3(54 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



rise up into trees fit for the navy. Here is the pivot on which 

 our national grandeur rests. While we command the ocean, 

 while our navies are ready at a moment's notice to wave their 

 pendants in the favouring gale, and pour their broadsides where- 

 ever an enemy shows himself, we have nothing to dread from 

 war; and peace, bringing to our ports the productions of every 

 nation at an easy price, must, with good government and domestic 

 tranquillity still render us independent of all other states, and 

 point us out to them an object of unmixed admiration, though 

 beneath less brilliant skies and less ardent suns than theirs. 



■ ■' " Let India boast her palms, nor envy we 

 The weeping amber or the spicy tree, 

 Since by our oaks the precious loads are borne, 

 And r«alms commanded which those tre«s adorn." 



CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



Birmingham and its Vicinity, as a Manufacturing and Commercial District, 

 By W. Hawkes Smith. With numerous illustrations, engraved on 

 steel. Nos. 1, 2, and 3. Radclyffes and Co. Peck-lane, New- 

 street, Birmingham ; and Tilt, Fleet- street, London. 



The issuing of publications of this description in numbers, is of 

 advantage both to authors and readers — it enables the former to avail 

 themselves of time and circumstances, to add new matter and to effect 

 all necessary alterations, as the work proceeds, and to the latter it 

 cherishes the expectancy of future gratification. 



This work is divided into its several portions with suitable and well- 

 adjusted classification. The district is first considered with reference to 

 its topography and geology ; then follows a detailed account of Birming- 

 ham from its first origin ; and afterwards a description of the various 

 manufactures by which this town and neighbourhood are most dis- 

 tinguished. 



Streets, churches, institutions, and public buildings, the author 

 justly observes, are to be found in almost every town in the kingdom ; 

 and where these constitute all that is interesting, let them constitute, 

 also, the staple of the description ; but surely a place whose varied 

 manufactures are dispersed among all " the civilized nations of the 

 earth," may claim its peculiar history on their account especially. The 

 inquirer who seeks for information in Birmingham and its vicinity, 

 expects to gratify laudable curiosity by the inspection of the processes of 

 manufacture, the wonders of machinery, and the finest specimens of the 

 elegant works of art. He therefore may fairly desire to have recourse 

 to such a description as may not only in general terms inform him that 

 such things are, but may also, specifically, call his attention to the 

 precise points most attractive. 



To illustrate the state of the arts and manufactures of Birmingham, 

 by a publication, which shall combine the popular character of what has 

 been attempted under the title of a ** Magnificent Directory," with the 



