1826.]} 
by the Creator of all; this is revolting to 
her sense of humanity ; he is represented 
as the God of the Jews—as if he were not 
the God of the Gentiles—this is offensive 
to her feelings of justice. The want of 
universality in the communication, and in 
the results, of Christianity, confounds her 
understanding ; and she precipitately, but 
irrecoyerably, concludes against revelation 
altogether. — She loses, by) means of which 
we neverhear any thing but in novels, a 
magnificent estate : recoverable, however, 
on subscribing to her mother’s creed. She 
scorns the truckling condition, and betakes 
herself to governessing. Though scrupulous 
of giving expression to her opinions, from 
place to place is she driven, as hints of 
those opinions spread among her employers 
—till finally, she perishes in a shipwreck 
before she is twenty; the author, appa- 
rently, not knowing very well what to do 
with her—she is above his hand. He has 
not made the most of his subject as matter 
of interest. His heroine is persecuted, 
and persecuted for the sincere entertain- 
ment of opinions injurious to herself. He 
had it in his power to make persecution 
odious, and he has done little more than 
make it contemptible. That any man or 
woman should suffer for opinions merely, 
is itself an outrageous insult to common- 
sense ; and that opinions should eyer be 
made the test of conduct by the profes- 
sors of Christianity, is a mockery of their 
profession—of this mockery there is too 
much among us. We are amenable to our 
fellows for acts, and), not. for sentments. 
God, who alone can see the heart, is alone 
the judge of its sincerity. 
The English in Italy ; 1826.—Is it possi- 
ble that ‘the English in Italy’ goes off but 
slowly from the publisher’s hands? That 
scarcely any periodical has been enough on 
the alert to throw in a mite of praise? We 
will endeavour to do a brief and tardy 
justice to it. A very large class of habitual 
___- Teaders are too lazy—not to use a less flat- 
. tering term—to choose books for them- 
selves ; they trust to the Reviewers, or to 
their acquaintance, to point out the few 
élite publications among the many de- 
servedly left for another fate every season ; 
hence the duty of a conscientious judg- 
ment, which Reviewers owe to merit on 
the one hand, and to confiding expectation 
on the other. 
The English in Italy consists of an irre- 
gular collection of sketches—many of them 
relative to living English individuals, to 
‘whom Italy has been the theatre of some 
remarkable event, striking enough to fur- 
nish the basis of a story or anecdote, which 
‘ly, Jost a ism or abbreviates, appa- 
his ‘rials or his mood 
possess: 
, cabhernisions too maple to force him to 
- dwelband dilate upon circumstances, which 
S ~ nativally find their own compact arrange- 
_ ‘ment/in the reader’s mind, | ‘The natratives 
were 
Domestic and Foreign. 
‘titled ‘ Zingari’ is the next in flayour. 
429 
are told with pith and earnestness—a sort 
of serious sarcasm, in the turn of reflection 
always predominating. When he’ pauses 
in the story, it is not the dreaded pause of 
languor, but to'relieve himself of an impa- 
tient surplus of strong moral or political 
truths, which his pen must fling away, be- 
fore he can proceed leisurely again. In 
describing scenery, the same nervous over- 
flowing power is apparent—his vision 
bounding from point to point of beauty on 
the landscape, and then encompassing the 
whole in one coup-d’cil of magnificent 
winding-up. We follow, out of breath, 
from alp to plain—sea, sky, city, till he 
has extracted the whole honey of the pros- 
pect; and then, away to something else— 
ancient remembrances perhaps—perhaps to 
—what he likes most of all, and what 
novel-readers like least of all—or less than 
private scandal — polities. 
For these tales, common gossip appears 
to be the source of information. We can- 
not judge of the accuracy of his likenesses, 
or of his facts ; and, admiring as we do, his 
luminous, rapid, exhaustless, fearlessistyle, 
and the, at least, verisimilitude of the por- 
traits—of their acts, thoughts, conversa- 
tions, situations—we must confess, the 
nearer they do approach. to’ realities, the 
further must he be wandering, with respect 
to several individuals, and indeed, the 
mass collectively, from the precept of do 
as you would be done by.’ 
His countrymen—our countrymen: and 
countrywomen—make too ludicrous a figure 
upon the stage onwhich he represents'them. 
They seem, even those of superior rank, to 
carry abroad, and especially into Italy, all the 
boastful assumption which, at home,’ is the 
very synonym of vulgar descent, ‘as if the 
blood of true gentility could not harbour it. 
A foreign land seems to elicit, in those’ we 
should deem least susceptible of the eor- 
ruption, this most offensive’ blot in’ the 
character of John Bull. Perhaps the real 
superior cannot preserve the true gradation 
of superiority by the side of assuming 
compatriots without some strong degree of 
ostentation; and so the magnifying process 
extends from highest to lowest in the ‘scale 
—preserving, with a keen sense of private 
rights, the mutual and original propo: ortions. 
Thus the British raise their importance i in 
the mass with respect to surrou P na- 
tions, tacitly conspiring for the purpose, 
and religiously forbearing, on their return 
home, to expose a weakness of which every 
one is conscious that he has exhibited an 
ample share—until this obliging gentleman, 
who doubtless has trodden his path too 
cautiously to leave vengeance an opening, 
lets out the secret, both in a general shape, 
and with most amusing illustrations. 
. ‘Tl Amoroso’ is the best of the long pieces, 
quant and interesting. The volume en- 
rene 
Sbarbuto,’ and lastly ‘Tl Politico’ sum‘ up 
the work ;—and all are good. 
