IS2I. 



and to readers who take an interest in 

 tlieir gardens, it will afford pleasure. 

 But we are at a loss to comprehend the 

 object of tlie inconsistent notes ap- 

 pended to it. In the one, page 359, 

 the reviewer condemns the paltry 

 system under wliicii the royal gar- 

 dens at Kew has been managed, and 

 yet in another, page 371, he breaks 

 out into very exuberant praises of 

 the late Sir Joseph Banks, to 

 whom alone that paltry system was 

 owing. The public character of Sir 

 Joseph lias, we believe, been long felt, 

 well known, and justly appreciated. 

 As a private gentlemen, he was well 

 enough, neither better nor worse than 

 the generality of his class, and not 

 possessed of the common sense of most 

 of them ; but, as a president of the 

 Royal Society, where were either his 

 personal qualifications or his public 

 merits ? 



The sixth article relates to several 

 recent French novels. It is better, 

 though done off hand, than all the pre- 

 ceding. The philosophy of the follow- 

 ing paragraph, is worth volumes of the 

 learned lumber of the first article, at 

 least to our taste. 



" We cannot help considering these 

 sort of stories, where married ladies are 

 brought into sucli conjugal situations, 

 as very perilous things, in every sense 

 of the word ; — yet female writers have 

 always been fond of them, fi-om the 

 royal intrigues of Madame La Fayette, 

 down to Madame Cottin's loves of the 

 manufacturers in Claire d'Alhe. AVe 

 remember too, some years ago, a novel 

 by one of our own countiywomen, in 

 which the heroine loves one man, mar- 

 ries a second, and intrigues with a 

 third — ' au reste charmanfe personne' 

 — and having at length driven her hus- 

 band, who is as usual the best sort of 

 man in the world, to blow out his 

 brains, retires from her capacity of 

 heroine, at the end, upun a handsome 

 indei)enden('Cof three thousand a year." 

 The truth we believe is, (hat the ladies 

 in general, have very indelicate notions 

 of love. The sex is not platonic. 



The seventh article is very goi>d in- 

 deed ; it is on the state of science in 

 England and France. It clearly de- 

 monstrates the superiority of iMigland, 

 and is itself an ex'vmple of the fact — all 

 France could not, at tiiis tiii>e, ijroduce 

 any author capabh; of wriliii!! such a 

 paper. Ileaily wi; cannot help com- 

 jiassionating our lively neighbours; 



Edinburgh Reinew, No. LXFIII. 



IZS 



their " great nation " has of late been 

 getting some woundy hard blows. The 

 brains were knocked out of their philo- 

 sophical despotism by the butt end of 

 a British musquet, and for some time 

 there has been as resolute a determina- 

 tion, on the part of our literary men to 

 pluck away all their borrowed feathers 

 — perfumery and dancing are, we be- 

 lieve, the only arts in which (hey un- 

 questionably excel — and the former is 

 almost necessarily indigenous among 

 them, on account of their inattention 

 to personal cleanliness. A sarcastic 

 friend of ours remarked one day, that 

 the Scotch ate marmalade with their 

 bread and butter, to disguise the taste 

 of their bad butter, and that the French 

 ladies wore paint to hide the unwashed 

 skins of their faces. It would appear 

 that their savans are not less addicted 

 (o artificial modes of procuring admi- 

 ral ion. 



The eighth article is flippant enough 

 — it relates to the recent discoveries in 

 the interior of New South Wales; and 

 is neither so sensible nor so interesting 

 as the one on the same subject whiclx 

 we had occasion to notice in our re- 

 marks on the contents of the last num- 

 ber of the Quarterly. The Edinburgh 

 writers should not enter into competi- 

 tion in classical or c lonial subjects 

 with their rivals. The libraries are 

 wanting at Edinburgh for the one, and 

 the official documents, and mercantile 

 sources for the other. Besides, it is not 

 good policy to be thus measuring sta- 

 ture and strength with a junior. He 

 who follows must, as the Irishman 

 says, be always br-hind. 



Upon the subject of the ninth article 

 we shall say little. It is addressed to 

 a limited number of readers, and, con- 

 sidering the various scientific journals 

 which are now published, it would have 

 appeared with more advantage in one 

 of them. The reviewers themselves 

 are sensible of this, and begin by mak- 

 ing an apology for taking up the sub- 

 ject. It is about Mr. Brande's Bake- 

 rian lecture on the composition of the 

 inilammable gazeous compounds. We 

 shall quote the last paragraph, as it may 

 suggest something to the reflections of 

 our scientific readers: — 



'• In conclusion, we must call the 

 reader's attention to the very curious 

 analogy estahlislied in Mr. Brande's 

 experiments witli the battery, and be- 

 tween the operation of (he solar and 

 electric light. In a subject where so 



little 



