from a perusal of these epistolary scraps, we shall extract two whole pages of matter.

"There are about sixteen theatres open almost every night. At the François the best actor is half an Englishman, his name is Talma; the best actress is Mademoiselle Duchesnoy, who is not twenty years old. Talma's great part is Orestes, and Mademoiselle Duchesnoy's is Phedre. There is a small piece of one act represented every now and then on this stage, which has great merit in exhibiting the manners de la vieille cour sous l'ancien regime. The characters are a financier's widow and her daughters, a young colonel, who is a marquis, an old officer, a baron, a physician, an abbé, and a wit, or bel esprit. It was first acted in 1764.”

By multiplying the number of lines in this quotation by 93, the reader will have the whole quantity of matter contained in this octavo volume.

The whole is so trifling, as our readers may perceive by the specimen adduced, as to be almost beneath criticism. But it is really lamentable to find so many violations of grammar, and of all the rules of good composition, as are here exhibited, in any production of a classical scholar. Two or three instances of this defect (from many which might be produced) in addition to those already exhibited, will suffice.

"The gallery of the Louvre is the great feature of Paris, which is itself a vast bonbonniere, an immense academie de jeu, and an enormous table d'hote; where all natives meet, like travellers through a desert, at a watering-place." P. 6.

"Here it is that the Jugement de Salomon is acted, which was brought out in the beginning of the year 10, and ran for forty nights; and Madame Angot, of which something has been said." P. 21.

In page 108, we are told of "alleys (for avenues) and walks buttoned on each side with lines of flower-pots." In the same page, 18co French livres are said to be nearly 700l. sterling; whereas they are exactly 7501.

The reader is perpetually disgusted with the constant recurrence of French words or phrases, with which these scraps are copiously interlarded, and which can be intended for no other purpose than to prove that the author understands them, which, however, is by no means so self-evident as he may imagine.

THE PICTONIAN PROSECUTION.

1. A Statement, Letters, and Documents respecting the Affairs of Trinidad; including a Reply to Colonel Picton's Address to the Council of that Island; submitted to the Consideration of the Lords of His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council. By Colonel Fullarton. 4to. PP. 202. 1804. (Not sold.)

NO. XCIV. VOL. XXIV.

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2. A Letter

2. A Letter to the Right Honourable Lord Hobart, His Majesty's late principal Secretary of State for the Colonial Department. By Colone! Thomas Picton, late Governor and Captain-General of the Island of Trinidad, and Brigadier-General commanding His Majesty's Troops in that Island. A new edition. 8vo. PP. 122. Lloyd. 1804.

3. A Refutation of the Pamphlet which Colonel Picton lately addressed to Lord Hobart. By Colonel Fullarton, F. R. S. 4to. PP. 102. 2s. 6d. Stockdale. 1805.

4. Evidence taken at Port of Spain, Island of Trinidad, in the Case of Louisa Calderon, under a Mandamus issued by the Court of King's Bench, and directed to the Lieutenant-Governor; with a Letter addressed to Sir Samuel Hond, K. B. late one of the Commissioners for the Government of that Colony. By Colonel Thomas Picton, late Governor and Captain-General of the Island. 8vo. PP. 164. Budd. 1806.

5. Extracts from the Minutes of His Majesty's Council of the Island of Trinidad. Published by Authority. 12mo. PP. 34. Port of Spain.

6. An Address to the British Public, on the Case of Brigadier-General Pitton, late Governor and Captain-General of the Island of Trinidad; with Observations on the Conduct of William Fullarton, Esq. F. R. S. and the Right Honourable John Sullivan. By Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Alured Draper, of the Third Regiment of Foot Guards, formerly Military Secretary to the late General Grinfield, in the West Indies. Svo. PP. 358. 4s. Budd. 1806.

NEVER, not only since the commencement of our critical labours, but during the whole course of our natural lives, have we experienced so much astonishment and disgust, at the perusal of any book or books, as we have experienced on the perusal of the various tracts now upon our table. We have frequently seen men, inflamed by the spirit of party, come forward to accuse their political opponents, with all the warmth, and with all the virulence, which such a spirit is so apt to engender; but never, till this hour, did we see or hear of an individual, who had any pretensions to the name and character of a GENTLEMAN, spontaneously stand forth, as a public accuser, with the avowed object of submitting to legal investigation the public conduct of an officer whose character, for upwards of thirty years that he had served his Sovereign, faithfully and honourably, the breath of calumny had never once dared to assail, and who stood high in the estimation of his country; and, so standing forth, promulgate, while the suit was still pending, as if with a view to prejudice the minds of those who were sitting in judgment upon him, the most violent abuse, the most scandalous invectives, and the most licentious attacks, that

ever

ever issued from the pen even of an uneducated and an unprincipled hireling! That Mr. Fullarton then should do this,-a man who had once the honour of bearing a Commission in his Majesty's Service; a man who states himself to be descended from an ancient and respectable house, and to be allied to a noble family; a man too, who is privileged to tack F.R.S. to his name; that such a man should have ransacked the stores of Billingsgate, to overwhelm his victim with abuse instead of argument; that he should have thought his ipse dixit equal to the fiat of omniscience, and assertion tantamount to proof, is sufficient, our readers will admit, to excite both astonishment and disgust, in any rational and well-formed mind. We seem, indeed, after examining these numerous and ponderous documents, as if we had just awakened from a dream; we can scarcely credit our senses; we can, with difficulty, believe that the objects which have fixed our attention are real, and that the scene which we have contemplated has taken place on British ground! Had these facts been presented to us without names, and in a different language, we should have instantly fixed the scene in revolutionary France, and have considered Fouquier Tinville as the hero of the piece.

But compelled as we are, by incontrovertible evidence, to acknowledge that we are awake; that the books before us are really. what they profess to be, and that Mr. Fullarton, of Fullarton, or laird of that ilk, and F.R.S. is in truth the author of the two quartos on our table, and that they do in fact contain all that we have stated them to contain, it becomes our duty (and the most irksome duty it is that we ever had to perform) to give our readers some account of them.

The

We must premise, that Mr. Fullarton has to thank his trusty agent Mr. M.Callum, for forcing our attention to this controversy. The Reviewer of his book, for exposing, as he was bound in duty to do, the flagrant falsehoods, and the libellous tendency of his Travels in Trinidad, was attacked by the author in the most scurrilous manner. merits both of the assailant and the party assaulted, as far as the observations on the book are concerned, are now before the public, who will decide between them. But the nature of the attack convinced us, that there was something more at stake than the mere reputation of as stupid a book as ever was read; and this conviction engendered in us a wish to inquire, and a determination to investigate. We have accordingly examined, with the most minute attention, every document which we have been able to procure; and, we think, we have, at length, after much labour, made ourselves masters of the subject.

Mr. Fullarton has appealed to the public, and has, of course, called upon the public to judge between him and his opponents. Though he have involved, by a mode of crimination peculiar to himself, every individual, of whatever rank or description, who has presumed either to question the propriety of his conduct, or to justify the character of the man whom he has attacked, in one indiscriminate sweep of censure and abuse; though he have affixed, with that Christian charity, which

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shines

shines forth so luminously in all his delineations and remarks, the stamp of some base or selfish motive on every one who has presumed to differ from him in opinion, or who has even dared to speak truth; unawed alike by his authoritative tone, by his audacious invectives, and by his dark and insidious insinuations, we will tell him to his teeth, that, having never either seen or communicated with, directly or indirectly, Colonel Picton or himself, that, actuated by no motive, wish, or desire, but that which is the cause and the stimulus of all our labours, the establishment of truth, and the promotion of justice; we have studiously endeavoured to qualify ourselves for giving a decided opinion on the merits, or rather demerits, of his conduct, on the present occasion; and that we shall give it without reserve or disguise.

On the first and cursory view of this question, we were rather disposed to consider it as a matter of extreme delicacy, as one which involved the credit and character of two gentlemen, to whom the mode of self-vindication should be exclusively left. But we had not proceeded far, before we found that we had laboured under a great mistake; that Mr. Fullarton protested solemnly against the adoption of any such idea, and before he had fully convinced us that all delicacy was entirely out of the question. In this point, then, we concur with him (to a certain extent), and are most decidedly of opinion, that it has indeed become a public question, and one involving consequences of a very serious nature indeed. To the public all the parties concerned have made their appeal; every circumstance, therefore, attending these extraordinary transactions, not only the conduct but the motives of each individual who has taken a part in it, are fair and proper subjects for the public to investigate and to characterize. Upon this ground and this principle it is that we, who aspire, in our critical capacity, to enlighten the public mind, and to lead it to a right and a just decision, shall proceed in our investigation of the subject.

It may be necessary first, briefly to state to our readers, the respective situations of the two principal parties, Brigadier-general Picton and Mr. Fullarton, F.R.S. On the conquest of the Island of Trinidad, by Sir Ralph Abercromby, early in the year 1797, that gallant commander, who was not more acute to descry than eager to reward distinguished merit, conferred the government of the conquered settlement on Colonel Picton. He told this officer, in whom he had a perfect confidence, a confidence which in him was always the fruit of knowledge and experience, that he had not a great army to leave him, but he vested him with great powers, which, in the critical situation of the island, he knew to be necessary. Before he left the place,

Sir Ralph Abercromby's words, as reported by Lieutenant-colonel Draper, were, " I have placed you in a trying and delicate situation, and, to give you any chance of overcoming the difficulties opposed to you, I cannot leave you a strong garrison, but I shall give you ample

powers."

place, Sir Ralph, in virtue of the authority vested in him by his Sovereign, appointed Mr. Nihell Chief Judge and Auditor of Trinidad, and gave him instructions for his conduct in office. By these instructions, he was ordered to do every thing appertaining to his office, conformably to the instructions and powers which he should receive from him (Sir Ralph) through Governor Picton, "whose instructions and powers are considered to be of equal force as if given under my hand." Sir Ralph here expressly told this new judge, that the forms of the Spanish law were not to be strictly adhered to, because they would be productive of confusion, but that he would receive instructions from the Governor, as to the necessary deviations from them. Sir Ralph suspended the Assessor-general, the legal adviser of the Spanish judges, and authorized Mr. Nihell" to proceed in all causes, whether civil or criminal, without any assessor, although it may be contrary to the form and spirit of the Spanish laws." To such proceedings Sir Ralph gave vali-' dity by his instructions, and ordered the sentences consequent thereon to be executed. He farther said, "You are hereby required to shorten and simplify the proceedings, and to terminate all causes in the most expe-" ditious and least expensive manner that the circumstances of them will admit, according to the dictates of your conscience, the best of your abilities, and conformably to the instructions you shall receive from Lieutenant-colonel Picton, although it should be contrary to the usual practice of the Spanish government." He added, that in civil causes, where the object of litigation exceeded in value 5007. there should be an appeal allowed to the King in Council; and in all criminal causes, the appeal is to be to the Governor ; and no sentence is to be executed until approved by him*."

It is evident from these instructions, that Governor Picton must have been entrusted with very great powers indeed. In his hand was placed the sword of the law; in his bosom was deposited the fountain of mercy. The situation was one of great anxiety, of great diffi. culty, and of great responsibility. Such a situation, we are bold to say, as, (if some of the maxims and principles which have been advanced in respect of Colonel Picton's conduct are to be received as law), no man in his senses will ever again accept. At this time, he had no code of laws to direct his conduct, for the Spanish laws were

Do

powers." He said, "Execute Spanish law as well as you can. justice according to your conscience, and that is all that can be expected from you. His Majesty's government will be minutely informed of your situation, and no doubt will make all due allowances."—Address to the British Public, p. 132.

*For a copy of these instructions, as well as for other most important documents, and for a most luminous and comprehensive view of the whole of this question, we, and the public, are indebted to Lieutenant-colonel Draper, of the Guards, every page of whose "Address" betrays the manly spirit of the soldier, and the honourable feelings of the gentleman.