and though, when he broke that treaty, he destroyed the screen, we would not revert to offences which had been once forgiven; but for the hundred thousand deaths which his cruelty, treachery and ambition inflicted in the course of three months on desolated and exhausted Europe, is there no punishment?---Does

One murder make a villain,

Millions a hero?

Are the deaths of the Duke of Brunswick-of our own Picton and Ponsonby---of La Roche Jacquelein, the honour of French chivalry—and of the countless thousands of all nations, who have been immolated to the ambition of this outlawed usurper, are they to be unrevenged? Why have Labedoyère and Ney been executed? and, above all, why Murat? What crime have they committed, of which Buonaparte is innocent? These are questions of strict justice; what reply expediency can make, we cannot guess: we only know, that the example of this man's impunity has given confidence to the disaffected of all nations; and that his life maintains and vivifies the distractions and dangers of France and of Europe.

But to the return from the prisoner to the prison.

The internal face of the island corresponds, in its general features, with the coast; it is in an extraordinary degree precipitous, irregular, and escarpé.' Several of the peaks exceed the height of two thousand feet above the level of the sea;-Diana's peak, the highest, is two thousand seven hundred feet. In the midst of the craggy desolation of these peaks and the interposing ravines, are several spots of ground fit for cultivation, and a number of residences are scattered over the irregular face of the mountain. There are but two plains on the whole surface; and it seems to the observer so little surprizing that there should be no more, that General Beatson, after a good deal of discussion, pro fesses himself not to be able to understand how those spots should have escaped the general desolation, particularly the larger of them, called Longwood. This plain, comprizing one thousand five hundred acres of fine land, is elevated two thousand feet above the sea, and slopes gently towards the south-west. In former times it was covered with wood, and was called the Great Wood;—it is now entirely covered with grass. Its gentle slope, and smooth surface, and its fertility, formed so striking a contrast to the surrounding parts, that one might be disposed, says General Beatson (p. v.), to believe it 'a remnant of primitive land, which has remained untouched and unshaken, amidst the dreadful convulsions which have agitated and overturned every thing in its vicinity.'

On this plain is the residence of the Lieutenant-Governor of the island; and this situation, with a very generous attention to his comforts,

comforts, and particularly his predilection for exercise on horseback, has been chosen for the residence of Buonaparte.

It was at first intended to place him at the Governor's plantation house, but it is said that Napoleon preferred Longwood; and on all occasions in which his wishes can with propriety be complied with, he is, it seems, indulged. While the house at Longwood was preparing for his reception, he resided at the Briars, the seat of Mr. Balcombe, a small but romantic villa, at the head of James's Valley, about three miles from the sea, and at the foot of the cascade where the stream, that forms the ravine of James's Valley, falls down a perpendicular rock of nearly three hundred feet high. The body of water is not considerable; but the wildness of the surrounding objects is, in the highest degree, sublime and even terrific. This scene is given in one of the engravings of General Beatson's work, from a beautiful drawing by that very ingenious gentleman Mr. Samuel Davis, now one of the Directors of the East India Company.

We have heard, and have been sorry to hear, all sorts of absurd stories about the magnificence of the house and furniture which the Government has prepared to send out for the accommodation of Buonaparte; such extravagant splendour would be in the highest degree unsuitable and mischievous; a great deal too much attention has been already shewn him-much more than is consistent with good morals or good policy; and we are glad to be able to state that the reports which we allude to, are "wholly unfounded. Furniture of all kinds it has been, of course, necessary to provide; but such only, we understand, has been ordered as would suit an English gentleman's country-house.

The great increase of the numbers to be suddenly accommodated with permanent residences on an island where there are neither the materials of building nor workmen to build, made it indispensable to send out some wooden houses in frame, both as barracks for the garrison and as residences for the persons attached either to Buonaparte or to the Governor, or to the Commissioners of the other powers; but nothing has been done more than was necessary, or in a style beyond what common convenience required.

The necessity of sending out frames for houses, leads one to remark on the contrariety of the evidence which travellers give of the plainest and most obvious facts. We understand the majority of opinions have stated this measure to be absolutely necessary, as the island affords no materials for building: General Beatson, on the contrary, asserts that there is (besides building stone, of which there is clearly no lack) abundance of limestone, and a vast quarry of pozzolana, (p. xxii.) which he has used, with the greatest success, as a cement. The progress of building with stone and

K 4

pozzolana

pozzolana doubtless would have been too slow for the present emergency; but it seems extraordinary, that so very wide a difference of opinion could exist on so simple a fact, as that which we have stated.

We presume that the addition of so many intelligent officers to the population of St. Helena will lead to the decision of all disputed questions of this kind, and will furnish us with what seems to be much wanted, a scientific survey and accurate classification of the natural history of this very extraordinary portion of the earth. On this point, Governor Beatson's work gives but little information; and we must repeat that, notwithstanding its great pretensions, it has added very little to our stock of general information, and does the Governor more honour as a farmer, than as an author.

ART. VIII. An Account of the Kingdom of Caubul and its Dependencies in Persia, Tartary, and India; comprizing a View of the Afghaun Nation, and a History of the Dooraunee Monarchy. By the Hon. Mountstuart Elphinstone, &c. &c. &c. 4to. London.. 1815.

MR.

R. ELPHINSTONE will not, we suspect, find much cause to be satisfied with the forward zeal of some interested or indiscreet friend, in a contemporary journal, in extolling his acquirements and talents in a strain of extravagant panegyric, and in exhibiting him as the author of 'an important and distinguished work.' Every addition, indeed, however trifling, to our stock of knowledge respecting countries but seldom visited is always of some importance, and may, from local or peculiar circumstances, be more or less interesting; and, in this restricted sense, the Account of Caubul' will be both interesting and important; but there is nothing in it that merits the lofty epithet of distinguished.' It was, at any rate, premature to pronounce a work to be distinguished while the sheets were yet wet from the press. Far be it from us to detract one iota from the merits of the author in question, who is evidently a modest, sensible, and industrious man; one who has observed much, and collected more, with attention and caution, and who has told his story in plain and perspicuous language without affectation or parade. Whatever is stated as having fallen within his personal observation, may be received as truth, with full confidence; and in selecting and arranging the information of others, he appears to have exercised sound discretion. We suspect, indeed, that the book is a transcript nearly of his official report of the mission; and this, in our opinion, is no slight praise.

It is deeply to be regretted, however, that missions of this kind

are

are not accompanied by men of general science, as well as by those who have made particular branches of human knowledge their study. In the whole of this large volume we cannot trace a single vestige of antiquarian research, nor, which is much more to be regretted, any single department of physical science, not even zoology, botany, or mineralogy. We can readily believe that, in India, science is a commodity with which the market is not over abundantly stocked; but we also believe that, like most other marketable articles, it is always to be purchased even there; and we may add, seldom can be purchased at too high a price. On the present occasion, there was every inducement to enlist into the service of the mission the best talents that our Indian empire could supply,

This defect, however, is no fault of Mr. Elphinstone, but rather of those who sent him. The only charge we have to bring against him, is something very like affectation in deviating from the ordinary established system of spelling oriental words, as now adopted by our best Asiatic scholars. We should have thought that the failure of a feeble attempt by a namesake of his, to change the whole orthography of the English language, would have warned him from following so dangerous an example. When the broad sound of a, in call, would, according to Mr. Gilchrist's plan, have conveyed the true pronunciation of Câbul, it was, we think, quite unnecessary for him to write it Caubul. Some words, indeed, are so disfigured as scarcely to be recognized; our old and well-known friends the Cossacks, for instance, are converted into Kuzzuks, and Cashgar is disguised in Kaushkaur. Badakshan is lengthened out into Budukhshaun; and, very needlessly, in our opinion, all the final tâns, or countries, into tauns. It may not be wrong, but it is at best an uncalled-for innovation.

Câbul, Kobul, Kabool, or, as we here have it, Caubul, is the name of the kingdom, as well as of its capital, known to the Persians by the appellation of Affganistan, intermediate between the two great empires of Hindostan and Persia; by both of which it has frequently been overrun, and to both of which it has, in its turn, given a new race of sovereigns; and having on the north and on the south, and on all its flanks, tributary states, or provinces, who own but a nominal dependence, and pay no other allegiance than that which is enforced by the power of the sword, it would be difficult to assign its precise boundaries. According to Mr. Elphinstone, it has the great range of Hindoo Coosh on the north, the Lower Sind on the south, Heraut and the Lake of Zirrah on the west, and the Indus on the east. Its length, from north to south, may be taken roughly at about 550, and breadth, from east to west, 600 miles; its area is, consequently, about 330,000

square

square miles; the population, as estimated, rather on vague grounds, by one of the gentlemen of the mission, fourteen millions, composed of the following heterogeneous materials:

A country thus situated, with so considerable a population, a great part of which is composed of hardy mountaineers, bred to arms, and accustomed to plunder, could not, under the sway of an active, enterprizing, and warlike prince, be viewed with indifference by our Indian government, especially at a time when it was known that its sovereign, Zemaun Shah, had received large pecuniary offers from Tippoo Sultaun, for his assistance to drive the English out of the Peninsula; and that Ali Bonaparte was instigating both to the same end, and had effected a landing in Egypt with the same view. It became the more alarming when Zemaun Shah had so far succeeded as to march into the Punjaub, to drive the Seiks from their country, and get possession of Lahore; when the Mahomedans of the Peninsula, also, did not conceal their anxious wishes for the advance of the champion of Islaum; and the Rohillas, among whom the disappointed and disaffected of Hindostan always find a welcome reception, were arming for a campaign. England, however, has survived all these mighty preparations, and triumphed, not less by her justice than her bravery, over all her foes both at home and abroad; the most inveterate, powerful, and active of them, is sunk as low as his bitterest enemies could desire; Tippoo Sultaun has long been disposed of, and Zemaun Shah is eyeless and in exile. The recent Nepaul war revived, in some degree, the drooping hopes of the disaffected; but the latent spark, long smothering in the embers, had hardly time to shew itself before it was extinguished, and, we hope, for ever.

There are, however, and always will be, certain perturbed spirits, so utterly unfitted for a state of tranquillity, that their feverish imaginations are perpetually hatching some object of uneasiness and alarm. That object, for the present moment, is Russia. By the powerful aid of a sort of second-sight they actually behold the Russian eagle on the wing for the eastern hemisphere. There was nothing very preposterous in the caricature which represented Catherine with one foot on Saint Sophy, and the other on the Kremlin: