1824.] | 
productions : he ought to have nothing be- 
fore him but a plain detail of facts. In all 
countries wealth is the reward of patient 
industry: it springs up nowhere sponta- 
neously nor hastily, but is the slow-growing 
fruit of steady and unintermitted exertion. 
This is the immutable condition of things. 
The object of Carr’s Accownt of the Colony 
of Van Diemen’s Land, a useful little work 
just published, and principally designed for 
the use of emigrants, is not to recommend, 
but to give an advantageous direction to 
emigration. But he adds, that “if emi- 
gration be determined on, he would point 
out Van Diemen’s Land as possessing many 
peculiar advantages ; but to those young 
men who are induced to quit their homes 
more from a desire of change and to see the 
world, than for the purpose of improving 
their condition by the steady efforts of ho- 
nest industry” he says, “ he can offer no 
hopes, and scarcely any advice. Poverty 
will be their portion the moment they set 
foot on Van Diemen’s Land. Van Diemen’s 
Land is not what an Englishman would call 
a fine country; it is, generally speaking, 
very hilly ; and the tracts of good land are 
usually distant from each other, and of 
small extent, consisting for the most part 
of alluvial soil on the banks of a stream, 
and that too frequently under the dominion 
of floods during the heavy rains. Rich 
bottoms are also scattered in various direc- 
tions among the hills; but the latter, which 
are generally stony or gravelly, not to say 
mere rocks, prevail so far as to give the 
country in most parts.a decided air of fer- 
tility.’ Mr. Carr’s work contains, in a 
small and modest compass, a great mass of 
intelligence on the rent of houses, the paper 
money, the mode of paying labour in goods, 
the profligacy of the people, the faithless- 
ness of servants in the colony, &c. He re- 
commends the breeding of sheep as more 
profitable than agriculture ; and in Chapter 
ILf. furnishes some ample and curious par- 
tieulars on the value of breeding flocks, 
wages of shepherds, &c. He thinks that 
the wool of Van Diemen’s Land will be its 
principal export; and from the efforts now 
making for its improvement, it must soon 
become an article of greatimportance. We 
recommend this well-written, unpretending, 
and useful little yolume to the notice of the 
public. 
If the fair author of the Pleasures of Piety, 
with other Poems, carmot pretend to genius, 
she lays fair claim to the character of taste, 
judgment, and moral feeling. Mrs. Dicken- 
son, in her preface, says, that “ she has en- 
tered the retreat of the Muses, not in search 
of fame or profit, but of a sanctuary, in 
which worldly tumults might be occasionally 
hushed, and worldly sorrows forgotten.’”’ 
Her little tribute to the Muses is evidently 
the production of a cultivated mind, imbued 
with amiable sympathies, with religious 
fervour, and deep susceptibility to the beau- 
ties of nature. Some passages in the Plea- 
Montury Mag. No. 402. 
Literary and Critical Proémium. 
361 
sures of Piety will bear a favourable com- 
parison with the best didactic poetry of the 
day. ; 
Forget Me Not.—This is a very elegant 
imitation of the German pocket-books ; and 
the tales, some of which are highly interest- 
ing, are translations from the same source. 
The poetry, though not of the first order, 
will be read with pleasure, as some of the 
happiest efforts of that second ‘class of 
writing which is at present so abundant. 
In short, it forms a most amusing pocket 
companion, as élegant in its form as in its 
essentials. : 
The Wreck, a Dramatic Romance, by C. 
Masterton.— Mr.C. Masterton must have a 
very poor opinion of his readers, and a worse 
of his critics, or he never would have ven- 
tured to steal a piece from the German 
without the slightest acknowledgment: for 
this Wreck is neither more nor less than a 
translation from a German drama, called 
the “‘ Lenchtthurm,” or light-house. Nor 
has he doné justice to his original, which is 
bold in conception, though clouded by the 
usual portion of mysticism, and which can 
seldom be taxed with feebleness, whatever 
else may be its defects. We have not the 
German before us to refer to; but if we 
remember rightly, the author’s name is 
Uhlen. ; 
The Cambrian Plutarch, by John H. Parry. 
—This work, as its name imports, contains 
the biography of some of the most eminent 
characters in Wales. ‘The subject itself’ is 
one of high adventure and deep interest, 
and is most ably treated. To make any 
imperfect extracts from such a work would 
be as unjust to the author as to our readers : 
it would, in fact, be imitating the man in 
the Grecian apologue, who earried about 
with him a brick as a specimen of a house ; 
and our narrow limits would not admit of 
those lengthened details, which alone could 
lead to a proper estimate of this interesting 
volume. 
Revelations of the Dead-Alive, 1 vol. 12ma. 
—This volume shews considerable power 
of thought on a variety of subjects ; on lite- 
rature, the fine arts, and many abstract 
questions. The idea, too, of the story is 
good; but the execution. falls somewhat 
short of the conception. It is founded on 
an anecdote, related by Dr. Cheyne, of an 
individual, who had the power of dying at 
will for a certain number of hours. ‘The 
tale is sufficiently curious to be repeated : 
«“ He (the patient) could’ die when he 
pleased ; and yet, by an effort, or somehow, 
he could come to life again. He insisted 
so much upon our seeing the trial made, that 
we were forced to comply. We all three felt 
his pulse : first, ic was distinet, though small 
and thready, and his heart had its usual beat- 
ing. He composed himself on his back, and 
Jay in a still posture for some time, While 
J held his right hand, Dr. Baynard laid his 
band on his heart, and Mr. Skrine held a 
clear looking-glass to his meuth. 1 felt 
3 A a his 
