What is Coningsby ?-D'Israeli in politics. What is Egremont ?-D'Israeli in love. What is Tancred ?-D'Israeli in a dream. No! no! his Jew chapter comes into every one of his works, and, as the baker of the cream-tarts in the Arabian Nights was recognised by his putting pepper into them, so with D'Israeli, you may be sure of a spice of Jew writing, the infallible sign of who the author is. FELIX.-True, indeed, but yet there is much earnestness sometimes about the man; witness some of the scenes in " Sybil," the sketch of Gerard, and the heroine herself. PRUDENTIUS.-He had no subject here worthy of his pen-a bold, active, unscrupulous opposition leader, like Lord George Bentinck; an overgrown calculating boy was not a theme for D'Israeli. CRITICUS.-No! and besides he does not even mete out even justice. We hear nothing of the Lord George of the Turf, it is all the man of the House. [Throws down the book.] FELIX. The biography is too hasty; we are too warm with the heat of the struggle to say who was in the wrong and who in the right. CRITICUS.-[With two gay-looking volumes in his hand.]—Here's a man, ever, who is decidedly in the wrong. how FELIX.-Oh! Sir Francis Head. Yet he gives one "A Faggot of French Sticks" to carry, which is very, very heavy to bear. PRUDENTIUS.-Some parts are light and frivolous enough for even you, however. FELIX.-Yes! the worthy Baronet is an odd jumble of shrewdness, simplicity, and vanity. CRITICUS.-Oh! his estimate of the President is disgusting. I can't find another word to express what I mean. FELIX.-But he gives some capital pictures of French life-his lodging, his day at Versailles, his street scenes are very good. CRITICUS. No doubt of it; he has a picturesque pen, but don't you agree with me about his estimate of Louis Napoleon. FELIX. [Abstractedly.] "Far dearer the grave or the prison, Illumed by one patriot name, Than the trophies of all who have risen O'er Liberty's ruins to Fame." PRUDENTIUS.-Hand me the "Faggot," to see what I can make of it. He did not idle his time, that's clear; for he got over a large space of ground. FELIX.-Yes! and, as I said before, his pictures are truthful, and many of his observations just. CRITICUS." Oh! Freedom is a noble thing," as old Barbour says, and very little have our French neighbours of that "noble quality.” PRUDENTIUS. [Abstractedly.]-Indeed! FELIX.-Criticus, our friend is evidently deeply pondering something let us have a cup of coffee in the meantime, while he is in his brown study. [Rings the bell, and orders coffee.] CRITICUS.-Well, I'll read while he thinks. [CRITICUS takes up one volume, FELIX another, while PRUDENTIUS reads the "6 Faggot." Coffee is brought in, and little is said for twenty minutes.] FELIX.-You have thought enough now, Prudentius, to give an opinion, which, to say the truth, I am anxious to hear; for Sir Francis opens up very novel considerations to my mind. PRUDENTIUS.-It is awful! FELIX.-What? PRUDENTIUS. The state of France and the society of Frenchmen. But pass on to something else; I'll give you my ideas some of these days, in a different shape. CRITICUS.-Adieu, Sir Francis; we must live in hope for " Prudentius on the State of France.” FELIX Here is one to which, independent of its intrinsic merits, a peculiar and melancholy charm attaches. Poor Warburton never did the sea close over a nobler or a more gallant heart than thine! And with all the sorrow caused by the loss of the Amazon, there was a wide-spread sympathy for thee above all others. CRITICUS.-One of the most charming writers of our time. "Darien" equals his former efforts. Those foreshadowings of his fate would lead one to believe in a mental state equal to second sight. PRUDENTIUS.-Yes; the description of a ship on fire at sea is magnificent. Those lines in one of our local papers on the Loss of the Amazon were very beautiful. Did you see them? FELIX.-Yes FELIX. Here is a favourite of mine, "Pictures of Travel in the South of France," by Dumas. It forms a volume of the Illustrated Library--a capital series of well-written books, at a moderate price. CRITICUS.-Yes! Dumas is a clever fellow; that work of his, which you have in your hand, amused me not a little. There may be a certain dash of trickery in his manner, but he is always a pleasant, genial companion. There are some capitally told anecdotes in this volume. PRUDENTIUS.-Dumas is very trivial sometimes. FELIX.-Well, he is like a journey; every day of our lives we have lighthearted, joyous, trivial thoughts in our mind, as well as serious ones, and particularly when travelling. One can't always be learned, profound, and philosophical-one is often romantic, giddy, flighty, and headstrong. CRITICUS.-I would like to read you a bit of this " Perigord Pie." PRUDENTIUS.-No; let the public take the recommendation of Felix, if he gives it, and do not be offering a highly spiced morsel to tickle their palates. FELIX.-Well, honestly, the book is worth buying. It is admirably printed, the woodcuts excellent, and the matter is as varied as one can imagine. That legend at the conclusion is a tempting tale for extraction; but, warned by Prudentius, let the public go and read it themselves. CRITICUS.- -"From grave to gay, from lively to severe." Here's a volume which Felix has quite thrown in the background, and I can't divine for what reason. FELIX.-You ought to know it; it is because I deem it too valuable to remain with the others. "" Companions of my Solitude" is, indeed, a delightful bookearnest, truthful, practical, reflective, and poetical, the author ought to be proud of it. Worth a hundred of the usual volumes which issue from the press. Equal to all the speeches of last session in the House, it is the gem of the books which surround it. CRITICUS.-Bravo! Felix grows poetical. Who is the happy author? FELIX.-Mr. Helps, I believe, who was formerly private secretary to Lord Morpeth; and who, to a well-cultivated mind as a man of letters, unites the ability of a statesman and the general knowledge and information of a man of the world. PRUDENTIUS.-The book is an admirable one, Criticus. CRITICUS. Did I say it was not? No; for now that I recollect, I consider it to be superior to even "Friends in Council," an old companion of mine, and in much the same strain and style. FELIX." Friends in Council," "Essays written in the Intervals of Business," and "Companions of my Solitude," are all written by the same pen. PRUDENTIUS.-I will take the last home with me; I will read it again. CRITICUS.-Felix had it at the sea-side last autumn, and he used to lie on one of the dark rocks near the water, reading it, and looking at the white surf and blue waves before him, throughout the live-long day. FELIX.-Those were golden hours of quiet thought and reflection. I well remember, too, Criticus, lying in a harvest-field among the yellow sheaves, with the glorious sun of September shining on them, and tinting the purple skies with crimson, and there, amid all the tranquillity of the country, reading that Essay on "The Sin of Great Cities," perhaps the most earnest and tender argument on a difficult subject that was ever written; but no more of this, these " Companions" will cheer many another solitude besides the author's. CRITICUS. Here is M'Douall's Introductory Lecture; never delivered, but worthy of the man. I suppose we will lose him here soon. FELIX. I will be both glad and sorry. PRUDENTIUS.—I am sorry altogether at the thought of one of our best Professors being removed from us. I am selfish, no doubt, but I can't help it. CRITICUS.-Hancock on "The Lothians of Scotland." Clever as usual, butPRUDENTIUS.-Beware! You are on dangerous ground with Felix now. CRITICUS.-Nay, you quite mistake me; I was only going to say that it is a great pity that Professor Hancock does not write some important book at once. Now, an "Introduction to Jurisprudence" is much wanted, and is a subject just suited to his peculiar talents. FELIX.-All in good time; he is only sending messenger balloons as yet, the large one will follow. is very learned, CRITICUS.-Here's a bundle-"A Scottish Philhellen;" "A Caution for the Times;" 66 Notes on the Construction of Sheepfolds"FELIX.-No more of them, I pray you. The "Philhellen "The Caution " very clever, and "The Sheepfold " very odd. PRUDENTIUS.-What a pile of green literature you have there. FELIX.-Yes! the number of shilling volumes, now-a-days, is astonishing. An Irish house may claim the credit, however, of starting the trade. CRITICUS. Not the idea, though. "Honour to whom honour." FELIX.-Oh! I suppose you allude to Constable's conversation with Scott. CRITICUS.-Yes! the "Napoleon of Literature," as they called him, had most magnificent, but just ideas of the spread of cheapness, and we only see the beginning as yet. FELIX. I agree with you heartily; the time will come when, for a shilling, we will get every book of value in the English language circulated through the cottages of our country. All these cheap novels are but the precursors of something better. CRITICUS. But sometimes a good novel passes an hour pleasantly enough. Now, there's "Grace and Isabel" for a shilling. There are many Americanisms, no doubt, in the story; but yet Miss M'Intosh throws much quiet grace and beauty about her descriptions. FELIX." Charles Tyrrell," too, is not the worst of James'; but he writes too much, and Simms and M'Intyre give the public quite enough of him. CRITICUS.-Yes! more of Mrs. Marsh, and less of G. P. R. James, would pay better, I should think. FELIX.-Well they try, I see, to diversify their bill of fare as much as they can. PRUDENTIUS.—I suppose they circulate fifty thousand copies of each month's issue. FELIX. And allowing three readers to each copy, one hundred and fifty thousand people read "Charles Tyrrell" and "Discipline." CRITICUS. I will be content if we have as many readers. FELIX. Ha! ha! do you hear young Hopeful; or, rather, young Rapid? No! no! my boy; here is our fractional circulation, I should think PRUDENTIUS.-Nay! don't tell-don't be rash; we should never let the public know what we expect. FELIX." Least said, soonest mended." But, gentlemen, I will say and you, Prudentius, need not shake your head; and you, Criticus, need not laugh and shrug your shoulders; nor need "the Public" be astonished-but I firmly believe that we will be read in hall and in hamlet, in parlour and in cottage, throughout the length and breadth of Ireland; and that, ere many a year elapse, Irish literature will find not only Irish readers, but bind the sister kingdoms still closer to us; and that we, my friends, advance this good cause, by giving now to the public the first number of our " NORTHERN MAGAZINE." ALL-Long may it live and flourish ! WE sometimes hear the loss of America mentioned as the great disaster of the reign of George the Third. Yet at this hour Britain possesses an empire in North America, nearly as populous, and probably much richer and more valuable to our commerce, than were the United States at the time of their separation from the mother countrya region of boundless extent and immense, unexplored resources, well adapted to afford a home to millions of emigrants from the old countries of Europe, and to become the abode of a great civilized nation-a region chiefly inhabited by a race kindred to ourselves in language, religion, and blood, and united to us by the strongest ties of loyalty and attachment. Various causes have combined to conceal the real value of the British dominions in America from the eyes of Britons; among which we may mention the greater size and wealth of the cities of the United States, with which those of Canada are most unfairly contrasted; for the United States' cities are the markets and ports of a far greater extent of country than the Canadian; and the local circumstances of the States have called manufacturing towns into existence, such as Pittsburg and Lowell, to which the British possessions have nothing similar. But if we take the state of agriculture and the condition of the rural population as the test of comparison, then we shall find the British provinces in no way inferior to the American States; for Upper Canada, though it did not begin to be colonised until after the American Revolution, is at least as well cultivated as any State in the Union. Another reason of the neglect of Canada by the British, is the way in which the Americans always obtain the notice, and sometimes the admiration of strangers, by constant boasting and puffing-a practice which the people of the British provinces are too English to adopt. The Americans, says Professor Johnston, in his recently published work on the agriculture of America, are always boasting, while the Canadians, like the British, are always grumbling; and travellers seem to take both at their word. The error has been fostered by those partizan writers at home who can see no good in the colonial connexion, who praise everything American and depreciate everything British. But the British people are at length beginning to take a deeper interest in the colonies, and to regard them, not with the foregone conclusions of party politics, but in an enlightened and impartial manner, with a view to colonization and commerce; and, as a result of this change, more accurate notions are now prevalent of the prosperity and the vast resources of our American empire. The Great Exhibition, too, of last year, tended to raise the character of our Canadian fellow-subjects for proficiency in the arts of civilized life. We do not deny that there is some truth in the notion of the inferiority of Canada to the United States. But this is the result of French blood, not of British domination. The rural districts of Upper Canada, which are inhabited by a British population, are at least as prosperous as the neighbouring and similar districts of the United States; but the great commercial cities of Quebec and Montreal in Lower Ca nada, which were built by the French, are far inferior to New York, though with equal natural advantages. The French are inferior to many other nations in those qualities which build cities and colonise continents. In the middle ages France could boast of no such cities as Milan, Florence, and Venice; Ghent, and Bruges; Lubeck, Augsburg, and Nuremberg: and, in the present age, France has nothing like Manchester, Liverpool, and Glasgow. Neither has any French colony ever approached to the prosperity of the British ones in America and Australia. The happiest event that ever befel Canada was its conquest by the British, who gave it free institutions, and filled it with industrious and enterprising settlers. Yet the French plan of colonising North America was the most statesmanlike and vast ever formed. Planting colonies at the mouths of the two great rivers of the Continent, the St, Lawrence and the Missisippi, they projected and went far to execute the design of establishing a chain of forts and settlements between these two extreme points, thus securing to themselves the whole of the vast regions drained by the great rivers, and confining their British rivals to the strip of country between the Alleghanies and the Atlantic. The British, meanwhile, colonised the eastern coast at various points, almost at random, and without any vast ulterior design like the French. But the colonies of France were governed despotically, and those of England received free institutions at their foundation; and, therefore, when war came between the rival kingdoms, the English colonists seconded the English Government's schemes of conquest, while the French ones looked on with indifference while the battles were fought that transferred Canada to the crown of Britain. We know the result. North America is alive with the energy of the British race; and the best parts of the Continent are occupied by a republic which, in another generation, will probably be the greatest nation in the world. Had the French gained the victory, how different would have been the result! The state of North America would then have been no better than that of the Spanish republics. Canada was conquered by the British in 1759. It then contained but 65,000 inhabitants; so small was the propor tion of French performance to French projects. A stream of British population began to flow into the new colony, but not rapidly at first, until the American Revolution, when a number of the loyalist refugees from the States settled in Upper Canada; they were the first colonists of that country. In 1791 an Act of the Imperial Parliament separated the colony into the two provinces of Lower and Upper Canada, giving to each a free parliamentary constitution. This separation was a great mistake; as great as that made by the government of the Restoration, in repealing the union that Cromwell had effected between the parliaments of the three kingdoms; and it was found necessary to unite them again during the present generation, after the rebellion of the French Canadians was at an end. The error has not been fatal, but it has thrown Lower Canada more than a generation back. The right policy would have been to continue the absolute government, which the French had founded, until the British population had obtained a clear majority, and then given one parliament to the whole province. Had this been done, British enterprise would have made itself felt in Lower as well as in Upper Canada, and Quebec and Montreal would have competed with New York on equal terms. The vast regions which surround the North American lakes had no navigable outlet to the sea until many years after the American Revolution, for the St. Lawrence, which discharges their waters into the ocean, had its navigation stopped by rapids; and the Niagara river, which connects lakes Erie and Ontario, is rendered impassable by its celebrated Falls. A few miles of canal, so situated as to enable vessels to avoid these obstacles, if made at the time of the American Revolution, would have secured for ever the trade of the country round the lakes to Quebec and Montreal, the ports of the St. Lawrence. But Canada was inhabited by Frenchmen, and the State of New York by Englishmen. The Canadians allowed a few miles of falls and rapids to impede their magnificent natural navigation of two thousand miles, from the Atlantic to the head of Lake Superior; while the State of New York made the Erie canal of about two hundred miles in |