ENOX LIBRAR ENTERED according to the Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine, by DAVID HOFFMAN, in the Clerk's Office, of the District of Maryland. JOHN D. TOY, PRINTER. EPISTLE DEDICATORY. To THOMAS D'OYLY, ESQUIRE, Sergeant-at-Law, Upper Harley street, London. MY DEAR SIR: I PRAY permission to dedicate this little volume to you, with that high respect and sincerity which your character inspires, and with that grateful remembrance, which your many courtesies towards me, make me delight to cherish. How much, then, do I regret its unworthiness for the occasion! It is the second of a series, now in course of publication, on a great variety of topics,—the whole being designed to be illustrative and somewhat corrective, of what is called the New School, and to portray the unhappy influences of the present mania in literature over Men, Manners and Things, as they appear chiefly on this side of the broad Atlantic-and also to recall readers to some retrospect of by-gone days; and finally, to contrast them with that fashionable ultraism so prevalent here, and which is no less obvious in our law, government, morals, and religion, than it manifestly is in our popular literature. The tendency of the present age throughout the world, but especially in my own country, is towards innovation in every thing-which, though sometimes fraught with much good, has a hydra-headed demon to contend with, in that spirit of ultraism and of radicalism, which prompts men to think that change must be improvement-but which the cautious venerators of the literature, the law, and the manners of the olden times, have so often to deplore, mainly because men will not discriminate-and, în their eagerness for change, will root up the sturdy oaks, with the noxious tares. With your great and glorious and prosperous country, I think I have more than a slight acquaintance. Your laws have been my devoted study, for nearly thirty years. With your institutions, manners, customs, and state of society, I have made myself somewhat familiar, through the medium of your varied and extensive literature and science |