him a mild climate, and the benefit of sea-bathing during some months of the year. Here, therefore, during the fourteen succeeding years of his life, his winter was regularly spent; and from hence in the summer months he made excursions to England and Scotland, for the sake of visiting his friends and relatives, or into foreign parts, either with the same object, or for the benefit of his health. With this last view he tried the waters of Spa in Germany, and of Barèges in the Pyrennees; and at the call of friendship he undertook a journey to Geneva, to see the relations of General Villettes. This was in 1814. In the following year he published a short view of the life and character of his lamented friend, who had died in Jamaica a few years before, inscribing this humble tribute of departed friendship to those persons who feel pleasure in contemplating a character not marked by a few brilliant achievements, but by conduct uniformly good and amiable, from the earliest to the latest period of life.' This had been written immediately after the general's death, and was then given to his friends in England, Malta, and Jamaica. It is a short but very pleasing memoir of a most amiable man and excellent officer, an accomplished scholar, and a finished gentleman, who being employed upon very important services in foreign stations during the best years of his life, was less known in this country than he deserved to be, but whose merits were duly appreciated by those who were capable of judging of them, and who at last fell a sacrifice to the zealous discharge of his duty in an honourable but fatal station.

"To this Sketch' his biographer added some letters written during the journey which had been lately mentioned, giving some account of the state of France soon after the abdication of Buonaparte. Letters written at that time could not fail to be interesting, had they proceeded from the pen of a person of less information and observation. But Mr. T. Bowdler possessed many qualities and many advantages, which do not fall to the lot of other travellers. He had frequently visited that country, and was familiarly acquainted with the language, as well as with the principal objects of

curiosity; he knew Paris before the revolution, and could judge of the change which had since taken place in the manners of the people; he had seen and admired in Italy many of the pictures and statues which had been carried from thence to adorn the gallery of the Louvre, and could tell of the injury which some of them had undergone; he could step out of his way, and converse familiarly with the soldiers or peasants, as well as with persons of a higher class, and could report correctly the sentiments of the people. On all these subjects his curiosity was much awakened, and the account of what he saw and heard is given in a very simple and pleasing style. Two or three of his letters are interesting also, from the subjects of which they treat; the house, and particularly the bedchamber of Voltaire at Ferney; the mountain and convent of the great St. Bernard, the scene of Buonaparte's astonishing march in 1800, previously to the decisive victory of Marengo, all which he has described with great minuteness; and, lastly, a subject very different from both, but more interesting to the feeling and benevolent heart, the tale of La Soeur Marthe, the kind benefactress of the prisoners at Besançon. To all these is subjoined an Appendix, containing seven original letters of the late Madame Elizabeth, the sister of Louis XVI., written during the horrors of the Revolution, and a prayer composed by her in the temple. In a few pages of introduction is given a brief historical account of this pious and amiable female, whose sufferings alone would serve, if other features were wanting, to stamp an indelible character on that bloody tragedy.

"To these letters Mr. T. Bowdler afterwards added a postscript, containing some valuable 'Observations on Emigration to France on account of Health, Economy, or the Education of Children.'

'Quid terras alio calentes

Sole mutemus? Patriæ quis Exul
Se quoque fugit ?'

"Such is his motto; and it serves to mark the general tendency of his opinions. He does not discourage young men

of family and fortune from making a tour upon the continent for the sake of indulging an innocent curiosity, or a laudable desire of acquiring information; but he would check the eagerness of many thousands in this country, who imagine that they can obtain health, and education, and all the comforts and conveniences of life, at a much cheaper rate in France than at home; and he gives some very useful advice to those who are resolved to make the trial. His principal object upon the first of these heads is to recommend a residence at Malta in preference to any town in France. Upon this subject he had taken no small pains to acquire information, having in the earlier part of his life visited every French town on the shores of the Mediterranean, with the exception of Hyères *, which was then scarcely, if at all known; and having subsequently passed a winter and spring in Malta. And the result of his observations is, that this island is secure from the sharp and piercing wind which will be found in every part of France from Antibes to Bayonne, and probably along the whole coast of Italy, Piedmont, Spain, and Portugal. Upon the subject of economy, as well as on that of education, he points out the disadvantages which English families have to encounter; the little hope there generally is of any reasonable expectations being realized, the certain loss of much that is valuable at home, and the danger of contamination from the religious principles of the worthy part of the

rate.

Hyères is probably more free from the Bise and the Mistral than any town in France, and the provisions which can be obtained there may be had at a cheap But let no one expect to find it, what it has been described to be, a terrestrial paradise. With very few exceptions, it is almost wholly destitute of those articles of comfort, which are of great importance to an English invalid; and though it is sheltered in a very peculiar manner, yet there is an opening in the hills to the north-west, the precise quarter from which the Mistral blows. Perhaps its chief advantage consists in its lying near the eastern extremity of France. Hyères is less severely visited by the wind and cold than Toulon, which is a few miles to the westward, and Toulon far less than Marseilles. Nice is probably less subject to wind and cold than Hyères during the winter, perhaps even during the spring also: it possesses, in other respects, infinitely greater attractions to Englishmen, and especially in the opportunity of a regular exercise of religious duties, the comfort and advantage of which can only be duly appreciated by those who have been excluded from them at the very time when they are most anxiously desired.

French people, and from the want of both religion and morality among the generality of them: may we not add, alas! from the same grievous defect among so many of our countrymen who are resident abroad, because they have neither character nor fortune to support them in society at home? The remarks made throughout this postscript are truly valuable; they are from the pen, not of a cynical caviller, who has only heard what others have reported; but from one who had seen far more than has fallen in the way of most men, who was uncommonly accurate in his observations, and scrupulously studious of adhering to truth in all his assertions.. Such a man is not likely to be deceived himself or to lead others into error. In truth, his remarks are well worthy of attention, not only by those who may hesitate in their plans, but for the sake of useful advice to those also, who may be unwilling to adopt the general principles laid down by the writer. His own feelings deserve to be recorded in the language in which he himself expressed them, on the day when he landed in his native country.

'If a man feeble in his limbs, not possessed of firm health, et jam senescens, performs a journey of above 1600 miles, twice crossing the sea and twice the Alps, and, after four months, returns to his native country without having met with any accident, or having experienced the smallest misfortune, he certainly ought to feel grateful to the Almighty for the protection which has been vouchsafed him.

that my breast is not insensible to such feelings; but I can with great truth assert, that the foregoing consideration, important as it is, does not hold the first place in my mind at the present moment.

Returning from France to England, and once more setting my foot in my native country, I feel a debt of gratitude to Him who ordained my existence in this island, which rises still higher than preservation from accident or sickness. I compare my situation as an Englishman with that of the inhabitants of other countries of the globe in general, and of France in particular. If I had been born in that land which

I yesterday quitted, I might have received such an education as would have rendered me insensible to the truths of Christianity, and to the duties which its doctrines inculcate.

• Not enjoying the advantages which we derive from our well-constituted government, I might, like the greater part of the neighbouring nation, have fluctuated in opinion from despotism to anarchy. I might then have been taught, as the youth of the French republic were taught, that death was an eternal sleep; and deriving from that doctrine the natura] conclusion, that if I could conceal my crimes from a worldly magistrate, I should never be called to account by an allseeing Judge, I might have been tempted to partake in that vicious system which has been, I will not say universal, but more general in France, than can possibly be conceived by those who have not visited that unhappy country. I contemplate with pleasure the reverse of the picture, I was born in a country, in whose churches the doctrines of Christianity are taught, as I verily believe, in a manner more conformable to the Gospel than in any other land. Without enthusiasm or superstition, equally removed from the Papacy of Rome and the Calvinism of Geneva, the mild spirit of Christianity, as it is taught by our Established Church, is calculated not only to render us better, but to render us happier even in this world, and certainly to give us the hope of eternal happiness hereafter.

'I sum up the whole with saying, that, in my opinion, the great advantage to be derived by Englishmen from a view of foreign countries in general, and of France in particular, is to increase their attachment to their native land; to make them duly sensible of what they owe to Him who placed their existence in this happy island; and, of course, sensible of the degree to which it is incumbent on them to act a part worthy of the station which his merciful providence has assigned them.'-Letter xvi, p.128,

"A literary object of a very different nature, but undertaken chiefly with a view to the moral improvement of society, now