best Encyclopædias are known; but it is also true that the majority of such authorships were not avowed until after the success of the writings had been established; while writers of inferior note, or doubtful abilities, remain unknown.

The work before us is accompanied with a list of eighty or ninety names of eminence, such as those of G. B. Airy, Dr. Arnold, S. T. Coleridge, Bishop Hampden, Sir John Herschell, Captain Kater, Professor Maurice, John Phillips, Justice Talfourd, Archbishop Whately, Dr. Whewell, &c., &c. These are quoted at random; to select would be invidious.

The history of the undertaking up to this date is the brief narrative of disappointment, and delay, and misfortune, which are but too frequently the concomitants of great literary enterprise. The work was commenced about thirty years ago; the first publishers failed after bringing forward a few volumes. It then passed into the hands of a company, who engaged upon it authors closely connected with Oxford and Cambridge. The first edition was completed in 1845; and about this time the Griffins appear to have acquired the property. Up to 1845 the expenditure amounted to upwards of £26,000 for authorships; £7,000 for upwards of 600 quarto engravings; £11,000 for stereotyping the letter-press; besides the outlay for paper, printing, binding, &c. The work appeared in fifty-nine parts, at a guinea each.

We may now glance at the first specimens of the new issue. These are:-Coleridge's Essay, already mentioned, and Sir John Stoddart's Universal Grammar-the first portion of his Philosophy of Language.

To his early labours, as given in the first edition, Sir John has added the accumulated notes of twenty years; and the "Philosophy of Language” again makes its appearance, rewritten, a new work, edited by Mr. Hazlitt.

The introduction is an elaborate proof, derived from the known and acknowledged laws of mind, that there may be, that there really are, corresponding laws of expression; that the study of the art of expression terminates in certain laws expressed by the term "Universal Grammar."

The chapter, "Faculties of Mind, on which language depends," will be read with interest, even by those for whom the minutiae of philology have but few charms. The style of this chapter is perspicuous and easy; the various atti. tudes of mind, so to speak, are so well described that we experience but little inconvenience from employing symbolic, often physical terms, to denote the ever-varying aspects under which mind must be contemplated.

The quibble "that we think in words," is unintentionally set aside in various passages; for example, words are called the shadows of the soul"-that there are "joys beyond expression, and griefs too sad to vent themselves in words'-that even the powerful effects of speech are not owing to the mere signification of separate words, but to the activity of mind “in seizing on the relations, and giving scope to the thoughts and feelings they are meant to excite." As a specimen of the author's mode of dealing with a sophism, take his refutation of the assertion that time present is, from its continuity, "not cognisable by any human faculty:-"

"Perchance I am on a proud hill top, from whence, at one glimpse I behold mountains and valleys spread in rich perspective before me, with the near cottages and the distant town, and, beyond all, the remote and hazy ocean. I see the variegated foliage and the ripening corn, the clouds of heaven sailing high in air, the rustics at their labour, and the little vagrant boy picking daisies at my feet, and delighting in his idleness. Without any time for reflection, without a thought of the successive

Coleridge, on Method, briefly but pleasantly recalls our attention to those obscure habitudes of intellect to which, from mere familiarity, we soon become forgetful, just as we soon forget the peculiarities of our own tempers. If we understand Coleridge's fundamental principles of method, they prescribe a unity of idea, some self-consistent antici-action of the machinery in this grand landscape, I say, ‘I see’ pation, some distinct impression of probable results, comall this at the present moment-and I enunciate, in the present tense, 'Perfect!"" bined with a progression and accumulation of coherent ideas. He believes that a theory is requisite in every investigation. He makes no mention of the "Indifferency" recommended by Locke, but asserts that Bacon applied to physical inquiry principles similar to those which Plato employed in metaphysical inquiries; and that both constantly reason from, in, and by inductions of facts, and that the methodical system of the Novum Organum is identical with the principles long before enunciated by Plato.

There are criticisms on Shakspeare, showing that poetry requires method, which give us insight into a depth of design in the poet's conceptions, at once convincing-give us an insight into the depth and coherence of the creations of|| the bard, at once clear and profound.

There is both science and eloquence, if not poetry, in these few lines. They show how the author can make the journey pleasant, through the intricate and sometimes || rugged paths of philology.

Throughout the volume, the several parts of speech are referred to the phases of mind in which they originate. The volume closes with a chapter on the mechanism of speech, the anatomy and physiology of the larynx, with a diagram from Willis, and remarks from Muller, Mayo,

and others.

We have only spoken of the style in which the work appears; it is sufficiently attractive tɔ induce future study. The volume is a magazine of illustrations of the powers of

He shows the value of leading ideas in botany and che-words, and their relations in different dialects. The philomistry, and has some beautiful and forcible remarks on the sophical principle once assumed, and maintained throughrevolution of thought, the change of logical method which out the work, that it is the mind which gives force and accompanied the Reformation, when "the advocates of the meaning to the words, and not that mind should be ideal and internal against the external or imaginative" trammelled and hedged in by words-is a principle which carried the war of mind into philosophy, after having tri-will go far to dissipate that slavish and puerile habit which umphed in the Church. The essay contains many valuable prevailed among too many commentators and disputants of hints touching the importance and relations of the physical the past generation, of squaring and paring down propositions, narratives, and docrines to the traditionary meanings of the fragments and atoms of language. An enlightened theory in philology may, in course of time, put a termination to a certain fashion of Commentary," which darkens

sciences.

Sir J. Stoddart's first volume has, we are informed, been welcomed, by the first philologists of the day, as a monument of industry.

counsel with words, and leaves men under the impression | President, we have not
that teachers of religion are sometimes unwilling to permit
us to receive the most important of all truths in their most
obvious significations.

The Drawing-Room Scrap Book for 1850. London:
Peter Jackson.

THIS annual appears for 1850 under different management from several preceding volumes. The work has been long under the editing care of Mrs. Norton, who was also one of the most extensive contributors to its pages. The present volume is edited by Dr. Mackay, whose poetical and political writings are well known, from their steady tendency to improve the position and the minds of the productive classes. We notice a considerable difference in the character of the contributions for the present volume. They are less ecclesiastical, and more occupied with secular affairs than some of the preceding volumes. That feature is, we think, an improvement. The letterpress, as before, is entirely poetical; and Dr. Mackay, in following a poetess so distinguished as Mrs. Norton, has well sustained the character of the work and his own reputation. There are some beautiful verses in the volume, and several long poems. From one on Education we copy the opening stanzas:

"I have a wondrous house to build,

A dwelling, humble, yet divine:

A lowly cottage, to be fill'd

With all the jewels of the mine.
How shall I build it strong and fair,
This noble house, this lodging rare?

So small and modest, yet so great!
How shall I fill its chambers bare

With use, with ornament, with state?

'My God hath given the stone and clay;
"Tis I must fashion them aright-
'Tis I must mould them day by day,
And make my labour my delight.
This cot, this palace, this fair home,
This pleasure house, this holy dome,
Must be in all proportions fit,
That heavenly messengers may come
To lodge with him who tenants it.
"No fairy bower this house must be,
To totter at each gale that starts;
But of substantial masonry,

Symmetrical in all its parts-
Fit in its strength to stand sublime
For seventy years of mortal time,
Defiant of the storm and rain,

And well-attemper'd to the clime

In every cranny, nook, and pane."

This poem illustrates, or is illustrated by, a very beautiThe face ful plate-a lady engaged in teaching her child. explains the story. A mother is teaching natural history to her own child; and from the pleased smile she wears, we gather that while the boy's fingers are playing with mama's veil, he has answered well. "Cheerfulness" will be a cause of discussion in drawing rooms during the winter evenings, on the question who in the trio is prettiest? and from the frontispiece turn to the contrast afforded by the vignette, and see how clear and vivid the engraver has brought out the minutest points-to the drops of sea-spray in the shipwreck. The avowed portraits in the volume are three--Lamartine, Louis Napoleon, and Viscount Gough. The portrait of Lamartine is one with which the public are familiar. That of the French

It is ap

previously seen.
parently a good likeness. Viscount Gough will not bear
witness here in favour of the accusations for impetu-
osity and rashness in the Punjaub battles, made against
him in this country. The portrait is that of a highly
intelligent, firm, and cautious leader. The volume con-
tains thirty-six plates. They are all beautifully finished.
Twelve are engravings of general topics-of landscapes, of
noted buildings, or towns. Three are portraits. The
remainder are of female figures-forming a volume of
beauty well competent to sustain the reputation earned
by the work; but the English harvest is perhaps the
prettiest-it is the most English-and few in England, or
out of it, will deny the truth of the accompanying verses:-
"Give, oh give us English welcomes,

We'll forgive the English skies;-
English homes and English manners,
And the light of English Eyes.
Give us, for our props in peril,

English valour, pith, and stress;
And for wives, sweet English maidens,
Radiant in their loveliness.
Foreign tastes perchance may differ,
On our virtues or our laws;
But who sees an English matron,
And withholds his deep applause?
Who beholds an English maiden,

Bright and modest, fair and free,
And denies the willing tribute

Of a fond idolatry?

Lovely are the maids of Rhineland,
Glowing are the maids of Spain;
French, Italians, Greeks, Circassians,

Woo our homage-not in vain.
But for beauty to enchant us,

And for virtue to enthral,

Give our hearts the girls of England-
Dearer-better than them all."

"Fond of the Country," and "The Mask," are plates on which the engraver has displayed great talent in conveying to his steel the genius of the painter. They are both superb engravings, unless indeed the beauty of the originals may shade a prejudice over them-an undue prejudice in their favour. "Raising the Standard" is the last engraving in the volume-"raising the English standard"-and we like the verses accompanying it, of which we only copy three; somewhat, we fear, that the first is scarcely historically correct; but without any fear that, in its subject matter, the flag of England will bear, at least, to be compared with any flag that floats.

"Raise high the flag of England!
The meteor of the fight!
That never flashed on battle-field,
Except to lead the right;
That never graced the triumphs
Of Cæsars or their hosts,
Or carried rapine and revenge
To unoffending coasts.
Unfurl it high

In purity-
The flag without a stain,

That we men

The free men,
May swear by it again.

Wherever it has floated,

Upon the sea or land,

There world-adorning Trade has stretch'd
Her civilizing hand;

There enterprise has ventured

Her argosies high piled;

There science strewed the earth with flowers,
And kindly knowledge smiled.

And the poet proceeds to describe Babylon; but we prefer old Jews adopted the same course, when they looked for

various Evangelical bodies, under the plea that their error is on a non-essential subject. We heartily dissent from that conclusion. Their error seems to us a most important one, affecting deeply the heart and spirit of religion. The appearance of the chief and ruler over all principalities and powers in the heaven above or on the earth beneath, as a temporal king in Jerusalem, or anywhere else in this world, would change the whole scope and tendency of religious belief, and render what we term "faith" a nonentity. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen," and could not exist along with the demonstration that these people advise their followers to expect.

The Home and Colonial Library. London: John Murray. The 71st, 72d, and 73d parts of this serial, which is now closed, contain the Memoirs of the late Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton. The work is a re-publication, previously well known, but many admirers of the late baronet, who sympathised in his views and shared in his struggles, will deem the neat volume, formed by these three parts, a great acquisition; and they are most appropriately included in a series of works designed for Home and the Colonies, because few legislators have been more concerned in Home and Colonial Reform than Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton. The series is closed with the life of Oliver Goldsmith, Nos. 74 and 75.

POLITICAL REGISTER.

the freehold societies interfere already, except so far as that many artisans, having no use for freeholds, would prefer to have the power of accumulation in the funds.

Two rival political bodies have been re-opened in Ireland; one under the care of Mr. John O'Connell, at the old place, for the former purpose--and the other, ostensibly directed by Mr. Charles Gavin Duffy, against the Church, and for protection to labour, with an extension of the franchise.

THE Home Politics of the month are barren of in-interfere with the movements of any association than terest. The deputations from the National Financial and Reform Association are progressing over the land, and explaining their schemes generally to large audiences. The English Freehold Associations are, in the meantime, discharging both financial and political duties. They are working the 40s. freehold clause || advantageously. Their agitation will aid in reforming the working classes financially. If a 40s. freehold costs £30, and should bring nothing but a vote, it is better to have thirty pounds' worth of politics than thirty pounds' worth of gin. This description of franchise is confined to England. It does not exist in Ireland, and it never existed in Scotland. Our legislators would have some difficulty in refusing a demand for its extension to both We think, also, that they will experience some trouble in meeting an urgent request to apply the same principle to other descriptions of property that is, in this case, applied to land. Why should a right of voting be conferred on a landed, and withheld from a funded qualification? A man with fifty pounds in the funds has more interest in the peace of the country, and the stability of our institutions, than a man with fifty pounds absorbed in land.

The improvements expected in the position of the Irish proceed slowly. The utmost discontent exists. in their counties; and the voters, greatly reduced in numbers, now threaten to dispossess the present members of their seats, on the earliest opportunity, and, following the example of Cork, to bestow them on Protectionists. Actuated by acquaintance with the existence of this feeling, and by some recent successes in England, the National Association for the Revival of Protection are petitioning the Queen to dissolve Parliament. They might as well petition her Majesty to remove Lochnagar. The Queen is a constitutional monarch, and will follow the constitutional practice. The forty shillings freehold is meant in England to The Ministry will resist these humble invitations to prove that the holder has a stake in the country. The walk out of office. They will keep their places until same value of property, in any other shape, not connected 1852, if they have any reason to suppose that the with the claimant's trade, not burdened with any debt, country party could now make up a majority. Our should confer the same privilege, since it affords the opinion is that a majority of Protectionists would same test. We have already argued that Life Insur- not yet be returned, but that the majority against them ance policies should be held, after a number of premiums in the new Parliament would be greatly reduced. If have been paid, to be a means of qualification. All these they, however, be convinced that they could now obtain schemes should proceed upon the plain understanding that a majority in the Commons, they will bitterly repent' there shall be no mortgaging, or borrowing, on property their old votes against triennial Parliaments. They used to qualify. All who are for finality will resist have also a ready way of obtaining their petition early any plan, however good or "feasible," that makes any in the next session of Parliament. They can bring in change. All who oppose instalments will execrate a bill to repeal the Septennial Act. The Radical memthese projects, which commend themselves only to the bers must support that measure; and the Protectionpoliticians who, while they fear the adoption of universalists, after taking it through the Commons by the aid suffrage, feel that the working classes deserve to have an attainable franchise; which may be thus in some measure a certificate of sobriety, diligence, and accumulative habits. The interests of the country would be greatly promoted by any alteration which would encourage economy. These plans would no farther

of the extreme left, may easily secure its passage through the Peers. Parliament will be thus dissolved at the end of next session, and probably before Candle

mas.

The great struggle will then commence, and the object of this petition will be readily gained. We' deserve thanks from that party for suggesting a safe

1

line of tactics, and one consistent with their principles, || for they must now see the impolicy of the Septennial Act. They could not so vigorously seek the dissolution of the present Parliament if they had not seen the impolicy of seven years leases of majorities.

A smart agitation is threatened against the taxes on knowledge, by an association formed in London. They direct their efforts against the duty on paper,|| the penny stamp on newspapers, and the tax on advertisements. The duty on paper affects us more than the other two taxes, but the latter are unquestionably the great nuisances which should be first removed. A tax on paper is not so directly obstructive to business as either of the other two. We have received several numbers of a very neat Halifax newspaper, published daily, at one penny, and containing a large number of advertisements, which are inserted daily for £15 annually, of the length that would cost in our provincial papers at the rate of £60 annually--but of this sum the newspaper proprietor has to pay, and often to advance, £22 10s. to the Stamp-office. We need scarcely say that the Halifax journalist is better than parties following the same profession in this country. The low rate of insertion secures him many advertisements; and he lays out no money, runs no risk, but is able to afford that accommodation to the public of Nova Scotia which is refused in this country.

Rumours are current that the King of Prussia has abdicated in favour of his nephew, the Prince of Prussia. They may be true, for European crowns are not at present in favour; and abdication is a fashion into which kings are running. No reason is assigned for his Prussian Majesty's retirement from public life.

ment, after causing the death of 1,200 to 1,500 pirates. This battle or massacre is greatly blamed by some of the London journals. We have no information from any quarter that would induce us to pass any distinct opinion on the topic. Piracy is a common crime in the Eastern Archipelago, and it must be destroyed. Pirates, by the law of nations, are liable to death. But what information had these Indians regarding the law of nations? They were unacquainted with the works on that subject. They may have no more regarded themselves as thieves than the border clans when they rieved their neighbours' cattle. Still, the atrocities of eastern piracy cannot be allowed to continue on account of the pirates' ignorance. Commerce must have freedom on the highway of nations; and the past character of Sir James Brookes prevents the belief that he would wantonly shed blood.

We wish to express our regret that, in the present volume, one or two articles published in successive Numbers are incomplete. We do not refer to "There and Back Again," by Mr. St. John, which could not be completed in a single volume, but to some papers of a minor character.

We shall endeavour, in future, to avoid a similar

Occurrence.

We have made such arrangements as seemed within our power, to combine instruction with light but useful reading in our future numbers.

One gentleman, a contributor to the Magazine, has left this country for the north of Europe, with the intention of transmitting to us notes and sketches of winter life in the Baltic capitals.

In connection with some of our former contributors, we have made, and are making, various similar arrangerents, calculated, we believe, to extend and increase the general usefulness of the Magazine.

We are passing through a period when political affairs, in connection with foreign countries, have more interest than those of our own land; and an extensive connection with literary men in different countries enables us, in referring occasionally to these transactions, at least to have the advantage of full and accurate information.

Austria protests against the meeting of the new German Parliament at Erfurt, on the 31st of January next. Harsh notes are understood to have passed between Berlin and Vienna on this subject. The Prussian Cabinet insists on going forward with the meeting, at which the Prussian Deputies will form two-thirds of the Representatives. The meeting must be therefore that of a Parliament for Northern Germany; something different from a German Parliament. The differences between Russia and Turkey are supposed to be arranged without the expulsion or the surrender of the Hungarian and Polish refugees. The A period of great, and it may be, of unforeseen English fleet entered the Dardanelles during the dis- changes, is approaching in our own land; and we cancussion, and facilitated a settlement, we presume, by not doubt that they will tend, ultimately, to give the their presence. Some letters allege that the quarrel || people more influence than they now possess, in the is not settled, but only postponed till spring, when the management of their own affairs, and that circumoccupation of the Danubian provinces will supersede stances are rendering them more competent to use adthe consideration of the fate of Kossuth and his friends. vantageously that influence as it is obtained. The position of the French President becomes seri

ous.

He has dismissed the Odillon Barrot Ministry, and chosen one of inferior men, but who will be more complacent to his plans. M. Thiers has been completely thrown out. Rumours prevailed that Louis Napoleon Bonaparte intended to strike for a crown. The rumours are premature, and perhaps they do not in any way correspond with his intentions.

We have taken care frequently to intimate that we cannot make any use of manuscripts that reach us without the address of the writer, and yet we have a number sent to us in that position which are necessarily lost. In future we shall publish monthly a list of publications and books forwarded to our address, as a means of intimating, in the most satisfactory manner, that they have been received. We are anxious From our eastern settlements the intelligence of the here to correct a date which, in reference to advertising, month is disagreeable. In Cephalonia, Mr. Ward has appears on our cover, namely, that advertisements for seen cause to hang up twenty persons, who dignified the January number will be received to the 26th. their proceedings with the title of rebellion, and were In consequence of an alteration in our arrangements in charged with great excesses. At Labuan, Rajah || that respect, we are obliged to substitute Monday, the Brookes had attacked and destroyed a pirate settle- || 24th.