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Military Tactics in China-Doctors of War-Funerals, &c. [VOL 2

nical caps, the soldiers things like clouts strike these marks successively with the wrapt round their heads. When mili- arrows, the horses being kept at full tary honours are decided, the men kneel speed. Although the bull's-eye was not to fire the salute, utter a dismal shout, always hit, the target was never missed; and a band of music (the concord of the distance was trifling, not exceeding whose sweet sounds is likened to a my- fifteen or twenty feet. It appeared to riad of cracked penny trumpets) strikes me, that the skill was most displayed in up an air of national triumph. charging the bow without checking the The Chinese archers were exercised horse. The candidates were young to gratify Lord Amherst, at Kua-choo. Mandarins, handsomely drest; their "They shot tolerably well at a tar- horses, trimmings, and accoutrements get about the height of a man, using were in good order; the arrows were much gravity and ceremony in handling merely pointed without barbs, to pretheir bow and arrow; the distance was vent accidents, the spectators being withforty yards. This was followed by a in a few yards of the marks." few matchlock men, who kept up a run- The funerals in China are, like every ning fire, round a man, upon whom they thing else, very ceremoniously performwheeled and advanced as the pivot. ed. The mourners display violent and The movements resembled those of light regular grief. The women attend in troops, and not ill executed: they load- chairs covered with white, the mourning ed and fired quicker, and with more colour, and with caps on their heads, precision, than was expected from their like the working caps of mechanics in unmilitary appearance in line. All these England. The coffin, in the instance evolutions were performed to the beat of seen by our countrymen, was plain; a drum. It is not unusual at the milita- but the frame that supported it was gilt, ry posts to have the places where each and made of immense beams of timber; file is to stand chalked, to secure their some figures of women, nearly as large keeping equal distances." as life, and full drest, were carried in

Towards Canton, the soldiers were the front. found to wear armour; and we shall Our travellers saw the fish-vulture conclude our extract respecting the mili- employed: these birds, about the size tary, with an account of an examination of Muscovy ducks, are trained to dive of students for a licentiate's degree in and catch fish for their masters. the art of war. It may be observed, that We have noticed, that on great occa this is the middle step between Bache- sions there is a particular ceremony in lor and Doctor. Our punsters about the handing round tea. That used is a Canon law would be quite at home here. small-leafed, highly-flavoured green tea, The place might be called a stadium called yu-tien. In the cups of the prinof about 200 yards in length: at the cipal persons is a thin perforated silver upper end, a temporary hall had been plate, to keep the leaves down, while the erected, with an elevated throne or seat; infusion passes through. The cups used a row of Mandarins, in their full dresses, by Mandarins of rank resemble coffeeoccupied each side; but the distance cups, and are placed in a wooden or at which I stood did not enable me to metal saucer shaped like the Chinese ascertain whether the raised part was boats. occupied by some Mandarins, or by a At all the movements of the Embassy, representation of the Imperial presence, the profusion of painted lanterns, some At the extremity opposite to the hall, was times glittering on the banks, or illumia wall of masonry, intended as a butt for nating the buildings, or floating down military practice; and, at a short dis- the stream, had a fanciful and splendid tance in advance, a py-loo, from which effect. We observe little notice of the the candidates, on horseback, armed with fine arts. Two horses in stone, in a a bow and three arrows, started; the stubble-field, were extremely rude in marks at which they fired, covered with execution, but the saddles and housings white paper, were about the height of a were in better style. Several paintings man, and somewhat wider, placed at in- on glass were remarked for the great tervals of fifty yards; the object was to brilliancy of their colouring: the designs

VOL. 2.] Fine Arts.-David's new Painting, " Cupid and Psyche."

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were tolerably executed, and the subjects embassy to China, he would have taken chosen from domestic life. care to dispatch a person who would The cities of China are divided into have observed all the prostrations requirthree classes, Foo, Chow, and Hien; ed. We trust the difference between besides Poo, a hamlet; Chiz, a milita- the Prince Regent of England and a ry post with houses; and Tang, the post Corsican adventurer will always be held itself. The Tartarized Chinese consti- a sufficient answer, at least in this countute eight classes, and are distinguished try, for our not being prone to pursue by different coloured banners. The exactly the same course; and it may be Mantchoos, or ancient worshippers of further added, that what would have Fo, have also eight banners; as have been a disgrace to a British nobleman, the Mun-koos, who have adopted that might have been unobjectionable in one worship since they entered' China. of the revolutionary dignitaries of the new order.

Having gone to such length with Mr. Ellis's volume, both by analysis and Towards the conclusion of the work, extracts, we shall neither visit Nankin a slight notice is taken of Captain Maxwith him, nor follow the whole route to well's voyage towards Corea, and CooCanton, where the Embassy arrived Choo, two kingdoms tributary to China, safely and remained to the 20th of Jan- and his discovery of some hitherto unuary. Thence they proceeded to Macao, explored islands; but as a separate work and on the 3d of February reached is advertised on this subject, we shall not Manilla. The shipwreck of the Alceste anticipate the more full and accurate inhas been too minutely recorded in the formation. periodical press to admit of any novelty We take our leave of Mr. Ellis, who, from us, further than an expression of though not a practised writer, has af⚫ our individual admiration of the cool- forded us much entertainment. He has ness, intrepidity, skill, and conduct of composed a valuable record, which is Capt. Maxwell, whose behaviour, under calculated to save public money by circumstances of extraordinary peril, at showing that no future embassy is likePulo, surrounded by Malay pirates, was ly to be sent to China, at least during worthy the noblest character of a British the reign of the present monarch; for seaman. The coloured view of his en- we could not send any other ambassatrenchment here is very interesting. dor to do what Lord Amherst has reFrom Batavia, on the 12th of April, our fused, and there is no reason to expect wanderers sailed in the Cæsar, and an- that the ceremonious Mandarins will rechored in Simon's Bay, Cape of Good lax one iota in their pretensions. In this Hope, on the 27th of May. On the 11th of June they again sailed; made St. Helena on the 27th; paid a visit to Buonaparte; left the island on the 3d of July; and arrived at Spithead on the 17th of August.

The conversations with the Ex-emperor are rather hacknied, and we shall only offer one remark on the dicta ascribed to him, that if he had sent an

TH

point of view the experiment is a saving one, though we think the diplomatic prudence of the author, in letting out so many secrets, very questionable.

To the literary world there is one subject of congratulation connected with this volume. It bodes a return to old prices; for it is elegant, and cheaper than any work of the kind which has been published of late years.

FINE ARTS.

From the Literary Gazette, Oct. 25, 1817.

DAVID'S NEW PAINTING," CUPID AND PSYCHE."

HIS new production of the celebra- Psyche, voluptuously stretched an an brated artist possesses merit of the antique bed, is sleeping in the arms of first order. Skill and grace are the chief Love. The beams of Aurora, which characteristics of the composition. already gild the summits of the distant

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lest his motion should disturb the slumber of the innocent Psyche.

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hills, warn the young god that it is time hair, and the shades of the neck approxito quit his lovely mistress. He rises mate too nearly to black. But though from the bed with the utmost caution, M. David may have lost some portion of his taste for the antique and the grandiose of form, he has certainly improved in other particulars, which are not less important to the art of painting; we allude to truth of expression and force of colouring. His Psyche is designed with exqui site grace, and may be compared to the most beautiful of Titian's Venuses for elegance of contour and truth of colour

In this picture the habitual style of the artist is not recognisable at the first glance. Hitherto M. David has perhaps been too inattentive to colouring, and has devoted himself to the production of figures of the grand style. His Cupid, though exquisitely formed, possesses no ideal beauty, and there is even an expres- ing in the flesh. The picture altogether sion of vulgarity in the countenance; reminds the observer of the vigorous the arms are too long and thin, there is touch of Caravagio. little luxuriance in the colouring of the Paris.

BIOGRAPHICAL PORTRAITS.

From the Monthly Magazine, October, 1817.

CONTEMPORARY AUTHORS.

No. II.*

MRS. JOANNA BAILLIE.

THE

Miss Baillie,on the contrary, is always most interesting when she lays open the whole process of reflection in her's, and generally fails when she attempts to bring them inte HE works of this lady have not ob- action. With the very highest respect for tained that portion of popular fa- the talents of this much-endowed author, vour which we decidedly think they we do therefore think that hergenius is not merit, while those of other writers, of far at all dramatic, tho' she has executed her inferior talent, have successively engross- tasks in dialogue with surprising ability. ed the attention of the public. The We are even of opinion, that she has not great drawback on the fame of this ad- been a great frequenter of the theatre; and mirable genius, has been the injustice of we venture to assert, that she was but comparing her dramas to those of Shak- slightly acquainted with the plays of Shakspeare, which, it is true, they somewhat speare when she composed her earliest resemble in the physiognomy of their and the best of her dramatic poems. If she style; but than which no two things of has ever attended the representation of a the same genus can be more different,al- pantomime, she must have been sensible though, perhaps, in their respective classes, that the dialogue is, after all that has been the one is not much inferior to the other. written on the subject, the least effective Skakspeare was strictly the poet of ac- part of a play; and that the skill of the tions, and we learn what passes in the dramatist consists in putting into the minds of his heroes by what they do, mouths of his characters the few short more than by what they say; but the sentiments natural to their situation. dramatist of the passions throws, as it were intentionally, the action of her pieces behind the scenes, and only brings her characters into view when they are in a state of meditation or colloquial debate. There are, doubtless, several very noble specimens in Shakspeare of the same kind of writing in which this lady excels, particularly in Macbeth; but he is always most effective when he represents his heroes actuated by what they feel, rather than in telling us what they think.

See p. 112.

Miss Baillie is not happy in the choice of situations, but she makes us acquainted with the inflections of the mind under the governance of the passions, with a delicacy, justness, and poetical propriety, not inferior to Shakspeare himself, and with a degree of minuteness which the more rapid movement of his plots necessarily precluded. It is impossible to conceive any thing more like the manners of mankind than the fictions of Shakspeare, or less so than those of this lady, and yet her characters think and feel

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with as much of the genuine nature of popular, we never return to the perusal man, as those of the only poet with whom of her productions without wonder and it is proper to compare her. Miss delight. Like the works of Michael Baillie, as a female author, is the noblest Angelo and Raffaele, they seem to imin point of genius that has yet appeared; prove the oftener they are examined; she is even more than this-she is, her- their merits require to be unfolded by self, the only one of her kind, and her study, and, as the principles upon which peculiar merits can only be duly appre- they have been composed are underciated by comparing the greatest authors stood, we become attached even to their with her, when they happen to touch defects, as we respect the foibles and upon the same course of reflections. personal defects of our friends.

In thus stating our opinion, we trust Miss Baillie will undoubtedly be alit will not be supposed that we think ways regarded as a dramatic writer, her genius like that of Shakspeare and her peculiar merits will, in consecreative, supreme, and universal; for quence, perhaps be long of obtaining we consider it circumscribed, local, and their just renown: but, in time, her uninventive; but it has opened to us name must be placed very high among sources of poetical enjoyment hitherto the most illustrious in the literary anunknown. If she has not created new nals of this country; for, even if the poworlds, she has, like Columbus, disco- etical powers of her mind were much vered others; and shewn us that what more stinted, there is a sweetness and has hitherto been regarded as the waste humanity, if the expression may be aland endless ocean of metaphysics, con- lowed, breathing through all her works, tains some of the richest and most mag- that will for ever render them refreshing nificent regions of poetry.-Her genius to the wearied or harassed mind. We is purely didactic, but by a felicitous are not aware of any poet of the present error, and the possession of the most day who possesses the power of bestowadmirable descriptive powers, she has ing on the reader such a temperate saadopted the engaging form of the drama tisfaction. We open her volumes as we to inculcate some of the finest lessons do our window on a fine evening, and on the philosophy of the human mind; we read even of the bad actions of her teaching, at the same time, a moral as worst characters, as we look on the high as that which may be deduced harmless summer lightning that illufrom the most impressive representation. minates the cloud in the horizon. But In point of elegance in imagery, Miss it is time that we should give some Baillie is as much superior to Shak- proof of our reason for disputing her speare, as he excels her in the melody pretensions to the title of a legitimate and variety of his numbers; but her dramatist, and of considering her as characters want that peculiarity of ex- more properly belonging to the class of pression which is as necessary to distin- didactic writers.

guish them from one another, as the In the tragedy of Basil, she has unfeatures of the face, or any of the other dertaken to delineate the progress of external marks of individuality. They the passion of love; for this purpose she are, in fact, but the personification of has made choice of a military comabstract notions; and the wonder is, mander, and the fatal result of the inthat she should have been enabled to fluence of the passion is the neglect of endow things in their own essence so his duty, the consequences of which general with so much spirit and life, drive him to despair. Nothing can be In this respect they may be compared more inartificial, or less dramatic, than with the personification of Bunyan, for such a mode of treating the subject. It they are as much superior to the alle- is hardly possible that it could afford a gories of Spencer, as Othello, as a drama, single interesting situation, and the casurpasses her tragedy of De Monfort. tastrophe is in itself not more dignified But, while we cannot praise Miss than the despair of an apprentice drownBaillie as a dramatic writer, and indeed ing himself on being turned off for makcannot persuade ourselves that she may ing love to his master's daughter. In ever produce a play that will become analysing this poem, we shall not notice

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We are not informed that the in

the explanatory scenes, those scenes cer. which are introduced to inform the nocent young lady is the agent of her audience what is doing, or has been political father; but we learn this from done, like the directions to the players, the sequel. A dramatic writer, in mabut confine our observations to the naging such a topic, would have shown conduct of the principal character and to the artifice of the duke; and some interest would have been excited by the the plot. Count Basil is brought on the stage apprehension of the consequences attendwith all the pride and pomp of glorious ing on the consent of Count Basil; but, war, advancing towards Pavia with the as our author has treated it, the transacimperial troops, at the same time when tion seems a very hearty hospitable proVictoria, the princess of Mantua, is ceeding. Yet, upon the consent of the passing in an ecclesiastical procession to count to remain, turns the issue of the return thanks to her patron saint for the drama; for after that, until the news The gallant arrive of the battle of Pavia, the count recovery of her father. officer and the young lady make genteel is no more than a very well-bred gentlerecognizances to one another, and fall manly lover, and the incidents are mere in love at first sight. Some time after, daily pastime, such as might happen in when the troops have been dismissed to any ducal court, if the persons who intheir quarters, Count Basil happens to habit such places were so affectionate and meet with a party of his officers as they poetical as the characters which the are lounging on the ramparts, and hold- amiable feelings of Miss Baillie dispose ing a conversation of small talk in a her to describe. After the battle, the officer-like manner. He joins them count, however, is so affected by the convery without speaking, but he listens very at- sciousness of his folly, that he blows his tentively to their respective declarations brains out; he certainly does this in a concerning Victoria, who, in the opinion cave instead of a barrack-room, as a of the whole squad, was a devilish hand- modern ensign would probably have Who could some girl; and when one of them, a done; and in so far the catastrophe may blunt facetious sort of a dog, happens to be said to be poetical. speak of an olive branch of fretted gold imagine, from such a vehicle as this, that which she held in her hand, the general it would be possible to show the proinquires if he had noticed her hand; and gress of the passion with any thing dethe audience are left to infer, from this serving the name of poetry; and yet pertinent question, that the general is in Miss Baillie has done it with a degree of love with her. After some farther parley, the rest of the officers separate, to take a stroll through the town; and this affords an opportunity for Count Basil to tell his friend Rosenberg, (the humourist alluded to), a full, true, and parWe have been thus particular in our ticular account of the impression which analysis of the tragedy of Basil, because Victoria had made on his heart. senberg, who proves to be an honest dis- it affords the most complete example of interested fellow, does not appear very the author's best manner, and because well satisfied with so much of the lover's her other dramas are constructed so enrapture in a commanding officer, and tirely according to the same rules, that, by gives him some very good advice on the doing so, we save the time of our readers. subject. With this conversation ends act first.

Ro

address and grace that has no parallel in the language: for, in the Romeo and Juliet of Shakspeare, it is not what the lovers feel that interests us, but the situations into which their ardour precipitates them.

As a comic writer, the dramatic defects of Miss Baillie are even more obIn act second the crafty Duke of vious. An attempt has been made to Mantua treats Count Basil with much bring forward her play of "the Eleccourtesy; but their discourse is inter- tion," compressed into a three-act piece; rupted by the count falling into great but the experiment has not been succonfusion at the sight of his sweetheart, cessful. It would indeed be extraordiwho prevails on him to stay longer than nary if it had met with any considerable was consistent with his duty as an offi- share of popular applause; for the plot