10 



A small cavern would hold a thou- 

 sand quarters of coru ; tlic magnitude! 



■ and number of them might b.^ encreased 

 to any extent ; even to tlieir cimtaiu- 

 ing a supply for the whole British 

 population for half a year ; wliich is 



■ more tlian ever ean be wanted, there- 

 • fore they seem to be capable of afFord- 

 ■' ing a sufficient supply for every season 



of scarcity. iNlEX. 



Jan.S, 1821. 



The Philosophy of Cotemporary Criticism. [Feb. 1, 



supj)resson of tlie booksellers' names 

 equally from all the books reviewed. 



The Jirst article is about Southey's 

 Life of IFesleij. It is drawn up witli 

 ability and candour. We are inclined, 

 however, to suspect that the iK;et lau- 

 reate himself has had a finger in tiie 

 pye, for it contains many tilings wiiich 

 were not likely tobe so minutely known 

 to any other than the same person who 

 had compiled the original work. The 

 complimentary touches here and there 

 betray the rude brush of the Editor. 

 With a general commendation of the 

 ability and candour of the article, we 

 shoi'.ltl conclude: but it is necessary to 

 call the attention of our readers to two 

 imporiaiit considerations. In the first 

 place, the said candour, we do think, 

 is in a great measure owing to Wesley 

 having adhered to the establishment of 

 the Churcli of England, and that it is 

 more for tliis reason the reviewer treats 

 his fanatical errantry with pious in- 

 dulgence, than for the improved purity 

 of his Christianity. In the second 

 place, as for Wesley himself, we con- 

 fess (hat he seems to us to have been a 

 very different character from what we 

 had, previously to Mr. Southey's publi- 

 cation, been somehow led to supj)ose. 

 Our impression was, tiiat he possessed 

 great energy and simplicity — that he 

 was zealous for Christ's sake alone, and 

 like St. Paul, and of course very unlike 

 the members of an ecclesiastical hierar- 

 chy which shall be nameless, "wrought 

 with labotir and travail night and day, 

 that he might not be chargeable to 

 any." But we find this was not the 

 case ; on the contrary, that he was 

 thoroughly embued with priestly prc- 

 delictions, nor lacked a proper alloy 

 of ^aintly arrogance, nor even carnal 

 malignitj'. llis behaviour towards 

 Miss Courton, because she refused to 

 marry him, is one of the most odious 

 incidents recorded in biography, and 

 fully equal in moral depravity to the 

 execrable conduct of Rousseau to the 

 poor girl with whom that philosopher 

 was in love. But prosperity appeased the 

 innate workings of the great original sin 

 which the apostle of Methodism inhe- 

 rited with his corrupt human nature, 

 and success in his undertakings molli- 

 fied tile acerbity of his passions. It is, 

 however, clear, from his treatment of 

 Miss Courton, that he was not natu- 

 rally a spirit that would have brooked 

 opposition. In a word, v.'e are of opi- 

 nion, that he is one of those sort of 

 saints of whom the less is said the 

 better.— Give us a good, round, and 

 plump 



To the Editor of the Monthlij Magazine. 

 SIR. 



TIIE severe winters of 1819,1820, 

 dcstrcytd nearly all the English 

 turnips, and a large proportion of l!ie 

 Swedish luru'ps, together with all the 

 cabbages except savoys, and even these 

 it reduced to ratiicr less than half the 



.size of the same plants in a state of 



.good health. At the same time the 

 curled cole (too frequently calhd green 

 cole, or borecole) stood the winter so 

 well in Suirey as to suffer very little 



.injury. The hardy nature of this 

 plant is very much in its fiwour, and 

 it aftords a huge supply of wholesome 

 green food. It is siip|)osed to produce 



.as large a crop as any other plant of (he 

 same generis; it stands so well above 

 ground, as to admit of being cut in 

 deep snow and carted to the cattle 

 sheds; and as it rises to perfection in 

 the spring, when green food for ca(tle 

 is very scarce, it ol)viously deserves to 

 be extensively cultivated. 



Lambeth., John Middleton. 



VrtH. 18, 1821. _ 



For the Mdutldij Maoazine. 

 TIIE PHILOSOPHY OF COTEM- 

 PORARY CRITICISM.— No. XII. 

 Qiinrterlij Review, No. 47. 



THIS is, beyond all question, the 

 best nnmbir oi the Quarterly that 

 has lately appeared. It is almost etpial 

 to some early numbers of ^Ae Edinburgh 

 Review. 



The improvement arises, we think, 

 from two causes, independen t of any new 

 abilities which the proprietor may have 

 enlisted. There is a spirit of greater mo- 

 deration in its jmblic sentiments, and 

 it contains but little fro ii the clumsy 

 pen of the editor. That unhappy lite- 

 ra(us seems indeed tobe rapidly sink- 

 ing into his proper sphere of contempt 

 and obscurity. 



We will not undertake to say that 

 the. whole contents of the present num- 

 ber relate to works published by the 

 same publisher, but, unless our me- 

 mory fails, the main part of (hem do; we 

 observe, however,'with satisfaction (he 



