18^3.] 



the greater portion of the " New 

 Edinburgh Review." The interferenco 

 of the French and the other Conti- 

 nental jiowers in the affairs of Sjiain 

 is properly stigmatized, and the con- 

 duct of England, in " the maintenance 

 of a strict and diywfied neutrality," 

 is lauded to the skies. 



The Essay on the Thenry of the 

 Earth, by M. Cuvier, with Mineralogi- 

 cal Notes, 4'c. by Pioftssor Jameson, is 

 next brought under review. The 

 writer of this article, with few qua- 

 lifications for the task, lias set out with 

 the determination to object to every 

 thing that is .said either by M. Cuvier 

 or his translator. He mistakes ini- 

 peninence for criticism ; and, a divine 

 rather than a pliilosophcr, he would, 

 like the necromancers of the middle 

 ages, confine tiie discoveries of .science 

 within the spell of a te.\t Irom Sciip- 

 ture. Whatever Cuvier may say of 

 fossil bones and petrifactions, there 

 must have been an universal deluge at 

 the very day and hour fixed by the 

 canons of the church. " Among all 

 the wildest tlieorics of geologists, (says 

 this divine,) there is not one who has 

 ever thought of giving to the human 

 race a higher antiquity than tiiat 

 which is assigned by Seiipture, and 

 which is am|)ly confirmed by every 

 thing that we know of the progress of 

 human society, arts, and languages." 

 We do not ourselves believe that any 

 man can discover much either of the 

 structure or antiquity of the earth by 

 "peeping into a well;" but surely 

 there have been geologists who have 

 assigned to it a duration of more than 

 six thousand years. 



We have next the campaigns of 

 1813 and 1814, under the head of a 

 Memoir of the Operations of the Allied 

 Armies under Prince Schwarzenherg 

 and Marshal Blue her, during those 

 years. Tor what purpose this article 

 was inserted, it is impossible to divine, 

 unless we conceive it to be meant to 

 flatter the Duke of Wellingtctn. Se- 

 veral pages are appropriated to the 

 praise of his grace, and to an invidious 

 comparison between his transcendant 

 merits and the |)rominent imperfec- 

 tion.< of the leaders of the allied ar- 

 mies; though it is well known this 

 favourite had no share in that eventful 

 campaign : but of the campaign itself 

 we find nothing that has not long ago 

 appeared in every |)rovincial newspa- 

 per throughout the kingdom. 



The sixth article is a well-written 



I\'ew Edinbuigh Reiifw, i\o. % 



50S 



essay on Vicious Novels. It is headed 

 by the novels of Isabella, by the author 

 of " Khoda," and Osmimil, by the au- 

 thor of " the Favourite of Nature." 

 The deprecatory tone is perhaps too 

 general and compiehensive. We can- 

 not preserve novels, any more than we 

 can preserve our families, from every 

 possible allusion which monastic vir- 

 tue would condemn ; but the morali.-it 

 has a right to censure what cannot be 

 wholly prevented, lest the llood-gaten 

 of deljauchery should bur.st and over- 

 spread the land. It is said that there 

 arc certain refinements of manners in 

 which vice loses half its grossness ; 

 and it is to be lamented that there are 

 loo many noxious reptiles encrusted 

 and emiiaimed in the amber of genius, 

 whieli had better been sulFered to evu- 

 porate their filthy forms in the stench 

 of putridity. Power, however, would 

 be ineifectual to remedy the evil. It 

 is only from an improvement in the 

 manners of mankind that v\e can ex- 

 pect an amelioration of public taste ; 

 and the pro.spect of tliis improvement 

 seems to be distant. 



On the account of Lockhart's tran- 

 slation of Ancient Spanish Ballads, we 

 can say little. It is a tril)ute of 

 praise to the talents of the translator, 

 and, not having seen the originals of 

 the pieces which he has chosen, we 

 have no right to suspect that the praise 

 is undeserved. 



The eighth article (headed by the 

 Speech of Michael Nolan, esq. delivered 

 in the Hotise of Comtnons, July 10, 1822, 

 &c.) is a dissertation on the manage- 

 ment of the poor, in which the Scotch 

 and English practice (lor the Zaiw differ 

 little,) are brought in continual compa- 

 rison. It is true, as the writer says, 

 that neither the act of Elizabeth, nor 

 the Scotch statute passed about the 

 same period, contemplated any provi- 

 sion except for the aged and infirm. 

 To be poor, able, and idle, was to be 

 a rof/iie and a var/abond. Eut times 

 are changed. To be able to work and 

 to have nothing to do is no longer a 

 crime ; and no laws could be executed 

 that would doom such people to starve. 

 That j)()or rates are not general in 

 .Scotland is, because the wages in that 

 part of the island are more nearly 

 equivalent to the means of .sul)sist- 

 enec. But Scotland is fast a[)pr()ach- 

 ing to the state of England. Whatever 

 may be boasted of their patience and 

 their pride, our northern brethren will 

 call for poor-rates sooner than die of 

 liunger. 



