34)0 MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND ART. 



TOM CRINGLE'S LOG. 2 vols. BLACKWOOD, EDINBURGH. 



WE have to apologize to Thomas Cringle, Gent, for not having 

 noticed his delightful work earlier. Indeed, if he makes allowances 

 for the hours of merry laughter which he has created for his readers, 

 added to those in which he leaves them sad, no doubt he will accept 

 our apology. Tom Cringle's Log is a work that teems with poetry, 

 humour, and pathos. There are innumerable passages that would do 

 credit to Washington Irving; amongst such we will name the " Death, 

 of the Pirate's Leman." Where, in the name of immortal poetry, 

 did'st thou Tom Cringle gather that image of the lizard, butterfly, 

 and serpent ? We suspect that some superior divinity has been stir- 

 ring within thee,and raising thy mind beyond the inspiration of grog. 



BUNCOMBE'S ACTING EDITION OP THE BRITISH THEATRE. 

 " The Yeoman's Daughter/' " Nabob for an Hour," and " Turning 

 the Tables," have been sent to us, being the recent numbers of this 

 series of acting pieces. It is not our intention to discuss the merit of 

 these dramas; our object in noticing them is to give our honest praise 

 for the extreme neatness with which they are got up. The edition 

 is immeasurably superior to the same class of publications printed by 

 Cumberland ; and has not the blots of ignorance and self-sufficiency 

 which are prefixed, in the way of " remarks," to his collection. In- 

 stead of the impertince of a foolish editor and, by the way, drama- 

 tists musts must be a very meek-hearted race to endure the specula- 

 lations of such a wiseacre as his lucubrations delineate him we have 

 the Prefaces of the authors themselves ; which, as in the instances 

 before us, are by no means the least attractive parts of the book. If 

 the present collection continue, as of late, to be enriched by sterling 

 novelties, it must shortly become the only edition for the play-goer. 



