attempted to storm the lofty rocks of Sauroren. Continual defeat had lowered their spirit, but the feebleness of the defence on this occasion may be traced to another cause. It was a general's, not a soldier's battle. Wellington had, with overmastering combinations, overwhelmed each point of attack. Taupin and Maucune's divisions were each less than five thousand strong; and they were separately assailed, the first by eighteen, the second by fifteen thousand men, and at neither point were Reille and Clausel able to bring their reserves into action before the positions were won.'

"Never had the allied troops fought better. They had immense difficulties to overcome; but the combinations of their generals were, masterly, and the subordinate officers led their battalions to each assault with that brave determination which inspires soldiers with a confidence that nothing can bar their success. Many displays of heroism were exhibited; and there was one of ready boldness which gained the good fortune it deserved. The French garrison had abandoned a strong field-work which covered the right of the Bayonette ridge, and were observed by Colonel Colborne hurrying off in evident confusion. He galloped forward, attended by his own staff and a handful of the 95th, intercepted them in their retreat, and desired them to surrender. Believing that the colonel was in advance of a force too strong to be resisted, the order was instantly obeyed, and three hundred men threw down their arms, and were made prisoners by a body not exceeding twenty. Officers of every rank and age showed to their followers an example of dauntless intrepidity. During these arduous days the checks were few, and always overcome; and when a foreign brigade wavered for an instant, the road to victory was shown it by a beardless boy.

"The misconduct of a few on this occasion sullied the brilliancy of conquest; and the same predatory spirit which had occasioned such fearful atrocities when San Sebastian was carried by assault, led to many excesses while these splendid operations were in progress. This breach of discipline brought, as it often did, a summary punishment on the offenders; for many were found by the French in a state of stupid drunkenness, and captivity paid the penalty of crime."

Lord Wellington was now triumphantly established upon the soil of France. Pampeluna had fallen. A bold and well-conceived plan of Soult's to relieve France from the pressure of

hostility, by carrying the war into the heart of Spain, was rendered impracticable by the obstinacy of Napoleon, who refused to suffer the troops who would have been required to carry it into effect, to be drawn from the strong places of which he still held possession; and the marshal was accordingly compelled to remain on the defensive, while Wellington, by a series of bold and happy operations, compelled him to retreat from the Nive to Toulouse, marking the intervening space by a series of the most brilliant victories.

The battles of the Pyrenees and of the Nive will ever be remembered as some of the most glorious that have illustrated the British arms :

At

"In the Pyrenees," Mr. Maxwell observes, "the passes were widely separated; the lateral communications indirect; the position extensive, and consequently vulnerable in many points. The shorter lines of Soult's position enabled him to mass troops together with rapidity, and the undulating surface effectually concealed his movements. Hence, his attacks were made with overwhelming numbers, and although expected, they could not be distinctly ascertained until the head of his columns were in immediate contact with the pickets. Bayonne, the situations of Wellington and Soult were exactly reversed. The allied general was obliged to operate on both sides of a dangerous river, with bad roads and long and inconvenient lines; while, at the same time, he had to secure St. Jean de Luz from any attempts that Soult might make to gain The a point of such importance. French marshal, on the contrary, had the advantage of a fortified camp, a fortress immediately beside him, excellent and short communications, with a permanent bridge across the Nive, by which he could concentrate on either bank of the river, and assail that wing of the allies which promised the best chances of success.

Nor must it be forgotten that these glorious successes were achieved, under circumstances which might well embarrass the British general, and render it doubtful whether he was justified in persevering any longer in the contest. In Spain, a prejudice had been excited against him by leading agitators amongst the Cortes, who left nothing unsaid by which his character might be disparaged, and even countenanced the rumour that he had

a design upon the Spanish crown. To such an extent did this system of flagitious misrepresentation proceed, that Lord Wellington thought it right to tender his resignation of the office of generalissimo of the Spanish forces, and that in the midst of the most perilous operations in which he had been involved from the commencement of the war. It was, however, not accepted. But if he could not separate himself from the Spanish troops, he was determined that they should separate from him, as he found it totally impossible to restrain them from outrages against the people of France, towards whom it was his wise and generous policy to exhibit every possible degree of tender forbearance.

Indeed it was but too natural that those who had smarted under the injuries and the contumelies of the French armies in Spain, should, now that the fortune of war gave them an opportunity of making reprisals, retort the indignities which they had experienced upon the countrymen of their invaders. But the nature of Wellington revolted from this merciless system of revenge, and it was his policy to distinguish between the French government and the French people.

With the former alone he professed to be at war; toward the latter, as long as they conducted themselves peaceably, he expressed a determination to extend protection,-a determination which was clearly evinced by the rigid inflexiblity with which he suffered the course of martial law to take effect, against some of his own and the Spanish troops by whom his orders had been disregarded. But

this did not at all fall in with the temper or the disposition of the Spanish generals or their troops, who could

not be restrained from giving a loose to their unbridled passions. And Lord Wellington preferred depriving himself of half his force, just at the very moment when the Spanish troops had begun to become efficient soldiers, and when, with such an army as he then commanded an unbounded career of conquest seemed to lie before him, to sanctioning, by connivance, the outrages against person and property of which they were daily guilty, and which were, indeed, but few and mild in comparison with those which, as often as ever opportunity occurred, were perpetrated against their countrymen by their wanton and profligate invaders.

war.

But we must have done. Our space is almost filled, while our subject is yet unexhausted. To Mr. Maxwell's pages we must refer our readers for the events which now crowded upon each other in rapid succession until the termination of the Suffice it to say, that the same great qualities which distinguished. our general from the commencement of the contest, marked his conduct to its close; that as difficulties accumu lated, so his resources seemed to be multiplied; and that the most apparently insurmountable obstacles to the accomplishment of his designs, seem only to have presented themselves for the enhancement of his glory.

Long may the veteran live in the enjoyment of the honours which have been heaped upon him by a grateful country! And our warmest wishes for that country's welfare would lead us to desire no more, than that, should such a crisis again arise, and war blaze forth in all its terrors, such a hero may be found to defend her.

CHARITY, like mercy, is twice blessed, it blesseth him that gives and him that takes; and never is its divine character more manifest than when ministering to the wants of suffering humanity, it, at the same time, furnishes a link to bind together those great sections of civilized society—the possessors and the producers of wealth. But for this quality remainder of our better nature how bitter a hatred must ever subsist between him who possesses the luxuries, and him who wants the necessaries of life; how inextinguishable a feud must continue to rage between those whom fortune, by placing them upon the extreme confines of poverty and wealth, has, as it were, set in battle array against each other. Yet this greatest of the Christian gracesequally suited, as it is, to soften the hardships of savage life, and to mitigate the evils which appear necessarily to attend upon civilization-has fallen under the ban of Whigs and philosophers, and must, even by special provisions, be prevented from intruding its disturbing influence into that Utopia of concord and happiness which Whiggery and philosophy have created in Ireland. In a nation still clinging to feudal prejudices, as yet untrained to the exercise of free institutions, and bound by the fetters of a despotic priesthood, the notable discovery has just now been made, that evils, immediately caused by the absenteeism of a majority of the natural protectors of the people, are to be cured by breaking the solitary link which charity forms between the poor and helpless, and that small portion of the rich whom sense of duty, or necessity compels to continue in the land.

The circumstance which has, on the present occasion, called our attention to this subject is the discovery, that has recently excited so much public interest, of a plot for the overthrow of the medical charities of Ireland as they now exist, and for the disruption of that bond of kindness and charity which these institutions have formed during the greater part of a century, and which, unfortunately, is almost the

only link between the upper and lower classes of society in this country that now remains unbroken. The tie between landlord and tenant has been long since rudely torn asunder; the relation of mutual dependence and support, formerly kept up by the exercise of local patronage, has been abolished by the removal of all that power from the gentry of the country; and now the same philosophers, and the same political partizans, holding in view the attainment of the same party ends, have not feared to come into the presence of certain members of a Conservative government, to advocate the separation of the dispensary-governor from his poor neighbour, by restraining the former from contributing of his abundance to the relief of the sufferings of the latter, and by transferring the office of relieving those sufferings not to the justice, (for no claim of right is proposed to be given,) but to the charity of a Whig commissioner.

Were we to attempt to trace the origin of this plot, it would be necessary for us to refer back to an early period of the late Whig misrule of Ireland. This, however, we have neither time nor inclination to do, and we shall, therefore, content ourselves with pointing out the more recent steps of its progress, and calling public attention to the bold measure by which its final consummation is now in the

act of being effected. In the year

1838, when the Irish Poor Relief Act was passing through the House of Lords, two clauses (the 46th and 47th)' were introduced into it, empowering the poor-law commissioners to institute "inquiries into the state of the several fever hospitals and dispensaries," and also "to inspect and examine into the administration of any hospital or infirmary supported in part by grand-jury presentments or parlia mentary grants." As a result of the inquiries conducted under the authority of these clauses, a report from the chief poor-law commissioner in Ireland was laid upon the table of the House of Commons in the latter end

of May, 1841. That report contained the details of a portion of the inspections made by the assistant cominissioners, together with their opinion upon the state of the medical charities; a lengthened catalogue of the defects. which they represented as existing in them; and the heads of a bill, stated by these gentlemen to be intended for their "better regulation and support." The report was extensively circulated throughout Ireland during the latter part of 1841, and its true character very generally seen through and appreciated. The political events of the period, however, and the expulsion of the Whigs from the position they had so long disgraced, left no room for supposing that a measure notoriously concocted by some of their most active agents, and obviously designed for no other use than to bolster up the tottering fabric of their official existence, could, even for a moment, receive the countenance of a Conservative government. The report, therefore, and its recommendations attracted little notice, and were well nigh forgotten, until, in the course of the present session, a supplementary appendix to it was presented to parliament. It is a remarkable fact, that although the original report was, while the Whig government lasted, extensively and authoritatively circulated through the country, the supplementary appendix was kept altogether in the back ground, and but for the vigilance of one or two individuals its existence would scarcely have been known in Ireland. It was, however, seen by a few persons interested in its contents, and found to contain numerous misrepresentations, most artfully calculated to support the views and recommendations put forward in the original report. These misrepresentations were, in several instances, warmly taken up and exposed by the governors and medical officers of the charities to which they referred; but still no one believed that any measure based upon them was at all likely to be brought before the legislature. But little excitement, consequently, prevailed upon the subject, until the middle of April last, when it was accidentally discovered that a bill founded upon the "heads” proposed last year, was actually in print, and that Mr. Nicholls, the poorlaw commissioner, was then in London

endeavouring to induce Lord Eliot to agree to place it upon the table of the House of Commons. It was also then clearly ascertained that neither the Irish law officers of the crown nor any of the principal members of the Irish government were acquainted even with the existence of the measure; but that it had been concocted solely and entirely in the poor-law office, and that it was first brought under the notice of Lord Eliot in London, and then pressed upon him under very gross misrepresentations. We have said that this bill was founded upon the "heads" prepared under the auspices of the Whig government, its provisions, however, were of a character far more dangerous than could have been anticipated from those heads, and, as we shall presently show, were calculated not only to destroy the present medical charities, and to place the patronage of the whole medical profession of Ireland in the hands of priests and agitators, but were also violently subversive of one of the most essential principles of the British constitution. Simultaneously with the discovery of the bill, there appeared a report from a commission nominated by Lord Fortescue's government, for the purpose of revising the grand-jury laws. This report is known to have been drawn up by the celebrated Mr. Anthony Blake; but strange to say, it also bears the signature of Mr. John Young, the, so-called, Conservative member for Cavan, formerly a Whig-appointed commissioner, but now (wherefore we know not) a junior lord of the treasury. In this document the recommendations of the poor-law commissioners with regard to the medical charities are quoted with approbation, and it is further urged that they shall be extended so as to embrace the revolutionising of the infirmaries and lunatic asylums, as well as of the fever hospitals and dispensaries.

So incredible does the submission of this project to any member of a Conservative government appear, so great has been the excitement occasioned in Ireland by the discovery of the plot, and yet so little are the public, out of Ireland, acquainted with the merits of the case, that we have determined upon laying before our readers a brief sketch of the institutions in question, of their operation hitherto upon Irish society,

and of the probable effect of the revolution proposed to be effected in them.

The institutions known in Ireland under the general name of medical charities are of four distinct kinds :First, County Infirmaries, which are hospitals for the reception and relief of poor persons suffering from accidents or diseases not supposed to be incurable or contagious. Second, Fever Hospitals, for the reception of patients labouring under contagious fevers. Third, Dispensaries, for the treatment, as extern patients, either at the dispensary-houses or at their own residences, of poor persons labouring under any form of bodily ailment. And,

Fourth, Provincial Lunatic Asylums, for the reception of insane persons believed to be curable, and whose friends are incapable of affording them necessary support. These latter are of comparatively recent establishment, and conducted upon a system essentially different from the three first-named classes of institutions, to which our observations shall, upon the present occasion, be more particularly directed.

So early as the year 1765 an act was passed by the Irish parliament, creating corporations for establishing, in certain counties, infirmaries or hospitals for the relief of the sick poor; and thus was commenced a series of enactments, having a similar object, which now occupy no inconsiderable space in the statute-book. In 1805 the power of the infirmary corpora

tions was extended so as to enable them to establish dispensaries, and two years subsequently the erection and support of district fever hospitals was made a portion of the general system. Various alterations and improvements of the plan upon which these institutions were orignally founded have been, from time to time, made, but throughout every change the principles were held in view of combining, for their support, voluntary contributions and grants of public money, and of intrusting their individual management to local boards-constituted of persons who might reasonably be supposed to feel an interest in their success and usefulness, either from the public position in which these persons were

placed, or from the still stronger fact of their having contributed from their own resources towards the attainment of the ends proposed by the legislature. That these principles were well calculated to produce good results, and that they were in the main successfully brought into practical operation, we think the following facts must be admitted as proof by every one who can bring his mind to bear impartially upon the inquiry.

In the year 1839 there were in Ireland, (according to tables published by the poor-law commissioners,)* 40 infirmaries, 91 fever hospitals, and 620 dispensaries, making a total of 751 institutions actually at work for the relief of the sick poor. The cost of the support of these establishments, including all charges, is stated to have amounted to £142,169 5s. 94d. whereof £44,773 10s. 2d. or nearly onethird, was contributed in voluntary subscriptions. The number of pa

tients received into the infirmaries and fever hospitals, during the year 1840, was (according to the same authority) 60,683. No exact estimate of the number of sick relieved at the dispensaries has been made by the commissioners, but from a return presented to the House of Commons in February 1840, we learn that in the year 1837 the dispensary medical officers treated no fewer than 1,390,217 patients, either at their own residences or at the several institutions. From these figures we may infer that a number of persons equal to at least one-sixth of the whole population of the kingdoin, annually receive, at the present time, gratuitous medical relief, at a cost to the country of less than two shillings per head. That a greater numerical amount of state provision should be made for the sick of any nation not sunk into a state of universal slavery will, we presume, scarcely be contended for; that provision could not be made upon cheaper terins, we shall not waste time in proving. In their anxiety, however, to make a case to justify their own interference, the poor-law commissioners have advanced the doctrine that the amount of sick gratuitously relieved must not only bear a sufficient nume