liam was appointed President of the Council, and in the following year he was sent over as viceroy to Ireland. In that unhappy and misgoverned country, his presence was calculated to be productive of the greatest benefit. Holding one of the largest estates in Ireland, he had always been popular there, for the manner in which he treated his tenants. He suffered no middlemen, or other extortioners, to grind the faces of the poor on his estates; he delighted to see his tenantry prosper, and was ever ready to succour such of them as stood in need of his assistance. It is no wonder, therefore, that his being chosen as viceroy should have given almost universal satisfaction. He was, besides, known to be friendly to the removal of those disabilities by which the Catholics were still degraded and irritated. The viceregal dignity was accepted by Lord Fitzwilliam only on condition that he should be at liberty to take all such measures as were necessary to conciliate the Irish. At the outset every thing appeared to be propitious. His Lordship began to put his plans in execution, by removingfrom office those who were obnoxious to the people, and filling their places by men of unexceptionable character. The nation, in return, gave him all its confidence and affection; and the Commons unanimously voted for the service of government, a more liberal supply than had ever before been voted. But the hopes of Ireland were speedily destroyed. The fatal influence of those men whom Lord Fitzwilliam had removed was predominant, and the peace of Ireland was sacrificed to them. His Lordship was recalled, and the day of his departure from Dublin was a day of mourning, and almost of despair, to a vast majority of the Irish. On his return to England, he addressed to his friend, Lord Carlisle, two letters, stating the terms on which he accepted the viceroyship, and severely animadverted on the intrigues which had been carried on against him. These letters were made public, and nearly produced a duel between him and Mr. Beresford, who was the most prominent object of his animadversions. In 1806, during the short administration of the Whigs, Lord Fitzwilliam was Lord President of the Council. Since that period, his Lordship may be said to have gradually withdrawn from politics. In one instance, however, he came forward in a manner which drew upon him the vengeance of the ministers. After the horrid massacre at Manchester, he was one of those who attended a meeting at York, to call for an inquiry into the circumstance, for which his Lordship was dismissed from the Lord-Lieutenancy of Yorkshire. INTELLIGENCE. DURING the last year Professor M'Culloch published "A Dictionary, practical, theoretical, and historical, of Commerce and Commercial Navigation; illustrated with Maps." 8vo. Pages xi. 1143. Price 2£ 10s. It is highly praised for its abundance of matter and fulness of explanation. We take the following notice of it from the Foreign Quarterly Review, No 21. "A French translation of Mr. M'Culloch's Commercial Dictionary is announced as in preparation. In Germany and Italy we have understood it is to receive the same honors. Certainly no book better deserves them, whether we consider the immense body of useful practical information which the author has there brought together, or the liberal and enlightened spirit which pervades every part of it. Its diffusion throughout Europe will tend more to dissipate the delusions and prejudices to which both governments and masses of individuals still cling in matters of commerce, and enlighten them as to their real interests, than any theoretical work that has yet appeared.” The German translation referred to above has been announced for publication. The second volume of the English translation of Niebuhr's "History of Rome," by Messrs. Hare and Thirlwall has been published in London and is reviewed in connexion with the first in the 112th number of the Edinburgh Review. This article seems intended as a sort of palinodia to atone for one published a few numbers before. The third volume of the original has appeared (since the death of the author) at Berlin, 1832, and is reviewed in the Foreign Quarterly Review, No. 22. We have seen no article upon this work which seems to us to give a correct view of its merits and demerits. The greater number, so far as we have looked into them, are pervaded with a spirit of extravagant panegyric. In the last number of the Quarterly Review, there is an article upon Miss Martineau's" Illustrations of Political Economy" bearing the stamp of others which have appeared in that work, being smart, captious, and illiberal. The writer discovers that his spleen against that lady arises, in a great degree, from her being a Unitarian in religion and from her having been patronized by the Lord Chancellor. His attack upon her is vulgar and even indecent; showing a singular want of proper and decorous feeling, as he professes that "it is impossible not to admire the praiseworthy intention and benevolent spirit in which her works are written." Some of the objections which he makes to her books are however well founded. In introducing discussions upon political economy into stories such as hers, and putting them into the mouths of her characters, she has been obliged to sacrifice nature and probability. This difficulty is perhaps intrinsic and insuperable in the plan which she has adopted, yet the plan may on the whole be good. Some of her principles are without doubt very questionable; and we agree with the reviewer in thinking that she has been led into great errors by adopting in its broadest extent the theory of Malthus. All that is true in his theory might, we think, be stated in an intelligible and unexceptionable form. The only practical result from it seems to be, that it is imprudent, — that it is likely to be a cause of misery to the individual and to society, and consequently that it is criminal to marry without a reasonable prospect of being able to provide necessaries for the support of a family. The question for society then is, how such imprudent marriages may best be prevented; a question which admits of a much more extended answer than the advocates of Mr. Malthus's theory appear to suppose; as every motive which excites in the lower classes a desire to improve their condition, to raise themselves in the world, to obtain a greater share of its good things, to avoid its worst evils, to escape from degradation, and to advance themselves intellectually or morally, will operate as a preventive check. Where, as in Ireland, the laboring classes are already depressed to the lowest wretchedness and deprived of hope, the motives which prevent imprudent marriages cease to operate. In the last number of the Edinburgh Review (No. 115) the faults of Miss Martineau are pointed out in a proper spirit. In the same number of the Quarterly Review there is an article upon the "Memoirs of Dr. Burney, arranged from his own Manuscripts, from Family Papers, and from Personal Recollections. By his daughter, Madame D'Arblay." 3 vols. 8vo. 1832. These Memoirs, though professedlythose of her father, relate in great part to Madame d'Arblay herself. To judge from this and other notices of them, they are not so entertaining as might have been expected. The style is artificial and verbose; and corresponding to this, there seems to be a want of precision in Madame d'Arblay's narratives and descriptions which detracts from their value. She commenced as a writer at a period when a false taste in composition existed in England, many popular authors, of whom she was one, endeavouring to imitate the balanced clauses and rhetorical pomp of Johnson. The errors of her style are more striking at the present day than formerly, and are, at the same time, exaggerated in her last work. One discovery is announced by the reviewer. Upon the authority of the Parish Register of St. Margaret's Church at Lynn, in which Madame D'Arblay's baptism is recorded as having taken place in July, 1752, he shows that, instead of being at the age of seventeen when her first novel, "Evelina,” was published (as he says has commonly been stated), she was really past twentyfive. The fact, it must be confessed, has only its truth to recommend it. The old story is plus beau que la vérité. In the 207th number of Blackwood's Magazine there is a prose dithyrambic, after the fashion of that work, in celebration of a volume of poems by Mr. Motherwell. (Poems, Narrative and Lyrical, by William Motherwell. 12mo. pp. 232. Glasgow. 1832). We have seen also several other notices of this volume. Some of the poems it contains are founded upon the man ners and superstitions of the Scandinavian Sea-Kings. Others appeal to humbler sympathies, and in passages bear a certain resemblance to the songs of Burns. Most of those quoted are wild and fantastic. The author possesses some of the requisites of a poet, great freedom and flow of versification and strength of conception and expression, with occasional coarseness and exaggeration. Few, however, of his poems seem adapted to produce a state of feeling in which it would be desirable to indulge, or to present images on which the mind may be inclined to repose. One of the most spirited of those we have seen is entitled "Sigurd's Battle Flag," a magic flag which gave victory to the party by which it was displayed, but certain death to the bearer. It opens with the following verses. 66 THE BATTLE-FLAG OF SIGURD. "The eagle hearts of all the North The warriors of the world are forth Again, their long keels sheer the wave, Nor swifter from the well-bent bow Than o'er the ocean's flood of snow Their snoring galleys tread. Then lift the can to bearded lip, And smite each sounding shield, Wassaile! to every dark-ribbed ship, To every battle-field! So proudly the Scalds raise their voices in triumph, "Aloft, Sigurdir's battle-flag Streams onward to the land, Well may the taint of slaughter lag On yonder glorious strand. The waters of the mighty deep, The wild birds of the sky, Hear it like vengeance shoreward sweep, Where moody men must die. The waves wax wroth beneath our keel The clouds above us lower, They know the battle sign, and feel All its resistless power! Who now uprears Sigurdir's flag, Nor shuns an early tomb? Who shoreward through the swelling surge, Shall bear the scroll of doom? So shout the Scalds, as the long ships are nearing The low-lying shores of a beautiful land. "Silent the Self-devoted stood His image mirrored in the flood As leaning on his gleaming axe, And thundering through t at martial crew Pealed Harald's battle shout; It is Harald the Dauntless that lifteth his great voice, As the Northmen roll on with the Doom-written banner." Then follows in the same tone, Harald's death song. We give one more specimen which seems like the powerful versification of a delirious dream. "Again in my chamber! Again at my bed! 66 THE DEMON LADY. With thy smile, sweet as sunshine, And hand cold as lead! I know thee, I know thee! Nay, start not, my sweet! While out crept the symbols Bright, beautiful devil! Pass, pass from me now; Than the wreath-drifted snows; My heart waxes sick. From cerements unrolled, Nor bend o'er my pillow- The moonlight! the moonlight! On pale yellow sands, And flowers bursting free; Small birds seek their nest; While happy hearts, flower-like, Sink sinless to rest. But It is no matter Ay, kiss cheek and chin; |