58 REVIEW.-Retrospective Review. The jessamy writers are men of fancy, fit to make maudling extracts, and snipsnap remarks, but proof, categorical proof, is above their reach. Previous to dismissing this article, we shall present our readers 'with some delectable prose, concerning Walton, but equally applicable to any one else-'twill serve again on a fresh occasion, as Leonora says * "When we turn from the writings of his [Walton's] contemporaries, and escape from the smoke of metaphysics, and the stir and turmoil of the great world, to the pastoral repose of Thealma, we feel like one, who long in populous city pent, where houses thick and sewers annoy the air, inhales again the spirit-stirring breeze of the fields, expatiates amidst smiling plains and embowered walks, and listens to the musical strife of birds, or the plash of distant waterfalls." The musical strife of birds, we conceive, is only to be found in a rookery; and the plash of distant waterfalls not to be found at all, except in the exhibited gardens of the great.-What follows is in the same strain, and need not be repeated. V. History of the Knights Templars. -The principal demerit of this essay is, that it wants copiousness of re search: much might have been said on the origin and progress of the Templars, particularly as the writer professes to review a history of their order. What there is is good, but marked by a figurative and turgid style, as well as a scepticism with regard to testimonies, both of which are inconsistent with historical composition. VI. Robert Southwell's Works.Robert Southwell was a Jesuit, and a missionary priest in England, during the reign of Elizabeth, a perilous time for avowed Catholics. His life is a diary of persecutions; after a long imprisonment, worn out with torture and privation, he was executed in 1592, for labouring diligently in his holy office, at the early age of thirty-three. The Reviewer has apparently fallen into an error in the account of his trial, for after remarking that Father Southwell pleaded, "not guilty of any treason whatever," he says that he was found "guilty on his own confession." Either the jury or the critic have been guilty of a most unaccountable oversight. [Jan We shall give an extract from the Martyr's poetry, which for simplicity and moral truth is almost unrivalled: "THE IMAGE OF DEATH. # "I read the label underneath, That telleth me whereto I must; I see the sentence too, which saith, The verses, entitled, Loss in Delays," and "Love's Servile Lot," merit the attention ef every reader; of the latter we shall quote a few lines: "She shroudeth vice in virtue's veil, She offereth joy, but bringeth grief; "She makes thee seek-yet fear to find: She yields, to more annoy.' The following stanza commences with an admirable piece of logic; we suppose that Father Southwell, condemned to celibacy himself, wished to place Love in no alluring view for others. "May never was the month of love, For love is full of showers. "Plough not the seas-sow not the sandsLeave off your idle pain, Seek other mistress for your minds Love's service is in vain." VII. Bacon's Novum Organum.— This work had been before noticed [vol. III. part i. p. 141-167], promising "to be concluded in our next;" but Reviewers are made of the same unperforming material as their fellowcreatures. To revive forgotten works, and condense volumes into leaves, is the proper object of a publication like this: but to fill thirty-six pages with a tedious abstract of a dull science, inlaid with thewriter's pseudo-philosophic opinions and systems, above the compre + Nature. hension 1822.] REVIEW.-Playfair on Agricultural Distress. VIII. Memoirs of Gaudentio di Lucca. An article composed of extracts and remarks, according to the pattern of former volumes. Di Lucca pretends to have discovered a country beyond Egypt, to which he gave the name of Mezorania; and this crambe recocta is by some ascribed to Bishop Berkeley, who, we think, had too much sense to scribble Utopia at secondhand. IX. Chapman's Plays.-This article consists almost entirely of extracts, which the reviewer very properly terms 'enormous,' and comment too scanty to deserve a particular notice. We cannot dismiss this number, without regretting that the Retrospective Reviewers have too closely imitated the Jessamy School. But so manifest are the improvements in these pages, that we trust our authors will persevere in writing what deserves to be read; and the time may yet come, when the Retrospective will exhibit essays replete with erudition, and devoid of absurdity. He THE chief bearing of Mr. Playfair's argument is the enormous loss to the Farmer by his dealings with the Cornfactor, whom he (Mr. P.) denominates a Regrated Monopolist, &c. and holds up to the vengeance of the Law and the Publick. says, that the Jobber gains four pounds an acre net profit out of the Farmer's produce, which, if his corn were permitted to have a fair market, would infallibly secure him from any feeling of distress. "The produce of an acre of wheat, which, it is fair to reckon at three quarters and a half at 53s. the present price, is still above 91.; but the price of the loaves amounts to 16. 13s. 3d.; only 3l. 8s. 3d. of which goes to the baker; so that the mat- "For the wheat on an acre "400 loaves at 10d. 9 5 6 3 8 3 "The question is, who gets this 3 19 6 "Thus nearly 41. an acre go to the intermediate dealers, which is equal to four times the advanced rent and taxes. It will be a large allowance to suppose 11. 1s. goes for carriage and other expenses between the sale of the corn and the purchase of the flour, so that 21. 18s. will still remain to the dealers, which is 16s. a quarter, or more than one third of the price of the grain." P. 10. To remedy this, Mr. Playfair in the main recommends that the trade between the Baker and his Customers should always be a ready money one, because otherwise the Bakers are obliged to buy on credit- that is, to buy dear, and therefore to sell dear. "They manage this matter better in France; their government takes care that all those practising the trade of baker, or butcher, or wood-merchant (which latter is the same as coal-merchant) shall have for their stock in trade. Those tradesmen capital sufficient to pay with ready money give no long credit, and matters go on with a facility, and at a cheap price, of which, in England, we have no idea." "At the present price of corn in France, supposing it to be the same as it is here, the bread would be but 6d per quartern loaf." P. 43. "Mr. Playfair proceeds further to show, that to regulate the price of labour by the price of wheat, is an absurdity; and the idea is also fallacious, that while gold and silver were the currency of the country, prices were steady, and that the rise of late years was entirely owing to bank notes being used in place of metallic money." P. 47. 60. REVIEW.-The Two Foscari. merely glance at the present production, by stating the plot, and giving a single extract. In the present piece, the noble Author has drawn a powerful picture of the cruelty and oppression exercised by the monsters, named the Council of Ten, which in 1442 governed the republic of Venice. The Doge, Francis Foscari, was compelled by that bloody tribunal to see his son, James Foscari, tortured three times, upon charges only supported by suspicion. The son, who was finally sentenced to banishment for life, died in prison. The Doge was also deposed by the Council, after the decemvirs had compelled him to make oath he never would resign his high dignity. The Ten Devils, as they were afterwards called by a decree, absolved him from his oath, and elected Pasqual Malipseri his successor. The Doge Foscari dropped down dead when he heard St. Mark's bell sound his own humiliation and the election of his successor. The following scene in the Tragedy is interesting. Jocopo Foscari is conveyed from the dungeons of St. Mark to the Council of Ten, where he is to submit the thirdtime to the torture. The guard seeing the state of his limbs, which have been dislocated upon the wheel, humanely conducts him to a window, which overlooks the waters : Guard There, sir, 'tis open- Jacopo Foscari-Like a boy-Oh Venice! Bounding o'er yon blue tide, as I have skimm'd Raced for our pleasure in the pride of strength, And laughing from my lip the audacious brine, [Jan. By those above, till they wax'd fearful; then With a far dashing stroke, and drawing deep Guard-Be a man now :-there never was Of manhood's strength. Jacopo Foscari-(looking from the lattice) My only Venice-this is breath!—Thy breeze, Guard-And the third time will slay you. So I be buried in my birth place; better Which persecutes me; but my native earth Officer-Bring in the prisoner. The third time they have tortur'd me-then Thine arm. We cannot take leave of Lord Byron without noticing his remarks relative to charges of Plagiarism that have been brought against him. Among other stateinents, he observes "In Lady Morgan's fearless and excellent Work on Italy, I perceive the expression of "Rome of the Ocean," applied to Venice. The same phrase occurs in the Two Foscari. My publisher can vouch for me, that the Tragedy was written and sent to England some time before I had seen Lady Morgan's Work, which I only received on the 16th of August. I hasten, however, to notice the coincidence, 1822.] REVIEW.-The Two Foscari. coincidence, and to yield the originality of the phrase to her who first placed it before the public. I am the more anxious to do this, as I am informed (for I have seen but few of the specimens, and those accidentally,) that there have been lately brought against me charges of Plagiarism. I have also had an anonymous sort of threatening intimation of the same kind, apparently with the intention of extorting money." Lord Byron bitterly complains, that he has been reproached also for having formed the description of a shipwreck, in verse, from the narratives of many actual shipwrecks in prose; and accused, in a nameless epistle, of receiving 500l. for writing advertisements for Day and Martin's patent blacking. The latter, he considers the highest compliment to his literary powers he ever received. He was also charged, he says, with writing the notes to "Queen Mab," a work he never saw until after its publication. Mr. Southey has not escaped the lash of his Lordship, whose anger seems to have been chiefly excited by Mr. Southey's applying the term "Satanic School" to the noble Author's writings. In adverting to Mr. Southey's opposition to certain writings which led to the French Revolution, the noble Lord declares, that the French Revolution was not occasioned by any writings whatsoever, but must have occurred had no such writers ever existed. The cause is obvious ;-the Government exacted too much, and the people could neither give nor bear more. Acts on the part of the Government, and not writings against them, have caused the past convulsions, and are tending to the future." An Aristocrat by birth, with the greatest part of his property in the funds, he can gain nothing, he observes, by a Revolution; and perhaps has more to lose than Mr. S. Upon the subject of attacking the Religion of the Country, be asks, whether Mr. S. is abetting it by writing Lives of Wesley? There never was, nor ever would be, a country without Religion. "Paris only, and a frantic party, upheld for a moment their dogmatical nonsense of Theo-Philanthropy. The Church of England, if overthrown at all, will be swept away by the Sectarians, and not by the Sceptics." The noble Author concludes by making severe observations on a death-bed repentance, as anticipated by Mr. S. 61 Mr. Southey has replied, through the medium of the public papers, to the animadversions of his Lordship; and has certainly manifested no deficiency in recrimination and invective; but non nostrum tantas componere lites." Without entering into the controversy, we shall merely extract a single passage: coming in him to call me a scribbler of all "Of the work which I have done, it becomes me not here to speak, save only as relates to the Satanic School, and its Coryphæus, the Author of Don Juan. I have held up that school to public detestation, as enemies to the religion, the institutions, and the domestic morals of their country. I have given them a designation to which their founder and leader ANSWERS. I have sent a stone from my sling which has smitten tened his name upon the gibbet, for reproach and ignominy, as long as it shall endure.-Take it down who can!" their Goliah in the forehead. I have fas 62 REVIEW. Brady's Guzman D'Alfarache. opens our eyes to the tricks of knaves of all kinds: though the characters of this class of men are admirably exposed, yet we find him general and vague when he has to treat of superior life. If he mentions the goodness of the great, it is, in a manner, like the flattery of a servant who had been handsomely used in regard to vails; and he never speaks of mankind philosophically or liberally. He exhibits all the prying observation, and the envenomed contracted description of character, peculiar to the servants' hall; dressed up in the garb of a scholar, and disguised by a taste for humour. In short, he seemed to take no delight in good characters, but, a literary vulture, gormandized on carrionNewgate Calendars. His Heroes are those of the Beggar's Opera. In the Work before us he exposes, -on [Jan. with exquisite satire, the tricks of Beggars; and many will read with pleasure the repeated villainies of his knavish adventurer, because they are united with much dry humour and keen remark. The following observations concerning courtiers is in his best manner : "God deliver every honest man from persons who possess power and bad disposition united. How blind are these idols of the Court, who expect to be adored like that they are but miserable comedians, apDeities! They must surely have forgotten pointed to play principal characters; and that at the end of the piece, that is to say, of their lives, they must leave the stage, like ourselves, and be thought of no more.' p. 280. Mr. Brady's translation is animated and good. LITERARY INTELLIGENCE. Cambridge, Jan. 4.-R. Woodhouse, esq. Lucaston Professor of Mathematics, was unanimously elected Plumian Professor of Experimental Philosophy, vice the late Archdeacon Vince. The Rev. J. Lonsdale, M. A. tutor of King's College, is elected Christian Advocate, vice the Rev. T. Rennell.-The Hulsean Prize for the year 1821 was on Monday adjudged to W. Trollope, B. A. of Pembroke Hall; subject, The Expedients to which the Gentile Philosophers resorted in opposing the progress of the Gospel described, and applied in illustration of the Truth of the Christian Religion.-The subject of the Hulsean Prize Dissertation for the present year is, The Argument for the Genuineness of the Sacred Volume as generally received by Christians. -G. W. Hadham, esq. LL. B. of Trinity Hall, is elected to the Fellowship vacated by the resignation of the Rev. D. Geldart, Regius Professor of Civil Law. Professor MONK has been occupied for three or four years in preparing a Life of Dr. Bentley; a work which, it is expected, will be sent to the press early in the ensuing Spring. The biography of this scholar, the most celebrated of all who ever established a reputation in the department of classical learning, is intimately connected with the history of the University of Cambridge for above 40 years, a period of unusual interest, and with the literary history of this country for a still longer time. Ready for Publication. A Summary of Christian Faith and Practice, confirmed by References to the Text of Holy Scripture; compared with the Liturgy, Articles, and Homilies of the Church of England; and illustrated with Extracts from the chief of those Works which received the sanction of public authority from the time of the Reformation to the final revision of the established Formularies. By the Rev. E. J. BURROW, D.D. F.R. & L.S. The Village Preacher, a Collection of short, plain Sermons, partly original, partly selected, and adapted to village instruction. By a Clergyman of the Church of England. Twenty Sermons on the Evidences of Christianity, as they were stated and enforced in the Discourses of our Lord; comprising a connected View of the Claims which Jesus advanced, of the Arguments by which he supported them, and of his Statements respecting the Causes, Progress, and Consequences of Infidelity, delivered before the University of Cambridge in the Spring and Autumn of the year 1821, at the Lecture founded by the Rev. John Hulse. By JAMES CLARKE FRANKS, M. A. Chaplain of Trinity College. Six Discourses preached before the University of Oxford. By THOMAS LONGWOOD SPONG, B. D. of Oriel College, Oxford, Chaplain to the Lord Bishop of Llandaff. Suggestions on Clerical Elocution. By JOHN LETTICE, D.D. Prebendary of Chichester, and Vicar of Peasmarsh, Sussex. The Preacher; or, Sketches of original Sermons, chiefly selected from the manuscripts of two eminent Divines of the last century, for the use of Lay Preachers and young Ministers; to which is prefixed, A Familiar Essay on the Composition of a Sermon.-Vol. II. is in the Press. A Geographical, Historical, and Topographical Description of Van Dieman's Land; |