534 Monthly Review of Literature. 



issuing from the late secretary to the Directors, may be considered as a semi- 

 official document. 



The two other works, whose titles we have placed at the head of this notice, 

 are of a much lighter character than that of which mention has been already 

 made, and have no companionship with Malcolm, Mill, or Auber. They both 

 belong indeed to the class of Indian works, of which Heber, Hall, Skinner, 

 Mrs. Graham, and Miss Roberts are the most successful authors : but yet 

 there is an essential difference in the characters of the two writers and of 

 their, writings. 



Dr. Spry is a pleasant, easy gentleman a shrewd observer and a very 

 sensible man. More sober in his sketches of scenery and anecdotes than 

 many of his contemporaries ; he does not think it out of place to give useful 

 information to the intelligent reader respecting the natural productions, cli- 

 mate, government, and statistics of the countries through which he travelled 

 on his road to and from Cawnpore. If the author had made his book some- 

 what more practical, it would have pleased us just as well ; but no doubt he had 

 to consider for whom the book was written. Lieutenant Bacon's " First Im- 

 pressions" is a very different work. Its author would appear to be a smart, 

 dashing soldier with about as much self-conceit and contempt of other peop^ 

 as to make him a very amusing, if not a very authentic writer. The na'iveW 

 with which he exposes himself by the relation of his odd scrapes and funny 

 adventures is quite impayable, inasmuch as he so frequently makes us laugh 

 at him instead of with him. His views of society, too, are most original, and 

 must have excited many a stare from the well-bred of the society to which his 

 uniform gave him admission. But Lieutenant Bacon is not without some 

 talent. He has a keen eye for beauty in nature, and his skill as a draughts- 

 man is just sufficient to enable him to transfer to paper the objects of his 

 admiration : he is very fond of the sports of India, and tells his adventures 

 with a gaiety and a graphic power too, that make these portions of his works 

 very interesting. If this merry son of Mars should ever be called on to re- 

 print his " Impressions/' he is recommended to eschew science and history, 

 and to adhere simply to his own observation and experience he must be less 

 of an auritus and more of an oculatus testis. The Lieutenant's travels in 

 Upper India were more extensive than Dr. Spry's ; but the Doctor made a 

 better use of his time. Neither of their works would be injured by compres- 

 sion ; but Mr. Bacon's requires a very considerable abridgment and excision 

 of many objectionable passages. 



Transportation and Colonization, by the Rev. Dr. J. D. Lang, post 



8vo. Valpy . 

 Felonry of New South Wales, by JAMES MUDIE, 8vo. Whaley. 



At the present day, when so many efforts are in course of being made by 

 the government and their liberal supporters to reform the abuses which half 

 a century of Tory domination has let creep into the church and state, the sub- 

 ject of colonial reform has very properly met with some attention from the 

 present parliament. We are surprised that New South Wales should not 

 have been treated with the same regard as our American colonies, and that 

 the thousand ills that cry for redress, should have been passed over with 

 scarcely a word of comment from the members of our legislature. 



New South Wales is one of the finest countries in the world. Its climate 

 seems to be especially well suited to the constitution of Englishmen ; and its 

 natural resources are so plentiful, that a proper employment of them cannot 

 fail to make it the most prosperous of all our colonies supporting a happy 

 and wealthy population proud of its parentage, and worthy of the parent 

 country. Whether or not it was a fatal error on the part of our former 

 government to make a penal settlement at all in a country blessed with the 

 favoritis m of nature, it is not needful here to discuss ; nor are we more inclined 

 to argue respecting the expediency or inexpediency of transportation as a for- 



