India are, by nature, a litigious people; and so much so have they been represented in the results of the innumerable investigations which have been prosecuted into their character and habits, that the supreme legislature have always felt themselves justified in acting upon this as a national characteristic. Such has been, and such is, the policy of the laws relating to the administration of justice which we have established in the possessions of the East India Company. The author before us, who seems well acquainted with all the important points of the question, denies this position in toto, and produces a number of facts which, in his opinion, tend directly to a totally opposite conclusion. He does not, however, controvert the assertion, that litigation very much prevails in India; but he traces it entirely to artificial causes, which, being removed, would leave the people exempt from any of that extraordinary tendency to go to law with which they at present stand charged.

ART. XX.-Masaniello: a Grand Opera. In three Acts, as performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. By James Kenney. 8vo. pp. 55. London: Moxon. 1831.

Mr. Kenney has adapted to the English Stage, with decided success, the Italian Masaniello, which, a season or two ago, was produced at the King's Theatre, with such unusual splendour, as a Ballet. The mediocrity of his songs appears to woful disadvantage, when stripped of their admirable music.

ART. XXI.-The Works of Dr. Isaac Barrow, with some Account of his Life, &c. By the Rev. T. S. Hughes, (being a volume of the Divines of the Church of England). London A. J. Valpy. 1830.

WANTING, to some extent, the external attractions with which SO many rival publications are surrounded, the series of works which are now publishing, under the title of the Divines of the Church of England, seems to us to offer to the public the opportunity of collecting a body of English literature of the most important kind, and of the most durable interest. It is not our purpose, at present, to enter into a full description of the many reasons which induce us to set a high value on this valuable collection, but, in the hope of, in some measure, assisting the objects of the editor, we beg to suggest to him, as a measure of obvious propriety, indeed, the observance of something like a chronological arrangement in the order of his publications. We are compelled to state that the fault which we are here guarding against, is also common to the Classical Library. Now we submit with confidence, that there was no adequate reason for giving Sherlock the precedence of the Divines in England. Were we to choose the theologian whose works we would be ready to present to the world as a favourable specimen of our pulpit oratory, and had it been our cue to establish a strong impression in our favour at the first onset, we would not have hesitated one moment about fixing on the illustrious Jeremy Taylor. How little is known, to ordinary readers, of the magnificent treasures which are in the pages of that man's writings! How little the world that hangs on the accents of some puling

sonnetteer of modern celebrity, dreams of the beautiful and balmy poetry, the melting tenderness of heart, the sweet melody of words, that constitute so much of the works of Taylor! Besides, in point of time, Taylor is entitled to preference before Sherlock.

However the work, so far as it has gone, meets with our entire approbation; and we trust that, so far as the public can secure its continuance, no cause will occur to frustrate, or even delay, the noble intentions of the projectors.

A UNION of strong common sense, with extensive technical knowledge on the subject of which it treats, ought to recommend this little volume to all artists and amateurs of art. The author sets out with some admirable rules on drawing, which, he insists, it is indispensible that the student should be thoroughly acquainted with, in the first instance. He next proceeds to lay down certain choice canons with respect to the materials to be employed, and then enters upon a very important part of his subject-the various scientific researches which it is necessary that an artist should pursue, who means to acquire celebrity in his profession. We regret that, in quoting Mr. C. Bell's description of the external muscles of the human frame, Mr. Parsey did not make his extracts from the later editions of this able anatomist, for, to go no more deeply into the matter, we might state that, in the quotation which we find here, respecting the corrugator supercilii,

it is not stated that the muscle is

nearly totally concealed by the larger one, which surrounds the orbit of the eye-a fact of some importance to painters. The most valuable part of this Treatise to an artist, and perhaps the most curious to a general reader, consists in the practical directions for executing a miniature. The details of the process are minutely dwelt on, and the instructions embrace every point which the painter is called on to attend to. The observations on the new use of the scraper will be found particularly valuable; and we hope that young artists will be induced to work the geometrical problems, since their design and utility are obvious.

IN his dedication Mr. Grinfield calls this book "a brief account of the most brilliant and successful attempt to propagate Christianity abroad, during the eighteenth century."-We could have wished that the author had given us some proof of the success which he has here boasted of. But in fact, we find in these pages nothing more than a summary, drawn from the archives of the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, of the missionary labours of Bartholomew Ziegenbalg, Schultz, Schwartz, Gericke, Jonike, &c. The chief good result which follows from these labours appears to be the appointment of an ecclesiastical establishment for British India, with Bishop Heber at its head. So far, indeed, there is certainly brilliancy, if not success. But the amount of sincere converts to Christianity is no where ascertained by Mr. Grinfield.

ART. XXIV.-Tales of a Grandfather; being Stories taken from the History of France. Inscribed to Master John Hugh Lockhart. 12mo. 3 vols. Edinburgh: R. Cadell. London: Whittaker & Co. 1831.

WHEN we recollect the motives which excite Sir Walter Scott to persevere so industriously, we may say, so incessantly, in the paths of literature, at a period of life when he ought, after such labours as he has gone through, to be enjoying some degree of repose, we cannot but look upon every new production of his pen with increased admiration. His unfortunate connection with Ballantyne, left him nearly bowed down to the earth with a weight of debt, which a royal merchant, not to speak of an author, a member of a class proverbially poor, might well shudder to think of. But instead of throwing off the load by the assistance of the law, or by means of a private arrangement to which no reasonable creditors could have objected, he has manfully sustained it, and by the productions which we have seen for some years following each other, with such amazing rapidity through the press, has paid off a large proportion of his debts. Of all the points of interest in Sir Walter Scott's biography, none can be more honourable to his character, than the courage and success with which he has hitherto followed up his original determination; and we trust sincerely that he may have health and spirits for much more than the full accomplishment of his noble purpose.

His present work is written in an easy, clear, and lively style, very little partaking indeed of that garrulousness, which might be expected in a Grandfather. It begins with the earliest inhabitants of

France, and sketches the most interesting portions of their history down to the close of the reign of Charles VI., when our Henry V. commenced his career of invasion against that country. Although the author neglects no material fact in the French annals, which could furnish him with materials fit for volumes like these, yet his attention is chiefly directed to those passages, which are particularly interesting to English readers. He has expressed his intention of carrying on his stories to a later period, should the present volumes prove, as we have no doubt they will, acceptable to the public.

ART. XXV.-Lays from the East. By Robert Calder Campbell. 12mo. London: Smith and Elder. 1831.

THOUGH Mr. Campbell may not be capable of contending in the poetical lists with the author of the Pleasures of Hope, he certainly has not, in the present modest effort of his muse, done any thing to discredit his name. The collection consists of a very considerable number of small effusions, which, if poets had not a licence for all sorts of jugglery upon the credulity of the rest of the world, we should say savoured very much of long campaigns in the field of love, and of various disasters endured there, terminating in a most pitiable state of mental health for the exhausted veteran. Sensibility and tenderness, indeed, characterise the whole of these poems; the expression is often forcible, and always correct; united to which will be found a degree of facility and elegance in the versification, which long prac tice and attention could alone enable the author to acquire.

ART. XXVI.-The Temple of Melekartha. 3 vols. 8vo. London : Holdsworth and Ball. 1831.

Or the multitude of strange productions which have fallen under our notice since we have been able to read books at all, this is certainly the wildest, the most eccentric, the most incomprehensible. If we could suppose an inhabitant of St. Luke's, who had dipped into ancient history, endowed with sufficient method in his mental visions, to employ himself upon a work of fiction, we should not be surprised to find his ideas running in the extravagant and fanciful course which the author of Melekartha has chosen. He has had apparently no design to fulfil, no system to establish. We cannot make out whether he is an atheist, a deist, or a Christian, a royalist or a republican, a tory, or a radical in disguise. He affects to relate the history of the Phenicians, the documents for which (though they have eluded the searches of all other men) he has had the good fortune to find in the archives of the Temple of Melekartha, in the antient city of Tyre. In narrating the long, various, and eventful migrations of that intelligent people,' he appears to imagine that he has represented the pictures of modern nations, has pointed our their errors, stigmatized their crimes, and expounded the principles upon which a good government ought to be conducted. There is a gorgeousness in the style, and occasionally, even a degree of measured elegance, which tempt us sometimes to think that the author meditated a poem in prose. But the narrative is so wholly destitute of interest, and, indeed, so much above the business and sympathies of mankind, that no one, except a reviewer, can pos

sibly fix his attention upon it. As if the imaginary details of a Phenician story did not afford a sufficient sphere for the author's enthusiasm, he ascends to the upper regions, and describes the 'etherial nations,' whose great delight consists in locomotion! From his account of them, they must look down with infinite contempt upon our steamcoaches and rail-roads.

ART. XXVII.-A Familiar Analysis of the Calendar of the Church of England, and Perpetual Guide to the Almanac; in the Form of Question and Answer. By the Rev. Hugh F. Martyndale, A.M. 12mo. London: E. Wilson.

MR. Martyndale pretends to no higher a character than that of a compiler in the present work, it being only a careful digest of knowledge, drawn from large and expensive books, such as Brady's Clavis Calendaria and Hone's Every Day Book, 'the only two works' he continues, which treat consecutively on the subject at all.' This latter assertion is altogether erroneous, as there is a book already in existence, to which Hone and many other persons are very much indebted; we mean Dr. Foster's Perennial Calendar-the most erudite and amusing that was ever written on the Calendar. Mr. Martyndale little knows the obligations he is under to the doctor. The little book before us has, however, the advantage of all those publications in neatness and beauty. It may be described as a register of the various days of the year which are marked out for observance in the Established Church, with concise and accurate explanations of the causes respectively, why they are

ART. XXVIII.--The Foreigners' English Conjugated: Elucidated through French Examples. By Justice Brenan. 8vo. Wilson. 1831.

MR. BRENAN is an Irishman, and boasts that he is "the only person who has found the right road to the explanation of shall and will." We suppose, then, that he is ignorant that his countryman, Sheridan, exulted in the possession of a similar secret. At all events, until we shall hear Mr. Brenan's elucidation, we shall hold Sheridan's golden rule as perfectly unexceptionable, as far, at least, as the Irish utterers of the English language are concerned.

Whenever," said the witty Brinsley, to an ambitious Emeralder, who wanted to make a short cut to all the refinements of the Saxon tongue, "whenever you find yourself going to say shall, you can't do better than immediately say will,-and in that way you are sure to be right." Mr. Brenan, however, has given us no specific definition of the actual force of shall and will, so as to enable us to know the occasions when either would be most proper; when one might be used and the other not; and when either may be indifferently employed without any change of meaning. The truth is, we believe, that these words are fixed in their places

in our colloquial language, by custom alone; and that, without granting to them respectively, any certain and permanent import, we allow them a variable effect in different circumstances, which long practice alone can make us thoroughly conversant with. Mr. Brenan, therefore, with great justice, blames us for the capricious employment of these monosyllables, and says, that it is on this account alone that foreigners (Irishmen included) find it so difficult to discriminate their

meaning. The writer has, however, done all that was possible in the case, by giving examples serving to shew the positive and the optional use of shall and will. Mr. Brenan follows up the same plan, with respect to the other conjugators of the English language; and though, in some minor matters, we may differ with him, yet it would be injustice to him if we did not say that he has brought to his task a very sound and acute judgment, and evidently much patient consideration.

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ART. XXIX.-A Vindication of Dr. Paley's Theory of Morals, from the principal Objections of Mr. Dugald Stewart, Mr. Gisborne, Dr. Pearson, and Dr. T. Brown with an Appendix, &c. By the Rev. Latham Wainewright,M.A., F.S.A., of Emanuel College, Cambridge, and Rector of Great Brickhill, &c. &c. London : Hatchards. 1830.

WE are not sorry that the duty of justifying the use of Dr. Paley's Moral Philosophy in the University of Cambridge has remained to this time to be performed, since it has in consequence fallen into the hands of one, possessed of the qualifications that are necessary to discharge that duty,