famines of this period, the terrific ravages of pestilence, and the savage insurrections, seem all powerfully to contradict this notion. That the Young England gentlemen, so rife since the production of the Waverley novels, and so elevated with false notions of pageantry and piety, should make this assertion is not surprising, but we regret to see a liberal and sensible writer like Mr. Thornton falling into a belief of this mirage. The narratives of contemporary writers give us glimpses of herds of debased and ferocious churls, that show human nature in its most abhorrent form.

The remedies for better trimming the balance regulating the demand and supply of labour are finally considered; and this portion of the book contains some valuable suggestions, more especially that one recommending that, as an inducement to the recovery of the waste lands in Ireland, a right in them should be given to the peasants who redeemed them. Irish energy only requires to be put in a right direction; and it will, doubtless, ultimately redeem the nation from its wretched condition and it appears that labour thus stimulated and applied would redeem land which the mere capitalist cannot make profitable.

Mr. Thornton is a strong, perhaps it may be said a vehement advocate for free trade, believing in its power to produce effects possibly beyond its reach. He also advocates the small farm and allotment systems; but like all theorists, is more eloquent as to their benefits than suggestive as to the means of their being brought into operation. He is also very decisive as to many speculative points of political economy, but we cannot say equally convincing. The book, however, is one well worth studying, and should be thankfully received as a useful addition to the literature of a subject of all others most engrossing and important.

ROSCOE'S LIFE AND PONTIFICATE OF LEO THE TENTH, Edited by his Son, (including the copyright portions.) With fine Portraits. Post 8vo. London: H. G. Bohn.

SCHLEGEL'S LECTURES ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY, translated from the German, with a Memoir of the Author, by J. B. ROBERTSON, Esq. Second Edition, revised; fine Portrait of the Author. Post 8vo. London: H. G. Bohn.

CHEAPNESS has reached its zero point in these two volumes; for the matter, print, and binding are equal to that of the usual full price. It is a bold speculation on the part of the publisher, and the sale of thousands can alone remunerate him. Still, doubtless, the thousands will be found, especially as regards Leo the Tenth-a masterly work that has already stood the test of time. Mr. Roscoe's style was not so lucid and

taking as might be desired; but his diligence, his knowledge, and his sound judgment have established him as an acknowledged biographical historian. A standard work is now within the reach of the humblest student.

With respect to Schlegel's Philosophy of History, we cannot think the selection equally judicious. It was certainly written in the decline of Schlegel's powers, and is tinged with the religious enthusiasm and mysticism of a new convert. It is an effort to reconcile theology and history in a manner in which the preconceived theological idea is allowed to predominate. It was impossible for a man so profoundly learned as Schlegel, to write any work that would not contain much that was important, and some of the earlier chapters comprise extensive and just views of the subject, and the work is one which must demand the attention of the historical student.

Mr. Bohn has a series of these kind of works, and the manner in which they are issued is extremely advantageous to those whose pecuniary means are not commensurate with their intellectual riches. It would take us too far to examine by what process it is that improved editions of works are published at so much less than their original price; and how it is two-guinea books come to be sold for three and sixpence. It is a question embracing the interest of authors, publishers, and the public, more than may at a glance appear. The rights of authors form the foundation of the theme, and it may be worth our while some day to endeavour to show that a mean between the first exorbitant and the last equally extravagantly low price would be better for all parties.

NARRATIVE of a Four Months' Residence amongst the Natives of a Valley of the MARQUESAS ISLANDS; or, a Peep at Polynesian Life. By HERMAN MELVILLE. London: Murray.

Is there any one whose eye may fall on this page, weary of the conventionalities of civilised life-some toil-worn Sisyphus bowed to the earth with his never-ending task of rolling up the hill of life the stone that ever threatens to fall back on himself-dispirited with the energies he has wasted on unrewarded or uncongenial pursuits-cheated with Hope until he regard her as a baffled impostor who shall cheat him no more; whose heart beats no longer high for the future; but whose best affections are chilled, and loftiest aspirations thrown back on themselves. Is there any one sick of the petty animosities, the paltry heartburnings and jealousies, and low-thoughted cares of what is called, in bitter mockery, society?-Oh! "if such man there be," let him take the "wings of a dove," or what perhaps will bear safer the weight of himself and his woes-a berth in a South-sea whaler, and try the effects

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of a "Residence in the Marquesas,” and take a Peep at Polynesian life," and if he likes the peep make that life his own.

Here, and we call Mr. Herman Melville into court, he need not fear the single rap at the door which dissipates his day-dreams as surely as the kite in the air scares away the feathered minstrelsy of the grove; nor the postman's knock that peradventure brings the letter of the impatient dun or threatening attorney; nor butchers' nor bakers' bills; nor quarter-days with griping landlord and brutal brokers; nor taxgatherer; nor income-tax collectors guaging with greedy exactness the drops that have fallen from his brow. Here, strange to say, he will find no money, no bargaining, no bankers with overdrawn accounts or dishonoured acceptances; no coin, and therefore no care; no misery, and therefore no crime. No corn-laws, no tariff, no union-workhouse, no bone-crushing, no spirit-crushing, no sponging-houses, no prisons. But he may live as the songster wish'd, but dar'd not even to hope he could live

"in an isle of his own

In a blue summer ocean far off;"

but not "alone." For here are Houris even more graceful and lovely than the flowers they are perpetually weaving to adorn themselves with chaplets and necklaces, their only ornaments, but worthy of the court of Flora herself; inviting him to repose his weary limbs beneath the shadows of groves, on couches strewn with buds and fragrant

blossoms.

Here the bosom of Nature unscarified by the plough, offers up spontaneously her goodliest gifts; food the most nutritious, and fruits the most refreshing. The original curse on man's destiny, appears here not to have fallen, "the ground is not cursed for his sake;" nor "in sorrow does he eat of it all the days of his life."

In this garden of Eden, from which man is not yet an exile, there are no laws, and what is more agreeable still, no want of them; unless it be an Agrarian law, which works to every one's satisfaction. In this paradise of islands, you have only to fix the site of your house, and you will not be called upon to produce your title deeds; and you may call upon your neighbours to help you to build it, without any surveyor being called in to tax their bills. Here you may, instead of going to your office or warehouse, loiter away your morning beneath the loveliest and bluest of skies, on the margin of some fair lake, reflecting their hues yet more tenderly; or join the young men in their fishing-parties or more athletic sports; or if more quietly disposed, join the old men seated on their mats in the shade, in their "talk" deprived of only one topic, your everlasting one, the weather; for where the climate is one tropical June day, "melting into July," it leaves you nothing to wish for, positively nothing to grumble at.

Such is life in the valley of the Typees; and surely Rasselas, if he

had had the good luck to stumble on it, would not have gone further in his search after happiness.

There is, however, one trifling drawback-some shadows to temper the light of this glowing picture-the Typees are cannibals! The author makes an elaborate, but to our notion, a very unnecessary apology for this propensity of theirs. The Polynesians have the advantage of the cannibals of civilised life, for we have long since made the pleasant discovery, that man-eating is not confined to the Anthropophagi of the South Seas. The latter have undoubtedly one redeeming distinctionthey only devour their enemies slain in battle: there is nothing which man in a civilised state has a keener appetite for than his particular friend. Go to any race-course, and you will find some scented Damon picking his teeth with a silver tooth-pick after devouring his Pythias, as if he had relished the repast. Go to Tattersal's or Crockford's, and you will find that in a single night a man has devoured his own wife and children-having been disappointed in supping off his intimate friends. We know instances of highly respected country gentlemen swallowing at a single election the whole of their posterity; and could quote one huge Ogre who can gorge in his mighty man a few millions of "the finest peasantry"-nothing, indeed, civilised men are more expert in than picking their neighbours' bones!

Possibly, we may have pushed the parallel to the furthest; but it is impossible to read this pleasant volume without being startled at the oft-recurring doubt, has civilization made man better, and therefore happier? If she has brought much to him, she has taken much away; and wherever she has trod, disease, misery and crime have tracked her footsteps. She finds man a rude but happy savage, and leaves him a repulsive outcast, whose only relation to humanity consists in the vices which stain it!

We have dwelt more on the subject of Mr. Melville's "Narrative," and the reflections it excites, than on the book itself, which is one of the most captivating we have ever read. What will our juvenile readers say to a real Robinson Crusoe, with a real man Friday?-one KoryKory, with whom we will venture to say they will be delighted in five minutes from his introduction. The early part of the volume, narrating the author's escape from the prison ship with his strange comrade Toby, whose mysterious fate, after battling our curiosity and speculation, is yet to be developed-for the best of all possible reasons, that the author himself has not found it out!--is full of vivid excitement The hair-breadth escapes of the adventurous seamen, their climbing up precipices and perpendicular rocks, their perilous leaps into cavernous retreats and gloomy ravines, are painted in vivid contrast to the voluptuous ease and tranquil enjoyments of the happy valley which they eventually reach. Although with little pretension to author-craft, there is a life and truth in the descriptions, and a freshness in the style of the narrative, which is in perfect keeping with the scenes and

adventures it delineates. The volume forms a part of "Murray's Home and Colonial Library," and is worthy to follow "Borrow's Bible in Spain," and "Heber's Indian Journals." What traveller would wish for a higher distinction ?

THE NUNS OF MINSK; Narrative of the Abbess Makrena Mieczyslawska, Abbess of the Basilian Nuns of Minsk; or, History of a Seven Years' Persecution, suffered for the Faith. Fcp. 8vo. Bogue.

THE persecution of the Nuns of Minsk has been so loudly affirmed and denied, and has excited so much interest, that this little volume, which contains a translation of the authentic narrative of the Abbess, will be acceptable to the public as affording the best means of judging from internal evidence whether one of the most cruel persecutions or vilest impostures has been perpetrated. It is neatly printed in a cheap form, and appears to be carefully and graphically translated.

From the Papers bequeathed

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF DAVID HUME. by his Nephew to the Royal Society of Edinburgh; and other original sources. By JOHN HILL BURTON, Esq., Advocate. 2 vols. demy 8vo. Edinburgh: W. Tait.

What

THESE Volumes are a valuable contribution to our literature. ever may be the variety of opinions relative to the value of Hume's philosophical works, there can be no doubt that the shortest letter that throws a light on the working and progress of such a mind, is a useful contribution to mental investigation. Hume's mind, in whatever category it may be placed by the historian of philosophy, exercised directly in his life, and continues to exercise indirectly in his imitators and followers, so powerful an influence in the regions of thought, that it becomes a necessity to all interested in mental philosophy to avail themselves of the vast amount of illustration thus for the first time afforded them. It is strange that documents so interesting in themselves, and so important as additions to mental science, should have been so long in reaching the public. They have now, however, fallen into the care of one fully capable of making them available, and for the first time we may boast of possessing a biography worthy of the great Scotch philosopher. Hume's own brief but admirable autobiography may perhaps have rendered other writers less willing to enter the field against his terse and pregnant memoir; and thus have caused what must hitherto have appeared, especially to foreigners, a disgraceful deficiency in our literature.

It is not only as a contribution to mental philosophy that the present volumes are interesting. The biographical narrative, developing