cannot go through the nonsensical Courts-martial that followed, or their consequences, the whole of which would only shew that the Admiral had, as Lord Munster said some years ago, on a memorable trial, "lost his head." There are many most extraordinary facts stated, but we must reserve them for the audi alteram partem, and proceed to the mission of Maj.-Gen. Sir John Milley Doyle, K.C.B. &c. as aide-de-camp to the Emperor, with Capt. Crosbie, to supersede Admiral Sartorius, or Sertorius, which ended in Sir J. M. Doyle being placed in arrest by the Admiral, who resisted the Emperor's decree, of which he was bearer, and it seems threatened to take the fleet away and sell it, unless both himself and his people were satisfied.

This was arranged afterwards at Oporto; Captain Napier was made Admiral, and the result is already well known. If any thing were necessary to exalt the glory of this British naval hero, it would be the comparative statement of ships and guns here given. In Sartorius' unsuccessful engagement (Oct. 11, 1832) his squadron numbered eight against five, with an inferiority of guns of only 28; in Napier's victory (July 5, 1833) his squadron consisted only of five against nine, with an inferior number of guns of 178 !

This was certainly unfortunate for the fame of Capt. Sartorius, but not more so than the documents published under his own hand. For the personal insult offered to Sir J. M. Doyle, he challenged the Admiral to duel, but he would not go on shore, and charged Sir John with "indelicacy" in bearing the Emperor's decree; while in fact it must have arisen from delicacy in the Emperor, that he was sent with the Portuguese Commissioner and British officer, who was to supersede him, for the purpose of softening the measure; the Admiral also upbraids Sir John with his "exertions, and visits to him in prison, to which, seconded by the aid of the Consul-General, was mainly owing his (Sir John's) liberation from secret imprisonment, &c.;" while it is positively known that beyond the courtesy of visits he could effect nothing; and that so far from acting with the Consul (who had then become the only diplo

matic character, which he filled under the most extraordinary difficulties with dignity and utility) Capt. Sartorius set himself up against his authority, even to calling meetings of merchants against it on-board his own ship. Sir John's whole case, both of negociation with Don Miguel's Government, and through several Portuguese Courts, was conducted by the friend in whose house he lived, and on whose security he was finally liberated after Capt. Sartorius had returned to England; the Consul-General operating ex officio between the British and Portuguese governments. On Adm. Sartorius refusing apology or satisfaction, Sir John desired him to "consider himself as horsewhipped;" and the venerable General, Sir John's uncle, with his wonted humour, advised Sartorius to tell his nephew to "conceive himself run through the body!” and thus the affair ended. The letters, &c. are p. 229 et seq.

A sort of fleet order was also issued by Admiral Sartorius, in which he stoops to reprimand Capt. Mins's officers for having, on his resignation of his ship, showed their honour of him by themselves manning the boat that carried him away amidst the cheers of the crew-an affecting tribute, felt the more because told without pretence; and also censuring a Lieutenant, who, when he had ordered that the mustachios worn in compliment to Dom Pedro should be shaved away, also shaved his eyebrows! adding that, besides a representation to His Imperial Majesty, he will represent it to the British Admiralty, to stop the chance of promotion there. (p. 172.) Surely all this was infra dignitatem, to say no more.

On almost every occasion something of a vexatious nature occurs throughout the book-which we deeply regret ; Capt. Mins, however, has completely vindicated himself, and shews that he retains the approbation of the Government he has served. We would have preferred the narrative of naval transactions without alloy. However, as this is the only work offered to us on the subject, and comes down to the end of June in Portugal, and to the present moment at home, so we must take it as it is. It eminently shews the difficulties which have stood in the

thentic information. It was only by an accurate examination of living testacea, and by comparison of the osteology of the existing vertebrated animals, with the remains found entombed in ancient strata, that this favourite dogma was exploded; and all were at length persuaded that these substances were exclusively of organic origin."

And so Mr. Lyell mentions the old opinion that basalt and other mineral masses, were of aqueous origin, was once exceeding popular, though far wide of the truth; but it was at length exploded by an examination of the structure of active volcanoes, the mineral composition of their lavas, and by comparing the undoubted products of fire with the ancient rocks in question.

After some other observations, Mr. Lyell goes on to say:

"We are now for the most part agreed as to what rocks are of igneous and what of aqueous origin, in what manner fossil shells, whether of the sea or lakes, have been imbedded in strata-how sand may have been converted into sandstone, and are unanimous as to other propositions, which are not of a complicated nature; but when we ascend to those of a higher order, we find as little disposition as formerly to make a strenuous effort in the first instance to search out an explanation in the ordinary economy of nature. If, for example, we seek for the cause why mineral masses are associated together in certain groups, why they are arranged in certain order, which is never varied; why there are many branches in the continuity of the series; why different organic remains are found in distinct sets of strata ; why there is often an abrupt passage from an assemblage of species contained in one formation to that in another immediately super-imposed. When these and other topics of an equally extensive kind are discussed, we find the habit of indulging conjectures respecting irregular and extraordinary causes to be still in force.

"We hear of sudden and violent revolutions of the globe, of the instantaneous elevation of mountain chains, of paroxysms of volcanic energy, declining according to some, and according to others increasing in violence from the earliest to the latest ages. We are often told of general catastrophes, and a succession of deluges, of the alteration of periods of repose and disorder, of the refiguration of the globe, of the sudden annihilation of

whole races of animals and plants, and

other hypotheses, in which we see the ancient spirit of speculation revived, and a desire manifested to cut rather than patiently untie the gordian knot."

We shall now finish our views of the subject by giving, in a brief compass, Mr. Lyell's general outline of opinion as to the history of the earth. After mentioning some objections that have been made by those who wish to consider the earth of recent formation, perhaps coeval with the creation of man, he observes:

"As geologists we learn that it is not only the present condition of the globe that has been suited to the accommodation of myriads of living creatures, but that many former states have often been equally adapted to the organization and habits of prior races of beings. The disposition of the seas, continents, and islands, has varied; so it appears that the species has been changed, and yet they have all been so modelled on types analogous to those of existing animals and plants, as to indicate throughout a perfect harmony of design and unity of purpose. To assume that the evidence of the beginning or end of so vast a scheme lies within the track of our philosophical enquiries, or even of our speculations, appears to us inconsistent with a just estimate of the relations which subsist between the finite sources of man, and the attributes of an infinite and eternal being."

This appears to us to be most philosophical and just; as consistent with sound reasoning as it is agreeable to the most sincere religious feeling. "Sit nostra fides cum Lyellio!"

Memoirs of Robert Hall. By O. Gregory.

IT is much to be lamented that Sir James Mackintosh did not live to write a memoir of his accomplished and departed friend. He would have done more with a few bright touches of his pencil than can be effected by all the laborious accumulations of common biographers. But Sir James had many occupations and engagements, his society was ever in request, and he felt an indisposition to commence any new work of labour, after sixty years that had been spent in writing, talking, studying, teaching, thinking, declaiming, with little intervals of repose. He was also a valetudinarian, and so week

after week elapsed, the work was not commenced, and he also dropt into the tomb.

Dr. Olinthus Gregory then undertook the task, and has executed it in a very laudable manner; and we give him much praise for not having extended it into those huge narratives which, as Sir James says, are only a tasteless parade and a sure way of transmitting nothing to posterity. As a scholar Mr. Hall stood rather in an eminent rank; certainly the foremost among the dissenters. He was well acquainted with Hebrew, read Greek with facility, and the Latin language of course was familiar to him. He made some advances in the sciences connected with geometry, but his main strength was in his metaphysical acumen. Poetry he never cultivated, though his brilliant and lively imagination, we should have supposed would have longed to explore the enchanting domains which it holds in its possession. Mr. Hall had great promptness of thought, condensed energy of expression, happiness and variety of illustration, and precision of language. If there is any defect in his printed sermons, we think it consists in too stately and unvaried a march of oratory, a style wrought too uniformly to a high elevation; no relaxation, no graceful descents, no repose is given to the attentive, admiring, and exhausted mind of the reader.

As a preacher we know how anxiously he was followed, how attentively he was listened to, how fervently he was admired, how loudly he was praised; no one came near him; no one possessed at all his combinations of excellence; his only drawback was a deficient elocution. Mr. Foster has given at some length some ingenious observations on the style of preaching adopted by Mr. Hall, and entered very candidly and acutely into its excellence and defects. The main blemish, according to this gentleman, appears to have been that his arguments were too generalized; that they did not enter into particular applications; that they were not rendered practical by division, and he instances this forcibly, by describing what Mr. Hall's sermon against the love of money was, and what he considers it ought to have been. In the justice of Mr. Foster's observa

tions we fully agree, and we have no doubt that this was a main defect in Mr. Hall as a preacher, and a drawback from the utility of his discourses. He loved subjects of an elevated order, where his mind could expatiate freely on the wings of a powerful imagination, and a fine sensibility of disposi tion; yet he was free from all visionary modes of thought; he carefully fell back when he approached the confines of the awful, the mysterious, and the unknown; and feared to look at those mysterious phenomena which are found in the moral economy of the world. Of Mr. Hall's unfeigned piety, and calm and cheerful resignation to the Divine will, his whole life of sickness and pain, was an eminent example; and we exclaim, with his attached friend and companion: "Truly a great man has fallen in Israel."

Southey's Naval History of England.

Vol. I. Lardner's Cyclopædia.

THIS is a volume which is introductory to the Lives of the British Admirals; it is admirably written; with great accuracy of fact, extent of research, neatness and simplicity of style, warm patriotic feeling, and sound moral and religious sentiment. We shall give one or two extracts; the first will not be deemed uninteresting to lovers of philosophy.

"Bede, Alfred, and Roger Bacon, are the three Englishmen who attained all the knowledge that in their respective times and stations it was possible for them to acquire, and who made the best use of that knowledge for posterity.Bede preserved for us the only materials which exist for no inconsiderable nor unimportant portion of our national history. Royer Bacon anticipated some of the most

momentous chemical discoveries which were made in after-ages; he had a clear foresight of others; and it was in his then unpublished writings, that his namesake, the more celebrated, but not the greater Bacon, found the principles of that experimental and inductive philosophy distinctly stated, which he produced as his own invention.-No other Sovereign ever manifested so earnest a desire for improving the moral and intellectual condition of his people, as Alfred. No one ever entertained wider or wiser views of national defence; and modern legislation has nowhere yet attempted to institute a system of policy for the prevention

of offences, and the security of persons and property, so efficacious as that which he established in his kingdom."

Our Poet Laureat has been always celebrated for the facility of his belief of the marvellous; he has no doubt of the existence of mermaids and mermen, which, as we are not poets, but reviewers, we hold to be seals and morses. We believe, when young men are said to be carried off by water nymphs, their rape may be otherwise accounted for; and that Etty's late beautiful picture of Hylas and the Naiads, is nothing more than a symbolical representation of a fit of the cramp. The Laureat, however, shall speak for himself:

"A remarkable circumstance is recorded as having happened in the early part of this King's reign, or in the latter years of his father's. Some fishermen of Orford in Suffolk caught in their nets, what

the chroniclers call a fish, but which they describe as resembling in shape a wild and savage man; he was naked, and in all his limbs and members resembling the right proportions of a man. He had hairs also on the usual parts of his body; albeit that the crown of his head was bald. His beard was long and ragged, and his breast hairy.' The fishermen presented him to Sir Barth. de Glanville, who had then the keeping of Orford Castle. When meat was set before him, he greedily devoured it; and he ate fish whether raw or boiled, only pressing in his hands those that were raw, till he had squeezed out the moisture. He would get him to his couch at the setting of the Sun, and rose again at the rising of the same. He would not or could not utter any speech; although, to try him, they hung him out by the heels, and miserably tormented him. His after-usage must have been exceedingly kind, and he must have been of a most forgiving temper, not to resent this cruelty; for it seems he was well reconciled to living ashore. One day they took him to the Haven; and, inclosing a part of him within their strong nets, to prevent, as they thought, his escape, they let him take the water for his diversion. He presently dived under the nets, rose beyond them, sported about, as if mocking his keepers, and then of his own accord returned to them, and remained their guest about two months longer; then, being weary of a land life, he took an opportunity of stealing to sea.-Strange as this story is, and incredible as it will be deemed by most readers, it is inserted

here, because there is complete evidence that a similar circumstance occurred in the latter part of the 17th century, on the coast of Spain, with this remarkable difference, that the man who had thus chosen an aquatic life, was recognised, and the history of his disappearance known at the place where he was supposed to be drowned in bathing. He was carried back to his mother's house, resided there nine years, and then took again to the water."

We think this additional fact, now for the first time made known to us, throws some illustration on the former. We have very little doubt in our own minds, that this Orford merman was some poor half-witted, half wild kind of man, who in those times of little civilization, wandered about without regard and without impediment. That he was used to the sea, and the sea-shore, perhaps reached Orford from some distance, from the

Yorkshire or northern coasts; picked up his living from the muscles, fish, and offal cast on the shore; and perhaps was discovered wading in the shoals (like those who catch shrimps) for his prey. If he were an idiot, of course his want of speech can be accounted for; and, at length, he either escaped or was drowned. There is nothing very improbable in this supposition, when we recollect how Peter the Wild Boy supported himself in a savage state; and surely it is by far the more rational way of escaping out of the jaws of a most extraordinary circumstance. We think the hair on the breast and beard throws suspicion on the whole; as we consider that human hair would be destroyed by constant immersion in water; nor do we recollect any marine animals with hair. This is a well-known story; but had it not been for the faith placed in it by Mr. Southey, we should never have thought it worthy of a serious investigation. It comes down only on the faith of the chroniclers; but such vague and general testimony as theirs can never be received, when the fact is so singular, so unexampled, so contrary to all experience. We are writing these observations but a few miles from the very spot where this miraculous gentleman appeared; and all we can say is, that it would be very easy to raise a similar miracle on the same spot at the present day, with