Though rather a whimsical incident, this question was likely to have deeply puzzled and nonplussed Mr. Clarke. Walking in the street that day with another preacher, a poor man asked a half-penny. Mr. C. had none, but borrowed one of the preacher who was walking with him; that preacher happening to go out of town, he could not see him during the day to repay this small sum. When he stood up with the others, he knew not what to say when the question are you in debt?' should be proposed; he thought, if I say I am in debt, they will ask me how much?' when I say I owe one half-penny, they will naturally take me to be a fool. If I say I am not in debt, this will be a lie: for I owe one half-penny, and am as truly under the obligation to pay, as if the sum were twenty pounds, and while I owe that, I cannot consistently with eternal truth, say 'I am not in debt.' was now most completely in a dilemma, and which way to take he knew not; and the question being put to him before he could make up his mind- Mr. Clarke, are you in debt?' he dissolved the difficulty in a moment, by answering-NOT ONE PENNY."

He

The volume will, upon the whole, be an acceptable piece of biography to the very respectable body of Wesleyan Methodists, among whom the subject of it sustained so prominent a character.

ART. XVII.-History, Description, and Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster, and Borough of Southwark. By W. SMITH, London: E. Wilson.

THIS useful compilation has now extended to nine parts, and still con

ingly well compiled and arranged; it gives in succession a correct account of the situation and extent of each county, its ancient state, its interesting remains, as well as its present condition and history. A list of the natives is also given, who have by their talents, their virtues, or their crimes, conferred on themselves an honourable or ignominious distinction. The work is upon the whole excellent, and we heartily wish Mr. Tymms that success which his volume so well merits.

ART. XX.-Old and New Representation of the United Kingdom contrasted, &c. &c. 18mo. pp. 148. London Vacher and Son.

THIS is a very opportune and useful publication. There is given in it a list of the last and present Parliament, together with the names of the disfranchised, and the number of voters in places which now send representatives to Parliament; also a vast quantity of information, in connexion with the design of the work, of a very useful description.

ART. XXI.-The Lives of Eminent Missionaries. By JOHN CARNE, Esq. author of "Letters from the East." 1 vol. 12mo. London: Fisher, Son, and Co. 1833.

It is with no small degree of pleasure that we compliment Mr. Carne upon this production. The volume contains the lives of several celebrated missionaries, together with an historical account of the missions with which some of them were connected; written in an easy, intelligent, and, above all, pious style, well suited to the subject. The variety arising from difference in the habits and manners of the countries where

"Though many weeks have passed away since I have given you any visible signs of remembrance, yet, trust me, thoughts concerning you, full of hope and consolation, have been very often in my mind.

"Business, and the myriads of feeble impressions peculiar to children of London, have debilitated my spirit, and you are not weaker in body than I am in mind. Yet I hope for a resurrection from the grave of listlessness; and the spirit that connects us together, whose children we are, has (I feel certain) already more deeply interfused' himself into your frame, pregnant with health and renovation.

'I have been lecturing on gal

vanism, to audiences generally consisting of from three to four hundred men, women, and children: they thought proper to be pleased, and I shall go on experimenting and predicating for a month longer. Oh! that I could, at the end of that time, but breathe the breeze that sweeps over your lake, and view the red light of the last beams of the mountains reflected from your face.

"But this cannot be. Another spring will bring new hopes-hopes more intense, more likely to be realized!

fund of most valuable and amusing matter. Of the latter quality there is an abundance, but of useful information a very considerable deficiency; perhaps it may have been the intention of the compilers of this work, rather to amuse their readers with anecdotes of the foibles of great men, than improve the mind, by confining their work to the more legitimate province of a biography.

Yet still, the volume before us will prove a very acceptable work of reference, respecting the characters who lived during the period to which it relates. Its typographical execution is excellent, and there is given, as a frontispiece, an admirable steel engraving of George the Second.

ART. XXIV.-Faust; a Dramatic Poem. By GOETHE. Translated into English Prose, with Remarks on former Translations, and Notes. By the Translator of Saviegny's

Of the Vocation of our Age for Legislation and Jurisprudence." 8vo. London: Moxon. 1833. THERE can be no doubt that all the translations into English of the Faust of Goethe, which have hitherto been published, not only do not give anything like a faithful account of that wonderful piece, but absolutely misrepresent it in the grossest manner, rendering common-place and stale what is beautifully interesting and original.

The author of the present translation was induced to undertake the version now before us, from a consideration of the circumstances which we have just mentioned. He is not content, however, with merely objecting generally to the efforts of former translators, but he enters into details to justify these objections. A very long and severe criticism, therefore, is made on the

verse translation of Lord Francis Gower.

The next attempt to make the English public acquainted with Faust, was a series of extracts, with outlines, engraved by Henry Moses. Upon these the author is sufficiently

severe.

Shelley's unfinished fragments of a translation of Faust are praised by the author; but in several instances it is shown that that distinguished genius mistook the meaning of Goethe.

The present version is executed with great skill and fidelity, and will be found a most welcome accession to that branch of our literature which is destined to please the imagination,

ART. XXV.- -Lives of Scottish Worthies. By P. F. TYTLER, Esq. Family Library, No. XXXVII. London: Murray. 1833.

THIS is the third volume of the very valuable series of the Lives of Scottish Worthies. It contains a continuation of that very extraordinary piece of biography, the life of James the First, which is succeeded by the lives of the following persons: Robert Hannyson, an excellent poet; William Dunbar, also a bard of eminent powers; Gavin Douglas, afterwards a Scotch bishop; and Sir David Lindsay.

At the conclusion of the volume is a chapter of antiquarian illustration, which is replete with curious

facts. From these we select a few which relate to James the Fourth of Scotland. His Majesty seems to have been ludicrously attached to games, glee, and merriment of all sorts. He kept an immense number of persons in his pay, for the sole purpose of gratifying his passion for fun and frolic. Wherever he went during his progresses, which were annually taken, James was always met at the gates by maidens who welcomed him with songs. At Dumfries, as regularly as the king came, a little crukit backit vicar" made his appearance, and sang to the king. The games most in vogue at Court were chess, dice, and cards; and the king seems to have invariably played for money. His Majesty was likewie a great hand at row bowlis," and "Irish gamyn:" but his forte appears to have been the striking with the great sledge hammer used by smiths in their forge. This we learn from an item in the Lord Treasurer's books, that, in 1506, the sum of 13s. to a smith, when the king and Sir Anthony D'Arsy, a French knight, struck at the steddye (stithy.) This king, in the midst of his mirth, did not forget futurity, but observed a singular degree of austerity. Pilgrimages and pantomimes succeeded each other with startling rapidity. There is a tradition in Scotland, to the effect that James the Fourth wore an iron girdle. But it is probable that this is a mistake; for there is an item in one of his Majesty's accounts, showing that he had a case of gold made for his neck,

Pa

New Patent Laws.-The principal provisions of the new Bill on the subject of patents, are the following:-King to grant patents for seven and fourteen years. Patents may be granted to any person who may have received information of a new manufacture from an individual abroad, or from another person resident within the United Kingdom. A patentee may sell his right. tents not to become void in consequence of the same having been previously used in an imperfect state, unless the manufacture, &c. may have been publicly used for ten years prior to the date of the patent. Patentees may deposit models of their inventions in some public building, to be named by the Attorney General. Patentees

may put in secondary specifications to remedy defects, or for improvements. Second or third specification to bear a stamp duty, if made before any suit of law or equity be depending. Judge or Court may amend matters of form. Person petitioning for patents not bound to make oath that he is the first inventor of the article for which he is desirous of obtaining the patent. A preparatory description of the invention to be made; specifications to be referred to the Attorney. General, who is to report there

the world he may have been born. The people of Poland believe that all mankind except the Russians, are Germans; and it is a popular belief amongst them that Germany extends from Poland westward to the ends of the earth.

Fortunate Accident.-Dr. Adam Clarke confesses, that the reading of the Arabian Nights' Entertainments, gave him that decided taste for oriental history which has been so very useful to him in all his biblical studies. He wished to acquaint himself more particularly with a people whose customs and manners, both religious and civil, were so strange and curious; he never lost sight of this till Divine Providence opened his way and placed the means in his power to gain some acquaintance with the people and languages of the East. At a subsequent period, when very poor, he found half a guinea in a clod of earth, part of which, after fruitless attempts to find the owner, he applied to the purchase of a Hebrew grammar. Had he not got that grammar, he remarks, he probably should never have turned his mind to Hebrew learning.

Munificent Present to the Public. -A Bill is now in progress through Parliament, at the instance of Sir John Soane, who has generously resolved to appropriate his splendid museum, in Lincoln's Inn Fields, to the public. His house, and the one next it, are to form the establishment, and is to be open to students and others in two days in the week in April, May, and June. The museum consists of a library, manuscripts, prints, drawings, pictures, models, and various works of art;"