us know, that it is much easier to excite people, and to make them discontented and unhappy, than it is afterwards to keep them quiet and to assure them that they have been deceived, and are not in so bad a situation as newspapers would make them believe. In a free happy country like England, newspapers do much to keep alive the spirit of liberty. No man, let his station in society be what it may, can do much harm in his neighbourhood before it gets into the public prints; and if he is oppressing his poorer neighbours, or setting public decency at defiance, he is sure to be roughly handled in the newspapers; that if he does not for decency's sake quit his acts of outrage, it induces persons to come forward to investigate the case, and, by public subscription, to uphold the sufferer, and to shut out the offender beyond the pale of respectable society.

There is no good without a corresponding evil; low-minded men anonymously attack the character and feelings of those whom they have not the courage openly to attack, by putting offensive paragraphs in the papers. But it would be a matter of regret that the acts of a few base men should ever shackle the liberty of the press, which has done, and is doing so much to enlighten and secure the freedom of mankind.

In addition to the host of newspapers annually printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, there are multitudes of what are called periodicals,

that is, literary works that appear annually, quarterly, monthly, or weekly, and to commence with the most ancient of the annuals; the annual Register has been in existence for more than half a century, and contains historical records of the prominent events of the past year, as relates to its political movements, criminal trials, and domestic events, and a slight review, and extract from books published in the year; its price is sixteen shillings. Within the last twenty years many beautiful annuals, illustrated with first-rate engravings, have made their appearance, and the tales and poetry, in most of them, are contributed by the first writers of the day; they are elegantly bound, either in silk, morocco, or russia leather, and are sold, when first published, at from £1. 1s. to 10s. 6d. each, according to the style in which they are got up. Among the earliest and the best, we would mention the "Forget me Not" and the "Keepsake," and they have been followed by many others of superlative beauty; the "Landscape Annual," the "Book of Beauty," the "Drawing Room Scrap Book," and, indeed, by such a numerous class of this description, that we cannot say more of them, than that the pictures in many of them are perfect gems, and the production of these books must have done much to improve and bring to perfection the art of engraving in England. About the year 1802, Mr. Brougham, Erskine, Birkbeck, and Jeffery, then young men,

commenced a review, publishing it about once in three months, called the "Edinburgh Review;" and though it only professed to review books, yet, in fact, it became the medium through which some of the most admirable essays in the English language have been written and placed before the public, but as it took a strong political side of the question, all the articles being strongly tinctured with liberalism, the tory party in 1809 started in opposition the Quarterly Review; Mr. William Gifford was its first editor, and we believe it is now edited by Mr. Lockhart, the son-in-law of the late Sir Walter Scott, whose salary we are told is £1,500. per annum. Many first-rate men, including Canning, Lord Dudley and Ward, Lord Francis Egerton, &c. have written for this work, and the articles in the Quarterly are quite as masterly written as those in the Edinburgh. £100. and upwards are not unfrequently paid for each of the articles in the Quarterly, the circulation of which is said to be about ten thousand. They both of them continue most strongly to advocate their political opinions, and when any strong political question is agitating the public mind, under the pretence of reviewing some little pamphlet upon the question, they say all that can be said for or against the measure. And in addition to this, every new book that is worth notice is reviewed by them so fully, that many persons who have not much leisure, instead of reading the books

read the reviews, and they obtain general information without much trouble. There is another review also published every three months called the Westminster Review, which adopts the same course as the two others, but the writers are radicals and all its articles are for great and immediate changes in the mode of government. These three sell at 6s. each. There are also quarterly publications of a scientific nature, such as Quarterly Journal of Science, and Quarterly Agricultural Journal, 6s. Of monthly publications there are several, most of which have some well written original articles on improving subjects, with pleasing tales, a little poetry, and all of them nearly profess to review books published within the past month. The two highest priced magazines are the New Monthly Magazine, 3s. 6d. per month, and the Metropolitan, 3s. 6d., both of which are conducted at great expense, and have capital original tales. Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, 2s. 6d. per month, and Fraser's Magazine have always some clever articles, but of too grave a class for the generality of magazine readers. Bentley's Miscellany, 2s. 6d. per month, has always some laughable stories in prose and poetry. Tait's Magazine, 1s. per month, is well written, but most of the articles dry for magazine readers. Naval and Military Journal, 2s. 6d. per month, is confined to the two services, with occasional interesting tales. The Polytechnic Journal is connected with im

provements in machinery. Gentleman's Magazine, 2s. 6d. per month, confines itself pretty much to describing antiquities, as buildings, coins, old writings, &c. There are three or four monthly publications connected with flowers; Harrison's Floricultural Cabinet, only 6d. per month, gives tolerable good pictures of new flowers, with full directions for cultivating them; and the Florist's Journal, also 6d. per month, does the same thing. There are other periodicals devoted to particular purposes: the Asiatic Journal, devoted to India ; it is a very interesting work. The East India Magazine is also devoted to India; and the Colonial Magazine to India and to all the British colonies this periodical is most ably conducted, and is admirably calculated to develope the resources of the colonies, and contains genuine information upon all subjects. It is impossible for us to particularize half the good works of these descriptions published; we can only speak of those we have met with, and of course of them our descriptions must be very imperfect; but as we would wish our countrymen to know all we can communicate about England, we have described to the best of our humble means these very useful publications.

When we come to weekly publications, we know not where to begin, so many in number, and most of them so useful and at such low prices that every body can afford to purchase some of them.