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are omitted as support, in intemperate language, opinions to which at that age (eighteen) he was passionately attached." This liberty, we are given to understand, has been used after mature reflection; but though mature on the part of Mrs. Shelley, we are not prepared to add that it has been sound or judicious.

One benefit which the world derives from the works or the recorded life of any extraordinary man, is that it may obtain a thorough and correct view of his nature, attainments, and opinions; and of the history of his changes, or of his confirmations. Now, how can one come at a correct notion of Shelley's history, if one of his most characteristic and complete productions is dismembered, garbled, and its distinctive form and spirit marred? This is in fact nothing but a falsification of the history of his mind; while it is playing fast and loose with the public. It would have been better to have repressed the poem, we think, altogether; although, it appears to us, that the best way would have been to publish it entire, had it been for no other reason than that the tendency and scepticism of the poem might at once be fully perceived in all their avowed force, and not left to lurk in parts, which are even as the piece stands numerous; the charms of poetry, and the intangible dreams of the mystic, only serving to make the evil the more subtle.

Such is our view of the matter. Still we are bound to suppose that motives and delicacies might weigh with Mrs. Shelley, which would not have been felt by another editor. We therefore conclude with a specimen, which, while powerful and characteristic, cannot, except in regard to its gloom, be called objectionable, or said to be opposed to many sad instances. Part of the extract might have been adopted by Mr. Fox as a motto to his lecture on the "Morality of Poverty," reviewed in a preceding article. Neither is the first portion of the indignant burst without many illustrations :

"And statesmen boast

Of wealth! The wordy eloquence, that lives
After the ruin of their hearts, can gild
The bitter poison of a nation's wo-
Can turn the worship of the servile mob
To their corrupt and glaring idol Fame,
From Virtue, trampled by its iron tread,
Although its dazzling pedestal be raised
Amid the horrors of a limb-strewn field,
With desolated dwellings smoking round.
The man of ease, who, by his warm fire-side,
To deeds of charitable intercourse
And bare fulfilment of the common laws
Of decency and prejudice, confines
The struggling nature of his human heart,
Is duped by their cold sophistry; he sheds
A passing tear perchance upon the wreck
Of earthly peace, when near his dwelling's door
The frightful waves are driven-when his son
Is murdered by the tyrant, or religion

Drives his wife raving mad. But the poor man,
Whose life is misery, and fear, and care;
Whom the morn wakens but to fruitless toil;

Who ever hears his famished offspring's scream,
Whom their pale mother's uncomplaining gaze
For ever meets, and the proud rich man's eye,
Flashing command, and the heart-breaking scene
Of thousands like himself,-he little heeds
The rhetoric of tyranny; his hate

Is quenchless as his wrongs; he laughs to scorn
The vain and bitter mockery of words,
Feeling the horror of the tyrant's deeds,
And unrestrained, but by the arm of power,
That knows and dreads his enmity."

The present edition is to extend to four volumes, got up in a style fully equal, in every external particular, to the handsome reprints that have lately become so numerous of our principal modern poets. The interest which Shelley's peculiar personal history, together with the melody of his verse and the splendour of his descriptions will beget, cannot fail to elevate the work to a station where Byron, Southey, and Wordsworths volumes constantly meet the eye.

ART. XIII.—The New Army List. By H. G. HART, Lieut., 49th Regt. London: Smith and Elder.

WE cannot more succinctly or accurately describe this new and improved Army List than by quoting its title at length, which states that it exhibits the rank, standing, and various services of every officer in the army on half-pay, including the Ordnance and Royal Marines; distinguishing those who have served in the Peninsula, who were at Waterloo, who have received medals and other distinctions, and who have been wounded, and in what actions; with the period of service both on full and half-pay giving also the date of every officer's commission, and distinguishing those obtained by purchase." The biographical professional sketches, in the form of notes, of those who have distinguished themselves in the service, are numerous and interesting.

ART. XIV.-The Boy's Country-Book. Edited by WILLIAM HOWITT. London: Longman. 1839.

THE title further says-" Being the Real Life of a Country Boy, written by himself; exhibiting all the Amusements, Pleasures, and Pursuits of Children in the Country." There is not in all England a more competent editor for such an autobiography as this than the Author of "The Book of the Seasons;" nor are we aware that any other" Real Life of a Country Boy" could ever have been more naturally, spiritedly, and heartily described. We see him in every passage and in every scene; we actually hear him, or feel as if we did, telling his story to a loved companion of kindred disposition. Nor is there anything puerile in the work, meaning thereby, that which is weak, ridiculous, or valueless. The autobiographer is a manly boy; fond and full of enjoyment, with healthy and adven turous sympathies, and largely endowed with sound sense, suitable information, and stores of anecdote. Every boy in the British empire should have a copy of this Book; and no one who delights in its pages can be a bad boy; while not to be delighted seems an impossibility. The woodcuts are of themselves pleasurable and instructive things.

ART. XV.-A Letter to the Earl of Durham on Reform in Parliament, by paying the Elected. By MARVELL REDIVIVUS. London: Sherwood and Co.

In his argument, although he avows that he is a Radical, the author takes care to keep clear of what he calls the "Fire and Faggot Squad," viz., Oastler, Stephens, O'Connor, &c. He contends, however, that the political claims put forward in the National Petition of the Chartists cannot be stigmatized as unconstitutional, particularly insisting on the supposed necessity of the elected being paid in Andrew Marvell fashion; but the resuscitated statesman and patriot is not always courteous and temperate.

ART. XVI.-The Rev. Dr. Pye Smith and the New Poor Law. By SAMUEL ROBERTS. London: Whittaker.

On taking up this closely printed pamphlet, we were at a loss to conceive how the Rev. Doctor could be dragged into the Poor Law question; nor after going through its raving contents have we either found rhyme or reason for the proceeding. Mr. Roberts neither knows when to stop, nor does he appear to understand that numberless repetitions of the same words, these being uniformly either declamatory assertions, outrageously abusive personalities, or uncalled for, out-of-the-place, and therefore profane insertions of the most solemn passages and denunciations in Scripture. In support of our statement let us just string together a few sentences taken at random; and we assure our readers that they will find nothing better in the production, should they have a mind to peruse it.

'Is it possible," he asks, "that any man of plain, good, common sense, can fail to perceive that two millions a year, taken from the poor and given to the rich, to say nothing of its inhumanity-is not enriching the State?" Mr. R. never thinks of better argument than that of begging the question or reiterating his ipse dixit. Many of his alleged facts require proof; still more of them involve absurdities, or are contrary to reason and truth. But the occasion does not require anything more than to let him be heard out of his own mouth. He says, "The cruel, unjust, unfeeling oppressor cannot be a Christian-he is even unworthy of the name of man-yet to this base character have the powerful agents of Mammon (the promoters and defenders of the measures are scores of times so called,) brought the majority of the middle classes of the once free, high-minded inhabitants of this country. They have been brought by them to fly in the face of God -to set at nought the life, the death, and the precepts of their Redeemer, in order to cully favour with the agents of Satan, and to batten on the spoils of the poor-who are perishing by thousands for want of food-and not only to risk, but, as far as depends on them to insure, their eternal condemnation." This kingdom has once before been governed by a Virgin Queen, and the nation prospered; but she had men— -(the italics are not of our making) nay she had wise men for her ministers. She had a Burleigh, and he was himself a host. We have again a Virgin Queen-alas, for her and us she has no Burleigh. She has a host of Ministers, but all of them united would not make a Burleigh. Burleigh's dog would have lifted his leg against the best of them. Alas, for poor young Victoria! alas, too, for poor old England!" In a note to this eloquent and delicate passage, it i asked, What is her Prime Ministers?-What the Keeper of her Con

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science?—What the Lords of her Bedchamber?" What a sly and elegant humourist! Mr. Roberts, you will be the death of us, as well as of her Majesty's Ministers.

Again," What will the Judge say at that awful day to these men ?” The clergy who have favoured the New Poor Law are meant. "He will say-Depart from me, to your deserved imprisonment-for in the day when your services were wanted, I knew you not. I and my army (Mr. R. no doubt looks upon himself as one of the most valiant of the soldiers,) fought for the poor, and ye knew it but ye went over to the ranks of the enemy." "Our House of Commons is corrupted to the core by mercenary members." "Britons are now slaves. Slaves to those who are themselves slaves to despotic tyrants"-Melbourne and Co. of course. But the Tories are even declared by this judicious and temperate authority to be in many cases worse than the Whigs; and he assures us he does not know above three in either house of Parliament that is honest. But enough of such nonsense. Certainly no sane impugner or objector to the law in question will long for this champion's coadjutorship; but some, if they read his pamphlet or our extracts from it, may happen to ask, what is the man's particular ailment, what its cause or source? We opine that a circumstance mentioned in the Introduction may throw some light on the subject. We are there told that he once held the office of Overseer of the Poor of Shef. field; and he adds, that his "attention was then called in an especial manner to the subject of our Good Old Poor Laws." Gentle reader, supposest thou that Mr. R. is now in office? There's the rub. We ought to state that Mr. R. announces himself as having been the author of several works. Oh, this accounts for his fine writing, and that peculiar skill which he evinces in setting before the public the results of his matured opinions. ART. XVII.-Biographical Sketch of Thomas Clarkson. By T. TAYLOR. London: Rickerby. 1839.

THE relative merits of the subject of this memoir and of Wilberforce in regard to the Abolition of the slave-trade and slavery, which have lately been largely and loudly discussed, it will readily be supposed, occupy a great proportion of the publication. We do not enter into the matters about which there has been so much painful dispute. It is but just to state, however, that the Sketch contains a clear and rapid account of the Abolition with which Clarkson's history is inseparably connected. The portrait which embellishes the work, commands our veneration; and it must be true to the original, for it is full of life.

ART. XVIII.—The Grammar of Law. By a BARRISTER. London : Rickerby. 1839.

THIS Grammar professes to contain the First Principles of Natural, Religious, Political, and Civil Law; together with a Synopsis of the Common and Statute Law. To which is added, the Royal Prerogatives, and an explanation of Law Terms in general use. It is a work in which a vast deal is concisely and perspicuously explained. The parts which more particularly concern English Law are excellent. Altogether it is a work of great merit and calculated to teach, not drily or disagreeably, very much that is indispensable !

ART. XIX.-The Last of the Plantagenets. 3rd Edition. THE quaint but engaging form and style in which this historical narrative of some of the public events as well as domestic and ecclesiastical manners, of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, sets before the reader the results of much curious antiquarian research, has already placed it beyond the pale of criticism, and rendered it quite independent of any thing we can say either for or against it.

ART. XX.-Ignatia, and other Poems. By MARY ANN BROWNE. London: Hamilton, Adams, & Co. 1839.

THIS lady has deservedly become a favourite with the readers of poetry. Comparatively few of the tuneful tribe of either sex, that have come before the public lately, can, like her, point to a second edition of more than one effort of the kind. We predict that the present volume will not be less heartily welcomed. It contains much of tender and elegant poetry. Ignatia's tale is touching in the extreme. Some of the smaller pieces are more vigorous. The whole are manifestly the offspring of an exalted and a refined nature; of one who regards the good and beautiful with intense and habitual affection.

ART. XXI.-Minstrel Melodies. Being a Collection of Songs. By the Author of "Field Flowers," &c. London: Longman. 1839. HERE are songs on all sorts of subjects. Conviviality, sentimentality, plaintive and cheerful themes, patriotism, loyalty and love, each and all receiving the author's homage. We have not discovered much originality either in subject or treatment; yet, for the most part, the effusions are above mediocrity, and never below that level. We upine that these verses are happily cast for bona fide singing, and that those who are skilled in this accomplishment-playful warblers-will find a rich mine in the collection whenever they have a desire for a new marrying of kindred arts.

ART. XXII-Sixteen Select Idyls of Theocritus.

By D. B. HICKIE,

LL.D. London: Longman. 1839. THESE choice pieces are given as chiefly found in the text of Meineke. A copious variety of English Explanatory Notes, well-arranged indexes, and an introductory view of the author's genius and excellences, will recommend this edition to advanced students as well as to tyros. The volume is handsomely got up.

ART. XXIII.-The Lady and the Saints. In Three Cantos. With Vignettes, designed by R. CRUIKSHANKS. London: Bull. 1839. A FAILURE; and what else can be confidently expected of any one who essays to imitate "Hudibras ?" We do not think that even a shred of the mantle of Butler has descended upon the present author. The attempt is to expose the ignorance and fanaticism of certain sects who arrogate to themselves, if not the term, at least the character of Saints exclusively; but the story is stupid and badly conducted-the humour is extremely small -and the versification is feeble and faulty.

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