1821.] Edinburgh Review, No, LX Ah 409 
which their crimes .have reduced them. 
A classification of prisoners, according 
to age and turpitude, is the greatest im¬ 
provement in prison discipline; it pre¬ 
vents the bad being made worse, and 
our places of confinement becoming se¬ 
minaries for the direct inculcation of 
villainy. 
44 Classical Education ” is only a blus¬ 
tering sort of essay, and partly a com¬ 
promise of former opinions. The editor 
is not always careful to-preserve con¬ 
sistency in his journal—nor, indeed, in 
the same number; for sometimes it 
happens (oddly enough), that two arti¬ 
cles appear under the same cover, hold¬ 
ing directly opposite principles, which 
shows great indolence in the manager. 
As to the utility of classical learning, it 
is certainly a great error to make the 
study of the dead languages an object 
of primary importance with those who 
hereafter are to have the management 
of public affairs. It js due, however, to 
the English universities to state, that 
the discipline of them has considerably 
improved since Dr. Knox wrote his 
Essays : but they must still be consi¬ 
dered greatly defective, while there re¬ 
mains no provision for teaching a sound 
system of either metaphysical, ethical, 
or political philosophy; and it cannot 
be forgotten, as a lasting reproach to 
these places, that the most distinguish¬ 
ed ornaments of our national literature 
—Dryden, Locke, Johnson, and Gibbon, 
were refused the honours of the uni¬ 
versities. 
44 Capital Punishments” on the whole, 
is good. It contains many just obser¬ 
vations in favour of those classes of so¬ 
ciety, whose interests are too frequently 
sacrificed, and their motives calumni¬ 
ated, iu the cant of religion and aristo¬ 
cracy. An analysis of parliamentary 
reports, however,' it must be observed, 
is not exactly appropriate to a popular 
journal. Desides in this instance, the 
quotations are immeasurably long, and 
the reasoning, in some places, diffuse 
and metaphysical. 
44 Melmoiii the Wanderer P A merit¬ 
ed castigation of the preposterous hor¬ 
rors of the Itadciiffe school of romance, 
which have been lately revived by the 
author of Bertram. It is not very cre¬ 
ditable to the vigilance of periodical 
criticism, that the literature of the 
country never exhibited so mail}'' ex¬ 
amples of bad taste, both in style and 
sentiment. We are completely over¬ 
whelmed with Gothic and Moorish bar¬ 
barities. And what renders our situa- 
Monthly MAa.No. 361. 
tion more hopeless, is, that those who 
ought to have guarded the portals of 
literature from such rude invaders, 
have been the principal means of intro¬ 
ducing them, by their intemperate 
praise of particular writers. How can 
either the Edinburgh or the Quarterly 
set about abating this nonsense, after 
uniting to laud that absurd demoniacal 
ruffian, Anastasias ? 
The sixth article we do not like. Mr. 
Godwin may lie wrong, but the reviewer 
ought not to have exemplified the vices 
in nis own temper, of which he com¬ 
plains in that individual. 
44 The Art of War ” we read with 
loathing and abhorrence. It is a tu¬ 
mid, bombastical essay, of thirty pages, 
on the most effective mode of destroying 
mankind, and wasting the earth. When 
the reviewer talks about the 44 sublime 
art of murder being treated 44 philoso¬ 
phically ,” we are at a loss to conceive 
whether lie be in jest or earnest. Yet, 
we are not confers , nor of that godly 
sort, 44 who deplore the crime of war 
so deeply, that they can hardly pardon 
themselves for, having zealously voted 
for it on all occasions.” 
44 Men Traps and Spring Guns ” re¬ 
peated, is rather too much, especially 
as the second edition does not contain 
any important novelty. Nearly two 
thirds o! the article are occupied in 
collating from the newspapers and Term 
reports, a speech of one of the judges, 
formerly an explanatory note or ad¬ 
denda,^ oi a few lines, would have been 
deemed a great condescension, even to 
a man of such high standing as Mr. 
Justice Best. But the Edinburgh is 
now only an ordinary commodity, in 
the manufacture of which, paste and 
scissars are the chief implements em¬ 
ployed. 
i The 44 Laureate's Hexameters ,” form 
the ninth article. Our flashy reviewers 
fiequently remind one of those ingeni¬ 
ous contrivances, with which we are 
sometimes ensnared in the daily papers; 
when on gravely entering a paragraph’ 
containing apparen t ly important news of 
Bonaparte, the Russians, or the Spanish 
patriots, we suddenly drop on a wretch¬ 
ed lottery puff. Thus our fancy critics 
usually set out like young steeds, full of 
life and vivacity—then, before the end 
of the race, trill into a languid, critical 
essay, with which they eke out the re¬ 
quisite number of pages. Now, who 
could have expected, after the felicitous 
observation on the 44 poetical decompo¬ 
sition" of our effete Laureate, to be 
3 F drawui 
