they were commanded by Don Juan de la Cruz Mongeon, and they defended themselves against 2,000 infantry and 300 cavalry, until they had not a car tridge left; and they had refused the flags of truce which the enemy had offered to them: toward the end of the day of surrender, the enemy displayed howitzers and cannon, with 6,000 infantry and 800 cavalry, whom the sharp-shooters wished to charge with the bayonet, rather than surrender; but they were prevailed on at last by La Cruz, to offer a flag of truce, which was accepted by the enemy, and in consequence of their gallant defence they were permitted to surrender prisoners of war; and the officers had their swords returned to them by the French. Nearly all the sharp-shooters have since deserted from the French, and La Cruz has arrived at Madrid."

The smugglers and others, who inha、 bited the deserts and mountains of Spain, were a few years ago very numerous; but a cordon of troops having been esta blished on the frontiers during the present war, an end was put to their traffic, and those men have chiefly entered into the army. Of the very few regular soldiers now here, the greater part are composed of them; they are robust active fellows, but badly disciplined, and worse clad as soldiers; and on parade, remind one of Falstaff's ragged regiment. They wear a brown jacket and pantaloons, often in tatters, with scarcely a shoe on the foot, or a shirt on the back, seldom looking cleanly, and the face is almost covered with the mustachios and enor mous whiskers. An English soldier, on a march of eight-and-forty hours, would not appear so dirty and miserable as these men when presenting arms to the governor. There is no attention to neat. Bess about the men, either from their own

lunteers of the place, who amount to upwards of three thousand; they take great pains to acquire a good discipline, and have a very respectable appearance; they wear an uniform of brown cloth, and ancther of scarlet, which is handsomely and superbly adorned with silver lace. The officers are very fond of shewing themselves as such, by wearing an undress uniform, according to their taste, when not on duty; and in this respect they are peculiarly fanciful. Their muskets are principally Spanish: some of the corps have English ones, but they are not much approved; the complaint is, that the lock is too delicately made, and the men often break it in exercise, and that the barrels are too short. Their own muskets are, to be sure, most clumsy heavy things, and the bayonet is shorter by three or four inches than our's; this is not regarded, as the Spaniards do not practise the charge, but you know how efficacious this instrument is in the hands of English soldiers.

The spirit of patriotism seems to be infused into all ranks, conditions, and ages; the very infants in arms, and school-boys, are dressed in the national uniform. Many little bands of the latter parade with their wooden muskets, anxious to imbibe "the bubble reputation at the cannon's mouth;" they march through the streets with music, and some favorite saint preceding them, to which every person on its approach reverently takes off his hat.

(To be continued.)

For the Monthly Magazine. Account of the DUCHY of COURLAND; from MALTE-BRUN's late PICTURE

POLAND.

the loss of Prussia, the Poles

bave often remarked their great strength in throwing a large bar of iron weighing ten or twelve pounds, which they cast from the hand, in a swinging attitude, to the distance of thirty or forty feet; but this, their only amusement, they are forbidden enjoying.

The garrison duty is performed by vo

establishing

establishing fortresses and defensive posts upon the points most exposed to invasion, ever entered into the policy of the Poles of the 17th century. The establishment of the Russians in Livonia, placed Courland and Lithuania wholly in a situation which rendered the defence of them almost impossible. We will, in the first instance, take a glance at the history of these countries.

The Esthonians and the Lieves or Livonians, are of Finnish origin; they appear to have been the most ancient inhabitants of maritime Livonia and Courland Proper. The Lettons are evidently the same nation as the Lithuanians, their language and manners prove it in contestibly, but their origin is uncertain: it is, however, a fact, that the Lettons, as well in Livonia as in Courland, were constantly at variance with the Lieves, whon by degrees they oppressed and compelled to adopt the Lettonian language in their divine worship. At present, there are very few of the Lieves; they are confounded with the Lettons.

From these two races is composed the mass of the people in the provinces of Courland, Livonia, and Esthonia. Bent under the same yoke, they yet preserve, on both sides, their national pride and their hereditary hatred: they rarely contract marriages together. Their mutual aversion is manifest even in the colour of their clothes: an Esthonian always wears brown, and a Lettoni never leaves off grey.

Five nations successively have conquered and ruled over these provinces either wholly or in part: there still re. main some colonies more or less numerous, according to the periods they remained in tranquil possession. The Danes, Swedes, Germans, Poles, and Russians, are established here; the German language prevails in the cities; the nobility almost wholly derive their origin from the north of Germany; they Conceive themselves far above the Russians and the Poles, whom they have, as it were, adopted: for this reason it is, that, in the provinces, every free individual of whatever nation he may be, is invariably called Deutsche, or German; and, on the contrary, all the peasants and serfs or vassals, are styled Undeutsche, not Germans.

It is to the Bremeners we are indebted for the first certain information relative to Livonia. In the year 1158, a vessel from Bremen, bound to Wisby, in

the island of Gothland, was driven by a storm into the gulf of Livonia, and to wards the estuary of the Dwina they dis covered the country inhabited by the Lieves. That nation, in a state of half savage barbarism, permitted them to traffic; and it is to a colony which the Breieners established, that the town of Riga owes its origin. In 1186, an ecclesiastic of Holstein began to preach the doctrine of christianity.

It is, however, positively proved, that the Scandinavians had a long time previously visited these countries, sometimes as friends, sometimes as enemies; they were known to them under the name of Oest-land or the Eastern-land, from whence Estland.

In 1196, Canute VI. King of Denmark, after having subdued the Wendes of Pomerania, fitted out an expedition to reduce Esthonia: it appears that his great general Absalon, who at the same time was an archbishop, gave his name to the city of Habsal. Canute VI. only conquered the islands, and a part of the coast. Waldemar II. surnamed the Victorious, resolved to connect these conquests with those which the Danes had made in Pomerania; and, as a pretext, he formed the plan of converting the Livonians to the Christian religion. the Pope sent him the celebrated redand-white standard, called Danebrog, which, in consequence, became the palla dium of Denmark: in short, it was a regular crusade. A fleet of four hundred vessels carried the Danish army; the largest of these vessels contained about an hundred and twenty men, the smallest about fourteen. The battle fought near Wolmar in 1220, laid all Livonia at the feet of the conqueror; the Livonians were converted, that is to say, were compelled to suffer baptism. The Prussians were next converted in a no less expeditious manner. Waldemar founded the cities of Narva, Revel, and some others; but after the three years captivity of this monarch, the conquered countries recovered their liberty. The Danes, however, still preserved some possessions in them. Esthonia remained faithful to them, at least the towns did & that part which they abandoned the last, was the Isle of Oesel, which, in 1645, was ceded to Sweden.

Successive conquerors continued the crusade begun by the Danes. In 1201 was formed and instituted the order of "the Knights of Christ," which in the commencement had the same statutes as

the

the Templars, and recognized the bishop of Riga as their chief. While the good fortune of Waldemar continued, these knights could only be regarded as auxiliaries of the Danes; however, so early as 1206, Albert, bishop of Riga, had bestowed upon them the third part of Livonia, which he did not possess, and soon after the pope confirmed this singular donation. The first grandmaster of the order was Winno; he gave the knights the name of Ensiferi, or Sword-bearers. In the year 1238, they solemnly united themselves with the Teutonic order, and adopted all

their statutes.

These knights first subdued Livonia and Courland between 1230 and 1240. An age of batties and of victoriés extended their renown, but did not consolidate their power. In 1846 they purchased Esthonia from Waldemar, king of Denmark; in 1521 the grand-master Walter de Plettenberg, purchased from the grand-master of the Teutonic order in Prussia, the full sovereignty. By this contract the order of the Knights of the Sword became independent, and was admitted into the number of the states of the empire. About this time the reformation of Luther began to penetrate into Livonia: the dissension which these new religious opinions created, weakened the power of the knights. The Czar Iwan Wasiliewitsch thought this a favourable opportunity to attempt the conquest of these countries: pressed by the Rus sians, the inhabitants of Revel and of Narva, placed themselves under the protection of Sweden. The grand-master Gothard Kettler ceded Livonia to the Poles, resigned his title of grandmaster, and in 1561 became the first Duke of Courland, after having done homage to Poland. Thus ended the state founded by the Knights of the Sword, after having continued for more than three centuries. Those Knights had civilized the Lettons and Esthonians, if we can call civilization the establishment of a privileged cast, and the reduction of the primitive nation to the most dreadful species of slavery.

Still, however, the greatest misfortunes of these countries did not commence till after the decay of the Knights of the Sword; their spoils became in a manner the apple of discord between Russia (then Muscovy), Sweden, and Poland. ter a century of almost continual wars, the treaty of Oliva in 1660, confirmed Swe

Af

den in the possession of Esthonia and Livonia. Courland remained subject to the sovereignty of Poland.

The eighteenth century renewed afresh all the horrors of war in the very heart of these countries; they were almost totally laid waste by the Russians, who remained masters of them by the peace of Neustadt, in 1721.

The tranquillity which these provinces have enjoyed since they became part of the Russian empire, has not, however, been sufficient to heal those wounds which war, pestilence, and famine, inflicted on them at the commencement of the last century. Although more advan tageously situated than any other province of northern Russia, although connected by the same language, and even customs, with Germany, these countries cannot, however, be reckoned amongst the best peopled or best cultivated, parts of the empire. The vassalage and servitude of the peasantry is the chief obstacle to political and economical civi、 lization. The peasantry here is nearly, if not entirely, upon the same footing that the slaves were with the ancient Romans. Their lords or masters, are not obliged to, nor do they, allow generally more than what is barely necessary for their subsistence; they can sell or change them at their pleasure; separate the husband from the wife, the parent from the child; and exercise every sort of uncontrouled and unlimited power over them, as though they were merely animals born for their use. For these rights and privileges of the nobility did the celebrated Patkul contend: if the nobles have not the power of life and death, it is to Sweden that humanity owes this soothing reflection, the Swedish government having deprived the nobility of all criminal jurisdiction. The Emperor Alexander has even forced the nobility* to other reforms mild as salutary.

Courland alone should now occupy our attention more particularly. This state, formerly a vassal of Poland, since the year 1795 forms a Russian government under the same name.

Over an extent of surface of 452 square miles (German), or 1,255 square leagues, is scattered a population of 404,266 individuals, which gives 322 to each square league. The following is the

* These reforms were the consequence of the German work of Merkel, entitled, "Die Letten," The Lettons. comparative