1821.] 



Quarterly Review. — No. XLFII. 



plump, well-fed tithe-pig of the Church 

 of England, even though 



" The pimple ou his purple nose 

 Exceeds (be royal rub}," 

 for all the social purposes of friend 

 and neighbour, rather than the lank- 

 haired and lean-visaged votaries of con- 

 tempt, abstinence, and mortification, 

 vhich are the three cardinal elements 

 ot the Trinity, that is Morsliipped by 

 Methodistical presnmpt ion. 



The second article relates to New 

 South Wales. It will be found very 

 interesting. It is not, certainly, drawn 

 up in any friendly teuipor towards the 

 authors of the books which s«nne for 

 the ie.Ti.i of the disquisition ; but still 

 it is embued with information that will 

 be foimd new and important. We do 

 not think the speculations with respect 

 to the issue of the great interior rivers, 

 or rather with respect to their absorp- 

 tion, well founded. It does not appear 

 that the discoverers made any attempt 

 to ascertain how far flie marsh into 

 which the rivers em}itied their waters, 

 was above the level of the sea ; and 

 therefore, until that is ascertained, it 

 is absurd to suppose tliat the course cf 

 the rivers terminated in that marsh or 

 sedgy lake : on the conti'aij^, the veiy 

 circumstance of tlie sudden rise and 

 subsidence which wixs observed of the 

 water, was a decided proof, in our opi- 

 nion, that the marsh had a ready outlet 

 for discharging the sudden congregation 

 of the inland rains and floods. 



The third article is on Italian tra- 

 gedy. It is a judicious paper, in which 

 the author has frecdy made use of 

 AFalker's dissertation ou the same sub- 

 ject. We do not, however, aijree with 

 him in thinking the Ricciarda of Ugo 

 Foscolo a work indicalive of any great 

 degi-ee of genius. The story is ab- 

 surdly horrible, and not the conception 

 of a poetical imagination ; the language 

 is pedantic, and the situations are 

 forced and unnatural ; — besides, the 

 ornament of imagery with whicli the 

 style is adorned, is more the effect of 

 the general taste; of the age, than the 

 immediate irradiations of the author's 

 own mind. It is, however, a composi- 

 tion of great talent ; and bears indu- 

 bitable marks of extraordinary indus- 

 try, and a mastc^rly possession of all 

 the riches of the Kalian language. The 

 Francesca da Rimini of Pellico is not 

 sustained throughout with equal dig- 

 nity, but if is the ])roduction of a more 

 truly tragical sjiirit. 



Of late several important additions 

 have been made to tiic geographical 



11 



knowledge of Europe. Our sailors 

 have penetrated into the unfrequente(J 

 ocean that heaves up its frozen waters 

 along the northern shores of America ; 

 our soldiers have passed the snowy 

 range of the Himala Mountains of 

 Asia ; we are taught also to expert, 

 from some of our fur-'iunters in t'a- 

 nada, fhat we shall s(ian receive a 

 description of peaks in the Red 

 Mountains, surpassing in altitude the 

 loftiest summits of the An'les ; and the 

 lost mouth of the Niger in Africa has, 

 we are assured, been at last found by a 

 British adventurer. — Tiicse art; the en- 

 terprises which, in peace, do honour to 

 the countiT ; and we would not require 

 a better voucher of the undiminished 

 energy an 1 enlightened character of 

 the nation, than some of the topics 

 •which constitute the contents of the 

 present number of the Quarterly Re- 

 view. Among these we recommend 

 the satisfactory abstract of Mr. Frazer's 

 '■• Journal of a Tour through the Snowy 

 Range of the Hhnala Mountains^"'' and 

 v.hich exceeds in interest the taccount 

 of the discoveries in New South Wales. 



The fifth article is a critique on the 

 works of Mrs. Ilemans, who has a very 

 pret(y talent for poetry, and deserves 

 every encouragement, on account of {\iQ 

 pure and amiable sentiments which 

 breathe through her verses, like fra- 

 grance from flowers. We fear, how- 

 ever, that for a time poetry has gone 

 a little out of fashi<m, — and that Mrs. 

 Ilemans will not find that pr-cuniary 

 reward from the prosecution of her art, 

 to which her singular merits are justly 

 entitled. The Quarterly Reviewei 

 speaks of her publications with appro- 

 bation, and Ave applauded him for 

 so doing, because we think she we>l 

 deserves all the praise he has given. 



In the sixth article, tile public will 

 find a tolerably good .account of the 

 Egyptian discoveries of the indefatiga- 

 ble and high minded Belzoni. (Consi- 

 dering the entliusiastic spirit of this 

 bold and enterprising man, we regret 

 that no subscription has yet been set 

 on foot to enable him to prosecute his 

 designs, for v.-e fear that the present 

 shabby-dispositioned ministry will not 

 spare any thing from their obscene in- 

 vestigations, to promote the purpose of 

 knowledge and the arts. They made a 

 fine talk, some years ago, about na- 

 tional monuments and ail that, — where 

 are they ? and how has the money voted 

 for them been emi)loyed ? 



The seventh article is a sensible pajier 

 on Dr. Burrow's sensible book relative 



to 



