Among the miscellaneous poems, is the Curate's Petition to the Chancellor;' and it is urged with such earnestness that we should not be surprised to hear that H. H. was himself a poor curate; yet we should be sorry to have our conjecture verified, for surely so unceremonious an application to the giver of livings is not likely to gain a living. The curate threatens his Lordship that he will turn cobler, unless he be comfortably beneficed: Hear, generous Lawyer! hear my prayer! Once nearer was our lot! • Say, by what name, the halpless bard • In vain, without a patron's aid, "Well done!" I've pray'd and preach'd, and preach'd and pray'd; Such vain eclat let others share ; I ask not praise, but bread !' For me, unless hard Fate's obduracy, No more my gown The cure of human souls resigning; Yet scarcely "nine dark lustres" past, Such dire reverse, good Lord! forbid it; Mr. Hornet has point, but it is not duly polished. Elegant versification is not his forte. NOVEL. Art. 25. The Towers of Ravenswold, or Days of Ironside, a 2 Vols. Really, this novel is almost beneath criticism; its story, or, as the writer calls it, the intricate compound of this narration,' consists of improbabilities and anachronisms which would only excite a smile, if, after having recounted them, he had not the imprudence to challenge his reader's admiration for the miracles which Omnipotence could bring about; rewarding the helpless animal, man, according to his works. He must indeed be helpless who can admire this performance. EDUCATION. Art. 26. The Elements of Arithmetic, being a full, clear, and comprehensive Introduction to the Science of Numbers. For the Use of Schools and Private Tuition. In five Parts, each published separately. By E. Ward, Teacher of Writing, Geography, and Mathematics. 12mo. Part I. 1od. Part II. Is. 3d. Wilkie and Robinson. 1813. Mr. Ward's publication is judiciously divided into separate parts; each being of small size and price. The first and second carry the student as far as Compound Division, and explain the first four Rules of Arithmetic with clearness and accuracy. They contain many useful tables, and good practical questions: but the Addition and Subtraction Table, (Part I.) which is recommended to be learned by heart, appears to us to be quite unnecessary, and calculated only to puzzle the learner. Art. 27. The Spanish Guitar; a Tale, for the Use of Young Persons. By Elizabeth Isabella Spence, Author of "Caledonian Excursion," "The Curate and his Daughter," &c. 12mo. 3s. Boards. Chapple. 1814. We have often reported the claims and the faults of this fair writer. The present story has an useful tendency, and its simplicity may render it acceptable to very young readers. On the score of language, however, we have again to exhort Miss Spence. For instances: in page 55. a contemptuous figure' is put for contemptible in page 71. Emily ought not to have been described as being silent, and so abstract that her mother spoke to her once or twice before she replied:' (once, we should think, was necessary) and p. 75., Your conduct and benevolence is' must be noticed as false grammar. Art. 28. Difficult Pronunciation, with Explanations of the Words, by which an approved Pronunciation of the most difficult English Words in common Use may be easily attained. Also the Pronunciation and Significations of Latin and French Phrases which frequently occur in English Reading. Second Edition, with Additions. 12mo. 6d. Kent. 1813. This little work has the advantage of being cheaper and more portable than "The Pronouncing Dictionary," and it will certainly be useful to those who cannot obtain oral instruction for the pronunciation of various English words. We would, however, counsel such readers as are unacquainted with the French language to abstain from uttering its expletives, in preference to relying on the directions here given for their sound. What assistance can be gained from such an explanation as the following; argent comptant, ator-zshong kong-tong? or from that of valet de chambre, võla de de shawm? It were better at once to say vally de sham, with Squire Blunderhead. HISTORY. Art. 29. Who wrote Cavendish's Life of Wolsey? 4to. pp. 56. 18s. Boards. Rees. 1814. (Only 110 copies printed.) In this tract, we are presented with a critical investigation which, although unpretending, discovers a masterly hand. So well is the author's task accomplished, that we are neither willing nor required to criticize the critic; on the contrary, we have ourselves been taking lessons from our able and accomplished brother. Become pupils, then, we lay aside our wonted functions, and shall confine ourselves to the formation of such an abstract and such selections from these attractive pages as shall apprize our readers of their curious and well stated contents. Sir William Cavendish, the fortunate founder of the two noble houses of Devonshire and Newcastle, has been long supposed to be the author of the work which is the subject of the present inquiry: but his possession of that title has not been undisputed. It is denied by the present inquirer; and he ascribes the biography to George Cavendish of Glemsford in the county of Suffolk, an elder brother of Sir William, and who spent a great many years in Cardinal Wolsey's service. In support of this proposition, the author adduces both external and internal evidence. Lord Herbert, in his life of Henry the Eighth, where the first mention of the disputed work occurs, assigns it to George Cavendish: but the author of the life of Sir William Cavendish, in the Biographia Britannica, (who, most probably, was Dr. Campbell,) and Collins, in his Peerage, assert that this must have been a mistake of Lord Herbert, and that the real author was Sir William Cavendish: but they allege not a single proof in favour of either supposition. This renders the point in dispute a question of authority between two modern writers, and one who lived at the time at which the transaction happened. The arguments drawn from internal evidence are that the author of the life of Wolsey in question was hostile to the Reformation, and must have been a Catholic, which description exactly applies to Mr. George Cavendish; while Sir William Cavendish was a zealous Protestant, and actually held the situation of one of the auditors of the Court of Augmentation. The writer of the disputed Life had evidently not been favoured by fortune; for it contains the following remark, which could not well have been made by Sir William Cavendish : "Here," says he, "may all men note the chaunces of fortune that followethe some whome she intendeth to promote, and to some her favor is cleane contrary, though they travaille never so much, with all the painfull diligence that they can devise or imagine: whereof for my part I have tasted of the experience." It is then shewn that this biography of Wolsey was written about the middle of the reign of Queen Mary, the very time in which Sir William Cavendish is known to have been living in great luxury at his mansion of North Aubrey, near Lincoln. The author of the Life having related that the King had submitted to be cited by the two legates, and to appear in person before them to be questioned touching the matter of the divorce, he breaks into this exclamation : "Forsoothe it is a world to consider the desirous will of wilfull princes, when they be set and earnestly bent to have their wills fulfilled, wherein no reasonable persuasions will suffice; and how little they regard the dangerous sequell that may ensue, as well to themselves as to their subjects. And above all things, there is nothing that maketh them more wilfull than carnall love and sensuall affection of voluptuous desire, and pleasures of their bodies, as was in this case; wherein nothing could be of greater experience than to see what inventions were furnished, what lawes were enacted, what costly edifications of noble and auncient monasteries were overthrowne, what diversity of opinions then rose, what executions were then committed, how many noble clerkes and good men were then for the same put to deathe, and what alteration of good, auncient, and holesome lawes, customes, and charitable foundations were tourned from reliefe of the poore, to utter destruction and desolation, almost to the subversion of this noble realme. It is sure too much pitty to heare or understand the things that have since that time chaunced and happened to this region. The profe thereof hath taught us all Englishmen the experience too lamentable of all good men to be considered. If eyes be not blind men may see, if eares be not stopped they may heare, and if pitty be not exiled the inwarde man may lament the sequell of this pernicious and inordinate love. Although it lasted but a while, the plague thereof is not yet ceased, which our Lorde quenche and take his indignation from us! qui peccavimus cum patribus nostris, et injuste egimus !" This passage could scarcely have been penned by a person who was well affected to the Reformation, as Sir William Cavendish unquestionably was; who, as we have observed, held an office which arose out of it, and had been one of the Commissioners for visiting and taking the surrenders of divers religious houses. The present author, in accounting for the great number of manuscripts existing of this disputed work, and for the great length of time which transpired between the period of its being written and that of its being published, observes that scarcely any work of this magnitude, composed after the invention of printing, has been so often transcribed. There is a copy in the cathedral library at York which once belonged to Archbishop Matthew; another very valuable one in the library of the College of Arms, presented to that learned society by Henry Duke of Norfolk; another in Mr. Douce's collection; another in the public library at Cambridge; another in the Bodleian. There are two in Mr. Heber's library; two at Lambeth; two in the British Museum. The reason of this multiplication of copies by the laborious process of transcription seems to have been this: the work was composed in the days of Queen Mary by a zealous Catholic, but not com mitted to the press in her short reign. It contained a very favourable representation of the conduct of a man who was held in but little esteem in the days of her successor, and whom it was then almost traitorous to praise. The conduct of several persons was reflected on who were flourishing themselves, or in their immediate posterity, in the the court of Queen Elizabeth: and it contained also the freest censures of the Reformation, and very strong remarks upon the conduct and character of Anne Boleyn, the Cardinal's great enemy. It is probable that no printer could be found who had so little fear of the Star-Chamber before his eyes as to venture the publication of a work so obnoxious: while such was the gratification which all persons of taste and reading would find in it, from its fidelity, its curious minuteness, its lively details, and above all, from that unaffected air of sweet natural eloquence in which it is composed, that many among them must have been desirous of possessing it. Can we wonder then that so many copies should have been taken between the time when it was written and the year 1641, when it was first sent to the press; or that one of these copies should have found its way into the library of Henry Pierrepoint Marquis of Dorchester, who was an author, and a man of some taste and learning?" We have been sitting down to a grateful repast, and we rise from it reluctantly. At parting, may we take the liberty of requesting that the accomplished author would favour the public with an edition of the work in question, with notes? POLITICS. Art. 30. The Christian Conqueror, or Moscow burnt, and Paris saved. 8vo. Is. 6d. Longman and Co. 1814. A merited compliment to the Emperor Alexander, for his generosity and forbearance in the brilliant hour of victory. The writer calls himself a Country Gentleman: but, from the title which he has given to his hero, and from his liberal quotations from Scripture, we should suspect him to be a clergyman. To the Grand Duchess of Oldenberg, the Emperor of Russia's sister, (lately in London,) this tract is dedicated, and she must be pleased with the following sentence as applied to her brother: The Christian Conqueror of the present day has introduced into the world a new character, which philosophers have delighted to contemplate in the abstract, but have despaired of seeing realized in fact. Art. 31. An Historical View of the Domestic Economy of Great Britain and Ireland, from the earliest to the present Times; with a comparative Estimate of their efficient Strength, arising from their Populosity and Agriculture, their Manufactures and Trade, in every Age. A new Edition, corrected, enlarged, and continued to 1812. By George Chalmers, F.R.S. 8vo. pp. 496. Boards. Longman and Co. 1813. 138. In this edition, Mr. Chalmers brings his useful and valuable work down to the present time. We mentioned it on its first appearance, in our lxviiith Vol., O. S., p. 51. As usual, he triumphs over his opponents in statistics; and he rather broadly insinuates that the errors of some of them are wilful, and maintained with a view to injure their country and embarrass its government. Of his own accurate statements, on the contrary, the motives are most worthy; in publishing them, he had it not in contemplation to secure the favour of men in power, by assisting their designs of increasing the burthens of the people: |