as

taining the bait; and I will be bound it will answer in every respect as well as the other method described 66 having a tinge of cruelty in it." And, moreover, the bait will, by being freed from that addition, be more lively, and better enabled to swim about, if not too closely pressed or enclosed in the little belt, which, from its elastic nature, will hold the bait without in any way injuring it; and should the minnow not be taken, it may be returned to the minnow-kettle when done with, for another occasion; but, if taken by the perch or pike, it is of course destroyed at once, though until such is the case the bait will float about at its ease without a particle of suffering, and the belt which contained it will do over and over again.

October, 1856.

W. H.

LITERATURE.

THE DOUBLE CORONET: A NOVEL. By the author of "Charles Auchester." T. C. Newby, Welbeck-street, Cavendish-square. Had the scene of the above novel been laid some years ago, when knight-errants and their ladye-loves encountered hair-breadth escapes and startling adventures, it would have proved one of the most striking romances of the day, and have taken its place by the side of those of Horace Walpole, Mrs. Radcliffe, Miss Porter, and other popular writers of that school. And if as a novel of the present time it loses a little of its interest, from the fact of the events (albeit within the pale of probability) being somewhat out of the ordinary routine, we must bear in mind the French proverb, that "le vrai n'est pas toujours vraisemblable," and not allow ourselves to be hypercritical on a work that abounds in exciting incidents, enthralling situations, and spirited effects; and the interest of which never flags for a moment, but laying a spell upon the reader not to put away the volume until the fatal words" THE END pronounce the completion of the work. The characters are most ably drawn, and are perfectly true to nature. The weak and dissipated peer, the ill-fated heiress, the parvenue Smythe, the Italian artist, the impassioned Alexis, are graphically delineated; and the daguerreotype likeness of Monsieur le Prince can not be mistaken the lineaments are easily to be traced to one of the most talented musicians of this or any other period--one whose music for the million has stamped him superior to his predecessor, the great Musard. In conclusion, we recommend "The Double Coronet" to our readers as a work of infinite talent; vigorously conceived, and admirably executed.

OLD MEMORIES: A NOVEL. By Julia Melville.
Welbeck-street, Cavendish-square.

T. C. Newby,

As the authoress, who under the name of Melville has produced a most delightful work, wishes to preserve her assumed appellation,

we will not enlighten our readers by disclosing the secret, but merely express our surprise that the fair writer should shrink from giving her name to a novel which any authoress of the present day might be proud of. The eventual life of the heroine, chequered by joy and sorrow, is most delightfully given; the dialogue proceeds with the flow and vivacity belonging to nature, and the various situations are highly wrought and truly dramatic.

Miss Melville--we give her fame name-evidently possesses a keen and just discrimination, with powers of description both delicate and vigorous. To the above qualities may be added-great strength of imagery; plain, yet picturesque, powers of narrative; blended with energy and tenderness of sentiment. The stronger passions are ably contrasted with those of a less powerful nature, giving great effect to the work, and stamping it at once as one of genius. We venture to prognosticate that " Old Memories" will be engrafted upon the mind of all who peruse these interesting volumes; the first, but not, we trust, the last production of a highly gifted lady.

The volumes are dedicated, by permission, to Viscountess Hardinge, a proof that the authoress is held in high estimation by this amiable lady, who is now suffering under the deepest bereavementthe loss of one who combined the qualities of a brave warrior, an affectionate husband, and a devoted father. If the sympathies of the public can soothe her wounded spirit, Lady Hardinge will gain some little consolation in this hour of trial.

KATE COVENTRY. By Whyte Melville, Esq. Parker and Son, Strand.

This work has but one fault, a most uncommon one-it is too short. The author has upon former occasions produced two and three volumes; and "Digby Grand," "General Bounce," and "Tilbury Nogo," are proofs that he can extend and keep up the interest of more than a single volume. No writer of the present day exceeds Mr. Whyte Melville; and for interest, wit, delicate touches, and true delineation of character, he ranks with our best novelists. He always evinces a thorough knowledge of the subject he writes upon; he does not perpetrate the blunders that creep into other popular works-he does not talk of the tail of a fox, which paralyzed us when turning over the pages of "Household Words "-he does not call earls' eldest sons Lords John-he does not allude to ladies doing the Lord Chamberlain's duties at St. James's; in fact, he writes as an accomplished scholar-as a high-minded gentleman, who moves in the circles he describes. In addition, he possesses a fund of humour, blended often with pathos, which render his works the most delightful reading; and "Kate Coventry" will add another laurel to his literary fame. Its appearance in Fraser stamps it as a sterling and valuable volume.

THE CAMP AND THE CUTTER. By Edwin Galt, Esq. T. Hodgson, London.

The recollections of a voyage by land and sea to the camp before Sevastopol are here most graphically given; and for interest, amusements, information, and anecdote, they have not been exceeded by any

previous work upon the subject. The author is evidently a shrewd observer, and his powers of narrative are of the highest order; independent of which, there is a truthfulness pervading throughout, that adds much to the value of the volume. By the gentlemen of England "who live at home at ease"-by the fair daughters of our isle who delight in the records of the brave-by the military and the naval man--by the yacht-owners, the reminiscences of Mr. Galt from the scene of the late war will be read with the utmost delight; and we can truly and strongly recommend to all classes of readers this work as one of thrilling interest, enlivened with most sparkling anecdotes, and replete with facts connected with that soil hallowed by the undaunted heroism and patriotic devotion of our soldiers and sailors. The appendix is most carefully got up, giving the numerical strength of the allied armies, the enemy, and the total losses by sword and pestilence. It is, in itself, a work to be referred to as one of instruction and amusement; and, among standard volumes of the war, "The Camp and the Cutter" ought to be found in every library. "RECOLLECTIONS, &C., OF THE LAST HALF-CENTURY." By the Rev. J. Richardson, LL.B. 2 vols. Mitchell, Red-lion Court, Fleet

street.

We have perused with the greatest interest these two delightful volumes, replete with much amusing matter, told in an agreeable and chatty style. As our author informs us in his introduction, this work gives an account of the state of English society for the last fifty years, 66 as it has existed, and does at this moment exist, not only among the higher or more exclusive castes in this country, but as it has existed, and does exist, amongst the middling and the more humble grades.'

Mr. Richardson's sketches are drawn by an experienced hand; and the fact of his having been a witness of many a strange scene which he so graphically describes, and an actor in many of his stirring incidents, renders his work doubly interesting, both from the authentic seal he thus impresses on his page, and the life-like manner of his delineation of people and events.

Commencing with the alterations of London, our author leads us to the Rookeries of St. Giles's district, through lanes lighted by the dim oil-lamps, and guarded only by sleepy "Charlies"-dismal localities now swept away, but bringing us back to Jack Sheppard, Jonathan Wild, and the glowing pages of Dickens and Ainsworth. Then through many an amusing tale of "famous" people, from George IV. to Miss Biffin, we come to some most interesting matter on Eton, its abuses, masters, and opposition to improvements; and to Cambridge-a rich field of anecdotic lore.

The contents of the second volume are of far too multifarious a character for our limited space even to touch on a tithe of them. Fauntleroy, Dr. Valpy, their Graces of Norfolk and Queensberry, Sir Jas. Mackintosh, and General Tom Thumb; the Prince Regent and Madame Grisi; "Parachute" Cocking, and the Bishop of Killaloe, are some of the characters which our author brings to life for our amusement.

This stream of character and anecdote runs down to the Nepaulese Prince, Vauxhall, and poor Widdicomb.

Our readers will derive much amusement and no little instruction in the perusal of this interesting work, whose pages, light and sparkling as champagne, may serve to counteract the depressing influences of our foggy and dreary season.

"WESTERN WANDERINGS; OR, A PLEASURE TOUR THROUGH THE CANADAS." By William H. G. Kingston. Chapman and Hall, Piccadilly.

It is long since we have taken up so delightful a work as Mr. Kingston's it is a most faithful delineation of Canadian life, written in the pleasantest vein imaginable; and the lithographs, with which it is profusely illustrated, are very correct and beautiful. The author does not confine his tour alone to the Canadas, as he visited New York, Boston, and other towns in the United States; and being armed with letters of introduction to the historian Prescott, to the poet Longfellow, to Wills, Mrs. Sigourney, Professor Agassiz, Dr. Howe, the Hon. Abbot Lawrence, and to many other literary and influential persons engaged in mercantile pursuits, or moving in the world of fashion among the "Upper Ten Thousand," had an opportunity of entering into the best society in America. And this privilege Mr. Kingston has not abused; his remarks on the New World and its inhabitants are replete with gentlemanlike feeling, good taste, and acute judgment. No writer has ever given so graphic a description of the mighty cataract as the one whose work is under notice, and he prefaces his remarks with the following sensible statement :"My wish is to make my readers understand what Niagara really is, as far as pen and pencil can do so, rather than to fly into ecstatic raptures, and to utter oft-repeated notes of admiration on its grandeur and sublimity, or to enlarge on our own sensations of wonder and awe.'

Mr. Kingston then proceeds to enlarge upon the magnificent scenery of the "falls," and, to borrow a not inappropriate simile, stands as regards other authors upon the same subject, as superior as the great rush of the Transatlantic waters is to the sluggish flow of our own soot-enveloped Serpentine. The work throughout evinces a manly feeling of sentiment, sound judgment, elegant diction, racy humour, correct delineation of character, descriptive powers of the highest order, and a truthfulness which cannot be mistaken; and we have read nothing connected with Canada or the United States at all to be compared in point of interest and important information with these volumes, which we venture to prognosticate will ever occupy a distinguished place in all standard libraries. Messrs. Chapman and Hall deserve the thanks of the literary world for their discretion in selecting this work on a subject somewhat hacknied, but rendered fresh and vigorous by the able pen of Mr. Kingston, for their liberality in illustrating it so cleverly and correctly, and for their public spirit in undertaking to publish it in the good old style of clear type and fine paper, instead of rendering, as in some of the modern productions, spectacles indispensable.

"THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ; OR, ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF OUR GRANDFATHERS.' By Alexander Andrews. Chapman and Hall, Piccadilly. There is a charm in the title of this book which brings before us a world of pleasant things connected with the "sayings and doings"

of those who lived in the days of our ancestors, and even within the memory of the middle-aged. In this most agreeable mélange we find racy anecdotes of all the celebrities, the worthies, unworthies, the famous and the infamous, of the reigns of the two last Georges. To an everlasting fund of rich and varied anecdote, is combined much valuable information, rendering it, as the bibliographer Dibdin said of Arrian's work on Coursing, "a book that will delight, and which may be consulted again and again with instruction and amusement." Original notices, gossiping stories, curious matter, are happily blended with quaint writing, racy humour, artistic touches, and exuberant fancy, and together form one of the most interesting and readable volumes we have had the good fortune to meet with for some time. No library should be without a copy of this most attractive work, which for high literary merit will take its stand amongst the best productions of the age.

PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS OF THE METROPOLIS.

"I belong to the unpopular family of Telltruths, and would not flatter Apollo for his lyre."-Rob Roy.

Talk of the entente cordiale being disturbed indeed! why it would be difficult to mention a period when this country was so intent in taking a leaf out of the book of our lively neighbours as the present-that is, as far as the stage is concerned; the principal theatres just now presenting piece after piece from that prolific source, the French boards.

First, there is an old friend with a new face at the LYCEUM, "Le Docteur Noir," under the title of "Fabian," Mr. Dillon personating the hero in a manner which has been extravagantly lauded by the chief commentators on matters dramatic. With all this, sooth to say, the character as represented by the manager is but a type of maudlin melodramatic personification, elaborated to a rather painful degree. "Save me from my friends!" he may well exclaim, after wading through the fulsome comments passed upon his recent performance. Of course it would be ungenerous to attribute motives to any one; but it must be observed that the system of managers receiving pieces from those who are engaged in passing judgment upon the productions of the stage, is one fraught with evil. To pass on to the getting-up of the drama, in every respect it is well placed upon the stage; some of the effects being particularly striking, and well contrived. Number two from the French is a farce called "Doing the Hansom ;" in itself nothing whereof to boast, but made amusing from the acting of Mr. Toole and Mr. Calhaem, Number three is visible at the PRINCESS's, under the guise of " Our Wife," dressed up by Mr. Morton, but certainly not in his customary dexterous fashion. Mr. Ryder, Miss Leclercq, Mr. Harley, Miss Murray, and Mr. Fisher, have parts in it; but the last-named never shone to less advantage.

Fourth on the muster-roll appears "A Family Failing," at the HAYMARKET; and were it not for the acting of Mr. Buckstone, the farce