notwithstanding these difficulties, to which the present work must have been peculiarly exposed, there is less appearance of disproportion in its parts than in any other encyclopædia that we have had occasion to examine.

In a work of such magnitude as this, the liberality of the proprietors is best seen in the number and nature of the maps, engravings, and woodcuts. At the commencement of the publication the geographical articles were illustrated only by quarto maps, but these were afterwards cancelled, and a new series of a folio size substituted in their place. These maps form a complete and excellent atlas. The engravings, upon steel, are numerous and well executed; and the introduction of woodcuts into the text, a plan new in encyclopædias, has given a peculiar value to many articles. In those of STEAM, STEAM-ENGINE, and STEAM NAVIGATION, though almost every page is illustrated by numbers of the most correct and beautiful woodcuts, yet the proprietors have given no fewer than TWENTY-TWO splendid engravings-five of them in folio-to illustrate these articles alone. The plates too are executed with the minuteness of working drawings, and in the present predominance of civil engineering, as connected with locomotive and steam- boat engines, they must be an invaluable present to all who pursue that interesting profession.

From the observations which we have already had occasion to make, our readers may have drawn the inference that an encyclopædia like this must be a work of great utility, even to those who possess, or have access to, ample libraries. With an index enumerating every article in the work, and also the leading topics which those articles contain, we can at once direct our attention to any subject upon which we require information; and if we do not find all that we desire, our attention will be turned to sources from which it can be obtained. But if the mature cultivator of letters and science finds such a companion almost indispensable, of what value must it be to the young, perhaps narrowly provided and obscurely situated student, in the years when the foundations are to be laid! How absolutely inappreciable must such a repository of knowledge be to the unlettered reader of all ranks, to the humble artisan as well as to the country gentleman and the opulent manufacturer and merchant! Occupying only four or five cubic feet of space, it would not encumber either the traveller or the emigrant; and an Australian or New Zealand settler, who left his home with no other accomplishment but that of being able to read, write, and count, might with such a companion beguile his long and weary voyage, and become a well-informed man before he reached his destination. Considering the imperishable nature of books, the cheapness

with which they are now produced, and the rapidity and extent of their production, we are convinced that some great revolution must soon take place in their manufacture and use. Libraries, both public and private, are now extending themselves beyond all reasonable bounds. Apartments cannot be found to contain them; and there are many libraries where the volumes stand three deep, and

thus become inaccessible to their owners. In the progress of

accumulation wing after wing must be added to the storehouse of learning, and librarian after librarian, till space, as well as funds, are exhausted. But if this be the case at present, with our restricted trade and limited communication with foreign states, what must be the condition of our libraries when railway intercourse shall have made the nations of Europe one family, speaking each other's languages, and creating a new demand for each other's intellectual productions? Unfortunately for authors there is no epidemic among books, to thin their ranks, and render necessary a new supply; and the fire-proof inventions of the present day extinguish the hopes which were sometimes realised from the timber boards of our books and the wooden carpentry of our libraries. There is, therefore, no law of mortality by which the number of books is regulated like that of animals; and, since we cannot control their accumulation, we should endeavour, as soon as we can, to reduce their magnitude and increase their portability.

The compression of many hundred volumes into an encyclopædia, forming a complete library of itself, has been a great step towards the accomplishment of this desirable object, and it is probably the only one of which in our time we shall reap the advantage. But it is only a step; and though we cannot foresee the extent to which the principle of compressing knowledge, not only in its corporeal but in its intellectual phase, may be carried, yet we clearly recognise certain steps in the process which may be immediately taken, and certain consequences flowing from them which cannot fail to excite our highest expectations of ultimate

success.

'Railroad travelling,' says the Rev. Sydney Smith, 'is a delightfu improvement of human life. Man is become a bird: he can fly longer and quicker than a Solon goose. The mamma rushes 60 miles in two hours to the aching finger of her conjugating and declining grammarboy. The early Scotchman scratches himself in the morning mists of the North, and has his porridge in Piccadilly before the setting sun. The Puseyite priest, after a rush of 100 miles, appears with his little volume of nonsense at the breakfast-table of his bookseller. Everything is near-everything is immediate: time, distance, and delay are abolished.'*

* Morning Chronicle, June 8.

If the steam-boat and the railway have thus abridged space and time, and made a large addition to the available length of human existence, why may not our intellectual journey be also accelerated,—our knowledge more cheaply and quickly acquired,— its records rendered more accessible and portable,—its cultivators increased in number,-and its blessings more rapidly and widely diffused? We shall endeavour to state very briefly some means by which these objects may be effected, and the consequences to which they are likely to lead. We have now before us an 8vo. volume,* containing about 1150 pages of double columns, and printed on paper so thin that the thickness of the volume (though not beaten) is only two inches, and in so small a type that the quantity of matter which it contains is equal to above TWELVE NUMBERS of this Review, supposed to be all printed in its ordinary type. Now, if the type were diminished to one-half its present size, or to one-fourth, which is quite practicable, and if the margin were somewhat diminished, we should have an 8vo. volume two inches thick equal to FIFTY NUMBERS of this Review, or TWENTY-FIVE volumes. Such a work would require a readingglass, but this would not affect its utility at all for the purposes of consultation, and indeed the young student would have no more difficulty in perusing it page after page than the Doctor of 50 already has in getting through the columns of his Times by help of spectacles.

A bookcase might thus contain a large library, and a moderate one might be packed in the traveller's portmanteau. Books now forwarded by tardy conveyances might be sent by post. A number of this Journal, upon which the postage is now half-a-crown, might be sent for fourpence, and large pamphlets would have the privilege of half-ounce letters. These processes too might be aided by a stenographic representation of the terminations of many of our long words, and even by a contraction of the words themselves; and in the spirit of these changes authors might be led to think more closely, and to express their thoughts in the shortest and the fewest words. By these means we might accommodate the Waverley Novels in one of our pockets, with Shakspeare and the British drama in the other; while the literature of our own sixty volumes occupying one pannier might be balanced with the science of the Philosophical Transactions in the other.

Biographie Portatif des Contemporains, vol. i., Paris. It contains three plates with thirty portraits, ten in each plate.

ART.

ART. III.-La Petite Chouanerie; ou, Histoire d'un College Breton sous L'Empire. Par A. F. Rio. Paris et Londres. 1842. 8vo."

AN eminent literary man was recently complaining to us that

the rising generation seemed to know nothing of books published more than fifteen or twenty years ago. 'I was not understood yesterday,' said he, when I talked to a budding legislator about Sir Andrew Freeport; and here is a young lady who evidently supposes Seged Emperor of Ethiopia to be one of the tawny potentates discovered by Bruce.' In this state of things it would be idle to take for granted that everybody is familiar with the Memoirs of Madame de Larochejaquelein; and the utmost we can hope for M. Rio's sake is, that some half-buried associations will be resuscitated in the memories of our older readers, when we name his book as a not unworthy pendant to her noble and inspiring picture of the courage, piety, disinterestedness, and unshaken loyalty, of the most virtuous and truly patriotic portion of her countrymen. Well might Sir Walter Scott say that the country of which La Vendée forms a part, and the court in which Madame de Larochejaquelein was educated, could not be so corrupt as we had been taught to believe; for history, ancient and modern, might be ransacked without finding parallels to numerous instances of high daring, patient suffering, and cheerful self-sacrifice recorded by her. Above all Greek, above all Roman praise-the finer spirit and purer motives of modern chivalry may be seen blended with the stern resolve and stoical contempt of life which distinguish the heroes of antiquity: Cato and Brutus look like vulgar suicides; and the dying Bayard leaning against the tree with his cross-hilted sword held up before him as a crucifix, or even Sidney on the fatal field of Zutphen, still wants the cause to raise him above the martyrs of La Vendée.

A few passages from their annals will form a fitting introduction to our notice of M. Rio's work.

When an expedition was meditated, a requisition in the following terms was forwarded to each parish: In the holy name of God, and of the King, this parish is invited to send as many men as possible to such a place, on such a day and hour, and to bring provisions with them.' Not merely was the requisition obeyed with cheerfulness, but the privilege of going was eagerly contended for. When the whole force was assembled, they were divided in an equally primitive manner. It was said:-(a chief) goes such a way; who follows him?" Those

who

who liked ranged themselves about him, until the column was complete. In manoeuvring they were not told, To the right,' To the left,' &c., but Go towards that house ;' That great tree,' &c. In battle, like all Frenchmen, they expected their leaders to set the example. Thus at the assault of Thouars:

'About eleven o'clock the powder of the Vendéans beginning to fail, M. de Larochejaquelein went for a supply, leaving M. de Lescure alone to command. A moment after, M. de L. perceived the republicans less steady, and as if beginning to give way: he instantly seized a musket with a bayonet, and, calling to the soldiers to follow him, descended rapidly from the height, and gained the middle of the bridge, amidst showers of balls and case-shot. No peasant dared to follow him. He returned, called, exhorted, and, again giving the example, returned upon the bridge, but remained alone. His clothes pierced with balls, he made a third effort. At that instant MM. de Larochejaquelein and Forêt arrived, and flew to his assistance: he had been followed by one only of the peasants. All four crossed the bridge. M. de Lescure leaped the entrenchment; the peasant was wounded; but Henri and Forêt got over it also; the men then rushed on to their assistance, and the passage was forced.'

Napoleon, according to the most partial version of an apocryphal story, did no more at Lodi.

As Major Allan observed to Cornet Graham, a man may fight never the worse for honouring both his Bible and psalter;' nor need we refer to Cromwell's Ironsides, or any other fanatics, for illustrations of the maxim. The nights before the battles of Agincourt and Poictiers were spent in prayer by the conquerors; and the striking incident which preceded the closing of the English and Scottish hosts at Bannockburn should be familiar to all lovers of romance or poetry:

"Each weapon point is downward sent;
Each warrior to the ground is bent.
The rebels, Argentine, repent!

For pardon they have kneel'd."

Ay, but they bend to other powers,

And other pardon sue than ours:
See where yon barefoot abbot stands,
And blesses them with lifted hands!

Upon the spot where they have kneel'd,
These men will die or win the field."'

The Vendéan peasants scarcely ever omitted saying their prayers before engaging, and most of them made the sign of the cross each time they fired. The fervour of the religious sentiment was well exemplified at the battle of Fontenay:

'Before the attack the soldiers received absolution. The generals then said to them, "Now, friends, we have no powder: we must take

these