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is what, in the fitness of things, I do not understand. When, in addition to this, it is asserted or insinuated that the brightness and power of Dr. Maginn's mind were dimmed or weakened by excess, a simple denial, based on fact, is sufficient. His really best things - the Shakespeare Papers, and Homeric Ballads were the very latest of his productions. Even while I write these lines, I have been allowed to examine the manuscript of, I believe, Maginn's very last prose article. It was written only a few weeks before his death, was presented to Mr. Henry Plunkett, for The Squib, one of the numerous short-lived rivals of Punch, and has never been printed. With that grave humor which is much akin to wit, it treats of the literature of the streets of London, tracing their nomenclature to a Greek origin-such, among numerous examples, as v Street, Road, Court, v Inn, and, that receptacle of criminals, Gate. The old humor and the full scholarship pervade this curious article.

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Dr. Maginn's great defect, as an author, was his want of concentration. He threw a good deal of ability into periodical literature—and there he rested. For others, he would take infinite pains, little for himself, and thus the best of the flash songs, and nearly the whole of Turpin's Ride to York, in Mr. Ainsworth's "Rookwood," were actually written by Maginn. He seemed to lack determination for devoting himself, during the requisite time, to some one work which "the world would not willingly let die." He was always meditating on some magnum opus. At one time, it was a historical tragedy, to be called "Queen Anne;" at another, on the subject of "Jason;" he repeatedly announced "Tales of the Talmud;" he advertised, in Murray's list," Lives of the Mayors of Cork," a most amusing series of mock-biographies it would have been; he seriously thought of editing Shakespeare, and of translating the whole of Homer-and, when Mr. Croker remonstrated on the manner in which he wasted his talents, he said that he contemplated some serious work, “I think," says Mr. Croker, "on the Greek Drama, but of this, I am not quite sure. It might have been the Greek Orators. I had a high opinion of his power to illustrate either."

Mr. Kenealy has mentioned a peculiarity connected with this constant thinking of executing some permanent work. He says, "Nothing was more common than for him to narrate to whoever was with him some romantic story, a ballad, which he had just composed — some scenes of a novel that he had hoped to finish or some dissertation on Fielding, Rabelais, or Lucian. He also practised the art of improvising, and succeeded in it. The ottava rima, or stanza of Pulci and Lord Byron [Beppo' and 'Don Juan'], was that to which he was most partial."

One of Dr. Maginn's characteristics, was his utter fearlessness as a writer. This led him, at the commencement of his literary career, to the memorable onslaught upon the late Sir John Leslie, of Edinburgh, who, without even knowing a letter of the language, had heedlessly put upon record, in a book, that Hebrew was "a rude and poor dialect;" this prompted him to the bitter personalities of some of his literary and political articles (such as the exposure of the plagiarisms of Moore and the "apostacy" of Peel, on the Catholic question), and barbed the arrow which he discharged at Grantley Berkeley, when that person, forgetful of the incidents which had given infamous notoriety even to his own mother, had the bad taste to write a novel upon his family history. It was this, also, which made Maginn insert in Fraser's Magazine, such explosives as Byron's satire on Rogers, the poet, and Mr. Coleridge's almost diabolical epitaph ("The Two Round Spaces on the Tombstone") upon Sir James Mackintosh. He published them, because he considered it right that Byron's insincerity should be fully exposed, and also that the opinion of such a man as Coleridge upon the political apostacy of Mackintosh - exalted among the Whigs as Sage and Seer should be placed upon record.

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In person, Dr. Maginn was rather under the middle stature, slight in figure, active in motion, and very natural in manners. He was gray at the age of twenty-six, and, during his last ten years, was almost white -exhibiting the peculiarity of keen, bright blue eyes and youthful features, with the hoary locks of age. Of the two portraits which have been published-by Maclise, in Fraser, and by Skillin, in the Dublin University Magazine-I think the latter is the better likeness. It is a suitable illustration to the present Collection.

In more ways than one, there is a great moral in Dr. Maginn's life. Had his discretion been equal to his genius, his permanent place in literature would probably have been far higher than he has any chance of occupying. As it is, his reputation, as a man of letters, is more traditionary than actual. The very exuberance of genius, made him prodigal in its use, and, yielding too easily to the seductions of society, he literally wasted, on temporary enjoyments, the golden hours which might and should have been employed on some work worthy of his learning and his reputation.

NEW YORK, March, 1857.

R. SHELTON MACKENZIE.

FRASERIAN PAPERS.

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DR. MAGINN'S

MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS.

Tfie Fraserian Papers.

THE ELECTION OF EDITOR.

[THE first number of Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country was published in February, 1830. The ability, personality, and audacity of the new periodical immediately gave it notoriety, and the publisher not only having had the good sense to advertise it extensively, but also to send a copy for review to every newspaper in the United Kingdom, it had the great advantage of receiving general notice from the Press. Its politics (ultra-tory) recommended it in some quarters, its literary tomahawking in others. At that time, the grosser personalities which had attracted attention in the early volumes of Blackwood had been mitigated, and MAGA mainly relied, not without cause, on its political papers, and the literary articles of Christopher North and the contributors whom he had gathered around him. The New Monthly Magazine, in London, had become weak and inefficient in the careless hands of Thomas Campbell. There was room, therefore, for a new and spirited rival, and, as the remuneration was liberal, a great deal of literary ability was attracted to the pages of REGINA- as Fraser was called, in the hope of rivalling MAGA [Blackwood], even in such a small matter as a sobriquet. From the very first, Maginn, Crofton Croker, L. E. L., Haynes Bayly, the Ettrick Shepherd, Barry Cornwall" (under the alias of "John Bethel"), Robert Southey, John Gibson Lockhart, John Galt, R. P. Gillies, and many more of established literary reputation, were known to be among REGINA'S contributors.

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