MONTHLY REVIEW- OF LITERATURE. 215 



or parchment ? There are thousands of conveyances in the government re- 

 cord offices, consisting of single slips of parchment of some ten or twelve 

 lines in length, by which whole towns and manors were as effectually and as 

 securely passed from one proprietor to another, as if they had occupied the 

 sixty or seventy skins required by the modern practice. The author, besides 

 exposing in a humorous mariner the evils of a redundance of unnecessary 

 words, recommends several judicious reforms in the style of our acts of parlia- 

 ment, which at present are such slovenly compositions, that if the authorship 

 were ascribed to any individual of the gentlemen, who do not hesitate to pass 

 them collectively, he would feel himself disgraced. 





 Jamaica, as it was, as it is, and as it may be. Hurst, London, 1835. 



A great number of facts relating to the state of the negro population, 

 which are little known, are contained in this publication. The author re- 

 presents himself as a retired military officer, who resided in Jamaica during the 

 insurrection of 1831, of which he has given a minute, but interesting account. 

 It is, however, too much tinctured with party colour, and a lengthened notice 

 of it would involve us in a discussion, which we defer for the present. The 

 parliamentary debates on emancipation, in 1830, excited great attention, both 

 in the white and black population ; and we find that many of the latter, 

 " having, through the indulgence and zeal of their proprietors, received suffi- 

 cient education to admit of their perusing the newspapers, had become 

 capable of subsequently discussing the merits of the subjects expatiated on by 

 the different members of parliament," p. 160. If the negroes be capable of 

 even this small degree of civilization it is surely not very creditable to their 

 " proprietors" that they should merit the very immoral character ascribed to 

 them by this author, who charges them elsewhere with sullenness, indolence, 

 bare-faced falsehood, ingratitude, and treachery. 



The Schoolmaster at Home. Shaw and Sons, London, 1835. 



This is one of a series of nicely " got up" works, which the public have 

 favourably received, and which are part of the Library of Elementary Know- 

 ledge. The pressure of other matter has hitherto prevented us from doing 

 justice to those book,s of initiatory instruction. In the work before us the 

 schoolmaster appears in the character of an amusing and communicative friend; 

 the pedagogue is softened into the companion. He compendiously simplifies 

 the English Grammar, and therefore facilitates the acquisition of this preli- 

 minary and necessary branch of education. The History of England, em- 

 bracing the leading events of each reign to the accession of the present king, is 

 admirably calculated for a class book for the young, while it may serve their 

 elders for occasional reference. A compendious System of Geography is en- 

 titled to the same meed of approbation. The book opens and concludes with 

 two articles, in which the editor has evinced his judgment and taste in select- 

 ing many curious and important facts in science and literature, which he has 

 gleaned in the course of a wide range of study. The reading displayed in 

 these departments is extensive. On the whole, we conceive, that a book, 

 better adapted to the purposes of general instruction, has not for a long period 

 issued from the British press. 



The Book for the Million. Shaw and Sons, London, 1835. 



Nothing can be more interesting than this valuable manual this " Book 

 for the Million," containing, besides an original English grammar, geography, 

 and History of England, a lively picture of the opinions and conversations oif 

 the most eminent scholars and most distinguished patriots whom England has 



