1324.] [ 61 ] 



NEW BOOKS PUBLISHED IN JANUARY : 



WITH AN HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL PROEMIUM. 



AiUhors or Publishers, desirous of seeing an early notice of tlicir Works, are 

 requested to transmit copies hrfore the 18f/t oftJie Month. 



of " Chaucer," •published not long since 

 by Pickering. 



Another production, to vvliich we sliall 

 call the attention of our readers, and 

 especially of those connected with law 

 and with commerce, is the new edition of 

 Sir iVm, Jones's Essay o)i the Law of Bail- 

 ments, There is this inconvenience at- 

 tendant upon a professional terminology, 

 that " simple men," though not *' of 

 small capacity," cannot readily appre- 

 hend tiicir signification. It may be ne- 

 cessary, therefore, to inform some of our 

 readers what bailment is. Bailment, from 

 the French battler,* to deliver, is the deli- 

 very of goods to a person for a particular 

 use, as of cloth to a tailor to be made into 

 a coat; to a earlier to be conveyed to 

 London, or the like. The present edition 

 is enriched with the useful notes of Mr, 

 Nichols; who however has, we think, in 

 most instances, gone fartlier than liis 

 author intended. In the event of a second 

 edition being called for, as we hope, unless 

 the present impression is very large, it 

 will, we beg to call ihe learned editor's 

 attention to the 6tli Proposition on the 

 subject of an innkeeper's responsibility, at 

 p. i!^l, which we apprehend is much too 

 limited. 



The Fragmeiita Eegalia of Sir Robert 

 Namiton have just made their appearance 

 in a very superior styl?. We have often 

 lamented that the readers of Englisii 

 history content themselves in general witli 

 such a superficial acquaintance with it as 

 may be gathered from the pages of Hume 

 and Sniollef. They seldom take the troti- 

 bie of consulting the original authorities, 

 although their labour would be amply re- 

 warded. Truly, as an old and favourite 

 writer expresses it, Satius est pctere fontes 

 quam seclari vivulos, — or, we may add, 

 jlumina. Sir Robert Naunton's work con- 

 sists of Memoirs of Queen Elizabeth, her 

 ministers and favourites, and was written 

 under peculiar advantages, the author 

 himself having been a protegi'e of Essex, 

 and more or less acquainted with nearly 

 all whom he describes. The text is, for 

 the first time, wciielievc, published in its 

 original purity, from -a (supposed) auto- 

 graph copy in the IJritish Museum. There 

 IS in the notes a variety of curious infor- 

 mation ; besides which, there is a wcll- 

 wriltcn and able memoir of the author, 

 and no fewer than nine fine portraits. 



The last book on Egypt and Holy Land 

 necessarily claims Ihe most attention, par- 

 ticularly if the production of so entertain- 

 ing 



WE congratnlate the public on the 

 completion of Mr. Belsham's His- 

 iory from the Revolution to the Death of 

 George the Tldid. As revised in his late 

 editions, and completed in the two recent 

 volumes, it forms the only History of the 

 period which deserves to be cherished and 

 read among friends of civil liberty, and of 

 the free principles of tlie Constitution. 

 Too many histories, so called, are written 

 under the patronage of courts, and often 

 to serve base purposes ; but, in the pro- 

 duction of fourteen volumes, Mr. Be'.shani 

 lias had no encouragement except in the 

 free suffrages of his fellow-citizens, and 

 the literary public. The present volumes 

 are not numbered as part of a series, but 

 they will be eagerly purchased by posses- 

 sors of the former parts, while tlvey stand 

 by themselves as a succinct History of the 

 first twenty years of the century. The 

 style is clear and nervous without dog- 

 matism, and eloquent without inflation, 

 while the spirit is temperate, and the 

 details unimpeachable in veracity and im- 

 partiality. The Appendix contains docu- 

 ments illustrative of the text; and, we 

 conceive, that the work will be rapidly 

 adopted as a standard production, and as 

 an authotity in relation (o a period during 

 which the author has justly been consi- 

 dered as one of the most enlightened of its 

 contemporaries. 



Of all the numerous publications with 

 which Ihe press teems at this festive sea- 

 son, we have seen none that has pleased us 

 more than the Italian Tales of Humour, 

 Gallantry, mid Romance. The stories are 

 well selected, and told with much spirit 

 and elegance. The lover of olden drama 

 will be happy to recognize, amon^jst them, 

 the originals of some of his " primest 

 favourites." They are ornamented by 

 very tasteful illustrations from the pencil 

 of (leorge Criiiksliank, fully equal, nobis 

 judicibua, to his Points of Humour, his 

 GcrinanStories, or, indeed, to the happiest 

 of his former efforts. He has, in short, to 

 borrow the expressive language of a co- 

 temporary, " out-Cruikshanked himself," 

 and we think 



Tlic force of 'banionr' can no farther go. 

 Insever;al of the plates, particularly in the 

 tiile of the '* •Pomegranate Seed," there is 

 a great deal of easy elegance and grace ; 

 but the brothers of the lady of " the 

 "Teacher Taught," appear to ns '• but 

 poor sticks." \Vc think " we could have 

 made better men witli the pairings of a 

 turnip." The work is admirably printed 

 by 5ir. White, in his very best manner; 

 and is the same in paper, si/e, and typf, 

 with the HUiiie priutcr',s celebrated edition 



' Whence also hail and baililf. 



