The Sun.
London, England, 1827-01-26 00:00:00

NOUVELLE DE CASTI.

The above work, a volume of which caused such horror
in Mr. Wellesley, and which is just about to undergo a
fate which its author, we dare say, never dreamed of,
namely, to be submitted, not to the castigation of a critic,
but of a Master in Chancery, has been so much talked of
for some days past, that a short account seems not uncalled
for. The edition which now lies before us, and which we
have looked at only in our capacity of collectors-general of
intelligence, consists of three pretty thick duo'ecimo
volumes, awl contains, in all, forty-eight stories, written in
(Mara rima. They are, for the most part, at least such
as we have prevailed on ourselves to clip into, composed in
beautiful Italian, and are very lengthy and very dull withal.
We have not stumbled on any passages so alarming as to
justify us in joining in the strong condemnation of Mr.
Wellesley ; but what we have met are, in all conscience,
bad enough. Most scholars have read Boccaccio, and
when they have conceived the worst of his tales turned
into eight and eight rhimes, they will have no indifferent
conception of the best of Giambattista. The parts which
may be termed blasphemous are those in which he at-
tacks, with obscene ridicule, the mummeries of Roman
Catholicism, and especially the mummeries of the monks,
which have, at all times, furnished ample food for the
satirist. None lashe7 these holy drones of cells more !
roughly than Boccaccio; and Casti does not spare
them. So much for the Nouvelle, which are really
and truly as we have described them, very dull trash,
which, setting aside their immorality, no person of taste
would be at the trouble of perusing. Their author,
Giambattista Casti, was born at Montefiasconi, a small
village in the Papal States, in 1720, and died in 1804, in
his eighty-fourth year. His biographers say that he gave
early proof of great abilities, and he certainly was no mean
scholar, since he was, when a very young man, chosen to
be teacher of the Greek and Latin languages in his native
town. His style is debased by imitations of the Seicentisti,
of whom he was an ardent admirer, and it rather contrasts
with than resembles the delightful simplicity of Fontaine,
whose "Ms e,g Ws. he is said to have made his model;

---,---- inventors minor.'
It i s not in all cases just to conclude of the man from his
writings, and one of the ancients has set out by laying
down as a rule, that though modesty is most becoming in
a poet, it is not necessary to a poem ; yet it would require
rather a stretch of charity to suppose any thing like moral
purity belonging to the author of the liTouvelle. Casti, in-
deed, does not seek to excuse himself by the same plea as
Catullus ; he gives warning to his readers, as Boccaccio
had done before him, that his lays are not intended for the
rigidly virtuous—
to non patio alle niatrone,
Non parlo alle ritrose verginelle,
None alle veceliie austere bacehettene;
Parlo a giovane.'
Few, however, will concede, that the youths whom he ad-
dressed came Linder the description of those--
' Che accoppian levirtu colla ragione.'
Or that the pleasures which he-describes deserved to he
termed,
inweenti piaceri.'

PORITON INTILLTNENCE.
PORTUGAL.

" Ltskolr, JAN. I.—Two regiments of the English Guards
have landed on the quays of Belem.
" JAN. 3.—The 10th English regiment of foot, and some Lan-
cers have lauded. All these corps were received with the greatest
enthusiasm and satisfaction by all the inhabitants of this capital.
" We learn from private letters that the rebels were at Gouvea.
The Coude de Villa Flor was at Cea, and General Claudino and
Colonel Pinto in Tornaes : the loyal troops were engaged with
the rebels.

" HEAD-QUARTERS, OPORTO, DEC. 30.—Colonel Pinto, Go-
vernor of Coimbra, writes, on the 29th, from that city, that the
Conde de Villa Flor, by a despatch of the 27th, dated Fulha
Doza, informs him that he intended to proceed by forced marches
to the bridge of Murcella, having learnt that the Marquis de
Chaves had passed the Mondego, and was marching to the same
point; the Count, therefore, ordered him to proceed also with
his forces to the same bridge at Murcella, which he expected to
occupy on the 31st. Colonel Vasconcellos writes from Amaraute
on the 29th, that being informed that some guerillas advanced to
our lines and forced in the out-posts, he had ordered some troops
that morning to disperse them, which they had done, taking pri-
loners ten guerillas with arms in their hands.
" It appears from the above official communications that a
decisive action must soon take place between our troop. and the
rebels, since the divisions of the Count de Villa Flor and of
Generals Claudino and Azeredo joining, the rebels must either
fight or fly precipitately, losing their baggage, and abandoning the
Portuguese territory.

" 601MBRA, Dac. 25.—This evening despatches were re-
ceived from General Claudine, saying, that the rebels were retreat-
ing by the road of Trancoso, where he thought to arrive before
them.

" Count Villa Flor writes to the same effect, and that his ad-
raneed guard was already engaged with them. It may, there-
fore, be expected that there will be a general action at the passage
of the Cea.

" JAN. 4.—A report has been current in the beat informed
circles, that !Lord W. C. Beresford takes the command of the
Portuguese army. If this means a command in chief, independ-
ent of the Ministry, as was formerly the case, we cannot suppose
that the Ministers of the King would advise such a step. It
would be a manifest violation of tbe charter, this being a public
office, for which only Portuguese citizens were qualified, and
General Beresford is a foreigner.
" The public, however, are perhaps mistaken, and it may be
only intended to give the illustrious General the command of
operations (O Commando de Operacoee) ; but even in this there
are constitutional difficulties which we do not pretend to solve.
" We do not know whether it is absolutely uecessary.to place
a foreigner at the head of the Portuguese army • but if it be, it
seems more natural, conciliatory, and politic, that General Clin-
ton, who commands the stiperior English forces, should take, as
long as the necessity continues, the command of the Portuguese,
who, by their reduced numbers, could make but a small addition
to the English force. However this be, and whatever may be
the intention of the Government, it seems to us that there is no
foundation for the general anxiety which this report has caused,
since we cannot believe that the Government will take a resolu-
tion manifestly contrary to the spirit of the letter of the Charter,
by which the Constitution of the State would be essentially
affected.

" OPORTO, JAR. 3.—The Count de Villa Flor was on the night
of the 27th at Oliveira de Hospital, and his advanced guard at
Galizes. On the 29th, at eleven o'clock, they marched against
the rebels, who had passed the night about a league distant.
t• Our troops went to pass the night at Torrozello, and marched
to the heights of Pinhancos, where Magessi, Telles Jordao, and
Silveira, were said to be.

" The rebels are supposed to be flying to the Serra, in the di.
rection of Covilhan.

" Silveira had his head-quarters on the 30th at Passos, and the
Count de Villa Flor at Cea. On the 31st the latter set out at
six in the morning, and the rebels were retiring, occupying the
country from Pinhancos to Gouvea. The troops of Claudino and
Azeredo were at Carregal on the night of the 29th.
" The Count de Villa Flor sent a flag of truce to the rebels,
summoning them to surrender end lay down their arms, but they
did not agree to this.
" The position in which they ars is very remarkable. The
Count de Villa Flor on one side, Claudino and Aseredo on the other,
and the Serra de Estrella, now covered with snow, on another.

" There is a letter from Coja which says, that the rebels are
entirely surrounded in Passos by the troops of Villa Flor and Clau-
dino, and on the other side by the Serra de Estrella. Forty
baggage-waggons are already taken.
" A mail has arrived from Francoso and Pinhel, and it ap-
pears that part of the letters from that city are dated the 90th,
o, .-ta
which is a certain proof that that pa"
ready cleared." . a letter of a deputy
fa
.tiggiiel has sent to his brother Don Pedro
" Thejilts:l invitation, the oath taken at La Serena, and the
" We extract thel
(Isier papers sent to him by the rebels in Spain, galling him to
the absolute Sovereignty of Portugal, with a solemn protest,
wholly disapproving of such an attempt as his best and moat
faithful subject, which was officially transmitted to the Govern-
ment, and by Austria to its Ambassador here.' "

ho,LaitiiilithtaLneonfirmandpoeßoLnetegriespmiedofponorrrciootfah3naaant,OdOeorheOmeinisdnsesepernedts,ecnitagroelesaett.i_se:seiorvoanifeestrpoeeoot:oontirr,gtpshatwe.
" Sir Robert Wilson is going to organize and command a
Government
had
Bth of January inclusive.
Waa-Orricr, lAseo:s7, JLN. 7.—The Count de Villa Flor
writes from Gouvea on the 2d, that the rebels bad precipitately
retreated from the left to the right bank of the Mondego by the
bridge of Cabra. He caused the In
:'gee of CatPra and Palhes to
be reconnoitred by the 4th and 13th Infantry, t'he 3d and 9th
Chasseure, and the 11th Cavalry. There was a good deal of
skirmishing on the bridge of Cabra, which our troops passed
under a constant fire of the rebels of the 4th and 7th Chasseurs
and 40 horsemen, who defended the bridge aria adjoining posi-
tions. The rebels had three killed and eight prisoners, all of the
4th Chasseurs; at the same time, some men of tie 3d Regiment
of Infantry abandoned them, and came over to our troops. An
Ensign of our troops was severely wounded ; also one private,—
l‘iajcr Schewalbach, commander of the 3d Chasseure, was the
first that passed the bridge, crying ' Long live Don Pedro IV.'
All the troops behaved bravely. The Count hau given orders to
explore the march of the rebels, which appeared to be in the
direction of Trancozo.

" The General of the Lower I3eira writes from Caria, on the
2d, that the Marquis and Marchionee de ('haves and Telles
Jordao had arrived at Guarda the day before, and that he (the
General) was advancing to Belmonte.
" The Chief of the Ist Depar-,went, PINTO."
—Lisbon Gazette, Jan. 8.