countrymen. Mr. Miers has some very bold language on this head. 'Corrupt,' says this writer, as the Spanish authorities in South America had always been, the present system far exceeds in atrocity anything which had ever been witnessed in Peru. Under the Spanish system, the royal revenue was the object of universal plunder, but private property was always respected.' He then proceeds to state distinctly that, under the protectorate of San Martin, the property of individuals was no longer safe, but was made subservient to the insatiate avarice of the minister, and the ambitious views of the protector. : Such are the people on whom we have bestowed our confidence and our treasure. A very small portion only of the large sums of money raised for the mining speculations has been sunk in the mines by far the greater part has remained at home: it has changed hands, it is true, and immense profits as well as immense losses have been made in the gambling transactions arising out of those schemes: still, however, the capital remains in the country. But no such tale can be told of the millions that have actually been sent out in the shape of loans. So far from the hope that any part of that capital will ever be repaid, he must be of a most sanguine temperament who can buoy himself up with the expectation of receiving the interest, perceiving, as all that are not wilfully blind now must do, the unstable nature of the resources from which alone it can be derived. In one word, however honestly disposed these new governments may be, they have not, (with the exception of Mexico,) nor are they likely soon to have, the means of paying the dividends on their several loans. ART. VI.-1. The Life and Times of Frederick Reynolds. Written by Himself. 2 vols. London. 1826. 2. Literary and Miscellaneous Memoirs of Joseph Cradock, Esq., M.A., F.S.A. London. 1826. 3. Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Lindley Murray: in a Series of Letters, written by Himself. With a Preface and Continuation of the Memoirs. By Elizabeth Frank. 1826. York. 4. The Life and Correspondence of Major Cartwright. Edited by his Niece. 2 vols. London. 1826. 5. The Fruits of Experience; or Memoir of Joseph Brasbridge: written in his Eightieth and Eighty-first Years. 1824. 6. Adventures of a Ship-boy. Edinburgh. 1825. London. S. Scenes 8. Scenes of Life in Ireland. By a Soldier. Edinburgh. 1825. 9. Memoirs of James Moffat, alias M'Coul. With a Portrait. Edin. 1824. 10. The Life of David Haggart, alias John Wilson, alias John Morison, alias Barney M'Coul, alias John M'Colgan, alias Daniel O'Brien, alias the Switcher. Written by Himself, while under Sentence of Death. Third Edition. Edinburgh. THESE ten works are sufficient although we might easily have graced our table with twice as many of the same kind, all produced within the last two or three years-to show that one sad reproach of our literature, to wit, its poverty, as compared with the French, in the article of memoirs, bids fair to be wiped away in our 'Life and Times.' The classics of the papier mache age of our drama have taken up the salutary belief that England expects every driveller to do his Memorabilia. Modern primer-makers must needs leave confessions behind them, as if they were so many Rousseaus. Our weakest mob-orators think it is a hard case if they cannot spout to posterity. Cabin-boys and drummers are busy with their commentaries de bello Gallico; the John Gilpins of the nineteenth century' are the historians of their own anabaseis; and, thanks to the march of intellect,' we are already rich in the autobiography of pickpockets. It is to be hoped that Genius will not be altogether silent, merely because Dulness lifts up her voice so loudly in Grub-street; and that the virtue and patriotism of this age may be commemorated as effectually, though not quite so voluminously, as its imbecility, quackery, and vice. Of the autobiographers now before us, Mr. Frederick Reynolds is he who introduces his lucubrations to the world under the most imposing title: we believe his octavos are also the thickest of the set; but that is a matter of inferior moment. The 'Times of Frederick Reynolds!'-such is the style by which the child that is unborn will distinguish the last quarter of the eighteenth century of the Christian era, and the first of that now in progress. Hide your diminished heads, ye Pitts, Burkes, Cannings! For what purpose, ye Scotts, Byrons, Crabbes, &c., have you trimmed what poets call the midnight taper' ?But men must be contented with their fit places in the procession of fame; and conscience will whisper, as ye fall into yours, that not one of you wrote Werter, a tragedy,' or Eloisa, a tragedy,' or The Crusade, an opera,' or Notoriety, a comedy,' or The Rage, a comedy,' or Speculation, a comedy,' How to grow Rich, a comedy,' or 'Fortune's Fool, a or comedy,' comedy," or Cheap Living, a comedy,' or 'Laugh when you can, a comedy.' One fact is as good in this case as fifty: The Mysteries of Udolpho' were dramatized for the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden-not by you, but by Mr. Frederick Reynolds. One Buonaparte was defeated at Waterloo in the time of Frederick the Great This story shall the good man teach his son.' We have been hinting at but a small part of his achievements. Passing over many minor matters, there remain to be remembered, to his glory, and the confusion of his rivals'Management, a comedy Folly as it Flies,' ditto Life,' ditto-Three per cents.,' ditto- The Caravan,' ditto- The Blind Bargain, ditto-The Delinquent,' ditto- The_Will,' ditto Begone dull Care; or how will it end?' ditto-' Delays and Blunders,' ditto The Virgin of the Sun, a musical drama The Renegade,' ditto The Free Knights,' ditto-"The Duke of Savoy, ditto-' Out of Place, or the Lake of Lausanne; a musical afterpiece'- Arbitration,' ditto-The Deserts of Arabia,' ditto- What's a Man of Fashion? a farce'-' The Father and his Children, a melo-drama'- The Illustrious Traveller,' ditto The Burgomaster of Saardam,' ditto Don John being an Alteration and Improvement of "The Chances." To which add, five master-pieces, entitled respectively— The Midsummer Night's Dream' The Comedy of Errors' The Two Gentlemen of Verona'-' The Tempest' and 'The Merry Wives of Windsor'-all founded on certain rude sketches of an old poet of the times of Queen Elizabeth; and lastly-we have reserved the chef-d'œuvre to the last purposely-The Dramatist, a comedy.' This is the apex of the monumentum ære perennius' erected by the genius of Reynolds for the admiration of the centuries which may yet be in reserve for our planet. "The Dramatist' is his Clouds, his Volpone, his Tartuffe. With what interest will our children's children peruse the narrative bequeathed to them, by Reynolds himself, of the circumstances under which this divine work first demanded and received the applauses of those who lived in his times. How modestly the tale begins! 'I had but little hope,' says our modern Menander; for even my hero, Lewis, disliked his part. But on the night the comedy was produced, (May the 15th, A.D. 1789,) he played with such skill, spirit, and enthusiasm, that, when he rushed out of the china-closet in the fourth act, the roars of laughter were immense, and his triumph was com plete. plete. Delighted, but astounded, at his own success, and having fractured the trifling quantity of china-ware that was prepared, (trifling, from his distrust of the situation,) he knew not what to do, either with himself or his hands. The roars still continuing, in the exhilaration of the moment, seizing Quick, who played Lord Scratch, with one hand, and his wig with the other, he threw it up to the ceiling, leaving his bald lordship no alternative but to quit the stage, which he did in grand dudgeon, amidst shouts of raillery and approbation.'-Life and Times of Frederick Reynolds, vol. ii. p. 33. The breakage of the crockery was the grand coup-de-théâtre excogitated by the mighty master himself: the throwing up of Mr. Quick's periwig was the extemporaneous inspiration of the player. The two incidents together made the fortune of The Dramatist-and The Dramatist ranks as by far the most splendidly and the most deservedly successful of all the forty or fifty tragedies, comedies, musical dramas, musical afterpieces, farces, and melodramas with which this versatile and indefatigable genius has enriched the literature of these realms. The autobiographia literaria' of this eminent person is comprised within somewhat less than eight hundred pages octavo; so that the average space allotted to the history of each of his forty dramas is not quite twenty pages octavo. Mr. Reynolds, however, is too modest to allude to nothing but his own works; and, in fact, the reader will find that from every score of his pages, ten of table-talk and green-room tittle-tattle might be deducted, without materially affecting the completeness of this record. In concluding his Life,' Mr. Reynolds characterizes it as one ' of incessant labour, struggle, and uncertainty, during more than forty years,' and thus sums up the pecuniary result of his exertions. Having adopted this precarious profession before I was nineteen, and pursued it, with industry and perseverance, till sixty; and having annually produced one or two pieces, almost all of which were successful, it is true that I have received from theatres a sum hitherto unequalled in the history of dramatic writing-namely, above nineteen thousand pounds.'-Life and Times, &c. vol. ii. p. 421. Mr. Frederick Reynolds was paid, therefore, at about the rate of 500l. per joke a fair enough sum apparently. We wish him joy of his 19,000l., no bad addition to the delights even of his fame, and pass on to another literary autobiographer. This is Joseph Cradock, Esq., M. A. and F.S. A., author of 'Zobeide, a tragedy;' The Czar, a tragedy;' Four Essays, moral and religious, addressed to the Rising Generation;' and, we presume, many other dramatic and didactic works, equally, and not less deservedly, familiar to the recollection of the public. Moreover, in the course of his Memoirs, he quotes from time to time fragments fragments of 'occasional poetry,' of which, owing to the narrowness of our limits, the following very brief specimens must suffice. ELEGY, To a Lady on her Marriage. 'Dark was the grove, and sullen all the scene, The sun scarce chased the billowy clouds of night; 'Again the howling desert threaten'd storms; But lo! she came, &c. &c. &c.'-Cradock, p. 70. "Ah! who shall heave the tender sigh? Who shed the pitying tear? ' Roses, and violets, and lilies bright, Woe-struck, when Cibber died,' &c.-Cradock, p. 200. The author of these charming verses seems to have been much patronised by the late Lord Sandwich, and fills a large portion of his 'Memoirs, Literary and Miscellaneous,' with anecdotes about Miss Ray and Mr. Hackman, which have been printed fifty times before; but the enthusiasm with which Mr. Cradock describes a dinner at the Admiralty is undoubtedly all his own : The table (says the delighted reminiscent) was spread in the great room at the Admiralty, which is hung round with pictures of the South Sea Islands, and decorated with many naval emblems and curiosities. The first course, which was chiefly of turtle, was served up in paste models of ships, or boats, with their flags flying; so that all was classical and appropriate !'-Cradock's Literary and Miscellaneous Memoirs, p. 135. Nor will any rival wit dispute the originality of the remark at page 153, that Lord Sandwich's skill in deciphering oriental inscriptions was the more remarkable, 'since those languages had never been vernacular amongst us.' Our Tragic Poet informs us, that a second volume of his Memoirs is in a state of forwardness; and we therefore have good hope that the public patience is not to be much longer trifled with. The |