CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 351 



are collectively enriched with no more than sixteen, eight pair of heads 

 of illustrious dames, and that the heads, thus limned for the gaze of 

 posterity, graced the shoulders of the following fair — " Maria Letizia 

 Ramolini Bonaparte ; Anna Zingha, Queen of Matamba ; Lady Jane 

 Gray; Dona Catalina de Erauso ; Beatrice Cenci; Catherine the First, 

 Queen of Russia ; Ann Boleyn ; Baroness de Stael Holstein ; Charlotte 

 Corday j Josephine Bonaparte ; Mary the Catholic, Queen of England ; 

 Marina Mniszech ; Christina, Queen of Sweden ; Lady Mary Wortley 

 Montagu ; Marie Antoinette ; Mary of Medicis.'* 



We are at fault in conjecture ; the final paragraph of the prospectus 

 unriddles the riddle ; the Duchess and her amiable ally have evidently 

 not sujffered from the narcotics of sorcery ; they dreamt two or three 

 scores of numbers, but, with shame be it spoken, the community was 

 dead on the subject, and the publishers wound up their accounts with 

 the fourth. To speak in a graver style, we are sorry to see this palpable 

 lack of interest on the part of the public, because the work promised 

 well, the design was liberal and praiseworthy, and the matter would 

 have been fruitful in material for philosophical speculation on the moral 

 attributes of women. That the Ladies are decidedly censurable for not 

 supporting a work consecrated entirely to their honour, is an un- 

 questionable certainty ; but we fear — and with regret and surprise we 

 affirm it — we fear that they are generally too indifferent to that which 

 most intimately concerns the claims of their sex ; few of them exhibit 

 any thing like a warm and heart- stirring sentiment on the subject, — so 

 few indeed, that while the majority were shopping at ** Howell and 

 James's ;'* popping in at Soho Bazaar ; modestly keeping a stall at a 

 fancy fair ; concerting new fashions ; penning conundrums ; consult- 

 ing their milliner, and deciding the fate of a riband, or the tint of a 

 flower, ** The Lives of the celebrated Women of all Countries," came 

 to a premature end at the age of four months. The Duchess wrote in 

 vain, and the Count turned over parchments and papers, and worm- 

 eaten MSS. — yet was fain to confess that *' all is vanity and vexation of 

 spirit !" and a publication undertaken with energy, executed with grace, 

 feeling, and fidelity ; correct in its sentiments, acute in remark, and 

 picturesque in detail, was suffered to create disappointment to both 

 Editor and Publisher. We trust that when — if ever — a similar work is 

 projected, the Ladies will come honestly forward, and do themselves 

 justice by a cheering encouragement of the same. The lithographic 

 heads are in excellent style. 



A History of British Fishes. By William Yarrall, F. L. S. Illustrated 

 by wood cuts of all the species and numerous vignettes. Part IL 

 London : John Van Voorst, Paternoster Row. 



To the Ichthyologist the above work, of which the third number has 

 but just made its appearance, must prove an agreeable and instructive 

 offering. Perhaps no second department of natural history has been so 

 partially investigated as that devoted to the inhabitants of the great deep, 

 and yet not any department is in truth more productive of material for 

 interesting analysis and remark. The appearance, organization and 

 habits of fishes are equally worthy of observation, and their picturesque 

 forms and beautiful colours have long rendered them favorite studies for 

 the easel : among the Dutch and Flemish painters were many who parti- 

 cularly excelled in their delineation ; and we have seen some Chinese 



Jufie, 1835. — VOL. ii. no. xi. 2 z 



