ART. IX.-A PRESENT FROM GERMANY; OR, THE CHRISTMAS-TREE. Translated from the German by EMILY PERRY. London: Charles Fox.

THIS is a welcome addition to our youthful store of Christmas amusement; and these elegant little translations will be gratefully acknowledged by many a little lover of Fairy lore. They are rather a miscellaneous collection of allegories and fairy tales, with one or two papers on natural history interspersed. We cannot quite make out to our satisfaction the story of “ Victorine," as in the commencement her transformation is represented as the work of a veritable fairy, and at the end it appears as if she had only been dreaming a very profitable dream. The concluding story is a genuine fairy tale, leaving all probability far behind. We are tempted to extract the following communication between "Day and Night," which strikes us as very graceful.

"The birds were warbling sweetly in the hedges, the reaper with his sickle was joyfully returning home, innumerable swarms of insects hovered around the flowers, and the industrious bees, laden with honey, hastened to their cells, mindful of the command, Work while it is yet day.'

"Then Day proudly and haughtily addressed quiet and dusky Night. Poor sister, how I pity you! What have you to compare with my ardent sun, my blue heaven, with its fleecy white clouds, and my active, restless life? You have indeed reason to be quiet and humble, and to glide away when I approach, for I awaken to a new existence what you have killed, and rouse those whom you have sent to sleep. Man may well say, that "the night is no man's friend," for beneath your shade the visible world grows spectre-like. Alas! how many dread your approach! The sick, whose pain and suffering you increase -the careworn, whose anguish you strengthen, become cheerful and courageous when I appear in my rosy light, encircled with joyous being.'

My brother,' said quiet modest Night, I ask not your compassion. We are both the servants of God. I refresh and strengthen what your breath has exhausted and parched. He who touches the edge of my garment forgets your illusions, and the burden of his daily toil; gently he reclines his head upon my bosom, and, like a mother, I fold my wings around him. Are his eyes red with weeping? I fan him with the breath of another world, and send my children, the Dreams, to call up before him the loved and lost, and again he feels himself rich and happy. You speak of your sun, you poor brother! Millions of suns come forth at my bidding, and glitter like stars in my boundless

firmament, and your limited blue heaven is the seat of eternal worlds. Do I desire your active, restless life? Oh, no! quietly, gently, but never wearied, I create and maintain the kingdom of life, ever leading it towards perfection.'

"The fiery boy, Day, was prepared with many other arguments, but his powerful sister threw her veil over him, and, speechless and impotent, he sank upon her bosom. She covered him lightly with her mantle, and then ascended, as queen, her throne of twinkling stars, and the angels of heaven came and obeyed her commands."

INTELLIGENCE.

MEMOIR OF EDGAR TAYLOR, ESQ., F.S.A.

ALL who are interested in the character of the larger branch of the legal profession, and its standing and position in society, will desire to see a record of each eminent member of that class, as he passes off from the scene of his labours. In such an instance as the present, the record is of more extended value, as showing that great professional success is compatible with unusual proficiency in literature, and extensive literary productions; and that with industry, even a short measure of life is quite sufficient for the attainment of both.

Mr. Edgar Taylor was the fifth son of Mr. Samuel Taylor, of New Buckenham, in Norfolk, and a descendant of Dr. John Taylor, of Norwich, the author of the Hebrew Concordance, a very learned and highly distinguished Presbyterian Minister of the last century, whose writings have not only been held in high estimation by some of the most eminent divines of the Church of England, but have in part had the honour, singular towards a non-conformist, of being republished by a bishop of that church. He was born at Banham, in Norfolk, on the 28th of January 1793. He received his education at Palgrave School, Suffolk, under Dr. Lloyd, a very excellent classical scholar.

In the year 1809, he was articled to his uncle, the late Mr. Meadows Taylor, of Diss, a solicitor of large practice, and the successor to a business which has now been carried on by his family for upwards of a century. He here acquired a good knowledge of law, and particularly of conveyancing; and also found time in his leisure hours to attend to subjects of literature, and particularly to acquaint himself with the Italian and Spanish languages. In the year 1814 he came to London; and in 1817, he entered into partnership with Mr. Robert Roscoe, one of the sons of the celebrated Mr. Roscoe of Liverpool, the author of the Life of Lorenzo de Medici, then also commencing the practice of the law, and opened chambers in King's Bench Walk, Temple,-beginning life, as he says himself in some notes left behind him, with only a very small capital, and that borrowed.

Of the nature and particulars of his private practice it will not be requisite to say much. He continued in partnership with Mr. Roscoe until that gentleman retired from the profession on account of ill-health, and he afterwards associated with him other gentlemen as partners, one of whom, however, died before him. It was two or three years after he began business that the writer of this memoir first knew him. The official establishment then consisted of one writing clerk only: at the time of his death it was amongst the most extensive of the agency houses in London.

It will not be out of place to state that his business arrangements

were of the most accurate and complete nature. In all matters relating to accounts, particularly to those which strictly belong to the science of book-keeping, he was especially skilful and accurate. He was probably the first solicitor, or one of the first, who applied the Italian or double-entry system to solicitors' books. With the assistance of a friend, once his fellow clerk, but now an eminent accountant in the city, he arranged his books from the first upon this plan, and during his whole life they were so strictly kept, that, every bill for every business, finished or unfinished, being first made out, he had a balance sheet of the whole concern struck twice a-year, showing the results and state of the concern at those moments, and checking, as is the nature of the Italian system, every posting and the casting of every cash account. So particular was he in this matter, that even if, as occasionally happened, there was an error of only a single penny appearing on the balance sheet, ħe would keep clerks engaged, even for two or three months, in examining the accounts till it was found out. The following note appears in one of his private books of account, and was written by him two or three years ago :-" I have had the complete series of my accounts with my different firms copied into a small book, with a copy of the profit and loss accounts. This, for curiosity, showing the progressive successful operations of 20 years.'

To his professional talents it is not easy to do justice. He was a man of a very acute mind, and remarkable for his foresight and generalship. His own personal practice was principally in the Equity Courts. In the early stages of the most complicated suit he delighted to look forward to and provide for contingencies which could not occur till the cause had advanced to stages requiring years to arrive at : his memory, or at least his method, was such, that, on the contingency taking place, he had the whole previous arrangements in his mind. Though, latterly, the suits under his charge were very numerous, yet he always bore the particulars of each in his mind, the objects of the suit, the parties to it, and the state in which it was. He rarely had to give two readings to any cause, however long its duration. Altogether, a man better fitted to the management of the most extensive business, even in its minutest details, can scarcely be conceived.

We have dwelt the more on Mr. Taylor as a thorough man of business, engaged in an extensive and successful practice, in order that, viewed with these serious occupations, his assiduous cultivation of jurisprudential and literary pursuits may be the more justly appreciated. We will now enumerate some of the subjects on which we happen to know that his pen was from time to time engaged. The most important of his works, Wace's Chronicle of the Norman Conquest," his "Book of Rights," the "Lays of the Minnesingers," and his “Translation of Grimm's German Stories," are referred to in a notice in the Morning Chronicle of the 22nd of August last (from which an extract is subjoined) ;* a notice in which we feel pretty sure we can trace the pen

* "Notwithstanding the occupation arising out of an extensive professional practice, and an active participation in public measures, he found leisure for literary pur

of an eminent German scholar, and an old and valuable friend of Mr. Taylor —a gentleman formerly leader on the Norfolk Circuit, but now retired from the bar. His German Stories" were first published at an earlier date than that assigned by the writer in the Chronicle, and when Mr. Taylor was in the full enjoyment of his health.—we think in 1823 or 1824. We well remember his showing us, on the first publication of those stories, the long and most interesting letter of praise and congratulation from the late Sir Walter Scott, published in the second edition of his Stories, from which we extract the following passage: I have to return my best thanks for the very acceptable present your goodness has made me in your interesting volume of German Tales and Traditions. I have often wished to see such a work undertaken by a gentleman of taste sufficient to adapt the simplicity of the German narratives to our own, which you have done so successfully."* To begin with his fugitive Legal productions :-He contributed many articles to the (Quarterly) Jurist," then, we think, edited by his friend, the late Mr. Henry Roscoe. The following we believe to be from his pen: On "the New Chancery Orders of 1828;" on Parochial Registration" (two articles in 1828 and 1832); and on the History of projected Law Reforms in 1830, 1831, and 1832” (a most admirable article). He also was a frequent contributor to this journal. He wrote in it on all the subjects just named, and also on the Local Courts Bill." This latter project he powerfully assisted in defeating. With respect to it, he wrote, at the request of several influential members of the profession, a most able pamphlet, under the assumed name of H. B. Denton, Esq., entitled, "Lord Brougham's Local Courts Bill examined." He had a few years before published another pamphlet on a previously pending bill, entitled, "An Estimate of the Brougham Local Court Bill, by an Observer."

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It must not be supposed, however, that he was an opposer of legal re

suits. He was a frequent contributor to the periodical press, and our readers had not unfrequently the benefit of his labours. He generally published anonymously, but in 1833 he gave to the world a ' Book of Rights' with his name, a valuable digest of constitutional acts from Magna Charta downwards, with able and original com ments. He was attached to antiquarian and historical studies, as well as to the lighter literature which combines poetry with history. He was the author of an admired translation of the famous French metrical chronicle by Wace, entitled the 'Roman de Rou.' He composed a history of the German Minnesingers, with translated specimens, and was able, notwithstanding the sufferings of his latter years, to recreate his imagination by preparing a version of some of the admirable Marchen legends of the distinguished brothers Grimm, the banished Hanoverian professors. The second edition, under the title of Gammer Grethel,' was the last of his writings that left the press.

"But these lighter occupations never interfered with the discharge of sterner duties, nor with the more earnest studies founded on religious opinions. He sustained his severe bodily trials with fortitude and patience, and died full of the assurance of a Christian's hope, though he rejected many of the dogmata which constitute the faith of the more numerous Christian sects. He has left a name unassailed by reproach or imputation, and left the world without an acquaintance who does not lament his departure."

* See Gammer Grethel, ed. of 1839, p. 343.