great talk among the playgoers anent the propriety of establishing a third theatre in London, in which the representations should be more classically conducted than the shows and pageants which had usurped the place of the regular drama. The inferiority of the performances was universally admitted, and imputations of blame on the taste of the managers were very generally repeated. Like others I was tainted with this heresy, and with some apparent reason; it was said that no attention was paid to the merits of rejected dramas, and certainly it was as difficult to obtain a proper hearing of a piece as to procure a place under government, without interest.

"In acceding to the prevalent notion, I had some experience of the fact myself respecting the difficulty of obtaining a candid hearing of a new piece, because, being now more inclined to the quiet cultivation of literature than formerly, I had offered to both theatres the tragedy of "The Witness," and it was returned to me with a rejection, although the state of the manuscript gave me reason to believe that but little of it had been read. As the piece had some novelty of conception in the principal character, and occasional flakes of poetry strewed in the dialogue, I thought this treatment, which the clamour for a third theatre seconded, very unworthy; and accordingly waited on Mr. Colburn, and proposed to conduct a monthly periodical, to consist entirely of rejected dramas, and to be called "The Rejected Theatre.'

posing what passed under my eye to be a opinion might be formed of the pieces ac-
fair specimen of the unknown dramatic tually rejected by Drury Lane and Covent
talent of the age, I have no hesitation what- Garden from those offered to me, it is no
ever in stating that the managers were com-wonder that the theatres are ruined. It is
pletely vindicated in alleging that the decay not in jocularity I state this, and I know not
of the drama was not owing to them, but to how dramatic talent is to be revived; perhaps
the wretched productions they were com- its excellence belongs to an epoch in the
pelled to bring forward. No doubt they history of a language, a semi-barbarous
were partly correct, but still they were not period, which has gone past with us, never to
justified in pronouncing a veto on any piece be recalled, like the beauty of the teeth and
unperused. I say not this in spleen, for 1 ringlets of those elderly gentlewomen, who
am well aware that every dramatist believes are tottering in desperation to hide their
himself to be a little, not much, superior to false locks and irreparable faces in oblivion
Shakspeare; I freely confess, however, that and the grave.”
I did think my own lucubration deserving
of a better fate, because it was afterwards
performed as "The Appeal,' several times, at
Edinburgh, once in my own presence at
Greenock, many times, under the name of
The Force of Conscience,' at the Surrey
Theatre, and was even honoured by some
country stollers with a dreadful exhibition
in a barn. For, as I deem the performance
of a tune on a street-organ to be the criterion
of popularity in music, so I hold a dramatic
representation in a barn to be the ultimate
appeal to the taste and judgment of a dis-
cerning public.

We shall here close this notice of these agreeable volumes, as we have come to that part of them where the author relates his connexion with Canada, which had so great an effect upon his fortunes. We have still much to say of Mr. Galt. We are happy to hear that his health is somewhat improved within these last few days; and we hope that the close of his life will be gladdened with sunnier prosperity than what he, in his Autobiography, so often and so gloomily anticipates.

Sketches of Canada and the United States.
By William L. Mackenzie. London: 1833.
Wilson.

[Third Notice.]

"But though this is said in melancholy mirth, I yet contend that my bantling was very ill-used; many persons who stand in matters of taste well with the public, would have given it a good character. To be sure ONE of the advantages of the present dearth there has been one thing very equivocal about of new books is, that it gives us an opporit. When it was performed at Edinburgh, tunity of returning to those works of merit, the prologue, as I have since understood very to which, in the height of the season, we "He being infected with the prevailing lately, was a joint production of Mr. Lock- had not an opportunity of doing full justice. epidemic, adopted the suggestion, and I in hart and Captain Hamilton, the author of In our second notice of Mr. Mackenzie's consequence prepared my Witness,' and Cyril Thornton,' who, with the diffidence Sketches, we adverted to his opinion of the other dramas, for publication; believing, from that belongs to all parents of surreptitious superior claims of Upper Canada as a place the general rumour, that there would be no gets, fathered it on Professor Wilson, ac-of emigration. We shall now quote a few of lack of brilliant materials to attract atten-cording to the then notorious maxims of his reasons, and they will no doubt receive tion to the work.

mystification peculiar to the Veiled As"The first number was successful; it ran sassins' of Blackwood. The epilogue was through two editions in the course of a few written by Sir Walter Scott, and is not only days; but, although the tragedy was much very beautiful, but the only piece of humorpraised in the weekly papers, I was not blind ous poetry which, as far as I am aware of, to the fact, that the success was more ow-ever flowed from his pen: he wrote me not ing to public curiosity than perhaps to the to mention the circumstance, as he would be poetical merits of the piece. pestered with applications; perhaps some of "In the second number there was evi-my critical friends may say that he was dently a falling off in the interest taken in ashamed of being accessary to the perpetrathe publication; and Mr. Colburn proposed, tion of such an outrage as the performance that instead of the Rejected Theatre, the of a piece which the two grand London work should in future be called the New houses had rejected. But the baronet was a British Theatre,' by which new pieces, not fellow-sufferer, for the sapient managers of offered to the playhouses, might be inserted, Covent Garden, at which the late Mr. Terry and the blushes of those who were authors was then acting, could not think of risking of rejected pieces veiled. The suggested the representation of such a piece as "The alteration in the title was plausible, though Legend of Aspen,' for that I believe was its not according to the idea upon which the first name. Long after, it was published in original work was projected. However, as one of the annuals, The Keepsake,' and it afforded to myself an opportunity of bring- contains a scene worth fifty pieces of Fanny ing out several pieces of my own, I acqui- Kemble's patchwork, with all her samplers esced in the proposed change; and, if one may to boot. judge by the character of the contributions afterwards, it was really judicious; for it would absolutely not be within the range of belief, to describe the sad efforts of genius which were afterwards sent to me.

"The "New British Theatre' contains the best selection that could be made; and, sup

"Seeing by the nature of the contributions to the New British Theatre,' that it must be a failure, I cut and ruu: in fact, there was not one drama remaining unpublished of all the deplorable progeny that solicited admission into the almshouse.

"But in sobriety I must say that if any

the attention due to the author's experience.

"The climate of Upper Canada is salubrious, wholesome, and favourable to long life; more so than that of Illinois. The heat of summer is less oppressive in the former than in the latter. Both in Upper Canada and Illinois, the settler will meet with plenty of excellent land for sale, at a low As to price, and in desirable situations. the length and severity of the winters, I would far rather spend a winter in Upper Canada than in London; and I have tried both.

"Illinois is a far inland state, not very well watered; Upper Canada is one of the best-watered countries in the world, abounding in navigable streams, lakes, rivers, and canals, and possessing a free and uninterrupted communication with the ocean via Quebec, as also by the New York canals, and the Hudson river. The farmer in Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, &c. is many hundred miles farther distant from the foreign market for his surplus produce than the settler in Upper Canada; and the St. Lawrence is a far safer road to the ocean than the Mississippi to New Orleans, in the Gulf of Mexico. A great part of the wealth of a country cousists in its external commerce; in exchanging its surplus produce for those su

194

THE NATIONAL STANDARD.

perfluous productions of another country which it stands in need of. It is of importance that countries thus trading be placed as near each other as possible. England and Canada can carry on a barter trade with far less expense than could Eugland and Illinois. New South Wales is worse situated for trade or barter than either Canada or Illinois. "Duties of twenty, thirty, and even forty or fifty per cent. on the value of goods imported into the United States continue to be levied by its government on the farmer who consumes them; but the Canadian emigrant is subject only to a light impost of two and a half per cent. at Quebec, on similar importations: he saves the difference. Shopkeepers, taking their stock of goods to America, should consider that 1000l. value imported into Quebec pays a duty of 251.; but if landed at Boston or New York, the duty would probably be nearer 325l.”

"In Cauada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, the British or Irish settler is at once put upon a footing with the most favoured of the population, and may be appointed to any office, or buy and sell landed estate, the day he touches the shore. His children, too, are entitled to all the rights and privileges of British-born subjects in all

the dominions of Great Britain. Children

readily amend a first choice, if he find that it would be to his advantage.

Australia is under a military sway, on the
confines of the civilized world, with a thin
population widely scattered over a vast con-
"I have often alluded to the climate of
tinent.
Upper Canada in the course of my remarks,
I own that I would gladly see 50,000 and chiefly because an erroneous notion had
farmers and labourers emigrate to Upper gone forth that it was very cold, and the
Canada every year; they need not fear suc-winters gloomy, long, and harsh. I have
ceeding to a sure and certain independence, not found it so. On referring to my note-
if steady, sober, and industrious. The farmbook for 1831, I perceive that L'attended a
servant, without a shilling in his pocket, can public meeting of the towns of Cornwall and
work for a farmer until he save enough to Roxborough, held in the King's Bench Court-
buy provisions to go upon his own laud, room, Cornwall, on Monday, October 31st,
which may be had on credit at, or under, a having left Williamstown in Glengarry, at the
dollar an acre. If careful and diligent, we lower extremity of the colony, on the 30th.
shall find him in a few years a wealthy resi-The weather was agreeably warm and plea-
dent land-owner, free of debt, comfortable sant on the Sunday, but on Monday it rained
and contented."
all day. At 11 P.M. took my seat in the
stage for Prescott; the post-roads were
bad; breakfasted comfortably at Williams-
dined at Prescott; took a passage on board
burgh stage-house on the 1st November;
the good steamer Queenston, Captain Me-
commodation. Only 300 passengers on
neilly, and met with very comfortable ac-
board! (The humanity of the Hou. John
Hamilton had induced him to give a free

“To the English, Irish, or Scottish emigrating labourer I would give this wholesome counsel: Be diligent, persevere; neiof the produce of your own farm, if you can ther eat, drink, nor wear anything that is not avoid doing so, until your lands are paid for, and a freehold title recorded and in your pocket. Rather miss a good bargain than grasp at too much with the risk of getting in debt. If your clothes be plain and clean, will be valued by your conduct, and not by never care although they be coarse. You

your clothes.

As to food, your own mutton

passage to thirty of the poor creatures who had been wrecked in the Acadia by a drunken pilot, on Green Island.) Took supper that nesday the 2d, had a pleasant sail to Kingnight with a friend at Brockville; on Wed

born in the United States, of British parents, and beef, and pork and veal, and butter and stou, where we arrived in the evening, and

are also, of right, British subjects by the law of England, even although their parents may

have become citizens of the United States. To this rule there are a few exceptions.

&c. raised at home, will render you as incheese, and potatoes and corn, and poultry, dependent as King William IV. Drink good 16 Upper Canada contains the greatest water, or plain family beer, (there is no body of native British-born subjects, in alle-malt-tax or exciseman to interfere with you,) giance to the king, to be found in any pos-chard you have planted and enclosed will and look forward to the time when the or

session out of these islands. The feeling of the public is favourable to the emigrant-he is in the midst of his countrymen. In the United States, so far as I have seen and heard, it is not popular to give public offices to naturalized foreigners; nor is it common in England to do so. 1

ཞན་བློ་ས་

bear fruit abundantly, and enable you to
refresh yourself and comfort a friend with
an occasional tankard of racy home-made
cider."

“It is of no use for silk or cotton weavers, The length of the winter in Lower mill-spinners,clothiers,cutlers, watchmakers, Canada is a great injury to the farmer. In calico-printers, and other mechanics who, Upper Canada that drawback to his pros-like them, manufacture wares easily and perity is not felt.

"Negro slavery is unknown in British America; in Illinois they only escaped it by a casting vote in 1824. Upper Canada is far removed from the region of slavery; Illinois is environed by slave-holding states.

"The price of farm produce is almost in ..variably higher in Upper Canada than in Illinois; and, of late years, the demand from Britain and the lower provinces has been stable, and the prices very satisfactory to the grain-grower.

stopped three hours; on Thursday night we some time; and on Friday forenoon } was were off Cobourg, where the vessel waited for an hour at home attending to my affairs in York. At noon on that day (again in the Queenston,) took a passage for the head of Canal at dusk in the evening. [Mem. The Lake Ontario, and passed up the Burlington work seems to be in good order.] Took supper within a couple of miles of Hamilton, the capital of the district of Gore. Next morning, Saturday, Nov. 5th, breakfasted off Grimsby; took a lunch at Fort George, (Niagara ;) dined with a friend at the beantiful village of St. David's ; and supped with an old acquaintance in the classical frontier town of Queenston Rode down to Niagara, cheaply imported from Europe, to emigrate along the lovely banks of the St. Lawrence, to Upper Canada, for the purpose of pursuing on Sunday morning, November 6th; stepped their respective occupations. They would over for five minutes into the United States be met at every corner by the productions of of America, to ascertain the fate of Warsaw the half-starved workmen of these kingdoms, and the Reform Bill; then bade adieu to offered at the lowest rates. Tailors, phy-brother Jonathan, and, by the aid of the sicians, lawyers, surgeons, shopmen, and Canadian steamer, was home to York and clerks, are not at present in great request in laid up in winter quarters by three o'clock Upper Canada; but waggon-makers, mer- in the afternoon of the said 6th November, chauts, (shopkeepers,) bricklayers, carpen my only damage being a slight hoarseness ters, stonemasons, cabinet-makers, black-contracted on the night of the 29th October smiths, and joiners, might probably better in Glengarry. Are not these favourable their circumstances by crossing the ocean. proofs of the wildness of our climate ?! Common-school teachers, shoemakers, saddlers, coopers, brewers, and bakers, may do well enough, but I think that their chance is not so good as that of the preceding classes. Each man, on resolving to emigrate, should have previously sat down and counted the cost, and seriously asked himself the question, What am I to do when I get to Ame

If the reader will take a map of Canada, and trace the above route, it will be seen that I travelled 500 miles with ease in November, in a short space of time; no frost had set in.

With regard to New South Wales, it should be considered, that the convicts place it in a lower scale than even the American slave-holding states; that it has not the semblance of popular institutions; that it is - three or four times as far from England as Upper Canada, and ill situated for the profitable exchanges of its surplus produce. Upper Canada is placed alongside one of the freest nations of the earth, and doubtless rica? He has the whole of that wide conti-York had all the appearance of spring, that

owes a great deal to the neighbourhood.

nent in which to make a choice, and may

"My agent, Mr. Wixson, a native Canadiau, and a practical farmer, wrote me on the 17th of January last, that, during the first seven days of the new year, the weather at

the grass in my garden had grown to the

"The society of Richmond greatly resembles that of Charleston, and is as agreeable. In Virginia, good society is spread more generally over the whole surface of the State than it is anywhere else, owing to the want of a large capital, which always serves to attract it, and gives the tone exclusively. Virginian hospitality is proverbial, and with great justice.'

ength of several inches, while the currant- It is the city which has most theatres, (for it
bushes were budding, and almost ready to put has no less than five,) and it has had even
forth leaves. Mr. T. Mosher had seen a an opera and a corps de ballet. There is
frog on the Saturday jumping about, lively more dissipation and more foolish expenses
and gay, as is usual in the spring of the year.in it than in any other place. The principal
Farmers in the neighbourhood were plough-street, the Broadway, gives a striking im-
ing summer fallows, and the roads broken pression of America to the European on his
up. About the 8th of January, cold, frost, landing. After Regent street, in London, it
snow, and excellent sleighing came round-is the finest street I know. The wide pave-
noble, bracing weather for the human consti- ments, with their elegant shops, are, at cer-
tution, but rarely to be met with in Illinois, tain hours of the day, crowded with all the "But the place in which American society
unless for a very short space.
fashion of the place. All the pretty women appears to the greatest advantage is Wash-
go there to take a turn, and there the fine ington, during the winter. In summer the
gentlemen are eager to meet them. The fo-city is almost deserted; it is then inhabited
reigner reading his newspaper, in the large principally by the members of government
parlour of the city hotel, sees all the beau and those connected with the government
monde defile before him.
establishments. But the first Monday in
'Society in Philadelphia is much more December of every year, is the day fixed for
quiet: the quakers are a happy people, who the assembling of Congress. As the time
give a look of repose to all the city. Here approaches, the senators and representatives
there is no noise as in New York; the car-arrive in crowds, accompanied by their fami-
lies, and followed by shoals of solicitors and
people having business with Congress. The
city seems full instantaneously. The minis-
ters and diplomatic body give entertainments;
the members of Congress give dinners in re-
turn; if the day passes in the whirl of busi-
ness, the night is borne away by that of
pleasure. The president holds a levee once
a week; that is to say, one evening in the
week he opens his house to all those who
more simple than the etiquette of the head
desire to pay him a visit. Nothing can be
of the government. The concourse of visiters
is the only thing which distinguishes these
assemblages from those of any other indivi-
dual."

"Again, on the 4th of April, Mr. W.
wrote me from York, that the spring had
opened in good earnest, and that the grass
on the plat in the garden was as green as a
leek. The ice was nearly out of the harbour,
insomuch that a loaded schooner had left one
of the wharfs for Prescott the day before.
In short, the weather was finer at that mo-
ment, and had been for more than a week,
than in the year 1832, in the middle of May.riages are much fewer, the streets being so
The roads were drying very fast, and the
farmers' waggons revisiting the markets."
Whether Mr. Mackenzie be right or wrong,
in his preference of Upper Canada, much
of his advice to emigrants is obviously good;
and those who are about to quit the land of
their fathers, would do well in giving his

advice their consideration.

The United States of North America. By

clean there is no occasion for them. All the streets are alike, noue, therefore, serves as a general promenade like the Broadway of New York. Chesnut street, however, is the best built, and there the fashionable people come to take their lounge. The library of Messrs. Carey and Lea is the place where you must take your station towards noon, to see this street in all its lustre. The society of Phiof New York; the professors of the university ladelphia is much more enlightened than that Achille Murat, ci-devant Prince Royal of the Two Sicilies, and Citizen of the give the tone, which communicates to it, United States. With a Note on Negro perhaps, a slight degree, almost imperceptible Slavery, by Junius Redivivus. Second Edi- however, of pedantry. The winter parties tion. 1833. Foolscap 8vo. pp. 402. are meetings of learned and literary people, including also citizens in any way disA FAVOURABLE report was made of this book tinguished; they are always open to foreignio an early number of the National Stand-ers, properly introduced. Ladies are never ard, and this second edition enables us to confirm the good opinion of our predecessor. Achille Murat is a very lively and observing person, who, having passed several years in the United States, is very competent to give an account of them. His morality is too French, and he should know better than to sneer at the decorum of the New-Englanders; but every one interested in America should read his book. His chapters on the law are so minute and comprehensive, that one might almost set up as a practitioner on the strength of having read them. He is not quite just to the American laws and their English origin; but no Frenchman ever was.

Our readers are aware that we are most anxious to break down all the barriers of prejudice that tend to divide the two great English communities on the opposite sides of the Atlantic. We rejoice therefore in every opportunity of becoming better acquainted with American society. The people of London should know, as much of Boston and Philadelphia as they do of York and Exeter. We lately gave Capt. Hamilton's sketches of some of the American cities; we now quote those of Achille Murat:

"Society in New York is perhaps more tinged with European manners than in other of the great towns in the United States; and that is very natural, if we consider the immense number of foreigners who reside there.

present. The meetings are held on ap-
pointed days at the houses of different persons
in rotation; science, literature, the fine arts,
and politics, form the subjects of conversation,
and in general much intelligence and urbanity
are displayed. They are always terminated
by a supper, and are calculated to give fo-
reigners a high idea of the intellectual re-
sources of that city.

No country in the world possesses lovelier somewhat astonished to find arrangements women than America. Achille Murat is so different from those prevailing in France. The freedom of girlhood settling down into the sobriety of the matronly character he cannot understand: in their little flirtations and coquetries he is more at home, but the purity which renders them innocent puzzles him.

"Nothing in the world can be so happy as
"But it is to Charleston that he should the situation of an American young lady from
go to enjoy American society in all its luxury. fifteen to twenty-five, particularly if she is
There the various circles, composed of pretty, as almost all are, and has some for-
planters, lawyers, and physicians, form the tune. She finds herself the centre of general
most agreeable society I have ever known. admiration and homage; her life passes in
The manners of the south have a perfect ele-holidays and pleasures; she is a stranger to
gance; the mind is highly cultivated; and contradiction, still more to refusals. She
conversation turns upon an infinite variety has only to choose, among a hundred adorers,
of subjects with spirit, grace, and facility. the one she thinks most likely to ensure her
The affectation of frivolity or of foreign man- future happiness; for here everybody marries,
ners is as completely banished as pedantry and everybody is happy in marriage. This
and religious hypocrisy; everything is intel-state of belle,' as it is called, is too attractive
lectual, moral, and rational. Charleston is to make young ladies consent to quit it too
the ordinary residence of many of the most
distinguished statesmen of the Union, who
are always willing to explain their views to
their fellow-citizens. Alas! why can I not
recall the delightful hours I have passed in
that society, without being reminded of the
loss of that friend in whose hospitable resi-
dence I first knew it. He is no more, and
Charleston has lost, for me, one of its great-
est attractions.

soon; accordingly, it is not, in general, until
after rejecting many offers, and when they
perceive that their charms are beginning to
lose something of their empire, that they
conclude by choosing a liege lord. It is to
Washington, in particular, that the fine
women of all the States come to shine; a
sort of female congress, in which the charms
of every part of the Union are represented.
An ardent deputy from the south is captivated

by the modest charms of a beauty from the east; while a damsel from Carolina rejects the overtures of a senator from the north. All, however, are not rejected; for, at the end of every session, a certain number of marriages is declared; they serve to strengthen further the Union of the States, aud multiply the ties which unite all parts of this great whole in an indissoluble man

ner.

mournful tales (for we knew not of unhappiness, save such as fancy could create,) or in anticipating the time when I should be called into that world of which we knew so little,—and when she, as my bride, should share the honours which were to be won almost without a struggle.

"Every leaf, Ellen-all is the same; and yet it is not to me as in those days it was wout to be the sun seems not so bright, and the shadows around me are darkerthere is a change, but it is here in my heart!"

horribly ill accommodated, in small rooms six feet square: but the principal parlours are very beautiful, and the exterior of their hotels has truly a monumental air. People rise early, go and drink, or make believe to drink, of the water of the fountain; return to breakfast in common; the papas and mammas are ready to die with ennui all the day; the young ladies play music, the young Many long years had passed, and once gentlemen make love to them; from time more I stood in that valley,—and Ellen was "Once married, the young lady entirely to time some excursion is made in the neigh-again at my side and we wandered and changes her habits. Farewell gaiety and bourhood; in the evening comes dancing. talked of our early days and innocent frivolity. She is not less happy, but her People are very soon tired of this sort of life, thoughts, till we wept at the change which happiness is of a serious character; she be- which nevertheless has its charms for four after years had made. comes a mother, is employed in her house- or five days. It is at Saratoga that the lovers "And you still remember our childish hold, becomes quite the centre of domestic meet, who parted, in the winter, at Wash-love-walks, and the dreams with which we affections, and enjoys the esteem of all who ington, and it is at Washington they promise used to while away those hours?" she said, know and surround her. Society everywhere to be found again on quitting Saratoga; these as again I felt the light pressure of her arm, in the United States may be considered, places of mutual resort, and, more than all, and wandered by her side. therefore, as divided into two very distinct the public and sociable manner in which classes that of unmarried persons of both people live at the waters, present every fasexes, whose principal occupation is court-cility of augmenting the circle of acquaintance. ship, and the finding a suitable companion In short, an American has friends in every with whom to make the voyage of life; the town in the Union, who, wherever he may other of people who have already made that be going, ensures him, as well as those whom choice. You see in the corner of a drawing- he may recommend, a hospitable reception." room, people of the latter class forming groups among themselves, and talking politics or business; they will hardly address a word to the young girls who flutter around them, unless it be to joke them upon the success of some coquetish frolic; the mothers are in another corner, chatting together about their domestic matters, and receiving interested attentions from the admirers of their daughters. But for these, and the young men, a ball-room is a real field of battle. They boast among themselves of the number of declarations made, and refusals given, in the course of the evening; a thousand little coquetries are played off to draw a young man to declare himself, only to have the pleasure of refusing him afterwards. All these little tricks and skirmishes are perfectly innocent, for such is the general purity of morals that no inconvenience is ever the result of them."

On the character and habits of the American women we may exclaim, how like our own! So too of an American wateringplace, its visitors, and occupations.

"If Washington is the theatre of the winter campaign, that of the summer opens at Saratoga: this is a mineral spring iu the State of New York, to which all the fashion in the Union resorts, during the months of June, July, and August. The heat of the southern climate, and the intermitting fevers which desolate the plantations at this season, drive all the planters towards the north; they go with their families to New York, from whence they proceed up the northern river, as far as Albany, go and pass a few days at Saratoga, afterwards see the great lakes; from thence, the fall of Niagara, the great canal, the Catskill mountains, and perhaps even push their excursion as far as Canada. The State of New York is filled, during the summer, with an immense number of virtuosi, travelling for their health or pleasure. At Saratoga, people live at large inus,

ORIGINAL PAPERS.

THE CONDEMNED.

IT was in one of the most quiet and lovely
villages in England that the earliest days of
my happy childhood were unheedingly spent;
and at this moment, as if I had stood but
an hour ago amongst its leafy shades, and
heard the gentle music of its waters, every
circumstance of that childhood, and the
scenery in which it was passed, comes once
more upon my mind.

And there for many hours we were again companions, and we laughed,—but not as in the olden time; and we looked into each other's eyes, but they wore not the brightness which we remembered: and the sorrow that was felt we named not to each other. "Ellen, you will never leave me?" "Never!"

"You have thought of me often in my wanderings; you have visited this valley, and you have wept for me?"

"Bitterly-till my eyes have become dim, and my heart cold; you left me without one word at parting: you taught me to know deceit ere I should have learnt even its name; but now you have returned, and all that is past must be forgiven."

Once more, and for the last time, my thoughts turn to that distant home; once more I gaze upon its green meadows-its "And yet, Ellen, I feel that we are dewoods and waters; once more I hear the ceiving each other;—there is a strange bleating of the sheep and the carol of the weight upon my heart, and a cloud upon my birds, and see the grey tower of the em-brain, that tells me this can never be!" bosomed church; once more my thoughts aud wishes turn to that spot in the lonely churchyard which my early fancy had marked out as a final resting-place after the toils of

an honourable life.

The sunbeams fell for a moment on the rippling stream,—I closed my eyes, for they were dazzled by the light, opened them once more-would that they had been closed

for ever!

Slowly around the straw pallet on which my limbs were stretched rose the mournful walls of a felon's cell: my eyes fell upon its gloomy furniture-its chains-its grated window, through which the first beams of the morning sun sent a struggling ray upon my bed: it was the last sunrise I shall ever behold-this morning I am to DIE UPON THE SCAFFOLD!

There is a scene near that calm village. which has been to me dearer than all else in the world: it is where a stream murmurs through a narrow valley, and the sunlight breaks in patches through the light tremulous leaves of the silver birch-trees, by which the glittering waters are overhung,-where, in spring, nature puts forth her earliest blossoms, and in autumn the leaves are the the latest to depart. It was in that scene I wandered, day after day, with her I loved- [The above paper was found in the cell of loved with truer fouder feeling than man can a person who many years ago expiated by know, for it was the love of childhood; his death a career of reckless dissipation. the first love of the innocent heart, undis- I have conversed with those who witnessed turbed by thoughts of interest, passion, or his punishment, but there was nothing in pride, but full of confidence and hope, such his conduct to distinguish him from others as love is before it is fashioned to the world. who have perished under similar circumThere, by the banks of that stream, we stances of horror, or to satisfy the curiosity sat, hour after hour, twining the wild flow-of those who watch anxiously for some outrs that grew around our feet into those fairy ward manifestation of the feelings of one garlands which shine so well upon the youth-who is about to part with life in a struggle ful brow; or we would wile away the day with i so violent and unnatural.]

S.

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.
BURGES V. "THE NATIONAL STANDARD."
[We publish the following letter as we re-
ceived it, taking the liberty only of altering
one name and striking out another, neither
of which, as Mr. Burges will admit, ought
to have been introduced into a controversy
between us and him. We do not think that
we have weakened the force of his argument
by the alteration.

The letter, however, is written in a style quite uncalled for by any remarks of ours. In our brief notice of his Philoctetes, (and in such a publication as this notices of classical works must of necessity be brief,) we "sugared him," as he allows, "with a fair sprinkling of praise ;" and, on looking over the article again, we really do not see any thing to be complained of. There is no personality or impertinence in it; for surely, referring to Mr. Burges's having embarked in a stay-making speculation, does not lay us open to the charge of having indulged in either. Flinging about personal threats and accusations of falsehood, in a merely literary question, are far better entitled to such reproaches.

Of this letter you will of course make what use you please; but if you are one of those who choose, like Iago, "to stab men in the dark," you will naturally keep it to whet your appetite, whenever I appear again in the character of an editor of a Greek play. I remain, &c.

note. For Sir Godfrey Hermann he has a
great respect, but does not take everything
he says for gospel. And, as for the bishop
of London,—but we write within sound of
the cathedral-bell of St. Paul's, and will not
criticize our diocesan. We protest, however,
against the application of such terms as thief
and liar to any man of his lordship's station,
either in the church or in literature; and No. 7, Sussex Street,
think that controversy may be carried on on
matters of Greek grammar and prosody,
without adopting the language or the manners
of a bear-garden.]

To the Editor of the National Standard.

SIR: One of those d-d goodnatured friends, as Sir Fretful Plagiary says, in the "Critic," has called my attention to your notice of my "Philoctetes." Now, sir, though I am too old not to know, that in past times a review could not be palatable unless it were personal, yet I had hoped that all the impertinence of prying into a man's private life, when his work alone should be the subject of remark, had long since ceased, being beneath the dignity of even a twopenny critic. But though I am too thick-skinned to feel the arrogance of a puny pen, after having stood the attack of How can Mr. Burges say that we were the present bishop of London, when, in the incorrect in asserting that, in his note on bitterness of his wounded vanity, he talked 1. 1271 of Philoctetes, (for to that note, and about the disgrace of entering the arena to that only, we expressly referred,) he con- with a man who has proved him both a liar fined himself to rebutting the charge of and a thief, yet let me, as a friend to your ineptitude in the one individual case before facetious reviewer, beg of him to reform his us, leaving the general charge made by Butt-present practice altogether, lest he meet, mann and Hermann unnoticed? Here are the (for he is well known,) with the fate of a Thersites, and even of a greater man. "1271. On this emendation, which I pro- Should, however, no fear of self repress his posed twenty-three years ago, in Cl. JI. N. ȧкóλαorov yλwooav, which Euripides tells ii. p. 341, Buttmann remarks, Non tam us is aloxiorn voros, let me appeal to his inepta quam longe plurima, quæ ad hoc brotherly feelings in favour of one of the drama protulit Anonymus in Cl. Jl., est hæc craft, for be it known that I also am a reejusdem conjectura:' on which Hermann ob-viewer, and that I uniformly act up to the serves, æque et inepta est et male Græca motto, "Canis non est caninam," unless | hæc conjectura, ut pleræque illius viri.' But pressed very hard for a meal. in what this bad Greek consists, he does not, for he could not, tell. At all events, if it be bad, it is quite as good as Eschylus wrote, &c."

words:

With regard to your critique, sugared though it be with a fair sprinkling of praise, I beg to ask you what can your scribe mean by talking of my coolness in quoting the Now, does not Mr. Burges confine him-opinion of the late Dr. Buttmann and the self to defending his one emendation of present Sir Godfrey Hermann, as if an old twenty-three years standing, without taking Greek like myself, the very Ajax of critics, any trouble about the "non tam inepta quam belaboured by the boobies abroad and babies longe plurima" of one critic, or the "aque et inepta-ut pleraque illius viri" of the other. Buttmann says that Burges is inept in most of his criticisms. Hermann insists that he is inept in all. What says Burges? Nothing; but that he is right in the one instance impugned, without making any defence of his general repute in the eyes of the German commentators.

As for his observations about knowing his critic, he may be assured that, though that critic is inaccessible to fear, he is not inaccessible to an appeal to brotherly feelings, and he wishes too well to the general cause of classical literature to desire that any good scholar should desist from critically cultivating any of its departments, even though he may not agree with everything he finds appended to a Greek author, in the shape of

at home, would care an eyelet-hole (you see
I have not forgotten my quondam trade of a
staymaker,) for the impotent abuse and
valueless praise of a man like Hermann,
who is never for two days in the same mind,
and who most assuredly would have praised
the very emendation he now condemns, had
Buttmann condemned it already.

Permit me also to ask your reviewer what
he can mean by his insinuation, or, as I
would say to his face, falsehood, that "I
have left the other charges of ineptitude
comfortably uncontradicted;" for I defy him
to point out a single passage where I have
failed to meet any such charge as boldly as
it was made, or to answer it satisfactorily,
except in the opinion of those who, like
your reviewer, take every thing that Her-
mann says for gospel.

Gower Street.

GEORGE BURGES

RUSSIAN CATECHISM.

To the Editor of the National Standard. Sir: In your review last Saturday of “The Russian Catechism," with my "Explanatory Notes," you appear to have mistaken the spirit and purpose with which those notes were written. You say "they are most likely the composition of some prosy patriarch of the Russian church; and, though excellent in sentiment, are somewhat lengthy in execution." Is this meant ironically? I might conceive so, from the vein in which your addition to Quest. XIII. is couched. I confess, however, I am as much at a loss to know how to take your review, as you appear to have been with my notes. The latter part of your notice condemns them entirely : you say they are blasphemous. Well-but, sir, whose blasphemy is it? Does it not all lay at the emperor's door, my notes being ultimate, yet palpable deductions from the impious Catechism? The first sentence of your review stands thus: "We cannot give sufficient praise to this excellent and useful compilation!" Perhaps the pamphlet was not sent sufficiently early in the week to admit of your reading it through? At all events, I trust your sense of justice and consistency will induce you to give a definite explanation of so singular a critique.

I remain, sir, yours most obediently, A FRIEND OF the Poles. [We readily insert the above letter, for, unlike the Russian autocrat, we do not forbid our decrees to be questioned. The author's signature also commands the attention of every honest mind; and, from a joint regard for the "Friend of the Poles," his respectable publisher, and ourselves, we shall endeavour to defend what we have written. In the first place, however, let us state that we never review a book without reading it. The meaning of our remark on the excellence of the Catechism, we thought, could not escape any one. As to the word "blasphemous," we must remind the commentator on the Russian Catechism that it is not directly applied to the notes, but to the parodies, the principal of which appear at the end of the pamphlet. It may indeed be inferentially extended to the notes; and we have no hesitation iu saying that some of them we must condemu: for instance, that commencing ou page 14, and ending on page 16, which burlesques a doctrine regarded by a vast majority of Christians with reverence. The parody on the Litany is equally objectionable; and in the third and fourth supplication, the author has gone out of his way to ridicule, not the Russian despot, but religious mysteries. But, had he strictly