450 
reference to this and the former yolume of 
Mr. Blaquiere in our supplementary num- 
ber, we confine ourselves, at present, to 
little more than an announcement of this 
interesting volume, which contains much 
supplementary information, that may throw 
light upon the hopes and prospects of 
Greece: not yet entirely blighted, we 
should hope, by the recent intelligence of 
reverses of fortune and factious treachery. 
The account of the last days of Lord Byron, 
though it excites some curiosity, which it 
does not entirely satisfy, will not be regarded 
as the least interesting part of the contents. 
It seems apparent, we think, from what 
can be gleaned upon all hands, that, for 
some time before his death, Lord Byron 
had begun to be desirous of a reconciliation 
with his lady, and restoration to the bosom 
of his family. 
The Last Days of Lord Byron: with his 
Lordship's Opinions on various Subjects, &c. 
By Wittiam Parry, &c. 8vo. — More 
book-making upon this eternal subject. 
More Dallasing, and more Medwining 
upon this undying theme. Is it not enough 
that the worms are devouring the mortal 
part of the most splendid of the poetic 
geniuses of his century, but must all Grub 
Street fatten upon his reputation? Must 
every man, whom ehance or employment 
brought occasionally within his atmo- 
sphere, rise up against his memory, with 
pretensions of familiar confidence, and 
secret commune with his very spirit ?—de- 
lineate his mental and moral habits, and 
pester us with a volume of his pretended 
conversations and opinions? Mr. Parry, 
of whose official history the reader, of 
course, has heard something before now, 
and of whom he has probably formed some 
opinion, pretends, indeed, for purposes 
sufficiently obvious in parts of these 360 
pages, to be the vindieatorof his Lordship’s 
fame; and that he is to reveal those hidden 
truths relative to “ the numerous priva- 
tions, the great neglect, and the endless vexa- 
tions”? by which those “‘ personal friends,” 
{as they ought to have been] “‘ who should 
have shielded him,’’ caused him “‘ all the 
eee which prepared the way for 
is dissolution. He is to clear misrepre- 
sentations, which every body else has a 
guilty or selfish interest in preventing from 
being explained, and to relate those “‘ facts 
relative to Lord Byron’s situation and suf- 
ferings, which, uniess he states them cor- 
rectly, the public wili never hear from any 
other quarter.” But defend us from our 
Jjryends—* the proverb is a little musty.” 
T hose who can believe the silly anecdotes 
of school-boy sports and tricks which 
are put forth in some of these pages, or 
that’ Lord Byron, even in his Jast days, 
drivelled into such conyersation as is 
here recorded, will, we should suspect, be 
little disposed to think the character of the 
deceased much exalted: though, perhaps, 
such credulity might shew their judgments 
Monthly Review of Literature, 
(June I, 
to be insuch a State, as would prepare them 
unhesitatingly to give credit to all that Mr. 
P. may say, or insinuate, against Colonel 
Stanhope, the Greek Committee, Jeremy 
Bentham, &e. &e. 
Travels through Russia, Siberia, Poland, 
Austria, Sawony, Prussia, Hanover, &c. &c. 
undertaken during the Years 1822-3, and 
4, while suffering from total Blindness ; and 
comprehending an Account of the Author 
being conducted a State Prisoner from the 
easlern paris of Siberia. By JAMES Hot- 
MAN, RK. N., and k.w. 2vols. 8vo.—The 
travels of this phenomenon in France and 
Italy are already known to the literary 
world; and his volumes (even if they pos- 
sessed no higher recommendation) would 
be worthy of perusal, if it were only with 
reference to the philosophical speculation 
as to the extent and species of that know- 
Jedge and observation which may be col- 
lected and exerted, under the com- 
plete privation of that sense, upon which 
almost the whole of our means of know- 
ledge and observation seem, in ordinary 
circumstances, to depend. The mind, 
however, that has been familiarized with 
the comparative analysis of the functions. 
and capabilities of the different senses, will 
not be very much astonished by the demon- 
stration of how much is to be learned with- 
out the aid of the flattering and flattered 
sense of vision. But something like won- 
dering admiration cannot fail to be excited 
by the comprehensive and adventurous 
energy of the mind, which, under such priva- 
tion, could have contemplated the gigantic 
project of making “‘ a circuit of the whole 
world,” to collect the materials of tra- 
velled history. From the execution of this 
extensive project, Mr. Holman was, how- 
ever, precluded, not by organic privation, 
but by the arbitrary interference of that 
jealous despotism, which, conscious that 
the iniquities of its systems of misgovern- 
ment are too enormous uot to be palpable 
to blindness itself, dreaded a spy even in 
the sightless eye-ball, arrested his progress 
at Irkutsk, prohibited his further progress 
through Siberia towards Kamschatka, 
whence he purposed to embark in prosecu- 
tion of his plan, and sent a feld-jager to 
conduct him back to Moscow ; prevented 
him, even there, from calling upon any of 
his friends; and, after an imprisonment of 
three days at his hotel, expelled the blind 
spy out of the country, in a homeward di- 
rection. Much of the information con- 
tained in these volumes will, undoubtedly, 
be even the more interesting from the cir- 
cumstance of the organic privation under 
which it was collected: yet we know not 
how to resist a feeling of chilly dissatis- 
faction—a sort of damping of that credu- 
lous curiosity, which, after all, constitutes 
the principal pleasure in reading books of 
voyages and travels, when one asks one’s-self 
how the blind man knew that ‘* Nothing 
could be more fascinating than a Susan 
ba 
