MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE. 363 



instance, in our author's account of Brighton, he includes an abstract, thirty 

 pages in length, of the internal affairs of Brighton, from 1761 to 1810; by 

 which intelligence is conveyed to us of the prices of beef and lamb in 1771 

 of high winds in 1775 of arrivals of dukes and duchesses, and of other 

 trifles of the same kind. 



In spite of these things, the author discovers himself to be an amiable man 

 and a pleasant companion. The historical account of Sussex is compiled 

 with great care, and there is a great proportion of lighter matter, likely to 

 be agreeable and acceptable to such readers as the Sussex watering-places 

 contain. 



FIGARO IN LONDON. VOL. I., FOR THE YEAR 1832. LONDON. 

 WM. STRANGE. 1833. 



We took occasion, some months since, to notice with commendation the 

 half yearly part of Figaro.' We conceive it to be no small praise to say, 

 that the second if not the " better half," is equally good with the former. 



We cannot but admire the skill and address the inexhaustible resources of 

 our pleasant weekly companion. " Custom cannot state his infinite variety." 

 We have here a collection of stings dried and preserved in a case, well 

 worth the inspection of the political virtuoso. 



Let us caution our poignant editor against not " running a-muck" from 

 that his good taste will secure him, but " tilting at all he meets" on the 

 ministerial benches. To ridicule the Whigs now, is, whether they deserve it 

 or no, inconsistent in ' Figaro.' Let him give his readers credit for a little, 

 a very leetle more good sense than is included in the supposition that they 

 are never so much pleased as when ministers are denounced, because they 

 are ministers. 



Figaro can doubtless find enough employment for his shafts upon his oJd 

 enemies, without turning them upon his friends. 



THE LAST ESSAYS OF ELIA. LONDON. EDWARD MOXON, 1833. 



As we read the title-page of this work, we are involuntarily thrown back, 

 by the hundred-thought power of memory, upon the shore of ten years ago, 

 or, by the beard of time, more than ten years. At that time, the first series 

 of these delightful essays appeared in the " London Magazine," when our 

 hopes and feelings were more in unison with joy than they will ever be again 

 and the last Essays of Elia, now published, while they renew, strengthen 

 and continue the broken chain of pleasure, tell us, (falsely, we hope), that the 

 last link is woven, and the labour at an end. 



Why, under the title of Elia, should Charles Lamb any longer seek to 

 conceal a name which the world would delight to honour ? In these essays, 

 as in the former, the superficial reader will be charmed with the fine humour 

 and quaintness of style for which Elia has been so celebrated ; let him persue 

 them again and again, and he will discover a profundity of thought and a 

 depth of reflection, to the existence of which he was before an utter stranger. 

 There is more wisdom in a seasonable smile than the mum-chance are 

 willing to acknowledge, but there is more than a smile in Charles Lamb 

 there are thoughts to deep for tears, and above them. 



Now that Hazlitt is no more, and Charles Lamb has thrown aside 

 his pen, where shall we turn for an essayist ? Where shall we find another 

 who 



" loves to pour out all himself as plain 



As honest Shippen or downright Montaigne." 



We have, it is true, many superficial coxcombs and impertinent people 



