Oldalképek
PDF
ePub
[ocr errors]

commend the purchase of a particular edition, the language is, it ought to quit the shelves of booksellers much more frequently than it does;' and the important information of a large paper copy, bound in green morocco, being to be found at Althorp, is conveyed in the holiday term of its rejoicing the eye, coated in green morocco.' When to this affectation we add, that every page in the volume is deformed by the booksellers' slang of a sweetly-coated volume,' a' prizable volume,' a' tempting article,' a' crack article,' a' glorious set,' a membranaceous copy,' a lovely copy,' a' tall copy,' a broad copy,' a' comely copy,' pic-nic copies,' a comfortable price,' a slim quarto,' 'spacious condition,' and a thousand other such expressions, we need not assure a sensible reader, looking for information in a book of reference, that he must arm himself with all his patience and good humour to get quietly through fifty pages of the volume.

Critics, however, as we are, we will confess that no faults in style have tried our patience so much as the miserable system of puffing, which disgraces this no less than all Mr. Dibdin's other publications. Knowing no more of him, or his station in life, than we learn from his title-page, we are yet provoked to see a member of his profession lower himself into a sort of walking puff for booksellers and book-collectors, engravers and auc tioneers. Yet so it is-puffing oblique and direct, unmeasured, unceasing puffing, is more than any thing else the characteristic of the volume.

And now but a few words as to the matter, before we close these remarks. We had made out an immense list of omissions, not merely of individual works, but of whole departments. Mr. Dibdin, however, pleads guilty to many faults of this kind and attempts to extenuate their importance. Their importance must of course depend upon their quantity and nature; and of these our readers will be able to judge when we tell them that in the head of Divinity alone, to which he has very properly, as he declares, paid the most attention, we recollected in a few moments the following among our countrymen, whom Mr. Dibdin does not deem worth recommending to his young or old readers; the list, no doubt, might be easily swelled, but it is formidable enough already;-Horne, William Law, Magee, Waterland, Butler, Leighton, Smallridge, Jewell. Without recapitulating names in other departments, we will only add that there is not a single head in which authors are not omitted, not merely the authors of rare and curious books, but of sterling, standard works of every day's occurrence, some of them the only authorities on the subjects on which they treat.

Rut

But indeed Mr. Dibdin's insertions do not make us much regret his omissions. The head of Modern Sermons occupies in the whole about six pages; Clarke, Seed, South, Sherlock, Jortin, Porteus, Horsley, Paley and Gisborne are selected and disposed of in a single sentence; about four pages are devoted to an account of the theological principles of certain literary journals; and the remainder of the chapter is an extract probably from some successful sermon of Mr. Dibdin's own composition. This being the manner in which the English sermon writers are introduced to the notice of the young and old man, they will not be surprized at the satisfactory fullness of the Summary of Foreign Divines, which immediately follows, and which we will present entire to our readers.

"In foreign schools of divinity the same great lights have appeared to check the fury of human rashness, and to show forth the cause of Christian redemption. Who does not love the amenity of Erasmus, and the philanthropy of Melanchthon? each of whom in turn seemed to hold the scales of moderation and Christian charity, in order to prevent Luther and Eckius from engaging in more than a war of words.'-p. 89.

It is part of Mr. Dibdin's professed undertaking, and properly enough, to give some account of the works which he notices, as well as of the editions. And in this part of his labour nothing can be more complete than his failure-his taste, the superficiality of his reading, and the common-place nature of his observations, are really below criticism. For example, his Greek poetry (exclusive of the tragedians) is limited to Homer, Hesiod, Theocritus, Pindar, Anacreon, and Callimachus! He is pleased, indeed, to say that if Valerius Flaccus be admitted into the Latin poets, Apollonius Rhodius, Bion, and Moschus, ought to find a place among the Greek; (admirable reasoning!) but for poor Aristophanes, whom he entirely omits, he has not even this honourable reserve. This may be mere forgetfulness, not to be visited severely on any man; but what shall we think of the judgment passed upon Apollonius, from whom Virgil has confessedly borrowed some of the most beautiful parts of the Eneid?

Let us pass to the Latin poets;

'Who may be,' says he, safely divided into two classes. In the first appear Virgil, Lucretius, Ovid, Juvenal, Persius, Martial, and Horace; in the second, Lucan, Statius, Silius Italicus, Claudian, Catullus, Tibullus, Propertius, and Valerius Flaccus."

Papa! Virgil and Martial on one file, Silius and Catullus on another; we seriously ask Mr. Dibdin, did he ever read a single line of Catullus, perhaps of all Roman poets the sweetest, the simplest, the most idiomatic, and the most picturesque? This can

only

only be matched by his ingenuity in placing Plato among the Greek, and Plautus and Terence among the Latin Philologists.

We feel that with such specimens as these in our way it would be a waste of time and paper to lengthen our remarks. A work of this sort is intended to be useful to the ignorant-and the authority of the writer is every thing. If we cannot depend on the accuracy of the statements, and the justice of the opinions it contains, it is worse than useless, it can only mislead, and had far better not have been written. The manner of the volume, if we had never seen the author's former works, would have made us doubt his judgment-an examination of the matter confirms those doubts, and makes us suspect the accuracy of his research. Mr. Dibdin would have rendered a real service to the student if he had executed his plan as well as he has conceived it; but executed as it is, it has no advantage over the ordinary catalogues of booksellers, except for those who delight in trifling anecdotes of unimportant men, in bad jokes, and very common-place or very unsound criticism.

ART. VII.-The Present State of England in regard to Agricul ture, Trade, and Finance; with a Comparison of the Prospects of England and France. By Joseph Lowe, Esq. 1822. IT is beneficial to the public, as it is to individuals, to take a review from time to time of the state of its affairs, and to examine with scrupulous and patient attention if its general interests are prospering or declining. On behalf of the British Empire the present period appears peculiarly calculated for such an inquiry. We are in a state of peace with all the surrounding nations abroad, and we enjoy a more than common degree of tranquillity among ourselves at home. There has scarcely ever been a time when every branch of industry has been so generally prosperous, or when the persons engaged in them have with such few exceptions been so fully employed. In almost every past period complaints have been made with greater or less reason and with greater or less vehemence, either by the agricultural, the commercial, the manufacturing, or the shipping interest, of actual suffering, or of disappointed expectations. At present, if none of the great interests of the community are elevated with prospects of extravagant gains, none of them are suffering under severe privations; if none are indulging highly agitating hopes, none are feeling the more agitating distress arising from the dissipation of such hopes. We seem now to be enjoying that steady but gentle breeze

breeze which conveys the ship to her destined port with more security and more certainty than when she is impelled by violent even though favourable gales.

The work of Mr. Lowe has the merit of extracting diligently and arranging clearly from the authentic documents laid before parliament, a statement of the actual condition of the kingdom. When it was first published, a temporary depression in the price of agricultural produce existed, which he has mistaken for a permanent fall. In consequence of this error, he has been induced to estimate much too lowly the value of the property annually created in this island. Upon this ground we sometimes differ from his conclusions; but we still consider his book as a valuable addition to the general stock of information on its interesting subject, and especially so because it compresses into an accessible and intelligible form many particulars of importance which must otherwise have been sought for with great labour and patience in voluminous parliamentary papers by the comparatively few who can obtain access to those collections. The view, however, which he thus presents of the present state of our affairs would have been rendered more complete and satisfactory, if his picture had included some comparative statement of the condition of the kingdom in former periods, by which the fact and the rate of our progress might both have been ascertained with more accuracy, It is this deficiency which we intend upon the present occasion to attempt to supply; and as we necessarily must trespass on the patience of our readers at some length, we shall confine ourselves to facts, rather than indulge in theories, and commence our statement without further introduction or apology.

The most important, and one of the most extensive of all branches of national industry is agriculture. Whilst it affords the chief means of subsistence to all, it finds employment for a greater number of persons than any other occupation. It is, however, from its nature, less susceptible of rapid improvement than any other pursuit. From the earliest ages the attention of mankind has been applied to it, and yet it is, even at present, little more than a mere accumulation of facts, from which scarcely the outlines of a theory have been formed; all the detail and arrangement of the interior parts must be filled up in practice by each individual engaged in the occupation.

The great principle, by the application of which the wealth and comfort of mankind have been advanced, is the division of labour. But as the labours of agriculture are not simultaneous, this principle is capable of application to them only in a very limited degree. We have indeed arrived at dividing the grazier from the dairy-man, and both from the grower of corn; but in the actual

[blocks in formation]

cultivation,

cultivation of the soil, and in the various manual occupations of a farm, the division of labour has rarely been attempted to any considerable extent. The same hand which at one season uses the reaping-hook or the scythe, must at another wield the flail, or exercise the spade or the hoe; hence, none acquire that very superior degree of expertness which might be obtained by constant adherence to the same description of operations.

The use of various kinds of machinery to abridge labour, especially since the importance of its division has been universally felt, has been of incalculable value in all the branches of manufacturing industry; but those mechanical improvements have been but little applied, and seem little applicable to the business of farming; the most important of those, which have been tried, the threshing mills, will scarcely repay the expense of their construction, unless they can be worked by water-power; drill ploughs and sowing machines have hitherto been used to a very limited extent, and in many districts of the kingdom are wholly unknown in practice. The winnowing machine, indeed, forms an exception to the general rule, for by performing its work in all states of the weather in our variable climate, it has forced itself into almost universal adoption; but this may be considered with more propriety as a contrivance against the inconvenient uncertainty of our climate than as calculated to abridge the extent, or increase the productiveness of human labour.

The great body of agriculturists are far from being migratory, and are hence less open to the influence of improvement than any other class of the community. They are indeed singularly averse to innovations, and view every change that is suggested with alarm or with contempt. This was manifested in England ou the introduction of the turnip husbandry, about fifty or sixty years ago; at a much later period, on the first cultivation of the ruta-baga, or Swedish turnip; and is still experienced wherever the mangel-wurzel is first attempted to be raised. The same spirit prevails amongst our agricultural labourers, and makes it very difficult to assist their operations by any alteration of their old habits, or improvement in their implements of work. Thus the Hainault short scythe and crook enable the workmen habituated to its use to reap nearly three times as much wheat in a day as can be done with our English reaping-hook, and Sir George Rose at his own expense brought over some Flemish reapers to instruct our workmen in the use of them. The effort was of no avail, and we believe the practice, so far from spreading, is not now followed even on the spot where the attempt was made.

Although, however, from its nature, the pace of agriculture is necessarily slow, yet in England we have advanced at a rate which

may

« ElőzőTovább »