ART. I. 1. The Wife, a Tale of Mantua. A Play in Five Acts. By James Sheridan Knowles. 2. Report from the Select Committee on Dramatic Literature, with the Minutes of Evidence. Or- dered by the House of Commons to be printed, II. Eastern and Egyptian Scenery, Ruins, &c., accom- panied with descriptive Notes, Maps, and Plans, illustrative of a Journey from India to Europe, followed by an Outline of an Overland Route, Statistical Remarks, &c., intended to show the ad- vantage and practicability of Steam Navigation from England to India. By Captain C. F. Head, III 1. Ouvrages de M. Jules Janin. 2. Euvres Completes de Victor Hugo, IV. I. Excursions in India, including a Walk over the Himalaya Mountains to the Sources of the Jumna and the Gaughs. By Captain Thomas Skinner. 2. Pen and Pencil Sketches, from the Journal of a 3. Tours in Upper India, and in Parts of the Hi- malaya Mountains; with Accounts of the Courts V. Characteristics of Goethe. From the German of Falk, von Müller, &c. With Notes, original and translated, illustrative of German Literature. By 281 ART. VII. The Inferno of Dante, translated, by Ichabod Charles IX. Narrative of a Residence at the Court of London. By Richard Rush, Esq. Envoy-Extraordinary, and X. Examen Critique des Travaux de feu M. Cham- pollion sur les Hiéroglyphes, par J. Klaproth, XI. 1. Le mie Prigioni. Memorie di Silvio Pellico, da 2. Memoires de Silvio Pellico; traduits de l'Italien, et précédés d'une Notice Biographique, par A de Latour, et augmentés de Notes, par P. Maroncelli. XII. Chansons Nouvelles et Dernières, de P. J. de Ber- anger. Dédiées à M. Lucien Buonaparte, XIII. 1. Rapport sur l'état de l'Instruction Publique dans quelques pays de l'Allemagne, et particulièrement en Prusse. Par M. Victor Cousin, Conseiller d'Etat, Professeur de Philosophie, Membre de 2. Exposé des Motifs et Projet de Loi sur l'Instruc- tion primaire, préséntes à la Chambre des Dé. THE EDINBURGH REVIEW. APRIL, 1833. No. CXV. ART. I.-1. John Hopkins's Notions of Political Economy. By the Author of Conversations on Political Economy. London: 1833. 8vo. 2. Illustrations of Political Economy. By Harriet Martineau. (The first Thirteen Numbers.) 12mo. London: 1832. W OMEN have long reigned supreme over both the learning and practice of domestic economy. They are the proper legislators for, as well as ministers of, the interior. But the province of Political Economy, although it may begin with home, is so vast and complicated, that these two departments cannot have much in common beyond the approximation of a name. There is one point of view, however, in which women may be said to have an honourable and preeminent interest in this latter subject. If they do not rejoice with those that rejoice more than we do, they far surpass us in the nobler office of mourning with those who mourn. The science, therefore, may properly be recommended to them from its intimate connexion with the protection and comfort of the poor. This recommendation is by no means inconsistent with a horror of the Amazons of politics. The less women usually meddle with any thing which can be called public life out of their village, we are sure the better for all parties. A deep sympathy with the precarious situation of their poorer neighbours, and an active benevolence in relieving the distressed, and in encouraging the virtuous, furnish them with a circle wide enough. These are cares which may well satisfy any reasonable personal ambition; while they are identified with the best ornaments of the female character, and the real out of door duties of female life. For the due per VOL. LVII. NO. CXV, A formance of these duties, a certain kind of knowledge, however, (and more especially in the present state of society,) is quite as necessary as tenderness and zeal. This knowledge it is the business of Political Economy to supply. If Political Economy is a new faith, yet, thus considered, it is one which may naturally look for an attentive hearing from the enlightened portion of the sex. Accordingly, the point is already passed of public congratulation on the accession of female converts. Popular priestesses have arisen. And they have fortunately undertaken to preach the practical truths and blessings of the science, rather than its mysteries and creed. Mrs Marcet has resumed her valuable labours in the unpretending little volume which heads our article. It is delightfully written, and is admirably adapted, by plain straightforward sense, for its virtuous purpose-the improvement of the labouring classes. It is intended to do for the uneducated generally, what her wellknown 'Conversations on Political Economy' had before done (and most successfully) for young and controversy-hating students. The other work, whose title we have also prefixed, and into whose characteristic qualities we shall enter more at length, is still more extraordinary, from the singular boldness of its experiment, and the variety of talent displayed in the execution. From the Conversations on Political Economy,' by Mrs Marcet, it may appear only a step to have passed on to its Il'lustrations' by Miss Martineau. But the step was a trying one; and every thing depended on the ability with which it might be made. There is something so striking in the attempt to combine a portion of the attainments of Mrs Marcet with the scenic liveliness, and with more than the fancy and feeling of Miss Edgeworth, that we do not well know which to admire most,the originality and venturesomeness of the first conception, or the self-reliance with which, under considerable discouragement, she persisted in her scheme. She does not affect to have made a single discovery. We think, indeed, that she has much to learn and reconsider. But she has already made, by a previously undreamed-of route, a brilliant progress towards the rescue of her beloved science-the science of Adam Smithfrom the cloud which some persons have thought was gathering over its condition and its fate. There are practical men who delighted to spread the rumour that it had died outright in the cavern of obscure abstractions: whilst firmer and more philosophical believers in its vitality, were compelled to bitterly lament that its nature as a science of facts, as well as of reasoning, was often almost forgotten. The complaint had become general, that its modern course was too much intrusted to a thread of |