press in England must always remain to it, so long as our national character continues the same, or the freedom of the press is itself preserved. While this is the case, the journals of all parties will have their use, and, as a part of the great political machine, will help to make it more perfect and more effective. can have been admitted into such a publication as reader of Periodicals can forget the flagrant violations of literary justice,-the bare-faced The New Monthly" has also a strong political attacks on character, both private and public,— colouring, and, occasionally, a serious business-like the downright and determined opposition to the tone of inquiry. In the former of these, how-morality of public truth, of which it was guilty in ever, it takes no higher stand than the least-ta- its early numbers; and we are obliged to say, that, lented newspaper, and is as little original in its if its particular enmities, its untempered and exviews; but, in its latter characteristic, and when- cessive love of hacking and hewing up whatever ever a subject of general utility is to be discussed, it met with, be softened, the effects of its early it speaks the language of sound and dignified propensity still remain, and its spirit is often reason, and rises above its proper rank as a Pe- imbued with as blinding a prejudice, or, if it riodical. We may mention, in illustration of our be not so, with as dishonest an art, as ever darkremarks, the papers which appeared in it, on the ened a human intellect, or perverted its powers subject of the London University, in which the of good. Blackwood's Magazine' is, in fact, a good practical sense of experience, and the ele- true type of humanity, full of its proper energies, vated views of benevolence and philosophy, were quickened by its pride, and all its loves and antiboth eminently displayed. On the whole, The pathies, rushing from its highest vantage ground, New Monthly' is well entitled to the popularity in pursuit of whatever objects attract its notice, it has obtained; and could it be entirely freed from and feeling in itself the power of a giant; but, the affectations and puerilities, the appearance of with all this, having no aim but the obtainment of cant and trickery, with which it is sometimes some present and particular purpose, and no imdisfigured, its pages would be explored with as pulse sufficiently powerful and constant to send keen an appetite, by the retired man of letters, it beyond the narrow bounds in which it is conand the readers, whose taste has been rendered tented to spend its force. fastidious by drinking at a purer stream of literature, as they now are by the most eager and easiest satisfied of its purchasers. The present state of the public press in this country may be described in few words. It enjoys nearly unlimited freedom from legislative control; but the tyranny of courts is supplied by the tyranny of party. It is active and vigorous in its spirit; but it is often weak, changeable, and undetermined in its operation. It is eager in the pursuit of a present object; but it has no power of looking beyond it. It will grapple to the death with an enemy within its grasp; but it never grasps at any thing great and mighty, and out of the beaten track. It is a good and indefatigable collector of facts and incidents; but it is an uncertain and often faithless reporter. It is one of the safeguards of English liberty; but it is continually shaken and disjointed by English caprice. Its establishment is a consequence of public wealth and spirit, and it often panders to them with a most unblushing front. Lastly, It is the winged and ever-ready vehicle of opinion, filled and instinct with thought, but loaded with the rubbish of paltry speculations, or manufac-is tured casualties, for ballast. But I must proceed to make a few observations on one or two of the other Magazines, which, though less extensively popular, and possessing a someThe next Periodical to be noticed of this class, what inferior claim to literary distinction, are, not'Blackwood's Magazine',-a publication which, withstanding, of sufficient importance to merit a both for the variety of talent employed on it, the longer attention than can be here given them.But my purpose, in offering these observations, known literary character of its principal sup- Among this second class of Magazines are to be nois to introduce the remark, that, as periodical porters, and the intense and fervent spirit that ticed The Gentleman's,' the old Monthly,' and literature began with the introduction of public hold both upon the mind and heart of its readers, in their day, at the head of periodical literature. breathes through all its pages, has the strongest The London;' the two former of which have been, journals, its next step was taken in the publica- that was ever possessed by a Periodical. The The Monthly Magazine' has undergone, during tion of Magazines. These were a kind of off-set New Monthly, elegant as is its general style, its existence, more changes in style and composifrom the newspapers of the times, and marked, and interesting as are its contents, makes no im- tion, than have been under gone by any other that by their commencement, the progress of men's minds to a higher state of refinement. They had pression upon the heart, and has no bright glow-can be named. It has been the vehicle of knowWe read ledge and inquiry to one age, and the organ of hitherto stood in need of some object of visible ing associations belonging to its name. and present interest to attract their attention: it, and we are delighted with its liveliness, its vasceptical philosophy to another; and it is, at prethey now began to find amusement in the abstrac-riety, and taste; but the remembrance of its con- sent, compounded of political essays, occupying tents passes away with the Number, and we cannot one half of its pages, and the lightest species of tions of morality, in the generalising of their views, and in the less exciting appeals of agreetrace any new feeling, any enlarged admiration of literature filling the remaind er. The great fault, able fiction. From this period to the present, the great and good, any deep thrilling hatred of accordingly, of this Periodical, is its utter want of many revolutions have taken place in Magazine It is a good companion, but it has not enough of total absence of individuality, if we may apply the low and corrupt to the perusal of its pages. a connecting principle in its composition,-the literature; but, as I have already alluded to them, heart in it to be our friend, and we never knew it to such a term to a Magazine. The consequence of I shall now proceed to make a few remarks on the principal periodicals of the day, which I possess a true hearty enemy. With 'Blackwood's,' this is, a seeming tendency in its parts to fly divide into Magazines and Reviews, confining ever read a Number of it, without having the depths given to its best and most spirited essays. For, the case is widely different; no one, we believe, asunder from each other, and a disadvantage our consideration, at present, to the former. of his bosom stirred up; his love of human kind, having none of that assistance which is afforded The publication of this class, which first started in one or another path of existence, awakened to a composition, by the preparatory note already in the new career of periodical literature, was 'The with a new fervour; his passionate grasp of some uttered, when a Periodical has a known and New Monthly,' to which the credit is due of ha- creed or principle, rendered still stronger and determined character, they are confounded with ving thrown a life and animation into magazines, bolder; his hope or remembrances, bound about the undigested mass of materials that surround which they never before possessed. Till this ap- his heart with an increased assurance or tender- them, and are valued by the generality of readers, peared, they were made up of a most heterogeneous ness. There is a recklessness, a sinning against, and at as low a price as the most indifferent piece in the mass of miscellaneous information and puerile fic-breaking through of rules, a spirit of wild revelry, collection. There are occasionally papers in 'The tious; and so orthodox a style did this appear for Monthly Magazine,' both of a public and merely Magazines, that The New Monthly' itself apliterary nature, which are not, by any means, estipeared, originally, in the same character. It was mated as they ought, and the neglect is, in a very not long, however, before it was discovered, that great measure, owing to the circumstances I have a refined taste in literature, the resources of elementioned. But the best and most conspicuous gant scholarship, and the rich stores of foreign feature in this Periodical is the space it devotes observation, might be profitably employed in the to what are termed 'Notes of the Month,' which are construction of a modern Magazine. The Periodin general drawn up with a spirit and taet of obical, accordingly, of which we are speaking, turned servation that render them a most felicitous. to these hitherto unemployed objects of popular assemblage of varieties. Many other periodicals attraction, and became deservedly esteemed, as have attempted a similar thing, but they bave well for the solid merit of much of its contents, none of them succeeded so well in it; and if "The as for the novelty of the whole. A Periodical, howMonthly' possessed no other claim to attention, it ever, of this nature, is on dangerous ground; and would deserve it for this single but very striking aiming, as it evidently does, at novelty and elefeature of its present composition. gance, and a certain piquancy of style, it is almost sure to fall, sometimes, into affectations, and, at others, into a puerile and ridiculous flippancy, We accordingly find, that there is no Periodical which, on occasions, has so much the air of an ill-educated fashionable, as this generally delightful Magazine; none in which we seem so perfectly to see the strut, and little giffling artifices, of inexperienced coxcombry. Nothing can be more offensive to readers of good taste than such a mixture; and it is almost inexplicable how this leaven of affectation, this sort of fashionable pedantry, or desperate despite, throughout its composition. The Gentleman's Magazine' affords, in its history, a striking contrast to the one of which we have just been speaking. While 'The Monthly" has undergone almost every variety of change, this has retained its primitive style and form; it has worn the garb of its ancestors from generation to generation, and spoken the same language that was taught it when it first stepped upon its career. There is something not a little curious in this; and it is not uninteresting to inquire, how it has happened, that, amid all the changes which periodical literature has un dergone since the commencement of this work, amid all the experiments which have continually been making on its different departments, in some instances ruinous, and in others successful, The Gentleman's' has been as unmoved a spectator as if it had been unborn of paper and print? The most obvious explanation is, that the subjects of which it treats undergo little variation, and are unlike those which depend on the changing character and dispositions of mankind. An answer of a similar kind may be given, from the consideration that the class of readers to which it peculiarly belongs, are a fraternity whose tastes, and habits of thinking, are not subject to the current literature of the times, being employed in the composition of these works, and availing themselves in them of an unrestricted freedom to be consistent or not, or any thing but dull, they acquire the habit of trifling where they should reason; of being paradoxical where they should be clear, bold, and convincing; of playing with our fancy, when they should seize upon the strong-holds of the heart; of aiming at nothing higher than being amusing, when there is a thirsty land calling from its barren furrows for the rich dews of a noble eloquence and wisdom The consequence of this is the pollution or degradation of our national literature; and I must conclude that, it ever owe its rege violent alternations, and, especially, that to them of a totally different character rising to supply neration to one cause, it will be, I believe, to the every year of the Magazine's lengthened existence confers an additional value on its old original appearance, on its double columns, filled with queries and replies, like the pages of a schoolbook on the Interrogatory System,-on the patriarchal name of the Editor, and the Saint John's Gate of the title-page. This veneration, however, for primitiveness of dress and style has been carried a little too far by the Proprietors of The Gentleman's Magazine.' It has lost, as every Periodical of the kind will always do, much of its original vigour, even in the branch of learning to which it is especially devoted; and, by its conductors being afraid, or unwilling, to attempt any change in its construction, they have had no means of supplying their lost strength from the freshly opened fountains of thought and opinion. This cannot be easily excused. The Gentleman's Magazine' has a claim, notwithstanding its devotion to antiquity, on more than mere antiquarian readers. Its age has made it public property, and there are few really literary men who would not deeply regret, if, either by negligence, or a growing indifference to its fate, it were left to lose more and more of its old worth, and the respect it once possessed. tion take away the few shillings which a large rising of some master-spirits of the day, who shall have heart enough to desire, and intellect strong enough to work up our periodical literature as pure and energetic, as it is now bold and active. MEXICAN ILLUSTRATIONS. Mexican Illustrations, founded upon facts; indicative of the Present Condition of Society, Manners, Religion, and Morals, among the Spanish and Native Inhabitants of Mexico; with Observations upon the Govern ment and Resources of the Republic of Mexico, as they appeared during part of the years 1825, 1826, and 1827. Interspersed with occasional Remarks upon the Climate, Produce, and Antiquities of the Country, Mode of Working the Mines, &c. By Mark Beaufoy, late of the Coldstream Guards. Carpenter and Son. London, 1828. The rapid review which I have thus taken of the principal Magazines of the day, and of the peculiarities which distinguish them, suggests some important considerations. The first of these We have no objection to a writer coming beis, that our periodical literature has no national fore us, trusting only to his plain good sense, and character, or strong pervading and assimilating the opportunities, however limited, he may have element. It owes, as we observed at first, its pre- had of observation; but we have an utter abhorsent activity and extent to national circumstances; rence of an author who can laugh, where it is his but, beyond its activity, it possesses few charac- duty to give unprejudiced information; or who teristic traits of real English feeling, and is by no can let his light and frivolous habits of thinking, The London Magazine' is our next object of means the mirror of our manners, habits of think-lead him into treating contemptuously any thing attention. This Periodical promised on its ap- ing, and social constitution, which it might be ex- that respects the great questions of human happipearance, and during its first years, to be one of pected to be. This is sufficiently seen in the loose ness or misery. We have not this charge to bring, the most excellent that the press sent forth; and manner in which Periodicals of the same class and in its full weight, against the author of the Mexi when it is recollected, that it was in this that Mr. character hang together, the total want of a style can Illustrations; but he has certainly very narDe Quincy published those beautiful papers, the which, though varying in its tone, would have rowly escaped it; and so narrow is the distance Confessions of an Opium-Eater;' and that it was the expression of a common and connecting feel- from his light, free style, to one of culpable friin this the Essays of Elia, the whimsical but ing, if such pervaded this species of literature,- volity, that there is more than one passage in his warm and tender-hearted Elia, appeared,-there and the mere adventitious circumstances, the book, which we are doubtful where to class. We will be found few readers who will not regret chance occurrences, or the employment of money, are willing, however, to consider it as the producthat its original spirit was not better kept alive. on which a periodical is frequently found to de- tion of a man not thinking very deeply, either Latterly, indeed, it has scarcely deserved the pend, and without danger, for support. Were on liberty or the consequences of slavery, and name of a Magazine, or any other than that of a the case otherwise, were there a really good writing more from the dictates of present mere Olio of indifferently selected matter; for, hearty sympathy existing between the people feeling, than any matured sentiments on the with the exception of a very few sprinklings of and the press, could we be led to see that subject. Regarding the volume before us in this original writing, it has consisted of nothing but periodical works are, indeed, the prepared chan- light, it is amusing and full of interesting anecreviews, which were themselves made up of ex- nels in which we may plumb the stream of our dote, and well calculated to set us right on many tracts, extended beyond all the bounds of the individual humanity, the open cisterns in which points respecting the state of Mexican society, most latitudinarian principles that govern reviews. we may see the collected fountains that spring and the general condition of the country. The I am happy to learn, that a chance remains of from our own country's soil, there would be author has also some notices of a statistical and our seeing this once spirited Periodical restored a different feeling in the public mind respect- scientific nature that are valuable. Our exto its original rank, and presenting equal attrac-ing them, a closer sympathy with every bold at- tract, accordingly, shall be from a part of the tions with those it has lost. If this be the case, tempt at their improvement, an associating of volume in which he seems at home; for it may, probably, supply a chasm which is still their names with household feelings and patriotic with all his levity and want of proper attention, open in our periodical literature, and which is pride, a censorship set over their honesty and to the seriousness of some of the objects he left by the wide difference between the elegant purity in the constant observation of the public, brings before our eyes, he possesses a shrewdand sparkling New Monthly,' and the high- and a general and more popular interest taken in ness of observation, which enables him to write wrought, passionate Blackwood's.' the progress and prosperity of the species of li- sensibly on matters of business or calculation. terature to which they belong. It is to be observed, also, that there are no indications, in the bour, and they will never work unless watched, or unMagazines of the day, of aiming at any high stand-der a system I will presently explain; yet it is remarkard either in morals, politics, or literature. It is able how much they will perform in their own slow to this, probably, we may attribute their general and inefficient modes. want of that strength and energy which only distinguish some occasional paper in them, their wasting of their richest materials on the most paltry subjects, their throwing away their magic armour and their polished weapons for a barbarian's painted quiver and poisoned arrows, and their readiness to sacrifice truth and consistency for any temporal end or conveniency. Lastly, I must mention a circumstance to which sufficient attention is not paid; and it is, that the most active spirits of the age, those from which springs I have now mentioned the principal publications of this description at present popular in England. There are several others of an inferior character, and many of a less general nature, and circulated only in particular classes of society. Of these, I do not think it worth our while to make particular mention. They crowd the list of periodical works; but they are undistinguished by any feature, except their uselessness. In one respect, they are to be regarded with considerable suspicion; for, their circulation being chiefly among persons whose whole literary wealth they form, the bad taste they exhibit, and the wrong opinions which they frequently propagate, make them a greater evil than is generally imagined. It also deserves remark, that, while works of this descrip 'The Indians have a strong natural aversion to la 'Each mining district of any importance has a resident deputy from the college of mines; chosen annually, and vested with powers, which, in some cases, supersede all other authority. Thus, if a man who is in the employment of miners is arrested for any offence, the deputy can insist on the magistrate sending the culprit to work during the day, and only allow him to be imprisoned at night: so precise were the royal ordialmost the only real source of wealth in the country; nances in favour of a department of industry, which is the only one which enables the inhabitants to pay for European goods, or furnish a revenue. 'The veins of silver were, no doubt, originally discovered by fires being accidentally lighted on spots where the ore "cropped out" on the surface; and some portion of metal became smelted and seen: adventurers then began to sink a shaft; or much more commonly to dig a hole in the vein itself, following the richer lodes in all their sinuosities, groping about, sometimes above, sometime sbelow, but leaving nothing behind that was worth taking away. 'I have heard many professional European miners declare, that no workings could be carried on more de void of all system than those of the Mexicans; and yet, in despite of all the very best of theories, the ignoramuses had contrived to extract the precious contents. 'The Indians were not precisely treated as slaves, but certain rights were always exercised over them in regard to mining, which obliged a certain proportion of labourers to be furnished in each district, and to work at reduced wages. They were, in truth, hewers of wood and drawers of water; and obliged, in addition to the ore, to carry out mud, and other refuse in skin sacks, or sometimes wicker-baskets, on their backs. 'Whether I am correct or not in the conjecture I cannot say; but I have often thought when visiting the old narrow winding excavations of the natives, that men were capable of going further under ground, in that pure atmosphere, without a circulation of air than in denser climates: fire damps are, I believe, unknown, and wherever a candle will burn, there the air is not so much stagnated as to prevent breathing. When the workmen arrive at the opening of the shafts or levels, they strip entirely, except a cloth round the middle; then signing the cross, each takes a candle, and they commence a shrill dissonant hymn to the Virgin, which gradually becomes softened and pleasing as they recede from the surface. Certain regulations are strictly adhered to with reference to the relieving of the labourers, or allowing them to quit the enclosed space above, except at stated periods; a measure of precaution to prevent the purloining of the richer ore. Very few fronts are so wide as to admit more than two men abreast, but the vein can be attacked in many places at once; and to insure the industry of the miners, the system of task-work is adopted, with the addition of a certain proportion of all rich ore they dig out it is likewise much more economical in the end, to make them a certain allowance for finding themselves with candles and gunpowder. If the shaft is perpendicular, a large wooden drum, turned by horses, raises to the surface a sort of sack, made of three great skins, firmly sewed together, and filled with water;. for the use and mode of making tubs with staves is utterly unknown, and there are very few mines which have a level deep enough to drain a third part of their galleries. While this is going forward, the carriers work their way to the surface by means of notched poles put across a part of the shaft in a zigzag fashion; and they then give their load to the breakers, who knock the ore into pieces exactly as if they were going to macadamize a road. The quantity brought "to grass" by each individual would appear ridiculously small to those who are unacquainted with the difficulties of the low underground passages, and the fatigue of mounting several hundred feet of notched sticks; but it is the long established usage of the natives, and can only be got rid of by degrees, even in those mines where the shafts will allow of a bucket. A well-regulated establishment ought to have selec. tors of ore quite distinct from the breakers, to point out what is worth undergoing the additional expenses of amalgamation; but to this plan all the Mexican proprietors will, of course, object most strenuously, and insist upon sending every description of ore to the manufactory. Many excellent Europeans are also of opinion, that whatever is good for the native owner, must be advantageous for both parties; but I am of quite a different way of thinking. If I sow three bushels of wheat, and only reap two bushels, and am then obliged to give one of those bushels of produce to another person, it seems clear to me that I lose two bushels, and the other party gains one by the bargain. At the manufactory the ore is ground, or else pounded very fine under stampers, and then placed on an area most frequently open to the weather, but preferable if covered from the rain and cold; it is there wetted and mixed with certain proportions of salt and burnt pyrites, which vary in quantity on every occasion, and can only be known from long experience. This mud, which strongly resembles the scrapings of London streets, is well trodden and mixed together by men or horses; quicksilver is then squeezed through a fine cloth all over the heap, and the mass is again turned over and kicked about for a long succession of days. Thus, according to circumstances of the state of the atmosphere, and various other causes, the mud remains from three to six weeks before it is fit to be washed; then it is put into a cistern of water, well stirred up, and allowed to run very gently down a long inclined plane or trough, as represented in the figure. The quicksilver having united itself with the minute particles of the precious metal, they are together heavy enough to sink and collect at the stops on the board, while the refuse dirt is carried off with the water. The greater portion of the mercury is got back by pressing the mars obtained from the washing; and the rest, except a certain loss which must occur, is obtained by sublimation, leaving the pure silver behind. As the great mass of Mexican Mine Proprietors had not manufactories of their own, they were obliged to send their ore to be amalgamated by other persons; paying them a fixed sum for a given quantity, and all the additional expenses of salt, pyrites, and mercury. It must, therefore, be evident, without my entering into prolix details, that the owner of the manufactory had very numerous opportunities of cheating the miner; and that all the energies of the latter were continually exercised to prevent his being very grossly robbed. The one would damp his salt, only half burn his pyrites, put bullets into the quicksilver to increase the weight, and, by carelessly washing the mud, gain a handsome profit from the refuse carried off. The miner, on the other hand, would calculate to an incredible nicety, what each quantity of the ore sent ought to yield in silver. The Germans, who added a great deal of economy in their arrangements, to much practical experience in silver ores, found, on trial, that many of the processes adopted in their native country, would not succeed iu Mexico, and they very wisely gave up all such unproductive innovations and experiments immediately; satisfied with having ascertained the fact, without obstinately insisting that nature ought to have made all climates alike. · Every German with whom I have conversed in the Republic, admitted candidly, that in judgment of the value of ores, in all processes of amalgamation, in shrewdness, and in those details they were accustomed to, the Mexicans were at least equal, if not superior to the Europeans; but that the great defect of their system, was in not endeavouring to concentrate the riches of a vast mass of ore into a small compass by means of percursion tables,' before they commenced so tedious and expensive an operation as amalgamation. The Mexican smelting furnaces are tolerably well arranged, the blast being driven by a column of water, according to the European improvements; but the German introduced new fluxes; and by means of the 'percursion washing tables,' and small establishments of management, they have, I am told, almost superseded the use of amalgamation, and have already sent net remittances to Europe.' From the anecdotes which the writer has given of South American society, it is evident he possessed opportunities of extensive observation. We are only sorry he did not avail himself of them in a better manner; and that he has suffered himself to destroy the value, and much of the interest, of his book, by presenting himself to the public in the character of a story-teller, and that one of the lightest, when he might have been received in the more respectable one of a shrewd and intelligent traveller. We trust, however, if he be a young man, he will find out his error, and be more prudent, for the future, in using his opportunities of good both to himself and the public. CHARACTER OF THE ATHENIANS. On the National Character of the Athenians, and the Causes of those Peculiarities by which it was Distinguished. An Essay which gained the Prize of One Hundred Guineas, proposed to the Students of Edinburgh, by his Majesty's Commissioners for visiting the Universities and Colleges of Scotland. By John Brown Patterson, A.M, 8vo. pp. 220. Waugh and Innes. Edinburgh, 1828. THE formation of national character is hidden among the wonders and metaphysics of history, The points which, at first sight, seem fixed and certain, after a closer inquiry, are found continually varying, and the particulars which have been carefully collected together in illustration ofa certain theory, are discovered to bear equally well on another and opposite one. But it so happens that half the writers upon national character fail to distinguish between what is fixed and what is varying, or between what may be discovered by a careful balancing of circumstances and the other methods of pursuing an inquiry, and what is of too subtle a nature, with our present means of knowledge, to be successfully pursued. It is necessary, we conceive, in the investigation of this subject, to remember that, in some respects, national character is never the same at two different periods; and that the description which is given of it in one age will only lead to mistake and confusion, if it be applied to another. On the other hand, it is to be received as past doubt that there is a principle comprehended in the constitution of every distinct society of mankind, or nation, that declares and preserves it the same; a something which may be compared to that mysterious centre-point of our earthly frame, which, it is supposed, preserves its identity through all its wastings and replenishings, but to discover which our faculties are most likely altogether inefficient. There are, however, it hence appears, two objects. of inquiry to which a writer on this subject must turn his attention. The one, what has been a nation's character at different periods, and to what causes it has owed its peculiar tendency; the other, whether there be any peculiar feature belonging to it which may be traced through every variation, and found with the same expression under every circumstance; and, if it be so, what it is, and to what it owes its origin? The admirable little work before us, on the Athenian Character, has not formally made this. distinction; but its author has carried on his inquiries with so much ingenuity, and in such a philosophical spirit, that he has very finely marked the line to be pursued, whichever question may be started as the subject of discussion. It is, however, to be remarked, and Mr. Patterson's Essay strongly confirms us in the opinion, that the Athenian national character was, in its formation, different to that of other nations, and different in this respect. Other countries, in the various revolutions they experience, often produce violent changes in the general character of the people; so that an inquirer will have to begin his observations, as it were, from a new point. But the Athenian character was, if we may so speak, the development of certain innate principles from first to last, and possessed as perfect a unity, amid every political convulsion, as the character of an indi affords altogether one of the most curious objects vidual from youth to manhood and old age. It of moral and political speculation that the history of the world contains, and the Essay on our table may be adduced as a proof of its connection with the most elegant departments of learning and powerful manner in which he pursues the inquiry The style of Mr. Patterson, and the philosophy. he has undertaken, will be seen in the following extract: The government of a people is, without question, the most powerful of all single causes in moulding its character. "Political constitution," as Isocrates says, "is the soul of a political body." It will master and control the influence of all other principles upon the national mind, if its spirit be inconsistent with theirs; and, it coincident, will invest them with a power of tenfold their intrinsic energy. The latter was the case at Athens. For the same scorn of limitations which was the characteristic of the Athenian civilisation, was the principle of the Athenian polity. It should seem as if, while the Pelasgic savages yet roamed over Parnes and Lycabettus in a state of wild nature, they had the seeds sown within them of that love of liberty, or rather hatred of restraint, by which they were ever afterwards distinguished. Hence it happened that, when they at length submitted themselves to regular government, as it was their own voluntary act, the re sult neither of force, as happens in the case of national snbjugation, nor of those natural and unwilled tendencies which gradually, out of the system of patriachal authority, built up the oriental despotisms, the constition of their state, though monarchical, was, from its followed by the law, with which Aristides found it necessary, after the Persian war, to propitiate the ungovernable vanity of the victor people; the law admitting citizens, of the lowest class, to fill all public stations indiscriminately with the highest. The corruption of the constitution was carried on by Cimon, whose princely liberalities had all the effect of bribery upon the people, and by Pericles, when he applied the public treasury to a similar use. But the most fatal blow of all was that which the last-named statesman struck through his creature Ephialtes, in degrading the sacred prerogative of the Areopagus, that venerable senate, which, veiling itself in the darkness of night from all illusions of sense, and guarded by the severity of law against all appeals of passion and imagination, used to sit like a public conscience in its sanctuary, the watching genius of the Constitution and of civic virtue at Athens. Thus, the process of events, which had gradually concurred to invest the people with political power, terminated at last in the establishment of an unlimited and despotical ochlocracy; the union of all the powers of government in the hands of the sovereign populace; or, in two words, a democratical tyranny. earliest age, remarkably liberal and free. From all the facts which can be ascertained in relation to the Cecropian monarchy, it is plain that the royal prerogative was exceedingly limited; that the king was rather the leader than the sovereign of his people; and that to them belonged the great mass of practical power. By the arrangements of Theseus, the most celebrated of all the Athenian princes, the government was rendered yet more decidedly democratical; and it is a remarkable circumstance to this effect, noticed by Plutarch, that Homer, in his catalogue of the different states of Greece which joined in the Trojan expedition, gives the name of Anuos to none but the Athenians. In these circumstances it was not extraordinary, (for the love of power is the most encroaching of all principles,) that a people, so strongly led my imagination, and experiencing a daily advancement in civilisation, which made all sense of subjection painful, should, on the first convenient opportunity, rid themselves of monarchy altogether; or that they should do it after that somewhat fantastic fashion, which they, in point of fact, adopted, when, on the heroic fall of Codrus, they declared that none but Jupiter was worthy to be their king and his successor. That this was not a mere ac- Nor must we forget, in this review, that the excidental event, but a result of the gradual progress of ternal fortunes of the nation had been as brilliant as opinion, seems plain from the fact that almost simul- its internal constitution had become licentious. The taneously monarchy sank without a struggle, as if by renown of victories which, with all the deductions a natural death, in most of the Grecian states; and made by the cynical Sallust and his followers, must that, even after the fall of royalty the progress con- still be called unparalleled, both for the heroism which tinued regular through various more and more popu- achieved them, and for the place which they hold in lar forms of oligarchy, till that too was swallowed up the history of man, had enshrined Athens as in the at Athens by the torrent of democratic feeling. The centre of a glory. The genius of Miltiades and Thestate of anarchy, however, into which when, the an- mistocles had carried her to the pinnacle of renown cient checks on popular license were withdrawn, the for arms and diplomacy; the justice of Aristides had Athenians soon found themselves precipitated, com. made her the acknowledged leader and treasurer of pelled them to have recourse to a more definite and the Greek confederation; the adventurous bravery of chartered Constitution; though even in the act by Cimon had established for her a brilliant and extended which they sought to check their own unlicensed free-empire; the sagacity of Pericles had consolidated the dom, their democratical tendencies were strongly frame-work of her dominion, and made her structure manifested in the circumstance, remarked by Aristotle, worthy the place she held in Greece all had combined that they uniformly selected their lawgivers from the to invest her with the command of the seas, and raise middle class of citizens. Accordingly, after an unsuc- to an unexampled pitch of prosperity both her military cessful trial of Draco's sanguinary code, they ap- and her commercial marine. She was the centre of an pointed the wise and virtuous Solon unlimited legisla- extensive trade, carried on, both directly, and through tor of the commonwealth.'-Pp. 43-47. the medium of a multitude of rich and powerful colonies, situated in the mid-channel of ancient traffick; she was a manufacturing town so distinguished as to Few things in history afford a more singular spectacle than the tendency to be found in the Athenian character, to submit itself to the power or guidance of some celebrated individual, while it contradicted, by this tendency, almost the first principle on which its most remarkable features depended. It is, however, to be explained by observing, that every one of those to whose influence it was for a time subjected, had been first the idol of the people, for some splendid virtue or his remarkable genius. No instance can be found of the Athenians being subjected to mere political expediency; but our author continues 'The constitution which, under this commission, he delivered to his countrymen, and which, considering the time and circumstances of its composition, deserves to be esteemed a master-effort of sagacity, was, necessarily, democratical in its basis; though, at the same time, the legislator made it his object to provide sufficient checks on the popular despotism, in the prerogatives which he conferred on the senate of Four Hundred, and the tribunal of the Areopagus. Hence, when asked if he had given the Athenians the best possible laws, the sage replied: "The best which they can bear;" a reply strongly intimating the strength to which the love of popular power, cherished by a singularly free development of mental character, had already risen at Athens, and his apprehension that it might be too late to check it, even by the restraints of his beautiful aristo-democracy. So in fact it proved. For while the laws, by which he had defined and guarded civil right, continued the objects of popular veneration down to the extinction of the Commonwealth, the Constitution was, almost immediately after its promulgation, suspended in the strife of parties, which terminated in the brilliant domination of the Pisistratida; and, even after having been restored on the expulsion of Hippias, was made the victim of various innovations destructive of the whole system of balances which Solon had wisely, but too insecurely, disposed. Step by step the Solonic constitution was melted down into a pure democracy. Clisthenes added indefinitely to the power of the people, by the institution of the Ostracism; and to their already excessive tendency to political meddling, by increasing the number of the tribes to such an amount, as to give every individual more or less a political part to play. This was be accounted the inventress of all useful arts; and, in one word, she had become what she called herself, the most beautiful, the most wealthy, the most puissant, and the most glorious of commonwealths; the luminary of Greece, the terror of Persia, the envy of the world.'-Pp. 47-52. The other parts of the Essay are composed with an equal felicity of observation and language. Some of the remarks on the ancient mythology of Athens, on the system of national education, and on the arts of poetry and sculpture, which are dispersed throughout the dissertation, are of singular excellence, and we give our tribute of praise, both to Mr. Patterson for his very elegant Essay, and to the judicious awarders of the University prize, who directed its publication. TEUTONIC ANTIQUITIES. Teutonic Antiquities; or, Historical and Geographical Sketches of Roman and Barbarian History, &c. By C. Chatfield, Esq. 8vo. Pp. 270. Hurst, Chance, and Co. London, 1828. To those at all acquainted with the bold and extensive researches pursued, by the modern Mullers, Bouterweks, and Hammers of Germany, into the early history and emigrations of nations, an undertaking like the one before us will appear comparatively light and unimportant. The historians of all countries, however, are bound to write with distinct national views, and the laborious inquiries and disquisitions, so eagerly and perseveringly sought after on parts of the Continent, where no great capitals call for the more active employment of the intellectual energies, would be, in great measure, useless in a country like our own, where the active and contemplative faculties must be maintained in more equal proportion. Few men among us have either opportunities or Stoicism enough to seclude themselves for the purpose of wrestling with some gigantic undertaking, in the shape of twenty huge tomes, during perhaps more than the same period of time. But, with the Germans, this is another affair; it is a matter of course they have no world of politics-no busy metropolitan pursuits and frivolities to distract them; they go to their task as to a levee, and commence with zeal what they effect with invincible courage and perseverance. If the intended work, indeed, exceed more than forty large volumes, as in the General History of European Literature and Science, it is considered prudent, in case of a demise, for a few writers to combine, allotting to each only ten or twelve volumes, which we believe to be the portion assigned, in this instance, to the learned Bouterwek. Works of the same calibre, however, are no longer applicable to the wants and condition of this country. It is no longer in its youth, or in its zenith, like Germany; the age of its folios is gone by; and, though our literature be still green and vigorous in age, it can only be sustained by fresh grafting, and by correct cultivation; not by inserting fresh roots in a soil that has already yielded national fruits so abundantly. It must be ever vain and unprofitable to attempt to form a new literature for any country, much more for one like England. By rightly directing, indeed, and judiciously applying to new subjects, the national genius and characteristics; by forming abstracts and compendiums from the stores of the past, its reputation, doubtless, may become more durable and more widely disseminated. But, at this time of day, it would be intolerable for us to go over our old ground, and produce extensive original works, like the modern Germans, whose substantial disquisitions would be thrown away upon a people, familiar, as it were, with the luxuries of literature in every branch. Had, therefore, these 'Teutonic Antiquities' now before us, run to the extent of some ponderous volumes, we should have augured by no means favourably of its utility, or its popularity, inas much as we believe it would have boasted too few attractions for an English public. The title alone might have been sufficient to deter many, indeed, most readers, from venturing farther; and, had the body of the materials corresponded with its sound and gravity, we incline to think that such a work must have been confined to the range of pure philosophers and antiquarians. Why Mr. Chatfield should have chosen to confer a repulsive name upon a valuable and useful little work, we are at a loss to conjecture; the more so, as it fails to convey a just idea of the work itself. For we should naturally enough have concluded, that, in addition to long and dry researches, it might have contained bond fide illustrations of camps, roads, monuments, hieroSo far from this, however, glyphics, &c. &c. it is simply a series of historical views, explanatory of the origin and progress of the Northern or Scandinavian nations, calculated to impress general ideas and facts, and bring us acquainted with their movements, succession, and reciprocal influence on each other, with the growth of that mighty and wide-spreading tree, from whose branches the tribes of modern European nations are mainly sprung. The only kind of illustrated antiquities we meet with consist of genealogical tables of these nations, which, at least, serve to impress facts connected with their succession more firmly upon the memory. A more correct idea of this able and instructive little work, more adapted to general reading, and to public seminaries and libraries, than to the closet of the antiquarian, would have been afforded us by entitling it, as we observe in the Preface- Historical Notices of the Origin of the States of Europe in the first and secondary Classes.' In regard to the method observed by the author in treating his subject, it is at once clear and comprehensive; and he must be allowed the merit of having added to the perspicuity of his narrative by carefully preserving the chronologi cal order and marginal dates, for want of which so many historical Views fail to interest their readers. He has, moreover, the art of condensing his subject, without depriving it of interest, an art which so few writers of abridgments, besides Goldsmith, have succeeded in effecting. The "Operosa parvus confined within the limits of the Continent of Europe; apartments requisite to form a complete dwelling, and was not esteemed a trivial task even by Horace; 'These scenes of bloodshed at length gave way to more serene and agreeable prospects; the King of the Franks formed an alliance with Clotildis, daughter of Chilperie, Duke of Burgundy, and his marriage was speedily followed by his conversion to the Christian faith, an event accomplished by the mild persuasion of his Queen. He was baptised in the cathedral of Rheims; his subjects hastened to imitate his example, and the flatterers of the age bestowed on him the title of "Founder of the Franconian Church." 'It is related of Clovis, that, in explaining to him the doctrines of the gospel, his spiritual director read aloud the narrative of the Crucifixion, on which the King started from his seat, and, laying his hand on his sword, exclaimed with the enthusiasm of a warrior," Would that I had been there with my Franks to defend him!" The faith of the new convert, it may be readily imagined, soon became visible in his works; and the petty states of France and Germany, which adhered to the tenets of Arius, were made sensible of the disadvantages of dissenting from the religious opinions of the King of the Franks.'-Pp. 196. The character and exploits of Charlemagne, during the 8th century, are sketched with considerable truth and spirit: This period is also memorable for the institution of gendarmerie, persons of the rank of gentlemen, whose province it was to guard the person of the King. The were clad in a suit of complete armour, and mounted on horseback, followed severally by five or six attendants. It was also the first era of French literature; the learned languages and the works of ancient authors were introduced, and studied by the higher orders of the Franks, and the nation in general began to imbibe a taste for the arts and sciences. : The titles of Charlemagne were, Emperor of the Romans and of Germany, and King of France and Spain to these may be added the honorary appellations of Patron of the Arts, and Friend of Humanity. He instituted public schools, repaired and beautified the city of Florence, threw a bridge over the Rhine at Mentz, founded the cities of Dresden and Hamburgh, stationed fleets at the mouths of the navigable rivers to repel the incursions of the Saxons, mitigated the ferocity of single combats by substituting clubs for military weapons, and despatched officers, at stated periods, to administer justice throughout his dominions. Nor was the fame of this Monarch SCIENCE OF ZOOLOGY. The Animal Kingdom Described and Arranged, in Con- named, of many not before noticed, and other Original 1828. researches. Notwithstanding all this, however, it must be owned, that, until lately, we were far behind our continental neighbours in the cultivation of some of the natural sciences, and more especially of Zoology; and though, within a few years, we have, indubitably, much accelerated our pace, it cannot yet be affirmed, with truth, that we have overtaken our competitors. But we beg to be distinctly understood on this subject. When we say that Zoology has languished among us, we speak generally. We know that English individuals have pursued this science with as much ardour and success as the natives of any other country; we know that there have been, and that there are among us, geologists, comparative anatomists, and zoologists, as profoundly versed in the philosophy, and as minutely intimate with the detail of their respective studies, as any of the savans of Germany or France, men, who need fear no comparison with the proudest names of which the Continent can boast. But there has been nothing like the same degree of encouragement, nothing like the same degree of general extension, given to these important branches of knowledge, in England, as abroad. They form no part of a liberal education; ignorance of them is deemed no disgrace, and an acquaintance with them, is, in general, estimated at no great value. We have, ourselves, repeatedly met men of extensive information in other points, most grossly ignorant of the commonest principles of these sciences, and who could not make use of their commonest terms without the most egregious blundering,-who could not speak of divisions, classes, orders, genera, and species, without the most ridiculous impropriety and confusion,who entertained notions concerning animal life and habits utterly at variance with all proven facts, and, in many cases, impossible to be true, because contrary to the invariable laws which regulate the co-existence of forms, and who, in fine, would deny the relation of beings the most evidently congeneric, and unite together the most We have observed with pleasure, for some short England possesses for the cultivation of Zoology, No country can produce an equal number of ut Serpentes avibus, geminentur tigribus agni.' This indifference to natural history, so much exhibited in this country, arises from different causes. First, from our all-absorbing passion for politics, the result of our popular constitution. Both abstract and natural science are much less connected with politics than literature is; and, accordingly, literature has been, and still is, much more generally cultivated among us, than either. Under an enlightened despotism, science may greatly flourish; but the atmosphere of freedom is essentially necessary to the growth and perfection of literature. Science has thriven even under the auspices of Oriental despots, and nothing is fatal to it but superstition. It sheds a and cannot interfere with his interests, as literalustre round the throne of an arbitrary prince, ture would do. Men of science, too, are more abstracted from the world than literary men. Literature deals with the quicquid agunt homines,' and its cultivators cannot always avoid observing what is going on around them. The dramatic poet, and the novel writer, cannot always steer clear of politics; much less the cultivator of history and eloquence, with whose pursuits politics are inseparably wound up. But the mathematician and the naturalist have nothing to say to them. It was for this reason that the late Emperor of France encouraged science, and discouraged literature. To this encouragement the popularity of scientific pursuits in France, of late years, is, in a great measure, owing; and to the want of such enconragement, their comparative unpopularity here. However, to do our Government justice, it has, in this respect, been always perfectly impartial. It has encouraged neither science nor literature, and the result has been what might naturally be expected. The study which was most closely connected with our national habits, and which certainly is, in |