of the best intelligence and as to the forces on both sides, it does turn out that the Prince's analogy was a very just one-for we are told by Colonel Napier, who will not be suspected of diminishing the number of the French, that Massena had under his orders 135,000 men, while Lord Wellington had but 24,000 British, with about 56,000 Portuguese-line, militia, and ordinenza, or levy of peasants. Now, let us see how these disproportionate forces were handled. We will not quote any English authority— that might be suspicious-but hear what the French themselves

say

Wellington now began to execute a plan of defensive warfare, which he had determined on soon after the battle of Talavera. After the fall of Ciudad Rodrigo, he began to retire, and did not finally stop till he reached Torres Vedras. Four months were employed in slowly operating this retrograde movement. Massena followed him close, exhausting himself by continual fatigues and by daily actions, and struggling with famine, for the English carried off or destroyed all the means of subsistence. Towards the end of October, Wellington halted in an inexpugnable position, where he defied the French general, who for months could not venture to attack him, and in this interval, Wellington collected his reinforcements, and placed himself in a condition to fall on Massena, when he should be at length obliged to break up from a position in which he evidently could not long remain.'-Esquisse d'Histoire, Paris, 1828.

Again; the King writes

5th November, 1810.-Lord Wellington has obtained a great victory over Massena.'-p. 26.

On this our editor observes, that

'Here again there is a great mistake. Wellington did not obtain any great victory over Massena. At this epoch, the French general, having advanced to the very walls (sous les murs) of Lisbon, thought the position of the Anglo-Portuguese unattackable. The two armies contented themselves with observing, and remained for a long while in presence of each other-subsequently Massena retired on Santarem, passed the Lesere and established himself on that position; not a shot was fired.'

Bravo! between the date of the King's last letter, 9th October, and this of the 5th November, there had been fought the battle of Busaco, to which his Majesty alludes, and of which this worthy editor seems never to have heard. But let us see what the Duc de Rovigo, one of the boldest of Buonaparte's apologists and flatterers, says of this campaign.

Massena penetrated into Portugal, and arrived close behind the English at Busaco; but could not reach them in time. They had collected themselves and occupied the heights in full force, and Massena was unable to dislodge them. Luckily he discovered a bye-road

which was not defended; by this he made a bold flank movement which the enemy did not molest; but to counterbalance this, the French army soon found, in the lines of Torres Vedras, obstacles which it did not suspect and could not overcome. Massena was soon out of a condition to make any attempt on the English army. His own was buried as it were in a grave—(l'armée de Masséna fut enveloppée comme dans un tombeau.) The Emperor blamed Massena for his failure, and he was well nigh disgraced. At last, after having exhausted all the resources of his position, without being at all more able to beat the English, Massena retired and was closely pursued by Wellington, who harassed him to the frontiers of Spain.'-Mém. de Savary, vol. v. p. 73.

It would be idle to pursue this discussion further, but there is one point which so clearly shows the editor's ridiculous ignorance of a subject on which he pretends to decide so authoritatively, that we cannot omit it. He admits that the English won the battle of Albuera, but he imagines that the French army was commanded by Marshal Suchet, and that it was from this action that he obtained his ducal title of Albufera. Now, the French marshal who commanded in this battle, was not Suchet, but Soult. Albuera, where it was fought, is on the western frontier of Spain, near Portugal; and Albufera, whence Suchet derived his title, is on the very opposite side of the Peninsula, near the Mediterranean. The battle of Albuera was fought in May, 1811, and the capture of Valentia, for which Suchet was made Duke of Albufera, did not take place till the year after.

It is only as an amusing specimen of the mixed audacity, ignorance, and falsehood, which the French Editors of the modern school have so shamelessly adopted, that we notice these impertinencies -in any other view they are utterly contemptible.

ART. II.-1. List of the Animals in the Gardens of the Zoological Society, with Notices respecting them, and a Plan of the Gardens, showing the Buildings and Enclosures in which the Animals are kept. 8vo.

2. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. 8vo. 1836. 3. Transactions of the Zoological Society of London. 4to. 1836. CANOVA, when he was asked, during his visit to England,

what struck him most forcibly? is said to have replied that the trumpery Chinese bridge, then in St. James's Park, should be the production of the government, whilst that of Waterloo was the work of a private company. And though old recollections compel us to heave a sigh at the downfall of the lion-office in his Majesty's

Tower

Tower of London, where our Henrys and Edwards kept their leopards, linxes, and porpentines,' and we used to gaze with the fearful curiosity of childhood at Nero and his imprisoned co-mates, we are by no means sure that the observation is to be confined either to bridges or to other works of a like nature. Who can walk through the spacious garden of the Zoological Society of London, tastefully laid out and well kept'-who can view the immense collection of animals of all kinds, from the elephant and the rhinoceros to rats and mice-without agreeing with Von Raumer, that it is only in the neighbourhood of such a city as London that such an establishment could be maintained by voluntary subscriptions and contributions?'

And there is yet another thought that may arise in the mind of the visiter. His memory may carry him back to another great nation-the masters of the world-who exhibited hundreds of the rarest animals, where we have only units to show; but for what a different purpose! The conquered provinces were ransacked; herds of lions, thousands of wild beasts were presented to the gaze of the people, and

Butcher'd to make a Roman holiday.'

Titus, who finished the amphitheatre which his father began, stained the arena with the blood of five thousand beasts at its dedication, while upwards of one hundred thousand Romaus looked down upon the slaughter.* Trajan, at the conclusion of the Dacian war, gratified the popular thirst for blood by the destruction of ten thousand. The observances of a birth-day at Rome differed slightly from those of a birth-day at St. James's. Caligula celebrated his by giving four hundred bears and as many other wild beasts to be slain. Otherwhiles,' says the quaint translator of old Montaigne, a great ship was seen to come rolling in, which opened and divided of itself, and having disgorged from the hold four or five hundred beasts for fight, closed again and vanished without help.' But enough of these bloody scenes

'My soul turn from them, turn we to survey

Where rougher climes a nobler race display:'

where enormous wealth is expended, not as it was by the son-inlaw of Sylla, but in applying the arts to the comforts and innocent enjoyments of life, in advancing science, and in spreading information among the people. What a contrast is there between the peaceful repose of these Gardens and the ferocious excitement awakened by

Fighting beasts, and men to beasts exposed."

*It has been calculated that the amphitheatre would accommodate from eighty to ninety thousand persons with seats, and about twenty thousand (excuneati) standing.

For

For with all the profuse waste of animal life to which we have only alluded, natural history made hardly any progress; and though under the later Cæsars there were private collections, the credulity of Pliny, who fondly cherished every Thessalian fable, seems to have outweighed in the great majority of instances all the opportunities of zoological information which such a rich influx of rare creatures might have given him. It is to the menageries of modern times that we must chiefly look for information as to the habits and organization of animals on any extensive scale; though we are far from undervaluing the acute penetration and comprehensive labours of that great Greek observer who, seconded by Alexander, made such admirable use of the materials which the conqueror of the East caused to be submitted to his inspection.

To our French neighbours we owe the first zoological establishment of any importance in our days; and that had its origin in the menagerie founded by Louis XIV. at Versailles. It was to "Buffon, however, that the Jardin du Roi owed its value as a collection of animals; and though the political explosion which shook all Europe tore his remains from the tomb with circumstances of the most disgusting and degrading indignity, it spared the avenue of lime-trees with their sweet blossoms, the delight of bees,' which he had planted in the garden, and which still bears his name. But if the avenue was left untouched, the establishment itself was in the most imminent danger in 1792, when every vestige of the monarchy was threatened and how was it saved? Principally because it was believed that it was destined for the culture of medicinal plants, and that the laboratory of chemistry was a manufactory of saltpetre; it was 'respected,' accordingly, by the sovereign people. Here was gunpowder to wound-here were drugs to heal reasons for salvation worthy of the republic one and indivisible.' But though the Jardin des Plantes, as it was then called it now, if we mistake not, again rejoices in a royal title, though the name has been so often changed, that we would not vouch for that of next year-survived the revolution; and though the animals which had been left in a starving state at Versailles were placed, together with others, in the garden in 1794, its prosperity was but very meagre for many years. Thus, in 1800, such was the general distress, that M. Delaunay, then superintendent of the menagerie, was authorized to kill the least valuable animals to provide food for the remainder; nor was it till that extraordinary man, that setter up and puller down of kings,' who cherished science even amid the din of arms, became lord undisputed in all things, that the menagerie began steadily to improve, and finally, under the immediate auspices of Cuvier, to flourish.

We

We well remember the first public meeting for forming such an establishment in England. It seems but yesterday-how the fugaces anni have sped along!-that Davy drew attention to the subject, and Raffles so powerfully seconded the proposition. These great men have since passed away to the house appointed for all living, but the Garden and Museum of the Zoological Society of London are not to be forgotten in the catalogue of their public services. The rapidity with which the institution shot up almost at once into a flourishing condition may be gathered from the statement of one well qualified to speak on the subject—' Within the first two or three years of the existence of the Zoological Society's Garden in the Regent's Park, there were exhibited more species of living animals than are recorded to have been possessed by any similar institution on the continent in ten times the same number of years.'*

It is our intention to take a cursory view of this Garden; but, before we enter its precincts, we must not omit to notice the Museum and the publications of the Society, now in the eleventh year of its existence. The former, thanks to a host of contributors, among whose names those of Sir Stamford Raffles and Mr. Vigors stand distinguished, is now very rich, especially in the department of ornithology. This noble collection, we are happy to observe, is now placed in a building worthy of it. The council have secured the spacious premises in Leicester Square which once held the museum of the celebrated John Hunter; and they have done well. It is classical ground. There is the very room wherein he wrote those physiological papers which have spread his name over civilized Europe; and, if the spirits of the departed be permitted to cast a lingering look at the scene of their former probation, how must his be soothed at the sight of his own grand and greatly increased physiological treasures enshrined in the temple which the President and Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons have dedicated to them; while the locality where that museum formerly stood is enriched by one of the finest zoological collections in existence. That we do not say too much of the latter, will be readily granted by those who are conversant with the subject; and we refer those who may be disposed to think that we look upon it with too favourable an eye, to the testimony of witnesses who are beyond the reach of prejudices which we, as Englishmen, might be supposed to entertain. By the Annales des Sciences for November, 1835, it will be seen that the Museum of the Zoological Society possesses many specimens which are wanting in the French collections, and are so described in the instructions

Mr. Gray, in his evidence given before the select committee on the condition, management, and affairs of the British Museum.

of