PREFACE. 



' The first year's existence of a serial publication will to its projector 

 always be, even under the most favourable conditions, a season of great 

 anxiety — in our own case, it has been peculiarly so ; but we indulge the 

 belief tbat, tbanks to tbe fostering care of a generous public, tbe seedling 

 will speedily become a tbriving plant, and that our future path amid the 

 flowers may be strewn with fewer thorns.' 



Such were the words, gentle reader, with which we concluded our first 

 preface ; the result has, however, hardly justified oiu' anticipations ; but if 

 the hopes there expressed have been but partially fulfilled — if the struggle 

 of the past season has been scarcely less arduous than that of the previous 

 one — we have, at least, advanced some steps nearer the goal to which our 

 efforts are directed ; and we trust that the termination of another volume 

 will be accompanied by the announcement that that goal is at last reached. 



We believe that most of the promises made twelve months since, with 

 regard to the improvement of the work, have been kept, and that in 

 quality, certainly in quantity, it will be found to be superior to its predecessor ; 

 in one point only have we occasionally afforded our Subscribers ground for 



