“Our deriving justice from their being commenced to celebrate the marriage one of the other. For ourselves, we of the squire's second son, a captain in wish for peace we can smile at the the army, to his father's ward, the fair vehemence of certain transatlantic wri-Julja Templeton. We have the chaters, and we trust that Mr. I., who has racters of the inhabitants, guests, and had ample opportunities of studying neighbours of the Hall their manners the national temper, will inform his and occupations, and descriptions of countrymen, that they must not judge such scenery as is yet to be found the genuine feelings of Britons by about some of our ancient manorthe effusions of a raillery, or the bitter- houses. The incidents are few and ness of a spleen, which are no more simple; but the volumes have yet a indicative of the disposition, than they tinge of the romantic, of the Sir Roger are of the literature, of Britain; and de Coverley kind. A few tales are inwhich, in fact, afford about as correct troduced, which are supposed to be a criterion of the latter, as the cariea- narrated by some of the characters, at tures in a print shop give to the rest the Hall. The first of these personof Europe, of the state of the fine arts ages, whom we shall introduce to our in this country. readers, is the busy man :—

Whatever may be the reception of M. L's opinions in his native land, Here, at least, they will be taken favorably. If not a just pride, at least a pardonable self-love, enlists all our prejudices in the cause of a man who thinks well of us; but who, in truth, stands not in need of our prejudices, to însure a favourable opinion of his pro.. ductions. He is, in fact, a very pleasing writer, using anagreeable and some what elegant style; and if we find him occasionally gossiping and prosing, it must be confessed he does both very pleasantly.

Many of our readers arealready familiarly acquainted with Geoffrey Crayon. We shall therefore proceed, without further comment on the author's man ner, to give an account of these volumes.

In his first chapter the author brings forward the effect produced on his mind by English scenes, in order to excuse himself if he should be found harping on trivial themes, or indulging an over-fondness for any thing antique and obsolete. He then conducts us to the seat of the Bracebridge family, mentioned in his Sketch Book,' where a gathering of relations and friends had

By no one (says Geoffrey Crayon) has my return to the Hall been more heartily greeted than by Mr. Simon Bracebridge, or Master Simon, as the squire most commonly calls him. I encountered him just as I entered the park, where he was break

ing a pointer; and he received me with all the hospitable cordiality with which a man welcome's a friend to another one's house. He is a brisk old bachelor-looking little man; the wit and superannuated beau of a large family connexion; and the squire's fuctotum. I found him, as usual, full of bustle; with a thousand petty things to do, and persons to attend to, and in chirping good humor; for there are few happier beings than a busy idler; that is to say, a man who is eternally busy about nothing.

I visited him, the morning after my arrival; in his chamber, which is in a remote corner of the mansion, as he says he likes has fitted it up in his own taste, so that it to be by himself, and out of the way. He is a perfect epitome of an old bachelor's notions of convenience and arrangement.The furniture is made up of odd pieces from all parts of the house, chosën on account of their suiting his notions, of fitting very cloquent in praise of an ancient elbow some corner of his apartment, and he is chair, from which he takes occasion to digress into a censure on modern chairs, as having degenerated from the dignity and comfort of high-backed antiquity.

net, which he calls his study. Here are Adjoining to his room is a small cabisome hanging shelves, of his own construe...

.

which, I noticed, had the best stall in the stable.

The next is the widow :

tion, on which are several old works on hawking, hunting and farriery, and a collection or two of poems and songs of the reign of Elizabeth, which he studies out of compliment to the squire; together with the Novelists' Magazine, the Sporting Ma-made by Lady Lillycraft on her arrival, she gazine, the Racing Calendar, a volume or two of the Newgate Calendar, a book of peerage, and another of heraldry.

His sporting dresses hang on pegs in a small closet; and about the walls of his apartinent are hooks to hold his fishingtackle, whips, spurs, and a favourite fowl ing-piece, curiously wrought and inlaid, which he inherits from his grandfather, He has also a couple of old single-keyed flutes, and a fiddle, which he has repeatedly patched and mended himself, affirming it to be a veritable Cremona; though I have never heard him extract a single note from t that was not enough to make one's blood un cold.

Notwithstanding the whimsical parade

has none of the petty stateliness that I harl imagined; but, on the contrary, she has adegree of good-nature, & simple-heartedness, if I may use the phrase, that mingles well with her old-fashioned manners and harmless ostentation. She dresses in rich silks, with long waist; she rouges - onsiderably, and her hair, which is nearly white, is frizzed out, and put up with pins. Her face is pitted with the small-pox, but the delicacy of her features shows that she may once have been beautiful; and she has a very fair and well-shaped hand and arm, of which, if I mistake not, the good lady is still a little vain,

I have had the curiosity to gather a few particulars concerning her. She was a

From this little nest his fiddle will often be heard, in the stillness of mid-day, drow-great belle in town between 30 and 40 sily sawing some long-forgotten tune; for he prides himself on having a choice collection of good old English music, and will scarcely have any thing to do with modern composers. The time, however, at which his musical powers are of most use, is now and then of an evening, when he plays for the children to dance in the hall, and he passes among them and the servants for a perfect Orpheus,

His chamber also bears evidence of his various avocations; there are half-copied sheets of music; designs for needlework; sketches of landscapes, very indifferently executed; a camera lucida; a magic lantern, for which he is endeavouring to paint glasses; in a word, it is the cabinet of a man of many accomplishments, who knows a little of every thing and does nothing well.

After I had spent some time in his apartment, admiring the ingenuity of his small inventions, he took me about the establishment, to visit the stables, dog-kennel, and other dependencies, in which he appeared like a general visiting the different quarters of his camp; as the squire leaves the controul of all these matters to him, when he is at the Hall. He inquired into the state of the horses; examined their feet; prescribed a drench for one, and biceding for another; and then took me to look at his own horse, on the merits of which he dwelt with great prolixity, and

years since, and reigned for two seasons with all the insolence of beauty, refusing several excellent offers; when, unfortu nately, she was robbed of her charms and her lovers by an attack of the small-pox. She retired immediately into the country, where she some time after inherited an estate, and married a baronet, a former admirer, whose passion had suddenly revived; 'having,' as he said, always loved her mind rather than her person.'

6

The baronet did not enjoy her mind and fortune above six months, and had scarcely grown very tired of her, when he broke his neck in a fox-chase, and left her free, rich, and disconsolate. She has remained on her estate in the country ever since, and has never shown any desire to return to town, and revisit the scene of her early triumphs and fatal malady. All her favourite recollections however, revert to that short period of her youthful beauty. She has no idea of town but as it was at that time; and continually forgets that the place and people must have changed materially in the course of half a century. She will often speak of the toasts of those days as it still reigning; and, until very recently, used to talk with delight of the royal family, and the beanty of the young princes and princesses. cannot be brought to think of the present king otherwise than as an elegant young man, rather wild, but who danced a minuet divinely; and before he came to the

She

crown, would often mention him as the library, and has a constant supply from the sweet young prince.' publishers in town. Her erudition in this She talks also of the walks in Kensing-line of literature is immense; she has kept ton Garden, where the gentlemen appeared pace with the press for half a century, in gold-laced coats and cocked hats, and Her mind is stuffed with love-tales of all the ladies in hoops, and swept so proudly kinds, from the stately amours of the old along the grassy avenues; and she thinks books of chivalry, down to the last bluethe ladies let themselves sadly down in covered romance, recking from the press; their dignity, when they gave up cushioned though she evidently gives the preference head-dresses, and high-heeled shoes. She to those that came out in the days of her has much to say too of the officers who youth, and when she was first in love,→→ were in the train of her adınirers; and She maintains that there are no novels speaks familiarly of many wild young written now-a-days equal to Pamela and blades, that are now, perhaps, hobbling Sir Charles Grandison; and she places the about watering-places with crutches and Castle of Otranto at the head of all res gouty shoes.

enables to command all the comforts and conveniences, all the intelligence and novelties of the capital while he is removed from its hurry and distraction. He has aimple incans of occupation and amusement within his own domains; he may diversify his time by rural occupations, by rural sports, by study, and by the delights of friendly society collected within his own hospitable halls.

Or if his views and feelings are of a more extensive and liberal nature, he has it greatly in his power to do good, and to have that good immediately reflected back upon himself. He can render essential service to his country, by assisting in the disinterested administration of the laws; by watching over the opinions and principles of the lower orders around him; by diffusing among them those lights which may be important to their welfare; by mingling frankly among them, gaining their confidence, becoming the immediate auditor of their complaints, informing him self of their wants, making himself a channel through which their grievances may be quietly communicated to the proper sources of mitigation and relief; or by becoming, if need be, the intrepid and incorruptible guardian of their liberties the enlightened champion of their rights.

It is when the rich and well-educated and highly-privileged classes neglect their duties, when they neglect to study the interests, and conciliate the affections, and instruct the opinions, and champion the rights of the people, that the latter become discontented and turbulent, and fall into the hands of demagogues: the demagogue always steps in where the patriot is wanting. There is a common high-handed cant among the high-feeding, and as they fancy themselves, high-minded men, about putting down the mob; but all true physicians know that it is better to sweeten the blood, then attack the tumor, to apply the emollient rather than the cautery. It is absurd in a country like England, where there is so much freedom, and such a jealousy of right, for any man to assume an aristocratical tone, and to talk superciliously of the common people. There is no rank that makes him independant of the opinions and affections of his fellow men, there is no rank nor distinction that severs him from his fellow-subject; and if, by any gradual neglect or assumption on the one side, and discontent and jealousy on the other, the orders of society should really separate, let those who stand on the eminence beware that the chasm is not mining at their feet. The orders of society in all well constituted governments are mutually bound together, and important to each other: there can be no such thing in a free government as a vacuum; and whenever one is likely to take place, by the drawing off of the rich and intelligent from the poor, the bad passions of society will rush in to fill up the space, and rend the whole asunder.

All this can be done without any sacrifice of personal dignity, without any degrading arts of popularity, without any truckling to vulgar prejudices, or concurrence in vulgar clamor; but by the steady influence of sincere and friendly council, of fair, upright, and generous deportment. Whatever may be said of English mobs, and English demagogues, I have never met with a people more open to reason, more considerate in their tempers, more tractable by argument in the roughest times, than the English They are remarkably quick Though born and brought up in a reat discerning and appreciating whatever is public, and more and more confirmed in manly and honorable. They are by na- republican principles by every year's obture and habit methodical and orderly:servation and experience, yet I am not and they feel the value of all that is regular insensible to the excellence that may exist and respectable. They may occasionally in other forms of government, nor to the be deceived by sophistry, and excited into fact that they may be more suitable to the turbulence by public distresses and misre- situation and circumstances of the counpresentations of designing men; but open tries in which they exist: I have endeavour. their eyes, and they will eventually rallyed rather to look at them as they are, and round the land-marks of steady truth, and deliberate good sense. They are fond of established customs, they are fond of long established names, and that love of order and quiet which characterises the nation, gives a vast influence to the descendants

to observe how they are calculated to effect the end which they propose. Considering, therefore, the mixed nature of the government of this country, and its representative form, I have looked with admiration at the manner in which the wealth and influence