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Critical Lives of the Poets, with Specimens, by Mr. Campbell, the Poet. A Work on Military Fortification, by Colonel Pasley. Mr. Mariner's Account of his Shipwreck, and long Detention and Adventures at the Tonga Islands. The valuable Works of the late Professor Robison on Practical Philosophy. This Publication will contain a complete History of the Steam Engine, contributed by Mr. Watt, of Soho. Tales of my Landlord, in Four Volumes, including Descriptions of the Manners of the Covenanters, &c. to be published at Edinburgh. Mr. Mr. Legh's (M. P. for Newton) Travels beyond the great Cataracts in Egypt, in Company with Mr. Smelt, whose Jour nal also has been contributed. Mr. Duppa's Life of Raffael. A Third Volume of the Curiosities of Literature. A Series of Letters, by the celebrated Earl of Chesterfield to Mr. Arthur Stanhope, relative to the Education of his Son Philip, the late Earl. A Continuation of Miss Burney's Tales of Fancy. Mrs. Anne Plumptre's Narrative of her Residence in Ireland in the Summer of 1814, and in that of 1815, with several Engravings of remarkable Scenery in Ireland. An Historical Account of the Battle of Waterloo, drawn up under the best Authority, by Mr. Mudford, and embellished with coloured Plates, Plans, &c. Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Dr. Benjamin Frank lin, comprising his Private and Familiar Correspondence, from the Original MSS. bequeathed to his Grandson William Temple Franklin. A Treatise on Spherics, comprising the Elements of Spheri cal Geometry, and of Plane and Spherical Trigonometry, together with a Series of Trigonometrical Tables, by Mr. Creswell, of Trinity College, Cambridge. A Volume of Sermons on Practical Subjects, by the Rev. W. N. Darnell. Questions resolved in Divinity, History, Biography, and Literature, by the Rev. George Glyn Scraggs, A.M. of Buckingham, in two volumes duodecimo. A History of Great and Little Malvern, embellished with Designs by eminent Artists. Purity of Heart, or the ancient Costume, a Tale, in one Volunie, addressed to the Author of Glenarvon, by an old Wife of Twenty Years. THE BRITISH CRITIC, CRITIC, FOR NOVEMBER, 1816. ART. I. Memoires de Madame la Marquise de la Rochejaquelein, avec deux Cartes du Theatre de la Guerre de la Vendée. WE understand that doubts have been expressed both as to the authenticity and the veracity of the volume before us; it has been said, that neither the title-page, nor the contents tell a true story. There are some people who find a pleasure in doubting of every thing, or think it wise to do so; for the strangeness of taste there is no cure we believe; but to those who doubt on principle, we beg to recommend a very eloquent passage in one of the Sermons of Isaac Barrow, a man not suspected of excessive credulity, or bluntness of discernment *. For I "They are much mistaken, who place a kind of wisdom in being very incredulous, and unwilling to assent to any testimony, how full and clear soever. For this, indeed, is not wisdom, but the worst kind of folly. 'Tis folly, because it causes ignorance and mistake, with all the consequents of these; and 'tis very bad as being accompanied with disingenuity, obstinacy, rudeness, uncharitableness, and the like bad dispositions; from which credulity itself, the other extreme sort of folly, is exempt. Compare we, say, these two sorts of fools, the credulous fool who yields his assent hastily upon any slight ground, and the suspicious fool, who never will be stirred by any the strongest reason or clearest testimony, we shall find the latter in most respects the worst of the two, that his folly ariseth from worse causes, hath worse adjuncts, produceth worse effects. Credulity may spring from an airy complexion, or from a modest opinion of oneself; suspiciousness hath its birth from an earthy temper of body, or from self-conceit in the mind; that carries with it being civil and affable, and apt to correct an error; with this a man is intractable, unwilling to hear, H h VOL. VI. NOVEMBER, 1816. stiff For our own parts we confess that doubt is to us a painful sensation, painful in proportion as the subject matter, on which we doubt, is interesting. In the present instance, therefore, it would be really mortifying to us to be convinced that the tale which has hurried us away by the simple, and rapid energy of its narration, and elevated us by the heroism of its incidents, was a mere fancy picture coloured from fading recollections, or an imposture dressed up to suit the triumphant taste of the day. But we see no reason for any fears of this nature; when we examine the detail of the work, some allowance must doubtless be made for the decided party-feeling of the memorialist; but, as a whole, we believe, first, that it was really written as it professes to be, from the papers, and under the directions of the lady whose name it bears, because that lady, a person every way respectable, and irreproachable, is still alive and in France to detect the imposture, if any had been practised; and secondly, we believe, that making the allowance abovementioned, it is a true, and at any rate always a sincere account of the circumstances which it professes to detail, because the Marchioness defies such an imputation as the contrary supposition would imply, because so many persons are alive, able, and willing to controvert its statements if false; and lastly, more than all, because internally the book in every page bears the impress of sincerity; deliberate falsehood never speaks in so bold and heartful a manner*. Under these impressions we shall attempt to make our readers acquainted with the contents, by a faithful analysis of them; though in so doing it is hardly possible not to lose all stiff and incorrigible in his ignorance or mistakes, that begets speed and alacrity in action, this renders a man heavy and dumpish, slow and tedious in his resolutions and in his proceedings; both include want of judgment, but this pretending to more thereof, becomes thereby more dangerous. Forward rashness, which is the same with that, may sometimes like an acute disease, undoe a man sooner; but stupid dotage, little differing from this, is like a chronical distemper, commonly more mischievous, and always more hard to cure." Sermon 9th on the Creed. Vol. 2, P. 103. * We have made use of the second French edition, which, though a more homely, scems to us a more useful work than the succeeding. The second has some serviceable maps of the scenes of action, for which in the fourth is substituted a very indifferent portrait of Louis La Rochejaquelin, a man for whom we feel a comparatively trifling interest; who took part in the Vendean insurrection during the last war, and was killed in June, 1815. that that charm, which results from striking, and personal anecdote. Such a work leaves little room for critical remark, yet it is but justice to say, that there is a simplicity and suitableness in the style, which are entitled to high praise, and shew, that the writer, as was proper, felt too much of her matter to be overanxious as to the manner. It may not, indeed, be unnecessary to premise to those of our readers who may have been saturated with revolutionary memoirs and tirades, that the present is a work of an wholly different stamp; this will be a remark, which will often occur to them in reading it. The royalists of La Vendée seem to have been no less exempted from the cant and bombast, than from the hypocrisy, and ferocious immorality of their opponents. Victorine Donnissan, who was to encounter dangers and sustain hardships, which make us shudder but to read, was born and bred in scenes, that seemed little calculated to fit her for such an after life. Her father, the Marquis de Donnissan, was Gentilhomme d'honneur to the present king of France (then Monsieur); her mother, the daughter of the Duc de Civrac, was Dame d'Atours of the Princess Victoire. She herself was born, and till the troubles of the Revolution, lived in the palace at Versailles; the unfortunate Louis himself, and the Princess Victoire were her sponsors, and from the latter she appears to have received her name. What a nursery, and what an education for one, whom partly the fear, and partly the hatred of the Revolutionists, was afterwards to term a Vendean Brigande! From her infancy she had been the destined wife of her first cousin by the mother's side, the Marquis Lescure. This nobleman fills so prominent a part in the ensuing narration, that it is necessary even at the expence of somewhat more space than we can well spare, to make our readers acquainted with his character. His widow has drawn it with an affectionate, yet a masterly hand we say masterly, because the conduct of the man detailed afterwards, is exactly congenial with the portrait; bis actions are not merely as great, but great in the particular and individual way, which the previous description leads us to expect. She declares of him, that among all the young men of his rank and age, there was none better informed, or more vir tuous, and none less anxious to display his own merit. In his manuers he was timid and awkward, in his dress somewhat oldfashioned; and though well-grown and handsome, yet from these circumstances his person was not at first very attractive. Born with strong passions, and exposed not only to the general contagion of a corrupt state of society, but to the more dangerous poison of a profligate father, and a debauched tutor, he had uh 2 yet |