the palaces that excite this admiration. been! Would they had never It was a cruel thought; and such thoughts have had cruel consequences: yet there is so much justice in them, and they call so loudly for the serious attention of every class of men, that they ought never to be suppressed; though they ought most carefully to be so delivered as to produce good, and not evil.' The author notices the street inscriptions, and the remarkable whims and ignorance which they display, the posting-bills, which he divides into four classes, the tricks of quacks, exhibitions, coffee-houses, public gardens and places of amusement, national festivals, &c. &c. In describing the present application of the Palais Royal, he delivers himself with virtuous indignation, and reprobates the Government which derives a revenue from the licence of the grossest crimes: Feelings which are painful become indignant and almost tormenting, when it is further known that such places are not merely suffered, because government is too indolent, too busy, or too weak to repress them; but because government is bribed: because government divides the wages of vice the earnings of prostitution, the industry of cheating, and the spoils of the ruined. Oh, it is infamous ! It is damnable! I care not what man, or what set of men, on the face of the earth, may take offence: it is indignation I never will repress, never will conceal. There is not a father, if he be not a monster, there is not a single friend to man, by whom this indignation is not felt. If the honest in thought would but be honest in speech, vice would not dare thus openly to brave the world; and that government that should licence it would crumble to dust.' Well might Mr. Holcroft be surprised at the extravagant praise which has been lavished on this sink of vice; and well may he ask the author of "Varieties of Literature," whether this be the place which "no station, no age, no sex, no temper, could ever leave without an ardent desire to return ?" The national fêtes of the French appear to be extremely childish and irrational, and Mr. H. congratulates the English that they have no such festivals. He is persuaded that the object of the Government in their celebration is not to promote the love and practice of freedom, but merely to amuse a frivolous people, who, like the citizens of vitiated Rome, looked for nothing more than Panem et Circenses. From the account here given of the annual exhibition of the inventions and manufactures of France, it is evident that our enemies have much to accomplish before they can rival us in trade. The exhibition at the Louvre, which was so pompously detailed in the public prints, was, according to Mr. H.-" a beggarly account of empty boxes." In the chapter on the festival of the 18th of Brumaire, subsequent to the peace, the traveller adverts to the "Proclamation of the Consuls of the Republic to the French;" and he comments on its first paragraph, which ought to have shewn us the hostile purpose which lurked in the breast of Bonaparte, when he looked towards us with hollow smiles proclaiming treacherous peace." In the first paragraph of this proclamation the French are told, in terms too plain to be misunderstood, that the government had not yielded to the ambitious temptation to conquer England The words daring and extraordinary enterprize" could have no other allusion. That ambition, which every man ought to regard with detestation and horror, is qualified as extraordinary. A thing no less extraordinary, than even such a rash, wicked, and inevitably abortive attempt must have been, was that every Frenchman, with whom I conversed, made not the least doubt but that France could with the utmost ease invade and conquer England. I hope to find an opportunity of shewing that there are few subjects in which the proofs, from moral and physical causes, are more unanswerable, more self-evident, more secure, than those which demonstrate that any such attempt must end in the destruction of the invaders, and the eternal dishonour of those who should send them to destruction. How much grander, and in what a different spirit, was the idea of uniting the one great European family, to guide and govern the earth! Not to govern by the sword, but by the powers of mind, by the introduction of knowledge, and all the arts of increasing civi lization.' The grown-up children of Paris are examined by this English Mercier in all their scenes of frivolity and mean parade; and he gives some ludicrous instances of the affectation of science which is displayed in the conversation even of fiddlers and shoe-blacks, and of the extravagant puffs of mountebanks and fortune-tellers. To the ignorance of the Parisians he attributes their indolence, and that habit of trifling which extends not only to things in themselves trifling, but through the whole economy of life. The institution of convents and monasteries is regarded as one great source of this evil among the common people. By tribes of monks were created tribes of idlers; and the charities, so ostentatiously doled out at the convent-gate, were in effect the bane of the poor; for they engendered sloth, which is a most fatal disease to a state. Though Mr. Holcroft still observes a strong disposition to pleasure, he is inclined to believe that the French are becoming less indolent; that the idlers are not so numerous, and that beggary of appearance is diminishing.' Still, he perceives a want of energy in the French character; and he feels himself urged not by any narrow sentiment, but by a regard to truth, to to state this indubitable fact, that in those arts which are most useful, in those manners which are most rational, and in that public government, and private order, that political and individual economy, which can best secure happiness, the French are unfortunately far behind the English. Could I speak this in triumph I should despise myself.' We are now forced to take leave of this moral and amusing writer: but we purpose to make him the subject of another article, in which we can safely promise our readers farther entertainment. [To be continued.] ART. II. Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border: consisting of Historical and Romantic Ballads, collected in the southern Counties of Scotland; with a few of modern Date, founded upon local Tradition. Vol. III. 8vo. PP. 420. 10s. 6d. Boards. Longman and Rees. A GREEABLY to the plan of the two preceding volumes of this work, which we noticed at some length*, the contents of the present are classed under the titles Historical Ballads, Romantic Ballads, and Imitations. The distinction between the two former is not very regularly preserved, and the latter, though pretty poems, are very unlike their prototypes. The historical series commences with Auld Maitland, a tra ditionary song, which was rapidly passing into oblivion on the banks of the Ettrick. It is now published for the first time, from the recital of an old woman. The editor conjectures that it may have been composed about the time of David II.; though he does not deny that the language has been considerably modernized. The occurrence of a few obsolete military terms is no very certain proof of high antiquity: but it satis fies Mr. Scott, who favours us, in course, with his usual liberality of editorial annotations. The closing paragraph of the preliminary remarks is worthy of transcription: It is a curious circumstance, that this interesting tale, so often referred to by ancient authors, should be now recovered in so perfect a state; and many readers may be pleased to see the following sen sible observations, made by a person, born in Ettrick Forest, in the humble situation of a shepherd. "I am surprised to hear that this song is suspected by some to be a modern forgery: the contrary will be best proved, by most of the old people, hereabouts, having a great part of it by heart. Many, indeed, are not aware of the manners of this country; till this present age, the poor illiterate *See M. R. Vol. xlii. p. 21. people, Mo-y. people, in these glens, knew of no other entertainment, in the long winter nights, than repeating, and listening to, the feats of their ancestors, recorded in songs, which I believe to be handed down, from father to son, for many generations; although, no doubt, had a copy been taken, at the end of every fifty years, there must have been some difference, occasioned by the gradual change of language. I believe it is thus that many very ancient songs have been gradually modernized, to the common ear; while, to the connoisseur, they present marks of their genuine antiquity."Letter to the editor from Mr. James Hogg. To the observations of my ingenious correspondent I have nothing to acd, but that, in this, and a thousand other instances, they accurately coincide with my personal knowledge.' This observation is ingenious, and highly creditable to the pen of a shepherd: yet, in our attempts to fix the dates of compositions which lay claim to antiquity, we should not rashly and extensively adopt its application, unless we are anxious to cut off one of the principal sources of internal evidence. It is difficult to reconcile the action of this little poem with real history, or its language with that of a remote period. Perhaps it has been patched and softened into its present form, from some more rude and disjointed materials. Sir Hugh le Blond, also taken down from the recitation of an old woman, breathes somewhat of the spirit of chivalrous romance. A diction rather tame than antiquated, and the mention of a clock and a black velvet chair, are not symptomatic of a very early period. The popular ballad, intitled Sir Patrick Spens, is here republished with more enlargement than emendation. The cork-heeled shoes of the Scottish lords, the web of silk, and the ladies' fans and golden combs, rather bespeak ideas of modern refinement, than the state of society in Scotland in the 13th century. After the vessel had sprung her topmasts, and the sea was making breaches over her, the knight, or his pilot, very deliberately resolves to get up to the tall top-mast, to spy land; an incongruity which does not occur in some of the former editions. The substitution of Aberdeen for Aberdour is at least unnecessary. The common and perhaps the correct reading is • Mair than half owr to Aberdour,' which may simply imply that the shipwreck took place when Sir Patrick and his attendants had accomplished more than half of their voyage back to Aberdour. The anxious waiting of the ladies for their lords is well conceived. The same idea is expressed by the author of Douglas, and in his happiest manner: "Ye dames of Denmark! even for you I feel, The Dowie Dens of Yarrow, now first published, is avowedly selected from a variety of copies, with the accommodating intention of suiting these more light and giddy. paced times." Thus concocted, it possesses considerable softness, blended with tragical effect. We quote a few stanzas. She kissed his cheek, she kaimed his hair, "Now, haud your tongue, my daughter dear, "O haud your tongue, my father dear! Ye mind me but of sorrow; A fairer rose did never bloom Than now lies cropped on Yarrow." The Lament of the Border Widow, a fragment preserved by recitation, deserves to be noted on account of its simple ten derness: My love he built me a bonny bower, • There came a man, by middle day, He slew my knight, to me sae dear; And left me in extremitie. I sew'd his sheet, making my mane; Poin'd-Poinded, attached by legal distress. • But |