riments; and on the Formula which represent the mutual Action of two indefinitely small Portions of the Electric Currents on each other: On the Action exercised by the Earth

on Voltaic Conductors: - Memoirs on the Action which the Terrestrial Globe exercises on a Portion of a movable Voltaic Conductor: Addition to the preceding Memoir, by M. AMPÈRE: Memoir on the Determination of the Formulæ which represent the mutual Action of two indefinitely small Portions of Voltaic Conductors, read before the Royal Academy of Sciences in June, 1822, by M. AMPÈRE: - EXtract from an Additional Note to the preceding Memoirs, read June 24. 1822, to the Royal Academy of Sciences, by the Same: Extract from a Memoir presented to the Royal Academy of Sciences, September 16. 1822: Methodical Exposition of Electro-Dynamic Phænomena, and on the Laws of those Phænomena: Extract made by M. Savary from the Memoir which he read to the Academy of Sciences, February 3. 1823: · Additional Observations by M. AMPÈRE.

-

In the course of the several memoirs thus enumerated, many highly curious experiments are described; among which those of Professor Rive on the simple floating galvanic combination, and the revolving cylinders by M. AMPÈRE, are perhaps the most interesting of such as we have omitted to mention more particularly; because neither of these requires the aid of the galvanic machine. So many new facts, however, are perpetually arising as this science is more examined, that many which have come to our knowlege from different sources are in no way mentioned in the volume before us: among which we may enumerate the wheel and axle rotation by Mr. Barlow; the several facts elucidated by Professor Cumming; the quicksilver-elevations, by Sir H. Davy; and the curious metallic combination by Professor Seebach of Berlin. These and several other beautiful experiments had not reached M. AMPÈRE when his Collection was publishing, and of course could not be introduced: but we shall have an opportunity of describing some of them, when we make our report on Mr. Barlow's "Essay on Magnetic Attractions, and on the Laws of Electro-Magnetism;" in which work the science is brought down to a more recent date, and its mathematical laws are completely established. In the interval, we have considered that it would be acceptable to our readers to be put in possession of some of the leading facts connected with this new branch of philosophy; which has certainly, within the space of three years, produced a greater number of interesting facts and experiments than any other science ever furnished in ten times that period.

APP. REV. VOL. CII.

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ART.

ART. V. Précis des Évènemens Militaires, &c. ; i. e. A Summary of Military Events, or Historical Essays on the Campaigns from 1799 to 1814; by General Count MATHIEU DUMAS. 8vo. Vols. IX. to XIV. including the Campaigns of 1803, 1804, and 1805, With two Folio Atlases. Paris. 1820, 1821, and 1822. Imported by Treuttel and Co.

IT will be in the recollection of many of our readers, that the first eight volumes of this officer's commentaries on the wars of the Revolution have already received a minute scrutiny at our hands, and have passed our examination most creditably to their indefatigable author. The volumes now requiring a continuance of our notice are those which have been published connectedly since the year 1819, and which embrace the history of the war down to 1806: but, as the Napoleon Memoirs, and other extensive works, have already given copious details of these events, and have duly commented on them, we deem it advisable to notice the opinions of this writer on material points, rather than to separate his account into distinct periods of years; which latter course we had usually adopted in former instances, be cause he had then supplied the only good description of the contest in question. It was not, moreover, until the year 1805 that the war assumed a decided character; and therefore the first two volumes of the present set are comparatively uninteresting, except in the accounts of Napoleon's coron ation, and other matters concerning the events subsequent to that act. Before, however, we commence our remarks, the general reader may not feel displeased to have his memory refreshed by a slight chronological view of the periods described in these essays.

The year 1803 was chiefly remarkable on account of the detention of the British travellers and residents in France, previously to the formal commencement of hostilities; and for the invasion of Hanover by the republican armies. The next year is memorable from having been the epoch of Bonaparte's assumption of the purple, and of war being declared between England and Spain. In 1805, a more interesting and varied scene was presented; active measures were put in force by Great Britain against Spain; Napoleon placed the iron crown of Italy on his head; a change was made in the affairs of Holland; Genoa and the Ligurian states were incorporated in the French empire; the Boulogne flotilla was attacked by the English; Naples concluded a treaty offensive

* See M. R. vols. xxx. N, S. p. 581.; xxxii. p. 307.; xxxiii. p. 300.; xxxvii. p. 495.; lxxxviii. p. 485.; and lxxxix. p. 472.

and

and defensive with France; Napoleon gained the victory of Guntzberg; Ulm and 30,000 Austrians surrendered almost unconditionally; the combats of Moelk, Loeben, and Diernstien proved fatal to the Austrians; and Napoleon's eagles were planted in the imperial palace of Schoenbrunn, and on the towers of Vienna. Presburg surrendered also to the French, and the conflicts of Tintersdorff and Austerlitz were gained by that nation over the united forces of the Russians and Austrians. In some measure to balance these reverses, Sir Robert Calder defeated the Spanish and Gallic fleet off Ferrol; and Lord Nelson, with a force much inferior to his opponents, at Trafalgar swept the ocean clear from the remainder of their united navy, excepting the four ships which escaped from him to fall into the hands of Sir Richard Strachan near Cape Ortegal. This memorable year finished by a treaty of peace being concluded at Presburg, between the contending powers of France and Austria.

Two of the six volumes before us are devoted to the history of the years 1803 and 1804, and the remainder embrace that of 1805. In viewing the first period, we shall, for the reasons already stated, principally look to the author's explanation of that departure from the rules of civilization, which marked the conduct of Bonaparte in the measure so unwisely adopted against the British travellers in France; and also to his opinions on the invasion of Hanover. The English détenus, however, here receive not much more consideration than was afforded to them by the First Consul; whose violent departure from the laws of nations Count DUMAS neither defends nor blames: seeming, by the silence under which he passes this extraordinary measure, to think that it was one of state-necessity or of pure justice. As the opinion of the world has been long decided on this point, it is not necessary to record our individual sentiments. On the other hand, if the notions of the General are objectionable on this subject, he in some degree counterbalances them by the faithful exposition which he gives, immediately afterward, of the situation of Europe on the rupture of the peace of Amiens; developing the opposing forces with great accuracy, and defining the sentiments which actuated the belligerents with much fidelity, research, and exactitude.*

It is somewhat curious to observe, in perusing the notes

*In describing the interference of France in the affairs of Swisserland, which occurred in 1803, he has also added to his appendix a very long and valuable statistical paper on the different Cantons of that Republic.

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attached

attached to the ninth volume, that Bonaparte foresaw the attack on Walcheren so early as in 1803, five years before it actually took place. His letters to Monnet, the governor who surrendered Flushing to Lord Chatham, will be perused at the present day with much interest; particularly as they contain a plan of defence traced out by his own active mind at such an early period of the war, which, if Monnet had practised it in 1808, we (who have some personal knowlege of the event in question) are very much inclined to believe would have rendered the taking of that place a matter of much greater difficulty than it was.

From p. 183. to p. 221., the author endeavors to trace the measures of Napoleon concerning the invasion of Hanover, and has performed his task with much ability; preceding it by a sketch of the political and geographical situation of that country at the time, and an exposition of the views of Bonaparte in endeavoring to obtain possession of it: which, of course, were merely to attack England in a vulnerable part, and to paralyze the motions of Prussia, whose steadiness at that moment was more than questionable. The command of the Elbe and of the Weser, however, was an important object, and one in which the favorite system of France against English commerce was likely to be fully employed. The eagerness of Talleyrand and his master to compass this desired end, while they were pretending to invoke peace, may be observed by simply stating that, in eight days after the King had announced to the British parliament that it would be necessary to make war, almost as soon as this declaration was known at Paris, and long before it was received in Hanover, Mortier, with all the chosen Generals of the consular army, and with more than sixteen thousand of the oldest and best troops, was in march from the frontiers of Holland. Count DUMAS, who (as we have before stated) is a General of Napoleon's creation, though now in the royal army, cannot, of course, forget the glory of his old companions; and, in the present instance, he seems disposed to attribute their success to the irresistible effects of their renown, rather than to that Machiavelian policy which conducted them into the heart of an invaded state, before General Walmoden and his well-disciplined followers were aware that a war had even been declared.

It is, we observe, a custom of Bonaparte, and of almost all the French writers on his wars, to praise their enemy very highly whenever he has been defeated, but to allow him very little merit if victory chose to remain on his side of the question. This system we regard entirely as a national failing,

and

and cannot therefore waste our time in either exposing or combating it; for it is well known, we must suppose, to all our readers, and too deeply engrained in the French writers, either to be washed out or to be varnished over. It is, therefore, merely mentioned now because the really efficient Hanoverian army is flatteringly praised in the pages of this work; while, by a most singular mode of reasoning, the due name of which it would very much puzzle a logician to assign, the Duke of Cambridge, or rather the English government, is ridiculed for having ordered a levy en masse throughout Hanover, when the unexpected enemy had passed its frontier. This last resource of an invaded state, it is said, merely shews much fear, while it can do no good. Are we to suppose that, whenever a foreign army is poured into a territory before hostilities are declared, M. DUMAS would insist that, lest the natives should be alarmed, an instant capitulation should be made? To what follies will not national vanity lead even an otherwise sound mind!

Among the notes appended to the ninth volume, the reader will find an excellent paper on the great military roads formed by Bonaparte's engineers over the Alps; and a well drawn parallel between the Roman mode of consolidating conquests, and that which was adopted by Napoleon. The notes on the importance of the Isle of Malta also deserve much attention from the student of British history, as well as those who feel any interest in the question now agitating on the re-establishment of the order of St. John of Jerusalem.

Volume ten concludes the military history of the year 1804. Besides the great features of that period which we have already mentioned, it describes the plan of operations which the First Consul had matured on the rupture of the peace of Amiens; the measures taken to secure Italy and Holland; the famous project of invading England; the conspiracy of Georges; the murder of the Duc D'Enghien; and, finally, the elevation of Napoleon to the throne of Charlemagne. Respecting the plot against the life of Bonaparte, and the Duc D'Enghien's death, we have, in noticing the Napoleon Memoirs, (Art. I. Review for December last,) given all the most interesting extracts and opinions from the pages of this author; who is, we repeat, very far from throwing the entire odium of the murder on Napoleon's memory, but who' also seems to believe that the "damned spot" cannot be wholly washed out from it.

The papers in this volume on the defence of Italy are particularly interesting to military men; but there is a meagreness about the description of the celebrated fortress of Alessandria,