books of devotion used by Protestants.

If the Government of Great Britain should cease to exercise its good offices at the court of Turin in behalf of the Protestants of Piedmont, or if the people of Great Britain should become indifferent to the moral and spiritual wants of this impoverished community, the religious liberties of the Valdenses will be no more, and the lamp of this little mountain church will be extinguished for ever.'

ble us to estimate.

The

disadvantage of having to learn three languages rial, of that too from quarters hitherto inbefore they can receive competent instruction. accessible, must, like every other advanTheir national language is Italian; their verna- tage, have had its concomitant evils. cular tongue is a provincial dialect peculiar to labour of control and superintendence must their district: and the language of instruction is French, because in that only they can obtain have been proportional to the standing of the workman; and it must have required temper and decision of no ordinary quality to enforce unity and symmetry of execution, and to combine such various elements in anything like just and definite proportions. Great, however, as these difficulties are, there are others still greater, which analogous experience only can enaIn the case of a journal like our own, or almost any other speSuch is a very general account of the na-cies of periodical work, if the editor is disture and character of the different classes appointed in receiving an article, he must, of articles which compose the Encylopa- indeed, but he also can, immediately redia Britannica.' Those who have explored, place it with another, whether on the same as we have done, many of its departments, or on some different subject. The mechanwill, we trust, regard our estimate as nei-ism of the press goes on with a few inapther partial nor exaggerated. To those preciable pauses; the work issues with its who have not had this advantage, or who wonted regularity, and the public can disare unacquainted with the work, we can cover nothing more, if they discover anyoffer but the guarantee of illustrious names. thing at all, than that an article of slender But however great be the merits of the merit, or on some rather obsolete topic, has leading contributors to a work of this kind, found its way into the number. But the there is one individual-the editor-who case is very different with an encyclopædia. must be the mainspring of the undertaking, If the illness of an author, or the sudden and to whom a very great share of praise call of business, or any other cause, premust be due. In editing this work, Pro- vents him from fulfilling his task at the apfessor Napier brought to the task all the pointed time, the whole machinery is experience which he had acquired during stopped. The alphabetical arrangement the publication of the Supplement which must be adhered to; and a treatise on preceded it. From his extensive literary Chemistry, or Medicine, or Political Econconnexions he succeeded in commanding omy, cannot be written on the spur of the the services of authors who had never be- moment. The printers and engravers and fore written for similar works, and who bookbinders are thrown idle, and the ediwere prompted by no other motives but tor is left to consider whether he will wait, those of friendship. When men of the for months perhaps, for the article of which very highest reputation were the avowed he has been disappointed, and which is percontributors to an encyclopædia, authors of haps half-finished, or call in the aid of inferior name, though of equal fitness for another writer, who may take a still longer their respective tasks, were not likely to time to complete his task. No less harasswithhold their aid. In fact, it was deemed ing must be the case, which we can easily an honour to contribute to a work thus sus- suppose to be equally common, when an tained; and we have no doubt that one of author produces an article three or four the many difficulties encountered by the times longer than the allotted space. Thinkeditor was to select the best qualified from ing his own subject the most important, he the numerous recruits that flocked to his treats it fully, and perhaps admirably, but standard. This facility of obtaining the on such a scale as to render its admission best qualified assistants was, no doubt, in-impracticable. To cut it down, or to allow creased by the liberality of the publishers. The authors of articles of profound science, which, commercially speaking, had no value but in an encyclopædia, were, we are assured, remunerated as handsomely as those who communicated the most popular articles; and the labours of men of high talent, were thus, as it were, created by the work.

But this ample supply of literary mate

another to cut it down, is wormwood and bitterness; and the editor must either reject it altogether and give mortal offence to his friend, or by the compromise of a slight abridgment introduce the still gigantic production and destroy the symmetry of his undertaking. But, notwithstanding these difficulties, to which the present work must have been peculiarly exposed, there is less appearance of disproportion in its

parts than in any other encyclopædia that we have had occasion to examine.

weary voyage, and become a well-informed man before he reached his destination.

In

In a work of such magnitude as this, the Considering the imperishable nature of liberality of the proprietors is best seen in books, the cheapness with which they are the number and nature of the maps, en- now produced, and the rapidity and extent gravings, and woodcuts. At the commence- of their production, we are convinced that ment of the publication the geographical some great revolution must soon take place articles were illustrated only by quarto in their manufacture and use. Libraries, maps, but these were afterwards cancelled, both public and private, are now extending and a new series of a folio size substituted themselves beyond reasonable bounds. in their place. These maps form a com- Apartments cannot be found to contain plete and excellent atlas. The engravings, them; and there are many libraries where upon steel, are numerous and well execut- the volumes stand three feet deep, and thus ed; and the introduction of woodcuts into become inaccessible to their owners. the text, a plan new in encyclopædias, has the progress of accumulation wing after given a peculiar value to many articles. In those of STEAM, STEAM-ENGINE, and STEAM NAVIGATION, though almost every page is illustrated by numbers of the most correct and beautiful woodcuts, yet the proprietors have given no fewer than TWENTYTwo splendid engravings-five of them in folio-to illustrate these articles alone. The plates, too, are executed with the min. uteness of working drawings, and in the present predominance of civil engineering, as connected with locomotive and steamboat engines, they must be an invaluable present to all who pursue that interesting profession.

wing must be added to the storehouse of learning, and librarian after librarian, till space, as well as funds, are exhausted. But if this be the case at present, with our restricted trade and limited communication with foreign states, what must be the condition of our libraries when railway intercourse shall have made the nations of Europe one family, speaking each other's languages, and creating a new demand for each other's intellectual productions? Unfortunately for authors there is no epidemic among books, to thin their ranks, and render necessary a new supply; and the fire-proof inventions of the present day extinguish the hopes which were sometimes realised from the timberboards of our books and the wooden carpentry of our libraries. There is, therefore, no law of mortality by which the number of books is regulated like that of animals; and, since we cannot control their accumulation, we should endeavour, as soon as we can, to reduce their magnitude and increase their portability.

From the observations which we have already had occasion to make, our readers may have drawn the inference that an encyclopædia like this must be a work of great utility, even to those who possess, or have access to, ample libraries. With an index enumerating every article in the work, and also the leading topics which those articles contain, we can at once direct our attention to any subject upon which we require information; and if we do not find The compression of many hundred all that we desire, our attention will be volumes into an encyclopædia, forming a turned to sources from which it can be ob- complete library of itself, has been a great tained. But if the mature cultivator of step towards the accomplishment of this letters and science finds such a companion desirable object, and it is probably the only almost indispensable, of what value must it one of which in our time we shall reap the be to the young, perhaps narrowly provided advantage. But it is only a step; and and obscurely situated student, in the years though we cannot foresee the extent to when the foundations are to be laid! How which the principle of compressing knowabsolutely inappreciable must such a reposi-ledge, not only in its corporeal but in its tory of knowledge be to the unlettered reader of all ranks, to the humble artisan as well as to the country gentleman and the opulent manufacturer and merchant ! Occupying only four or five cubic feet of space, it would not encumber either the traveller or the emigrant; and an Australian or New Zealand settler, who left his home with no other accomplishment but that of being able to read, write, and count, might with such a companion beguile his long and

intellectual phase, may be carried, yet we clearly recognize certain steps in the process which may be immediately taken, and certain consequences flowing from them which cannot fail to excite our highest expectations of ultimate success.

Smith, is a delightful improvement of human 'Railroad travelling,' says the Rev. Sydney life. Man is become a bird: he can fly longer and quicker than a Solan goose. The mamma rushes 60 miles in two hours to the aching finger

of her conjugating and declining grammar-boy. 1 of these changes authors might be led to The early Scotchman scratches himself in the think more closely, and to express their morning mists of the North, and has his por- thoughts in the shortest and the fewest ridge in Piccadilly before the setting sun. The Puseyite priest, after a rush of 100 miles, apwords. By these means we might accompears with his little volume of nonsense at the modate the Waverley Novels in one of our breakfast-table of his bookseller. Everything pockets, with Shakspeare and the British is near-everything is immediate: time, dis- drama in the other; while the literature of tance, and delay are abolished.'* our own sixty volumes occupying one pannier might be balanced with the science of the Philosophical Transactions in the other.

If the steam-boat and the railway have thus abridged space and time, and made a large addition to the available length of human existence, why may not our intellectual journey be also accelerated,—our knowledge more cheaply and quickly acquired, its records rendered more accessible and portable,-its cultivators increased in number, and its blessings more rapidly and widely diffused? We shall endeavour to state very briefly some means by which these objects may be effected, and the consequences to which they are likely to lead. We have now before us an Svo. volume, containing about 1150 pages of double columns, and printed on paper so thin that the thickness of the volume (though not beaten) is only two inches, and in so small a type that the quantity of matter which it contains is equal to above TWELVE NUMBERS of this Review, supposed to be all printed in its ordinary type. Now, if the type were diminished to one-half its present size, or to one-fourth, which is quite practicable, and if the margin were somewhat diminished, we should have an 8vo. volume two inches thick equal to FIFTY NUMBERS of this Review, or TWENTY-FIVE Volumes. Such a work would require a reading-glass, but this would not affect its utility at all for the purposes of consultation, and indeed the young student would have no more difficulty in perusing it page after page than the Doctor of 50 already has in getting through the columns of his Times by help of spectacles.

A bookcase might thus contain a large library, and a moderate one might be packed in the traveller's portmanteau. Books now forwarded by tardy conveyances might be sent by post. A number of this Journal, upon which the postage is now half-acrown, might be sent for fourpence, and large pamphlets would have the privilege of half-ounce letters. These processes, too, might be aided by a stenographic representation of the terminations of many of our long words, and even by a contraction of the words themselves; and in the spirit

Morning Chronicle, June 8.

+ Biographie Portatif des Contemporains, vol. i., Paris. It contains three plates with thirty portraits, ten in each plate.

AN eminent literary man was recently complaining to us that the rising generation seemed to know nothing of books published more than fifteen or twenty years ago. 'I was not understood yesterday,' said he, when I talked to a budding legislator about Sir Andrew Freeport; and here is a young lady who evidently supposes Seged Emperor of Ethiopia to be one of the In this state of things it would be idle to tawny potentates discovered by Bruce.' take for granted that everybody is familiar with the Memoirs of Madame de Larochejaquelein; and the utmost we can hope for M. Rio's sake is, that some half-buried associations will be resuscitated in the memories of our older readers, when we name his book as a not unworthy pendant to her noble and inspiring picture of the courage, piety, disinterestedness, and unshaken loyalty, of the most virtuous and truly patriotic portion of her countrymen. Well might Sir Walter Scott say that the country of which La Vendée forms a part, and the court in which Madame de Larochejaquelein was educated, could not be so corrupt as we had been taught to believe; for history, ancient and modern, might be ransacked without finding parallels to numerous instances of high daring, patient suffering, and cheerful self-sacrifice recorded by her. Above all Greek, above all Roman praise-the finer spirit and purer motives of modern chivalry may be

seen blended with the stern resolve and stoical contempt of life which distinguish the heroes of antiquity: Cato and Brutus look like vulgar suicides; and the dying cross-hilted sword held up before him as a Bayard leaning against the tree with his crucifix, or even Sidney on the fatal field

of Zutphen, still wants the cause to raise him above the martyrs of La Vendée.

A few passages from their annals will form a fitting introduction to our notice of M. Rio's work.

When an expedition was meditated, a requisition in the following terms was forwarded to each parish:- In the holy name of God, and of the King, this parish is invited to send as many men as possible to such a place, on such a day and hour, and to bring provisions with them.' Not merely was the requisition obeyed with cheerfulness, but the privilege of going was eagerly contended for. When the whole force was assembled, they were divided in an equally primitive manner. It was said:

(a chief) goes such a way; who follows him?' Those who liked ranged themselves about him, until the column was complete. In manoeuvring they were not told, To the right,' 'To the left,' &c., but Go towards that house;' That great tree,' &c. In battle, like all Frenchmen, they expected their leaders to set the example. Thus at the assault of Thouars:

"Each weapon point is downward sent; Each warrior to the ground is bent. The rebels, Argentine, repent! For pardon they have kneel'd." "Ay, but they bend to other powers, And other pardon sue than ours: See where yon barefoot abbot stands, And blesses them with lifted hands! Upon the spot where they have kneel'd, These men will die or win the field." omitted saying their prayers before engagThe Vendean peasants scarcely ever ing, and most of them made the sign of the cross each time they fired. The fervour of the religious sentiment was well exemplified at the battle of Fontenay:

'Before the attack the soldiers received absofriends, we have no powder: we must take lution. The generals then said to them, "Now, these cannon with clubs. We must recover Marie-Jeanne! Let us try who runs the best!" The soldiers of M. de Lescure, who commanded the left wing, hesitated to follow him. He advanced alone thirty paces before them, and then stopping, called out "Vive le Roi!" A battery of six pieces fired upon him with case-shot. His clothes were pierced, his left spur carried away, and his right boot torn; but he was not wounded. "You see, my friends," cried he instantly, "the Blues do not aim well." The peasants took courage, and rushed on. Lescure, to keep up with them, was obliged to put his horse to the full trot. At that moment, perceiving a large crucifix, they threw themselves on their knees before it. M. de Baugé wanted to urge them on. "Let them pray," said M. de Lescure calmly. They soon rose, and again rushed on.'

M. de

About eleven o'clock the powder of the Vendeans beginning to fail, M. de Larochejaquelein went for a supply, leaving M. de Lescure alone to command. A moment after, M. de L. perceived the republicans less steady, and as if beginning to give way: he instantly seized a musket with a bayonet, and calling to the soldiers to follow him, descended rapidly from the height, and gained the middle of the bridge amidst showers of balls and case-shot. No peasant dared to follow him. He returned, called, exhorted, and again giving the example, returned upon the bridge, but remained alone. His clothes pierced with balls, he made a third effort. At that instant MM. de Larochejaquelein and Forêt arrived, and flew to his assistance: he had been followed by one only of the pea-gagement at Chollet by the Vendeans, who sants. All four crossed the bridge. M. de Lescure leaped the entrenchment; the peasant was wounded; but Henri and Forêt got over it also; the men then rushed on to their assistance, and the passage was forced.'

Napoleon, according to the most partial version of an apocryphal story, did no more at Lodi.

As Major Allan observed to Cornet Graham, a man may fight never the worse for honouring both his Bible and psalter;' nor need we refer to Cromwell's Ironsides, or any other fanatics, for illustration of the maxim. The nights before the battles of Agincourt and Poictiers were spent in prayer by the conquerors; and the striking incident which preceded the closing of the English and Scottish hosts at Bannockburn should be familiar to all lovers of romance or poetry: VOL. LXX.

6

Marie-Jeanne was a twelve-pounder of beautiful workmanship, taken by the republicans from the Château de Richelieu, where it had been placed by the famous cardinal. It was captured in the first en

regarded it as endowed with miraculous power, and were wont to adorn it with flowers and ribbons. The Highlanders of Prince Charles Edward's army attached a superstitious reverence to an old iron gun, which they insisted on dragging about with them. There are numerous other points of analogy, but there is one remarkable difference. In the Vendean ranks the pride of birth was kept in strict subservience to the sentiment of loyalty, and the peasants were urged on by their own genuine impulses, instead of being dragged to death or exile by their hereditary chiefs. Their first commander-in-chief, Cathelineau, was a peasant, and he was put in nomination by the Marquis de Lescure. So far, however, was this from being one of the consequences of the growing fashion for inequality, that Madame de Larochejaquelein tells us