*The Correspondents of the EDINBURGH MAGAZINE and LITERARY MISCELLANY are respectfully requested to transmit their Communications for the Editor to ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE & COMPANY, Edinburgh, or to HURST, ROBINSON, & COMPANY, London; to whom also orders for the Work should be addressed. Printed by J. Ruthven & Sons. A PAPER, signed £λeyxo [sheyxw,] purporting to be in answer to a very temper. ate article, entitled "Modern Fanaticism," which appeared in our last Number, has been put into our hands; but as the author, in the fervour of his honest zeal, has forgotten to say a single word german to the point which he has undertaken to discuss, it would be absurd, as well as useless, to insert it. At the same time we beg to state, that our pages are open to any writer who shall favour us with a bona fide reply to the article in question. We acknowledge the receipt of a legible copy of "Blomerfogg, or the Fortunate Youth," which shall meet with due consideration. The Lines on the Royal Visit, like every thing from the pen of their author, are highly respectable; but we have not been able to comply with his request, for reasons which we shall take an early opportunity of communicating to him in a private letter. The "Remarks on Novel Writing and Poetry" do credit to the author's powers, and will appear in an carly Number. From the urgency of some other matter, we have not yet had leisure to peruse the Review of Dr Muir's Discourses. In its present state, the "Recluse in the Country" is by much too expanded and diluted for our Journal; unless, therefore, we are permitted to apply the pruning-knife, we fear we shall be obliged to decline inserting it altogether. The brief and pithy notice of the late republication of Sir Thomas Browne's Tracts will appear in September; as also " Hora Seniles, No. III.” For reasons which will be privately explained to the author's satisfaction," Corni, cula's Peep into Parliament," after being in types, has been unavoidably postponed. At the same time, we cannot refuse our tribute of honest commendation to the extreme felicity, and perfect individuality of many of the author's characteristic sketches. Few men, we suspect, are so thoroughly acquainted with the interior of St Stephens. "The Philosophy of Fiction, No. II.,” also unavoidably delayed, will appear in our next publication. Several articles, formerly announced, and which we have been prevented from publishing this month, will not be lost sight of. We are happy to acknowledge the receipt of "Reminiscences of Auld Langsyne, No. III.," which we think superior to any of its predecessors, and which will probably appear in our next; when we also expect to be able to give a continuation of “Characters omitted in Crabbe's Parish Register," the former portions of which have attracted such deserved and general notice. In fact, by many they have been mistaken for the veritable productions of Mr Crabbe's pen. This is no ordinary compli ment. It gives us real pleasure to hear once more from our sensible and shrewd EastLothian friend, "Arator," whose letter we shall lose no time in laying before the public. The Review of Mr Hogg's "Three Perils of Man" is reserved as a bonne bouche for September. This delay, compulsory on our part, we regret the more, as the Shepherd has been most unjustly and unmercifully abused by some of the critical dictators of the South, whose microscopic eyes can detect a fault, without discovering an atoning beauty. That this performance has great faults we will not attempt to conceal: but it has also great and striking beauties, and, what is more remarkable in this age of servile imitation, it is perfectly original, both in its design and exccution. We shall endeavour to balance the account between both. The second part of the Paper on the Foreign Slave Trade came too late for the present month. The remainder of "Caleb Cornhill" will probably appear in our succceding Number. The "Reporter's Budget, No. II." must be sent once more to the anvil. "The last days of the Queen of Prussia,” and “A Visit to Paestum," which have just been received, and read with much interest, will grace our succeeding publication. The "Poetical Epistle to W. W." will appear in our next: "Henry, the Minstrel's Wallace," the Review of Swale's Geometrical Amusements, and the Paper" On Astronomical Systems,” were received just as our last form was going to press. THE EDINBURGH MAGAZINE, AND LITERARY MISCELLANY. AUGUST 1822. NAPOLEON IN EXILE; OR, A VOICE FROM ST. HELENA. THE OPINIONS AND REFLECTIONS OF NA or generous emotion: he has pourtrayed, perhaps in too warm colours, the character of a merciless and un POLEON ON THE MOST IMPORT- feeling jailor, who seemed only to live ANT EVENTS OF HIS LIFE AND GOVERNMENT, IN HIS OWN WORDS. BY BARRY O'MEARA, ESQ., HIS LATE SURGEON. LONDON: 1822. By the popolazzo of critics Mr O'Meara, the author of these most interesting volumes, has been but scurvily treated. The authenticity of his statements has not only been contested, but he has been accused of malicious and deliberate misrepresentation; while insinuations, the most odious and repugnant to the feelings of a man of honour and education, have been scattered about with the envenomed industry, peculiar to that fiendish spirit which would exult over a fallen enemy, and rake into the very ashes of the grave for materials to feed its foul and loathsome voracity. He has dared to shed a tear over the misfortunes of that great and singular being, who so long wielded the destinies of Europe, and before whom its crazy and superannuated despotisms successively crumbled into dust: he has confessed, that he felt the influence of that wonderful character, which seemed to subdue into affectionate admiration every one who came within the magical circle of its spell: he has had the honesty to describe what he himself saw, and heard, and felt, rather than what would have suited the grovelling and paltry views of inen incapable of one lofty, hallowed VOL. XI. in the inhuman pleasure he derived from annoying and exulting over his proud and still unsubdued captive: he has had the simplicity to believe, that the lion in the toils was still the same noble and sovereign animal as when he ranged the desart in the full pride of freedom and of power, and awed every living thing by the token of his presence: he has been guilty of these manifold offences and crimes, and he must be green indeed in experience if he expected to be easily forgiven. It is true, that most of the charges brought against Mr O'Meara's book have been grounded solely on the dicta of the anonymous writers who have so generously preferred them; but it is no less true, that they have made a considerable impression to the disadvantage both of the book and its author. This, however, will surprise nobody who reflects how much easier and pleasanter it is to believe than to investigate, and how vast is the multitude, who take not only their political and literary, but even their religious opinions upon trust. Add to this, that these vituperative dicta have received a colour of plausibility from garbled extracts, and dislocated, discontinuous, and unexplained quotations, and the whole secret of the hue and cry that has been set up against this honest-hearted son of Esculapius will be revealed. It is surely melancholy to observe, in an T |