ÆäÀÌÁö À̹ÌÁö
PDF
ePub

know him, nor he her. He had never seen her face, but she had, the year before, lent his wife, when in distress, sixteen shillings, the rent of flax-ground, and he would stand her friend now.

He kept back the mob; they agreed to send him to the house with a deputation of six, to know the truth, and to ask for arms. The six men went to the back-door, and summoned the housekeeper; one of them pointed his blunderbuss at her, and told her, that she must fetch all the arms in the house; she said she had none. Her champion asked her to say if she remembered him" No; to her knowledge she had never seen his face." He asked if she remembered having lent a woman money to pay her rent of flax-ground the year before? "Yes," she remembered that, and named the woman, the time, and the sum. His companions were thus satisfied of the truth of what he had asserted. He bid her not to be frighted," for that no harm should happen to her, nor any belonging to her; not a soul should get leave to go into her master's house; not a twig should be touched, nor a leaf harmed." His companions huzzaed and went off. Afterwards, as she was told, he mounted guard at the gate during the whole time the rebels were in the town.

When the carriage at last returned, it was stopped by the rebels, who filled the street; they held their pikes to the horses and to the coachman's breast, accusing him of being an Orange-man, because, as they said, he wore the orange colours (our livery being yellow and brown.) A painter, a friend of ours, who had been that day at our house, copying some old family portraits, happened to be in the street at that instant, and called out to the mob, "Gentlemen, it is yellow! -gentlemen, it is not orange." In consequence of this happy distinction they let go the coachman; and the same man, who had mounted guard at the gate, came up with his friends, rescued the carriage, and surrounding the coachman with their pikes, brought him safely into the yard. The pole of the carriage having been broken in the first onset, the housekeeper could not leave Edgeworth-Town till morning. She passed the night in walking up and down, listening and watching, but the rebels returned no more, and thus our house was saved by the gratitude of a single individual.'

The sequel is well known. The news of the total defeat of the French, near Granard, soon dissipated all fears of danger from the rebels, and the family lost no time in returning to their home.

When we came near Edgeworth-Town, we saw many well known faces at the cabin doors, looking out to welcome us. One man, who was digging in his field by the road side, when he looked up as our horses passed, and saw my father, let fall his spade and clasped his hands; his face, as the morning sun shone upon it, was the strongest picture of joy I ever saw. The village was a melancholy spectacle; windows shattered, and doors broken. But though the mischief done was great, there had been little pillage. Within our gates we found all property safe; literally "not a twig touched, nor a leaf harmed." Within the house every thing was as we had left it-a map that we had been consulting was still open on the library table, with pencils, and

slips of paper containing the first lessons in arithmetic, in which some of the young people had been engaged the morning we had been driven from home; a pansy, in a glass of water, which one of the children had been copying, was still on the chimney-piece. These trivial circumstances, marking repose and tranquillity, struck us at this moment with an unreasonable sort of surprise, and all that had passed seemed like an incoherent dream. The joy of having my father in safety remained, and gratitude to Heaven for his preservation. These feelings spread inexpressible pleasure over what seemed to be a new sense of existence. Even the most common things appeared delightful; the green lawn, the still groves, the birds singing, the fresh air, all external nature, and all the goods and conveniencies of life, seemed to have wonderfully increased in value, from the fear into which we had been put of losing them irrecoverably.'

We find we have no room for further extracts, and must, therefore, pass over the details relating to Mr. Edgeworth's short parliamentary career, in which he behaved with the manly independence and integrity which ought to be the character of the country gentleman and county member: he voted against the Union, on the ground that the sense of the country was against it. In the year 1806, during the administration of the Duke of Bedford, he had another honourable opportunity of serving the country in which he had been so long a resident, as one of the board of commissioners for inquiring into the education of the people of Ireland. Mechanics, his favourite study, and literature, continued to employ his leisure, and to interest him to the last; and he died in the midst of his family, and in the full enjoyment of his intellectual faculties, on the 13th June 1817, in the seventy-fourth year of his age.

As a man of the world, this was all that there remained for him to wish for, to die thus honoured in the arms of his children, and to leave one such daughter behind to be his biographer. Nor do we know where we should find a fairer or more exemplary specimen of the character of a man of the world. But there is another world; and this thought, which inevitably suggests itself to a reflective mind on closing the memoir, gives a melancholy character to the tale. One cannot avoid recurring to the dying sentiment expressed by the mother of Mr. Edgeworth; and, contrasting her protracted sufferings with the active, joyous life of her son, it is obvious to inquire on what his confidence of happiness in a future state of retribution could rest, since he had no such supposed claim to compensation for earthly suffering. It is painful to reflect how characteristically the mark of irreligion was impressed on the whole of Mr. Edgeworth's life-on all his literary productions, on his principles of education, on all his views and reasonings; and how completely it was the character of his associates. We are made acquainted with a number of interesting and intelligent individuals in the

course of these memoirs, of whom one after another is seen sinking into the grave, and all of them either the avowed champions or the credulous disciples of infidelity. The more amiable they were in private life, the more distinguished by their talents, their graces, or their benevolence, the more poignant is the feeling of solemn regret-and the phrase is, we confess, exceedingly below the occasion-inspired by the fact, that they completed the term of their probationary existence in ignorance, criminal ignorance, of what the human race exists for; ignorant of what was their actual predicament as subjects of the moral government of God, and totally unfitted, by reason of that ignorance, for entering on the final and irreversible state of being. This is not the place to enter into an examination of the sentiments maintained in the works of Mr. Edgeworth and his daughter it might otherwise be shewn, that what seems at first a negative fault, a mere avoidance of every thing relating to theology, really involves a spirit of active hostility; and that this irreligion is connected, as it must of necessity be, with a corrupt morality that taints the whole of their instructive and valuable writings. But we forbear to pursue the subject, having no disposition coolly to resume the task of criticism, after contemplating one of the Authors of those works as the subject of an irreparable and infinitely calamitous delusion.

Art. VII. A Treatise on Topography, for both civil and military Purposes. Compiled, and partly written, by C. S. de Malortie, of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. 8vo. 2 vols. London.

E

NGLAND has been very little distinguished by scientific contributions to what we may venture to term the literature of war. While continental officers have published their speculations on the different branches of military service, and have bent the whole strength of their faculties to the discovery and improvement of the various methods and materials of attack and defence, Englishmen, with few exceptions, have been satisfied with adopting the systems of others, and with making successful use of weapons and munitions, the invention of which they owed to their enemies. We have had no Vaubans nor Cohorns; and while the Guischardts, the Puysegurs, the Saxes, the Feuquieres, the Jominis, have been giving to the world the most interesting and important illustrations of the science of war, we cannot quote a single name qualified to stand in competition with those able and celebrated writers. Even in elementary works, we were either greatly deficient, or compelled to have recourse to foreigners for that instruction which our own countrymen were either incompetent or reluctant to communicate. This reproach, if after all it be not an honourable distinction, seems to be in

course of removal: the publications of Col. Pasley, and Sir Howard Douglas, are of distinguished merit, and we have no doubt will be followed up by others equally valuable and accessible. Still, we are far behind the French in this kind of preparation at least equally favoured in the possession of brilliant talent and scientific acquisition, we appear to fall short of them in the wisdom which forestalls and accumulates, and the dexterity which communicates and renders generally available. They mingle, indeed, with these desirable qualities a large alloy of charlatanism and pretence; there is much of unnecessary bustle, a characteristic parade of knowledge, and a restless intrusion of topics rather adapted to personal display than to the furtherance of the matter in hand; but still there is much valuable result, and we are content to take it in their way if we cannot have it in our own.

These remarks are, in some degree, verified by the publication now before us. For the main substance of it, we are indebted to the well-known Memorial Topographique et Militaire; and it will be found to include both the valuable qualities and the defects to which we have just alluded; the latter, however, by no means interfere with the general merit of the work. The French Depot general de la guerre, originally established in the reign of Louis XIV. has, we believe, invariably received from the government the utmost attention: men of ability have been carefully selected as its superintendants, and the utmost diligence and skill have been used in the collection, revision, and arrangement of documents. With a view to the introduction of accuracy and uniformity into the scientific processes of military surveying, the work whose original title we have cited, was published, and its directions have been generally adopted. As presented by M. de Malortie to the English student, it is comprised in four parts. The first relates to Geodosic operations, including the description of various instruments, and an appendix of useful tables. The second part, from Biot, explains the use and application of the barometer, with improved tables. The third part is subsidiary to the first, and contains a considerable variety of important instruction on the subjects of secondary triangles, and minor surveys. The fourth part is a translation of Col. Allent's Essay on Military Reconnoitring, and it was to this portion that we more particularly referred in our preliminary observations. It is, undoubtedly, a valuable and comprehensive treatise, but at the same time embracing much that seems only to encumber the subject. Instead of confining himself to the simple statements and directions which the nature of his essay required, the Colonel blends with them a number of suggestions and points merely collateral, and which

might have been safely left to inference and observation. In addition to this, there is sometimes a little want of distinctness in the expression which, as we have no present means of referring to the original, we are not able to assign to its real source. It is, however, but just to say, that the translation seems, in general, to be carefully executed, and that the work in its English dress, forins a convenient and useful manual.

Art. VIII. An Introduction to the Writing of Latin Exercises: containing easy Exercises on all the Declinable, with copiously arranged Lists of the Indeclinable Parts of Speech. Adapted to the Eton Grammar. By James Mitchell. 18mo. pp. 72. 1819. THIS little work will much assist the young scholar in his

progress through the Latin Grammar, as it supplies him with a considerable number of examples of words in the several declensions and conjugations. The exercises upon the verb in particular, will be found of great utility in forming the pupil to an accurate and complete acquaintance with the different moods and tenses. This "Introduction" may be safely recommended to the attention of teachers, as one of those works which facilitate the business of instruction, without offering improper advantages to the learner.

Art. IX. The Scripture Doctrine of the Triraty, briefly stated and defended: and the Church of England vindicated from the Charge of Uncharitableness in retaining the Athanasian Creed. By Thomas Hartwell Horne, M.A. &c. 8vo. pp. xv, 189. London. 1820.

THIS is a respectable and useful compendium of the positive

evidence upon the important article of the Christian faith, which it discusses. It is designed for popular use, and we hope it will be the means of preserving many from being beguiled by the sophistical representations, and unsound, though often plausible, criticisms of those who deny the Deity of our Blessed Saviour, and the personality of the Holy Spirit. But this purpose would have been more effectually answered, had the estimable Author taken more pains to preclude objections, and had he been more vigilant against the introduction of any arguments which will not endure the closest scrutiny. His plan does not allow him sufficient scope for discussing the sense and bearings of each passage of the Holy Scriptures which he adduces it was therefore the more imperative upon him to have examined them to the utmost point of his own previous satisfaction. Had he done so, his list of texts might have beeu somewhat shortened, but his positions would have been better fortified. He has adduced (p. 37.) Heb. xi. 3, as one of the VOL. XIV. N. S. 2 Y

« ÀÌÀü°è¼Ó »