Monthly Review of Literature. [[FEB. 



immense value which is in this country attached to money, even by the dying, 

 the adoption of this last suggestion might soon diminish the revenue. But by 

 then the object in view would have been accomplished ; and the law might be 

 repealed without any risk that the prejudice would revive, if meanwhile every 

 law were repealed, which causes dissection to be considered the most ignomi- 

 nious of punishments. The work reflects credit on the writer's judgment, and 

 powers of discrimination. 



SELECTIONS FROM THE POEMS OF ROBERT SOUTHEY, ESQ., L.L.D. POET 

 LAUREATE, &c. &c. CHIEFLY FOR THE USE OF SCHOOLS AND YOUNG 

 PERSONS. 



IN this additional volume of selections, we are happy to perceive that the same 

 taste and judgment have been employed, as have already led to the favourable 

 reception of its predecessor, containing those from the more philosophical if not 

 more poetical pen of William Wordsworth. As heads of what has been termed 

 the lake school, as lake residents, and lovers, and as no distant neighbours, the 

 names of Wordsworth arid Southey are here not unaptly linked together ; as 

 they have indeed been in political principle, and in their entire career, whether 

 for evil or for good. 



As poets however, the more we read, the more we find in them to admire and 

 love ; and when wearied with some half dozen of the mightier names of English 

 growth, who wrote for all times, there is no more agreeable occupation than 

 taking up a volume of the greatest of living poets, containing the essence of such 

 spirits as those of Southey, Wordsworth, and Wilson. Let us advise Mr. Moxon 

 to let his next specimens consist of the poetry of John Wilson. 



THE PRODUCING MAN'S COMPANION, OR THE RIGHTS OF MORALITY, AN 

 ESSAY ON THE PRESENT STATE OF SOCIETY, MORAL, POLITICAL, AND 

 PHYSICAL IN ENGLAND. BY JUNIUS REDIVIVUS. 



THE " Tale of Tucuman," it appears, has served the office of harbinger to the 

 little volume now in our hands. Junius Redivivus exhibits we think a great 

 portion of good sense and good feeling in these pages, but as few, if any, good 

 things are unalloyed in this world, 



" Where right and wrong so close resemble 



That what we take for virtues' thrill, 

 Is often the first downward tremble 

 Of the heart's balance into ill " 



in the earnestness of pleading the cause of liberal sentiments, he forgets that 

 bigotry and intolerance in unguarded moments will sometimes, alas ! intrude 

 even into the lines of virtue, and fight under her banners. In one of these 

 moments the author must have penned the following passage : " It is agreed by 

 all really disinterested persons, that the government of England, not any indivi- 

 dual government, but the general system is one mass of immorality in prac- 

 tice." (p. 72.) We trust, however, that notwithstanding the present state of the 

 country (concerning which by the by we see no cause to despond and pen 

 Jeremiads) the author will still let his " rifle" "hang idly on the wall," (p. 94) ; 

 that instead of seeing him " back a horse, and wield a blade," in defence of Mr. 

 Effingham Wilson's window-shutters, we shall find another tale of Tucuman on 

 the shelves the next time we pass by the Exchange ; that instead of staining Cheap- 

 side with the " crimson current of life," he will pour forth his soul only on 

 Bath post, or Whatman's vellum. 



BRITAIN'S HISTORICAL DRAMA ; A SERIES OF NATIONAL TRAGEDIES, 

 BY J. F. PENNIE. 



THE object of the present work, as stated in a lengthy preface, is to furnish a 

 series of dramatic illustrations of the early history, manners, &c. of Britain. 

 This volume contains four Tragedies, Arixina, Edwin and Elgiva, the Imperial 

 Pirate, and the Dragon King. "Almost all the dramas," says Mr. Pennie, " of 



