or agricultural theorists, as they are called, as an antidote to prevent the recurrence of the disease; and certainly the experiment is worth trying, and may plead our example in its favour. The oats in general use here are the old Scotch or grey-bearded kind, which is pleasant enough to the taste, but dark-coloured, and, from the very imperfect way of dressing it, the meal is never entirely freed from the chaff and dust. The way in which corn is here prepared for meal is accurately described by my reverend friend last mentioned. Every family has a small oblong kiln built in their barn, called a cinny, which will dry about a half barrel of oats at a time. This kiln, instead of an iron-plate floor, is furnished with ribs of wood; and these are covered with layers of oat-straw, called gloy, upon which the grain is laid. In an opening about a foot square in the end of the kiln, like an oven or boiler, a gentle fire is kept up till the grain is sufficiently dried. It is then taken off the ribs, put into a straw basket made for the purpose, called a skeb, and while warm, well rubbed under the feet, an operation which is intended to separate the beard and dust from the grain. It is next winnowed betwixt two doors, or in the open air, if there be a slight current, put into another straw basket called a buddy, and carried to the mill to be ground. When brought home from the mill, two sieves are made use of, a coarse and a finer, to separate the seeds from the meal; instrument, but now rarely found except in Shetland and the museums of antiquarian societies. It consists of two hard flat stones, hewn into a circular shape, the one laid above the other, and perforated with a large hole in the centre, through which the grain slowly filters, and is ground by the rapid motion of the upper stone, into which a wooden peg, sometimes a long shaft, is fixed and turned by the hand. Our houses and cottages, it must be confessed, are poor and mean, without the neatness and accommodation to be found in the dwellings of the same class in the other districts of the kingdom. In ge neral they are mere huts. The landlords shew an aversion to building farm-steadings, or if they have erected them once, tenant after tenant must be content to occupy them as they are, and when they become ruinous, he must either repair or build anew for himself. Dr. Maculloch, when he visited the Western Isles, declared that he often could not distinguish the cottages in the remoter Hebrides from heaps of rubbish. He mentions that when conversing with one of the natives, he had supposed the interview took place on a dunghill, and was not a little surprised to learn that they were standing on the top of the house. Cottages in Shetland are not much in advance of those in the Hebrides, and have something of the Irish economy about them, contrived, like Goldsmith's chest of drawers," a double debt to pay," by and it is twice sifted carefully before harbouring the quadrupeds as well it is fit to be eaten. The larger seeds taken out with the coarse sieve in the first sifting are given to the cows; and the finer seeds taken out with the smaller sieve are reserved for sowens, a sort of pottage made from the sediment of the meal that rests at the bottom of the vessel in which the seeds are steeped or soaked in water. This is or was a kind of national food in Scotland, when foreign luxuries were not introduced in such abundance; and it is still prescribed to invalids, from its lightness of digestion. Sometimes corn is dried very hard in a pot; the meal prepared from this is called burstane, and is generally ground in the quern as the bipeds of the family. They are in general of a rude, comfortless description, being usually built of stone and turf, or with dry mortar. The rafters, joists, couples, &c. are chopped and moulded to fit by a nearly in their natural state, being hatchet. The luxuries of slating and ceiling are unknown. Over the bare rafters is laid a covering of pones or divots (sods), and sometimes flaws; and above these is a coating of straw, which is secured by ropes of the same material, or of heather, called simnins. The floor is the hardened earth, without carpets, boards, or any other artificial manufacture; and if the weather be wet, which it fre or hand-mill, a simple, primitive quently is, the access is somewhat 1 difficult, especially to those who have any regard for keeping their feet dry and clean. This becomes a difficult matter even in the interior, from the moistened compounds that strew the floor. The dunghill occupies a place as near the door as possible, that it may be enriched by the accumulations of every fertilising substance; and frequently before the door of the mansion can be reached, a passage must be made through the byre (cow-house), and, perhaps, other impediments unnecessary to specify. The furniture is homely, and contains nothing superfluous. It is generally so arranged as to supply the want of partitions, or divisions into rooms, the only apartments being a but and a ben, that is, a kitchen and parlour. In the kitchen end of the house, in addition to the family, there are generally assembled the household dogs and cats, a calf, a patty swine, and, perhaps, some half-dozen caddy lambs; the term being applied to winter lambs fed in the house, or to those which have lost their dams, and are reared on cow's milk. Glass windows are nearly as rare with us as they must have been with the Jews in the wilderness. When an opening has been left for a window, it is sometimes filled up with a bladder or untanned lamb-skin, stretched on a frame, an invention rather superior to the Irish plan of substituting rags and old hats. The cottages have scarcely yet got into the fashion of wearing chimneys, or even the humbler imitations called lums. Instead of these, the frugal inmates have from two to six holes in the roof, to admit light and allow the smoke to escape; and for the better promoting the latter evacuation, a piece of feal or divot, or two pieces of board joined at right angles, called a skyle, is placed on the weather side of the hole, and performs the office of a can or an old wife on your city chimneys. No doubt the skyle has the disadvantage of being immovable, and to shift or open and shut it might appear a task of some difficulty. But here necessity, it may be indolence, sharpens invention; for instead of mounting on the roof every time the wind changes, some have a long pole reaching down inside, by which this operation is performed; and the order for having this done is, VOL. XXXIII. NO. CXCVIII. "Skyle the lum." These descriptions might be further extended, but I prefer giving a few more lines from the curious old poem already quoted, which I greatly fear are, in this respect, more applicable to us than to our Orcadian neighbours : "Wee have but little iron heere, or none, But they can make a lock and key of bone Will serve to keepe the flesh i' th' ambry, till It creeps out or informs us by the smell. 'Tis eatable then, when neither ratt nor mouse, Nor dog nor cat will touch 't, it serves the house. The proverbes say no carrion kills a crow, Would you behold a true representation Of fair meanders, winding in and out, That say wee never have got clouted There, att another end, runs a whole sea The bread and candles, and have made o' By falling in amongst the meal, a pudding; And in the deluge it would make one swound To see how many creatures there lie drown'd: As fleas and lice, and ratts and mice, and worms, Of all sorts, colours, ages, sexes, formes. mee, A cog of sowings laid along, half gott From a crookt bowle, wherein the good- Butt yesterday; and into that there drops A bannock, whilst the wean greetes for the sopps. Their handes are ladles, and the tongs take out The flesh, and serve to stir the broth about. UU 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 20,0001; 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 the close of the war, set himself carry into effect the knowledge he had acquired in foreign parts. Commencing with the hail-yard, he gra dually 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. PRINCIPAL CAMPAIGNS IN THE RISE OF NAPOLEON. No. VI. THE CAMPAIGN OF AUSTERLITZ. CHAPTER IX. Commencement of the War, and Surrender of General Mack. We regret extremely that the valuable authorities on which we were enabled to sketch the campaigns already published in this series of papers, fail us entirely for the early period of the campaign of 1805. The circumstances which caused the catastrophe of Ulm are still, to a great extent, hid in the darkness; writers have only had French rhapsodies and a few very prosaic and uninteresting German works to guide them; and as the latter are as feeble and destitute of force and authority as the former are inflated, exaggerated, and extravagant, nothing like a clear case can yet be extracted from them. We must therefore pass briefly over the first part of the campaign, interesting as it would be to trace the exact detail of events which caused a powerful army to be utterly destroyed without striking a single blow for victory and honour. noble path which lay open before him, and no sooner found himself on the pinnacle of power, than, inflated by vanity, he immediately commenced that course of violence, rapacity, and aggression, which led to a deeper fall than any recorded on the previous page of history. In profound peace, Piedmont was annexed to France, Switzerland invaded, and military possession retained of Holland; and extending his power at every step, Napoleon caused himself to be elected president of the Italian, and mediator of the Swiss republics. Such gigantic strides towards universal dominion had never been known since the days of ancient Rome, and were rapidly destroying every vestige of the balance of power-of that balance which prevents any one member of the general community of European states from exercising absolute control over the others, and for which so many sacrifices had been made. The English government remonstrated against these acts of unexampled aggression, and refused to surrender Malta till satisfaction should be obtained. The Consul replied by threats and taunts, and, irritated by the attacks of the English press, resorted to vulgar railing, and demanded the suppression of its freedom.* French officers called upon the British commanders at Alexandria and Malta, demanding the evacuation of these posts, Napoleon believing that the time had come when the nations of Europe were to bend as implicitly to the mandates of the French ambassadors as the trembling kings of Asia once bent before the heralds The battle of Marengo had confirmed Napoleon's absolutism in France, and the peace of Luneville and the treaty of Amiens following soon afterwards, placed him in the highest and most enviable position ever filled by an individual. The temple of Janus was closed, and the nations of Europe, exhausted by years of sanguinary warfare, wished only for continued repose. None, indeed, were in condition to desire a contest with France, naturally the mightiest of the Continental states, and now augmented by Savoy, Belgium, and the left bank of the Rhine: the vast and valuable conquest of the revolution. Ruling such an empire at such a time, it was in the Consul's power to become the greatest of mortals; but little of mind and mean of character, he saw not the that announced the mandates of the It is worthy of remark that the absolute consul of France actually sent an agent, one Fièvé, to England, to negotiate a treaty of peace, of alliance, perhaps, with the English press; and it is to be regretted that the details of the curious mission have not transpired. 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; 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 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. of 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 but no sums furnished by a foreign melancholy fate has rendered his country can ever cover even a mo very name a term of reproach. Mack |