ment, that under the title of " Age" there is no mention of, or even allusion to, the celebrated Seven Ages of Jacques, in "As You Like it;" and, still worse, the mournfully beautiful reflection of "Macbeth," respecting his fall into "the sear, the yellow leaf," is altogether omitted. We regret to say, that many of the most exquisite passages of Shakespeare have been wholly excluded from this volume.

ART. XIV.-Essays, Moral and Political. By Robert Southey, Esq., LL.D., Poet Laureate, &c. Now first collected. 2 vols. 12mo. London: Murray. 1832. WITH nearly the whole of this collection the public are already acquainted, since the very same materials, without any considerable alteration, have already appeared in the Quarterly Review. genuity, skill, and influence of Mr. Murray, the bookseller, in conjunction with the deservedly high character of the Review, have given to Dr. Southey's anonymous lucubrations an extent of circulation, which their own intrinsic merits, with Dr. Southey's name to boot, never would have commanded.

The in

It is quite out of the question, under these circumstances, to specify the contents of the present volumes, much less to examine or criticize them in detail. It will be sufficient for us to observe, that the collection embraces the principal articles which Dr. Southey contributed to the Quarterly Review during the last twenty-two years.

The work is dedicated to Sir Robert Inglis, a man well worthy of being the patron of the nearly obsolete bigotry and intolerant fanaticism of the doctor. Most of these papers," observes the author in his dedication, were written in times

of public excitement." "In revising them," he says in another paragraph, "for republication, there were few opinions which I have found reason to modify, and none to retract." This sort of determination is at all events quite new in Dr. Southey's practice, for it did so happen, once upon a time, that five and twenty years effected a very considerable revolution in the sentiments of the Doctor. As the author of "Wat Tyler," Dr. Southey preached sedition with a degree of power which the wretched Carlisle, with all his malignity against the peaceful organization of society, never could parallel; and yet the Doctor lived to see the day when his notions became altogether changed, and when he was glad to be able to suppress every evidence of his early opinion. That no similar emotions of compunction should assail him for the second time after the lapse of an equal interval, is to be attributed, we think, not to the absence of a just reason for doing so, but altogether to the circumstance that old age has fastened upon his mind all those vices which lead to obstinacy and an unvarying tenacity of purpose, right or wrong. The plain truth is, that Dr.Southey has written himself to a sort of theatrical death-his demise as a literary man is recorded, and the world is apprised of the event. He is quite superannuated: he has come to his sixth age, that of the lean and slippered pantaloon; a fanatic in his youth, he has lived to be the officious persecutor of the very opinions which he was the foremost to diffuse, and now, in the decline of a life rendered useless from its inconsistency, and made contemptible by the excessive exhibition of a partizan spirit, this writer deserves the reproach which Shakespeare has applied to another of these silly old

men, "Thou should'st not have been old before thou had'st been wise."

trash relating to the Catholic question, is a proof of the fatal accession of the very last stage of servile do

Miss Chaworth.-Lord Byron's early flame, Miss Chaworth, afterwards Mrs. Musters, died recently at Colwick Hall, in consequence, it is said, of a cold which she caught in the plantations, where she took refuge during the riots that took place in Nottingham and its neighbourhood, in October last. She was at the time suffering under severe indisposition, and yet from terror she remained out exposed to cold and damp, for some hours. It was to her he alluded in Don Juan, where he says:

"I have a passion for the name of Mary,

For once it had a magic sound

to me,

And still it half calls up the realms

of faery,

Where I beheld what never was to be:

All feeling changed, but this was last to vary.

A spell from which e'en yet I am not free."

Sir Walter Scott, according to the last accounts from him, was still at Naples, where he has had the honour of being presented to the King.

St. John of Jerusalem.-We had thought that the ancient order of St. John of Jerusalem, so well known in connexion with the history of the crusades, had been altogether extinguished. We understand, nevertheless, that it still exists, and that it held a chapter a few days ago at Brentford!

Leigh Hunt.-It has been proposed by the friends of Mr. Leigh

Hunt, to publish his poetical works, (including a new poem in two cantos), by subscription. They are to be comprised in one volume, the price of which is to be a guinea. We regret to learn that this step is necessary to be taken, in order to place Mr. Hunt in advance of his pecuniary difficulties, which at present combine with indifferent health and severe literary application, to give him a peculiar claim upon the patronage of the public. We hope that our friends will do all they can to assist this enterprise, to which we most cordially wish success.

Charitable Lottery.—The ladies in France assist the poor occasionally by lotteries. The Countess of Bondy, lady of the Prefect of the Seine, had a lottery a week or two ago at her hotel, by means of which several works of fancy were disposed of amongst the contributors, which were wrought by some of the most lovely hands in Paris, including those of the Queen, and of the Princesses, her daughters. The contributions on the whole amounted to about 160., and every subscriber won something of more or less value.

The Drama.-The dramatists of France seem once more to have got into the vein for German horribilism, if we may be permitted to coin a word. "Robert the Devil " was thought to have been matchless in this way; but it has been exceeded by "Teresa, from the pen of M. Dumas, which has excited an immense sensation. The plot turns upon a double adultery; nothing so enormously romantic has been seen

before in Paris. We are not, therefore, surprised to hear that Lewis's "Monk" is about to be brought forward again, under the title of Ambrosio.

Theatres. If this be not the age of play-goers, it is at all events fertile of new theatres, upon a small scale, eight or ten of which have recently started up in different parts of the metropolis. Another minor, it is said, will be shortly erected within the precincts of the Savoy, under the immediate patronage of Lord Holland, who, as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, has the exclusive power of granting a license in that district.

Garrick.-The Garrick club (at Probatt's hotel, King-street, Coventgarden) was opened under the most favourable auspices on the 15th of last month. The object of this institution is to revive the glory of the English drama, an object which it might attain, if it could substitute for the two large theatres one of half the size of either, get a Garrick or a John Kemble, or a Mrs. Siddons, to act in it, and a Shakespeare and a Sheridan to write for it. Without some such aids as these, the club may meet and talk, and dine, and drink wine for a century, without recalling one beam of the glory that formerly surrounded the drama of England.

Spenser.-Autographs of Spenser are very rare. A document has been lately discovered among a collection of MSS. relating to Irish history, which contains a kind of demise from him to a person named Henry, of various premises, at the foot of which his name is written thus,-Ed. Spser.

Dr. Bell, the founder of the celebrated Madras system, of education, died in the middle of last month, at the age of 80. He was

interred with great ceremony in Westminster Abbey. He bequeathed 10,000l. to the Royal Naval School, and to several other public institutions he has left very large

sums.

Expedition to the Niger.-It is the intention of a company of merchants at Liverpool, to equip a steamer of 100 tons burden, and other vessels, for a trading voyage up the Niger. We have further learned that the merchants have it in contemplation to send a limited number of Moravian Missionaries with the expedition, who are to remain in the country; though this matter is, we believe, as yet undecided. The vessel, it is expected, will leave Liverpool about May next.

Juggernaut.-The following are the charges paid by the East India Company, for maintaining the beastly idolatry of Juggernaut.

1817, Collector of tax on pilgrims at Juggernaut, 6007.

1817, December 1st, ditto, ditto -salary discontinued.

1819, September 3rd, Collector of Cuttack's salary was augmented to 6001.

This additional charge is ordered by the discontinuance of the office of collector of tax on pilgrims at Juggernaut.

1825, February 10th, a subordinate officer was appointed to conduct the duties on a reduced salary of 3001.

1827, February 1st, assistant surgeon appointed to Juggernaut force, 4801.

Establishment to collect tax on pilgrims at Juggernaut.

1827, Establishment of 64 native servants, 6741. Contingencies 43951. Total, 50711.

1827, Establishment of 75 native servants, 7301. Contingencies, 1267. Total, 8561.