Reviews and Critical Notices-Memoir of the early operations of the Burmese War-Adventures of a Younger Son-Standard Novels, XII. and XIII.-Cabinet Cyclopædia, Vol. XXVI.-History of the Italian Republics-Eminent British Military Commanders, Vol. XXVIII.-Life and Reign of George IV. concluding Vol. Digest-Annual Biography and Obituary of 1831-The Chame- leon-Colonial Crisis-Hanoverian Military Journal-Reefing Topsails-Landscape Illustrations of Lord Byron's Works, &c.— Gallery of the Society of Painters in Water Colours-Fragments of Voyages and Travels Colonel Botherton on a Passage in our January Number respecting ERRATA. 1831, PART III. Page 435, Riots at Bristol, 4th line from the top, for "acting with energy" read “in acting Page 442, Ditto, Adjutant General's Letter, first line, for " circumstances" read "disturbances," 1832, PART L Page 41, line 19, dele "of" and "we." Page 48, line 32, dele" and men." Page 119, line 18 from bottom, for "would "read" could." Page 120, line 30, for "hastily" read "heartily." Page 137, line 4, for " Killinakie" read Killicrankie. 2nd line from bottom, for " Ronaux" read "Roncoux." Page 303, line 13, for "square" read " squares." Page 372, line 11 from the bottom, for "1779" read 1797." THE UNITED SERVICE JOURNAL, AND NAVAL AND MILITARY MAGAZINE. A NEW YEAR'S PREFACE. "Quand on n'aspire qu'à être utile, on peut se passer de louanges." "TIME rolls his ceaseless car," and before these pages shall have been opened, the year 1831, that was ushered in gilded by the brilliant beam of hope that shone over Poland, will have set in darkness, rendered amply visible by the warning fires of Lyons and of Bristol. May we never look upon its like again! But before proceeding to its brief epitaph, we here beg leave to wish you, most kind and courteous reader, a right happy, pleasant, and merry new year. May you, during the course of its 365 days shed no tears but those of joy, heave no sighs but those that beauty's smile will arrest, and may you remain as free from grief and disappointment as either Red or Blue Jacket can possibly expect. Nay more, we hope that in the close scrutiny which you will of course institute into all your last year's actions and feelings, you may find but little valuable time spent in utter thoughtlessness, in merely waiting for pleasure instead of being employed to lay the foundation of happiness. May you have few idle hopes, as idly cherished, to remember: few airy structures of imagination, raised but to crush you by their fall, to recollect. May you have little of unworthy passion, followed by internal humiliation, to regret and above all, may you be entirely free from the bitter pang occasioned by a perseverance in the path of error after your better feeling and judgment had warned you to withdraw, whilst culpable vanity and the shame of retracting, led you, perhaps, to the very brink of dishonour, merely to avoid its semblance. And few there are, even of the best of us, who will find such scrutiny vain and unprofitable: "Vain was the man, and weak as vain, Who said, were he ordained to run His long career of life again He would do all that he had done." But to return to the year that has just been added to the mighty and countless mass of unreturning time. Taken as a mere period of twelve calendar months, it has, like other years, seen the agonies of crushed and severed affection, the tears of innocence, the sorrows and sufferings of the good, the broken hearts and heart-burnings of the generous and the brave, occasioned by the callous ingratitude of man, U. S. JOURN. No. 38. JAN. 1832. B and, above all, of governing man. On the other hand, it has also witnessed the contrast so amusingly displayed between the actions and professions of men, as well as between their merits and pretensions. It has seen the mean and sordid miser claiming credit for generous liberality, on the mere strength of the wealth which he kept closely confined to his own pocket: it has seen the promoted pretender strut about in the full and unblushing ignominy of stars and rank, due only to the courage and high emprize, which, when coupled with his name, convulsed even the grave with laughter: it has also beheld folly and ignorance triumphant and prosperous, whilst worth and virtue were kept in the back ground. Like other years, it has no doubt heard the artful impostor speak in praise of truth and honour, and the harsh, selfish, and overbearing, preach in favour of meekness, forbearance, and liberality; but it remained for the year 1831, to see blind and uncontrolled Fortune lording it over the majestic world, appropriately decorated with the cap and bells, which her giddy goddess-ship was ever threatening to exchange for the bonnet rouge of Jacobinism, that, strange to say, even good and worthy men were at every turn holding up and recommending to her as the most becoming head-dress imaginable and Fortune is a woman, who, like others of her fickle sex, has before now been gained by flattery. It is from historical events the last year is so rich in the lessons that experience can furnish to reflection. That wild year beheld the star of Polish independence, the rising of which, from old and proud associations, was so joyfully hailed by all Europe, quenched in blood without a sword having been drawn in the well-asserted cause and against the strong oppressor, by those nations who supported the despicable Greeks and as cowardly Belgians against comparatively weak but legitimate sovereigns. It saw the millennium that the three glorious days of Paris were to establish in France, end in doubts, fears, open rebellion, and all but anarchy. It saw the Belgians, after bullying the world by empty bravadoes, and merely in mercy forbearing to conquer Holland, fly, as no fugitives ever fled before, at the very first sight of their insulted and ill-used foes; and our own land, so long the seat of peace and security, even in the times of our wildest political dissensions, was destined, in the sack and conflagration of Bristol, to furnish a melancholy illustration of the value of those Utopian doctrines of human excellence, on which so many brilliant theories of government and legislation had lately been erected. And yet, with these mighty events crowded into the space of one short year, there are men who would tell us that history-the "testis temporum; lux veritatis; vita memoriæ; nuncia vetustatis; magistra vitæ,"-is nothing better than an old almanack. And so, indeed, it is to some-but as an old almanack will serve as a true guide to him whose far-seeing eye knows how to trace the brilliant course of the heavenly bodies through their "wilds of empyreal blue," in like manner will history enable the philosopher and the man of thought and reflection to trace the progress of human events, knowing from previous data the direction in which human passion will impel the earthy bodies of little men. At this moment, however, we have no intention to moralize on the past, or to philosophize on the present, intending merely to egotize, if one may be permitted to use such a word, on our own far more important selves; and |