1825.] 
complete propriety of giving the projectors 
of railways and steam conveyance fair play, 
and every facility in the process of their 
speculations. 
Upon one subject, and upon one alone, 
we find ourselves compelled to differ very 
widely from our author—and that is upon 
the subject of the advantage to the mass 
of the people, and the increase of popula- 
tion, from the improvements of ]oco-motive 
machinery. That whatever shall super- 
sede the use of horses will leave so much 
the more space for feeding sheep and cattie, 
and for growing corn, is, indeed, undeniable ; 
but there are also other beings, too fre- 
quently held in less estimation, the use of 
which must be superseded also. When 
he says, “ that population must increase 
by improvements in loco-motion,” and 
appeals to “the flourishing state of the ma- 
nufacturing towns, as establishing the fact,” 
—we might reply that population is in- 
deed concentrated there, but is not there- 
fore promoted. But what avails increase of 
population, if it only bring increase of 
misery? The population of Ireland in- 
creases; but does not wretchedness in- 
crease also? In proportion as loco-mo- 
tive machinery extends, there will be less 
employment for the labourer; and the 
more labourers there are out of employ- 
ment, the less wages will be paid even to 
those who are employed; and should Mr. 
Godwin’s visionary idea, now calculatingly 
re-echoed in the pamphlet before us, and 
which recent inventions seem to render 
scarcely improbable, in fact be realized, and 
the earth be tilled by loco-motive ploughs, 
what, to the once labouring classes of the 
community, would be left by this full ac- 
complishment of the perfection of human 
science, but the sad alternative of beggary 
and famine, or pillage, depredation, and 
the gallows ! 
Memoirs of the Life of John Philip Kemble, 
Esq., including a History of the Stage, from 
the Time of Garrick to the present period. By 
JAMES BoavENn, Esq. 2 vols. large 8v0.— We 
have not space to do justice, at present, to 
this long-expected publication, nor have we, 
as yet, had time even to make ourselves as 
familiar as we could wish with its contents: 
but we have looked sufficiently into it to ° 
perceive that it is replete with matter inte- 
resting and valuable in the department of 
history to which it belongs, and too impor- 
tant to be passed over in silence, or shelved 
for a fulwe opportunity. The author has 
evidently enjoyed peculiar advantages for 
full and accurate information relative-to the 
subject on which he writes; and, as far as 
we have yet seen, we discover no symptoms 
of his having used them either partially or 
injudiciously. Not only extensively fami- 
liar, for many years, with every thing con- 
nected with the history of the drama, but 
intimately acquainted with the eminently 
elassical actor (perhaps the most classical 
our stage could ever boast) whose biogra- 
Literary and Critical Proémium. 
159. 
phy is the principal object of these volumes, 
he had the means, not only’of tracing the 
progress and development of those dramatic 
endowments, which gave to certain charac- 
ters at least, of the very highest excellence, 
an unrivalled effect and splendour; but 
also of knowing the man, upon whose voice 
the attention of congregated thousands has 
‘so often hung, in the more private inter- 
courses of relative association: and the 
family-sketches by which the narrative is 
introduced (see Recollections of his Parents, 
pp. 4to 7), will be read with something 
more than a mere gratified curiosity ; and 
superadd a moral to the histrionic interest of 
this dramatic history of the drama. 
In short, from the exigences of time and 
space, we must forbear both from analysis 
and quotation, and be content to return 
again hereafter, in some other shape, to the 
matter of these memoirs: we have no doubt 
that, in the mean time, the interest of the 
subject will have secured, to them, an atten- 
tion and circulation, which will prove how 
little they stood in need of any stimulus 
which public curiosity could have derived 
from more ample animadversion in our 
periodically critical capacity. 
Some Account of the Life of Richard Wil- 
son, Lsg. R.d.; with Testimonies to his 
Genius and Memory, and Remarks on his 
Landscapes. To which are added, Various: 
Observations respecting the Pleasure and 
Advantages to be derived from the Study of” 
Nature and the Fine Arts. Collected and 
arranged by T. Wricut, Esq. 4to.—The very 
title-page will shew the work, before us, to 
be a book after the fashion of the times,— 
or rather, we should say, the fashion of the 
trade. tis collected and arranged, not writ- 
ten or composed ; a melange, not a biography 
or a treatise: and the name, which stands 
as the conspicuous landmark in this ocean 
of title-page, can scarcely be regarded as 
the principal object, even in the first of the 
three divisions of our voyage through the 
promised contents. In the second part, 
we haye but once or twice a glimpse, even, 
at the primary object; and, in the third, it 
entirely disappears. The collector and 
arranger becomes of this the hero,—if hero 
there can be said to be, in a series of mis- 
cellaneous rambles; and the narrative of 
his studies is the only thread of connexion 
that remains. How miscellaneous his lite- 
rary and critical rambles are, the very heads 
or contents of the respective chapters will 
sufficiently shew. What thinks the reader 
of a digression from the life of Wilson, and 
the study of landseape-painting, into such 
regions as Chap. Il]. ‘ Religious enthu- 
siasm — Methodists — Rational religion — 
, Cheerfulness the companion of the lover of 
Nature —The author’s religion— Difficulty 
of judging of the feelings of others—No 
happiness without tranquillity of mind ”’?— 
If the volume, however, be neither a bio- 
graphy, a disquisition, nor even a connected 
series of essays, it is not an unamusive 
compilation. 
