100 



Mouihh) Reuiew of Literature, 



£JuLr, 



by the servants to escape from her room, 

 and roam into the one where Oreville and 

 Lady Helen were sitting. Such was the 

 explanation given by Greville to the injured 

 Helen. Though indignant, and refusing 

 to live longer with him — she compromised 

 — she consented to conceal the facts — re- 

 mained at the castle, and soothed her sor- 

 rows by taking charge and attending to the 

 comfort of the insane wife. 



The Court at Tuiibridge is another tale, 

 where Charles figures — a pendant to the 

 other — in which the monarch again pro- 

 motes a marriage, but tliis time for no 

 sinister purpose. The sketch is of a lively 

 cast, and the groups of courtiers are ad- 

 mirably described from Orammont's IMe- 

 moirs. — The Princess's Birth-day is called 

 a fairy tale without a fairy, and is a very 

 beautiful little thing— gracefidly told, and 

 the chef-d^ceuvre of the volumes. Two 

 princesses were destined by their uncle, the 

 reigning sovereign, one for a regal hus- 

 band, the other for the controul of an ab- 

 bey. The first imprudently falls in love 

 with a courtier, and the latter has no voca- 

 tion for the convent. Still princesses know 

 they can rarely have a will of their own — ac- 

 cordingly they yield an unwilling consent, and 

 preparations are duly made for the approach- 

 ing birth-day of the eldest, when the fate 

 of both is to be fixed for ever. AVhen that 

 day arrives, comes a letter from the sove- 

 reign, announcing a little cliange in the 

 arrangements. The coiirlier proves to be 

 the very sovereign originally destined for 

 the elder — and the sovereign's own son is 

 on the road to convey the younger not to 

 the abbey, but to the altar. Never were 

 recorded two happier, or less premeditated, 

 bridals. The Reign of Terror is fiill of 

 revolting circumstances, but vigorously told. 

 The season has not produced more interest- 

 ing volumes. 



Animal Kingdom, S(C., Parts XVIII. 

 and XIX. Bij Edivard Griffith, F.L.S. ; 

 1829. — This very handsome and superior 

 work progresses with unabated spirit. The 

 Class Mammalia was comprised in the first 

 twelve parts — another part or two will com- 

 plete the Birds ; and the whole, when finish- 

 ed, will constitute by far the most perfect 

 work on Natural History hitherto published, 

 either in England or in France. The basis 

 of the arrangement, as we have before men- 

 tioned, is Cuvier's ; and the whole of his 

 valuable materials are worked up, together 

 with very considerable additions derived 

 from the observations of Blr. Griffiths, and 

 the communications of his able and ninne- 

 rous coadjutors. The aim of the editors 

 has been to produce a work equally accept- 

 able to the naturalist and the general reader, 

 and each will accordingly find matter suited 

 to his taste. It is calculated, moreover — 

 what can scarcely be said of any other 

 work of the kind — to be safely placed in the 

 hands of young people. All indelicate de- 



scriptions — so frequently introduced, espe- 

 cially by foreign naturalists — are carefully 

 excluded — convinced as the editors are of 

 their improper effect upon the young, and 

 of science, as it is called, being little pro- 

 moted by them. The plates are numerous, 

 and the engravings good, from drawings 

 made expressly for the work. 



Tales of Flood and Field, with Sketches 

 of Life at Home, by John Mulcolm ; 1820. 

 — These are the sketclies of an intelligent 

 person, who has marked his own feelings, 

 and given occasional and forcible expres- 

 sion to them in the various incidents that 

 have occurred to him at home and abroad. 

 He has seen a good deal of active life, and 

 encountered perils, which he describes with 

 felicity and effect. Generally, his foreign 

 sketches are extremely good — lightly and 

 tastefully handled ; but those which are 

 connected with his campaignings, are very 

 superior to his " Home" scenes. As an 

 officer he served in the Peninsula, under 

 the Duke of AVellington, and like most 

 mihtary men, delights — at least loses no 

 opportunity — to eulogize him. 



" Passing along, amidst the vast and un- 

 known crowd (he is speaking of London) 

 I recognized a face, of which even the 

 glance of a moment awakens a world of 

 proud and glorious recollections. Fourteen 

 years have rolled away since I last beheld 

 it, and then bat for an instant, as it shot 

 past me through the blaze of battle, and 

 vanished in its storm ; but no one wlio has 

 once seen can ever forget that of the Duke 

 of 'Wellington : it is, moreover, but little 

 changed, and still wears the same placid 

 smile and calm dignity, which never for a 

 moment forsook it, even in the mortal 

 struggle and earthquake shock of battle." 



AFhat can be the value of sitch a testi- 

 mony ? Wc had occasion not long ago to 

 give young and unbeneficed clergymen a 

 hint to spare their panegyrics upon bishops, 

 and others blessed with authority or pa- 

 tronage ; and in the same way we venture 

 to recommend subalterns to avoid these 

 lavish tokens of their admiration. A curate 

 is seldom in a condition, we take it, to 

 judge correctly or usefully of his diocesan, 

 whatever he may be of his rector ; and, in 

 like manner, the subaltern, though he 

 may be competent enough to estimate his 

 captain, or any of the officers of his own 

 corps, can know little, on his own evidence, 

 and witli authority (and the testimony of 

 military men of any grade in military mat- 

 ters, is always put forth as of more worth 

 than that of a layman) of the commander 

 of legions. Let both curate and subaltern 

 wait till their position gives weight to their 

 testimony ; and should they never arrive at 

 that commanding point, it may not be their 

 fault : and the exalted individual will, in the 

 meanwhile, do very well without their ap- 

 plause. Praise from subordinates is always 

 suspicious, and why shoidd any sound per- 



