same errors.

a

liable to be excessively provoked when your partner does Forty-Five, upon which both were alike well prepared not succeed in discovering your object in making a good to speak. A thousand delightful recollections then move, and so fails to co-operate with you,--and also rushed upon the minds of the two friends, and, in the when he makes any serious blunder ; you feel mortified rising tide of ancient feeling, all distinction of borrower and vexed, too, when you yourself are guilty of the and lender was soon lost. Pitcalnie watched the time

As in whist, or any other plural game, when Grant was fully mellowed by the conversation, to the effect of chess en quatre is of course greatly height, bring in a few compliments upon his (Grant's) own par. ened, by each gentleman having for a partner a young ticular achievements. He expatiated upon the bravery lady. Besides rendering the game quite delightful, which his friend had shown at Preston, where he was they effectually prevent any unpleasant irritation which the first man to go up to the cannon; on which account, | might otherwise arise. But with whomsoever you play, he made out that the whole victory, so influential upon

it is very necessary to keep in mind the golden rule the Prince's affairs, was owing to no other than Col. of chess, -". Keep your temper ; and if you cannot gain quhoun Grant, now writer to the signet, Gavinloch's a victory over your adversary, gain one over yourself.” land, Lawnmarket, Edinburgh. He also adverted to

A. M. the boldness Mc Grant had displayed in chasing a band Dundee.

of recreant dragoons from the field of battle up to the very gates of Edinburgh Castle ; and further, upon the

dexterity which he subsequently displayed in maCOLQUHOUN GRANT.

king his escape from the town. “ Bide a wee," said

Mr Grant, at this stage of the conversation, “till I gang A JACOBITE ANECDOTE.

ben the house." He immediately returned with the By the Author of the “ Histories of the Scottish Re- sum Pitcalnie wanted, which he said he now recollected bellions," fic.

having left over for some time in the shottles of his pri.

vate desk. Pitcalnie took the money, continued the COLQUHOUN GRANT, who, when a young man, had conversation for some time longer, and then took an signalized himself in the army of Prince Charles, after. opportunity of departing. When he came back to his

wards settled down into the cool and decorous citizen. friends, every one eagerly asked, “ What success ?"| As one of the numerous and respectable class of Writers Why, there's the money," said he ; " where are my | to the Signet, he is said to have exerted the pen to as bets ?"_“ Incredible !" every one exclaimed ; “how, good effect as he had formerly played the sword ; and in the name of wonder, did you get it out of him ? Did in advanced age, he was noted as a man who both knew ye cast glamour in his een ?"_Pitcalnie explained the how to acquire money, and how to preserve it when it plan he had taken with his friend ; adding, with an ex. was acquired. There is something melancholy, and not pressive wink, “This forty's made out o' the battle of altogether agrecable, in the idea, that the same mind Preston ; but stay a wee, lads ; I've Fa'kirk i' my which had been filled with chivalrous fervour in the pouch yet--by my faith, I wadna gie it for auchty!" brilliant campaign of 1745, should have subsequently devoted its glowing energies to the composition of lawpapers, and the acquisition of filthy lucre. Yet, that

LETTERS FROM LONDON. he never became altogether insensible to the enthusiasm which excited his youth, seems to be proved by the fol

No. VIII.* lowing anecdote. Mr Ross of Pitcalnie, representative of the ancient hibition is sufficiently creditable to British artists; but

TAE Suffolk-street Gallery has opened, and the ex. and noble family of Ross, had, like Colquhoun Grant, it does not display any picture so pre-eminent in merit been out in the Forty-Five, and consequently lived on

as to make it a matter of conscience with me to attempt terms of intimate friendship with that gentleman. Pit. calnic, however, had rather devoted himself to the dissiall the productions, typographical or pictorial, that

a delineation of its beauties for your gratification. Of pation than the acquisition of a fortune ; and while Mr have of late made their appearance upon town, none has Grant lived as a wealthy writer, he enjoyed little better given such a jog to my humours as the political caricathan the character of a broken laird. This unfortunate Jacobite was one day in great distress, for want of the conception and execution. Among the best are the fu.

Some of them are exceedingly happy, both in sum of forty pounds, which he could not prevail upon neral obsequies of the Constitution—the Burking of any of his friends to lend to him, all of them being aware of his execrable character as a debtor. At length he of Wellington and ihe Earl of Eldon, both arrayed in

do.--and an objurgatory dialogue betweeen the Duke informed some of his companions that he believed he the garb, and using the gesticulation, of fish-women; should get what he wanted from Colquhoun Grant; and the likenesses of these noble personages being well prehe instantly proposed to make the attempt. All who served. Indeed, there is no resemblance of the hero of heard him scoffed at the idea of his squeezing a subsidy Waterloo extant upon paper, at least none that I have from so close-fisted a min, and some even offered to lay bets against its possibility. Mr Ross accepted the bets, the inan as is given in the caricatures. of Mr Peel, all

ever seen, which presents so accurate a portraiture of and lost no time in applying to his old brother-in-arms, the prints and portraits, serious or comic, with which whom he found immured in his chambers, half a dozen the public have been favoured, are as little like as may flights of steps up Gavinloch's land, in the Lawnmarket. be to the original. The engraving from the picture of The conversation commenced with the regular common. places, and for a long time Pitcalnie gave no hint that Sir Thomas Lawrence is a flattering deception. By the hinted the necessity under which he lay for a trifle of Earl of Eldon, though almost, if not altogether, an oche was suing in forma pauperis. At length he slightly way, the great men of the day have few or none of the

supposed outward and visible signs of aristocracy. John, money, and made bold to ask if Mr Grant could help togenarian, is more dignified in his habiliments than him in a professional way. “ What a pity, Pitcalnie, replied the writer, “ you did not apply yesterday ! I sent is, out and out, a fine old Englishman. God has

the majority of his mates in the House of Peers. He all the loose money I had to the bank just this forenoon.

The It is, for the present, quite beyond redemption.”—“Oh,” Duke of Wellington evinces a partiality towards a cer.

“ honesty" upon his venerable brow. no matter," said Pitcalnie, and continued the conversa. tion, as if no such request had been preferred. By and tain pedestrian convenience for which I cannot account by, after some more topics of an ordinary sort had been discussed, he at length introduced the old subject of the erroneously printed No. VIII.

tures.

LITERARY CHIT-CHAT AND VARIETIES. of getting it up exceeded £1500. It closes with an " unrivallei

representation" of the eruption of Vesuvius, and is expected to

draw crowds for the rest of the season." The Provok'd HusWe have just received, from London, the first volume of the band” has been revived at Drury Lane ; Liston, Moody; Young, FAMILY LIBRARY, the monthly publication of which is about Lord Townly; Farren, Sir F. Wronghead ; and Miss Phillips, still farther to increase the reputation of Mr Murray of Albemarle Lady Townly. It seems to be the general opinion, however, that Street. We are much pleased with the appearance and style of the powers of this young lady are not suited for comedy.-Miss the work. No. I. contains the first part of a Lise of Napoleon, Paton and Madame Vestris continue the chief attractions at CQ! which is to be completed in No. II. Or its literary merits, which

vent Garden.-A conjuror, called Mr Henry, is performing at the we hear are highly respectable, we shall speak at greater length Adelphi; he is thus spoken of in the Literary Gazette :-* If next Saturday. The typography is beautiful, and the volume is

you wish to find thirty sovereigns in your hand, when only tveembellished with six spirited and interesting engravings, one of ty were paid into it, go to Mr Henry, and he will show your that which, we believe, cost seventy guineas, and none less than twen

such things can be. If you have a difficult conundrum, ask Mi ty-five. This liberality, on the part of the publisher, will be its Henry to guess it, and he will cut a lemon into halves, then into own reward.

quarters, and out of the quarter which you select shall fly the so A new edition of Mr Sadler's work on Ireland will be ready in lution, tied to the leg of a little living canary bird. Besides these about a fortnight. It is a curious anecdote in the publishing things, and a thousand others equally amazing, you shall see a world, that the whole of the remaining copies of the former edi. tion were sold the day after he delivered his speech against Ca

lovely landscape, which, while you are gazing upon it, changes tholic Emancipation in the House of Commons.

into a different picture, and so strangely that you cannot tell at Mr Southey's Dialogues on the Progress and Prospects of So.

what point it has changed; all you know is, you were looking at ciety will be ready in a few weeks.

one, and are looking at another. Mr Henry plays the musical The Biography Captain Beaver, a work of a similar nature

glasses too; raises ghosts of the dead, and fetches of the living; to the Memoirs of Lord Collingwooi, is announced for early pub.

and does all these various feats equally well."-Charles Kemble

has been playing here for the last week. It is amazing how well lication.

he wears; he has all the spirit and vivacity of youth still about Mr Edward Lytton Bulwer, author of " Pelham" and the “Disowned,” has nearly finished another volume, the style of him, yet we suspect he is on the wrong side of sixty. In gente! which he very judiciously propuses shall be a mixture of the best comedy he is still without a rival“ so gallant, gay, and debon

air.” Though a pleasing, he is not a great tragedian, and traparts of his two former tales. Mr P. L. Jacob, one of the most eminent of the Parisian book- gedy is one of those things which hardly admits of mediocrity.

We have now lost Miss Noel; she sung her first and last song, sellers, is about to publish a work, which is entitled Soirees de

“ Say, my heart, why wildly beating," last Saturday evening. Walter Scott, the contents of which are understood to have been

The manager must be particularly cautious in selecting her sucsuggested to the bibliopole by Sir Walter, during his visit to Paris

cessor ; we shall not submit very tamely to have our favourite in 1826.

Elements of Natural History, or an Introduction to systematic airs mangled, although, to have them sung equally well is beyond Zoology, chiefly according to the elassification of Linnæus, with

our expectations. The state of ber health has also compelled llustrations of every order, by John Howard Hinton, A.M. will Mrs Henry Siddons to leare the stage for a season. Something shortly appear.

spirited must be done to fill up these blanks. Mr Sharpe, the proprietor of the " Anniversary," announces a

WEEKLY LIST OF PERFORMANCES, new Annual at Midsummer next, combining engravings from the finest works of British art, with contributions from the pens of

March 28-April 3. the most distinguished writers of the day. We have long been of

SAT. The Wonder, The Beehive. opinion that Midsummer would be an excellent time for the ap

Mon. Hamlet, & Gilderoy. pearance of a work of this kind, and we made the suggestion in

Tues. Beaux Stratagem, & Mary Stuart. the first number of the Literary Journal, which we are glad to

WED. Bold Stroke for a Wife, & The Critic. perceive is now about to be put into execution under very favour.

THUR. Recruiting Officer, & Miller and his Men. able auspices. Thomas Hood, author of Whims and Oddities, is about to write

FRI Part First of King Henry IV., & Bottie Imp. a series of comic ballads of the "Sally Brown" and " Nelly Gray', school, which are to be set to music by J. Blewitt, and published in Monthly numbers The first number, like the song of “ Blue

STOULTZE IN REQUEST; Bonnets over the Border," is to commence with “ March.”

The following singular announcement is made by some un- Or a late measure towards the adjustment of known but aspiring poet :-"Nearly ready for publication, Ga

The Catholic question. brielle, a Tale of Switzerland, in which an attempt is made to vary a little from the prevailing style in poetry."-(A truly lauda- An Impromptu, by W. Ainslie, M.D. ble attempt.) “ The story is an endeavour to delineate mental Has brave Winchiisea lived till this day without knowing, aberration, of the mildest kind, in union with singular and roman- That Irishmen ne'er are insulted in vain ; tic scenery, without the interest of stirring events."

Nor fail, unappeased, to be soon after blowing The Rev. H. J. Todd is preparing for the press a Life of Arch- A ball through the thorax, to wipe off the stain ! bishop Cranmer, in one volume 8vo.

But our Duke, loo humane to seek blood, may God bless him! A new novel is in considerable forwardness, entitled Jesuitism Yet faithful, withal, to himself, and high station; and Methodism.

Thus said, while deciding, just barely to miss him,
The Rev. W. Liddiard has in the prese, The Legend of Ein- “ If he won't, his tailor shall make reparation."
sidlin, a Tale of Switzerland, and other Poems, dedicated to
Thomas Moore, Esq.
MR MULLER'S CONCERT.-This Concert, which took place in

TO OUR CORRESPONDENTS. the Hopetoun Rooms on Monday evening, was well attended, and spiritedly conducted. Mr Muller stands unquestionably at the We have received a communication from a respectable member head of Scottish Pianists ; and the style in which he executed of the Royal Medical Society, who is also a phrenologist, comHummel's Concerto in A minor, and the “ Recollections of Ire- plaining that we have bestowed too much praise on Mr Stone's land" by Moscheles, proved him well worthy of the reputation he anti-phrenological paper. This is of course matter of opinion, enjoys. One of the finest parts of the entertainment was Mur- , and we notice the communication principally with the view of ray's solo on the violin. Comparatively speaking, there are few assuring the author, that he is wrong in supposing the paragraph men living, except Mr Murray, who understand what may be on this subject in last Saturday's Jourpal was not an Editorial done with that instrument.

a

prevail throughout the whole nation, down to the very LITERARY CRITICISM.

commencement of the seventeenth century, when Peter the Great ascended the throne, and gave to Russia, by

the force of his splendid talents, a dignity and impori. Histoire de Russie et de Pierre-le-Grand. Par Le ance which had never before belonged to her. In con.

General Comte de Segur. 8vo. Paris. 1829. sequence, however, of the long night in which she was History of Russia, and of Peter the Great By Ge- involved, and the very trifliny influence she possessed

neral Count Philip de Segur. London. Treuttel & till a comparatively late period in the affairs of Europe, Würlz. 1829. 8vo, pp. 447.

the history of few nations is more unclassical or repul.

sive; and we are much disposed to agree with Count Count Secur's candid and liberal narrative of Na- Segur, in thinking that none but a Russian himself poleon's expedition to Russia in 1812 has made his would feel disposed to do more than to pass from summit name favourably known in the world of letters. The to summit, and take a rapid glance of all the principal work now before us, which is on a subject of far greater events and persons that preceded the appearance of extent and difficulty, will not diminish his reputation. the creator of modern Russia ; we only regret that the It consists, however, more of an essay on the earlier Count should have allotted fully poe.half of his volum. history of Russia, and of a bold and vivid sketch or pic to the previous department. ture of the reign of Peter I., than of a minute and re- The causes which contributed to keep Russią so far gular account of the growth and progress of that vast behind the neighbouring countries of Europe it is not empire. Au that he attempts is, to present the infor. difficult to explain. li may be laid down as a general mation he has collected on the subject in masses, and la principle, that wherever the means of intercourse do not convey a general idea of the frame of the Russian co. exist, civilization will not make very rapid progress. lossus, in its most important stages and most striking Countries which are carved out and intersected by seas morenents. “I have songht," the author remarks, and great rivers, enjoy facilities of inter-communication, * to discover the reason or the spirit of its long history i which give an impulse to mind that enables it to ad. I have endeavoured to compress, to abridge, to circum- vance rapidly from discovery to discovery. Contrast, scribe it within the limits of an almost synoptical table." for example, southern Europe with ihe great continent " By so laborious a research, I may perhaps bave suc- of Africa, and who can doubt that the Mediterranean

I ceeded in throwing a new ray of light upon these his. sea, which extends round the shores of Spain, France, torical ruins; but even should I merely have planted a Italy, and Greece, taken in connexion with the numefew pickets to indicate the path, my work will not be rous rivers which empty themselves into its basin, has useless." Count Segur has, in fact, done little more been an agent of vast power and utility, whilst the stagthan establish a groundwork for a history of Russia ; nant and uniform plains of Africa have been the leadhis book abounds in useful hints and sound philosopbi- ing cause of its depopulation and ignorance. The same cal observations ; but, in so far as a narrative of facts observation may be applied with equal force to Euro. is concerned, it is far too meagre to be either satisfac- pean Russia and northern Asia. They are without any tory or interesting. In short, as we have already said, considerable bodies of water; and there are, therefore, it is more an historical disquisition than a history itself, no easy and natural means of internal intercourse. In the and will be read with much greater advantage by those earlier ages, they were, and even still, to a certain extent, who have previously investigated the subject, than by they are, two dense and enormous masses of land, covered those who enter upon it for the first time.

with endless descris, deep marshes, and impenetrable Little or nothing is known concerning the internal forests

. How, therefore, was civilization to force its state of the Russian empire before the ninth century. way? It was not able to go down to the great sea in Previous to that era, migratory hordes of barbarians seem ships ; the principles of commerce were unknown; poto have been continually passing and repassing between pulation did not increase ; and all things were forced to Asia and Scandinavia, and were often engaged in bloody continue stationary. Besides, the scanty number of and exterminating warfare. In the year 862, Ruric, ideas which, in the blind credulity and scattered weak. who headed the Varangians, a tribe inhabiting the ness of the inhabitants, got possession of the mind, took shores of the Baltic Sea, having spread the terror of his a stronger hold of it, and remained fixed there, however arms over a considerable district, at length established bigoted and erroneous.

As the natural consequence, himself at Novgorod, and is generally considered as the too, of these geographical disadvantages, the government founder of the Russian empire, the crown being trans. became despotic, and the populace fell into that most mitted to his successors in regular descent, for nearly hopeless of all conditions--a state of serviunde. It is eight centuries: The kings, however, ware always almost unnecessary to enquire further whether Montesdespots; and though some were more distinguished for quieu be correct, in supposing that there is something military prowess than others, which was, in those times, innately inferior in the mental faculties of the lower synonymous with virtue, and though the election of a new class of Russians, for the reasons already assigned apdynasty in 1613 somewhat rc-invigorated the empire, pear perfectly sufficient to account for the worse than barbarisma of the grossest description still continued to feudal degradation and barbarism in which they so long