Star.
London, England, 1823-09-01 00:00:00

The history of a secret and hazardous enterprise
can rarely fail of being interesting, when, as in the
case of the Baron de Kolli, the hero of the exploit is
his own historian. The circumstance related in these '
Memoirs is well known. The British Government
Wishing to rescuethe King of Spain from a captivity
into which he had been ensnared by Bonaparte,
employed the Baron de Kolli for the purpose;
but notwithstanding his arrangemeats appeared
complete, and conducted with the utmost precaution,
yet the French police penetrated the secret; and the
Baron, after reconnoitci ing Valencay, and maturing
his plan In Paris, was arrested on the very day he
was about.to set off to carry it into execution. He
was thrown into the donjon of Vincennes, and con-
fined au secret. Here he remained for upwards of
four years and a half. The account of his adventure
previous to his being arrested, his sufferings in pri-
son, and his attempt to escape, will all be read with
deep interest.
The Memoirs of the young Queen of Etruria, who
at the age of thirteen became a wife,form an affecting
appendage to this reallycurious and interesting volume.
Tax Miaow or Puma as COMM' :—Containing the History
of Lewis XI. and Charles VIII. of France, and of Charles
the. Bold, Duke of Burgundy. 2 Vols. Bvo. London, in&

We should really thank the Author of Wavetley
for his Quentin Durward, if it was only for turning
the attention of one of the most spirited of our pub-
lAers to the valuable but neglected Memoirs of
Philip de Comines, au historian whose fidelity, judg-
ment, and accuracy, have been the theme of praise
with contemporary and succeeding writers. It is now,
we believe, a century since an English edition of 'De
Gomiues appeared ; and the work had consequently
become very scarce ; the edition now offered to the
Ptiblic is complete, and, combined with the external
aids of good paper and a good type, it cannot fail
of waking its way into every good library, especially
as.it is sold at a price which shews great liberality on
the last 4 the publishers.

THE RESOURCES OF ENGLAND.
BY THE ABBE DE MAIM
" The intrease of population which England has
acquired, (says the Abbe de Pradt), is unequalled
in any other country of Europe. It took place in a
period of time exclusively devoted to war ; a circum-
stance in general rather contrary than favourable to
such an augmentation. In comparing it abstractedly
with what happens on the Continent, we may well
be astonished ; but reflection soon shewS us, that what,
afflicts the Continent like a plague, necessarily wastes
its poWer. against the barriers which nature and civi-
lization have raised up for the defence of England.
In effect, she is situated and sociably constituted in
such a manner, that what produces evil to others
causes good for her; that which causes others to retro.
grade makes her advance ; that which thins the ranks
of other nations thickens those of England. War
• affects only the coffers of Great Britain ; her cities and
her fields are uninjured. Devastation, the usugl com-
panion of war, expires on her shores, and cannot
mount those isolated citadels which give her the
empire of the ocean. England chases• before her
war and all its plagues, as we see those vessels
which mail has rendered the rivals, or rather the
conquerors of the elements, scatter with the thun-
der that arms their sides those stormy clouds
which Heaven has formed from the vapouis of
the sea.* Whilst almost all the capitals of Europe
were occupied by the enemy=whiht twenty Princes
were fugitive and wandering, or returning in humi-
liation to their dilapidated dominions, England re-1
• Some time after the commencement of a great naval es.
gagman, the agitations of the waters and the sounds are ob- ,
served to cease, i 0 consequence of the effect of the artillery on
the elements. 1