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From Chambers' Journal.

TELEGRAPH OF THOUGHT.

THREE literary productions have been sent to us this week from countries far apart-one from Italy, one from China, and one from New Zealand, which have all, we think, strong claims upon the interest of our readers.

-necessary to them-there are added essays on electricity, galvanism, and magnetism. But this indoctrination has no reference to the establishment of an electric communication with Peking; the benefit it seeks is intellectual, not physical; and the fluid of thought it conveys is intended to awaken the Chinese mind from the torpor of ages.

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To this ancient people their ancestors are deities, to The appearance at Florence of a new Italian jour- whom they pay divine honors; and it is necessary to nal called the "Rivista Britannica," appears to us to prove to them that in the course of the last 2000 years be a circumstance peculiarly worthy the attention of the world has learned something, and that we of these those who watch with interest the social progress of last days are in some respects wiser than Confucius. nations. The object of this journal is to transfuse This must be the foundation of all teaching in China, English thought into the veins of Italian society, with where at present it is unlawful for the human mind to the view of promoting a freer and healthier circula-advance one jot beyond the wisdom of their ancestors. tion. The result sought after is not proposed to be The decomposing power of the galvanic battery is obtained by translating books, but articles-by send-explained, the author tells us, for the purpose of ing through the Italian mind that common current of showing the fallacy of so much of the philosophy and reflection and information which is the very life of the mythology as is connected with the theory of the five English intellect. In the introduction, the editors, elements: reference being also made to facts in astronone bearing an Italian, the other a Scottish name-omy, optics, chemistry, and anatomy, which in like the Chevalier Sebastiano Fenzi and James Montgom- manner scatter to the winds their notions relative to ery Stuart-remark, that England alone has been plants, colors, metals, and viscera, of which the exempt from the almost general fate of Europe to Chinese enumerate five each." The work, it will be struggle for freedom-to seem to win the fight for a seen, is conceived in a wise and healthy spirit, and if moment and then to fall back, having gained noth- even tolerable in the execution, Dr. Macgowan will ing more than a shadow. It seems to them that the deserve well of China and of mankind. achievement of liberty is useless without the capacity to enjoy it in an orderly manner; and that the best preparation Italy can make is to study the popular literature of a nation possessing so eminently this capacity, and offering so excellent a point d'appui for those who would develop the elements of Italian society.

Under these convictions, they propose that the new journal shall be composed of such translations from English periodicals as will give a faithful reflection of the existing state of art, science, literature, and social life in England; and they invite the sympathy and support of the Italian public to an undertaking which they believe will not only furnish a useful and agreeable volume, but serve to correct prejudices and remove antipathies. Their materials will consist of narratives, articles on physical and natural science, machinery, &c.; travels and geological sketches, literature and art, &c. ; besides an original review of English works relating to Italy. The contents of the first fasciculus now before us are as follows:-"Adventures in the Fiord," by Harriet Martineau ; “ Terrestrial Magnetism," from Chambers' Edinburgh Journal; 66 Foreign Reminiscences of the late Lord Holland," from the Edinburgh Review; Herschel's "Siberia and California," from the Quarterly Review; and a review of Ogilvy's "Traditions of Tuscany," in verse, with poetical translations of the

extracts.

The third literary production is the first number of an English newspaper, published under peculiar circumstances at the antipodes. In September last, our readers are aware, four emigrant ships sailed from this country with the view of founding the Canterbury Settlement in New Zealand. It was late in December before these pilgrim fathers arrived at their destination -an uninhabited bay surrounded by a desert; but here, on the 11th of the ensuing month-before twenty human habitations were in existence-appeared the "Lyttleton Times," a well-printed paper of twentyfour columns, with its page of advertisements, its leading article, its notice to correspondents, its shipping news, its local intelligence, its poets' corner, its market prices, and its police report. Formerly, it used to be said that wherever the English went, the first thing they did was to establish a tavern; now we have changed all that-the chief necessary is a newspaper, and the stirring character of the age demands, above all things, expression. We wish every success to the " Lyttleton Times," and to the settlement of which it aspires to be the organ.

A SOLITARY KINGDOM.

ON Sunday morning, the 9th December, 1849, at three A. M., we made the island of St. Paul's, the southernmost of those twin rocks which frown in soliThis undertaking we think is worthy of all encour order was given to get the pinnace out, and away we tary grandeur in the midst of the Indian Ocean. The agement; and we are quite of the opinion expressed went, steering for a conspicuous sugar-loaf rock, some by the editors, that a free interchange of thought is 150 feet in height, which marked the entrance of the still more important than a free commercial inter-harbor, or, more properly, the lagoon.

course between nations.

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The second work alluded to is published at Ningpo. the entrance of the harbor, where we descried a flagAfter pulling for about half an hour, we reached It is of a narrow folio size, neatly stitched as a pam-staff displaying French colors, and several wooden phlet, with a thin cover of yellow silk. It is entitled the houses, the residence of the owner of the island and Philosophical Almanac," by D. J. Macgowan, M. D., his crew. Having volunteered to act as interpreter, and is printed in Chinese, with numerous diagrams, I felt rather unfrocked" at hearing a loud hail, in in the 48th year of the 75th cycle of sixty, or 4488, being the 1st year of the reign of H. I. M. Hiem capital English," Boat ahoy!-keep well in with the shore, and come up to yonder wharf"-instructions Fung." which we followed implicitly, and soon jumped on to the dry land. We were received by three or four ugly-looking Madagascar negroes, who led us up to "the captain," whom we discovered surrounded with eration. There was no mistaking his Gallic face, and his lieutenants and people, apparently in grave delibI forthwith addressed him in French, stating the name of our ship and her destination, and requesting a supply of vegetables and poultry. He immediately invited us, with a certain rough empressement, into

The main object of the work is to communicate to the Chinese a knowledge of the principles of the electric telegraph; and as an introduction to the subject

* Rivista Britannica, Giornale Mensuale, raccolta di Articoli tratti dalle migliori publicazioni Inglesi. Fascicolo I. Firenze: Tipografia Italiana, 1851.— [The British Review, a Monthly Journal, composed of Articles from the best English publications. London Agent, P. Rolandi, Berners Street.]

his house, and offered us breakfast, composed of Dutch | What matter! In the furrows ploughed by care, cheese, potatoes, cold fowl, biscuit, and bad rum. Let age tread after, sowing immortal seeds! The calls of hunger being satisfied, and a cursory All this world's harvest yields, wheat, tares, and inspection of the premises duly accomplished, we weeds, sallied out to explore the dominions of our new friend. Is reaped; 'neath God's stern sky my field lies bare. The island of St. Paul's (for whose correct latitude But in the night-time, 'tween me and the stars and longitude I beg to refer to Horsburg) is merely The angel faces still come floating by, the crater of an extinct volcano, extending ten miles No death-pale shadow, no averted eye in length and four or five in breadth. The crater Marking the inevitable doom that bars now forms a circular lagoon, enclosed by steep and Me from them. Not a cloud their aspect mars; rocky walls from 300 to 700 feet in height, covered And my sick spirit walks with them hand in hand with a stunted vegetation of scrub, fern, and coarse By the cool waters of a pleasant land; grass. It is rarely visited by shipping, though lying Sings with them o'er again, without its jars, directly in the track of vessels bound to Australia and The psalm of life that ceased when one by one the South-sea fisheries. I did not learn how it first Their voices sank, and left my voice alone, happened to be occupied; probably some freebooting With dull monotonous wail, to grieve the air; adventurer was attracted thither by its merits as a Turns glad from each to the other, still to find fishing station. The lagoon forms a safe and commo- Its own" I love thee!" echoed close and kind; dious harbor for small craft, the bar at its entrance -Moon glimmerings, bridging the black sea, Despair! being covered at flood tide with ten or twelve feet of water. The present owner is a Frenchman, who had Ay, angel faces! So I ever deemed long been engaged in the trade between the Mauritius Their human likeness; so I see them now! and Bourbon and the Cape of Good Hope; but, having God laid his visible signet on each brow, got into some trouble with the revenue officers, fled to And they were holy, even as they seemed. the island in a small schooner of about sixty tons, Then, though all earth and hell itself had schemed manned by Madagascar slaves; and finding it occu-To lure them from me by divided road, pied by a Pole named Mieroslawski, (a brother of the One goal remains for all-the throne of God; Hungarian hero,) he bought it of him for the sum of And I shall find them there! Not vain I dreamed, 2000 dollars; and forthwith hoisting the tricolor, set My sainted ones! my glorious ones! my loved up a petty sovereignty under the protection of his And lost ones! from my famished sight removed native flag. Here he instituted a system of rigid A little while, lest I might worship ye, discipline, by means of which he contrived to keep the And forget heaven. Sure as at God's White Throne command of his wild followers, and train them to All whom He loves one living union own, regular work. His ability and energy enabled him to My angel faces there will shine on me. conquer the natural difficulties of his new abode, and he now derives a handsome money income from the produce of his fisheries, making three or four voyages annually to Bourbon or Port Louis, where his old scores had been effaced by the hand of time.

The French Revolution of 1848 brought some change in his calculations, inasmuch as his black slaves all became free, and he is now fain to hire, at stated wages, (which, however, are moderate enough,) the labor of those poor devils, who were his property before. I was surprised to see no women on the island; and, inquiring of him how it came to pass, he told me he had brought some with him at first, but they were the cause of so much quarrelling, that he had found it impracticable to govern his kingdom so long as they were in it, and he therefore shipped them back to the place whence they came. The inhabitants of the Rock consisted therefore of himself and two mates, two other Frenchmen, a half-caste boy, and fourteen Nossibé blacks-the ugliest-looking negroes I ever beheld. They seemed to lead a not unpleasant life, with plenty to eat and little to do-the luxuries of the island being biscuit and tobacco, which they cannot always procure. Cows, goats, and rabbits, roam about the rocks; and the cheerful cackling of hundreds of fowls forms a homely feature in the otherwise wild and rugged ensemble.-Abridged from "The Empire," a new Sydney Journal.

From Chambers' Journal.

THREE SONNETS.

Till with the dawn those angel faces smile,
That I have loved long since, and lost awhile.

I WILL not paint them. God them sees, and I:
None other can, nor need. They have no form
I cannot close with passionate kisses warm
Their eyes that shine from far or from on high,
But never will shine nearer till I die.
How long, how long! See, I am growing old,
Have ceased to count within my hair's close fold
The silver threads that there in ambush lie ;
Some angel faces, bent from heaven, would pine
To trace the scarred lines written upon mine.

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THE WIFE'S APPEAL.

BY MISS SARAH J. CLARK.

I'm thinking, Charles, 't is just a year-
Or will be very soon-
Since first you told me of your love,
One glorious day in June.

All nature seemed to share our bliss-
The skies hung warm above-
The winds from opening roses bore
The very breath of love.

We sought the still, deep forest shades,
Within whose leafy gloom

Few ardent sunbeams stole, to kiss
The young buds into bloom.

The birds caught up our tones of love
In song not half as sweet,
And earth's green carpet, violet flower'd,
It scarcely felt our feet.

But, apropos of carpets, Charles,
I looked at some to-day,

Which you will purchase, won't you, dear
Before our next soirée ?

And then, remember you, how, lost

In love's delicious dream,

We long stood silently beside

A gently gliding stream?

'Twas nature's mirror; when your gaze

No longer I could bear,

I modestly cast down my eyes,
Yet but to meet it there.

And, apropos of mirrors, love,
The dear gift of your mother,

Is quite old-fashioned-and, to-day,
I ordered home another.
Ah, well do I remember, Charles,

When first your arm stole round me ;
You little dreamed how long your soul
In golden chains had bound me.

But, apropos of chains; my own,

At Banks' store last week
I found the sweetest love!-so rich,
So tasteful and unique!

The workmanship is most superb-
The gold most fine and pure-

I quite long, Charles, to see that chain
Suspend your miniature.

I heard sad news while you were out;
My nerves are much affected;
You know the navy officer

I once for you rejected?

Driven to despair by your success,
Made desperate by my scorn,
He went to sea, and has been lost
In passing round Cape Horn.

Ah, apropos of capes, my love,

I saw one in Broadway,

Of lace as fine as though 't was wove
Of moonlight by a fay.

You'll purchase the exquisite thing,
"T will suit your taste completely;
Above the heart that loves you, Charles,
'T will rise and fall so sweetly.

NEW BOOKS.

From the Boston Courier.

A Manual of Roman Antiquities, with numerous Illustrations. By CHARLES ANTHON, LL. D., Professor of Greek and Latin in Columbia College.

A book containing an immense amount of learning, of every kind, concerning the Roman Empire-its origin, its divisions of classes, its revolutions, its laws, government and law officers, jurisprudence, slave system, religion, its military and naval affairs, domestic customs, &c., &c.

The Elements of Algebra, designed for beginners. By ELIAS LOOMIS, M. A.

The author has a good reputation, and the book is clearly printed,

The Pictorial Field Book of the Revolution, No. 16.

The series is to be closed in about four more numbers, and the work will be valuable, from the quantity of information which it imparts, concerning the American revolution, the biographical notices of those who acted in its scenes, and the illustrations of scenes and localities connected with American history.

and, as for talent, we cannot say that it displays more than every other novel that he has written. His industry never tires, and his genius, if not improved, shows undoubted evidence of not wearing out. All the above are published by the Harpers.

The Beauties and Deformities of Tobacco- Using; or its Ludicrous and its Solemn Realities. By L. B. COLES, M. D., Fellow of the Massachusetts Medical Society, Author of the "Philosophy of Health." Boston Ticknor, Reed & Fields.

Tobacco-users are not hard to reach ; but the difficulty is, after they have been reached, and after they have read all such treatises as this, and admitted the force of the facts and reasoning presented to their minds, they will persist in the use of the weed. What shall be done? Keep just such treatises before them; and once in a while, depend upon it, the most dogged of them will yield, both to conviction, and in the practice. Let one extract tell its story:

"No tobacco-user is fit for a bed companion. He is giving forth pestilential vapors from all the pores of his skin. He is an embodiment of perpetual miasm. The immediate atmosphere surrounding him is inevitably impregnated and polluted with the constant effluvia which emanates from his whole surface. He becomes a perfect walking distillery of the deadly essence, sending forth its fumes and vapors into the surrounding atmosphere. His mouth is the mill which grinds out the weed, and his whole body the distillery for its essence. Put a chewer or smoker into a vapor bath, with no tobacco in the room, and in a short time the whole room will be strongly scented with tobacco effluvia that has emanated from his body. Put him into a warm bath and get up perspiration; then put that water upon flies, or the vermin of plants, and it will instantly destroy them."- Watchman.

The Epoch of Creation-The Scripture Doctrine Contrasted with the Geological Theory. By ELEAZER LORD. New York: Charles Scribner. 1851.

This work maintains the literal truth of the Mosaic account of the creation, against the theories which the geologists deduce from the appearances observed in the surface of the globe and in the excavations which have been opened into its interior. The author holds that, the creation being itself a miracle, there is no difficulty in believing that the epoch of creation was precisely that stated by Moses, without resorting to any freedom of interpretation in order to reconcile religion with science; it being as easy to suppose that the earth was created in its present state, with all its present arrangement of minerals and fossils, as to suppose that it was created at all. The author shows much familiarity with the works of geologists, and uses, with considerable skill, the weapons they have

Adventures and Travels in Mexico, by WM. W. furnished against each other.-N. Y. Ev. Post. CARPENTER, late of the United States Army.

Adventures during the Mexican war crowd upon us, but in such a season of events, every one who relates his own tale can tell something new. The author of this work was one of the Kentucky volunteers who joined General Taylor at the commencement of the Mexican war, proceeded from New Orleans to the Brazos river, and thence to Monterey, after the first battles. After participating in the capture of Monterey, he was captured while on his way to Saltillo, and from that time until he reached the Pacific, in the period of confinement, and of journey of escape, his adventures were full of interest.

The Fate; a Tale of Stirring Times.

This is the last published novel by that very prolific author, James, and purports to have been commenced and finished in this country. It is long, and more full of words than ideas. That it is interesting, is saying no more of it than can be said of all his works,

A Budget of Willow Lane Stories, with Illustrations. By UNCLE FRANK. New York: Charles Scrib1851.

ner.

These are little narratives for young persons; which, with the exception of here and there a little bad English, are pleasantly related.-N. Y. Ev. Post.

Dr. Sprague's Oration before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard University, July 17, 1851.

This calm, judicious and able address is worthy of the distinguished reputation its author bears, and of the brilliant series of orations of which it forms the last. Suffering as he did from illness at the time of the delivery, having just risen from a sick bed, it appears to us still better on the perusal than when first heard. It is a thorough and graceful history of the American mind as the child of the past, with hopeful and genial views of its future destiny.

Transcript.

LITTELL'S LIVING AGE.-No. 384.-27 SEPTEMBER, 1851.

From the Quarterly Review.

The Correspondence of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford, and the Rev. William Mason. Now first published from the original MSS. Edited, with Notes, by the Rev. J. MITFORD. 2 vols.

8vo. 1850.

gossipping as the individual letters may seem, they
constitute, taken altogether, a body of historical
evidence to which no other age or country can
afford anything like a parallel. But against those
merits must be set off many concomitant, and, as
we may venture to call them, congenial defects.
His politics are always under the strong influence
of party and often of faction, and his details of
social life and personal character are rendered more
amusing indeed, but less trustworthy, by a strong
seasoning of scandal, and occasionally of malice.
It is not given to man to be at once of a party, and
impartial-to be a gossip, and not censorious.
do not take the characters of Lord Wharton or Sir
Robert Walpole from Swift, nor should we from
Horace Walpole those of Bute or North.

*

We

Of all the qualities of Horace Walpole's pen, its fecundity seems gradually becoming the most wonderful. In our number of September, 1843, we first noticed the extraordinary diligence with which, amidst the numerous and constant engagements of fashionable and political life, voluminous authorship, and a zealous pursuit of antiquities and virtù, he found time to write such a prodigious number of letters as we then already possessed, amounting to about two thousand, and filling ten closelyprinted octavo volumes; and we announced our But besides this natural and inevitable bias, conviction that there were probably considerable Walpole had, no doubt, from his mother, and (if classes of his correspondence which had not yet seen the scandal of the day was well founded) from his the light. Since that we have received additional father too, a marked peculiarity of temper, which proofs of his indefatigability :-four thick volumes perhaps sharpened his sagacity and brightened his of his Memoirs of George III.-two volumes conwit, but not unfrequently distorted his vision and taining upwards of four hundred letters to Lady deceived his judgment to an almost morbid degree. Ossory-and now two others of his correspondence The result is, that no writer we know of requires with Mason, of which Walpole's share may perto be read, when read historically, with more haps amount to a couple of hundred more. * And suspicion-at least, more caution-and a nicer investhis is probably not all. The publisher, indeed, tigation and comparison of all contemporary testiof these volumes advertises with great confidence mony. Even when run through for mere amusethat "this is the last series of the unpublished ment, so much of the interest and of the pleasantry letters of this incomparable epistolary writer;" turns on circumstances and allusions which are but no reason is, nor, we believe, can be, given for every day becoming less familiar to ordinary readthis assertion. On the contrary, recollecting how ers, that there is hardly a page which would not comparatively few of the already published letters be the better for some extraneous elucidation. are addressed to the persons with whom we know These considerations have induced us to give a he much delighted to correspond-Madame du closer and more continuous attention to the succesDeffand, General Conway, Lord Harcourt,† Mrs. sive batches of Walpole's Correspondence and MeDamer, Lady Aylesbury, Lady Suffolk, Lady Har- moirs than such apparently light reading might seem vey, the Chutes, the Beauclercs, the whole tribe at first sight to deserve. They have also prompted of Waldegraves, and so many others of his nearest the regret that we have been forced to express for and most familiar friends and relations-we are led the very unsatisfactory way in which most of those to hope that we are not even yet au fond du sac. publications, and particularly the later ones, have Probably the most curious batch of all would be been what is called "edited." those to Mrs. Clive, which at her death no doubt returned into his own hands, and have never been

heard of.

When we reflect that the mass of published letters and memoirs extends over a space of sixty-two years from 1735 to 1797-and embraces every possible topic of politics, literature, and social life, drawn from the best sources of information, and detailed with such unwearied diligence, and such attractive vivacity, we grow every day more and more convinced of the serious importance of Horace Walpole as the historian of his time. Light and

*We are obliged to speak thus vaguely, because the editor has neither numbered the letters, nor given us either index or table of contents.

+ Mr. Mitford talks, in one of his notes, of something that is to be seen in "the Harcourt Correspondence;" but he does not tell us what or where this Harcourt Correspondence is. We conjecture that it may be Horace Walpole's letters to the two Lord Harcourts of his day; but surely this is a very vague way of citing an authority. At all events, it seems to contradict the publisher's advertisement, that there are no more unpublished letters of Walpole.

CCCLXXXIV. LIVING AGE. VOL. XXX. 37

The respectable name of Mr. Mitford on this new title-page gave us better hopes. He has been long practised in the editorial office, and, from the course of his literary life, would have been, we should have thought, peculiarly qualified for such a task. But we have been altogether disappointed. This is undoubtedly the worst edited of the whole Walpolean series. The anonymous editor of the Letters to Mann did little, and did it ill; Mr. Vernon Smith did nothing-but Mr. Mitford has done worse than nothing. So far from elucidating what might be dark, he has sometinies confused what was clear, and in hardly any instance explains a real obscurity. Mr. Mitford is evidently aware that he has not done for us all that we might have reasonably expected. He says:

I have, where it seemed requisite, made a few observations in the notes, but from circumstances con

*See, in Lord Wharncliff's edition of Lady Mary Wortley's Works, Lady Louisa Stuart's statement that Horace Walpole "was notoriously the son of Cart Lord Hervey." See also the biographical notice of John Lord Hervey, prefixed to his Memoirs, I. xix.

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nected with my professional engagements, over which | sages on which a really illustrative note would I had no control, that portion of the book is less perfect have been desirable. There is too much that we than I could have wished; in some cases, however, the do not want, and too little of what we do. And readers will be able to supply themselves with original we demur altogether to the remedy that Mr. information; in others, they may derive assistance Mitford proposes-of "the reader's supplying himfrom the learned editors of works by Walpole previ- self with original information," or ously published, and perhaps what they will find in learned editors of all Walpole's previously published consulting the these volumes may not be altogether without its use." -Preface. works." It is rather hard on the purchaser of two costly volumes-which from the addition of the name of Mason may be supposed to be substantially of a separate class-to be forced to buy all the long series of Walpole's correspondence-(so say nothing of the Biographia Dramatica and the like)— and painfully to pick out from them what an editor ought to have already extracted for his use. short, we have to say generally, and we shall by and by show more particularly, that, from whatever cause, Mr. Mitford has done his work less perfectly, to use his own too-indulgent phrase, than any editor that it has been our ill-fortune to meet.

66

This, begging Mr. Mitford's pardon, seems to us a very insufficient apology. Engagements over which he had no control" might have curtailed his commentaries, but can hardly be pleaded for the laborious inanity of seventy or eighty whole pages of what he calls Illustrative Notes appended to his volumes--a much larger proportion than even the best (or least bad) of Walpole's editors had hitherto given us. We cannot understand why notes so apparently copious should contain so little illustration. For instance, Walpole says in December, 1773:

In

In ordinary cases it is hardly worth while to noI have read a pretty little drama called Palladius they are so numerous, and in some instances such tice mere errors of the press, but in these volumes

and Irene, written by I know not whom.-i. 110.

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The note tells less than the text.

Again Walpole, after recommending a volume of French "Letters," adds, "I do not recommend the boasted Siege of Calais" (ii. 7); on which we find, 300 pages off, this illustrative note:

Siege of Calais, a tragedy by Charles Denis, translated from the French of de Belloy, with historical notes, 1765. See Biog. Dramatica.-ii. 404.

Few readers will have the Biographia Dramatica at hand, but we can console them by informing them that said Biographia would have told them no more than the Illustrative Note, and that neither it nor the Note has any relation whatsoever to what Walpole was writing about-to wit, the original French play, which, as we find from the Collective Correspondence, (vol. iv.,) he had asked Lord Hertford, 25th March, 1765, to send him from Paris, and of which he writes George Montague on the 5th of April, in the identical words used to Mason. The translation by Denis, mentioned in the Biographia and the Note had not yet appeared, and probably Walpole never saw it; it seems to have fallen dead-born from the press.

66

We

ludicrous perversions of the meaning, as to justify
and indeed require special remark. The following
instances will we think show that the Editor could
not have read his own printed sheets. Walpole is
made to say that Gray was " easily disgusted with his
conduct while on their travels;" but Walpole un-
doubtedly wrote early; for that was the fact, and
accordingly in another letter he says, "I am sorry
to find I disoblige Gray so very early.” (i. 106.)
Mason a "volume of Engravings," instead of his
Walpole is made, in the very first page, to send
catalogue of Engravers. Then we read of Mur-
phie's plagiarisms (i. 164), and, of course, thought
of Arthur Murphy; but reading on, we found Mac-
pherson was meant. Of a certain nolo Episcopari
sermon which Mason had preached, and which
Walpole advised him to suppress, he is made
to say, (i. 323,) that "it can be recalled"-when
he certainly wrote "it cannot be recalled."
Judge Persin (ii. 25) will puzzle legal chronolo-
gists-unless they have industry to discover that
Mr. Baron Perryn may have been meant.
were startled (ii. 108) at finding that a certain cir-
cumstance is to make Mason, who hated Lord
Rockingham, "ever love" him-Walpole really
meaning that it might make Mason love "even"
him. We were for a moment at a loss to know
who "the Parnassus Poet" (ii. 298) might be, who
was a channel of communication between his
brother poets, Hayley and Mason; at last we dis-
covered that "the Parnassus Post" was meant.
Walpole excuses the absurdity of a certain person's
opinion by the suggestion that it was a general
error " defendit numerus;" this is amazingly
printed "defend it Numerus," as if one Numerus
was called upon to defend the obnoxious opinion.
We were astonished in reading Mason's list of his
preferments in the cathedral of York to find him
appointed, in 1763, to the " Primateship; as we
have never heard that he was Primate of England,
we conclude that the Precentorship may be a pref-
erable lectio. In vol. ii., p. 314, Walpole is made
to "accept" an unseasonable visitor: Horace was
seldom so complying, and accordingly he resolutely

We must also notice the minor blunder of exiling,

Of so large a body of notes there are not, we believe, above a dozen that afford anything that without even the help of a mark of reference, the note from the page it professes to illustrate-a mode somecan fairly be called an illustration;-some are times necessary in long disquisitive commentaries, absolute blunders, while there are a hundred pas-but as absurd as inconvenient in a case like this.

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