1831.J 



and Foreign. 



he finds the old monk, who now convevs 

 him to a priory in the west, where lie 

 pursues his education. In the neigh- 

 bourhood lie, in time, makes the ac- 

 quaintance of two formidable Thanes, 

 and with one is all but domiciliated. 

 As he grows up, being a very fine fel- 

 low, he excites the jealousy of the son 

 of one of his friends, an unlicked and 

 malignant cub, who plots his ruin ; but 

 in the meanwhile, he wins the affections 

 of the other Thane's daughter. Both 

 events are equally untoward for he 

 loses the friendship of both his patrons, 

 and is driven to prowl over the country 

 in search of adventures and his bread. 

 Thus roaming, however, he has the high 

 good fortune to fall in with Alfred, then 

 himself at hide-and-seek at the cottage, 

 where, as every body knows, he burnt 

 the good-woman's cakes. Alfred takes 

 to the youth mightily, discovers him- 

 self ami his present projects, and dis- 

 patches him on confidential messages to 

 the queen at Glastonbury. While Al- 

 fred is quietly collecting his friends, 

 news arrives of Hubbo's invasion in the 

 neighbourhood of Exeter, and Edmund 

 is again confidentially employed to visit 

 the enemy's camp before Exeter. In 

 an action which follows a sally from the 

 garrison, Edmund has the satisfaction of 

 killing Hubbo, his old mortal enemy, in 

 fair fight, and the still greater one of 

 rescuing Sidroc, his old friend, and also 

 the queen and the princess, though not 

 without considerable risk, and even some 

 imputation on his loyalty. He, how- 

 ever, ventures every thing to accom- 

 plish his purpose, and resolves to trust 

 to Alfred's generous construction of the 

 act. In full confidence that Alfred will 

 listen to his justification, he pushes for- 

 ward with all speed, and arrives just in 

 time to take part in the decisive battle 

 with Guthrun, where he again performs 

 prodigies of valour. On the field, to 

 his pleasure, he is welcomed by Alfred, 

 and, to his surprise, by all his old ac- 

 quaintance, even by the father of his 

 lovely Elfreda for the secret is out ; 

 he is known to be Alfred's nephew, and 

 nobody of course has a word of blame or 

 reproach to cast at him. 



The tale wants interest miserably ; 

 but the details are often admirably 

 told; nor are there any very recog- 

 nizable blunders in point of manners, 

 costumes, or facts. The author makes 

 a gallant and a successful defence, 

 on historical grounds, of King Alfred, 

 against certain historians who have 

 flippantly talked of his early inert- 

 ness. But this is just the part, though 

 a good deal laboured, that nobody will 

 read nothing of the sort is ever" read 

 in a story, and writers might as well 

 save their labour. 



The Progress of Society, ly tlie late Ro- 

 bert Hamilton, LL.D., <c., of Aberdeen. 

 Dr. Hamilton, the professor of mathe- 

 matics at the Mareschal College for forty 

 years, who died a year or two ago in his 

 }J7th year though of some celebrity in 

 his own circle ana among his own pupils, 

 and as remarkable latterly for his habitu- 

 al fits of mental absence as for his learn- 

 ing, can scarcely be regarded as known 

 to the public by any thing but his work 

 on the National Debt and Sinking Fund 

 a work which, though anticipated in 

 all its useful points some time before by 

 Cobbett, and before him by Paine, yet, 

 coming from a more respectable quarter, 

 made a deep impression upon the public, 

 and, what has been all in all in this coun- 

 try, upon the aristocratic portion of that 

 public. The publication before us The 

 Progress of Society conveys nothing 

 new, in fact or in principle, but still 

 consists of some manly and sensible 

 sketches of the doctor's opinions on a 

 number of topics usually classed under 

 the head of political economy. The cha- 

 racteristics of the volume are plainness 

 and independence with less of system 

 than one expects from a Scotch profes- 

 sor, and a greater reliance upon common 

 sense on the glance of natural shrewd- 

 ness cast through the mazes of puzzled 

 discussions. Among the most remark- 

 able is his chapter on Itent, in which he 

 discusses what is usually, we believe, 

 considered as llicardo's doctrine, en- 

 forced by Mill and Macculloch, but 

 which was originally propounded by 

 Dr. Anderson of Edinburgh, some years 

 before either of them wrote at all. Ac- 

 cording to these same learned Thebans, 

 all mathematicians or as bad bad, 

 we mean, for any deduction not depend- 

 ing wholly upon figures rent is the 

 sheer result of the difference of quality 

 in lands. The worst land in cultivation 

 governs the whole, and that affords no 

 rent. All of superior quality furnishes 

 some, and in proportion to its supe- 

 riority. The worst land in cultivation 

 just clears its expences ; and of the rest, 

 the difference between the expences and 

 the produce is rent. Of course, if all 

 lands were of equal fertility, there would 

 be no rent at all. But, in fact, differ- 

 ence of quality constitutes only one ele- 

 ment of the rent ; the whole depends 

 upon numerous considerations. The pro- 

 position, however, of the economists 

 includes all, while the proof includes 

 only a part. The rational view of the 

 question is, that rent is the portion of 

 the produce paid by the cultivator to 

 the owner for the use of the land, which 

 is always as much as the landlord can 

 force the tenant to pay without ruining 

 the land ; and this seems to be Dr. 

 Hamilton's conclusion. 



