unprecedented assemblage and combination of qualities. The world had, indeed, before furnished us with remarkable instances of an incongruous mixture of great and little, good and bad in character; but there has always appeared something, both in the littleness and greatness of Buonaparte, of a nature completely sui-generis; and the catastrophe of his public life, if we may consider it as completed, is in correspondence to the Sancho-panzaishness of all the other parts of the more than extraordinary series of recent occurrences. It is on a par with the monarch-making and king-dethroning history of the whole business; a history which has proved a severer blow upon the dignity of royalty, and the sanctity attached to regal power, than any order of incidents that has ever had place since kings and thrones have existed.

The imagination naturally and unavoidably accompanies such a man as this, from the publicity of his former career to the privacy of his present existence; and the days that he now passes, are at once more difficult and interesting to realize, in thought, than the days of his power and splendour. While occupied in the organization or command of immense armies, and in the constant hurry of political projects, thoughts of retribution and futurity might be in part extinguished, and reflection buried in bustle. But now that he has time to reflect, of what must his reflections consist? What are his morning, what his evening meditations? Whence does he derive his enjoyments? Of what does his daily occupation consist? What is the nature of the place he inhabits? the people by whom he is surrounded? Such are the circumstances and feelings which will impart a degree of interest to that work, the title of which heads the present article. Many readers, however, who take up the book under the expectation of finding in it a full, true, and parti'cular account' of 'the little hero of the great nation,' will be disappointed in not meeting even with the name of Buonaparte from the beginning to the end of it; and to find, in lieu thereof, botanical information, historical researches, antiquarian investigations, and geological reveries.

But we advise those who may have bought the book in compliment to Buonaparte, not to lay it aside in disgust on account of disappointed expectations. The treatise is by no means destitute of interest. Deducting. indeed, a little from its merit on the score of its being tinctured throughout with the sing-song sentiment, and flippant-frivolity, so characteristic of a French sçarant, there still remains a great deal to admire in the performance before us; and with this feeling we hasten to furnish our readers with a brief analytical view of its contents.

The isle of Elba is situated in the Mediterranean, at the commençement of the sixth climate, where the longest day consists of

fifteen hours, and nine minutes. The channel of Piombino, of which the navigation is extremely difficult, separates Elba from the continent of Italy. The straits are about ten miles across in the narrowest part. Upon the north are the islands of Capraja and Gorgona, on the east the rocks of Parmajola and Cuboli, and the Etruscan shore'; on the south and south-east the islands of Giglio, Montechrist, and Pianosa; and on the w st orsica, whence it is distant forty Italian miles.

Its figure is very irregular. Formed of a soft and light earth, consisting of a pulverized wreck from mountains, of reefs, and of flints continually triturated and battered by the winds, and by currents and surges of a sea often tempestuous, the shores of Elba p esent on every side a thousand sharp angles encroaching upon the land, or jutting out into the water, of which the number and shape vary continually. The same causes which modify the form of the island tend necessarily to the diminution of its extent. In the time of Pliny, if the text has not been corrupted, the isle of Elba was a hundred Roman miles in circuit: at present it is not in reality more than sixty Florentine miles, (a little more than 68 English miles.) p. 2-4.

This island was called by the Greeks Ethalia, and by the Etruscans and Romans Ilua or Ilva, of which the moderns have made Elba. Into the etymological explanation of these names we shall here no further enter, than by stating the obvious origin of the Latin name from the Greek tova, a forest, a name supposed to have been given to it on account of the great quantity of wood which formerly covered its mountainous soil.'

The population of Elba at the time our Author wrote (1808) was, we are informed, about twelve thousand. The inhabitants, he tells us, are warlike and hospitable; they have not the indolence and voluptuousness of their Italian neighbours; the men are less licentious, and the women more chaste than in Italy; nor does that worst part of the Italian character-revenge, shew itself among the Elboese in any thing like the same degree as among the Genoese and Romans. Dr. Spurzheim must not send to Elba for the skulls of murderers and robbers; for we are informed, that robbery here is very uncommon, and murder still more rare.' In the soil and production of the island there is nothing very remarkable; the vine is cultivated in the same manner as in the north of France, in Germany and England; but the use of the press is unknown, as in the rest of Italy, where they still continue to make wine in the same way they have done for two thousand years, and almost with the same ' utensils. They throw the grapes in tovats; there the fermentation goes on from eight to fifteen days, during which it is squeezed only three times. They then draw off the clear liquid. This first operation terminated, they take off the husks, which "the action of the air has soured, in order to manufacture it into vinegar. As for the lees, upon a vat of eighteen barrels, they

'pour five barrels of water, mingle the whole together, and in twenty-four hours obtain irom it a very agreeable piquette.' p. 21.

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Although the island was at one period so fan.ous for wood, the improvident consumption of its inhabitants has at length produced an actual and sensible scarcity of forest trees more especially Our Author tells us, that throughout the island there is the greatest want of wood fit for carpenters' work,'' that wood for fuel is still more rare,' and that in all parts forest trees are wanted.' With respect to vegetable productions, the great height to which the American aloe, and the Indian fig arrive, seem to be one of the principle peculiarities of Elba. 'The stalk of the former,' our traveller informs us, shoots up to the height of about eighteen or twenty feet, and is covered with flowers of a yellowish green colour. It blows every year.' 'Aromatic plants,' he adds, Hourish throughout Elba in the greatest profusion. The inhabitants use them daily in their kitchens. Balm, mint, hyssop, thyme, rosemary, many sorts of sage, and fennel, lavender, eglantine, and myrtle, every where 'perfume the air with their sweet scents, and delight the eye by the variety of their flowers. p. 27.

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Elba being in a great measure destitute of pastures, is, in consequence, thinly supplied with cattle. Several animals are, however, found here in sufficient number; and there is an abundance of game; so that the present ruler of the island may still enjoy opportunities of effecting the work of destruction; and if, as it has been asserted, he is destitute of personal prowess, one should imagine that this kind of warfare would be more congenial to his taste than that in which he was formerly engaged. In his peregrinations, however, he must be careful to avoid encountering the bite of the spotted spider, which the Author tells us, he found in the island, and of which he gives the following interesting account.

"It is of a bright shining black, marked with three rows of bloodred spots, to the number of 13, 15, 16, and 17; the abdomen is round, protuberant at the upper part, and marked with four very black spots arranged in a perfect square The whole body is covered with hairs, and attached to the thorax by a short pedicle; its eyes are fawn coloured, and eight in number; and the thorax is very small It spreads its web close to the surface of the ground, and rushes with prodigious velocity upon its prey; it attacks the scorpion, in particular, with great fury, and is extremely fond of its Blood; it shuns the society of its own species it generates towards the end of summer and envelops its eggs to the number of between 200 and 400, in a cocoon of white silk, compact but not strong In winter it retires among large stones, into the clefts of the rocks and old walls, where, in a torpid state, it awaits the return of spring. Its bite is very dangerous; it is mortal even to man. Its

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venom is of a highly subtle nature, and the more active, the more intense the heat." p. 30-31.

Our traveller complains, that the Elboese are destitute of commercial activity, and in respect to manufactures, Elba, we are told, is tributary to the coasts of France and Italy. The commerce of the island consists in the importation, from Leg'horn and Marseilles, of grain, cheese, cattle, and other articles of prime necessity; and in the exportation of tunny, common wine, salt, Vermont, and Aleatico wines, vinegar, which is in great request, granite, and, above all, of iron ore.' The tunny fishery forms an essential branch of the Elboese commerce; and we shall extract for the amusement of our readers, the following lively account of the manner in which it is conducted.

This (the tunny fishery)' says our Author, is a truly curious, but, at the same time, a barbarous sight; it is a period of festivity for the country. The sea is covered with boats: joy sparkles in every face; all eyes are fixed upon the nets; the tunnies arrive, they enter and fill all the chambers of the vast inclosure; they are pierced with a very sharp iron harpoon with two prongs, and the gulph is soon reddened with their blood. The fishermen sometimes kill sword-fish, dog-fish, and dolphins, which prey voraciously upon the tunny, and pursue it into the very nets.' p. 35.

Berneaud concludes this second chapter of his work, by a few remarks on the diseases to which the inhabitants of Elba are principally subject, which are, he tells us, intermittent, putrid, bilious, spotted, and gastric fevers, and jaundice; cutaneous affections, dropsy, and dysentery. The causes, he thinks, are principally putrid exhalations from the stagnant waters and salt marshes, the dampness of the nights, the cold and abundant dew that takes place at dusk, the variableness of the winds and other accidents of weather, and above all, the hot, moist south winds which almost always blow in the island. He reprobates the use of whalebone stays, which, he says, are worn here by the women and children; and which, by their tightness, occasion pulmonary disorders, and general deformity. He has remarked their particularly injurious effects upon pregnant women. Our English females may, perhaps, be benefited by this hint; for although the mischief to the constitution by the pressure of dress is happily much less in the present day, than it was some time since, yet we are told by those who are in the secret, that the old plan of severe constriction, much oftener than 'is suspected, lurks below the free Grecian flow of the external 'habit." But on this subject, it is not for us here to enter. In the third chapter of the work under review, the Author presents us with a very animated sketch of the political history of the island, of which our limits will scarcely permit us even to VOL. III. N. S.

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chalk the outline. The Etruscans or Tyrrhenians were its first masters; afterwards it was in possession of the Carthagenians, Romans, Goths, and Moors, successively; it subsequently was contested, and at different times possessed, by the Pisans and Genoese. Under the reign of Charles Vth, it became an object in the views of aggrandizement of Cosmo de Medici, first grand duke of Tuscany, who, in the year 1537, possessed himself of the supreme power at Florence, and ranged himself under the banner of Charles, who had recognised him as the sovereign of ancient Etruria. In the year 1543, the Turks, under Barbarossa, gained a temporary possession of the island, but were prevented from pursuing their ravages by the resistance which they met with from Cosmo, who claimed as a reward for the services he had thus rendered the emperor, the investiture of Elba and other dependencies This was, however, refused him, until Charles requiring money, and being under the necessity of applying to Cosmo, the latter sent a considerable supply, and received in exchange the required possessions. Of these, however, he was again soon deprived; but in order to indemnify him for the expenses he had been at in fortifying Piombino, he obtained in the island of Elba the privilege of building a town on the site where Porto Ferrajo now stands, with a surrounding territory of the extent of two miles in every direction. Dragutt, a famous pirate, sometime afterwards infested the Mediterranean, and twice made a descent on the island of Elba. It afterwards passed into the hands of the Spaniards, and at the commencement of the seventeenth century, came by donation into the possession of the house of Ludovici, of Bologna. The Buoncompagna became subsequently possessors by alliance on the female side; but they only acquired in the island, Rio, Capo'liveri, Campo, and Marciano, with their territories; the king of Naples reigned there, from the year 1735, as proprietor of Longone, and the grand duke of Tuscany as sovereigns of Porto Ferrajo. At length the French revolution changed the face of Europe. The grand duchy of Tuscany was de. "atroyed, and by the treaty of Aranjuez, of the 21st of March, 1801, it was, through the mediation of the Court of Spain, ' erected into a kingdom in favour of Lewis I. infant of Spain, he'reditary prince of Parma and Placentia. The island of Elba. entirely ceded by the king of Naples, then formed a part of the kingdom of Etruria, but a short time afterwards it passed ' under the French dominion.' The writer of the above history, a very superficial abridgment of which we have endeavoured to lay before our readers, little anticipated the present fate of the island in connexion with his then renowned and potent master!

On the subject of antiquities and monuments, a short dissertation on which forms the concluding section of the present