€94 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1810. 



tion of all the men of letters in 

 Scotland. 



<'I will now, sir, tell you in 

 confidence, that, one of our num- 

 ber excepted, whose writings have 

 long been read with admiration 

 and delight, and whose exquisite 

 pencil every reader of taste and 

 discernment must distinguish in 

 the Mirror, there was not one of 

 our club who ever published a 

 single sentence, or in all likelihood 

 ever would have done it, had it 

 not been for the accidental publi- 

 cation of the Mirror." 



To Mr. Cullen, the Lounger is 

 under obligation for three pa- 

 pers ; No. 5, on the composition 

 of History ; No. 12, a ludicrous 

 paper on the possibility of ascer- 

 taining the characters of a com- 

 pany from the appearance of their 

 Hats : and No. 73, on Sculpture. 

 The first and third of these essays 

 contains several just and well-ex- 

 pressed remarks, indicative of a 

 mind attached to literary research, 

 and attentive to the progress of 

 art ; while the second excites a 

 smile at the idea of associating 

 character with the form and cut 

 of a hat; it is the vehicle, how- 

 ever, of some keen and well-di- 

 rected satire. 



With Mr. M'Leod Bannatyn, 

 who wrote Nos. IS and 39, the 

 contributions of the members 

 close ; and, turning to the list of 

 correspondents, we find it less 

 numerous and productive tlian in 

 the Mirror, though including two 

 names which had not appeared in 

 that paper, viz. Dr. Henry, the 

 historian, and Mr. Greenfield, 

 professor of rhetoric and belles 

 lettrcs in the university of Edin- 

 burgh. To the former are as- 

 cribed Nos. 1 1 and 60, two pa- 



pers of considerable humour ; the 

 first, relating to the life of sir 

 Thomas Lounger ; the second, in- 

 cluding a proposal for a periodical 

 paper exclusively devoted to the 

 female sex. To the latter, it ap- 

 pears, we are indebted for No. 

 59, on the pains and penalties of 

 Idleness ; and for an ode to a 

 Lady in No. 85. 



Of the correspondents of the 

 Mirror, the only one who has 

 contributed materially to the 

 structure of the Lounger, is Mr. 

 Fraser Tytler, who has furnished 

 Nos. 7, 19, 24, 44, 63, 70, and 

 79, papers which abound with 

 traits of humour and of character. 

 Mr. Tytler, author of the Vindi- 

 cation of Queen Mary, has added 

 one essay, in No. 16, on the de- 

 fects of Female Education ; Mr. 

 D. Hume, two letters in Nos. 25 

 and 55 ; and Professor Richard- 

 son, a pleasing critique, in No. 

 42, on the Poetry of Hamilton of 

 Bangour. 



The Lounger has been consi- 

 dered by some critics as inferior to 

 its predecessor : this does not ap- 

 pear to me to be the case ; it can- 

 not, indeed, boast of a narrative 

 so pathetic as that of La Roche, 

 or Venoni, in the Mirror ; but it 

 does not yield in any other requi- 

 site, either of character, humour, 

 moral instruction, or popular cri- 

 ticism. On the contrary, I think 

 it may be easily proved, that a 

 larger proportion of good papers 

 is to be found in the pages of the 

 Lounger. They have both, how- 

 ever, contributed very highly to 

 the purposes of edification and 

 amusement, to the best and no- 

 blest objects of the genuine petio" 

 dical essay. 



