other. The work is useful from bringing within small compass the contents of many volumes, from which its condensed information is gathered. The author expresses his gratitude to several gentlemen, who in Indian affairs are certain. ly qualified to impart the most valuable knowledge. The approaching discussion, or shall we say crisis, in the Company's affairs, gives the work a temporary interest besides what belongs to it intrinsically.

INDIA'S CRIES TO BRITISH HUMANITY. This work is already well known in the religious world; and that a third edition is required, inspires us with the hope that the benevolent object of the author has been responded to throughout Britain. The abolition of suttees, the prevention of infanticide, the subversion of idolatry, and generally the improvement of the social condition of the native inhabitants of British India, is the humane and truly Christian design of this meritorious volume, which is worthy of all encouragement from such as lay these things to heart.

THE LAST ESSAYS OF ELIA.t-Of this fascinating volume what can be said, but that here we have collected the last essays of him, whom "none but himseft can parallel." If pronounced inferior to the first selection, what is that but saying that in subtilty, tenderness, and a certain rare, quaint, and delicious humour, these Sketches must remain unique and unapproached among English compositions, save by a second best, the present volume, namely. The book is rather high-priced, as times go; but then it is worth its weight in gold.

WHYCHCOTTE OF ST. JOHNS. This is the title given to two volumes of Essays and Sketches, grave and gay, moral, biographical, and critical, and of varying degrees of literary merit; though, while some are excellent, all are respectable. Some of them we must have seen before; for we cannot take credit for dreams so full of liveliness and beauty; but as these are subjects upon which publishers or authors have of late resolved not to speak, and may have good reasons for silence, we shall be equally mysterious. It will excite the curiosity of all the world, when we mention that we have sketches of Mrs. Hemans, Mrs. Arbuthnot, and Mrs. Henry Grey of Edinburgh; Sir Hudson

Simpkin and Marshall Moxon, London. Pp. 283.

Lowe, Professor Smythe of Cambridge, Young Napoleon, and Earl Grey, with the Spectre of the Bloody Head, making altogether very agreeable, light, half-hour reading; though a few particularities, we shall not call them personalities, might have been spared.

What shall

ARTHUR CONINSBY." we make of this romance? It has little story, and not much character; and is nevertheless marked by talent of no ordinary kind. In every page, it bears evidence of the rich and prolific, though immatured mind of the writer; of his cultivation and elegance, and taste in the arts; along with a very remarkable unskilfulness in the construction of a novel of every-day in. terest. There is a feebleness and haze over many parts of the story which looks as if it were a translation; and though many separate scenes are powerful, especially those on Paris; as a whole, it is far from being so effective as the genius displayed by the author ought to have made a work which bears no mark of haste.

LIFE OF COWPER, COMPILED FROM HIS CORRESPONDENCE, BY THOMAS TAYLOR.†-A Life of Cowper, with as much as possible of his correspondence, is a work which should form a household book in every family that understands the language in which the most popular and beloved of modern poets wrote. Every one likely to purchase this work is already aware of its material; the inimitable letters of Cowper are interwoven into an accurate and luminous narrative, by a writer already favourably distinguished among the working bands of literature; and who is filled with admiration and sympathy for the subject of his interesting memoir. He has executed his task with delicacy and fidelity, and in doing so, performed a useful, and, we doubt not, acceptable service, in placing within the reach of ordinary readers, the biography and the essence of the delightful correspondence of Cowper.

LIFE OF MILTON, BY THE REV. MR. IVEMEY.-Milton has, by his former biographers, been principally considered as a poet. In this Memoir, his prose writings-some of them among the noblest effusions of genius, united with the purest love of truth, and the highest spirit of independence which the English language boasts have been more fully considered than in any previous life.

Effingham Wilson, London, 2 vols. Pp. 579. + Effingham Wilson, London, 3 vols. Smith & Elder, Pp. 308.

Though it would not be easy to satisfy us with a memoir of Milton, and though the present one does not by any means realise our ideal; the cause of truth, freedom, and Christianity is largely indebted to the author for the attention which his work must draw to the opinions and sentiments of this noblest of English patriots and poets. Mr. Ivemey indulges in a vein of lamentation over some of the erroneous notions avowed by Milton at one time of his life, and never formally disclaimed, which strike us as infinitely too lackadaisical. Otherwise we commend his work as highly laudable in the choice of the subject, and respectable in execution.

THE DEATH-BED OF POLITICS, OR THE COMING OF THE COMET, WITH HUMOROUS ETCHINGS.-The political writers do owe us some atonement for the perpetual boring of the last two years. This wit is, however, rather behind time. The portentous Comet has passed for once, and, unscathed and quit for our fears, we laugh at the danger, and think no more of its tail than if it were that of a paper kite; nor unless it re-appear in that point of the horizon where we look for Ireland, shall we be easily frightened a second time.

THE VOICE OF HUMANITY.-Some months back we had occasion to notice the labours of the ASSOCIATION FOR PROMOTING RATIONAL HUMANITY TOWARDS ANIMALS. We rejoice to see that this body is still proceeding in their Christian course, and would earnestly recommend the record of their transactions, but above all, their hints, suggestions, and plans for suppressing cruelty, and encouraging humanity to the inferior creatures. There is, in our mind, little doubt that ignorance and thoughtlessness is as fre quently the cause of brutal and disgrace. ful cruelties to animals, as inherent de.

Ridgway, London, Pp. 40.

+ Chambers, Edinburgh; Orr, London. + Agent and Publisher, Nisbett, Berner's Street London.

pravity and malevolence; and this the periodical publication of this association must tend to correct. The Society numbers among its members some of the most eminent individuals of the age, in worth and in station, and deserves the support and cordial co-operation of every merciful man. The yearly volume just published contains many useful and valuable papers; and we would particularly recommend it to those who compile cheap books for the people, and for children. It is very lowpriced, for we believe the Society is principally supported by subscriptions from benevolent individuals.

AUTUMN LEAVES -This is a volume of original tales and poems published at Haddington; the joint contribution, it would seem, of the wits and minstrels of East Lothian and Berwickshire. It is pleasant to find the influence of the “humanizing muse" so widely diffused in Scotland, that wherever a printing press is pitched, thence, in a few months, an original volume is sure to issue; which, in literary merit, would, half a century back, have been looked upon as a world's wonder. There are many pretty things in the East Lothian volume, though the verse is, as usual, superior to the prose.

THE SPLENDID VILLAGE, CORN LAW RHYMES, and other Poems, BY EBENgives us sincere pleasure to see this neat EZER ELLIOTT, with Portrait, &c.—It and compendious edition of the poems of Elliott of Sheffield published at a rate which enables every one to obtain them, who indulges in literary luxuries at all. But this volume is among the works which must be considered necessary by all those who could raise their heads but one inch above the clods of the soil, the Poet of the People being even more eminent as a moral and political teacher, than as "a sweet singer." The length at which his works were lately noticed in this Magazine, precludes our dwelling on them again. Every passing day is extending their popularity, and confirming the judgment passed by the Edinburgh Review, the New Monthly Magazine, and by the whole of the liberal press, on their singularly gifted author. portrait shews a man of middle age, with an expressive physiognomy, and a high, and finely expanded, forehead.

The

M.R.C.S. Pp. 227. Plates. The process by which the closure of an artery is effected by the application of a ligature, is a subject upon which much contrariety of opinion has hitherto existed among very many eminent surgeons. While some have held that the obliteration of the cavity was produced by the adhesion of the arterial parietes brought into approximation by the mere pressure of the ligature; others have maintained that it was altogether consequent upon the internal effusion of lymph, whereby the opposite surfaces of the extremity of the vessel are united in the same manner as soft parts in general are healed by the adhesive inflammation.

The present work is the result of some very elaborate experiments, apparently instituted by the learned author less for the purpose of reconciling conflicting hypotheses by physiological examination, than for the higher purpose of discovering the most proper course to be pursued in so important a department of operative surgery as the suppression of arterial hæmorrhage.

The coagulum, or clot of blood produced by the application of the ligature, has been deemed by several writers as altogether accidental, and of little concern in the establishment of a perfect and permanent closure; indeed, Mr Guthrie broadly asserts, that, although it certainly assists in maintaining a permanent closure of the artery, he does not believe that its formation is absolutely necessary to such an end. Dr Manec, on the contrary, insists that a coagulum of considerable size is absolutely necessary for securing the success of the operation; its union with the internal membrane of the artery being the only preservative against consecutive hæmorrhage; and we think his deductions sound, and his arguments very forcible.

He is led by this fact to inquire, what are the best known means of encouraging the formation of this clot, and of assisting in the operation thus commenced by nature for effecting the necessary closure, and discusses the relative value of ligature compression and

torsion with much ability; and his "deductions," twenty-six in number, are a code of laws with which every practitioner ought to be familiar.

The work is illustrated by fourteen coloured lithographed drawings, exemplifying the operation in various situations of the body, which will be found eminently serviceable to the operator. To the provincial surgeon, who possesses not the advantages of constant access to the hospital practice of large towns, it will be invaluable; as it contains a body of important evidence on a much disputed point, and sound practical advice upon a subject to which his manual interference is frequently directed.

To the translators much praise is due; for, in addition to their labour as "doers into English" of a highly useful foreign publication, they have given several excellent appendices, in which appear copious extracts from the works of most of the writers of eminence who have in any way directed their attention to the subject.

INDIGESTION: ITS CAUSES, CONSEQUENCES, AND TREATMENT. BY R. J. CULVERWELL, M.R.C.S. London. This neat little volume, avowedly addressed to the non-medical reader, contains a rapid sketch of the digestive functions, and so much of the physiology of the subject, as tends to enlighten the dyspeptic upon the hidden matters connected with functional derangements of the stomach, and upon the most rational mode of selftreatment in various stages of this universal and distressing complaint. The phraseology, though divested of all professional technicalities, and somewhat quaint, is light and readable, while the views taken by the author are strictly correct. From the observations on dietary treatment, and the ample instructions given upon the properties of various foods, it will be found a valuable guide to invalids labouring under occasional paroxysms of dyspepsia, and we may safely recommend it to their perusal and attention.

FINDEN'S ILLUSTRATIONS OF BYRON. Part 11. Murray and Tilt. This number is, unquestionably, one of the very best of those which have yet appeared. The contents are wholly views: The Drachenfells, the Bridge of Sighs, and the Bernese Alps, by Turner; the Bridge of Egnippo, and Tivoli, by Stanfield; the Acropolis, by Harding; and the Convent of La Pena, by Colonel Batty. With the exception of the latter, which is rather heavy and sombre, and good only as a foil to the others, they are all exquisite productions. The view of the Acropolis is a charming picture, and quite worthy of Mr Harding's growing cele

brity as a landscape painter; the name of Mr Cousen is appended as the engraver, and his performance is creditable alike to his own skill, and to the discrimination of the Findens, by whom he was selected. The two vignettes, and the Drachenfells of Mr Turner, are excellent. The genius of this gentleman is truly under "skiey influences;" for to it we mainly owe all that rich and varied assortment of scenery in "cloudland, gorgeous land," which is so conspicuous in the landscapes of modern days, and which reduces the modifications of this less ethereal and more matter-of-fact earth of ours into subjects of almost secondary importance. A

bit of sky, fresh from Turner's pencil, is richer in value than many a spreading scene

Of hill, and dale, and greenwood tree,

wrought by famous hands in the days of yore. Very many pleasant views of Tivoli have we seen in our time, but surely never one more The picturesque than this by Stanfield. rude and rustic bridge in the centre of the view, and the quiet homeliness of the foreground, are in beautiful contrast to the stately ruins behind, and give an air of nature to the scene which identifies it at once as an actual portion of this habitable world. We are sure it is not a " composition,"

the strained invention of some classic visionary, who huddles together a heap of temples and aqueducts, palaces and impossible places, where men and women might have had nothing in the world to do but worship the gods (when they were in office,) and amuse themselves in processional sacrifices, dancing to tamborines, and dragging along refractory bulls by the horns. could slake our thirst any day by looking upon Stanfield's sea or river views; the water is so watery pure, liquid, and refreshing. That placid sheet over which he has thrown the Bridge of Egnippo is just such it is a sweet picture.

We

Like sundry great poets, whose last stanza is the echo of the first, we repeat our opening, This number is, unquestionably, one of the very best of those which have yet appeared.

MEMORIALS OF OXFORD. No. IV. Tilt. This work, when completed, promises to be not only a serviceable record to the mere historian, but an acceptable refresher to those whose days of adolescence were passed among the many, the delightful, the hallowed scenes thus memorialized. The west front of Christ Church, and the interior of the hall, form the subjects of the engraving in this number; which contains in addition, five well executed wood-cuts.

THE "acted English Drama" will soon, we fear, be words applied to forgotten matters. At both Drury Lane and Covent Garden the Pantomimes have been succeeded by foreign Ballets and troops of tripping exotics, to the utter astonishment of the town, and the ruin of sorrowful numbers of native professionals.

All the world allows-that is, all England, Ireland, Scotland, and the colonies-that the British legitimate drama is so positively rich in sterling merit, and all that is excellent in composition, that it is not only unequalled by the productions of any writers in the living languages, but that it must for ever be an imperishable fund of delight to the universal public, provided always that the public be in taste pure and untarnished, that they be not agitated by more powerful excitement, or affected by some such disastrous circumstance as the want of time or want of money, -that the performers be qualified artificers, that the house be adapted, and that the manager be a fit and proper person to be the guardian of that ward of fading charmsthe legitimate drama.

Now "it is matter of history," as his Grace of Wellington says, that the public have repudiated the object of its old attraction, and fixed their affections on strange and

impure sources of pleasure; and the managers of the theatres have been soundly rated, as the chief cause of this calamity, by pandering to their corrupt fancies.

A great deal of unnecessary nonsense has been consequently said and written upon the misconduct of these personages, in attempting to substitute for the legitimate drama the exhibition of beasts, ballets, pantomimes, and pictures. We beg with great humility to ask, have not tragedy, comedy, and farce, in the most legitimate of all their legitimate aspects, and in all their infinite varieties, been one after another tried, and found totally inattractive? Has not Shakespeare been read to empty benches? Has not pure comedy in all its versions by dramatists, old and modern, been walked through by clever companies before thin, shivering, and undelighted audiences? Is a manager to go to the Fleet in support of a legitimacy the public care nothing about? Is a manager, the salaried servant of the public, to take any special charge of the legitimate drama? Is his insolvency to be its only crutch? Stuff! It is not for him to run counter to the public craving, be it what it may. He is too much absorbed in the contemplation of vulgar money-taking and money-payment to be disturbed about their

vitiated appetites. His one engrossing thought is the payment of rent. While idle scribblers are straining their taper intellects to manufacture dolorous trash about the decline of the drama, he, unmoved by the drivel, is ever and anon warily measuring the comparative distance between himself and the Commissioners of the new Bankruptcy Court. As a man of common prudence his main object is, to watch in what direction runs the current of public taste, and follow in its course it is not for him to breast it. If the public prefer a menagerie of savage animals to pure dramatic representation, what cares he in his capacity of manager? As a man of taste he may deplore the public degeneration as sincerely as his neighbour; but as the lessee of a theatre, he must do his best to

procure the largest money-paying audiences he can coax together, and let the public take care of their own taste. As a man of business, he is bound to protect his own immediate interests, and adopt such means to replenish his treasury as shall honestly enable him to fulfil his pecuniary obligations-not to the public, who care no more for his success than a horse for a hammock-but to the lessees.

It is wrong to assert that managers have warped the public taste by catering to its depravity, such is not the fact. There is not a theatre in London, major or minor, which has not produced dramatic pieces, if not actually legitimate," of the true legitimate stamp, (to use words to which it is difficult to attach precise meaning,) and performers of great skill to support them; and there is scarcely one in which it has not proved a signal failure.

We sincerely deplore that the pure dramatic works should be thus comparatively shelved; but we must admit in common candour, much as we question their judgment in some matters, that it is not the fault of the managers, and they therefore have our unqualified permission to go on and prosper, if they can. Other means must be devised to lead back those who have strayed, to a sense of their present naughtiness; and we may by and by try our own hand in the dispensation of that wholesome chastisement which, properly applied, will enable them to see the error of their ways.

KING'S THEATRE. The opera season commenced on the 16th. The "event occurred under auspicious aspects. "La Cenerentola" of Rossini was the opera selected for the occasion; and the "Faust" of M. Deshayes as the ballet. In the former, Madame Boccabadati, from the Theatre Royal Italien, at Paris, appeared as the heroine, and was lucky enough to make a favourable impression. As a singer she evinced good taste and power: we do not mean vocal animal strength, but the discreet adaptation of her voice to the feeling intended to be communicated by the music, and the ability to convey it with success. She is by no means a florid singer, but confines herself

strictly to the task assigned to her performance. We are right glad to see our old friend De Begnis upon these boards, and give equal welcome to Donzelli.

The ballet of "Faust" produced quite a sensation. It has been got up with great splendour. Though the preliminary diablerie, (borrowed from La Tentation,") by which the powers of him whose name is never breathed to ears polite are made manifest to the aspiring Faust, was picturesque and imposing, it pleased us not. It was too palpable, and therefore smacked more of the absurd than of the awful. There requires to be something of a shadowy indistinctness about such affairs to make the blood creep,— something of a mysterious, illegible, undefined ambiguity, to set the roused imagination in full hunt after supernatural horrors.

There are Mad. Montessu, Madlles. Adele, Pauline Leroux, MM. Albert, pere et fils, Coulon Perrot, under present engagement; and others, renowned in name and heel, about to follow. Great things may be expected about this time.

DRURY LANE. The revived opera of "Don Juan" most excellently got up, "the Nervous Man," in which Farren and Power have again over immortalized themselves; and the long announced ballet of "La Belle au Bois Dormant," have been all working wonders for this house. Mlle. Duvernay appeared as the Princess Ysault. This beautiful little lady requires to be seen often before a correct opinion can be formed of her abilities. Her reputation is high, and her face and form lovely to a luxury, so that it were not difficult to trip up the heels of stern criticism. The scenery is gorgeous generally, but the last scene is enchanting quite. The chief novelty, however, is, that the eye no longer reposes upon the wilderness of empty benches by which it was wont to be refreshed during the season, they are now actually occupied.

COVENT GARDEN. "Nell Gwynne" has had a successful run, and promises to become an old acquaintance with play goers yet. Peake's "Smuggler Boy" the same. Little Poole is a marvellous creature. It is sad to think how frequently precocious talent sinks into mediocrity: from the most disinterested, as well as the most selfish feelings, we fervently hope that hers may be the exception which shall prove the rule. "Kenilworth" is the ballet at this house, and very magnificently has it been produced. This theatre is better attended than it used to be, but we still hear that M. Laporte would give "not a trifle" to be rid of the concern wholly.

EDINBURGH THEATRE.-The chief attraction at this theatre, during the last month, has been the admirable exhibition of the light-hearted and vivacious Irishman, by the celebrated comedian Power, who is as great a favourite in Edinburgh as he is in London. More delighted audiences it has never been our chance to witness.