think, have been advantageously interspersed through his details, for it is, after all, on such records that the chief part of the interest and value of these personal narratives depends. We recollect, when marching through the village of Vimiera, after the charge of the 50th, asking a man of that regiment, who was busily wiping his piece as we passed, what execution he had done? 66 By J-s, your Honour, I skiver'd three of 'em," was his answer.

PORTUGAL AND GALLICIA-THE BASQUE PROVINCES, &c.

In whatever light it may be considered, this is a work of superior ability, interest, and value. Rising far above the ordinary strain and style of similar publications, these volumes exhibit the capacity of a vigorous, and the refinement of an accomplished mind-qualities known to belong to the noble author, the Earl of Carnarvon; whose career and productions, as Lord Porchester, have filled no small space in public favour.

Current events in Spain have induced the author to digest and compile the notes made during visits to the Peninsula, at periods prior to the death of Ferdinand, but still during seasons of revolution and civil war. These notes, pregnant with adventure, and generally descriptive of littlefrequented routes, not only constitute a "romance of real life," glowingly depicted, but form the best guide extant to the causes of the present deplorable condition of the Peninsula.

The review of the state of the Basque provinces in particular is one of the most able, lucid, and useful expositions of local history and political relations we have ever perused. For research and earnestness it is worthy of Southey. It is gratifying to us to find that the description of the Basques, given in a late number of this Periodical, is corroborated, as far as it goes, by the elaborate disquisition of Lord Carnarvon, which must convince even prejudiced readers of the intrinsic justice of the cause for which the northern provinces have taken up arms; of the patriotic and high-minded character of the Prince who now battles with them for those rights ;' and of the utter injustice, impolicy, and folly of the part taken by the British Government in the struggle to oppress them. The remarks of the author on this subject are so congenial, and so forcibly expressed, that we must close our own very inadequate notice, in order to make room for some seasonable passages from this striking essay.

"When last a British expedition sailed for Spain, it sailed under circumstances more congenial to a generous mind; it then went forth to resist the universal Oppressor, not to trample on the oppressed; not influenced by an unhealthy thirst for distinction, but animated by those loyal and patriotic sentiments which can alone justify, and even ennoble, the unchristian trade of war: but now a British force has returned to Spain, under the guidance of an Officer of great talent, but to promote a cause in which they have no natural interest, and, like mercenary bands, to fight for a Sovereign to whom they owe no natural allegiance.

"To an Englishman acquainted with the real merits of the war, it is a new, a bitter, a humiliating sensation, to feel that in the fortunes of his British countrymen he cannot sympathize-he cannot wish for their defeat; in such a cause, how can he hope for their success? The proud distinction between French and English victories in later times-between the fields of Austerlitz and Waterloo, lies even less in the comparative splendour of those great achievements, than in the different motives by which the impelling powers were actuated. Great Britain fought to rescue, France to enslave the world. Little as we have been as yet accustomed to the sight, I can but ill endure to see oppression and the British name go hand-in-hand. I cannot desire for England the brightest laurels, if they be not pure. If our expedition fail-failure will be attended with national disgrace. If, after months of humiliation, it succeed-the triumph of three powerful nations, leagued against a band of mountain patriots, will afford little scope for exultation; and I shall not envy the feelings of any Englishman returning from the subjugation of a free and gallant people.

"But, at all events, the time has arrived when every dispassionate man must, I think, be convinced that British subjects should cease to participate in a contest sullied by such atrocities; and that Great Britain should renounce her homage to that blood-stained giant of democracy, whose growth we have inconsiderately fostered in Spain, whose tremendous development we are witnessing, and whose still increasing ascendancy may, in its indirect results, be most injurious to our interests. But, more than all, it is time to close a page of British history, which, at once recording the injustice of our conduct, and the reverses of our arms, may gratify the lover of poetical retribution, but is fraught with humiliation to every Englishman, who remembers with pride the fields we won, and the cause for which we fought, in the same country that has recently witnessed the progressive decline, if not extinction of our influence, and the tarnished lustre of our name."

"

OBSERVATIONS ON THE PRACTICE AND FORMS, OF DISTRICT COURTS-
MARTIAL. By a FIELD-OFFICER, Second Edition..

We are happy to see a second and revised edition of this excellent and useful guide to, and commentary upon, a most important function of regimental officers. The insensible, though questionable, approximation of the forms and proceedings of Courts-martial to those of the civil law, renders it doubly desirable and expedient that every officer should be conversant, not only with the spirit, but the minutiae of the duties so clearly and, we may add in a virtual sense, authoritatively, defined in this useful compendium, which should be in the possession of every officer liable to serve on District Courts-martial.

A Rifleman," who inquires" the number of Ensigns and Cornets who have been made either from the ranks or from Serjeant-Majors, without purchase, in the last ten years," is referred to our Number for November, 1835, pp. 413, 14.

We can only say to "The Writer" (from Kirkcaldy), whose letter was much too late for reply in our last Number, that the subject is perfectly suitable, and, if executed with the intelligence and accuracy of which the writer's" letter gives promise, will be acceptable.

་་

The communication of C. B., on the capture of Badajoz, is merely deferred till next month, that we may be able to give it in connexion with other notices of the 3rd division. Not having seen the work of Captain M'Carthy, we cannot judge of the correctness or otherwise of his state

ments.

Lieutenant B-d is assured that, in the remarks to which he alludes, we fully appreciated his zealous motives.

"

We shall notice E. W.'s remarks in treating of the late Warrant in a future Number.

Our excellent friend "The Mid" stands over for the new year.

We request the writer of "The Amphitrite" will furnish us with his address.

We wish "The West of England Conservative," newly launched at Plymouth, a fair breeze and a flowing sheet.

The Title, Index, and Contents to Part III, will be given in our next.

EDITOR'S PORTFOLIO;

OR,

NAVAL AND MILITARY REGISTER.

AFFAIRS AT HOME AND ABROAD.

THE election of Sir Robert Peel to be Lord Rector of Glasgow, by a majority of One Hundred over his opponent, Sir John Campbell, the present Attorney-General and a Scotchman, is a significant symptom of public opinion.

The affairs of the Peninsula are involved in the complicated confusion, almost amounting to anarchy, which we have distinctly predicted, and which is the natural result of political quackery. A general paralysis seems to pervade the Christinos, of whom the Republican or Jacobin section, ravening for blood and spoil, alone appears active. In Spain, as yet at least, there is no ground for the establishment of an unbridled democracy, any more than there exists, as we believe, room for the revival of an absolute monarchy. The half-informed and vicious rabble of the seaports and other towns, looking solely to their local interests, however bustling in their liberal vocation as insurgents and assassins, weigh lightly in the scale against the vast majority of the Spanish PEOPLE, of whose sentiments and the impotence of the ruling party the unauthorized though gallant and ably-conducted promenade of Gomez would alone afford evidence. The contemptible military revolution of La Granja,— a temporary expedient of Mendizabal,—has had no other effect than that of detecting the real weakness of the Christino party, and consolidating that of Don Carlos and the friends of national order and union.

The Carlist Chief Gomez, having made the important capture of Álmaden, a town of La Mancha, of which the quicksilver mines constitute a source of considerable revenue to the Spanish Crown, appears to have lingered on the Tagus, and moved thence in a leisurely manner to the south, detaching Cabrera towards Arragon, in the very teeth of the Christino Minister of War the vaunting Rodil, and the redoubtable Alaix. It is now certain that had Gomez, at the period of his defeat of Lopez and the mutineers of La Granja, been aware of the actual state of affairs in Madrid, he would have entered that capital, and probably decided the war. The great want of the Carlist party is military skill-a masterspirit, a Zumalacarreguy in short, to guide the robust and enthusiastic materials which compose it.

The expedition of Guergué into Catalonia has not been so successful, owing to the misconduct of that Chief, who disappointed the expectations of his Government. The Navarrese battalions which he conducted on that expedition, originally amongst the best troops of the Carlist army, returned to the main body much demoralized. The division of Pablo Sanz, an able, brave, and experienced officer, having partially fulfilled the purpose for which it was detached to the Asturias and Gal

licia, has been also recalled to strengthen the right of the Carlist positions covering the siege of Bilboa.

The attack on that city, impeded by the inclemency of the weather and suspended by the march of Villareal, with the bulk of the army, to oppose the advance of Espartero for the relief of the garrison, has been vigorously resumed under the immediate direction of Eguia. This able and popular General has rapidly repaired the errors of the previous unsuccessful assault by making himself master of every outwork of Bilboa and the banks of the river to Portugalete, thus isolating the defences of the town, of which a portion has already fallen. The capture of this place, should it happen, will probably close the active operations for the winter. The British ships within the bar are thus placed in a critical berth.

In the mean time the British Legionaries remain, perforce, inactive and ineffective at St. Sebastian, Ready, of course, to fight if let loose, the sinews of war have totally failed them; and between their foreign and domestic friends, this ill-starred body appears to have realized the adage of the "two stools." In this predicament the Adjutant-General Le Marchant was dispatched by steam to this country for succours or ships to enable them either to stay abroad or return home. What may have been done by the Foreign Secretary in the way of money we know not-nearly 100,000l. being due to the land and sea Auxiliaries ; but it appears that a quantity of British stores, with a detachment of Royal Artillerymen and Sappers, have been shipped at Woolwich on board a store-ship and the Rhadamanthus steamer, which, with the Adjutant-General on board, has hastily returned to Spain.

To Colonel Evans it does not therefore appear that blame can attach for the present inaction of the body under his command. The dupe of his own honourable confidence and co-operative zeal, this officer has evidently been thwarted, and all but betrayed, by the unprincipled party with whom he was led to ally himself, and for whom he and his force have performed the only efficient services executed, since his arrival, in the field,-while, on the other hand, his perfidious allies have been indebted to him, on various occasions, for seasonable supplies drawn from his own resources, Should the contest be decided, as it is likely to be, in favour of Don Carlos, in what an awkward position will the Auxiliaries be placed-befriended by no party, and at mortal strife with one. Perhaps, all things considered, the return of the Legion, without further demur, would be the wiser course. Why press their services on a people who neither desire nor repay them?

In Portugal, or rather at Lisbon-for nations are now revolutionized by the turbulent rabble of the capitals, a scene has been exhibited alike disastrous to the feeble Government of that country and degrading to the British name. A counter-revolution-in other words a restoration of the charter of Don Pedro, itself a revolution-was attempted, under the ostensible protection of the British squadron and Government, on the 4th ultimo, and miserably failed, the Queen being compelled to submit to the terms of a half-armed, and, we doubt not, cowardly, civie mob, whom a little resolution would have dispersed, if any matured plan of operations had existed. The native troops do not appear to have taken part in this mutiny; but, while the ships assumed a menacing attitude, a body of British Marines was ostentatiously landed, and sub

missively reimbarked at the peremptory demand of the insurgents. Never was failure more complete or humiliating. The British are now as unpopular as they were once respected throughout the Peninsula. An attempt was even made to assassinate the Admiral, Sir William Gage, a fate which had actually befallen the ex-1 -Minister Agostinho Freire.

It is high time that this prostitution of the arms and honour of Great Britain should be checked. The series of unworthy subterfuges by. which our naval and military resources have been misapplied and wasted in the affairs of Spain and Portugal is injurious to the interests and the glory of the British nation and its flag. The expedient by which a large body of Marines is made available for hostilities against an "amicable" power-they being borne on the books of a single frigate is rendered futile by the fact that the field allowance, which, by the regulation, is only granted in time of actual war, has been recently assigned to the Marines under Lord John Hay. That body is therefore on the war footing, but Great Britain is not at war!

The amount and splendour of reputation achieved by the Navy and. Army of England are unexampled; yet, though these specks scarcely tarnish the lustre of her arms, England cannot submit to lose, by incompetence or inalversation, one jot of that "good name" which is the key, to her wealth, her well-being, and her supremacy.

France appears destined to perpetual agitation. Excitement is her pastime and her bane. On the 30th of October a ridiculous plot exploded at Strasburg, by which a foolish coxcomb, Louis Buonaparte, son of the good-natured ex-"King of Holland" and Hortense Beauharnois, proposed to prolong the Corsican dynasty in his proper person.. His "moyens militaires" consisted of a little cocked hat, and other equipments, after the fashion of his uncle "le petit Caporal," together with a Colonel Vaudrier, of the 4th Artillery Regiment, and a handful of soldiers, misled by their restless commander. It happened that the 46th Regiment, which had been at the camp of Compiègne, where it was distinguished by the French Princes who have rendered themselves deservedly popular with the French Army, was in garrison at Strasburg, and vindicated the loyalty of their comrades by arresting the parties to this ridiculous enterprise. The French Government, with much good sense, has caused the ill-advised young man, who thus lent himself to the schemes of others, to be deported to America.

It is supposed that this and some minor conspiracies have radiated from the common centre of Switzerland, and prove the right of the French Government to remonstrate with the Confederation on the inconvenience of rendering the Swiss States a nest of turbulent refugees, plotting the disturbance of adjoining countries. Whether impressed with a sense of wrong or of weakness, the General Government of the Cantons has made the amende to France, and harmony is restored between those neighbours.

Charles X., ex-King of France, died at Goritz, in Carniola, whither he had removed from Prague, on the 6th of November, in his 80th year, The Duke of Angoulême adhering to his abdication of the succession to the French throne, the young Duke of Bordeaux is hailed by the adherents of his family as the aspirant for that precarious possession, by the title of Henry V..