will belong properly to his most Christian Majesty for the support of his territories.

VII. In the event of his most Christian Majesty being resolved to wage war in any part of India, it shall be allowed to the Commander in Chief of the French forces to raise a levy of 14,000 men, whom he shall cause to be trained in the same manner as they are in France, and to be put under French discipline.

VIII. In the event of any power whatsoever attacking the French in their Cochinchinese territory, the King of Cochinchina shall furnish 60,000 men or more in land forces, whom he shall clothe, victual, &c. &c.'

It is unnecessary to stop here, to point out the policy of the court of France in framing this treaty; which, luckily for the interests of the East India Company, was frustrated, partly by the influence of the mistress of Conway, the Governor of Pondicherry, but principally by the event of the Revolution. Adran, by the court of France created Bishop and appointed Plenipotentiary, proceeded to Pondicherry; and although there crossed in his purposes, as it has been said, by the intrigues of Madame de Vienne, yet he did not desist from his grand design of re-instating Caung-shung on the throne. With the young prince, he proceeded to the coast of Cochin China where he learned that the king, after a miserable subsistence for two years on the island, had been induced by the circumstance of the two usurpers contending with each other, to land in his kingdom: that the people rose in his support; and that the royal party proceeded to Sai-gong, the works of which were immediately put into good defence. Here they were joined in 1790 by bishop Adran, and measures were taken during the year for equipping a fleet and army.

In 1791 the rebel Long-niang or Quang-tung died; and Caungshung immediately commenced his operations by surprising. attacking, and destroying the fleet of Yin-yac the merchant king. It was in the spring of the following year 1793 that the British squadron anchored in the bay of Turon, on the east coast of Cochin China; and at that time, the southern part had submitted to the lawful sovereign. Mr. Barrow, however, is enabled to continue the narrative by the aid of the same information from which most of the preceding part is derived: that is, from a manuscript memoir of a Mons. Barissy, a French naval officer, commanding a frigate in the service of Caung-shung.

Yin yac did not long survive the destruction of his fleet, but died in 1793. His son succeeded, who was dispossessed. of his capital Quin-nong in 1796 by Caung shung. Against the son of the other usurper, who kept possession of the kingdom of Tung-quin, the Gustavus of Cochin China was preparing an

armament

armament in 1800. Though no authentic accounts since this period have reached England, there are grounds for believing that he has re-conquered the whole of that country.'

After due allowance is made for the usual exaggeration of a panegyrist, and for the natural exaggeration of a Frenchman, still Caung-shung must be allowed to be a great and extraordinary man. By the aid of an education which may be called European, he has risen superior to those around him; and his superiority does not consist solely in patience, in fortitude under evil, and in atchievement of victory, but by civil regulations, and by the introduction of arts, he has impelled his country towards civilization: the industry, the ingenuity, and the energy of his people are excited; and probably they will soon be enabled to assume a more elevated rank among the nations of Asia:

From the year 1790, in which Caung-shung returned to Cochinchina, to 1800, he was allowed to enjoy only two years of peace, 1797 and 1798: and these two years were, in all probability, the most important of his hitherto troublesome reign. Under the auspices of the bishop Adran, who in every important undertaking was his oracle, he turned his attention to the improvement of his country. He established a manufactory of salt petre in Fen-tan (Tsiompa of the charts), opened roads of communication between important posts and considerable towns, and planted them on each side with trees for shade. He encouraged the cultivation of the areca nut and the betel pepper, the plantations of which had been destroyed by the army of the usurper. He held out rewards for the propagation of the silk-worm; caused large tracts of land to be prepared for the culture of the sugar-cane; and established manufactories for the preparation of pitch, tar, and resin. He caused several thousand match-locks to be fabricated; he opened a mine of iron ore, and constructed smelting' furnaces. He distributed his land forces into regular regiments, es tablished military schools, where officers were instructed in the doctrine of projectiles and gunnery by European masters. Adran had translated into the Chinese language a system of military tactics, for the use of his army. In the course of these two years he constructed at least 300 large gun-boats or row gallies, five luggers, and a frigate on the model of an European vessel. He caused a system of naval tactics to be introduced, and had his nava! officers instructed in the use of signals. One of the English gentlemen, whom I mentioned to have been at Sai-gong in the year 1800, saw a fleet of ships consisting of 1200 sail under the immediate command of this Prince, weigh their anchors and drop down the river in the highest order, in three separate divisions, forming into lines of battle, in close and open or der, and going through a variety of manœuvres by signals as they proceeded along.

During this interval of peace he likewise undertook to reform the. system of jurisprudence, in which he was no doubt very ably assisted, by the Bishop. He abolished several species of torture, which the

law

law of the country had hitherto prescribed; and he mitigated punishments that appeared to be disproportionate to the crimes of which they were the consequence. He established public schools, to which parents were compelled to send their children at the age of four years, under certain pains and penalties. He drew up a system of rules and regulations for the commercial interests of his kingdom; caused bridges to be built over rivers; buoys and sea marks to be laid down in all the dangerous parts of the coast; and surveys to be made of the principal bays and harbours. He sent missions into the mountainous districts on the west of his kingdom, inhabited by the Laos and the Miantsé, barbarous nations whom he wished to bring into a state of civilization and good government. These mountaineers are the people whom the Chinese designate by the degrading appellation of Men with tails;" though, in all probability, they are the regular descendants of the true original inhabitants of this long civilized empire. In short, this Monarch, by his own indefatigable application to the arts and manufactures, like Peter of Russia, without his brutality, aroused by his individual example the energies of his people, and, like our immortal Alfred, spared no pains to regenerate his country. His activity and exertions will readily be conceived from the circumstance of his having, in less than ten years, from a single vessel,accumulated a flect of twelve hundred ships, of which three were of European construction; about twenty were large junks, similar to those of China, but completely manned and armed; and the rest were large gun-vessels and transports."

His daily mode of life is thus described:

To enable him the better to attend to the concerns of his government, his mode of life is regulated by a fixed plan. At six in the morning he rises from his couch, and goes into the cold bath. At seven he has his levee of Mandarins: all the letters are read which have been received in the course of the preceding day, on which his orders are minuted by the respective secretaries. He then proceeds to the naval arsenal, examines the works that have been performed in his absence, rows in his barge round the harbour, inspecting his ships of war. He pays particular attention to the ordnance department; and in the foundery, which is erected within the arsenal, cannon are cast of all dimensions.

About twelve or one he takes his breakfast in the dock yard, which consists of a little boiled rice and dried fish. At two he retires to his apartment and sleeps till five, when he again rises; gives audience to the naval and military officers, the heads of tribunals or public departments, and approves, rejects, or amends whatever they may have to propose. These affairs of state generally employ his attention till midnight, after which he retires to his private apartments, to make such notes and memorandums as the occurrences of the day may have suggested. He then takes a light supper, passes an hour with his family, and between two and three in the morning retires to his bed; taking, in this manner, at two intervals, about six hours of rest in the four-and-twenty.'

In chapter 10, the author gives a sketch of the manners, character, and condition of the natives of Turon. With regard to ingenuity, he thinks that these people are inferior to those of China: but they excel in personal courage; and they are not destitute of arts and manufactures, though the want of security (the curse attendant on a despotic government) prevents them from being rapidly advanced. On this point, Mr. B.'s reflections are very judicious; yet we cannot pass them over in a general sentence of praise, without noticing what appears to us a wonderful misunderstanding of the axiom of an oriental sage:

An Oriental sage (says Mr. B.) has observed that the proof of a just government and a well-regulated police" is, when a beautiful woman covered with jewels can travel abroad in perfect security." What would this sage have said of that government and that police, where a helpless and wealthy old woman, surrounded by a set of lusty and indigent servants, commits herself and her property to them and to the world with as much composure and confidence, as if her physical strength was not in the least inferior to theirs.'

It is scarcely necessary to remark that an old woman is less an object of temptation than a beautiful woman, to lusty servants. The oriental philosopher meant to put the strongest case, a double temptation, a beautiful woman, and a woman decked in jewels. Mr.B. has ruined the whole matter.-At p. 319, also, we think that the author is not very correct in his statement and inference. In a Cochin China boat, the company always sits in the fore part; and, as it would be a breach of good manners for the rowers to turn their backs on the passengers, they stand with their faces towards the bow, pushing instead of pulling the oars as is usually done in the western world.' We believe that in Sicily, at Malta, &c. the rowers all push; and because they push instead of pulling, therefore the company sits in the fore part.

Mr. Barrow cannot leave Cochin China without pointing out the advantages that would accrue to England from the possession of Turon. It is, he says, the Gibraltar of India : but Gibraltar employs 6000 of our troops. If we do not seize on Turon, however, still it may be wise to consider the propriety of opening a trade to Cochin China, and on this subject the author proposes some plans that are worthy of attention. We do not sympathise with him in his alarm respecting the constant drain of silver towards China :-would he be frightened if there were a drain of woollen goods or of hard-ware towards China?

The latter part of this volume is occupied with a short narrative of a journey to the residence of the chief of the Booshuanas;

Booshuanas; it is rather pleasing and important; and from the prospects opened by the expedition, though it cannot be said to have been very successful, we hope that a second visit has been already undertaken and executed. We need not longer detain the reader in stating our opinion of this volume, and of its author: the book is certainly very entertaining, and the writer is consequently intitled to commendation and public patronage: the latter, probably, he now solidly enjoys; and as in these cases the former is chiefly given in order that the latter may be obtained, praise may now, in the present instance, be almost withholden as superfluous. If Mr. B.'s talents cannot be more usefully employed for the community, we shall rejoice to hear that he has undertaken another voyage.

ART. II. Miscellaneous Poetry ;-and Select Icelandic Poetry, translated from the Originals; with Notes. By the Hon. W. Herbert. 2 Vols. Crown 8vo. 16s. Boards. Longman and Co.

WHI HEN we reflect on the early history of Iceland, and consider her superiority in arts and government over the other barbarians of Europe, we feel a degree of astonishment and regret at the suddenness of her fall from that proud distinction. The causes either of her rise or her decline have never, we believe, been satisfactorily explained; and a prefatory note to this collection, which briefly enters into the subject, will not be considered as having materially assisted our inquiries. Though we cannot justly expect a philosophical dissertation to introduce us to a few miscellaneous poems, yet, when the attempt was actually made to account for the decay of manufactures and municipal regulations, we could have wished that less consequence had been attributed to the wicked eruptions of Mount Hecla, and to the not less cruel accumulation of ice in the polar regions. We trust that the work on Icelandic literature, which Mr. Herbert holds out to our expectations, will afford our philosophers information somewhat more satisfactory. His accomplishments as a linguist, and his acquaintance with Danes of rank and learning, are advantages which few enjoy who might in other respects be more competent to such an undertaking: but it is possible that, before he has searched very deeply into Runic mysteries, some moral facts may strike the eye of Mr. Herbert himself, which will prove a more natural solution of the difficulty than the operations of the Fire-king, and the Frost-king, with whose agency he has hitherto found it necessary to be satisfied.