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the management of the poor of Glasgow.

In this city, it appears that the plan of providing for the poor by voluntary contributions, placed under the administration of the kirk-sessions, which has been of late so warmly recommended by one of their ministers as the best means of superseding assessments, has not only be n tried and found ineffectual, as in other populous parishes, but that the first resort to assessment, or at least the progressive increase of its amount, has been occasioned by the experienced inefficacy of the purely charitable system. Since 1731, when legal assessments seem first to have been found necessary, the funds of the hospital for which they were imposed, have been kept distinct from those of the sessions, derived from collections at the church doors, fees for proclamation of marriages and donations at funerals; but, though "in most cases the directors of the hospital have been merely the executive authority, attending to the recommendation for enrolment, which chiefly proceeded from the ministers and elders," the balance between charity and assessment, instead of being in favour of the former, has been so much against it, that for some time an annual allowance of L. 1500 has been made to the General Session from the funds of the hospital, over and above the charge of all the most expensive cases transferred to it by the ministers and elders. The highest allowance made by the session is 4s. 6d. per month, but the average rate only 9d. per week. This seems all that charity and L. 1500 more can do for the poor, who, if this be insufficient, are then recommended to the Committee of the hospital, from whom the pauper obtains, if an out-pensioner, from L. 2 to L. 8 yearly, or a corresponding allowance of meal.

It will no doubt be said, that the hospital and the assessments for its support have not only increased the number of paupers, but diminished the charitable funds of the kirk-session; that in fact this establishment has gradually, in the shape of a compulsory tax, withdrawn from the charitable the means or the inclination of contributing to the funds of the kirk-sessions by voluntary donations. But, as the kirk-sessions possess, in a great measure, the control of

both funds, would it not be more consistent with truth and experience to admit, that it has become necessary to increase the funds of the one department in proportion as the funds of the other have fallen off, or at least failed to keep pace with demands upon it, which are sanctioned by the very administrators of the charitable department? Both these plans have been in operation simultaneously for many years, so that their comparative efficiency may be estimated. The one affords hardly a fourth of a bare subsistence, while the other still yields so little as to afford no conceivable encouragement to idleness, at least in the case of the out-pensioners. But, if the aggregate of pauperism is not increased by means of the hospital, there is just the same inducement to enlarge the funds of the charitable branch as if no hospital existed; because, in that case, the amount of the assessment would be proportionally reduced. The true reason, however, for the actual state of things, seems to be, that the legal assessment reaches those who, on ordinary occasions, are deaf to the unobtrusive claims of poverty.

The only very plausible objection to this sort of presumptive evidence would subject the administrators of the charitable branch to charges of rashness or indolence. Of the latter charge it would appear, from the Report, that they are not altogether innocent, but certainly not more guilty than other men in similar circumstances may always be expected to be. The requisite investigation into the case of the paupers of a populous parish is not to be expected from elders, and it is scarcely reasonable to require it of them. "It is now," says Mr Ewing, "above thirty years since this scrutiny was made, and the generation then on the lists has consequently passed away." A system which requires, for its success, extraordinary efforts of benevolence from a few individuals, can never be permanent. The ardour of youth and inexperience, even the ambition to be distinguished, gradually sink under the toils and cares of business, or are damped by the selfishness and apathy of those who, with the same means and opportunities, care for none of those things.

If helpless infancy, the infirm in body or mind by nature, accident,

1818.]

Review.-Llewellen; or the Vale of Phlinlimmon.

disease, the hoary head bending over its staff,-the emaciated form tottering on the brink of the grave, are not to be left to perish,-and, in every Christian country wherever there is a dense population, these have been protected and relieved either by national or municipal institutions, the only equitable and effective provision for them must be of a compulsory character, affecting alike the selfish and the generous, according to their means. The claims of those unfortunates ought to be held not less legitimate and sacred than the right of property itself. Charity will still find a field ample enough in the distress arising out of the great and sudden fluctuations in the demand for labour, which occur so frequently in this manufacturing and commercial country, and in mitigating the numerous ills that flesh is heir to, for which no laws can provide a remedy.

It is honourable to the mercantile profession to have one who thinks so justly, and writes so well, as Mr Ewing, among its members; and upon a subject about which more than one wild speculation has lately issued from the same quarter. The extent of his research, great as it is, is not more conspicuous than the soundness of his reflections; and he combines, in no common degree, a capacity for enlarged views, with a habit of attention to detail. His Report ought to find a place in the library beside the work

of Sir F. M. Eden.

Llewellen, or the Vale of Phlinlimmon; a Novel. 3 vols. Edinburgh,

Macredie and Co. 1818.

LLEWELLEN bids fair, we think, to be a general favourite. It is sketched with a rapid, but a powerful hand; and, though in many places it betrays negligence and haste, the general effect of the piece is imposing, and few works have come lately under our cognizance, which combine so many claims to popularity. The group of characters, though not numerous, is abundantly varied, and they are sometimes strongly and happily contrasted. In the conception of these characters, the author has displayed originality and ingenuity; and though they run through the whole range of the moral scale, from nearly the highest excellence to the deepest depravity, so dis

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tinctly are their varieties marked, and so skilfully are the peculiarities of each preserved, that there never occurs the slightest blending or confusion:-each thinks, speaks, and acts, exactly as might have been anticipat ed from such characters placed in such circumstances. The incidents are in general interesting,-sufficiently romantic to gratify our love of the mar vellous, yet never so improbable as to startle our judgment. They are interwoven, too, with so much art, that the reader's curiosity is never allowed to flag; the torture to which his feelings are for a while exposed by the successful machinations of villany, is amply compensated by the happiness, which, according to strict poetical retribution, the author awards to the leading and most virtuous personages, and which is rendered the more exquisite by the remembrance of their past sorrows. To say that the tendency of the work is strictly virtuous, is praise of so ordinary a kind, and so easily attainable, that we advert to it only for the purpose of remarking the uniform good sense and judgment which characterize the moral and religious sentiments of the author, and the address with which the gravest lessons are conveyed, without ever alarming or fatiguing the reader with a formal lecture or exhortation.

Our limits do not permit us to attempt even an outline of the story. Suffice it, therefore, to say, that the leading characters are Llewellen, the hero of the piece ;—Clara, the heroine, between whom and Llewellen an ardent mutual attachment is formed, in consequence of an accidental and romantic interview;-Colonel Llewellen (the father of our hero) who in youth had been violently enamoured of a young lady of high rank in Sicily, but, his suit being rejected, had forcibly carried her off to England and married her, after being accessory to the murder of her favoured lover;Captain Byron, alias Alphonso De Mountford, the only brother of this unfortunate lady, by whose instigation and assistance Colonel Llewellen had forced her from her native shore, and by whose hand her lover had fallen;-Matilda, the sister of young Llewellen, who concealed under a lovely form and the most winning manners, a selfish, intriguing, and unprincipled heart; and, who being de

pendent on her brother, was determined the Colonel, and, soon after her arby every means to prevent his union rival at home, she retired to the sick with Clara, who was supposed to be chamber, where, by the most endearing without fortune,-while these selfish attentions to alleviate the sufferings fears were still farther aggravated by of Henry, &c. we shall leave her," &c. an ungovernable passion which she The use of pronouns, and especialhad conceived for Captain Byron, ly of the relative, seems particularly of whose propinquity she was not to have perplexed our author. Whereaware, and whose avowed indiffer- ever the relative is disjoined by an ence to the sex was only to be over- intervening phrase from the verb on come by addressing his avarice;-Isa- which it depends, it is almost invabella, the cousin of Clara, a spright- riably. put in a wrong case. Thus, ly, hecdless, but well-principled girl, "Ah, my Caroline, there is but one who was the sharer in many of Clara's in this wide world whom, I believe, sorrows, and at last her companion in loves you more fervently than I do," joy ;-Caroline, an Argyllshire beauty, &c. "She again took her seat at the and a rich heiress, who, by the in- side of Mrs Macgruther, who she trigues of Matilda, is married to Lle- seemed to regard with unfeigned comwellen; but, dissatisfied by the cold passion." Similar carelessness occurs attentions which a sense of duty alone in the construction of conjunctions, inclines him to pay to her, while his..and other parts of speech. One inheart is fixed on another, and, having learned how the mutual love of her husband and Clara had been thwarted by the arts of Matilda, she forms the wild but generous resolution of voluntarily separating from her husband, to whose happiness she imagined herself the only obstruction, and dies some time after in a convent in Normandy: Nor must we forget Miss Macgruther, the maiden aunt of Isabella, who, dragged at a late period of life into fashionable society, is constantly regretting her former importance and retirement in the island of Muck, and whose insuperable habits of rusticity afford a whimsical foil to the general elegance amidst which she is placed, while her peevishness, induced partly by the violent up-rooting of all her former associations, and partly by her total dependence on a brutish brother, contrasts finely with the native kindliness, and the unsophisticated benevolence of her heart.

Such are the most important of the elements out of which our author has framed this agreeable tale. The narrative is easy and unaffected; but candour obliges us to advert to some defects in the style, which, as they seem to have originated merely in inattention, may, of course, be easily corrected. The structure of the sentences is, in several instances, so slovenly, that the meaning can be guessed only by the tenor of the story, and by no reference to any grammatical rules. Thus, "Clara did not in any way allude to her meeting with

stance shall suffice. He determined, therefore, that, since happiness was beyond his reach in a quarter to which his heart had so fondly pointed, not to add the pang of guilt to his mind," &c. It may be thought fastidious to indulge in these grammatical animadversions on a work of whose merits we have spoken so highly. But the faults to which we have adverted are too glaring to be overlooked; and it may be regarded as no small proof of the excellence of this novel, în other respects, that, in spite of these repeated violations of the plainest rules of good writing, we are never inclined to throw it aside in disgust, but read it with increasing interest to the end.

Poems, by William Cowper. To which is prefixed, a Memoir of the Author, and Critical Notes on his Principal Poems, written expressly for this Edition. 24mo. Edinburgh, Oliver and Boyd, 1818.

So ardent and insatiable is human curiosity, that the writer who does not gratify it by imparting new information, must rest his hopes of popu larity on his power of throwing an air of novelty over even familiar subjects, by the glow of his eloquence, the sa gacity of his reflections, or the splendour of his imagery. Yet there are subjects, as there are characters, of which we can never hear too much; on which the heart dwells with a kind of holy reverence and affectionate enthusiasm; and to every tongue that speaks of which we listen with inte

ments of genius, in their happiest combination; seem to raise him so near the standard of human perfection, that we cannot help exclaiming,

Who would not gladly exchange situations with Cowper? Who would not even submit to all he suffered, "so were he equalled with him in renown!"-in the exquisite enjoyment which, in his unclouded moments, he had of life, and in the confidence which he might well have entertained with regard to futurity? But, when we look on the dismal reverse of the picture,-when we see this excellent man the victim of a malady which froze all his energies in despair,-which rendered him, in his own eyes, the outcast of heaven,which changed the soothing accents of religion into accents of terror,—and which, making life unsupportable and death horrible, impelled him to repeated attempts at suicide,—our envy is lost in our commiseration, and we feel grateful for the possession of those ordinary qualities, which are less in danger of such frightful disorder, and of that common-place happiness, which is exempted from such overwhelming vicissitudes.

rest, though we can expect little more than sympathy with our own feelings, or a sanction to our own partialities. It was in such a disposition that we opened these memoirs of our favourite bard; and it is on our reliance on the universality of such a disposition among the lovers of English poetry, that we recommend them to general perusal. We cannot say that they add much, nor, indeed, was it possible that they should, to what we formerly knew of Cowper's history. But the kindred warmth with which the biographer enters into all the feelings of his author, the animation of his style, kindling not unfrequently into poetical fervour,-and the good sense and acuteness that characterize his observations, cannot fail to render his narrative highly acceptable to the admirers of this amiable and eminent poet." We know not, indeed, a subject in biography so interesting in every point of view as the life of Cowper. Alike distinguished by his genius, his virtues, and his sufferings, it seemed as if nature intended to ex-, emplify in him the most exquisite and delicate mechanism of the human mind, with all its advantages and all its evils, the excess of that fine sensibility which constitutes the poetic temperament, capable of the noblest efforts, susceptible of almost heavenly delight, yet ever exposed from the shock of ruder spirits, or the overstraining of its own powers, to a derangement which deprives it of all its energy, and of all its sensibility, ex-gay without frivolity,-melancholy cept to misery alone.

Never did any life afford a more striking comment on the wisdom of the poet's advice to limit our wishes to the enjoyment of a sound mind in a sound body; or on the solemn question dictated by still higher wisdom, "Who knows what is good for man in this life?" In contemplating the life of Cowper, his genuine simplicity, his unaffected modesty, his refined relish for all that was beautiful and sublime in nature, his unenvying admiration of all that was good and great in human character, the cordial warmth of his social affections, and the unsullied purity of his heart, eminently fitted for, and as eminently blessed with, friendship of the most exalted and endearing kind; and, with all these qualities, sensibility, fancy, judgment, Bearning, taste, in short, all the ele

Never, perhaps, was there a poet whose writings so completely harmonize with his character and history. In reading his poetry, we seem to be admitted at once to his intimate converse, -we see the man himself in all his various moods, habits, feelings, and occupations, without reserve or disguise,

without austerity,-great without effort,-tender without the affectation of sentimentality,-simple without rudeness,-in short, thinking and speaking on whatever happens to occupy his attention, with the ease, grace and dignity of a superior and polished mind.

But we are transgressing our bounds; and have all this time, we find, been speaking of Cowper, while we intended to speak only of the memoirs and critical remarks which accompany a new edition of his poems. When we said that these memoirs add little to what we formerly knew of the poet's history, we by no means intended to insinuate that they are destitute of originality. On the contrary, they possess all the originality, which, without access to new sources of information, a biographer

can be expected to display. The e vents of the poet's life, his present editor relates as he found them; but his reflections on those events, and his manner of narrating them, are his own, and evince no common share of talent and observation.

We can spare no room for quotations; but we were particularly pleased with the passage in which he adverts to the jealousy entertained by Mrs Unwin, of the accomplished and fascinating Lady Austen,-a jealousy which obliged the unhappy poet to renounce the friendship of one, to whom he was indebted for some of the brightest moments of his existence, whom he regarded with a brother's tenderness, who had so successfully directed his talents to noble pursuits, and whose sprightliness and good nature had so often dissipated the vapours of despondency that obscured his better judgment." The narrative, which is spirited and well written throughout, concludes with a sketch of the poet's character, very faithfully and ably delineated.

But it is in his Critical Remarks, that the abilities and taste of the editor are chiefly displayed. On this part of his task he enters with all the ardour of a kindred spirit; and, while he estimates the characteristic qualities of Cowper's various works with great acuteness and accuracy of

discrimination, he appreciates the efforts, the feelings, the inspirations of the poet, with a truth and fulness of sympathy which a poet only could feel. The whole of his remarks on the Task well deserve the perusal of every lover of poetry, and particularly of every young candidate for poetic fame. These remarks are not merely critical. The annotator often catches, as he proceeds, a portion of his author's inspiration, and glows with equal ardour of benevolence, or expands into equal amplitude of thought. There is one passage, in particular, on the demoralizing effects of state-lotteries, conceived so completely in the spirit of Cowper, and expressed with so much of his virtuous sensibility to the best interests of mankind, and with so much animation and cogency of reasoning, that it must carry conviction to every unprejudiced understanding, and pleasure to every patriotic heart.

Another, and no trifling recommen-" dation of this edition, is, that it contains some beautiful poems which have never appeared before, except in Hayley's Life of Cowper; that it is printed very neatly, and embellished with beautiful engravings; and that its cheapness, which, considering all its advantages, is certainly surprising, places within the reach of every reader these exquisite poems, which cannot be too generally known.

SURVEY OF FRENCH LITERATURE.

NEW PUBLICATIONS.
March 1818.

Dictionnaire Critique et Raisonne, &c.A Critical and Descriptive Dictionary of the Etiquette of the Court, the Customs, Amusements, Fashions, and Manners of the French, from the death of Louis XIII. to the present Time, containing a Picture of the Court, Society, and Litera ture, during the eighteenth Century; or, the Spirit of the ancient Etiquette and CusLoms compared to the modern. By Madame le Countesse de Genlis; 2 vols. 8vo.

When we see a work with a long title, containing several subdivisions and explanations, we may almost be sure that the author, before he began his book, did not maturely enough consider his plan. We may also be certain to find many chapters

which have no kind of reference to any part of the title, notwithstanding the care the author seems to have taken to foresee and prevent all objections. Never was our remark more true than in respect to this new publication of Madame de Genlis's, which has just occupied our thoughts. It is a hotch-potch of articles on all sorts of subjects, amongst which those mentioned in the title-page hold the least place of all. The greater part are intended to refute the philosophy of the eighteenth century, and, in particular, Voltaire's works; and we cannot but say, that she has perfectly well succeeded. She gives the clearest proofs of the modern philosophers' bad morals, revolutionary principles, sophistical argu ments, and perpetual contradictions. These proofs she draws from their own works, quoting every time the volume and page

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