reached London, that we could institute a parallel between them, and form a conclusion. That which chiefly disgusted us, was the glaring contradiction of the English, who, although the first to introduce into public life the practical idea of universal equality in the eyes of the law, do nevertheless legally implant and foster the spirit of aristocracy at both their universities. For, at Christ Church, Oxford, it is only possible for a talented and diligent youth, of poor and ignoble parentage, to gain admittance by a favourable introduction, and, by good conduct, to work his way to an ecclesiastical fellowship. Moreover, the regulation that obliges all students, whether of the law or physic, to devote a year of their course to theology, and undergo an examination in it, is both useless and illiberal. It is also very disadvantageous, that the students should not daily be tutored in the spirit of those sciences to which they are most attached, by means of four or five lectures; but be entirely left to their own diligence, even in those sciences best capable of being demonstrated. Whence they lose the animation which vivâ voce instruction imparts, and by which many of our students are awakened to nobler conceptions. For the most distinguished teachers may, during term time, limit the number of their public lectures; and should the private tutors not be so well qualified or zealous as they ought, it is very fortunate for a young man, if he possess sufficient internal energy, to impel him to study, and acquire knowledge, although encumbered with partialities and prejudices. But to this prejudiced and partial view of a subject, may be attributed at the same time the rudiments of knowledge which are discerned in many English. Lastly, the strict religious discipline, under which all students, even though they be hypocrites, pine away, can have no beneficial influence upon the English character, which is naturally too much given to thoughtfulness: so that many, at a later period of their lives, are obliged to seek, by a long residence on the Continent, to dispel this melancholy, and to regain some relish for the enjoyments of life. On the other hand, we admit, that the respect for the very letter of the laws, which is impressed upon the Englishman from his earliest youth, keeps him, in a great measure, free from those barbarous excesses of which our young students have too often been guilty. It is also very favourable for the formation of a peaceful and quiet character, that the course of studies in the universities is chiefly founded upon the master-pieces of classical antiquity. It cannot, moreover, be denied, that the unembarrassed circumstances of most of the English students, are favourable to the pursuit of learning; whilst many of our students can with the greatest difficulty support themselves at the university, and cannot consequently continue their exertions with spirit and effect, when they must depend upon the compassion of librarians, and professors, to supply them with the most necessary books. The English, in fine, are most certainly gainers in being compelled by their own efforts to arrive at the power of thinking; whilst our finest youths are tied down to mere listening, repeating, and copying, and from too many lectures upon a particular subject, find no time left for reflecting upon what they have heard, and written down, before they are at once called into active life. pp. 193-195. Mr. Jäck's description of our universities closes the journal of his residence in England; and we have no inclination to follow him in his subsequent tour through the Low Countries, which he visited, by his own confession, too rapidly for the collection of much interesting knowledge. There is a great deal of detail, and of that sort of information in his volume, which may always be gleaned from guide books and itineraries; but we find little elevation in his sentiments, and not much spirit and intelligence in his descriptions. In England, he mingled very seldom with gentlemen, as we understand the term; and whenever he has enjoyed an introduction to any individuals of that peculiar class, which is unknown in other countries, and forms the value and the pride of our English society, he always regards them as noblemen, and seems to have imagined them entitled to the distant and servile homage, which the German citizen is habituated to render to the high-born of his land. His common English associates were evidently of a far lower order; and in judging of our institutions, he has always viewed them under the impressions which he might doubtless receive from such companions. He certainly possesses, what is no uncommon acquirement in Germany, some considerable share of learning, and much useful information on trade, manufactures, and practical science in general. But his philanthropy is mere vulgularity and his philosophy only irreligion. ART. XIV. May Fair. In Four Cantos. 8vo. pp. 194. 8s. London: Ainsworth. 1827. THIS is a very pleasant little volume of good humoured satire, much in the style of "Crockford House;" with this difference, that the verse is more musical, and the subject more diversified. There is scarcely a name known to the "Court Circular," which does not figure here, under a character that may be easily recognised; scarcely a ridiculous usage, consecrated by modern fashion, which is not here exposed. The author is a laughing philosopher, who, with a keen sense of what is absurd, incongruous, and mean in our higher circles, has still the fortitude to resist his swelling indignation, and to pass it off in a well-tempered smile, as if he found the evils of which he complains too enormous for sober correction. While we avow that, in perusing this production, we have laughed a good deal with the writer, we hope he will excuse us if we admit, that we have now and then laughed at him, as he has laughed at others. Inconsistently enough he sets himself up as the censor of all that is subject to reproach in the fashionable world, and yet in very many pages he goes out of his way, in order to convince us that he is himself a leading member of the class, against which he has discharged every shaft in his quiver. This is truly comic. It is in the very spirit of that folly, which he seems so anxious to eradicate. Of his four cantos, perhaps, more than the half might have been easily written by the least gifted of that courteous and indefatigable tribe, which every bookseller has at his command. That some such pseudo-patrician has been the chief concocter of May Fair,' we are far from asserting; though it must be perceived, from certain laudatory references which are made to the opera, and to the confectionary and cookery books of Jarrin and Ude, that the publisher and the poet have had some little previous understanding on the subject. Moreover, we have not heard, or seen it positively stated, that May Fair' is the production of a lord, or even of a baronet: whence we may conclude, that there is no pretence for supposing it to be any thing more than the gossip of the last six months, ingeniously converted into rhyme by one of those numerous literary loungers, with whom the town abounds, and who, on being duly moved thereto, can turn their hands to any thing, from a sonnet for a magazine, to a new edition of Milton. 6 This jeu d'esprit is divided into four cantos, entitled 'The Morning Visit-The Dinner'-The After-Dinner' and The Midnight Drive,' and ends with a postscript. It requires no very intimate acquaintance with princes and dukes to be able, now-a-days, to give a tolerably accurate picture of the habits of high life. People in that class are so much abroad, they live so constantly on the public stage of society, that every shade of mystery and concealment has long since been dispelled from around them. Our author has given, in his poem, the well known routine of their lives; and has described it in an off-hand mirthful vein, which, without elevating his verse to any thing like elegance, imparts to it an agreeable fluency that never palls on the ear. It is true, that there are not, in the whole of the four cantos, fifty lines that deserve to be remembered: here and there—rari nantes-passages are to be met with of more than ordinary sprightliness; but while we admit their pleasantry, it were almost profane to speak of them as poetry. Having advised the reader of our opinion on this point, we shall not prevent the author from appealing against our sentence in his own way; and we have little doubt that his first evidence against us would be his description of a London spring, to which, besides, he has appended two very biting notes. At length comes out the virgin Spring, While storm and shower and sleet and dust, *There is a delicate distinction between the BLUE and the DEEP BLUE. The former merely reads Reviews, &c.; the latter writes them. The former merely falls in love with the works of poets, &c.; the latter falls in The young, the old, the wed, the single, 'All Peers with hosts of second sons, A jointure, pin-money; of course A sum in case of a divorce (No age this of the flitch of bacon)——— Not five pounds under can be taken.'-pp. 24, 27. If we doubted (as we are prone to do), that the author is an exquisite of the very first water, he would perhaps place in our hands -not his card-but his lines on "pasteboard friendship," in which it must be owned there is a good deal of dry humour. The former merely attends AlbeBrande burn his own fingers, and The latter practises the experiand fingers at her own expense, love with the poets, &c., in person. *Mr. Urling, the proprietor of the finest lace, and finest young gentlemen distributors of it, imaginable. The elegance of their coiffure is really an honour to commerce, and a charming evidence of the advanced civilization of the 19th century and the counter. It is shop-keeping urged to the highest point of the curling-iron capacity. W-rc-st-r protests, that though his nature is not prone to envy, he hates to pass by the boudoir of those charming young persons. And B-nk-s, who has seen every kind of curl from the Iroquese to the Abyssinian, allows that he has seen "nothing like it," and sighs over the vanity of travel.' 'On sweep your cab-you make your calls: You drop your pasteboard with another.'-pp. 32, 33. There is an equal degree of spirit and sarcasm, in the following summary of the talk of the gentlemen, after the ladies have withdrawn from the dinner table. "A palace?"-" Yes, magnificent! "Where every sewer bestows its scent!" "_" The race-odd business; Daphne shy! "Yet, spite of all their Worships' ears, |