We should think so. What sized cage would be proportioned to the author's natural vivacity? In the account of each bird I shall point out what shaped cage I have found most suitable.' So he does, but it does not accord with our experience. For most kinds, the best shaped cage is one open at the sides, except a few tree tops, a flat or undulating green bottom, a blue curved roof, or darker coloured with bright spangles for nightingales, which may be changed for a large spirit lamp for larks. The same cage does for both species, or any others. There is nothing like it, and it may be had, gratis, of the maker. Although unable to get over the primary abomination of bird-fancying, we cannot but be interested in the many curious details of this book; and while we would have no more catching, we must say that great advantage would accrue to all which are already caught, from Dr. Bechstein's directions about food and general treatment.

Cowper's Life and Works. Edited by the Rev. T. S. Grimshawe. Vols. 1 and 2. Saunders and Otley.

THIS is one of two rival editions of Cowper, and the first in the field. To the readers whose religious opinions coincide with those of the poet's, it will be decidedly the most acceptable. The Life,' by Hayley, is republished as revised by the editor, who has also incorporated with it the 'Private Correspondence,' collected by Dr. Johnson, an advantage peculiar to this edition. The recommendation of the other edition will be in the memoir by Southey. To the general reader that will undoubtedly be a strong recommendation. But those who included Cowper's theology' in their admiration, will not think Southey a much more fitting biographer than Hayley; and their objections to the work of the latter will be removed by the alterations and additions of the present editor, who is favourably known as the author of the Life of Legh Richmond.' The completion of the Correspondence' will be welcome to every body. The volumes are well got up, and adorned with beautiful illustrations by the Findens, from Harding's drawings. The first has a view of the village of Berkhampstead, the native place of Cowper, and a vignette of the house in which he was born; and the frontispiece of the second is his house at Weston, with a vignette of Olney.

6

·

Dr. Channing's Political Writings.

THE Essays on Napoleon,' 'the Discourses on War,' and on Honour all Men,' the Election Sermon,' with some extracts on Obedience to Government,' the Freedom of the Press,' &c. &c., are here reprinted in a very portable and cheap form. It is observed in the preface that ‘a number of observations, scattered through these essays, on the characters of military men, and their fitness for the offices of legislators or rulers, are not inappropriate at the present time.' Some of that peculiar appropriateness has happily vanished since, but there is an appropriateness in the sentiments of such a writer as Dr. Channing, which is as enduring as human nature and civil society.

The Descent into Hell; Uriel, and three Odes. By J. A Heraud. THE author is evidently a man of considerable power, but it seems to us that, with the mysticism of his notions, the intractability of his subject, and his unnaturalized versification, no power can successfully struggle.

Melanie, and other Poems. By N. P. Willis.
Edited by Barry Cornwall,

6

By a brief preface, but beautifully written and full of sound and true feeling, Barry Cornwall introduces this American poet to the British public. Both for his introducer's sake and his own, does he deserve a courteous welcome. He is evidently what the preface calls him, a man of high talent and sensibility.' A very sweet song of his, called 'Saturday Afternoon,' was quoted, in our notice of the selections from the American poets, in our January number. It is accompanied, in this volume, by many effusions of similar worth; and some scriptural and religious pieces of great merit. The following extract is from the poem which gives its title to the volume :—

'A calm and lovely paradise

Is Italy for minds at ease.
The sadness of its sunny skies

Weighs not upon the lives of these.
The ruined aisle, the crumbling fane,
The broken column, vast and prone,
It may be joy-it may be pain—

Amid such wreck to walk alone!
The saddest man will sadder be,
The gentlest lover gentler there,
As if, whate'er the spirit's key,

It strengthened in that solemn air,

The heart soon grows to mournful things,
And Italy has not a breeze

But comes on melancholy wings;

And even her majestic trees

Stand ghost-like in the Cæsar's home,
As if their conscious roots were set

In the old graves of giant Rome,
And drew their sap all kingly yet!

And every stone your feet beneath

Is broken from some mighty thought,
And sculptures in the dust still breathe

The fire with which their lines were wrought;
And sunder'd arch, and plunder'd tomb,,
Still thunder back the echo, "Rome!""

'Yet gaily o'er Egeria's fount
The ivy flings its emerald veil,

And flowers grow fair on Numa's mount,
And light-sprung arches span the dale;

And soft, from Caracalla's Baths,

The herdsman's song comes down the breeze
While climb his goats the giddy paths

To grass-grown architrave and frieze;
And gracefully Albano's hill

Curves into the horizon's line,

And sweetly sings that classic rill,

And fairly stands that nameless shrine.

And here, Ŏ many a sultry noon

And starry eve, that happy June,

Came Angelo and Melanie,
And earth for us was all in tune-

For while Love talk'd with them, Hope walk'd apart with me!' p. 15-17.

เ

The whole poem is as good as this; redolent of sweetness, grace, and pathos. There is another too, Lord Ivon and his Daughter,' which has more of prevading strength, united with those attributes; and both have deep revealings of that heart-philosophy which is the science of the poet.

The History of Ireland. By Thomas Moore.
(Vol. 65 of the Cabinet Cyclopædia.')

THIS Volume is rather a series of historical dissertations than a history. The author seems determined to demonstrate that poets can be as diligent, careful, and critical as other people. He is quite successful. The state of the materials rendered it impossible to write the early history of Ireland in any other way, at least to any good purpose; and the mode of exibiting the results of the author's investigations renders them not less interesting than they are curious and historically important. The succeeding volumes will probably have more of the flow of continuous

narrative.

*

*

*

Since the above was written, and at a late period of the month, we have received the following document. For its allegations the writer must be held altogether and solely responsible; but thinking the ends of literary justice more likely to be furthered by its insertion than by its suppression, we have acted accordingly.

'Mr. O'Brien's PROTEST against Mr. Moore's Plagiarisms.

'I hereby protest, in the most unmitigated and indignant feeling of literary injustice, against the unwarrantable use of some of the sentiments and phrases of my "Round Towers of Ireland," introduced by Mr. Moore, wholesale and without acknowledgment, into his "History" of that country, just published, and forming the 65th volume of "Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopædia." A more barefaced appropriation of another person's labour and originality I unhesitatingly affirm I never before witnessed! for which, too, Mr. Moore has made no other amends than that of squeezing my name into an obscure note-as insidious as it is obscure-and there generalizing my "disquisi tion" as "clever but rather too fanciful."

⚫ April 20, 1835.

HENRY O'BRIEN.'

The London Review. No. 1.

A NEW Comer amongst the Quarterlies; and one which, already, would be less properly termed a work of good promise than of good performance. The prospectus has been before our readers, and the first number can scarcely disappoint any expectations excited by it. A sound political and moral philosophy pervades the number, and both the responsibility of the writers and the interest of the reader will probably be promoted by the plan of affixing a signature to each article, which signature is uniformly to be appended to contributions from the same hand. In several instances these marks will identify writers with whom our own readers are not unfamiliar. Of course, a greater latitude is allowed by this plan for the expression of individual opinion, than is customary in reviews; a circumstance- which, to those who are at all addicted to the exercise of thought, will commend itself as an advantage. It supersedes also the occasion for qualifying a general agreement in the spirit and tendency of the publication with that expression of dissent from a few, and but a very few, particular opinions, which else we might have thought important enough to notice as exceptions. Such as the strong assertion of the sacredness of crown pensions (p. 21;) the worth, as a specimen of logical analysis, ascribed to the Latin or Greek Grammar (p. 104;) and the theory of dramatic poetry (p. 83.) The crown of the number, and this, considering the high talent of several of the articles, is no common praise, is that on the State of Philosophy in England,' (signed A.) A composition so characterised by distinctness, acuteness, vigour, and comprehensiveness, so uniting the powers of the controversialist and the philosopher, is, indeed, rarely to be met with.

Heath's Gallery of British Engravings. Part I.

CHEAP publication has reached its climax. This must be its ne plus ultra. Reckoning nothing for letter-press, here are three specimens of art, as beautiful as the graver can produce, at four-pence a piece!

It appears that the exquisite plates of the 'Keepsake,' 'Book of Beauty,' the Picturesque Annual,' and Turner's Annual Tour,' have been copied for continental circulation, at a low price. Mr. Heath is determined to grapple with the pirates, and undersell them by good impressions from the original plates, many of which cost from one hundred to one hundred and eighty guineas each, independently of the copy-right of the paintings. He, therefore, offers a series of shilling numbers, once a fortnight, containing each, usually, a portrait or fancy head, an historical subject, and a landscape.' In this first number we have The Bride,' by Leslie, · Dieppe,' by Stansfield, and the Rival Waiting Women,' by Smirke. Each of these engravings has already made itself a reputation by its excellence. The second is well worth the price for which, in this publication, many may be obtained.

Wanderings through North Wales. By T. Roscoe, Esq.

Part II.

THIS part contains good specimens of pictorial poetry in its engravings, which are Harlech Castle, the Bridge over the Llugwy, and Snowdon. The letter-press relates to Chester, and contains a very amusing account of the great king Arthur, and his minister and conjuror Merlin.

Gooch's Parliamentary Pledge-Book.

Coppock's Elector's Manual.

We put these two little books together because they are of the same description, namely, political guide-books, and both of them cheap and useful ones. Mr. Coppock's analysis of the Reform Act is the most brief and intelligible that we have seen. It truly consists of 'plain directions by which every man may know his own rights, and preserve them.' It is a most seasonable guide, for carelessness about registration has been a besetting sin with many reformers, while mistakes and difficulties have beset many more. Mr. Gooch's book is an excellent thing to have at hand while reading the debates. It is a record of promises which ought not to be forgotten, as time brings the season, too seldom the reality, of performances. The pledges and declarations' of members are given from their printed addresses, or speeches at the recent elections; and a variety of personal and public information is added, including the first three great divisions, those on the Speakership, the Address, and the

Malt Tax.

A Digest of the Laws and Regulations of the Wesleyan Methodists. By S. Warren, LL.D.

THIS book of law is very needful for all who live under it. Those who do not may derive some benefit from its perusal. Judge-made law is bad; priest-made law is worse; nor is the comparison materially affected by the priesthood being established or non-established. This book might have been entitled, 'The Art and Mystery of Sectarian Organization. An appendix, besides forms of trust deeds, &c. contains the case of Mr. J. R. Stephens, who has been de facto expelled for co-operating with the meetings and societies of those who have petitioned for the separation of Church and State, Methodism has nothing to do with politics; but the nothing-to-do consists, not in leaving every individual member to follow the dictates of his own mind, but in restraining all whose politics are in opposition to those of their leaders. Mr. Stephens was not only exposed to censure for the past, but required to give a distinct pledge for the future, of abstinence from all similar meetings and associations. He rightly interpreted this as an excommunication, and withdrew.