His sole wish is to submit to his readers a compendium of our constitution, and to inform those for ages yet to come of the vast privileges they are born to enjoy. This high-sounding introduction affords rather an amusing contrast to the plain nature of the work; which is neither more nor less than an abstract of our fundamental statutes, with brief explanations of the circumstances attending their enactment, and comments explanatory of the latitude given to doubtful points by the decisions of our courts of justice. From the manner of the composition, we cannot always clearly determine what part is borrowed from other books and what proceeds from the pen of this anonymous Doctor of Laws:' but, if he will permit us to give him a hint, he will be careful to disclaim the chief of that matter which bears the semblance of being original, because it is in fact the weak side of the book. We have, indeed, seldom met with remarks more feeble and common-place than those which are given in the editor's person. The work is an useful compilation, and no higher title should be claimed for it.

The Act of Settlement is liable, from its title, to be considered in too confined a sense, and to be regarded as merely fixing the succession to the crown. That this was its main object is clear both from the circumstances of the time and from the first four provisions; which, without naming the House of Hanover, bear a direct reference to its particular situation: but this act contained, moreover, several regulations regarding national policy, viz. That matters relating to the government of the kingdom shall be transacted in the Privy Council, and all resolutions taken thereon shall be signed by such of the Privy Council as shall advise and consent to the same: That no foreigner shall be of the Privy Council, or a member of either house of parliament, or in the enjoyment of a place of trust, civil, or military:-That Judges shall hold their commissions, not during pleasure, but quamdiu se bene gesserint, or until both houses of parliament present an address to the crown for their removal.

Magna Carta is given in these volumes with all due solemnity in an English translation, and is made to extend, by the aid of copious illustrations from Chief Justice Coke and others, over more than seventy pages. It is followed by the less known Carta de Foresta, a charter confirmed, like Magna Carta, in the early part of the long reign of Henry III., and limiting the power of the crown respecting the much-abused prerogative of turning the open country into forests. The Law of Appeals, the Habeas-Corpus-Act, the Bill of Rights, the Privileges of the City of London, and the Acts of Union with Scotland and Ireland respectively, are all stated in the first volume. In

the second, we have a summary of the royal prerogatives, and of the privileges of Parliament; accompanied by details of several of the great discussions on the subject of legislative pretensions, during the seventeenth and part of the eighteenth centuries. With these the book concludes. Instead of travelling over this thorny tract, we shall endeavour to amuse our readers with the peculiarities of one of the gracious sovereigns of our ancestors, James I., called very appropriately by Henry IV. of France, Maitre Jaques. James was accustomed to contemplate himself as the sole director of national affairs, and to consider the interference of the House of Commons as not only impertinent but useless.

It was in such a humour as this that he dictated one of his letters from his hunting seat near Royston, to his council, wherein he desires them to relieve him from the fatigues of business, in which is the following curious piece of pedantic arrogance:-"Hunting is necessary for my health; upon my health depends the health of the nation; and therefore it is necessary for the nation's health, that I should hunt." In answer to complaints of grievances, by the House of Commons, he told them from the throne "That though they were parliament-men, they were likewise subjects; and that if they soared too nigh the beams of royal authority, the wax of their wings might melt, and occasion their downfall." At another time he reminded them" That the King was a speaking law," and charged them "not to meddle with the main points of government, for in them his main craft consisted;" adding, "that it was like a pedant teaching Hannibal the art of war, for them to teach the art of politics to him, who had served his apprenticeship in the mystery thirty years in Scotland and seven in England."

One fact more as a climax of tyranny and absurdity: By a proclamation dated December 24. 1620, "the subjects are strictly commanded, every of them, from the highest to the lowest, to take heed how they intermeddle by pen or speech, with causes of state and secrets of empire, either at home or abroad.”

• Such a mandatory injunction and arbitrary edict roused the country; and the House of Commons thought it became them to protest"That the liberties, franchises, privileges, and jurisdictions of parliament, were the ancient and undoubted birth-right and inheritance of the subjects of England; and that the arduous and urgent affairs concerning the King's state and defence of the realm, and of the church of England, and the maintenance and the making of laws, and redress of mischiefs and grievances which daily happen within this realm, are proper subjects and matter of council and debate in parliament."

This so enraged James, that he ordered the journal of the House of Commons to be brought to him, and, as appears by the councilbook, dated the 30th of December, "manu sua propria with his own proper hand, he tore the protestation out of the book of journals."

MONTHLY

MONTHLY CATALOGUE,

For FEBRUARY, 1814.

POETRY.

Art. 14. Royalty Fog-bound: or, The Perils of a Night, and the Frolics of a Fortnight. A Poem. By Peter Pindar, Esq. 8vo. 25. Johnson. 1814.

If this be our old friend Peter, which we much doubt, he has not only chosen a foggy subject, but his genius, like the sun at the winter solstice, exhibits to us the fog without being able to dissipate it, and to shew us a bright horizon of wit. In character with an old man, he is minutely narrative in detailing a recent visit of the Prince to Belvoir-castle; and he strives, as in his younger days, to enliven it with the ridicule of royalty. A hundred and fifty doggerel stanzas are devoted to a description of the fog-bound, mud-stained Regent, and of the drunken carousals at the Duke of Rutland's castle : but Peter's muse proceeds as in a fog, and helps out his verse with many a d-me. This choice sample figures in the title-page:

Art. 15.

that surly dog,

And G-w, shall indict the fog.""

Poems. By Miss Prescott. Svo. pp. 84.
Longman and Co. 1812.

29. 6d.

These Poems, on various subjects, are in various measures, and display various merit. To delineate characters, and to elicit moral and sentimental reflections, appear to form the favourite occupation of Miss Prescott's muse: but in the latter attempt she is more successful than in the former. Without adequate experience and know. lege of the world, this lady indiscreetly ventures on sketching the shades of human character. Her Bachelor, Old Maid, and Coquette, are meant to be playfully satirical; and some of our corps, who are bachelors, assert that she has sketched the "single blessedness" of males better than that which sometimes falls to the lot of her owa sex. Of the Bachelor, she says,

He warms his night-cap, smokes his pipe,
Alone he drains his jug

And thinks no bee in foxglove lives

A life so calm and snug.'

Some of the amusements of the Old Maid are thus hobblingly described:

To-day reads such newspapers as she can borrow,
And sends for a friend's magazine for to-morrow.

Their blanks and initials must mean so and so,

If they do not mean these, she's distress'd to tell who.’

Mics P. represents Amanda, the Coquette, as

'At fashion's splendid card-boards found,
Conquering or reparteeing all around ;'

and, speaking of her toilet, she says,

'Olympian dew is on the wash-stand seen,
Terrestrial are elements too mean.'

Card-boards may be a provincial term for card-tables; and, from this and other parts of her poems, we infer that Miss P. cannot have seen much of the fine London world, as it is called. When her muse is in the serious strain, she is often very impressive. We copy two good stanzas from a short poem on Death:

Nor the mute shell-fish, nor expressive man,
Shall 'scape his hand, he deals insatiate rage;
He lords it o'er the young enthusiast's plan,
And ends the tale of " garrulous old age.”
Our lamp he darkens, bids our sense be still,
Each fine-adjusted spring of feeling stops;
Stifles opinion, reason, taste, and will;

And o'er life's picture one sad curtain drops.'

When the author, in a preceding poem,

Wraps the gelid manes in a shroud,'

she does what was never attempted before; and turnished gold,' (p.27) strictly speakng, is not to be found: but good thoughts are often sadly tarnished by bad lines and bad rhymes.

Art. 16. Forbury Hill, a Poem. Inscribed to the Memory of the late Francis Annesley, Esq. Crown 8vo. pp. 34. Rivingtons, 1813.

Why must every poem that is written be published; and why will not a versifier, who amuses himself with describing a spot in the vicinity of Reading, be satisfied with the praise of Reading readers? The late Francis Annesley, Esq. for many years represented the borough of Reading in parliament; and, as the heir at law of Sir Jacob Downing, he was appointed Master of Downing College, and obtained from the University of Cambridge the honorary degree of LL.D. His virtues intitled him (as we well know) to all the eulogy with which this writer in verse and in prose embalms his memory; and it will be fortunate for the poet if, like a fly in amber, he shall be so embedded in his subject as to be inseparable in fame: but, if we have any discernment, such lines as these will not help to eternize the memory either of Mr. Annesley or of his panegyrist. Having described the care with which Forbury Hill was kept up by Mr. A., and its present neglected state, the poet proceeds:

Why, fancy, with averted face,
To sad reality give place?
Ah, 'tis a tribute justly due,

To him who serv'd us long and true:
Yes, Annesley, on this verdant mound,
By thee preserv'd and fenc'd around,
Here should thy monument be found :
Here should an obelisk arise,
Thy memory to eternize;

The spot by thee preserv'd from fate,
To thee should be as consecrate,.'

We shall not descend to any of the minutia of criticism. By this specimen, the reader may judge of the whole.

Art. 17. Chit Chat, or the Pump Room at Bath in 1813. In Verse. 8vo. pp. 32. Rayner.

Even "names expressed in initials" have not enabled us to "smoke a jest," in this performance. It appears to contain personalities of which the sting is sheathed only by the general insipidity of the composition.

Art. 18. The Mother's Fables, in Verse. Designed, through the
Medium of Amusement, to convey to the Minds of Children
some useful Precepts of Virtue and Benevolence.
Boards. Darton and Co. 1812.

12mo. Is. 6d.

We approve this writer's plan of preceding every fable by a childish anecdote which illustrates the moral,' and can recommend the little volume as offering an agreeable variety of subjects. The Frog's Song,' page 33., is original; and sop's Fable of " The Grat and the Bull" is versified with considerable pleasantry. We doubt, however, whether cuckoos and tom-tits are to be found in the native groves of the mocking-bird, although placed there by the author of these ingenious little pieces: see page 3.

Art. 19. The Nursery Companion; or, Rules of English Grammar, in Verse. By a Lady. Pocket 4to. pp. 23. Crosby. 1813. These lines have perhaps as much melody as the subject would admit; and the composition is lively and ingenious. The work may therefore be useful, if the attraction of rhyme be found to recommend the dry study of grammar, and to atone for the additional intricacy which it here receives from the unavoidable transpositions occuring, in verse.

Art. 20. The Mourning Wreath; an Elegiac Tribute to the Memory of the late Right Hon. Spencer Perceval, First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer, &c. &c. &c. By the Author of the Battles of the Danube and Barrosa. (John Gwil liam.) 4to. pp. 27. Jennings. 1813.

If this writer be tardy in offering his elegiac tribute, time has certainly not cooled his zeal; for it is impossible that any poet should he more enthusiastic in his admiration of the talents and virtues of the late Chancellor of the Exchequer. He has composed some elegant stanzas to that gentleman's memory: but, in his prose-dedica