of the pastures, stretching forth to the brave distant hills, which fence the vale. To those who take delight in such things, Lilies still hath charms.

"From the fireside of the above-mentioned little oak library, the following legends proceed."

A romantic birthplace and cradle, and fitting nursery of all the gentle, and tender, and quaint, and poetic fancies, which here break forth in tales and legends. If not very far mistaken, we have seen most of these legends and stories before; but a good tale cannot be the worse of being twice read, and most of these will bear a second reading, and even a third from the very patient. And, perhaps, like Mr. Tudman, in 66 Apropos of bread," we may have dreamed the lecture we recall. Of the piquant pieces, we must single out "The First Fit of the Gout," Mrs. Allington's Pic Nic," and "The Lioness," of which we cannot have dreamt, as dreams never go beyond the walking imaginations of the dreamer. "The Old Angler's Story" is skilfully told, but painful withal, and the catastrophe somewhat revolting. "The Convent in the Forest," with more power, is less objectionable on this cardinal point. In a very different style is "The Old Soldier," a tale which it is delightful to hear Lord or Lady tell.

The Legends of the Library at Lillies will be eagerly read, from the name of the writers, by those who are not very exacting in the character and pretensions of their books of amusement, and will be valued for their intrinsic power of imparting pleasure at many other firesides; insinuating, meanwhile, some useful lessons to flirting husbands, and maneuvring mothers. In conclusion, we must say, that the best of Lord Nugent's works is his late address to the electors of Aylesbury, which also, we have no doubt, is an emanation of the Library at Lillies. It made us expect something more in these volumes than is found in the mere novel of the day, and we have not been disappointed.

LYRIC LEAVES. By CORNELIUS WEBBE.Where can Mr. Webbe have been dreeing his wierd for these twice seven years? Wherever it may have been, kindly do we welcome him back to middle earth with his garland of Lyric Leaves. He belongs to a group of old literary remembrances. He was game for certain Scotch critics or wits, in days when the ball was at their feet, and when there was no dread of it rebounding in their faces.

* Griffiths, London. Pp. 136.

A friend of theirs, who believed the aforesaid wits or critics more thoughtless and wanton in the abuse of power than actually malicious or bad-hearted, though their conduct might have, and often had, all the consequences of malice and bad heart; yet willing that they should not perish, but be brought to the knowledge and love of truth-we speak it in reverencedevised at the time this moral penance and discipline;-that every Sunday morn ing, each writer, fresh and fasting, should hear read, or be compelled to read himself, a sheet of his own rash judgments, bitter remarks, sarcasms, personalities, inconsistencies, scurility, &c. &c. &c. And that this sheet should begin with Wordsworth, include Byron, Coleridge, Hazlitt, Shelley, Hunt, Keates, &c. &c., and end with Mr. Cornelius Webbe, the author of Lyric Leaves. This appeared a simple private penance, yet was really a most cruel one. It was the continual falling of the single drop of water upon the bare scalp; the most ingenious of tortures; but, unlike that, was, we presume, to cease on the first sign of penitence, repentance, and a new life.

In the meantime, Mr. Webbe comes out with his new volume, and he will, we have no doubt, meet a more just award than he did formerly. The world has since grown soberer, and more in earnest; and its taste in joking has improved of late. A large though a quiet part of it always sympathized with the pelted frogs, and that part has increased, is increasing, and will no longer be either sneered, laughed, or bullied out of its own judgment, and sense of the true and fitting. This seems to wander from Lyric Leaves; but we are steadily keeping them in view, and with much admiration and kindness. These poems are very natural-natural even in their conceits, very pleasing, and very English. Did our limits permit, we could give many proofs of the soundness of this opinion. All that we can do is, to name a few of our favourite pieces The Miller's Treat; the Fallen for Freedom; the Blind Musician's Son; the Old Love; the Farewell of a Pilgrim Father to England; the Autumnal Fireside; the Weaver's Wife, and, we might add, many others of these pleasant compositions. In the preface, the author says that he trusts, whatever may be the poetical sins of this little book, there is no part of it inimical to sociality, charity, and the same good will to all, which he wishes to have meted out to himself. His book, instead of being inimical, is promotive of these amiable and genial feelings; and his wish cannot fail to be realized in the good will of all.

HOMES ABROAD. By MISS MARTINEAU. No. X. of Tales Illustrative of Political Economy.—Emigration is the subject of this story. Unlike Cousin Marshal, it is a hopeful and cheering theme; so soon, at least, as we get the HOMES ABROAD, and out of Kent, into Van Dieman's Land. The question of emigration, and of who should be sent off, and who kept to pine and die at home; and whether there be not at home room for all, were home well managed, is a knotty point, on which we are loath, at present, to break our teeth. Miss Martineau has made up her mind upon it, while we DOUBT, and while many acute, and some profound thinkers stoutly dogmatize on the other side; and thus, while our wishes go with the latter, "home being still home," we waive the political part of the discussion, and keep to, and recommend the Tale for its own sake. It is told with Miss Martineau's usual clearness and vivacity; and is full of moral beauty, especially in the characters of Ellen and her brother Frank; and of interest in the pictures of their adventures abroad, and their new modes of life. Their voluntary emigration, undertaken in the spirit of noble independence, we heartily approve, and exult in their improved prospects, and in the certain reward of labour, which is the prop of virtuous industry in every clime. HOMES ABROAD, on its bright side, is one of Miss Martineau's most pleasing stories. And, before we part, all is steady increasing brightness with the emigrants.

THE COMIC OFFERING, or Ladies' Melange of Literary Mirth.-Edited by MISS L. H. SHERIDAN.* Embellishments above 100.-Miss Sheridan here makes her third appearance at the fair tribunal, to which she has chosen to make her annual appeal. She presents sixty pieces in prose and verse, more or less humorous, mirthful, odd, or satirical, and, in number (and value,) more embellishments than articles. Some of the engravings are clever, others grotesque, and a few comically extravagant, as the dance of the Jig-oh Sleeves, where those vitalized enormities actually step out, in a pas de deux, while another gigot performs on the violin, to the horror of a peeping lady's maid, who discovers their midnight revels. Bent on a measure gives us two coal-heavers, the one bending over the porter pot in which the other has fixed his proboscis. A Family of High Descent illustrates the best story in the volume. A wedded rural pair on their first night in London, are first alarmed by stories, and then by dreams of fire, and

* Smith and Elder, London. Pp. 316.

A horse

descending by a fire escape. Breaker; backing the favourite to a heavy a-mount! is the irresistibly comic figure of an enormously fat, unhappy-like woman, in a small riding-hat and habit, smothering, lashing, and murdering the miserable animal, on which she is seated, both in a condition of most ludicrous distress. Long and Short Division shows a tall dandy moving along with an air of great complacency, pretending, and be lieving, he holds an umbrella over an unhappy, finely-dressed, short lady, suspended from his arm, on whom the umbrella showers down like cats and dogs. Quarles Emblems,-a party of boys and girls, cats and dogs, at fistycuffs, is a good engraved pun. Mrs. Bridges, an arch countenance, is amusing enough; and La Bell assemble! a group of children ga thered round a fat bell-man reading a bill, is equally so. Skeleton Keys,—a skeleton formed entirely of keys, the head a padlock, is an odd extravaganza. The expression in the face of Dr. Stringer, "a Fiddle 'D 'D" is capital. An un-attached Major gives us a fat, gruff, artillery of ficer strutting on, his hands holding up the tails of his jacket, and his back turned to his poor lady sprawling on her back from an unsucessful attempt to cross a stile.

"The Lily of the Valet" is a squab negress, full of mirth, singing roguishly to a spruce footman, who looks kindly down upon her. These are a few of Miss Sheridan's bon-bons. The literary part of the volume has no very close connexion with them; and is to be taken "for better for worse."

FRIENDSHIP'S OFFERING.-Though this Annual, which, we believe, is a favourite, has twelve embellishments, a few of them beautiful, and the worst of them pretty, its principal strength lies in its literary composition. The contributors in this department are among the most attractive of the current literary names of the day. Miss Mitford, Mr. Macaulay, and Mrs. Norton in the front ranks; and a reserve and main body stronger than the van; there are Hervey, the Howitts, Pringle, James Baillie Fraser, and a long list. The articles in prose and verse are so numerous and diversified in character, that we can only mention one or two, Cromwell's House, the Captive of Camalu, and, strange as the title is, the Bravo of Banff. This last is sure to be a favourite in the north of Scotland, and, we daresay, everywhere else. The heroine is 3 charming romantic creature; but Miss Thom for our money, as a genuine, kind, and true-hearted Banff lass, not a whit

Smith and Elder, London. Pp. 384.

rists it will also be useful, by showing what they may fetch or carry openly, and what they must either smuggle or pay duty upon; what they may freely import or export; and what they will be tormented about at the Custom-house; how to proceed with their baggage; and how it is mercifully provided, that Paganini may claim his fiddle, that being his breadwinner; and how, according to the rank of the parties, (page 88,) oaths may either be exacted or passed from, at discretion, concerning certain articles, essential to elegance. N.B.-No lady is allowed to import, for private use, above a half pint of Eau de Cologne, or a pint of drinkable spirits; but turbots and lobsters may be landed without "the port entry or warrant." In short, besides being a serviceable guide, this book is a good running commentary on the wisdom of many of our extraordinary commercial regulations.

ANALYSIS OF THE ENGLISH, SCOTCH, AND IRISH REFORM BILLS. By JOHN GORTON.*—The title of this pamphlet fully explains its nature. It shews the boundaries, population, divisions, limits, and the number of ten-pound dwellings in every town and borough. It also contains forms of schedules for claims of registration; and also the other technicalities connected with the working of the new system of representation. Great pains appear to have been bestowed in making it complete and correct.

SHAKSPEARE, WITH 170 ILLUSTRATIONS. VALPY'S EDITION.*

After the Works of Scott, Byron, the Standard Novels, &c. &c. have appeared in a series of monthly volumes, we are

glad to see SHAKSPEARE not for

gotten.

The first volume of a new, cheap edition, uniform with the new edition of Byron, is before us. To those who have no copy of Shakspeare, or to those who have but an indifferent one, we sincerely recommend this. It is cheap, and beautifully printed, in an open, clear type. The text is that of Malone's edition.

The name of Mr A. J. Valpy is a guarantee for correctness. The illustrations, upon tinted paper, are from the plates of Boydell's Shakspeare; reduced in size, no doubt, but taken from one of the most splendid and expensive works

Chapman and Hall, London.

111 ERRATA.-In last month's Register of New

Works, page 251, column 2d, for " efforts and intrigues of Lafayette," read "efforts and intrigues of Lafitte" and again, next sentence, for "attachment of Lafayette to the Duke," read "attachment of Lafille to the Duke."

ever issued from the British press, each copy costing, we believe, L.100. The work is to be completed in fifteen volumes. Vol. I. contains a life of Shakspeare, Johnson's Preface to Shakspeare, with the Tempest, and Two Gentlemen of Verona. The plays are elucidated, but not overlaid with notes. This edition is worthy the attention of all who are ambitious of making a cheap and good collection of English standard works.

VALPY'S FAMILY CLASSICAL LIBRARY, NO. XXXV, EURIPIDES, VOL. IIThis reprint is the translation of Potter, the best we possess. The present volume contains the SUPPLICANTS, HERCULES, the HERACLIDE, IPHIGENIA IN TAURUS, and the TROJAN DAMES. This, from its very nature, is a work of sterling merit. It is cheap and correct; can we say more?

NAVAL EVOLUTIONS-A MEMOIR OF SIR HOWARD DOUGLAS, Bart, with a Review and Refutation of Mr. Clerk of Eldin's claims, &c. &c.*-So indifferent and selfish is the public to all that does not concern its own interests and amusements, immediate or relative, that we fear few, besides professional men, will now take much interest in this controversy. Every one must, however, sympathize with the spirit which leads the writer to defend the professional claims and reputation of his father. On the question of the real inventor of the ma nœuvre of breaking the enemy's line in sea-engagements, the Edinburgh Review rashly committed itself, attributing the discovery, on his own evidence, to Mr. Clerk. Much has since been said, and remains to be said, on both sides of the question, though the weight of evidence does incline to the claims of Sir Charles Douglas. It must, however, be noticed, that there is yet a third party, which does not appear at all in this controversy, who allege that this naval manœuvre was practised before either Mr. Clerk or Sir Charles Douglas were in existence, though never performed with such brilliancy, or decided effect, as in Rodney's victory. The first rude idea of this manœuvre of breaking the line may be seen in some of the desperate engagements of the Buccan neers against great odds.

MEMOIR AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE LATE SIR JAMES EDWARD SMITH, M.D. Edited by LADY SMITH.-This delightful work merits a fuller notice thav

* Longman and Rees, London.
+ Bcones, London,