1824.] Literary and Cr 



Northern press smoke. The vohinics take 

 their name from a poor demented wan- 

 derer, who spaes fortunes for siller, and is 

 rather a pretty conception from national 

 superstitions for busy agency. The plot 

 IS more strictly historical than any other we 

 have noticed after the same model. To 

 relieve the stirring length of its pages, 

 there is little of those indigenous humours 

 which have obtained such favours for the 

 Scotch novel ; there is little, too, of love ; 

 and yet, what with daring Intrigues, and 

 bold spirits, the management with which 

 that rude succession of events, which has- 

 tened the assassination of James the 6th of 

 Scotland,is toldjcannotbenoticedwithouta 

 particularsense of interest. It is evidence 

 of a political lesson as strong as it is true, 

 and yet as lamentable as either, that, with 

 the " tide in the affairs of men," one must 

 go or perish, as surely as with that more 

 natural tide which pours the cataract. 

 The legitimate history of the reign of the 

 unfortunate James gives, perhaps, as pas- 

 sionate a train of tragedy for any author to 

 move the breast withal, as may well be 

 desired. Dark men, deep outrage, and 

 intense vengeance, in those days over- 

 came the land of mountain and of flood 

 with extreme sorrow. But it is a peculi- 

 arity of Mr. Gait's, before now sufficiently 

 noticed, and in this publication abun- 

 dantly verified, to touch lightest on the 

 ground he is strongest in. Thus it hap- 

 pens that the most striking scenes, and 

 decisive traits, of the period he has last 

 •written on, are more alluded to than de- 

 scribed; men and events are less laid 

 vividly in action before us, than calmly 

 told of. With these considerations, and a 

 fondness the author evinces for some 

 strange verbal terminations, the reader of 

 the Spaewife will principally have to lay the 

 acconnt of his regrets. 



Mr. Hone has at length broken silence 

 on the subject of the vituperative attacks 

 of which he has been the object, in the 

 venal publications and abused pulpits of 

 certain preferment-hunting priests. It is 

 the unvarnished tale of an honest man, 

 and it places in their true light the base 

 falsehoods and unprincipled declamations 

 through which despicable writers and 

 oratT)rs have sought to raise themselves by 

 appeals to vulgar prejudices. Mr. Hone 

 convinced three juries that his Parodies 

 in no degree impugned religion, and these 

 acquittals ought to satisfy every honoura- 

 ble mind ; but he has now done more, and 

 met the charge of irreligion, for which 

 there existed no proof but in heated ima- 

 ejnations, and has made a solemn declara- 

 tion of his unvaried belief in ('hristianity. 

 In regard to the Apocryphal New Testa- 

 ment, he explains that he has not added a 

 syllable or idea to the same dot uments, as 

 printed by Archbishop V^'ake, and at the 

 Oxford press by the Rev. Jereniiali Jones ; 



Monthly Mao. No. 393. 



itical Proemium. 



ISL 



and that his sole object was to bring into 

 more general circulation the stories on 

 which are founded so many legends and 

 chefs (toeuvres of the Catholic schools of 

 painting. In thi< Answer to Aspersinns, 

 Mr. Hone has properly consulted the 

 interests of his large and interesting 

 family, for malignity was embodied 

 against him, and its exertion a dap-trap 

 for hypocrisy and unworthy ambition. 

 Time may happen to do a man justice; 

 but, in the interim, he is the victim of 

 falsehood and prejudice: Mr. Hone has, 

 therefore, in making his defence, over- 

 come that pride of conscious virtue which 

 commonly allows slander to sting itself to 

 death, and has used this victory over his 

 own pride in such manner as to place his 

 reverend assailants among the most 

 despicable creatures that crawl the earth. 



" More last Words" have appeared of 

 CowPER, author of " The Task," in two 

 volumes, of Private Letters, bij his Friend 

 Dr. Johnson. As compositions, they pos- 

 sess the well-known merits of the amiable 

 writer, but the subject-matter is gene- 

 rally trite and uninteresting. The most 

 original part of the work, is, the best 

 portrait of Cowper that has yet been 

 copied ; but the book is sold at a price 

 which renders the art of printing useless. 

 The whole might be copied by a good 

 scrivener for half the 28s. which is pnt on 

 these thin and loosely printed volumes. 

 The Chancellor's veto on the price of 

 books, or the loss of legal protection, ought 

 to be made operative in this and many 

 recent occasions. The trash sold in the 

 last Scotch Novel, at half-a-guineu per 

 volume, merits special reprehension in 

 this respect. The bookseller's and author's 

 profits ought to be governed by the 

 eurient prices of similar sized books, and 

 the public ought to be protected against 

 the possible cupidity of one, and the 

 vanity of the other. At any rate, the 

 alternative ought to be afforded, of an 

 edition for those who buy books to read, 

 as well as that which is bought for mere 

 show. 



One of the most annising books, which 

 for a considerable time has issued from 

 the press, is an octavo volume, consisting 

 of Extracts from Correspondence of (he 

 Regent Mother, Dutchess of Orleans, and 

 properly entitled Si'cret Memoirs of the 

 Court of Louis XIV., and of the Regencif, 

 This Princess was dunghler of the Elector 

 Palatuie, and born in 1652. In 1671, she 

 was married to the Duke of Orleans, the 

 King's brother, and her sou by this mar- 

 riage was regent after the death of Louis 

 XIV. Her correspondence therefore ex- 

 tends over a period of fifty years, and is 

 exceedingly voluminous. All the gossip 

 and intrigues of the Court are detailed in 

 a very lively manner, and she expresses 

 without reserve her opiuious of tiie eha- 

 X ructcrs 



