subjoined a most interesting letter, written by Columbus upon his return from the first voyage in which he discovered the New World, and despatched from Lisbon, where he landed, to one of the Spanish king's council. It has been almost entirely overlooked by historians.
11. Statements respecting the East India College, with an appeal to facts, in refutation of the charges lately brought against it in the Court of Proprietors. By the Rev. T. R. Malthus, &c.—Mr Malthus and the Reviewers, alter et idem perhaps, agree in thinking that some sort of instruction is really desirable for the future Judges and Magistrates of India, and this indeed is a point tolerably well proved, though not till after a good deal of time and labour has been employed about it. But whether the College at Hertford be the very best institution for the purpose is not quite so clear. The arguments in defence of it are of too general a nature, and the "disturbances" on which the objection to it rests, too slightly noticed, to enable the public to come to any decided opinion, without having access to information of a more definite and tangible character.
The Quarterly Review. No 31.
1. Narrative of a Journey in Egypt and the Country beyond the Cataracts. By Thomas Legh, Esq. M.P.—"On the present occasion," say the Reviewers, "we have nothing to find fault with but the omissions." Mr Legh may rejoice that he has escaped so well from the ordeal of these opposite Courts of Criticism.
2. Counsellor Phillips's Poems and Speeches.—Mr Phillips's sins against good taste are not a little aggravated in the eyes of these Reviewers by his political opinions.
3. A Treatise on the Records of the Creation, and on the Moral Attributes of the Creator, with particular reference to the Jewish History, and to the consistency of the principle of Population with the Wisdom and Goodness of the Deity. By John Bird Sumner, M.A.—Mr Burnett, a gentleman of Aberdeenshire, bequeathed a sum to be set apart till it should accumulate to £1600, which was then to be given to the authors of the two best Essays on the subject of Mr Sumner's book,—to the first in merit £1200, and to the second £400. The second prize was assigned to Mr Sumner, of whose Treatise the Reviewers present a pretty full, and apparently an impartial, examination in this interesting article. Their observations on the principle of population lead to conclusions very different from those of Mr Malthus, and are, we hope, better supported by history and experience.
4. A Voyage round the World, from 1806 to 1802; in which Japan, Kamschatka, the Aleutian Islands, and the Sandwich Islands, were visited, &c. By Archibald Campbell.—Campbell is a poor young sailor, who had lost both feet, and was found by Mr Smith, the Editor of the volume, in one of the steam-boats that ply on the Clyde, playing on the violin for the amusement of the passengers. "The hope that an account of his voyage might be of service to an unfortunate and deserving man, and not unacceptable to those who take pleasure in contemplating the progress of mankind in the arts of civilization, gave rise to the present publication." The book itself contains much that is curious, and adds not a little to our still very imperfect knowledge of the remote regions visited by the author.
5. Shakspeare's Himself again! &c. By Andrew Becket.—An article full of irony and banter, apparently a well deserved chastisement of this unfortunate commentator.
6. Tracts on Saving Banks.—There is a great deal of information about those banks collected in this article, but the Reviewer is two zealous and too sanguine to perceive the inconveniences which must be felt from adopting the plans of Mr Duncan; and, while he bestows well-merited praise on the benevolent exertions of this gentleman, we think that he hardly does justice to some of the other fellow labourers.
7. Cowper's Poems and Life.—The third volume of the poems, edited by John Johnson, LL.D., the first work embraced by this Review, is considered as decidedly inferior to its predecessors. The other two treatises are memoirs, said to be written by Cowper himself, and never before published. From what we see of them here, the only subject of regret is, that they should ever have been published at all. The article contains a general character of Cowper's poetry and letters.
