516 Affairs in General. [ Nov. 
ostensibly manager-in-chief, though we believe we may state pretty 
confidently, he finds himself occasionally, and more than he likes, over- 
ruled. The execution of these little books, nevertheless, he lauds in 
magnificent terms, though he betrays, the meanwhile, a lurking convic- 
tion of their utter unfitness for the classes for whose service they were 
specifically destined ; and we may safely, ourselves, declare, we have 
seldom seen an atterapt that so completely failed of its object. Mr. B’s 
own two performances—though full of blunders—that very brilliant one 
above all others, on the law of gravitation—especially the hydros- 
tatics, were much nearer the mark. The first part of Mechanics 
had much of the same character ; but the second part of the same 
treatise was obscurity obscured, and must have been distilled, drop by 
drop, from the iron-bound pen of Olinthus Gregory. The arithmetic 
and algebra is decidedly a clumsy performance. Of the lives, Caxton 
contains some information of the right kind; but the outline of General 
History is much too skeletonish—a mere syllabus, nothing of which 
can stick in any novice’s brain ; and as to the History of Greece, though 
pretty good in some respects, is, particularly in the early part of it, too 
full of names, and deals too much in niceties, and is not geod at all for 
that for which it was intended, and for which Mr. B. so extravagantly 
commends it. The fact is, the treatises together are, frankly, a failure ; 
and arrangements are already, we have been assured, making for reforg- 
ing the whole in metal of a better temper. In the Edinburgh also, 
Hallam’s Constitutional History is reviewed—eulogized, of course, and 
that it deserves it, but not so lavishly. The worst of these party publi- 
cations’ is, you know what they will say of a writer, if you happen to 
know his connexions. There is, however, an excellent bit—just and 
powerful—comparing Cromwell and Napoleon, in which they ven- 
ture to contest a dictum of Mr. Hallam’s. “In civil government,” 
says Hallam, “there can be no adequate parallel between one who 
had sucked only the dregs of a besotted fanaticism, and one to whom 
the stores of reason and philosophy were open.” This is very charac- 
teristically Mr. Hallam—all in broad lines—and strong, and therefore 
undue contrasts. We cannot quote the Edinburgh —every body will 
glance atit. Mr. Hallam himself, we hear, takes the command of the 
Edinburgh next number. 
It is a rare thing for a week to pass in London without some alder- 
man or police-magistrate presenting himself in some supremely ridi- 
culous shape. The most frequent exhibitor of late has been Sir Peter 
Laurie. A few days ago a letter was addressed by Lord Frederick 
Beauclerck to Sir Peter, inclosing another, detailing a piteous tale of 
distress or oppression, we do not recollect which. To substantiate the 
story, the lady had given Lord Frederick two references in town, one 
to a Mrs. B. in Welbeck-street, the other to a gentleman near, which 
the noble lord, forwarding to Sir Peter, and complimenting him upon 
his known activity and humanity, begged him by some means or other, 
to ascertain the truth of the story. Away flies Sir Peter himself to 
Welbeck-street, all the way from the city, and calls first, of course, like 
a true knight as he is, upon Mrs. B., who confirms the whole story to 
the letter, assuring Sir Peter. the lady was one of the most amiable and 
deserving of her sex. Touched and delighted with the success of his 
