G68 Notes of the Month on Affairs in General. 



" Paganini and the other Ninnies. The ' first fiddler in Europe' has arrived 

 at Dover, with his fiddle under his arm. Intent on attacking John Bull in 

 his strong-hold,, and determined to rush at once, in medias res, he has very 

 modestly refused 100 for one night's fiddling at Dover! It is really all very 

 .well to encourage talent, but it becomes absurd to carry patronage to such 

 an extent as to bestow it solely on expensive foreigners, whilst home merit is 

 lost sight of. We shall have thousands expended on hearing the man apply 

 the < hair of the horse to the bowels of the cat/ by the very persons who, ' in 

 their places in Parliament,' are vehemently declaiming against foreign imports, 

 national poverty, and home produce. What a world do we live in I" 



The political turbulence of the time is actually beginning to impede 

 matters the most remote from politics. It has been remarked, tbat fewer 

 books, for instance, have been published since it began, than within 

 any six months of the last twenty years. Yet some occasionally make 

 their way : arid one of the most striking of tbe season, is a work, " On 

 the Mythology of Ancient Greece and Italy/' An admirable volume, in 

 every sense of the word, clearing the subject from the greater part of the 

 difficulties which have hitherto made it one of the most deformed features 

 of ancient knowledge, completely excluding the indelicate details which 

 have so generally stained the history of heathen idolatry, and bringing 

 upon the topic a weight of classical reference, acute inquiry and general 

 illustration, which places the work immeasurably above all its prede- 

 cessors. The author, Mr. Keightly, himself an accomplished scholar, 

 and perhaps not inferior to any individual of his time, in his knowledge 

 of the whole range of living Continental literature, has availed himself 

 largely, but judiciously, of the chief German authorities ; avoiding their 

 mysticism, and admirably condensing and combining their facts. The 

 book forms a standard work, deserving of being adopted in every school 

 and college where classical learning is peculiarly cultivated, and not less 

 deserving of a place in the library of every man to whom the recollections 

 of the poets, historians or philosophers of antiquity, are valuable. 



Another work, but of light and graceful reading, has just appeared : 

 " Harrison's Tales of a Physician :" the second part of a series of nar- 

 ratives which have already received from the public the praise of tender- 

 ness, humorous simplicity, and powerful nature. Some of the former 

 tales reminded us of Goldsmith, and the present volume deserves the 

 full popularity of its brother. 



Ridgway, the prince of pamphlet-publishers, has just issued another 

 pamphlet on the Reform question. The title is but a mask for the spirit 

 of its pages. " Friendly Advice most respectfully submitted to the Lords, 

 on the Reform Bill;" the author, of course, meaning neither friendly 

 advice, nor respectful submission. His tone is haughty menace and bold 

 contempt. He warns the Lords " of their ruin," if they dare to resist the 

 Bill; scoffs at their hope of establishing a ministry, if they should even 

 succeed in the " extravagant conception" of throwing out the present one, 

 and commands them to let their scruples be silent in the presence of their 

 dangers. We are of another school, and look upon such conduct as the 

 true forerunner of ruin, and of that worst of all ruin, which, before it 

 breaks down the man, strips him of the consolation of character, crushes 

 him by his own convicting hand, and sends him to the political grave, 

 less as the victim of adverse fortune, than an atonement to the offended 

 laws of honour. But the writer gives the Whig view of the subject, and 

 gives it with force and fearlessness. We have seen nothing on his side 

 better written. 



