ceeded in the fearless discharge of a duty which, though of the most sacred kind, has not unfrequently been betrayed by the hesitation or the timidity of Counsel. His reply to a wellknown threat of Mr. Justice Buller, on the trial of the Dean of St. Asaph for the libel written by Sir William Jones, is too well known to be quoted. How gratifying it is to add that this intrepidity never drew down on him the ill-will of those under whom he practised! It is a matter of notoriety, for instance, that the late Lord Kenyon, who was far from being indisposed even to a severe exercise of his authority, was accustomed to speak of Erskine with the tenderness and affection of a parent; and even in those bickerings which occasionally broke out between them, tears were sometimes observed stealing down the cheeks of that venerable though irritable Judge. An imperishable monument to the fame of Lord Erskine exists in the declaratory act commonly called Mr. Fox's Bill, concerning the law of libels: while in the great cases of the King v. the Dean of St. Asaph, and the King v. Stockdale, he rescued the province of juries from the usurpation of the court, and pioneered (as it were) the way for the act introduced by the great constitutional senator whom we have just named. His beautiful speeches in actions for adultery rendered the court of King's Bench, for the time, a moral school; and the dearest of all human connections seemed to gain additional sanction, and to derive new security, from the animated invectives with which he lashed the destroyers of domestic virtue. As the head of the profession, he was alike watchful of its privileges and observant of its decorums; and it was in a great degree from the influence of his example, that the calling of a lawyer was liberalized, and its exercise deemed inseparable from the character of a gentleman. When he was appointed to the seals, therefore, his departure from the Bar was the greatest loss which it had ever sustained. In such a profession, a finished gentleman is not at all times easily supplied. We have been detained by this short tribute, which we could not in justice to our own feelings deny to one of the most persevering and consistent friends of the freedom of the press, as well as of the other privileges inherent in the British constitution, from more immediately noticing the little piece before us; which is valuable as being the last words of a patriot in behalf of a cause that lay the nearest to his heart. His Appeal' exhorts the people of Great Britain to contribute their aid to the cause of the Greeks; and it scarcely falls short, in energy and earnestness, of many of the earliest among his efforts to redeem his fellowcreatures from oppression. We cite the concluding part of it, sincerely hoping that its manly and elevated sentiments will find an echo in every bosom. The Multitude, (still speaking of them in my sense of the word,) with the assistance of the superiors whom they trust in, can alone act with any adequate effect in this great Christian cause. I can no otherwise reach them but by what I am now writing, and I address them from the bottom of my heart. - I know know from experience, how universally and how speedily any danger to the religious world may be circulated and repelled; I only pass by a more distinct allusion to it, and the expression of my grateful remembrance of a confidence once reposed in me, lest I should be charged with a wish to create disunion when all are sincerely united in Christian charities, and are at peace. — I write with confidence to the whole people of this land, but more especially to the clergy of the established church, and to the numerous members of those religious congregations, who, though differing from them in some doctrinal expositions of Scripture, as the laws recognise and sanction such differences, are yet sincerely united in performing the duties of Christian teachers, and in maintaining, by their instructions and in their lives, the innumerable benefits which follow from the Christian faith. For my own part, I pretend to no superior sanctity: on the contrary, though born of parents and of a family in all times eminently religious, I am fully conscious of many errors and imperfections; but I can affirm with truth, that no man was ever more deeply impressed with the truths and the value of Divine Revelation, as throughout this nation the Scriptures are in all essentials interpreted, and as far as relates to the feelings of humanity which I now seek to awaken in others. I cannot charge myself with indifference to the wrongs of any human being, or even to the sufferings of the most helpless creature that crawls upon the earth to whom God has given life. Nothing now remains but the consideration of the best means of giving effect to what all must wish to do. In every city, town, and village in Great Britain, there are, besides the presence and active offices of many pious and learned persons of the national church, numerous societies for Christian worship, superintended by many sincere, zealous, and enlightened men. Under the influence of all such classes, the Bible has been published in almost every living tongue; and the same small mites that have raised this immortal monument, the raising of which will be remembered and rewarded when all human works of art and science have returned to the dust, might, under the same patronage and in the same manner collected, without even being felt, complete the deliverance of the confederated Greeks: and if this be so, what is it that would be accomplished? I take upon me confidently to assert, as in my published Letter to the Earl of Liverpool I have before asserted, that as an immediate consequence of this happy event, on all other accounts so desirable, the progress of the Gospel, and the civilization of mankind, would, by its reception in the vast surrounding regions now and for centuries past under the shadow of a portentous eclipse, be more rapid, more extensive, and would lead to results more universal, than all that the unexampled exertions in the Christian cause have hitherto produced in Great Britain: and this great work the same excellent persons, were it now begun, in the approaching winter, might triumphantly finish, before the baffled Ottomans, fast approaching the crisis of their destiny, could strike another blow against the Greeks. 'I feel 'I feel the greater confidence in the course which I have humbly recommended, from the spontaneous exertions of the Society of Friends, whose succours have been so early, so critically seasonable, and so important as to entitle them to the highest admiration and respect. For all the facts connected with this important subject, which ought to be universally known; - for the exertions which the Greeks have already made, and, with the assistance prayed for, are capable of making;— for the most unanswerable refutations of all the calumnies against them;-for the details of their present condition, their just expectations if duly protected, and their imminent perils if neglected; I refer to Mr. Blaquiere's most valuable Reports, as printed in the Appendix; which being derived from certain information collected by him recently on the spot, every word I could add to them would be useless, as indeed without them I should not have ventured to address you. Not presuming to trust to my own opinions, I have delivered this to the Greek Committee, leaving it to their discretion to suppress or to publish it.' With this address is circulated an Appeal from the Greek Committee to the British Public, in general, and especially to the Friends of Religion;' calculated to excite the same feelings in behalf of the suffering and oppressed people for whom this Committee is so laudably acting. Art. 16. The Graces: a Classical Allegory, interspersed with Poetry, and illustrated by Explanatory Notes: together with a Poetical Fragment entitled Psyche among the Graces. Translated from the original German of Christopher Martin Wieland. 12mo. 7s. 6d. Boards. Whittakers. 1823. In the Appendix to vol. xix. of our New Series, p. 490., we noticed the Grazien of Wieland, of which this is a translation. The narrative is a mythological allegory, intended to describe the successive steps of human civilization, and referring them to that progressive evolution of the idea of the beautiful, which results from the comparison of coarser with more refined forms of sensual gratification. It is an epicurean theory of the improvement of man. The essay consists of six books, and was originally intended to have been wholly written in rhyme: but the author, having become dissatisfied with many parts of his toil, retained in verse only the fragments which pleased him, and connected them with intervals of prose; cutting down a didactic poem into a philosophic novel. This is not, however, one of the best of Wieland's works, although it includes many passages of elegant imagery, and displays erudition in Greek mythology. We should have thought that the translator would have been better employed on the Letters of Aristippus: but probably he wished to display his talent for versification, as well as his familiarity with German prose. A short extract will characterize his skill in both, depart ments. "Love, when very young, having lost himself during a ramble through the groves of Arcadia, fell asleep among some myrtle bushes. "On earth's flower-spangl'd lap, mid violets sweet His lovely frame, and court his touch divine !". "Should these verses chance to please you, Danaë, you must thank Homer for them. That poet first placed the father of the gods on a similar couch, when Juno (aided by sleep) found means to make him for a while forget that she was his consort. "When Cupid awoke, he found himself surrounded by three young maidens, the most lovely his eyes had ever beheld. Their resemblance to each other was so striking, that at the first coup d'oeil they appeared like three copies of the same original. sup "This lovely trio were going at eventide to gather flowers with which they were accustomed to strew the bed of their posed mother Lycanion. Here are plenty,' cried the youngest nymph, running towards the spot where Cupid slept. Conceive how agreeably she was surprized on discovering him nestling among the flowerets. "Quick, (with whisper soft she cries,) Shoulders mottled, white and blue: Like a bird, it droops its head, Couch'd upon a flowery bed. Sisters, did you ever see Such matchless form and symmetry?" The other sisters ran to the spot, and the trio stood around contemplating the infant god with tender admiration. "Its face how fair! its mouth how red! Golden tresses gild its head; Snow-white are its rounded arms, As it smiles a thousand charms. Playing round each dimpled cheek, Inward mirth and joy bespeak! Aglaja, let us catch it, pray, Ere it waking fly away." "Catch it! Oh you're wond'rous wise! And what, when caught, would be your prize?"' &c. &c. Time was when a severe taste had overspread the literature of this country, and when several of the delineations in this poem or novel would have been deemed too free for feminine and family reading: but so many libertine verses have lately been forced into circulation by the gay Muse, and our families have imbibed so much more of a classical and tolerant mode of judging from continental excursions and society, that the genteel world is become less nice and particular, and may perhaps bear this whole whole volume without considering it as a necessary piece of prudery to be a little scandalized. With this warning, we leave it to our readers to determine for themselves, whether or not they will seek any farther acquaintance with The Graces.' Besides the notes of Wieland, which abound with beautiful quotations, the translator has added several of his own, to illustrate the scenery and the allusions; and also an appendix, intitled "Psyche among the Graces,' which includes a letter from Wieland to Weisse. The engraved frontispiece is adapted to the very fragment of which we have transcribed only a fragment. Art. 17. The World in Miniature; edited by Frederic Shoberl, -Austria; containing a Description of the Manners, Customs, Character, and Costumes of the People of that Empire. Illustrated by Thirty-two coloured Engravings. 12mo. 2. Vols. 12s. Boards. Ackermann. 1823. These elegant little volumes contain numerous engravings of male and female figures, in the usual costume of the lower classes who dwell in the several provinces of the Austrian empire; which are all coloured to the life, and give an instantaneous and vivid idea of the various inhabitants of that country. A well written text explains the copper-plates, and delineates geographically the several provinces, which are thus described both by the pencil and the pen. The information is comprehensive, though concise; the needless being every where avoided, and the characteristic brought into view. Many names of places and tribes, which are often misspelled by our native geographers, are here reformed according to the usage of Germany. On the religious sects, the author thus speaks: It would be difficult to state with accuracy the number of Ca. tholics in Austria; but so much is certain, that they compose at least two-thirds of the population of the empire. The Protestants are not numerous, excepting in Bohemia on the frontiers of Saxony. With the exception of Russia and Turkey, no country in Europe contains so many professors of the Greek faith as the dominions of Austria. Some of these are termed United, as they acknowledge the Pope for their supreme head, while others have refused to become thus united with the Catholics. They are chiefly to be met with in Galicia, Hungary, Croatia, and Transylvania. The Armenian Christians have chosen Galicia in preference for their new abode; but there are some also in Hungary and Transylvania. Almost all of them are engaged in commerce. These people are remarkable for their activity and industry; and such of them as do not make a profession of the arts or trade, pursue agriculture with truly Laudable perseverance. Almost all those who have settled in Hungary have adopted the latter; and the pains they have bestowed. on a soil naturally excellent have been rewarded with such abundant crops, that almost all of them have acquired in a short time a competence and even wealth. • Since |