manœuvres; but where the stamp of genius and originality is wanting, no modern work can be puffed by partisans or hirelings into lasting fame. Lady Blessington, on the other hand, the female Bozzy of the unfortunate Byron, has re

Within the last few months, however, the clever and still handsome Duchess has ventured beyond her depth. Finding her contributions eagerly sought after by the editors of periodicals, she at length insisted upon writing her own articles, and profiting to the utmost by her factitious reputation; and the results have been unfortunate for herself, and highly diverting to the critical satirists of Paris. Accused by the voice of scandal and an ill-distributed ardour of complexion, of a tendency to the worship of Bacchus, fatal to the interests of Venus, the lady recently took occasion, in a little moral tale inserted in the Journal des Dames, to enter an earnest manifesto of personal sobriety; caliing the gods to witness, that " she has never, from her youth upwards, tasted wine; nor will, under any circumstances, to her dying day,”. -a peculiarity of temperance very improbable in a Frenchwoman of any class,-impossible in one who has been a customary guest at royal and imperial tables. In the same tone of Joseph Surfacism are certain prudish protestations contained in the Memoirs, to which half the population of Paris is ready with a rejoinder; protestations the more superfluous, that the liberal portion of the world was prepared to expect that Junot's wife, like Madame de Staël, (of the regency,) would, in her memoirs, paint her own portrait en buste. The Duchess's success as a portrait-painter, meanwhile, has induced her to undertake, or lend her name to, the editorship of a work of some magnitude, entitled, "Memoirs of Eminent Women of all Nations," which we presume is in process of publication in England. But the bubble of her authoress-ship has burst, as regards the literature of her own country. So long as she contented herself with relating what she (and perhaps she alone) had seen and heard, so long as "chaque jour de sa vie composait un page de son livre," the volumes of the Duchess d'Abrantès were likely to be greedily read; but to become a universal historian, something more than this is indispensable; such as a tolerable education, habits of study, and a cultivated understanding,-requisites not to be acquired by sitting, evening after evening, in a well-lighted drawing-room, prattling with poets, novelists, critics, and politicians,-bribing their commendations by quotations of the commendations of still greater men, mingled with delicate flatteries upon their own works and pretensions. Temporary reputation, or, as we have said before, literary notoriety, may perhaps be attained by these and simila

similar in extent and quality to that of the Duchesse d'Abrantès. That such was the lady's object in seeking the acquaintance of the noble poet is sufficiently demonstrated by her own records of the connexion. The very first line of the "Stanzas inscribed to Lady B.," by his Lordship, and inserted in Moore's Life, avouch the fact:

You have ASKED for a verse,—a request

In a rhymer 'twere vain to deny.

But although it is probable that Byron anticipated the publication of his lines, it is certain that he very little suspected his fair flatterer of "taking notes, and, faith! to prent 'em," of their familiar colloquies. He saw in Lady Blessington a beautiful woman, who had undergone the most singular viccissitudes of fortune, rejected by the Pharisees of her own sex, -a sex with which he was just then so little in charity-and, looking upon her as completely estranged from the gossip of the coteries, felt no scruple in amazing her with opinions, and amusing her with scandal, which he believed her t be devoid of the means of putting into circula. tion. It never entered his Lordship's head, (“ que les gens d'esprit sont bêtes !") that he was being mystified in his turn; and that his rhodomontade was laid up in lavender, after every successive interview, to be sold at length to a speculating bookseller, strongly impregnated with the odours of the sanctuary, in which, for so many years, it remained ensconced. Poor Byron! What would have been the temperature of his fiery indignation-(he who was apt to blaze forth at even the attacks of one, whom he termed "that animalcule, the Editor of the Literary Gazette," and who was never known to forgive an adverse criticism!)—could he have suspected the figure he was about to cut in the pages of the beauty of Clonmel! could he have dreamed that he was to be set up like a ninepin in argument, only to be overthrown by the bright and shining pellets of one of Lady Blessington's cutand-dry phrases of vulgar morality! could he have fancied that the sceptre of criticism was being slyly filched from his hands, only to knock him hereafter on the head! Evident must it be to every man of sense, that our Juan,

"Who had been ill brought up and was born bilious," would have sickened even to nausea, at the first word of any one of those plausibilities of cant, which her ladyship represents herself as having inflicted upon him as a quotidian homily. No one, in fact, at all acquainted with the respective characters of the parties, can believe for a moment that their interviews were employed in the prosy manner suggested by the lovely colloquialist. Lady B. probably arrested Byron's attention with one of the pungent epi

grams she is still in the habit of reciting for the amusement of her morning visiters; (such as her well-known lines on Miss Landon,-her satire on the Court Magazine, and her lampoon on Rogers's Italy;) and Byron doubtless returned the favour with the gift of those treacherous verses upon Rogers or others of his bosom friends, which Lady Blessington boasts of still holding in her possession. These congenial reciprocations, however, the noble dupe little dreamed would ever be revealed to the world. Lady B. was then only known to the literary world by a silly volume of "Travelling Sketches in Belgium," the style of which is said to have suggested to Theodore Hook his inimitable Ramsbottom Letters. Childe Harold treated her accordingly only as a courteous reader; and Lady B., who records in her Reminiscences her opinion that Byron was a Janus to all his intimate associates, might readily verify the fact by reference to the terms in which his intimacy with herself is described in his private, and, at present, unpublished correspondence. In this respect never were a pair, literary or illiterate,

"So justly formed to meet by nature." Had the Countess been content, however, to rest her claims to literary reputation upon the publication of her " Conversations," whatever stigma her candour might have incurred, her name as a writer was established. Some portions of the Reminiscences are, in fact, admirably composed; so admirably, that the style of the editor of the New Monthly Magazine, her Ladyship's friend, Mr. Lytton Bulwer, (under whose auspices they saw the light,) is never for a moment absent from the mind of the reader. But "The Repealers' subsequently appeared, and the charm was broken; nay, the mere page of preface appended to the volume of "Conversations," after

Mr. Bulwer's departure for Italy, contain more instances of false grammar, and of that memorable form of rhetoric commonly called Irish Bulls, than we ever saw collected in the same number of lines. The novel, the absurdities of which were too ably exposed by the Westminster Review to require any castigation at our hands, contains, moreover, a chapter which every person, prepared to form their judgment of Byron's disposition upon the showing of the Right Honourable Countess, ought to condemn himself to peruse; we allude to the fulsome and most disgusting flatteries lavished upon all her Ladyship's female contemporaries, who are supposed to be contributors, or to be connected with contributors to the critical press,-Mrs. Lytton Bulwer, Mrs. Norton, Miss Landon, Mrs. S. C. Hall, Mrs. Gore, Lady E. S. Wortley, and others, some of whom have been especially honoured, as we have already stated, by the epigrams destined by Lady B. for private circulation. In the same taste are those flourishes in praise of moral excellence, thrown, like handfuls of dust, in the eyes of society, which sit so uneasily upon the fair writer's general style. Lady Blessington has a diction of her own, fifty-fold more captivating and more original. Let her but dare to write her Irish stories, as she tells them to her select circle; let her describe in print, as she so racily describes in conversation, her literary circles of St. James's Square, Rome, or Paris, and her less refined coteries of Clonmel Barracks or Curzon Street, and we shall be ready to rank her pages in ripeness of humour with those of Smollett or Peter Simple, and to admit that the expression which sparkles in the eyes of Lawrence's exquisite portrait is far more truly attested than by the morbid morality of "The Repealer," or the namby-pambyisms of the "Book of Beauty."

To commend and extract from a Pamphlet by Dr. Epps, entitled, The Church of England's Apostacy; the Fallacies put forth by her exposed; and the Duty of Dissenters declared."

To recommend to the Friends of Civil and Religious Liberty in Scotland, that able champion of their cause, "The Christian Advocate," London Weekly Newspaper, which every Reading-Room, frequented by Dissenters, ought to take in.

To congratulate the friends of liberal politics in Bradford, on the establishment, in that town, of a newspaper of excellent principles,-"The Bradford Observer,”. which we trust is succeeding nobly, as it deserves. To remark on some of the articles on the Repeal of the Union, which have appeared in that very able newspaper, the Newry Examiner; particularly, the com

munications of its two distinguished Correspondents, William Sharman Crawford, Esq. and George Ensor, Esq.; men whose writings deserve greater publicity than even a first-rate provincial newspaper can give them, which must needs be almost entirely local. The "Newry Examiner" deserves to be read everywhere. As the Irish newspapers are too little seen in Scotland, we recommend, besides the "Newry Examiner," the Belfast Northern Whig," the "Dublin Morning Register, and the "Dublin Freeman's Journal," to our Scottish Reading-Rooms. These are all papers of great ability, and general merit. Three of them are Repealers. The "Northern Whig" is equally liberal in its principles as the others, equally able and consistent; but opposed to Repeal.

To notice and extract from Mr. Combe's excellent Lectures on Popular Education; the Birmingham Pioneer, or Trades' Union Magazine; Colonel Torrens's new work on Wages and Combinations; Observations on the expediency of establishing a General Register for all Deeds affecting Real Property in England,—by a Scottish Solicitor; a very able and well-intentioned volume, 12mo, published by Tait, on the Moral Constitution of Man; a clever Letter to Lord Althorp, on the Corn Laws, the Malt Tax, and the Assessed Taxes, -by our trusty and well-beloved David Bell of Glas gow; Dr. Jack's Plan of a Fund for the Aged, as a

n

antidote to Pauperism, and substitute for Poor-rates; Political Christianity, published by Hamilton, Adams, and Co.

To recommend to universal perusal, Lord Milton's Address to the Landowners on the Corn Laws; the Catechism on the Corn Laws; and the Corn Law Magazine. The dearest of these is only sixpence. Their perusal will enable any man, whose eyes are not shut against the light, to understand fully that question, on the due settlement of which, above all others, depends the prosperity of the country.

To recommend to all who wish to have a correct, wellprinted, and cheap Record of the proceedings in Parlia ment, in a convenient form for reference,-Northcroft's Parliamentary Chronicle. This work commenced with The Reformed Parliament, and has been regularly published, during the session, in weekly numbers, royal 8vo. It is worthy of a place in every political library. The King, we observe, takes it in, and allows the work to be published under his express patronage. To recommend to the perusal of all interested in the Church question, that admirable little work by John Milton, Considerations touching the Likeliest Means to Remove Hirelings from the Church,-wh ch we see is reprinted at Glasgow, and sold for a few pence. To notice Mr. Finlay Dun's excellent and cheap " Musical Scrap Book," which has now reached between twenty and thirty numbers; M-Farlane's handsome new edition of "Harmonia Sacra," a selection of sa

cred music; and Mr. Turnbull's "Selection of Ori ginal Sacred Music,-both Glasgow publications.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

J. W. does indeed "flatter himself," we fear, in supposing "that, by a word of sanction or encouragement" from us," he would be able to write on most subjects within the range of literary composition." When he begins seriously to doubt whether he has anything to say worth the attention of the public, on a single subject, he may send us a contribution.

There is a good deal of fire in the "Song of the Norsemen," but not exactly the true kind.

The following do not suit us :-" Calphurnia's Dream;" "Serenade," by M.; Lines written in a Lady's Album; Acted Charades.

"The Rover's Tale" is not deficient in poetical merit. But we disapprove of all attempts to make heroes of pirates, robbers, or villains of any kind. Lovers of freedom as we are, it is not the freedom of pillage or oppression.

Thanks to H. M'G. for his shrewd hints. He and his nephew must study the Corn-laws a little more deeply.

X., on Ireland, is under consideration. Its immense length is an obstacle to our printing it. But the subject is so important, and the paper so carefully prepared, that we shall endeavour to give it a place.

Cleone. By Mrs. Leman Grimstone. London: Effingham Wilson.

IN the composition of all her novels Mrs. Grimstone consults rather the permanent good of society than immediate approbation. She seeks to advance the cause of humanity, at all hazards of popularity with readers, and is the most notable champion of her own sex that graces the present era. She is equally the friend of infancy, and of the poor. No aims or objects can be more noble, or more worthy of an enlightened woman, than those she proposes to herself, and urges with graceful eloquence and warm sensibility. At the same time, we must acknowledge that we sometimes can only guess at what she would precisely be at. The present work once more exemplifies the miseries of an ill-assorted marriage. A young creature, Cleone, of noble spirit, and with a heart the most tender and generous, is bound, the living to the dead, to a worldly-minded narrow formalist. The narrative is the merest thread, on which to hang dialogues unfolding the ideas of the writer on education, and manners, and the duties of women. Some of the characters, as Leontine, the blind twin-brother of Cleone, are full of sweetness and moral beauty. One sentence from Mrs. Grimstone's preface helps to explain her creed. "I wish all who possess influence, political, social, or domestic, could be convinced that to create happiness is to produce virtue; and that the surest way to make felicity for ourselves, is to endeavour to make it for others." D'Israeli's Curiosities of Literature. London: Moxon.

THIS is the most recondite of the Anas; the most recherché of Albums, the most pleasant and poignant of all gossiping scrap-books; and Mr. Moxon is kind enough to deal it out in monthly parcels, to suit the taste of the times for cheap literature. These gleanings of a half century, have, in their ninth edition, undergone a revision by the venerable author.

The nick-nacks of literature collected in Mr. D'Israeli's cabinet, have been selected from sources not generally ac cessible to ordinary readers. The volumes are admirably adapted to minister to the amusement of the lounger and refined trifler; but they have higher capacities, as curious and authentic pictures of the manners of ruder times, and

records of the progress of letters from their rise in the dark middle ages, to the present era of the universal diffusion of the literary wealth which they go to augment. The work, which is to appear in six neat monthly volumes, will form a welcome addition to those select, handy, little libraries, of which the nucleus is already formed in so many parlours and dressing-rooms, where books beyond the reading of the day were formerly considered litter. Books are now becoming as indispensable as a part of the necessary furniture of every sitting apartment of people of education and refinement in the middle class, as they have hitherto been held in the secluded libraries of the aristocratic order. These little libraries are, we suspect, stealing something from the nightly receipts of the theatres; something, it may be, from the wine merchant, and a little, perhaps, from the dealer in gauzes and ribbons. We cannot bring ourselves to regret this partial change in the distribution of private revenue.

Naturalist's Library, Vol. II. THE FELINE. By Sir William Jardine, Bart.

THIS volume proceeds in the order we formerly described. The Memoir and Portrait are those of Cuvier. Of the Memoir, considering its place, we have at least quite enough. The Natural History of the Felino, is executed with ability and the ease, which thorough know、 ledge, and an ardent love of natural scien alone could impart. We do not refer to minor graces of literary composition, but to what is all in all in such a work, ample, and accurate knowledge. The plates possess varying degrees of excellence, some are admirable, others of inferior merit. The illustrative anecdotes gleaned from many volumes of travels and other works, forin delightful reading. We have already said that this is one of the most engaging and entertaining of those cheap serial works which form so important a feature of the present

London: Smith, Elder, & Co.

The first volume of these stories has found great favour with a respectable class of readers. Though the second is less diversified in interest, its claims and merits, which are of the very same nature, are scarcely inferior. Here we have two tales,-Misanthropy, and The Pains of Pleasing. The Misantrophe, and we do not see why he should not rather be named the Discontented, is a kind of Byronic genius, who, placed in the most advantageous worldly circumstances, is consumed by some canker of the mind, which spreads misery and blight over his own life and to all around him. If such a case be really beyond medical treatment, we can suggest nothing better than bread and water and the tread-mill, or bedlam, as is most fit, until the man learn his true condition, and become cheerful, thankful, and contented. Till he is so, one does not care to be troubled with this causeless, perpetual misanthropic vein even in a book. The Pains of Pleasing, we like much better. It contains some good scenes, and well drawn characters, and teaches young ladies the danger of giving way to generous impulses, as well as of feeling too anxious to please and oblige others who are not worthy of the sacrifice, at the expense of their own comfort and happiness. Whether many modern young ladies require this kind of warning, is more ques tionable. As for the heroine, we think she judges herself too severely. She was a good creature, with less of the alloy of an amiable vanity, than falls to the share of half her sex; and, accordingly, she did not deserve to be sound, we are not told how, so very desolate and miserable in her old days. She was, indeed, very good,-better, we believe, than nine-tenths of her contemporaries; but, it seems, her motives were not right. She says, "to every creature in the universe, my heart naturally overflowed with benevolence. I was patient, too, by nature, and never hesitated to suffer in the cause of another, when certain that suffering would be known and appreciated. To submit, without resistance, was a part of my creed, and verily I had my reward; for all that I did and endured, was without any reference to a higher object than making myself beloved ; and I am the more willing to lay my errors before the world, because the character at which I aimed, is one that too frequently passes under the designation of amiable, and as such, is held up to admiration, while concealing, beneath a cloak of lovelinesss, a selfish and ignoble mind." But we do not find, that she ima gines her own mind either selfish or ignoble. We trust, that in her old age and solitude, Mrs. or Miss Irvine did not mistake cant for cheerful piety Godward, and manward.

The Young Muscovite, or the Poles in Russia. Edited by Captain Chamier. London: Cochrane and M'Crone.

THE Country, the parentage, and fosterage of this book, make it a curiosity. It was, we are informed, originally intended for a Russian Waverley Novel. It was lately written by Michael Zakosken, a military gentleman, connected with the court; and so great was the sensation excited by the appearance of the work throughout the empire, that the printing-presses of Moscow and St. Petersburgh could not supply copies fast enough to satisfy the craving of all the Russias! The novel has been translated by a Russian lady, now in this country, and her daughters, and is edited and improved in various ways, by Captain Chamier. The period selected for historical illustration, is the beginning of the seventeenth century, a stirring period in Russian annals. Good description is not infrequent in the work. We have costumes, banquets, and wedding ceremonies; and, in the language of painters, interiors of various kinds, and an abundant sprinkling of the wisdom of nations," which is con densed in the Russian verbs; but with all these appliances and means, we should doubt whether the work is likely to excite half the interest in Britain which it has done in its native country. The period chosen is too remote for the rest of Europe. Little is popularly known

of Russian history before the era of Peter the Great; and

the work, to atone for this defect in the choice of the means of creating interest.

The Hamiltons, or the New Era. By the Author of Mother and Daughters.

In the present month we owe all our entertainment, and the greater part of our instruction, to female pensto Miss Edgeworth, Miss Martineau, Miss Stickney, Mary Howitt, and, lastly, to the rarely-gifted authoress of THE HAMILTONS-Mrs. Gore. The readers of this magazine have already had different opportunities of knowing how highly we appreciate this lady's varied talents, her lively fancy, brilliant wit, and extensive knowledge of the good and evil of social life. Her new work will be in everybody's hand, before we can hope for an opportunity of expressing our full sense of its merits. What is peculiar in this work is its felicitous adaptation to the crisis Mrs. Gore has already, and, we believe, almost unconsciously, dealt destruction to the World of Fashion. Here her direct and conscious purpose is to expose the venality of regular hereditary Tory place-hunters, and hollow-hearted courtiers. In this new work, by the skill and facility displayed, she has surpassed herself. Some of the characters are, in heartless, passionless profligacy almost revolting, and, we should hope, beyond nature. But even amidst the darkest scenes, beautiful traits, incidental touches of pathos, and strokes of genius, seize us by surprise; as the mingling of melting affection and remorse, in the elder Hamilton, after his downfal, or the yet more felicitous stroke of sympathetic interest taken by the dying King in Susan Hamilton's sick infant. Mrs. Gore may have been indirectly over-complimentary in some instances to the Whigs; but let that pass. As soon as she discovers that place-hunters and courtiers are much the same, whether nominally Whig or Tory, this will be amended. The NEW ERA will, we foresee, require further delineation.

He

WE have rarely met with so much solid information, and acute argument, within such narrow limits. Mr. Hopkins calls his little volume a History and Analyti cal Account of the Finances, Economy, and General Condition of Britain, for the Last Forty Years. The title is comprehensive and ambitious; but not more so than the author has a right to assume. To much that he has advanced we heartily subscribe; and the more startling of his heresies against the creed of the modern economis's, if they do not at once bring conviction, compel the candid reader to pause, and re-consider his opinions. adopts many of the opinions of the strictest of this sect; questions some, and totally rejects others. He admires free trade as much as the Westminster Review, and resists the Malthusian doctrines as sturdily as Mr. Sadler. The work is filled with tables of the most useful kind. To those who would, in small compass, obtain information on the principles of political economy, as they practically affect the people of Great Britain, we would heartily recommend this valuable volume; most valuable were it only for the multiplicity of facts with which it is stored. Of the writer, we know nothing; we are never lavish of indiscriminate praise; and have no space for laying the results of investigation and examination before our readers; but we venture to hope that those who try this volume upon our recommendation, will trust us again.

Rights of the Poor. Leeds Pickard.

THE title of this pamphlet explains that its object is to maintain the Rights of the Poor. The author will not admit the term charity. He contends for a rate, and suggests many remedies for the admitted evils in the condition of the people, by improvements of var ous kinds; by the establishment of parish banks, the prevention of litigation, the abolition of the Corn-laws, a reform of the endowed schools, and the levying an equitable tax on property. The pamphlet is well-intended, sensible, and temperate.

The Moral of Many Fables. By Miss Martineau.

WITH these Fables our readers are already acquainted. This is the summing up of the principles and utilities scattered over about twenty stories, forming the nine volumes of Illustrations of Political Economy, now be fore the world. If not the most amusing, it must, as a recapitulation and condensation of the whole of the doctrines expounded by Miss Martineau, in the previous twenty-four numbers, be the most useful portion of the series, to those who can bring themselves to swallow knowledge without the pill being gilded. With such readers, and those in the direct pursuit of science, it may, in fact, supersede all the others. It contains the sum and substance of them all; and forms as apt an introduction or key to the Illustrative Stories, as it does a general conclusion. Claiming to be the popular expounder of the doctrines of Smith, Malthus, and Macculloch, to the multitude, Miss Martineau has modified none of the opinions originally advanced; though, in details, she has made some necessary corrections in point of fact. One, among others, which we pointed out at the time, was a very mistaken idea of the condition of convicts in the penal colonies probably adopted from Archbishop Whately. As a specimen of the work, we select this passage on that allimportant question, What is best for Ireland, which is recommended by brevity and completeness:—

"What decision does our test give out in regard to Ireland? That, as a redundancy of population is her universally acknowledged curse, it is unreasonable to expect relief from the introduction of a legal charity,-the most efficacious of all premiums on population. The conclusion is so obvious, that it can be got rid of only by proving either that a redundant population is not the great grievance of Ireland, or that there may be a legal charity which does not act as a premium on population. Where are the materials for either the one proof or the other? "Whatever affects the security of property, or intercepts the due reward of labour, impairs the subsistence-fund, by discouraging industry and forethought.

"Partnership tenantcies affect the security of property, by rendering one tenant answerable for the obligations of all his partners, while he has no control over the management of their portions.

"A gradation of landlords on one estate has the same effect, by rendering one tenant liable to the claims of more than one landlord.

"The levying of fines on a whole district for an illegal practice going on in one part of it has the same effect, by rendering the honest man liable for the malpractices of the knave.

"The imposition of a church establishment on those who already support another church, intercepts the due reward of labour, by taking from the labourer a portion of his earnings for an object from which he derives no benefit.

"The practice of letting land to the highest bidder, without regard to former service, or to the merits of the applicants, intercepts the due reward of the labourer, by decreeing his gains to expire with his lease.

"All these practices having prevailed in Ireland, her subsistence-fund is proportionably impaired, though the reduction is somewhat more than compensated by the natural growth of capital.

"While capital has been growing much more slowly than it ought, population has been increasing much more rapidly than the circumstances of the country have warranted; the consequences of which are, extensive and ap palling indigence, and a wide spread of the moral evils which attend it.

"An immediate palliation of this indigence would be the result of introducing a legal pauper-system into Ireland; but it would be at the expense of an incalculable permanent increase of the evil.

"To levy a poor-rate on the country at large would be impolitic, since it would only increase the primary grievance of an insufficiency of capital, by causing a further unproductive consumption of it.

"To throw the burthen of a pauper-system on absentees would be especially unjust, since they bear precisely the same relation to the wealth of their country as its resi dent capitalists.

"In the case of Ireland, as in all analogous cases, permanent relief can be effected only by adjusting the proportions of capital and population; and this must be attempted by means suited to her peculiar circumstances.

"The growth of capital should be aided by improvements in agriculture and domestic economy, and by the removal of political grievances; from which would follow a union in place of an opposition of interests. "Population should be reduced within due limits. "In the present emergency, by well-conducted schemes of emigration; and

"Permanently, by educating the people till they shall have become qualified for the guardianship of their own interests."

We must not be understood as subscribing to all of these opinions; the should bes and would bes, which the economists give out with the decision of incontrovertible axioms, great ultimate truths immediately applicable to Ireland; on the contrary, we should be glad to see Miss Martineau re-consider some of the opinions she has adopted from the great oracles, on this point especially.

Miss Martineau announces more stories illustrative of the principles and practice of taxation. From them we anticipate unmingled satisfaction. Her doctrines on Trade and Taxation have been wholly unexceptionable; and the information disseminated such as is calculated to effect much good.

The Royal Mariner, &c. &c. By Charles Doyne Sillery, Esq. London: Smith, Elder, & Co.

Go burn your Laureate lyre, Dr. Southey! Mr. Doyne Sillery has fairly superseded you as the Court Poet. His launch is a dashing one. At his figure-head is blazoned the ROYAL MARINER, holding, not a sceptre, but, sailorlike, a spy-glass. In the vignette, which is a very pretty one, a chubby cherub soars above the troubled ocean, and the "Meteor flag of England," on whose unfolded scroll we at first read Swing, though closer inspection proves it to be a contraction of St. Vincents." Under the royal arms of Scotland there is one dedication to her Majesty in prose. From another, in verse, we give four lines:

Most gracious Queen, I dedicate to thee

Those sketches of thine own illustrious Lord,
From which the world, as in a glass may see

VALOUR and VIRTUE bring their own reward. This poetic dedication concludes with many good wishes for their Majesties' long life and prosperity.

About thirteen close pages of extracts from the laudatory criticism of the Edinburgh newspapers, in which language is exhausted in praise of Mr. Sillery's genius and learning, have helped us to the discovery that he must be the first poet of this or of any other age. Otherwise it were not so easy for plain people to make up their minds. The Athenæum accuses Mr. Sillery of numerous plagiarisms; but we really can see nothing in the volume that any poet, living or dead, could honestly reclaim.

The actual stolen goods specified are these lines:-
Ah! that a being so beloved should die,
And life be left to the wild butterfly.

Which are said to be filched from Mrs. Hemans' linesThou art gone from us, bright one! that thou shouldst die,

And life be left to the butterfly.

Did the critic ever read this passionate exclamation,-
No, no, no life,—

Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life,
And thou no breath at all?

This, and fifty quotations of the kind, should either save Mr. Sillery's poor butterfly from being crushed, or help us to trace the stolen and damaged goods further back.