is unquestionably capable of being greatly improved; and those individuals who would employ talents and industry for this purpose, would entitle themselves to the gratitude of their country and of their species. Such efforts shall ever command our praise. But those schemes which would rashly overturn our existing valuable institutions, without offering us in exchange any thing better than illdigested, impracticable, and therefore useless systems, we must always discountenance; and among such, notwith- | standing the eloquence and wit of the ingenious author, we fear we must class the scheme recommended by Dr Biber in these Lectures on Christian Education. Considerations on Remedial Measures for removing or mi- to estates of a certain value, are unjustifiable restrictions upon one or other of the two classes into which the community is thus arbitrarily distinguished. Less hardship will result from a sudden change, after which affairs will proceed in their usual course, than by a lingering transmutation. To prefer the latter, is to seek with desire the prolongation of a fever paroxysm. Our old proverb holds good even here—“ Better a finger off, than aye wagging." The Excitement; or, a Book to induce Boys to Read. Edinburgh. Waugh and Innes. 1830. 12mo. Pp. 413. appearances of nature, and signal preservations, the description of which is generally listened to, by boys particularly, with the greatest attention; and also with narratives of such striking incidents as are fitted to rouse the most slothful mind." The idea is a happy one; and, as was to be expected from the amiable editor's sound judgment and excellent feeling of the proper mode of communica ting instruction to youth, it is no less happily executed. The articles introduced are all such as boys will devour greedily, and we have no doubt that they will amply justify the name given to the volume, by the preference they will be inclined to bestow upon it above many others usually put into their hands. The contents are, for the most part, selected from different voyages and travels; but a few original communications have been also added, and from these, by way of specimen, we select the following anecdotes, illustrative of THE VORACITY OF THE SHARK. "During the late war in 1800 or 1801, I was on the Jamaica station. A Danish vessel was detained, and sent in for adjudication to Kingston, by one of his Majesty's cruisers, under suspicion of her cargo being enemy's property, as she was laden with coffee from St Domingo, bound to the island of St Thomas, the latter island belonging to Denmark, with whom Great Britain was not at war, the former at that time belonging to the French. On examining her papers, Danish bills of lading were produced, to show As Dandie Dinmont enticed his terriers with the fou marts, so the editor of this work proposes to entice boys with accounts of lion and tiger hunts, boa-constrictors, whales, elephants, shipwrecks, and sharks. "The object of this volume," says Mr Innes, in his preface, “is to furTHIS pamphlet contains many valuable suggestions re-nish the youthful reader with an account of those striking specting the difficult question of which it treats. Any doubt as to the necessity of an alteration in the system of Scotch entails, was silenced by the result of the examinations before the Committee of the House of Commons. It had been previously acknowledged that entails were introduced into Scotland at an alarming period, in order to secure the independence of the Scottish aristocracy, threatened as it was by the measures of an arbitrary and profligate government. It was likewise acknowledged, that the time had long passed when any such fence was necessary. In addition to this, the investigations of the committee to which we have alluded established, that the existence of entails was most detrimental to the commercial stability, and to the economical interests, of the country. It was further established, that in England a much milder system of entails had been found adequate to the preservation of the high spirit of the aristocracy; to which beneficial operation the defenders of entails have latterly limited their assertions of their efficacy. It was even broadly declared by many gentlemen who had enjoyed ample opportunities of observation, that our entailing laws threatened rather to exert a demoralizing influence on our Scottish gentry, from the difficulties in which they involved them. Finally, these laws were admitted to be a fertile and vexatious source of litigation. There could be only one way of dealing with an institution, denounced by the concurrent voice of the country as anomalous and dangerous-its abrogation. The only question that remained, was the best method of setting about it. Various plans have been suggested, the merits of which are discussed by Mr Irvine, in a manner displaying at once much natural sagacity, and an extensive acquaintance with the subject. If we had any voice in the matter, it should be given for that mode of procedure which is most brief and speedy in its operation. All innovations ought to be carefully weighed, deliberated upon, resolved and re-resolved beforehand; but once they have been decreed, then the shortest way of giving them effect is always the best. They are attended with pain and inconvenience, in whatever way we set about them; and every thing that tends to prolong the transition from one state to another, but adds to the annoyance. This holds true more especially in legal enactments; all kinds of compromise between principle and expediency, all half measures and temporary arrangements, serve but to increase the uncertainty which is in some degree inseparable from every extensive system of law. In one word, if entails are to be abrogated, away with them at once. The arrangements between existing heirs of entail may be made with comparative ease: to speak of the claims of those who are yet unborn-of the vested rights of possible contingencies, is a solemn farce. All arrangements for gradually disentailing estates are only of use to produce lawsuits;—all arrangements for maintaining existing entails, while no new ones are allowed to be made, or for restricting the power of entailing the cargo was neutral property, and there was no demur respecting the vessel being a Dane; however, the doubts being strong as to the cargo, she was detained. I beg leave here to remark, I have understood that no other vessel was in time the capture occurred. company, or in sight, but the two individual vessels at the "Some short time after this, a tender, belonging to his Majesty's ship Abergavenny, which ship was stationary in Port Royal, was cruising off St Domingo, and caught a shark. The general practice, from the known voracity of the animal, is to examine the maw, or contents of the stomach. Mr Haycock, afterwards Lieut. Haycock, R. N., was master's mate in the tender, and opened the stomach, when, to his astonishment, a pocket-book, with other substances, appeared. From the short period it had remained, but little injury was done to the papers contained in the book; with care and drying them, they became perfectly intelligible, and proved to be a set of French bills of lading, appertaining to a cargo shipped to St Thomas's, on account and risk of French subjects in St Domingo. The tender returned to port, and delivered the pocket-book and its contents to the admiral, when it was found the bills of lading were the identical papers relative to the cargo of the Danish vessel detained some days previous; and on the trial for the condemnation of her cargo in the Admiralty Court at Kingston, these bills taken out of the shark were produced to prove that the cargo was enemy's property; and the vessel was condemned accordingly, and made prize to the cap tors. "I have only to observe, in relating this singular event, which led to the condemnation of a valuable cargo, that the officer above-mentioned, who cut the pocket-book out of the shark, is I believe still alive, residing in Cork, and that Admiral Sir D. M., I think, was on the station at the time, in command of the La Seine frigate, and that he may have seen the jaws of the shark, which were preserved, and put up at the Admiral's penn, with the circumstances narrated. "I avail myself of this opportunity of mentioning another instance of voracity of the shark, which came under my own observation in 1814, when in command of the ship Lucy and Maria, engaged by the Hon. East India Company to convey his Majesty's 72d regiment from Calcutta to the Cape of Good Hope. On the passage, during a calm, one of the privates was sitting in a port of the lower gun-deck, eating peas-soup out of an English quart tin pot; and, by carelessness, let the pot, with a portion of the soup, fall from his hand overboard; almost immediately after this, it was intimated to me a large shark was caught by the hook; a rope was got over his body, and he was hauled on deck. As he was considered a very large one, most of the officers (sixteen in number) of the regiment, with myself, attended to examine the contents of the stomach, and, to our surprise, the tin pot entire, which the man had dropt overboard, was taken from the shark. Major-General Monckton, who commanded the regiment, was present; Captain Moses Campbell, now on the retired list, and Lieut. Gowan, on the recruiting-service, at present at Glasgow, were likewise witnesses to the circumstance. The Last of the Plantagenets; an Historical Narative; illustrating some of the Public Events, and Domestic and Ecclesiastical Manners, of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries. Second Edition. London. Smith, Elder, and Co. 1829. 8vo. Pp. 408. THIS is a work addressing itself fully mor to the lover of antiquarian research than the mere hunt er after excitement. The story advances with a tranqu`il and leisurely pace-delighting to linger upon minute portraits of the firesides of Old England, its solemn festivals of church and state, the gorgeous panoply and aring deeds of its warriors. It is not meant for the pe rusal of such as are excited only by strong passion and marvellous incident. And yet there is an interest in the tale of no common order. The story is of a son of Richard III. who, educated in the retirement of a monastery, was brought to his father's tent the night before the battle of Bosworth-field. Had the fortune of the fight been good, he was to have been acknowledged the heir of the kingdom; but all his prospects were stricken down with the king his father. The young Plantagenet was foun' 1 on the field, senseless, but still alive, by a Jew, who carried him to his home, with an intention of glutting his vengeance by the slaughter of "I have to remark, on this event, from the greasy apa child of his persecutors, but was brought to better pearance of the tin pot by soup being in it, the shark must Richard Planhave taken it for animal substance, (beef or pork,) as pork thoughts by the interposition of his wife. was boiled in the soup. I met Captain Moses Campbell in tagenet abode with this couple till he was discovered the Highlands last summer, when he brought to my recol- weeping at his father', grave by an old servant of that lection the tin pot and shark story, adding, he had narrated monarch. He was doomed to be scared from this retreat the circumstance, but was afraid it was often doubted."-likewise by the wake fu 1 care of Henry, who summoned P. 384-7. We consider parents as lying under an obligation to Mr Innes, for putting in their way so useful and handsome a volume at this present-giving season of the year. I. Comprising the Period from the Creation to the his new guardian te, court, on suspicion that some intrigues were carrying on among the Yorkists. He was then transferred to the charge of his father's king-at-arms, who lived in retiremer it, exercising the profession of an illuminator of missals. On the rising of the friends of the house of York under Perkin Warbeck, he was intrusted to the care of Lord Lo vel, one of their leaders. The party were routed before he could join them. After undergo Sacred History, in the Form of Letters, addressed to the Pupils of the Edinburgh Sessional School. By the Author of the Account of that Institution, &c. Parting various adventures, he escaped into France, where he took military service, and passed afterwards into the troops of Burgundy, where he won the notice and favour of the Duchess. She nominated him on her death-bed her messenger to carry soi ne bequests to her relations in England. While engaged in discharging this mission, he saw and loved his fair cousin, the youngest daughter of Ed ward IV. His unguarded pursuit of her exposed him to discovery; he fell into the hands of Henry, who doomed him to perpetual imprisonment. He escaped, and sailed, as England could aff ord him no shelter, on a voyage of discovery; on his ret arn from which, he retired, induced‹ by the eloquent serm on of a monk, into a monastery. He' was called, in the dis charge of his ecclesiastical duties, to administer the last consolations of religion to the head of a religious house, in whom he discovered the beloved of his youth, and received from her dying words the first impressions of the reformed faith. On the destruction of the religious houses by Henry VIII., he supported himself by his skill as an architect, until discovered by Sir Thomas Moyle, whose benevolence enabled him to spend his old age in repose. In the retirement thus afforded him he composed his history, for the amusement and edification of the family of his benefactor. THE well-known talents of Mr Wood, as an instructor of youth, cannot fail to secure the success of any educational work which emanates from him. In the task which he has now undertaken, we think he has made a most happy selection of a subject, and is likely to produce a book which will ultimately be found on the shelves of every youthful library, beside the "Tales of a Grandfather." "Notwithstanding the vast number of Libraries," says Mr Wood, "with which the present age abounds, a Sunday Library for Youth' seems still to be a desideratum. There is, indeed, no lack of books, nor of religious books, that have been written expressly for the young; but many of these, including a very large proportion of religious Tales or Romances, the judicious parent and guardian feel themselves under the necessity of rejecting. If the present humble attempt shall be more successful in this quarter, it will be indebted for that success to the deeply interesting nature of its subject." It is not, however, to the subject alone, that Mr Wood will be indebted for his success. He will owe it still more to the beautifully simple and lucid manner in which he has brought before the youthful mind the events of Sacred History. Mr Wood's style is clear, manly, impressive, solemn, and unmethodistical. There is no mawkish whining in his book, but a great deal of good sense, valuable information, and sound religion. We sincerely wish it the most extensive circulation possible, to the utter exclusion and oblivion of that baleful quantity of maudlin trash so frequently introduced into religious circles with good intentions, but calculated only to produce the most emasculating effects on the intellect of man, woman, and child. Many of the characters introduced are drawn with great truth and felicity; in particular, the gentle ladybride, the stout King Richard, the vacillating De Mountford, the fierce and dissolute Bernard Schalken. There is also much graphic power in the narrative of some of the incidents. We could have wished that the author had omitted the few antiquated words with which he has occasionally interspersed his pages, as they only contrast disagreeably with the otherwise entirely modern structure of his sentences. A Practical Formulary of the Parisian Hospitals, exhi-ving sung of the Nativity in a strain which the most orbiting the Prescriptions employed by the Physicians and Surgeons of those Establishments, &c. &c. By F. S. Ratier, M.D. Translated from the Third Edition of the Fre uch, with Notes and Illustrations. By R. D. M'Lellan, M. D. Edinburgh. R. Buchanan. 1830. 12mo. 1'p. 280. THE young er part of the medical profession in this country are in debted to Dr M'Lellan for putting into their hands a ca refully executed translation of this very useful and practi 'cal work, exhibiting a correct view of the state of medial practice in Paris. The volume is also calculated to make the youthful members of the profession acquainted with many new modes of combining and applying remedi es, and with the results to which these modes have in ge peral led. To those students who have the prospect of atter ding the medical schools of Paris we would especially reco) unend the work; for they will find the information it afiards regarding the hospitals and clinical courses of the grea est utility. Dr M'Lellan has added a considerable number of Notes of his own, which indicate an extensive and highly creditable acquaintance with his profession. Stories of Popular Voyages and Travels, with Illustrations. Travels in Turkey. London. Hurst, Chance, and Co. 1830. Pp. 279. thodox high-churchman (Laud himself, or, higher still, his amiable historian, John Parker Lawson,) might envy. Jesting apart, however, Milton's Ode "on the Morning of Christ's Nativity," and some other of his minor pieces, composed about the same period, are worthy of more attention than has hitherto been paid to them, as affording an interesting picture of the earliest attempts of his mighty mind to embody its workings in distinct imagery, and clothe them in words-a process not unaptly shadowed out under the picture he afterwards drew of the lion at the moment of his creation, now half appear'd The tawny lion, pawing to get free His hinder parts." We find, in these earlier productions of Milton, the same felicity and copiousness of classical allusion that accompanied him to the last; only it is not here husbanded and skilfully applied, but poured out with the profusion of one who has far more than he can tell how to make use of. The majestic phantoms of old times crowd so upon his fancy, that he can scarcely name the first, before a second has already stepped into its place. He runs over a catalogue of their names, as if every reader could, from his own stores, hang clusters of associations around them, as full and rich as his own. We can often trace in them anticipations of sublimity, to the full conception of which "My sorrows are too dark for day to know: white." We had occasion, some time ago, to speak very favour-his mind was not yet adequate, giving to his verses a conably of a previous volume of this work, containing Stories strained and laboured character. Thus taken from Popular Travels in South America. We can speak equally well of that now before us. It confines itself to the consideration of European Turkey, and contains, among many other things, a sketch of the History and Geography of the Empire, together with an account of the Manners and Customs of the Inhabitants of Constantinople, with a description of that interesting City. The whole is founded upon the narratives of Macfarlane, Madden, Walsh, Frankland, Andr eossy, and other recent travellers. The work is very ha ndsomely printed, and embellished with several fine illustrations. The Edinburgh Memorandum-Bock; or General, Commercial, and Juridical Remembran æer and Scottish Diary for 1830. Edinburgh. John Anderson, jun.; and William Hunter. 12no. Pp. 156. THIS is as good a work of the kind as could be wished. The lists are full and satisfactory, ind the whole is got up with much neatness, and all due attention to the convenience of the reader. MISCELLANEOUS LITERATURE. MILTON AND HIS CHRISTMAS ODE. Ir there is any favour of Providence for which a man ought to be supremely thankful, it is for being born in the winter time. Encountering storms and snow from our birth, is like plunging into a cold bath the moment we get out of bed--it braces us for all that is to come. Fate owed some such strengthening medicine to Milton, for the darkness and evil tongues which were to come down on his latter days. Accordingly, we find that he was born on the 21st of December, (the 9th O. S.)—as wintry a time as a reasonable man could well desire. must have been some of those undefinable sympathies, which so often direct the thoughts and actions of men, some yearning after that kind of weather to which he was first inured, that led him to dwell so often upon winter landscapes-dull, cheerless things, from which the herd of mankind turn away shivering. And nothing short of such a link can account for the stern puritan ha It Even his language and versification is not what it afterwards became. In the poems of which we are now speaking, he approaches more nearly than he subsequently did to the poets of the Elizabethan age. There is sometimes a forced elevation of verse, contrasting strongly with a poverty of language, that reminds us of Marlow. The melody of the following passage in the Ode on "The Passion," is Spenser all over : "For now to sorrow must I tune my song, And set my harp to notes of saddest woe, Dangers, and snares, and wrongs, and worse than so, He resembles these old poets, too, in the startling uncon- Thus "That glorious form, that light insufferable, Yet even in these poems, he bursts occasionally into that "This is the month, and this the happy morn, Occasionally, too, we find passages, which, for deep-felt and delicate beauty, are not surpassed in any of his works. Of this kind is the beautiful image of Peace "She, crown'd with olive green, came softly sliding Down through the burning sphere, With turtle wing the amorous clouds dividing.” The effect of the divine afflatus on the priest at Delphos is likewise finely conceived "No mighty trance, or breathed spell, Inspired the pale-eyed priest." And the attitude of kings awaiting Christ's advent— "The kings sat still with awful eye, liar an intercourse, he had become exceedingly like one of themselves. His dress was that of a jockey, and his language that of a stable-boy. If at any time he was compelled to listen to state matters, he invariably interrupted his ministers with a " Brr, brr," or, "Come up, my little man," or some such elegant phrase. The courtiers under this king were exactly what they are everywhere else the imitators of their superiors; and the halls of the palace resounded, therefore, with the noise of their heavy boots and clanking spurs. Even the most gallant among the young nobles, in place of chapeaux bras, carried long whips in their hands, which they cracked in the ladies' ears, instead of whispering soft nothings into them. Rude and unpolished as they were, they never condescended to speak, as people of cultivated minds always do, of plays, balls, love, dress, and such important matters; but, from morning to evening, their horses afforded an unchanging theme. It is said that courts are the paradise of women, but this certainly was not the case in the court to which we allude. The ladies enjoyed neither flattery nor amusements of any kind; and the poor queen, in particular, and her two beautiful daughters, were really to be pitied. They had nothing better to do than to yawn away their time in their gilded chambers, or to sit at the windows, and fret themselves to death at the eternal exercising the king held of his beloved quadrupeds right in front of the palace. At length they represented the irksomeness of their case to the monarch, in terms so touching, that at their united and earnest entreaties, he consented to give a ball, fixing, of course, upon one of the days usually set apart for the bleeding and doctoring of the horses. As if they surely knew their sovereign Lord was by.', What seems to us most peculiarly striking in these poems, and most prophetic of Milton's future character, is their unimpassioned tone. The only things that seem to excite him are beauty, harmony, and moral enthusiasm. We can trace nowhere, that thrilling of the nerves and rush of blood which makes, in most men, the time of life he had then attained, one delicious dream of passion. Turning from the contemplation of these untimely blossoms, to the works upon which Milton's fame rests, we are struck with the isolated character of his genius. He stands in the line of our land's poets, among them, but not of them. His high finish has nothing in common with the gorgeous rusticity of his predecessors, and as little sympathy is there between his rapt and lofty musings, and the strong common sense and courtly polish of the wits who came after him. There is nothing national in his thoughts or feelings. He is more at home, and finds more kindred souls, in Athens, Rome, and on the mountains of Judah, than in merry England. His very language is foreign. His words are half Latin-gold-clocked silk stockings, as they ought--but in their comhis constructions have a classical denseness and compactness. There is a harmony in his blank verse, that we would seek in vain in any other English poet. His poetry has no human passion. Its tone is calm and equable. There is in it an exquisite feeling of the beauties of nature and art—a relish for harmony-a love of all that is good-a power of sympathising with all that is great,— but there is little or no sympathy with individual man. The perusal of Milton is like the performance of an act of devotion. The world, its cares and joys, grow dim; we feel our minds expanded, and a sublime harmony dif fused through all our thoughts. We are no longer at the mercy of every chance emotion, but are become images of the sustained and majestic progress of the universe. THE TRUE ORIGIN OF THE GALOPADE.* Translated from the German of Langbein, by one of the Authoresses of the "Odd Volume," "Tales and Legends," &c. A FEW leaves of the Chronicles of a country, the situation of which I do not choose to mention, and the name of which I am determined to keep secret, have fortunately fallen into my hands. The Chronicle contains the private memoirs of one of its kings, who, it appears, was passionately fond of horses, and of every thing connected with them. Nearly the half of his revenues was lavished upon the royal stud, which consisted of several hundred noble steeds. They fed from marble mangers, and drank out of silver buckets; and every thing relating to the manage was conducted in the same style of magnificence. As was to be expected, this intellectual, high-minded prince, spent the greatest part of his time among his four-legged favourites; and, by so constant and fami It may not be generally known to our country readers, that the Gallopade is now the only dance much patronised in the fashionable cucles of the metropolis. The night of the ball came, but what was the surprise of the ladies, who were all assembled in full dress, to see the courtiers enter the ball-room-not in dancing shoes and mon riding apparel. His Majesty, however, occasioned them still greater surprise, when he declared, in the most condescending manner, that, booted and spurred as he was, he intended to open the ball with a dance entirely of his own invention. The reader already anticipates, that the royal breaker of horses could not have invented any other dance but the Galopade, now so much renowned. His Majesty led out the lady highest in rank, and, arranging the other couples in a large ring, he seized his partner round the waist, and then bounded forward with his astonished fair one in a wild and thundering gallop round the circle. The rest followed this obstreperous pair in the same manner, his Majesty directing with his whip the movements of the bipeds, who were making themselves as like quadrupeds as possible. A few matronly ladies, and some elderly barons, who were not quite rapid enough in their motions to please this extraordinary director of the cere monies, were honoured with some pretty sharp hints from his rod of correction. His Majesty was in high spirits, springing forward at an amazing rate,-jumping, whirling, and tossing his partner from his right to his left arm, from his left to his right, till the dance became so wild, so hot, so hurried, that the ladies, with robes, petticoats, laces, and flounces torn to pieces by the spurs of the accomplished cavaliers, sank breathless and exhausted upon chairs and sofas. A LETTER FROM DUBLIN. Dublin, 22d Dec. 1829. faithful wife, the gentle expressive countenance of an affectionate mother, the joyous sympathy of an unmarried uncle,-place us where a sight like this is to be seen, and we envy not a seat upon the bench, the woolsack, or the THE first term of the year (as we always call the one throne. The play is over, and we have no doubt a very which closes it in Ireland) is generally a dull one, and excellent play too, though we cannot exactly take upon us this year it has been particularly so. Except the blow-up to say whether it was "Hamlet" or "The Jealous Wife.” between the great counsellor and his friend Pierse Ma- The play is over, and the people have stood up in the pit, hony, which has now come before the world in the newsand put on their hats, and chatted, and looked round. papers, there has been little of public interest astir in the And now the fiddlers, who have been away fully longer hall of the Four Courts. The Royal Irish Academy than the gentlemen in the upper gallery thought altogether meets as usual, to ballot for new members, and pass the proper, have come back again, and Mr Pindar, after leanaccompts. The Dublin Society is in full correspondenceing over his music-stand to say something exceedingly with Lord Leveson Gower, who wants to withdraw or humorous to Mr Platt, which makes Mr Platt laugh in diminish the Government grant; make them charge for evident delight, draws his bow across the bridge of his their lectures, which have hitherto been free to the pub- violin, and makes a shrill squeaking noise, which is imilic; alter the mode of admitting the members; and, in tated by the whole orchestra, until, harmony being ob short, remodel the whole institution. Nothing final, how-tained, they strike up one of the spirit-stirring airs of old ever, has yet been determined on. The Society has just Scotland, and a thousand heads, hearts, hands, and feet, granted their gold medal to Mr Hogan, a Cork artist, beat time to the strain. The pit sits down, the galleries who is now exhibiting here a magnificent statue of a dead sit down, the boxes sit down. But expectation is on tipChrist, which he has recently executed at Rome. The toe. Hark! the bell rings! Up goes the curtain! Now resolution entered into last Thursday by the committee of for "The Twelfth Cake, or Harlequin Rainbow!" Well, Fine Arts was, that, "Having viewed Mr Hogan's statue we declare, there they all are in the back parlour of Mr of the Redeemer after Death, together with a plaster cast Chocolate, the celebrated London grocer! Did you ever of a Fawn, from a model executed by him at Rome, we see a merrier party assembled on a Christmas night? Miss are unanimously of opinion, that in both these works Mr Rose, to be sure, seems a little afraid of the very polite Hogan has displayed a union of rare and high talent, attentions of Mr Alderman Guttlewell, who certainly has fully meriting the distinction proposed to be conferred on a head big enough to swallow Rose at one gulp; but the him." This is, I believe, only the second gold medal young sailor, Harry Spritsail, soon comes to her assistgranted by the Society since its foundation. The former ance, and one may see with half an eye how the wind one was to Sir Charles Giesecke, their own professor of blows. Well, did you ever witness such a game at romps? mineralogy. The figure, which is recumbent, and of the Nobody could say where it would have ended, but whew! size of life, is really admirable for so young an artist, and in the twinkling of an eye, down tumbles one of the walls affords great promise of future excellence. of Mr Chocolate's back parlour, and in walks, from her magic chariot among the clouds, Iris, the Goddess of the Rainbow. She is in a thundering passion; and, in one moment, our worthy friend, Mr Chocolate, is changed from a celebrated London grocer into Pantaloon; and, in like time, the polite Alderman Guttlewell is metamorphosed into Clown, Rose into Columbine, and Harry Spritsail into Harlequin. Iris takes her departure, and off the merry quartett go on their perpetual race of fun and frolic. It is now that the interest becomes intense, and that the eyes of all the little rosy boys and girls sparkle like diamonds, and their clear laughter rings among all the crystals of the chandeliers. But the tricks that follow,-the "quips, and pranks, and wanton wiles," —what uninspired pen shall essay to describe? By Jove! there is actually Duddingston Loch, or some place very like it, and there are several members of the Skating Club gliding away upon skates, in a manner that would do honour to Messrs Cockburn, Torry, and Simpson;-boys sliding, too! just as we ourselves used to do on the Nor' Loch some fifty years ago, and tripping each other in glorious style, and flinging snow-balls, and then quarrelling,— a regular fight "across the bonnets ;"-but, good Heaven! Mr Paul Pry has fallen in; see! there is his head above the ice,-now, plump! he disappears altogether. For mercy's sake, bring ropes and a ladder! The Clown goes to the edge of the hole, when, lo! up rises Mr Paul Pry's ghost, at least ten feet tall! Never mind! the Clown is a bold man ; he ties a cracker to the tail of the ghost's coat, and blows the gigantic phantom [into the air! Presto! Pass!-the wintry landscape disappears, and behold! a lovely sunmer garden, with flowers of all hues and odours; and there come that happy pair, Harlequin and Columbine, with hearts too light and gay for any movement but that of the dance-O! that we had been born a Harlequin ! Yet, that funny fellow, the Clown, has a part of our envy See! he has got into a haunted kitchen, the most suspicious and mysterious-looking place we ever beheld. Only look at that huge Tom-cat sitting by the side of the fire, with his great red eyes and long black tail, which he whisks about so fearfully! Hark' the clock Our Diorama has expired, and is to be succeeded by a Minor Theatre, for which Mr Jones, the former patentee of the Theatre in Crow Street, obtained permission from the last Lord-Lieutenant; and then finding, as I understand, that he was unable to establish such a thing respectably himself, sold his privilege to a showman of the name of Scott, who promises great doings. At the Theatre-Royal, Auber's opera of Masaniello has had a great run, and Braham has been in excellent voice. He takes his benefit and farewell to-morrow night. Fanny Ayton, it is said, is come. Some of the booksellers of Dublin have had a meeting to establish a trade company similar to that of London, for publishing reprints of standard works, &c. They have eaten one dinner on the strength of it already, and have referred to a committee to examine and report what further should be done. The University press is at length actively engaged in putting forth a complete edition of Archbishop Usher's works, under the inspection and revision of Dr Elrington, son of the Bishop of Ferns, and King's Professor of Divinity in Dublin. The only local literary news of much interest at present is the commencement of a new Literary Gazette, pretty much on the same plan as that of your Literary Journal, being devoted to literature, the fine arts, and local and personal sketches. There is much show of vigour and originality in the notices of its appearance which have already been made public, and there is a sort of patriotic feeling enlisted in its behalf, as a really powerful effort to raise Dublin and Ireland from the very low position which they occupy at present as a literary place and nation. THE DRAMA. THE highest happiness to be enjoyed on earth consists in seeing a Christmas Pantomime. Place us in any box not farther off than the fourth from the stage, surround us with a whole bevy of merry juvenile faces, and among these plant, at proper intervals, the graceful figure of a too. |