The New Monthly Magazine and Humorist

boats alone employ thousands of hands! And then, suppose an equality of force was obtained, the example of the past would almost proclaim it to be of little avail; while a superiority is, for an indefinite period of time at least, out of the question.

The Hamiltonian correspondence, which describes Nelson's private feelings more fully and more naturally than any other of his letters, has, from a variety of reasons, been subjected to a close editorial pruning. This may be considered judicious in many respects, but it takes away from the work the character of completeness, which was its chief claim to national acceptance. The present volume, however, notwithstanding what may be wanting as illustrative of character, contains valuable materials for history, and some which are invaluable for the naval service. The wonderful energy and zeal displayed by Lord Nelson, when commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean, his regard to the most minute of his multiplied duties, his political acuteness, and his interest in the health and welfare of his sailors, bequeath to posterity, an example and a lesson which it cannot imitate too closely.

CONTARINI FLEMING.-ALROY.*

"THIS work," the author says of Contarini Fleming, ." written with great care and deep meditation, and in a beautiful and distant land, favourable to composition, with nothing in it to attract the passions of the hour, was published anonymously in the midst of a revolution (1831-2); and it seemed that it must die. But gradually it has gained the sympathy of the thoughtful and the refined, and it has had the rare fortune of being cherished by great men.' It was a bold and ambitious attempt to write a psycological romance. A whole history devoted to the picture of the development of the poetic mind, from its melancholy and brooding childhood to the growing consciousness of power, through its various moods and fantasies, its reveries, loneliness, doubts, moody misery ignorance of art, failures, despair, such are the enumerations, was a theme only appropriate for writers of the highest class, and success has attested that the then young and gifted author was equal to his subject.

THE CAPTIVITY OF NAPOLEON +

THIS important work has reached us too late this month to do more than announce its appearance. It is translated directly from the French manuscript, and in addition to the history of the captivity (which, as here related, is replete with sad reflections upon our national pride and honour) contains so many opinions given by the Emperor himself upon the more important events of his life, that it becomes an indispensable complement to all histories of the epoch. The comparison of these opinions,

* Contarini Fleming-Alroy. Romances. By B. Disraeli, M.P., Author of Coningsby" and "Sybil." Second Edition. 3 vols. Henry Colburn. History of the Captivity of Napoleon. By General Count Montholon, the Emperor's Companion in Exile and Testamentary Executor. 2 Vols. Henry

Colburn,

as entertained by the Emperor himself, with those promulgated by M. Thiers, are oftentimes extremely amusing. Our countrymen will also find much to ruminate and reflect upon in these revelations of Napoleon's dreams of conquest, which deeply concerns themselves. The work, indeed, probably contains more of the intimate thoughts and projects of the great devastator, than any that has been hitherto published.

THE EVENTFUL EPOCH.*

MR. MITCHELL follows closely in the footsteps of the most eminent novelists of the day. Selecting an era (in this instance, the close of the last century, when a slight revolutionary leprosy had just tainted this country from abroad, and which he dignifies by the title of an " eventful epoch,") he adheres closely to the character of the time, and crowds in its living prototypes, senators, authors, and artists, in astonishing prolificness no distinguished man of the day is, by inadvertence, omitted. The treatment of the subject is good, and skilfully managed, the style studied and correct, the language terse and vigorous, the incidents follow one another in tolerable rapid succession, and the interest is well sustained. These are elements of success, which have, unfortunately, their drawbacks. There is want of unity: thus the fortunes of Pellew and his too-loving wife, have little relation to the main plot, notwithstanding the parts which Archer and Hector Clive, or the good and bad spirits, play in those fortunes; the characters of Lady Eltham and her son are also exaggerated on the side of evil. There is nothing in such a sphere, nor was there in a time, to which many now alive can testify to, any thing so bad as is here delineated, even in a corrupt aristocracy. Eltham Hall, of itself admirably adapted for a detailed novel, is miserably dealt with in half a page. The hunting of Pellew across half of England to bring him ultimately to bay, like a stag, in the midst of the ruins of Stonehenge, produces an opposite effect to that intended, while the only attempt at humour, in Sergeant Sleek's courtship of the widow, mars, instead of relieves, the generally severe tone of the narrative. Excepting Lord Eltham and Minda, all Mr. Mitchell's aristocrats are the same selfish designing characters in this Eltham family so bad, that even Minda and her father afford no sunshine to such an atmosphere of vice and corruption. Minda is, however, a delightful character, notwithstanding her Byronic sensitiveness in regard to a lame foot, and we must do the author justice to say, that he has brought things to pass at the conclusion in a judicious and desirable manner.

MR. MACKINNON'S "CIVILISATION."+

THE second volume of this admirable work does away with a critical

The Eventful Epoch; or, the Fortunes of Archer Clive. By Nicholas Mitchell, Author of "The Traduced," "The Fatalist," &c. 3 vols. Simpkin, Marshall, and Co. + History of Civilisation. By W. A. Mackinnon, F.R.S., M.P. Second Volume. Longman and Co.

remark which we made on reading the first, that the history of civilisation is not contained in that of any single state of Europe, taken in isolation; for it occupies itself with an elaborate, succinct, and philosophical view of the progressive march of civilisation as its elements developed themselves in Europe, in Asia, and America. It is impossible to do justice to an inquiry of such a magnitude and such importance, without an analysis of the author's labours, which would carry us far beyond our limits. There are many tired of light reading to whom such a book will be a God-send, and there are none who will peruse it without advantage to the great cause of human improvement; for, although we could have criticised some of the results as inconsistent with foregoing propositions, still as a whole, the great principles of the subjection of matter to mind as an element of civilisation, and the improvement that results to the physical being from an amelioration of his intellectual and moral nature, are creditably and honourably substantiated, and the prin→ ciples contained in Mr. Mackinnon's "History of Civilisation," cannot be too widely diffused or too generally appreciated and understood.

MISCELLANEOUS.

"THE COMIC BLACKSTONE"* is first on our list this month, and a very clever book it is. We cannot see why persons should not study law, when propounded in so humorous a manner. The author never lets fun supersede fact, and hence his work is rather a critically humorous commentary upon Blackstone, or a familiar and funny introduction to the study of law, than a burlesque upon its mysteries and inconsistencies, Next comes "Mrs. Caudle's Curtain Lectures," edited by Douglas Jerrold. It would require an American amount of self-confidence to venture a remark upon a work which has attained so great a popularity. It touched a tender string in the great heart of Cockney land, and the Reform Bill never worked half so many domestic reforms as it has probably achieved. To pass from gay to serious, another translation from Zschokke, comprising his more pious and monitory essays, is deserying of a place in every family library. A notice of "Margaret of the Gold Mine,"§ from the French, has gone accidentally astray. It is one of the most amusing novels of that elastic school, without any of those objectionable points which sometimes detract from their general acceptance. The very curious archæological discoveries made at Lewes, and which are daily going on, have attracted so many dilletanti to that interesting old city, that a guide became indispensable, and the spirited antiquarian publisher, Mr. Smith, of Compton-street, has engaged a wellknown inquirer, Mr. Mark Antony Lower, in this task. We cannot speak

*The Comic Blackstone. By Gilbert Abbot à Beckett. With Illustrations by George Cruikshank.

+ Mrs. Caudle's Curtain Lectures. Edited from the Original MS. by Douglas Jerrold. Second Edition.

Stray Leaves from the German; or, Select Essays from Zschokke. By the Rev. W. B. Flower, B.A. Simpkin and Marshall.

§ Margaret; or, the Gold Mine. Weir.

A Hand-Book for Lewes, Historical and Descriptive; with Notices of the Recent Discoveries at the Priory. By Mark Antony Lower. John Russell Smith.

The sub

too highly of a little book called "Western Clearings," which forms part of Messrs. Wiley and Putnam's library of American books.* It is written by the well-known Mrs. Kirkland, author of a "New Home, who'll follow me?" "Forest Life," &c., which would be recommendation enough; but more correct, lively, and graphic sketches of life in the West than are contained in these "Western Clearings" cannot be imagined. The key to the art of rendering the thoughts of others our own, is to ponder upon them; whether this is more likely to be done by having them communicated in short sentences, appears to us to depend upon the mental peculiarities of individuals. It is well known that oracular Johnson was in favour of such a method of imparting knowledge, and to his disciples we can recommend Mr. E. Clare's "Golden Treasury of Life.”† sect of imparting knowledge necessarily leads us to a notice of a work on school education, by Mr. S. Preston, the object of which the author says is, "to extend the application of theories, stamped with the approbation of the master-intellects of the age." These are great words, the anticlimax to which is, that the one grand and essential preliminary is the education of mothers. The Germans appear to write curious books for the use of young people; we have before us "The Good-Natured Bear," which is a disguise assumed by a professor of mathematics, to win Gretchen, the pretty nursery governess of his brother, Dr. Littlepump, a counsellor to the Board of Mines in Vienna! It is an amusing tale, but a rather doubtful example for young people to follow.

A Mr. J. C. Lyons has published a work on the science of phrenology as applicable to education, friendship, love, courtship, and matrimony, &c. | It is dedicated to the ladies, to whom we doubt very much if the illustrations of the kinds of heads they ought to choose will be acceptable. The author ought to have given a cast of his own head.

The seventh volume of the works of G. P. R. James, contains the popular story of " Morley Ernstein'; or, the Tenants of the Heart."¶ The ninth of the collection of the novels and romances of Mrs. Bray,** "Henry de Pomeroy; or, the Eve of St. John," a most interesting legend of Cornwall and Devon, and the "White Rose," a pleasing domestic story. The second volume of Miss Martineau's "Forest and Game Law Tales," fully bears out the promises of the first.†† We have also received three numbers of a new Universal Dictionary of the English language, a work much wanted, and the natural historical part of which is especially well done.‡‡

* Western Clearings. By Mrs. C. M. Kirkland. Wiley and Putnam. †The Golden Treasury of Life; or, Old Sayings and True Ones, &c. By Edward Clare. H. White.

School Education for the Nineteenth Century. By Samuel Preston. Simpkin Marshall, and Co.

The Good-Natured Bear: a Story for Children of all Ages. Joseph Cundall. The Science of Phrenology, as applicable to Education, Friendship, Love, Courtship, and Matrimony, &c. By J. C. Lyons. Aylott and Jones.

The Works of G. P. R. James, Esq. Revised and Corrected by the Author. Vol. VII.: Morley Ernstein. Smith, Elder, and Co.

** The Novels and Romances of Anna Eliza Bray, in Ten Volumes. Vol IX.: Henry de Pomeroy. Longman and Co.

tt Forest and Game-Law Tales. By Miss Martineau. Vol. II. Edward Moxon. A New Universal, Etymological, and Pronouncing Dictionary of the Englis Language; embracing all the Terms used in Art, Science, and Literature. Parts I., II., and III. James Gilbert.