will felect one paffage, which will ferve to fhew the different policy purfued by nations on the continent of Europe, and by England, refpecting their fubjects who go into foreign fervice; England making fuch a ftep a capital offence, while, in other countries, it is not confidered as even in the smallest degree cri minal. The reader will obferve, alfo, that our author calls the officer, of whom he is speaking, Lufinian; his name ought to be written Lufignan.

I have omitted obferving, that General La Marche and General Neuilly had attacked a post of the Auftrians commanded by Colonel Lufinian, a Frenchman by birth, who was then defeated and taken prifoner. One would have fuppofed, from the spirit of the times, he would have been immediately cut in pieces; on the contrary, he was received with every mark of politeness, which he much merited, for he was the best bred man I ever met with; he afterwards fupped with me at Dinant on his way to France on his parole.

I cannot help obferving the different treatment an Englishman would have received, if taken by Englishmen, because he first drew his breath on this island. In foreign fervice there is not any thing more common than to find two brothers ferving in different armies. The Prince de Cobourg has a brother in the service of Pruffia, and we may not impoffibly live to fee the two brothers commanding armies against each other. Prince Eugene was a Frenchman, and yet commanded the Imperial army; the British troops have been commanded by a Frenchman, Lord Ligonier, who was taken at the battle of l'Affelet, and dined the next day with Louis the Fifteenth; and Marshal de Saxe, who was himfelf a German, and a Proteftant, nevertheless commanded the French army.'

Our author fpeaks in very high terms of the French foldiers, and of fome of their Generals: we will felect a few traits. After an affair with the Pruffians at Sorine, he thus expreffes himself:

On my return to Dinant, I thought it neceffary to thank the men for their good behaviour as I paffed them in battalion; I received the fame reply from all," If you are content with us, we are fo with you," and they returned in high spirits into town, finging ça ira to their mufic.’

Of Lieut. Gen. Le Veneur, who had ferved under La Fayette, and disappeared with that officer, and was thought to have emigrated with him, but who returned to the army fome. time afterward, and refumed his command without having been questioned for his abfence, Col. Money relates the following gallant exploit:

• The fiege of Namur was carried on with great vigour; batteries were erected on all fides, and almoft every gun in the châteaux were foon difmounted or filenced. One of the most gallant attacks was made here that can be found on record. General Le Veneur, who commanded in the trenches, formed the redoubt of Vilette, in which REV. Nov. 1794.

were

were between three and four hundred Auftrians, a complete work, and mined in various directions. General Le Veneur got to the palifades without being feen by any of the fentinels; indeed for fome time none dared fhew their heads above the parapets: he ordered his men to pull down the palifades, which they did in an inftant; he then mounted the parapet, and found the Austrians all in their casemates; they immediately furrendered themselves prifoners. General Le Veneur to his furprise found he had only fixty men with him, the reft by miftake or defign loft their way: he called for the commanding officer of this redoubt, and threatened him with inftant death if he did not fhew the mines, which he did. Le Veneur having separated the train from the mines, fent for the troops to enter who had miffed their way. Every military man with reafon confidered this as the most gallant act performed the whole of the campaign.'

The following traits will give fome idea of the character of French foldiers:

I fhall not omit here a circumftance that will show what kind of fubordination or military difcipline, if fo it may be called, prevailed at that time (Sept. 1792) in this army. I perceived on the march fome disorder in the eighth regiment; I rode to see what was the matter. I found a man of that regiment had ftolen from a poor woman fome wearing apparel, and fhe had followed him to the corps to which he belonged. I ordered him to deliver what he had ftolen, which he did without fcruple; but as foon as I had quitted the battalion, the men tore off his lappels, and put him to death. Another man was treated in the fame manner the next morning at Vienne le Château; I had always reafons to believe, that the men were extremely delicate in doing injury to the inhabitants. At the camp of Mouzon, I ordered the troops to cut fome barley to lay (lie) on, as we had no ftraw for them, but this they refused, though I offered to pay the owner for it myself. Nothing could perfuade them to do it; they faid they were come to protect, not to injure the inhabitants, and they would fooner lay (lie) upon the wet ground than cut the corn; but this foon wore off. I will however do them the juftice to say, that they frequently thrashed the corn for the inhabitants, to procure ftraw.'

With respect to the troops under my command, one of the battaKons, called L'ami de la patrie, was in rags; but a complete furniture of cloathing arrived while they were at Dinant. I mention this incident to fhew, that the report of the army being almost naked was untrue, as this was the only corps that I faw in the whole army, that was in fuch a fituation: many of the chiefs of this corps were not military men, and from ignorance neglected the troops under their command; their arms were covered with ruft, and many of them were without flints. On my arrival at Dinant, I ordered a morning parade, at which I examined myself every man's firelock, and I found they had not seven rounds a man; I ordered them to be furnished with thirty rounds, and fent to Givet for a fupply of ball, cartridges, &c. and having redreffed all their grievances, as far as lay in my power, I foon perceived I had the entire confidence of the men, which is the first thing an officer ought to obtain, let his command be.

great or small; for a few individuals who have confidence in the man who commands them, will beat double the number of those who have no confidence in their leader; in this, most military men will indif putably agree with me.

Having gained the good opinion and confidence of the troops and. National guards under my command, I found them more alert on their posts, and my orders more punctually obeyed: and I ventured foon after to confine both men and officers whom I found remifs in their duty.'

The next object of my attention was to prevent the troops from annoying the inhabitants, as far as lay in my power; that no forage fhould be taken from any one without giving a bond; that if any fol dier was found marauding, he fhould be apprehended and fent prifoner to head-quarters, and feveral were taken, confined, and punished. The only punishment that was allowed at that time, was called garroter, viz. fhaving their heads and eye-brows on the parade, tearing off their lappels, and difmiffing them from the corps with a paffport, as a vagabond, and as a man unworthy to serve in the armies of France.

The duty was very fevere on the troops, yet they bore it without murmuring; it was a fharp froft, and the fnow four inches deep, and no fooner were the men relieved, than they were often obliged to march to Sorine to the advanced poft, from the perpetual alarms the enemy occafioned.'

Áfter the furrender of Longwy the army marched to Montmedy, from thence to Carignan, and the next day to Sedan. Nothing material happened during our march; the army was very fickly and in want of good shoes, for those furnished by the contractors were so bad that in twenty-four hours they were ufelefs; the foles were very little thicker than the upper leathers, and fome of them had paper put between the foles to make them appear ftrong.

We halted three days at Sedan; here the men were fupplied with every thing they had occafion for, and their clothes were mended. Some of the regiments of the line had their depôts here and at Montmedy, and those who wanted either coats, waistcoats, &c. got them. Some of the National guards had alfo their depôts at the fame place. We left Sedan in a tolerable good condition, but the defect of bad fhoes could not be fupplied. The march of the army from Sedan will never be erased from my memory.-We had during the whole of our progrefs to proceed along a road that was half a leg deep in mud; the greater part of the men carried their shoes in their hands, the women waded through with their petticoats fliding on the mud; and all this they endured without a murmur. I perceived feveral waggons loaded with men, and as it was against orders, 1 inquired if they were fick; they answered, they were not, but by way of apology for a breach of orders, they fhewed me their feet covered with blood from the sharpness of the pavement. I had only to comfort them in the best manner I was able, with the hopes of having foon more fhoes from Paris, and of finding better roads from Mezieres to Rocroy. This march was the fevereft the army made: independent of the badness of the road, it rained inceffantly the first day, and the wind

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wind was in our faces. The diftrefs of the poor women is not to be described: their hearts were almost broken, their suffering was painted in their countenances; the men were filent and fullen; many quitted their corps and went by the fields and bye roads, and there was no venturing to fay a word to them. Every one, in fhort, got as well as he could to his refpective cantonment.'

The perufal of this Hiftory will afford great entertainment, particularly to military readers; who will find two good maps of the foreft of Argonne, one containing a plan of the attack made by the Heffians on Gen. Money's quarters; the other, a plan of the pofition of the oppofing armies during the conferences at St. Menehould. Our author fpeaks like a man perfectly acquainted with military tactics, and appears to be well qualified for a fuperior command; his ftyle is eafy and unadorned, but clear and expreflive; and his accuracy, in general, is beyond the reach of impeachment. Of his principles as a dutiful fubject, and a loyal and conftitutional Englishman, no man can doubt; though in the midft of a victorious career, and in the high road to preferment in the French fervice, he renounced all his flattering profpects, threw up his General's commiffion, and withdrew from the French army, as foon as he found that the arms of France were to be turned against Great Britain; and, when at home, he offered to go to Paris, and to hazard his life in an attempt to fave that of the unfortunate Monarch who had raised him to the rank of a Major General. There is one point, however, which feems not thoroughly to the honour of our author's principles. He fays, p. 168, repeating the words of a friend who objected to the publication of his History in April 1793:- I am perfectly of your opinion, that no man ought to act the part of a traitor, even if the lofs of his own life was likely to be in danger;' yet in page 138 we find the following

note :

A jealoufy always prevailed betwixt Dillon and Dumourier; or rather the latter was but ill difpofed toward the former. I have little doubt but that Dillon might eafily have been induced to emigrate ; and, indeed, at the gorge of Clermont he faid fomething to me, which amounted to an invitation to accompany him. This, however, I declined; because, having ferved against the Emperor in Brabant, if I had then gone over to him, my fate would probably have been that of Fayette, and I should now have been lingering in fome German prison.'

Now, furely, the Colonel muft contend that deferting is not an act of treachery, or muft allow that he has affigned such a reason for not emigrating with Gen. Dillon, as a court of honour could never be difpofed to countenance. The sight reason, and fuch as would have squared with the principles laid down by himself in page 168, as above stated, would have been, that

a man

a man ought rather to run the hazard of his life than betray a truft reposed in him; whereas it appears that the only reafon, given by our author for not emigrating at a moment when his defertion might have decided the fate of France, and perhaps of Europe, by opening the gorge or pafs of Clermont to the Heffians, was that, if he had gone over to the Emperor, his fate had probably been that of Fayette.

From this it would appear that, if he had not been afraid of a prifon, he would not have been afraid of breaking his faith with the French, by deferting them at the time when they had the greatest dependence on him, and when his desertion might be attended with the most fatal confequences to them. We mean not, however, to press this too far; we have not a doubt that the Colonel is a man of honour'; and that, if his work fhould fee another edition, he will either strike out the note in p. 138, or give some addition to it, which will make it speak the fame fentiments of pure honour that are certainly to be found in other paffages of his book.

ART. XV. Sermons on feveral Subjects. By the Right Rev. Beilby Porteus, D.D. Bishop of London. Vol. II. 8vo. pp. 382. 6s. Boards. Cadell. 1794

IT

T is certainly one of the highest points of excellence in a preacher to adapt his difcourfes to the manners of the times in which he lives, and to the particular circumftances and characters of the people whom he addreffes. A fpecific reprefentation of follies and vices, and pointed addreffes to the different claffes of men, according to their respective civil and moral distinctions, are much more interefting than the most eloquent general harangues on virtue, or the most learned and ingenious difcuffions of fpeculative or critical queftions. Such practical preaching, to make use of the well-known but very expreffive words of Lord Bacon," is coming home to men's bufinefs and bofoms."

Perhaps no preacher has been more fuccefsful in exhibiting fpecimens of this very ufeful fpecies of popular address, than the Right Rev. Author of thefe difcourfes. His first volume (published in the year 1783, of which our readers will find an account in the M. R. vol. lxix. p. 398,) contains feveral difcourfes which may be ranked among the moft perfect examples of pulpit eloquence that our language affords. The Bishop of London appears to have early ftudied the art of preaching, with great fuccefs, in the admirable fchool of Archbishop Secker; and, while he has excelled his mafter in correctnefs and elegance of compofition, he has clofely and very happily copied the best

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