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The construction of domes is easier and less liable to accident than that of arches. In many cases they may be built without centres of carpentry.

Each course keys itself; they may therefore have large openings in the centre for the admission of light.

SELECT.

ART. I.-Report from the Select Committee [of the British House of Commons] to whom the several Petitions complaining of the Depressed State of the United Kingdom were referred.

[Quarterly Review-Oct. 1821.-Extract.]

We agree fully with the committee that our present corn laws ought to be abolished. We agree with them as to the propriety both of constantly permitting importation, and of subjecting it at present to a duty. With the principle on which they propose to assess that duty, we utterly disagree; but with less pain, as it appears to us the necessary consequence of our agreement with other parts of the report. That principle, under different disguises, is throughout the same-prohibition-a monopoly of the home market until the indefinite period shall come, when that market shall be so much improved as to afford to the capitals now invested in the cultivation of the poorest and most expensive soils now under tillage, the average profit of capital; that is, until prices rise, or nearly rise, to those of the last years of the war, as expressed in our altered currency. The duty is to be such, first, as will protect the capitals now vested in agriculture from an unequal competition in the home market. All that distinguishes such a protection from the strictest monopoly, is the word unequal.' And we can allow it to produce such a distinction, only, by supposing it to express a competition which reduces the profit of the capital against which it operates, below the average profit of capital in other employments. But until the period we have alluded to shall have arrived, any competition whatever with our agricultural capitalists would reduce their profits further than they now are below the average profit of capital in other employments. If the present supply finds no demand at a price which remunerates the grower of the most expensive part of it, much less would an increased supply find such a demand.

Note. The want of space prevents our enlarging this extract from the Quarterly. The reader will observe some confusion in the Roman numerals of the succeeding articles--which are made correct in the list of CONTENTS. Ed. L. & S. R.

ART. III. The Occupation of Amelia Island, by M'Gregor, &c. Sketches of the Province of East Florida; and Anecdotes illustrative of the Habits and Manners of the Seminole Indians : with an Appendix, containing a Detail of the Seminole War, and the Execution of Arbuthnot and Ambrister. 8vo. pp. 328. London. 1819.

Eclectic Review-Aug. 1821.

THE wild speculations which have sent so many high and restless spirits to misery and a grave in the swamps and wastes of South America, seem, at the present time, to be chastised into a temperate estimate of the unprofitable sufferings inevitably attendant on their romantic wanderings. The chain of evidence is too extended and consistent to admit of any plausible doubt respecting the sanguinary dispositions with which the war of liberty, as it is called, is carried on, or the entire absence of moral and military principle in the modes of conducting this predatory and piratical contest. But, previously to the ascertainment of these disgraceful circumstances, there was much in the general aspect of the strife, to excite the ardent feeling of the army of martial adventurers thrown upon society in idleness and poverty by the cessation of hostilities in Europe. Eager to escape from the miseries of half-pay, and, in some instances, actuated by a generous sympathy with a cause apparently pure and glorious, numbers of these gallant, but unthinking men, listened to the attractive delusions held forth by interested and unprincipled individuals, and rushed headlong on a career of privation and disease, terminating in miserable death. Some of the few who have been fortunate enough to escape, have told their melancholy tale and the salutary effect has been, to put an effectual stop to these infatuated proceedings. The Author of the present volume has added his confirmation to the mass of testimony already before the world; and it must be admitted, that he has given proof of ability in the management of his materials. He should, however, have been aware that, in a story of desperate enterprize, romantic circumstance, and hazardous deliverance, a distinct and direct authentication is indispensably requisite; and that, with every disposition to place confidence in the veracity of the Writer, a feeling of uncertainty will inevitably connect itself with the concealment of his name.

:

In 1817, a party of fine young men, deceived by the boundless promises of individuals styling themselves the accredited agents of the Republic of Venezuela, embarked to the number of eighty, on board the Two Friends, with extravagant expectations, splendid uniforms, and a slender sea-stock. Their provisions were of the most unpalatable description; rancid salt meats purchased at the sales of condemned naval stores, mouldy

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biscuit, and transparent pigs, are enumerated among the delicacies provided for the consumption of these craving warriors. In this condition, they arrived at Madeira, where they succeeded in procuring more substantial fare; but their conduct on shore was so outrageous as to expose them to considerable hazard, and to render the condition of succeeding visiters much more unpleasant, owing to the strict regulations adopted in consequence.

Their arrival at the island of St. Thomas, dissipated all their golden dreams of wealth and aggrandisement, by awakening them to the conviction that they had been made the dupes of a gross and infamous deception. They had been instructed to present themselves before the confidential agent of the Venezuelan Republic, and to await from him their further destination, receiving at the same time a stipulated sum in liquidation of the expenses of their outfit. It was soon found that no such officer resided on the island, and that the representations of the flourishing state of affairs on the Spanish Main, were equally veracious with the other assurances which had been so liberally advanced in the entire absence of all substantial encouragement. Their situation was now wretched in the extreme: few of them had any pecuniary resources, and the charity of the Danish officers and merchants had been previously pressed upon most heavily by the assistance afforded to a previous debarkation of a similar kind. Their last hope lay in the claim that they had upon the captain of the Two Friends for a further conveyance to Angostura, the seat of the insurgent government; but even this was now taken from them by the clandestine departure of the ship, which sailed in the night without discharging the harbour dues, carrying with her the clothes and equipments of several of those who were left behind. In these disastrous circumstances, it was determined by the writer of this volume and some of his comrades, to procure a passage to Amelia Island, with the view of enlisting under the banners of M'Gregor. This commander having quitted the service of Bolivar and the Republic of Venezuela, had obtained the assistance of a few American adventurers, and made himself master of Amelia, as a point from which he might advantageously extend his conquests over the whole of East Florida. This project failed, and M'Gregor was happy to escape from his difficulties by making over his acquisition to Aury, the well known captain of an insurgent privateer. When the Author of this narration reached Amelia, he found it under the government of the latter chief, with whom he speedily quarrelled, and intrigued very actively against him, for the apparent purpose of occupying his post. Failing in this scheme, after some further vicissitudes, he reached St. Augustine, the capital of the province; and though he had set out from England for the avowed purpose of aiding the patriotic cause, we find him accepting a

grant of land from the governor of that fortress for the King of Spain, and offering his assistance in the recovery of Amelia to the Spanish dominion. After the government of the United States had felt the expediency of driving out the lawless bands who had taken possession of that important island, he revisited his old quarters, and seems to have enjoyed with much keenness, the opportunity of triumphing over his crest-fallen enemies. The subsequent details of the proceeding of Aury and M Gregor, have been rendered uninteresting by later events; and we shall decline following the writer through his comments on the transaction connected with the execution of Arbuthnot and Ambrister by the orders of General Jackson. Against the latter, a strong case appears to be made out, but the statements are ex parte, and the language in which they are made is extremely violent.

The war against the Seminole Indians was pursued in that savage spirit of ferocity which has too uniformly distinguished these conflicts. The Aboriginies combated with the unrestrained fierceness of barbarians; the more civilized assailants, with the vengeful and sanguinary feelings of men who considered the Indian race in the character of wild beasts, fit only to be hunted down and exterminated. But the instances of perfidious cruelty cited in the present volume, cannot be admitted without authority. The following anecdote is so interesting in itself, and so creditable to the parties, that we shall insert it here.

"A straggler from the militia of Georgia, named M'Krimmon, was captured by the Indians, and was about to be sacrificed to Indian vengeance; tied to the stake, the tomahawk raised to terminate his existence, no chance appeared of escape. At that moment Milly Francis, the daughter of Hidlis Hadjo, placed herself between the executioner and his victim, and arrested his uplifted arm; then throwing herself at the feet of her father, she implored the life of his prisoner. It was granted, and he was liberated. To the honour of M'Krimmon, it must be added, that some time after, learning that Milly Francis had given herself up, with others of her unfortunate race, in a state of wretched destitution, to the commander at Fort Clairborne, he immediately set forward to render her assistance, determined to make her his wife, and thus in some sort repay the noble and disinterested generosity of his saviour. Milly, upon learning the intentions of M'Krimmon, declared she was not influenced by any personal motive, that she should have acted in the same way for any other unfortunate victim, and therefore declined his offer."

ART. IV. Memoirs from 1754 to 1758.

By JAMES Earl of Waldegrave, K. G. &c. &c. 4to. Pp. 192. London. Murray. 1821.

[British Critic-Aug. 1821.]

THE memoirs of personages, who from their elevated station or useful talents, have obtained any extraordinary access to the political confidence of their times, are among the most solemn trusts which can be committed to a descendant. They of necessity carry with them an interest which no narrative posterior to the event can ever assume; they possess the same advantage which ocular testimony claims over the evidence of hearsay; they bear for the most part the simple and natural impress of sincere conviction; and though, of course, the faith which is to be placed in them must vary with our assurance, more or less, of the writer's opportunities of judging, and powers of judgment, there is yet always a freshness, and life, and vigour about them, which, like the first rude sketch of a great artist's pencil, rarely is transferred entire to the more finished and elaborate copy.

How far then papers of this kind are fitted for the public eye must always be a matter of deep and solemn consideration; and a conscientious executor will pause long and often before he permits such documents to escape from his own custody. We do not here intend to be understood of those chronicles of scandal and intrigue which form so large a part of French literature; and which, whether true or false, are, in another way, quite as mischievous as they are amusing. It is of little consequence whether it was La Duchesse A, La Comtesse B., or Madame C., who made doux yeux to S. A. Royale D., or Monsieur le Baron E.: for the fopperies and the follies of a court are, in one sense, but perishable commodities, and whatever injury may be done to the reader by the false medium through which he is thus accustomed to look at vice, little or none is offered to the memory of triflers who fluttered through their short day of nothingness, till they became still less than nothing. We speak only of such details as profess to penetrate into the springs by which the counsels of nations were moved and guided; which draw aside the veil from the privacy of public life; and exhibit, in all their nakedness, the inclinations, the plans, and the motives which have governed the governors of mankind.

That the Noble Editor of the publication before us (we believe Lord Holland makes no secret that he is so) has omitted to turn these considerations in his mind, cannot for a moment be suspected. His Lordship can have no desire to revive forgotten scandal in one instance, nor in another to detract from the pleasing remembrance which is so generally cherished of those who have already sought their reward in the fulness of their good deeds. He has, we are convinced, in the consciousness of his own entire

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