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EDINBURGH REVIEW.

The Edinburgh Review, No. CXXIV, for July 1835. American Edition, Vol. II, No. 2. New York: Theodore Foster.

tinction to the proudest literati of your land? And why, above all, announce yourself as editor in a titlepage, merely to proclaim yourself author in a preface? The Tales of the Peerage and the Peasantry are three in number. The first and the longest is Winifred, Countess of Nithsdale, (have a care, Messieurs Harpers, you have spelt it Nithsadle in the very heading of the very initial chapter) a thrilling, and spirited story, rich with imagination, pathos, and passion, and in which the successful termination of a long series of exertions, and trials, whereby the devoted Winifred finally rescues her husband, the Earl of Nithsdale, from tyranny, prison, and death, inspires the reader with scarely less heartfelt joy and exultation than we can conceive experienced by the happy pair themselves. But the absolute conclusion of this tale speaks volumes for the artist-like skill of the fair authoress. An every day writer would have ended a story of continued sorrow and suffering, with a bright gleam of unalloyed happiness, and sunshine-thus destroying, at a single blow, that indispensable unity which has been rightly called the unity of effect, and throwing down, as it were, in a paragraph what, perhaps, an entire volume has been laboring to establish. We repeat that Lady Dacre has given conclusive evidence of talent and skill, in the final sentences of the Countess of Nithsdale-evidence, however, which will not be generally appreciated, or even very extensively understood. We will transcribe the passa-out of his proper element. We could never read a page ges alluded to.

"And dearer to my ears' said Lady Nithsdale 'the simple ballad of a Scottish maiden, than even these sounds as they are wafted to us over the waters!'

"They stopped to listen to the song as it died away; and, as they listened, another and more awful sound struck upon their ears. The bell of one of the small chapels often constructed on the shores of Catholic countries, was tolled for the soul of a departed mariner. As it happened, the tone was not unlike one of which they both retained only too vivid and painful a recollection. The Countess felt her husband's frame quiver beneath the stroke. There was no need of words. With a mutual pressure of the arm they returned upon their steps and sought their home. Unconsciously their pace quickened. They seemed to fly before the stroke of that bell! Such suffering as they had both experienced, leaves traces in the soul which time itself can never wholly efface."

Article I in this number is a critique upon "The History of the Revolution in England in 1688. Comprising a View of the Reign of James the Second, from his Accession to the Enterprise of the Prince of Orange. By the late Right Honorable Sir James Mackintosh; and completed to the Settlement of the Crown, by the Editor. To which is prefixed, a Notice of the Life, Writings, and Speeches of Sir James Mackintosh. 4to. London, 1834." The Reviewer commences by instituting a comparison between the work of Sir James, and Fox's History of James the Second. Both books are on the same subject-both were posthumously published, and neither had received the last corrections. The authors, likewise, belonged to the same political party, and had the same opinions concerning the merits and defects of the English Constitution, and concerning most of the prominent characters and events in English history. The palm is awarded to the work of Mackintosh. "Indeed”-says the critic-"the superiority of Mr. Fox to Sir James as an orator, is hardly more clear than the superiority of Sir James to Mr. Fox as an historian. Mr. Fox with a pen in his hand, and Sir James on his legs in the House of Commons were, we think, each

of Mr. Fox's writings-we could never listen for a quarter of an hour to the speaking of Sir James-without feeling that there was a constant effort, a tug up-hill. Mr. Fox wrote debates. Sir James Mackintosh spoke essays." The style of the fragment is highly complimented, and justly. Every body must agree with the Reviewer, that a History of England written throughout, in the manner of the History of the Revolution, would be the most fascinating book in the language. The printer and editor of the work are severely censured, but the censure is, in some respects, misapplied. Such errors as making the pension of 60,000 livres, which Lord Sunderland received from France, equivalent to 2,500 pounds sterling only, when, at the time Sunderland was in power, the livre was worth more than eighteen pence, are surely attributable to no one but the author-although the editor may come in for a small The Hampshire Cottage is next in order-a tale of the portion of the blame for not correcting an oversight so Peasantry; and the volumes conclude with Blanche, a palpable. On the other hand the misprinting the name tale of the Peerage. Both are admirable, and worthy of Thomas Burnet repeatedly throughout the book, both of companionship with Winifred, Countess of Nithsdale. | in the text and Index, is a blunder for which the editor There can be no doubt that Lady Dacre is a writer of infinite genius, possessing great felicity of expression, a happy talent for working up a story, and, above all, a far more profound and philosophical knowledge of the hidden springs of the human heart, and a greater skill in availing herself of that knowledge, than any of her female contemporaries. This we say deliberately. We have not yet forgotten the Recollections of a Chaperon. No person, of even common sensibility, has ever perused the magic tale of Ellen Wareham without feeling the very soul of passion and imagination aroused and stirred up within him, as at the sound of a trumpet.

Let Lady Dacre but give up her talents and energies, and especially her time to the exaltation of her literary fame, and we are sorely mistaken if, hereafter, she do not accomplish something which will not readily die.

is alone responsible. The name is invariably spelt Bennet. Thomas Burnet, Master of the Charter House, and author of the Theoria Sacra, is a personage of whom, or of whose works, the gentleman who undertook to edit the Fragment of Sir James Mackintosh has evidently never heard. The Memoir prefixed to the History, and its Continuation to the settlement of the Crown, both by the Editor of the Fragment, are unsparingly, but indeed most righteously, condemned. The Memoir is childish and imbecile, and the Continuation full of gross inaccuracies, and altogether unworthy of being appended to any thing from the pen of Mackintosh.

Article II is a very clever Review of the "Archanenses of Aristophanes, with Notes Critical and Explanatory, adapted to the Use of Schools and Universities.

By T. Mitchell, A. M. 8vo. London, 1835." Mr. Mitch-ally, and as a nation; shows in what manner she has ell made his first appearance as a translator and com- repeatedly let slip opportunities of saying, and saying mentator in 1820, and his second in 1822, upon both too with perfect justice, things little likely to flatter our which occasions he was favorably noticed in the Edin- vanity; defends her from the ridiculous accusation of burgh. High praise is bestowed in the present instance vulgarity (there is positively not an iota of vulgarity upon the Acharnenses. The Wasps will follow, and thus in the composition of Fanny Kemble) and very justly it appears the chronological order of the Comedies will gives us a rap over the knuckles for our overweening not be preserved. The old fault is to be found with this vanity, self-sufficiency, and testiness of temper. The Review, viz: It is more of a dissertation on the subject whole article is excellent, and the conclusion is particumatter of the book in question than an analysis of its larly to our mind. "There is no chance of her return merits or defects. By far the greater part of the Article to a profession that she so cordially detested. Under is occupied in a discussion of the character of the these circumstances the only compensation Mr. Butler Athenians. can make to us he must make. He is bound to see that she goes on with her faithful and amusing journal, and that she finishes, at her leisure, some of the sundry stories, plays, and novels, on which, it seems, she had already set to work amid the interruptions of the stage."

Article III is headed "a Voyage of Discovery to Africa and Arabia, performed in his Majesty's Ships Leven and Barracouta, from 1822 to 1826, under the command of Capt. F. W. W. Owen, R. N. By Capt. Thomas Boteler, R. N. 2 vols. 8vo. London, 1835." Captain Owen sailed in January 1822 in the Leven The sixth article is a review of "The Works of Frigate, accompanied by the Barracouta, a ten-gun | George Dalgarno, of Aberdeen. 4to. Reprinted at Edbrig, with instructions to survey the entire Eastern ingburgh: 1834." This work is merely a reprint of coast of Africa, the Western coast of Madagascar- the old Treatises of Dalgarno, the publication not exthe islets and shoals interjacent-together with the tending beyond the sphere of the Maitland Club-a Western coast of the Continent from the Zaire to Benin, society instituted at Glasgow in imitation of the Edinand from the Rio Grande to the Gambia. All this was burgh Ballantyne Club. The first treatise of Dalgarno accomplished in five years. The narrative of Boteler, is entitled "Ars Signorum, Vulgo Character Universawho was lieutenant of the Leven, is nothing more than | lis, et Lingua Philosophica. Londini 1661." The sea revised edition of that originally prepared by Capt. Owen, and which was a failure in a literary sense. The Review, as usual, says very little concerning the manner in which Captain Boteler has performed his task.

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cond is "Didascalocophus, or the Deaf and Dumb Man's Tutor: to which is added a Discourse of the Nature and Number of Double Consonants: both which Tracts being the first (for what the author knows) that have been published upon either of the subjects. PrintArticle IV. "Deontology; or the Science of Moral-ed at the Theater in Oxford, 1680." The memory of ity in which the Harmony and Coincidence of Duty | Dalgarno had nearly perished when Dugald Stewart and Self-Interest, Virtue and Felicity, Prudence and called public attention to his writings, on account of his Benevolence, are explained and exemplified. From the having anticipated, on grounds purely speculative, and MSS. of Jeremy Bentham. Arranged and edited by a priori, what has now been proved a posteriori by Horne John Bowring, 2 vols. octavo, London, 1834." "This Tooke and others, viz: that all grammatical inflections book," says the Reviewer, "simply contains Mr. Ben- are reducible to the noun alone. tham's thrice told tale upon Utility. It furnishes us with no fresh illustrations, no better system than we had already found in his 'Principles of Morals and Legislation." We heartily agree with the critic that there was no necessity for the publication of these posthumous volumes. They add nothing to the work just mentioned, and are, in many points, inferior. But the Notice concludes in the following words. "Is it to be wondered at, that the most learned, accurate, and philosophical nation in Europe-the Germans-treat with contempt ignorance and insolence like this? They admit the merits of Mr. Bentham as a jurisconsult, in his analysis and classification of the material interests of life; but their metaphysicians and moralists agree, we believe without an exception, in considering his speculative philosophy as undeserving even the pomp and ceremony of an argument." We have only to add, that, in our opinion of the metaphysics of Mr. Bentham, we are, by no means, Germans to the very

letter.

Article V. is an excellently well toned, and perfectly satisfactory Review of the "Journal by Frances Anne Butler, 2 vols. 8vo. London, 1835." It defends this lady from the charge of intentionally depreciating America; cites a long list of instances in which she has spoken in terms of the greatest cordiality of our people, individu

Article VII is headed "Narrative of a Second Voyage in search of a North-West Passage, and of a Residence in the Arctic Regions during the years 1829, 1830, 1831, 1832, 1833. By Sir John Ross, C. B., K. S. A., K. C. S., &c. &c., Captain in the Royal Navy. Including the Reports of Commander, now Captain, James Clark Ross, R. N., F. R. S., F. L. S., &c. and the Discovery of the Northern Magnetic Pole. 4to. London: 1835." The Reviewer professes himself unable to regard the observations made by Commander Ross in relation to the Magnetic Pole in the light of a discovery. "It was certainly a great satisfaction to stand upon a rock where the dip was 89° 59′, and where the polarity of nicely suspended needles was insensible; but it may be questioned whether or not the place of the Magnetic Pole can be best determined by observations made at a distance or near the spot; and we are not satisfied that the position assigned by Commander Ross is more accurate than that given by the curves of Professor Barlow, the calculations of Hansteen, and the observations of Captain Parry." The fact is that the Magnetic Pole is moveable, and, place it where we will, we shall not find it in the same place to-morrow. Notice is taken also by the critic that neither Captain nor Commander Ross has made the slightest reference to the fact that the Magnetic

Pole is not coincident with the Pole of maximum cold. |and, upon Mr. S. demanding an explanation, the ReFrom observations made by Scoresby in East Green-view not only refuses to retract its assertions, but deland, and by Sir Charles Gicsccké and the Danish Go- clares that, had it known certain facts at the time of vernors in West Greenland, and confirmed by all the inditing the offensive article, it would have expressed metereological observations made by Captains Parry itself with double severity. and Franklin, Sir David Brewster has deduced the fact that the Pole of the Equator is not the Pole of maximum cold and as the matter is well established, it is singular, to say no more, that it has been alluded to by neither the Commander nor the Captain.

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NUTS TO CRACK.

Nuts to Crack: or Quips, Quirks, Anecdote and Facete of Oxford and Cambridge scholars. By the author of Facetia Cantabrigienses, etc. etc. etc. Philadelphia: E. L. Carey &A. Hart.

Article VIII is 1. A "History of the Cotton Manufacture in Great Britain, with a Notice of its Early Although this little volume is obviously intended for History in the East, and in all quarters of the Globe; a Description of the Great Mechanical Inventions no other eyes than those of the 'Oxford and Cambridge which have caused its unexampled extension in Great scholar,' and although it is absolutely impossible for any Britain: and a View of the Present State of the Manu-American to enter fully into the spirit of its most inestimable quizzes, oddities and eccentricities, still we facture, and the condition of the Classes engaged in its have no intention of quarrelling with Carey & Hart,

several departments. By Edward Baines, Jr. Esq. 8vo.

London: 1835."

for republishing the work on this side of the Atlantic.

Never was there a better thing for whiling away a few 2. "The Philosophy of Manufactures: or an Expo-loose or unappropriated half hours-that is to say in sition of the Scientific, Moral, and Commercial Econo-the hands of a reader who is, even in a moderate degree, my of the Factory System of Great Britain. By An-imbued with a love of classical whimsicalities. We can drew Ure, M. D. 8vo. London: 1835." Mr. Baines' assure our friends-all of them who expect to find in work is spoken of in high terms, as discovering much laborious research, and being both interesting and valuable. With the exception of Smith's Memoirs of Wool, published in 1747, it is said to be the only work giving a clear and copious account of the rise, progress, and actual condition of any of the great branches of industry carried on in the kingdom. Dr. Ure's work is censured for inaccuracy of detail. Its title is evidently

a misnomer.

Article IX is "A Poet's Portfolio; or Minor Poems. In Three Books. By James Montgomery, 12mo. London, 1835."

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of Trinity Hall, Cambridge" may be found among the Facetime of Hierocles-not to mention innumerable editions of Joe Miller?

We have already said enough of the Nuts to Crack, but cannot, for our lives, refrain from selecting one of its good things for the benefit of our own especial readers.

these excellent Nuts to Crack' a mere rifacimento of stale jests-that there are not more than two or three anecdotes in the book positively entitled to the appellation of antique. Some things, however, have surprised us. In the first place what is the meaning of Anecdote and Facete? In the second what are we to think of such blunders, as one of honest Vere's classical jeu d'esprit," (the jeu d'esprit printed too in Long Primer Capitals) in a volume professing to be Anecdote and Facete (oh!too bad) of Oxford and Cambridge scholars? And thirdly is it possible that he who wrote the Facetia Cantabrigienses is not aware that the "cutting retort attribuThe first production of Mr. Montgomery, 'The Wan-ted to the celebrated Lord Chesterfield, when a student derer of Switzerland,' was noticed about twenty-eight years ago in the Edinburgh, and much fault found with it for inflation of style, and affectation. The present volume has induced the Journal to alter its tone entirely, and the Minor Poems are (perhaps a little too highly) lauded. "There is," says the critic, "something in all his poetry which makes fiction the most impressive teacher of truth and wisdom; and by which, while the The learned Chancery Barrister, John Bell, K. C., intellect is gratified, and the imagination roused, the "the Great Bell of Lincoln," as he has been aptly called, heart, if it retains any sensibility to tender or elevating was Senior Wrangler, on graduating B. A., at Trinity emotions, cannot fail to be made better." The Re-College, Cambridge, in 1786, with many able competitors viewer, as usual, does not stick to his text, but comfor that honor. He is likewise celebrated, as every one knows, for writing three several hands; one only he ments, in detail, upon all the published poems of himself can read, another nobody but his clerk can read, Montgomery. and a third neither himself, clerk, nor any body else can read. It was in the latter hand, he one day wrote to his legal contemporary and friend, the present Sir Launcelot Shadwell, inviting him to dinner. Sir Launcelot, finding all his attempts to decypher the note about as vain, as the wise men found theirs to unravel the cabalistic characters of yore, took a sheet of paper, and having smeared it over with ink, folded and sealed it, and sent it as his answer. The receipt of it staggered even the eyeing it, and turning it round and round, he hurried to Great Bell of Lincoln, and after breaking the seal, and Mr. Shadwell's chambers with it, declaring he could make nothing of it. "Nor I of your note," retorted Mr. S. "My dear fellow" exclaimed Mr. B. taking his own letter in his hand, "is not this as plain as can be,— day?" "And is not this equally as plain," said Mr. S. "Dear Shadwell, I shall be glad to see you at dinner to pointing to his own paper, "My dear Bell, I shall be happy to come and dine with you?"

The tenth and concluding paper is a Review of "The Second Report of his Majesty's Commissioners on Ecclesiastical Revenue and Patronage: Ireland. Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed: 1834"-and "First Report of the Commissioners of Public Instruction: Ireland. Presented to both Houses of Parliament, by command of his Majesty: 1835."

This article is written with great ability; but why call that a Review which is purely a dissertation on the - state of the Irish Church? It concludes with a correspondence between the Editor of the Edinburgh, and Mr. Alan Stevenson, respecting evidence given, by the latter, before the Parliamentary Committee on Light Houses. The Journal, in No. CXXIII, accused Mr. S. of deceiving the Committee by erroneous testimony;

VOL. II.-7

ROBINSON'S PRACTICE.

mising, that merit is its staple; and that, if more of the criticism be occupied with its faults, it is chiefly because they are somewhat hard to detect, amidst the pile of excellences. The chaff, this time, is hidden by the

The Practice in Courts of Law and Equity in Virginia. By Conway Robinson. Vol. II, containing Practice in suits in Equity. pp. 648. Richmond: Printed by Samuel Shep-wheat. herd. 1835.

There is not enough compression in some parts. In The first volume of this work came out about three this volume, it is truc, not a tithe of the statute law is years ago; and received so earnest a welcome from the quoted, that over-burthens the former one: but when legal profession, that the author's tardiness in producing he does cite a statute, the author still gives it to us in the second might be matter of wonder, were not his devo-all the exuberance of legislative verbosity. Thus, he ted attention to an unusually large practice well known. fills the third part of a page with the law of lapsing The present is destined, because it deserves, to be a legacies; (p. 91) when, considering that only the submuch greater favorite with the law-book-reading pub-stance was essential-especially as every owner of the lic, than the former volume was. The arrangement is book may be supposed to have the Code also-it might after a better classification of subjects; rendering it more clearly, and as satisfactorily, have been couched easier to find the doctrine desired, on any given point: in five lines, as follows: "When a legatee or devisee, and there is a larger proportion of valuable matter-descended from the testator, dies before him, leaving matter not to be found in the Revised Code, or in Tate's any descendant who survives him; the legacy or devise Digest. Indeed there are few works, more copiously shall vest in such surviving descendant, as if the legatee filled with useful, and not-too-obvious learning. Industry or devisee had survived the testator, and then died unand research are the author's manifest characteristics. married and intestate." And he takes three quarters of He is a real brownie-if not for supernatural speed of a page (copied from the Revised Code) to say that “ workmanship, at least in the world of trouble he will surety may in writing notify the creditor to sue upon save his brethren. Here, within 442 pages (for the the bond, bill, or note, which binds the surety; and unother 206 of this tome-horresco referens-are index,) he less the creditor sue in reasonable time, and proceed has compressed matter, and inestimable matter too, for with due diligence to recover the sum duc, the surety which the practitioner would otherwise have to hunt shall be exonerated." (pp. 132, 133.) In the name of through, not only the thirty volumes of Virginia Re-all that is reasonable, why should not a writer disenports (counting Chancellor Wythe's) but the number-cumber his pages of the rubbish of howbeit, provided, less ones of New York, Massachusetts, the Federal nevertheless, notwithstanding, and aforesaid, when, by Courts, and England. doing so, he might save himself and his readers so much time and toil?

In his abstracts of cases, the author is, in the main, particularly successful. Not only does he give them with a clearness, (the result of brevity, effected by discarding non-essentials) which we would gladly see judges and reporters emulate,-but he sometimes gathers from them doctrines, which the reporter has overlooked, and which a cursory reader would therefore be little apt to discover. For example, in pp. 20, 21, he states these two points, as decided in the case of Blow v. Maynard, 2 Leigh, 21: 1st, That a fraudulent donee of personalty is accountable for it and its increase, and also for hires, and profits, accruing since the donor's death, as executor de son tort; just as a rightful executor would be, who had taken possession at the donor's death: and 2d, That a privy to the fraud, who shared with the donee the profits of the property fraudulently conveyed, is accountable jointly with the donee. Now the reporter in his marginal summary of the case, does not mention these as among the points decided; though in the decree of the court (2 Leigh, p. 67,) they manifestly appear. Again-in the case of Tod v. Baylor, (as now reported in 4 Leigh, 498,) it is not said, at all, that only two of the judges concurred in the third point there stated as adjudged. But our author tells us so, (p. 10,) and we are thus enabled to estimate the authority at its true value-as persuasive only,—not obligatory, in other

cases.

The mechanical execution of the book does infinite credit to the printer. The typography is unsurpassed; and the paper is white, pure, and firm, so as to receive notes of the pen without blotting-a great merit in law books.

If it were only to shew that we are free of our craft as critics, we must find some fault with this work: pre

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Some quarrel, too, we have, with the judicial law, which principally fills the book. It is too mere a digest of cases. A head in the Table of Contents refers us to a page, where we expect to find a full elementary exposition of at least the leading doctrines that fall under that head: but we see perhaps only a single case, or a judge's dictum, not at all realizing the promise of the reference, by unfolding all pertinent general principles. Thus, under the caption, "WHEN STATEMENT OF A TRANSACTION MUST BE TAKEN ALTOGETHER," instead of finding a general rule laid down on the point indicated, we find only a case briefly stated, from which we are left to deduce a rule, if we can. (pp. 329, 330.) Under the very next head, the well established principle, that an Answer is no evidence for the defendant, as to any thing it affirms, not responsive to the allegations of the Bill, but that it is evidence, so far as it responds to those allegations'-is whittled away to the position, that it is not evidence as to any affirmative matter, touching which the Bill seeks no discovery. Now, if the Bill positively alleges one thing (whether it calls for a discovery or not,) and the answer as positively alleges the reverse; such denial stands for proof, and must be rebutted by testimony: and so, we conceive, do the cases clearly evince, which are cited by our author himself; Beckwith v. Butler, Paynes v. Coles (see 1 Munf. 379, 389, 397,) and even Taylor v. Moore, whence he quotes (and quotes truly) in the form of a judge's dictum, the position in question-not to speak of 1 Call, 224, 390; the dicta of Roane and Carrington in the case of Rowton v. Rowton, 1 Hen. and Munf.; and many other authorities. The principle, in its true extent, is well illustrated by the case cited from 1 John

son's Reports, 580, where an Answer alleging usury, in the present volume, with the voice, the manner, and of which the Bill had said nothing, was held no evi- personal appearance of the man himself—and upon all dence. The case from 2 Leigh, 29, is infelicitously ad- such Mr. Maxwell has conferred an obligation of no duced. The point professedly quoted from it was not common kind. The greater portion of the work conthere adjudged: it was only maintained by one judge, sists of these letters, and they are valuable in every reswho (we say it with a deference heightened by affec-pect. Many of them are, as Mr. M. himself expresses tion, as well as by respect) seems to us to have therein gainsayed the well settled doctrine we have referred to, and therefore to have erred. The Answer, there, (see 2 Leigh, 35, 36) was responsive to the Bill, and must have prevailed against it, but for the numerous and weighty countervailing circumstances detailed by that judge himself. (pp. 49 to 53.) The deed in controversy was stamped with more badges of fraud than are enumerated in the celebrated Twyne's Case. These, doubtless, and not any doubt as to the legal effect of the Answer, satisfied the minds of the other judges, who merely agreed in pronouncing the deed fraudulent, without assigning reasons.

it, entirely narrative, and give the most authentic and minute accounts of the various movements of the writer at different periods of his life, particularly after his removal to Richmond, and during his labors in establishing the Union Theological Seminary. Others again are pastoral, and addressed to different members of his Church. Some are merely ordinary letters of friendship. All, however, are full of thought, and give evidence of an elevated, a healthy, cheerful, powerful, and well regulated mind.

In availing himself of the assistance afforded by these letters, Mr. Maxwell has never anticipated their contents--thus avoiding much useless repetition, and suffering the subject of the Memoir to tell, in a great measure, his own story in his own words. The work is well-indeed even beautifully gotten up-is embellished with an admirably finished head of Mr. Rice, engraved by

Some omissions in so comprehensive a work, were to be expected-indeed were unavoidable. Not in the spirit of censure, therefore, but merely to awaken the author's attention in his next edition, or in his next production, we remark, that he has overlooked an im-J. Sartain, from a painting by W. J. Hubard--and is, portant decision; (in 2 Leigh, 370,) that a tenant, whose goods are wrongfully distrained, cannot obtain relief in equity, unless he shew good reason for not having brought his action of replevin.'

in every respect, an acceptable and valuable publication. Among the letters in the volume is one from John Randolph of Roanoke, and several from Wm. Wirt. We select one of these latter, being well assured that it will be read with that deep interest which is attached to every thing emanating from the same pen.

TO THE REV. JOHN H. RICE.

Divers other topics we were minded to discuss with our intelligent author: but on glancing over our two last paragraphs, we are struck with fear lest our unprofessional readers may have been already offended at the strong smell of the shop, discernible in what we have produced; and stop their ears against the technical dis-5 P. M. for I have just returned from the President's. I feel the sonance of

"sounds uncouth, and accents dry, That grate the soul of harmony."

But we cannot let the Index pass unreproved. Its length-the length of its indicating sentences-and the utter absence of any sub-alphabetical arrangement-in a great degree frustrate its use as an index. We can find what we want nearly as well by the 'Contents.'

After all our censures, however-or cavils, if the author pleases there remains to him so large a residue of solid desert, that he cannot miss the small deduction we have made. His book is one which we would advise every lawyer, in Virginia at least, to buy; and even those in other states-the Western, especially, whose Chancery systems most resemble ours-can hardly find one that will aid them so much in disentangling the intricacies of Chancery Practice. Never have we paid the price of a commodity more ungrudgingly.

MEMOIR OF DR. RICE.

A Memoir of the Reverend John H. Rice, D. D. First Professor of Christian Theology in Union Theological Seminary, Virginia. By William Maxwell. Philadelphia: Published by J. Whetham.

This Memoir will be received and read with pleasure generally and among those who have been so fortunate as to have seen and heard Dr. Rice, it will be perused with the deepest interest and gratification. We believe there are very many, in Virginia especially, who will be able to identify the letters of this divine, contained

Washington, February 1, 1822. MY DEAR SIR,-Your letter of the 31st ult. is just received at

blush of genuine shame at the apparent presumption of adding my name in favor of the magazine to that of the eminent gentlemen at Princeton. This is real and unaffected--but you desire it-and I dare follow your beck in any direction. Would that 1 could in one still more importaut.

Holingshead's History of Duncan of Scotland, is under copy

by my Elizabeth (my daughter, once your pet) for the purpose of

showing the full basis of Shakspeare's Macbeth. 1 think you

will be pleased with it--and the readers of Shakspeare must dit

fer much from me, if they do not find it very interesting.

If you suppose from what I said of nine o'clock that that is my hour of going to bed on week-day nights, you are mistaken by in my office before breakfast, and till nine or ten o'clock at night, when I have to come home, take my tea, talk over family affairs, and get to bed between eleven and twelve; but it is killAnd as death would be most extremely inconveing me also. nient to me in more respects than one, at this time, I shall quit that course of operations, and look a little to my health, if I can survive the approaching Supreme Court-sed quare de hoc. My troubles not being already enough, in the estimation of the honorable body now assembled in the Capitol, they are beginning to institute inquiries, for my better amusement, into the circumstances of three fees paid me by the government, in the course of the four years that I have been here, for professional services foreign to my official duties-a thing which has been continually done at all times, under this government, but which they affect to think a new affair entirely, and only a an additional proof among ten thousand others of the waste of public money, by the rapacity, if not peculation, of those in office. I am sick of public life; my skin is too thin for the business; a politician should have the hide of a rhinoceros, to bear the thrusts of the folly, ignorance, and meanness of those who are disposed to mount into momentary consequence by questioning their betters, if I may be excused the expression after professing my modesty. "There's nought but care on every hand;" all, all is vanity and vexation of spirit, save religion, friendship, and literature.

several hours. For some time past, I have been obliged to be

I agree that your story of the Oysterman is the best, but I

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