This tour, taken when their minds were alive to the sublimities and beauties of the scenery, and when their poetic eye threw its young glance upon each filament of the drapery that song and story have spread over every spot between Tweed-dale and Loch Ness, gave form and color to all the subsequent writings of the Howitts. Returning home, they published another volume of poetry, which, like the first, was warmly eulogized by the public press. They were now fairly launched on the stream of English literature. For several years Mrs. Howitt gave much time to the preparation of works for the young. Being first enlisted in this department by the wants of her own rising household, she subsequently wrote for the public, throwing off scores of stories, which were bought, read, and admired by "the million" of her own country, are found in “ and gilt " on marble tables in American cities, and in yellow covers in the log huts beyond the mountains, while some, through the medium of translations, have found their way into the nurseries of Germany and the forest-homes of Poland.

morocco

After a variety of literary adventures in England, Mr. and Mrs. Howitt visited Germany, about 1840, where they resided some three years. Here they acquired a knowledge, among others, of the Swedish tongue. The result of their continental sojourn was the translation into English by him of the celebrated "Student Life in Germany," and the publication of his "Social and Rural Life in Germany," and her translation and introduction to British and American readers of the now widely known Swedish novels of Frederika Bremer. Deeply sympathizing with all efforts to elevate the mind and condition of their countrymen, and feeling the need of a weekly periodical that should combine high literary qualities with radical. political doctrines, they started, in 1846, "The People's Journal." Mrs. Howitt was a large contributor to its pages, both under its original name and that of Howitt's Journal. Some numbers of the latter for the closing part of the year 1847 are now under my eye, and I am struck with the great amount, va

ried character, and benevolent aim of her contributions. Stories for children ; translations from Hans Christian Andersen; poetic gems; a sketch of Laura Bridgman; translations of Swedish and Hungarian tales; a sketch of "the Deserter in London," which kindles indignation against war; "Love passages in the lives of every-day people;" a most eloquent petition to the Queen, for commuting the sentence of a woman then lying in Newgate, whose execution had been postponed that she might give birth to a child-these, and such papers, scattered through the Journal, exhibit the mode in which Mrs. Howitt has spent her life of late years. And, her husband being witness, she is not only an industrious authoress, but a model wife and mother.

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While the Journal gave an impulse to the cause of freedom, it was most disastrous to the pecuniary interests of the Howitts They have had their full share of the joys and sorrows, honors and perplexities, profits and losses of literary life. They have encountered their checkered lot with as hopeful a brow as anybody can be expected to exhibit, that attempts to get a living by writing "books which are books," in this age of cheap literature." In prosperity and adversity, they have given hand, heart and pen to progress and reform. Should they ever accomplish their purpose of visiting America, the friends of and pleasing literature would unite with the friends of social and political reform, to give them welcome hands with hearts in them.

pure

LIBERAL LITERATURE OF ENGLAND.

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CHAPTER XXXIV.

The Literature of Freedom-The Liberal Literature of England-Periodicals-Edinburgh Review-Its Founders-Its Contributors-Its Standard and Style of Criticism-Its Influence-London Quarterly Review Started-Political Services of the Edinburgh-Its Ecclesiastical Tone-Sydney Smith-Decline of the Political Influence of the Edinburgh-Blackwood's Magazine-Tait's Magazine-Westminster Review-The Eclectic-The New Monthly-The Weekly Press-Cobbett's Register-Hunt's Examiner-Mr. Fonblanque— Mr. Landor-The Spectator-Douglas Jerrold-Punch-People's and Howitt's Journals-Mr. Howitt-Chambers's Journal-Penny Magazine and Cyclopedia.

IN the times of the Commonwealth, when the mind of England was set free, Milton was the center of a constellation of intellects that exemplified in their writings the value of his own saying "Give me the liberty to know and to argue freely, above all other liberties." After his sun set, liberty without licentiousness hid behind a cloud, which was not fully cleared away till the storm of the American and French revolutions. While the literature of England depended for sustenance upon the patronage of the great, it was marked, with occasional exceptions, by the brand of servility; and so long as authors looked for remuneration to the munificence of the lord or lady to whom they dedicated their works, they laid their choicest gifts at the footstool of power and title. As education became diffused, enlarging the circle of readers, writers began to look to the public for patronage, and adapted their works to the popular taste. Then the publishers and booksellers became

the agents, the middle-men, between the author and the reader.
Long after this change, however, it was hazardous for a writer
to lift his pen against existing institutions in Church and State ;
and he who run a tilt against these, were he able to make sale
of his works, might deem himself fortunate if he escaped a pro-
secution for libel or sedition, that emptied his purse of its
guineas, or planted his feet in the stocks. Even so late as the
beginning of this century, the instances were not a few where
writers, who doubted the divinity of the royal Guelphs, and
questioned whether all the religion in the kingdom emanated
from Lambeth Palace, were fined, cropped, branded, and
shipped beyond seas. The impulse given to European intel-
lect by the first French revolution, was not confined to states-
men and warriors. It stimulated thought in all classes.
in politics, so in letters, fetters fell from men's minds, and rea-
son, imagination, and utterance were emancipated. The Fox
school of politicians encouraged the growth of a literature in
England favorable to freedom. It immediately started up,
rank and luxuriant; and though bearing every variety of fruit
that could delight the eye, or regale the appetite, or poison the
taste, the decided preponderance of the product has been con-
genial to rational liberty, healthy morals, and sound learning.

As

In estimating the literary influences which have contributed to the cause of Progress and Reform in Great Britain, during the present century, a high place should be assigned to the EDINBURGH REVIEW.

This celebrated periodical appeared at an era when independence of thought and manliness of utterance had almost ceased from the public journals and councils of the kingdom. The terrors of the French revolution had arrested the march of liberal opinions. The declamation of Burke and the ambition of Napoleon had frightened the isle from its propriety. Tooke had barely escaped the gallows through the courageous eloquence of Erskine. Fox had withdrawn from the contest

1

in despair, and cherished in secret the fires of freedom, to burst forth in happier times.

Previous to 1802, the literary periodicals of Great Britain were mere repositories of miscellanies, relating to art, poetry, letters, and gossip, partly original and partly selected, huddled together without system, and making up a medley as varied and respectable as a first class weekly newspaper of the present day. The criticisms of books were jejune in the extreme, consisting chiefly of a few smart witticisms, and meager connecting remarks stringing together ample quotations from the work under review. They rarely ventured into deep water on philosophical subjects, and as seldom pushed out upon the tempestuous sea of political discussion. Perhaps one or two journals might plead a feeble exception to the general rule; but the mass was weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable.

The Edinburgh appeared. It bounded into the arena without the countenance of birth or station, without the imprimatur of the universities or literary clubs. Its avowed mission was to erect a higher standard of merit, and secure a bolder style and a purer taste in literature, and to apply philosophical principles and the maxims of truth and humanity to politics, aiming to be the manual of the scholar, the monitor of the statesman. As in its advent it had asked permission of no one to be, so as to its future course it asked no advice as to what it should do. Soliciting no quarter, promising no favors, its independent bearing and defiant tone broke the spell which held the mind of a nation in fetters. Its first number revived the discussion of great political principles. The splendid diction and searching philosophy of an essay on the causes and consequences of the French revolution at once arrested the public eye, and stamped the character of the journal. Pedants in the pulpit, and scribblers of Rosa-Matilda verses in printed albums, saw, from other articles in the manifesto, that exterminating war was declared on their inanities and sentimentalities. The new journal was perused with avidity, and produced a sensa