The Sun.
London, England, 1835-04-01 00:00:00

THE MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

We are informed in the opening of this Number that the
Editorship of the " Monthly" has been changed, together
with some of its literary arrangements. We give currency
to this announcement, because it may interest others ; not
because we intend to institute any invidious comparisons
between the present and the preceding Number of this pe-
riodical.

The present Number is unquestionably a good one, with
a wholesome healthy hue about it which inspires us with
great confidence for the future. The " Old Bachelor" is
a capital paper, and the " Old Maids" is worthy of having
been written by the same hand. " English Sunday
Schools" is too severe—we should rather say unjust—
towards a well-meaning, and, as the world goes, intelligent
portion of the community. " Lelia," a poem, reminded
us of some effusions which we perused in childhood, called
the " Pious Miscellany," the joint production of a Roman

Catholic Bishop, of the name of Coyle, and an Irish pro-
vincial publisher. Has the author of the poem before us
stumbled over this old volume in the course of his reading ?
If he has, there is no occasion for us to tell him that there
is more beauty than originality in his verses. The Lite-
rary Notices are impartially and carefully written. -

THE WESTMINSTER REVIEW, No. XLIV.
Macrone.

This is a heavy number ; and the weight is not rendered
endurable by any extraordinary share of intrinsic excel-
lence.. There is one fault which we almost always have
to find with the writers in this Review, namely—that all
subjects are 'treated by them as a means of instilling certain
principles into the public mind. This is the only obvious
" end and aim" of all their labours, and this obviousness is
the principal cause why these labours are not more produc-
tive of their natural consequences. Be the work an Epic
Poem or a Treatise on Jurisprudence, it serves equally well
for giving currency to the " Greatest-happiness-of-the-
greatest-number" principles of the Reviewer. We do not
here pretend to offer an opinion on these principles; either
taken in the lump as a system, or in detail as opinions
which every man may receive or reject, according to the
degree of evidence by which they are supported. All we
condem is the perpetual recurrence to them both in and
out of season. The practice really looks suspicious. Per-
sons who are always demonstrating by their actions that
they have a point to carry, a purpose to effect, are often
so uncharitably dealt with by the world as to have it pre-
sumed of them, that scrupulosity about the means of
achieving the great object of their desires engages but few
of their reflecting moments. For be it from us to defend
the judgment of the public in every instance of this kind ;
and still farther in that of our able contemporary, the
Westminster Review ; but at the same time, we would re-
commend occasional departures from a habit which, if per-
severed in, may call forth the expression of such a sentiment.
" Aristocratic Revelations'' is a clever paper, but we do
not rightly understand what the writer would have us infer
from it. Does he disapprove of the authorship of the Aris-
tocracy, albeit confined to novel writing ? And will the
subjects on which they write have the pruning blade of
reform applied to their roots, only because they choose to
amuse themselves by writing what the majority of the Re-
formers never read ? " Dunlop's Memoirs of Spain" is a
very able Review of an interesting work. " Tea and Tea
Trade" is an important paper, and will be read with great
interest by commercialists. " The Origin and Pro-
gress of Municipal Corporations" is an article displaying
great acquaintance with a most important question in all
its minute details, and deserves the serious attention of the
British Legislature. Of the many other papers in the
present number, we cannot find space for one word of com-
ment.