volumes. Indeed this would be to occupy unnecessarily, and with a bare catalogue, a considerable space in our pages. We only very cursorily mention, that the parentage of Peter Plymley's effusions is now acknowledged in the re-publication; that we have presented to us also the Letters to Archdeacon Singleton; that on Education, Methodism, Missions, &c. &c., there is such a variety and superiority of thought and expression as must awaken new and brilliant ideas, in the mind of every one who understands what he reads. In certain Prefatory notices where the author glances at passages in his life, his connection with the Edinburgh Review, and the discount at which Liberalism, or Whiggery was held down to a comparatively recent date, exposing its bold and consistent advocates to disgrace and danger, will be found an interest and an amusement with which our author alone can invest political topics and differences. For instance, we have the manner and occasion of the establishment of "Blue and Yellow" smartly described. Mr. Smith being unexpectedly landed in the Northern metropolis, when he was making for Germany, war having in that country suddenly displayed its iron and fiery front, he naturally became acquainted with the talents and the rising men of his way of thinking in that city. He adds that,

"One day we happened to meet in the eighth or ninth story or flat in Buccleugh Place, the elevated residence of the then Mr. Jeffrey. I proposed that we should set up a Review; this was acceded to with acclamation. I was apointed editor, and remained in Edinburgh to edit the first number of the Edinburgh Review. The motto I proposed for the Review was,

"Tenui musam meditamur avena.

"We cultivate literature upon a little oatmeal."

But this was too near the truth to be admitted, and so we took our present grave motto from Publius Syrus, of whom none of us had, I am sure, ever read a single line; and so began what has since turned out to be a very important and able journal."

The Review began about the beginning of the century; and hear what were the sacrifices to which a staunch Whig of the old school had to submit. From the commencement of the century, we are told, to the—

"Death of Lord Liverpool, was an awful period for those who had the misfortune to entertain Liberal opinions, and who were too honest to sell them for the ermine of the judge or the lawn of the prelate ;—a long and hopeless career in your profession, the chuckling grin of noodles, the sarcastic leer of the genuine political rogue-prebendaries, deans, and bishops made over your head-reverend renegadoes advanced to the highest dignities of the Church, for helping to rivet the fetters of Catholic and Protestant Dissenters, and no more chance of a Whig Administration than of a thaw in Zembla—these were the penalties exacted for liberality of opinion at that period; and not only was there no pay, but there were many stripes. It is always considered as a piece of impertinence in England, if a man of less than two or three thousand a year has any opinions at all upon important subjects; and in addition, he was sure at that time to be assailed with all the Billingsgate of the French Revolution-Jacobin, Leveller, Atheist, Deist, Socinian, Incendiary, Regicide, were the gentlest appellations used; and the man who breathed a syllable against the senseless bigotry of the

two Georges, or hinted at the abominable tyranny and persecution exercised upon Catholic Ireland, was shunned as unfit for the relations of social life." The tables are turned :

To set on foot such a journal in such times, to contribute towards it for many years, to bear patiently the reproach and poverty which it caused, and to look back and see that I have nothing to retract, and no intemperance and violence to reproach myself with, is a career of life which I must think to be extremely fortunate. Strange and ludicrous are the changes in human affairs. The Tories are now on the treadmill, and the well-paid Whigs are riding in chariots: with many faces, however, looking out of the windows (including that of our Prime Minister), which I never remember to have seen in the days of the poverty and depression of Whiggism. Liberality is now a lucrative business, Whoever has any institution to destroy, may consider himself as a commissioner, and his fortune as made.”

All the world by this time is acquainted with the reverend author's opinions about the Ballot. Various attempts have been made to answer and refute him; but he still is unvanquished on some points. How far he may be consistent with what the Edinburgh Reviewers of a former day would have said, in the following and our last extract, we shall not at present venture to surmise. The point is the coercing of Tenants :

"All these practices are bad; but the facts and the consequences are exaggerated.

"In the first place, the plough is not a political machine: the loom and the steam-engine are furiously political, but the plough is not. Nineteen tenants out of twenty care nothing about their votes, and pull off their opinions as easily to their landlords as they do their hats. As far as the great majority of tenants are concerned, these histories of persecution are mere declamatory nonsense: they have no more predilection for whom they vote than organ-pipes have for what tunes they are to play. A tenant dismissed for a fair and just cause often attributes his dismissal to political motives, and endeavours to make himself a martyr with the public: a man who ploughs badly, or who pays badly, says he is dismissed for his vote. No candidate is willing to allow that he has lost his election by his demerits; and he seizes hold of these stories, and circulates them with the greatest avidity they are stated in the House of Commons; John Russell and Spring Rice fall a crying: there is lamentation of Liberals in the land, and many groans for the territorial tyrants."

ART. XXI.—Translations and Sketches of Biography, from the German, Italian, Portuguese and French Languages. By a LADY. London: Saunders and Otley. 1839.

A MISCELLANOUs collection of poetry and prose pieces; very various and rich. The translations are sweet compositions; some of them are highly beautiful specimens of English. Every effort that tends to make us better acquainted with the mind, the taste, and the productions of the choice spirits of foreign countries, deserves a cordial welcome. The present will, we have no doubt, command such a reception.

ART. XXII-British History, Chronologically arranged. By JOHN Јонк WADE, Author of the "History of the Middle and Working Classes," &c. London: Effingham Wilson. 1839.

THE plan of this history is classification as well as choronological arrangement; comprehending, as the title-page announces "Analysis of Events and Occurrences in Church and State ;" and of "The Constitutional, Political, Commercial, Intellectual, and Social Progress of the United Kingdom, from the First Invasion by the Romans to the Accession of Queen Victoria." In an excellent Preface the Plan is thus further explained, "Each region or historical period is prefaced with an introduction, explanatory of the character of the governing power, or of the prominent features of the time, political, social, or industrial; then follow the events and occurrences, facts, and incidents, in chronological order, upon which the introductory view has been founded; and after these, distinct sections, illustrative of legislation, finance, commerce, science, manners, literature, internal improvements, or whatever else has constituted a leading characteristic of the time, and influenced the state of the Common Wealth." The scheme is not very dissimilar to that of Dr. Henry, in his History of England; although, of course, the compression necessary in chronological notices presents a baldness, and an abruptness in passing from one fact and state to others, which cannot belong to a continuous and sustained piece of elaborate historical composition. Works of the kind before us, however, have their peculiar uses. They give us the realities by which all disquisition should be supported and guided; they present history in a precise as well as a minute series of dissections, while without a thorough knowledge of each part no historian and no student of history can have any stay or certainty in his progress. As respects the character of nakedness or baldness, we must at the same time state, that Mr. Wade's work is far from being particularly obnoxious. In fact it will be found, on account of its novel as well as natural arrangement, and combination of reciprocally illustrative varieties of contemporary facts, and also of the fulness as well as spirit and elegance of its connecting, and expository parts, to afford readable and deeply interesting matter, taking any reign, especially the later and more important ones. It is very different from a mere Dictionary. The biographical sketches alone are ample sweetners to the whole mass. In these, as well as in his political notices, we have discovered nothing like partizanship, although the author speaks out, by no means afraid to utter his sentiments. In this respect he is anything but a compiler. We have remarked that some of his strictures are original as well as strikingly just, even about subjects and persons that have recently engaged the rhetorical pen of Lord Brougham; and this, whether politics, oratory, or literature &c., be the prominent point.

In short we pronounce Mr. Wade's work to be an excellent, we were about to say an indespensable, assistant to the student of British annals, taking it merely as a book of reference to accompany the reading of any of our standard histories of England. But it contains also a complete and connected body of national events, with appropriate remarks. It is a production which must have occupied years before it was brought to its present state of perfection. The authorities consulted are very numerous and

various. The size of the volume alone will convince any one that the labour bestowed upon it must have been immense; Eleven hundred and fifty-four octavo pages, mostly double-columned and closely printed, are no joke, taking into account the mere transcribing of the composition preparatory to going to the press. We must not forget to mention that there is a copious index to the whole of the contents, by which any historical name or occurrence embraced within the era already named can in a moment be referred to. The work is handsomely got up; and the type is clear and neat,

ART. XXIII.-A Tour in Connaught; by the Author of "Sketches in Ireland." Dublin Currie. 1839.

HERE we have "Sketches of Clonmacnoise, Joyce Country, and Achill," by a writer whose former "Sketches in the North and South of Ireland," we well remember. In the present as in the preceding work intimate knowledge of the things described, cordial sympathy with his fellow countrymen, without partisan spirit, and patient research among the traditions and antiquities, as well as the historical pages belonging to the parts of Ireland mentioned in the title-page, are conspicuous features. The production is that of a genuine Irishman, as well as of a very clever and engaging writer. It is calculated to do good in England and for Ireland.

ART. XXIV.-The Nature and Glory of the Gospel. By JOSEPH BELLAMY, D. D. London: Ward. 1839.

SINCE We noticed the first publication of "Ward's Library of Standard Divinity," additions have been regularly and rapidly made to the series; a circumstance which we may regard as affording satisfactory evidence that the demand for the pieces is great; otherwise it would be impossible to continue a publication the typographic beauty; and the cheapness of which are equally remarkable. Indeed reprints in any shape, and at any reasonable price, of the choicest productions of the Divines of Great Britain and America, belonging to bygone times, could not fail of being widely sought after in both countries.

The present addition to the " Library," by one of the most eminent and exemplary of the New England Divines, is every way worthy of Dr. Bellamy. It is also worthy of the company into which it is now ushered, which is the highest praise that we can pronounce concerning it. How elevated and fervent are its sentiments, yet how far removed from uncharitableness, exaggeration, and cant!

ART. XXV.-The Miser's Daughter, a Comedy; and Miscellaneous Poems. By JOHN PURCHAS, a Rugbean. London: Whittaker. 1839. BETWEEN three and four hundred pages, by one who has obviously lent all his endeavours to produce pieces honourable to the place of his nativity: but we dare not encourage him to proceed in the walk he has here chosen.

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ART. XXVI.-The Present State and Condition of the Colony of Westers Australia; embodying a Statistical Report. By His Excellency Sir JAMES STIRLING, Governor. London: Simpkin and Co. 1839. FROM Sir James's Report; drawn up to the end of June, 1837, we learn that the colony has not been so prosperous as was anticipated, and that even its actual progress had been by no means equal to its apparent growth and increase in numbers. "Very few," he says, engaged with spirit in their proper avocations, and many left, or talked of leaving, a place in which there was evidently much to be done and borne before success could be attained. The necessaries of life were at enormous prices, and the funds of the settlers were generally exhausted in their own support, instead of being applied to the advancement of their farms and business. The disappointments experienced within the colony affected its reputation in other places, and a stop was put for a time to further emigration. To complete the catalogue of difficulties, conflicts with the natives were continually occurring, and too often ended in the loss of property and life." He continues; “but distressing as these evils were, they prepared and strengthened the colonists for those exertions which necessity imposed upon them. A steadier view was taken of the objects to be gained; want produced frugality and labour; the resources of the colony were tried, and in time the subsistence of the settlers was raised within the settlement. Increasing means gave rise to confidence and to renewed exertion. The returns for the last two or three years afford satisfactory proofs of the steady advancement of the colony, although the scale on which colonization has been attempted here is limited to very narrow bounds, and the whole affair is unimportant in numbers and in means.”

We have quoted thus much, not merely to show that the colony of Western Australia is not the Land of Promise, which it was at one time represented to be, but also to afford suggestions and warnings to intending emigrants to any new country. They must not expect to be set down at once in a Paradise, where all is beauty and quietness, and where nothing is required to be done, but to gather the riches which the soil spontaneously provides. Industry, and the wisdom which it brings, must be the principal sources of plenty and peace.

Sir James Stirling is of opinion, agreeably to the latter portion of the passage we have quoted, that the fortunes of the colony are susceptible and are at the time he writes in the course of improvement. He also calculates what may be its condition in 1847, so as to afford considerable encouragement, so far as hope and speculation can authorize him. The increase of sheep, and of the growth of wool, appears to be the chief ground of whatever cheering views he entertains ;- -a source that can never be supposed to furnish the main stay of a great and flourishing settlement.

ART. XXVII.-Excerpta of Wit; or, Railway Companion. London:

Richardson. 1839.

A COLLECTION of laconic sentences from a great variety of sources, in which we have discovered nothing that will raise a blush on the cheek of modesty, though hearty laughter will draw tears from the eyes of old and young, who make a companion of this choice assortment of facetiæ.