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FRENCH INFANT MARINE.

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tion, will have another opportunity of founding other Schools, and forming other Captains.

There is somewhat of whim and folly in this Marine schoolery, that ill agrees with the acknowledged ta lents of Buonaparte. But he expects nothing from it; and it is only one of those bagatelles which serve to amuse the Parisians. We, indeed, have treated it seriously, as if intended to be the source of future greatness to the infant Navy of France. We have not considered, that the best way to inspire French boys with contempt for the enemies they are destined as men to cope with, is to educate them in a situation where they must witness these very enemies cooping up, driving in, beating, and destroying every vessel belonging to France. We have not ascribed to the constant view of the British blockading squadron in the offing any such wonderful effects. We have not endeavoured to comprehend how a home education of two, three, or four years, can better qualify a young man, of from fifteen to twenty years of age, for the naval service, than the system by which the British navy ́ is replenished with youthful heroes, gallant officers, enterprising captains, and glorious veterans. When we see our young midshipmen old (for we may use the expression) in service our boys who have visited the Eastern, and Western, and Northern seas, and have fought the battles of their country in various situations-when we see the fruits of this education after such are intrusted with command, it is with ineffable contempt we deign to notice that which Gallic vanity would attempt to compare with it! The comparison is, indeed, a splendid one for Old England and her Old Naval School, against France and her New Naval School, and all her new principles in morality, in religion, and in politics!

It is scarcely possible that persons embarked in the profession of the navy at the age of twenty, or any

VOL. XV.

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period nearly advanced to that, can ever reach the same degree of skill and excellence acquired by a more early entrance into a sailor's life. Our habits are formed while yet we are very young; and the total difference between the situation of seamen and landsmen, renders it almost intolerable to endure the hardships of the former, if not initiated at an age, when, like wax, the body as well as the mind is capable of taking any impression. It is, therefore, in this line, that, unlike to any other, it is better to begin with practice, and add theory to it. The very habit of seamanship (if we may say so), being the most diffi cult part of the profession, must be earliest begun with; and while our boys are at sea, they imbibe, with wonderful facility, a thorough knowledge of those matters which they have every day experimentally proved, as well as theoretically inculcated. Above all things, they acquire by emulation, as it were from their cradle, an heroic firmness, a cool intrepidity in action, a contempt for dangers the most appalling, an ardent thirst for glory, a delight in their profession, and a skill and precision in every branch pertaining to it, which cannot be equalled, far less excelled, by all the inventions of Gallic ingenuity.

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. Such are Britain's Defenders, and such are to be her French Invaders. May Britain never have more to fear than the result of their meeting half-seas over!

ANECDOTES OF BUONAPARTE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE MORNING CHRONICLE.

[Oct. 16.]

SIR,

ΜΑ

ANY particulars have been related, at different times, respecting the private habits and manners of this extraordinary person, but seldom with suffi

cient

ANECDOTES OF BUONAPARTE.

51

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cient regard to truth: partiality has represented him as a demi-god, and prejudice as a monster. He has no just claim to either character. The writer of this has recently had frequent opportunities of conversing with him, of seeing him both in public and in the bosom of his family, and will endeavour to give a short, but unbiassed, account of a man whose importance is beyond dispute, though his virtues may be questioned, and his foibles thought more numerous than those of most others. He is not, as Mr. Wil liam Cobbett supposes him, by any means an angel in his person, or a divinity in his mind; neither is he, as the Morning Post asserts, a stunted goblin, a prey. to turbulent passions, and delighted with human misery moreover, he does not at all answer the conception commonly entertained of him by that person who calls himself honest John Bull; for he has only one head, no visible horns or tail, and not a nail or a tooth of more than the ordinary length. He has, however, many strange, and even laughable, peculiarities both in appearance and manners. He is, for instance, accustomed to take off all his clothes on going to bed, but previously puts on a night-shirt and a cap. From i the moment sleep seizes him to that in which he awakes, he continues in a state of repose, and rises as soon as ever he gets up in the morning. His first meal, which he preposterously terms his breakfast, consists of different articles, and he usually eats this with the appetite of one who had not eaten any thing since the evening before. In mounting his horse, which he invariably does when he rides, he puts his left foot first into the stirrup; and has been frequently seen to hold the reins with one hand, and his whip with the other, and in this curious fashion, booted and spurred, and wearing a black hat, and sometimes a blue coat, bas he gallopped for nearly half a mile, as if in a hurry, and then trotted, or even walked, his

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horse, as if he were at leisure. He is as bulky as men, of his size commonly are, and, should he ever lose his flesh, will probably fall away somewhat. By the singular accident of having been born in the year 1769, he is now more than forty; his length of life will depend upon the number of years he may survive: he is, it is reported, occasionally indisposed by slight fits of illness; his health would otherwise be uninterrupted. With regard to temperance, he might safely be upbraided for the want of that virtue, were he to drink as many cups of brandy as he does of coffee, which, however, it is not his custom to do.

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Among the caprices and absurdities of his disposition may be ranked, a droll method he has of speaking to every one with whom he converses, and very often waiting for an answer after he has asked a question; add to these, his practice of sitting on chairs, Jolling on sofas, writing with an ordinary pen and ink, and being cheerful when he is in good spirits; and you may be said to have a tolerably exact picture of the present French Emperor, of whom, if you like this sketch, you shall hear something more at a future period,

From, Sir, yours, Swan Tavern, near St. Martin's

M.

Lane, Oct. 11.

THE DISTRESSED TRAVELLERS; or, LABOUR IN,

VAIN.

BY WILLIAM COWPER, ESQ..

(An excellent New Song to a Tune never sung before.)

THE

[From the same, Oct. 18.]

HE following Jeu d'Esprit, by Mr. Cowper, author of The Task, descriptive of one of his rural .. excursions, is not in his published Poems, or in his posthumous Works:

I SING

THE DISTRESSED TRAVELLERS.

ISING of a journey to Clifton *,

We would have perform'd if we cou'd;
Without cart or barrow to lift on

Poor Mary †, and me, through the mud.
Slee, sla, slud,

Stuck in the mud;

O it is pretty to wade through a flood!
So away we went slipping, and sliding,
Hop, hop, à la mode de deux frogs;
'Tis near as good walking as riding,
When the ladies are dress'd in their clogs.
Wheels, no doubt,

Go briskly about,

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But they clatter, and rattle, and make such a rout. DIALOGUE.

SHE.

"Well! now, I protest it is charming; How finely the weather improves!,

That cloud is rather alarming,

How slowly and stately it moves!"

HE.

"Pshaw! never mind,

'Tis not in the wind,

We are travelling south, and shall leave it behind."

SHE.

"I am glad we are come for an airing, For folks may be pounded and penn'd, Until they grow musty, not caring

To stir half a mile to an end."

НЕ.

"The longer we stay,

The longer we may;

It's a folly to think about weather or way.”

SHE.

"But now I begin to be frighted,
If I fall, what a way I should roll!
I am glad that the bridge was indicted:
Stay! stop! I am sunk in a hole!"

A village near Olney.

Mrs. Unwin.

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