in a moderate compass, and in a very readable shape,

a view of it a necessary work ; but it treats, moreover, of matters which are so closely connected with recollections of many yet alive, that they have much of the interest of passing events. The first two olumes closed with the Reign of Terror; the two before us open

individual facts, he is painstaking and laborious, and, we doubt Engi, Matt, and the valley of Sernst. To effect this in presence of a superior not, scrupulously exact ; in those more general facts which de- enemy pressing on his footsteps both from the side of Naefels and the Klunthal, was an enterprise of the utmost hazard, as the path over the arid summits of the pend for their truth upon an extensive induction of particulars, he Alps of Glarus, was even more rugged than that through the Shachentlial, and

is not perhaps so trustworthy. His general composition is clear the horses and beasts of burden had all perished under the fatigues of the former and close; frequently vigorous and striking ; sometimes eloquent, march. Nothing could exceed the difficulties which presented themselves. though rather strained for the purposes of effect. He has no Hardships, tenfold greater than those which all but daunted the Carthaginian peculiar art in narration : but the events were great, various, conqueror in the outset of his career in the Pennine Alps, awaited the Russians,

startling, and full of interest in themselves ; and, with the qua- at the close of a bloody and fatigueing campaign, among mountains to which lilies already mentioned, it will easily be believed that the author Glarus, a heavy fall of snow bulb obliterated all traces of a path, and augmented. Las produced an attractive and untiring narrative. His characters the natural difficulties of the passage. With incredible difficulty the wearied

are very well and fairly drawn, and are perhaps the justest portion column wound its painful way amongst inhospitable mountains in single file,. of the book : in politics he has no scruples, but he seems to have without either stores to sustain its strength, or covering to shelter it from the the nicety of a well-bred gentleman in matters merely personal. weather. The snow which, in the upper parts a the mountains, was two feet

lt has been intimated that the work deserves reading, both for tiguing. that the strongest men could with difficulty advance a few miles in a its subject and itself. It has an interest in another point of view. day. No cottages were to be found in these dreary and sterile mountains; not The great events of the Imperial and Peninsular wars, and the even trees were to be met with to form the cheerful light of the bivouacs ; 'oast characters of the men who conducted them, have chiefly attracted gray rocks starting up among-t tire snow alone broke the mournful uniformity attention of late; or if we looked to an earlier period, it has been of the scene, and, under their shelter, or on the open surface of the mountain, to the adventures of NAPOLEON and WELLINGTON. The volumes without any coveting or fire, were the soldiers obliged to lie down, and pass a before us should dissipate this partiality ; for they show that battles down precipices, or into crevices from which they were unable to extricate as severe were fought, victories as glorious were obtained, skill themselves, and where they were soon choked by the drifting of the snow. nearly as great was displayed, and hardships far greater were suf- With incredible difficulty, the head of the column, on the following day, at fered, by captains and armies, whose names and merits indeed are length reached, amidst colossal rocks, the summit of the ridge; but it was not the smiling plains of Italy which there met their view, but a sea of mountains, household words, but whose exploits have almost faded from wrapped in the snowy mantle which scented the winding-sheet of the army, memory. The endless struggles on the Rhine, under Du- interspersed with cold gray clouds which floated round their higher peaks. MOURIER, PICHEGRU, HOCHE, MOREAU—the " warlike wiles-of The Alps of Tyrol and the orisons, whose summits stretched as far us the eye the victor of Hobenlinden—and the campaign of the combined Aus- could reach in every direction, presented a vast wilderness, in the solitudes A tro-Russian army in Italy and Switzerland—should be perused as which the army appeared about to be lost ; while not a fire nor a column of a matter of justice to the actors, and of pleasure to the historical smoke was to be seen in the vast expanse to cheer the spirits of the soldiers.

student ; and we know of no work where they can be studied to was to he met with; the naked tops of the rocks, buried in the snow, no longer

better effect, or at so little expense of reading. served to indicate the lying of the precipices, or rest the exhausted bodies of the

Take a specimen from the close of the last-mentioned campaign troops. On the southern descent, the difficulties were still greater ; the snow, —a sample at once of the author, and of war upon a grand scale. hardened by a sharp freezing wind, was so slippery that it became impossible

It should be premised, that MASSENA, by a series of masterly for the men to keep their footing ; whole companies slipped together into the- manceuvres, had cut up in divisions the army of KORSAKOW, the upon them from the upper parts of the ascent, or the masses of snow which be- Russian second in command ; who thought himself victorious at came loosened by the incessant march of the army, and fell down with irresisti..

the moment of defeat. ble force upon those beneath. All the day was passed in struggling with these

Before nightfall, Massena, fully sensible of his advantages, summoned the difficulties; and, with the utmost exertions, the advanced guards reached the vil- Russian commander to surrender; a proposal to which no answer was returned. page of Panix, in the Grisons, at night, where bead-quarters were established. During these disasters, the confusion in Zurich rose to the highest pitch. The The whole remainder of the columns slept upon the snow, where the darkness immense confluence of horsemen, artillery, and baggage-waggons, suddenly enveloped them without either fire or covering. But nothing could overcome thrown back upon the city, and by which its streets were soon completely the unconquerable spirit of the Russians. With heroic resolution and incredi- blocked up—the cries of the wounded brought in from all quarters—the tramp- ble perseverance, they struggled on, through hardships which would have ling of the cavalry and infantry, who forced their way through the dense mass, daunted any other soldiers ; and at length the scattered stragglers were rallied and mercilessly trade under foot the wounded and the dying, to make head in the valley of the Rhine, and head-quarters established at Ilantz'on the 10th, against the enemy, threatening to break in from all sides, formed a scene where the troops obtained some rest after the unparalleled difficulties which

hitherto unexampled in the war, and for which a parallel can only be found in they bad experienced.

the horrors of the Moscow retreat. When night came, the extensive watch- The rank and connexions of the Duke D'ENGHIEN have pre-

fires on all the heights to the north and the west of the city, showed the meg- served the circumstances of his execution fresh in the public nitude of the force with which they were threatened in that quarter; while the mind, by the squabbles and contentions to which it has given unruffled expanse of the lake offered no hope of escape on the other side, and the bombs which already began to fall in the streets, gave a melancholy presage of rise, as to its nature and its responsibility: The contemporaneous.

the fate which awaited them if they were not speedily extricated from their affairs of PICHEGRU, GEORGES, MOREAU, &c. are almost for- eri!ous situation. In these desperate circumstances, Korsakow evinced a rests- gotten by the present generation, though as interesting in them- lution as worthy of admiration as his former presumptuous confidence had been selves as that of the unfortunate scion of the house of Bourbon. deserving of censure. Disdaining the proposal to surrender, he spent the night The whole is too lung to quote, but here is a part of the trial. . In making arrangements for forcing, sword in hand, a passage on the next morning through the dense masses of the Republicans. • • • • At day- Early on the 28th May, the doors of the Palace ofJustice were thrown open, break, on the 28th, the Russian columns were formed in order of battle, and and the trial began. An immense crowd instantly rushed in, and occupied attacked with the utmost impetuosity the division Lorge and the brigade Bon- every avenue to the hall ; the doors were besieged by thousands, urgent to ob. terns, which had established themselves on the road to Wintherthur, the sole tarn admittance. The public anxiety rose to the highest pitch. Persons of the line of retreat which remained to them. The resistance of the French was ob- chief rank and greatest consideration in Paris were there ; the remnants of the Narrate, and the carnage frightful, but the Russians fought with the courage of old nobility, the leaders of the modern Republic, flocked to a scene where the SPECTA.TORS LIBRARY. despair, and at length succeeded in driving the Republicans before them and

opening a passage. The whole army of Konsakow was then arranged for a re- treat ; but, contrary to every rule of common sense, as well as the military art,.

Hisroey, he placed the infantry in front, the cavalry in the centre, and the artillery and the Period of the Directcry and the Consulate. By Archibald Alison, F.tI.S.E. equip ira Me rear, leaving only a slender rear-guard to defend the ramparts

o Zurich until the immense mass had extricated itself from the city. Massena, perceiving his intention, collected his forces to prevent or distress his retreat;

The Revolutions of the Globe Familiarly Described. By Alexander Bertrand, M.D. but the intrepidity of the Russian infantry overthrew all his efforts, and the of the Faculty of Paris. and !ortnerly Pupil of the Polytechnic SchooL Translated head of the column cut its way through all the troops which could be collected from the Fifth French Edition, a ith Supplementary Notes and an Appendix, by S. to oppose its progress. But the efforts of the Republicans against the cavalry in C. Hurry Ridgway and Sons. the centre were inure successful. The divisions Lorges and Gazan, by rote- Fox. rated charges on the moving mass, at length succeeded in throwing it into can-

fusion; the disorder soon spread to the rear; all the efforts of the generals to arrest it proved ineffectual ; the brave Sacken, destined to honourable dietinc-

ALISONS HISTORY OF EUROPE DURING THE tion in a more glorious war, was wounded and made prisoner, and amidst a

scene of unexampled confusion, a hundred pieces of cannon, all the ammunition-

FRENCH REVOLUTION. waggons and baggage of the army, and the military chest, fell into the hands of rn, present volumes bring Mr. Atisosis useful and laborious the victors. Meanwhile the fire approached Zurich on all sides. Monier was undertaking to a close, and complete a work which i'ontains with- thundering from the other side of the Linunat, while Oudinot, carrying every

thing before him, pressed down from the heights on the north; the garrison de- filed after the main army in confusion; soon the gates were seized ; a mortal the public events and characters of the most striking and remark- struggle ensued in the streets, in the course of which the illustrious Lavater, able period in the annals of the world. This alone would render seeking to save the life of a soldier threatened with death, was barbarously shot.

Turn we to SUWARROW, whom this event, and a victory of SOULT'S in another direction, had compelled to retreat.

'volumes In this extremity, Suwarrow having, with the utmost difficulty, assembled

his weeded troops in the Muttenthal, called a council of war, and following with the first appearance of NAPOLEON on the political scene, and only the dictates of his own impetuous courage, pi Noised an immediate advance with the establishment of the Directory. Thc career of the to Schultz, in the rear of the French position at Zurich, and wrote to Koran- former abroad, the conduct of Cue latter at home, the campaigns kow, that he would hold him answerable with his head for one step further that of other Generals on the Rhine and in Italy, and the vain coali- he continued his retreat. The officers, however, perceiving clearly the dan- tions of England and Continental Europe, are fully narrated ; and gerous situation in which they were placed, strongly urged the necessity of ans

immediate retreat into Glarus and the Geiser's, in order to strengthen them- the work closes with the termination of the Consulship and the selves by that wing of the allied army which alone had escaped a total defeat.

assumption by NAPOLEON of the Imperial crown. At length, with the utmost difficulty, the veteran conqueror was persuaded to We have formerly spoken of Mr. ALISON'S claims to the cha- alter his plans. and, for the first time in his life, he ordered a retreat, weeping ratter of a philosophical historian; and the spirit of the present with indignation at thus finding the reputation of invincibility. which his mar- volumes does not induce us in any way to alter that decision. His venous successes had won for him, lust in the close of his career by the faults of the generals placed under his command. ' * • * Doable to force the opinions are those of a fierce partisan; and almost every political passage at Naefels, the Russian General, after giving his troops some days'.

they were entire strangers. On the morning on which the army set out from

deep, and perfectly soft from beirg newly fallen, rendered the ascent so fe- long and dreary autumnal night. Great numbers perished of cold, or sunk

The path, long hardly visible, now totally disappeared, not a shrub or a bush abysses below, and numbers were crushed by the beasts of burden rolling down.

fate of characters so interesting to both was to be determined. The prisoner., to the number of forty-five, were put to the bar together. Public indignation murmured aloud at seeing the conqueror of Huhenlinden seated amidst persous, many of whom were regarded as the hired bravoes of England. In the course of the trial, which lasted twelve days, a letter fa out Moreau to the First Consul, written from the prison of the Temple, was read, in which he stated his case with co much simplicity and candour, that it produced the must powerful effect on the audience. The result of the trial was, that Moreau's innocence was com- pletely established, or rather the prosecutor totally failed to prove any criminal connexion un his part with the conspirators; not one witness could fix either a guilty act or important circumstance upon him. • • • • As the case went un, and the impossibility of convicting Moreau of the capital charge pre- ferred against him became apparent, the disquietude of the First Consul was extreme. the sent in private fur the judges, and questioned them minutely as to the probable result of the process ; and as it had become impossible to con- vict him of any share in the couspiracy, it was agreed that he shuuld he found guilty of the minor charge of remotely aiding them. Some of the judges pro- posed that lie should be entirely acquitted ; but the President Heenan informed them that such a result would only have the effect of compelling the Govern- ment into measures of still greater severity ; and therefore this compromise was unanimously agreed to. Napoleon strongly urged a capital sentence, in the idea, probably, of overwhelming his rival by a pardon ; but the judges returned the noble answer, " and if we do, who will pardon us?" In truth, the temper of the public mind was such, that any capital sentence on so illustrious a person would probably have produced a violent commotion ; and it was extremely doubtful whether the soldiers cf the army of the Rhine would not have risen at once to his rescue. So intense was the interest excited by his situation, that when Lecourbe, one of the bravest and most distinguished of his lieutenants, entered the court with the infant child of Moreau in ha arms, all the military present spontaneously rose and presented arms ; and if Moreau had given the word, the Court would that moment have been overturned, and the prisoners li- berated. Whenever he rose to address the judges, the gendarmes, by whom he was guarded, rose also, and remained uncovered till he sat down. In fact, the public mind was so agitated, that the influence of Moreau in fetters almost equalled that of the First Consul on the throne.

There are several "characters" we had marked for quotation ; as well as some remarks on NAPOLEON, in which the author holds that his public morality improved as he grew older, his character scouring itself, in matures years and in a settled government, from the impurities resulting from his education in revolutions and amongst Jacobins, where he was taught to regard not what was honest, but what was useful. The immediate subject which suggests the reflections is BONAPARTE'S treatment of Venice, on which Mr. ALISON has thrown a new light. For all these, however, we must refer to the volumes : notwithstanding their factious ble- mishes, they are well worth perusing.