of which occurred while I was at dinner; a poor pedlar being robbed of two thou- have hitherto been of no effect. Again, when at Yakutsk, he says, -Mr Minitsky" is, however, a good man, and an exceedingly clever Governor, equalled by few in Siberia; his situation is of course a good one, and may be made equal to his utmost desires by fraud, trade, extortion, and corruption. At Omekon, the Captain had a long conversation about gasack, a tribute peculiar to Siberia, with a Yakut prince, who "said that the quantity was nothing, but that the mode of collecting it was a serious evil. The tribute they would freely give to the Emperor, but it was what the commissaries took from them by force, and which they gave to avoid vexatious and litigious treatment, that was oppressive; and those commissaries have great power." When he reaches Ochotsk, he informs us, that -much credit is also due to the exertions of Captain Ushinsky, in having redressed many of the grievances under which the Aborigines laboured, as well as the abuses in the public departments. Formerly, when an officer wanted money, he had only to go to the dock-yard, and take such things from it as he could sell to raise it; and so recently has this abuse been exercised, that an officer, high in rank, did, even in the last year, take articles to a considerable amount from one of the store-houses, not in a shy or shame. fuced manner, but openly, as an act justified by habit and long usage, and not at all questionable. The same horrid system of injustice and oppression extends to Kamtchatka, and we have read, with much interest, Captain Cochrane's account of the cruel abuses, as he VOL. XIV. well calls them, arising from the collection, there, of the tribute spoken of-the yasack. Even at Nartchinsk, our author saw nothing which could inspire him with any other sentiments than those of contempt and indignation, at the inconsiderate conduct of the persons in authority over the poor criminals. It is impossible to conceive the haggard, worn-down, wretched, and halfstarved appearance of these victims. The knout, the whip, the brand, and the fetter, are nothing, when compared with the imposition of labour continued from sun-rise to sun-set for six months in the year, and during the other six keeping them in absolute idleness. But the Captain's narrative is full of examples of injustice, so that both from the testimony of Dr Lyall and Captain Cochrane, we may conclude that the administration of justice demands serious changes; and we are happy to find, by the Gazettes, that his Imperial Majesty is now re-organizing the mode of Government, especially in Siberia. May Heaven prosper his virtuous intentions, for he is such a Sovereign, with all his failings, as Russia is not likely soon to find his equal! It is a more agreeable task for us to state, that schools, upon the Lancasterian system, are forming even in the remotest corners of Siberia, as at Omsk, Semipalatinsk, Irkutsk, &c., and the author's account of them has proved highly gratifying to us. When at Selenginsk, the traveller repaired " to the abode of the English Missionaries, settled in this part of the world with their wives and numerous children, forming, as it were, an English colony in the centre of barbarism." He seems to think that their efforts will be attended with little success, and says, The field chosen on the banks of the Selenga is, no doubt, the very worst; and this is known even to the Missionaries, but I presume it is too comfortable a birth to be given up. I have every respect for them personally, but really I cannot think justice is done to the people of England, in squandering money in every part of the world, while there are so many poor and religiously ignorant in our own empire;—and thus (he laco * Governor of Yakutsk. 4 H nically concludes :) when we shall have all become good, and strudy, and wealthy Christians, it will be high time to assist others. Indeed, he thinks that the Aborigines of Kamtchatka have derived little benefit by their conversion to Christianity. We had marked out some quotations respecting different tribes of the natives of Siberia, as the Yakuti, the Tongousians, the Tchuktchi, &c., as well as respecting two diseases called diable au corps, and imerachism, but our limits prevent us from copying them. The reader will find some curious remarks respecting the game of Chess, at p. 267. Captain Cochrane's account of the present state of Kamtchatka merits our praise, and is perhaps the best part of his work. Of the people, (says he,) I can only say they are as amiable and honest as ever. They are now established in villages all built in the old Russian style, which are clean and comfortable. During the summer, or fishing-season, they leave their winter residences for the balagans or places which they use for drying their fish. Thus the summer is employed in preparing food against the winter, which latter is taken up in the chase. Beyond this, the Kamtchatdale is still the same lazy, drunken, servile animal, as formerly. Their ancient language is not forgotten, but is so far out of use, that there are few who do not speak Russian. Most of the Aborigines are baptized, and may be said to live as the Russians do. The number of real Kamtchatdales who retain their ancient usages is small, They reside in the northern coasts beyond Tygil and Nishney Kamtchask. Hospitality is the most striking feature in their character; but they are also distinguished by their strict adherence to truth, and their honesty is proverbial. Without being forward to complain of ill-treatment, they will fearlessly recount it when questioned. They are in part governed by their own Toions or Chiefs, but an annual visit is made to each village by the Ispravnick, or Chief Judge, as well for the purpose of collecting sables as of administering justice. Their dress is the same as formerly, that for the winter season being made of the skins of beasts; but in summer they wear nankeens, and at present there is hardly a Kamtchatdale who does not wear a shirt. The women have also adopted the Russian head-dress, the articles for which are procured from the pedlars at a most exorbitant rate. Of laws they have but few of their own, their motto being something like that of the Chinese,"to return evil for evil, and good for good." They are now supplied with culinary utensils, and every thing they require, by the Russians; and as they live exactly in the same manner, and in the same description of houses with the latter, a description of them is unnecessary. They seem a race dis burthened of all care and consideration for the future, and entirely resigned to any fate which may await them, whether it be oppression or starvation. St. Peter and St. Paul's, or better in the original, Petro-Pavlovskoyé, the chief city of the Peninsula of Kamtchatka, contains forty-two dwellings, besides fifteen edifices belonging to the Government, an old church, and the foundation of a new one. Among the public buildings are to be reckoned magazines for bread, for I have powder, for sailors, for convicts, for wine, and for arms; a guard-house, smithy, hospital, chancery, school, and a building for the Chief and his assistant. All, however, with the exception of the hospital, sailors' barracks, and schools, are, at best, like the rest of the city, emblems of misery and wretchedness. never seen, on the Frozen Sea, so contemptible a place, hardly meriting the name of a village, much less that of a city; yet such is the place which has been eulogized from one end of the world to the other. The erection of hospitals, of schools, of churches, and the diffusion of happiness, have been extravagantly vaunted of in magazines and reviews, in defiance of the most lamentable facts of a very opposite description. We must now take our leave of this volume, by recommending it to the perusal of the public. If a se cond edition should be demanded, we would recommend the author to correct innumerable wrong-spelled words, as Streights for Straits, p. 3., -Ivan Vassilich for Ivan Vassilievitch, p. 45 and 64.,-Dr Ryan for Dr O'ryan, p. 48.,-Glenny for Glen, p. 65.,-Rowan for Rowand, p. 73., &c. &c.,-as well as an host of faulty sentences. He should also be more accurate with respect to the statements of the thermometer, using always Reaumur's, or always Fahrenheit's; and not the one for the measure of cold, and the other for that of heat, as at p. 321. He had better make some inquiries, also, as to the truth of his statements respecting the Raskolinks, in p. 78 and 159, which we never heard before. We hope we shall hear no more of the Greek Church admitting two distinct classes, "which may be called monastic and lay orders," for the latter does not exist, in the sense of the author. He alludes to the regular and parochial clergy, or the black and the white clergy, as they are called in Russia, and as he may find, by perusing Dr King's or Dr Pinkerton's works on the Greek Religion. Although he grossly erred in translating the words malaya derevenya, p. 113, by "little revenue," in place of "small village," we recommend him, before he boasts again of being placed "in very respectable company-no less than that of the justly celebrated and learned Dr Clarke, who was eternally crossing the river Protok, apparently ignorant that the Protok means neither more nor less than the branch of a river,”—to be cautious; for a friend of ours has searched his Dictionaries in vain for the word Protok; besides, he informs us, that he has also crossed the Protok, a branch of the river Kuban, which flows into the Caspian Sea, and assists in insulating the Isle of Taman; indeed, this river is called the Tchernoi Protok, or the Black Protok. DEATH OF LORD BYRON. THE hand of death has extinguished the brightest star in our poetical firmament. Lord Byron is no more-his splendid and glorious career is cut short for ever. He died in his own beloved Greece, to the deliverance of which he had devoted all the energies of his powerful and ardent mind, and, in one sense, he may be said to have fallen in the cause of Liberty, which he has hallowed by the immortal productions of his muse. This unexpected and melancholy event may be truly regarded as a great public calamity. Who can say what the nighty mind which the ruthless stroke of the destroyer has now quenched, might have accomplished, had the number of his days not been so prematurely told? But he died not without his fame. His genius has reared up monuments to his renown, which will carry his name to after ages, as one of those mighty spirits whom Nature has informed with the highest measure of the diviner mind, and whose breathings of inspiration find a responsive echo in the human heart, in every age and in every country. Of all the poets who have ever lived and wrote, Shakespeare alone excepted, Lord Byron was the most profoundly conversant with the more secret and mysterious workings of the human spirit; in the exhibition of which, he displayed a strength, boldness, and originality of conception, and a power over language, which have long placed him at the head of the poetical genius of his own age, and now that his fame has become the property of his country, and of mankind, will associate his name with those of Shakespeare and Milton,-thus forming the most illustrious triumvirate of poetical genius of which any age or country can boast. In the mood of mind produced by this disastrous event, we have no inclination to attempt setting forth the distinctive and characteristic attributes of that poetry which is already in every hand, and familiar to every heart; far less to do ourselves the violence of adverting to those unfounded censures and calumnies which were levelled against the conduct of the noble poet, in some of the most interesting and painful situations of his life. But while we have no intention to maintain that either his poetry is perfect, or his character immaculate, we do assert, that the former is instinct with the highest, richest, and rarest endowments of genius-blending, even in its darkest shades, sentiments of deep pathos or dread sublimity; and that the latter, with all its eccentricities, never betrayed a single symptom of innate perversity or corruption of heart. Though, in the world of imagination in which he delighted to expatiate with boundless freedom, he asserted his privilege to invest the ideal beings of his fancy with such attributes as he chose, and to bring them forward clothed sometimes in the blackest and most appaling forms, and under the dominion of the most terrible passions,-when he mingled with the actual creatures of this world, he was kind, generous, and affectionate, overflowing with all the charities and humanities that belong to the happiest and purest natures, and capable of the firmest and the most truly disinterested friend ship. With a deep detestation for meanness and baseness, however cunningly masked, and with a somewhat cynical proneness (in theory, at least) to scepticism as to the reality of human virtue, he had, at the same time, the most unbounded respect and reverence for sincerity, wherever it was manifested, and the readiest and most powerful sympathy, with all that is truly great and ennobling in human character. His poetry partook of this bias of his mind; for while he hurled the thunderbolts of his indignation against tyranny, and oppression, and public profligacy, he also flung a dazzling ray of heavenly light over every act and every name which deserves to be conse crated in the history of man. He was, in the noblest sense of the term, the Poet of Liberty. With all his affected misanthropy, he unceasingly che rished a belief in the regenerating influences of Freedom, no less than in the ultimate triumph of her blessed and glorious cause: For Freedom's battle once begun, Bequeath'd from bleeding sire to son, Though baffled oft, is ever won. He was also the Poet of Greece. In that delightful land, his young muse first tried her wing; and it was in the midst of those hallowed scenes, in the "clime of the unforgotten brave," where the mighty spirits of ancient days acted or bled, that he breathed forth, in the deep and searching music of his numbers, that "hope against hope," for her deliverance and renovation,-for the overthrow of her oppressors-and for her restoration to freedom and a second youth. He alone believed, and sung, that the hour of vengeance was at hand: and when the slave had risen against his tyrant, and the day-star of Liberty seemed about to dawn on the territory which the Persian could not conquer, and which the Muses had chosen as their habitation, he repaired to the scenes he had visited in his youth, and brought with him all the means which his rank, fortune, or influence, could command, to fling into the scale of Freedom. Endeared to Greece by so many ties, he has fallen at the moment when the splendour of his name had given a fresh glory to her cause, and when he was about to combat by the side of men who have shown themselves not unworthy of the ancestors from whom they are descended. He is gone-peace be to his noble dust! to that place, where the voice of the oppressor is unheard, and the clamours and calumnies of bigotry and intolerance can no longer disturb his repose. But, it will be remembered, that he died for that cause which has owed so much to the inspirations of his genius, and that he remained faithful to the death, to that enthusiasm which he has breathed over those immortal pages, destined to form the delight and admiration of the latest posterity. TALK not to me of love Platonic, Love. What is't you love?" The mind," you say; Then what's this mind you speak of, pray? "But mind, " say you, "is not material, Those words had loiter'd on her lip, WORKS PREPARING FOR PUBLICATION. LONDON. Mr Washington Irving is preparing for the press some more of his mellifluous and well-told stories, under the title of “Tales of a Traveller." A few letters of his, written at an early age, and therefore perhaps scarcely fair to be brought forward now, have been published as the "Letters of Jonathan Old-style." Mr Burridge's Treatise on a Process or Art of Tanning Crop Hides or Sole Leather, is in the press. He undertakes to prove, that they may be tanned in a quarter of the usual time, without extra expense. The Bride of Florence, illustrative of the manners of the middle ages, with Historical Notes, and Minor Poems, is preparing for publication, by R. FitzEustace. Mr Egan, professor of the Harp, has in a state of forwardness an Historical Essay on the Harp. Mr B. Cook, of Brimingham, is proceeding to print a new Chronology. He has already been engaged in verifying and collecting dates and facts during several years. The Rev. H. Moore has in the press, a Life of the Rev. John Wesley, inclu ding that of his brother Charles, compiled from authentic documents, many of which have never been published. A closely-printed volume, like Mackenzie's" Receipt-Book," will soon appear, under the title of the Scotsman's Library. Its contents will consist of every kind of anecdote and curious fact which can be assembled from printed and original sources, relative to Scotsmen and things, and to Scotland, in every way in which the people and the country are interesting. The articles will be about 3000 in number, consequently nothing will be omitted which the range of time and country can supply. A learned Scotsman, who has been twenty years making the collections, is named as its editor. Tours to the British Mountains, Descriptive Poems, &c. by T. Wilkinson, of Yanwath, Westmoreland, are printing in small octavo. Essays and Sketches of Character, by the late R. Ayton, Esq. with a Memoir of his Life, and a portrait engraved by F. C. Lewis, from a drawing by Mr Westall, will soon appear. A popular work is in preparation, de VOL. XIV. scriptive of the Wonders of the United Kingdom, by the Author of "the Wonders of the World." It will form four handsome volumes, small octavo,-two separately for England and Wales,— one for Scotland, and one for Ireland,— with numerous engravings. An Apology for Don Juan, Cantos 1. and 2. is in the press. The Wanderings of Lucan and Dinah, an epic romance, in ten cantos, in the stanza of Spenser, by M. P. Kavanagh, are in the press. A Translation of M. Dupin's most important and generally useful work, on the Commercial Power of Great Britain, is announced for early publication. This work supplies a variety of details to the statesman, the merchant, and the man of science, heretofore uncollected in this country. Sancho, the Sacred Trophy, and the Unparalleled Operations of Episcopacy, with a Presbyter's Hat, is preparing for the press, by the Rev. S. H. Carlisle. An Outline of the System of Education at New Lanark, by R. D. Owen, Esq. is in preparation. Mr Ventouillac, the editor of the "French Classics," now publishing in London, has in the press a Selection of Papers from M. Jouy's "Hermites," to be published in French, with notes, and a portrait and life of M. Jouy, under the title of "Le petit Hermite." Also, a translation into French of Bishop Wat son's "Apology for the Bible." Aids to Reflection, in a series of prudential, moral, and spiritual aphorisms, extracted from the works of Archbishop Leighton, with notes and interpolated remarks, by S. T. Coleridge, Esq. are in the press. Critical and Descriptive Accounts of the most celebrated Picture Galleries in England, with an Essay on Elgin Marbles, will speedily be published. Prose Pictures, a series of descriptive letters and essays, by E. Herbert, Esq. will be published in a few days. The Publication of Dr Graham's work on Indigestion and Liver Complaints has been unavoidably delayed, but it will be ready for delivery the first week in May. His object is to illustrate the true nature and the successful treatment of the prevailing bilious disorders. The Three Brothers, or the Travels and Adventures of the Three Sherleys, in 4 1 |