366 MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE. 



THE CHAMELEON. SECOND SERIES. LONGMAN AND Co., LONDON ; OLIVER 



AND BOYD, EDINBURGH ; AND ATKINSON AND Co., GLASGOW. 1833. 

 OUT of 330 pages compounded of prose, poetry, and music, in the above 

 volume, there are but few of which we can speak favourably. The portion 

 to which our praise is due, contains that in which the generality of Annuals 

 we presume this to be one is totally deficient, namely, a page or two of 

 instruction. Much information, and that not of a kind usually met with, 

 may be collected from the article " on the consequences of the Holy Wars in 

 Palestine," in which the baneful influence of the Crusades upon civilization 

 and religion is incontestibly proved, and a very just view taken of the era in 

 which they occurred. " A Day in Balquidder" might be read with patience 

 during a day in the stocks. The author, if he hope to be perused, must get 

 over his aversion to a full stop, unless indeed he is anxious to form new ideas 

 of the duration of that period by bringing his readers to the same position. 

 There is an unmerciful prodigality of verse, of which we shall say nothing, 

 except to recommend Mr. Atkinson to give it a second reading, if he has be- 

 stowed upon it a first, and say whether he would risk his reputation as a 

 poetaster upon the present selection in the " Chameleon." The accompani- 

 ments to the songs are the best best part of the music, which, as well as the 

 other portions of the volume, is got up with great typographical neatness. 



RUDIMENTS OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE, &c. BY L. T. VENTOUILLAC. 

 LONDON. SAMPSON Low. LONDON, 1833. 



THIS is a valuable addition to the numerous elementary works on the 

 French language already published, many of which it might supersede with 

 advantage both to the pupil and instructor. " It is singular," says the 

 author, " that while so many grammars have been written to teach the stu- 

 dent how to translate English into French, no book (to my knowledge at 

 least) has yet appeared to enable a beginner to translate French into English." 

 This is the object of the present work, and it appears to us to have been 

 fully attained : the book is intended, not as a substitute for, but as a com- 

 panion to, a grammar ; so that the tyro may be enabled not only to com- 

 mence reading at once, but to translate what he reads an advantage as new 

 as it is obvious. 



AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



THOSE farmers whose lands were in a fit state have wisely taken time by 

 the forelock, and had commenced the lenten seed season two or three weeks 

 previously to the access of Lent. Fortunately, notwithstanding the general 

 distress, the tenantry throughout the country, wherever the state of the lands 

 would admit of it, have been enabled to get through all the operations of the 

 season in a sufficient degree of forwardness. The wet and heavy lands, how- 

 ever, form an unfavourable exception thus far, and without the advantage of 

 a week or two of frost or dry weather, it will be difficult to get upon them 

 for the necessary purposes of tillage and manuring, in order to fit them for 

 the reception of the seed. Unless the surface can be reduced to a state of 

 friability, seed must be committed to the land under great disadvantages and 

 uncertainty of a good crop. The character of the whole season has been 

 that of mildness and moisture, and even the frost of the three days was of a 

 very mild character. As it seems now too late to expect frost of any conti- 

 nuance, drought and wind would stand in good stead. There have been yet 

 certain favourable exceptions, both in Scotland and in the south, where the 



