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myself with a general list of my authorities which will be found at the end of the volume.' Preface, p. vi.

As we have paid due attention to most of the authors on whom Miss Hutton has levied contributions, our remarks on her work will be few. In addition, however, to what we ventured to hint as to her plan, we would remark that no possible advantage has been gained by supposing an imaginary traveller, who relates as the fruit of his own observation the various contents of her volumes. The slightest reflection must convince every reader that to no human traveller, endued only with human powers, and possessing no more than a hunian frame, it would have been permitted to have traversed Africa in so many different directions, and to have remained long enough at each place to note down all that was most interesting or remarkable. The illusion is not for a moment created; and the work would have afforded equal entertainment, had it been announced only as what it really is,a compilation.As to the omission of her authorities in the margin, she seems inclined to think that they would destroy the idea of an imaginary traveller: but we must refer her to the Abbé Barthélémy's Anacharsis, where a profusion of citations occurs in every page; and we have never yet heard that, among the numerous admirers of that work, its charms suffered the slightest diminution from this circumstance.

With regard to the substance of these volumes, we observe that the account of Howakil and Amphila Bays, the journey to Tigre, Chelicut, and the eastern coast of Africa as far as the bay of De l'Agoa in the second volume, are taken from Salt: -the bay of De l'Agoa, from Captain White: -southern Africa, from Kolben, Sparrman, Patterson, Thunberg, Van Reenen, Barrow, Lichtenstein, and Campbell:- Benguela and Angola, from Churchill's Collection Congo, from Churchill and Captain Tuckey: the River Gabon, from Bowdich: Benin, from Barbot and Van Nyendael:- Dahomy, from Snelgrave, Norris, Dalzel, and Description de la Nigritie: Ashantee, from Bowdich: the Gold coast, from Bosman and Meredith:- the Kroomen, from Ludlam

Sierra Leone, from Golberry and Winterbottom.

:

In the third volume, Sego is taken from Park and Isaaco. From Park, also, are derived the Faloops, Walli, Bondou, Silla, Voyage down the Niger, and the return thence to the Gambia. Mollien, Golberry, Jackson, Riley, Chenier, Lempriere, Ali Bey, Dr. Shaw, Bruce, Mrs. Tully, and Captain Lyon, are the principal contributors to the rest of its contents.

Justice requires us to state that the compilation has been well executed; and, furnishing, as it does, to the curiosity of those who are anxious for information concerning the vast regions of Africa, materials drawn from the most accredited sources, no doubt can be entertained of its utility as a work of instruction. While, also, the range and diversity of its topics enable it to blend so much amusement with that instruction, it must be deemed highly auxiliary to the great cause of African research, and the grand and dignified objects connected with it. For these reasons, we strongly recommend it to the favor and patronage of the public.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Art. 21. Letters illustrative of Italian Scenery and Antiquities, suggested during a Tour on the Continent, performed in the Summer of 1817. Crown 8vo. pp. 101. Printed by Ellerton and Henderson.

We must literally cry out for quarter under the unceasing ins fliction of Italian tours.

"Quis leget hæc? Min' tu istud ais? Nemo, hercule;

Vel duo, vel Nemo."

The publication now before us appears in the shape of letters under the signature of R. C. M. What personage lurks under the obscurity of these initials, we know not: but that our readers may not suppose the acquisition of his work to be an absolute sine qua non as an accompaniment on their Italian excursions, we make the ensuing extract from Letter the Third, to exemplify the plenitude of information imparted by this traveller concerning the places which he visited.

On Saturday the 9th of August we quited Turin.

At Dusino, over one of the gates, is a balcony remarkably well executed in fresco.

Asti, one of the principal towns of Monferrat, is incommoded by narrow streets, and the inhabitants appeared to be very poor.

'Alessandria, celebrated for the number of sieges which it has sustained, is situated on the Tanaro. The citadel is considered one of the best in Italy, and was much improved by Napoleon; the bridge leading to it from the city is peculiar in its construction; and the ditches belonging to the fortifications are filled by means of machinery. We here witnessed the melancholy spectacle of six hundred men, deserters and banditti, returning from their work, heavily chained, and under a strong military escort.

Marengo, so celebrated for the bloody engagement in 1800, which decided the fate of Lombardy, is two miles distant. The plain had the appearance of having recently been waste land, but it is now brought into cultivation. Novi, the first town of Liguria, situated in a plain at the foot of the Appennines, is on this route.

At Voltaggio is the castle of Gavi, occupying the summit of a rocky hill, and commanding the defile. We crossed the Molinario, a high, fertile, and well-wooded hill. From Voltaggio we passed the Bocchette, which is one of the bulwarks of Genoa, and the top of it presents a most delightful view of that city and the Mediterranean.

Here we

Campo Marone is only one stage from Genoa. crossed the Polcevera. About half a mile on this side the gate of Genoa, is the village of San Pier d'Arena, which is beautifully adorned with buildings, the fronts of which are painted in fresco.'

The travellers hired an Italian felucca at Genoa, in order to proceed by water to Leghorn, and were much disturbed by the fleas; an event which is thus described.

In a few hours the fleas, which from time immemorial had been allowed the undisturbed possession of the inside of the mattrasses, commenced a nocturnal attack upon us; and neither eau

de

de Cologne nor essence of lavender, with which we made copious libations, availed entirely to put them to flight. Imagine our situation, crowded in a small boat, with a number of dirty Italians, and assailed by a host of vermin. We awoke the padrone, or captain of the vessel, and loudly demanded how long a time would elapse before we should reach Leghorn: he replied, that it would probably be a week, if the wind did not change, as we had been driven back five leagues by contrary winds.'

Art. 22. Two Voyages to New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land; with a Description of the present Condition of that interesting Colony: including Facts and Observations relative to the State and Management of Convicts of both Sexes; &c. By Thomas Reid, Surgeon in the Royal Navy. 8vo. pp. 400. 12s. Boards. Longman and Co. 1822.

The reflecting part of the public has lately witnessed, with much satisfaction, the efforts of numerous benevolent individuals to improve the state of prisons and the morals of prisoners; as also the inquiries which have been made respecting the condition of our crime-colony in New South Wales, and the treatment of convicts on their passage thither. To all such persons we recommend Mr. Reid's publication, as interesting and informing. Its chief purport is to detail the transactions on his passage in the two voyages mentioned in the title, when he was surgeon of the convict-ships, Neptune and Morley; and when he not merely performed the part of a kind, skilful, and a vigilant medical attendant, but also exercised the functions of a moral adviser and religious instructor, with uncommon perseverance, activity, and (we may add) ability. In these points of view, the work is really a curious narrative, and, as already intimated, must be very interesting to all whom the subject itself can attract.

We are sorry to add that in Chap. iv. On the manner of disposing of Convicts, after their arrival at Sydney, Mr.Reid exhibits a shocking statement of the management of affairs there; fully confirming a number of preceding similar accounts, particularly the representations of Mr. Grey Bennet; and lamentably proving that all such extraordinary exertions as those of the author himself, to reclaim the convicts while on their passage out, must be immediately frustrated by their treatment when landed. We hope that the whole of this subject, including the question itself whether any convicts shall in future be sent to this Antipodean exile, will undergo the serious investigation which, according to report, is about to be allotted to it, or has been already commenced.

Art. 23. Memoirs of the Life and Trial of James Mackcoull of Moffat, who died in the County Jail of Edinburgh, 22d Dec. 1820; containing a full Account of his Trial before the JuryCourt, and High-Court of Justiciary, at Edinburgh, for robbing the Branch of the Paisley Union Bank at Glasgow of Twenty Thousand Pounds. Illustrated with Notes, Anecdotes, and a Portrait. With an Appendix, containing Mr. Denovan's Journal from Glasgow to London in trace of the Robbery, and other curious Papers. 8vo. pp. 317. 8s. 6d. Boards. Edinburgh, Anderson; London, Longman and Co. 1822.

Fielding's

Fielding's Life of Jonathan Wild the Great, which we should have imagined to be almost forgotten, seems lately to have been very influential in prompting book-makers to compile the memoirs and detail the exploits of highwaymen, housebreakers, footpads, swindlers, murderers, and all the tribe of wretches who live by plundering their fellow creatures, outraging the laws of God and man, debasing the faculties which have been allotted to us, and, "as far as in them lies," rendering our common nature almost odious and disgraceful. Gifted, however, as Fielding was, he made the life of Wild a most entertaining and humorous story, while he laid open the practices of the villains of his day, on information for which he probably was indebted to his office as an active Middlesex magistrate: but the details of modern rogues neither exhibit the humor nor convey the information which characterized Fielding's work; and we cannot account for the welcome and the importance lately given to such publications, nor perceive their utility. Indeed, we are more inclined to think that they tend rather to corrupt by the incitement of example than to deter by the warning of punishment, or to benefit by the exposure of artifice.

We have now before us another of these Records of Rascality, forming a goodly octavo volume, handsomely printed; and to those who really have a taste for such details, or who have been involuntarily acquainted with the hero of them, we suppose the account may be welcome. Taste is indeed infinite in its variety, and in its love of change; and we actually did once know a lady, who borrowed from a neighbour his volumes of Session-papers, or reports of trials at the Old Bailey, (of which he had an almost unique collection,) that she might enjoy the pleasure of perusing, seriatim, all the accounts of robbery, rape, manslaughter, murder, &c. &c. with which their choice pages are luxuriously filled. Were she living, we certainly would present her with our copy of the present Memoirs.

The prefixed portrait of this scoundrel is finally characteristic, of his nature and habits. His name underneath it might be changed from Mac Koull to Mac Scowl.

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CORRESPONDENCE.

Quiz' will not do. He may punningly but not justly call himself laudably inquisitive,' and will not get from us "the secrets of the prison-house.'

Veritas' may depend on the accuracy of the statement which has excited his attention in the article in question, and we think that he cannot dispute the validity of the inference.

Un étranger' will obtain the information which he desires, in our approaching APPENDIX, to be published on the 1st of October, with the Number for September.

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8vo.

Paris.

ART. I. De la Peine de Mort, &c.; i. e. On the Punishment of Death for Political Offences. By F. Guizor. 1822. Imported by Treuttel and Co.

Price 6s.

FEW NEW men in France enjoy a higher reputation as political writers than M. Guizor, or more truly deserve it. His first work, "On the Government of France since the Restoration," was received with the loudest praises, and is said to have produced a great effect on the public mind: so much that even the fall of the ministry is reported to have been hastened by its appearance. Since that time, he has given to the world two other political tracts besides the present, which will not detract from his fame. We do not remember, indeed, to have met with a book which threw more light on an extensive and difficult subject, examined it with sounder argument, or illustrated it with greater ingenuity; and we feel more particularly alive to its merits, after having been fatigued with the laborious errors and petty triflings of some late writers on similar subjects, from whom it is a great relief to turn to the enlightened principles and excellent feelings in which M. GUIZOT's treatise abounds. If we were inclined to make any observations of a different nature on the spirit in which it is written, we should perhaps say that it occasionally displays a little too much of a temporizing policy, though we question whether it may not be calculated on that very acAPP. REV. VOL. XCVIII.

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