Tait's Edinburgh magazine

LITERARY REGISTER.

clatter-hurry skurry-seem to be breaking up into debris. Is that the character of the whole region ? No, you darling; it has vales on vales of emeralds, and mountains on mountains of amethyst, and streams on streams of silver; and, so help us heaven! for with these eyes we have seen them, a thousand and a thousand times-at sunrise and sunset, rivers on rivers of gold. What kind of climate? All kinds, and all kinds at once--not merely during the same season, but the same hour. Suppose it three o'clock on a summer afternoon, you have only to choose your weather. Do you desire a close, sultry, breathless gloom? you have it in the stifling dens of Ben Anea, where lions might breed. A breezy coolness with a sprinkling of rain? Then open your vest to the green light in the dewy vales of Benlura. Lochs look lovely in mist, and so thinks the rainbow-then away with you ere the rainbow fade-away, we beseech you, to the wild shores of Lochan-a-Lurich. But you would rather see a storm, and hear some Highland thunder? There is one at this moment in Unimore, and Cruachlia growls to Meallanuir, till the cataracts of Glashgour are dumb as the dry rocks of Craig-teonan.

Life in China. By the Rev. C. MILNE. London :
G. Routledge and Co. 1 vol., pp. 517.
THE claim of China to one-third of all the popula-
tion of the world only enlarges the regret that
it is almost a closed and sealed land. Its rulers
have for many centuries followed an exclusive
policy, which has exposed their people, at the few
points of contact with Europeans, to many hard-
ships. Although some of their visitors describe
the Chinese in fascinating language, yet their
sketches are, we suspect, over-coloured. The ap-
pearance of the Chinese race is indicative of a low
mental standard. They "look" many steps behind
the Hindoo, in intellect; and, until within thirty
years, and during that space, at some of the sea-
ports alone, it is probable that no advance has been
made by the Chinese, as a nation, for two thousand
years. The changes that have swept over Africa,
America, Western Asia, and Europe during that
long period have been scarcely felt in China. New
dynasties have arisen upon the ruins of the old;
and combinations of power and of provinces have
been formed, but old creeds, forms, and habits have
remained unchanged so long that they seem
unchangeable. The emigration of Chinese la-
bourers from their crowded land may change all
these matters. Some of them will return. Many
have already returned from California, and although
they cannot at once affect the character of the
nation, yet surely will the work be done.

Mr. Milne has recently returned from India,
where he passed many years in connection with
the London Missionary Society. His work on
China is one, therefore, of the more recent, and
we should say authentic statements, of its condition.
The life of the inner Chinese is concealed from
merchants and even missionaries, but Mr. Milne
contrived without detection, and, in the character
of a native, to acquaint himself with the route
from Ningpo to Canton, and writes of a country
through which few Europeans can have ever
passed.
He does not give a very favourable ac-
count of the rebel party, whose long war with

563

| the followers and friends of the Tartar dynasty has shaken it more than any other event since its commencement. He considers that the origin of the present war with Canton was unavoidable; or, at any rate, that a war must have occurred from Towards the Chinese character gene

some cause.

rally he writes in a very favourable mannerdenies the existence of infanticide as a common practice, and imputes benevolence and good nature to them as common characteristics, adducing several illustrations, from which we take the following:

I remember well the spring of 1850, when, in consequence of severe famine in the interior, Shanghai and its environs were haunted by thousands of beggars. They were not people of the locality. They came from further up the country, away from the banks of the Yangtze and Yellow rivers. They covered the face of the country like locusts. And the wretched beggars, forming gangs and parties, pressed with hunger, made their vociferous demands.

To relieve the distressed multitudes, charities were solicited by the provincial and local government, and the smallest contributions were encouraged. The rich gentry and the middle classes all united in the good work-opening In some instances, consubscription lists and grain stores. tribution lists were opened in shares not exceeding 100 copper cash, or about fourpence. The foreigners were glad to throw their mites into the benevolent scheme. But not the least important and effective was a temporary asylum, got up by the native gentry of Shanghai, solely for the shelter and support of destitute children. It lay outside the south gate of the city, and was called the "Asylum for Outcast Children."

Having had a good opportunity, by personal inspection, of acquainting myself with its objects and operations, I can readily speak of it. The asylum was but temporary-only for a few months--to meet the peculiar exigencies of the juncture. The range of buildings was run up in a few days, extending over four acres of land. It was divided into one hundred apartments, all on one floor-some fifteen feet, some thirty feet. They were flagged below, where the children ate and played, had lath partitions, and were fitted up with sleeping compartments raised a few feet above the ground. The number of children, when I visited it, amounted

to 2,000, one-third of them girls. Each child was well clad, and seemed well fed. A ticket was put on each, and a minute registry kept of the place from which the child was brought, so that, on the breaking up of the asylum, it might be restored to its proper guardians. They were portioned off in twenties for each compartment, and placed under an aged matron, who had the charge of their food, clothing, medicine, etc. The average ages were between three and ten. It was said, those found under three were sent to the Shanghai Foundling Hospital already spoken of, and any above ten years were declined. Wherever the little innocent sufferers were found, they were taken up, and minutely questioned as to age, surname, and parents. I fully believe that of this family of children, numbers were not cast out by the parents to the intent that they might not live, but were sent out or left on the roadside, in the expectation that their offspring might live on public bounty, be fed and clothed, as was done by this institution. This act of benevolence on the part of the Shanghai natives was unsuggested by foreigners. It was set on foot by themselves, encouraged by the local magistracy, and carried out by the united efforts of a kind hearted public. And I must add, that the entire order in the establishment was, as far as my inspection served, most surprising, and the arrangements admirable.

Shanghai appears to have a population differing entirely from those of Canton. They have had less intercourse with foreigners, and their ways

may be less sophisticated than those of their Canton brethren on that account.

The more interesting portion of Mr. Milne's work is the narrative of his voyage up the canals and rivers, and across the mountains, from Ningpo to Canton. His description of this strange country is very interesting, and may be read with advantage by persons who are, or who wish to be, interested in its productions or trades. Mr. Milne was once nearly detected and sent back to his own place. His adventure occurred in this way. He had reached Pihkwan, and had gone to dine in the public inn:

I had not taken my seat many minutes when a fellow walked in (I presume) from the police-station right in front of the booking office. The intruder looked sternly at me, and in an under tone asked one of them in waiting "Who is that there p" The man replied, "I really do not know. He has just come from Ningpo, and must be a merchant bound for the interior." The Boor then came up, and, placing himself before me, demanded, "Take off that hat of yours." I made no reply. He repeated his demand. I could no longer keep silence, and answered, "Don't you see, my friend, that I am very weary, and as there is a draft over head, I cannot take it off until I am a little cooler? If you, however, quietly sit down and bide my pleasure, I shall take it off by-and-bye." I was a little disconcerted at his instantly squatting on the opposite bench. Next, he commenced to catechise me on the following points. What is your surname? name? Where do you come from? are you about here? Where are you going to?" questions he couched in rude and uncivil language. ceiving this, I mustered the usual polite style adopted by his countrymen in their intercourse with strangers, and, taking courage (for I felt sure of vanquishing him by politeness and etiquette), I replied to his successive queries in the following manner. "My vulgar surname is (giving the surname I had adopted for my travels). My trifling name is The low and humble place I have come from is," &c. When he had exhausted his stock of interrogatories, and found I could give him such pat replies, he evidently began to feel rather uncomfortable at having intruded himself. Detecting the advantage I had already gained over my impolite inquisitor, and, as according to custom it was my turn now to interrogate, I commenced in the complimentary phraseology of the country" And pray, sir, what may be your excellent surname ? honourable name ? famous native place ?" &c., to all of which the fellow gave replies in a tone somewhat sub

What These Per

dued, and in language more humble. He looked uneasy, and

as I eyed him fixedly, he grew very sheepish. I had observed that, from the time of his entering, he watched my "tail" with a deal of earnestness, and, probably, suspecting it to be false, or only for an occasion tacked on to my straw hat, he had, with a view of proving its genuineness, required me to take off my hat. Having promised to comply with his wish when I felt cooler, and now perceiving that the opportunity of confounding him had come, I gently raised the straw hat without saying a word, and with a handkerchief wiped the perspiration off my forehead; but the tail over my right shoulder did not move! "Paul Pry" saw this, and felt outwitted, so he rose from his chair, bowed humbly, walked off, and no more appeared. Thus much for my third trial in this village.

A less practised linguist, without Mr. Milne's knowledge of the country and its habits, would have been baffled-probably punished-certainly, returned to the place from which he came. The country around Nanchang-a city of which we never heard before, upon the Chang river, is described as eminently fertile, and a large business is done upon the river. The timber trade thrives

excee dingly, and there, as everywhere, the conveyance of timber in rafts is a great branch of busi

ness.

All the day long several enormous rafts floated by, with cottages built on them, and woodmen at work flaying timber. There was one in particular of which I could not but take notice, it measured nearly a mile in length, rising about four feet above the water, and nine feet broad. The entire train was a junction of smaller rafts, the separate rafts being of the same length (perhaps fifteen or twenty feet), as they were of the same height and width. The logs and trunks of trees on each raft were lashed together with willow twigs and rattans, and the separate rafts were fastened one behind the other. By this method of connecting the distinct parts of the train, the whole float moved easily round the windings, and yielded to the crooks of the river as pliably as the links of a massive chain. Several men were stationed at the front part of the raft to direct its course with their sweeps, and a few others walked along its edge to push it off the river bank. In one or two parts there were short masts and tiny sails set. Huts were erected on it for lodgings, booths for cooking, also small cots for the storage of different articles picked up in private speculation, en route from the interior of the country, e. g., medicinal herbs, vegetables, birds, squirrels, monkeys, &c. Small kitchen gardens were growing here and there on the float to serve for the trip. It was unmistakeable, too, that there was a child's nursery in the moving mass, along with nursing mothers. The rafts contained all sorts of timber trees, cut down far inland, or probably on the mountains of Hoonan, and destined for the midland and northern provinces.

At midnight we entered the Linkiang shore, and passed Changshoo, described as a great medicine market, where all the herbs of the Chinese pharmacopoeia may be had. The river here becomes wider, the sand white, and the soil around very rich. The native topographer appears to give a tolerable account in his descriptive geography of this country-"The rocks look blue, the water clear, and the soil is fine and fertile." Medical herbs and coals are the While mother earth is lauded for her fulness and fertility, the official directory gazettes "the scholars as eminent, and the commonalty good natured."

special products of the neighbourhood.

Mr. Milne describes the province of Kiangse through which he had thus travelled as contraband goods, in rather attractive language, but the truth comes out in every page, that the people are desperately poor-that they are closed up from all intercourse with strangers, and that to this policy the government adheres with desperate tenacity.

Before moving forward, let one take a rapid glance back at the province of Kiangse, in which I have spent the last twenty days in only one boat. I have got over about seven hundred miles of mountainous route, passing through seven counties out of fourteen into which the province is parted, and touching at fifteen walled cities, and the great capital Nanchang. The wide amphitheatre presents a face mostly flat, sometimes uneven; three parts of its circle being bounded by mountain ranges, on the east, south, and west, separating Kiangse from Nganhway, Chihkiang, Fuhkien, Canton, and Hoonan; and its northern limit, consisting to a great extent of the province of Hoopih, and partly the river Yangtze, which runs eighty miles along the frontier. The soil is uncertain, in some places remarkably rich, and in others exceedingly sterile. Of its twenty-three millions inhabitants the common people are, on the whole, poor, often deplorably wretched, though industrious and hard working at crockery manufacture, and weaving of hemp cloth, goods. As to literary attainments, the scholars do not besides boat navigation, fishery, field labour, and carriage of compete in number or eminence with that of the neighbour.

LITERARY REGISTER.

ing provinces. The situation of the province renders it of
peculiar importance to the Chinese Empire. It commands
the thoroughfare between the northern and southern parts
of the interior, supporting a line of land and water com-
munication, that measures full seven hundred miles in
length. In other words, it is the key province between
A native surveyor
Canton and the inland provinces.
observes particularly, that Kiangse has five gateways into
different parts of the empire. Suppose," says he "there
is a rebellion in Hoopih, you can enter that province, from
Kiangse, by the department of Kew kiang, which lies on
the north of Kiangse; if any trouble in Chihkiang and
Fuhkien, there is Kwangsoofoo to the north east, through
which you can pour down on the troubled districts, or let
there be commotion in Canton, why you have K'anchowfoo
at command, or imagine that a disturbance breaks out at
Hoonan, we can at once enter to quell it by crossing from the
department of Nan-ngan."

Mr. Milne is endowed with many of the qualities
that make a good traveller. He is capable of en-
during considerable fatigue, conversant with the
Chinese customs and language, and might make
his way even to the northern metropolis. He
passed through the province of Canton to
the neighbourhood of that port; and passed
within twelve miles of Canton, a trifling town,
Fuhshan [Fatshan], which he styles the Birming-
ham of China; and he says that it contains one
million of inhabitants-more people considerably
than Paris. We do not have much faith in these
great sounding statistics. They are of Chinese
origin chiefly, and the Chinese want to impress the
barbarians with a strong feeling of their importance.
This is the town approached recently by our fleet,
designated Fatshan, and the sailors-who
not bad judges-estimated the population at two
hundred thousand! While we have no faith in
the statistics of China, we have a high opinion of
the readable character of Mr. Milne's book, and of
its being a useful contribution to our stock of
Chinese knowledge.

are

Christianity; the Logic of Creation. By HENRY JAMES. London: William White, 1 vol., pp. 264.

THIS volume abounds in reference to the doctrines of Swedenborg, in the shape of letters. The epistolary form is the worst way of conducting a logical argument; and we, in fear of wandering into deep paths, are content to copy one passage and be done with the volume.

You can't imagine a stone, or tree, or horse, out of relation to time and space, that is, as having any subjective or spiritual existence by virtue of its inward commerce with infinite goodness and truth. You can only conceive of them as natural existences, thus as essentially finite and perishable. Observe then that natural existence is purely phenominal oxistence, being destitute of internal or individual being, and hence out of all immediate relation to God. Yet this is the prevalent conception of creation, the only concepAnd tion tolerated by the carnal or superstitious mind. what is very melancholy, the clergy, as a body, do their best to aggravate our natural ballucinations on this and every subject, They are wont, as a general thing, to attribute to God the dreariest and most tedious existence imaginable, by diffusing His infinitude over the wilderness of space, and trickling His eternity through the endless succession of

571

minutes wbich make up time; and then they represent Him
as suddenly resolving to variegate this barren infinitude-to
diversify this monotonous eternity-by summoning into life
certain absolute or physical forms, which shall henceforth be
and exist by virtue of that momentary fiat. In short the
ecclesiastical intellect all the world over has the inveterate
habit of confounding being with form, creating with making,
reality with semblanee. It supposes that everything is which
appears to be; or that things have being, by virtue of their
form merely. If, for instance, you should consult the
Pope of Rome or the Archbishop of Canterbury, they would
never betray the slightest distrust of their official existence
being a Divine reality. They have not the least suspicion
iupon their minds that the higher powers are blessedly
gnorant of all the conventional dignities of earth; they
have never imagined that all these distinctions, official and
personal, which make up so often our best knowledge, and
give many an empty head among us the reputation of wis-
dom, are sheer vacancy to the celestial mind, raying out
darkness, not light; and if you should hint your own sus
picion of the truth, they would cordially unite in proclaim-
a tiresome and
ing you an infidel, and bid you begone as
revolutionary bore.

We apprehend that "the Celestial Mind" is acquainted with the existence of Mr. James himself, who is not so important a personage as the Archbishop of Canterbury or the Pope of Rome; and we also presume to believe that what is — is,— that a chair is a chair and is a substance, not a cheat, delusion, or form only, and that Mr. James is a bad logician.

England and her Colonies. By ROBERT FLETCHEr. London: Longman and Co. 1 vol., pp. 200. THE author of this volume advocates views which we hold concerning the colonies, their probable destiny,and what should be done with them. They should be incorporated with or united to the mother countries by a Legislative Union; and, therefore, we rejoice in the publication of any work that accustoms the world to a sound theory, and advocates it with dignity. We cannot agree in all Mr. Fletcher's views, but we concur cordially in the thought contained in the following six lines which

Then we adopt unhesitatingly the advice given in the next extract, and would rejoice much if we could persuade others to follow our example.

There is a "call" to use a strong phrase, upon the British citizen to be up and stirring-to give a more earnest heed to his rights and obligations. If we were alive to them we should bear no more of the dullness and effeteness of our politics. Party politics are, as we all know, flat, stale, and unprofitable-they do not minister to our wants, nor are they in any ways coincident with our endowments. They are merely the sham arrays of folly marshalled by knavery, where the many consent to be the dupes of the few. We are advocating the politics which have their foundation in divine morals. There are national perils to confront. We shall soon want our old valour again; let us be diligent in culti vating the old insight and the conquering faith. Let us be a "noble" as well as a "puissant" nation.

The following passage was written before the occurrence of recent events in India. We now have learned a bitter lesson, and see too well in Nena Sahib, the King of Delhi, and others, of what the higher natives are capable. The fine theories in which we believed respecting the advancement of India are swamped in the meantime. A preliminary work has to be done. The land must be ridden of casteism among the Hindoos, and the more troublesome of the Mohammedans, while the dynastical pensioners upon the Indian finances must be located in some other quarter of the globe; but we quote the passage as a curiosity of the times.

Think, moreover, of the kind of charge in the East; not only of the amount in numbers of millions, but on the character of those millions, religious, moral and physical. Whatever of past power was distributed amongst these two hundred millions we have charged ourselves with the care of, for our future good. We, being so few and so remote, our empire in India is perhaps, the most marvellous illustration of positive rule ever seen; the positive rule of a ruling race. There, in India, it is positive rule-conquest, administration, and Government mean the same thing there. We shall rule its peninsula for ages, if we prove ourselves worthy, that is capable of this stupendous trust.

In all human probability, our conquest may be the last possible metamorphosis for India; at least we do not exactly see who is to take the business out of our hands; for if the Anglo-Indian could manage it in nominal independence of this country, the British would still be the virtual governors. The rule we exercise is the only one possible as yet, that of the steel sword of the warrior, and the iron pen of the fiscal officer, in its positive outcome; but really they are both wielded in reference to a public opinion there as well as here. When the former is sufficiently strong, growing up by small beginnings of self-rule for the Anglo-Indians, by gradual fusions and combinations with the higher natives (and of what they are capable of doing we have had recent examples), the English will only be too glad to escape from direct imperial responsibilities, by devolving them on the genuine representatives of our race.

The Modern Scottish Minstrel. Vols. III. and IV. Edited by CHARLES ROGERS, LL.D. Edin-. burgh Adam and Charles Black. THESE Volumes are two of a series, of which we hear that the fifth is published. We already explained the object of the Editor in them-namely, to present specimens of the Scottish poets, with short biographies-useful as regards the minor poets, but of less value in the case of such names as Cunningham and Hogg. Some of the former seem to be given at quite as much length as the parties deserve, and others, such as Dr. Moir (the

Delta of Black wood" in former times), and Robert Gilfillan, might have been enlarged with propriety. One is astonished at the multitude of poets produced in the land, and at the Editor's industry in working out the biographies of so many different persous, many of them not well known. lections from their writings seem to be carefully made, and with good taste.

The se

The greater number of these pieces have been previously published-but some of them appear for the first time in this volume. The following

The bouny flags were a' unfurl'd, a gallant sight to see,
But waes me for my sodger lad that marched to Germanie.
Oh! lang, lang is the travel to the bonnie pier o' Leith,
Oh! dreich it is to gang on foot wi' the snaw-drift i' the
teeth!

An' oh, the cauld wind froze the tear that gathered i' my e'e,

When I gaed there to see my luve embark for Germanie.

I look'd owre the braid blue sea, sae lang as could be seen
A wee bit sail upon the ship that my sodger lad was in;
But the win' was blawin' sair an' snell, an' the ship sailed
speedilie,

An' the waves an' cruel wars ha'e twinn'd my winsome lave frae me.

MISCELLANEOUS.

A Lecture on Education. By BISHOP GILLIES.* THE lecturer is the Roman Catholic Vicar Apostolic of the East of Scotland, and the subject is education. The arguments express the views of the more moderate Roman Catholics on that question, which has agitated society deeply for years. The general statements contain nothing very novel. The lecturer reverts to an almost forgotten book of travels, by Mr. Samuel Laing, for evidence that Sweden is a country abounding in schools and in vice together. Quoting Mr. Laing, he says

You may travel through the country, and come to the conclusion that the people are among the most virtuous in Europe. In walking through the streets of Stockholm, I never saw an immodest or even suspicious look or gesture among even the lowest classes of the people. For propriety of dress and demeanour, the town might be peopled by Vestals. Is not one entitled, then, to conclude that the results above

given are the natural fruits of the tree? Now, in a Catholie country, and under Catholic training, much, if not all, of this might occur, I admit, but never save as a most flagrant departure from the principles on which education there is imparted.

And we suppose that the evils complained of must be flagrant departures from the principles inculcated by the Swedish schoolmasters. They do not teach vice. It is, indeed, rarely inculcated at be, we fear that they can be matched in that schools; and, however immoral the Swedes may respect even in most Catholic countries. Bishop Gillies does not join in the Ultramontane denunciations of the Irish colleges, and he approves of the Government grauts for education under Government inspection and denominational superintendence.

CASSEL. The sum of an able pamphlet, by Mr. The Great Obstacle to Education. By JOHN Cassel, is that drunkenness and poverty are the

*Edinburgh: Marsh and Beattie. London: W. Kent and Co.

OBITUARY NOTICES.

great obstacles to education, an opinion which, cannot be gainsaid. Mr. Cassel has a great ex-. perience in light literature, and he gives us his opinion of what is necessary for success in the subjoined terms:

573

the magistrates of Glasgow have not shrunk from dealin with a case which has its parallel in Liverpool. They res o lutely took up that case, and fined the keeper of a dancing saloon £10 for harbouring certain improper characters in his house, assuring him, at the same time, that for every repetition of the offence, he should be fined again, or haaa his house shut up altogether. Certainly the power of liI am not now referring to such facts as the demand, at the first outset, of a thousand copies of a History of Eng- censing at all is a mere farce, unless it imply the power of land, or the circulation of two hundred thousand copies of withdrawing the license the moment that illegal conduct can be proved. A case is reported which I, in my simplicity, educational works, including lessons in German, French, and certainly cannot comprehend; a short time ago, a man made Latin-geology, botany, history, and general science-I application for the transfer of a license; he confessed that refer chiefly to works of fiction. I know, and every caterer he had been a betting man, that he had lost 5,000 sovefor the public appetite knows, that the tale which will most reigns, but declared that he had given up the practice. The readily obtain demand is that which throws the most genial license was granted, and the applicant warned that, if he light on our common humanity-which pourtrays a noble should return to his betting habits, the license might be heart throbbing beneath a fustian jacket or a cotton gownwithdrawn. Surely unless the magistrate was compelled by which records the struggles of heroism among the humblelaw to grant the license, the man's former habits, for the which discovers traits of innocence, and goodness, and geneabandonment of which we appear to have only his own rosity, in the dwellings of the poor-which evinces sympastatement, might have induced hesitation, reluctance, delay thy with the ragged, the forsaken, and the outcast-which, for further inquiry, if not a positive refusal of the transfer. as it were, lets in God's blue sky on the miserable and the desponding; narratives of this class, I say, are those most The magistrates of Glasgow must be men come of Were I to select a writer eagerly read, most highly valued. age. Some of them have run out three majorities, who should be most successful with the industrial classes, we presume, and yet they fine a man £10 for allowit should be a man in whose breast sympathy with the distressed and compassion for the suffering had their seat; ing improper characters to get into a dancing whose nerves vibrated to every touch of woe; who had faith saloon, admission sixpence, to be repaid in refreshin human nature; who could discover and acknowledgements. The only way of stopping this collection traits of goodness, however obscured and disfigured; and who had made it evident, by the whole tone and tenour of his writings, that his sole aim was to benefit, to upraise, and to render respectable and useful, those who had hitherto been the scorn of the proud, and the victims of the oppressors.

This is all very good, and it is right to pursue what is good without reference to the event; but the tales in the London Journal and Family Herald which both sell amazingly, are of high life.

Liverpool Life. By the Rev. HUGH STOWELL BROWN. This is an exposition of a wretched life -that life of Liverpool-which the author acknowledges to be founded partly upon papers that appeared in the Liverpool Mercury. We copy one passage, to show the innocence of some grown up people :

I am not sufficiently acquainted with the laws which regulate the licensing system, and the difficulties which hamper the magistrates to be justified in pronouncing an opinion upon the possibibility of legal interference for the better regulation of publichouses and beerhouses. I see, however, that

of improper characters is to shut up the house.

Lectures on the British Poets, by HENRY REED, form No. 5 of the "Excelsior Library," but what it is formed of up to this number we have not heard. We like Mr. Reed's lectures, so far as we have read them; but he quite staggers us with the Intimation of what he considers a critic should be.

Married or Single. By Miss SEDGWICK. London :
James Knight and Son. 1 vol. pp. 440.
THIS volume forms one of a series apparently of
cheap and well got up works by the same publishers.
Miss Sedgwick's name, as an authoress, will go
far to sell the books-which contains one of those
narratives of United States life and society which
are now becoming very common among us, but
they are not nearly all alike; and this one is very
different from some of its associates and much

Books

Tait's Edinburgh magazine, Volume 24