THE NEW QUARTERLY REVIEW, AND Digest of Current Literature, BRITISH, AMERICAN, FRENCH, AND GERMAN. FOR THE YEAR 1853. VOL. II. LONDON: HOOK HAM AND SONS, 15, OLD BOND STREET; OLIVER AND BOYD, EDINBURGH; HODGES AND SMITH, DUBLIN; JAMES MUNROE & Co., 134, WASHINGTON STRET, BOSTON. Address The Second Volume of the New QUARTERLY REVIEW is now completed. It was projected by a few authors, who had seen so much of the publishing trade, and so many of the secret springs of criticism, that they had grown indignant that literature should be sinking to a sordid traffic, and that criticism should be but a bookseller's bellman. Many considerations gave hope that a Quarterly Review, which should really be a Quarterly Revier, would receive support from the general public. It was thought that there must be many thousand families in Britain who would be glad to have, in some compendious form, a complete view of the current literature of the time. It was believed that, in the distant Colonies of the Empire, the exile would be pleased to see, four times in every year, a reflex of the works that were forming the evening amusement of his friends at home. It was known that the Book Societies, which cover the land of England like a net-work, were without an honest guide-were the most unresisting prey of the least scrupulous of the publishing tribe, and the victims of their coarsest baits. It was anticipated that an Annual Register of Literature would be a volume of convenient reference, which multitudes would be glad to possess at the expense of an annual ten shillings. The enterprise was, in itself, promising : with the staff we had organised it was certain. There was but one formidable drawback-to work out the object of its projectors the Review must be Independent. This quality of Independence must be an ostracism. It would be an attempt to revolutionize criticism. It would be a rebellion against Marlborough Street, New Burlington Street, Albemarle Street, and Paternoster Row. It involved the necessity of not being “recognised.” It was equivalent to the probability, that every prosperous vendor of unacknowledged translations would rush about, eagerly asserting to every one wbo was obliged to listen to him that the New QUARTERLY “could not stand," that it had “neither authority nor circulation;" it also included the certainty of its being said in a whisper, in all these localities, that it must be put down. In a commercial point of view it had doubtless been wiser to chain the New Review to the galley, and to make it keep stroke. But this was not the object of its projectors. That object was, to quote the words of a contributor, “to represent the brains, and not the breeches pockets, of literature;” to inform, and not to betray, thepeople. The adverse interests are so strong, and their machinery is so complete, that perhaps we should have been daunted from the enterprise but for the facilities offered by the Post Office. It rests now with the public, and with the public only, what Critical Journal they will take, or what books they will buy. The most facile'niethod of obtaining a book or a review is still through the neighbouring bookseller. But, should any Metropolitan influence delay the punctual delivery, it is but the trouble of a note to the publisher, and the dweller at John o' Groat's house, or in any remote village in India, will regularly receive his book or his Number through a Post-office official, whom no publisher can control. After two years' experience, the New QUARTERLY REView has realised all our expectations. We have a much larger circle of Subscribers in all parts of the world than we could possibly have anticipated ; and we are informed that the Publishers hate us with an uncomfortable hatred. We offer to the former a touchstone by which to try us. Whenever they find our advertising columns occupied by the announcements of the “great houses,” they may make up their minds that we either have done, or are expected to do, some considerable subserviencies. For ourselves, whenever we find our table covered We ask no favour but from our Subscribers; and that not for ourselves, but for themselves and for CONTENTS OF VOLS. I. AND II. No. I. -Alban-The Tutor's Ward-Spiritual Alchemy-Falk- aise-Voyage à Ma Fenêtre-Les Gàités Champetres- No. II. es_The FRENCH LITERATURE: Resumé Histoire de la Révolu- Nonie's Letter on the Defence of England-Latham's Frauen in dem Mittelalter --Hägringar; Reise durch Schweden-Wanderungen durch London-Der K Dia No. III. A Journey to Nepaul-Letters from Italy-Five Years Democritus in London--Poems and Essays by Alfred B. Shakspeare et son Temps-Corneille et son Temps.-GER- No. IV. -Book Societies-- Modern Taste in Art-Indian Poets thusiast. - AMERICAN LITERATURE: Retrospect of the No. V. No. VI. - Eminent Characters of the English Revolutionary shipper-Claverston-Rambles in an Old City-An Expo- sition of the Laws relating to the Women of England- Marylebone Gardens-A Common Place Story- Retail Mammon-A Complete System of Bayonet Exercise Bases of Belief-The Second Burmese War-A Tour of Inquiry through France and Italy-Paris after Waterloo pelago in H.M.S. “Mæander "-The Indian Archipelago. |