a falsehood, and that he feels strongly disposed to reject the story. The little publication of which we now speak is a compendious popular account, on which M. Rossetti ought not to have relied, when he undertook to derive from the history of the Assassins and Templars proofs of his startling thesis. He ought to have consulted standard works on the subject; and if he did not do so, he ought not to have affected to have consulted them, when, in point of fact, he has never seen them. He tells us (p. 679), speaking of the Assassins, that of this sect" accurate histories have been recently published: "Von Hammer wrote of them in German, Jourdain in French, "Malcolm and Wilken in English; but to adhere to the sy"stem of using other persons' words, without entering into dif"fuse treatises, we shall prefer the abridged narratives of those "who have, with great fidelity, drawn from those sources." (p. 679.) Of course M. Rossetti has read those "accurate histories," else how can he say that they are accurate, how can he prefer the abridgments, and how can he vouch for their fidelity? A note is appended to the above-quoted passage:-"See Von Hammer's Geschichte der Assassinen "and Fundgruben des Orients; see Jourdain's Extrait de "Pouvrage de Mirkhond sur la dynastie des Ismaelites; see "Sir John Malcolm's History of Persia,' and Wilken's "History of the Crusades."" Had M. Rossetti seen the books which he wishes his readers to see, he would have perceived that the Fundgruben des Orients is not wholly German, or wholly by Von Hammer, but a journal, in the fourth volume of which occurs a Latin article by this writer, "Mysterium Baphometis revelatum," containing all that is absurd and unjust and false, about both Assassins and Templars; and with respect to Wilken, he would not have made an Englishman of the late first keeper of the Royal Library at Berlin, whose history of the Crusades was written in German, and has never been translated into English. Not satisfied with referring to works which he never saw, M. Rossetti takes the liberty of mentioning, in a sort of familiar off-hand manner, authors whose names only he has seen quoted. The following instance will be sufficient to prove what we say : "From the great many works of the learned on general (variata) mythology, no little light is come to ancient wisdom. Every one of them, some more, some less, has torn some of the veils which cover it. Not only Latin mythologists, as Fulgentius, Iginus, Lactantius Placidus [he makes two of this person], Albricius, but even later writers, like our Boccaccio, Lord Bacon, Blackwell, Jablonski, Basnage, Conti, Bluche, Bergier, Noel le Comte, Court de Gebelin, and many others, have made useful steps towards the discovery. And if we have not yet arrived at the innermost part of this labyrinth, it is because all have wandered in the zigzag paths."-Page 105. No one has a right to speak thus but one who knows the authors so familiarly mentioned and masterly criticised. And yet that Noel le Comte is one and the same with one Conti just before mentioned, Natale Conti, a countryman of the Professor of Italian literature, of a Venetian family, although born at Milan. Need we say more? ARTICLE IV. The Life of Augustus Viscount Keppel, Admiral of the White, and First Lord of the Admiralty in 1782-83. By the Hon. and Rev. THOMAS KEPPEL. Colburn, 1842. 2 vols. 2 vols. London: A SPIRITED piece of naval biography is a most valuable contribution, not only to the literature but to the moral resources and power of the nation. The history and character of Britain are so closely interwoven with the history and character of her navy, that we naturally look to the records of naval life for those choice spirits whose courage, integrity, patience, enterprise and manliness have raised the power of their country to its rare eminence, whilst they have sustained a reputation in the world for meaning well and doing boldly, which is not unworthy of that power. The navy is perpetually recruited by the force of young imaginations absorbed and inspirited by the adventures or the fame of mighty admirals; a passion for the sea is one of the few juvenile tastes which exercise a permanent control over the rest of life, be cause it constitutes an engagement, scarcely less binding than matrimony itself, entered upon by boys not yet in their teens. But in close connexion with the history of those rapid successes and splendid achievements which hurried a Nelson through the whole career of human glory, and closed it by a triumphant death when his genius and valour had left nothing to be conquered, England bears in mind the no less honourable and instructive histories of those whose patience and patriotism have been tried to the utmost in less brilliant duties, and who have exhibited, with a dignity equal to the highest renown, the strenuous and sober qualities of a seaman's life. In the fortune of war the subject of the volumes before us cannot claim the highest rank of maritime celebrity, although at a time when Hawke, Howe and Jervis were in the fleet, Admiral Keppel was considered, even by a government fiercely opposed to him in politics, to be the first ornament and defence of his country. But he commanded at a period when maritime tactics rarely admitted of those decisive results which were afterwards accomplished by the energy of some of his younger contemporaries; and he commanded under disadvantages which he could not surmount. Nevertheless the life of Keppel is a most valuable addition to the naval biography of England; and the manner in which the author of these volumes has applied himself to a task naturally suggested to him by family tradition and early professional associations, reflects the greatest credit on his good sense, good taste and industry. If however there is one lesson more clear and certain than another to be drawn from the life of Admiral Keppel, it is that party-politics are a snare of the most fatal kind to those whose business is to protect and obey their country. In the last century especially, when the struggles of party were marked by a degree of personal malignity, and impelled by private passions of which we can hardly form an idea from the political contests of the present day, it is melancholy to see those whose profession and position made them so peculiarly the servants of the nation and the king, degraded to be the tools of one faction, or designated as the victims of another. Political warfare was carried on in those days like the petty wars of the Middle Ages, under the private colours of each leader, who lent his venal or precarious support to the king's armies. Every change of government was an intrigue; and every intrigue was conducted with such virulent animosities, or such hollow alliances, that a party was little more than an association for self-defence. There can be no question that political controversies in these days are more regular, more decorous, more fair, more humane; and, above all, that great progress has been made in placing a certain number of the principal interests of the nation above the jar of mere factious contests. There is no lack of matters of dispute-fields of battle are never wanting; but it is of infinite importance to the welfare of a country, that the resources by which she is defended and supported, the officers to whose skill and courage her interests are confided, and the service over which they preside, should not be assailed, distracted and persecuted by the harassing interference of the House of Commons. Keppel was acknowledged in his day to be one of the brightest ornaments of the British navy; after the death of Anson and the retirement of Hawke, he was incontestably at the head of that series of remarkable men who sustained so ably and so long the supremacy of the British flag. But unfortunately for his own professional fame and utility, Keppel was a Whig before he was an Admiral. His devotion to Lord Rockingham was at least equal to his devotion to the great interests of his country. He was mixed up in all the political intrigues of that bad time; and the great triumph of his life, which kept London illuminated for three days, and drew down upon his head the popular honours which belong to the greatest commanders, was not a signal defeat of the French, the capture of a convoy, or the destruction of a fleet, but the triumph of the favourite of the opposition, who had been selected as the mark of all the vindictive and unjust recrimination of the government. Keppel's acquittal was hailed by England with unanimous and unbounded applause. If the action of the 27th of July 1778 had been the most decisive in our naval history, it could not have shed more lustre on his head than the inquiry which originated in its comparative failure: for there is one thing to which the English people are even more enthusiastically attached than to naval prowess, and that is the strength and integrity of the admi nistration of justice. The triumph of an innocent man who has successfully contended against the malice of a powerful prosecutor, supported by government influence, is acknowledged to be more salutary to the public weal than the destruction of a hundred ships; and Keppel's court-martial was kinder to his fame than the French Admiral who would not stay to be beaten off Ushant. Without entering into the particulars of the court-martial, we cannot give a better account of its results than in the following letter of Sir Joshua Reynolds to the Admiral :- "London, February 12th, 1779. "Sir,-Amidst the rejoicing of your friends, I cannot resist offering my congratulations for the complete victory you have gained over your enemies. We talk of nothing but your heroic conduct in voluntarily submitting to suspicions against yourself, in order to screen Sir Hugh Palliser and preserve unanimity in the navy, and the kindness of Sir Hugh in publishing to the world what would otherwise have never been known. "Lord North said of himself, that he was kicked up stairs; I will not use so harsh an expression, but it is the universal opinion that your Courtmartial is unique of its kind. It would have been thought sufficient if you had had no honour taken from you,-nobody expected that you could have had more heaped on a measure already full. "My opinion in these matters can be of very little value; but it may be some satisfaction to know that this is the opinion of all parties and men of every denomination. Whatever fatigue and expense this business has occasioned is amply repaid you in additional honour and glory; and I hope you begin to think yourself that you have had a bargain. "The illumination yesterday was universal, I believe, without the exception of a single house; we are continuing this night in the same manner. "Poor Sir Hugh's house in Pall Mall was entirely gutted, and its contents burnt in St. James's-square, in spite of a large party of horse and foot, who came to protect it. "Lord North and Lord Bute had their windows broke. The Admiralty gates were unhinged, and the windows of Lord Sandwich and Lord Lisburne broke. Lord Mulgrave's house, I am told, has likewise suffered, as well as Captain Hood's. To-night, I hear, Sir Hugh is to be burnt in effigy before your door. "I have taken the liberty, without waiting for leave, to lend your picture to an engraver, to make a large print from it. "I am, with the greatest respect, your most humble and most obedient servant, "JOSHUA REYNOLDS." "Not only were Lord North's windows broken, as mentioned by Sir Joshua, but the mob succeeded in forcing in the window-frames, and in gaining an entrance into the house. The fury of the populace became so ungovernable that it was necessary to read the Riot Act. A party of the |