Imágenes de página
PDF
ePub

LITERARY INTELLIGENCE.

RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS.

By Bradford & Inskeep, Philadelphia.
Elements of Chemical Philosophy. By Sir Humphrey Davy, L. L. D.
Self-Indulgence: a Tale of the Nineteenth Century.

Marian: a Novel, in two volumes.

Memoirs of the Life and Character of the late Rev. George Whitefield, of Pembroke College, Oxford. Illustrated by a variety of Interesting Anecdotes. Originally compiled by the late Rev. John Gillies, D. D. Minister of the Col. lege Church of Glasgow First American, from the London edition. Revised and corrected with large additions and improvements. By Aaron Seymour, author of "Letters to Young Persons."

By M. Carey, Philadelphia.

Traits of Nature. By Miss Burney. 2 vols. Price 225 cents.

Chesterfield Travestie, or School for Modern Manners; with Six Caricature Engravings. Price sixty-two and a half cents.

By Moses Thomas, Philadelphia.

The Episcopal Prayer Book. Handsomely printed in 12mo. on three papers, viz. fine medium, fine folio post, and common demy. Embellished with Seven Engravings.

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, a Romaunt; and other Poems. By Lord Byron. Author of English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. 1 vol. 24mo. on fine paper. Price 75 cents.

By Isaac Pierce, Philadelphia.

The Philosophy of Experimental Chemistry. By James Cutbush, Professor of Chemistry, Mineralogy, and Natural Philosophy, in St. John's College. Memoirs of the Columbian Chemical Society. vol. I. 8vo.

By Anthony Finley, Philadelphia.

Engravings of the Arteries, illustrating the Anatomy of the Human Body, and serving as an introduction to the Surgery of the Arteries. By Charles Bell, Surgeon. Containing twelve Plates, by Edwin, elegantly coloured. Royal. 8vơ Price 6 dollars.

The Theory of Agreeable Sensations, in which the Laws observed by Nature in the distribution of Pleasure are investigated.

By John Mellish, Philadelphia.

Travels in the United States of America; in the years 1806 and 1807, and 1809-1810, and 1811. Including an account of passages betwixt America and Britain, and Travels through various parts of Great Britain, Ireland, and Upper Canada, illustrated by Eight Maps. 2 vols 8mo. Price 5 dolls. 50 cts.

By J. Eastburn, New-York.

Calamities of Authors; including s me Inquiries respecting their Literary and Moral Characters. By J. D'Israeli, Esq Author of "Curiosities of Literature." 2 vols. 12mo. Price 2 dollars in boards.

The Battle of Salamanca; a Poem.

By J. Eastburn, New-York, W. Wells, Boston, and Moses Thomas,

Philadelphia.

Steel's List of the Royal Navy, for October, 1812.

By Bradford Read, Boston.

A Practical Treatise on the Law of Nations, relative to the legal effect of War, on the Commerce of Belligerents and Neutrals; and on Orders in Council and Licences. By Joseph Chitty, Esq. of the Inner Temple. 1 vol. 8vo.

By Munroe & Francis, Boston.

Things by their Right Names; a Novel. By a Person without a Name. 1 vol. 12mo. 1 dollar.

Poetical Vagaries. By George Colman, the Younger. 1 vol. 18mo. thirtyseven and a half cents.

By Edward J. Coale, Baltimore.

No. I. of the Literary Visitor; or Entertaining Miscellany. Comprizing Meritorious Selections and Original Productions, in Prose and Verse. Price thirty-seven and a half cents to Subscribers. 50 cents to Non-Subscribers.

By Hale & Hosmer, Hartford.

A System of Operative Surgery, founded on the basis of Anatomy. By Charles Bell. 2 vols. 8vo.

PROPOSED AMERICAN PUBLIGATIONS.

IN PRESS.

By M. Carey, Philadelphia.

Santo Sebastiano, or the Young Protector. 3 volumes.
Home; a Novel. By Miss Cullen. 5 vols. in two.

American Pocket Atlas; new edition, with great Additions.
Gurney's Short Hand.

By Moses Thomas, Philadelphia.

Travels in Greece, Palestine, Egypt, and Barbary, during the Years 1806 and 1807. By F. A. Chateaubriand. Translated from the French. By F. Shoberl. Good Men of Modern Date; a Satirical Tale. By Mrs. Green, author of "Romance Readers, and Romance Writers."

By A. Finley, Philadelphia.

A new edition of Richerand's Physiology, with Notes.
Shenstone's Poems; a handsome Miniature edition.
Stone on the Diseases of the Stomach, and Indigestion.

By F. Lucas, Baltimore.

Pope's Homer. 2 vols. 24mo.

Coleman's Poems. 1 vol. 24mo.

By James Eastburn, New-York.

The Emerald Isle, a Poem. By Charles Philips, Esq.

Tales in Verse. By G. Crabbe, L. L. B.

Essays on the Superstitions of the Highlanders. By Mrs. Grant.
Portraiture of Methodism. By J. Crowther.

ANALECTIC MAGAZINE.

FOR FEBRUARY, 1813.

Memoirs of the Public Life of JoHN HORNE TOOKE, Esq. Containing a particular Account of his onnexions with the most eminent Characters of the Reign of George III. His trial for Sedition, High Treason, &c. With his most celebrated Speeches in the House of Commons, on the Hustings, Letters, &c. By W. Hamilton Reid. 8vo. pp. 192. London. 1812.

[From the Quarterly Review, for June, 1812.]

THIS is the only Life of Mr. Tooke we have yet seen. It is a miserable performance, below contempt as to style, information, and talent. We think it somewhat discreditable to the Jacobin school, that they have not been able to produce a better account of a person, who, with all his faults, was in this country their principal ornament and support. A good memoir upon this subject would be a useful accession to our stock of biography, literary and political. When we speak of a memoir, we, of course, do not mean a large quarto, or two large quartos, for with such it is said we are threatened-cked out with declamations and histories about the American war-dissertations upon the author of Junius- diatribes' upon the French revolution, and the speeches of the Attorney General and Mr. Erskinebut a book resembling this before us in size, and in nothing else-in which credit shall be given to the reader for a general acquaintance with the history of the last fifty years-in which therefore the main subject will not be overwhelmed by a mass of extraneous matter,-in short, a life of Mr. Tooke, in which Mr. Tooke shall be the principal feature, and in which all that is material to be known of this extraordinary man shall be diligently collected, clearly arranged, and fairly related. We feel it the more necessary to give this warning, because it has been very much the practice of late years, under pretence of writing VOL. I. New Series.

M

biography, to deluge the public with vast quantities of contemporaneous history, which serve no other purpose than that of puzzling and fatiguing the reader, and adding to the size and price of the volume. A king, a minister, or a general may be so distinguished, that all the transactions of the age in which he lived may, without impropriety, be considered in reference to him; but, generally speaking, the object of biography is to furnish not that which is, but that which is not to be found in the history of the times; and great public transactions ought only to be mentioned incidentally, with just so much of detail as is necessary to prevent confusion, and to preserve the thread of the narrative unbroken.

But though we see how the Life of Mr. Tooke ought to be written, it is not our duty, nor indeed do we possess the means to supply that desideratum in literature. We can only offer a few detached remarks upon his history and character, which, though they will probably have no other merit, will at least have that of impartiality. During his life we were not exempt from those feelings of hostility, which great and irreconcileable difference upon political questions, at an anxious and difficult period, is calculated to excite; but we know ourselves ill if we cannot now speak as calmly and fairly of the philosopher and politician of Wimbledon, as if he had flourished in Rome or Athens five-and-twenty centuries ago.

In considering his political career, the most material circumstance, that which it is most necessary to keep steadily in view, in order to form a correct and candid estimate of his character is, that he was from beginning to end, a man labouring under great, perpetual, irremovable civil disabilities. He had been unfortunate (we say so without fear of being misinterpreted) in his choice of a profession: for it is a real misfortune to a man of an enterprising disposition, natus rebus agendis, to become a member of an order, in which propriety and duty enjoin a sparing and partial interference with the concerns of the world, and in which, if propriety and duty are found too feeble restraints, the law interposes with a strong arm, to curb profane activity and unprofessional exertions. What a man ought to do under such circumstances is obvious: but such is the weakness of human nature, that what he ought to do is, we are afraid, not what he is always likely to do certainly, the very reverse of what Mr. Tooke did do. In fact his whole life seems to have been spent in an unavailing and ungraceful struggle to extricate himself from the restraints which his situation imposed upon him. He was for ever beating himself against the bars of his cage; and such is the power of passion over reason, that neither the exercise of his penetrating and vigorous understanding, nor

the experience of constant failures were sufficient to prevent him from wasting his strength in an idle endeavour to pass the magic circle which law and custom had drawn around him. Hence all his exertions wanted both dignity and effect: and his extraordinary talents were productive of little true glory to himself, and scarcely of any benefit to the world.

Mr. Tooke was born with an iron constitution of body and mind; he was endowed with persevering industry, armed with unshaken courage, and stimulated by a restless ambition. These qualities should carry their possessor very far in a free country. But the barrier was insurmountable. Gifted with the talents of a great performer, he was compelled throughout to play inferior parts. As a politician he was always below himself; always acting in subordination to his equals, or on a level with those whom nature and education had placed at an immeasurable distance beneath him. He began his career as an assistant in a struggle, from which the mock patriot Wilkes derived all the glory, and all the advantage; and he ended it by dividing the credit of turbulent, unsuccessful, and unpopular resistance to sound principles and lawful authority with Messrs. Hardy and Thelwall. He could not be a lawyer, therefore he resisted the law, and reviled those who administered it. He could not be a statesman, nay, not even a demagogue, and therefore he was content to become a factious partizan, a low agitator, to insuit those whom he could not rival, and to disturb a country in the government of which he never could have a share. Disappointment and envy had taken possession of his whole soul, soured his temper, narrowed his views, and perverted his judgment. It was his habit' to speak evil of dignities,' to assail by ridicule or invective all those persons and things, which, by the common feeling of the rest of the world, were marked out as objects of reverence and admiration. He professed, indeed, to admire the constitution of his country; but it was the constitution as it was said to exist at some remote and never defined period, not the constitution such as it now is, under which, according to him, every species of corruption and injustice had grown up and flourished; and he delighted to carp at that beneficent system of law, to which of all men living he was the most deeply indebted. The mild spirit and lenient administration of English justice were never more clearly exemplified than in the impunity of a man who was constantly treading upon the very verge of crimes that aimed at nothing less than the entire ruin of the state, and whose delight it was to insult the best feelings of the country at a time of universal danger, alarm and irritation. The same temper of mind rendered him unjust to almost every species of excellence in his contemporaries. Among the

« AnteriorContinuar »