We fear our space will not permit us to notice categorically the remainder of the series of writers, whose merits are dwelt upon at length by our author. We have Merimée, Ricard, Paul de Kock and Jules Janin, all clever writers of novels of well established reputation, Dumas a most successful dramatist, Lamartine and Berenger, poets, and Victor Hugo, novelist, dramatist, and poet. Great justice is done to the two greatest names in French literature, Lamartine and Victor Hugo, and copious and well executed translations of their poems are given. Of Chateaubriand and Madame Guy, both celebrated and elegant writers, he makes no mention. Haply he reserves them with Alphonse Royer, the Marquis de Custines, and others, for a third volume.

Of Prosper Merimée it will be sufficient to say, he is the author of the "Theatre of Clara Gazul, or reminiscences of a Spanish Actress," "La Guzla," "La Jacquerie," "La Chronique du Regne de Charles IX," and the "Mosaique,' Mosaique," a collection of tales. All these works met with considerable success, and placed Merimée amongst the most distinguished writers of his day.

Paul de Kock enjoys a greater share of popularity than any living French writer. His works are found in the boudoir of the lady, and in the attic of the grisette, on the dressing table of the Marquis, and in the pocket of the portier, at his gate in short they are thumbed and read by every one from the highest to the lowest. A new novel by Paul de Kock creates a more lively sensation than a King's speech. The prices of the funds, the measures of the minister of war, are secondary topics to a fresh appearance of Paul de Kock. He is universal, his name is in everybody's mouth, his books are in everybody's hands. The secret of this wide spread popularity may be represented by one little word-gaiety. His books are teeming with mirth, frequently verging into ludicrousness and caricature. He and his imitator Ricard, are peculiarly the novelists of the people. The Parisians of every grade, of every calling, view themselves faithfully reflected in their books, as in a mirror. The fertility of Paul de Kock is surprising, but the manners he describes are generally of the loosest kind, many of his novels are in fact mere chronicles of intrigue, and there are few of them fit for the perusal of persons pretending to even the appearances of modesty; and when Mr. Reynolds assures us that he has seen a boarding-school Miss reading one of these books in church instead of her prayer book, we are inclined to draw a very unfavourable augury for the purity of French morals from the circumstance. Indeed we have not been able to discover throughout these two volumes, an iota of proof, in support of the position with which our author started, "that he would show that the generality of French novels were not licentious." In almost every one of them, the heroines are frail, and the heroes ruffians or moral monsters of some peculiar caste.

Here is an analysis of one of Paul de Kock's productions. :

"The writings of Paul de Kock are numerous. Amongst his best are Le Barber de Paris, Sœur Anne, Jean, L'Amant-le Mari-et la Femme, M. Dupont and Le Cocu. The first of these here enumerated is a romance somewhat in the Radcliffe style; treating of the adoption, by a barber, of a girl whose father is unknown, a secret source of wealth which the barber possesses, then a marquis, to whose vicious pleasures the barber is a pander. That marquis falls in love with Blanche, the adopted girl; an enlèvement necessarily succeeds, and the dénouement of the tale elucidates the mysteries in the regular German fashion. Touquet, the barber, has murdered the supposed father of Blanche; and Blanche is the marquis's daughter. The last chapter is peculiarly interesting. Blanche is immured in a chamber in the marquis's country-house-the window of that chamber looks upon a lake; she is resolved how to act, should the nobleman dare attempt to force the door of her apartment, and she expects the succour of her lover Urban, who is actually in the vicinity of the chateau. Presently the marquis approaches the door of her room; but it is to embrace her whom he has only a few moments ago discovered to be his child. Blanche trembles, but she has decided in her own mind what step to take. She fancies the intended ravisher of innocence is near, and she leaps from the window; the lake receives her beneath. Her lover, who is in the park, sees her fall and throws himself into the water. He succeeds in dragging her to the land; and at that moment the marquis, who had followed his daughter, swam also on shore. They endeavoured to recover her; the one implored her to open her eyes in the name of a parent, the other in that of a lover. But Blanche answered not-the vital spark had fled, and she remained a corpse between the two individuals who deplored her."

Paul de Kock's characters are not dashed off boldly and at once, like those of his contemporaries, but are finished off by a multitude of light and almost imperceptible strokes, successively and skilfully applied.

When a character is sketched at once, the reader is in no doubt about the course of action it will take, but in this latter case we are made acquainted with the character by its action, and the slightest incidents give us new insight into its peculiar construction. De Kock's wit is often pointed, his humour fresh and buoyant, but often farcical and far-fetched. Besides, he is a master of the pathetic, and can draw tears as well as excite to laughter. We have heard some Frenchmen call him a vulgar fellow, only fit for the company of grisettes and other equivocal personages, and assert that his books were never read by people in good society. But Mr. Reynolds assures us of the reverse, and of course he has our credence. Of Jules Janin we shall merely observe, that he is the redacteur of the "Journal des Debats," the great high-priest of criticism. His dictum is the judgment of France-his smile VOL. II. (1839.) No. IV.

K K

of approbation bids an author " be risk and prosper-his frown annihilates him at once." He has written several romances, some good, some indifferent, all vigorously and elegantly penned. One of them, "Le Chemin de Traverse," is pronounced to be one of the finest works in the French language. It is, says our author, a great moral lecture, constructed on a slender ground work of fiction. It teaches the necessity of pursuing a direct path in our journey through life, and paints the evils that await a deviation into byepaths.

Janin's style is quaint and original. He delights in depicting the morbid anatomy of society, and in dwelling on the dark side of humanity. In "The Dead Ass, and guillotined Woman" he paints the career of a young peasant girl through every graduation of crime until she arrives at the scaffold. In "La Piedestal," the son of a peasant raises himself to dignity and affluence by the prostitution of a pretty Italian woman, whom he passes off as his wife. In "La Confession," a man strangles his young and beautiful wife on his wedding night, for no earthly reason but because he fancied by her manner she did not love him, and that married life, without love, would be tiresome in the extreme. There is no "coroner's inquest," no inquiry, and he is left without other molestation than remorse. To cure this he has recourse to many expedients. That which proves successful, is a full confession to a priest of powerful intellect and dignified manners, who awes him into repentance, and makes him a good man, and a-priest. In both these works there are many passages of great power and beauty. There is a fascinating novelty about the style which strikes and meets the attention of the reader, and makes amends for the poverty of incident and the peculiarity of subject for which his tales are remarkable.

With Janin we must conclude this article, which has already grown to an unusual length. In a succeding number we propose to ourselves the pleasing task of noticing Mr. Reynolds' translation from Lamartine, Victor Hugo, and Berenger; any one of which illustrious names would by itself furnish materials for a separate article. For the present we dismiss these volumes with our good wishes for their success. They show marks of very considerable ability and of an extensive acquaintance with the literature they are meant to popularize in this country.

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ART. II.-Travels in South-Eastern Asia, embracing Hindustan, Malaya, Siam, and China; with Notices of numerous Missionary Stations, and a full Account of the Burman Empire. By the Rev. HOWARD MALCOM, of Boston, U. S. 2 Vols. London: Tilt. 1839. THE Americans (the designation is sufficiently definite, so as at once to be precisely understood by every reader) are a longsighted and a far-reaching people. They may be described as composing a grasping, as well as an acute nation. We do not use any of these terms in a bad sense at present; although were we obliged to defend the words, if taken as meaning what was questionable in commercial and political transactions, we feel we should find little difficulty in supporting the charge by a variety of illustrations. We might even succeed in discovering symptoms of religious and various professedly philanthropic or enlightened enterprizes having been made, by associations established in the country of which we speak, and in some notable instances, the pretext, when mercantile profit, or political advancement were the main objects held in contemplation by the projectors, and not kept out of view by the nation at large, which might be boasting all the while of such championship in behalf of millions of the human race. Still, worldly gain may be realized justifiably, and national influence promoted and increased without a betrayal of the interests of civilization and true religion; only let not one end be principally contemplated, while another is professed. We admit also that the religious community of a nation may righteously proclaim the renown and honour due to it, on account of great, especially of unexampled exertions put forth in behalf of the dark places of the earth. The Americans have much to console themselves with on this ground. Very many thousands of that people have been and are now employing their best energies in philanthropic speculations and experiments. Their own immense territories have not formed a limit to their designs and their doings; for their purposes grasp the whole habitable globe, and every variety of good. The volumes before us furnish a striking proof of this far-stretching and energetic benevolence. We see nothing in the purposes and efforts of its author, or of those whose kindred views he strove to advance and satisfy, but noble and disinterested motives: we see nothing in the result of his labours, but grounds of hope, gratitude, and well-earned temporal renown.

Mr. Malcom was sent to the East as the deputy and representative of one of the great American Missionary Societies, in the year 1835, to examine into, and with the missionaries of that society adjust, many points not easily settled by correspondence; to compare the various modes of operation in different missions, and to gather all such details as he could reach, which seemed to bear any relation to

the present condition and future prospects of the Board whose immediate servant he was. The Deputy being a good specimen of his countrymen as regards curiosity, perseverance, acuteness, and enlightened parts, not only presents a great deal of most valuable information and many suggestions upon the main object of his undertaking, but the bearings which the political and economical relations of the countries which he visited maintain upon the great cause, obtained his particular scrutiny and consideration.

To his countrymen generally, many of Mr. Malcom's statements and descriptions will present more novelty than to us or the British public, who have naturally taken a deep interest in all that regards our Eastern empire. But even in England, a reprint of his Travels will be cordially received and eagerly perused; not only because the range of those travels, as mentioned in the title-page, was unusually wide and diversified, but because we have the opinions of a most intelligent, and manifestly an honest foreign writer speaking upon a variety of points that concern the honour and the prosperity of the British people.

The business upon which our author was sent out, and the eminence of the mission, could not fail to secure for him much consideration from the Europeans with whom he had intercourse, and the civilized in the parts he visited: and he acknowledges that he everywhere met with marked courtesy and kindness from civilians and military gentlemen, as well as missionaries, wherever he found them. There is a passage, however, in his preface, which the reader will do well to bear in mind, not only when perusing these volumes, but any other work by foreigners in the East, which we shall quote, and which we like the writer the better for having volunteered. He says, "Honest intentions, diligent inquiries and fortunate opportunities, will not secure a traveller from errors, even in Europe or America, where in every place we meet with persons of veracity, and free to impart information. In the East the case is much worse. The foreigner, dreaded for his power, and abhorred for his religion, excites both civil and religious jealousy. His manners often displease, by the omission of forms of which he may be ignorant, or to which he cannot succumb. He is met with taciturnity, or wilful misrepresentation; and if he escape those, he will generally encounter ignorance. If he be so happy as to find both intelligence and communicativeness, the want of books, maps, charts, and statistics, renders the information of natives merely local, and often conflicting. Added to all, his interpreter may be unskilful, if he depends upon resident foreigners, their arrival may have been recent, or their opportunities small, or their inquiries negligent, or the statements of one may be flatly contradicted by those of another." Now, a traveller who perceives so clearly and explains so distinctly embarrassments which, he says, he has met by turns, so as fre