ence much may be expected of value on the science of war. In the "Reflections" of the marshal, at the end of the second volume, the reader will find much interesting matter of that description. We select one example.

considerable expenses of hospitals to government.”—II. 410, 411.

to oblige the soldier to carry his knapsack on his back from the outset of the campaign, in order to accustom him to the fatigues which in the course of it he must undergo. The health of the soldier depends on this being "The defensive system accords ill with the habitual; the men are economized by it; the disposition of the French soldier, at least if it continual loss by partial and frequently is not to be maintained by successive diver-useless combats is avoided, as well as the sions and excursions;-in a word, if you are not constantly occupied in that little warfare, inactivity destroys the force of troops who rest constantly on the defensive. They are obliged to be constantly on the alert, night and day; while, on the other hand, offensive expeditions, wisely combined, raise the spirit of the soldier, and prevent him from having time to ponder on the real cause of his dan-garding that period. Abounding in anecdote, gerous situation.

"It is in the offensive that you find in the French soldier inexhaustible resources. His active disposition, and valour in assaults, double his power. A general should never hesitate to march with the bayonet against the enemy, if the ground is favourable for the use of that weapon. It is in the attack, in fine, that you accustom the French soldier to every species of warfare,-alike to brave the enemy's fire, which is generally little hurtful, and to leave the field open to the development of his intelligence and courage.

We have room for no more extracts: those which have been already given will convey a clear idea of the character of this work. It possesses the merits, and exhibits the defects, of all the memoirs by the leaders of the ambitious or war party in France, re

full of patriotic spirit and military adventure, it at the same time presents all the prejudices and errors of that party,-a profound and unreasonable hatred of this country-an impassioned enthusiasm for the glory of France a deliberate and apparently sincere belief, that whatever opposes its elevation is to be looked upon with instinctive and unconquerable aversion. In this respect, the opinions of this party in France are utterly extravagant, and not a little amusing. They make no allowances for the differences of national feeling-yield nothing to national rivalrynever transport themselves into the breasts of their antagonists in the strife, or of the people they are oppressing, but take for granted, as a matter concerning which there can be no dis

"One of the greatest difficulties in war is to accustom the soldier to the fatigues of marching. The other powers of Europe will attain with difficulty in this respect the degree of perfection which the French soldier pos-pute, that whatever resists the glory of France sesses. His sobriety and physical constitution are the real causes of the marked superiority he has acquired over the Austrians in that particular.

"Rapidity of march, or rather an able combination of marches, almost invariably determine the fate of war. Colonels of infantry, therefore, should be indefatigable in their endeavours to train their soldiers progressively to ordinary and forced marches. To attain that object, so essential in war, it is indispensable

is an enemy of the human race. There are many writers of intelligence and ability in whom we cannot pardon this weakness; but, recollecting the tragic fate of Marshal Ney, and pitying the ulcerated hearts of his relations, we find more excuse for it in his biographer, and look forward with interest to the concluding volumes of this work, which will contain still more interesting matter-the Peninsular campaigns, the Russian retreat, the rout of Waterloo.

ROBERT BRUCE.*

A Freedome is a noble thing;
Freedome makes man to have liking;
Freedome all solace to men gives;
He lives at ease that freely lives.

THE discovery of the bones of ROBERT BRUCE, among the ruins of Dunfermline abbey, calls for some observations in a journal intended to record the most remarkable events, whether of a public or a domestic nature, which occur during the period to which it refers; and it will never, perhaps, be our good fortune to direct the attention of our readers to an event more interesting to the antiquary or the patriot of Scotland, than the discovery and reinterment of the remains of her greatest hero.

BARBOUR'S BRUCE.

to the distant and barbarous period when the independence of our country was secured by a valour and ability that has never since been equalled; and in returning from his recent grave to take a nearer view of the difficulties which he had to encounter, and the beneficial effects which his unshaken patriotism has confirmed upon its people.-Had we lived in the period when his heroic achievements were fresh in the public recollection, and when the arms of England yet trembled at the name of Bannockburn, we would have dwelt with enthusiasm on his glorious exploits. A nation's gratitude should not relax, when the lapse of five subsequent centuries has not produced a rival to his patriotism and valour; and when this long period has served only to develope the blessings which they have conferred upon his country.

It is satisfactory, in the first place, to know that no doubt can exist about the remains which were discovered being really the bones of Robert Bruce. Historians had recorded that he was interred "debito cum honore in medio Ecclesiæ de Dunfermline;" but the ruin of the abbey at the time of the Reformation, and the subsequent neglect of the monu- Towards a due understanding, however, of ments which it contained, had rendered it the extraordinary merits of Robert Bruce, it difficult to ascertain where this central spot is necessary to take a cursory view of the really was. Attempts had been made to ex-power with which he had to contend, and of plore among the ruins for the tomb; but so the resources of that kingdom, which, at that entirely was the form of cathedral churches critical juncture, providence committed to his forgotten in this northern part of the island, arms. that the researches were made in a totally different place from the centre of the edifice. At length, in digging the foundations of the new church, the workmen came to a tomb, arched over with masonry, and bearing the marks of more than usual care in its construction. Curiosity being attracted by this circumstance, it was suspected that it might contain the remains of the illustrious hero; and persons of more skill having examined the spot discovered that it stood precisely in the centre of the church, as its form was indicated by the existing ruins. The tomb having been opened in the presence of the Barons of Exchequer, the discovery of the name of King Robert on an iron plate among the rubbish, and the cloth of gold in which the bones were shrouded, left no room to doubt that the long wished-for grave had at last been discovered; while the appearance of the skeleton, in which the breast-bone was sawed asunder, afforded a still more interesting proof of its really being the remains of that illustrious hero, whose heart was committed to his faithful associate in arms, and thrown by him, on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, amidst the ranks of the enemy, with the sublime expression, "Onwards, as thou wast wont, thou fearless heart."

Such an event demands a temporary pause in the avocations and amusements of life. We feel called on to go back, in imagination,

* Blackwood's Magazine, Dec. 1819. Written at the time of the discovery of the remains of Robert Bruce in the church of Dunfermline.

The power of England, against which it was his lot incessantly to struggle, was, perhaps, the most formidable which then existed in Europe. The native valour of her people, distinguished even under the weakest reign, was then led on and animated by a numerous and valiant feudal nobility. That bold and romantic spirit of enterprise which led the Norman arms to the throne of England, and enabled Roger de Hauteville, with thirty fol lowers, to win the crown of the two Sicilies, still animated the English nobles; and to this hereditary spirit was added the remembrance of the matchless glories which their arms had acquired in the wars of Palestine. The barons, who were arrayed against Robert Bruce, were the descendants of those iron warriors who combated for christendom under the wall of Acre, and defeated the whole Saracen strength in the battle of Ascalon; the banners that were unfurled for the conquest of Scotland, were those which had waved victorious over the arms of Saladin; and the sovereign who led them, bore the crown that had been worn by Richard in the Holy Wars, and wielded in his sword the terror of that mighty name, at which even the accumulated hosts of Asia were appalled.

Nor were the resources of England less formidable for maintaining and nourishing the war. The prosperity which had grown up with the equal laws of our Saxon ancestors, and which the tyranny of the early Norman kings had never completely extinguished, had revived and spread under the wise and

from the devastation that had preceeded it; | is implied an entire dereliction of all that is and the peasants, forgetting the stern warrior valuable in political blessings,-a security that in the beneficent monarch, long remembered they will remain permanent. There is no exhis sway, under the name of the "good King ample, perhaps, to be found in the history of Robert's reign." mankind, of political freedom being either effectually conferred by a sovereign in gift, or communicated by the force of foreign arms; but as liberty is the greatest blessing which man can enjoy, so it seems to be the law of nature that it should be the reward of intrepidity and energy alone; and that it is by the labour of his hands, and the sweat of his brow, that he is to earn his freedom as well as his subsistence.

Least of all are such advantages to be anticipated from the conquest of a free people. That the dominion of free states over conquered countries is always more tyrannical

But the greatness of his character appeared most of all from the events that occurred after his death. When the capacity with which he and his worthy associates, Randolph and Douglas, had counterbalanced the superiority of the English arms, was withdrawn, the fabric which they had supported fell to the ground. In the very first battle which was fought after his death, at Hamildon Hill, a larger army than that which conquered at Bannockburn was overthrown by the archers of England, without a single knight couching his spear. Never, at any subsequent period, was Scotland able to withstand the more powerful arms of than that of any other form of government, the English yeomanry. Thenceforward, her military history is little more than a melancholy catalogue of continued defeats, occasioned rather by treachery on the part of her nobles, or incapacity in her generals, than any defect of valour in her soldiers; and the independence of the monarchy was maintained rather by the terror which the name of Bruce and the re-posed to impute it to a special interposition of membrance of Bannockburn had inspired, than by the achievements of any of the successors to his throne.*

The merits of Robert Bruce, as a warrior, are very generally acknowledged; and the eyes of Scottish patriotism turn with the greater xultation to his triumphs, from the contrast which their splendour affords to the barren and humiliating annals of the subsequent reigns. But the important coNSEQUENCES of nis victories are not sufficiently appreciated. While all admit the purity of the motives by which he was actuated, there are many who lament the consequences of his success, and perceive in it the source of those continued hostilities between England and Scotland which have brought such incalculable calamities upon both countries, and from which the latter has only within half a century begun to recover. Better would it have been, it is said for the prosperity of this country, if, like Wales, she had passed at once under the dominion of the English government, and received, five centuries ago, the present of that liberty which she so entirely lost during her struggles for national independence, and which nothing but her subsequent union with a free people has enabled her to obtain.

There is something, we think, a priori, improbable in this supposition, that, from the assertion of her independence under Robert Bruce, Scotland has received any injury. The instinct to maintain the national independence, and resist aggression from foreign powers, is so universally implanted among mankind, that it may well be doubted whether an obedience to its impulse is likely in any case to produce injurious effects. In fact, subjugation by a foreign power is itself, in general, a greater calamity than any benefits with which it is accompanied can ever compensate; because, in the very act of receiving them by force, there

*Henry's Britain, vol. vii.

has been observed ever since the birth of liberty in the Grecian states, by all who have been so unfortunate as to be subjected to their rule. If we except the Roman republic, whose wise and beneficent policy is so entirely at variance with every thing else which we observe in human affairs, that we are almost dis

divine providence, there is no free state in ancient or modern times, whose government towards the countries whom it subdued has not been of the most oppressive description. We are accustomed to speak of the maternal government of free governments, but towards their subject provinces, it is generally the cruel tyranny of the step-mother, who oppresses her acquired children to favour her own offspring.

Nor is it difficult to perceive the reason why a popular government is naturally inclined, in the general case, to severity towards its dependencies. A single monarch looks to the revenue alone of the countries whom he has subdued, and as it necessarily rises with the prosperity which they enjoy, his obvious interest is to pursne the measures best calculated to secure it. But in republics, or in those free governments where the popular voice exercises a decided control, the leading men of the state themselves look to the property of the subject country as the means of their individual exaltation. Confiscations accordingly are multiplied, with a view to gratify the people or nobles of the victorious country with grants of the confiscated lands. Hatred and animosity are thus engendered between the ruling government and their subject provinces; and this, in its time, gives rise to new confiscations, by which the breach between the higher and lower orders is rendered irreparable. Whoever is acorainted with the history of the dominion which the Athenian and Syracusan populace held over their subject cities; with the government of Genoa, Venice, and Florence, in modern times; or with the sanguinary rule which England exercised over Ireland during the three centuries which followed her subjugation, will know that this statement is not overcharged.

On principle, therefore, and judging by the experience of past times, there is no room to doubt, that Bruce, in opposing the conquest of

circumstances, it is not to be doubted that they would have been unable to withstand the seeds of resistance to the English arms, which the French emissaries would have sedulously spread through the country. And if the authority of England was again re-established, new and more extensive confiscations would of course have followed; the English nobles would have been gratified by grants of the most considerable estates on the north of the Tweed, and the bonds of military subjection would have been tightened on the unfortunate people who were subdued.

Scotland by the English arms, doing what the | mised successful rapine to their arms. In such real interest of his country required; and that how incalculable soever may be the blessings which she has since received by a union, on equal terms, with her southern neighbour, the result would have been very different had she entered into that government on the footing of involuntary subjugation. In fact, it is not difficult to perceive what would have been the policy which England would have pursued towards this country, had she prevailed in the contest for the Scottish throne; and it is by following out the consequences of such an event, and tracing its probable influence on the condition of our population at this day, The continuance of the wars between France that we can alone appreciate the immense obli- and England, by presenting favourable opgations we owe to our forefathers, who fought|portunities to the Scotch to revolt, combined and died on the field of Bannockburn.

Had the English then prevailed in the war with Robert Bruce, and finally succeeded in establishing their long wished-for dominion in this country, it cannot be doubted, that their first measure would have been to dispossess a large portion of the nobles who had so obstinately maintained the war against them, and substitute their own barons in their room. The

pretended rebellion of Scotland against the legitimate authority of Edward, would have furnished a plausible pretext for such a proceeding, while policy would of course have suggested it as the most efficacious means, both of restraining the turbulent and hostile spirit of the natives, and of gratifying the great barons by whose force they had been subdued. In fact, many such confiscations and grants of the lands to English nobles actually took place, during the time that Edward I. maintained his authority within the Scottish territory.

with the temptation which the remoteness of their situation and the strength of their country afforded, would have induced continual civil wars between the peasantry and their foreign masters, until the resources of the country were entirely exhausted, and the people sunk in hopeless submission under the power that oppressed them.

But in the progress of these wars, an evil' of a far greater and more permanent description would naturally arise, than either the loss of lives or the devastation of property which they occasioned. In the course of the pro-tracted contest, the LANDED PROPERTY OF THE COUNTRY WOULD ENTIRELY HAVE CHANGED MASTERS; and in place of being possessed by natives of the country permanently settled on their estates, and attached by habit and common interest to the labourers of the ground, it would have come into the hands of foreign noblemen, forced upon the country by military power, hated by the natives, residing always on their English estates, and regarding the people of Scotland as barbarians, whom it was alike impolitic to approach, and necessary to curb by despotic power.

The consequences of such a measure are very obvious. The dispossessed proprietors would have nourished the most violent and inveterate animosity against their oppressors; and the tenantry on their estates, attached by feudal and clanish affection to their ancient masters, would have joined in any scheme for their restoration. The seeds of continual discord and hatred would thus have been sown between the lower orders and the existing proprietors of the soil. On the other hand, the great English barons, to whom the confiscated lands were assigned, would naturally prefer the society of their own country, and the security of their native castles, to the unproductive soil and barbarous tribes on their northern estates. They would in consequence have relinquished these estates to factors or agents, and, without ever thinking of residing among a people by whom they were detested, have sought only to increase, by rigorous ex-ple bore to the families of original landlords, and actions, the revenue which they could derive from their labour.

But while such would be the feelings and policy of the English proprietors, the stewards whom they appointed to manage their Scotch estates, at a distance from home, and surrounded by a fierce and hostile population, would have felt the necessity of some assistance, to enable them to maintain their authority, or turn to any account the estates that were committed to their care. Unable to procure military assistance, to enforce the submission of every district, or collect the rents of every property, they would, of necessity, have looked to some method of conciliating the people of the country; and such a method would naturally suggest itself in the attachment which the peo

the consequent means which they possessed of swaying their refractory dispositions. These In progress of time, however, the natural unhappy men, on the other hand, despairing fervour of the Scottish people, their hereditary of the recovery of their whole estates, would animosities against England, the exertions of be glad of an opportunity of regaining any part the dispossessed proprietors, and the oppression of them, and eagerly embrace any proposal by of the English authorities, would have occa- which such a compromise might be effected. sioned a revolt in Scotland. They would na- The sense of mutal dependence, in short, would turally have chosen for such an undertaking have led to an arrangement, by which the esthe moment when the English forces were en- tates of the English nobles were to be subset to gaged in the wars of France, and when the the Scottish proprietors for a fixed yearly rent, and entire desertion of the nothern frontier pro- they would take upon themselves the task to