5j4 



Critical Notices 



ingenuity, taste, and practical expe- 

 rience. It is but justice to Mr. Davy 

 to add, that from the practice of this 

 composition, piano-forte and harp stu- 

 dents will derive equal gratification and 

 improvement. 



« Do gilded Ships more safdy glide." A 

 favorite Rondo, the words by Richard 



Pearson, esq. The Music altered from 



J. Hook, esq. Is. 



"We hope — for the credit of Mr-. Hook, 

 tve hope — that these avowed altciations 

 of his music arc so many deteriorations; 

 since the state in which it is here pre- 

 sented to us, is too bad not to disgrace a 



of New Books, [Not. 1, 



much inferior master. When we hava 

 met with any thing so tamo and insipid, 

 so destitute of coherence and meaning, 

 we know not, but hope never again to 

 come in contact with the like; never, at 

 least, accompanied with the name of 

 Hook. 

 A Rondo for the Piano-forte, composed, and 



inscribed to Bliss Charlotte Cripps, by 



Caroline Kerby. '■Zs, 6d. 



The subject of tliis Rondo is pleasant, 

 if not origiiiid; the general cast of th» 

 composition is above mediocrity, espe- 

 cially when considered as the compo* 

 sition of a lady. 



NEW PUBLICATIONS IN OCTOBER, 

 With an Historical and Critical Proemium. 



Si;cH of our readers as are occasionally 

 led into an analysis of their passing sen- 

 sations, have not failed to remark a sort 

 of disajjpointment attendant on the pe- 

 rusal of a dry literary catalogue. There 

 is nothing in the mere titles of books to 

 seduce the mind into tlic necessary jiausc 

 which is essential to a correct judgment 

 on the character or complexion of tiie 

 articles enumerated. A perception of this 

 truth doubtless led, in the first instance, 

 to the introduction of the Catalogue rai- 

 sonnee, which, by insinuating, as Bays 

 says, "the plot into the boxes," or, 

 in' other words, by embodying a few 

 points of information, arrests atten- 

 tion, and produces the necessary im- 

 pression. Though not so ap|)licable 

 to the present as the past — the new 

 book as the old — we have been in- 

 duced to believe that a little elucidation 

 of this modest kind would add greatly 

 to the value of our Monthly List of New 

 Publications ; and shall, therefore, in fu- 

 ture throw a vivid glance or two at a few 

 of the leading productions, which every 

 month solicit public favour, and present 

 the pme result to our readers. 



Witli the exception of tlie depart- 

 ment of Medicine, the List of October 

 is by no means fruitful in such works as 

 call for especial attention. Over every 

 thing noble, beneficent, and dilVusivc, 

 tlic attendant consequences of war are 

 marching, in the manner of the idol 

 Jaggernaut, with such crushing destruc- 

 tion, that even the hired wor^Iiippcrs 

 lialf stifie their applauses, and the press, 

 thougli immortal, bends beiieath their 

 iron tread. There is evidently a pause 

 in the publication ot works of coj)se- 

 ^uenee, and the cuinoicrcc o,f miad, 



like other commerce, awaits a breathing 

 time. 



The two or three publications of the 

 present month m e are enabled to notice 

 are — 77ie A g-ncuhurat State of the Kitig- 

 dom, Kosters Travels in the Brazils, 

 Chateauhr land's Monarchy, a Tour of 

 Dr. Johnson into Wales. 



i'y far the most important of the pulj- 

 lications of the last and present month, 

 in every point of view, is the Report of 

 the Board of As;riculture, which affords 

 a melancholy proof of past national de- 

 lusion. The contents are already too 

 well known to require a description of 

 them here, Ibrming in fact little more 

 than what common observation had for 

 some time past rendered obvious to com- 

 vum sense throughout the kingdom. 

 How it came to be imagined, tliat any 

 thing individually true was politically 

 false, we know not ; but no small part of 

 the nation has acted for years on that 

 l)rcsuniption. However it may be witb 

 commerce, the agricultural state of En- 

 gland, as described by agriculturists, 

 clearly proves that the body politic may 

 live too fast as well as the body natural. 

 The landed interest, during the late war, 

 have literally been bribed by high rents 

 into a delusion, and now not only be- 

 come sensible of the fact, but fiiul that 

 the amount of the said bribery is de- 

 ducted back again from the permanent 

 and essential value of their capital. Th* 

 hectic produced by the drugs of artificial 

 expedient, fictitious currency, and enor- 

 mous national expenditure, has now 

 subsided; and t!ie landholder finds that 

 lie lias been rapidly adding to the ominous 

 mass of poverty which darkens all 

 the land, witjjout tijc selfish ccyigolation 



