Histoire et Description des Iles
Ioniennes, &c.
History and Description of the lonian
Isles, from the fabulous and heroic
times to the present time. By
Colonel Bory de Saint Vincent.

THE first legislators of Greece, who undertook to civilize mankind, in order to soften their manners, appealed to their imaginations through the charms of melody and verse. The lyre, says Isaac Vossius, governed the ancient Helladeans, formed heroes, exterminated monsters, created liberty, and founded those immortal republics which will be the admiration of ages. Religion, law, and politics, music and poetry, animated every part of public instruction; and sages, separated from the multitude, by this means gave to their lessons an authority which had something

divine in it. The commands of the gods, the oracles that decided pubfic cases, for they were never consulted by individuals because of the hecatombs and gifts it was necessary to offer to the priests of the Hierons, and social compacts, even in the time of the Dorians, were sung and presented traditionally in families. Thus perpetuated, and passing from age to age, they were collected like the writings of the Hebrews after the captivity, with a crowd of recollections, which Hesiod has preserved in a language undoubtedly more harmonious than that of the gods, to which they were attributed. It is not so much to the barbarism, says M. Bory de Saint Vincent, or negligence of the first ages, that we ought to attribute our doubts on the subject of

remote antiquity, as to the misfortunes occasioned by time and the ravages of the destroyers of Greece. Though it is said that the divine Orpheus overcame tigers, attracted oaks, mountains, and rocks, and suspended the course of rivers by the sound of his lyre, yet we know nothing of the chronology or geography of his poetry. An opposite consequence may be deduced from Homer's poetry, for he undoubtedly knew of facts anterior to the siege of Troy, and which the chronologist, geographer, and historian, may also be masters of when capable of understanding them.

After these general facts, which are succinctly explained in a preliminary discourse written in a graceful and concise style, M. Bory de Saint Vincent gives a particular history of the Ionian Isles, with a great deal of real talent, and all the

close attention of a monk of the congregation of St. Maura. "If this kind of work," says the learned writer, "requires less talent than history, it demands, perhaps, more erudition: it is equally susceptible of every ornament of style, it sup plies reflections no less profound; and it is, perhaps, as glorious to attain fame by great learning as to immortalize oneself by the ascen dancy of genius. To give a complete history of the Ionian Isles is to awaken recollections dear to the whole learned world."

Corcyra, Leucadia, Cephalonia, Ithaca, Zacinthe, Cythera, were kingdoms or flourishing states, at those great historical periods, when the importance of a people was measured, not by the surface of the ground they inhabited, but by the civilization,

arts, sciences, and glory they were surrounded by. With these claims to notice, the Ionian Heptarchy holds an honourable place in the annals of Greece; and if Corcyra did not act according to the rules of honour in neglecting to be at the battle of Salamis, that is a no greater reproach than the one due to the Ionians of our days, who failed to take part in the battles of Chios and Tenedos, where the insular marine of the Ægean sea have performed prodigies, no less astonishing than those of the best ages of Greece. Political faults ought never to be attributed to whole nations, who generally are but the expiatory victims.

There is still something divine in the Ionian Isles, and to their enchanting territory our imagination is involuntarily turned when we would cite a noble action. Suza, Babylon, Nineveh, have not been able to preserve the honour of the illusion attached to the unknown gardens of Alcinous. Time, which has reduced to cinders the superb monarchies of the East, has respect ed Greece, and, when her Isles are mentioned, imagination immediately restores its cities, temples, trophies, and monuments. More

than one traveller still, like Homer, praise the hospitality of the peasants of Corcyra, in whose dwellings the proscribed of Parga, more unfortunate than Themistocles, found an asylum, when, sold to Ali Tebelen, they were obliged to abandon the tombs of their fathers. Other comparisons we might also make, by recalling the time when Aristotle a fugitive, and Alexander the Great persecuted by his step-mother, sought refuge, the one to escape from the fury of faction, the other under pretext of visiting his master in Corcyra always ready to receive the miserable. Tacitus relates that Germanicus and Agrippina there landed the cinenary urn, containing the remains of the best of husbands.

M. Bory de Saint Vincent's account of the other Ionian Isles would supply us with many quotations relative to the times when Greece was free, or when conquered by the Romans. But we refer the curious reader to the book itself, assuring him that he will be fully sa

tisfied with the historical part of the author's work. We will proceed to the time when religion first began to emancipate the world from the slavery of military tyranny; at that time the Ionian Isles received the doctrines of Christianity, through S. S. Sosipatre and Jason, one of them Bishop of Tarsis, in Cilicia, and the other of Iconium, in Cappadocia. The first altar raised by these two disciples of St. Paul was constructed on the Island of Pythia, now the island of Vido, where they landed, and dedicated it to the martyr St. Stephen. But a · prosecution having arisen, Saint Sosipatre was shut up in a brass bull, and suffered martyrdom, but the whole islands after this were converted to Christianity. The Ionians nevertheless remained faithful ever after to the Roman emperors, fighting under their banners wherever they were raised. They celebrated the death of Nero, by striking a medal in honour of Galba, who had delivered the world from such a monster; they gave Titus, conqueror of the Jews, the spectacle of a mock sea-fight, and overcame the prejudices he had conceived against the Ionians; and they had the good fortune to escape from the persecutions of his brother Domitian, who, as well as Diocletian, respected the church of Corcyra.

The Corcyrians have no monument of Hadrian's Journey to the Ionian Isles, nor of any of his victories or travels, though they have paid homage to Nerva, and Trajan, and Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, and even Faustinus, who have had medals struck there in honour of them.

It would be necessary to transcribe the whole of M. Bory de Saint Vincent's rapid narrative, in order to follow the Corcyrians through all their political phases, up to the time of the removal of the Roman Empire to the borders of the Bosphorus, where Constantine transported the senate, without being able to fix the altar of his victory. This was a fatal blow to the Roman people; their destiny was accomplished; and Julian himself, whom M. de Saint Vincent considers as a restorer of the Rome of Fabricius and Scipio, could not,

if he had lived, have arrested the irresistable progress of events. The course of the world was turned into a fresh channel. The empire was destroyed by the oppressed, and eternal justice must be appeased. The dark ignorance, which then enveloped the known world, was the result of the military government that had so long debased it, by keeping the people under the yoke of the Roman legions, and by preferring the arts of war to a civilization, which could not include Emperors taken from the class of hunters of men, by whom they were chosen and saluted as Cæsars. Rome deserves, in many respects, to be admired, but it never inspires regret in those who are persuaded, that when military glory oversteps the bounds of legitimate defence, it becomes a crime against social order.

The Ionian Isles deprived of their poetical names, and changed into Corfu, Santa Maura, Thiaki, Zante, and Cerigo,fighting during the fall of the Eastern empire, would only inspire a feeling of commiseration, did not some splendid actions remind us of their ancient origin. After many and long convulsions, it is delightful to find the pious archbishop Arsinius, calling the inhabitants of Corfu to victory by a selfdevotion, perhaps, more sublime than the heroism of Regulus. Corcyra was on the point of being a prey to the barbarians who were approaching to ravage the island, when Arsinius, devoting himself for the public safety, gave himself up to the pirates, who retained him and delayed the signal for devastation in the hope of gaining an enormous ransom. As soon as this generous action was known by the Corcyrians, they determined to attack the Corsairs, which they did, and gained a complete victory; for which the deliverance of their bishop was a sufficient recompence.

Arsinius, in those calamitous times, was appointed by providence to watch over his countrymen. A person sent by Constantine Porphyrogenetes, counteracted in his avaricious views, accused at the foot of the throne the Corcyrians of rebellion and their magistrates of felony. Thus, sent for to Constantinople, where they had every thing to fear Eur. Mag. Sept. 1823.

from the suggestions of a perfidious minister, they saw in their prelate a means of averting the threatened danger. Arsinius undertook, in spite of his great age, the fatigues of a long and painful journey; he repaired to the barbarous court of Constantine VII., and re-established his fellow-citizens in that Prince's opinion; but on returning with a free pardon he expired at Corinth, only regretting that he could not breathe his last sigh in a country he had twice saved. This episode, borrowed from the history of the Ionian Isles, is that of the last of those noble Greeks, who then felt their heart beat at the name of their country; for the Heptarchy and Naxos, which the author includes in his narrative, passing under particular chiefs, lost all consistent policy. The Latins seized Constantinople, divided the empire, and introduced the feudal system into the provinces that fell to their lot. Attica, Laconia, Corinth, Messenia, Arcadia, and Achaia, became so many fiefs, and the great men of antiquity were replaced by Counts and Barons, who, though courageous, were as illiterate as the most primitive heroes. This period of humiliation is the subject of the fourth book of the history of the Ionian Isles, from the middle of the twelfth century to the death of Solimon El-Canouni in 1566. During this time, Alexis I. Duke of Corfu, conspired against Alexis II., Emperor of the East, and dethroned him; then allied himself to William, King of Sicily, against Adronicus, who reduced him to captivity, and, after having been delivered by his successor, devised new plots, and did not cease to intrigue till he was driven into a monastery, then the receptacles of the ambitious.

From 1237 to 1822, M. Bory de Saint Vincent details the minor revolutions, which successively ranged the Ionian Isles under the Dukes of Anjou, the Venetians, the French, the Russians, and lastly, the English, who now reign there with as much contempt for the inhabitants, as the chiefs of the East India Company had for the Hindoos at the beginning of the present century. This narrative, sometimes sterile and incomplete, is contained in the sixth

21

book, and, continued up to the present times, terminates with the author's wishes for an emancipation which it would be madness to attempt, unless such an event could be obtained through that philanthropy which has ameliorated the fate of the Indians, and caused the Slave Trade to be abolished.

Des hommes celébres de France, au

dix-huitième siècle.

The celebrated Men of France in the eighteenth century, and the State of Literature and the Arts during the same period. By J. Wolgang Goethe. Translated from the German into French, by M. M. de Saur and de Saint-Genies.

This work of M. Goethe, say the translators in their introduction, was composed by him in 1805, and appeared at the same time with a German translation, (printed at Leipsick) of the Neveu du Rameau, a posthumous and unedited work of Diderot, then entirely unknown in France, and which the author had formerly sent to a person of high rank in Saxony. This precious manuscript having been communicated to M. Goethe, he solicited and obtained permission to partake with his countrymen the lively pleasure, which he had experienced in reading this remarkable work, by

one of the greatest writers of the last century. The author and translator are worthy of each other, and it is not astonishing that this translation obtained a brilliant success in Germany.

M. Goethe's design in this work is to appreciate justly the genius and writings of the most celebrated men living in France, during the eighteenth century, to discuss interesting questions on philosophy, and those views on the theory of arts, scattered through this dialogue by Diderot; and this important and arduous undertaking has been completed in a manner worthy of him. The work will contain biographical notices on the most celebrated French writers, such as Voltaire, Diderot, D'Alembert, Montesquieu, Piron, Dorat, Destouches, &c. It is preceded by an Essay on the life and writings of Goethe, and accompanied with notes by the transla

tors. The same translators intend shortly to publish a translation of two German works. One, a book by M. Goerres, entitled “The Holy Alliance, and the People at the Congress of Verona," the other an historical novel, called “Les Etoiles et les Perroquets," by M. Varnhagen d'Euse, a minister plenipotentiary of the King of Prussia; one of the most distinguished writers of the present period.

Campaign of the Left Wing of the Allied Army in the Western Pyrenees and South of France in the years 1813 and 1814, under the Field Marshal the Marquis of Wellington. By Captain Batty, of the Guards, F.R.S., &c. 4to. pp. 185. 21. London. 1823.

THERE is an idea very prevalent amongst, we believe, critics and authors as well as amongst people in general, that the pride, pomp and circumstance of glorious war, are so calculated to excite curiosity and to rouse our passions, that an author of but ordinary talents is pretty sure of attracting attention, and of acquiring fame if his theme be the adventures of well-fought fields with all their vicissitudes of hope, fear,

disaster, and success. For our parts, we are of opinion that the Bella, the horrida Bella,are subjects which require no common degree of skill and judgment to render attractive in the pages of a book. The operations of campaigns, if considered in relation to politics, become mere matters of history,and form not the most interesting parts of history; if they be related scientifically, they are not even intelligible but to the military profession, and they be come interesting to the general reader only when they are judiciously related in detail, so as to exhibit personal adventure, the heroism of some gallant bands, and the breathless hopes and fears of parties or of individuals in feats of noble daring and of brave resistance.

To

these sources of interest we must add the sketches of military habits, the soldier's life in camps, the bivouac, the surprise, the triumphant entry into captured towns, and with all their kindred associations as felt by the individual soldier. These form the amusement of military works, but they must be confined almost to individual feelings, for when such points of interest are generalized and applied to large armies, they cease to be points of interest to the feelings, and become mere matters of historical knowledge.

Captain Batty's work now before us relates to but one wing of the Duke of Wellington's army in Spain, and the scale of operations which he describes is therefore easily comprehended by general readers, and his narrative is enlivened by frequent accounts of the heroism and fate of isolated bands, and which he generally sets forth, if not in a vivid, at least in a clear and distinct manner. His volume bears that stamp which is so common in a highly cultivated state of society, it bespeaks the author to be a scholar and a gentleman; but to this we must in justice add, that it evinces much judgment and intelligence, and of course a professional or technical acquaintance with the subject on which he writes. Captain Batty is also free from those gross prejudices against our gallic opponents and their late celebrated chief, which disgrace many of the works which have lately issued from the English press, and even where he is embued with prejudices, the expressions of them is mollified by his rank in society, and by the ingenuas didi gisse fideliter artes, so that we are not amazed by much of vituperation, or very much by partiality; and we bear witness to these meritorious features of the work with great pleasure, because the military profession is calculated to confine rather than to enlarge the ideas upon national subjects; whether relating to the enemy or to domestic

measures.

Captain Batty tells us in his preface, that whilst serving as an ensign with his regiment, (third battalion of foot guards) in the left

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wing of our Peninsula army, it was his habit to take sketches of surrounding scenery, to make notes of every material operation and oc currence, and finally to take trigonometrical surveys of such portions of the country as were accessible to him; and he speaks of the possibility, perhaps at no great length of time, for a British army again to occupy its old positions, and to gain fresh laurels in the mountain passes of the Pyrenees." In this last sen. timent Captain Batty has been guid ed by the feelings of a gallant sol, dier and an enlightened Englishman, rather than by a learned spirit of human dealings and a knowledge of the narrow principles which have unfortunately guided the measures of our Cabinet, with respect to the late unjust invasion of that country, which Captain Batty saw liberated by British heroism, to be so soon over-run by a meaner foe, and brought under a despotism worse than that from which our arms had liberated her. The result of Cap. tain Batty's trigonometrical surveys we have no doubt will, upon some future occasions, be of great use, as they relate to a country which is so frequently the arena of conflicts, but relating solely to science they are not included in the work before us, which relates solely to the notes and to the views he took during his campaign. These views are very numerous, and have been etched by Captain Batty with a high degree of talent. Several of them give but an indistinct, if not a confused idea of the objects to be represented, but others appear to us to be of great merit, and of such beauty as to en-hance the value of the work to every lover of art, as well as to every lover of beautiful and magnificent scenery.

The narrative opens after the battle of Vittoria, on the 21st of June, 1813, which, says Captain Batty, was fought by Joseph Buonaparte for the purpose of covering the conveyance of all his treasure into France. We doubt whether this is a very liberal, or a very sagacious estimate of the Ex-King of Spain's motives for risking the battle of Vittoria; but Captain Batty further commits himself in the same page,