Table Talk; or Selections from the Ana; containing Extracts from the different Collections of Ana, French, Italian and English. One volume will appear on 2d June. Birman Empire. An Account of the Embassy to the Kingdom of Ava, in the year 1795. Narrative of the late Military and Political Operations in the Burmese Territory. Two volumes will appear 23d June and 14th July. A Treatise on the Natural History, Physiology, and Management of the Honey Bee. By Dr. Bevan. Will be published this Month. In February will be published, (with several new Plates and many Contributions,) a Second Edition of Death's Doings. additional Literary A Translation of the Second Edition of Niebuhr's Roman History is preparing for publication. This Edition will be far superior to the old one. The Author of Head Pieces and Tail Pieces, is preparing for publication, a Moral Tale, in one volume, to be entitled, a Peep at the World, or, the Rule of Life. Nearly ready, A Historical, Antiquarian, and Picturesque Account of Kirkstall Abbey, illustrated with highly finished Engravings in the Line Manner, by John Cousen, pupil of the late John Scott, Esq. from Drawings by William Mulready, Esq. R.A. and Charles Cope. Memoirs and Select Letters of the late Mrs. Anne Warren, with Sketches of her Family. By the Rev. Samuel Warren, LL.D. The Sinner's Tears, in Meditations and Prayers. By Thomas Fettiplace. Edited from a scarce and valuable work, by the Rev. J. Burdsall. The Rev. Greville Ewing has just completed a new Edition of his Scripture Lexicon, very considerably enlarged, and adapted to the general reading of the Greek Classics. A Copious Grammar is also prefixed, which may be had separately. The whole of Captain Basil Hall's Voyages are now published in Three Pocket Volumes. Price 10s. 6d. in boards, being the first three volumes of Constable's Miscellany, publishing in weekly numbers, three of which form a volume. Mechanic's Magazine, Vol. VI. 8vo. boards, with a Portrait of Mr. Canning. A half-length Portrait of Dr. George Birkbeck, President of the London Mechanics Institution, engraved in Mezzotinto. By Henry Dawe, Esq., after a Painting by Samuel Lane, Esq. The Copious Greek Grammar of Dr. Philip Buttman, is nearly ready for publication, faithfully Translated from the original German, by a distinguished Scholar. Professor Lee's Lectures on the Hebrew Language, which have been so long in preparation, are now nearly ready for publication, and will appear in the course of the following Month. Mr. Reynolds is at present employed on an admirable Likeness of Captain Parry, from a Picture, by Haines, and the Print, which is of a size to allow of its being placed in a 4to. volume, will appear in March. A New Comedy, of which report speaks highly, by the author of Atheno, is very nearly ready for publication. Mr. Sweet, the celebrated Botanist, is engaged in preparing a work, to be entitled Flora Australasica. It will consist of the most perfect Portraits of Plants, with their History and Cultivation, Natives of New Holland and the South Sea Islands. A Reply to Dr. Lingard's Vindication is in the Press. By John Allen, Esq. The first number of a work, to be entitled, The Quarterly Juvenile Review; or, a Periodical Guide for Parents and Instructors, in their Selection of New Publications. Will appear in the course of the Month. WORKS LATELY PUBLISHED. Life of Augustus Von Kotzebue, forming Vols. IX. & X. of Autobiography. 18mo. 7s. boards, with a Portrait. Cato Major of Cicero, upon the Hamiltonian System, with a double Translation. 8vo. 5s. in bds. Bayle's Historical and Critical Dictionary abridged, in 4 vols. small 8vo. 17. 12s. in bds. Every Day Book, complete, in 2 vols. 8vo. Price 28s. in bds. Index to the Second Volume. Price 6d. Illustrations of the Passion of Love, Part I., small 8vo. Price 2s. 6d. Facetic and Miscellanies. By William Hone. Second Edition, 8vo. 10s. 6d. The True Theory of Rent, in Opposition to Mr. Ricardo and others. By a Member of the University of Cambridge. Second Edition. Alma Mater, or, Seven Years at the University of Cambridge. 2 vols. Post 8vo. 18s. bds. Questions adapted to Mitford's History of Greece. By the Rev. J. R. Major. 1 vol. 8vo. 9s. bds. Annual Biography and Obituary for 1827. 1 vol. 8vo. 15s. bds. Notes and Reflections during a Ramble in Germany. 8vo. 12s. Truckleborough Hall. 3 vols. Post 8vo. 17. 8s. 6d. Life of Theobald Wolfe Tone. 2 vols. 8vo. 1. 14s. PRICES OF THE ENGLISH AND FOREIGN FUNDS. (From January 24 to February 21, 1827.) 57s. pm..... 45s. pm..... 52s. pm. Exchequer Bills, 2d. per day ...... 37s. pm... 25s. pm..... 33s.pm. ... ...... 92 6512 90 561 55 51 53 36 36 37 36 ... 39 Danish ditto, 3 per Cent. ... 621 311 381 611 101 694 163 57 ... 691 961 951 Ditto ditto 1822, ditto Russian ditto, ditto. ROBERT W. MOORE, Broker, 20, Token-house-yard, Lothbury. THE LONDON MAGAZINE. APRIL 1, 1827. ALMA MATER, OR SEVEN YEARS AT CAMBRIDGE.* THE author of these volumes, as he himself indirectly tells us, is a Mr. Wright. After an unsuccessful residence at Cambridge, it seems, he has been driven to seek his livelihood among the booksellers of London; and finding that, during the existing discussions concerning education, his university experience was a saleable article, he has compounded a book of a very heterogeneous description. It is partly personal, partly literary, partly scandalous, partly a depot of examination papers, partly a repertory of ancient jests and stale stories. It is, in short, the scrapings of the author's life, collected industriously, for the laudable purpose of getting a dinner. The varieties of Mr. Wright's existence have not been such as to afford abundant matter for two volumes, and the book shows that they have been filled with difficulty. The work is somewhat in quality and character of the nature of those receptacles which are always found near the offices of a large establishment, in which the offals of the house are thrown for the ulterior use of the pigs. The author's adventures-his acquaintance -his reflections-his books-his studies-and all he has heard and tead of gossip, and anecdote, and scandal, during his sojourn at Cambridge, and occasionally in London, are heaped together, with a large mass of examination papers, in order to expand the book to the size named in his bond. The contents are, and have been, long familiar to our apprehension. We believe that none but a university man can fully comprehend their cheapness and worthlessness; none but a person of a similar standing to the author, can understand the numerous misrepresentations of the writer-or can expose his absurd vanity, and we had almost said, his mendacity. At the same time we may observe, that it is impossible for a university man to appreciate exactly the value of the book with relation to the public. He may Alma Mater, or Seven Years at the University of Cambridge. By a Trinity Man. Black, Young, and Young, Tavistock-street. J. and J. J. Deighton, Cambridge, 1827. 2 vols. 8vo. be well aware, that Mr. Wright is but a bad collector of stale jests, and but an indifferent describer and retailer of college customs, manners, studies, and character, and he will accordingly think meanly both of the writer and his book; while readers, totally unacquainted with the subject, will be informed by the measure of truth which it undoubtedly contains, and be wholly deceived by the false colouring which the author gives to the facts he narrates. A person unconnected with the university, and unacquainted with the gentlemen whose peculiarities and persons, and names, are most unceremoniously introduced, may even take pleasure in looking over the author's sketches. Mr. Wright is not wholly deficient in the talent of humorous description, and some of his friends are certainly placed in an amusing point of view. Above all, the public knows nothing of the writer, except what he chooses to say of himself. Listen to himself, and he ought to fill a large space in the public eye. The casual reader will take him for a dashing young fellow of genius, the light and life of his society-the spirit of the gay and the soul of the serious-one who accumulates learning by temporary fits of enthusiastic applicationand acquires, in the intervals of study, all the accomplishments of the gentleman; and whose gaiety leads him, unfortunately, into all the follies of the man of pleasure and fashion. He is successively seen in his study-in a riot-on the cricket ground-in the tenniscourt-driving tandems-solving problems with the most learned men in college-playing at billiards with the gayest-now keeping up the jollity of a party of high spirited fellow students-now struggling for the honours of a first class, and now wriggling through the iron bars of a window of his college, at three in the morning, to escape the punishment of late hours. We have him, in short, from one end of a brilliant career to the other-from his first entrance at Trinity, to his installation in a spunging-house in Chancery-lane. Such is the picture which the author draws of himself, and which the public will suppose a genuine portrait of Mr. Wright-the "flash bachelor," as he says he was called. The idea which the author's contemporaries entertained of him is rather different.-Mr. Wright is of that stature which precludes heroic deeds; and of that personal appearance which excites a ridicule, he never would probably have heard of, had he not provoked it, by absurd boastings of the effects which he avers it always created. It is an adage, that poverty is no disgrace. Mr. Wright came to the university with his finances in so deplorable a state, that, as he himself states, he was compelled to inhabit the closet on the top of a staircase, which had never had previous occupant, except Lord Byron's bear, because it could be had gratis. One of the fellows of the college gave him gratuitous tuition; and another allowed him, as he said out of the funds of a charitable anonymous person, but, as Mr. Wright believes, out of his own pocket, thirty pounds a year. It does not appear creditable for a man to enter a society, the expenses of which he is not capable of meeting; but this, and a multitude of sins, might be forgiven, on the ground of an enthusiastic love of learning, which induced him to encounter all difficulties for the attainment of a worthy object. Mr. Wright puts them on the ground of the impoverishment of his father, who suffered great losses at sea, by the failure of banks, &c. It should be re membered, that this poverty showed itself immediately after his coming up to Cambridge, in too short a time for the happening of the events he speaks of. But, at any rate, whatever may be the cause, the poverty itself was no disgrace. Poverty is only disgraceful when the poor man lives at the rate of a rich one-and it is thus Mr. Wright describes himself as doing. Any one who is acquainted with university manners, must know, that one of these two things is trueeither Mr. Wright had resources in addition to the charitable supplies and assistance he speaks of, and which he conceals, or that he must have been incurring expenses which, according to his own statement, he was unable to liquidate. The truth we believe to be much more creditable to Mr. Wright than his own statement. We believe he worked hard, and lived almost upon nothing, except the college allowance to sizars-but that in his book, finding that solitary reading and wretched fare were but unfruitful subjects for book-making, he has given a colour to his circumstances which they will not bear. It certainly does appear that, after a residence of two or three years at Cambridge, he acquired that recklessness about expenses which seems to be in the atmosphere of that place. He gives an account of a jovial life which then commenced-he seems blind to its vulgarity and coarseness-and we are not surprised to hear, in a subsequent part of his book, of his debts, difficulties, and arrest. They who are acquainted with Cambridge, know, that the under graduates are divided into three classes the rich-the competent-the poor. The reading men are found amongst the two last classes; and the gay men form the first class. The gay men pass their lives pretty much in the manner of idle men every where else; their gaiety is stimulated, on the one hand, by youth and inexperience; and on the other, checked by the scanty means of indulgence which the barrenness of Cambridge affords. These two opposing forces drive them to the commission of follies and extravagances that would otherwise be unaccountable, if they were not to be considered as vents. The gay men scarcely ever look into a book—they have, nominally, a private tutor, whom they never attend and they get their degrees by a few weeks of cramming, previously to the examination, or they are presented with honorary ones, which are given in certain cases of rank. The second class are those men whose parents can afford, or choose, only to assign them a competencythis is the great bulk of the society. Many studious men are found among them-many idle men who manage to amuse themselves by innocent recreation-and there are also instances of individuals who, desirous of joining or imitating the examples of wealthier youths, run into debt, involve their parents in difficulties, and ultimately ruin their own prospects. The poor, or third class, are composed chiefly of sizars, who live upon small allowances from their families, together with school exhibitions, and college stipends. This class furnishes, in great proportion, the tutors and fellows of the university-they are generally reading men-there are among them, in the course of nature, many blockheads, and many idle fellows. Their birth is generally among the humbler ranks of society. Their education is usually neglected, except in the studies by which they are to make their way-either mathematics, or Greek, or Latin-most generally the former. The manners, habits, and language of the sizars are not usually those of refinement; exceptions |