pontard, and hence secret and determined murderers are denominated assassins. "While the king of France was pursuing unfriendly measures at home, Richard was warmly engaged in arranging the affairs of the Holy land. Philip, with a show of zeal for the interests of the crusade, left in Palestine, the duke of Burgundy, with 10,000 men. Richard, with the troops which were at his command, laid siege to Ashkelon, took the city, and added other towns and possessions to the remaining fragments of the kingdom of Jerusalem. It was sufficiently evident, that these stucessful efforts were intended, as preliminary measures, for making a grand attack upon the city of Jerusalem. When Saladın was compelled to leave Ashkelon, he hastened to the Holy city; and the king of England, having paused during the months of winter, followed him to Jerusalem. The approach of Richard spread consternation through the city; and it required all the influence and address of the Egyptian sultan to prevent the citizens from delivering the keys to Richard Plantagenet. 66 Still, however, Salz lin's prospect of success brightened; and when the hour of surrender appeared to have arrived, suddenly the king of England's army stopped, and the pursuit of victory was abandoned. The number of his soldiers had indeed been diminished by the fatigues and calamities of war, and there was a general desire of returning home. These occurrences were marked, and eagerly aggravated by the duke of Burgundy, who, like his master, the king of France, was jealous of Richard, and desirous of bringing him into disgrace. "But whatever was the cause of deserting Jerusalem at the moment it might have been taken, we may presume that the fault was not in the king of England, and that it did not accord with any wish or desire of his, though the enemies of Richard have painted it in different colours. He heard the resolution with astonishment; he saw their retreat with afiliction; he pled and threatened, but his prayers and threats were in vain. His laurels began to wither on his brow, and in agony he ascended a hill in sight of Jerusalem, to take his last look of the Holy city. But so completely was he overwhelmed with grief and shame, that he wrapt his face in his garment, in order that he might not behold the hill of Calvary, which he could not deliver from the power of the Turks. "But in his retreat Richard was still formidable. His courage was terrible to his enemies; and in token of martial prowess, he Was surnamed Cœur de Lion. With considerable advantage he finished a truce with Saladin, for the space of three years and upwards. Ashkelon and Ramla were to be dismantled; Tripoli and Antioch were to be respected by the Turks; and the whole sea-coast, from Jaffa to Tyre, was to be possessed by the christians. The pilgrims of Europe were to be under the protection of Saladin, and to en joy every comfort, as if Jerusalem had not been taken. Saladin and Richard were struck with each other's greatness; and the historians of either party have done ample justice to the conduct of the heroes. The advantageous terms which Richard procured in a season of desertion and departure, are sufficient proofs of his wisdom and greatness. There was one proposal, however, in the terms of agreement, which may imply a greater regard to family aggrandisement, than to the general cause of the crusades. A marriage was suggested betwe. n Al Adel, a brother of the sultan of Egypt, and the queen dowager of Sicily, who was sister to the king of England. Though Richard may be charged with undue attention to the interests of his own family, yet an ingenious advocate might plead successfully in his behalf, and shew, that private interest was in that respect the public good. "The conduct of Richard's troops would not allow him to persist in the attack upon Jerusalem; and, if the venerable city could not be taken by force, it was promoting the comfort of the christian pilgrims to have it placed under the direction of those who would yield them protection. It was stipulated, in the proposal of marriage, that Al Adel should be proclaimed king of Jerusalem, and St. John d'Acre was to be given in dower with the sister of Richard. Hopes might be entertained, that Al Adel, through the influence of a christian wife, might be persuaded to embrace the christian cause, or at least, in case of progeny, that the heir to the kingdom might prefer and adopt the sentiments of his mother. the difference of religious opinions, and national manners, were unfriendly to the compact; and after mature deliberation the marriage proposal was mutualiy rejected. But the treaty in all its other paris was brought to a conclusion, and sanctioned with every usual solemnity. But Richard, on his way to England, met with many difficulties, and was taken prisoner by the sinister conduct of his enemies; but he was soon set at liberty by the interposition of his subjects, and the influence of the pope. He was received at home with great demonstrations of joy; and was the first king, of the Norman race, who displayed much attachment to England, or was much beloved by his English subjects. After escaping many dangers in Syria and Palestine, he died upon the 6th of April, A. D. 1199, of a wound, which he received from an arrow in besieging the castle of a refractory v.ssal. "The departure of Richard having delivered Saladin from the intrusions of a formidable enemy, he put the affairs of state in order, and returned to his favourite residence at Damascus. His health had been much impaired by the toils of a military life; and he had suffered greatly by the uncommon resistance which was necessarily required in oppoHe was seized with a loss sing the crusades. of appetite, his spirits sunk; and at the age of little more than fifty-five years, he finished a life of labour and success. He had reigned about twenty-four years over Egypt, and almost nineteen over Syria. "A. D. 1193. The mourning, which was universal throughout the realm, sunk deeper than the exterior trappings of woe. He was a great, a generous, and a virtuous prince. By address, courage, and wisdom, he rose from an humble station, to the exalted rank in which he died. Ambition was the leading tendency of his character; and so eagerly did he strive for power and conquest, that though he owed every thing to Noureddin, yet he was guilty of ingratitude. The character of the times in which he lived, and the nature of his pursuits, did not permit him to be altogether free from violence; but, in general, he was a just and benevolent prince. He did not oppress his subjects; and though, in that unsettled state of society, he might have fleeced the rich, and harassed the poor, yet he often remitted the tribute which was due. He was illustrious in works of public charity, and encouraged every valuable pursuit. He was a devout Musleman, and punctually performed the various services which his religion enjoined. He set a high value upon the Sonnite traditions, and was rather gloomy and superstitious in his views." The ninth book sketches in too concise and rapid a manner the fortunes of Egypt under the Ottoman dynasty. Mignot is the authority most habitually relied on: the abridgement of the Ottoman history by Digeon has the merit of being derived wholly from oriental sources, and might have supplied several particulars toward filling the interstices of this chronicle. The ninth book ought to have consisted of the first chapter only as the second begins a wholly new subject, and treats of Egypt, since it has been dragged by the French into the list of territories to be contended for by the Europeans. A tenth and concluding book, undertakes a delineation of the present state of Egypt. In discussing the object of Leib nitz's memoir (Vol. ii. p. 306.) we have given our opinion of the statistical value of the country we value it lower than this author; and we wish that the peacemongers of Amiens had consented to evacuate it in favour of the French; if thereby a recognized possession of some equivalent African, territory, as from the Cape to the Zaire, or from the Gambia to the Senegal, could have been obtained for this country. There is in the climate and conformation of Egypt an overruling force which condemns it, like Arabia, to a stationary condition: the French will not be able to render it important: it is in the main what it was of old. That stage of civilization which excited the wonder of the primeval savages of Greece is now barbarism: that degree of wealth which excited the cupidity of Roman armies and pro-consuls is now mediocrity. This work is composed in a clear, agreeable, and lively manner, with too current a pen to allow careful investigation, and with too eager an expectation of the concluding campaign to allow all the requisite, details yet there are few writers who could have executed quick work so well, or good work so quick. We wish that the author would consider this as the sketch, the outline, the promise of a future more learned and more elaborate history of Egypt; and that in the progress of his enquiries he would allot more attention to the modern annals, which occupy less than their fair proportion of the whole composition. The talents, the acquirements, and the taste of Mr. Wilson are worthy to produce a more lasting monument: are worthy to attain a more coura. geous tone of criticism. A map of ancient as well as of modern Egypt would have been convenient to the reader. ART. II.-History of Great Britain, from the Revolution, 1688, to the Conclusion of the Treaty of Amiens, 1802. By WILLIAM BELSHAM. Vols. XI. and XII. 8vo. many sources of intelligence, especially. What happened? Did the religious part of the foreign, have been left unexamined the Neapolitan people join the French? No. with a negligence not entirely creditable to his industry or to his acquirements. Mr. Belsham has the virtue, as Penzelius would call it, of writing with a plain style. Liceat denique hic addere (says this author, De Arte historica) cavendum esse historico ab libris belle scriptis. Nam quamvis optimum dicendi genus cum summâ veritate possit conjunctum esse : tamen tanta est animi humani fragilitas, ut vix ac ne vix quidem hæ duæ virtutes uno in homine simul possint locum habere: ita ut qui amano et florido scribendi genere utuntur, an etiam verum dicant, merito semper dubitandum sit. Exemplo possunt esse Xenophon e Græcis, et e Latinis Curtius, qui ditissimo dicendi genere usi, fere non historias, sed Milesiacas fabulas, videntur composuisse. Potest e recentioribus exemplo esse Voltarius, quo nemo verum historiæ genium possidebat magis, nemo scripsit luculentius ac disertius, sed quo nemo plus fabularum finxit.' The earlier volumes of this work have preceded the date of our notices: this eleventh begins with the year 1799, and with the thirty-first book of the history, and, after mentioning the king's speech, it recapitulates the debate on the habeas corpus act. It was worth while for the historian to observe, because the orators did not make the observation, that the habeas corpus act is of little value in quiet times; ministers have ordinarily no interest to interrupt the regular administration of justice: if in all unquiet times it be taken away, it might as well not exist. When the constitution is not strong enough to protect itself without despotic powers, let the constitution be strengthened by the insertion of more representatives popularly chosen; but let it not exhibit the detestable spectacle of despotism attaining the ends of orderly government, while liberty and justice are asserted to be impotent, Such profane disbelief in principle, in virtue, the representatives of the people should loudly excommunicate. In narrating (page 120) the entrance of the French troops into Naples, Mr. Belsham talks of the interesting spectacle of liberty crowned by the hands of religion. In the first place, allegorical spectacles are not spectacles at all. "So I have seen in Araby the blest, They adhered to cardinal Ruffo, who 'bearing aloft the crucifix in the one hand, and brandishing the sword in the other,' was very successful, especially through Calabria, in collecting recruits to oppose the invaders. The higher orders, the infidel classes, of society, were at Naples the only friends of the French; the populace were hostile, partly from the wholesome instinct of patriotism, and partly from superstition for those creeds which they knew the French despised. A few priests may have been hired with the silver spoils of their own altars to betray a country which they despaired to arouse; but the ecclesiastical order was not in the interest of the French. Their guides were found among the lawyers and students chiefly. This method of narrating in abstractions, and of substituting allegory to fact, is rarely consistent with historical precision: it is oftener adopted to conceal idleness, than to abridge the result of enquiry. In the thirty-second book occurs a narrative of the expedition to Holland. This was the most important and the most illmanaged of all the undertakings of Great Britain during the whole war: the most important, because it directly tended to check and to limit the northern aggrandizement of France, which alone inters feres with our security and our independence; and the most ill-managed, for reasons which parliamentary accommodation may have suppressed, but which the historian ought to promulgate. The expedition was fitted out too late in the sea son. There was a want of geographical information in landing at the Helder at all; because the passes between that place and the seats of population and authority in Holland, are defensible by an inferior force against any invader. There was so little contrivance in the equipment that half-disciplined militia-men were embarked for a difficult service; and that horses came in one ship, and their saddles in another. It was rumoured that the cavalry would either not come or not be wanted, and the saddles were thrown overboard into the mud, purely for a pier to step ashore upon. Care should have been taken to land unexpectedly in some place whence it was possible to march rapidly to Amsterdam: no cavalry should have been sent: rash battles should have been fought (this depended on the general selected); for a mere regular progress was certain disappointment of the end in view: and a defeat was no greater evil than a detention. Such remarks the historian of his own times should collect from the individuals engaged: and he should state them without reserve; not for the purpose of exciting indignation, that would be useless, but in order that the eye of public mistrust may in future be turned on those individuals, who have so conducted the cause of their country. We are fighting for our last stake. If the constitution necessarily secures to birth, to rank, to wealth, to sympathetic opinion, an influence which they deserve not, the only chance for remedy lies in vigorous denunciation. Let the historian brave an unjust exile, in order to rescue his country from ignorant, or base, or perverse councils. On this occasion, and on some others, we feel inclined to censure the urbane, the tame lenience of Mr. Bel sham's criticism. At page 205 there is an extenuatory passage in the note which respects the butchery at Jaffa. Bonaparte is represented as less blameworthy than Suwarrow. The Russians had been irritated by the previous massacre of their troops in Warsaw, which the royalists, commanded by Kosciusko, had perpetrated. Suwarrow had vindictive feelings to satisfy, and had probably orders to satisfy them, But Bonaparte's butchery was self-willed, and a sacrifice in cold blood. And why is Bonaparte to be censured with qualification? Is he not the subverter of liberty, the abolisher of the political equality of religious sects, the conqueror of anarchy, not by voluntary, but by despotic means, free from family affection or expansive humanity, ignorant and superstitious, another Septimius Severus? If glory be at the service of such usurpers, there will be no end of them. The greatest of warriors is not the greatest of men. In the cleventh volume the thirty-fourth chapter narrates with becoming courage a reprehensible outrage. Nearly at this time a most extraordinary and signal act of vengeance was inflicted on the inhabitants of Cesenatico, a small maritime town situated on the Adriatic Guil. The municipality of this obscure place, had, it seems, according to the accounts transmitted to lord Keith, arrested a British officer charged with public dispatches. As they might, not improbably, have acted under constraint from the French troops stationed in their vicinity, it would have appeared to the world no derogation of dignity, and much more agreeable to equity, if the noble commander had made some enquiry into the previous and attendant circumstances; instead of which, the El Cor80 and Pigmy sloops were, after a lapse of time which seemed to indicate that the ottude, had passed into oblivion, dispatched fence, whatever might have been its magnito make a proper example of the can." The boats of both vessels landed at dawn of day on the 27th of August, and, after some opposition from a body of French troops, mnade themselves masters of the place, which they then, agreeably to their orders, completely destroyed--the vessels and the harbour forming but one flame. Of thirteen the mole of Cesenatico, two were sunk, vessels, of duferent descriptions, lying within and eleven burnt; the harbour was choaked by the wreck of four purposely sunk in the mouth of it, and both piers entirely consumed.' Thus did the mighty arm of Britain, by a touch rather than a blow, all the flourishing works of peace destroy' of an industrious and could scarcely suppose the possibility of so humble, but probably happy community, who terrible a calamity; for a revenge so dreadful, incited by an offence so trivial, was perhaps never before inflicted in any age, or heard of in any country the name of which is known among civilized nations." among foreign nations is so essential to The popularity of the British character the success of our remote expeditions, that these wanton piratical freaks of enterA less unwelcome specimen of Mr. Belprize cannot be too steadily discouraged. shan's mode of narration will be the following: "The routine of parliamentary business went on as usual during the illness of the king; but his majesty having now happily recovered, the appointments of the new ministers lar form; and on the 17th of March, Mr. were announced in the a customed and reguAddington was sworn into his high office as first lord of the treasury, with the chancellorship of the exchequer annexed; and Mr. Pitt w.s divested of that power which he had exercised, in times the most eventful and important, for the long period of seventeen years; during which the character of this minister was as fully developed, as clearly discriminated, and as strongly marked, as that of any statesman who ever directed the councils of Britain. His early declaration, on the removal of lord North, and the advancement of lord Rockingham to the station of first minister, that he would not accept of any subordinate situation,' exhibited at once the extent and the irregularity of his ambition. In proportion as his pretensions were high, his manners were haughty, Instead of the generous feelings and noble enthusiasm of his father, he discovered a disposition selfish, cold, and artful; and it was quickly seen that he possessed no quality of youth but its presumption. In his conduct there was never found that fearless implicity, that dignified candour, which are the genuine offspring of an elevated mind, and the true criterion of real wisdom. At no time Gid he display that commanding foresight which marks a superior intellect, or that controlling prudence which knows how to avert impending mischief. At no season did he enCavour to stem the torrent of public preju dice, or to make the people calm and wise when they were inflamed and ignorant. The stream of public opinion he submitted dili kently to watch; and suffered himself rather to be carried away with it, than to aim by arduous efforts to direct its course where wis dom or patriotism might suggest. The mind of the nation, under his auspices, made no advances: on the contrary, its movement was miformly retrograde. The errors of the pub lic he laboured to convert to his own advantage, not to correct at the hazard of his power. He was the attentive observer of times and seasons, not the beneficent and enlightened structor of nations. His eloquence, for which he was deservedly celebrated, was chietly characterized by what rhetoricians call amplification. He possessed in perfection all the modes and subtilties of reasoning, and was copious, even to the brink of verbosity. He had the faculty of speaking much and saying little; and, when silence was in practicable, he knew how to make language subservient to all the purposes of taciturnity. His solenin avowals were clothed in impenetrable darkness: and his explanations were calculated equally to elude the vigilance of the watchful and the curiosity of the inquisitive. The connexion between the means and the end appeared seldom intimate in his thoughts, and was rarely either defined in his words or exemplified in his conduct. The plans, therefore, which he designed, although prosecuted with courage, constancy, and vigour, almost invariably failed in the execution. It is remarkable, that, during the seventeen years of his administration, no one act of patronage was extended to literature, to the sciences, or the arts. "That spirit of violence which had so long actuated the proceedings of the late administration, suffered no abatement to the very last moment of their political existence. On the 21st of January Mr. secretary Dundas, by letter, apprized the lords of the admiralty, that it was his majesty's pleasure to revoke the indulgence granted to the French fishermen; and that they and their boats should be henceforth subject to capture-advices having been received that these fishermen were under requisition, and that even those who had been released from prison, in order to be sent home, under the express condition of not serving again, were comprised in that requisition. It was his majesty's further pleasure, that all those set at liberty on their parole be required to return into this country; and that those among them who shall neglect to obey these orders, shall be made to suffer all the rigors of the laws of war, in case they should again be made prisoners while serving ANN. REV. VOL. IV. the enemies of his majesty.' A copy of this letter was transmitted to M. Otto on the 29th of January; and he immediately apprised M. Talleyrand of this ineasure-the true motives of which he declared himself unable to con jecture-at the same time expressing his fears that, from the intentional delay in the communication of the order, a great number of unfortunate persons must have fallen victims to it. M. Otto also addressed, upon this occa sion, a most able reply to the English government, stating his astonishment that mere apprehension and conjecture should have been made the ground of such a procedure, without any complaint, formally or previously offered, and much less any refusal of justice on the part of the French government. He depre cated the effect of a measure hostile to a peaceable class of people for the most part aged, invalids, or children, who were consequently incapable of hurting the enemies of their country; and whose simplicity of manners and industrious habits could not give any umbrage. Those,' he says, who have submitted to the English government the reports on which its late determination is founded, cannot therefore have any other view than to add to the numerous subjects of irritation which a protracted war has produced between the two nations.' This act of provocation awakened the highest degree of resentment in the mind of the first consul; and instructions were forthwith transmitted to M. Otto, to declare to the British government, that he could no longer remain in a country, where not only every disposition to peace is abjured, but where the laws and usages of war are disregarded and violated; but that the first desire of the French government having always been to soften, as much as possible, the horrors of war, that government cannot, on its part, think of making the poor fishermen victims to the prolongation of hostility: it will therefore abstain from all such reprisals; and, on the contrary, it has given orders for all French ships, armed for war or cruising, to. leave the occupation of fishermen uninterrupted. Such and so striking was the contrast exhibited by the two governments! But the prudence of M. Otto foreseeing that an amelioration might take place in the English councils, in consequence of the changes in contemplation, he postponed his departure till the new ministers had taken upon them the actual management of public concerns: and a favourable omen of the better spirit which now predominated in the national councils very early appeared, in the notice transmitted to M. Otto on the 3d of March, of the suspension of the late order respecting the French fishermen; and, in the sequel, the dispute was happily and silently adjusted. "But a far more flagrant, though perhaps not in its tendency a more fatal, proof of the disposition of the late ministers to involve the nation, as it were, beyond all redemption, and to stake its very existence on the result of the quarrel, appeared in the era of covacil, dated the 14th of January, for lay ng an |