roof. Such edifices, besides the defence afforded by them against an element that rages here but too frequently, have the further merit of being cool and airy from their size and loftiness. True, they cut but a sorry figure, as well in front as their internal arrangements: here is none of the display made at the shop-windows on Ludgate Hill, nothing of their agaceries within; to the street they present, when closed, the aspect of so many dungeons; and open, make just the lugubrious show one sees at an undertaker's. Articles of sale are exhibited fresh from the packages in which they arrive, to be consigned there again if declined by the customer: Canton shawls emerge in this way from their figured cases, artificial flowers bloom in plain deal boxes, and fine linen tempts you from a hair trunk. This, however, chiefly prevails in the principal stores; those of less note expose at least some of their goods.

Considerable light may be derived from the Letters relative to the institution and results of slavery, from its working in quarters which the eye can readily scan, and in a manner where the effects are immediately perceived. We do not attempt to go into the subject, but content ourselves with a specimen of love-letter writing by a negro, which conveys a favourable idea of the black man's heart:

Jane brought me one day a billet-doux, stolen by her from our housemaid : this dark wench had fallen asleep while engaged in cleaning some articles of plate, and the letter, that some clever urchin had been reading for her, lay among them. It is from a black operative now at St. Thomas.

"Dear Catryn, Dare much fine house, and bera much ship here; bera much fine gal too, but me lub Catryn all time. Buddy Smit saydat Nigger Jock come see you: me too pale with lub: hope your heart like mine. You berry dear to George. Me work for one doller by day here; no--cut dollar, him make five quart, I tink in de Road. Buddy Smit bring you dis, he say me lub you too much, Catryn."

ART. X.-Memoir of the Life and Correspondence of John Lord Teignmouth. By his son, Lord TEIGNMOUTH. 2 vols.

THE Memoir and Correspondence before us do not exact from us any very particular notice. Mr. Shore was a respectable personage both in regard to individual character and administrative talent; but he had no claim to genius, or any thing of a brilliant nature. He himself was perfectly aware that zeal and assiduity were his merits: and the lesson which he practically studied was to make himself generally useful. In India he found ample opportunities for the display of this quality; nor was he doomed to remain long undistinguished on account of his activity, steady habits, and utilitarian cquirements; for although combined with the party that was strenuously arrayed against the policy and extravagance of Warren Hastings, it was his good fortune to be so heartily recommended to that high-minded Governor as to obtain the second seat at the Board

appointed to supersede the Provincial Councils. The occasion and means of this apparently contradictory measure of promotion are thus explained:

To the first post was appointed Mr. David Anderson, a servant of the Company, distinguished for his integrity and abilities. But, anticipating the need of this gentleman's services on special missions, Mr. Hastings consulted him on filling the second place at the Board, which would require qualifications not inferior to his own. Mr. Anderson at once recommended Mr. Shore, as, in his opinion, better fitted for the post than any other member of the Service. The Governor-General expressed astonishment at the mention of an individual whom he regarded as one of his most zealous opponents; for Mr. Shore's financial reputation had induced Mr. Hastings to attribute to him a large share in the preparation of Mr. Francis's Minutes. Mr. Anderson, intimately acquainted with the character of Mr. Hastings as well as of Mr. Shore, replied in the following terms: "Appoint Mr. Shore; and in six weeks you and he will have formed a friendship."-The proposal was assented to, and the prediction fulfilled.

But while Mr. Shore earnestly aided the Governor in those cautious measures that promised stability to our Indian settlements, he was systematically opposed to every extravagant display, and lavish method of impairing the financial capabilities of the empire; and as his honest opinion of the Governor's policy and practice was, in consequence of a breach of confidence, made known to that functionary, the subject of the Memoir before us, relinquished his seat at the Board already alluded to, and returned to England. And here his merits and habits came to be so fully appreciated, especially as a financier, that he was solicited to go out to India again in order to take under his control the department of revenue; accompanying the Marquis of Cornwallis, and giving early evidence of his ability and anxiety to bring financial arrangements to a healthy condition, and at a very critical period for British India; for he states that on his arrival along with the new authority, it was discovered that the "late Government had incurred universal contempt," and that the public voice pronounced them" to have been concerned in endless jobs," so that the embarrassments of the Company are declared to have been greater than could be conceived by the person to whom he was addressing himself. And yet when Mr. Shore again returned to his native land, he was accused, after his examination in the impeachment of Hastings, of having been concerned in some of the matters alleged as misdemeanours in the Governor's administration, connected with the Revenue Board. Still, the allegations and menaces that were held out by Burke and others were unheeded by the party in power, for the subject of the Memoir, now Sir John Shore, was nominated to succeed Cornwallis, as the supreme authority in India; and accordingly he again returned to the East, and in the capacity of Governor-Geveral,

Sir John Shore's policy and conduct were in perfect accordanc with what we have already said of his economic habits and attention to practical business. Not that his administration gave tokens of enlarged views, or that he escaped every error. In fact, he committed some glaring blunders, while it was fortunate for him, that he not only had the advice of persons of greater sagacity, but as the page of history proclaims, of far more commanding abilities and foresight. Colonel Wesley (subsequently Wellesley) and afterwards the great captain of the age, was amongst the number of those eminent individuals who were brought into close contact with the new Governor General. The following letter is in the style most characteristic of the Duke's peculiar perception and firmness,-the Governor having stupidly resolved on setting the captains of the Company's merchantmen in command over the royal troops. Here followeth Arthur Wesley's remonstrance on the occasion referred to:

-

Heroine, August 6, 1797.

Sir-I have just received an Order from Major-General St. Leger, stating, that, "in case of coming to action, the troops will be under the command of the captains of the ships." In the different conversations you did me the honour to hold with me upon this subject, I uniformly stated it to be my fixed determination that every assistance should be given to work and fight the ships. I told you that the directions of the captains of the Indiamen, upon those occasions, would of course be obeyed: and I communicated to you an extract of my instructions to the officers commanding the troops on board the different ships upon this subject, which you thought fully sufficient. Confiding, then, that there would be no order from Superior Authority to put me, or the regiment I have the honour to command, in any situation under the command of the captains of the Indiamen (however I or every other officer might think it necessary that we and the men should obey their orders upon certain occasions,) I embarked with the regiment; a step which, however attached I may be to the King's Service, I would sooner have quitted it than have taken, had I known that matter was to be arranged as I find it is. In addition to the objections I have to be under the command of persons who have thrown so many difficulties in the way of the Service; and who are now throwing so many, that I shall probably be obliged to write an official complaint of some of them before the fleet sails-and in addition to the difficulties of obliging officers (particularly field-officers) to put themselves under the command of captains of Indiamen, or of taking the soldiers from under the orders of their own officers-there is this legal objection to the measure; viz. that the captains of the Indiamen have no legal method of enforcing obedience to their orders from their own seamen, much less will they have it of enforcing obedience from soldiers; and therefore if it does not suit the pleasure of the men, they will not obey them. In my opinion, it would have been better to have left the matter where I placed it; and have trusted to the good sense and honour of the officers, and to the spirit of the soldiers, that every assistance would be given when the occasion might require it: and in that case, as they would not have felt themselves of their Service disgraced, their exertions would

have been greater, and their assistance more cordial than it can be expected to be under the existing circumstances. However, Sir, uncomfortable as I feel it embarking under such circumstances, I shall do everything in my power, and shall make those under me do everything in their power, to forward the Service; and I hope that you will find that those whose ambitious claims have been complied with will do the same.

I have the honour to be, Sir,

Your most obedient humble servant,

A. WESLEY.

The Governor-General was a man of that common sense and knowledge of his own foresight and abilities that he readily yielded to Colonel Wesley's views. Ere long Sir John Shore relinquished his duties in the East, having been created a peer, and on coming home chiefly exhibited himself as a leader in the evangelical movement in which Wilberforce and others figured; having been selected as President of the Bible Society, which office he held to the close of his industrious career. Not only, therefore, as a financier and a diligent expert hand in regard to the revenue and affairs of India, but as a religionist and philanthropist, Lord Teignmouth deserved a Memoir, together with the publication of his Correspondence; and the work has been discreetly as well as affectionately executed by his son.

ART. XI.

1. Handy Andy. By SAMUEL LOVER. Lover.

2. Godfrey Malvern; or the Life of an Author. By THOMAS MILLER. Miller.

3. The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. By Boz. Chapman and Hall.

4. Harry Mowbray. By Capt. KNOX. Ollivier.

WE are not going to tell any part of the story, or indicate the plot of any one of these serials; not even of the first two in our list, although they have been brought to a close. A very few words about the fashion and the disadvantages of publishing novels either in magazines, or piecemeal and periodically, must serve to introduce

some extracts.

One drawback to fictions which appear in the serial form and manner is obviously this,--that the writer feels himself obliged to indulge in extravagancies each month, in order to produce temporary effect, and that the success and harmony of the whole must in a great measure be sacrificed to monstrosities that must immediately tell. Hence it is that the author, who is tempted to commence with some striking incident, character. or scene, finds it absolutely necessary to aim at VOL. II. (1843.) NO. ILI.

A A

increased effect in every future instalment; and ten to one the climax is reached before the termination of the tale, ot the absurdities become grosser and grosser the farther you proceed.

Now, these things constitute a result that must be inimical to a production of art, not merely on account of the limits of capability and scope, but of the tone and the disposition of the writer; for he or she naturally has an eye to immediate profit and transient attractiveness, to temporary popularity and passing circumstances, rather than to the requirement and ends of art, or even the permanent fame of the artist. It is a levelling and a sacrificing system; as may be often discovered were it but from the studiedly glaring titles of the stories, and of each successive chapter, which are intended to be taking, and that very probably point to some vulgar or notorious incidents at the moment of production and publication. The straining becomes palpable, and the effect is likely to be unnatural.

Mr. Lover's Handy Andy must not be regarded as an exception to the majority of the fictions we are speaking of; while the objection is the more disagreeably felt in that his story affects the broadest" humour, and the most ludicrous fun for its staple, which, however laughter-moving for a chapter at a time, cease to amuse and to interest continuously; for one gets fatigued with the exaggerated caricatures, and the extravagant eccentricities and blunders of the more elaborated characters. Besides, the fun is often stale; while the constant effort to astonish or to convulse detracts from the glee which cordial and unpremeditated humour communicates. Add to these and kindred drawbacks, that the story as a plot has not substance and interest calculated to arrest and enchain our sympathies; and then it will be acknowledged, that in spite of the great cleverness which passages evince, and the manifest boundlessness of the author's frolicksome fancy, we cannot have risen from the perusal of this story, crammed although it be with jokes and practical tricks, in a mood very favourably inclined to its class as a serial, and still less to its conception and execution as an individual performance.

On a former occasion, and while but a few numbers of Godfrey Malvern had been issued, we took occasion to speak of Mr. Miller's merits generally, and to characterize several of his preceding productions, as well as to remark upon the work more immediately under notice, offering at the same time a specimen which we regarded as illustrative of the writer's humanity, and also of his intensely close observation. It is true that we would rather meet with him in rural districts and sequestered nooks of Old England, than in the capital; even when he may not be more faithful in his delineations or earnest in his purpose. But then the parts of Godfrey Malvern that are the ablest and truest in our estimation, deal with subjects that are not merely less attractive in their nature, but which have been more hackneyed.