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came to remove the originals. Many young French girls were seen among these, perched up on small scaffolds, and calmly pursuing their labours in the midst of the throng and bustle. - When the French gallery was thoroughly cleared of the property of other nations, I reckoned the number of pictures which then remained to it, and found that the total left to the French nation, of the V fifteen hundred paintings which constituted their magnificent collection, was two hundred and seventy-four! The Italian division comprehended about eighty-five specimens; these were now dwindled to twelve: in this small number, however, there are some very exquisite pictures by Raphael, and other great masters. Their Titians are much reduced, but they keep the Entombment, as belonging to the King of France's old collection, which is one of the finest by that artist. A melancholy air of utter ruin mantled over the walls of this superb gallery:- the floor was covered with empty frames, a Frenchman, in the midst of his sorrow, had his joke, in saying, "Well, we should not have left to them even these!" In walking down this exhausted place, I observed a person, wearing the insignia of the legion of honour, suddenly stop short, and heard him exclaim, -"Ah, my God, and the Paul Potter, too!" This referred to the famous painting of a bull, by that master, which is the largest of his pictures, and is very highly valued. It belonged to the Netherlands, and has returned to them. It was said that the Emperor Alexander offered fifteen thousand pounds for it.

The removals of the statues were longer of commencing, and took up more time; they were still packing these up when I quitted Paris. I saw the Venus, the Apollo, and the Laocoon removed: these may be deemed the presiding deities of the col lection. The solemn antique look of these halls fled for ever, when the workmen came in with their straw, and plaster of Paris, to pack up. The French could not, for some time, allow them. selves to believe that their enemies would dare to deprive them of these sacred works:- it appeared to them impossible that they should be separated from France-from la France - the country of the Louvre and the Institute; it seemed a contingency beyond the limits of human reverses. But it happened nevertheless: -they were all removed. One afternoon, before quitting the palace, I accidentally stopped longer than usual to gaze on the Venus, and I never saw so clearly her superiority over the Apollo, the impositions of whose style, even more than the great beauties with which they are mingled, have gained for it an inordinate and indiscriminating admiration. On this day, very few, if any of the statues had been taken away, -and many said that France would retain them, although she was losing the pictures. On the following morning I returned, and the pedestal on which the Venus had stood for so many years, the pride of Paris, and the delight of every observer, was vacant! It seemed as if a soul had taken its flight from a body.'

We cannot leave this extract without observing that Mr. S. is in a great minority when he prefers the Venus to the Apollo;

Apollo; it being an almost universal remark that, while the former disappoints, the latter surpasses the expectation of the spectator. It is satisfactory to find, from the evidence of an eye-witness, that no material injury (p. 334.) was incurred by any of the pictures in their removal; and that nothing was taken from the collection that did not belong originally to foreign countries. The French, under the poignancy of disappointment, poured forth the most bitter charges in that respect against the Prussians: but we are confidently assured (p.358.) that, with the exception of a few maps and models of the fortified towns on the French frontier, seized by the more unceremonious of our allies, no species of French property was removed. An amicable spirit prevailed in the arrangements with the Dutch and Flemish deputies respecting the great cabinet of Natural History; the French being left in possession of almost all that had been taken from the Stadtholder's collection, on condition of making up a stock of equal value from duplicates of their own. By this means the admirable collection in the Jardin des Plantes at Paris remains complete; while Holland is, on her part, sufficiently indemnified, having received such a number of animal specimens as enable the student to carry his progress in that department to a very considerable length.

But the bitterest mortification of the people of Paris yet remains to be described. The well-known horses, taken from the church of St. Mark in Venice, had been peculiarly the objects of popular pride and admiration. Being exposed in the public view; in one of the most public situations of Paris, this was esteemed the noblest trophy belonging to the capital, and there was not a Parisian vender of a pailful of water, who did not look like a hero when the Venetian horses were spoken of.

"Have you heard what has been determined about the horses?" was every foreigner's question:-" Oh they cannot mean to take the horses away," was every Frenchman's remark. On the morning of Thursday the 26th of September, however, it was whispered that they had been at work all night in loosening them from their fastenings. It was soon confirmed that this was true, and the French then had nothing left for it, but to vow, that if the Allies were to attempt to touch them in the day-light, Paris would rise at once, exterminate its enemies, and rescue its honor. On Friday morning, I walked through the square it was clear that some considerable change had taken place; the effect of the forms of the horses was finer than I had ever before seen it. While looking to discover what had been done, a private of the British staff corps came up. "You see, Sir, we took away the harness last night," said he. "You have made a great improve ment by so doing," I replied:-" but are the British employed on this work?" The man said that the Austrians had requested

the

the assistance of our staff corps, for it included better workmen than any they had in their service. I heard that an angry French mob had given some trouble to the people employed on the Thursday night, but that a body of Parisian gendarmerie had dispersed the assemblage. The Frenchmen continued their sneers against the Allies for working in the dark: fear and shame were the causes assigned." If you take them at all, why not take them in the face of day? But you are too wise to drag upon yourselves the irresistible popular fury which such a sight would excite against you!"

• On the night of Friday, the order of proceeding was entirely changed. It had been found proper to call out a strong guard of Austrians, horse and foot. The mob had been charged by the cavalry, and it was said, that several had their limbs broken. I expected to find the place on Saturday morning quiet and open as usual; - but when I reached its entrance what an impressive scene presented itself! The delicate plan, for such in truth it was, of working by night was now over. The Austrians had wished to spare the feelings of the King of France the pain of seeing his capital dismantled before his palace windows, where he passed in his carriage when he went out for his daily exercise. But the insolent ignorance of the people rendered severer measures necessary. My companion and myself were stopped from entering the place by Austrian dragoons: a large mob of Frenchmen were collected here, standing on tip-toe to catch the Arch in the distance, on the top of which the ominous sight of numbers of workmen, busy about the horses, was plainly to be distinguished. We advanced again to the soldiers: some of the French, by whom we were surrounded, said, "Whoever you are, you will not be allowed to pass." I confess I was for retiring, -for the whole assemblage, citizens and soldiers, seemed to wear an angry alarming aspect. But my companion was eager for admittance. He was put back again by an Austrian hussar : "What, not the English!" he exclaimed in his own language. The mob laughed loudly when they heard the foreign soldier so addressed :-but, the triumph was ours; way was instantly made for us, and an officer, on duty close by, touched his helmet as we passed.

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The King and the Princes had left the Thuilleries, to be out of the view of so mortifying a business. The court of the Palace, which used to be gay with young Gardes du Corps and equipages, was now silent, deserted, and shut up. Not a soul moved in it. The top of the Arch was filled with people, and the horses, though as yet all there, might be seen to begin to move. The carriages, that were to take them away, were in waiting below, and a tackle of ropes was already affixed to one. The small door, leading to the top, was protected by a strong guard: every one was striving to obtain permission to gratify his curiosity, by visiting the horses for the last time that they could be visited in this situation. Permission, however, could necessarily be granted but to few. I was of the fortunate number. In a minute I had climbed the narrow dark stair, ascended a small ladder, and was out on the top, with the

most

most picturesque view before me that can be imagined. An English lady asked me to assist her into Buonaparte's Car of Victory: his own statue was to have been placed in it, when he came back a conqueror from his Russian expedition! I followed the lady and her husband into the car, and we found a Prussian officer there before us. He looked at us, and with a good-humoured smile, said, "The Emperor kept the English out of France, but the English have now got where he could not! Ah, pauvre Napoleon!"

The cry of the French now was, that it was abominable, execrable, to insult the King in his palace, to insult him in the face of his own subjects, by removing the horses in the face of day! I adjourned with a friend to dine at a Restaurateur's, near the garden of the Thuilleries, after witnessing what I have described. Between seven and eight in the evening, we heard the rolling of wheels, the clatter of cavalry, and the tramp of infantry. A number of British were in the room: they all rose and rushed to the door, without hats, and carrying in their haste their white table napkins in their hands. The horses were going past, in military procession, lying on their sides in separate cars. First came cavalry, then infantry, then a car; - then more cavalry; more infantry, then another car, and so on, till all the four past. The drums were beating, and the standards went waving by. This was the only appearance of parade, that attended any of the removals. Three Frenchmen, seeing the groupe of English, came up to us, and began a conversation. They appealed to us if this was not shameful. A gentleman observed, that the horses were only going back to the place from whence the French had taken them: - if there was a right in power for France, - there must also be one for other states: - but the better way to consider these events, was, as terminating the times of robbery and discord. Two of them seemed much inclined to come instantly round to our opinion:- but one was much more consistent. He appeared an officer, and was advanced beyond the middle age of life. He kept silence for a moment, and then, with strong emphasis said,— "You have left me nothing for my children but hatred against England; this shall be my legacy to them.". "Sir," it was replied," it will do your children no good, and England no injury.'

The different and copious extracts which we have made, and other passages, (pp. 57. 395. 398.) suffice to shew that Mr. Scott is always capable of an ingenious and not unfrequently of a judicious and temperate course of observation. In fact, we may with perfect justice give him credit for an impartial statement of all that he had an opportunity of seeing personally, or wherever his time was sufficient to enable him to collect the materials for forming a judgment: - but, in bearing this testimony in his favour, we must add that we have gone as far as critical impartiality will allow; since, whatever may be his descriptive powers, readers of taste

will find themselves frequently mortified by the extremes, and sometimes by the puerilities, into which he is apt to fall. What can be said in defence of such a passage as that (p. 351.) which dwells on the Venetian horses as turning their unmoved faces to the Paris populace;' or which describes (p. 327.) the pictures of Raphael and Titian as looking with tranquil dignity on crowds of soldiers preparing to remove them from their places on the walls of the Louvre Gallery? The best parts of the book are those in which Mr. S. makes a literal record of conversations, and forbears to attempt to deck them out in false colours for the sake of giving them an air of importance. This is strikingly exemplified in the report (p. 253.) of his nocturnal dialogue with two Highland soldiers at Peronne; whose complaints of what they considered as over-rigid discipline on the part of the Duke of Wellington are very naturally and characteristically expressed.

ART. III. The Battle of Waterloo, containing the Series of Accounts published by Authority, British and Foreign, with Circumstantial Details, relative to the Battle, from a Variety of Authentic and Original Sources, with connected Official Documents, forming an Historical Record of the Operations in the Campaign of the Netherlands, 1815. To which are added the Names alphabetically arranged, of the Officers killed and wounded, from 15th to 26th June, 1815, and the total Loss of each Regiment, with an Enumeration of the Waterloo Honours and Privileges, conferred upon the Men and Officers, and Lists of Regiments, &c. entitled thereto. Illustrated by a Panoramic Sketch of the Field of Battle, and a Plan of the Positions at Waterloo, at different Periods, with a General Plan of the Campaign. By a Near Observer. Ninth Edition, corrected and improved. 8vo. 15s. Boards. Booth. 1816.

THE

HE glorious "field of Waterloo" has been so often described, that little novelty is to be expected from any account given to the public at this comparatively late period; and we shall accordingly refrain from entering into the details of that memorable day, except in as far as they conduce to illustrate some tactical observations which appear to have escaped the attention of former writers. Much has been said in praise of the talents of our commander, and the gallantry of our troops: but scarcely any one has made a point of speci fying, in a clear and connected detail, the dependence of one event on another; or has tried to analyze, with the deliberate eye of an historian, the causes to which our triumph is to be attributed. The time is now come to exchange the enthu