fures taken by this country against Denmark; ; a confeffion of which, if truth is not the fource, it is difficult to fay to what principle it ought to be attributed. LAW. Amidst a dearth of legal productions, in our pages at least, the Parliamentary Edition of the Statutes makes a confpicuous appearance. As a work of much public importance, we hope to fee it continued and completed, as fuccefsfully as it has been commenced. A new edition of a claffical Law Book is the only companion we can give at prefent to the former work; and Fearne on Contingent Remainders, as edited by Mr. Butler †, is certainly entitled to rank with any book that can be mentioned, in point of legal acutenefs and accuracy. ARTS and LITERATURE. The eccentric peculiarities of that fingular genius James Barry did not prevent his Works from being an object of public curiofity. That paffion was indeed rather heightened than repreffed by the circumftances, and the volumes containing his life and works, offer a picture which will not often be paralleled. Mr. Haffel's Calcographia § is altogether a practical work, recommending and explaining an ingenious invention, and is well worthy of attention both from the artist and the amateur. Among literary works, Mr. Blomfield's Edition of : the Prometheus of Efchylus muft at present take No. II. *No. V. p. 426. + No. VI. p. 600. No. II. p. 194. No. II. p. 162, and III. P. 115. p. 227. the the lead; and to have edited any part of that poet with fuccefs is no mean praise. The fpecimen of a Cornif Vocabulary, which Mr. Pelwhele has produced, is fuch as excites the wishes of Philologers for its completion; fhould Philologers be too few in number to obtain that gratification, fome reflection of course will fall on that branch of our literature. A small work, entitled Latium Redivivum, by Mr. Seyer †, contains a propofal which we could not but esteem chimerical; but it is the proposal of a fcholar, and he has advocated the caufe with intelligence. POETRY. We have fometimes experienced a melancholy pleasure in having conveyed a gleam of fatisfaction to a dying author, by publishing the commendation of his work in time to be perused by himself. This happened in the cafe of the lamented Kirke White, and fome others; and we trust it did also in that of Mr. Grahame, author of the British Georgics ‡, whose poem we commended a confiderable time before we heard of his deceafe. To the natural feelings of a poet in particular, it must be foothing to catch the liberal praise of ftrangers, before his fenfibilities become extinct; and to receive a kind of earnest of that immortality for which he wrote, and for which he cannot cease to wifh till he ceafes to be conscious of any thing. With Mrs. Henry Tighe we were not fo fortunate: her Poems §, indeed, were not printed for general circulation before her death; but the feal of public approbation was already ftamped upon her elegant Pfyche, before it came to our hands. With the hardy veteran Cumberland, the cafe was not * No. I. p. 28, P. 15. + No. II. p. 194. § No. VI. p. 631. + No. I. the the fame. While he lived, indeed, his ears were not insensible to praise, but he had gained enough in his career to dispense with it in the laft inftance; and when his Retrofpection was given to the prefs, he doubtless anticipated in imagination those commendations, which he must have felt it to deferve. Return we then to living bards; among whom the author of Don Roderick's Vision † will always be honourably diftinguished. Dr. Brown, of Aberdeen, long distinguished as a found and able writer, hast now taken a refpectable place as a moral poet; and his Philemon well delineates the career of an imaginary hero, in the paths of Virtue and Religion, The pleafing Mule of Mr. IV. Spencer § delights in fportive images and elegant turns of thought, by the employment of which the never fails to gratify the reader. The Crufade of St. Louis | affords a new proof of the talents of Mr. W. Rofe, already celebrated for other poetical compofitions. The well varied, and very ingeniously decorated poem of Mr. W. Tighe, entitled the Plants, is well completed in the part which we lately noticed, and gives a new poetical wreath to the name of Tighe, already celebrated in these pages. Mifs Mitford, whofe mifcellaneous poems have already attained a fecond edition **, has been fortunate in her felection of a fingularly interefting tale for her Chriftina ††; nor has the narrative failed to receive from her pen fuch poetical decorations as were beft calculated to embellish, and imprefs it on the reader. After the deferved fuccefs of the Pleasures of Memory, it is rather extraordinary that the Pains of that faculty fhould have remained fo long unfung. It remained, however, for Mr. Bingham to take this view of the + No. III. p. 280. ‡ No. IV. I No. IV. p. 406. ** No. II. p. 187. ++ No. V. § No. III. p. 224. No. II. P. 129. p. 388. 1 No. II. p. 185. P. 474. No. IV. p. 403. fubject, fubject, and his fuccefs is creditable to him. Two different critics appear to have been equally pleafed with the Sonnets of Mifs M. Johnfon, and the opi-. nions of both were inadvertently published at different periods *. To the diftinétion thus accruing to the poetess the is heartily welcome; and we are not at all afhamed to have faid twice, what will always be true, namely, that fhe poffefles confiderable talent and ingenuity. An anonymous poem on the Battles, of the Danube and Barofat will conclude our prefent recapitulation, which evinces a poetical fertility in our countrymen that has not often been furpaffed. We might have extended our lift ftill further without impropriety, but the plan of our preface being felection, we have rather reftrained than indulged our difpofition to commend. THE DRAMA, It would be worth while to make a feparate divifion of the Drama, in this Preface, if it were only for the fake of commemorating Mifs 7. Baillie's Family Legend. The local intereft of this play might indeed be greatest in Scotland, but there is in it that which will be felt by all countries and all ages, as long as human na-. ture is unchanged, A fmall volume of Dramatic Romances $ feemed to deferve a better fate, than to be expofed without a parent to avow them. But one of them, we fee, has fince been produced at a London theatre, and feems to be obtaining applause. The Paftor Fido of Guarini makes a refpectable figure in English blank verfe; and we could not but wonder, as we read it, that it had not been fo tranf lated before. The author, however, is at prefent unknown. NOVELS. Of a novel which has entertained 'fuch multitudes of perfons, as Thinks-I-to-myself has done, what shall we say? that they ought not to have been entertained? certainly not; for we have shared the common feeling about it. The author, we firmly be-lieve, is more furprifed than any other perfon at its füccefs; and fomewhat alarmed at meeting celebrity, where he only looked for pardon; this being so much out of the line of his ufual compofitions. But what is moft furprifing is, that it should any where have excited anger and obloquy. Of this nothing can be faid, but that, where the moft innocent food turns to bile, the conftitution must be in a difmal ftate. Could you feed a viper with nectar, his bite would ftill be poisonous. In the country where it was produced, Self-controul is faid to have excited almoft equal attention. It has, however, with much merit; lefs originality, and faults of greater magnitude. The hiftorical fiction of Patriarchal Times, written by Miss O'Keefe, has legitimate claims to attention; but we do not yet hear that it has been equally fuccefsful in obtaining it. A fmall volume of French tales by Mad Montolieu, entitled Anecdotes Sentimentales, has much originality and intereft; and is worthy of the established credit of the author. The Arabian Nights Entertainments, in a new and much improved edition, by Dr. Jonathan Scott, feem to have gained new life; and as we are now informed that neither embellishments nor illuftrations are wanting, in the more expenfive forms of the work ** we have nothing further to afk of the publishers. *No II. p. 170. No. IV. P. 372. P. 556. 1 + Scotland. No. III. p. 213. ** See our Acknowledgments to Correfpondents in this month, Jan. 1812. MISCEL |