s. 6d.

IN

N the political revolutions of which Europe has now been the theatre for half a century, the collateral influence of religion in producing many of the changes that have taken place does not appear to have been sufficiently regarded. Yet, among the various causes to which the formation of national character and the diversities of governments have been attributed by philosophical writers, few exert a more powerful effect than religion. Whatever may be thought of the expediency of upholding the doctrine of "church and state," the intimate connection between the two cannot be denied: nor can it ever be otherwise, while the civil and religious condition of states are governed by the same causes, the relative ignorance or information which distinguishes the people. When we observe a nation throwing aside the fetters

of