J824.] Literary and Critical Protinium. 543 



In the same journals, we Ond that (he copies must be |iresenled, giatnilously, 



liberty of the press in India has been 

 laid under the most severe restrictions. 

 A licence must be obtained I'or the pri- 

 vilcjje of printing ; the |irin1cr's name 

 must appear in every work ; several 



to the colonial t!;overnment; and it is 

 added, that those in power m;iy [losi- 

 tively proiiibit the circulation ol any 

 printed publications that give offence 

 to them. 



NEW BOOKS PUBLISHED IN JUNE : 



WITH AN HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL PROEMIUM. 



Authors or Publishers, desirous of seeing an early notice of their Works, are 

 requested to transmit copies before the \Sthqf the Month. 



CAPT. Parry's " Second Voyage to the 

 Arctic Circle" has been further illus- 

 trated by the Private Joutml of Capt.G. F. 

 Lyon; a work which, by embracing a 

 juiniber of circumstance?, and delineating 

 various particulars, either omitted, or too 

 slightly alluded to, by its predecessor, as- 

 sumes a considerable degree of interest. 

 Thinking as we do respecting the practi- 

 cability of a north-west passage, or (he 

 utility of such a passage, could it be 

 achieved, we could not read the account 

 given by either of tlie gallant captains, 

 under any other inducement than that 

 created by curiosity. That as far as the 

 gratification of such a feeling could impart 

 interest to their respective publications, 

 we have enjoyed their perusal, we candidly 

 admit; but must, at the same lime, say, 

 that we shoidd much more have enjoyed 

 both one and the other, had fewer of its 

 pages been devoted to details respecting 

 the Esquimaux. The descriptions of the 

 northern regions, their land and water, or 

 rather their land and ice, are highly en- 

 tertaining ; and some of the portraits of 

 their savage inhabitants, and statements 

 regarding their notions, manners, and way 

 of life, are equally anuising; but the traits 

 are often too minute and particular to 

 constitute any feature sutTiciently promi- 

 nent to let us further into their character, 

 so that the reader's time and patience are 

 largely drawn upon, without atfording him 

 any further insight into what he wishes to 

 learn, than he might have obtained in one 

 half the space occupied with the conmiu- 

 nieation. However, the satisfaction de- 

 rived from t!ie other parts of Captain 

 Lyon's volume, forms no slight atonement 

 for this blemish. The search on which 

 the Fury and Hecia were engaged, is so 

 curious in itself, and atfords so much nar- 

 rative that every ingenious mind must 

 have great pleasure in perusing, that we 

 deem the additional knowledge obtained 

 by it, respecting a portion of the globe 

 with which we are so little acquainted, as 

 not unworthy tht; trouble and expense of 

 its acquisition ; and arc only sorry that so 

 much hope has been held out in regard of 

 the proposed discovery, that we, as it 

 were, stand pledged to the finding a north- 

 Monthly MAtj. No. 397. 



west pa'=snge into the Indian Ocean ; a 

 passage that, according to every present 

 view of the undertaking, will never be 

 found ; and which, even were it for.iid, the 

 gcneial natural state of the seas through 

 Vi'hich the vessels would have to pass, 

 would always render so dangerous and 

 nncerlain, as to preclude any commercial 

 advantage from liie preference it might, 

 as a novelty, for a time obtain. 



The Memoir of the Life and Character of 

 the Right Him. Edmund Burke, by Mr. 

 Ja.mes PnioR, proves a welcome addition 

 to the biographical materials with which 

 our literatnre ha« been proin-ssively en- 

 riched. The woik of which we are here 

 speakintr, goes very fully into the history 

 of the distinguished orator, the particnlais 

 of whose principles and public conduct it 

 professes to give. Commencing with an 

 account of his family and birth, the author 

 traces him through his earlier >'tudies to 

 his possession of a seat in parliament, and 

 thence to his appointment of paymaster- 

 general, his subsequent reception of a 

 pension, his decline of health, his death, 

 and disposal of his residence and estate. 

 Passing with the writer through the long 

 career of a man of Mr. Burke's talent, con- 

 duct, and connections, it is impossible that 

 we should not have found our sympathies 

 in harmony with those expressed in the 

 work. Great and deserved as was the 

 reputation of Burke, he was the possessor 

 of principles, and the perpetrator of fan! ts, 

 that constituted very considerable draw- 

 backs on his character, viewed in its 

 aggregate. 'I'hat he started a patriot, a 

 friend of liberty and the people, and 

 finished his career as a dipendent on the 

 crown, are facts, the recollection of which 

 will not accompany without sullying lii« 

 memory. In his own behalf, ha says, 

 " For what I have been, I put myself upon 

 my country;'' but that amounts to no self- 

 defence of political aposlacy, self hiterest, 

 and the desertion of those very friends 

 with whom he had formerly c(nn)eeftd 

 himself, purely on account of the con- 

 sonance of their public opinions with liis 

 own. While all posterity wdl .-idinire tlie • 

 vigour and brilliancy of his mind, a large 

 ])ortion of it will reprehend his yielding his 

 4 A principles 



