MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE. 183 



The " Book of Christmas " is divided into two parts : the first treats of this fes- 

 tive season of the year — feelings of the season — the signs and tokens of tlie 

 season, and so on. The second part sets forth the different "Days" — Christmas 

 Day — Christmas Eve — St. Stephen's Day, with many other saints' days — the eve 

 and the day of the new year — Twellili Day, and so on : — the fun and frolic — 

 the festive and other feeling — the vernacular poetry of the season — all, all these, 

 with many more, conspire to make this time-and-care-destioyina: merry Christ- 

 mas Book what, in fine, it ought to be — every English family's fire-side compa- 

 nion. We have no room for extract; and, if we had, deem it unfair to transfer 

 to our pages in part, or in "shreds and patches," what will be best read in the 

 " Book of Christmas " itself. The work is well appointed in every respect — ^the 

 illustrations are really — genuine — and no mistake. The " Book of Christmas" 

 will, no doubt, be added to the list of our annuals, with literary exultation, by the 

 generous patrons of literature and art. A word in " season," and to sensible 

 I^eople — how good it is ! 



The Comic Annual, by Thcias Hood, Esq. A. H. Bailey and Co. 



Cornhill. 



Come what may — after this annual remembrancer of every-day comicalities — we 

 give this latter emanation from the piquant pen of Thomas Hood, Fsq. — yea, and 

 every inch a gentleman — a cordial welcome to this our sacred and ever noiseless 

 studio, in good sooth, in the very best season, the 



" Witching time of night,'' 

 and therefore — all the better, and still more welcome. Hail to thee. Sir Thomas 

 Hood ! grand master of indispensable comicalities ; surveyor-general of fun 

 and frolic ; potent arbiter of all literary pasquinades, whether done in prose 

 or verse; rigmarole verbiage j or double-distilled doggerel rhymes — all hail to 

 thee, " great captain of the age." Humph ! To be serious. Once more— from 

 a crest overlooking Kaltenerberger in the Eifel, cur exquisite Punster makes 

 his annual bow. "To be sure, as he says in his " Preface," he is more than two 

 thousand feet above the level of the sea, on a teutonic mountain, in the midst of a 

 palpable fog, to which it is accustomed eight days out of seven, — but neither 

 difference nor distance make any difference to us Germans in our salutes : — lue 

 can bow round a corner, or down a crooked lane. To see us bow retrospectively . 

 sometimes, would remind you of that polite author, who submitting to a classical 

 authority, said, with an appropriate bend, " I bow to the Ancients." "We all 

 smoke in Germany," and '' Country Quarters," are clever " papers," and laughably 

 illustrated. On the whole, the " Comic Annual," for 1836, is, to all intents and 

 purposes, as the lawyers say, an improvement upon its amusing predecessors. 



The Roman Catholic Church of Scotland, its Establishment, Subversion, 

 and Present State. By John Parker Lawson, M.A., Author of 

 " The Life and Times of Archbishop Laud," &c. pp. 320. Edin- 

 burgh Printing and Publishing Company. London : Smith, Elder, 

 and Co., &c. &c. 



This is the first work of intrinsic value and equal merit which the Edinburgh 

 Printing and Publishing Company have sent forth for the enlightenment of those 

 who stand in need of the historical facts connected with the old Catholic supre- 

 macy and domination in Scotland, prior to the Reformation. This volume is 

 not a mere history of the Refoimation in Scotland, or its causes, which are well 

 "known to almost every reader, but is what its title imports, the last years of the 

 Roman Catholic Establishment — its political and ecclesiastical position at that 

 eventful period — the first attacks made upon it — its struggles for existence — -its 

 final subversion — the destruction of its edifices — the alienation of its temporalities 

 — and iia present state, after the lapse of three centuries. 



Zealously attached to the Protestant church, and especially to that branch of it 

 of which he is a member, the author has nevertheless avoided (sensibly-wisely) 



