The fame of his brother professors was ever a great object of his care: he had the proper worship for true genius, the proper contempt for pseudo-genius; and he never gave a better proof of his discernment than one evening, when, on entering the green-room, he was accosted in the most supercilious manner by a performer dressed for the character of Rob-Roy, (a part the histrio deemed derogatory to his reputation, although it was the making of it,) with-" Pray, Mr. Elliston, when do we act Shakspeare?" and he pithily replied to this very magnificent three-tailed bashaw, "When you can!" If Mr. Elliston's personal views, or opinions, were somewhat inflated,* (and his warmest admirers are willing to admit that many current anecdotes of him lead to the belief,) they never interfered with the duties of his station. He was a man not only without prejudices, but above them. His acquirements were considerable, his knowledge extensive, but exercised, at all times, without prepossession. As an actor, he stood in the very highest rank; and there are few playgoers who would not rather have witnessed any one scene of his performance, than the combined efforts of every other professor, whose interests he was ever so ready to advance. Drury Lane theatre should not have failed under the direction of so eminent a man; and, although there are persons to be found, who think Mr. Elliston overbuilt himself in his outlay at Lea * Certain it is, that at the time (1824) the question of erecting a monument to Shakspeare, in his native town, was agitated by Mr. Mathews and myself, the king (George IV.) took a lively interest in the matter, and, considering that the leading people of both the patent theatres should be consulted, directed Sir Charles Long, Sir George Beaumont, and Sir Francis Freeling, to ascertain Elliston's sentiments on the subject. As soon as these distinguished individuals (who had come direct from, and were going direct back to, the Palace,) had delivered themselves of their mission, Elliston replied, "Very well, gentlemen, leave the papers with me, and I will talk over the business with HIS MAJESTY." mington, and in his contraction and alteration of Drury Lane theatre, the more immediate cause of that failure may be traced to, or will at least be found mixed up with, the general apathy of the public. His habits, to be sure, had latterly become degenerate; but we are told by the almost divine prophet of our profession, that "misery makes us acquainted with strange bed-fellows;" and it certainly was the case with him: the life of a manager, however, which, in its palmiest hours, has misery enough to contend with, is, in its days of adversity, almost insupportable. Mr. Elliston left Drury Lane theatre the beautiful structure it now is, and bequeathed to the recollections of his surviving admirers the fame of having been one of the most eminent performers that ever adorned it;-of himself and those admirers, of the actor and the auditor, it may be justly said, "Celui qui rit et celui qui fait rire sont deux But what is the value,--where is the cui bono of that brittle bauble, FAME? The sceptre he swayed so long has subsequently been wielded by far less worthy hands; the mansion he built is tenanted by the stranger; some of his children are in a foreign land; many of the associates of his greatness and his giddiness have passed away before him; and he himself, "not old enough to die," has long since set out on our last pilgrimage, to join, it is hoped, the amiable partner whose death had some time preceded his own. Periodicals. THE QUARTERLY REVIEW, NO. CXXXI. [THIS is a Number of average merit, neither distinguished by freshness of subjects, nor novel mode of treatment. The topics are-Raphael; the Culture of the Vine; the Alexandrian School of Philosophy; Public Health and Mortality; Education at Oxford; Lord Chatham; and Terrestrial Magnetism. We miss the bizarre paper, such as has of late lightened the Quarterly pages; and, with it, the political lumber, unless the Oxford article be taken as a makeweight. Nevertheless, it will not be difficult to note a page or two for the gratification of the general reader, to whom the entire Number cannot be considered very attractive. We believe ourselves to have been foremost in adapting the best points of Review literature to the cheaper class of publications, such as our own miscellany. Hitherto, such works had been passed over by the conductors of cheap periodicals, as unfitted, by their political complexion, (and, in the case of the Quarterly, especially,) for the reading masses. We, however, ventured to think otherwise; and, aiming always at literary novelty, we set about our new editorial task. Hence, the Quarterly Review found twopenny readers," who, but for this dilution of its gravity and learning, (if we may use the phrase,) would, probably, have missed many hours of pleasurable and profitable reading. Above all things, our aim has been, and so long as we cater for the public, will be, to popularize right principles and sound views, whether in morals or literature-in ages of olden glory--in the magnificence of the past-or the bright fields of the present. And, the highest satisfaction of our experience consists in knowing that such efforts, however humble they may have been in themselves, have contributed to raise, in respectability of estimation, the first periodical work entrusted to our judgment; this increase of respectability being attended with a correspondent accession of numbers-a result, by no means, of common occurrence. We should not advert to these facts, had not some kind friend directed our attention to a passage in the "Address," in a contemporary Journal, in which a covert attack is made upon our conduct of that Miscellany. It is, at best, but poor policy to attempt to regain reputation by depreciating the very means that contributed to its establishment. Alack! how strongly such shortsightedness reminds us of the following excellent observations by one of the wittiest writers of the day: “Nothing will do, in the pursuit of knowledge, but the blackest ingratitude;the moment we have got up the ladder, we must kick it down;-as soon as we have passed over the bridge, we must let it rot;-when we have got upon the shoulders of the ancients, we must look over their heads. The man who forgets the friends of his childhood in real life, is base; but he who clings to the props of his childhood in literature, must be content to remain as ignorant as when he was a child. His business is to forget, disown, and deny-to think himself above everything which has been of use to him in time past-and to cultivate that exclusively from which he expects future advancement: in short, to do everything for the advancement of his knowledge, which it would be infamous to do for the advancement of his fortune."-(Sydney Smith.) But pass we, willingly, to pleasanter matters. The article on the Vine is a review of Mr. Hoare's Treatise on its Culture, published some three years since ; in which are these observations on Cottage Vines and Beer-shops.] to any available extent, to our neighbours, Though we must leave the wine-press, be cultivated in the open air, in the souththere is no reason why the vine should not ern counties of England, at least; and there bear rich and well-ripened fruit for the table; and this is the real subject of Mr. Hoare's essay. He has given us a modest practical directions, disfigured by no granvolume of some 200 pages, filled with plain diloquent passages, nor chilling the reader those modern philosophers who with scientific terms; for he is not one of "Allium call their onions and their leeks." The labouring poor of this country are too often driven to the beer-shop, as the only resource after the toils of the day. One by one their legitimate and invigorating amusements have been wrested from them. Their cricket-grounds have been taken away; their commons have been in great measure enclosed. Forlorn, and without the means of relaxation-for in many places the cottage-garden has also vanished-the baleful haunts, where "ten thousand casks, For ever dribbling forth their base contents, Bleed gold for ministers to sport away"gape for them, and the peasantry become besotted, demoralized, brutalized. It is matter of notoriety that such houses were the hot-beds of the late insurrection in South Wales. One who knows the country well, informed us, that there a man, without property or character, would borrow some five or ten pounds, and set up a beershop. In order to get custom, it became necessary that he should convert his house into a Chartist lodge, and so he did. In the beer-shops, for the most part, were the absurd, but truculent, plans of that ragged regiment of rebels concocted; and throughout the agricultural districts they are the very foci of crime. But, fortunately, there are yet peaceful villages, where Chartism and beer-shops are alike unknown, and where, while the chime of the Sabbath bells sounds musi. cally through the summer air, the ancient light-blue straight-cut coat, bordered with its constellation of broad, round, silver buttons of the first magnitude, is still to be seen in the chequered shade of the churchyard, about the hour of prayer. In the button-hole of that coat is secured a small phial of limpid water, wherein are refreshed the stems of some three or four choice pinks, or two or three bright bizarres of carnations, cherished for the occasion, on which the wearer looks with fond pride, and whose fair blossoms forms a sort of order of Flora upon a bosom that many a courtier might envy. This same coat is never without a magnificent Old Brompton stock on the club-day; and you shall find its owner's humble home a happy oneas happy as the happiest in Goldsmith's Village, before it was deserted. Clean liness and comfort are everywhere; and his garden-not without bees-is a perfect picture. The fumes of the beer-shop, reeking with tobacco-smoke, and the company of the poacher, the thief, and the burglar, would have no charms for him, even if the hamlet were cursed with one. Now, the hut must be poor indeed, which is without some coign of vantage; and we earnestly pray the attention of benevolent landlords to the fact, that there are few cottagers in South Britain who might not materially aid their resources, and add to their comforts, by the culture of the vine, as recommended by Mr. Hoare. The Zoological and Horticultural Societies. We would gladly see a low wall covered with well-managed vines, stretching along the north side of the terrace-walk that borders the Regent's Park, in the garden of the Zoological Society. The southern side of the wall would have a very beautiful appearance, when well covered in the summer and autumnal months; and then, how refreshing the fruit would be-to the surviving monkeys! Before we close this notice of a useful work, deserving of a better commentary, may we be pardoned for offering a word in favour of another society, to which, in our opinion, much praise is due? It is not that this society has merely made the rich familiar with many lovely flowers and healthful fruits of all seasons, from the peep of the first crocus to the fall of the last apple, "That dances as long as dance it can," but that it has spread many of these beautiful and sapid productions through the land. The dahlia may be seen at every cottage door; and the methods of forcing, upon cheap principles, have been so widely diffused, that the hard-handed London artisan may now cool his September palate with a slice of melon for a small copper coin. If it were but in being auxiliary to the spread of these innocent pleasures among the people, enough has been done to make every good man wish well to the Horticultural Society of London. Death of Lord Chatham. On the 7th April, 1778, the Duke of Richmond, hitherto the ally and supporter of all Lord Chatham's American policy, moved an address to the Crown, recapitulating in detail the expenses, losses, and misconduct of the war, entreating His Majesty to dismiss his ministers, and to withdraw his forces, by sea and land, from the revolted provinces. There was hardly a topic in this motion which Lord Chatham had not himself repeatedly urged; and it was, no doubt, so framed with a view to secure his concurrence; but he saw that it involved, though not in direct terms, the acknowledgment of American independence; and on the motion's being communicated to him, the day before it was to be made, he apprised the Duke, “with unspeakable concern, that the difference between them, on the point of the independence and sovereignty of America, was so very wide, that he despaired of bringing about any reasonable issue. He was still ill, but hoped to be in town tomorrow. On that morrow he appeared in the House of Lords, for the last time: "Lord Chatham came into the House of Lords, leaning upon two friends, wrapped up in flannel, pale and emaciated. Within his large wig little more was to be seen than his aquiline nose, and his penetrating eye. He looked like a dying man; yet never was seen a figure of more dignity: he appeared like a being of a superior species. He rose from his seat with slowness and difficulty, leaning on his crutches, and supported under each arm by his two friends. He took one hand from his crutch, and raised it, casting his eyes towards heaven, and said, 'I thank God that I have been enabled to come here this day— to perform my duty, and to speak on a subject which has so deeply impressed my mind. I am old and infirm-have one foot, more than one foot, in the grave; I am risen from my bed, to stand up in the cause of my country-perhaps never again to speak in this House.' The reverencethe attention-the stillness of the House was most affecting: if any one had dropped a handkerchief, the noise would have been heard. At first he spoke in a very low and feeble tone; but as he grew warm, his voice rose, and was as harmonious as ever: oratorical and affecting, perhaps more than at any former period; both from his own situation, and from the importance of the subject on which he spoke.. "He rejoiced that he was yet alive to give his vote against so impolitic, so inglorious a measure, as the acknowledgment of the independency of America; and declared he would much rather be in his grave, than see the lustre of the British throne tarnished, the dignity of the empire disgraced, the glory of the nation sunk to such a degree as it must be, when the dependency of America on the sovereignty of Great Britain was given up." After speaking for some time with great enthusiasin, he sat down exhausted, and the Duke of Richmond rose to explain. While he was speaking, Lord Chatham listened to him with attention and composure; and, when his Grace had ended, rose to reply; but his strength failed him, and he fell backwards in convulsions. He was immediately supported by the Peers around him, and by his younger sons, who happened to be present as spectators. He was conveyed, first, to the house of Mr. Sargent, in Downing-street, and thence to Hayes, where he lingered for three days, and Monday, the 11th of May, terminated a glorious life, by a death, it may be said, in the service of his country, and on the very field of battle. That same evening-on the motion of Colonel Barré, formerly the bitterest of his enemies, but lately become a close ally -the House of Commons voted him a public funeral, and a monument in Westminster Abbey, a tribute in which men of all parties generously and cordially joined. Character of Lord Chatham. The sum of all seems to us to be, that the qualities of the orator were more transcendent than those of the statesman, and that his public character, when calmly considered, excites rather admiration than applause. The generosity of his sentiments did not always guide his practice; and the majestic stream of his declamations for the rights and liberties of mankind was always accompanied by eddies and under-currents of personal interest. He was too fine a genius for the lower, and too selfish a politician for the higher duties of a minister. "Graced as he was with all the power of words"— his talents were neither for conducting an office nor managing a party-he was neither the sun to rule the day, nor the moon to rule the night; but a meteor, which astonished and alarmed mankind by its supernatural splendour, but left the world, when it expired, in deeper darkness than before. Notes of a Reader. NEW BOOKS. THERE are two questions to be asked respecting every new publication:-Is it worth buying? Is it worth borrowing.Sydney Smith. SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH. Coleridge observes, of Mackintosh : "After all his fluency and brilliant erudition, you can rarely carry off anything worth preserving. You might not improperly write on his forehead, 'Warehouse to let.'" NABOBS. bibed in youth, in the East Indies, as unDr. Knox, speaking of the ideas imfavourable to liberty, remarks: "Enriched at an early age, the adventurer returns to England. His property admits him to the higher circles of fashionable life. He aims at rivalling or excelling all the old nobility in the splendour of his mansions, the finery of his carriages, the number of his liveried train, the profusion of his table, in every unmanly indulgence which an empty vanity can covet, and a full purse procure. Such a man, when he looks from the window of his superb mansion, and sees the people pass, cannot endure the idea that they are of as much consequence as himself in the eye of the law; and that he dares not insult or oppress the unfortunate being who rakes his kennel, or sweeps his chimney. EDUCATION ALARMISTS. Mrs. Trimmer, objecting to the " rewards and punishments" in Lancasterian education, observes: "Boys, accustomed to consider themselves the nobles of the school, may, in their future lives, form a conceit of their own merits, (unless they have very sound principles,) aspire to be nobles of the land, and to take place of the hereditary nobility." Upon which the Rev. Sydney Smith remarks: "For our part, when we saw these ragged and interesting little nobles shining in their tin stars, we only thought it probable that the spirit of emulation would make them better ushers, tradesmen, and mechanics. We did, in truth, imagine we had observed, in some of their faces, a bold project for procuring better breeches for keeping out the blasts of heaven, which howled through those garments in every direction, and of aspiring, hereafter, to greater strength of seam, and more perfect continuity of cloth. But, for the safety of the titled orders we had no fear; nor did we once dream that the black rod, which whipped these little, dirty dukes, would one day be borne before them as the emblem of legislative dignity and the sign of noble blood." UNIVERSAL POISONING. The fear of being poisoned was universal, in the dark ages, in Europe. In the lower ranks of life, men were thought to be in most danger of being thus made away with by their wives; in the higher, by their physicians and cooks. POLITICAL LIBERTY. It is always considered as a piece of impertinence, in England, if a man of less than £2000 or £3,000 a-year has any opinions at all upon important subjects. Sydney Smith. BIGOTRY IMPARTIAL. Bigotry is just as amiable and as respectable in her indulgences as in her severities, in her partialities as in her persecutions. She deified most of the Roman emperors, and she has graced the calendar of saints with the names of many disgusting fools and villains.- Sharp. NICE ROBBERY. M. Bachelier, a French florist, kept some beautiful species of the anemone to himself, which he had procured from the East Indies, and succeeded in withholding them for ten years from all who wished to possess them likewise. A counsellor of the Parliament, however, one day paid him a visit, while they were in seed, and, in walking with him round the garden, contrived to let his gown fall upon them; by this means, he swept off a good number of the seeds, and his servant, who was apprised of the scheme, dexterously wrapt up the gown, and secured them. Any one must have been a sour moralist who should have considered this to be a breach of the eighth commandment.-The Doctor. SOURCE OF LUXURY. There is not, upon earth, air, or sea, a single flavour, (cost what crime it may to procure it,) that mercantile opulence will not procure. Increase the difficulty, and you enlist vanity on the side of luxury; and make that be sought for, as a display of wealth, which was before valued only for the display of appetite. This doctrine is exemplified in laver, a sea-weed, which is eaten by the poorest people in Scotland twice a-day, and is served at the tables of the wealthy in this country, as a first-rate luxury, in a silver saucepan, or lampdish. (See Hints for the Table.) 16 THE RULING PASSION STRONG IN DEATH." Garci Sanchez de Badajoz, when he was at the point of death, desired that he might be dressed in the habit of St. Francis ; this was accordingly done, and over the Franciscan frock was put his habit of Santiago, for he was a knight of that order. Looking at himself in his double attire, he said: "The Lord will say to me, presently, My friend, Garci Sanchez, you come very well wrapt up! (muy arropado;) and I shall reply: Lord, it is no wonder, for it was winter when I set off.” Don Rodrigo Calderon wore a Franciscan habit at his execution, as an outward and visible sign of penitence and humiliation: as he ascended the scaffold, he lifted the skirts of the habit with such an air, that his attendant confessor thought it necessary to reprove him for such illtimed regard to his appearance. Rodrigo excused himself by saying that he had all his life-time carried himself gracefully.-The Doctor. UNIVERSITY EDUCATION. Don We act with the minds of young men, as the Dutch did with their exuberant spices. An infinite quantity of talent is annually destroyed in the Universities of England by the miserable jealousy and littleness of ecclesiastical instructors.Sydney Smith. USEFUL KNOWLEDGE. They say it is an ill mason that refuseth any stone; and there is no knowledge but, in a skilful hand, serves either positively as it is, or else to illustrate some other knowledge.-Herbert's Remains INIQUITOUS LEGISLATION. clergyman, in a smuggling town, I would Coleridge oddly says: "If I were a not preach against smuggling. I would not be made a sort of clerical revenue officer. Let the Government, which, by absurd duties, fosters smuggling, prevent it itself, if it can. How could I shew my hearers the immorality of going twenty miles in a boat, and honestly buying with their money a keg of brandy, except by a long deduction which they could not understand.-Table Talk. GENIUS AND INDUSTRY. A little difference in native genius, when augmented by practice, is like a small superiority in the first number of a geometrical series.-Sharp. THE LAW'S DELAY. It is well known, upon one of the English circuits, that a leading barrister once undertook to speak while an express went twenty miles to bring back a witness, whom it was necessary to produce on the trial. But, what is this to the performance of an American counsellor, who, upon a |