1825.} 
be gratified by this volume : for it does not 
consist of description alone; it contains 
much interesting narrative, biography, his- 
tory and. miscellaneous matter, which 
render it equally amusing and instructive. 
Lines written for the Benefit of the Inha- 
bitants of the Island of Portland.—This is a 
little work of about twenty pages, of which 
the subject is interesting, and the object 
benevolent. The little episode of Eliza 
appeals to the best affections of the heart. 
Sayings and Doings; or, Sketches from 
Real Life. Second Series. 3 vols. 12v0.—The 
former series of this work is so well known, 
that it may well account for the speedy 
appearance of the second; and we must do 
the author the justice of acknowledging, 
that, for interest in several of the charac- 
ters, whimsicality of expression, and happy 
transition from the serious to the comic, he 
stands almost unrivalled. But his sketches 
from real life appear to us, not only to be, 
occasionally, outrageous caricatures, but 
even creations of. splenetic satire, rather 
suggested with a view to discrediting par- 
ties and opinions, than to enlarge our know- 
ledge of human nature, or correct the vices 
of the age. Occasionally, however, ‘his 
satire is well pointed—as, for example, 
against the practice of introducing children 
to the table after dinner: yet we doubt 
whether even this would not have been 
quite as likely to be operative, with less of 
offensive exaggeration of their manners. 
Not less were we disgusted with the con- 
temptuous caricatures of persons feigned to 
be at the head of academies, and the gross 
delineations of the ignorance and vulgarity 
of the wives and daughters of persons so 
situated. The supper-table of Mr. Tickle 
might do for a broad-grin farce. But, 
eyen in such a buffoonery, the scene ought 
to be laid remote from the metropolis. 
Nor is it to his assumed characters alone 
that we object. The author chooses to 
drop, every now and then, the thread of his 
narrative, and identify himself with his own 
fictions. He must tell us, in his own per- 
son, that writers for the daily and periodi- 
cal press, having no opportunities of asso- 
ciating with the higher orders of society, 
must therefore, of necessity, “ridicule and 
vilify the best of people :” meaning, as he 
takes care to let us know, the titled and 
the great, without exception. Such are the 
writers, he tells us, who assert, that “vice 
and dissipation (which, in truth, flourish 
more in the middling and lower classes than 
any where else) [Qy. How many wheres 
are there beside ?|—are the exclusive 
characteristics of the best-born and best- 
bred part of the British population.” 
Surely, though this author puts not his 
name in his title-page, he knows where to 
find the circles among whom he may deem 
it profitable not to wear the mask. Yet 
there are passages, in these volumes, which 
might lead one to suspect that he ‘is not 
himself very familiar with what he would 
Domestic and Foreign. 
259 
call the best society, or could not very well 
discriminate between those who compose 
it, and a very different class. An innocent 
country youth, who has been introduced to 
a family of distinction, is taken, by them, to 
the Opera, where the ladies are thrown 
into ecstasy by those pirouettes of the 
dancers, which had shocked the young 
man’s modesty :—this is made the subject 
for a Sketcu of real life, in which the 
modest Welsted hears, to his infinite 
amazement, as well he might, “‘ a conver- 
sation amongst the party’’—T[a party of our 
author’s own best of people—of the best-born, 
best-bred part of the British population | //)— 
“relative to the kept-mistresses of married 
men, who shared, with their ‘ protectors,’ 
the fronts of the best boxes in the Theatre, 
while the wives and daughters of the hoary 
rakes sat opposite, and witnessed the de- 
basing exhibition. He saw, too, with won- 
der, men conversing with females in the 
pit, whose character and profession, even to 
the unpracticed eye of Welsted, were un- 
equivocal,—and then, without. the sem- 
blance of concealment, or a change of place, 
turning to their wives and sisters (or, at 
all events, the wives and sisters of their 
friends), and addressing them in precisely 
the same manner (perhaps on the same 
subject), as that which they had adopted 
towards their unfortunate associates of the 
preceding minute.” —Pretty well this, for 
one who had proclaimed the great to be the 
only good, and vice and profligacy to be, 
almost, the exclusive attributes of the mid- 
dling and lower orders! There is more in 
the same strain, about masquerades having 
gone as much out of fashion as powder and 
two-pronged forks,—because vice has “be- 
come so flagrant and general, as to disdain 
to wear a mask ! vi Ghai 
But, in spite of the wit and talent of the 
author, we are tired of following him through 
caricatures, whose ingenuity consists in dis- 
tortion, and satire that degenerates into 
lampcoon. yh ; aN 
The Writer's Clerk; or, The Humours of 
the Scottish Metropolis. 3 vols. 12mo.—This 
is a novel not of the first order. The inci- 
dents are common-place, and the dialogues 
and descriptions of character unentertain- 
ing. As novels, unless of avery superior 
class, are not likely to be interesting to the 
generality of the readers of the Monthly 
Magazine, we suppose we shall be readily 
excused for not giving a detailed account 
of what we have read with very little 
pleasure. 
Illustrations of Lying in all its Branches. 
By Mrs. Opin, in 2 vols. 12mo.—Mrs. 
Opie’s name is too well known, for any 
work she may produce not to be read 
with avidity. When such is the ease, how 
deep is the responsibility of moral obliga- 
tion! ‘This work is rightly entitled. The 
author explains the different metbods of 
deception, and classes them all under thie 
primary denomination of ‘ ' Lying,”—of 
21, 2 which 
~ 41 & 
