cold and comfortless abstractions, in the warmest colors of fancy. Without quitting his argument in pursuit of ornament or imagery, his imagination becomes the perfect handmaid of his reason, ready at any moment to spread his canvas and present his pencil."-Robert Hall. Hallam. HENRY HALLAM, LL. D., 1778-1859, educated at Eton and Oxford, was one of the most distinguished historical writers of the century. Hallam's chief writings are: View of Europe during the Middle Ages, 3 vols., 8vo; Constitutional History of England, 3 vols., 8vo; Literature of Europe in 15-17th centuries, 3 vols., 8vo. Hallam was a valued friend of Sir Walter Scott, and one of the early contributors to the Edinburgh Review. He was also associated with Wilberforce in the suppression of the slave-trade. Hallam's works are so well known that it is scarcely necessary to do more than allude to them here. They are characterized by every feature that should mark the historian, accuracy of research, breadth of view, elegance of style. They are to be regarded as marking a new era in the study of the Middle Ages and of constitutional history. “Mr. Hallam is, on the whole, far better qualified than any other writer of our time for the office which he has undertaken. He has great industry and great acuteness. His knowledge is extensive, various, and profound. His mind is equally distinguished by the amplitude of its grasp, and by the delicacy of its tact. . . . His work is eminently judicial. Its spirit is that of the bench, not that of the bar."Macaulay. ARTHUR HENRY HALLAM, 1811-1833, son of the distinguished historian Henry IIallam, is chiefly known from being the subject of Tennyson's celebrated poem In Memoriam. Young Hallam appears to have been a man of extraordinary promise. His Literary Remains were published in 1834, for private distribution. Maginn. WILLIAM MAGINN, LL. D., 1794-1842, a native of Ireland, and a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, removed to London, in 1823, and there devoted himself for the remainder of his life to writing for the periodic press. Dr. Maginn contributed to many of the reviews, but principally to Blackwood's Magazine and to Frazer's, of which latter he was one of the originators. He was the famous Sir Morgan O'Doherty of Blackwood's. Maginn's wit, humor, and eccentricity gained for him the sobriquet of the modern Rabelais. At a time when magazine writing was in its prime, Dr. Maginn was its acknowledged leading star. His prominent feature was versatility; he wrote, and wrote well, on all subjects, humorous, critical, historical, classical, in a style suited to each. "One of the most remarkable of that group of scholars and good fellows, ready writers, boon companions, and wits, who initiated the brilliant periodical literature of this age in the British islands, was William Maginn, LL. D., the youngest doctor of laws ever graduated at Old Trinity. . Every English periodical of mark for years owed somewhat of its influence and its interest to the prompt, copious, erudite, and funny pen of Maginn. Now it was a parody, and now a translation; to-day a critique, to-morrow a letter from Paris; one month a novel, and the next a political essay. Versatile, learned, apt, and facile, the genial Irish doctor made wisdom and mirth wherever he went. Too convivial for his own good, too improvident for his prosperity, he was yet a benefactor to the public, a delight to scholars, and an idol to his friends.". -Tuckerman. The service which Maginn's countrymen failed to render to him has been rendered by an American, R. Shelton Mackenzie, LL. D., who published, in 1855, 5 vols. of Maginn's Miscellanies. These represent the cream of Maginn's writings, scattered before that time through the pages of reviews and magazines. They are carefully edited with notes. The work is worthy alike of the author and of the editor. Mahony-Father Prout. REV. FRANCIS MAHONY, 1800 is especially known in litera ture by a series of papers published in Frazer's Magazine, under the name of Father Prout. Mahony was born in Ireland, and was educated for the priesthood in the Catholic Church, but seems to have devoted himself to literary pursuits. He was one of that band of scholarly and witty Irishmen who rallied around Maginn in the palmy days of Frazer's Magazine. Mahony was for a time one of the editors of the London Globe, and Roman Correspondent of the Daily News, but acquired his chief reputation by the series of humorous pieces in Frazer's Magazine, already named, and purporting to be written by "Father Prout." These were republished in book form, as The Reliques of Father Prout, 2 vols., with illustrations by Maclise. Mahony wrote also Facts and Figures from Italy, by Don Jeremy Savonarola. He is said to have been the author of a remarkable piece of fun which appeared in Blackwood, called Father Tom and the Pope, but that is by no means certain. The "Prout" papers have not the broad fun of "Father Tom and the Pope," but abound in scholarly wit of a more quiet kind. In one of these papers, the author gives The Groves of Blarney in five different versions, in parallel columns, English, French, Italian, Latin, and Greck, all maintaining the metre of the original "Corcagian," and all rhyming. The reader has but to imagine such rollicking verses as those in the subjoined extract, put into rhyming Greek of like structure, to understand the exquisite humor of the whole affair. THE BLARNEY-STONE. There is a stone there, To become eloquent. To be let alone; From the Blarney-Stone! Ο Βλαρνικος Λιθος Εκει λιθον τ' εὑρήσεις, Γυναιξί τ' ερατεινος· “ Καθολικαις " βοαισι Δια Βλαρνικον λίθον γ' γ! Some of Mahony's Latin facetiæ, in the repartees attributed to Erasmus and Sir Thomas More, have a like flavor. When More, on one occasion, badgered Erasmus about his name, in the following punning hexameter, Quaeritur unde tibi sit nomen, Erasmus? - Eras mus? The witty Latinist instantly replied, in a no less sparkling pentameter, Si sum mus ego, te judice summus ero! As a further punishment, Erasmus, with a sly pun, understood only by the initiated, dedicated to More the Μωρίας Εγκώμιον Father Prout quotes another Latin pun of Erasmus, upon the clergy, in a dialogue between himself and Echo: (Erasmus loquitur) - Quid est Sacerdotium? Horace and James Smith. HORACE SMITH, 1779-1849, and JAMES SMITH, 1775-1839, two brothers, natives of London, were celebrated as wits and writers. Their contributions first appeared in The Picnic, the London Review, and the Monthly Mirror. In 1812, on the occasion of the offering of a prize at the opening of the new Drury Lane Theatre, they brought out their celebrated Rejected Addresses. These imaginary competitive and unsuccessful prize poems were happy imitations of Scott, Byron, Wordsworth, Coleridge, and all the leading poets of the day. The volume was published anonymously, but soon became the town-talk. Even the poets themselves seem to have taken the joke in good part. Jeffrey pronounced the Rejected Addresses "to be the very best imitations (and often of difficult originals) that were ever made, and, considering their great extent and variety, to indicate a talent to which I do not know where to look for a parallel." These Rejected Addresses now form an important volume in the library of standard English humor. Nothing that the Smith brothers published subsequently was at all equal to the work just named. Horace Smith wrote numerous novels in unsuccessful imitation of Walter Scott-the best of which, perhaps, are The Moneyed Man, Brambletye House, and Love and Magnetism - while James wrote Trips to Paris, Country Cousin, and other "good nonsense," for Charles Matthews the comedian. SIR JOHN BOWRING, LL. D., 1792 has been for half a century an active contributor to literature, as well as a busy negotiator in public affairs. His publications have been numerous, and embrace a wide circle of subjects, though his two leading lines of thought have been in Sclavonic literature and in political economy. He has written largely for the Westminster Review, of which, for many years, he was the editor, his articles being chiefly in advocacy of free trade and other kindred topics. He was the intimate friend and the literary executor of Jeremy Bentham, and edited the works of the latter in 22 vols., 8vo. He entered the House of Commons in 1835, and continued in that office until 1849, when he was sent to Hong Kong to superintend the British trade in China. In 1854 he was knighted, and made Governor of Hong Kong. His chief publications are the following: Specimens of the Russian Poets; Poetry of the Magyars; Cheskian Anthology; Servian Popular Poetry; Specimens of the Polish Poets; Ancient Poetry and Romances of Spain; Batavian Anthology; Matins and Vespers; Minor Morals for Young People; First Lessons in Theology for Young Children; Decimal Coinage; Decimal System in Numbers, Coins, and Accounts; Reports on the Commercial Relations between France and Great Britain; Reports on the Statistics of Tuscany; On the Oriental Plague and on Quarantines; The Kingdom and People of Siam, a narrative of the mission to that country. HENRY THOMAS, LORD COCKBURN, 1779-1854, a Scottish Judge and one of the early contributors to the Edinburgh Review, wrote Life and Correspondence of Lord Jeffrey; Memorials of his Times; The Best Ways of Spoiling the Beauties of Edinburgh. THOMAS CROFTON CROKER, 1798-1854, an Irishman, and a writer distinguished for wit and learning, has done much to throw light on the character and history of his native country. Researches in the South of Ireland; Fairy Legends and Traditions in the South of Ireland; Legends of the Lakes; Memoirs of Joseph Holt, General of the Irish Rebels, in 1798; The Popular Songs of Ireland; Daniel O'Rourke; Barney Mahoney; My Village versus Our Village, etc. He was a frequent contributor to Frazer's Magazine. RT. HON. JOHN WILSON CROKER, D. C. L., 1780-1857, held a prominent place in English letters for half a century. Croker was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and was a member of Parliament for about twenty-five years (1807-1832). He was strongly opposed to the Reform Bill, and declared he would never sit in a Reformed House of Commons, a vow which he kept. He united with Scott and Canning in founding the London Quarterly as an antidote to the Edinburgh. His articles were noted for their ability and for their caustic wit. Croker's separate publications are Familiar Letters on the Irish Stage; An Intercepted Letter from Canton, being a satire on the city of Dublin; Sketch of Ireland, Past and Present; Songs of Trafalgar; The Battle of Talavera; The Naval War with America; The Suffolk Papers; Reply to the Letters of Malachi Malagrowther; Stories from the History of England, written for juvenile readers, and very popular; An Edition of Boswell's Life of Johnson. To this last work, Croker gave a large amount of labor, and held it as one of his capital achievements. Macaulay made it the butt of ridicule in one of his most famous reviews in the Edinburgh, and Croker in due time returned the compliment by showing up, in the Quarterly, the shortcomings of Macaulay's History of England. Americans had no great love for Croker, as many of the insulting sneers in the London Quarterly came from his pen. Moir. DAVID MACBETH MOIR, 1798–1870, a native of Scotland, studied at Edinburgh University, and afterwards led the life of a country physician until his death. Moir was a man of great talents and strongly marked character. He had no small share of poetic ability, and was endowed with an insight and a sympathy that made him a most genial and trustworthy critic. He was a permanent contributor to Blackwood's Magazine, commencing with the foundation of the magazine, in 1817, and ceasing only with his death. His articles number almost four hundred. His poetical contributions to this magazine are those signed A. Besides these scattered testimonials to his ability, he published several stories and poems in book form, besides one or two medical treatises. Among his poems are The Legend of Genevieve and Domestic Verses. The best known of his stories is Mansie Wauch. Moir also delivered, in 1850-1, a course of lectures on the Poetical Literature of the Past Half-Century, which was published in book form, and constitutes a most valuable contribution to English criticism. In the words of Gilfillan, "he criticizes in the spirit of a poet." JAMES COWLES PRICHARD, 1785-1848, was a distinguished physician and ethnologist. His principal works are: Researches into the Physical History of Mankind; The Eastern Origin of the Celtic Nations; and The Natural History of Man. He also published in 1819 an Analysis of Egyptian Mythology, besides one or two medical works and numerous contributions to medical journals. Prichard's ethnological works are extremely valuable. He was the first to establish the fact that the Celtic races are a branch of the Indo-Germanic, and to place ethnology upon a purely inductive basis. Prichard is a strong champion of the unity of the human race. ROBERT BLAKEY, Ph. D., 1795 born at Morpeth, Northum berland, is a philosophical writer of high repute. His works are: History of Moral Science, 2 vols.; History of the Philosophy of the Mind, 4 vols.; History of Political Literature, 2 vols.; Essay on Logic; Historical Sketch of Logic; On Moral Good and Evil; Lives of the Primitive Fathers of the Church; Temporal Benefits of Christianity. "We regard these volumes [Hist. of Philos. of Mind] as embodying little short of the substance of a library in themselves."-- Church of England Quarterly. His work on The History of Moral Science secured him the approbation of Sonthey, Sir W. Hamilton, Chalmers, and others. That on The History of the Philosophy of Mind brought commendation from Cousin and numerous German savans, and a gold medal from the King of the Belgians. He was appointed in 1835 Professor of Logic and Metaphysics in Queen's College, Belfast, but declined on account of ill health. Dr. Blakey is the author of a large number of books on Angling and other sporting subjects. Herschel. SIR JOHN FREDERICK WILLIAM HERSCHEL, D. C. L., 1792-1871, is chiefly known as an astronomer and mathematician. Herschel was educated at Cambridge, was Lord Rector of Marischal College, Aberdeen, and afterwards Director of the Royal Mint. Besides his numerous special contributions to astronomy and mathematics, Herschel has written for the general public several works that stand deservedly high. These are: A Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy, Outlines of Astronomy, Manual of Scientific Inquiry, and a number of essays in the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews. They present the leading truths of science in a style at once clear and elegant. Sir John Herschel is but one member of an illustrious family. His father, Sir Wil |