824) 
gnginally indulged without any evil inten- 
tion, of imitating the different hand-writings 
which come before them. 
Of The Confessions of a Gamester, a simi- 
lar volume, and not improbably from the 
same pen, we cannot speak quite so fayour- 
ably. It appears to us in the light of a 
lamentable sophism, calculated to produce 
the directly opposite effects from those de- 
signed. It traces the progress of the sup- 
posed confessionist through all the vices 
and all the vicissitudes connected with the 
gaming table, till it places him in a state of 
opulence, which he enjoys to his eightieth 
year. An example of prosperous atrocity, 
to which we conceive the editorial post- 
script, or additional chapter, describing the 
miserably remorseful, but impenitent, death- 
bed of the successful reprobate, with all the 
dilation of sermonismg commentary, can 
operate but as a very feeble antidote. To 
the reader who has a due sense either of 
religious or moral principle, this addition is 
perfectly unnecessary. ‘To him who is des- 
titute of both, it will be subject only of scoff 
and ridicule. 
 Friendship’s Offering ; or the Annual Re- 
membrancer: a Christmas Present, or New- 
Year’s Gift for 1825,—is one of those pretty 
literary toys which have come into fashion 
by imitation of the French; and though in 
the external case, or toy part of the present, 
we may not yet quite equal them, in the 
interior, both in taste and utility of literary 
selection, and in the beauty of picturesque 
embellishment, we leave them far behind. 
The new-year’s gift before us is all, and 
more than all, that from the nature of the 
thing could be looked for. The engravings 
and vignettes, twenty-six in number, are all 
of them prettily, and some of them very 
beautifully executed ; and when we mention 
among the artists who have contributed the 
original designs, the names of Stothard and 
Westall, and add that two of the other 
plates are copied from fine pictures by 
Murillo and Sir Joshua Reynolds, no more 
need be said upon this subject. Topo- 
graphical notices accompany the views of 
‘Constantinople, St. Petersburgh, Berne, 
and Naples; and literary contributions are 
added from the pens of Mrs. Opie and Miss 
Edgeworth ; together with no scanty por- 
tion of pretty poetry. The articles of this 
description furnished by L. E. L. (the Zm- 
provisatrice /) are entitled to a more distin- 
guishing epithet, and would not disgrace 
even the most classical seléction of Engiish 
‘poetry. We would hint to this lady (for 
she is as worthy of the friendly su ions 
of criticism as many of those yn iy claim 
to more yoluminotis reputation), that blank 
‘yerse admits not either imperfect lines or 
the licentious Alexandrine ; and in fact re- 
“quires more attention to the perfectness of 
its rhythmus than compositions that call in 
the aid of rhyme. ’ 
The Literary Souvenir, or Cabinet of Poetry 
aml Romance ; edited by Alaric A. Watts, 
~“Montury Mac. No. 403, 
Literary and Criiical Proémium. 
457 
is another of those elegant intellectual toys, 
as they may be called, designed fora Christ- 
mas, New-year’s, or anniversary gift, which 
we are glad to see superseding in some 
degree the mere toys and trinkets which 
used alone to be devoted to such services. 
It pretends not to that species of informa- 
tion which, by the graver sort of censors, is 
exclusively considered as useful ; but in that 
species of utility which consists in minister- 
ing to mental recreation, and the gratifica- 
tion of taste and sentiment, it may be said 
to abound to the extent of its necessary 
limits. The engravings by Heath, Baker, 
&c., from drawings by Fielding, Nasi, 
Brockedon, Corbould, &c., are very beauti- 
ful, and the printing and getting-up alto- 
gether in a style of elegance commensurate 
both with these embellishments and with 
the literature they accompany. Of this we 
need only mention the names of Campbell, 
Montgomery, Maturin, Bowles, Byron, Mrs. 
Hemans, Mrs. Opie, and L. EK. L., the 
Improvisatrice, as among the distinguished 
contributors, to bespeak the attention of the 
fair and the gallant present-makers to the 
Literary Souvenir. 
Hommage aux Dames.—This little work 
is of the same description as the “ New 
Year’s Gift,” and replete with beautiful 
little engravingr, poetry; and tales: of 
course, the name specifies the object ; and 
We assure onr gentle readers that they will 
be amply gratified by the perusal. 
Rothelan ; a Romance of the English His- 
tories, by the Author of Annals of the Parish, 
&c. &c., among the imitations which have 
been attempted of the voluminous Great 
Unknown, is one of the best class. But 
why should Mr. Galt be an imitator at all? 
The system of antiquarian romance-making 
has its advantages, and had its attractions ; 
and Sir W.S. (of course we must not write 
the unknown name at length) was admira- 
bly qualified both by talents and attainments 
to support the masquerade of antiquity, he 
undertook to exhibit in his sometimes sutfi- 
ciently extravagant legends. But we sus- 
péet that the tale has already been told too 
often, and begins to tire, in spite of all the 
Jukour to give it variety, even in the mouth 
of the original teller; and it would be wis- 
aom, we suspect, in writers of real talent to 
endeavour to strike out a path of their own, 
and leaye the Author of Waverly to write 
himself down at his leisure, without their 
assistance. The author before us, how- 
eyer, seems to think it necessary, not only 
to tread in the path of a successful prede- 
cessor, but to carry his imitation so far as 
to count the same number of steps. “ The 
manuscript of Rothelan,”’ he tells us, “not 
being sufficient to fill three volumes, three 
additional tales haye been added,” to com- 
plete what we suppose has come to be ¢on- 
sidered as an orthodox number in the new 
mystification of novelulogy. Perhaps, in the 
Row, it might have been deemed little less 
than a practical heresy to have added thirty 
3.N or 
