THE SELECT JOURNAL OF FOREIGN PERIODICAL LITERATURE. VOLUME II. FOR 1834. JULY-OCTOBER. BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY CHARLES BOWEN. 1834. when a succession of great writers have purified and embellishedTM the French language, no manifesto can exhibit expressions more animated or energetic." story of the sure [From "The Edinburgh Review," No. 118.] Fromas Arvinatone [We find the following article confidently ascribed to Mr. Macaulay, to whom likewise, we presume, may be assigned two articles on English history, which have appeared in preceding numbers of the Select Journal, namely that on Hampden, in the first number, and that occasioned by Walpole's Letters, in the sixth. This article is written with Mr. Macaulay's usual vigor of thought and expression; but much doubt may be entertained respecting the justice of the charge of affectation brought against Chatham. It seems to rest upon slight proofs and hearsay evidence; nor do we recollect that it is suggested by any of his contemporaries (some of them far from being friendly to him), who have given notices of his character; as Horace Walpole, Lord Waldegrave, Lord Chesterfield, Bubb Doddington, Mr. Glover, and others. - EDD.] ART. II. A History of the Right Honorable William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, containing his Speeches in Parliament, a considerable Portion of his Correspondence when Secretary of State, upon French, Spanish, and American Affairs, never before published; and an Account of the principal Events and Persons of his Time, connected with his Life, Sentiments, and Administration. By the Rev. FRANCIS THACKERAY, A. M. Two Volumes. Quarto. London. 1827. THOUGH Several years have elapsed since the publication of this work, it is still, we believe, a new publication to most of our readers. Nor are we surprised at this. The book is large, and the style heavy. The information which Mr. Thackeray has obtained from the State Paper Office is new; but much of it is to us very uninteresting. The rest of his narrative is very little better than Gifford's or Tomline's Life of the Second Pitt, and tells us little or nothing that may not be found quite as well told in the "Parliamentary History," the "Annual Register," and other works equally common. Almost every mechanical employment, it is said, has a tendency to injure some one or other of the bodily organs of the artisan. Grinders of cutlery die of consumption; weavers are stunted in their growth; and smiths become blear-eyed. In the same manner almost every intellectual employment has a tendency to produce some intellectual malady. Biographers, translators, editors, all, in short, who employ themselves in illustrating the lives or the writings of others, are peculiarly exposed to the Lues Boswelliana, or disease of admiration. But we scarcely remember |