four stones, stretching from side to side, and each of larger dimensions than that which covers the porch. The one farthest from the entrance is the largest, being a square of twenty-three feet, and four feet thick, and estimated to weigh the enormous amount of one hundred and twenty tons; the five stones, forming the roof of both chambers, amounting to above three hundred and se. venty-five tons in all. In addition to the sides and the single stone at the extremity, the roof of the inner chamber is supported also by three pillar-stones, standing along the centre, and which, as they are not quite perpendicular, would seem to have been subsequently introduced as additional supports to the roof. They are placed in such a manner under the points of junction of the stones above, so that each contributes support to two of them. These pillar-stones are rude and rough on their surface, of an irregular, quadrilateral shape, and not of equal dimensions -the one nearest the entrance being only eight feet in circumference, while the innermost measures fourteen feet. In the roof of the inner chamber the second stone from the entrance appears to have been cracked in two, or else, perhaps, from inability to procure all of such gigantic dimensions, the builders fitted two smaller ones to serve their purpose. The accompanying sketch represents the cave as viewed from the inner extremity. All these stones on the outside, wherever they are visible, are misshaped and irregular; but on the inside they are flat and even, without being smooth. They do not appear to have been punched or chiselled in any way, but present that rough, yet flat surface, which can frequently be seen in stones in their natural state. There are no traces upon them of chisel marks, nor any lines whatever; nor are there around the base of the hill, as is generally the case in Ireland, any remains of a stone circle. The structure is just under the surface of the summit, the conical shape of which is still preserved, except on the entrance side, where the outline is broken; and this, together with the fact that the earth is banked on each side of the entrance, and several large stones are strewn about the approach, would seem to indicate that the outer chamber was considerably larger than it is at present. In length, the cave measures seventy-one feet, and lies due east and west; the entrance faces eastward, and looks towards the other two similar hills; and beyond them again, at almost the distance of a league, rises abruptly from the plain the Pena de los Enamorados, which from here, presents its most picturesque appearance. Signor Mitjana, in searching for bones, weapons, or other remains, and, perhaps, for other chambers deeper in the hill, caused a shaft to be sunk in the interior, between the third pillar and the extremity, but discovered nothing; and to give light to his workmen, broke out at the end a large hole, four or five feet square, which considerably

impairs the effect and uniformity of the place. Fortunately, however, it does admit the light, or else a visit to the cave might be attended with dangerous results; for as the shaft is still open, five feet wide, and forty-three feet deep, and the earth loose and sloping at the mouth, an unwary visitor could hardly escape being precipitated into it.

"It is generally believed that the adjoining mounds contain monuments of a similar description, and it is highly probable that such is the case; but as yet no one has had enterprise enough to undertake such a research. These hills are not entirely artificial, like those on the banks of the Boyne; but for the most part consist of dark sandstone in its natural condition, and which, probably, was cut and pared away till it assumed the shape required. Among the many other points of resemblance, however, it is ascertained that all these enormous stones were brought from a distance, none of the kind being found in the immediate locality, and the remains of a quarry of the same kind still existing about half a-mile off, on the hill of the Calvario."

In the selection of the previous passages we have frequently been in the dilemma of not knowing which to hit upon; and we are by no means certain that we made the best choice. We have been so often tempted, that our difficulty was not what to take, but what to leave; and, though our extracts have not been few, we find ourselves still in sunny Andalucia. We fear that our limits will not allow us to do equal justice to Castile-to take even a hurried flight from the capital and its court, through her time-honoured cities, and dwell with contemplative sadness upon the melancholy grandeur which hangs around them even in their decay. One more passage and we have done. It describes, and describes most truly, the almost universal prevalence of that public and political corruption which is the curse of Spain, and which pervades all classes, from the highest to the lowest :

"People, however, must be actuated by higher and better principles before things can really improve in this unhappy land; they must learn to prefer public to private interests before there can be an honest or an upright government in Spain. From the highest to the lowest, all are corrupt; the government bribe alike the electors and the elected -taxes are remitted, patronage is dispensed, every engine that a ministry, backed by hundreds of employés, can command, is set in motion to return the candidate who will

be most pliant when elected. People in Spain only seek to obtain office for the advantages to be derived from it, or the benefits that may accrue to their families; in fact, they do not seem to understand there can be a possibility of people seeking office with any other view. That there are exceptions, no one can doubt; but the prevalence of the complaint is too manifest, and the state of public morality has sunk so low, that such peccadilloes are considered as a matter of course, and do not call forth either astonishment or reprehension. . . But the sincerity of this disclaimer might well be doubted on the part of a ministry which tyrannised over the press beyond all precedent, and tampered in the most shameless manner with the election of deputies.

"One or two instances out of a thousand may show the manner in which ministerial influence is exerted. In Pinos de la Valle, in the province of Granada, the alcalde, whose office it is to preside over the elections, was suspended by the governor as being adverse to the government candidate, and a claim against the town of two hundred pounds was remitted on consideration of the ministerial candidate being returned. In the town of Orgiva, in the same province, a fine of like amount was imposed, and a further one threatened, should the ministerial candidate not be returned; and, as if this were insufficient, the alcalde was suspended, the second alcalde was put aside, and a friend of the candidate named to conduct the voting, although a criminal suit was actually pending against him. It may be asked, how a government can be allowed to exercise so shameless and baneful an influence? The discussion is, indeed, a wide and difficult one; but one predominating cause may be found in that insatiable rage for government employment which pervades Spain. It is essentially a nation of two classes empleados,' or persons holding office, dependent on the government for their very bread; and pretendientes,' or those who are seekers after place. Had Le Sage written in the middle of the nineteenth, instead of at the commencement of the eigh

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teenth century, he could not have depicted the system more to the life. Public employment is the primary resource of every needy man who can read and write, as well as of thousands who cannot; the very doorkeepers and porters, who encumber the public offices, being Legion. It has been computed that their numbers have quadrupled within the present century; and, as a consequence, the administration of the country is some four times more complex and inefficient. Nor are the social evils of such a system less disastrous, at once draining the fields of their legitimate cultivators, and drawing off from the industrious pursuits of life those of the middle classes, whose labour and enterprize should enrich the country. There is, however, in Congress, a phalanx of enlightened and determined men bent on sweeping away these relics of a past time, and whose voices will at length be heard. Although forming but a minority within the walls, they carry weight and conviction without them; and, to this party and its principles, many look for the ultimate regeneration of their country, and for rendering its institutions a reality."

We have rarely seen a work issued from the press which, in point of appearance, letter-press, and general finish, does more credit to the publication. Its numerous and beautiful illustrations make it a fitting ornament for the drawing-room and boudoir, while its contents fully entitle it to a permanent position in every well-appointed library. If we mistake not, it is the first literary production of Lady Louisa Tenison. Then, we beg to congratulate her upon her success; and will only add, that for one who has shown she can use her pen and her pencil with equal skill, to allow either to lie idle now, would be doing an injustice to others as well as to herself.

AMONG the many gallant Irishmen, and men descended from the old Irish race, who served in the armies of France, and sought there those honours and distinctions, which political misfortune, undeserved reprobation, and studied misrule denied them at home, I know of none more brave and distinguished, and of none whose name is more worthy of being rescued from oblivion, than General the Count de Lally, the ill-requited leader of the troops of Louis XV., in his wars in the East Indies.

Arthur Lally was the son of Captain Lally, who passed over to France soon after Limerick capitulated to Goderdt de Ginckel, the Dutch Earl of Athlone, and the close of that disastrous war, in which the loyal Irish so long withstood the invading troops of King William.

Captain Lally obtained a commission under Louis XIV., in the regiment of Dillon, the same battalion in which the great Marshal Macdonald, Duke of Tarentum, commenced his military career as a sub-lieutenant, in 1786. Soon after he settled in France, Captain Lally married a French lady of distinction. By her he had several children, the eldest of whom, Arthur, was soon after his birth enrolled as a private soldier in the company of his father, according to a somewhat equiVocal custom, then prevailing in the old French service. His mother being allied by blood to some of the most noble families in France, and his father being an officer of distinguished merit, afforded young Lally every opportunity for the improvement of his mind and person; and thus, at the age of nineteen, he was considered one of the most handsome and accomplished chevaliers in the army of King Louis. Without having seen active service, he was (at that early age) appointed to a company in that gallant band of exiles, whose valour contributed to win many a victory for the House of Bourbonthe Irish Brigade.

His regiment (every member of which knew his father's worth and

merit) received him with satisfaction, and his reception took place early in 1718.

In the old French army, before the Revolution, this was an indispensable ceremony, when an officer first joined. His company was drawn up in front of the regiment, with the drummers beating on the flanks; young Lally, dressed in his full uniform, with his white scarf and gorget on, was led forward by the general of the district or division, who, when the drums ceased, took off his three cocked hat and said

"De par le Roi! Soldats, vous reconnoitrez Monsieur de Lally, votre capitaine de la compagnie, et vous lui obéirez en tout ce qu'il, vous ordonnera pour le service du Roi, en cette qualité."

Another ruffle on the drums - the company fell back to its place in the regiment, and Arthur Lally was formally installed its captain.

Though by his education and spirit he was known to possess all those qualities which are requisite for the perfect soldier-chiefly, a solid judgment, a great power of happy decision, with a light and joyous but intrepid heart, he was found to be equally qualified for the civil service of the state. Thus, at the age of five-and-twenty, he was sent by Louis XV. to the court of Russia, on a mission of importance. On this duty he acquitted himself ably; his fidelity, on one hand, securing the confidence and esteem of the king his master; his address and winning manner securing, on the other, the admiration and favour of the Empress Catherine I., whose husband, Peter the Great, had died about a year before.

On his return to France in 1725, he proceeded to Versailles, where Louis XV., who had now attained his majority, and taken the reins of government from the Regent Duke of Orleans, received him in the most gracious manner, and promoted him to the rank of colonel of infantry; and at the head of his regiment he had the

good fortune to acquit himself with grace and distinction wherever he was employed.

He stood high in the favour of the two ministers who succeeded the Duke of Orleans, viz., the Duke of Bourbon, and Cardinal Fleury, then in his se venty-third year, a mild and amiable prelate, under whose moderate and conciliatory councils France enjoyed many years of peace and tranquillity.

During service in France, Lally, though somewhat proud and lofty in his manner, succeeded in gaining the esteem and affection of the officers of his regiment, among whom, even in those days of incessant duelling, he was successful in maintaining the most perfect union and harmony; while by his unalterable firmness, subordination was fully maintained. Thus passed the time, until the eventful year 1745, when Prince Charles Edward Stuart projected his gallant and unfortunate "rising" among the clans in the Scottish highlands. Entering warmly into the design of restoring the hapless House of Stuart, under which his father had served so faithfully, and with whom he had shared the fate of exile, Colonel Lally came boldly over to London.

While his ostensible object was to recover certain lands in Ireland, to which he averred his father had a claim, his real errand was to serve the young Prince of Scotland-to animate his friends-to excite the malcontents (and these were numerous, for disgust at the long and useless wars of George II. in Germany, was waxing strong)— to promise money and titles, and prepare the quiescent natives of South Britain for the military tempest that was about to descend from the mountains of the North. Being bold and determined, Lally met with the greatest success in London; but being somewhat unwary, his plans and presence were discovered, and he was betrayed by an English spy to the Duke of Cumberland, who issued immediate and arbitrary orders for his arrest. Fortunately, however, the Colonel escaped the shambles to which "the butcher" of the clans had doomed him. He returned to France, about the time Culloden was fought, and resumed the command of his regiment.

A war was then raging between Britain and France; and the fleets of the former swept those of the latter

from the ocean. Admiral Hawke destroyed the French fleet at Bellisle, and in the same year upwards of six hundred prizes were taken by the British ships.

Though his armies performed some splendid achievements in the Netherlands, where Marshal the Count de Saxe beat, defeated, and covered with irreparable disgrace the inert and bloodstained Cumberland, the impression of his misfortunes by sea, together with the internal distresses of France, compelled Louis XV. to conclude a peace, a congress for which met at Aix la Chapelle in April, 1748; and the definitive treaty was signed in the following October.

During this period, and until his promotion to the rank of LieutenantGeneral and Commander-in-Chief in the East Indies, the life of Lally, who had now obtained the title of Count, does not present any circumstance or incident worthy of much attention.

In 1750 a dispute, pregnant with hostility, having occurred between Britain and France, respecting their mutual claims in North America, various circumstances which occurred in the East Indies about the same time confirmed the idea that the short peace concluded in 1748 was about to end. Each country prepared again for war; and though many unfriendly acts were committed, and recriminations exchanged between the courts, till England was threatened with invasion as a curb upon her aggressive spirit, war was not formally pronounced until the month of June, 1756. The declaration made by George II. was mild and moderate in style and language; but that promulgated by Louis XV. was full of severity and opprobrium. Prussia became the ally of the former, Sweden and Russia joined the latter. In distant regions, as well as at home, the sanguinary struggle was maintained; and in America France was stripped of all her colonies by the army of the heroic Wolfe.

Immediately after the declaration of war, in the month of August, 1756, the Count de Lally, as lieutenant-general and commander-in-chief of all his most Christian Majesty's forces in India, was appointed to command an expedition for those burning shores-then so distant, and at that period a land of wonders to the European. In support of this expedition the court had destined

six millions of livres, six strong battalions of infantry, and three ships of war, which were to co-operate with such armaments as the India Company could furnish. The whole of these troops, however, did not embark.

On the 20th February, 1757, the Count de Lally, accompanied by his brother Nichel, marched to Brest at the head of two battalions; and though having only two, out of the six millions of livres voted, in the military chest, embarked on board the ships of the Count d'Aché, who immediately put to sea; but, being driven again into port by adverse winds, the squadron was detained till the 2nd May.

Meanwhile, the Chevalier des Soupirs, Lally's major-general, and second in command, had already reached the Indian Ocean, having departed from L'Orient on the 30th of the preceding December with two battalions and two millions of livres, and had reached the Isle of France, without accident.

The lieutenant-general had very ample and important instructions given him by the French East India Company. Some of these were to the following effect :

"The Sieur de Lally is hereby authorised to destroy the fortifications of all maritime settlements which may be taken from the English; it may, however, be proper to except Vizagapatam, by reason of its being so nearly situated to Bemelipatam (a Dutch factory), which, in that case, would be enriched by the ruin of Vizagapatam: but as to that, as well as the demolishing of all other places whatsoever, the Sieur de Lally is to consult the governor and superior council of Pondicherry, and to have their opinion in writing; but, notwithstanding, he is to destroy such places as he shall think proper, unless strong and sufficient arguments are made use of to the contrary: such, for example, as the Company's being apprehensive for some of their settlements, and that it would be then thought prudent and necessary to reserve the power of exchange, in case any of them should be lost. Nevertheless, if the Sieur de Lally should think it too hazardous to keep a place, or that he thought he could not do it without dividing or weakening his army, his Majesty then leaves it in his power to act as he may think proper for the good of the service.

"The Sieur de Lally is not to allow

the ransom of any English settlement ; as we may well remember that, after the taking of Madras, last war, the English Company, in their council of the 14th July, 1747, determined that all ransoms made in India should be annulled. In regard to the English troops, both officers and writers belonging to the Company, and to the inhabitants of that nation, the Sieur de Lally is to permit none of them to remain on the coast of Coromandel; he may, if he pleases, permit the inhabitants to go to England, and order them to be conducted in armed vessels to the Isle of St. Helena. But as to the officers and writers belonging to the East India Company, as well soldiers and sailors, he is to order them to be conducted as soon as possible to the Isle of Bourbon, where it will be permitted for the soldiers and sailors to work for the inhabitants of that place according to mutual agreement, though the sending them to the French islands should be avoided as much as possible, to prevent their being acquainted with the coast, as well as the interior of the island. It is by no means his Majesty's intention that the English officers, soldiers, and sailors should be ransomed, as none are to be delivered up but by exchange-man for man, according to their different ranks and stations.

"If the exchange of prisoners should be by chance settled at home between the two nations, of which proper notice will be given the Sieur de Lally, and that the Isles of France and Bourbon should have more prisoners than it would be convenient to provide for; in that case, it will be permitted to send a certain number to England, in a vessel armed for that purpose. No English officers, soldiers, &c., are to be permitted to remain in a place after it is taken; neither are they to be suffered to retire to any other of their settlements.

"The Sieur de Lally is not in the least to deviate from the above instructions and regulations, unless there should be a capitulation which stipulates the contrary; in which case, the Sieur de Lally is faithfully and honestly to adhere to the capitulation. The whole of what has been said before concerns only the natives of England; but as they have in their settlements merchants from all nations, such as Moors, Armenians, Jews, Pattaners, &c., the Sieur de Lally is ordered to treat them with humanity, and to endeavour by