To Correspondents.

LADY MORGAN and M. DUPIN.-We have had the honour to receive the following note from the celebrated author of " Voyages dans la Grande Bretagne :”"Lady Morgan, dans une lettre remplie d'injures contre l'Edinburgh Magazine, a jugé convenable d'insérer une Note injurieux contre le Colonel du P——————, auteur de l'ouvrage joint à cette Note. M. l'Editeur de l'Edinburgh Magazine est prié de lire cet ouvrage, et d'en dire son opinion avec toute la franchise qui peut charactériser une honnête et juste critique.

"M. Dupin est arrivé à Dublin avec les recommandations de Lord Hutchinson, ancien général en chef de l'armée d'Egypte, et n'a pas eu besoin de Lady Morgan, pour remplir l'object important de son excursion à Dublin, celui de préparer des matériaux pour ses Voyages dans la Grande Bretagne."

Notwithstanding we had finally, and, we have the vanity to think, effectually closed our own account with Lady Morgan, we deem it an act of justice to this "intelligent Frenchman," who has, in a most cowardly manner, been accused of deliberate treachery, and violation of the rites of a hospitality which he had courted, to quote, first, Lady Morgan's tirade against him, and then a sentence or two, taken quite at random, from M. Dupin's little work, entitled, "Lettre d Mylady Morgan sur Racine et Shakespeare, (Paris: Bachelier et Delaunay, 1818.) The "Note injurieux" is as follows: "One (review) was published by Colonel Du P, now a member of the Institute of France. This gentleman introduced himself at my house in Dublin, (having no other mode of making my acquaintance), where he was hospitably entertained, and presented to many persons of rank and fashion. A few weeks after his departure, appeared his book written against my 'France. When M. Du Pread to me the complimentary passages in the opening of his MS., I little guessed the virulence which was to be displayed, upon a purely literary topic, in its subsequent pages." (Letter to the Reviewers of "Italy," p. 3.) Now, in the first place, M. Dupin's book, the title of which we have already given, is not written "against my France," of which M. Dupin appears to be a greater admirer than we would have expected to find a person of his learning, taste, and discernment, but against Lady Morgan's account of the French Theatre-(Vide France, Book VII.); and, above all, against what the author considers her sweeping and ineffectual attempt to depreciate Racine, (of whose works M. Dupin has proved that she is grossly ignorant, See" Lettre," &c. pp. 105 and 107, in particular), in order to aggrandize Shakespeare. In the second place, Colonel Dupin, so far from displaying any virulence" towards Lady Morgan personally, has, at least in a dozen places, expressed his esteem for her private character, and his admiration of her talents and ability as a writer. In the last place, we will lay a moderate wager to produce, from the “Lettre sur Racine et Shakespeare," as laudatory commendations of "my France" as the indefatigable industry of her Ladyship's booksellers has been able to cull from all the newspapers and minor reviews of the empire. A brief extract or two, and we have done; at the same time earnestly recommending Colonel Dupin's performance to all impartial persons, who take an interest in such discussions. "Dans l'automne de 1817, retenu à Dublin, par les suites d'une chute trés-grave, j'eus le plaisir d'y voir Lady Morgan, et de m'entretenir avec elle au sujet de quelques-unes de ses opinions sur le Théâtre François. Nos conversation eurent le résultat de toutes les discussions verbales. Elles rendirent chacun de nous un peu plus entier dans son opinion, qu'il ne l'étoit avant d'avoir éprouvé la contradiction.-Avant d'examiner quelques opinions hasardées sur les tragiques François, et spécalement sur Racine, l'auteur de cette lettre croit devoir presenter au public l'expression sincère de sa consideration pour Mylady Morgan.-Après cet avertissement, l'auteur se croit en droit de penser que ce qu'il combat dans les idées de Lady Morgan, n'affecte en rien le caracterc et le mérite de cet écrivan, auquel il est le premier à rendre hommage." Averlissement. "Votre ingénieusc ouvrage sur la France a reçu du public un accueil dont vous devez être justement satisfaite," p. I. Speaking of certain " satires acharnées"

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published against France," M. Dupin adds, in the very highest style of compliment, "On laisse les médiocres productions mourir dans l'oubli qui s'en empare de lui-même; on s'efforce par mille moyens d'abattre la renommée naissante des bons écrits publiés par d'habiles auteurs," p. 2. « Vous écrivez avec une vivacité, un abandon qui seduisent le lecteur," &c. p. 21. "Lady Morgan, l'auteur de plusieurs romans pleins de sensibilité, d'imagination, de delicatesse, et d'une aimable légèreté,” &c. p. 129. "Je ne cesserai jamais, je le répète, de rendre un sincere hommage à vos talents, et à vos intentions,” p. 140. If M. Dupin be a calumniator, who, we would ask, can be a panegyrist?

Nothing but want of room, this month, has prevented us from laying before our readers an abstract of M. Dupin's masterly "Notice Nécrologique sur John Rennie, Esq. Ingénieur Civil, et premier Ingénieur de la Marine Royale d'Angleterre, Adressée a l'Institut Royal de France.”

The "Sonnet on reading Lady Morgan's Italy'" has some halting, some mediocre, and some exquisite lines. To this inequality its author must ascribe its noninsertion in our Poet's Corner. If truth be an ingredient in good poetry, the last two lines are altogether excellent :

"A hireling such as this I mourn to see

Profane the still great name of Italy."

Let A. M. look attentively into the verses we generally publish, and if he, or she, discover any thing half so miserable and meagre as his, or her lines, we engage to publish them without farther delay.

The verses of T. P. do him credit, as they indicate both feeling and fancy; but they betray haste, and contain some very ambiguous expressions, and other macula, quas incuria fudit.

"A LAMENT from the German" has just been received. We suffer no communication to pass unnoticed. G. has our thanks.

"Adolesccns" is too young to pass muster. If he would only wait patiently, he'll grow older by and by--and, doubtless, wiser too. Poetry does not come by instinctThe poeta nascitur non fit, is all a joke.

We have the honour, and, what is more, the pleasure, to acknowledge the receipt (on the eve of publication) of " Nuga Canora, Part I.," and, when we inform Onra that we reserve his much-esteemed communication for our December number, in which part at least, if not the whole, shall appear, we thereby acquire a right to hold him firmly to the redemption of his spontaneous pledge, to forward incontinent the remaining parts, together with "other pieces in prose and verse, which may perhaps suit us."

The "Tender Mother's Complaint" has merit enough to entitle it to a place in our pages, were it not that we have passed a decree, as unalterable as the laws of the Medes, to admit nothing, in the shape of poetry, which has previously appeared in any other work. When the author sent these pathetic lines for insertion to "The Harp of Caledonia," we regret to learn, that that instrument was so much out of tune, as to suffer them to appear in "an incorrect and mutilated form." But, for the Persian decree just mentioned, it would have given us infinite pleasure to have restored the "mutilated form" to symmetry and grace. The "Narrow House,” though simple and natural, is inferior, in poetical merit, to its companion.

The Documents illustrative of Royal Visits to this part of the United Kingdom are highly curious and interesting. If we obtain the consent of the gentleman who was so kind as to transmit them, we shall keep them in retentis till the King's visit to Scotland is a matter, not of newspaper gossip, but of certainty. Their value would be utterly destroyed by present publication. They shall be used at the proper time.

The Edinburgh Magazine is not the proper channel for publishing a Multiplication Table. Let this satisfy Mr C. M. Willich.

ג

The author of the paper on "The Recreative Review," which he is at considerable pains to abuse, is, we conjecture, some young German who has played truant, and escaped from the birch to commit indiscriminate havock, both on Latin and English. 66 Magazine," ," he spells "Magazien:" the Latin word "ordo" starts up “orodo" from his magic goose quill: "facundia" becomes very properly". fecundia :" "versate" the verb imp. becomes "versati" the part.: the unfortunate Spanish Jesuit Xavier has the wicked sobriquet Exiaver fixed on him: and sundry other marvellous transformations are effected, in all respects quite worthy of one who had made considerable progress in the colloquies of Erasmus, and the Mother's Catechism.

Here is oneHow this offi

We receive communications regularly from all the parts of speech. aye, and a respectable one too-from the Greek preposition П.. cious, but sometimes serviceable little Helot, should have indited some fifty lines of English Iambics entitled "Autumn Fireside," far surpasses our powers of divination to determine. But, be that as it may, to avoid all Пphrastic verbiage, we can honestly certiorate the foresaid preposition, that, of his eight fellow-labourers, we give a decided preference to the article.

The paper entitled "Literary Quarrels in Germany" is under consideration.

We hope soon to be able to present our readers with a series of articles under the head of "LONDON," (an inexhaustible subject!) in which Institutions, Characters, Society, Literature, Science, the Fine Arts, and the State of Parties, shall be touched on with an impartial and fearless hand. The literary Argus, who has undertaken this formidable task, will have occasion for all his eyes, both behind and before; but we have learned, by experience, that his optical powers are no less faithful than numerous; and we will bet the amount of the purchase-money of Lady Morgan's next "ambulating" "venture," that not a pin shall escape him. It will, however, be his business neither to praise nor censure indiscriminately, but "to hold the mirror up to nature, to show Virtue her own image, and Vice her own feature, and the very age and body of the time its form and pressure."

Our Bath Correspondent is too shrewd a fellow not to perceive that we should commit ourselves most unpardonably were we to publish his clever, wicked, pungent article, yclept" The Pump-Room.” He is a charming retailer of scandal, however. Let him publish "Six Weeks at Bath," and, we'll answer for it, he shall speedily realise a decent fortune. Every dowager in the empire will purchase a copy-coutc qui coute.

We beg to inform our Athenian friend, ΣΤΕΦΑΝΟΣ ΦΑΝΡΙΩΤΗΣ, that his Anastasian" ADVENTURE IN ATHENS" will appear in our December publication.

Our readers cannot regret more than we do, that "THE PIRATE" will not be published in time to allow us to get up a review of it, however hastily, for the present month. Time and tide, says the proverb, wait for no man. The inexorable arrival of the 20th, which comes round, we grieve to say, as regularly as the taxgather, compels us to send forth our present number, by so much less interesting and attractive than we had anticipated.

We have resolved to delay all notice of Sir R. K. Porter's Travels till the publication of the 2d volume, which is announced for November.

Part of "The Mutiny" is rendered quite illegible, by the sealing wax, when in a state of fusion, having penetrated through the envelope of the letter which contained it, and consolidated a considerable portion of both leaves of the sheet of paper. As far as we can judge from its appearance in its present mutilated state, it would require a good deal of brushing, in order to be fit to meet the public eye. The idea, however, is excellent, and will not be lost.

The learned and ingenious paper "On the Modern Grecks" came too late for this month. It is too long, but in other respects admirable, and shall make its appearance in due time.

"A Constant Reader" has suggested the propriety of our raising forthwith the price of this Miscellany, and, consequently, increasing the space devoted to original communications. An additional sixpence, we agree with him in thinking, no very great increase. At present, we are no doubt unable, from want of room, to give an equal variety with contemporary works; but, from the great accession of literary strength which we can calculate on, we readily pledge ourselves for the gradual, but certain, improvement of this "National Work," as Mr Hogg so correctly describes it. The subject is, however, under consideration.

With regard to Politics, "the glorious privilege of being independent" has hitherto been our pride and our boast; and we are now satisfied, that we have been successful in establishing our claims to a virtue as rare as it is estimable, in these days of poli tical duels, law-suits, and botheration. One gentleman, for example, than whom the earth does not carry a better or a worthier, consigns us to the devil wholesale, for our accursed Toryism; and another cunning man, who, as he is at the lug of the law, may be supposed to know a great deal, positively declines perusing our modest and unpretending pages, because they smell so rank of Whiggery. "Who shall decide when doctors disagree?" Will our readers infer, from this horrid discrepancy, that we blow hot and cold with the same breath? We feel that they will not; on the contrary, they will admit, that an Editor, in these days of schism and dis sension, who is allowed on all hands to be neither Whig nor Tory, and yet has courage to declare boldly his sentiments were he either, is fully entitled to lay claim to the high prerogative of the most questionless independence.-We should like to hear from the man who says nay.

If, as is most likely, we have omitted to notice the communications of any of our numerous correspondents, we hope the oversight will be ascribed, not to intentional neglect or disrespectful feelings, but to the true cause, the bustle and hurry of writing against time, in order to be ready to weigh anchor by a stated day. We are proud to say that, for some time past, we have noticed a progressive improvement in the com munications of our friends, which affords us the sincerest pleasure, both as an earnest of greater future excellence, and as a proof that the tone of learning and feeling com municated to our pages has been felt, and is about to produce its proper fruits. Once for all, we render our friends our most hearty thanks for their kind assistance, of which we pray a continuance.

THE

EDINBURGH MAGAZINE,

AND

LITERARY MISCELLANY.

NOVEMBER 1821.