go to an assembly if a young woman who has been seduced from chastity be admitted. This is hard, but it is requisite; and we pity the victim to the laws by which vice is discountenanced, and decency maintained, while we reverence those laws, and deprecate any attempt to loosen their hold on the public mind.

Sarsfield, or the wanderings of youth, is a tale replete with interest and feeling, but overflowing with improbabilities and false reasonings. It bears more resemblance to the Bryan Perdue of Holcroft, than to any other fiction we are acquainted with. It is superior to Howard in composition, and the diction is less careless and defective; but it leads us back to our old objection against this animated and forcible writer, the want of a moral tendency. Sarsfield's misfortunes do not obviously arise from his faults, but from a mysterious fate which perplexes, counteracts, and at last destroys him. The pernicious doctrine of fatalism is the ebon wand round which Mr. Gamble delights to twine the blossoms of fancy. The story is artificially conceived but naturally told; the action is reduplicated, and the narrative, after the manner of epic poetry, begins in the middle. It is long before we find out who Sarsfield is, and longer before we discover what he is. Many passages in the work are so highly wrought as to hold the attention in breathless expectation. The epic lyre is powerfully swept, but not delicately touched, many a grating discord and unpleasing flat break the charm of continuous melody; the performer is for ever changing his key, and shews himself more chromatic than scientific; the passion for transition is in fact his bane. Some of the scenes are like a debauch painted by Hogarth-horridly fine. But although we do not pretend to be so fastidious as the fine ladies in the Vicar of Wakefield, who could not endure any thing low-lived, we must maintain that, in painting the manners and language of ruffians, there is a point which good taste cannot pass, and from which piety and decency recoil; nor can we excuse the author who sullies his page with blasphemies. There may be much, to be technically called good writing, which, nevertheless, ought never to have been written.

Sarsfield is first betrayed into guilt by an abandoned woman, he then flies from his parents, robs his master, and becomes a renegade and a sharper. In the midst of these evil courses he preserves a warmth of feeling, a good nature and something like honor which attach to him a young man of virtuous character, who attempts the desperate enterprise of his reform. Love for an amiable woman aids his endeavours, and he succeeds. The eyes of Sarsfield are purified from the clouds of vice and NO. VII. Aug. Rev. VOL. I. 2 Y

"

error, and opened to the "beauty of holiness,"-his reformation is complete. His father forgives him, his mistress welcomes him, and the story ends—No, we will not do Mr. Gamble the injustice of telling how the story ends.-Mr. Bayes piqued himself on his power to "elevate and surprise;" Mr. Gamble might have aspired to elevate--he chose only to surprise his readers.

ART. III.-A voyage to Cadiz and Gibraltar, up the Mediterranean to Sicily and Malta, in 1810 and 1811, including a description of Sicily and the Lipari Islands, and an Excursion in Portugal. By LT. GEN. COCKBURN. Two vols. 8vo. pp. 810. Harding, London, and Mahon, Dublin, 1815.

WHETHER we direct our attention to the events of past ages, or confine it to those of our own times, the southern part of Europe must ever present to us an interesting spectacle. The nature and succession of recent occurrences have conferred an additional interest upon all that relates to those regions; and insure a favorable reception for the labors of those who have lately traversed them, and either witnessed the transactions themselves, or surveyed the scenes where they took place.

Lieutenant General Cockburn sailed from Portsmouth, in the Lively Frigate, commanded by Captain M'Kinley, on the 16th of June, 1810; and arrived at Cadiz on the 8th of the following month, and sailed again on the 12th. This interval of four days he very industriously employed in examining whatever was most interesting, either in a civil, naval, or military point of view, in Cadiz and its neighbourhood. Cadiz was at that time besieged by the French, and was crowded with families from the interior, who had gone thither in consequence of the disturbed state of the country.

The author describes Cadiz as an extremely clean city, and all the women he saw as well made and handsome. Respecting the latter he observes: "They dress in black and wear veils till after the evening walk, when they put on white to go to the Ter tulia" several of which assemblies, with high play, take place every night. With respect to the Spanish gentry, he met many walking about the streets, who "looked like Pero in the Panto mime. Astley might pick up a dozen in half an hour ready equipped." "The men are stout and strong limbed, very brown and lazy. They lie about in the streets in heaps, fast asleep, particularly during the heat of the day”

On the 12th of July, the frigate sailed for Gibraltar, and an chored in the bay the same evening. On the 15th the Lively took charge of the convoy left by the Philomel, and sailed immediately for Malta; the termination of which voyage is thus described.

"At 9 o'clock P. M. (Aug. 9th.) wind perfectly fair and a good breeze, we shall be in Valetta early to morrow. Friday, 10th. What uncertainty in this world! a few hours ago we had every prospect of being safely in harbour at Malta by day light, but contrary to every probability, or almost possibility, were wrecked this morning, or rather in the night between Thursday the 9th and Friday the 10th. It happened in St. Paul's Bay, Malta, where that Saint is said to have been also shipwrecked.

The ship was entirely lost, but the crew and some of their effects were saved.

The time during which they were obliged to wait at Malta for a passage to Sicily, was spent in examining all that is curious, and best worth seeing in that singular spot, which has been the object of so much contention during a period within the recollection of most of our readers. General Cockburn terminates his observations on this island by a brief historical sketch of that extraordinary society of men, the Knights of St. John of Jerusa lem, which he says was "born and fostered under superstition, and religious madness."

On the 29th of August, the author sailed for Messina, on board the Martha transport. He was off Catania on the morning of the 1st of September, with a full view of Mount Etna; and on the 2nd landed at Messina.

General Cockburn's appointment on the British staff enabled him to acquire the best information relative to the number and state of both the English and Sicilian armies, the strength of their positions, the actions between the English and French gunboats, which were constantly opposed to each other on the opposite shore of Sicily and Calabria; and of the attack made on our army

a part of Murat's forces commanded by General Cavagniac, on the 18th of September, 1810. "Whatever was the object of this expedition sans exemple (as the French officers called it,) it entirely failed: and the whole number of prisoners made and embarked for Malta was 41 officers and 900 men." The enemy's camp on the opposite shore entirely broke up about the end of the month; and General Cockburn was ordered, on the 4th of October, to take the command at Melazzo; but on the 24th of the same month, was obliged to quit the staff, on acCount of promotion. Respecting this circumstance, he ob

serves,

Promotion, which in all other professions is an advantage, is often the contrary to the higher ranks of the army and navy. Mine to Lieutenant General removed me from the Sicilian staff; but befo:e I heard of

it, Murat and his army broke up, and every idea of attack was over; it however left me at liberty to make the tour of this singular island. My situation and rank, as well as the kindness of our Commander-in-Chief, Sir John Stuart, who assisted me in my undertaking, gave me facilities which few Sicilian travellers have had; and I must not forget my worthy friend, the Sicilian Governor, General Danero, who obliged me with his advice and recommendations." Pref. p. vii.

General Cockburn sailed in a gun boat for Catania on the 7th of November, accompanied by Major Coghlan his aid-de-camp, Lieutenant Sweeny of the 62nd regiment, an orderly dragoon, and a cook (Pascal). On the 8th they arrived at Catania, and on the following day, set out on their expedition to the summit of Mount Etna, attended by a guide from the village of Nicolosi. After climbing the side of the mountain, sometimes over vast masses of lava, and at others almost up to the middle in snow, they arrived at the bottom of the steep cone, the top of which they reached a little before noon.

"This part is all covered with loose ashes and cinders, but, from the heat of the volcano, there is no snow at present, though in December and January, it is covered within a yard or two of the mouth of the crater. Here the difficulty of ascending and the labor and fatigue are very great. The air is so pure and rarified that it affects the lungs, and we lost our breath every five minutes. We were obliged often to scramble on all fours, slipping down frequently many feet in the loose ashes, so very steep is this latter part. The sudden view of this immense gulf is terrific at first, and really past description. The day was most favorable, except rather too much wind, which however blew from the crater. We were now amply repaid for the labor and delays of bad weather, and saw most distinctly the bottom of this wonderful and immense crater, which contains several minor mountains and their craters within it; some smoking like the most violent glass-house, or steam works. A descent into the crater, if the ground is as hard as it appears to be, would have been this day perfectly practicable; the crater often changes its form: on the side which we first approached, the descent was perpendicular, but the opposite side went down by a gradual slope. Our time in these short days did not admit of the experiment, or I should have made it. vol. 1. p. 136.

The following circumstance, however, we think would have made the stoutest tremble, when standing on the brink of this fiery gulf.

"I sat down at the top (says General Cockburn,) to date three or four letters, which I had promised some particular friends, they should receive from this elevated and extraordinary spot; I brought ink and paper for this purpose, as well as to note the degrees at which the thermometer stood at different heights as we ascended. I only wrote a line or two of my letters, which I finished at Nicolosi; but, while thus employed, we had a violent shock of an earthquake: I cannot describe the sensation, particularly at the mouth of such a volcano. However, I dated my letters, and wrote a part of them, sanding them with the ashes, but not without feeling a little nervous. On stirring the loose ashes, the smoke

comes out, and the ground feels very hot, if scraped a little, so much soas to burn." vol. I. p. 138.

Having spent about an hour at the mouth of the crater, and collected various specimens of volcanic matter, the party descended, and reached the Convent of Nicolosi, after fifteen hours of extreme toil, and without having had any refreshment, except a little bread and onion.

Gen. C. sailed from Catania on the 16th, with a fair wind, for Syracuse; which he reached late the same night. After spending some days in visiting the objects most worthy of attention, in this celebrated town and its vicinity, among which are the Fountain of Arethusa, the Ear of Dionysius, the ancient Theatre, the Convent of the Capuchins, the Grecian Aqueduct, and the excavations in the vicinity, he returned to Catania; visiting Augusta in his passage. Having spent another week at Catania, he proceeded to Lingua Grossa, and thence to Franca Villa, Taorminum, Palma, Scaletta, and Messina. He remained at Messina till the end of January, when he visited Melazzo, and the Lipari islands. He went next to Tindari and Rometta; thence he proceeded to Palermo, where he arrived on the 14th of March. He left the latter place in the following month, and proceeded to the ancient Segesta, and Trapani, situated at the western extremity of the island. From this place he coasted along the southern shore, visiting Mazzara, the ancient Temples at Selinus, the city of Gergenti, and the Ruins of Agrigentum. On the evening of the 17th of April, the author left Sicily for Malta, in a gun-boat, but on the 19th, when they were within sight of that island, contrary winds and stormy weather obliged them to put back, and run for the coast of Sicily, where they struck on rocks near the harbour of Scoglietta, a wretched fishing village, which carries on some smuggling trade with When the storm ceased, the gun-boat was got on shore, and repaired through the assistance of the English consul at Vittoria. Our author, however, impatient of delay, took his passage on board a sparenaros for Malta; but when within 20 miles of that island, they were driven back by contrary winds, and he returned once more to Scoglietta, after being nearly lost. On the 27th, he finally left Sicily, and reached Malta, where he remained three weeks, and examined such things as the shortness of his former visit did not permit him to do before. On the 14th of the following month (May, he embarked on board the Freya frigate, touched at Gibraltar on the 29th, and arrived at Lisbon on the 2nd of June. After spending some time at Lisbon, and visiting much of what was worthy of particular

Malta.