Literary and Critical Pro'emium. 



,! SU.] 



these were privately possessing themselves 

 (some of Ihem most surreptitiously) of Mr. 

 ■Sniitli's hardly-acquired and unpublished 

 materials ; and owing, also, to the inade- 

 quate nuniher of land and mineral owners 

 who had put down their nauies as sub- 

 . scribers (only two of them having ad- 

 vanced money on tijeir subscriptions); 

 throu<4h tiiese adverse ciicimistances, and 

 the almost tosal exiiaiution of his property 

 in the underiakin;;, Mr. Snutii was unable 

 to effect any p;ihlicalion until August, 

 iSl.'jj which, most unfortunately for him, 

 was some tmie after pompous announce- 

 ments had been made, of a mure correct 

 and complete geological or geognostical 

 map, being intended to nppeai- almost im- 

 mediately ; and, altlmugii these were gross 

 fallac:e,s, and no such map appealed until 

 May 18^20, and then a very iinperlect one, 

 yet, coming fi ora an iniiiiential body of snb. 

 'scribers of large sums of money, il opposed 

 an unprecedented and most nnjiist bar to 

 the fair remuneration of i\ir. Smith, 

 through the sale of his map, undoubtedly 

 the first of the kind which had ever been 

 prepared ; and, through these adverse au- 

 noitiicenients being continued, and re- 

 peated in the works of several authors, the 

 very inadequate sale of his map, and of 

 several works which he began in illustra- 

 tion of it, occasioned the ruin of his 

 atTairs, and the consequent withdrawing 

 of himself, as above mentioned. 



Capt. Fouman has puzzled himself not 

 a little, and his patient readers still more, 

 by a confused discussion about the laws of 

 gravity, the percussion of tlie equinoxes, 

 tlie theory ut' (he tides, &c. He probably 

 means sumcthiug; but, whathe does mean, 

 his mode of expression has not enabled us 

 to guess. We are certainly as great friends 

 totiutlias himself, and no slaves to au- 

 thority ; yet we cannot, even with a good 

 will, follow his leasonings to any conclu- 

 sion. The best excuse which can be 

 made for him, is, that he mistakes tlie 

 sense on the points which he combats, 



W'olsey was one of those phmomena of 

 human characters, to the examination of 

 which we may constantly recur with fresh 

 interest. The details given to us by 

 Cavendish and Kingstrn havin-^ become 

 obsolete in lanjuaye, serve rather as mate- 

 rials for the taste of modern writers, thfjn 

 as studies for modern readers. The pnhlic 

 will tiieiefoie feel obliged to Mr. Howard 

 for Ins well-ananged volume, under the 

 title of IVolseii Ike Cardiml, and his Times, 

 Courtly, I'olitical, and Ecclesiastical. It is 

 true, that Mr. Gall has recently gone over 

 the same ground, but Mr. Iloward has 

 introduced us to a greater body of facts; 

 and, while the one has tilled his pages with 

 dissertations not deficient in ability, the 

 other has introduced to his readers a col- 

 lection of incidents, accuinulalcd by cx- 

 tinaivc reading and claboralc research. 



517 



The text is also enriched by many original 

 documents, and enlivened by engravings 

 of the splendid erections of the cardinal; 

 works whose utility continue to our own 

 limes, and cover a multitude of his politi- 

 cal sins. We could ourselves have fur- 

 nished Mr. Howard with an anecdote of 

 the cardinal beyond the tomb itself. In 

 tlie year 1789, after much anxious re- 

 search, his bones were disinterred at Lei- 

 cester Abbey. They were laid in the sun 

 on the platform of a bee-hive, and viewed 

 with interest by visitoisto the place ; but, 

 as they were in danger of being lost, the 

 present editor of the Monthly Magazine 

 obtained the gift of the skull, and had it in 

 his possession till November, 1795; when, 

 with a number of other relics, it was con- 

 sumed by an accidental fire. 



Mr. James Boaden has presented ns 

 with a very amusing' volume on the vari- 

 ous portraits of Shffkspeare, containing 

 much anecdote, which ought not to have 

 been lost. VVe confess that we give no 

 credence to any of them, except that in the 

 first folio edition. The others agree only 

 ill conferring on Shakspeare a hiiih am) 

 bold forehead, while they differ in every 

 other respect. The bust on the tomb, as 

 copied by Mr. Boaden, is that of a 

 hiitcher. The Gopsal portrait has a 

 totally different character ; but the Chan- 

 dos and Knowie portraits are probably 

 spirited delineations, taken in the vigour of 

 life. We possess that which was eugiaved^ 

 for Theobald's Shakspeare; and, in clia-* 

 racter, it is something between the heavi- 

 ness of Diashout and the smirciness of the 

 Chandos. Smith, the grocer, of Stratford, 

 and Harte, the chair-maker, at Tewkes- 

 bury, both descended from Shakspeare's 

 sister, stroiialy resemble the received 

 portraits. Smith's is like Mr. Boaden's 

 Chandos, and Harte's is likeonr Theobali. 

 Captain Hall, the intelligent compa- 

 nion of Lord Amherst, having made a 

 voyage in the " Conway," to the western 

 coasts of South America, in 1820-!:' 1-22, 

 has favoured the public with two small 

 volumes of extracts from his Journal. To 

 the imposing character of a captain in the 

 Brilisli service. Captain Hall adds the still 

 higher claims of being a philosopher and an 

 able writer. These volumes, therefore, 

 not only exhibit as full an account as has 

 yet appeared, of Chili, I'erii, and Mexico, 

 but they bear the stamp of authenticity, 

 and meet the public eye at a time when 

 these countries command so much atten- 

 tion. It appears unquestionable, that the 

 South Americans are unanimous in their 

 resolution to render themselves independ- 

 ent of Europe ; ihongh, in the struggle, 

 they unavoidably become the dupes and 

 victims of the intrigues of their leaders to 

 acquire distinction and ascendency. 



We are glad to see nn elegant volume of 

 Researches in the South of Ireland, by Mr. 



T. C. 



