Glasgow Courier. — 1845-04-05 (Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland)

APRIL, 1845. London: Biatrard Bentley, New Burlington Street. This popular miscellany, we observe, has resoled its hundredth number—a point which may be coaddered in the light of an epoch in the history of a period* isubEcation. A peria or nearly eight years and • half has now passed over the world awe the advent of .Dentley, milder the auspices of the fastens Bee and his odfsboratette George Oruckshank, who then led off in crack style with , the "Workhouse Boy." Succeeding them wehase had battalions of others—some, it is tine, of minor mark and likelihood—but who have still sustained the high ohmmeter to which it had attigned at the outset. But the more effective and the more distinguished in the world of lighter literature were Ainsworth with his Jack Sheppard, and Albert Smith with the Ledbury Adventures, and the Scattergood Family. These writers found in John Leech all that was required in the shape of pictorial illustration by the secession of Cruikshank. Alfred Crowquill, too, has been equally happy with the pen as with the pencil, both of which he wields with the hand of a master. But we have not space sufficient to give even a bare enumeration of the legions of talent which have been brought to sustain the rift fortune, and popularity of Bentley's Miscellany in the face of a large amount of formidable cempaition ; and it being now one of the established publications of the age, farther remark on that point is unnecessary. We come therefore to speak tithe number before us. As usual we have variety, and the contents taken in °wale are, of average merit; that is, while there is nothing transcendentally excellent, we have nothing down to the level of absolute mediocrity. The continuation of Albert Smith's " Romance of Old Paris" is at least equal, if not superior, to any previous portions of the story.—" The Siege of Hensburgh," by Dr. itytt67is the transmutation into tolerable verse of a well-known incident _which occurred when that city was besieged by the Emperor Conrad the Third. As an act of grace the women went illlowed to depart out of the city with as much as each of tkeed could carry. The sequel was, Tbat To  her jewelld tire or • sire;  's constancy, spared the  Hoe to serve out kind,bythe "Irish Whi and Chepstow, are the  With curious and interelting ètieitlsrssi tinan-hallowed localities and ancient ruins. . telimpees and Mysteries, Outlined by Alfred Crowquiltf are exceedingly happy. Of the three illustrations, the first is the best—it is irresistible. Under the head of "Literary Retrospect of the Departed Great," we have some personal recollections of Sir Thee Lawrence,SirFrancisChantrey,antl Sir David Wilkie. The writer appears to belong to what we would call theftdelle-faddle Beim& of authorship, being almost as complete a chronicler of small beer as he of "Random Recollectiomr notoriety—James Grant himself. By the way, he asks if it was not Isaac Walton who wrote of Dr. Donne—. Nothing in ins life became him like the leaving it ?" By a little examination he will find that the words are noise of Isaac Walton's, but were stolen forth of Shakspeare's tragedy of Macbeth, act I. scene 4, in reply to the question by Xing Duncan," Has execution been done on Cawdor ?"—'l'he late Rev. Sydney Smith is the subject of a subsequent article in the number on hand. It is in the shape of a biographical sketch— written with considerable tact and ability, and conceived in the proper spirit. 0 rare Sydney I—of whom can we say with so much truth, in the words of Sir Nathaniel in "Love's Labour Lost"—" Your reasons at dinner have been sharp and sententious, pleasant without scurrility, witty without affectation, audacious without impudence, learned without opinion, and strange without heresy." An engraved portrait accompanies the paper, reprekenting the rev. gentleman when in the prime of life.—" The Wet Blanket" is a so-so affair, and only redeemed by one of Leech's clever illustrations.—" The Halifax Murder" is of the newspaper calibre, and somewhat trite and commonplace.—The Gaol Chaplain gives a few more pages from his" Volume."—The anecdote of Willison, the Edinburfh painter, is, we believe, "a true bill," but has lost half its raciness in the telling of it.—A playful good-natured "Glance at the Drama," and a couple of passable pieces of verse, and we have gone over in their order the whole contents of the hundredth number of Bentley's Miscellany.  it was  A nderoce  t ho would lw Mar was at  1/111C.-. Woe WILLIS WINK'S:" IL Nursery Bong. By Wm' Ail'