Dicite, mî friendes - inform us-anne ferendum est Gaudia, non aliter quàm si felicior esset Gens hominum, nostrâ et quæ conditione potita ? Naturâ miseri, sic fient arte beati ? Most shocking mores! O tempora truly licentious! (hear, hear!) Impia mens hominum, cùmque impia tanta libido Impius objection - nobis occurrere morbo Quo datur huic visum est nihil else superesse but one thingIllud nempe meum-res vel notissima-Billum. Hoc vos ut rebus animisque et voce juvando, Omnibus anteferatis, ego Dominusque rogamus. O memores estote, precor- sit mente repôstum, NUNQUAM PAUPERIBUS SORTEM IGNOSCAMUR INIQUAM." Impegit; tollunt illi ad sidera loud cheers, Poulter."Nil equidem, ut nobis, chairmanne, videtur, Aptius esse potest, nil excellentius, isto Quod memoras Billo; fuit omni parte probandum, Per hookam aut crookam nos hoc proferre per Housam Ne totum frustretur opus, maneatque for ever * * * * * * * Et nos vincemus. Fuerit then, at any rate unâ Subjicienda dies ut sit, populique proceedings, Ingenium laudo, placet ars-res displicet (hear, hear!) Mortali possit virtus) sanctissimus Agnew Quid referam tap-rooms, et amantes pocula side-boards, Et beero benches obmersas, tipsyque rowas? Quid referam whole pots of vile potabile quidquam, Sit Meux, sit Whitbread, seu sit Truman, Hanbury, Buxton —* Jussos -mox certo repetundos ordine same pots; Nullo et depositas potboyi tempore curas? Quid cook-shops, rapicè et volventem ad Tartara pie-crust, Et gravy, rem Domino invisam, brownosque potatoes, Non divina quidem, sed certè Agnewia, somnos. * * * Atque ibi ni fallor datur huge lot of kissing and drinking Fleetwoodque, et Plumptree, et vultu Stanley severo, Discedit meeting. Ego te, mea Musa, petivi. * The reader will here recognise the names of eminent porter-brewers in London.-M. MR. GRANT'S "GREAT METROPOLIS."* MR. GRANT, the perpetrator of this book, is infinitely complimentary to us, and we are grateful accordingly. "FRASER'S contributors," he says, 66 are numerous and talented. They are a little literary republic of themselves. I am satisfied that there is no other periodical whose contributors are better acquainted with each other, or who are more united in principle and purpose. They are quite a harmonious body; it would do Robert Owen's heart good to see them; they all play into each other's hands, and all feel a personal interest in the fortunes of the Magazine. They are a happy brotherhood, living in a world of their own, and pitying, and despising, and abusing every one who lives in the world we call ours:" viz., the world which is beyond the confines of their snug little planet. I can have no personal inducement to speak favorably of the literary colony who love and worship 'REGINA,' and bask in the sunshine of her smiles. My last two works were somewhat roughly handled by her majesty,' and, possibly, this one may fare still worse. There will be no harm though it should; but there is no use in denying it- FRASER's contributors are a set of choice spirits, learned, clever, and witty." What can we do in return for this extravagant eulogy, unless render back such compliment as is in our poor power to bestow? Mr. Grant's book fare ill at our hands! Impossible! We intend to praise him in the highest degree, and in a style which the most fastidious follower of Mina, Zumalacarregui, Lord Palmerston, or Jack Scroggins, could not consider savage. As it is our custom, we draw it mild. *The Great Metropolis. By the author of "Random Recollections of the House of Lords and Commons. 2 vols., small 8vo. London, 1836. Saunders and Otley.-[I give this review as a specimen of Maginn's quiet way of "smashing" a very absurd book. — M.] Why should we not? Mr. Grant has occasioned us an immensity of fun. His book is like Lady Blessington's, "a Book of Beauty." In every page there is that which serves to divert, to amuse, and to instruct. To divert, because there is something irresistibly laughable in the pretension to knowledge which does not exist; to amuse, because there is much to please in the blundering assumption of an acquaintance with secrets at which the author could never even guess; and to instruct, because the exhibition of human folly is a thing which must lead us to think upon the fallen situation of all human intellect, never rendered so pregnant with moral as when the exhibitor revels in the dream-land of self-satisfaction. Ulysses, in the Odyssey, says—for Mr. Grant's sake we do not quote the Greek—“ What first, what last, what middle, shall we relate?" and the same idea comes over our minds in reading The Great Metropolis. We for several years belonged to a club in Field Lane, Holborn, of which, what Horace would call the conditio vivendi, was, that each gentleman belonging to the club should, after paying the preliminary sum of twopence ("tuppence," as Feargus O'Connor calls it), prod into the pot with a threepronged harpoon for a chance of the contents. One evening we fished up a turkey, another time we speared the fragment of a haggis. A purloined partridge from the poultry shop opposite sometimes rested upon our prong; at less fortunate moments our lot might be no more than a particle of purchased potato. In a similar manner now, we dip into the literary pot, and, behold, what sticks to our harpoon is a metropolitan goose! which goose we now proceed to place on our dissecting-table. Mr. Grant's first volume contains seven chapters, headed severally, 1. General Characteristics; 2. The Theatres; 3. The Clubs; 4. The Gaming-Houses; 5. Metropolitan Society—the Higher Classes; 6. The Middle Classes; 7. The Lower Classes. His second volume contains eight chapters on the following subjects:— 1. The Newspaper Press-Morning Papers; 2. Evening Papers; 3. Weekly Papers; 4. General Remarks; 5. Parliamentary Reporting; 6. Periodical Literature-The Quarterly Reviews; 7. The Monthlies; 8. Weekly Journals. We will take these in order. |