Roman poet to the "Come list to me," of the British laureate, we believe that the fraternity of poets has been indulged very freely in this species of auto-biography. Indeed, some of the finest passages of poetry are those in which the poet has drawn the veil, and allowed us for a moment to visit the abode of genius, and contemplate the magician who binds us in his irresistible spells.

We are next presented with a quotation from the preface, which we shall not defend.

The critic then selects six of the very worst lines in the performance, which are added as "a few scattered flowers." And here the review would conclude, were it not that our certificate of copyright, a copy of which is required to be printed in the book, suggests an opportunity of uttering a sneer at our laws, which is too inviting to be overlooked. "Some of our readers," says this candid writer, “will perhaps be pleased with the sight of an American imprimatur, or license for publication." A copy of this interesting record, is then spread out. It seems to be necessary to inform this gentleman, who writes so flippantly on our literature and laws, that after the office of a censor of the press had been recognized in all parts of Europe, it was reserved for young America, to discern its absurdity and reject its tyranny. A proposition to introduce the system into our jurisprudence would be hooted at with the same broad laughter, that would be excited in an American court of justice by a motion that an accuser should be compelled to substantiate his charge by a wager of battel.

BLACKWOOD'S Edinburgh Magazine for February 1819, contains a sensible Essay on the Means of Education, and the State of Learning in the United States. That there are deplorable defects in our systems of education, and that we often satisfy ourselves for the want of a thing, by the assumption of the name, is too true. Some of our universities are indeed little more than mere grammar schools, and bad masters are sufficiently abundant. But it is not to be inferred that these evils are the result of ignorance or indifference. They proceed from the situation of the country, which is yet too young to support those wealthy endowments, by which learning is promoted in the old countries. Many of our fathers are yet tottering on the stage, who in early life were dragged from the

school-room to "the tented field,” to resist the lawless encroachments of the very nation which now rails at our want of education. An army is not the fittest place to form teachers, and hence the present generation has grown up without much of the benefit of instruction. Yet we believe, that in a survey of the present state of the world, we could exhibit as large a portion of those blessings which contribute to the welfare of nations as any of our neighbours. Our captains, military and naval, have contended without fear and without reproach; our house of representatives has all the ability without any of the bribery of the house of commons; the eloquence and vigour of many of our public documents have not often been surpassed, and if we compare our courts of justice, with those of England, by such tests as the Reports of Binney and Johnson and the cotemporary adjudications in Maule and Selwyn or Moore, we shall not feel humbled.

The essayist mentions, as the principal institutions among us, the colleges of Harvard, Yale, and Nassau Hall. Our university is not named, though the author seems to be aware that it is nominally connected with the medical school, which is treated with great respect.

Our legal education is described as very wretched, and this seems to be imputed to the want of law lectures.

This mode of instruction never was popular in the United States. We do not believe that the science of law can be taught by lectures. The essayist is ignorant of the course which was delivered in this city by judge Wilson, and afterwards published, in 3 vols. 8vo. by his son; and he is mistaken in the statement that a course is now or ever has been given in Baltimore. In the university of Maryland, no other faculty than that of medicine is yet in operation, and it gives us much pleasure to add that the gentlemen who compose this class are rising in reputation.

Our lawyers are not only attornies and barristers, but they must practise every other branch of the profession. They do not spend their "three years in learning the forms of writs;" only one year being devoted to that subject. In New England, it is believed that the libraries of the lawyers are small; but it is not so in other parts of America; and although we are sometimes mortified at beholding "the liberal and noble profession of the law degraded into the dirty business of a pettifogger," we can assure the essayist that the

instances are extremely rare. The village attorney who makes so conspicuous a figure in English plays and novels is a personage almost unknown. Our lawyers may not be learned in the sense in which the essayist would employ the term; that is, they are not essentially and exclusively special pleaders. In general jurisprudence they surpass the practitioners of Westminster hall, as abundantly appears from the reports of the two countries. They rely rather upon their own resources than upon the borrowed aid of books. They care little about precedents, the very foundation of their government teaching them that principles may be trusted, though they are not consecrated by the rust of a thousand years. It may be true that tailors are sometimes transformed into lawyers among us, as butchers have been converted into bishops in England. A bishop may be a dull blockhead, who is indebted to no very honour. able means for his exaltation, but who in the splendour of a rich living, and extensive patronage, may pass for a wise personage: but in the profession of the law, it is well known that the depth of a man's understanding is soon discovered. He must abstract principles from every profession, and be able to treat of every species of business which can arise in all the various dealings of his fellow men. Hence a tailor is quickly measured and dismissed if he does not suit. In reply to what is said of the bench, we can only refer again to the American reporters, and challenge a comparison between them and their English cotemporaries. Much misapprehension on this matter prevails in Great Britain, in consequence of the disingenuous trick of English travellers, who take our common squires or justices, who are to be sure, a miserable pack, as the originals from which the portraits of American judges are delineated. Janson who was not permitted to practise at one of our bars, because he could not produce a single person to vouch for his character, in a place where he had resided two years, revenged himself by such caricatures; and a suspicious looking chap, as Fearon is described by Cobbet, makes himself merry after the same fashion.

We do not think that any subject of Great Britain, should say a word on the variety, number, and proportion of deluded sects in America, when almost every arrival seems to bring us some new prophet from that enlightened island. If man be called a guessing animal in New, he is, most assuredly, a hoaxable one, in Old England.

PHILADELPHIA