able and unfashionable society, both among our men and our women_for there is little distinction of sex among those who read only the trash of circulating libraries. But these novels, we are told, have so much im proved of late, it is quite a duty to peruse them now, they are so full of instruction, and exhibit so extensive a knowledge of real life! This is another wretched fallacy. The stuff we used to have about the beginning of the present century was not one whit worse than much of the stuff that has been poured out upon us within the last five years. Its features may be somewhat changed; - passion is more the order of the daystrong unnatural contrasts-lights and shades splashed on in such a manner as to produce the portraits of monsters-preposterous views of individual character, and mawkish sketches of general society these are the distinguishing ingredients of all second-rate and fiftiethrate modern novels. Our predecessors were content to dribble out inanity more quietly; three volumes of babble picked up at a milliner's tea-table, and spiced with an occasional infusion of immorality, constituted their dish of fiction. We are by no means sure that the change has been for the better. Now, there are more pretensions and false bloom outside, but the core is as rotten as ever;- we would as soon put the Leadenhallstreet novels of 1800 as of 1828 into the hands of our daughters.

It may be gathered from these observations, that while we are prepared to do justice to any novel which will bear the test of critical examination, we are at the same tinie determined to extend no mercy whatever to any in ferior work of this kind to which our notice may be directed. The existing rage for novel-writing should be checked; and the best way to do this, is to make a few examples of the most notorious and hardened offenders. -We come now to speak of "The Disowned."

The author of this novel, a Mr Bulwer, is, we think, a clever man; but his book, on the whole, is a piece of great absurdity. Patiently have we waded through it--four long, thick volumes--and we must confess we should not like to have the task to perform over again. The plot (and though some authors affect to despise a plot, it is of the first importance in a novel) is the most disjointed and rambling thing imaginable; and even were we to consent to lay no great stress on this objection, and look upon the book as only a succession of individual scenes, we should still have to say, that these were, in many instances, forced and unnatural, and conveyed no distinct picture of actual and existing life. But still we are inclined to separate the work from its author, who, we suspect, has miscalculated his own powers, and, from a wish to do too much, has done next to nothing. Your modern novel-writer is by no means contented to be simple and impressive. he must be overpowering and sublime. Nor is it sufficient for him to display a moderate share of acquaintance with different grades of society, and of knowledge generally, he must affect complete familiarity with all things in heaven and earth; science, and philosophy, and history, must be his play-things; the very highest circles must be open to him, and he must have studied human nature in the very lowest dens of vice and misery. Heaven bless him! does he know what he is about? It is no light thing to set up for a Shakspeare, at least, we are among those who entertain the old-fashioned prejudice, that a Shakspeare, or an Admirable Crichton, makes his appearance only once in the revolution of centuries. The author of "The Disowned" is a clever man-young, we presume, with a good deal of unpruned genius about him; but, if ever his mamma, or his grandmamma, told him he was a Shakspeare, we beg, most positively, to contradict the excellent old ladies.

We have not read "Pelham," which, we are informed, has sold well, and contains some powerful passages; but we should have expected a more successful second effort than |

"The Disowned." One of the chief faults of the book is, that it is three-fourths too long; and it is spun out to this length by means of a hundred dull and hasty scenes, which have no connexion whatever with the story, and which seem to have been introduced for the sole purpose of contributing to the production of four volumes. Another fault is, that half-a-dozen plots, or narratives, are carried on at the same time, scarcely in the least interwoven with each other, and none of them, so far as we can see, possessing any very extraordinary interest. Another fault is, that the hero and heroine are profoundly common-place and insipid; and that the other characters are much over-coloured, and, in several instances, directly opposed to the truth of nature. Another fault is, that the sketches of high life are not the least like high life, or, at all events, want that vividness and minuteness of delineation which would have given them force and interest. Another fault is, that the principal incidents outrage all probability. It would not be difficult to state more faults, but these may suffice.

Now, it is quite possible that a book may be a stupid book as a book, and yet the author may make it evident, in the course of it, that he has talents worth cultivating. This is the case at present before us. There is a great deficiency of judgment, but a very considerable supply of cleverness, in " The Disowned." We suspect, however, the success which has attended "Pelham," and the praises of his friends, have induced our author to think himself a greater man than he really is. He writes rather too much as if he had been born to set the world on fire. He fancies he has a far more comprehensive mind, than, with all deference, we believe him to have. Had he been contented to concentrate his powers upon one theme and object, he would, in all probability, have distinguished himself; but, having scattered them over a thousand, it is only here and there that we discover the seeds of what is really valuable. High life, low life, middle life, all sorts of life; passion, principle, feeling, virtue, vice, sentiment, humour, pathos, metaphysics, poetry, are all jumbled together in the sublimity of complete confusion. In his next effort, for it is evident that he will spin many a long yarn yet, - let him limit himself to one design; let him despise the stage-trick of sudden transitions and violent contrasts; let him look a little more at ordinary human nature, and eschew those anomalous productions he has set before us under the name of men and women; let him bridle in his struggling and over-mettlesome imagination, and be less grand and more common-place, and he will write a book which will be more liked, and better understood by sensible men. Meantime, we shall pay him a compliment, which we think his four volumes deserve, by selecting a favourable specimen of his style of sketching character; and shall entitle it

A BREAKFAST SCENE.

r

hit in each capacity; was very round, very short, and very much like a John Dory, and saw in the features and mind of the little Copperas the exact representative of himself.

"" Adolphus, my love,' said Mrs Copperas, mind what I told you, and sit upright. Mr Linden, will you allow me to cut you a leetle piece of this roll ?'

"Thank you," said Clarence; ' I will trouble you rather for the whole of it."

" Conceive Mrs Copperas's dismay! From that moment she saw herself eaten out of house and home; besides, as she afterwards observed to her friend Miss Barbara York, the vulgarity of such an amazing appe

tite!'

"" Any commands in the City, Mr Linden?" asked the husband. A coach will pass by our door in a few minutes must be on 'Change in half an hour. Come, my love, another cup of tea-make haste-I have scarcely a moment to take my fare for the inside, before coachee takes his for the outside. Ha! ha! ha ! Mr Linden.'

"Lord, Mr Copperas!' said his helpmate, 'how can you be so silly? Setting such an example to your son, too. Never mind him, Adolphus, my love. Fy, child, a'n't you ashamed of yourself? Never put the spoon in the cup till you have done tea: I must really send you to school to learn manners. We have a very pretty little collection of books here, Mr Linden, if you would like to read an hour or two after breakfast.Child, take your hands out of your pockets. All the best classics, I believe_Telemachus, and Young's Night Thoughts, and Joseph Andrews, and the Spectator, and Pope's Iliad, and Creech's Lucretius; but you will look over them yourself. This is Liberty Hall, as well as Copperas Bower, Mr Linden!"

"Well, my love,' said the stock-jobber, ' I believe I must be off. Here Tom-Tom-( Tom-Tom (Mr de Warrens had just entered the room with some more hot water, to weaken still farther the poor remains of what was once the tea)-Tom-just run out and stop the coach; it will be by in five minutes.'

"Have not I prayed and besought you many and many a time, Mr Copperas,' said the lady, rebukingly, * not to call De Warrens by his Christian name? Don't you know, that all people in genteel life, who only keep one servant, invariably call him by his surname, as if he were the butler, you know?'

"Now, that is too good, my love,' said Copperas. 'I will call poor Tom by any surname you please, but I really can't pass him off for a butler! Ha! ha! ha! you must excuse me there, my love.'

""And pray, why not, Mr Copperas ? I have known many a butler bungle more at a cork than he does; and pray, tell me, who did you ever see wait better at din

ner?"

"" He wait at dinner, my love! It is not he who waits.'

"" Who then, Mr Copperas?' "Why, we, my love; it's we who wait at dinner; but that's the cook's fault, not his.'

"Pshaw! Mr Copperas. - Adolphus, my love, sit upright, darling.' "Here De Warrens cried from the bottom of the stairs -Measter, the coach be coming up.'

." There won't be room for it to turn, then,' said the facetious Mr Copperas, looking round the apartment, as if he took the words literally. What coach is it, boy?'

"Now that was not the age in which coaches scoured the City every half hour, and Mr Copperas knew the name of the coach as well as he knew his own.

""It be the Swallow coach, sir.' "Oh, very well; then, since I have swallowed in the roll, I will now roll in the Swallow-ha! ha! ha! Good bye, Mr Linden.'

"No sooner had the witty stock-jobber left the room,

than Mrs Copperas seemed to expand into a new existence. 'My husband, sir,' said she, apologetically, 'is so odd; but he's an excellent, sterling character; and that, you know, Mr Linden, tells more in domestic life than all the shining qualities which captivate the fancy. I am sure, Mr Linden, that the moralist is right in admonishing us to prefer the gold to the tinsel. I have now been married some years, and every year seems happier than the last; but then, Mr Linden, it is such pleasure to contemplate the growing graces of the sweet pledge of our mutual love. - Adolphus, my dear, keep your feet still, and take your hands out of your pockets." "A short pause ensued.

"" We see a great deal of company,' said Mrs Copperas, pompously, and of the very best description. Sometimes we are favoured by the society of the great Mr Talbot, a gentleman of immense fortune, and quite the courtier. He is, it is true, a little eccentric in his dress; but then he was a celebrated beau in his young days. He is our next neighbour you can see his house out of the window, just across the garden there. We have also sometimes our humble board graced by a very elegant friend of mine, Miss Barbara York, a lady of very high connexions her first cousin was a Lord Mayor -Adolphus, my dear, what are you about? Well, Mr Linden, you will find your retreat quite undisturbed. I must go about the household affairs; not that I do any thing more than superintend, you know, sir; but I think no lady should be above consulting her husband's interests. That's what I call true old English conjugal affection. - Come, Adolphus, my dear.'

"And Clarence was now alone. I fear, thought he, that I shall get on very indifferently with these people. Taught by books, not experience, I fondly imagined that there were very few to whom I could not suit myself; but I have yet to learn, that there are certain vulgarities which ask long familiarity with their cause and effect, rightly to understand and patiently to endure. The outward coarseness of the lowest orders, the mental grossièreté of the highest, I can readily suppose it easy to forgive; for the former does not offend one's feelings, nor the latter one's habits; but this base, pretending, noisy, scarlet vulgarity of the middle ranks, which has all the rudeness of its inferiors, with all the arrogance and heartlessness of its betters, this pounds and pence patch-work of the worst and most tawdry shreds and rags of manners, is alike sickening to one's love of human nature, and one's refinement of taste. But it will not do for me to be misanthropical; and (as Dr Latinas was wont to say) the great merit of philosophy, when it cannot command circumstances, is to reconcile us to them." P. 171-79.

There is one thing to be said in favour of "The Disowned." The reader is inclined to go on with it after he has once commenced, always expecting something better than he ever really meets with; and he closes the fourth volume with the conviction, that, had there been a fifth, the author's abilities would have been made more conspicuous in it. The fact is, that his abilities have been misdirected; and time and experience will probably show him his error.

Annals of the Caledonians, Picts, and Scots; and of Strathclyde, Cumberland, Galloway, and Murray. By Joseph Ritson, Esq. 2 vols. Edinburgh; W. and D. Laing. 1828.

THIS is another posthumous work of the late indefatigable antiquarian, Joseph Ritson. It possesses several features of much interest; and we are glad that it has been given to the public. Lord Hailes, in his valuable "Annals," has stated his conviction, that, previous to the accession of Malcolm III., (which was in the year 1057,) the history of Scotland is involved in obscurity and fable. Ritson appears to have been far from satisfied with this sweeping conclusion; and with his accustomed spirit of laborious research, he undertook to remove some of that obscurity, and to convert into historical truth much, which to others had appeared little better than romance. Accordingly, in the present work, he has extended the limits of authentic history for many centuries, and his labours only end where those of Lord Hailes begin.

It must not, however, be supposed, that either Ritson, or any one else, from the scanty materials remaining from which to glean information, could furnish a full and complete narrative of the aboriginal inhabitants of this country. All that can reasonably be expected, is some glimpses of additional light, a few distinct notions regarding those remote ancestors from whom we have sprung, -and some notices of the state of society existing among them. Of the Caledonians, who were of a race perfectly distinct from either the Scots or the Picts, and who were certainly the most ancient, if not the indigenous, inhabitants of this country, the only genuine account is to be found in the writings or remains of Tacitus, Dio Cassius, and one or two others of less note, who were also Roman citizens, and, of course, wrote in Latin; and to these may be added, the Chronicles of Richard of Cirencester, a monk of Westminster, in the fifteenth century, "into whose hands had fallen certain collections of a Roman general, and whose compilation, including a curious ancient map of Britain, was originally printed at Copenhagen, in 1757." The information to be obtained concerning the Picts and Scots is still more meagre and doubtful; and the two authors, in particular, who enter most into details, John de Fordun, who wrote the Scoti-chronicon, and Andrew of Wyntown, who wrote the "Oryginale Chrony kil of Scotland," are well known to be both gross forgers and falsificators, so that little or no reliance can be placed on their statements. The plan, however, which Mr Ritson has adopted in these "Annals," is simple and good. He treats successively of distinct tribes and districts, and, after a few introductory remarks on each, he proceeds to collect, from various sources, and arrange chronologically, such extracts and passages from ancient writers, as tend to elucidate the history of the times, always subjoining translations. It is impossible to attempt any thing like an analysis of all the materials he has thus collected, which, indeed, in many instances, abound much more in antiquarian lore, than in facts calculated to instruct and please the general reader; but a few of the leading results of his researches are important, and ought to be communicated to our readers, who may not choose to peruse the whole work with that care which we have bestowed upon it.

It appears, then, that the earliest mention to be found any where of the British Islands is in the ancient treatise "Of the World," usually ascribed to Aristotle. By him they are classed under the general name of Albion; but that this appellation was suggested by some early mariner, who happened to sail near some of the high high chalky cliffs which here and there line the coast, is improbable, as λευκος, and not albus, is the Greek word signifying white. Tacitus introduces us to the name Britain, and he is the first writer who attempts any description of the northern part of the island, which he calls Caledonia. Whether this designation has any connexion with Calydon, an ancient and famous city of Ætolia, in Greece, is not known. A very fierce dispute rages among antiquarians as to the manner in which not only Caledonia, but all Britain, was originally peopled. It is, on all hands, allowed to be unphilosophical (though we confess we do not exactly see why) to talk of indigenous inhabitants even on a continent, and much more so on an island. One party is clear that the Caledonians came originally from Germany, and the other is no less certain that they came from Gaul, and are of Celtic origin. Ritson thinks that

" if not absolutely manifest, it is, at least, highly probable, that the whole island of Britain was originally peopled by the Celts or Gauls," whom, Tacitus says, the Britons universally resembled in their religion, language, and manners; although, it must be confessed, the historian himself rather favours the opinion of our German descent. Be this as it may, it is certain that the Caledonians were a distinct people at the time of Agricola's invasion of this country, and from their inhabiting the extreme northern districts of the island, between the Murray Frith and Cape Wrath, it would seem not improbable that they were, as Pinkerton supposes, a horde of Cimbri or Cimmerii who had not come, like the other Celts, through Gaul, but had crossed from Jutland. Spreading southwards, the Caledonians rapidly gained ground; and the celebrated battle fought on the confines of their dominions between Galgaeus and Agricola, "ad montem Grampium," seems to have taken place in Aberdeenshire, and, probably, in that part of it called Buchan. The great walls afterwards built by the Emperors Hadrian, Antoninus, and Severus, appear to have been intended to prevent the Caledonians from making incursions into that part of the island which the Romans had conquered; for the Caledonians themselves they were never able to subdue. In the reign of the Emperor Maximilian, the Romans, harassed and weakened with civil dissensions, could pay little attention to so distant a conquest as Britain, and the consequence was, that a general revolt took place throughout the whole island; and, as the old historian Procopius informs us, "the Romans were never able to recover Britain, but from that time it was in the rule of tyrants." In other words, the island was divided into a number of petty kingdoms and tribes, who waged perpetual war against each other, in the hope of increasing their respective power, and only occasionally, like the states of Greece, entered into a general confederacy when threatened by any foreign invasion from the Danes or others.

The

In Scotland there seem, about this time, to have been three nations, who divided the country among themselves, and were each independent. These were the Caledonians, the Picts, and the Scots. Of the Caledonians we have already spoken. The earliest mention made of the Picts is by a Latin author of inferior note, in the year 296. It seems quite certain that the Picts were not known in Britain till the third century. Whence they came is matter of complete dubiety, though it is probable that they were of a more southern origin than the Caledonians. Ritson does not think that they derived the name of Picts from the circumstance of their being picti, or painted. The practice of painting the body prevailed almost universally among the barbarous nations of antiquity, and no distinguishing appellation could be derived from a custom so very common. Roman poets are continually speaking of tribes which they describe as picti, virides, cærulei, and all these epithets, in addition to those of infecti and flavi, may be found applied to the Britons generally. Pinkerton is of opinion that Pict is a corruption of Peht or Pet, and that Pet is equivalent to Vet, and that therefore this people must have come from Vetland, which he maintains is the same as Jutland in Norway. This is a tolerably ingenious specimen of the power of etymology; but if this species of reasoning were admitted, the Picts might be made to have come from any corner of the globe. Wherever they came from, they were a bold and hardy race, and had probably made more progress in the art of war than the Caledonians, whom they speedily supplanted in their ancient possessions, and reduced almost to the condition of a conquered nation. It was on the Orkney Islands that the Picts first landed, and from thence they speedily found their way over to the mainland. To add to the animosity with which their wars were carried on with the Caledonians and Scots, their religious feelings were as directly opposed as their interests. The Britons had very generally embraced Christianity, so early as the year 150; whereas the Picts were obstinate Pagans. To what precise mode of superstition they were attached, cannot now be ascertained; though it is pretty evident that it was not heathenism, but a much darker creed, and gloomier mythology. Their Scottish captives they treated as slaves; and in all things -language, religion, dress, and manners, -kept themselves totally distinct. What their language was cannot be proved, although some have asserted it to have been Gothic; there is now no vestige of it remaining. They were always considered as interlopers, and hated as such by the other inhabitants of Scotland; and, at length, after their dynasty had existed for upwards of four hundred years, from the fifth to the ninth century, and the terror of their name had spread over more than one-half of the island, Kenneth MacAlpin, king of Scots, a man of great military prowess, waged war against them so successfully, that the whole nation was finally and for ever rooted out, either slaughtered in battle, or forced to fly the country.

Pe

ledonia. Ritson is by no means inclined to go into the opinion, that the word Scotia has any connexion with Seythia, which he calls the "officina gentium, or manufactory of nations." Pinkerton and others, on the contrary, are clear that the Scots and Scythians are the same, the name being derived thus, Scythia, Scytia, Sciticus, Scoticus, Scotia. There certainly have been etymologies much farther fetched; but Ritson will not allow it any weight, remarking that it only serves to remind him of the ludicrous etymology of Golden Pippin : Hooper, cooper, diaper, napkin, pipkin, king pin, golden Pippin." He appeals to their language as still to be found in fragments, or entire works, written from the fifth to the tenth centuries, to prove that the Scots are clearly a Celtic race; and it is very probable that he is right; nor would it be of very vast moment were he wrong. Argyleshire was the first territory which these Scots possessed in this country, and the district was then known by the name of Dalriada. They gradually extended themselves over the Hebrides, and along the northern shores of the Clyde. It was not, however, till the eleventh century, that the name of Scotia, or Scotland, was given to the country now so called. Their primitive dialect, which differed little from the Irish Gaelic, continued in use, with both prince and people, till the reign of Malcolm III., surnamed Canmore, in 1057. From that time, the Saxon or English, from a variety of causes, gradually usurped its place, till it became at length confined to the Hebrides, and those more remote districts of the west and north Highlands, which the Scots took possession of on their evacuation by the Picts. The Scots seem originally to have been held in great contempt by the English, who, there can be no doubt, advanced much more rapidly towards civilization than they did. It was in the year 496 that Fergus, the first king of the Scots, after their emigration from Ireland, ascended the petty throne of Argyleshire the king of Scots, but certainly not of Scotland; and between that period, and the accession of Malcolm III., by which time the Picts had been expelled, the Scots and Caledonians been amalgamated, and the whole formed into one, comparatively powerful, nation, Ritson furnishes us with a list, and some historical Annals of forty-six intermediate Kings, whose characters and exploits are, of course, still involved in very great obscurity, though we believe he has thrown upon them all the light that can possibly be

e

WITH the exception of their own, there is perhaps no country in which the British take so strong an interest as India. By far the most extensive and lucrative of all our colonial possessions, it has been the means of raising thousands to wealth and rank, who, had they remained at home, would never have been able to ste out of that limited sphere to which their birth he consigned them. Nor has a reciprocity of benef been wanting; for if we have extracted wealth from I t, dia, India is indebted to us for rapid advances in civil st life. In this arrangement, one may almost trace th hand of retributive justice. At a much earlier periou of the world's history, it was from and not to the East that civilization flowed. As if the sun had possessed an influence over the mind of man similar to that it maintains over the vegetable kingdom, the arts and sciences first sprang to maturity in those climes where its warmth is most felt. With knowledge came power, and conquest quest strode on towards the west. As not unfrequently happens, however, the pupil soon became greater than the master; the infirmities of age fell upon the latter, whilst the former walked forth rejoicing in his new strength. The people of the East came to be neglected amongst the more engrossing concerns that agitated the occidental portions of the old world; and even so early as the times of Alexander the Great, the Indus was an almost unknown river, and the mighty monarchs who came forth to meet the ambitious Macedonian with their embattled host of elephants, and with a splendour that dazzled and astonished his poorer troops, were preposterously treated by them as barbarians. Centuries passed on, and the East was almost forgotten. The governments of Greece and Rome rose and fell; Constantinople lorded it over the land of the Cæsars; the north shook off its lethargy, and arose in rude strength, first to overwhelm, and finally to re-invigorate the effeminate south; the claims of any one country to universal dominion were overturned for ever; France had her Charlemagne Germany her Otho-Spain her Caliphat and England her Alfred. At first all was confusion, war, bloodshed, and darkness; but the elements of what is good are never thrown in a moment into exact harmony, either in the moral or physical world. Independence, however, rapidly suggested new and nobler motives for exertion; the fragments of that ancient beauty and refinement, which, in the stir of stronger passions, had been trampled under foot, were again carefully collected, and a new structure, less liable to decay, was erected on their ruins. Enterprise succeeded; commerce began to flourish; peace was understood to be the natural and the healthy condition of society, and the uttermost corners of the earth again communicated amicably with each other.

The circumstances which in a particular manner directed the attention of the British to India, the measures they took to acquire a footing there, and the gradual extension of their conquests, it is not necessary at pre