in his own esteem, the wisest, mutually looking down with a graceful and condescending patronage and forbearance upon each other. Nor dare we pass over in silence, in this our recapitulation of Galt's good qualities, his beautiful and touching pictures of mild, enduring simplicity of heart, as we find it in the Rev. Micah Balwhidder; and still more, if it be possible, in the Leezie Eglesham of the volumes now before us. Bogle Corbet, Mr Galt's last publication, is the history of an individual of a refined, contemplative, and rather hypochondriacal turn of mind, who has been forced by his guardians into the mercantile profession. His heart is not wholly in his business, but neither is he much averse to it. He is a good, easy man, who, in quiet times, or in a safe and narrow range of business, or with a more active and far-seeing partner, might have discharged irreproachably the routine duties of his profession, and indulged himself in the cultivation of his elegant taste. But he is thrown into a hazardous line of business, in a day of over-speculation, and linked to a fool. As might be anticipated, he fails-recovers himself, and again commences business with fair promises, which sink away from beneath him, leaving him, at an advanced period of his life, to seek a settlement and provision for his family in the back woods of Canada. The portion of the narrative, at which we have thus slightly glanced, occupies the first and second volumes; the third is dedicated to the adventures of our hero and his fellow-settlers in Canada. The great beauty of this work consists in the minute, elegant, and faithful touches, by means of which the author succeeds in embodying all the little occurrences which, however trifling in themselves, formed, when united, the mighty stream which bore down his hero. They are all justly conceived, and made to arise in the most beautiful manner out of each other. The story is evolved simply and naturally. There are interspersed frequent touches of alternating pathos and humour, which serve to allure us onward. Many of the characters are felicitous and original conceptions. We may instance Eric Pullicate-the Radical Grub transmuted into a Bailie Butterfly-the keen, sagacious, honest piece of selfishness-the virtuous Iago, as Galt happily terms him. We have only left ourselves room for two quotations. THE ICEBERG. "That evening we had light airs and clear weather; but when the first watch was set, the wind came so sharply from the north, a fresh breeze, and so intensely cold, that the sailors said it must be blowing from an iceberg. Our chief comfort in this apprehension was, that our course enabled us to bear away with the wind several points free. We saw, however, nothing, although the moon was high; but at midnight one of the men descried a brightening along the northern horizon, which left no doubt of the fact. "An island of ice inflamed the imaginations of the passengers, and we all assembled with straining eyes on deck, and stood there shivering, without satisfaction, several hours; at last the brightness began to assume outline and features, and the wind rose as piercingly and rude as December, while the enormous mountainous mass was evidently nearing. By its apparent extent, the Captain conectured we should pass to the windward of it without difficulty; but as it came nearer and nearer, the feeling of danger mingled with the chillness of the wind, and we beheld with awe and astonishment many streams of beautiful water leaping and tumbling from the cliff's and peaks, as it drifted in the sunshine towards us. "The wind, as the iceberg approached, slackened, and we saw with the telescope, on a point that projected from the side, a huge white bear couchant, which the sailors said was watching for fish. "No sight could be more solemnly impressive than the evidently advancing mass; at last it came so near, that we feared it would be impossible to escape. Our dread made every one on board silent: Mrs Paddock, with two of her younger grandsons, seated herself behind the companion, and clasped them under her cloak in her arms. "The vast peaks, cliffs, and pinnacles, were like a gorgeous city with all its temples and palaces, shuddering, as if shaken by an earthquake. The waters dashed from terrace to terrace, and every point and spire was glittering and gleaming with countless flames kindled by the sunshine. But it cannot be described. Terror confounded every one on board. A huge mass which projected far aloft, and almost already overhung the ship, was seen to tremble, and with a crash louder than thunder, it fell into the sea. The whole dreadful continent, for such it seemed, visibly shook. The peaks and mountains were shattered with indescribable crashing, and, with a sound so mighty that it cannot be named, it sundered, as if several islands had separated, and we saw through the dreadful chasm a ship under full sail beyond, coasting the weather-side. "Our danger was increased by the breaking up of that iceberg, which only multiplied itself; but the sight of the distant sail cheered our despair, and a slight change in the wind soon carried us again to a considerable distance; still the different masses floated in view, and all day long we had our eyes fixed upon them as they appeared to recede, fearful that another variation of the wind would bring them again around us. Afterwards we saw several other icebergs, but were not in danger from any again." THE SECOND SIGHT. "In this frame, moralizing, half unconscious of our own reflections, I observed an aged woman coming towards us. She was not so old as the Captain's housekeeper, and considerably taller, but she leaned upon a staff, and her steps were more feeble. "God be with you, Dungowan !' said she; 'it was not me that expected to find you here well and hearty; but I could not abide the wearying, and came myself to see.' "The Captain turned to me with a smile, and said, 'She has the reputation of having the second sight;' and then addressing himself, with assumed solemnity, he said to her, And why have you been so wearying?' "It's no' a question that I can answer, was her serious reply, as she stood before us, bending over her staff; But a cold hand from Ardenhulish kirkyard has heavily touched my heart.' "Save us!' replied the Captain; and to what effect"It was not him,' said the Sibyl, looking earnestly at me; I saw him there-I saw him well-' "Where and when?' cried I eagerly; but without noticing my question, she subjoined, turning towards the Captain, And you were there, in your regimentals; and the boat was at the shore, and Mr M'Groan, the minister. Och hone! and was all yon, do ye think, but a vision? It could be no more, for the sadness is not of this world that lies so cold in my breast.' "Tell us all,' cried Dungowan, sincerely serious, for he had become affected by her mystical manner. "I saw the sun setting, and the hills' black shadow on the ploughed land, and the horse at the door, and your soldier-man Hector, and one, that to me is nameless, brought out the coffin.' "I started, and thought of Mr Woodriffe, whom we had left so unwell. The Captain was evidently not less disturbed, and bidding the old wife call for some refreshment at the house, put his arm into mine, and, drawing me aside, said, "This daunts me: I have often heard of her dismal faculty, but deemed it a fantasy of her ignorant neighbours.' "Although not an actual believer in the second sight myself, yet sometimes a kind of hankering to credit the doctrine of foresigns has infected me, and made me ready to believe in presages of sympathy-but at such a time and in such a place, with such an avouch of authenticity, could I longer doubt? We hastened to the house, and were gladly surprised to find our friend seated on a chair in front of it, his spirits gay, and his lassitude gone; but our joy was only for a moment; our appearance, for we came hastily upon him, brought on a violent cough, and before I could assist him, he tumbled from the chair dead in my arms! "But let me fly from the painful details that ensued the boat I had observed with the Captain from the hill reached the island that night, and on board of her, passing from Mull to Morven, was the Reverend Mr M'Groan, who kindly consented to stop until the body was prepared Delta- the sweet singer of Blackwood-the grave historian of the eventful career of Mansie Waugh gives us in this work a strong proof of the varied and versatile character of his talents. Mr Moir's merits as a practical surgeon are well appreciated by the society in which his lot has been cast, and he shows us here how far he is above those narrow-minded empirics who think practice incompatible with theory. He knows that nothing tends so to expand and free the mind from prejudice to secure against the seductions of novel and fashionable quackeries-as a thorough acquaintance with the rise and progress of the healing art, whose minister he is. No one is entitled to our confidence as a medical attendant, who does not add to an extensive experimental knowledge, such clear notions of the capabilities and limits of his art as can only be obtained from a carefal study of its history from the first rude chirurgery of the savage, up through the gradual extension of the knowledge of anatomy, nosology, and materia medica, crossed and thwarted as its progress at times was by superstition, hasty generalization, and fraud, to its present advanced state. This is a department of the study of medicine which has hitherto been shamefully neglected in this country; but we trust that Mr Moir's outlines, characterised as they are by diligent and critical enquiry, and simple elegance in their arrangement and style, will go far to awake the attention of medical men to a topic so important. As a specimen of the work, we present our readers with the biography of Galen "Claudius Galen was born at Pergamus, in Asia Minor, in the 131st year of the Christian era. His father, by profession an architect, is represented to have been a person of high moral character, active habits, and cultivated mind. In his mother, although a person of strict virtue and rigid economy, he was by no means so fortunate; but even although she was sometimes too free with her tongue, and occasionally bit the servants, it reflects little credit on the filial piety of her son, that in his writings he has preserved some traits regarding her, which, for both their sakes, had much better been allowed to sink into oblivion. Caius. "The penetration of the father soon perceived in his son the seeds of that promise, which time afterwards so gloriously matured. Himself a scholar, he bestowed great care on his early education, and initiated him into a knowledge of the principles of the Aristotelian philosophy. He subsequently turned his attention to the doctrines of the Stoics and Epicureans, under a learned Platonist of the name of "While yet very young, he had made such advances in general knowledge, that he composed a commentary on the dialectics of Chrysippus; and, from his love and eagerness for mathematical demonstration, was for a little time nearly bewildering his judgment in the darkness of Pyrrhonism. The light at length, however, shone clearly, and Galen for éver både adieu to scepticism. "A fortunate whim determined the father to direct the attention of his son to medicine, and he commenced the study of anatomy under Satyrus, a person of ability. By Stratonicus, a dogmatist, and Eschrion, an empiric, he was initiated into the principles of their respective systems. "When young Galen was in his twenty-first year, his excellent father dying, he left Pergamus to attend the lectures of Pelops, and of the Platonist Albinus at Smyrna. From thence he proceeded to Corinth, where, after for some time studying the philosophical doctrines of Numesianus, who was resident there, he prepared himself for travel, principally with a view of extending his knowledge of natural history. "Alexandria being at that time the centre of the scientific world, Galen determined to perfect his anatomical knowledge at that place, and from among his other preceptors particularly singled out Heraclianus, as the one more pre-eminently entitled to his eulogy and gratitude. "At the age of twenty-eight, Galen revisited his native soil, and was intrusted with the charge of the gymnasium, attached to one of the temples of Esculapius. While in this somewhat obscure employment, a revolution, which shortly compelled him to quit that city, and caused him to bend his afterwards broke out at Pergamus, fortunately for his fame, eyes on Rome, from the encouragement and patronage held out there to the Greek practitioners of medicine. "Almost immediately after his settlement at Rome, which was in his thirty-fourth year, his accurate anatomical knowledge, and the general success of his practice, drew at once upon him the attention of the public and the jealousy of all the Roman physicians. Establishing a splendid reputation, he was induced, by the advice of many of the noble and the learned, more especially of the Consul Boethus, and the future emperor Severus, and of the philosophers Eudemus and Alexander of Damascus, to enter on the for which he was eminently fitted, both by his knowledge delivery of a public course of lectures on anatomy,-a task and natural eloquence. So high against him, however, had the tide of professional rancour and malignity ascended, partly, no doubt, from mean and unworthy jealousy of excelling merit, and partly, it is to be feared, from the uncompromising and arbitrary tone which Galen ever maintained to all opposition, that, on the breaking out of a malignant epidemic, he withdrew himself in disgust from the city, and re-embarked for Greece. "Yet in his thirty-ninth year, and his thirst for travel and knowledge unabated, he resumed his researches in natural philosophy with great assiduity, principally with reference to medicine; having a desire to see the various articles of the Materia Medica in their own proper climes. After visiting the Island of Cyprus, where he witnessed the admirable manner in which the metals were worked, and collected a variety of mineral substances, he returned a second time to Palestine, to examine the bitumen and opobalsamum. "Scarcely, however, had one year elapsed, ere he was recalled by the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, who was at that time at Aquileia, prosecuting the war against the Marcomanni, and other German nations. After traversing Thrace and Macedonia, he arrived there, and finding that the Emperor Lucius Verus had died of the plague, which was depopulating the neighbourhood, he took the road for Rome; where, shortly afterwards, he was appointed physician to the young Emperor Commodus,-with whom he justly became a great favourite, as well as with all his court, not only for his splendid professional knowledge, but for his worth and virtues. Some "That in his declining years, Galen once more returned to his native country, is known; but neither that precise time, nor the year of his death, have been ascertained. From his writings, it is evident that his life extended to the reign of Septimus Severus; and Suidas affirms, with every show of probability, that he attained his seventieth year. authors have asserted, that, from a conviction of the truth of the miracles performed by our Saviour, he had embraced Christianity, and died, while on a journey to Judea. Although the evidences of this important circumstance are not very satisfactory, no direct proof exists to the contrary ; and we have a pleasure in thinking, that this great physician and philosopher, who had examined all the mysteries of the ancient systems, may have died a convert to that of Him, who proclaimed 'peace on earth, good-will to men."" auspices of Mr Murray, and when such an editor and such a publisher combine their forces, a work is in little danger of failure. main one of the most stupendous exhibitions of British power. From the relics of Captain Carmichael, we select some interesting notices of Capetown and its inhabitants, and with them we shall close this desultory notice. The town itself is thus described: are perfectly straight, and intersect each other at right "The plan of Capetown is quite regular. The streets angles. They are laid with a sort of coarse gravel, cemented by a red ferruginous clay, which being soaked with water, and well rammed, acquires an almost stony hardness. A small stream which runs through the town, is confined on either side by a wall, and it can be checked at pleasure by a series of locks, placed at certain intervals, which give it the appearance of a canal. The nature of the periodical, which we observe is to be continued quarterly, is detailed in its titlepage with sufficient accuracy and fulness, to spare us the necessity of entering into any exposition of it. The parts now before us contain :-The commencement of an interesting biographical notice of the late Captain Carmichael, by the Rev. Colin Smith, minister of Inverary; a sketch of a short botanical excursion in Jamaica, by Dr MacFadyen; a sketch of the late Robert Barclay, one of the most munificent patrons of botany and horticulture, by the Editor; some notes of Mr Burchell's Brazilian journey; an account of an excursion from Lima to Pasco, "The houses are built in general of bricks, bedded in by Alexander Cruckshanks, Esq.; an extract from tra- loam, but so imperfectly burnt, that they absorb the rain, vels across the Altaïc Mountains, by Lebedour, a profes- and would soon crumble away, if the walls were not secusor at Dorpat, in Liefland; together with classified de-red by a thick coating of plaster. In the front of each scriptions of Malayan plants, by William Jack; illustra-house is a platform, called a stoop, from four to six feet tions of Indian botany, by Dr Wight; and a notice of broad, and furnished at each end with a seat. These stoops the plants collected by Mr Cruckshanks during his ex-able proportion of the large streets, and reducing the smaller are a great annoyance to the public, occupying an unreasoncursion, from the pen of the Editor. Of these articles, the most interesting to the general reader are-Lebedour's observations on the Flora of the Altaïc Mountains and the neighbouring steppes, the biography of Captain Carmichael, and the brief sketch of the liberal exertions of the East India Company in behalf of botanical research, prefixed by the editor to Wight's illustrations of Indian botany. ones to mere lanes. The surbase of the walls towards the street, is always painted in panels, in imitation of variegated marble. The roofs are flat, and rendered impervious to the rain by a thick layer of mortar. The ground-floors are paved with glazed tiles, which preserve a refreshing coolness in the apartments; but, in constructing the stairs, even of the best houses, the model seems to have been the companion-ladder of an Indiaman, they are so steep, so narrow, and badly lighted. Over every house door, there is a half window, in the centre of which is fixed a glass lantern, projecting outwards. These lanterns, furnished with a candle or lamp at night, light the halls within, and serve, at the same time, as a good and cheap substitute for street lamps. The windows are extremely large; but the upper sash is usually blind, being covered with painted wood or canvass. The houses themselves are larger and more showy is seldom that more than the ground-floor is furnished, the than the opulence of the citizens can well warrant: but it upper part being used as a store, or let occasionally to lodgers." The inhabitants are thus described: "The first thing which arrests the attention of a stranger, the features, colour, and costume, of the various descriptions on his arrival at Capetown, is the wonderful diversity in of people who crowd the streets. He feels amazed at finding himself in a sort of Noah's Ark, where he meets with more varieties of one species than the Patriarch had under his charge of the whole animal creation. Here he may see the pure spotless robe of the Hindoo rubbing against the painted Hottentot; here the barefooted boor from the Snow Mounkaross of the Caffre and the soot-stained sheepskin of the In the year 1788, a botanic garden was formed at Calcutta, and placed under the management of Colonel Kydd. In 1793, Dr Roxburgh was appointed to the charge of the establishment, who, by his abilities and exertions, augmented the number of species to 3500, and formed a collection of nearly 2000 drawings, executed by native artists, whose talents for flower-painting are astonishing, which, with descriptions made by himself from recent plants, he transmitted to the Company's museum in London. Dr Roxburgh was succeeded by Dr Francis Buchanan Hamilton. This gentleman retained the situation but for a short interval, during which, however, he was of material service. His extensive travels, first to the court of Ava, when he had an opportunity of seeing the kingdom of Pegu and the Andamman Isles, then over the greater part of the peninsula, and into Nepaul, had given him facilities for studying the plants of an immense extent of Indian territory. But it is the appointment of Dr Wallich to the superintendence of the botanical garden at Calcutta that constitutes the most prominent era in the botany of India. At his sugges-tain stares at the polished boots of the London Cockney; tion, the directors allotted a space of five miles in circumference for the botanical garden at Calcutta, and employed upwards of three hundred gardeners and labourers in the charge of it. Gardens in connexion with it have been formed in remote parts of the Indian possessions; collectors have been sent out to discover new, and especially useful plants; and the residents have been invited to send the vegetable productions of their respective districts to Calcutta, both in a living and dried state. In 1820, Dr Wallich undertook a journey into Nepaul, which lasted eighteen months, and from which he returned laden with botanical treasures. In 1825, he examined and collected the plants of the kingdom of Oude, the province of Rohilcund, the valley of Deyra, &c. His last mission was to Ava. The number of species now deposited at Calcutta is estimated to be from eight to nine thousand. Duplicates of these plants have been liberally issued by the Company to botanists of all nations, who have been encouraged to examine and publish them. Under the auspices of our merchant princes of Leadenhall Street, several splendid works of botanical illustration have already appeared, of which Dr Wallich's Planta Asiatica Rariores is the chief. Such powerful exertions in behalf of science are the proudest boast of a Company which, maligned as it has been, will still re here he may contrast the crop of Pennsylvania with the are oftener the fruit of caprice than, of sound judgment, they are apt sometimes to excite a smile. Can there be conceived, for instance, a more awkward or more ludicrous object than a huge boor heaving up his ponderous shoulders in imitation of a Parisian, twisting his neck, and drawling out,' Ik wit neit,' whilst his utmost endeavours cannot throw the cor responding expression into a countenance where the muscles are so deeply imbedded in blubber, that even the convulsions of death could not produce any visible derangement of features ?" This is the outward semblance, but the captain gives a peep or two beneath the surface; as witness these remarks: most expensive articles of housekeeping in Capetown: I may venture, indeed, to say, that in some of the most respectable families there, the diet costs less than the firewood required to dress it."" Professor Hooker's Miscellany is printed at Glasgow, and its typography does no discredit to the city of the Foulis's. Enthusiasm and other Poems. By Susanna Strickland, (now Mrs Moodie.) Pp. 214. London. Smith, Elder, and Co. 1831. THIS little volume is the production of an amiable and gifted mind. The author, though still very young, has for several years past been a contributor to some of the Annuals, in whose pages we first became acquainted with her as an author. The poems in the present volume are all of a serious character, and are pervaded by a genuine piety, easily distinguishable from the spirit of certain modern religious poetry, which aims at effect, but in which the heart has no share. Many of the little pieces possess a degree of imagination seldom found in the poetry of our female minstrels, whose harps-with reverence be it spoken-have too often but one string, their muse but one theme, and that is "Love, still love." The author of these poems belongs to a higher order of minds, "Among the terrible reactions produced by the slavetrade, none is perhaps more merited or more evident than the dissoluteness of morals, and ferocity of disposition, which it creates among the people who are concerned in it. The cold-blooded calculator of profit and loss, the prime agent in this unhallowed traffic, feels its influence, but in a remote and subordinate degree. It is when we cast a view on those who are placed immediately within the sphere of its action, that we perceive the full extent of its deteriorating effects; their morals, their temper, their air, and their very features confessing its malignant influence. The softer sex, more especially, are transformed by it into cruel tyrants. When you mix in female society, you look in vain for that cheerful play of features which indicates a sweet disposition; in vain you listen for that harmonious tone of voice which is mellowed by the habit of associating with one's equals. "I was one day attracted to the window by a strange-her thoughts take a wider range,―her descriptions of nasort of noise that seemed to issue from a small court behind the house in which I lodged. On looking out, I observed my landlady in the act of administering correction to a slave boy, who had, by some offence, incurred her displeasure. How shall I describe her appearance? Her figure was of the true Dutch cast, tall, fat, and coarse. An unnatural enlargement of the thyroid glands, which vied with her cheeks in size and colour, gave to her countenance a peculiar, but I cannot say an amiable, expression. Her voice resembled the notes of an angry turkey-cock; with her left hand she held Mungo by the nape of the neck, while her right hand brandished a huge shambok,* which she applied to his shoulders with the skill and perseverance of a dilettante. In the midst of her exertions, I could distinguish the epithets, Rascal'-' scoundrel' slave'-and God d-n, uttered with peculiar volubility of tongue, and repeated in a sort of measured cadence, corresponding with the manual exercise, of which they formed the accompaniment. I was the more struck with this last circumstance, as I knew that Juffrouw understood as little the meaning of these flowers of rhetoric, as did the poor culprit on whom they were so lavishly bestowed. How is this?' thought I, has the Dutch language become so polished that it cannot furnish terms sufficiently expressive of the angry passions; or is the English so much more energetic in its expletives, that the mere sound, independent of sense, can wound the feelings on one side, and assuage the tempest of wrath on the other?" " ture are vivid and original,-her reflections are always just, and often profound. We extract the following passage from a poem on the Deluge, in which, after describing the procession of the multitudes who went forth to see the Ark, and to mock at the prophetic warnings of Noah, she thus concludes: We wish that we could present our readers with one of the bold sketches, given by this writer, of the grand scenery of the Cape, but must restrict ourselves to the following general remark : "The country over which we travelled is the least interesting to an admirer of natural scenery that can be imagined; a remark which I feel no hesitation in extending to every part of the Colony that I have seen. No country in the world, perhaps, unites so much boldness of outline with such unvaried tameness of detail. This tameness, arising from the disposition of the surface, becomes the more fatiguing to the eye from the total want of wood. In the whole course of our travels, we did not see a single tree of Nature's planting, nor a shrub much taller than one of ourselves. In the mountain ravines, you sometimes meet with stumps which show that trees of a considerable size did formerly grow there; but nothing of that sort can be traced on the acclivities of hills, or the interjacent plains. These seem to have always been as destitute of wood as they are now. The want of wood will be severely felt by the Colony ere long, as no trace of coal has yet been detected, nor, from the geological character of the country, is there any hope of its existence. Fuel is already among the A whip, in use among the colonists, and made of a strip of rhinoceros or hippopotamus' hide. "Tremble, earth! the awful doom That sweeps thy millions to the tomb, "Nature's pulse has ceased to play, Where his white-robed spirit glides, PERIODICALS. dressed in a cast-off court suit, which was worn by Christopher North on the occasion of his late Majesty's visit to Scotland, but was now strangely soiled and tattered, and, besides, a bitter bad fit for its modern occupant, came out by a tent, where he had been munching a mouldy pie, which the said Christopher had, a few days before, ordered his cook to throw out, and, advancing to the chalThe Edinburgh Review. No. CV.-The Quarterly lenger, shook his fist in his face. Tom's backer bowed to Review. No. LXXXIX.-The Westminster Review. the new comer, reminded him of the pleasant meetings they No. XXVIII.-The Foreign Quarterly Review. No. had had of old in the gin-shop, and protested he had no XIV.-Blackwood's Magazine. No. CLXXX.quarrel with him. A huge, hulking, Atlas-looking personThe New Monthly Magazine. No. CXXV.-Frazer's age, with remarkable "square feet," advanced, and, giving a Magazine. No. XVI.—The Englishman. No. II.-heavy roll to his ungainly person, grunted out that he was The Metropolitan. No. I.-The Edinburgh Journal any man's man. of Natural and Geographical Science. New Series. No. V. We have little to say of the four ponderosities which stand first on the list. They hold on the even tenor of their way-each diligent in its calling-each, now that the Westminster has abandoned the ill-bred practice of taking its brethren to task, apparently unconscious of the existence of each other, and of all other periodicals. 1 "Heedless as the dead are they Of aught above, around, beneath; The assembled worthies now rushed together, pulling each other by the ears-kicking, cuffing, and hugging-swearing, bullying, and bawling after a fashion that no one can describe, but he who mustered Marmion's warriors to the fight: all the respectable portion of the assembly looking on meanwhile in silent astonishment. The meaning of all this is easy to decipher. There are too many of these gentlemen to earn a decent subsistence, and in the rage of hunger, nursed and cherished in the idle hours of non-employment, the most hungry strive to snatch the bread from their luckier brethren. Each abuses the other, and puffs himself. The great cry at present is-independence. They seek to recommend themselves, not because they are advocates of right principles, or because they are more talented than their rivals, of more powerful virtue than charity—for it covers every but because they are independent. Independence is even Blackwood, the oldest and still the best of the maga-independent. It may be blackguard, like Frazer—but it sin. A work may be dull, like the Athenæum-but it is zines, treads in like manner, with conscious power, the The Quarterly is stately, classical, and aristocratical. The Westminster is bustling, sturdy, and democratical. The Foreign Quarterly is intelligent, plain, and instructive. The Edinburgh is pensively and leisurely sinking to its long home. even tenor of its way. The Journal of Natural and Geographical Science continues quietly and steadily to improve. The classical scholar will be delighted with the "Flora Virgiliana," contained in the present number. But when we turn to the London Monthlies, this quiet scene is past "Arma virumque cano." them which is most talented and independent must ultimately succeed, but its superiority will be established, not by self-praise, which, as all the world knows, stinksstinks most abominably-but by deeds. Let them leave quarrelling and mind their business-let them “leave their damnable face-making and begin." And as to the kind of independence about which all this row has been kicked up, it is of the very lowest and most easily attainable kind, that kind, the want of which certainly inca pacitates a man from holding a place in decent society, but the possession of which affords, after all, but a nega tive claim to a place in good company. Broad, palpable bribery it is easy to spurn-self-interest teaches us that; but the blandishments of friendship, the intoxication of flattery, the yielding of good-humour, the instigations of anger, he alone who is superior to these, dare lay claim to the character of an independent man. is independent. We have sometimes been puzzled to find out wherein this independence consisted. In the former of these, it seems to be neither more nor less than superiority to the blandishments of Mr Colburn-which, by the way, were never offered. In the other, it is superiority to all the rules of common decency, and the respect of good men. But the most mistifying and perplexing claim of all is that of Mister Jerdan, who, in his There is a fearful bickering among the metropolitans- last number, gravely tells us that the eminent success of a sort of Parisian 30th of July-or rather a Donnybrooke his Gazette has been owing to-ITS INDEPENDENCE!!! Fair concern, where every man's hand is against his neigh- The truth is and we whisper it confidentially in the bour, and his neighbour's fist busy returning the compli-ears of these combatants, that the magazine among ment. The row was begun-it is always the lowest swabs that are the first to stir-by the Spectator newspaper. This "best family nightcap," in noticing the first number of the Englishman, propounded, with all its own asinine gravity, the astounding doctrine that the day for magazines (and, per consequence, for all works of less frequently recurring periodicity) was gone by. Nothing need be studied now but newspapers, and of all newspapers, the weeklies are the best,and of all weeklies, the Spectator, facile princeps. The Englishman, like a young elegant, whose pugilistic education has not been neglected-a dux fresh from Eton, when attacked by some coal-heaving bully-turned quietly round and knocked the fellow down. The signal for mischief being given, Tom Campbell, who has been remarkable for his pugnacity ever since he dubbed himself, in a boozy moment, Lady Byron's champion, rushed out and challenged the field. He bawled out to the whole of the gentlemen present, that they were a pack of knaves, employed in "diffusing false impressions," and that he himself was the only true man among them. A decently-dressed man, with an air of assumption about him, whom we heard called Athenæum, or some such name, clapped him on the back, and cried, "Go it, my hearty! we are the only gentlemen present." An old chum of Tom's stood forward from the crowd, and said that this was very improper conduct,-that he was as good a man as Tom any day, and insinuated that he had been obliged to kick him out of his house not long before. This, Tom of course vehemently denied. A pert, vulgar individual, It only remains for us to say a word or two as to what each of the principal London magazines has done this month. First comes the New Monthly, which has decidedly improved of late in energy and definite purpose, while its contributors continue materially the same. The best articles in the present number are the sweet tale of Lucy Franklin, by Mrs Norton; and "Good Night" by L. E. L. How truly felt, and powerfully, though simply expressed, is this thought! "Good night!-what a sudden shadow |