Now the officer who commanded the corps alluded to could hardly be expected to have moved towards Banos before he knew that Sir Robert was there, and likely to need his assistance. But no advice of this kind (supposing such advice to have been despatched) could have reached him before the 12th;-yet it was on the 12th that the battle was fought, in which Sir Robert Wilson affects to complain of the non-co-operation of a corps which could not have arrived on the scene of action till two days after his own corps was utterly defeated!

Such is the accuracy of a writer who professes to furnish materials for future history, and thus well-informed is he on the parti culars of his own exploits, who writes as if he knew the manoeuvres of armies better than the generals who directed them, and as if be were familiar with all the secrets of all the cabinets of Europe! Yet it is not wilful misrepresentation which we impute to him-far from it! But when vanity usurps the place of proper pride, it gives obliquity to the perceptions. The practice of brooding over actions which he conceives to be overlooked, and merits which, he fancies, are neglected; the love of doing all for effect, which despises the reputation to be acquired in a subordinate command, or the patriotism which is unrewarded by power; the spirit, lastly, of party, and a desire to swim against the stream, have made his talents worse than useless as a political writer, and must, even in his own profession, operate as a very disadvantageous drawback to energy, however great, and to bravery, however distinguished.

We have yet a few observations to make on the subject of a far less important objector than Sir Robert Wilson, but to whom, nevertheless, we are fully disposed to render not only justice, but, if we could find any grounds for it, indulgence also— we mean the Count Macirone. That person has urged, in defence of his conduct in furnishing General Murat, when apprized of his hostile intentions, with a passport, which was only to have been given him conditionally, that the passport could not be used against the allies, and could only have been advantageous to Murat in the event of his abandoning the expedition to Calabria. We fear this plea would hardly avail M. Macirone in a court either of honour or of justice. In the first place, what appearance was there that Murat would relinquish an expedition which was to embark immediately, or how, when once engaged in it, could he abandon the officers who had resigned their all for him? To offer a passport with such expectations would have been insulting,-to accept it would have been monstrous.-But is not M. Macirone aware of the finesse which General Murat endeavoured to practise in his official answer to the allied sovereigns, published the following day at Ajaccio? Is he not aware that he professes to

accept the asylum offered him by the allies, though he declines proceeding to Trieste in the manner specified by them, alleging some incivility on the part of the captain of the British frigate ?* Is it not plain that he thus, by the possession of the passport, intended to throw a blind over his projects, and to deceive either the allies-or perhaps his own adherents, as to their destination?— And when his two hundred officers and non-commissioned officers were embarked, does M. Macirone suppose that they were all to be on deck in full uniform? Or was it not worth the trial to offer such a passport in the event of being hailed by a British cruiser, for the chance at least of escaping a search and the detention which would have followed?-Or, if he had been stopped, was it nothing to be able to plead that he was, according to the tenor of his own proclamation, peaceably pursuing his voyage, with his adherents, to Trieste ? and, in the event of being defeated in Calabria, if he had escaped the first pursuit, would not the Count Lipona have found his Austrian passport useful in a flight through Italy? It is plain, indeed, that the being provided with such a possibility of evasion was in itself a strong additional stimulus to the desperate enterprise which he meditated. And that he himself felt it, appears from the fact that this paper, which, according to M. Macirone, was of no possible use, was not only accepted by him, but carefully treasured up as of the last importance, and found on his person when he was taken prisoner. To suppose that such consequences were overlooked by M. Macirone would be to suppose him (what we have no reason to do) the weakest and most blundering of political agents; and we, therefore, repeat our opinion, that in acting as he did, he was guilty of a gross infidelity to his employers, and materially forwarded the hostile designs of his illadvised and ill-fated master.

As to M. Macirone's insinuation that General Murat's life would have been spared but for British influence; we have good grounds for asserting that it is a downright and abominable falsehood.Murat was tried by his own laws which were still in force,-by a court-martial composed of officers who had all borne commissions under himself. By attacking as a private individual a government recognised by all the world, he had placed himself in the situation of a common pirate and disturber of the public tranquillity. The sentence by which he suffered was the same which he had himself denounced in his printed proclamation

'Peu de temps après on eut la réponse qu'il avoit donné à Maciro e en forme diplomatique, par laquelle, en paroissant d'accepter le passeport, il se réserve de urciter avec S. M. l'Empereur sur les conditions de l'asyle, mais refuse de passer à Trieste sur la frégate Anglaise, sous prétexte de la sommation peu mesurée, dit-il, qui m'a été addressée par M. le Capitaine de la frégete.'-Pièce addressée au Roi de Naples, 16 Oct.

against the adherents of King Ferdinand.* And sincerely as we pity the untimely end of a brave and (on the whole) a respectable soldier, it would be weakness to forget the massacre of Madrid, and worse than weakness to deny that the death by which he suffered was as just as it was legal and necessary.

:

ART. XIV.-1. First, Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth REPORTS of the Select Committee appointed to Inquire into THE EDUCATION OF THE LOWER ORDERS IN THE METROPOLIS, and to report their Observations thereupon, together with the Minutes of the Evidence taken before them from time to time, to the House and who were instructed to consider WHAT MAY BE FIT TO BE DONE WITH RESPECT TO THE CHILDREN OF PAUPERS WHO SHALL BE FOUND BEGGING IN THE STREETS in and near the Metropolis, or who shall be carried about by Persons asking Charity, and whose Parents, or other Persons who [whom] they accompany, have not sent such Children to any of the Schools provided for the Education of Poor Children.

1816-1818.

2. A Letter to Sir Samuel Romilly, M. P. from Henry Brougham, Esq. M. P. F. R. S. upon the Abuse of Charities. Tenth Edition. London. 1818. 8vo. pp. 67. 3. The Speech of Henry Brougham, Esq. M. P. in the House of Commons, May 8th, 1818, on the Education of the Poor, and Charitable Abuses. London. 1818. 8vo. pp. 49.

4. A Letter to the Right Hon. Sir William Scott, &c. &c. M. P. for the University of Oxford, in answer to Mr. Brougham's Letter to Sir Samuel Romilly, upon the Abuse of Charities, and Ministerial Patronage in the Appointments under the late Act. Fourth Edition. London. 1818. 8vo. pp. 100.

5. Vindicia Wykehamica; or, a Vindication of Winchester College in a Letter to Henry Brougham, Esq. occasioned by his Letter to Sir Samuel Romilly, on Charitable Abuses. By the Rev. W. L. Bowles. London. 8vo. 1818.

Ogni individuo impiegato da Ferdinando dopo l'epoca suddetta cesserà le sue funzioni dal giorno della publicazione del presente decreto o della nuova del nostro sbarco. Quelli che dopo tale publicazione o nuova, si ostinassero a conservare i loro impieghi, e a dare una disposizione qualunque, saranno riguardati come ribelli, traditori della patria, e come tali saranno puniti con tutto il rigore delle leggi."— Qualunque ministre di Ferdinando [qualunque impiegato] che dopo la publicazione del presente decreto o della nouva del nostro sbarco verrà conservare il potere a fare esequire gli ordini del suo Sovrano, ordinare delle misure, o dare una disposizione qualunque tendente ad impedire l'esecuzione del nostri ordini, sara dichiarato rebelle, provocatore della guerra civile, traditore della patria e del Re, messo fuore della legge, e giudicato come tale.'-Art. 3 and 4 of the printed decree found on Murat's person. The passage between brackets was interlined with his own writing.

6. A Letter to Henry Brougham, Esq. M. P. F. R. S. in Reply to the Strictures on Winchester College, contained in his Letter to Sir Samuel Romilly, M. P. From the Rev. Liscombe Clarke, A. M. Fellow of Winchester College. London.

1818.

8vo.

7. A Letter to Henry Brougham, Esq. M. P. from John Ireland, D. D. formerly Vicar of Croydon, now Dean of Westminster, with an Appendix, containing the Letter from Mr. Drummond. London. 1818. 8vo. pp. 31.

IN presenting to our readers some account of the proceedings of the Select Committee of the House of Commons, whose duties and functions (as intrusted to them by the House) are so carefully described in the title of their First Report; as well as of the several pamphlets to which those proceedings have given birth, we must supplicate a more than ordinary portion of indulgence. Great would be the difficulty of comprising within the limits of a Review even a brief notice of all the momentous topics (some of them most unexpectedly) involved in the examinations of the Committee, and in the Letter and Speech of its Honourable Chairman. Either of the two branches of inquiry upon which the Committee were specially directed to report, would have furnished ample materials of discussion for a separate Article. The latter branch, it must be owned, indeed, appears to have obtained but a small share of the attention of the Committee, in proportion to its urgency at the season when they were appointed: but, in return, they have made pretty wide excursions into provinces not immediately assigned to them. The result is to bring, amid many others of minor importance, the following distinct and most grave matters under our consideration.-1. The present condition of the lower orders of the metropolis.-2. Plans for promoting education amongst them, as well as for bettering, by other methods, their morals and their general state.--3. The propriety or impropriety of connecting the national religion with national education.-4. The nature and state of all charitable endowments and trusts.-5. The circumstances and administration of the great public schools and of the two universities of England :--and, lastly, sundry charges of malversation, and robbery of the poor, adduced against some personages of exalted rank and exalted character in the country.

It is not the extensive nature of these subjects alone that makes the discussion of them a task of great labour, and of some pain. The frequent and strong personalities which the learned Chairman of the Committee has, whether as their organ or in his own individual character, mixed up with most parts of his multifarious statements and arguments, cannot be read by any impartial person without a feeling of something like disgust. In accompanying him

through his long train of complaints and invectives, we find him continually treading upon ground, which few people willingly select for their operations, and meddling with weapons which, if they fail to inflict their meditated wound, are apt to recoil upon those who wield them. Nothing can be more unpleasant than to have to deal with topics such as these; but they cannot be avoided, without omitting altogether some of the most important features of the case now brought before the public. We trust that we shall be able to avoid the contagion of the example set to us in the manner of treating that case: but when we see those illustrious seminaries, which have for ages contributed to form the character of English gentlemen, made the objects of assault, we should be wanting in our duty to the public, were we to decline entering into an investigation in which their reputation, perhaps their existence, is concerned, and pursuing it whithersoever it may lead us. Our attachment both to the literary character, and to the established religion of our country, engages us to discharge fearlessly the important office of guarding the public mind against misrepresentation and prejudice, which are never so dangerous as when disguised under the mask of patriotism.

As the Chairman of the Committee comes before us voluntarily as an author, making both his Speech,' and the materials upon which his pamphlet is founded, public property, we may without impropriety with regard to the individual, and without trenching upon the sacredness of parliamentary privilege, say a few words of the author, before we turn to his works. He has been long known to the public, first as an able and energetic writer upon politics and economics, and of late years as one of the most powerful debaters in parliament. His style is extremely forcible, though deficient in purity and good taste: he abounds with sarcasm and invective; and upon almost all questions has recourse to personalities in a degree which is very unusual among men of his scope of abilities. In all his pursuits, he displays a spirit of industry and a power of exertion which cannot be too highly praised. But joining, as we do, with all the world, in admiration of these energies, we cannot help deeply lamenting the manner in which they are sometimes applied. We do not allude to the mere dissentions of party, nor to any of the questions which divide the two great bodies in the senate. An able and vigilant opposition, if exempt from factious and unpatriotic designs, must always prove a security to the constitution. It is the habit of disparaging the most revered institutions of this country, and the propensity to every species of innovation, that awaken distrust and alarm. If a disposition to discredit or subvert every thing that is familiar from custom, or venerable from antiquity; arises in any man's mind from a sincere and honest wish of benefiting his