Monthly Revietv of Literature, 



00 



more magnificent than the bashaw of 

 Tangiers and the governor of Tetuan. 

 His accounts of Morocco are, of course, 

 very meagre. The Jewesses, who 

 abound, are very beautiful, and the 

 Moorish ladies, when you can get a 



flimpse at more than one eye, prove to 

 ave very charming pairs, though a 

 little too' sleepy — the handsomest, too, 

 are probably all shut up. The jMoors 

 are more and more suspicious of travel- 

 lers, since they have heard of Ali Bey 

 and Burckhardt, and their disguises, 

 and, of course, they cannot imagine 

 strangers visit them for any purpose but 

 to betray them. The recent occupation 

 of Algiers will not tend to dilute the 

 emperor's suspicions. 



Returning with very little more 

 knowledge of the country than could be 

 gathered fi-om a visit to Tetuan, and by 

 riding a few miles here and there about 

 Tangiers, he reached Gibraltar again, 

 and traversing Spain, by the way of 

 Grenada, Alalaga, Cordova, Madrid, &c., 

 finally arrived at Paris. When at Gre- 

 nada, though in unusual haste, he paid 

 a visit to the Duke of Wellington's 

 estates, near that town ; and as every 

 body is not acquainted with them, we 

 extract his account, in preference to his 

 elaborate description of the Spanish 

 OUa, with the cookery of which Sir 

 Brooke is quite au fait. 



" The Soto de Roma, the estate which wa* 

 granted at the conclusion of the peninsular war 

 to the Duke of Wellington, as a small return for 

 the eminent services rendered to the country, is 

 a royal demesne, situated at the extremity of the 

 vega of Granada, and, in the time of the Moors, 

 was a favourite retreat of the sovereigns of Gra- 

 nada. We reached it before noon, and spent some 

 time in walking about the extensive and finely 

 wooded grounds, which are watered by several 

 beautiful streams, adding considerably to their 

 beauty. The house is a plain building, with no- 

 thing remarkable about it, e.tcept, perhaps, the 

 numerous cracks that are visible in the walls, the 

 effect of shocks of earthquakes, which are attimes 

 severely felt throughout the vega. The adjoining 

 buildings appeared also to have suffered mate- 

 rially. I was much pleased to observe the state 

 of the different farms belonging to the estate. One 

 does not expect to find agriculture in a very ad- 

 vanced state in Spain ; and, alth'Ugh this is any 

 thing but the case in general, yet I must confess 

 that I never witnessed neater farming in any part 

 of my own country than I did at the Soto de 

 Roma, which is saying a good deal." 



Few Wordx on many Subjects, by a Re- 

 cluse. — A mass of notes, upon matters as 

 they turned up in the writer's mind, 

 and which, being preserved, have come, 

 of course, to be printed. Though not 

 always of importance, they are charac- 

 teriiied generally by sound Judgment 

 and respectable liberality. They are 

 classed under the heads of law, politics, 

 religion, and language. If judges must 



[JULV, 



be made peers, they need not be here- 

 ditarj' ones ; chiefly because the House 

 is already too numerous. — Barristers are 

 not warranted in undertaking all sorts 

 of dirty cases, by calling them acts of 

 duty ; nor are they entitled to assume 

 the high and independent tone they do, 

 till they talk gratuitously. — It is idle to 

 expect simplicity of law with the com- 

 plications of civilized society. — It is ab- 

 surd to imprison insolvents ; but wise to 

 hang for forgery, though it will be dif- 

 ficult to draw a line broad enough to 

 place impunity on one side and death on 

 the other, for acts that bear to each 

 other an extraordinary degree of resem- 

 blance — and certainly, murder and for- 

 gery can never, with any shew of rea- 

 son, be placed on the same level. Quib- 

 bles must be got rid of — a man is not to 

 lose his action of damages because he 

 has been driven over by a nuire, when 

 his lawyer called her a horse, nor a thief 

 to be acquitted of stealing ducks because 

 some of them were drakes — abomina- 

 tions which still exist in the administra- 

 tion of our laws, notwithstanding we 

 have been lauding ]Mr. Peel for years — 

 for what ? 



Among the " political" notes, he talks 

 of the pervading passion for titles and 

 distinctions, and augurs sad results — 

 but contempt for them is perhaps all 

 that is likely to follow from the existing 

 abuse. He instances the case of charity 

 societies, with 



Patron, Patroness, 



Vice Patrons, Vice Patronesses, 



Governor, Deputy Governor, 



Trustees, 



Cliairman, 



Deputy Chairman, 



Directors, 



Treasurer, Deputy Treasurer, 



Auditors, 



Physician, Surgeon, 



Counsel, Solicitor, 



&C. &C. &C. 



Among the sources of corruption in 

 language, he notices the general ten- 

 dency to hyperboUsm. If a person falls 

 out of a window, and breaks a limb, he 

 is sure to be " literally dashed to pieces," 

 though literally picked up in one piece 

 — " literally broke every bone in his 

 body," is of common occurrence in the 

 papers. If a man drives a dust cart 

 against a post, the papers tell us the 

 wheel came in contact with the post. 

 Workmen are universally operatives, as 

 being more genteel. Shopmen are as- 

 sistants. The apothecary's shop is the 

 surgery. The newspajier drudges are 

 gentlemen of the press. The attorneys are 

 all esquires — and gentlemen, we believe, 

 bv law. The new measures and weights, 

 lately introduced, are, by statute, the 

 imperial. The trust for managing the 

 roads roiuid London is also, bv statute, 



