at the same time form a comparative estimate of the merits of the two writers.

We now proceed to give some extracts, which we doubt not will excite the curiosity of our readers to make themselves better acquainted with the contents of this work.

"It happened that on the evening of my arrival in Brussels, I was introduced into the Military Hospital. The spacious court-yard was crouded with brave men, recovering from their wounds, but not yet well enough to go abroad. They were walking up and down quite unconscious that any interest could be excited by looking at them. These, then, were the fine fellows of whom we in England had read, and heard, and spoken so much:-these were they who had been in the midst of that tremend ous conflict, the very news of which stunned our senses,--which has justly superseded all the former glories of our country,-and of which the due praise is yet to come in the applause of future ages, and the celebrations of future genius, raising this noble achievement to an equal rank with the most renowned of classical days. The men then moving quietly before me had been in the shower of death where it fell heaviest; they had pressed forward into the very heart of the storm of slaughter; they had faced, what appals in contemplation ;-their presence seemed to realize all that had been read in romance;-they afforded the reality of what had before been only imagined;-they impressed with the substance of those spreading shadows which move in the mind as its ideas of those great and terrible adventures of which only descriptions have given it any knowledge. I could scarcely avoid feeling a contempt for myself when I gazed on these maimed soldiers, the relics of the great fight of Waterloo-for how much had they performed, and what had I done, but come to stare at them!" p. 81.

From the same place the author writes,

"The whole system of female manners here, inasmuch as it is more natural and true than that of France, may be termed purer, and more grateful to the best feelings cherished in regard to the female character. Wherever the heart beats with its own genuine impulses, circumstances of temptation may indeed operate fatally in single instances on the susceptibility; but, as susceptibility is as active when fairly it is interested on the side of duties, as when unfortunately it is seduced against them, it is quite incompatible with that grossness of profligacy, which being heartless, is irredeemable. Besides, it is of the highest importance that the variety of natural disposition should shew itself;-that we should be' able to interpret minds as well as things as they are, and above all, that the external sign should legitimately represent the internal impulse. When this is the case, we have a security; when it is not, we have none. An experienced and winning seducer would, beyond a doubt, be more successful amongst the young girls of a retired English village, accustomed to hear their curate preach every Sunday and to attend to what he says, than among the demoiselles of Paris, guarded as the latter are by duennas, mincing in manner, downcast in look, and finical in conversation.-But one day, the day of marriage,-that in which new duties are incurred, and in which the female character should assume a higher, purer, and mote considerate cast, is sufficient to metamorphose the reserve of the latter into licentiousness,-to change the demure and shrinking girl, into the confident, dextrous, and intriguing woman-whereas that one

day relieves the former from all their dangers,-it instills sanctity and regularity into their hearts,-the flow of their natural sensibilities turns in favour of domestic affections and obligations, their tenderness, which before exposed them to peril, becomes the guarantee of their virtue,— and, as temptation cannot now assail them without at once exposing its real purpose, they are safe from its influence. Of course, unhappy exceptions will arise, and their number has not of late decreased; but the difference holds generally good, as I have described it. Can there be any question as to the comparative purity of those respective systems of society,-in one of which the danger encreases after marriage, and in the other exists only before?" p. Co.

In the "Conclusion" of the work we find the following passage:

"It has already been noted in this work, that the deadliest misfortune of France, is the training which she received under her late ruler, to render her fit for his pursuits. This has detached the interests of a large part of her population from the welfare of their fellow men,-it has left them without taste for virtue or hope in peace,-and it has generally corrupted the principles of the mass. Coming, as he did, when the nation was wearied and terrified with the bloody scenes of the revolution, he found the people inclined to submit to any power that could maintain itself, and would afford safety to their persons. Of this principle of submission, and of the aptitude of the nation to be intoxicated with itself, he took advantage to debauch the general feeling and pervert the public habits,-until at last, glory was in every one's mouth and honesty in no one's. He continued the process,-opposing splendour to refinement, and boasting to worth. Herodotus tells of a king, who built a great monument by the gain of his daughter's prostitution, and this was the system of Buonaparte in regard to the French nation." p. 395.

ART. XIII-A Discourse delivered in the Roman Catholic Chapel of St. Chad, Chadwell Street, Birmingham, on the 18th of January, 1816, Being the day appointed for a General Thanksgiving for the Peace. By the R. Rev. Dr. MILNER, V. A. B. C. &c. Longman and Co. pp. 44.

THIS discourse was heard with the highest satisfaction, not only by the congregation of which Dr. Milner is the regular pastor, but "by a respectable audience of the different Protestant societies of the place." We feel happy in any opportunity of doing justice to the loyalty and patriotism of our Catholic brethren of these realms; and we call the attention of our readers to the present discourse as affording a testimony of the warmth and sincerity with which this class of our fellow citizens cherish these noble feelings.-It was delivered by a leading member of that communion, and may, we hope, be justly supposed to breathe the sentiments of the whole body. VOL. II.

NO. XI.

Aug. Rev.

U

His text is from the 147th Psalm: "Praise the Lord, O Je"rusalem: Praise thy God, O Sion: For he hath strengthened "the bars of thy gates; he hath blessed thy children within thee: He maketh Peace in thy borders, and filleth thee with "the fat of the wheat." He lays it down as a rule, that we should measure our gratitude on such occasions as the present, by proportioning it both to the magnitude of the evils from which we have been delivered, and the extent of the benefits we have received. To convey an adequate idea of the latter, and to describe the full force of the former, he gives an animated sketch of the revolutionary convulsions and wars, that for above a quarter of a century have afflicted the world; and he forcibly paints the result of the steady deportment, and the mighty efforts made by Great Britain during that long period of havoc and dismay. He then glances at the calamities which his own Church has endured, and her final triumph, for which she stands indebted principally to the unshaken firmness and integrity of her supreme Pontiff. He relates, what is now established as a real fact, that the indignities and imprisonment to which Pius VII. was subjected, arose from his refusal to accept the terms offered him by Napoleon, one of which was "to enter into a confederacy against England, according to "a plan that should be laid before him."

He thus concludes his discourse,

"Whatever may be the conduct of government and the legislature in your regard, do you, my Catholic brethren, as you are admonished in your Prayer Book, "exactly fulfil your duty to them," obeying, as the Apostle commands, "not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake." In like manner, if you are “reviled" with the abovementioned, or otherwise calumniated by your uninformed fellow subjects, "revile not again," but "strive to overcome evil with good;" for thus you will "possess your souls in patience," you will practise the characteristical virtue of Jesus Christ, and you will gain over your offending brother, if he is to be gained at all, to sentiments of charity and peace.We have already Joined in offering up the Great Sacrifice of the New Law, in thanksgiving to God for the signal blessings he has conferred upon our country and ourselves in THE GENERAL PEACE: let us now, before we separate, join in singing the usual hymn of thanksgiving, the Te Deum, for the same intention, and afterwards join in the appointed prayer for our gracious Sovereign, bis Royal Highness the Prince Regent, the Queen and Royal Family, and the nation in general."

Such sentiments, so expressed, require no commendation. We leave them to produce their own effect upon the minds of the liberal and patriotic.

297

RT. XIV.-Considerations on the propriety of making a Remuneration to Witnesses in Civil Actions, for Loss of Time, and of allowing the same on the Taxation of Costs as between party and party; with some Observations on the present System of Taxing Costs. By CHARLES FROST, Attorney at Law. 8vo. pp. 42. Butterworth and Son.

THIS is a candid, well written Treatise, on a subject in which a great part of the community is more or less interested. Our laws respecting witnesses are involved in much obscurity, and the commentators upon them have hitherto done little more than make the "darkness visible."

Mr. Frost, taking for his guide the spirit of our civil code, " which provides a remedy against every possible infraction of the precept," that we "should live honestly, hurt no one, and render to every one his own;" justly observes, that it could never be meant that the expenses attendant upon seeking compensation for injuries, should be borne by the party injured. Unlike the generality of his brethren, he makes use of no unnecessary words; he steps immediately into his subject; places it before his readers in a clear point of view; and every where treats it with a discrimination as creditable to his legal abilities, as the correctness of his language, and the appropriateness of his quotations are to his literary attainments.

This Tract has been thought worthy of a place in the Pample leteer, in which work we observe it is reprinted.

ART. XV.-A Course of Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature. By AUGUSTUS WILLIAM SCHLEGEL. Translated from the original German, by John Black. In two Vols. 8vo. Pr. 11. 4s. Baldwin and Co. 1815.

In every age and in every country, among nations the most barbarous, among people the least informed, attempts at dramatic representations may be traced. If, therefore, universality of adoption be any argument in favour of the thing adopted, there is no amusement that can assert such claims upon our notice as one which has afforded equal delight to the savage and the sage, the old and the young, the grave and the gay. To trace the progress of the drama from its birth, to watch its

earliest infancy, to compare its first feeble steps and imperfect articulation, with the dignified march and sonorous eloquence of its maturity, is a task which, however pleasing, belongs rather to the antiquary than to the poet. This task Mr. Schlegel has not undertaken. He has confined himself to defining in what the excellence of the dramatic art consists, and to exam.ining how nearly the most celebrated dramatic works now in existence, have approached to that standard of perfection, which it is the privilege of genius to contemplate, though not its fate to reach-as the lawgiver of the Israelites, though guided by light from heaven, could only obtain a distant view of the promised land from the height which his patient labour had enabled him to reach. All that he has undertaken he has performed with that acuteness of criticism and nicety of metaphysical reasoning, which we should expect in any work to which his name is affixed. To the candour and integrity which form a striking feature in the character of his country, he unites profound thinking, lively though chastened feeling, great learning, refined taste and an original powerful strain of oratory. A very large proportion of his work is taken up with an enquiry into the Greek and Roman drama; many of his readers will be inclined to think this part of his subject has engrossed an undue share of his attention; for in proportion as he displays the excellence of his critical knowledge, they may wish that a greater share of it had been reserved for works more immediately connected with their own times.

Mr. Schlegel divides Dramatic Poetry into three classes:that of the Ancients, that of their Imitators, and that of the Romantic poets. He very happily distinguishes the difference between the respective styles of the Ancients and of the Romantic poets, by a comparison between the arts of sculpture and painting, showing that "the spirit of ancient art and poetry is plastic, and that of the moderns picturesque." Notwithstanding his own admiration of the genius of the ancients, he condemns the narrow pedantry which would make them the standard of all excellence; and ably shows that a variety of causes operated upon the Northern nations, such as the influence of climate, their modes of life, and the introduction of Christianity, well calculated to produce feelings and sentiments entirely different from any that existed among the Greeks, and yet, in their kind, as beautiful and as capable of constituting a full and perfect system.

"The formation of the Greeks was a natural education in its utmost perfection. Of a beautiful and noble race, endowed with susceptible