Alison's History of Europe [pp. 281-296]

Ali/son's Ilislory of Eturope.
But Willy he laugli'd and he made me his wife, of the intrigues and tergiversations of courts and
And wha was mair happy thio' a' his lang life? cabinets. During this fruitful period of exploits,
Its e'en my great comfort, now Willy is Rune,
Its e'en my great comfort, no Wily is gane, the effects of democratic ascendancy upon military
That he often said nea place was like his ane heame. operations are more than pointed at. he contrast
operations are more than pointed at. The contrast
I mind when I carried mry wark to yon stile. between the condition of the republican army under
When Willy was sdyking, the time to beguile, Massena, on the Alps, and of the Tmperialists under
Hie would fling me a daisy to put i' my breast,''.
Al e would fling me a daisy to put i' my breast, the Archduke of Austria, on the banks of the Po, in
And I hammer'd my noddle to make out a jest;
But merry or grave, Willy often would tell, the campaign of 1799, is drawn by Mr. Alison, in
There naen o' the lave that was like my ain sel; striking colors
And he spake what he thought, for I'd hardly a plack, " Cantoned in the rich plains of Italy, on the
When we narried, and nobbet ae gown to my back. banks of the Po, the Imperialists were amply sup When the clock had struck eighlt, I expected hlim hame, plied with all the comforts anrd luxuries of life,
And whieyles went to meet him as far as Duminleane; while its navigable waters incessantly brought up
Of a' hours it telt, eight,",as dearest tome; to the army the stores and supplies necessary to
But now, when it strikes, there's a tear i' my e'e. restore the losses of so active a campaign. On
0, Willy! dear Willy! it never can be, the side of the Republicans, again, tirtyeit
That age, timie, or death, can divide thee and nme; the side of the Republcans, again, thrty-egt
For that spot ot the earth, that's aye dearest to me, thousand men, without magazines or stores of
Is the turf that has cover'd my Willy frae me. provisions, were stationed on the desolate sum r7s.a7rlgtton City. mits of the Alps and the Apennines, shlivering
with cold, exhausted with fatigue, and almost des titute of clothing. For five months they had re ceived hardly any pay; the soldiers were without
ALISON,'S IIISTORY OF EUROPE. cloaks; their shoes were worn out, and wood was
even wanting to warm their frigid bivouacks.
NEWY-VOlK: HARnPER AND BROTHE~RS —1843.
Overwhelmed with the horrors of his situation,
There is a strife now going on between the pub- Championet retired to Nice, where he died of an
lishers of books, and the publishers of the mam- epidemic disorder, which soon broke out among the
moth weeliles, that, if kept up, will end in nothing troops, and swept off great multitudes; and his
short of a complete and popular revolution in litera- death dissolved the small remnants of discipline
ture. As book-publishers, the Messrs. Harper which remained in the army. The soldierstumulhave put themselves at the head of the opposition, tuously broke up their cantonments; crowds of deand are leading the way far in advance of their line. serters left their colors, and covered the roads to
The New World is republishing the Edingburgh France; and it was only by one of those nervous
and the other foreign quarterly reviews, at 25 cents flights of eloquence, which touch, even in the
a No.; or $1 a year. It reprints Blackwood at greatest calamnities, every generous heart, that St.
three four-pence-ha'-pennies. The Messrs. Hlar- Cyr succeeded in stopping the return of a large
per, in turn, have gone to press with M'Cullock's body which had left Genoa, and was proceeding on
Universal Gazetteer, or Geographical Dictionary, the road to Provence. Alarmed at the represenwhich is one of the most valuable works of the kind tations which he drew of the disastrous state of
in the English language. They have commenced the army, the government, which had now passed
forthwith to send out these winged mnessengers of from the feeble hands of the Directory into the
liknowledge, which carry to the remotest parts of firm grasp of Napoleon, took the most active steps
the union their tribute to the cause of popular in- to administer relief; several convoys reached the
struction, making its ways rosy and paths straight troops, and Massena, sent to assume the supreme
to the poorest citizen. For this important work command, succeeded, in some degree, in stopping
we reserve a special notice, and, in the mean time, the torrent of desertion and restoring the confireturn to the beautiful history of Tory Alison- dence of the army."
we may break a lance with him yet —but the time It was here that the Austrians, undler the Archfor the jousting has not come. The "parts" of his duke Charles, were abandoned by the Russians;
work noticed in our March No., extended from its which led to a rupture between their respective
commencement with the convocation of the States- cabinets. England had, heretofore, acted but alt
General in 1789, to the campaign of 1795. We insignificant part in the continental struggle; aid
come now to that which is most rich in splendid Napoleon, now fairly seated at the head of the
achievements and brilliant exploits -it embraces Republic, addressed a letter to the English governthe campaigns of Napoleon and of the Archduke ment proposingpeace. The opposition,through Fox
Charles —the great naval engagements of those and Erskine, advocated peace. But the government,
thrilling times-the history of Massena on the enraged by Lord Grenville and Mr. Pitt, overruled
Alps-and Suwarrow on the plains. Morengo and by contendling, " That the same necessity which
IHohenlinden —the conquests of England in India-i existed for the commencement and prosecution,
the northern coalition, together with a full account still called for perseverance in the war. The same
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