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We trust our readers will deem our sense of cient time to reap a rich harvest. Their the value of this work founded on truth; works may be compared to the efferand yet we have not laid before their eyes vescence produced by the union of an acid the most interesting parts, which were with an earth; his to the brilliant, regular, mostly too long to be inserted in a re- and solid crystals, which result from that view, and too excellent to be curtailed.- unien when a certain period has been sufThe fear of being accused of partiality ||fered to elapse. His style is florid, but not cannot actuate those who are totally unac- luxuriant; simple, when describing simquainted with the author of the book ple objects; strong and animated, when which they praise, and who speak nothing|| painting the sublime landscapes of nature, but the real sentiments to which its merits || the wilds of North-America, the cataracts gave birth. We, therefore, pronounce the of its majestic rivers, or the character of Travels through the Canadas, the best work its uncivilised inhabitants, and the works of this nature, in our opinion, which has of the Europeans, and of those who have for many years appeared to increase the submitted to their yoke. Mr. Heriot's restores of knowledge. It is far superior to marks are just, opportune, and true; and all the tours published by our modern the numerous and elegant engravings, with travellers; it is not a collection of notes which his book is strewed, and the designs hastily taken, uncouth, unimportant in of which he supplied, as well as the map themselves, and dressed in the most com- of the Canadas which accompany them, mon-place language, it is a treasure of in- || do him the greatest honour as an artist. formation laboriously acquired, not superficial but deep, not heaped up with a miserly care, but generously laid open to the public, and displayed to the greatest advantage. Our author, unlike the generality of tourists, has not skimmed over his subject; he has allowed observation a suffi

We should sincerely rejoice, did any future work of Mr. Heriot give us a new opportunity of fulfilling the most pleasant duty of an impartial reviewer, that of doing justice, and granting a due tribute of praise to real merit.

LETTERS FROM ENGLAND.

Translated

ART. VI.-Letters from England, by Don Manuel Alvarez Espriella.
from the Spanish. In Three vols. 12mo. Pp. 1100. Longman and Co.

We have attentively perused these well-written, instructive, and amusing volumes, of which we shall give an impartial account, with specimens selected so as to enable the reader to judge for himself whether the work does not merit his further consideration. No reviewing critic has any right to give a scope to his own opinions, and to endeavour to appear as an original writer, and nothing can more display the difference between the real man of letters and the shallow pretender, than the manner in which this task i. performed.

In the fourth number of Dr. Aikin's Athenæum, is a paper on Reviews, to which we beg leave to refer, as containing rules for criticism, which appear to us well

worthy of attention, One of these rules is :-" The critic ought to be entirely ignorant of the author who comes before him, except so far as he is an author, or makes known his profession and designation in his title-page, and he should never, on the strongest ground of popular report, assign a work to a writer who has not avowed it. If he does not prefix his name, he has, probably, a good reason for not doing it, and the reviewer has no right to violate his secret."

We are so well satisfied of the truth and propriety of all the rules for criticism given in the above-mentioned essay, that we shall always endeavour to follow them. Accordingly we do not hesitate to assert that this

book was not written by a Spaniard: and this assertion is founded on the internal evidence of the book itself, as well as on our knowledge of the slender talents for such observations as are therein made, and for writing, which the Spaniards possess. The title might with more accuracy have been "Letters from an Englishman in London to his countryman abroad." For we believe that none but an Englishman could have made such remarks, and that no foreigner can perfectly understand them. After saying thus much, it would be ridiculous to cavil at the name of Espriella, which is no wise Spanish, no more than Don Juan Bull. This work will probably be re-printed, and we shall then be pleased to see a new title without an untruth, for which there is not the smallest occasion.

We shall now commence our relation of the contents of these volumes. The first contains twenty-six Letters, of which six describe the journey from Falmouth to London through Truro, Exeter, Dorchester, and Salisbury; the remaining twenty are all from London.

As the style is perfectly correct, and bears evident marks of being that of an experienced scholar, there is no need of our making long quotations merely as specimens of that style, so that we shall select only such as may entertain and inform our readers, and inspire them with a desire to

read the whole work, These extracts are of course unconnected, and being, individually short, may be considered as a small part of an argumentative index.

The first letter is dated April 1802. The heath which extends, with casual interruptions, from Bagshot to Egham, not less than fourteen miles, is crossed.

"Nothing but wild sheep, that run as Acetly as hounds, are scattered over this dreary desert; flesh there is none on these wretched creatures; but those who are only half-starved on the heath, produce good meat when fatted; all the flesh, and all the fat being laid on, as graziers speak, anew, it is equivalent in tenderness to lamb, and in flavour to mutton, and has fame accordingly in the metropolis.

"At Stainės we crossed the Thames, not by

a new bridge, now for the third time built, but over a crazy wooden one above a century old. The river here divides the two counties of Middlesex and Surrey; and the magistrates

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having agreed upon the necessity of building a bridge, did not agree exactly as to its situa tion; each collected materials for building a half bridge from its respective bank, but ot opposite to the other."

We must refer to the book for the remainder of the history of this missed 'bridge, as well as for what our author says about iron bridges, especially of the great Sunderland bridge, of which the span is 23,6 feet, and the height 100. The account ends thus:

"It is curious that this execrable improvement, as every novelty is called in England, should have been introduced by the notorious politician, Paine, who came ove: from America, show upon the dry ground in London. upon this speculation, and exhibited one as a

"The country on the Lond on side of Staines has once been a forest; but has now no other which, according to the barbarous custom of wood remaining than a few gibbets, on one of this country, a criminal was hanging in chains."

The hint of the expression about woods, occurred a few years ago. A house and is probably taken from a circumstance that grounds were advertised to be sold, with a hanging wood, pompously set forth. A person who wished to purchase them, went to view the premises, but could not find the wood. On applying to the auctioneer, the answer was, "My dear Sir, be calm, you must have overlooked that inestimable

little jewel the gallows, on the north side of the paddock; and if that is not a hanging wood, I don't know what is."

Don Manuel arrives in London, and of St. Paul's church, says,

"The sight of this truly noble building rather provoked than pleased me-unless another conflagration should lay London in ashes, the Londoners will never fairly see their own cathedral. Except St. Peter's (at Rome), here is beyoud comparison the finest temple in Christendom, and it is even more ridiculously misplaced than the bridge of Segovia (at Madrid) appears, when the mules have drank up the Mancanares."

This is an unbecoming remark før a Spaniard; he must have known that the little river above-mentioned, is in summer almost dry, but in winter is very much swollen by the melting of the snows, and by the almost unceasing rains during five or six weeks in the months of November and

December. He has omitted the standing joke about selling the bridge to buy water. On the proclamation of the peace in April, 1802, the Don observes,

"The theory of the ceremony, for this ceremony, like an English suit at law, is

founded on a fiction, is, that the Lord Mayor of London, and the people of London, good people! being wholly ignorant of what has been going on, the King sends officially to acquaint them that he has made peace; accordingly the gates at Temple-bar, which divide London and Westminster, and which stand open day and night, are on this occasion closed; and Garter, king at arms, with all his heraldic peers, rides up to them, aud knocks loudly for admittance. The Lord Mayor, mounted on a charger, is ready on the other side to demand who is there. King Garter

then announces himself and his errand, and requires permission to pass and proclaim the good news; upon which the gates are thrown open. The poorest brotherhood in Spain makes a better procession on its festival.

"A very remarkable accident took place in our sight. A man on the top of a church was leaning against one of the stone urns which ornament the balustrade; it fell, and crushed a person below. A Turk might relate this story in proof of predestination."

| beheld them, from enjoying the twinkling light of halfpenny candles scattered in the windows of London, or the crowns and regal cyphers which here and there manifest the zeal, the interest, or the emulation of individuals."

On extraordinary occasions not only the cupola of St. Peter's, but also the whole front, of rockets are let off from the castle of Saint and the colonade are illuminated. Thousands Angelo, and towards the conclusion, the whole area of the castle casts forth fountains of fire, as if from the mouth of a volcano, and the reflection of these fire-works on the river Tiber, on the banks of which the castle is situated, is inexpressibly beautiful, especially to the spectators on the bridge.

The whole of the ninth letter is an ac

count of the execution of Governor Wall; from which we shall only mention that

"The joy of the mob at seeing him appear on the scaffold was so great, that they set up three huzzas, an instance of ferocity which had never occurred before. The miserable man, quite overcome by this, begged the hangman to hasten his work. When he was turned off, they began their huzzas again; but instead of proceeding to three distinct shouts, they stopped at the first. The feeling which at one moment struck so many thousands, repressed their acclamations at once, and awed object of their hatred in the act and agony of them into a dead silence when they saw the death, is surely as honourable to the popular character as any trait which has been recorded of any people, in any age or country."

This was the New Church, in the Strand; the young man who was killed had, in compliance with the request of his mother, promised her he would not enter into the crowd, and accordingly took his station in the church-yard. The story might probably have been told by other species of religion-proofs of fate.

ists besides Turks.

"The inscription on the transparencies at M. Otto's house in Portman-square, on the illumination night, was at first, Peace and Concord; but a party of sailors in the morning, whose honest patriotism did not regard trifling differences of orthography, insisted upon it that they were not conquered, and that no Frenchman should say so; and so the word Amity, which can hardly be regarded as English, was substituted in its stead.

“Illuminations are better managed at Rome. Imagine the vast dome of St. Peter's covered with large lamps, so arranged as to display its fine form; those lamps all kindled at the same minute, and the whole dome emerging, as it were from total darkness, in one blaze of light. This, and the fire-works from St. Angelo, which from their grandeur, admit of no adequate description, prevent those persons who have Supplement. Vol. III.

stances mentioned in this letter as additional A Turk might relate several circum

The tenth letter is on martial law, wherein the author says:

"The martial laws of England are the most barbarous which at this day exist in Europe. The offender is sometimes sentenced to receive a thousand lashes;-a surgeon stands by to feel his pulse during the execution, and determine how long the flogging can be continued without killing him. When human nature can sustain no more, he is remanded to prison; his wound, for from the shoulders to the loins it leaves him one wound, is dressed, and as soon as it is sufficiently healed to be laid open again in the same manner, he is brought out to undergo the remainder of his sentence. And this is repeatedly and openly practised in a country, where they read in their churches, and in their houses, that Bible, in their own language, which saith, forty stripes may the judge inflict on the offender and not exceed." G

We hope and believe this account is exaggerated. Saint Pauls says, " of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one." At Berlin, Dresden, the Hague, and other parts of the continent, one of the military punishments used to be, for the offender to run the gautlet. We shall give some account of an execution of this sort inflicted in one of the capitals of the northern continent, on a soldier who had deserted three times. After he had heard his sentence, it was left to his option to undergo it, or to be shot. He preferred the former; accordingly he was brought into the field, where three hundred and fifty soldiers were placed in two ranks facing each other. A man then walked between them from one end to the other, with a bundle of osier twigs under each arm, from which every soldier drew one; these switches were as thick as a goosequill, tapering to a point, and two feet in length; none longer, lest they might cut into the belly of the criminal. The deserter was to walk six times up, and six times down between the ranks, which would make the number of stripes 4200; behind every ten men, an officer attended to see that every man did his duty, and the commander, on horseback, superintended the whole.

At starting the criminal had a small glass of brandy given him, which he drank, and three or four leaden bullets were put into his mouth to chew, that he might not bite off his tongue; an armed soldier marched before him. After having walked three times up and down the ranks, which he did in eight minutes, his shoulderblades and back-bone were quite bare, he had then received two thousand one hundred lashes; he did not utter the least ery; brandy and fresh bullets were given him at the end of each walk, as he had ground the first lead to pieces, which kept dropping from his foaming mouth. He bore the whole with the firmness of a savage under torture. His face was as horribly expressive as can be imagined. He was then unable to proceed, and what became of him we know not, he had only suffered half his first day's sentence, and was to rcceive the same number of stripes the next day, which it would appear could not have been inflicted, because in such a terrible

situation he would not be able to turn himself in bed where he probably laid several months on his belly.

After all these tortures, if he survived them, he was to be chained by the leg to a wheelbarrow for six years, and work at the fortifications.

The twelfth letter is on the ministry, and on Catholic emancipation. The thirteenth on dress.

"The clergy are generally known by a huge and hideous wig, once considered to be as necessary a covering for a learned head as an ivybush is for an owl, but which even physicians have now discarded, and left only to schoolmasters and doctors in divinity.

"The dress of English women is perfect, as far as it goes; it leaves nothing to be wished, except that there might be a little more of

it."

The sixteenth letter contains some curious anecdotes about informers. The eighteenth is about Drury-lane theatre, and “their two most celebrated performers, Kemble, and his sister Mrs. Siddons." An analysis of the Winter's Tale is also given.

The nineteenth and twentieth relate to the church service. We recommend them both to the reader's perusal, and shall only

make two short extracts. The first is:

"The church festivals, however, are not entirely unobserved; though the English will not pray, they will cat; and accordingly they have particular dainties for all the great holydays. On Shrove-Tuesday they eat what they call pan-cakes. For mid-leat Sunday they have large plum-cakes, crusted with sugar like snow. For Good-Friday, hot buns marked with a cross, for breakfast; the only relic of religion remaining among all their customs. These buns will keep for ever without becoming mouldy, by virtue of the holy sign impressed upon them. On the feast of St. Michael the archangel, every body must eat goose for dinner; and on the nativity, turkey, with what they call Christmas pies. They have the cakes again on the festival of the kings."

The other extracts now follow.

"During the last generation, it was the ambition of those persons in the lower ranks of society who were just above the peasantry, to make one of their sons a clergyman, if they fancied he had a talent for learning. But times have changed, and the situation of a clergyman who has no family interest is too unpromising to be any longer an object of envy,

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They who would formerly have adventured in the church, now become commercial adventurers; in consequence commerce is now far more overstocked with adventurers than ever the church has been, and men are starving as clerks instead of as curates. The master of one of the free grainmar-schools, who, twenty years ago, used to be seeking what they call curacies for his scholars, had always many more expectants than he could supply with churches, has now applications for five curates, and cannot find one to accept the situation. On the contrary, a person in this great city, advertised lately for a clerk; the salary was by no means large, nor was the situation in other respects particularly desirable; yet he had no fewer than ninety applicants."

it. For, if the old silver were permitted to be current only for a week after the new is issued, all the new would be ground smooth and reissued in the same state as the old, as has been done with all the silver of the two last reigus. And if any temporary medium were substituted till the old money could be called in, that also would be immediately counterfeited. You can have no conception of the ingenuity; the activity, and the indefatigable watchfulness of roguery in England."

The author proposes

an easy and effectual mode of preventing the repetition of forgery, by amputating the thumb." And for preventing the forging of bank

notes:

"There should in every bill be two engrav The twenty-first letter enumerates ings, the one copper, the other in wood, each flower-fanciers, pigeon-fanciers, butterfly-executed by the best artist in his respective breeders, collectors of Queen Anne's far-branch." things, seckers of male tortoise-shell cats:

"Some person has just given notice that he is in possession of such a curiosity, and offers to treat with the virtuosi for the sale of this rara avis, as he literally calls it They call the male cats in this country Thomas, and the male asses either Edward or John.

"The passion for old china is confined to old women. The wiser sort of collectors go upon the maxim of having something of every thing, and every thing of something. Medals, minerals, shells, tradesmen's copper tokens, play-bills, tea-pots, specimens of every kind of old and modern wigs, visiting cards, &c."

Most of these articles are mentioned with anecdotes of the collectors, for which we must refer to the letter, which likewise records book and print-fanciers, not with any view to literature, or the acquisition of knowledge, but solely as curiosities.

"The king of collectors is a gentleman, who with great pains and expense procures the halters which have been used at executions; these he arranges round his museum in chronological order, labelling each with the name of the criminal to whom it belonged, the history of his offence, and the time and place of his execution. In the true spirit of virtú, he ought to hang himself, and leave his own halter to complete the collection.

The next letter treats of coins, paper currency, and forgery. After stating the badness of the shillings and sixpences in circulation, the writer says, that although

"A new coinage of silver has been wanted, and called for time out of mind, the exceeding difficulty attending the measure still prevents

We must again refer to the letter.

The remaining three letters, which conclude the volume, are on Westminster Abbey; on names; on hunting, and shooting; and on the poor-laws. They contain numerous observations, which instruct as well as entertain. Mention is made of

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an irreverent species of wit," which has been indulged in naming children. person named Ball, christened his three sous, Pistol, Musket, and Cannon; and another, having an illegitimate boy, baptized him Nebuchadnezzar, because he was to be sent to grass, that is, nursed by a poor woman in the country.

The second volume contains likewise twenty-six letters, the first of which relates to St. Paul's. In the second letter, is the following account of the "Re-establishment of the monastic orders in England," which we shall transcribe.

"There are at this time five Catholic col

leges in England and two in Scotland, and twelve schools and academies for the instruc tion of boys. Eleven schools for females, besides what separate ones are kept by the English Benedictine nuas from Dunkirk. The nuns from Bruges. The nuus from Liege. The Augustinian nuns from Louvain. The English Benedictine nuus from Cambray. The Benedictine nuns from Ghent. Those of the same order from Montargis. And the Dominican nuus from Brussels. In all these communities the rules of the respective orders are observed, and novices are admitted; they are convents as well as schools. The poor Classes have four establishments, in which only

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