MEMOIRS of the EXTRAORDINARY MI-friend, to which we can refer in the hour of need without any

LITARY CAREER of JOHN SHIPP, late a Lieutenant

in his Majesty's 87th Regiment, Royal Fusileers.
London: Hurst, Chance, and Co., St. Paul's Church-yard.

This day is published, in crimson silk, price 218.,
HE KEEPSAKE FOR 1829.

Edited by F.

List of Contributors :-Sir Walter Scott, Sir James Mackintosh, Lord Normanby, Lord Morpeth, Lord Porchester, Lord Holland, Lord F. L. Gower, Lord Nugent, W. Wordsworth, R. Southey, S. T. Coleridge, William Roscoe, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Henry Luttrell, Theodore Hook, J. G. Lockhart, T. Crofton Croker, R. Bérnal, M.P., Thomas Haynes Bayley, W. Jerdan, Mrs. Hemans, Miss Landon, M.L., James Boaden. W. H. Harrison, F. Mansel Reynolds, and the Authors of 'Frankenstein,'' Gilbert Earle,' The Roué,' and the 'O'Hara

A few copies are printed in royal 8vo., with India Proofs of the Plates, price 21. 12s. 6d. ; and for these early application is necessary.

London: published for the proprietor, by Hurst, Chance, and Co., 65, St. Paul's Church-yard; and R. Jennings, 2, Poultry; where may be had the few remaining Copies of the Keepsake for 1828.

This day is published, price 8s.,

THE JUVENILE KEEPSAKE. Edited by

Among the list of contributors to this volume will be found the names of-Mrs. Opie, Mrs. Hemans, Miss Aikin, Miss Porter, Miss Emily Taylor, the Misses Strickland, the Rev. H. Stebbing, William and J. E. Roscoc. the late Mr. John Taylor, Thomas Jevons, Thomas Pringle, D. L. Richardson, the Authors of Tales of the Munster Festivals,' and Gomez Arias,' &c., &c., &c.

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In a few days will be published by EDWARD BULL, New Pnblic Subscription Library, 26, Holles-street, Cavendish-square, London, The

DVENTURES of a KING'S PAGE.

THE FOLLOWING ARE AMONG THE DISTINGUISHED FEATURES
OF THIS SOCIETY.

1. In addition to the ordinary Assurance on Healthy Lives,
this Society is entitled to the distinction of having been the
first to extend the benefit of Life Assurance to persons not in
a sound state of Health, without excepting those afflicted with
gout, asthma, rupture, liver complaints, vertigo, insanity, spit-
ting of blood, and the other diseases generally specified.
2. Reduced Rates of Premium.

3. Accepting Premiums in a single payment, annually, for a limited term, or annually during life.

4. Granting Policies to Persons going to any part of the Globe.

5. Apportioning to the Assured the greatest part of the profits
every five years, which, at their option, may be added to the
Policies, or taken in reduction of the payment of premium.
6. Purchasing the Policies of the Assured, if required.
7. Advancing, by way of loan upon the policy, (in cases of
exigency,) any Sum not exceeding two-thirds of the value
thereof.

Prospectuses and full information may be had at the Office,
or by letters addressed to the Secretary.
Office, No. 4, Southampton-street, Bloomsbury-
J. PINCKARD, Resident Secretary.

No. 65.

AND

LITERARY CHRONICLE.

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 1829.

MY DEAR LADVOCAT,

New Burlington-street.

cuse myself for not being so systematic as you are
in dividing my letter, I cannot tell you to a nicety
what was the state of the market in 1828, and
what it is likely to be in 1829; I can only tell

In your letter of the 10th instant, which contains so full a history of the publishing and biblio-you, as I can observe them, what are its fluctuations at present. In doing this, I will follow as polical trade, as it existed in France during the nearly as possible your own order. year 1828, and so intelligent a view of your prospects for the ensuing year, you express a wish that I would give you, in return, as complete a picture as I am able of the state of literature among ourselves at the present moment. I cannot refuse to comply with this request, and I will not waste your time and my own (both of them valuable) in disputing your assertion, that I am the most competent person in England to furnish you with the information which you need. Suffice it that I have some experience; and that, whatever that experience is worth, it is at your service.

Price 8d.

ron ses nous morceau improprietés.)* Oh, tell
Mr. C-
wi' my compliments, that the book
will never go down unless the author publishes a
volume of the Follies and Amours of Bras-
bridge of Fleet-street.'

This conversation was only reported to me, and I think I may boast that I have somewhat profited by it. In all the personal memoirs that have issued from my press, (and I shall prescribe to myself the same rule in future) I have insisted that the plain meat should be flavoured with every variety of spice. In no class of writings, I am convinced, is attention to this point so necessary. As my shopman ingeniously remarked, In the lively waltz of the novel the mere interlacing of the figures and their airy evolutions are sufficient entertainment to any spectator; in the dizzy reel of history the many figures, and those constant and not easily explicable interchanges of position occupy his whole attention; but trust me, the pas seul of autobiography is the most monstrous of all imaginable exhibitions, unless it is ever and anon diversified with a faux pas?'

You say that a sudden fall has taken place among you in AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL scrip. I have not observed any similar change in the market here; but then, there has not within the last two years been much doing in that stock, and, consequently, the re-action would of course be less striking. About three years back, as you may You are only half right in your notions about NOVELS. The report of four barons, two duperhaps have heard, I speculated largely in that line, and I cannot say the result was altogether satisfactory. But this I attribute, in a great mea- chesses, three bishops' wives, thirteen governesses, eighteen footmen, sixteen ladies' maids, and sure, to a little bad judgment, which a now enlarged experience has corrected. The great twelve scullions, having been turned off my esFrom some passages in your letter, I collect, general principle that nonsense, pure unadul- tablishment, is undoubtedly correct; but the inference you drew from it-that I intend to disconthat there is a very marked difference between the terated nonsense, has the most chance of finding state of affairs among you and among us. If I do favour with all classes of the British public, as tinue in future the publication of novels evinced, not misunderstand your meaning, the end of each all general principles do, leads those who fol- if I may say so without offence, a little too much of year is the sign that, in France, the old fashions low it into great mistakes. Mr. Cradock, the the generalising spirit with which we are wont to are at an end, and that a new one is about to set in. The 31st of December, you remark (if I have green-grocer, and Mr. Brasbridge, the knife- reproach your countrymen. The dismissal of these grinder, were excellent and worthy men, they menials was not altogether a matter of choice translated your words rightly) is an agitating mohad unquestionably the root of the matter in with me. The public had shown evident symptoms of nausea when their dinner was served up in ment for cooks, milliners, and booksellers; not their not very clean, nor delicate-looking hands, because they are in doubt whether long bills will them, and I cannot honestly charge them with sense into their compositions. And yet, my at least so I was informed by the gentlemen called be settled or new ones commenced, but because, having introduced the slightest leaven of common at that eventful crisis, they are aware the public friend, (and what an instructive lesson is this to critics, who sit at the side tables (not as the poor is expecting some new thing at their hands; be- all publishers against the folly of being betrayed, fools pretend, directing the appetites of their cause the moment has arrived when dishes, dresses, even by the most promising appearances, into lords and masters, but as you and I know well, and novels, must change their character and conobserving them with the greatest carefulness, and headlong speculations,) I must in candour condition; and because they labour under an agoniz- fess to you, that neither the figs of Mr. Cradock, winking to us whenever the features express ing uncertainty lest the innovation which they in- nor the steel-filings of Mr. Brasbridge, pleased marked content or dissatisfaction). For my own troduce should not be sufficiently strange to gratify the palate of the age. confess, Ladvocat, that I part I was mightily disinclined to this harsh step; for my nature, and I believe that of all our tribe, the public demand for excitement, or so strange was puzzled, and not a little mortified, as the as to outrage the feelings which a year's experi-conclusions of my reason and experience seemed is singularly gentle and averse from giving ofence has made habitual. Now this day, with us, to he so completely overset by this untoward fence. I asked the poor souls whether they would is by no means so remarkable an epoch. I wish event. A circumstance, slight in itself, but valu-have any chance of getting another place if I most heartily that it were; I would willingly exable inasmuch as it added a new law to the thrust them off, and it went to my heart to hear One said that I change all the trouble you mention as resulting science of bibliopoly, helped me to a solution of the answers they made me. should reduce him to the most abject poverty, from the being obliged to alter all one's modes the difficulty. A Scotch lady, an old customer at that he should be obliged to part with one carof proceeding at once, for the certainty of know- B-street, (she deserted Constable for me ing when that alteration ought to take place. because she could not abide 'The Edinburgh riage and two mistresses; another assured me that he had been already blackballed at CrockBut in England we have no means of arriving at Review,') came into the shop and inquired for ford's, and if he was deprived of the support this knowledge. I have seen one year glide into Mr. Brasbridge's new volume. The work was another, and the new, and often costly, viands handed to her. She looked at the title-page, which he derived from writing fashionable reviews and moral reflections for me, he did not know which I had provided from a notion that a change turned over a few leaves, and then remarked, in the mode of noting time ought to be accomAweel, Mr. -,' -,' addressing my shopman, where he should betake himself; a third,-but I will panied with a corresponding change in the modes who is a very sharp youth and a wit, this seems not trouble you with any more. The scene was truly of killing it, rudely neglected because the public to me just like the last.' heartbreaking, and I do not like recurring to it. chose to consider that the old were better. And, My only satisfaction is, that the women are in no on the other hand, I have seen, in May-time, or in danger of getting into mischief; and that the footmen are able-bodied fellows, with good legs, the dog-days, or in the fogs of November, the most sudden and unaccountable revolutions in upon which I trust they will eventually come down. But besides my having retained two or the general taste.

Like the last, Lady
last does your ladyship mean?

-,' said he ; ' which

'Why the ither volume to be sure.'
This is the only volume which has appeared,
Lady —, and I apprehend there will not be
another; the sayings of Brasbridge, the son of
Brasbridge, are ended.'

6 Memoirs one moment the rage, and the next utterly loathed,-novels that had been swallowed with greediness, disgorged in multitudes,—and huge quartos of tourists and travellers, on which I had fancied Englishmen would have fattened for a twelvemonth, proclaimed coarse and absolutely uneatable. I have frequently

What? and naething at a' about his wee bit improprieties. (You do not understand Scotch, Ladovcat, so I will translate, rien chez tout envi

*We apprehend that this version was furnished to Mr. C by the translator of Goethe's 'Memoirs of

himself,' who is allowed on all hands to understand

French, German, and English equally well, and to have equal talents for rendering any one of these languages into any other.

three who I found, under proper tuition, might become capable of doing useful jobs out of their old line, you are much mistaken if you suppose that the places which the discarded servants left, remained vacant many days. I had a set of new hands at work immediately, and very pro. mising hands they are several of them; indeed, if there is one part of my career on which I look back with more honest pride than another, it is at my conduct in this critical juncture, when a universal cry was begun to be raised against the fashionable novels, and when a thousand conflicting interests demanded their continuance. Never, probably, did such a crisis occur in the life of any bookseller; and never (I may say it without vanity,) was a crisis met with more firmness and promptitude. Changing what the circumstances of the country required to be changed, but adhering, with undeviating constancy, to the principles of Government, abandoning no ancient name round which the feelings of the circulating libraries were entwined, and yet introducing the most important alteration in the thing of which that name was the symbol; making no disgraceful concessions, and yet yielding all that a wise man ought to yield, I have produced within the last few months a series of novels, resembling in all outward respects their predecessors, and so not alarming the fears of the most timid and unprejudiced watering-place lady, and yet so unlike them, both in their faults and merits, that the snarlers who came with their set phrases of abuse, to crush a foe they believed to be falling, found themselves baulked of their prey, and retreated, confounded and crest-fallen, into the ranks. Among my most successful experiments in the new line I may mention The Disowned.'

Have you read it, M. Ladvocat; I am sure it would suit your countrymen to a hair, and I hope they have, long before this, had a good translation of it. Thus it suits nearly all classes. The novel readers buy it, because it is by the author of Pelham clever people buy it, because it is a clever book; our philosophers buy it, because it teaches good principles, by proving that every man acts from bad motives; and those mammas who will not let their daughters read foolish, trifling books that make them romantic, buy it because it contains so much instruction, and because (as a young lady in the shop remarked yesterday) 'Dear Mr. Btells us all about Epicurus, Beaumont and Fletcher, Diderot, Shenstone, Lord Bolingbroke, Bishop Percy, Shaftesbury, and that sort of people; and, besides, he is so handsome, and has such whiskers.' I said, nearly all classes buy this book; but I have published a novel this season which literally all classes buy,- Zillah.' Ah! Ladvocat, that was a hit which you and all the booksellers in Europe may envy me! You have, probably, heard that a large portion of his Majesty's subjects, men, women, and children, are, at this moment, about to quit, for ever, their native shores, not for Canada-let not Mr. Wilmot Horton fancy it; not for Van Diemen's land; not for South America; no, but for Jerusalem. The Jewish monarchy, you are aware, is about to be restored; and it is from a preference to the form of government which these people suppose will be established there, that they (assisted by a Jerusalem loan, which has been contracted for by an eminent house near Charing Cross) are leaving their homes and their native land. You would not imagine that persons occupied, as they must be, in preparation for this great event, would care much about the light literature of our day. But you are not aware of the deep discernment and versatile genius of Mr. Horace Smith. Certain that his previous reputation would procure him all ordinary classes of novel readers, he applied himself exclusively to the task of producing a work which should secure the approbation of this apparently hopeless one; and wonderfully has he succeeded. By embodying in his book the most interesting statistical facts relative to this neighbourhood, such as what

-

lodgings let for on Mount Sion, the price of
coals, and of butchers'-meat, it has become
quite a book of reference,-a sort of itinerary to
those interesting emigrants. He is called, among
his friends, the Mrs. Starke of travellers to Jeru-
salem.

should myself have pitched upon, as fulfilling most remarkably, with respect to myself and to each other, the two conditions which are necessary to the perfection of the idea expressed by the word (in a literary sense) partner, viz. the negative condition of not differing about the formal expression of their There is less fluctuation in the VOYAGE and belief, and the positive condition of holding all the TRAVEL stock than in most others. Every gen-premises of their belief in common. I cannot, theretleman who is furnishing a library, must have a fore, Sir, refuse to contribute my quota; and as certain number of quartos, and the newer they the hint in your note, that dispatch will oblige, are the better the plates look. TOURS are at a coupled with the utter impossibility of my having, discount; but I have serious thoughts of a great at this distance, any interview with my associates, novelty in that line. A NEW TOUR TO PARIS, by appears to take away all excuse from me for not the sheer audacity of its title-page, would throw at once furnishing the little aid which is in my the public upon its haunches, and compel it to power, I send you a receipt, which, if followed in swallow the volume, whatever it may contain. the composition of your dose, will, I am convinced, No one but a man of most original mind could make it exceedingly palatable. I ought to menthink of such a subject. tion that I discovered the ingredients and the quantity by a careful analysis of fourteen volumes of modern French philosophy; and that the mere business of amalgamating them may he very well performed by any of the persons you mentioned, or by the person (if disengaged) who mixes up the biographies or makes the translations for your establishment. The receipt is as follows:

When I first read that part of your letter in which you remark that METAPHYSICS are at a premium in Paris, I own I was a little startled. The notion,-not that such a speculation is desirable, but that it had ever occurred to any human being, or bookseller, certainly never entered my head. There is something, however, in every strange experiment, which has a fascination for me, and I determined, immediately on receiving your letter, to see whether a book of the kind you mention might not be obtained from some quarter or other. Having procured from a respectable gentleman a list of persons who were likely, from the turn of their minds, to engage in such an enterprise, I wrote letters to the following gentlemen: Dr. Coplestone, the Bishop of Llandaff; Mr. De Quincy, a gentleman at Edinburgh, who wrote a book on some medical subject; Mr. Morison, the Hygeist, whom you have probably heard of; Mr. Coleridge, a curious old gentleman, who lives at Highgate, near London, whom you have probably not heard of; Mr. Belsham, the Unitarian preacher; Mr. Lawrence, the surgeon; and two undergraduates at Trinity College, Dublin, asking them whether they would like, either separately or in conjunction, to write a book upon the human mind. The excuses I received were very various. Mr. Morison, the Hygeist, said that he was willing to undertake the work either alone, or with Mr. Lawrence; but as he said the whole might be written in ten pages, and I never like to publish less than three volumes, that negociation was broken off. Mr. Lawrence and Dr. Coplestone, severally pleaded their engagements at Bartholomew's and the House of Lords; Mr. Belsham declared that he should be glad to write the work, but intimated he felt himself insulted by being associated with such persons as Mr. Coleridge, and Mr. De Quincy, and also said that the work could not be perfect in a-year. Mr. Coleridge sent me a long letter, enclosing an article on Esthetics for the New Monthly Magazine;' I was sorry to decline it: but Mr. Horace Smith goes a great deal more into company than Mr. Coleridge, and, consequently, is much better fitted to write on subjects connected with eating. The next polite letter I received, was from Mr. De Quincy. It ran as follows:

'MY DEAR SIR,-I am bound to return you my thanks for the very great honour you have done me, not merely in writing to me, and thereby enabling me to contemplate in the concrete form of Mr. C- one whom I had previously considered merely, in the abstract, as the first of heaven's booksellers, but also in expressing a wish that I should be concerned in a joint-stock company, the idea of which, if I understand you aright, will be realised outwardly in the shape of a work to be entitled, (I presume,) The Young Ladies' Complete Metaphysician,' and inwardly in the pounds shillings and pence to accrue from its publication. It is no slight addition to the satisfaction which I derive from your having considered me worthy to take a part in so great an undertaking, that those whom you have selected to co-operate with me, are, with the single exception of Mr. Coleridge, the very men I

Take three gallons and a quarter of Reid, five gallons of Stewart, and one gallon of Brown, boil them together, stirring the mixture gently with a spoon till it has acquired some consistency; (this would take a very long time) therefore, to quicken the operation, throw in about an ounce of Locke, and the same of Condillac; continue stirring till they both are dissolved (which will be in about three minutes at the furthest). The preparation will be now a very loose incompact jelly, and so far well; but the worst of it, that it is also a very tasteless jelly, so we must have something to flavour it. For this purpose take three scruples of Plato, and two and a half of Plotinus, (you may procure them at any Parisian chemists,) pound them for a full hour in a French mortar, till they are a very fine powder, and then throw them into the saucepan. Stir again, but not so gently as before, for these new ingredients will take some time and trouble to combine with the former. Then I would recommend you, who are providing for Englishmen, to stop; but the Parisians, who are fond of every thing piquant and recherché, make it a rule to procure a few scruples of Kant, Fichte, or Schelling, or sometimes Leibnitz, and after pounding them for several hours, (as directed above,) to throw them in. These articles are very expensive, and the additional trouble which they occasion very great; I therefore leave it to yourself whether you will make use of them. After this skim the mixture, pour it off, and it will make an exceedingly pleasant beverage. I am, Sir, &c. &c. O. De Q. 'I very much like your idea of the new volume of Sermons which Cætera desunt.

SAILORS AND SAINTS.

Sailors and Saints; or, Matrimonial Manœuvres. By the Authors of the Naval Sketch Book.' 3 vols. Colburn. London, 1829.

is

WE hate to see a sailor imposed upon; there something so engagingly defenceless in his character against the wiles of those terrestrials whom, launch them on his own element, he would so justly triumph over by the title of lubbers.' A most glaring case of this kind is before us at present. An honest tar, the author of the 'Naval Sketch Book,' and of every line in the Novel on our table, worth reading, has unluckily, in one or other of his shore-going trips, come athwart a detrimental and delusive Templar, (a second cousin, we suspect, by the mother's side,) and this Templar, cunningly availing himself of the various opportunities, and tempora fandi afforded by relationship or acquaintanceship as aforesaid, to worm himself into the confidence of our abovementioned unsuspecting navigator, has not only

been successful, in persuading his cousin that he,
(the Templar,) suggested the best hits in the
Naval Sketch Book'-a production wholly con-
versant with nautical matters, of which the tailor
of a Templar is intensely ignorant; but, further-
more, that he, (the said Templar,) is the fittest
person possible on all future occasions to give a
finishing touch to the rough pages of his cousin,
to relieve them from the sameness of marine de-
tails, and in his own consummate diction, 'to con-
sult the general taste, particularly that of the IN-
FLUENTIAL FAIR, by presenting a story enlivened
by the introduction of characters, to which paral-
lels may have been found within the circle of
every reader's society,' (for ourselves and our
small circle, we disclaim the imputation). Hence,
the volumes before us, which, as we have already
said, are nothing if not nautical, issue forth to the
world under the joint professional anonymes of a
TEMPLAR and a NAVAL OFFICER.

"Pass the word for'ard for the boy Barnes," cried the sergeant."

"Sing out there for Skillygalee-Jack," said a saucy top-man, hauling up the slack of his trowsers. "Him mus'na come-him turning a pit," cried the captain's black cook, with that air of authority so peculiar to the sable race when in office.

'From all outward signs, the boy certainly seemed better calculated to turn the spit, than ever to succeed in the higher walks of the profession; and so far the intuitive instinct of the savage at the coppers proved a better guide in determining the bent, and, perhaps, capabilities of the ill-starred urchin, than the more aspiring pretensions of his affectionate parents; who, very judiciously, as it had been whispered, sent him to sea to learn manners.-The first week, however, he

man of parchments quits his desk for the day;
with an air of nonchalance and satiety conducts
him through the sights' of London, depreciates
the modern art of Somerset House by talking of
his friend Lord 's pictures, and damns the
Teneriffe of the Tavistock by comparison with
his friend Lord's wines. Then he drags off
his victim to the theatre, and subsequently stupi-
fies his senses at the Cider-cellar, until he be-
comes the passive tool of his nefarious machina-
tions. Finally, honest Jack weighs anchor, and
leaves London, not materially improved by his
sojourn there in either person, purse, or reputa-
tion;
but impressed with a high notion of the
tip-top qualifications of his knowing friend the
Templar for a painter of life and manners. With had instinctively discovered the galley to be his pro-
the Templar, therefore, he leaves his manuscript vince. Here, by a total negligence of his person, (not-
witstanding the inspection and drill, to which boys are
sketches of Life Afloat,' which, as we have said,
are the only things worth reading in the book, subject in the service twice-a-day) and a ready acquies-
cence in the various drudgeries imposed by his black
the said Templar undertaking, for good and valu- superior, he had become a domiciled favourite; and
able consideration,-half profits of the work, we his services frequently preferred to those of youths
dare say,-to enliven the monotony, and complete less ambitious. And here a reflection may suggest
the three volumes by the counterpart varieties of itself, on the prevailing taste in officers of the navy for
African attendants. It has been the fashion ever since
'Life on Shore.' Hence nothing but discredit to
the book, though nothing but emolument to the the days of Benbow-no inglorious epoch, by the by.
Were we in the habit of hunting for something recher-
Templar. On the strength of lettered ease and
chè, in the shape of a precedent, this practice with re-
independence, he shines out in an entirely new
spect to poor Quamino, who, all the world knows, often
character. His wretched animal in the shape of a
proudly traces his lineage up to sable royalty itself,
laundress, though hardly in the shape of a fe-
might be supposed to originate in the classical recol-
male, is astonished by the payment of her long-lection, that the vain glorious Romans imagined their
despaired pittance. The lank waiter at the Eco- voluptuous dainties acquired a higher relish when served
nomic Dining Rooms requires the order for a se-
cond pint of stout to be repeated; nor can the
cause of this magnificence be veiled in obscurity,
Long Chancery Lane re-echoes the report;
In Tottenham Fields the brethren with amaze,
Prick all their ears up, and forget to graze'—

On the face of it, the thing is absurd. A Templar write a novel! What a moral contradiction One would not stare so much at the appearance of a Set of National Melodies, by Jeremy Bentham, or a connected and intelligible series of Thoughts on the State of the Nation, by the Prime Minister. But a novel by a Templar-and not printed at the Minerva Press! Impossible! The statement contradicts itself. Where should he have found his plot, characters, and incidents? In good society?—which excludes him from its precincts-or, at best, only gives him such a glimpse of them as the devil enjoyed of Paradise; dropping shots of unrepeated invitations from such families as are newest in town; fathers smiling middle-aged contempt upon his efforts to impress them with a suitable idea of the liberal and instructed spirit of us youth'-mothers and in all the pride of authorship, he claims a just taking exactly no notice at all of him, excepting supremacy in the haunts where the minor singers that their daughters shall not take too much-and and performers most do congregate; or lounges daughters drawing gentle conclusions of his cha-with a more dissolute grace at the 'Saloon,' and racter, as of a youth rather unsettled in his ruffles it with a more egregious swagger at the 'Coal-hole.' principles; nor, perhaps, very sane in his mind. We, ourselves, have once been garretteers in Pig-Stye Court, and students (!!!) under the auspices of that learned society which has now the honour (nowise unappreciated,) to reckon us among its benchers. But we never thought of writing a novel. Let us see, though-did we never?-have we not some faint recollection-reminiscence rather-of attempting some exploit of that kind, prematurely quashed by the prudence of our publisher? Oh yes, it was at the dawning of the French Revolution, when our young hearts beat audibly at three debating societies, in the sacred cause of liberty all over the world. Our plot was, if we remember right, the Euthanasia of Common Law; our heroine the Goddess of Reason, whom we landed from the Dover Coach, at the sign of the Sauvage, on Ludgate-hill, escorted to the dens of special pleading, which she strangled at the inns of court en passant, and knocked Temple-bar and both the Strand churches into the street, in her awful path to purify the courts at Westminster. Who now could recognise the fougue of our youth in the chastened pride of intellect, which exalts our riper years, our modified opinions, and matured wisdom! Who now would recognise the stripling of the eighteenth century in the dignified pater-familias of the nineteenth, diffusing light upon all topics, from the head of our table, in a fluent yet not prolix stream; descanting so as never to fatigue for a moment the mute attention of our guests and dependants; in an impartial balance, weighing men, and parties, and principles, nor omitting a just eulogium of free trade and toleration, while we ridicule the dreams of the political economists, and reprobate the violence of Mr. O'Connell.

But return we to the Templar. We have no doubt, when his ultra-marine relative makes an occasional trip to town, he is instanter 'caught' by this atrocious kidnapper, and incontinently made the object of the most insidious attentions. With a mien of condescending benevolence, the

We do most earnestly entreat our courteous readers, that whatever they find of ignorance, illtaste, and presumption in the shore-going' department of the volumes before us, and they will find enough, though we shall not soil our pages with it, they will at once ascribe it all to the pernicious Templar. Wherever a citation shows its nose in bad French, an indelicate expression in the presence of a female, a solecism in grammar through the itch of fine writing, it is flagrantly the work of the Templar. The tar must be expected to know nothing at all of such matters, and the Templar knows a good deal less than nothing at all. Par contre, it would be doing scant justice to the less assuming, and more efficient partner in this grotesque firm, if we omitted to quote some really clever dramatic touches in the nautical line, a track which may be often trodden without being worn or beaten, as the voyages of "The Pilot," the Red Rover,' and the author of the Naval Sketch Book' himself sufficiently prove.

The following scene in his Majesty's brig
Spitfire has amused us :-

'Burton came down to "report himself" returned.
He detailed the occurrences which took place, and the
certainty of procuring provisions and water, with the
invitation of Captain Crank to his commander.

Unaccountable as it may appear to any but the female reader, the circumstance of Crank's fair niece having joined in the request was not mentioned. Possibly arising from the suppression of this inducement, the valetudinarian expressed no inclination to accept the proffered civility; and the lieutenant, now more at ease as to any apprehensions that the odds were against him, or that two epauletts might be more attractive than one, solicited permission to dine on shore -a permission which was not withheld, as Burton threw out a politic hint that the advice of the veteran might be turned to present advantage.

'Burton had scarcely closed the door of the cabin, before he cried out in the steerage passage—“I say, sergeant, send my boy aft, and one of the party,' if you please, to pipe-clay my white pantaloons."

up to table by royal captives.-As to some of the "births" occupied on board by our Negro brethren, even the amiable Wilberforce himself might augur, that the appointment originated in humane feeling.But as to the cook, Jack uniformly and artlessly attributed it to the "Negur" being born in the torrid zone, and therefore better able by "natur" to bear the

burning fervours of a galley-fire in dog-days.

'From reflections far less philosophical than the preceding, our lieutenant was roused by hearing the bell strike seven.*

"What! Powers that be! is that seven bells ?-only half an hour to rig and run ashore.-Come, lively,' said he to his boy, who had reluctantly relinquished his post of honour to another youngster—“ Come,—send the barber aft in a minute."

"Ay, ay, Sir," said the same loquacious topman, who happened to be standing at the fore part of the steerage passage, and who appeared to be one of hoe "privileged men,' or rather licensed wits, that may be found in every ship in the service.-" Pass the word there for Lathering Bob.'-Tell him to bear a hand aft: the second leaftenant wants his muzzlelashing off in a crack."

"I'll muzzle you, Sir," said Burton, "if I hear any more of that sort of singing out about the decks;" when, retiring to the gun-room, he continued, as he rummaged his pockets, "I say, steward, did you see my keys any where ?-But it's ever the way when one's in a hurry.-Come, Mister Purser, no tricks upon travellers; these sort of practical jokes are very well in a midshipman's birth; besides, they are but a poor recompense for my performance of your duty."

"My duty!" replied the purser, in a cynical tone, "I'm on the doctor's list.-Some one must have taken the demand for beef on shore, or we should have had no fresh grub to have stopped your grumbling mouth."

"Pleaze, Sir, all the black'ng's out this week past," interrupted Burton's domestic, drawling out his words monosyllabically.

"This intelligence was quickly succeeded by another, of almost as pleasing a nature. The marine to whose fostering charge the lieutenant's holiday inexpressibles had been consigned, appeared at the gun room door with a woeful face, and preluding with a scratch of the head, reported "The pantaloons, Sir, are rather out o condition. They must have been put by wet and got mildewed. Besides, Sir, here's an ugly blotch of port wine in front.-I've been trying to coax it out with a little hot pipe-clay, but I can't come it.-I was thinking, if so be, Sir, as you must wear 'em, that you'd better keep a small bit of pipe-clay in your pocket, and touch 'em now and again as soon as they gets dry enough; but you'd better let tbem be, till you gets in the wind."

"In the wind!-curse you, I believe you're all in the wind."

Seven bells half-past three.

'Some one with hurried foot came tumbling down the after ladder, and announced, " Sir, there's a whift* flying ashore, and the first lieutenant thinks it for you."

The rapid announcement of one calamity after the other, (for calamities they must all be considered by a man in a hurry,) strongly reminded him of the perplexities of that pattern of patience mentioned in sacred history, and he resolved to bear all his misfortunes with the equanimity of his parallel; but unluckily this composure was destined to be short lived, for in his eagerness to expedite his dressing, he the next moment thrust his heel right through his stocking. The weight of his woes, aggravated by this additional interruption, overcame all his self-possession, and with a hearty imprecation he shouted out, "What next?-any more of

Job's comforters?"

'Irritated as he was by these occurrences, what must have been the effect produced on his too sensitive ear by the report of a gun, or, as ladies would denominate it, a cannon from the shore? Another of the messengers alluded to, determined not to lose this too fortunate opportunity of trying his temper, sung down" the skylight, "Mr. Hasty says that's for you, Sir, and you'll be too late for dinner."

The report of the gun was echoed by a crash below, arising from the violent contact with the beams above of a boot-jack, which lay too conveniently close to the hand of the irritated lieutenant, as he hove it at the messenger's head, exclaiming, “and that's for you, young fellow."

The pantaloons were again exhibited, whilst Lively prostrated the tawney-coloured boots at his feet. This was too much for his philosophy. It was impossible, he thought, to make his appearance before the sex in such shabby attire. Not a lawyer's clerk at assizesnot a barber's apprentice parading Hyde Park on a Sunday-or a Jew rigged out on the shabbash in some of his best saleable second-hand clothes, thought he, but must appear more gay and debonair in the eyes of the sex.

"D-n it," cried Hasty, opening the sky-light hatch, you're as long bedizening as a bride, and all for that old buffer on the hill. One would think you were bracing up for a ball, or rigging out for a levee of syrens.-Come, better bear a hand; the people are going to supper presently, and then we won't be able to spare you a boat."

""Spare!" said Burton, "that's just like you; it's long before you'd spare one even a bottle of blacking and, when I do go on shore, (which is seldom enough,) I should like to support the character of the cloth."

""Well-rather than have a canonading from the old boy's battery ashore, I'll rig you out to the nines. But here we have it," continued Hasty, moving from the sky-light, and pointing his glass out of one of the port-holes, in the direction of the cottage-" here we have it, for there comes the gunner with a red-hot poker."

'Having so said, he despatched his servant for the necessary essentials for Burton, premising in a whisper -"By no means let him have my best shore-going

swab."

"This intimation, given with respect to the poker, was no false alarm, for the conclusion of Hasty's speech was accompanied by a reverberation of echoes from the neighbouring hills, which sufficiently testified that much longer delay would be fatal to the festivities of the evening.

"What a provoking hurry!" cried Burton.

"On deck there!" cried the captain, through his sky-light, which was usually kept open when the weather was fine-"What guns are those firing?-Any thing in distress in the offing?"

"No, sir!" replied Hasty, "only Mr. Burton in distress for time and togs-I've relieved him from one embarrassment-perhaps you'll extricate him from

another, and save time, by allowing the gig to land him.

-Indeed, it may be best for ourselves," added the first lieutenant, rather drily: "for the old gentleman ashore seems so peppery, I should'nt wonder if the next gun was shotted!"

"Come, Hasty," said the captain, "that's rather a wild conjecture—but it's not fair to taunt poor Burton-he may yet have the laugh against you.-Man the gig, and land him at once, and tell him to say something civil to the old gentleman for me."

With one spring from his cabin-door, on to the gun-room table; a vault upon deck, aided by the rim * Whift.-An ensign tied up transversely, so as to fly folded up at the extremity nearest to the mast, or flag-staff.

of the sky-light, he hastily descended the brig's side,
and jumped into the boat, ere she had been completely
manned. But his flight was not unattended by defeat;
for the boat had hardly reached her destination half-
way, when he thought he perceived the coxswain eyeing
his dress with a significant look, as if he had detected
his borrowed plumage.

་ "Why, coxswain," said Burton, "you seem to
be overhauling my rigging very closely-is there any
thing amiss?"

"I doesn't exactly know, Sir; but it looks to me, Sir, as if you'd carried away the weather topping-lift of your trowsers-the lee-leach, you see, Sir, is as slack as water."

principles of action, and fertile in the means of unfolding them, is governed by a small number of general laws; and artists, heretofore separated from each other in the vast field of genius, for the first time perceived that they were united by the closest relations, and that their operations were regulated by principles common to them all.

Of these general principles, the subject of Tests forms a very important part, and is well worthy of being treated in a separate volume like the one before us; though this one is not exactly what we could have wished, particularly in the arrangement of the materials, and in many points "Curse it! if I hav'nt carried away my braces springing up that infernal skylight.-Back water your giving in their order the substances which reit is very materially defective. Thus, instead of starboard oars-no, avast there-give way again-quire to be ascertained, with their several tests, won't do to go back to the brig-I'll make shift with one o' yours.'

""Mine, Sir!" said the coxswain, startled at the lieutenant's entertaining the idea that a sailor ever wore a suspender in his life-" Mine, Sir!-I hope you don't take me for a soger, Sir!-I never wants any thing to keep the eyes of my rigging from slipping down over the hounds o' the mast. But here's a bit o' rope yarn in the bottom o' the boat."

and the methods of applying them, we have an enumeration of the tests themselves, with scattered and desultory indications of the substances tested. This glaring defect might have been partially remedied by means of a good index, or a classified table of contents; but though we find both of these appendages in the book, they are so negligently executed, that they might as well have been omitted. In the second part, indeed, an attempt is made to obviate the evil, and we have sections on mineral waters, earths and "That's right, Jones," said the lieutenant, bright-stones; soils, alkalies, and acids; but on perusing ening up at the bowman's suggestion-" that's right, my man-put me in mind to-morrow to give you a glass of grog for the thought."

"Why, Bill," said the bowman, "there's a piece of dry parceling in the locker abaft, as 'ill make a good preventer-brace on a pinch."

Eye-eye, Sir," cried Jones, with good-humoured dryness-" I'll freshen your memory, if you'll only freshen the nip."

Casting a glance once more at the flag-staff on shore, and dreading any further expenditure of powder from that quarter, he was fain to avail himself of the bowman's substitute, and consult the coxswain instead fashion, after examining the lieutenant as fastidiously of his mirror, as to his appearance. That arbiter of ahead, squaring yards, and repeating the usual comas a boatswain would a ship, when employed in a boat mands on such occasions,

"Top away on your starboard lift-now lower a little o' your larboard-hold-on of all-there you are, Sir,"-concluded with the consolatory assurance that all was now 66 square by the lifts and braces, and every thing taught fore-and-aft."

PRACTICAL CHEMISTRY.

Chemical Re-Agents or Tests; and their application in
analysing Waters, Earths, Soils, Metalliferous Ores,
Metallic Alloys, &c. Originally by F. Accum; im-
proved and brought down to the present state of
Chemical Science by William Maugham, Surgeon,
Lecturer on Chemistry, &c. pp. 452, 12mo. Tilt,
London, 1828.

these, we are strongly impressed with the notion of their having been copied from common books on the science, without regard to what ought to be, the peculiar aim of a work on tests. We may select as an instance of this, the section on soils, treating of their improvement as connected with the principle of their composition.

In cases where a barren soil is examined with a view to its improvement, it ought always, if possible, to be compared with an extremely fertile soil in the same neighbourhood, and in a similar situation; the difference given by their analysis would indicate the methods of cultivation; and thus the plan of improvement would be founded upon accurate scientific principles.

If the fertile soil contained a large quantity of sand in proportion to the barren soil, the process of amelioration would depend simply upon a supply of this substance; and the method would be equally simple with regard to soils deficient in clay or calcareous matter.

In the application of clay, sand, loam, marl, or chalk, to lands, there are no particular chemical principles to be observed; but when quick-lime is used, great care must be taken that it is not obtained from the magnesia lime-stone; for, in this case, as has been shown by Mr. Tennant, it is exceedingly injurious to land. The magnesian lime-stone may be distinguished from the common limestone by its greater hardness, and by the length of time that it requires for its solution in acids, and it may be analysed by the process of carbonate of lime and magnesia.'—p. 324.

The additions are not numerous, and though

ONE of the best methods of illustrating a science like Chemistry, is by reducing a multiplicity of experiments and observatious to general Now, we submit that all this, though inprinciples; but, this it was impossible to do dur-teresting and accurate, is out of place in a ing its early progress, while the facts were not book of chemical tests, and only serves to swell sufficiently numerous to be compared with each it in bulk and price; and to preclude the other, and while analysis was not brought to so insertion of other matter, which ought not to great a degree of perfection as to exhibit in the have been omitted, such as a table of affinities, products of an operation the cause and the re- a table of specific gravities, and, above all, a list sults of all phenomena. Like the classifications of substances for which there exist any approof Naturalists, which could not be established priate tests, with references to the manner in till the knowledge of a vast number of animals which they are detected; the latter being unacallowed them to examine and compare their prin- countably omitted, though it occupies a promicipal characters, Chemistry required facts to be nent part in the original. collected, compared, and classified, as well as a knowledge of agents with their properties, actions, of some importance, particularly the table from and effects. Much of this was effected about the Mr. Children on the blow-pipe, the table of the close of the last and the beginning of the present colours of precipitates, and the section on ascercentury. Elements before unknown were added taining the per-centage of acids and alkalies in the to those with which the chemist was previously crude articles of commerce; yet we find a miseracquainted; the analysis of air and water came able deficiency in the more recent discoveries on forward to illustrate the action of those two sub-chemistry, arising either from negligence or inacstances; the decomposition of acids afforded an quaintance with the scientific journals. Very many explanation of their principal effects; the princi- substances of recent discovery are not mentioned ples of heat and light, those fertile sources of at all, much less the tests by which they may be action and re-action, took their places among the detected. Thus, under ascetic acid,' which is elements of bodies. Chemistry, which had hitherto made the test for gluten, there is no hint given of been confined to particular operations, became, Taddei's discovery, (published about five years all at once, a central and seminal science. Man ago) of the composition of gluten, though the soon discovered that nature, equally simple in her test for zymome, one of the principles, is so im