To th' churne, before the dog had lickt the same.

Butt here's enough of this, you may conclude

With me, the people here are somewhat rude."

As regards Orkney this picture of accumulated abominations is a libel, nor is its severity to be justified by any thing to be found among the lowest of our population. Forty years ago there certainly was greater want of tidiness and comfort than at present. Dr. Patrick Niell, an eminent naturalist, who visited the islands in 1804, says,—

"The greater part of the Shetland tenants appeared to me to be sunk into a state of the most abject poverty and misery. I found them even without bread without any kind of food, in short, but fish and cabbage; living in many cases under the same roof with their cattle, and scarcely in cleaner apartments; their little agricultural concerns entirely neglected, owing to the men being obliged to be absent during the summer at the ling and tusk fishing."

The latter part of this representation is still true. Fishing and farming continue to be joint occupations, to the great detriment of the latter;

but in other respects, improvement has taken place, chiefly though the liberal and enterprising spirit of some of our principal landowners. Farmcottages are being built on a better plan, and a spirit of emulation is beginning to be excited. Among the landed proprietors who have given encouragement to this spirit, are Sir Arthur Nicolson, Bart.; Messrs. Mouat, of Garth; Hay, of Lexfirth; Scott, of Melby; Edmondston, of Buness; Bruce, of Simlister, whose mansion - house in Whalsey, built of granite, cost 20,000l.; Gifford, of Busta; Ogilvy, of Quarff; Bruce, of Bunavoe, and various others, whose fame may not have reached your great metropolis, but who are well known here for their public spirit and their hospitality. We have had improvers, too, in a smaller way, who have cultivated Scots barley and reared green peas. An old soldier, Mr. Jerome Johnson, who had been with General Abercromby in Egypt, and at Gibraltar and Minorca, on returning home at the close of the war, set himself to carry into effect the knowledge he had acquired in foreign parts. Commencing with the kuil-yard, he gradually converted it into a neat, small garden, bearing shrubs, flowers, currants, onions, carrots, tobacco, &c. ; and, as he owned a few acres of land, he became a zealous agriculturist, and had the honour of being the first that introduced the culture of the field turnip into Fetlar. It must be confessed, however, that the patriotism of our landlords has yet a wide sphere of action for its agricultural enterprise.

himself from the rank of

man by distinguished alents as a staffod most per

MPAIGNS IN TRI LAI

ALSTERRATZ

ted with deof troops, otally for

..ent calcuservices;

a too proin ruin of the

thing had been done to improve the training or condition of troops so often vanquished, nothing to restore the morale of the officers and soldiers shaken by ten disastrous campaigns; and as to the skilful combinations so loudly vaunted, it entirely escaped the strategists, that their forces were broken into differnt bodies, separated from each other by the whole breadth of Europe, and could hardly, when the difficulty of combining the operations of armies acting in the same province, or even battle-field, is considered, be expected to strike in together, unless by mere miracle. And so, indeed, the result proved, for the powers who put this vast force in motion fought their main battle with less than 80,000

ortune give him armies. Never was truly fulfilled, and clearer proof furnished he facility with which men talents can estimate characand the fitness of individuals for the duties of professions to which they do not themselves belong.

men.

Austria had invited Bavaria to join the alliance, and the Elector had actually consented to do so, and only requested that his declaration might be delayed till the return of his son, who was travelling in France. The messenger who carried this written promise to Vienna could hardly have crossed the frontier, before the faithless sovereign left Münich, and set out for Würzburg, where all his troops were ordered to follow him, and, as now appears, according to arrangements already entered into with France. This unprincely breach of word, the desertion in the hour of bitter need from the cause of honour and of true German feeling and patriotism, casts a dark stain on the reputation of the Bavarian ruler, and has only escaped deep and deserved reprobation by having been perpetrated at a period of general dereliction from all the principles of action which men had hitherto looked upon as great, just, and noble.

Sixty thousand men formed the army of Italy, and were placed under the orders of the Archduke Charles, who not being very popular with the Russians, in consequence of the battle of Zurich and his difference with Savaroff, was thus removed to a secondary position: 30,000 men, led by the Archduke John, were destined to act in the Tyrol. An army composed of Russians and Swedes, amounting to 30,000 men, were to assemble in Pomerania, and advance through Mecklenburg into Hanover, where it was to be joined by 25,000 British troops, destined to land on the banks of the Weser, while an Anglo-Russian army was, at the same time, to effect a descent on the coast of Naples and operate in Italy.

This was, no doubt, an admirable plan on paper, and one on which cabinet and ministerial strategists greatly prided themselves.

Three

hundred thousand men were to be hurled against France: from north, east, and south, mighty armies were to rush on to battle, and avenge, by their strength and justness of combination, so many years of defeat, resulting from feebleness and want of concert. The hopes of the allied sovereigns were high, but they rested on a slender foundation; no

But the sword is drawn, and on the 8th September the Austrians cross the Inn and occupy Bavaria, and advance as far as the Iller, behind which General Mack takes up his position, his right wing resting on Ulm, the left on Memmingen, and his light troops extending as far as Stockash, on the Lake of Constance, thus throwing open his right flank to the very roads by which the French were advancing.

Before the 20th of August, Napoleon, then at Boulogne, had al

Roman people. But in nothing was the captive of St. Helena destined to act "the Roman's part."

War with England was the first consequence of these overbearing aggressions; and as the Consul had no means of assailing his insular foes, he turned his arms against the feeble and defenceless more within his reach. In the north, the neutrality of Germany was violated, and Hanover occupied; in the south a French army took possession of Naples: both countries, strangers to the war between France and England, were heavily taxed.

Nor did the march of violence cease here. The neutrality of Germany was again violated by the seizure of the Duke of Enghien, and whenever it suited the convenience of the French, who also levied contributions on the Hanse towns and the Duchy of Mecklenburg. In Italy, Parma, Placentia, Lucca, and Piombino, were added to the grand empire, the crown of which Napoleon had now placed upon his head. Genoa and its dependencies soon followed, and by causing himself to be crowned king of Italy, the French emperor assumed, in fact, the absolute sovereignty of the peninsula. The

balance of power was thus completely destroyed, and it was only by force of arms and a combination of the independent states of Europe that it could be restored, and security against continued aggression firmly established.

To effect this purpose a treaty of alliance was entered into by England, Sweden, Russia, and Austria. There was still, indeed, a strong party at Vienna inclined for peace; and the Archduke Charles, who was at the head of it, actually resigned the presidency of the war-department in consequence of the prevalence of adverse sentiments. It is probable, nevertheless, that this opposition was rather to the time for entering on the contest than to the war itself, for we now know, contrary to former assertions, that the Austrian army was in a very inefficient state, the cavalry deplorably so, and the finances in the worst possible condition. The English subsidies were no doubt expected to remedy part of the evil; but no sums furnished by a foreign country can ever cover even a mo

derate portion of the expense rendered necessary for carrying on a war against a power like France. And it shews the falsehood and folly of which the French writers are guilty and Bignon among the rest

when they tell us that foreign states were lured into the war, not by the ambition of France, but by the gold of England, and that monarchs sold the blood of their subjects for foreign pay, instead of shedding it in defence of national honour and independence.

If the Austrian armies were feeble, those of France were in the highest state of efficiency ever attained by Continental troops. For nearly two years they had been assembled in camps along the coast of the Channel, constantly kept together, and trained and exercised under the most distinguished of their officers. Proud of former victories, tired of their inactive life, and anxious for change, spoil, war, and excitement, they were better prepared for deeds of daring than any host that ever left the soil of France. At this time, also, their departure would bring relief to the national treasury, for Napoleon's boasted finances were at their lowest ebb, and the bonds of the bank of France had fallen to ten per cent of their actual value. The oppression of foreign states was to remedy this evil, and the moment the troops passed the frontier their support was to be defrayed at the expense of strangers. Nothing could come more conveniently for Napoleon than this new war, as foreign contributions filled his exchequer, and the march into Germany freed him from the pledge of invading England, an enterprise the prospect of which had so long been held out to France and Europe.

Two Russian armies of 50,000 men each, and commanded in chief by General Kutusoff, were in full march to join the Austrians, who, on their part, took the field with three armies, amounting in all to about 170,000 men. Of these the Grand Army in Germany counted 80,000 men, and was nominally under the orders of the Archduke Ferdinand, but commanded in reality by General Mack, an officer whose melancholy fate has rendered his very name a term of reproach. Mack