windows had a prospect on the one hand of the quiet, and cloistered precincts of Chessels' Court, and on the other to the gilded spires and grey time-honoured turrets of Holyroodhouse. Twice a-year, when he held a card party, with three candles on the table, and the old joke about the number which adorn that of the Laird of Grant, was he duly gratified with compliments upon the comfortable nature of his room, by the ancient Jacobite spinsters and dowagers, who, in silk mantles and pattens, came from the Abbeyhill and New Street, to honour him with their venerable company. Halket was an old man of dignified appearance, and generally wore a dress of the antique fashion above alluded to. On Sundays and holidays, he always exhibited a sort of court-dress, and walked with a cane of more than ordinary stateliness. He also assumed this dignified attire on occasions of peculiar ceremony. It was his custom, for instance, on a particular day every year, to pay a visit to the deserted court of Holyrood, in this dress, which he considered alone suitable to an affair of so much importance. On the morning of the particular day which he was thus wont to keep holy, he always dressed himself with extreme care, got his hair put into order by a professional hand, and, after breakfast, walked out of doors with deliberate steps and a solemn mind. His march down the Canongate was performed with all the decorum which might have attended one of the state processions of a former day. He did not walk upon the pavement by the side of the way. That would have brought him into contact with the modern existing world, the rude touch of which might have brushed from his coat the dust and sanctitude of years. He assumed the centre of the street, where, in the desolation which had overtaken the place, he ran no risk of being jostled by either carriage or foot passenger, and where the play of his thoughts and the play of his cane-arm alike got ample scope. There, wrapped up in his own pensive reflections, perhaps imagining himself one in a court pageant, he walked along, under the 3 lofty shadows of the Canongate,—a wreck of yesterday floating down the stream of to-day, and almost in himself a procession. On entering the porch of the palace, he took off his hat; then, pacing along the quadrangle, he ascended the staircase of the Hamilton apartments, and entered Queen Mary's chambers. Had the beauteous Queen still kept court there, and still been sitting upon her throne to receive the homage of mankind, Mr Halket could not have entered with more awe-struck solemnity of deportment, or a mind more alive to the nature of the When he had gone over the whole of the various rooms, and also traversed in mind the whole of the recollections which they are calculated to excite, he retired to the Picture-gallery, and there endeavoured to recall, in the same manner, the more recent glories of the court of Prince Charles. To have seen the amiable old enthusiast sitting in that long and lofty hall, gazing alternately 3 upon vacant space and the portraits which hang upon the walls, and to all appearance absorbed beyond recall in the contemplation of the scene, one would have supposed him to be fascinated to the spot, and that he conceived it possible, by devout wishes, long and fixedly entertained, to annul the interval of time, and reproduce upon that floor the glories which once pervaded it, but which had so long passed away. After a day of pure and most ideal 9 enjoyment, he used to retire to his own house, in a state of mind approaching, as near as may be possible on this earth, to perfect beatitude.* 1 4 } scene. ceiving him, and not only persuaded him that the picture was not a likeness of the goddess of his idolatry-Queen Mary, but possessed him with the belief that it represented the vinegar aspect of the hated Elizabeth. Mr Halket, however, was too proud to acknowledge s mortification by causing the picture to be removed, or perhaps it might not have been convenient for him to supply its place; and he did not want wit to devise a pretext for allowing it to remain, with out compromising his hostility to the English Queen one whit: Very well," said he, "I am glad you have told me it is Elizabeth; for I shall have the pleasure of showing my contempt of her every day by turning my back upon her when I sit down to table." " He raid a state visit, in full dress, with a sword by his side, to Mr Halket belonged, as a matter of course, to the primitive apostolical church, whose history has been so intimately and so fatally associated with that of the House of Stuart. He used to attend an obscure chapel in the Old Town; one of those unostentatious places of worship to which the Episcopalian clergy had retired, when dispossessed of their legitimate fanes at the Revolution, and where they have since performed the duties of religion, rather, it may be said, to a family, or at most a circle of acquaintance, than to a congregation. He was one of the old-fashioned sort of Episcopalians, who always used to pronounce the responses aloud; and, during the whole of the Liturgy, he held up one of his hands in an attitude of devotion. One portion alone of that formula did he abstain from assenting to the prayer for the Royal Family. At that place, he always blew his nose, as a token of contempt. In order that even his eye might not be offended by the names of the Hanoverian family, as he called them, he used a prayer-book which had been printed before the Revolution, and which still prayed for King Charles, the Duke of York, and the Princess Anne. He was excessively accurate in all the forms of the Episcopalian mode of worship; and indeed acted as a sort of fugleman to the chapel; the rise or fall of his person being in some measure a signal to guide the corresponding motions of all the rest of the congregation. Such was Alexander Halket-at least in his more poetical and gentlemanly aspect. His character and history, however, were not without their disagreeable points. For instance, although but humbly born himself, he was perpetually affecting the airs of an aristocrat, was always talking of "good old families who had seen better days," and declaimed incessantly against the upstart pride and consequence of people who had orginally been nothing. This peculiarity, which was perhaps, after all, not inconsistent with his Jacobite craze, he had exhibited even when a shopkeeper in Fraserburgh. If a person came in, for instance, and asked to have a hat, Halket would take down one of a quality suitable, as he thought, to the rank or wealth of the customer, and, if any objection was made to it, or a wish expressed for one of a better sort, he would say, That hat, sir, is quite good enough for a man in your rank of life: I will give you no other." He was also very finical in the decoration of his person, and very much of a hypochondriac in regard to little incidental maladies. Somebody, to quiz him on this last score, once circulated a report that he had caught cold one night, going home from a party, in consequence of having left off wearing a particular gold ring. And it really was not impossible for him to have believed such a thing, extravagant as it may appear. THE DRAMA. WHAT a weary load of trash is emptied out of muddy brains upon the subject of Kean's acting! Long, dismal, half-philosophical dissertations, containing a strange mixture of nonsense touching Shakspeare's plays, and of drivel touching the actor's conceptions of them! The simple truth lies in a nutshell;-Shakspeare was a man of genius, and Kean is a man of genius, and ninety-nine out of a hundred who pretend to speak about them are not men of genius, and consequently do not, in the most remote degree, understand either the one or the other. Kean has played five of his best parts here,-Shylock, Othello, Macbeth, Hamlet, and Richard twice; but Heaven forbid that we should make one of the twenty thousand who, for the twenty-thousandth time, gravely set themselves down to write an analysis of each of these parts, the Crown Room, in Edinburgh Castle, immediately after the old regalia of the kingdom had been there discovered in 1818. On this occasion, a friend of the present writer saw him, and endeavoured to engage him in conversation, as he was marching up the Castle Hill; but he was too deeply absorbed in reflection upon the sacred objects which he had to see, to be able to speak. He just gazed on the person accosting him, and walked on. and to discourse "most eloquent music," though some- But Kean (though he is still the best actor we have) has fallen off; and when we say so, we mean ourselves to be understood in the fullest acceptation of the term, without making any ridiculous distinction between physical strength and mental power. The two are inseparably conjoined. If a man's body grow weak, his mind, to all intents and purposes, grows weak also. Sickness and dissipation have made terrible havoc with Kean; and the consequence is, that his whole manner is now tamed down, and that half his wonted fire is extinct. His style is far more pompous and elocutionary than it used to be; and this is an alternative which debility has forced upon him. He now mouths and journeys slowly through many passages, to which, in his better days, he would have given all the force of nervous and rapid utterance. Let nobody suppose that this is a voluntary change, because time has chastened his judgment. Judgment was never Kean's forte; but when his blood dashed strongly through his veins, he yielded to the quick impulses of the moment, and these impulses were true to nature. But now they come more rarely, and are feebler when they do come. He has not so much blood as he once had, and a great deal of Kean's best acting lay in his blood. He is like a good race-horse somewhat stricken in years; he walks over a course which he has often galloped round, a hundred yards a-head of all competitors; yet now and then he starts off into his old pace, and the common spectator ignorantly imagines he is as able to win the cup as before. We do not say that Kean is past his best now and for ever. If he gets stronger and more regular in his habits, his acting will again insensibly assimilate itself to what it was in his most vigorous days. In the meantime, he has got three hundred pounds for his six night's performance in Edinburgh, and with that sum in his pocket, he wiH probably smile very coolly at our assertion, that he has fallen off. Old Cerberus. POSTSCRIPT. By the by, what does Kean mean by his new readings of Shakspeare? He mangles the soliloquy, "To be, or not to be," most dreadfully, and he has so altered several other passages that we scarcely knew them. ORIGINAL POETRY. SONNETS. By Charles Doyne Sillery. 1. MORNING. 'Tis morn! the mountains catch the living glow II. EVENING. But hush! the dolphin dies-the west is tinged And fade and languish tremulous away Ten thousand thousand gems of living light! III. THE THINGS I LOVE. Sweet is Aurora's breath at early dawn ; Sweet the faint zephyr from the fragrant lawn, And sweet the plaining of the Æolian trees: Give noon her cloudless skies of laughing blue, Autumn, her yellow corn-and winter, bind But give me-give me sunshine in the mind- SONNET. THE DEPARTED. Nor with the plaint of unavailing grief Shall we who knew and loved-it was the same Lament that we can cherish but thy name; For though recall'd so soon to whence you came, LITERARY CHIT-CHAT AND VARIETIES. We understand that Messrs Blackie, Fullarton, and Co. of Glasgow, will speedily publish a small volume, entitled Life on Board a Man of War; being a Narrative of the Adventures of a British Sailor in his Majesty's service, embracing a particular account of the Battle of Navarino, &c. The narrator served on board the Genoa, and much interesting matter will be given regarding the conduct of that vessel during the action, and the accusations brought against Captain Dick enson. We understand that the Annals of the Peninsular Campaigns, from 1808 to 1814, by the author of Cyril Thornton, will be published on the 21st of November. ridge, are the individuals generally known as the Poets of the Lakes,' because, at one time, they all resided in the neighbourhood of Keswick, and were constant companions and bon vivants, as far as related, at least, to three of them. They are now separated, and, we believe, seldom meet or correspond. Southey remains at Keswick; Wordsworth, at Rydal Mount; Wilson, at Edinburgh; Coleridge, at Hampstead; and the celebrated Opium Eater' is gone to take possession of a family estate in the neighbourhood of Kendal, which has devolved to him by the death of his mother."-We have seldom seen so many erroneous statements in so short a space. The five poets mentioned never "all resided in the neighbourhood of Keswick." Southey does not "remain at Keswick," for he has gone to settle permanently in London. Wordsworth does not remain "at Rydal Mount," for his family are spending this season on the sea-coast, and he himself is, or has been, till very lately, in Ireland. Wilson does not remain "at Edinburgh," for he has been the whole of the sum> burgh till near the end of next month. The Opium Eater is not " gone to take possession of a family estate in the neighbourhood of Kendal," but is living in a small cottage at Rydal, where his wife presented him the other day with his fifth daughter, and sixth child, So much for the accuracy of the Cumberland Pacquet. Mr Cooper's new novel, The Borderers, or the Wept of Wish-ton-mer at his seat of Elleray on Windermere, and will not return to Edin Wish, which we were the first to announce on this side of the Atlantie, refers to that period when the early settlers of New England.became involved in the most fearful struggles with the native owners of the soil. Of the heroism and high daring of the Indian character, there are numerous instances on record; and we think that few pe riods of American history present so many deeply interesting and striking events as that which Mr Cooper has chosen. The three American Annuals for 1830, from Boston, Philadelphia, and New York, will arrive soon in this country. They will be enriched with numerous engravings, and contributions from the most distinguished writers in the United States. The first volume of a new series of the Extractor will be published speedily, under the enlarged title of the Polar Star of Entertainment and Popular Science. Dr Arnot's Elements of Physics, or Natural Philosophy, will be completed by the publication of the Second Volume, of which the first half, comprehending the subjects of Heat and Light, is to appear early in October. It will be accompanied by a Fourth Edition of Vol. J., in which the true nature of the common defect in Speech, called Stuttering, or Stammering, is exposed; and a Key is given, for effectually setting free the imprisoned voice. A second volume of the Topography, Edifices, and Ornaments of Pompeii, by Sir W. Gell, is in preparation, containing an account of the excavations since the publication of the former volume, with several additional interesting remains. GYMNASTICS-Scotland VERSUS France. The paragraph concern. ing gymnastics in our last has procured us several communications from Highlauders and others. In the first place, we are informed that Gymnastics are a very secondary object with the "Highland Club," and are introduced merely for the sake of the younger mem bers-the Club's funds being appropriated almost entirely to the education of nearly one hundred children. In the next place, we learn that the Revue Encyclopedique must have made some egregious mistake in its statement of the feats performed by our Scottish Gymnasts, which led to the boast that the untrained French peasants could beat them all. We shall now mention, for the special consider ation of the Revue Encyclopedique, what the true state of the case is. The best throwing of the hammer ever seen in Scotland has taken place at the annual meetings of the St Ronan's, the St Fillan's, and the Six Feet Club of Edinburgh; and at these meetings, we venture to say, that it has been better thrown than it ever has, or can be thrown, at least in modern times. A hammer, weighing between 21 and 22 pounds, has been thrown, by a two-handed steady throw, 70 feet; and a hammer, weighing between 16 and 17 pounds, has been thrown, in the same way, 80 feet,-where a turn or swing was allowed, it has been thrown 91 feet. As to the light hammer throw Hazlitt's Life of Napoleon, the two last volumes of which have been so long delayed by various circumstances, is about to be pub-ing, which is done with one hand, though, we believe, it is not prolished in a completed state. The Rev. Mr Dyer is said to be engaged in finishing the Life of Shirley, for the new edition of his Works, edited by the late Mr Gifford, and printed off many years ago. We trust Dr Ireland, Gifford's executor, has supplied to Mr Dyer the various manuscripts and memoranda which had been prepared by Mr Gilchrist and others, and given to Mr Gifford, to complete the Biography of Shirley and the Essay upon his Works. Historical Memoirs of the Church and Court of Rome, from the establishment of Christianity under Constantine to the present period, is announced by the Rev. H. C. O'Donnoghue, A.M. St John's College, Cambridge. And also, by the same author, the Peculiar Doctrines of the Church of Rome, as contained exclusively in her own Conciliar Decrees and Pontifical Bulls, examined and disproved. A volume of Sermons, by the Bishop of London, is nearly ready for publication. A Life of Romney the Painter will, we are informed, be published about next March. The publisher of the Cornwall and Devon Magazine, after somewhat naively" calling the attention of the reading world to a Magazine which has existed for some years past," announces that he has been put in possession of a variety of original articles, from the pen of the late Dr Walcott,- the celebrated Peter Pindar,-which are to appear from time to time in his Magazine. CAMBRIDGE.-There are 102 Professors or Lecturers in the University of Cambridge; and the average number of residents in statu papillari is 1600, so that there is rather more than one Professor to sixteen students, whilst at Berlin, one of the best endowed of the Continental Universities, the average is about one Professor to thirty-two students. We should be glad to learn from any of our correspondents what the average exactly is in Edinburgh. There will shortly be published at Stutgard, a "Corpus Philosophorum optimæ natæ qui ab Reformatione usque ad Kantii ætatem, floruerunt." It will contain the select works of Bacon, Descartes, Spinoza, Locke, Hume, Leibnitz, and others. THE LAKE POETS.-The Cumberland Pacquet, a newspaper which, by virtue of its locality, ought to have had accurate information concerning the Lake Poets, favours us with the following paragraph, which has been making the round of the newspapers, and which we Copy for the purpose of contradicting almost the whole of it:"Wordsworth, Southey, Professor Wilson, De Quincey, and Cole perly a Scottish sport, and is looked upon with great contempt by those who pretend to understand the subject, yet George Scougal, of Imerleithen, has thrown a 10-pound hammer upwards of 115 feet. Next, as to high leaping, one of the members of the Six Feet Club has cleared, at a standing leap, that is, without any previous movement, the height of 4 feet 8 inches. Many of the members of the same Club have cleared, at a running high leap, 5 feet; and there is one of them who, as well as Anderson, a tailor in Innerleithen, has cleared 5 feet 4 inches. Ireland, the famous leaper, is said to have cleared his own height, which was 6 feet 1 inch, but he must surely have had the assistance of a spring-board. An ancestor of one of the members of the Six Feet Club leapt in and out of 12 hogsheads without stopping to take breath. We have particularly to request that the Revue Encyclopedique will digest these facts before it again ventures to talk lightly of Scottish gymnastics. FINE ARTS.-The committee appointed to judge of the respective merits of the sketches and models of the monument to be erected in this city to the late Duke of York, have not yet come to any definite resolution. Two designs, proposed by Macdonald, are now to be seen in the rooms of the Institution, and the larger of the two strikes us as very elegant and appropriate. We observe that the casts from the Elgin marbles, to which we some weeks ago directed our readers' attention, are still allowed to lie scattered around the octagon, covered occasionally with the hats and coats of the attendants, or the mats and mops which the servants are at a loss to dispose of. Was it with this view that they were presented to the Institution? Might it not be as well to remove them up stairs to the Trustees' Gallery, where they might be of use, and not exposed to accidents?—The sudden and lamented death of Sir William Arbuthnot has left the secretaryship to the board of Trustees vacant. It is not yet known who is to supply his place.-Wilkie's contribution to the new edition of the Waverley Novels is now engraving, and promises (if we may judge from the outline) to be worthy of the artist. The subject is from Old Mortality,→ Morton taken away from his uncle's by Bothwell and his troopers. -Simpson is busy painting "The Luncheon," a companion to his "Twelfth of August," which he exhibited last year.-Landseer has transmitted a painting to Edinburgh, from which an engraving is to be taken to illustrate the Bride of Lammermoor. It represents the deliverance of Sir William Ashton and Lucy from the wild bull, by the Master of Ravenswood. The arrangement of the figures is circular. Lucy lies on the foreground in a swoon; behind her, and supporting her head, stands her father, to the right hand of the spectators; and use of critical spectacles, by which objects are, almost invariably, farther back, and rather to the left, the Master is seen advancing to-dimmed, dismembered, or distorted. The Annuals, destined, as they wards them. The head and shoulders of the dead animal appear between them. Backwards, on either side, are trees, with a long vista opening in the centre. The picture, altogether, is a beautiful piece of composition. SMALL TALK FROM FRANCE.-The law of the 18th July, 1828, requires that all Literary Journals find caution, but excepts from this necessity such as are not published oftener than twice a-week. A Mon. Selligue set on foot, some time ago, three journals, beautifully printed on rose paper, and entitled,-" Le Trilby, Album des Salons;" "Le Lutin, Echo des Salons;" "Le Sylphe, Journal des Salons;" each of which appeared twice a-week. The ministry, fancying that this slight difference in the title of three journals, which exactly coincided in every other respect, was merely a device for evading the law, commenced a prosecution against them before the court of correctional police. The publisher offered to prove, by the lists of subscribers to each, that they were independent speculations, and the cause was given in his favour. The Procureur du Roi was instructed to appeal to the Cour Royale; but this tribunal has confirmed the decision of the inferior court.-Although the liberty of the press has been conceded in France, inspectors of the book-trade have been retained, whose business it is to give notice of the appearance of dangerous works. By an ordonnance, which appeared in the Moniteur of 15th September, the four inspectors of Paris have been superseded, and their office transferred to the Commissaries of Police. An author in this country would look rather queer, were Sir Richard Birnie to be added to the long lane of reviewers through which he must run the gauntlet.-M. Chateaubriand is expected to publish, by the monch of January, two volumes " On the History of France."-The Bridge of Louis XVI., at Paris, is to be adorned with twelve statues. The ninth (that of Bayard) has just been placed on its pedestal. There remain to be completed the statues of Segur, Colbert, and Tourville.-An interesting dramatic solemnity was celebrated at Rouen on Saturday the 19th September, the whole proceeds of which were paid to the subscription which has been commenced with a view to erect a statue to Corneille. The evening's entertainments commenced with a poetical address, composed by Casimir Delavigne; the play was Cinna; and the festival concluded with an opera of Boyeldieu.-Mayerbeer is now in Paris, and is busy with a new Opera, which is to be brought out at the Academie de Musique. The words are by Scribe, the popular French dramatist. THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE PERIODICAL PRESS. To the Editor of the Edinburgh Literary Journal. SIR,-I have observed, with much pleasure, that your critical labours are directed, not unfrequently, to the exposure of talentless effrontery, and of that dishonest system of "puffing," which, unless a timely check can be devised, threatens to extinguish sound learning and genuine literature in this country. You cannot render a more important service to letters, than by holding up to public reprobation those bibliopolic arts which are now systematically employed to secure, for productions utterly contemptible, a temporary and profitable popularity. No doubt the cheat, in most instances, is sooner or later discovered; but the counterfeit coin, though withdrawn from general circulation, may contrive for a while to deceive the ignorant and the unwary. If the press continue much longer to pursue its present profligate and mercenary career, the only safety of the reading public will consist in interpreting its literary decisions by the rule of contraries. In proof of the charge which I have brought against the pe riodical criticism of the day, I might appeal to almost every Review, Magazine, and Newspaper in the kingdom. Amid this general prostration, however, there are an honourable few who have not "bowed the knee to Baal,"-and among these the EDINBURGH LITERARY JOURNAL is proudly distinguished. After this deserved tribute to your general impartiality and independence, you will perhaps be surprised when I inform you, that the present observations were suggested by an article in the Journal of Saturday last. The article is a very excellent one, on a very delightful subject-the Annuals for 1830. It is, I have not the slightest doubt, sincere and candid from beginning to end; and yet, I question much whether it should ever have been written. I recollect the time when it would have been regarded as no mean feat to criticise a work without reading it; but no one is now considered free of the craft who cannot criticise a work before it is written. Before a publication now issues from the press, it has been obtruded on our notice to very loathing-the eternal puff presents itself wherever we turn our eyes; so that, when it does appear, instead of receiving it with complacency, we are only anxious to see it consigned to speedy oblivion. We turn with impatience from the substance whose shadow has so long haunted us. In short, it is impossible for us, now-a-days, to sit down to the perusal of any work with an unbiassed mind. We are no longer allowed to see with our own eyes, or judge with our own judgment. We are compelled to make are, to be the messengers of love, affection, and friendship, it was to be hoped would have been deemed sacred, and remained unsullied by any contaminating touch. Alas! the nightshade of puffery has already darkened around them, and will, it is to be feared, speedfly consign them to a premature grave. The gems of art, too, with which they are so profusely adorned, are deprived of half their lustre, by being prematurely exposed to the blighting influence of critical cant; and those delightful emotions which they are calculated to impart to the cultivated and sensitive mind utterly annihilated. Each one is ticketed and labelled beforehand-the charm of novelty is destroyed-the luxury of unrestrained feeling is unknown. Trust me, that he who has been 'tasting every dish during the cooking will have but little relish for his dinner, and that, if you would have your friend enjoy his repast, you must keep him ignorant of the viands till they are placed before him. These hasty remarks on an important subject I submit to your impartial judgment, and am, with des ference and respect, yours, W. P. Edinburgh, 28th September, 1829. Theatrical Gossip.-It is understood that Covent Garden Theatre will open next Monday. Mr Fawcett resigns the stage management to Mr Bartley. Mr Kemble has received offers from Miss Paton and from Madame Malibran, to perform one night, and from Mr Kean to perform twenty-four nights, gratuitously, in aid of the fund. The shareholders of the theatre have agreed to relinquish all right to their dividends for the ensuing season, and also to allow the arrears of their annuities to remain as a debt on the theatre for three years. -It is said that the opening play will be "Romeo and Juliet," the part of Romeo by Charles Kemble, and that of Juliet by his daughter Miss Kemble-her first appearance on any stage. A comedy in three acts, called "Procrastination," from the pen of Mr Howard Payne, has been successful at the Haymarket; but the critics do not seem to think very highly of it.-The English Opera house is about to close, and the Adelphi has reopened.-De Begnis, Curioni, Blasis, Castelli, and Spagnoletti, have formed a little operatic company, and instead of coming here as they at one time proposed, are about Young Meadows, in "Love in a Village.”—Miss Stephens, who has to visit Dublin.-Young Incledon is to come out at Drury-Lane as been at Paris for some time with her brother and sister, has returned, but has made no engagement at either of the theatres.-Seymour of Glasgow has been busy converting the Riding School into a theatre; and Kean, who it is said has a share in the speculation, is now performing there. At his benefit here on Wednesday night, he was loudly called for after the curtain fell, and at length made his ap pearance. As soon as the applause subsided he said,-" Ladies and Gentlemen, I feel highly flattered by this mark of your regard. It has ever been my endeavour to please an Edinburgh audience more than perhaps any other. I know that the approbation with which you have honoured me proceeds from persons of enlightened judgement and warm feelings. I hope at a future opportunity to be better able to testify my gratitude."-Madame Vestris, who was to have appeared on Thursday evening, postponed her debut till to-night in consequence of a severe cold. We suppose our friend OLD CER BERUS will take her between his paws next week. WEEKLY LIST OF PERFORMANCES. TO OUR CORRESPONDENTS. THE Communication from "J. C. U." of Linton, shall have a place.-We are sorry that the "Adventure on the coast of Kent" is a great deal too long for us; but the author seems to have a complete command of his subject, and we shall be glad to receive from him a short nautical sketch or two.-Mr Brydson's communication will be of use to us. We do not see any necessity for publishing "A. B.'s" Letter.-" Bennevis" is in types The Poem by the late Mr Balfour is in types, but is unavoidably postponed.-The Poem from New York will appear in our next.We intend giving a place to " The Sea Fight," by " M." of Glasgow. when we have room for it.-Our Correspondent in Moray Place seems to be a poet of most extraordinary genius." A Picture," by our fair friend in Banff, shall have an early place.-" Lines written in a Bible," perhaps.-"The Lovers," by "H. W. G. L." will not suit us, "Letters from the West, No. VI." in our next.-The Review of Dr W. Brown's work is in types. ERRATUM. In the review of Mr Graham's work in our last, for "Mr Collet," read "Mr Coltart." LITERARY CRITICISM. WORKS ON THE EVE OF PUBLICATION.-Cooper's New Novel The Borderers.-The Venetian Bracelet, and other Poems. By Miss Landon.-The Diary and Correspondence of Philip Doddridge, D.D.-The Epping Hunt. By Thomas Hood, Esq. PRICE 6d. race to which she evidently owed her birth, she had the wild and timid look of those with whom she had grown into womanhood. Her beauty would have been remarkable in any region of the earth, while the play of muscle, the ingenuou, beaming of the eye, and the freedom of limb and actions among people who, in attempting to improve, so often mar were such as seldom pass beyond the years of childhood, the works of Nature." We shall add to this fresh and vigorous portrait two others, the one of a European, and the other of an Indian Warrior: THE EUROPEAN AND THE INDIAN. We have not yet been able to peruse these works with sufficient attention to give a detailed account of them, or to pronounce upon them decided opinions. As we are unwilling, however, that our readers should not know "Mark, like most of his friends, had cast aside all supersomething about them as soon as possible, we shall to-day fluous vestments ere he approached the scene of strife. The give an extract or two from each of them, with only a upper part of his body was naked to the shirt, and even this single introductory remark in explanation, and shall after- he had already passed. The whole of his full and heaving had been torn asunder by the rude encounters through which wards avail ourselves of the most convenient opportunity chest was bare, exposing the white skin and blue veins of to offer our matured judgment on their respective merits. one whose fathers had come from towards the rising sun. In his novel of the Borderers, Cooper is on his old His swelling form rested on a leg, that seemed planted in ground among the Backwoodsmen. We have already defiance, while the other was thrown in front, like a lever made our readers acquainted with his general merits as a to control the expected movements. His arms were extendwriter. His present work is to be classed with "The ed to the rear, the hands grasping the barrel of a musket, Last of the Mohicans," "The Pioneers," and "The which threatened death to all who should come within its Prairie," as forming one of that historical series illustra-hair of his Saxon lineage, was a little advanced above the sweep. The head, covered with the short, curling, yellow tive of the gradual change effected in the condition of the left shoulder, and seemed placed in a manner to preserve the Indians by the encroachments of Europeans. The date equipoise of the whole frame. The brow was flushed, the of the story is the 17th century, and the leading incidents lips compressed and resolute, the veins of the neck and relate to the contests carried on by the Puritan settlers of temples swollen nearly to bursting, and the eyes contracted, that time in Pennsylvania with the natives. The book but of a gaze that bespoke equally the feelings of desperate is one which will afford excellent scope for a detailed and determination and of entranced surprise. interesting review. Meanwhile, we extract the following sketch of the heroine : THE BEAUTY OF AN INDIAN FOREST. "The age of the stranger was under twenty. In form she rose above the usual stature of an Indian maid, though the proportions of her person were as light and buoyant as at all comported with the fulness that properly belonged to her years. The limbs, seen below the folds of a short kirtle of bright scarlet cloth, were just and tapering, even to the nicest proportions of classic beauty; and never did foot of higher instep, and softer roundness, grace a feathered moccasin. Though the person, from the neck to the knees, was hid by a tightly-fitting vest of calico and the short kirtle named, enough of the shape was visible to betray outlines that had never been injured, either by the mistaken devices of art, or by the baneful effects of toil. The skin was only visible at the hands, face, and neck. Its lustre having been a little dimmed by exposure a rich rosy tint had usurped the natural brightness of amplexion that had once been fair, even to brilliancy. was full, sweet, and of blue that emulated the sky of evening; the brows soft and arched; the nose straight, delicate, and slightly Grecian; the forehead fuller than that which properly belonged to a girl of the Narragansetts, but regular, delicate, and polished; and the hair, instead of dropping in long straight tresses of jet black, broke out of the restraints of a band of beaded wampum, in ringlets of golden yellow! a "The peculiarities that distinguished this female from the others of her tribe, were not confined alone to the indelible marks of nature. Her step was more elastic; her gait more erect and graceful; her foot less inwardly inclined, and her whole movements freer and more decided than those of a race doomed, from infancy, to subjection and labour. Though ornamented by some of the prized inventions of the hated more likely to be remarked. The habits of his people had "On the other hand, the Indian warrior was a man still brought him, as usual, into the field with naked limbs and nearly uncovered body. The position of his frame was that of one prepared to leap; and it would have been a comparison, tolerated by the license of poetry, to have likened his straight and agile form to the semblance of a crouching panther. The projecting leg sustained the body, bending under its load more with the free play of muscle and sinew, than from any weight, while the slightly stooping head was a little, advanced beyond the perpendicular. One hand was clenched on the helve of an axe, that lay in a line with the right thigh, while the other was placed, with a firm gripe, on the buckhorn handle of a knife that was still sheathed at his girdle. The expression of the face was earnest, severe, and perhaps a little fierce, and yet the whole was tempered by the immovable and dignified calm of a chief of high qua lities. The eye, however, was gazing and riveted, and, like that of the youth whose life he threatened, it appeared singularly contracted with wonder. The momentary pause that succeeded the movement by which the two antagonists threw themselves into these fine attitudes was full of meaning. Neither spoke, neither perdelay was not like that of preparation, for each stood ready mitted play of muscle, neither even seemed to breathe. The for his deadly effort; nor would it have been possible to trace, in the compressed energy of the countenance of Mark, or in the lofty and more practised bearing of the front and eye of the Indian, any thing like wavering of purpose. An emotion foreign to the scene appeared to possess them both, each active frame unconsciously accommodating itself to the bloody business of the hour, while the inscrutable agency of the mind held them, for a brief interval, in check." Miss Landon, after a silence of two years, has again come before the public. We have watched this young |