and agitated state of parties supplied him with abundant subjects, and either forgetting or disregarding the fact which the prison and the pillory might have taught him, that the frenzy of party-feeling has no very delicate appreciation of a jest, he incurred another prosecution and imprisonment by a number of political jeux d'esprit, the principal of which were two pamphlets called What if the Pretender should come? and What if the Queen should die? both titles being obviously ironical, or as he says himself: Nothing could be more plain, than that the titles of these are amusements, in order to get the books into the hands of those who had been deluded by Jacobites. Notwithstanding his explanation, he was convicted, fined L.800, and a second time imprisoned in Newgate. Here he was compelled to discontinue the publication of the Review; which, by a curious fatality, was commenced and dropped by the author while in confinement in the same prison.

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After remaining in prison a few months he was liberated by the Queen's order in November 1713.

But though released, and the innocence of his intentions ad.. mitted, he was neglected by the court, and the death of Queen Anne, which took place July 1714, left him defenceless to the 'attacks of his enemies. «No sooner, he says, "was the queen dead, and the King, as of right, proclaimed, but the rage " of men increased upon me to that degree, that their threats were such as I am not able to express; and though I have .written nothing since the queen's death, yet a great many things are called by my name, and I bear the answerer's in«sults. » De Foe's prospect at this time was more gloomy than at any part of his career. Deprived of the resources afforded by the sale of his review, his protectors no longer in power, without his pension, and exposed to the unceasing attacks of personal and political malignity, his health beginning to fail, he however appears to have retained the vigour of his resolution and the strength of his intellect. He accordingly asserted the innocence of his public conduct, and the integrity of his character in An Appeal to Honour and Justice, though it be of his worst Enemies, being an Account of his Con

duct in Public Affairs: This work appeared in 1715, and contains a long and circumstantial defence of his political conduct, and a most affecting detail of his sufferings. This was the conclusion of our author's political career; and we may conceive that when employed in detailing what he had done and how he had been rewarded when he recapitulated the long history of labour and of patriotism on the one hand, and ingratitude and faction on the other-that even his sturdy spirit gave way before a contemplation so painful: he was seized with apoplexy while engaged on this work. It was however published by his friends, and the profits arising from its sale seem to have been his only source of subsistence during his illness.

On his recovery, a great revolution had taken place in the mind and character of De Foe. Disease and sorrow had passed through his mind, softening and loosening the soil, and developing the fertility that it possessed.

tents,

Weary of that troubled sea of noises and harsh discon» to use the words of Milton; the adversary barking at the door sick of the degrading and heating controversies of political parties, his mind, which retained its vigour while it had lost its acerbity, was devoted for the rest of his life to the creation of those admirable fictions which will be admired while literature exists; nay, which perhaps the total destruction of the language in which they are written, would not suffice to obliterate from the world.

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The History of Alexander Selkirk, related in Woodes Rogers' Voyage round the World, suggested The Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. How De Foe, in the construction of this unequalled work, improved upon the meagre account which by common consent is supposed to have given the original idea with what wonderful skill he has invented a series of events, which though familiar are never common-place, though minute are never tedious, and created an imaginary character with whose labours and sufferings, all ages, all characters, all countries equally sympathize, and all equally understand to examine critically a work which every child has read with rapture and every old

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man with delight-this is not the place. We anticipate a fitter opportunity for the performance of the delightful task of endeavouring to point out some of De Foe's claims to our admiration. The popularity of Robinson Crusoe was immediate, steady, and immense in the same year he published a second volume with equal success, though it is perceptibly inferior in interest to the first part; forming no exception to the general rule of Continuations.-Though De Foe, in this second part is inferior to himself, he is yet immeasurably superior to all beside: if the second part possess less interest than the first, it would be as vain to compare it with any other of the innumerable fictions which the success of this romance naturally suggested, as to look for a Poem which should equal the Paradise Regained-excepting the Paradise Lost.

Reluctant, and naturally so, to leave unworked so rich a mine of fame and profit, De Foe shortly afterwards published Serious Reflections during the life of Robinson Crusoe, with his Vision of the Angelic World. This work, consisting of a number of religious meditations having nothing necessarily connecting them with the history of Crusoe, though much admired at the time, is by no means easy to be found at present: nor is it we are compelled to say - worth the trouble of the search.

In 1720 appeared The Life and Piracies of Captain Singleton, the first of a series of narratives in what the Spaniards call the Gusto Picaresco: describing the adventures by sea and land of robbers and buccaneers; a style in which, from the vigour of his imagination and his unequalled power of personating the character of a rude but sensible narrator, De Foe was admirably calculated to excel.

Of his remaining publications-of various merit, though none ever possessed or are likely to obtain the popularity of Robinson Crusoe it will be sufficient for us to enumerate the titles; The Dumb Philosopher, History of Duncan Campbell, Remarkable Life of Colonel Jack, Spy on the Conjuror, Memoirs of a Cavalier, Fortunate Mistress, New Voyage round the World.

This great genius died in London April 24th 1730, at the

age of 70, leaving a widow and a large family in tolerable circumstances, though we regret to add that his declining years were embittered by distressing family feuds.

NOTE. The Russian public, we believe, possesses one, if not more, soi-disant versions of the Robinson Crusoe; from which however, as they were made from the imperfect abridgement of Campe, or the still more faulty French translation, the spirit of De Foe's peculiar and admirable style has evaporated. We look forward, therefore, with anxiety to the approaching appearance of the promised translation of Mr. Korsakoff, made directly from the original a work likely, in its form and decoration, to be worthy of the skill with which the literary portion will be executed by the able translator.

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We anticipate the agreeable task of noticing more at length Mr. Korsakoff's work.

TRAVELS AND RESEARCHES

IN ASIA MINOR, MESOPOTAMIA, CHALDEA, AND ARMENIA.

BY W. F. AINSWORTH, F.G.S. &c.

Much interest was excited in the religious world by the accounts of the Chaldean Christians, incidentally collected during the Euphrates Expedition; and it was stimulated rather than gratified by the information subsequently derived from the gentlemen whom the Board of American Missions sent into the interior of Asia. The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge united with the Geographical Society to defray the expenses of an expedition to these interesting tribes, supposed on reasonable grounds to have preserved more of the simple forms of primitive Christianity than any of the European nations. As the country between the frontiers of Europe and the districts inhabited by the Chaldeans had been very imperfectly explored, instructions were given to the members of the expedition to examine and survey the less known parts of Anatolia, and determine the position of the principal cities, the height of as many mountains as possible, and the courses of the most remarkable rivers. The results of these investigations present a mass of geographical and geological details, which, however valuable in themselves, must necessarily appear dry and tedious to general readers; we shall, therefore,