"Memoirs of Europe from the Peace of Utrecht;" with Introduction. 2 vols., 4to. 1824. "The Establishment of the Turks in Europe." vol. 1828. "The Causes of the French Revolution." 1 vol. 1832. 66 munity are the most prone to dedicate their leisure to poetical composition. "Dull fellows (says Steele) prove very good men of business. Business relieves them from their own natural heaviness, by furnishing them Correspondence of John, Fourth Duke of with what to do; whereas business, to mercurial Bedford;" with Introduction. 2 vols. 1842. 66 Multa," perhaps, rather than " multum." There is certainly no want of variety in the subjects treated of. In future editions of the Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors, the noble littérateur of the House of Bedford will figure under the several heads of History, the Drama, Biography, Essays, &c. But how? Can any one of all his numerous productions be said to range with the standard literature of the age? The noble writer has been a quarter of a century before the public as an author: does he take rank with the eminent authors of the day? Is he known as a writer? Is he read? For a man can scarcely be called an author whose works are neither known nor read, however voluminous and prolific. "Non scribit cujus carmina nemo legit," says Martial. We believe few persons read the noble lord's works; that few, indeed, are aware of their existence. We do not say this ill-naturedly; for we are indisposed to attack a man who has tried so perseveringly. "Attaquer Chapelain! Ah, c'est un si bon homme. Il est vrai s'il m'eût crû qu'il n'eut point fait des vers; men, is an interruption from their real existence of these two amusements for all fools of eminence politics or poetry. The former of these arts is the study of all dull people in general; but when dullness is lodged in a person of quick animal life, it generally exerts itself in poetry." Now, without applying this rule to Lord John Russell, of whose "animal life," whether quick or slow, we know nothing, and who, in spite of his devotion to politics and poetry, may be anything but a dull fellow in the circle of his friends, we should not think, at the same time, that he can be looked upon as one of "Imagination's chartered libertines." The noble lord's style (and style will, so long as the world endures, ever be regarded as much as matter) is vicious in the extreme. As an author he seems to labor under a continued indigestion of metaphor, which, throughout his works, are "thick as autum nal leaves that strew the brooks in Vallam- Il se tue à rimer, que n'écrit-il en prose ? chose ?" And though, as a general rule, while an author is yet living, it is customary to estimate his powers by his worst performance, and when he is dead, to rate them by his best, we would indulgently grant Lord John the privilege of a defunct author, and not offer him up a martyr to his indiscreet ramble into the "poet's pleasaunce." That the noble author of Don Carlos looked boldly forward to a niche in the literary Pantheon we readily believe. We can imagine that in an idle hour he may have emerged from the lobby of the House into Poet's Corner, and thought within himself, "forsitan et nostrum nomen miscebitur istis." But men's aspirations are often strangely at variance with their powers; and if we may quote Steele as an authority, it would appear that the least imaginative portion of the comVOL. XVI. NO. L 2 Had his lordship followed the advice of a worthy old college tutor to his pupils, “Read over your compositions, and wherever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out," the quality of the works would have been certainly benefited, though the quantity would have been reduced in a much higher proportion. But the premier had, no doubt, Aristotle's recipe in his eye: "The greatest thing of all is to be powerful in metaphor, for this alone cannot be acquired from another, but is a mark of original genius; for to metaphorize well, is to discern in different objects that which is similar." The noble premier is powerful enough in metaphor, strong as Samson, to his own undoing. He has fallen into the error of adopting a canon for his own guidance which is addressed to "original genius." Nor are there any counterbalancing qualities to weigh merits. We regret that we cannot, upon the whole, sum up in Lord John Russell's favor; that we cannot favor his pretensions to literary rank, even in the smallest degree. The noble lord may call, it is true, eleven witnesses, 4to., 8vo., and 12mo., to support his pretensions; but, if well advised, he will rather trust to the merciful consideration of the court than rely upon their testimony: for the said witnesses, though decent enough in their exterior clothing, when made to disclose their evidence, will infallibly damage the noble defendant's cause, and for ever strip him of all LITERARY CHARACTER. A LITERARY PARTY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. THE accompanying Plate presents a group of the most remarkable men of the last century, whose names are inseparably identified with the history of English literature, and the influence of whose genius and writings has not yet ceased to be felt. Though their names are familiar as household words to the intelligent lover of literature, it may not be inappropriate to characterize in a few words, the several eminent personages portrayed so strikingly by the engraver's skill. At the extreme left of the picture is JAMES BOSWELL, the well known friend and biographer of Dr. Johnson. He was a native of Scotland, and became acquainted with Johnson after having travelled in Europe, and acquired an eager love of literature and of the literary character. His attachment to Johnson was sincere and enthusiastic; and as his intimacy with Johnson was founded upon the basis of reciprocal esteem, it is a happy circumstance that he began early to collect and digest the materials for the life of this extraordinary man, and therefore the publication of the work in 1790, was received with that avidity from the public which is the best tribute to the memory of an illustrious character, as well as to the judicious execution of the biographer. Besides Dr. Johnson's life, he published an account of his tour to the Hebrides with the great moralist-two well-known letters to the people of Scotland, and essence of the Douglas cause, when it so much engaged the public attention. Boswell had a strong predilection for the literary enjoyments of London, and he not only visited the capital frequently, but at last settled there in 1785, and was called regularly to the English bar. He died 19th June, 1795, aged 55. Next to Boswell is seated the great Dr. SAMUEL JOHNSON, the Colossus of English literature. He was born in Litchfield, Sept. 7, 1709, and was the son of a bookseller. His great talents were early displayed, and soon after his marriage in 1735, he went to London, as a literary man. His first adventures were exceedingly unpropitious. His fortunes began to mend with his acquaintance with Mr. Cave, the printer of the Gentleman's Magazine; and his first performance in that work was a Latin Alcaic Öde, inserted in March, 1738. From 1740 to 1743 he was laboriously employed in the service of this periodical work, and during that period, wrote the parliamentary debates, valuable not as the effusions of orators, but as the bold composition of a man of genius on such subjects as were supposed to engage the legislators of the age. In 1738 he published his London, a poem, in imitation of Juvenal's third satire, which was well received, and honored with the commendation of Pope, and passed to a second edition in one week. Besides his valuable contributions to the Gentleman's Magazine, he in 1744 published the life of Savage, a work of great merit, which, in the elegant language of pathetic narration, exhibited the sufferings and the poverty of a friend, whose calamities he himself had shared and bewailed. He began in 1747 his edition of Shakspeare, and published the plan of his English dictionary. This gigantic work was undertaken under the patronage of the in booksellers; and the lexicographer engaged a house in Gough-square, where, with the assistance of six amanuenses, he proceeded rapidly in the execution of his plan. This great work, so honorable to the talents of the author, appeared, May, 1755, in 2 vols. without a patron. Lord Chesterfield, who had at first favored the undertaking, but had afterwards neglected the author, endeavored, by a flattering recommendation of the work the World," to reconcile himself to his good opinion; but Johnson, with noble indignation, spurned at the mean artifice of his courtly patron; and his celebrated letter reflected, with independent spirit and in severe language, against his selfish and ambitious views. In 1749 the Irene had been brought forward on the stage, by the friendship of Garrick, but with no success. The Rambler was undertaken 20th of March, 1750, and till the 17th March, 1752, when it ceased, a paper had regularly appeared every Tuesday and Saturday; and it is remarkable that during the whole of that time, only five numbers were contributed by other authors. But these publications, popular as they were, still left Johnson in distressed circumstances; and in 1756, the year after the publishing of his dictionary, he was arrested for a debt of five guineas, from which the kindness of Richardson relieved him. In 1758 he began the Idler, and continued it for two years with little assistance; and on the death of his mother in 1759, that he might pay some decent respect to her funeral, and discharge her debts, he wrote his Rasselas, and obtained for it, from the booksellers, the sum of £100. Happily, however, these high services to literature were not to pass unrewarded: in 1762 he was honorably presented by the king, on the representation of Mr. Wedderburne, with a pension of £300 per annum without a stipulation af future exertions, but merely, as the grant expressed it, for the moral tendency of his writings, a character to which his Rambler was most fully entitled. In 1777, he began his Lives of the Poets, which he finished in 1781, a work of great merit, and which exhibits, in the most pleasing manner, the soundness of the critic, the information of the biographer, and the benevolent views of the man. In a few years of gigantic labors, he found his health gradually declining, from the united attacks of the dropsy and of an asthma. It is remakable, that Johnson, whose pen was. ever employed in recommending piety, and all the offices of the purest morality; and whose conduct and example in life exhibit ed the most perfect pattern of the Christian virtues; should, in the close of life, betray dreadful apprehensions of death. By degrees, indeed, the terrors which his imagination had painted to itself, disappeared. Johnson expired on the 13th Dec., 1784, full of resignation, strong in faith, and joyful in hope of a happy resurrection. His works are very numerous, and all respectable. Opposite Johnson, sits Sir JOSHUA REYNOLDS, eminent as an artist, and man of cultivated taste and literary zeal. He was born in 1723, at Plympton, where his father, a clergyman, was master of the grammar school. He had very early a strong partiality for painting; but being intended for the church, he was sent to Oxford, where he took the degree of bachelor of arts. Nothing, however, seemed so congenial to his taste as painting, and his father indulged him, and placed him in London under the care of Hudson, after which, about 1749, he travelled into Italy. His first production which attracted notice, was a portrait of his friend Keppel, and other pieces equally correct, and equally finished, continued to command the public attention, and to rank him among the greatest artists of the age. But not only as a painter the name of Reynolds must stand respectable, but also as a literary character, and as the active promoter of the literary club, which was established in 1764, and which had among its illustrious members the names of Johnson, Burke, Garrick, Douglas, Goldsmith, the Whartons, Windham, &c. In the academic lectures which he delivered, Sir Joshua displayed not only great taste and a perfect acquaintance with his profession, but strong powers of language, sound judgment, an elegant style and luminous order. Next is EDMUND BURKE, the splendid orator, and comprehensive statesman. He was born in Ireland, in 1730. His first aoknowledged work, which was of course published anonymously, was his Vindication of Natural Society; an admirable imitation of Lord Bolingbroke's style and manner of reasoning, which deceived even some of the best judges. This was followed in 1757, by his Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful. His career as an orator, one of the most brilliant in modern history, commenced with his introduction into Parliament. His speeches were numerous and always great. He died on the 8th of July, 1797. His compositions have been collected in sixteen volumes octavo. In private life Burke was amiable and benevolent; in public, indefati- | tained a pension. On the breaking out of the French revolution, he returned to Corsica, and prevailed upon his countrymen to submit to the English government, after which he returned to London, and died in 1807. gable, ardent, and abhorrent of meanness and injustice. It was this latter quality which made him a persevering advocate of the Irish Catholics. As an orator he ranks among the first of modern times; and as a writer, whether we consider the splendor of his diction, the richness and variety of his imagery, or the boundless stores of knowledge which he displays, it must be acknowledged that there are few who equal, and none who transcend him. CHARLES BURNEY, a doctor of music, and literary character, was born at Shrewsbury, in 1726, and studied music under Dr. Arne. He died in 1814, at Chelsea Hospital, of which he was organist. Besides many musical compositions, he produced several works, one of the chief of which is, a Life of Metastasio, in three volumes. The Marquis of WHARTON was one of the rick and Johnson were the chief lights. He was an enthusiastic lover of literature, though not distinguished for talents or labors. He was a zealous politician, and a steadfast friend. GOLDSMITII, the celebrated poet and miscellaneous writer, was the son of a clergyman; was born, in 1731, in Ireland; and was educated at the universities of Dublin, Edinburgh, and Leyden, with a view to his adopting the medical profession. Leyden, however, he quitted abruptly, with no money and a single shirt in his pocket, and wandered over a considerable part of Europe. Du DAVID GARRICK, the illustrious actor, was born in 1716. He was educated at Litchfield school, but was more attached to theatrical pursuits than to learning, so that he acted with his fellow pupils the play of "the Re-members of the circle of which Burke, Garcruiting Officer," and supported himself the character of Sergeant Kite. He went afterwards to reside with his uncle, a wine merchant at Lisbon, but soon returned to Litchfield school, and after being six months the pupil and companion of Dr. Johnson, he accompanied him to London, in 1735. The powers with which nature had endowed him were fostered and improved by the conversation and company of the most popular actors, but Garrick, still diffident, flew from a London audience to Ipswich, where in 1741, he performed the part of Aboan in Oroonoko, under the assumed name of Lyddal. His efforts were received with repeated and in-ring his peregrinations he was sometimes increasing applause, and thus flushed with provincial approbation, he came to Goodman's Fields, and acted Richard III., October 19th, 1741. So superior were his abilities, and so powerful their display, that the other theatres were now left empty, and the house in Goodman's Fields was daily crowded with all the beauty, the fashion, and the taste of the town. Besides the display of his astonishing powers on the stage, Garrick merited the public approbation as a writer. The Biographia Dramatica mentions not less than 38 of his plays, some of which were original, and some translations, besides a great number of prologues, epilogues, songs, and elegies. debted to his German flute for procuring him a meal or a lodging from the peasants. In 1759 appeared his first work, an Essay on the Present State of Polite Literature. His subsequent labors were multifarious; for he soon gained an honorable popularity, and seems never to have been unemployed, but his want of economy kept him always embarrassed. Among his friends he numbered Johnson, Burke, Garrick, and many other eminent characters. As an author he stands high. His poetry, natural, melodious, affecting, and beautifully descriptive, finds an echo in every bosom; and his prose, often enlivened with humor, and always adorned with the graces of a pure style, is among the best GEN. PAOLI was born in the Island of Cor- in our language. The Traveller abounds sica, in 1726. In his twenty-ninth year he with elegant and animated description, and was chosen generalissimo of Corsica, where as Dr. Johnson observed, no poem of greater he exerted himself in promoting such objects excellence has appeared since the days of as were best calculated to secure the inde- Pope. The Deserted Village exhibits beaupendence of the republic. The Genoese, ties peculiarly its own, and while the simple however, having made a transfer of the tale of indigent nature and suffering humaniisland to France, that power sent such anty can interest and captivate the heart, so overwhelming force into it as compelled Paoli long will the lines of this correct poem conto seek an asylum in England, where he ob- tinue to be read and admired. From the English Review. THE HISTORY OF THE HUGONOTS, The Protestant Reformation in France; or, The History of the Hugonots, by the Author of "Father Darcy," "Emilia Wyndham," "Old Men's Tales," &c. 2 vols. Bentley. 1847. The History of the Popes in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, by LEOPOLD RANKE. Translated from the German, by WALTER Keating KELLY, Esq., B. A., of Trinity College, Dublin. 1 vol. Whittaker & Co. THE sixteenth century may be considered | as the opening of modern improvement in religion, government and civilization; three hundred years ago, the great states of the world presented a very different picture from what we see at present; but the seed sown by the invention of printing, and the diffusion of knowledge, was even then beginning to show itself as a vigorous plant, from which future centuries were to reap the maturer fruits. Our object in considering the works before us, is to examine the state of religion in France at the period, and, from a short view of the prominent characters, to inquire into the reasons why France rejected those truths, which England and other nations eagerly received. During the middle and end of the sixteenth century, the two greatest countries of the world were governed by women,-England by Queen Elizabeth, and France by Catherine de Medicis; their reigns commenced about the same period, if we date Catherine's accession from the death of her husband Henry II. in 1559, and consider her as the real ruler of the kingdom during the lives of her unfortunate sons, Francis II., Charles IX., and Henry III. The history before us includes only the reigns of the two former of these princes, from 1559 to 1574, a period when events were crowded into a space almost incredibly small; a violent persecution, three civil wars, several sieges, murders of the chiefs on both sides, and the massacre of St. Bartholomew, succeeded each other with frightful rapidity. France became the arena on which the world's great contending parties tried their strength; liberty of conscience struggled for existence against papal tyranny and the superstition of ages, and the Hugo nots, after severe trials and several victories, were at last driven from the field. In examining the characters presented to our view, the first which deserves our attention is Catherine herself: with as much ambition as Elizabeth, and with the same desire of personal authority, she fell far short of her great contemporary in the art of acquiring and retaining power. Elizabeth had a certain object; she was determined to advance the Reforma tion, and to improve England, and by both these means to increase her own power; she chose her instruments judiciously, and as long as her ministers served her purpose, she never betrayed them or consulted their opponents. Catherine, however, was exactly the reverse; she had no fixed principle, and no definite object; "divide and govern" was her motto; she was like the man in the Gospel, out of whom the evil spirit was departed, "empty, swept, and garnished," and so ever ready for the occupancy of any power of evil, who should seize upon the first possession. Her love of pleasure was unbounded; she invented side-saddles, to enable her to accompany her husband in hunting; she delighted in tournaments, processions, masquerades, and all the gaieties of a dissipated court. Her young ladies, about two hundred in number, called "the queen's daughters," added much to the splendor of her train, and were a special object of her care: she attended to their education, chastised them if they displeased her, and was extremely strict in repressing scandalous conversation or writings. She considered herself a warrior as well as a queen; she attended several sieges, and loved to see a battle: when the English reinforcements were allowed to enter Rouen, she got into a violent passion, and swore at |