which disturbed the peace of Europe, called Arthur again into Bretagne, which was under an apprehension of being invaded by the Visigoths.

"A. D. 530. Prior to his embarkation, Arthur appointed his nephew, Mordred ab Llew ab Cynfarch, to take the care of his kingdom, and of the person of Gweniver, his wife. The faithless Mordred, captivated with the beauty of Gweniver, publicly married her, and entering into an alliance with Cerdic, was acknowledged king of the Britons, on his ceding to Cerdic the present counties of Cornwall, Berks, Wilts, Devon, and Dorset. "535. Arthur, after the absence of five years in Bretagne, returned into Britain, where, with the few troops that rallied round him, he had to contend with Mordred, the Saxons, and the Picts. The fame of Arthur increased the number of his troops; and the advantages he obtained over his opponents were signal and successive; for he had genius to contrive, and a hand to execute.

"The battle of Camlan, where Arthur and Mordred met, finally decided the fortune of the two rivals. In this severe contest, which wasted the power of the Britons, the traitor Mordred fell by the avenging sword of Arthur: but the great Arthur was so severely wounded, that he died a few days afterwards at Glastonbury Abbey,* where he was interred by the side of his second and beloved wife Gweniver.

"This valiant sovereign has been represented by historians as the greatest of captains, and the founder of chivalry: in his military career his prowess was extraordinary; he was the first in the onset, and the last in the retreat: he had always to contend under a numerical disadvantage. The Saxons were composed of numerous bodies, and were determined to drive the Britons beyond the Dee and the Severn. In this kind of warfare Arthur was always on the defensive, and, in the end, ever retiring, without having benefitted from the retreat of Xenophon; and without artillery or tactics, so as to leave on record any military movements worthy the imitation of Moreau. As the founder of knight errantry, Arthur has been placed in a very mistaken light : it is an egregious anachronism; for the age in which Arthur flourished was full two centuries anterior to the commencement of chivalry."

In this circumstantial and unostentatious manner, Dr. Jones proceeds through the history of his country, down to the year 1240, when, on the death of Llewelyn ab Jorwerth, the Barons of Wales did homage and fealty for their tenures in Wales to the King of England at Gloucester. His chapters on the Laws of the Welsh, on the Druids, on the Bards, and on British Antiquities, are highly interesting, and display research, discrimination, and fidelity. In short, this History of Wales, though the production of a Welshman not devoid of national self-love, deserves to be received as a work of authority in our public libraries, and to be consulted and respected by all who hereafter may affect to write the early history of England. Nothing is assumed contradictory of the usual tests of truth, nor does any improbability appeal to the reader's faith, in preference to his judgment and reason.

The Principal Occurrences during the Siege of Quebec by the American Revolutionists under Generals Montgomery and Arnold, in 1775-6; containing many Anécdotes of Moment never yet published, collected from some old Manuscripts originally written by an Officer, during the period of the gallant defence made by Sir Guy Carleton, (afterwards Lord Dorchester.) To which are added a Preface and illustrative Notes. By W. T. P. Shortt.-8vo. 3s. 6d.

It has been said by Lord Byron, that the world of the present century

"This year, 1179, the sepulchre of king Arthur, with his wife Gwenhwyfar, was found in the island of Afalon, without the abbey of Glastonbury; their bodies being laid in a hollow elder tree, buried fifteen feet in the earth. The bones of the king were of marvellous and almost incredible bigness; and the queen's hair seemed to the sight to be fair and yellow, but, when touched, crumbled to dust. Over the bones was laid a stone, with a cross of lead; upon the lower side of which stone were engraven these words-Hic jacet sepultus inclytus Rex Arthurus in insula Avalonia.- Powel, 206.

But the present manuscript, which has none of the voluminous character of that work, nor even of Captain Drinkwater's well-known siege of Gibraltar, only professes to give a full account of the events which took place during the siege undertaken by General Montgomery, whose catastrophe is well known, from the circumstances involving his fall in a desperate attempt to take the town of Quebec by storm.

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"The city of Quebec, which now bids fair," says the editor, "to be called the Gibraltar of British America, was at this period in no very considerable posture of defence, the works having nearly gone to ruin during the interval of sixteen years which followed its reduction by the British arms. Even in 1760, when besieged by Monsieur de Levi, the fortifications facing the heights of Abraham were but weak, till strengthened by new defences, which withstood the fire from the enemy's batteries; for the trenches were opened on the evening of the 28th of April, on the very day when the battle was fought (with dubious success) between General Murray, at the head of 3140 British, and 15000 of the French regulars and colony troops. On the 11th of May they unmasked their batteries against Cape Diamond, the citadel, and the Ursuline Bastion, with 24, 18, and 12-pound shot, and fired at the Jesuits' College and powder-magazines with shells. But 150 pieces of cannon on the ramparts appear, after a fierce cannonading, to have rendered all their attempts abortive, in addition to the cohorns which were thrown into the boyaux," and other parts of their lines of circumvallation. Improvements were in operation during the period when Sir James Craig was governor, preceding the late war with America, which would have made this post utterly inaccessible, strengthened as it was with strong lines of circumvallation, bastions, and redoubts, mounted with heavy cannon and mortars. But in the year 1821 the province had its line of defence considerably altered. The Isle au Noix, as the great key to the lower regions of Canada, was ordered to be converted into a complete fortification; and the Isle of St. Helen at Montreal was purchased by government for the purpose of being made a grand depôt, and strengthened by numerous fortified works. The Lachine canal, from Montreal to Lachine, nine miles in length, was begun to be excavated; and for the purpose of continuing a line of military communication, distinct from that by which the St. Lawrence is exposed to an enemy, with the Upper Province, a canal was begun on the Outawa, near the military settlements on that river, which is said to be nearly two leagues in length, and the same in breadth. The plan of fortification at Quebec was totally altered-very much for the better. All the old circumvallations, from the gates of St. Louis to that of St. John, being comparatively of small importance, were planted with rows of young forest trees. A fortified line was formed on the Heights of Abraham, beyond the town, on which four strong martello towers had been before erected, mounting heavy cannon, (in digging the foundations of which towers many skeletons, arms, and other mementos of the conflicts which had taken place on the spot, were found) and was intended to be the strongest post of defence in that quarter. Cape Diamond was formed into a most extensive citadel, and 400 men were daily employed at the excavations which were made in the solid rock, to carry the design into execution, and form a lofty monument of human industry-intended for the site of an impregnable fort, which should surmount all the other works; and to which cannon and the munitions of war were elevated by the power of steam from the base of that stupendous precipice.

Arnold commenced his march from New England by Lake George and the sources of the river Kennebec, through an almost impenetrable wilderness; this action appeared as chimerical a scheme as the incursions of any horde of barbarians, in old time, more deserving of commendation, however, than the wild adventures of another American general, one of the worthies of the late war, whose perambulations among the herds of buffaloes in a desert country lying between the United States and the Floridas were designated by his countrymen as equal to the sublimest stories recorded by Plutarch and Xenophon.

Instigated by the hopes of conquest, the followers of Arnold endured the greatest hardships in passing this trackless waste; many abandoned him, dismayed at the difficulties that presented themselves, and returned to more civilized regions

Montgomery was brother to Conway Montgomery, whose romantic courage is said to have been only paralleled by that of Charles XII., and who is said to have fought his last duel in an arm-chair, when weakened by age and infirmity. They were of a respectable family in the county of Donegal. He had the chief command in the expedition here commemorated, and was undoubtedly a hero; he had been an officer in a regiment of Wolfe's army, but left the service afterwards in disgust, and having, says Captain Stedman, married an American lady, completely threw off his allegiance to Great Britain.

The conduct of the American Republic sufficiently shows its people to be of an enterprising disposition. The reduction of Canada was then, and has long been, their aim, from political as well as commercial views, (particularly the navigation of the St. Lawrence, and the advantages of the fur trade,) and from the immense command its possession would give them of the more northerly Atlantic shores, and of Nova Scotia.

A few passages from the Journal will prove that it merited publication; and, at this time of day, our readers must not start at the use of the term rebel, and at other contemporary prejudices of a British officer:

"Dec. 1775. From the 1st to the 8th of this month our redoubted foe, General Montgomery, in conjunction with his colleague in arms, Colonel Arnold, and other officers in the rebel army, (who have lately figured as the principal chieftains of the insurgent forces, leagued together for our destruction,) prepared to besiege us in form; and, after taking possession of the principal houses in the neighbourhood of the town, employed all the inhabitants in the laborious task of cutting fascines, and opening lines of circumvallation; which account we learn from numerous deserters. On the 5th of this month Montgomery, who it appears had taken possession of the parish of St. Croix, two miles from this city, at first posted himself there with some field artillery, having landed his heavy cannon at Cap Rouge, beyond the Heights of Abraham-Arnold's detachment taking possession in the interim of the Grande Allee from St. Louis' Gate, and the other principal avenues, so as to cut off all communication with the country. On the 7th several letters addressed to the principal merchants, and written in an imperious strain, came in, advising immediate submission, and promising manifold indulgence in case of their compliance with such an unreasonable demand. They were clandestinely introduced to the garrison by some perfidious female, who brought likewise an epistle to Sir Guy Carleton, our governor, written in very strange terms, and demanding, in peremptory language, a surrender of the town; but he took no further notice of the insidious conduct of the rebels, beyond imprisoning the messenger for a short time, and then ordering her to be drummed out, as she deserved."

"Dec. 31st. The darkness of last night, and the gloominess of this morning, seemed fit for the blackest designs, and, as many suspected, would effectually encourage the blow meant and planned against this place; as so it turned out: for about half past five o'clock in the morning we were all alarmed at our pickets with the report of an attack being made by the enemy: in consequence of which the alarm-bell of the cathedral rung, and all the drums beat to arms; during which, they sent in a number of shells from their battery, (whilst we were stationed in the quarter of Recollects) which burst in all directions with a great crash, and served to increase the alarm of those who yet remained in the interior of the fortress. Our out-post was surprised, without, I may freely say, firing a gun; the guard and advanced parties being made prisoners; and the enemy, having thus gained possession of the barrier after a short struggle, advanced to the narrow pass that leads to the lower town, and took possession of the houses as

they came along, from the back parts of which a constant fire of musket-shot was kept up by them, and returned by us under the best cover we could find at this critical juncture; for had the enemy pushed boldly on through the defile, having got under our last barrier in the Saut du Matelot, they must certainly have carried it. While things were at this crisis, a most seasonable reinforcement of the heroic band of volunteers arrived, aided by the volunteer company formed by the captains of our merchant-vessels, the whole under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Caldwell, Captain Nairn, and Lieutenant Anderson (the latter of whom was soon killed by a shot through the head); and being thus aided by such able officers, things soon bore a very different aspect; for having disposed of the greatest part of the whole body in the neighbouring houses (say Captain Gill's, Mr. Vialar's, and Lymburner's), from which places we kept up a constant fire of musketry, we prevented the enemy from getting over our barrier, or advancing by any other quarter. How we were conquerors at a juncture when we imagined all lost, and at a time when we so little expected it, you will now be informed, viz. The governor being apprized by repeated messengers, some voluntary, while others were ordered to carry him intelligence to the castle, in rotation of duty, how likely the lower town was to fall into the hands of the enemy, they having forced our out-post, and nearly gained our last barrier, he, in consequence of this, with the greatest coolness, ordered an immediate sortie to be made from Palace Gate to outflank them, conducted by Captain Lawes, of the Royal Engineers, which party was covered by a Captain M'Dougal, of the Royal Emigrants, and this body had no sooner gained the bottom of the hill than they fell in with the rear-guard of the enemy, who were so much confounded at so unexpected an attack, that they immediately threw down their arms, and submitted themselves prisoners without firing a shot. Captain Lawes kept boldly advancing (leaving M'Dougal to dispose of the enemy who had fallen into his hands, as was thought proper) and soon gained the outpost at Saut du Matelot, which he entered without opposition, none of his party having as yet come up, and rushed into the midst of the rebels, crying out, with the greatest sang froid, "You are all my prisoners." If the rear party, which consisted of upwards of 300, were astonished at being made prisoners so unexpectedly, you may well conceive the surprise of those who had made themselves masters of our post, at being addressed in such language. How," said they, "your prisoners! you "No, no, my dear creatures," replied he, "I vow to God you are all mine, don't mistake yourselves." "But where are your men?" "O, ho!" says he, "make yourselves easy about that matter, they are all about here, and will be with you in a twinkling." Conservation to that purpose, for near ten minutes, was carried on, during which period a proposal was made to kill him, which was overruled; in the interim his party arrived, made themselves masters of the post, and placing the enemy between two fires, secured it, with the assistance of Captain M'Dougal. Thus the whole body of the enemy which had taken possession of the Saut du Matelot were made prisoners. In this manner we within the town were released from impending ruin through this unexpected manœuvre of the general, by which means their whole party was either killed, wounded, or taken prisoners; among the former were 3 officers and 50 privates; 44 were wounded. On our side we had only 5 killed, and about twice as many wounded, (say thirteen, two of whom are since dead.) The total amount of prisoners taken was 427, thirty-two of whom were officers, including Lieutenant Colonel Green, Major Biclowe, and many others of note.

are our's."

"Jan. 1st, 1776. Every thing quiet during the night. In the morning two Canadians came in, thinking the lower town in the possession of the enemy, who, upon being carried to the main guard and examined, reported that they had come from the general hospital that morning, where there was no account given of General Montgomery. This intelligence, joined to the circumstance of a fur cap, marked in the bottom R. M., having been brought in, immediately led us to suspect that he must have been killed in leading his men on to the attack of our out-post, at Près de Ville. A Canadian, also, named Gagne, who had been out plundering, having found a considerable sum of money on the body of one of the rebel officers, orders were sent down to bring up all the dead bodies from that quarter, amongst which were found by a sergeant and drummer, who went out, (fortunately for us) General Montgomery, also his aid-de-camp, Captain M'Pherson, à Captain Cheesman, of their artillery, and the general's orderly sergeant, all lying dead together, pierced with wounds. This unexpected discovery gave new spirits to the town, and greatly relieved us from the apprehensions of any second attack.

As a morsel of history, this Journal deserved preservation; and it will be bought by collectors, and bound with the other records of the time.

BIOGRAPHY.

A General Dictionary of Painters; containing Memoirs of the Lives and Works of the most eminent Professors of the Art of Painting, from its Revival, by Cimabue, in the Year 1250, to the present Time. By Matthew Pilkington, A. M. A new edition, revised and corrected throughout, with numerous additions, particularly of the most distinguished Artists of the British School.-2 vols. 8vo. 24s. bds.

TILL Pilkington's Dictionary was first undertaken, there existed nothing of the kind in our language; nor were there any aids towards such a compilation, except in foreign tongues. Intent, however, upon acquiring some knowledge on a subject of which he was an enthusiastic admirer, Mr. Pilkington, though an ecclesiastic, residing in a country parish in Ireland, began to collect information respecting the history of his favorite art, and the lives of its most distinguished professors. The labor was arduous in an uncommon degree, as every one must be convinced who has taken the trouble to read Vasari, Vanmander, Ridolfi, and Sandrart, the principal writers in this department of biography. After amassing, with uncommon diligence, a large stock of information from a variety of sources, it occurred that what had been so useful and agreeable to himself, might prove equally so to others; and hence he conceived that a collection of the Lives of the Painters would be both an acceptable and a beneficial present to the public.

When this dictionary made its first appearance, or rather when it began to be compiled, the author could discover only twenty or thirty British artists to incorporate in the body of his work, from the reign of Elizabeth to his own time. Since that period, however, the memoirs of more than one hundred natives of pre-eminent worth have been embodied in the general history of the art, out of which number might be mentioned fifty, at least, who stand in the very highest ranks in the respective departments of history, portrait, landscape, and animal painting; in recording whom, the conductors of this new edition seem to have spared no labour. Many articles in the former editions have been carefully revised and corrected; the lives of Leonardo da Vinci, Michel Angelo Buonarotti, Raffaelle, Rubens, and Vandyck, have been entirely re-written; others have been considerably enlarged; and the additions, in the whole, amount to above fourteen hundred

names.

Such are the prefatory professions of the editor.

We lament that the new articles have not been distinguished by an asterisk, and that an appendix in a separate alphabet should be given, since the dictionary-form demanded every name in its proper place. From this appendix we have selected a few of the best articles, as specimens of the labours of the editor; but they are, in general, so meagre, that the work would not have suffered by their absence:—

ALEXANDER, William. This artist was born at Maidstone in 1768. At the age of fifteen he came to London to study the arts, and with such success, that, in 1792, he was pitched upon to go as draughtsman with Lord Macartney to China. Many of his drawings, illustrative of the scenery and customs of that country, were made use of for