It will be proper in this place to mention two periodicals of very considerable eminence; the Gentleman's Magazine, . long the principal repertory of curious and obscure information; and the Annual Register, an epitome of the political and historical events for the year;- they are, in their several departments, references of value and authority, and have been uniformly conducted, with vigour, with candour and with ability.

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Passing over the Edinburgh Magazine and Review, which owed a temporary and valueless popularity to scurrilous and local diatribes,-the « New Review,» edited by the son of the Dr Maty of whom mention has been made, and a great number of trivial and ephemeral productions, whose existence, whether grave or gay, neither acquired nor deserved any influence upon the literature of their time, and whose contents, innocent or the reverse, have long since sunk into the oblivion they merited, we come to the English Review, begun in 1783, and supporting its existence for fifteen years, the « Analytical Review, extending to twenty-two volumes, and the British Critic, » conducted by Archdeacon Nares, assisted by the able Beloe, the translator of Herodotus.

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The character of these journals will be best appreciated by the following passages from an Essay which appeared in the Edinburgh Annual Register for 1809, attributed to the pen of Sir Walter Scott: «The calm, even, and indifferent style of criticism was distinguished by a lenient aspect towards its object. A certain deference was visibly paid to an author of celebrity, whether founded on his literary qualities, or on the adventitious distinctions of rank and title; and generally there was a marked and guarded retenue both in the strictures hazarded and in the mode of expressing them, If raillery was ever attempted, there was no horse-play in it; and the only fault that could be objected to by the "reader, was that the critic was, " content to dwell in decencies for ever".

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This rule however, was not without exceptions. A libe⚫ral-minded and public-spirited critic sometimes reversed the sentence of his employer; and, unlike the prophet of Midian,

anathematised the work on which he was summoned to bestow benedictions. Neither was it proper that the critical rod should be hung up in mere show, lest in time, as it is learnedly argued by the Duke of Vienna, it should become more mocked than feared. The terrors of the office were . therefore in some measure maintained by the severity exercised upon the trumpery novels and still-born poetry that issued from the press; whose unknown and perhaps starving authors fared like the parish boys at a charity school, who are flogged not only for their own errors, but to vindicate the authority of the master, who cares not to use the same freedom with the children of the Squire. Sometimes also, fate demanded a nobler head; the work of a rival bookseller was to be crushed even in its birth; a powerful literary patron, or perhaps the reviewer himself, had some private pique to indulge; and added a handful of slugs to the powder and paper which formed the usual contents of . his blunderbuss. Something of the habitual civility, and professional deference of the tradesman seemed to qualify the labours of those who wrote under his direction.

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The public indeed, began to murmur that

«Lost was the critic's sense, nor could be found,
<< While one dull formal unison went round. >>

. From these soothing dreams, authors, booksellers, and critics "were soon to be aroused by a rattling peal of thunder; and a conspiracy of beardless boys innovated upon the memorial laws of the old republic of literature, scourged the booksellers out of her senate-house, overset the tottering thrones of the idols whom they had set up, awakened the hundred-necked snake of criticism, and curdled the whole ocean of milk-and-water, in which, like the serpentine supporter of Vistnou, he had wreathed and wallowed in unwieldy sloth for a quarter of a century. »

(To be continued.)

HO-FI OF THE YELLOW GIRDLE. (")

Fairer than rice, more graceful than bamboo, was So-Sli the daughter of Poo-Poo. Her foot was no longer than her finger, so that when she walked she tottered elegantly, and required the support of a reed or of a hand-maiden; so light was her form, and so lovely was her face, and so helpless was her air, that when she appeared abroad she attracted the notice of all, as a straw which a juggler of Shanghi balances on the tip of his nose. Her brows were arched like the feathers in the tail of the domestic bird of the river; her eyes were

The

() The following passage from Davis suggested the subject of this story: expence to the state of a wång (imperial relative) of the first rank is about sixty thousand taëls or 20,000 1. annually; and this diminishes through the several grades down to the simple inheritors of the yellow girdle, who receive only three taëls per month and two sacks of rice. But they are allowed one hundred taels when they marry, and one hundred and twenty for a funeral; from which, says Serra, they take occasion to maltreat their wives, because when they have killed one they receive the allowance for her interment, as well as the dowry of the new wife, whom they take immediately. DAVIS'S CHINESE, vol. i. p. 381.

smaller than the kernels of the almond, and were free from the disfigurement of lashes; her hair was like a cobweb of the black spiders of Chem-si; her nose was small, and beautifully flat; her lips were as two large pink caterpillars which the cooks of Pecheli have prepared for the banquet of the Son of Heaven. The fame of her loveliness had spread throughout the province Kiang Si, and many a manly spirit yearned towards her, even on the report of her beauty.

Many were the solicitations made to her father for the hand of the lovely So-Sli; and he might have married her to mandarins, both civil and military, as many as he pleased; but old Poo-Poo was a sage and a philanthropist, had devoted himself much to the investigation of the causes of human happiness and misery,. and had determined that marriage might be highly conducive to one or to the other, according as it should be or should not be conducted upon scientific principles. Of the scientific principles upon which marriage should be conducted he had formed a theory of his own; and it had been a source of the deepest regret to him that he had not devised his theory until after his own marriage. However as his wife was now dead, that had become a matter of comparatively little importance. He determined that his daughter should have the full benefit to be derived from them; and for a Chinese, it must be owned that his principles exhibited much liberality of feeling. This was particularly evinced in one of his crotchets, which however appeared in the eyes of his countrymen so extraordinary, that it would probably have brought down upon him the heavy displeasure of the government, but for some charitable doubts which were entertained as to his sanity. To us his fancy does not appear so unnatural; but he was the first of some sixty thousand millions of the celestial people (reckoning but two hundred generations of three hundred millions each), who had ever questioned or doubted the propriety of a marriage between persons who had had no previous acquaintance with each other. He was rash enough to start and maintain this opinion; and furthermore he considered that a certain somewhat of congeniality should subsist between, and be discovered by the parties, before they

should proceed to bind themselves indissolubly together. He determined therefore, not only that his daughter should see her future lord before she became a wife, but such was the peculiar tenderness of his parental affection, and so far had the heresy of innovation possessed him, that she should not be made over to any person towards whom she manifested a decided dislike; and indeed, that she should be allowed a certain latitude of choice among the many suitors who were competitors for her hand.

Two great mandarins, Hang and Swing, and a certain rich merchant, Tin, had sent costly presents to her father; and the eloquent Tung, graduate of the college of Hanlan, had composed ten volumes of moral sentences in praise of the beauty of So-Sli; but though he perused the books, and graciously accepted the presents, Poo-Poo rejected these applicants, who lived too far to make their addresses in person. It fared no better with many others of various rank,-manufacturers, and proprietors of rice-grounds, silk-feeders, bargeowners, and officers civil and military, who, dwelling in the neighbourhood, had opportunities of seeing and being looked upon by the lovely eyes of So-Sli. She had expressed herself by no means averse to Hang or Swing, Tin or Tung; but these she had never seen; and her father, believing that if she engaged herself under such circumstances, she might repent when she became acquainted with the parties, had withheld his consent. Those whom she saw found no favour in her sight. One was too short, a second too tall, a third was too fat; a fourth too thin; this too gay, and that too serious; Tinga-ting's voice was too gentle, Ding-Dong's too loud; one was too fond of sweet potato, and sweet potato she disliked; another not sufficiently partial to dog, and dog was her favorite dish. In fact, So-Sli was by no means easy to please.

Here we may pause to remark, that the multiplicity of presents which for a long time poured in upon Poo-Poo were well-nigh procuring converts to his system among old gentlemen who had marriageable daughters; but at last suitors grew chary of their presents, and withheld them till an interview with the young lady should have sealed their fortune.