Even there I'll love! on her sweet smile, On her sweet voice the song shall run. Now for the imitation. It is intituled "The Bailiff.” The pauper poet, pure in zeal, Who aims the Muse's crown to steal, To buy a goose, or pay for port. He needs not Fortune's poison'd source, Nor guard the House of Commons yields, The Fleet, King's Bench, or Cold Bath Fields. For I, whom late, impransus, walking, The Muse beyond the verge had led; Beheld a huge bumbailiff stalking, Who star'd, but touch'd me not, and fled! Beneath the creeping catchpole's eye; And sometimes whistle for a dinner.' Р 74. Our readers are now pretty well qualified to judge with what propriety these mock odes are termed Imitations of Horace.' It only remains to inquire what are they as parodies? And here it must be admitted that the sentiments and images of the Roman poet are often ingeniously accommodated to modern occurrences and modern manners, and that the burlesque subjects are sometimes not unhappily chosen: thus,-Horace tells Agrippa that he must leave his victories to be celebrated by Varius, that his own muse never aspires to sing the praises of heroes, or the horrors of war: Horace in London gives up chivalry and the epic-ballad' to Walter Scott. Under the similitude of a ship, in shattered plight, Horace triumphs over an unfeeling beauty, now grown old and out of fashion, the modern poet over the philosophy and novels of Godwin. Horace congratulates his countrymen on the defeat of Mark Antony and Cleopatra: the modern poet rejoiceth in the return of tranquillity, after the imprisonment of Sir Francis Burdett in the Tower. For the most part, however, the reader is much more provoked with the flimsiness, than pleased with the in igenuity of the adaptations. He must have a curious taste who s pleased to see meet, even in a travestie of Horace, such personages as Mrs. Clarke and Old P., and the Sampford Ghost, and Giles Scroggins, and Dr. Solomon and Dutch Sam. Then the repetitions are endless:-the O. P. wars furnish three odes, George Colman, the younger,' an equal number, and the slow-lived ridicule of Bunyan and his Pilgrim find their way every where. The subjects too are all temporary,-many of them gone out of date, and more going. Sometimes the ephemeral theme is pursued with a continued reference to the original, and "the man of learning may be sometimes delighted and surprized by an unexpected parallel*" More frequently, however, Horace in London entirely forsakes his guide, and goes his own way on his own business. The English reader, therefore, loses but little of the amusement that the volume is calculated to give. We said that the odes were full of puns and verbal quibbles. These are sometimes not amiss, as, Unskill'd in repartee to shine, He ne'er exclaims, descend, ye nine !" I boast no heaps of sordid gain, To patch a Joseph of my own.' p. 164. more frequently as bad as the following, They built no house with spacious wings, Your peas But I'm not so green as to buy 'em. Go bring me the sirloin, you ninny; Who dines at a guinea a head Will ne'er by his head get a guinea.' p. 113. For the new light ever pining, Thomas groans, and hums and ha's ; But alas! the light is shining, Only through his lanthorn jaws.' p. 37. On the whole, we think the volume will detract very considerably from the reputation of the authors of the Rejected Addresses.' They certainly shew the same sprightliness now as before, the same general acquaintance with the chat of the day, the same facility of versifying, and the same knack of rhyming. But it is not any of those qualities singly, or even * Johnson's Life of Pope, all of them together, which has sold twelve editions of the Theatrum Poetarum ; it is the excellent mimicry, the wonderful flexibility of the voice, whose tones might almost be mistaken for those of Crabbe and Cobbett, of Scott and Moore. Wanting this, we think that the present volume will share a very small portion of its predecessor's popularity; and we are sure it cannot well have less than it deserves. The coarseness, impurity, and profanity, with which it is debased, fit it for any purpose rather than to be read. 2 ART. IV. The present State of Portugal, and of the Portuguese Army, with an Epitome of the ancient History of that Kingdom, a Sketch of the Campaigns of the Marquis of Wellington, for the last four Years: and Observations on the Manners and Customs of the People; Agriculture, Commerce, Arts, Sciences, and Literature. By A. Halliday, M.D. late Assistant Inspector of Hospitals, with the Portuguese Forces; 8vo. pp. 440. Longman and Co. 1812. FEW subjects are more attractive than the History of Por tugal; it abounds with romantic incidents, with patriotic and chivalrous deeds. To the military student it offers a large and instructive field of observation; and a long train of native chiefs, from Viriatus to Silveira, have signalized their valour and their skill on its eventful theatre. It does not, however, appear to have raised the imagination of Dr. Halliday to any very injurious excess; he tells his history without any sort of extravagance, is never guilty of the sin of fine writing, and has managed with commendable ingenuity, to draw up a somewhat dull memoir on a subject of uncommon interest. From this negative censure we must in fairness say, that there are some portions of the work which deserve to be exempted, and more especially those which refer to the author's own profession; they are well written, and are evidently the result of accurate knowledge and shrewd observations, expressed in firm and vigourous language. This publication is the second edition of a work that appeared some time ago, under the title of, 'Observations on the present State of the Portuguese Army, organized by Lieut. Gen Sir W. C. Beresford, &c.' on the whole, a judicious and well timed book. The newspaper writers and readers of this country knew but little of what was going on in Portugal, and Dr. Halliday gave them much new and valuable information, of which they did not fail to take advantage, and the public was soon in possession of the most material points of the work, without the necessity of purchasing a fifteen shilling quarto, the facts of which might have been comprised in a half-crown pamphlet. The present volume, is not a mere republication of the former, in a cheaper and more manageable form. Considerable additions have been made; and the whole is much corrected and improved. Dr. H. begins with a sketch of the general history of Portugal, foo short to be instructive, and too meagre to be interesting. To write an article of this kind with spirit and effect, requires a master-hand, equally prompt to seize, and skilful to characterize, those marking events, and ruling minds, which give its form and pressure,' to the body of the time,' and to discard all those circumstances of inferior moment, which, however necessary in the more voluminous comprehension of regular history, can find no place in a close and vigorous abstract. By saying that Dr. Halliday's essay is too short to convey the intended information, it is not our object to assert, that a clear and interesting brief of Portuguese history, might not. have been compressed into even a smaller space, but to censure the injudicious arrangement which, by passing over important circumstances that might have been dexterously connected with the main narrative, and by inserting imperfect description and detail, when they should have been altogether avoided, has very materially diminished the efficiency of this section of the book. From the fourth to the seventh chapters, both inclusive, on the actual state, laws, punishments, military and civil establishments, of the Portuguese army, and on the state of the kingdom at large, is, in all respects, the most valuable portion of Dr. Halliday's work. As, however, the leading parts have so long been before the public, it is unnecessary to recapitulate them. The Portuguese have been, at all times, a military nation, and although their reputation in this respect has been gradually sinking, yet the experiments of Count la Lippe, Sir Robert Wilson, and Marshal Beresford, have proved that their warlike character has not degenerated; and that if new Albuquerques and De Gamas were to arise, they would emulate their ancient fame. The composition of the army is well known, and the nature of its various divisions-cavalry, infantry of the line, caçadores, and ordenanzas, perfectly understood; but it appears that, notwithstanding the exertions of the English commanders, much yet remains to be done, in order to rectify abuses, and complete the military organization of Portugal. The following extract affords a specimen of the conduct of the commissariat. The Storekeeper, to please the Junta in Lisbon, endeavoured to pur chase the different articles of provision at the lowest rate; and, as the poor farmer either could not or would not sell at the price offered, the officers commanding brigades, or regiments, were obliged to have recourse to miliVOL, IX. 20 1 tary force, and what could be found was dragged forth and given to the troops. What was seized in this way, and generally what was bought by the Portuguese Commissaries, was paid for by bills upon the Junta in Lisbon; these bills, even in the best times, were seldom taken up till twelve months after they were due, and in the present state of the kingdom, they were considered as actually worth nothing. Every art was therefore used by the farmer to bury and conceal his grain; and it has not unfrequently happened, that the army has been starving for want of provisions, when the country, nay, the very village where they were quartered, was full of it. It was from these hidden stores that Massena drew the greater part of his supplies during the time that he remained in the position of Santarem, and which were discovered to him, for the most part, by the servants who had assisted in the concealment, and who were bribed to this villainy.” p. 251-252. The management of the medical department is described as having been grossly corrupt and ignorant, and only imperfectly amended by the utmost exertions of Sir William Beresford, and his professional agents. Before the invasion of Portugal by the French, the Chevalier Aranjo had directed his attention to the reformation of these abuses, and delegated the charge of investigation and correction to Dr. Abrantes, a gentleman, every way competent to the task. The intrigues of the superior board, baffled his efforts, and if we understand Dr. Halliday rightly, procured his imprisonment in the cells of the inquisition, whence he has only recently been released. The following quotation, though rather long, we insert, as an ample and interesting justification of Dr. H.'s accusations. • In examining a number of these formularies, I find that decoctions, of one sort or another, but generally of dried herbs, ridiculously simple, form more than three-fourths of the whole: almost every medicine is given in the form of decoction by the uninformed military Physicians; common mixtures are used but seldom, and I rarely found that they gave medi cines in the form of pills; bark was almost always given in decoction, and was used indiscriminately in every species of fever; purgatives were never had recourse to, and they appeared to have the utmost horror for the lancet. I am speaking here of what I observed in some of the provincial military hospitals; for, in the course of a most intimate acquaintance with the ge neral hospital practice in Portugal for nearly two years, I can declare, that I never knew general blood-letting used as a remedy in disease; and I have often seen objections made to the use of blisters in complaints where a liberal and free use of the lancet would have been most effectual. I have seen patients die from impeded respiration, the consequence of active and severe inflammation of the pleura, while the Physician calmly ordered the sacra ments to be administered, and trusted the cure to the known virtues of a common and trifling pectoral decoction. I allude to the practice of some physicians in the hospitals of Abrantes and Figueira.' I do not mention these things by way of reproach upon the profession, |