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    most obvious sources of information ; and even among these he refers five times to a compilation , for once to an original authority . In this he evinces a candour worthy of praise , since his crowded margin betrays that scantiness of reading which other authors leave theirs blank on purpose to conceal . We suspect

    he has written his book rather from memory and notes than with the works themselves before him ; else how happens it that he invariably mispels the name of one of the writers , he oftenest refers to r * * why are several of the names which occur in the history , also mispelt , in a manner not to be accounted for by the largest allowance for typographical errors ? why are there so many

    inaccuracies in matter of fact , of minor importance indeed , but which could hardly have been fallen into , by one fresh from the reading of even the common histories of the Revolution ? The very first and simplest requisite for a writer of French history , a knowledge of the French language , Mr . Alison does not possess in the necessary perfection . To feel the higher excellences of

    expression and style in any language implies a mastery over the language itself , and a familiarity with its literature , far greater * than is sufficient for all inferior purposes . We are sure that any one who can so completely fail to enter into the spirit of Mirabeau ' famous ' Dites-lui que ces hordes etrangeres dont nous sommes invesfes , ' of that inspired burst of oratory upon la

    hideuse banqueroute , and of almost everything having any claim to eloquence which he attempts to render , must be either without the smallest real feeling of eloquence , or so inadequately conversant with the French language , that French eloquence has not yet found its way to his soul . We are the more willing to give Mr . Alison the benefit of this excuse , as we find his knowledge of

    French at fault in far smaller things . He mistakes Virnpot du timbre for a tax on timber ; fourche , apparently from not understanding what it is , he translates a fork , and chariot a chariot . The waggoner Cathelineau he terms a charioteer , and the victims of the revolutionary tribunal are carried from the prison to the guillotine in a chariot . Mr . Alison might with as much reason call the dead-cart , during the plague of London , by that name .

    If our sole object were to declare our opinion of Mr . Alison ' s book 3 our observations might stop here . But Mr . Alison ' s subject seems to require of us some further remarks , applicable to the mode in which that subject is treated by English writers generally , as well as by him . M . Toulongeon , always spelt Ttmlangeon by Mr . Alison . To be continued .

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    The French Revolution . 511

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  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1833, page 511, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2618/page/71/