Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Critical Notices Of The Literature Of The Last Three Months,
of living anecdote and pleasing observations on matters more feminine , if not equally important . We pass , then , to Scotland , and with the valuable assistance of Mr . Burton , * glance over the more important fragments of Jacobin history . His work embraces that period during which the real union of England and Scotland existed in name , but was only gradually becoming a reality , so far as the le of each kingdom were concerned . It traces also the
peop growth of the present church establishment in Scotland , and , without fear or prejudice , gives a calm and impartial account of the rise and progress of ecclesiastical affairs , after the religious settlement occasioned by the revolution ; while throughout the whole are interspersed a great many curious and interesting facts and anecdotes , which will well repay perusal . For instance , there is a lively description of the " entertainments " which , in 1745 , one Mr . Peter Williamson , a kidnapped Aberdeen boy , and
subsequently a Virginian slave , gave , " a la Albert Smith , " of his adventures and sufferings to a wondering audience ; and at the time , we are told , he excited as lively an interest , ancl as intense a sensation , in the various towns of North Britain , as the Wizard of Mont Blanc has done in our own times in these more southern latitudes . From Mr . Forsyth ' s pen we have a " History of the Captivity of Napoleon at St . Helena , " f written , we shoidd imagine , to confound Mr . O'Meara , if he had been alive , and to exalt Sir Hudson Lowe , at the expense of the Whig wits of the period . It is , however , an interesting , and what is more
to the purpose , a truthful and unprejudiced work , full of incidents during the most painful period of a great man ' s life . Napoleon ' s confinement in St . Helena is treated according to a view now generally taken of it , as a political necessity ; while Sir Hudson Lowe ' s conduct , exaggerated as it undoubtedly was , is correctly attributed to an inordinate sense of the responsibility which his trust imposed upon him , ancl also in a great measure to the ill-humour of the emperor himself . Nevertheless , no one
can do otherwise than lament the governor ' s want of judgment , as well as the impolicy of allowing himself to be drawn into personal altercations with either his prisoner or his attendants . On the whole , the book cannot be considered in any other light than an acquisition , and as throwing a new light on a period of history , of which more that is false has been written and said than can well be imagined . With this work the more strictly historical productions of the last three months may be said to close .
In the fertile field of biographical memoirs we have first to notice Mr . Tom Taylor ' s ' ^ Life and Autobiography of the Painter Haydon . " J To call this an interesting work , we must pre-suppose that every reader of it has more or less affection for the memory of the man whose struggles with the world , and with himself , it so carefully records . Mr . Taylor has executed a painful and a melancholy task with considerable skill and judgment ; and we are glad that he has left to the reader the liberty of
forming an opinion of the genius and character of a man whose wasted powers , terrible disappointments , and tragical death , did more to render him an object of interest than any particular merit of his own . The fact is , that Haydon . was cursed , if we may be allowed to use so strong an
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Critical Notices Of The Literature Of The Last Three Months,
of living anecdote and pleasing observations on matters more feminine , if not equally important . We pass , then , to Scotland , and with the valuable assistance of Mr . Burton , * glance over the more important fragments of Jacobin history . His work embraces that period during which the real union of England and Scotland existed in name , but was only gradually becoming a reality , so far as the le of each kingdom were concerned . It traces also the
peop growth of the present church establishment in Scotland , and , without fear or prejudice , gives a calm and impartial account of the rise and progress of ecclesiastical affairs , after the religious settlement occasioned by the revolution ; while throughout the whole are interspersed a great many curious and interesting facts and anecdotes , which will well repay perusal . For instance , there is a lively description of the " entertainments " which , in 1745 , one Mr . Peter Williamson , a kidnapped Aberdeen boy , and
subsequently a Virginian slave , gave , " a la Albert Smith , " of his adventures and sufferings to a wondering audience ; and at the time , we are told , he excited as lively an interest , ancl as intense a sensation , in the various towns of North Britain , as the Wizard of Mont Blanc has done in our own times in these more southern latitudes . From Mr . Forsyth ' s pen we have a " History of the Captivity of Napoleon at St . Helena , " f written , we shoidd imagine , to confound Mr . O'Meara , if he had been alive , and to exalt Sir Hudson Lowe , at the expense of the Whig wits of the period . It is , however , an interesting , and what is more
to the purpose , a truthful and unprejudiced work , full of incidents during the most painful period of a great man ' s life . Napoleon ' s confinement in St . Helena is treated according to a view now generally taken of it , as a political necessity ; while Sir Hudson Lowe ' s conduct , exaggerated as it undoubtedly was , is correctly attributed to an inordinate sense of the responsibility which his trust imposed upon him , ancl also in a great measure to the ill-humour of the emperor himself . Nevertheless , no one
can do otherwise than lament the governor ' s want of judgment , as well as the impolicy of allowing himself to be drawn into personal altercations with either his prisoner or his attendants . On the whole , the book cannot be considered in any other light than an acquisition , and as throwing a new light on a period of history , of which more that is false has been written and said than can well be imagined . With this work the more strictly historical productions of the last three months may be said to close .
In the fertile field of biographical memoirs we have first to notice Mr . Tom Taylor ' s ' ^ Life and Autobiography of the Painter Haydon . " J To call this an interesting work , we must pre-suppose that every reader of it has more or less affection for the memory of the man whose struggles with the world , and with himself , it so carefully records . Mr . Taylor has executed a painful and a melancholy task with considerable skill and judgment ; and we are glad that he has left to the reader the liberty of
forming an opinion of the genius and character of a man whose wasted powers , terrible disappointments , and tragical death , did more to render him an object of interest than any particular merit of his own . The fact is , that Haydon . was cursed , if we may be allowed to use so strong an