The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-03-12 00:00:00

Hood's Mayazine and Comic Miscellany. 1, Adam

street, Adelphi, London.

The number before us is rich in story and poetry,—some
of the latter of a high order, and we only miss in it the
pen of the editor, which appears to have been reduced to
idleness by the owner's indisposition. It is a matter of
some difficulty, where the whole is good, to express an
opinion which of the contributions is best; and we shall
not make the attempt in behalf of any one in particular.
Amongst the prose compositions., however, we may men-
tion " A Tale of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields," " Babington
Droneham," and " One Night in the Life of a Man of
Business," which compete for the palm of superiority;
and of the poems " Our Early Loved" and " The Tem-
plar's Summons," by Miss Frances Brown are, in their
different styles, elegantly and ably written ; as is also" The
Key," a Moorish romance. The gem, however, is a blank
verse composition, " The Death of Pan," by Charles
Mackay. Most heartily do we wish success to this pleas-
ing Magazine, and health to its talented conductor, Mr.
Hood.

Carlton's Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry.
Dublin : Wm. Cnrry, jun. and Co. London : W. S
Orr and Co.

The present number continues the story of "The Poor
Scholar," and introduces the English reader to much
that is to him novel and much that is amiable in the
Irish character and in Irish society, whilst at the same
time it shows us some of the dark side of the picture—
much of the suffering to which youths of the class de-
scribed submit to their search after learning. We need
say nothing of the ability with which it is written ; but
would suggest that at the present crisis, when the social
condition of Ireland is acknowledged as one worthy of
the grave consideration of the legislature of the chriatian,
with a view to the adoption of every available measure
for its amelioration, there is no writer from whose pages a
greater amount of that description of knowledge, 'which
escapes the snperficial observer and the philosophical and
statistical inquirer as well, than from those of Mr. Carl-
ton. We may fancy that he exaggerates sometimes in
his delineations ; but the truth is generally near his de-
scriptions, and the shadow is only thrown more deeply to
enable us to see that truth more distinctly. ,At all events,
if he errs at all, it is on the amiable side, to provoke our
risible muscles, or our sympathies of love, and not our
hatred or contempt for his unhappy fellow-countrymen.

New Monthly Belle Assemblee. London :J. Rogerson

Norfolk-street, Strand.

The fair editress of this lively and elegant publication
has furnished us this mouth with an excellent number.
The embellishments are as usual full of excellence, and
both the prose sketches and the poetry of a high order.
The New Monthly Belle Assemblee is in fact the maga-
gine most adapted for its particular class of readers that
we know, and at the same time it contains nothing which
males as well as the fair sex may not peruse with amuse-
ment.

The London Polytechnic Magazine.
The third number is received, and judging from the
number and the merits of the papers by distinguished
men which crowd in upon the editor, and many of which
he must necessarily hold in reserve from want of room,
we should say that the work may be considered as already
established, and will become highly acceptable to the
scientific world. The article "On the Arts and Manu-
factures of the Esquimaux " is here concluded, and con-
tains many interesting facts relative to that simple and
singular people. The " Observations on the Internal
Heat of Earth "—as indicated by the existence of vol-
canoes, earthquakes, hot springs, igneous rocks, tempera-
ture of mines, &c., is very interesting and curious. There
is also a well written article on " The Mines in the
North of Spain." " The Carriage Ways of England,"
in which the comparative merits of the several kinds of
pavement now in use—macadamised roads, asphalte,
boulder•pitched, granite, limestone and sandstone
roads, and wooden pavements—are set forth. The
author gives a preference to granite paving stones,
as the most durable, which (if they be well laid
down) will scarcely be denied—but they are expensive.
We think, however, he rather underrates the merits of
macadamized roads; and still more those of wooden
pavements—laying far too much stress on their slippiness
in wet weather, which he assumes cannot be remedied
either by a thin coating of sand, or by grooving. We
can only say that we have several portions of street laid
down here with grooved wooden pavement, and that we
have neither witnessed nor heard of horses continually
falling upon it. We may remark, however, that one por-
tion, over which very heavy carts continually pass daily
there are indications of it not standing—tbe pavement
having become (though not laid 12 months) a little uneven
and here and there somewhat loose, apparently from the
giving way or yielding of the bed of concrete below.
Time will however decide the question. There are other
interesting papers and reviews of scientific works in the
number—to which we can but refer.