which shows the speaker to most advantage) but I have aways found the other methods, particularly the Socratic form of dialogue, much more effectual in fixingthe attention, and improving the faculties of the student.

SCOTTISH REVIEW.

Recollections of Paris in the years 1802.-3.-4 and 5. By John Pin, kerton, Esq. 2 vols. 8vo. Longman and Co. London 1806.

IN

N the human mind there seems to be an irresistible propensity for every man to tell his travels; and from the days of Sir John Mandeville to those of Mr John Pinkerton inclusive, hardly a mortal is to be found who has crossed the channel, but seems to have been impatient to communicate, on his return, the strange, things he has seen,-To tell of

Moving accidents by flood and field; "The Anthropophagi, and of men "Which each other eat."

Our countryman, Mr Pinkerton, it must be acknowledged, seems to have run no risks of this sort. He ap pears to have eaten of every thing at Paris, but men, although he assures us that both men and women are eaten there; and to have been in much greater danger from Paris ca pons and French wines, than from bayonets and grape shot. Not that he run no hazard on such "solemn" occasions, for we mean not to undervalue his social spirit; and "plus oc"cidit gula quam gladius" is an aneient observation, though a modern French logician of the St Cloud school might perhaps be inclined to dispute the axiom.

Mr Pinkerton's "Recollections of Paris" consist of no less than about a thousand pages, forming, what is stiled by the trade, two handsome

octavo volumes. He appears to have arrived in the French capital in 1802, and to have left it in 1805.During three or four years residence from home, it would be difficult almost for any man not to have observed something, tho' we must confess that Mr Pinkerton's memory, whatever he himself may think of it, has

not been so tenacious on this occasion as we could have wished; and we regret that it should have enabled him to recollect so little of what his readers would have been most desirous to have known.

He complains, (vol. 1. p. 74.) that the Apollo Belvidere is only visible in front. This is a singular remark Paris, and who must have visited the from one who had been so long in gallery of the Louvre a hundred

times. If Mr Pinkerton had been the little permitted to step over semicircular rail which partly inclo. ses that divine statue, he would have found, that in the lower part of the back there was inserted a bar of iron, which is fixed to a large stone behind. The statue is collóssal, being just seven foot high, and if Mr Pinkerton had been a little better skilled, either in statuary or in anatomy, he would have known, that nothing but a living creature with muscular strength could possibly stand upon its legs in the attitude of the Apollo, whose left arm is advanced supporting part of his robe, and who is stepping forward, after his arrow.

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He says, (p. 76.) "that the ladies "of Paris found that the face of the "Venus of Medici was void of ex66 pression by those who admire the "shade of changing passions and the splay of feature which captivate a "lover of sensibility." But is it possible that any thing of this sort could be expected in a block of marble? The actor can vary the expressions of his countenance from the beginning of the scene to the end. But the painter, or statuary, can

only

only seize one transient passion, and upon which he must for ever rest.

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Mr Pinkerton has been so obliging as to hint occasionally at politics, and which, indeed, on such a subject as Parisian Recollections, was not easily avoided. He facetiously tells us. (p. 451.) "that it may be a fair question, Whether the "conscience of a King, or his want of conscience, do most "harm to his people!" From several internal marks, it would appear that Mr Pinkerton has it in contemplation to revisit the French capital at some more convenient season. And with this view, he seems, upon every occasion, to have expressed himself with the utmost caution and reserve of the present ruling powers there. In the merry remark just now quoted, no allusion is made to the conscience, or want of conscience, in an upstart, or an Em. peror, or any enquiry instituted by a fair question on the quantum of haim that the alternative might produce to his people. This was highly commendable. Like Butler's he

vo, perhaps Mr Pinkerton

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Thought it no mean part of civil "State prudence to cajole the devil; "And not to handle him too rough "When he's got you in his cloven hool."

From politics, Mr Pinkerton pro. ceeds to the law; and after some compliments not worth quoting, to the French jurisprudence, he informs us (p. 471.)" Nor is a poor man (in that country) sentenced to long "imprisonment, because he gets drunk "and curses the magistrate, a cruelty "worthy of little minds, which are "afraid of little things." This alJusion to a late trial in England is obvious. But what is singular, in the very same page, Mr Pinkerton says, “I knew a lady (in Paris) who "was imprisoned because her name re"sembled that of an Italian Countess;

nor did she procure any indemnifi"cation!" He does not tell us for how many months or years this lady's imprisonment lasted. He mentions it dryly as a common occurrence at Paris. But if any thing of this sort had happened in Britain. either to a lady or a gentleman, it is probable that they would receive some little indemnification, and that the incarcerator, (Mr Pinkerton slides over his name,) would also hear of it.

From the law, Mr Pinkerton steps over to religion. He says, (p. 503.) "That the transition (of the Ex"change of Paris) from a church to

a theatre, are truly emblematical of "French commerce, which begins

with idle declamation, and ends "in jest. We forbear making any commentary on this indecent passage in the writings of a Scotsman.

He says, (p. 14.) speaking of St Cloud, "At present, ambition here "disposes of the destinies of Europe;

yet the loves and pleasures are not "unknown, for Mademoiselle George "solaces the toils of war." This is the first time we ever heard it surmised that Bonaparte had the smallest. inclination to the sex; and we could have wished to have known upon what grounds Mr Pinkerton has mentioned this fact.

Speaking of the hymn of the Marsellois, Mr Pinkerton says (vol. 2. p. 78.)" Like Dryden's Ode, it was "said to be written in one night."Who it was that said to Mr Pinkerton, that Dryden's Ode was written in one night, he has not informed us. But Doctor Johnson, in his life of Dryden, has told us on the authority of Doctor Birch, that this wonder. ful ode was written in a fort-night. Johnson's Lives of the Poets, Vol. 1, p. 300. If it would be hard to con demn a man for a word, it would be still more severe to punish him for half a word. Yet this is the "head "and front" of Mr Pinkerton's offending here."

After

After talking with great pomp of the National Library, and the pro digious collections of all the objects of natural history to be met with at Paris and Versailles, and which is very just, Mr Pinkerton sinks down with assuring his readers, (vol. 2. p. 263.) that there is an interesting series (of fossils)" in the cabinet of an "excellent friend of his in Fife "shire!"

Having favoured us with many excellent observations and sly hints, on politics, law, and religion, Mr Pinker. ton bestows some strictures on the Parisian notions on the subject of medicine. He assures us, that there are in that most enlightened capital, still superstitious practices. "A carpenter, in a paralytic com"plaint, was regularly attended by "the public executioner, who pre"tended to cure him by the use of "human fat, of which he was the sole "vender and administrator. As I employed the carpenter, the fact may be regarded as certain, how. "ever singular it may appear in the "nineteenth century." (Vol. 1. p. 297.) As Frenchmen, at least when alive, are commonly not very fat, this information may be a seasonable hint to any of our plump British, male or female, who may be disposed to view the curiosities of this renowned metropolis. For they may be assured, that as they pass along in their facres or cabriolets, the mouths of all the paralytic in Paris, to say nothing of that of the public executioner, on the score of his patients, will be watering at the sight of them.

"The corbillard, or Parisian bearse, "is remarkably simple. The coffin "is only covered with a cloth expo❝sed to the weather. The London "hearse is more compact, but the Edinburgh, of all others, the most elegant." (Vol. 2. p. 178.)

This last piece of information was most acceptable to our national par- ́

tiality. But besides this remarkable simplicity of the Parisian hearse, Mr Pinkerton has here omitted a little circumstance. For we have seen funerals pass along the streets of Paris, and much about the time too when Mr Pinkerton was there, when the simplicity was so remarkable, and indeed so refined, that there was no coffin at all; and where the body was merely covered with a cloth under the bare polis of the corbillard, drawn by one horse, and followed by one man, in a dark-coloured coat, with a silver medal at the button hole on his breast. Wood is much too expensive in Paris, to afford to every one the luxury of a coffin.Nor is too much time lost by that lively laughing' people, between death and burial. If a person dies in Paris to-day, he is buried to-morrow at noon. To this rapidity, a witty allusion is made by Mliere's Blunderer, Act 2. Scene 3.

Whether in a

hearse, compactness is to be preferred to elegance, or vice versa, we for our parts do not wish to have an opportunity of ascertaining, for a long while.

In describing the magnificent stables at Chantilly, Mr Pinkerton bas made no mention of a circumstance which we confess struck us very much, -That over every stall the Prince of Condé had had the figure of a deer, or boar, or some beast of the chace, in stone or wood, as large as the life, and in a running attitude, as coming towards the spectator. All these yet remain, but each has its head cut off just below the ears, in remembrance, as if that were necessary, of the fate of the unhappy family. Neither has Mr P. taken any notice of the column on a height in the centre of the village, the first monument, if we recollect well, in commemoration of the Revolution, on the road southwards from Calais.

The hospital of the Salpetriere,

Mr

"Nuns, and a poor girl about "twelve years of age, the daughter "of a rich financier, a completely "spoiled child, who lost her little "senses when deprived of her pomp and attendants" (Vol. 2. p. 373.) It must be in Mr Pinkerton's • recollections' surely, that the revolution was in 1789, that since the revolution there has been no financiers rich or poor. Of course in 1802-5, the period at which Mr Pinkerton visited the Salpetriere, and when he saw this poor girl about twelve years of age," a period of only from thirteen to sixteen years had elapsed. This poor girl then, if boru in 1789, the year of the revolution, must in 1802 have been just thirteen years old. Yet it is a little difficult to conceive, that when she was a week, or a month, or a year old, she had lost her senses when deprived of her pomp and attendant. If she was twelve years old at the revolution, she must have been twenty-five or twentyeight years old, when, Mr Pinkerton saw her.

But the whole passage seems to have been calculated for something like stage effect; and Mr Pinkerton might have recollected a stricture he bestows somewhere in this book, on a Parisian lady, who having got into some embarras of this sort, recovered herself at once by saying gracefully, that she had only mistaken her imagination for her me mory.

A long, and to say the truth, a very dull account is given of the papal procession, and some heavy jokes about "the pope and his mule," played off, as is said, by the inhabitants of the "laughing city of Paris." (Vol. 2. p. 121.) Mr Pinkerton must, in the course of his peregrinations, have had the good luck to get into merrier companies at Paris than fell to

the lot of less fortunate travellers. In a city, where there is in general no trade, and neither money, nor commerce, nor confidence, nor security; where all are harassed by the police, and squeezed, trodden down, and oppressed under a military despotism, where every thing venerable and sacred has been plundered and destroyed, and where the streets, abounding in ruins, and choaked with mire, almost yet smell of human blood, there cannot, one should think, be any great overflow of mirth or even fun; at least we saw none. If any body is heard to laugh in the streets, if you turn round you will find it is an Englishman. At nightfall most of the shops are shut. Bonaparte's patroles, horse and foot, for ever in the streets day and night, and seldom an evening passes without a voluntary exit in the Seine.

A very meagre and most unsatisfactory account is given of the Pantheon, the Palais du Tribunat, and of the hospital of Invalids. We could have hardly thought it possible for any man who had seen this last-mentioned edifice, to have taken no notice of the painting near the upper end of the temple of Mars, on the left, opposite the monument of Tu

renne.

Mr Pinkerton does not seem to have visited the vault of the Pantheon, for, if we recollect well, he says nothing of the brass chests there, which contain the bodies of Voltaire, Rousseau, General Dampierre, and the famous revolutionary hero Citizen Le Pelletier, whose name is now at the head of one of the Ar rondisements,' or at least sections of the city, and printed on the corners of the streets.

Speaking of the statues in the gardens of the Tuileries (Vol. 2. p. 261.) he says, justly, that they "form a pleasing decoration in this "celebrated garden, and suggest ne"ver-failing sources of amusement.

He