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who really merits a better fate, is fain to carry her pretty twin volumes from door to door in her muff, till she can find an upropos opportunity of confiding the extent of her secret misfortune to her friends. Whether the noble author of "VISIONS OF IRISH STORY" has been deterred by feelings of equal diffidence has stood in equal awe of the new Avatar of justice in the reviewing world, we shall not undertake to determine; but we think, that, like Lady Dacre, he might have been less bashful without damaging the delicacy of his modesty. It is true, that here and there we do find reason to applaud his prudence in withholding from the public a number of very good things. Among friends, in the conclave of the dining-room, with wine, and all appliances to assist the joke, such things perform their purpose and intent, without hurt and without offence; but introduced upon the public stage, the effect is very different, and the jocularity of friendship is apt to be regarded by the uninitiated as the satire of malice and of enmity. Thus, though these kinds of private poetry may be amusing enough to those who are in the secret, and even to the subjects of the banter, they run the risk of being regarded as effusions of personality, when submitted to the profane vulgar.

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The author of the "Visions of Irish Story," describes his work as a "The plot," he rhapsody of words."

"is somewhat misty, or mixty, says, with other matters; but the verses were written here, there, and everywhere; sometimes in sadness, sometimes in gladness, and sometimes on the spur of the moment;" and he further adds, generally of the performance, "These two unworthy cantos were intended as precursors to four, which would probably be worse by attempting to make them better. Not having any fame as an author, it is true, I cannot write myself down, even if I were to produce the threatened four harlequins; but the history of Ireland, after the Union, affords little aid for bringing on a work, and invention would not be safe." In short, the method pursued in the poem is the most immethodical possible.

It consists of anecdotes and incidents related gaily or gravely, as they happen to be suggested by the associations which recall them to recollection; a free and playful manner is

the general character of the workhere and there a quaint and satirical vein is indulged, but the impression throughout is good-natured and gentlemanly. The author, in several passages, seems to have had the tone of Beppo and of Don Juan in his earnor is this surprising, for he was in daily intercourse with Lord Byron while writing, and the manuscript passed under the revision of his Lordship. It was written at Genoa.

The first canto opens with a sketching description of the Irish character, in which the following anecdote is introduced:

"This brings to mind a story which I've heard,

About a Captain and a Lady Bird;
Not a canary nor a nightingale,
But in some thousands passing rich

withal.

He had the King's commission, and his

clothes

Made by the first of tailors, Mr Rothes. Prince of the Snip, he gaily cut his way Through yards of broad-cloth, Stulzer of his day.

The Captain had a tolerable person, Which many a pretty lass had made a

verse on;

He was besides in debt-that's nothing

new;

His debts were many, and his means were few.

But still he hoped she loved, and love is blind,

And so is Fortune, and the dame is kind. When in the ceremony the priest de

clares,

After repeating one or two short prayers, He on his bride his worldly gifts bestows,

Ah, there (said he) my old portmanteau goes.

From his account of the Irish character, the author then proceeds to give the history of the Rebellion,and finally, of the Union; but as he passes along, all sorts of men and topics are brought upon the carpet, and, as we have said, are treated not so exactly according to their deserts, as according to the ideas with which the recollections of them happen to be associated. The following imitation of Grattan's style, in a speech supposed to have been spoken on the occasion of Lord Castlereagh's motion for the Union, has considerable merit, both on account of the resemblance, and the heaped-up, unarrayed, yet effective masses of imagery with which the orator was in the prac

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done;

To be like poor Prometheus, vulture-torn, Cursing the hour that ever he was born. What did Prometheus do to anger Jove, Omnipotent in passion and in love,

That he for aye should feed upon his groans?

Stones he transform'd to men-you change them into stones.

For what is man, bereft of freedom's spark?
A helpless clod, a being mute and dark
As Milton's eyes-his glory was his mind;
His mind was free-he felt for human kind,
Or, like Ixion, with e'er-rolling wheel,
Condemn'd the torments of the damn'd to

feel:

Jove in his punishment should some diff””. rence make,

He with the shadow was content, you would the substance take;

Or doom'd, like Sisyphus, for aye to roll,

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But though this, and some of the other speeches, particularly Lord Cas tlereagh's, are characteristic and spirited, the best parts of the poem consist of the anecdotes. With the following adventure of three Highland officers in a post-chaise we shall conclude. "The officers the chay did nearly fill, The boy was gaily trotting down the hill, A gentleman was slowly driving up, Paddy had just toss'd off his stirrup cup; He saw the jontleman had just two wheels, Paddy therefore no sense of danger feels, But whispers to himself, The corricle I'll shave;'

Instead of that, he just drove o'er the

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He ask'd them civilly what else they will'd, Then heard their groans; says one, The Major's kill'd;

There'll be promotion in the regiment; This accident for some one's good is meant. Ech, Major, are you 'mongst dead or wounded?'

No; but I've got some thumps confounded

Frae Sandy's elbows; and, what's worse, my heart,

A piece of glass sticks in my hinder part.'— If that is all, you need not make a rout; You've got a kilt on, and we'll pluck it

out.

* Query.-Is not this a bull?-C. N,

Z.

COUNT BISMARK AND HIS WORKS.

1. Vorlesungen über die Taktik der Reuterey, von dem Grafen von Bismark Königlich Würtembergischen Obersten des dritten Reuter Regiments, BrigadeCommandeur, Adjutant Seiner Majestät des Königs, Commandeur des Königb. Würtimbergischen Militair-Verdienst-Ordens, Inhaber des goldnen Militair-EhrenZeichen 1. Klasse; des Kaiserlich Russischen St Georgen 4ter, und St AnnenOrden 2ter Klasse; des K. K. Oesterreichischen Leopold-Ordens, Ritter. Offizier des Königlick Frangösischen Ordens des Ehrenlegion, &c. &c. 2d Edition. 1819.

2. Elemente der Bewegunskunst eines Reuter-Regiments, als Auhang gudem Vorlesungen über dic Taktik des Reuterei, von einem Obersten der Reuterei mit 20 Planen. Carlsruhe. 1819.

3. Felddienst-Instriution für die Kavallerie von dem General Grafen von Bismark, Ziveite Auflage. Berlin und Posen. 1821.

"BELLA! Bella! horrida Bella!" One would have thought that these "piping times of peace" ought to save us from being either rode over by dragoons, or bayonetted by infantry that instead of investigating the merits of movements by threes, or double column from the centre, we should have been enlarging upon the subject of a reduced army, and a consequently increased cornucopia-that instead of inventing cuirasses for heavy dragoons, and queer moustachios for light, we should have been stripping one, and shaving the other; but the contrary is the fact. What although "Grim-visaged war has smoothed her

wrinkled front,"

we yet have," Essays on Cavalry Tactics,' ""New Regulations and Orders for the Army," " Annual Reviews at Hounslow," and "Weekly Levees at the Horse-Guards." To keep pace with which, the Military Gazette presents constantly to our view whole columns of beardless Captains and whiskered Cornets. But we must introduce Count Bismark to our reader.

sity of Frederick William did not develope itself with the usual precocity of German genius, such as distinguished the musical boy at Berlin, who, we are credibly informed, jumped out of his cradle and played the Schöne Minka with one hand, long before he could speak. No; Frederick William's abilities were more progressively unfolded. True," he had heard of battles;" for no doubt his father, the hussar, took care, after the peace of 1763, to

"Shoulder his crutch, and show how fields were won."

hero

any

This, however, did not create in our ambition for either a pelisse or moustachios; that "feuer der Jugend," which, as he says in his second lecture," die Reuteric so sinnig personificirt," did not then excite him to

"Mount the barbed steed."

Perhaps he was at that time of Von
Folard's opinion," that cavalry are not
a necessary part of an army,'
or had
heard Dr Johnson's definition of a
dragoon.* Be that as it may, he en-
tered the 14th Regiment of Hanove-
rian Light Infantry, as a cadet, in
1796, at the age of 13.

Frederick William Bismark, now General Count Bismark, and the author of the above publications, is the son of a hero of the Seven Years' War, Now Colonel Vandeleur tells us, who, though not recorded as being coe- page 69 of his work on the field duty val with the Great Frederick, was yet of cavalry, that " In general the light a very steady, well-conducted hussar, infantry in the German service are in the Hanoverian partisan corps of only raised for the war; they are comCount Luckner. The cavalry propen-posed of game-keepers, and armed

Dragoon-a soldier who fights indifferently, on foot or horseback.—JOHNSON'S Dictionary, Old Copy.

with rifles."* Perhaps, also, like the Roman Velites, they were taught to vault behind troopers, and to dismount with agility at a given signal; thus playing bo-peep with the enemy, and presenting them with infantry when they expected cavalry. This would have been an admirable school for a general, who, all military writers allow, should have a perfect knowledge of every branch of the service; it must also have contributed much to bodily health and activity. But we are wandering. Cadet Bismark, then, commenced his military career in this corps of game-keeper riflemen, in the year 1796.

It does not appear that the service of these added either to the rank or fame of the incipient general; for we hear nothing more of the cadet until the dissolution of the game-keepers in 1803, when, the Hanoverian army be ing disbanded, he entered the service of Nassau. Here, however, Frederick William did not long remain. Whether the Nassau game-keepers were a less military, less intellectual, or worse paid corps of riflemen than the dissolved Hanoverians, or whether the British pay and service held out temptations not to be resisted by the cadet, we shall not stop to inquire. Frede rick William was certainly not content with his then situation; for we find him soon after embarking for England, and enrolling himself in the Hanoverian Legion.

With the Legion he made the useless expedition to the North of Germany, under Lord Cathcart, in 1805, and with the Legion he came back again-his talent for single combat was now first displayed, not that aufeurendes talent, which he tells us every perfect general should possess ; it was rather a melancholy illustration of the pistol at Nothwaffe. Near the town of Tullamore, in Ireland, he had the misfortune to kill a brother officer in a duel. Concerning the circumstances which led to this affair, we believe that Bismark cannot in any way be censured, but the natural consequence of such a catastrophe obliged him to fly the country. He accordingly transferred his infantry, cavalry, and duel

ling ability to his mother-country, or Father-land, as the Germans have it, which by the way, thanks to Mr D'Israeli, is now a legitimate word in our language.

Bismark did not, as may be supposed, now rejoin the Hanoverian game-keepers; this would have been a sad degeneration after just leaving the Roman (German we mean) Legion; no, he speculated on his namesake, Frederick of Wirtemberg, and accordingly entered his service. This turned up trumps for the young hero; at the age of 24 he was made 1st Lieutenant in a regiment of Chevaux legers, and six months afterwards a Captain.

Captain Frederick William Bismark, of the Wirtembergian Chevaux legers, now began to sparkle in the military hemisphere. His conduct at Riedau, in the year 1809, is worthy of a place in Mill's History of Chivalry. With the squadron which he commanded, and which perhaps his German imagination magnified into a regiment, he attacked an entire battalion of Chasseurs, the natural consequence of which was, that he was dismounted in the middle of the enemy, his first lieutenant was dangerously wounded, and his second lieutenant killed.

"A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!!"

This was almost as bad as being in the Velites again. The Captain's horse being killed, he was obliged to make the best of it on foot, and accordingly cut and thrust with all the energy of an Homeric hero :

"Composed his thought, determined is his eye,

And fix'd his soul to conquer, or to die,"

Now the squadron being (as all Germans are) literary men, had no doubt read Hudibras, and had a lively recollection of his sequitur to "fighting and running away," for seeing that the Captain had exchanged back to the infantry, and that both the lieutenants were hors de combat, they adopted "the better part of valour," and wheeling about, very prudently took the road home. Indeed, small blame

*Duty of Officers Commanding Detachments in the Field, &c. By John Ormsby Vandeleur, Lieutenant-Colonel of the 8th, or King's Royal Irish Light Dragoons, Egerton. 1801.

VOL. XIX.

4 F

to them, if any, as they say in Ireland, for just at this moment they were exposed to a heavy fire of bullets, which of all fires is certainly not the pleasantest to sit before. However, as the squadron were galloping off, a conscientious corporal, who was no doubt a good Calvinist, began to think that he had very little chance of being made a serjeant if the Captain was left to be spitted on a parcel of bayonets, so screwing up "his courage to the sticking place," he pulled up his horse, and made the squadron a speech.

Now, whether the corporal's speech on that occasion was modelled after that of the great Frederick at the battle of Leuthen, of Buonaparte's at Marengo, or of Wellington's at Vittoria, must ever remain doubtful, as the particulars have not been handed down to us. One thing is clear, that if the Corporal had given each of the runaways a glass of Schnapps, it could not have had a better effect on their courage, for he had no sooner ended than on they rushed, with the Corporal at their head, like the wild Jâger and his hell-hounds, dashed into the midst of the Chasseurs, and liberated the Captain. They did not stop here, having set to work con amore, they thought it would be as well to prevent the possibility of being obliged to do the same thing over again, so they coolly cut the battalion of Chasseurs in pieces.

For this exploit Napoleon gave Bismark the cross of the Legion of Honour, and the King of Wirtemberg made him a knight of the military order of Merit.

Bismark, after this hot work among the Chasseurs, went to cool himself in Russia; he accompanied Marshal Ney with the 3d corps d'armée in 1812, and was constantly employed by him on outpost duty, and in all critical situations; no doubt, the peppering at Riedau made the Captain more cautious in this campaign, for he returned to Wirtemberg safe and sound when the war in Russia was over.

The King of Wirtemberg, however, did not forget his former gallantry, for as soon as the war in Saxony began, he gave Bismark the command of the 1st regiment of Chevaux legers. In this war he was made a complete

riddle of. At the battle of Leipsic, the Wirtemberg army changed sides, and Bismark returned home.

The dissolution of the Wirtemberg army did not, however, affect the wellearned rank and honours of Bismark; on the contrary, he now appears before us as the chief of Prince Adam's" staff, in which capacity he accompanied that prince when the King of Wirtemberg furnished his 2d contingent for 1814. He entered Paris with the allies on the 31st March, consequently saw all the big wigs who presided at Napoleon's downfall, and no doubt dined at Very's, took coffee at the Milles Colonnes, and played Rouge et Noir at Frescati; perhaps also he took a cool pipe of Canaster at a Palais Royal Estaminet in remembrance of old Deutschland.

It was in 1815 that Bismark displayed a more than ordinary talent for commanding large masses of cavalry, of which the following account is a striking proof, and is really worthy of record. Bismark's division of cavalry, in conjunction with the Hessian and Wirtemberg infantry, was opposed to the French on the Suffel ; it was formed up between these corps, and occupied a distance of nearly two miles and a quarter. The infantry attacked the villages of Lampertshum and Mundolsheim to the right, and Suffelweirsheim to the left. Bismark took advantage of this movement to attack the front of the French line. Under the fire of a strong battery which commanded the Suffel, he charged across the bridge, took the battery, routed the whole of the enemy's cavalry, which consisted of five regiments, and broke several squares of infantry this masterly and high-spirited attack immediately decided the battle. Thus we see the versatility of talent which the General possessed, being as well able to fight against his old friends the French, as for them; however, as this was the last battle in which the army of Wirtemberg was engaged, he, no doubt, thought it would be as well to make a good finale; and so indeed it was, for the King of Wirtemberg rewarded him with the title of Count.

Having thus traced our author's history from the Cadet to the Count, it is

* Nephew to the late King of Wirtemberg.

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