poleon had contemplated the various windings of the Danube, and praised the beau-, ty of the country upon which he was going to pounce with his armies. He frequently amuses himself in this manner in making poetical pieces on the beauties of nature, which he is about to ravage, and upon the effects of war, with which he is going to overwhelm mankind. After all, he is in the right to amuse himself in all ways, at the expence of the human race, which tolerates his existence. Man is only arrested in the career of evil by obstacles or remorse; no one has yet opposed to Napoleon the one, and he has very easily rid himself of the other. For me who, solitary, followed his footsteps on the terrace from which the country could be seen to a great distance, I admired its fertility, and felt astonished at seeing how soon the bounty of heaven repairs the disasters occasioned by man. It is only moral riches which disappear altogether, or at least are lost for centuries." pp. 260, 261. Germany was now in the gripe of the tyrant. Austria especially was sadly humbled by the exaltation of its princess to the imperial bed; and at this moment Napoleon was on his march for the subjugation of Russia. "The Court was then at Dresden, at the great meeting of all the German princes, who came to present their homage to the Emperor of France. Napoleon had stopped at Dresden under the pretext of still negociating there, to avoid the war with Russia, in other words, to obtain by his policy the same result as he could by his arms. He would not at first admit the King of Prussia to his banquet at Dresden; he knew too well what repugnance the heart of that unfortunate monarch must have to what he conceives himself obliged to do. It is said that M. de Metternich obtained this humiliating favour for him. M. de Hardenberg, who accompanied him, made the remark to the Emperor Napoleon, that Prussia had paid one third more than the promised contributions. The Emperor turning his back to him, replied, An apothecary's bill,'for he has a secret pleasure in making use of vulgar expressions, the more to humble those who are the objects of it." pp. 262, 263. Madame de Staël was kindly received by her Vienna friends, and she had an immediate dispatch sent for a passport to convey her into Russia; yet she found herself soon in a state of espionage still more uncomfortable, because more rude than on the French territories. The Austrians, in learning a new lesson, were clumsy in its application. She thought it best to set off for Russia without delay; she encountered many annoyances from the Commissaries of Police, till she got into the Russian territories; and in her rapid journey through these new regions, we have occasion to admire the vivacity of her descriptions, and the acuteness of her remarks. We are not aware that so lively an impression of Russia was ever before conveyed to us. Madame de Staël saw it, indeed, in a most interesting moment, and she could not but think well of a people, in whose firmness of purpose she almost predicted the reverses of Napoleon. Can any description be livelier than the following? "Although I was driven along with great rapidity, it seemed to me that I did not advance a step, the country was so exPlains of sand, fotremely monotonous. rests of birch trees and villages at a great distance from each other, composed of wooden houses all built upon the same plan; these were the only objects that my eyes encountered. I felt that sort of nightmare which sometimes seizes one during the night, when you think you are always marching and never advancing. The country appeared to me like the image of infinite space, and to require eternity to traverse it. Every instant you met couriers passing, who went along with incredible swiftness; they were seated on a wooden bench placed across a little cart drawn by two horses, and nothing stopped them for a moment. The jolting of their carriage sometimes made them spring two feet above it, but they fell with astonishing address, and made haste to call out in Russian, forward, with an energy similar to that of the French on a day of battle. The Sclavonian language is singularly echoing; I should almost say there is something metallic about it; you would think you heard a bell striking, when the Russians pronounce certain letters of their alphabet, quite different from those which compose the dialects of the West. "We saw passing some corps de reserve, approaching by forced marches to the theatre of war; the Cossacks were repairing, one by one, to the army, without order or uniform, with a long lance in their hand, and a kind of grey dress, whose ample hood they put over their head. I had formed quite another idea of these people; they live behind the Dnieper; there their way of living is independent, in the manner of savages; but during war they allow themselves to be governed despotically. One is accustomed to see, in fine uniforms of brilliant colours, the most formidable armies. The dull colours of the Cossack dress excite another sort of fear; one might say that they are ghosts who pounce upon you." pp. 323 325. She saw Moscow but a short time before its grand catastrophe. "I ascended to the top of the cathedral steeple, called Ivan Veliki, which com mands a view of the whole city; from thence I saw the palace of the czars, who conquered by their arms the crowns of Casan, Astracan, and Siberia. I heard the church music, in which the catholikos, prince of Georgia, officiated in the midst of the inhabitants of Moscow, and formed a Christian meeting between Asia and Europe. Fifteen hundred churches attested the devotion of the Muscovite people. "The commercial establishments at Moscow had quite an Asiatic character men in turbans, and others dressed in the different costumes of all the people of the East, exhibited the rarest merchandize: the furs of Siberia, and the muslins of India, there offered all the enjoyments of luxury to those great noblemen whose imagination is equally pleased with the sables of the Samoiëdes, and with the rubies of the Persians. Here, the gardens and the palace Razoumowski contained the most beautiful collection of plants and minerals; there, was the fine library of the Count de Bouterlin, which he had spent thirty years of his life in collecting: among the books he possessed, there were several which contained manuscript notes in the hand-writing of Peter I. This great man never imagined that the same European civilization, of which he was so jealous, would come to destroy the establishments for public instruction which he had founded in the mid dle of his empire, with a view to fix by study the impatient spirit of the Russians. "Farther on was the Foundling House, one of the most affecting institutions of Europe; hospitals for all classes of society might be remarked in the different quarters of the city: finally, the eye in its wanderings could rest upon nothing but wealth or benevolence, upon edifices of lux. ury or of charity; upon churches or on palaces, which diffused happiness or distinction upon a large portion of the human race. You saw the windings of the Moskwa, of that river, which, since the last invasion by the Tartars, had never rolled with blood in its waves: the day was delightful; the sun seemed to take a pleasure in shedding his rays upon these glittering cupolas. I was reminded of the old archbishop Plato, who had just written a pas toral letter to the Emperor Alexander, the oriental style of which had extremely af. fected me: he sent the image of the Virgin from the borders of Europe, to drive far from Asia the man who wished to bear VOL. IX. down upon the Russians with the whole weight of the nations chained to his steps. -For a moment the thought struck me that Napoleon might yet set his foot upon this same tower from which I was admir ing the city, which his presence was about to extinguish; for a moment I dreamed palace of the czars, the chief of the great that he would glory in replacing, in the horde, which had also once had possession of it; but the sky was so beautiful, that I repelled the apprehension. A month afterwards, this beautiful city was in ashes, in order that it should be said, that every country which had been in alliance with this man, should be destroyed by the fires riously have the Russians and their mowhich are at his (disposal. But how glonarch redeemed this error! The misery of Moscow may be even said to have regenehas perished like a martyr, the shedding rated the empire, and this religious city brethren who survive him." pp. 348–351. of whose blood gives new strength to the We could quote much more of this animated and powerful narrative, did our limits permit. Madame de Staël saw the Emperor Alexander at St Petersburg, and formed a high idea of his understanding and principles. The book ends abruptly with her entrance into Sweden. There is in it, throughout, much scope for meditation and for the excitement of lofty nations are not learning virtue from sentiments. Indeed, if sovereigns and the experience of the last thirty years, it is lamentable that so awful an experience should have been lost. Surely the lust of despotic sway must have expired in the grave of the exile of St Helena: And can it be possible that the great northern Emperor, whose noble sayings seemed so admirable to Ma dame de Staël, should have had any thing of that low ambition transfused into his own bosom? We trust not→→→→ however, sometimes, appearances are against him; but we can assure him, and every other sovereign present and to come, that none of them will ever be any thing comparable to Napoleon in his own way, and that his glory, short lived and tarnished as it was, will for ever throw contempt and laughter upon the petty efforts of any future adventurer in the vulgar world must now be governed by other arena of politics or of war. The maxims and other arts; princes must find in perfect good faith and in patriotic counsels their shield and their riumph. U "That which is wanting, (as Madame de Staël finely remarks,) to the sacred cause of morality, is, that it should contribute in a very striking manner to great success in this world; he who feels all the dignity of this cause will sacrifice with pleasure every success; but it is still necessary to teach those presumptuous persons who imagine they discover depth of thinking in the vices of the soul, that if in immorality there is sometimes wit, in virtue there is genius." Till princes are inflamed with this high and pure ambition, and evident ly labour for the good of their people as strenuously as Napoleon did for his own personal aggrandisement, there is no avoiding the feeling of preference which is still, silently and secretly, given to him over all the potentates of his day, which even survived his fall, and which is now resting upon his solitary grave. Here is a mighty task for the rulers of the world,-they have not yet overthrown Napoleon, his genius is still contending with them, and woe be to them if their spirits are subdued under it! Yet subjects must not expect too much at once. Their rulers are but men, and they must not abandon their loyalty on the discovery of every royal weakness or flaw. There may in particular be a sluggishness or an ignorance prevalent in courts with respect to the best forms of freedom or the best methods of introducing them. Are the people, too, every where prepared for freedom? This is a question which rulers may conscientiously ask; and the late Neapolitan drama will not tend greatly to lead them to the answer which might be wished. We must look to a gradual, but we trust a steady amelioration. It is pleasing, in reading the sketches of Madame de Staël and other travellers, to find what 'noble materials there are in most nations. These will yet come out, and all we, perhaps, can at present ask from sovereigns is, that they will throw no obstacle in the way of a fair and genuine progress. Let them love their people, and all will go well-let them go among them, and know them, and learn to value them. The Emperor Alexander seemed to be in the direct road for this noble issue. "He expressed to me the desire," says Madame de Staël," which all the world a constitution for your empire, and your conscience is the guarantee of it.' 'Were that even the case,' replied he, I should only be a fortunate accident.' Noble words! the first of the kind, I believe, which an absolute monarch ever pronounced! How many virtues it requires in a despot, properly to estimate despotism! and how many virtues also, never to abuse it, when the nation which he governs is almost astonished at such signal moderation." It is a good thing for kings to go beyond the precincts of their palaces, and see their people with their own eyes. We rejoice that our sovereign has gone to Ireland. Amid the cheering of its miserable and ragged inhabitants, he will, in a moral view, be attended by a far nobler train, than when all the chivalry of his land followed in the pomp of his coronation. The brightest jewels of his crown are but dim to the lustre of the deeds of light which are now, we trust, opening before him. LIFE OF DAVID HAGGART. We have strong doubts as to the propriety of this work having ever seen the light, and we fear that its Editor's apology-of having been twice agent for the unfortunate criminal, and been by him strongly urged to the undertaking, even though for the purpose of raising a sum of money for the unhappy parent,-will hardly be sustained by the sober-thinking part of the public. The appeal in a father's behalf is indeed so far creditable, at least to the heart of the Editor, and the sympathies which such an appeal is calculated to awaken may, in the opinion of many, suffer such a publication as this is to be tolerated. Still we think that public sympathy might have been manifested under a less questionable shape; and that, if necessary, a sum could have been raised for the family of Haggart's father, from the generosity of the public, and at a less expence to its welfare, than that of endangering the morality of its poor. Setting aside the claim of charity, we can conceive only one salutary consequence likely to result from this publication, which is, that the extraordinary facility, and the repeated success, with Written by himself while under sentence of death. 12mo. W. and C. Tait, Edinburgh. which Haggart committed his depredations on the pockets and watches, and of unsuspecting travellers and dealers at fairs, will tend to make them more cautious in future as to their situations and their associates. But, on the other hand, taking into view the notoriety of this pick-pocket hero-the curiosity excited in consequence of the publication and the chance of its extensive circulation, owing to the comparatively cheap rate at which it is published-the question still presses upon us-how little is any good purpose likely to be served by its publication? and what an auxiliary is it likely to prove to vices the most sinful in their nature, and the most alarming in their operation? We shall take a view only of the general character and tendency of the work, without making any extracts:— We are unwilling to make the pages of this Magazine the medium of circulation to a mischief, the spread of which we most sincerely deprecate. To the intellectual reader, it presents a constant and hurried exhibition of the blackest villanies, which disgust the man of taste as well as the man of established principle; but to those readers whose principles are somewhat unfixed, who hesitate between the poverty which often waits on honest industry and the temptations of illicit gain, it appears in a most alluring form: Every page tells them of large sums procured by the dexterity of a single moment; and they are too apt to compare these accounts with the penury of their own laborious condition, while the dread of punishment is overbalanced by the hopes of an easy affluence. And is there not some reason to dread the result? Besides, this publication presents all the enticing features of courage, bustle, and enterprise so lavishly given to narrations of the most atrocious guilt, which can hardly fail to make many of the unsteady apprentices in our city sympathize with the hero, and overlook the guilt and danger of such transactions, in the air of boundless freedom and boisterous enjoyment which is here made to surround them. The prison scenes in this volume by no means tend to strike the wavering with that terror which places of confinement ought to inspire. The history of Haggart's escapes, we are much afraid, presents too strong a temptation to young offenders to pro- There is another strong objection to this publication, namely, the gross impropriety of mentioning the NAMES of some individuals with whom Haggart was connected. It is, no doubt, proper that those deserving consignment to public infamy should have the mark of the beast stamped upon their foreheads-and so far the narrative may be judicious enough; but here comparatively innocent associates have been branded so publicly, as to render a return to honest society and good example next to impossible: They must find all retreat cut off, and be urged forward in the criminal career which they had probably commenced, only, in an unguarded moment. But we wish to allude more particularly to the case of three young ladies in Newcastle, whose names are dragged forward with a cruel want of delicacy, which must be extremely painful to their feelings, and, we fear, injurious to their characters. repeated mention of their names, Haggart takes leave of them (p. 37) in the following terms: After "In the month of June I took leave of this lady and her worthy daughters, with sincere regret, and sorrow at parting on both sides. Never will I forget the kindness and even friendship of these good peo. ple to me. Little did they know the person whom they had so long harboured in their house, and introduced to the most of their acquaintances and relations under the name of Mr John Wilson." That the unsuspecting kindness, unsullied virtue, and moral worth of these ladies, fit them for becoming associates with characters very superior to this dangerous because enterprising felon, we are disposed enough to believe; but at the same time we fear they must inevitably suffer from the bare circumstance of his having been at once their inmate and their eulogist. It is difficult to divest men's ininds of association, as well as prejudice, and under the auspices of a character so notorious as that of Haggart, their names inevitably become coupled with his, in the month of every loose talker. Here, therefore, has been inflicted, a most cruel and wanton injury, which only a very small portion of reflection or prudence on the part of the Editor, and without at all failing in his trust, might easily have prevented. The extent of this injury is not easily calculated: through its operation these ladies have probably become the table-talk of the slanderers of their own sex, and subjects of the sneer, the hint, and the witticism of rakes incredulous of female virtue. We shall notice only one thing more, as we are already heartily tired of this disgusting subject;-it is our suspicion, that Haggart, even while his days were numbered, and while pausing on the awful verge of eternity, had not the most scrupulous regard to truth. An air of improbability breathes over many of his pages, -and we fear, that, like others more fortunate in such matters, he has studied effect, as the means of raising money, even at the expence of his veracity, and at a moment, too, when the greatest criminals are generally supposed to speak the truth. HORE OTIOSE. Haggart the Murderer and Plautus. In his Life recently, and so injudiciously, not to say perniciously, exposed to the public, this enterprising ruffian boasts of his success in deceiv The robbery of a gentleman's watch, described by Haggart in page 49, is represented as attended with circumstances, which, from direct authority, we are assured had no existence. From certain documents that have appeared, (since this article was in types,) it would also seem that many of Haggart's pretended adventures, escapes, and connections in England, are about as authentic in point of fact, as those recorded in Caleb Williams, or the travels of Munchausen. Our conclusion against veracity was, therefore, not hastily drawn. ing the bulkies on a search, by con cealing his stolen notes in the cape of his coat, which device he describes as peculiar to himself, assuming no small degree of merit for putting the thiefsearchers up to so notable a trick. The idea of such a place of concealment is older than Haggart imagined, as will appear by a passage in the As sinaria, (Act III. S. 3. 1. 67. Taub. et Grut. 1621,) where Argyrippus proposes to the slave Leonida to avail himself of a similar mode of concealment, though doubtless for a different purpose. The thief proposed to turn at fault the dogs of justice, whereas the knave of Plautus thought only of blinking the "forks" of his mistress. Dê te servassint semper, Custos herilis, decus populi, thesaurus co piarum, Salus interioris hominis, amorisque impe rator: Hic pone, hic ISTAM colloca CRUMENAM Biblical Notices. BOTH Sir William Jones and Mr Dugald Stewart have borne testimony to the pure Anglicism, as well as the vast learning and unrivalled fidelity which characterise the translation of the Scriptures by the Westminster Divines. To assert, however, that their translation is in every respect immaculate, would be equivalent to ascribing to it a superhu man immunity from error.-In the following instance, the translation which has been given of a very simple and distinct passage, is singularly apt to mislead. "He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they have no hurt: and the form of the fourth is like THE SON OF GOD."-Daniel, iii. 25. Now it must occur to every one as a very extraordinary fact, indeed, that the idolatrous Nebuchadnezzar should so correctly distinguish the "form of the fourth" person in the furnace, along with the three children, lies in the translation; as there is no as "like THE SON OF GOD!" The error definite article prefixed to the Hebrew word for "SON," and therefore the passage ought to have been rendered thus: "And the form of the fourth is like a son of a god," or a divine person; an assertion which any man might have made in the same |