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This prince, the great grandfather of the reigning duke, was respected by his neighbours as a man of the highest integrity, and beloved by his subjects as an excellent sovereign. These qualities caused him to be intrusted with the guardianship of some of the princes of the kindred houses of Saxony during their minority. He had four sons. The eldest, who succeeded him, married the Princess Sophie Antoinette, sister to the celebrated Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, as also to the Queen of Denmark, to the consort of Frederic the Great, and to the grandmother of the present King of Prussia. By this union the house of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld became nearly allied to most of the reigning families in Europe, to which it was not previously related. Its connections were still farther extended by the marriage of the two daughters of this prince, the elder, Sophia, to the Duke of Mecklenburg Schwerin, (by whom she was mother to the present duke,) and the younger, Amelia, to Alexander, Margrave of Brandenburg-Anspach and Bayreuth.

The three younger sons of Duke Francis Josias devoted themselves to the profession of arms. Prince Christian, the elder, entered into the Austrian service, and during the seven years' war attained to considerable military distinctions, when ill health compelled him to quit the army and return to Coburg.

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Adolphus, the third son, fell whilst very young, as colonel of a Saxon regiment of carbineers in the first Silesian war.

The fourth and youngest of these brothers was Frederic Josias, the celebrated commander of the allied armies at the commencement of the war of the French revolution. He entered at the beginning of the seven years' war into the Austrian service. Though then very young, the Empress-queen, Maria Theresa, intrusted him with the command of the Anspach regiment of cuirassiers. He signalized himself by his courage in various engagements, and was wounded in the battle of Collin. Highly esteemed by the imperial court for his mild amiable character, his valour, probity, and talents, he soon arrived at promotions and honours. Both in Gallicia and Hungary, where he was invested with the chief military command, an appointment of very great importance, he was beloved and respected; indeed his memory is still revered by the Hungarians, who have not forgotten the protection which he afforded, to the utmost of his power, to the numerous Protestants resident in that country. When the Emperor Joseph II. commenced the last Turkish war, he assembled a particularly fine army, of near 100,000 men, and directed his efforts to the reduction of Belgrade. This army was commanded under the Emperor, by Field-marshal Laudohn. The Prince of Coburg was placed at the head of a corps of 18,000 men, destined partly to cover the grand army, and partly to make a diversion in Wallachia and Moldavia, by which also it was designed to establish a communication with the Russians, whose main force was engaged with Oczakow, and some other fortresses. At the same time that the Prince was de tached with his corps from the Austrian grand army, general Suworoff was detached with the like views from the Russian. The

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service upon which these two distinguished commanders were sent soon produced an intimate friendship between them, which death alone interrupted. To them belongs the glory of the highly brilliant campaign which brought the war to such a speedy termination. Continually united in their operations, they reduced the whole of Moldavia and Wallachia, and repeatedly vanquished the army of the Grand-vizier, though four times as strong as their own. The most decisive of these victories occurred at Focksan and Martinestie. While Coburg and Suworoff were thus gaining victory after victory, and deciding the issue of the war, the imperial grand army had uselessly lost the flower of its troops in unimportant actions, and by disease; and was therefore necessitated to relinquish the honour of the campaign to Prince Frederic Josias alone. The Emporor then appointed the Prince to conduct the negotiations for peace with the Porte, and rewarded his services with the rank of field-marshal and the grand cross of the order of Maria Theresa, instituted for military merit, a distinction the more valuable on account of the difficulty of earning it, and the sparing hand with which it is conferred.

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About this time commenced the war of the French revolution and the troubles in the Netherlands. Leopold, who had now ascended the imperial throne, summoned the Prince of Coburg to the chief command of the allied army in the Netherlands, on which occasion the Prince was also nominated field-marshal of the empire. With this appointment no commander except the Archduke Charles alone has since been invested. The campaign of the Prince, though obstructed by various difficulties, partly thrown in the way by the court of Vienna itself, was nevertheless attended with the best success against the French. The young Emperor Francis II. honoured the Prince with his confidence in a high degree; at the same time the latter found means to keep up the best understanding with the rest of the allies—a circumstance universally acknow ledged at the time, and which must still be remembered by the Duke of York, and many English officers under his command.

The victory of Neerwinden, the reduction of Valenciennes, and other achievements of Prince Frederic, are too well known to need recapitulation. The Emperor Francis, who quitted the army about this period, rewarded him with the diamond-star of the order of Maria Theresa, which had been last worn by the renowned Laudohn.

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How terrible the name of Prince Frederic had become to the republican French, is evinced by the well-known form of accusation: Complice de Pitt et Coburg a form which sealed the doom of thousands of unfortunate victims, and in which democracy associated together the names of those whom it considered as its two most dangerous enemies.'

From this truly anti-gallican stock descends the illustrious personage whose own achievements are related in the remaining part of the memoir; the details are too many for our

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necessarily narrow limits: but the concluding portrait well deserves to be exhibited to national attention.

"Though the preceding biographical notices would, without any further observations, furnish the attentive observer with a correct outline of this Prince's character, yet the delineation of his moral qualities is wanting to complete a most attractive and interesting picture.

In his early youth, he manifested an excellent understanding and a tender and a benevolent heart. As he advanced in years he displayed a strong attachment to literary and scientific pursuits, and even at that time all his actions were marked with dignified gravity and unusual moderation. His propensity to study was seconded by the efforts of an excellent instructor, and as he remained a stranger to all those dissipations with which persons of his age and rank are commonly indulged, his attainments, so early as his fifteenth year, were very extensive. His extraordinary capacity particularly unfolded itself in the study of the languages, history, mathematics, botany, music, and drawing, in which last he has made a proficiency that would be creditable to a professor.

The vicissitudes which he was so early destined to experience, seem only to have contributed to preserve the purity of his morals; and they have certainly had a most powerful influence in the developement of that rare moderation, that ardent love of justice, and that manly firmness which are the predominant traits in the character of this Prince.

• Necessitated in like manner at so early an age to attend to a variety of diplomatic business, he acquired partly in this school, and partly in his extensive travels, a thorough knowledge of men in all their relations; and though his experience has not always been of the most agreeable species, still it has not been able to warp the kindness and benevolence of his nature.'

This volume may be read with amusement and consulted with utility: the dryness of genealogical detail being frequently enlivened by anecdotes, characteristic of the times in which the several personages flourished. Perhaps, however, something of credulity marks the selection: ghost-stories, and other marvellous relations, from which philosophical criticism would turn aside, being indulgently inserted: but the traditional fables, the grandmother's hearsays, of a family, will often assist the poet, and especially the dramatist, to give interest and costume to the themes which he chuses to celebrate.

An elegant portrait of the hero is prefixed, besides the engravings already mentioned.

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ART. VIII.

The History of the Small-pox. By James Moore, Member of the Royal College of Surgeons of London, Surgeon of the Second Regiment of Life Guards, and Director of the National Vaccine Establishment. 8vo. pp. 320. 128. Boards. Longman and Co.

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N a dedication to Dr. Jenner, the author observes that his zeal for vaccination has induced him to write the history of the small-pox, in order that the public may have an opportunity of contrasting its baneful effects with the benign consequences of cow-pox. As he has already appeared as one of the most successful defenders of the latter disease, we admit the propriety of the office which he has now assumed; and we agree with him in thinking that this volume will tend to promote the object which he proposes to himself. The first four chapters are purely historical, containing a discussion concerning the origin of the disease, and an account of the manner in which it spread over the different parts of the globe, after its unequivocal appearance in Arabia in the seventh century. Before this period, it seems not to have been known either in Europe or in Africa, nor in the western parts of Asia; since the different expressions, which some learned men have supposed to refer to small-pox, are very vague and indeterminate; while, on the other hand, we may venture to assert that the actual prevalence of such a disease must have been recognized by clear marks of distinction, and been too notorious to leave any doubt of its existence.

On searching, however, into the remote annals of the Chinese history, some reason appears for supposing that the small-pox has been long known in that extensive empire, and in the neighbouring islands of Japan. Some old documents are produced, which speak of its existence a great while before the Christian æra, and in which a description is given of the fever, the eruption of pustules, their increase, suppuration, flattening, and crusting.' It is farther stated that the practice of inoculation was used in very remote ages, the operation being performed by placing some of the dried purulent matter up the nostrils; and we are also informed that in Hindostan, according to the traditions of the Bramins, the small-pox is of immense antiquity.' In India, every thing is veiled in fable; and it requires great skill and consummate caution to develope the truth from the mysteries with which it is intermixed but we are told that the antient Sanscrit contains several names for the small-pox, and that a goddess was invented whose especial province was to watch over the disease. It would seem, however, that the ravages of small-pox were confined to certain districts of India, or at least were of rare

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occurrence in those parts which were first invaded by the Europeans; because, when the Dutch and the Portuguese made their original settlements, they were not aware of its having previously existed among the natives; though we may perhaps, in some degree, account for this fact by the consideration that the disposition and habits of the early inhabitants led them to hold little intercourse with each other, while they were very much secluded from the rest of the world. Mr. Moore attempts to explain the causes which might prevent the communication of the disease from the orientalists to the other countries with which they had occasional connection; and it is rendered probable that the malady would be propagated to the Arabian ports on the Red Sea, which was in fact the situation where it unequivocally appeared, and whence it was disseminated over the western parts of the world.

Notwithstanding the allegorical and mystical transaction in which the fact was concealed, little doubt can be entertained that the small-pox occurred at the siege of Mecca, about the middle of the sixth century; while we have reason for believing that the measles made their appearance at the same time; and, by a singular coincidence, the birth of Mohammed took place in the same year. The widely extended system of warfare, in which the followers of this celebrated impostor were engaged shortly after this period, was well calculated to propagate the infection of these diseases.

The small-pox and measles certainly burst forth among the Arabs at a period most fatally favourable for their dissemination. For in the year 622, Mahomet began to collect the wandering tribes, whom he led forth inflamed with fanatic fury, and contaminated with disease, against the surrounding nations. The numbers killed by the Arabian scimitars are usually exaggerated, to adorn their victories; but the greater multitudes who silently perished by diseases are rarely noticed.

After the death of Mahomet, the enthusiasm which he had kindled continued to burn, and his successors, in a few years, conquered Persia and Syria, and spread the small-pox and measles through these extensive countries.'

To follow the progress of the small-pox is to proceed with the history of the Arabs, who in the space of thirty years subdued Syria, Egypt, and Persia. And as these conquerors, in their mi-, litary expeditions, moved in great bodies, and established themselves with their plural wives, children, and slaves, in the subjected countries, they disseminated the small-pox and measles wherever they went. But the love of conquest augments with enjoyment. The Saracens, unsatiated with ravaging the most charming provinces of Asia, were inflamed with the desire of possessing Europe also. Constantinople guarded the northern barrier,

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