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Mr. Lemon, of the State Paper office, is about to publish, under the sanction of the Commissioners for the publication of State Papers, some very interesting documents connected with the reign of Henry the 8th.

A Society of Hunters has been formed in Sweden, the principal object of which is to collect facts respecting the habits and peculiarities of animals of chase.

The number of boys at Eton School, at different periods, during the last thirty years, has been as follows:

Lower Boys,

or Fags.

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168

153

264

249

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319

Thus thirty years ago there were twenty-two masters to every fifteen fags; in 1829 there were only twenty-nine masters to every thirty-two fags.

Mr. Montgomery, author of the Pelican Island, and other poems, but more extensively known as late editor of a Sheffield paper, is now delivering, at the Royal Institution, a series of lectures comprising a retrospect of the history of literature, from the earliest data to the end of the twelfth century; and a view of modern English literature. This series is to consist of four lectures; and what is the fee, does the reader imagine, that Mr. Montgomery's modest estimate of his own transcendant merit, allows him to ask of the public in general per head? Why two excellent guineas. Sir Astley Cooper never received more than eighteen pence a lecture. The first scientific men of the day lecture on similar terms. We should not, after all, be a bit surprised that Mr. Montgomery had a crowded

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IN THE PRESS. A Grammar, of the Turkish Language, dedicated to the Sultan by permission. By Arthur Lumley Davids.-The Pyramids, a Poem. By Mr. Johns.-A Biographic sketch of Mrs. Jordan, the famous Actress.-A Letter to the Bishop of London, on his recent Letter, by the reputed author of the "Reproof of Brutus."-A second edition, with many additions, of Mr. Nicholas's very curious and elaborate History of the Battle of Agincourt.-The Real Devil's Walk, embellished by numerous engravings from designs by R. Cruikshank.-An accurate account of the Proceedings in the prosecution of Dr. Edward Drax Free. To be published by subscription at £1., and the profits to be given to charity. Satanic Records, or Autobiography of a Nobleman.-The Drama of Nature, by Mr. Burton.-Robert Montgomery and his Reviewers.-Cities and Towns of the world.

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Dr. Wiseman, an Englishman, and President of the English College at Rome, is engaged in the translation of a curious Syriac MSS., found in the Vatican.

Messrs. Colburn and Bentley have announced several series of works,.on the plan of the Family Library. The various apparatus, we are informed, are in a state of perfect repair, for blowing one long, and strong puff, by which these would be family concerns, are to be elevated into the third heaven.

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ter protection and care of the Insane. By John Conolly, M.D., Professor of Medicine in the University of London.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Barker's New First Class Book, 12mo. 55. 6d. bds.

POLITICS.

Sadler's Law of Population, 2 vols. 11. 10s. A Call to Women of All Ranks on the National Debt, 2s. 6d.

General Bentham on Sir H. Parnell's Financial Reform.

Conduct of the Naval Administration of Great Britain, 2s.

Babbage on the Decline of Science in Lord Suffield's Charge at the Quarter

England, 8vo. 7s. 6d. bds.

Original Letters of Locke, Sydney, &c. post 8vo. 10s. 6d. bds.

Jerdan's National Gallery of Illustrious and Eminent personages of the nineteenth century, with memoirs, imperial 8vo. hf-bd. 21. 21.

Gambra's Mining Ordinances of Spain, 2 vols. 21.

Journal of a Naturalist, third edition, 15s. Fifth Fasciculus of the Egyptian Hierogliphics of the Royal Society of Literature, 21. 10s.

Burke's Official Calendar.

Insect Transformations, 2s.

Porter's Nature and Properties of the Sugar Cane, 8vo,

Legh Peerage, partii.

Statement of the Proceedings towards the Establishment of King's College, 1s. Slade on the British Trade to Canton, 2s. 6d.

NOVELS, ROMANCES, AND TALES.

The Barony, 3 vols. 12mo. 11. 7s.
The Mussulman, 3 vols. post 8vo. 11. 11s. 6d.
Traits of Scottish Life, 3 vols. 11. 7s. Od.
Sir Ethelbert, 3 vols. Il. 4s.

Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck, 3 vols. 17. 11s. 6d.

Levi and Sarah, or the Jewish Lovers, 1 vol. 8s. 6d.

Polack's Fiction without Romance, 2 vols. 16s.

Syme's Fortunes of Da Carrera, 9s.

Sessions for the County of Norfolk, 2s. 6d.

Macqueen's Thoughts and Suggestions on the present condition of the Country, 8vo.

P. Thompson's Speech in the House of Commons on Taxation, 8vo.

THEOLOGY.

Hitchin's Christian Friend, 12mo. 5s. bds. Carpenter's Guide to Reading the Bible, 18mo. 5s. bds.

The pleasures of Benevolence, 12mo. 5s 6d. bds.

Binney's Discourses on Faith, 10s. 6d. Stratten's Book of the Priesthood. 8s. Muston on Christian Friendship, 6s. 6d. Mc Gavin on Church Establishments, 12mo. 2s.

Doddridge's Sermons, 4 vols. 1. 16s. Od. Coleridge on the Constitution of Church and State, 2d. ed. 10s. 6d.

Wilson's Evidences of Christianity, 2 vols.

125.

Hall's Discourses, 1 vol. 78.

The Divine System of the Universe, 1 vol. Bishop of London's Letter on the Pro

fanation of the Lord's Day, 4th ed. 1s. The Work of the Holy Spirit in Conversion. By John Howard Hinton, A.M. 12mo. 6s.

Eight Discourses to Youth, with a Memoir of the Author's Eldest Son. By John Humphrys, LL. D. 18mo. 3s. 6d.

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THE

MONTHLY REVIEW.

JULY, 1830.

ART. I.-The Life of Richard Bentley, D.D., Master of Trinity College, and Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge; with an account of his writings, and Anecdotes of many distinguished characters, during the period in which he flourished. By James Henry Monk, D.D., Dean of Peterborough. 4to. pp. 751. London: Rivingtons; and Deightons, Cambridge. 1830.

A LIFE of Dr. Bentley was, undoubtedly, a great desideratum in English literature. Though a daring, and sometimes a speculative emendator, he was, perhaps, one of the first classical critics that has yet appeared in this country. Whenever his name is mentioned, it reminds us of the unwearied industry, the singular acuteness, and the unrivalled ability with which he investigated almost every question which attracted his attention. His correspondence with some of the most celebrated men of his age would alone have transmitted his reputation for learning to posterity. His commentary, we mean of course the enlarged edition, upon the spurious letters of Phalaris, which were capable of deceiving Sir William Temple, and some of the most celebrated scholars of the day, is a model of profound criticism, and as such will be consulted and followed whenever a similar imposition shall be attempted to be practised on the public. Scarcely inferior to this are the remarks on the fables, popularly attributed to Esop, which Sir W. Temple had also the misfortune of classing among the most genuine remains of antiquity.

When we say that the life of such an illustrious critic as Dr. Bentley was a work much to be desired, we regret to be obliged to add that the Dean of Peterborough has not succeeded in supplying it. He has, indeed, produced a very thick quarto volume, neatly printed, and furnished with a suitable Appendix and Index, and a glowing Dedication to the Bishop of London. But the mind of a master does not pervade it. A great abundance of materials lay before the Biographer, from which he has selected as much as suited his purpose; but he has put them together merely by way

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of abridgment, sometimes without digesting them, and always without enriching them with any knowledge, or ray of talent, derived from his own resources. It is the work of a mere mechanist of the press, whereas a much more brilliant production was expected, and not without reason, from the hands of the Dean of Peterborough.

In one respect the Biographer deserves praise. Although in his dedication he shews that he is not unacquainted with the language of adulation, he certainly is not the flatterer of Dr. Bentley. Most writers in this class of composition seem to imagine it to be their duty, when they select the career of a scholar or a soldier for their theme, to invest him with every attribute of a hero, and to prove him more free from faults than the common lot of humanity justifies. Dr. Monk, on the contrary, pourtrays the celebrated master of Trinity just as He sets down nothing in malice; neither does he extenuate any charge which was clearly proved against the great critic, for charges there were in sufficient number to break down a man of ordinary mettle. The life is every where most impartially written, without any apparent leaning to any of the various characters who figure in it. So far Dr. Monk is deserving of all praise.

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But when we come to look at the moral of the story, we find the utility of such a work as this, speaking in a general sense, exceedingly doubtful. It will be read with intense interest by every man acquainted with the Universities, because they are versed in the local feelings and traditions to which there are allusions in every page. But those readers who have been bred at Cambridge will have just reason to blush, and those who have pursued their studies elsewhere, will have as just reason to be scandalized, when they reflect upon the picture of cloistered life which this volume exhibits. A great deal has been said, from time to time, of the monastic establishments which formerly existed in England, and still are to be found in many parts of the continent; of the vices of which their inhabitants were guilty, and of the disgrace which they brought upon religion. We venture to say, that there does not appear in the genuine annals of: any one of those institutions, a darker or a more disgusting picture than the history of Trinity College alone exhibits during nearly the whole period of Bentley's presidency. Envy, insatiable malice, intriguing and wicked revenge, avarice, calumny, hatred, almost every passion that is most hostile to the spirit of Christianity, every example that is most detrimental to youthful morals rises here, and passes in succession before us, like so many evil forms summoned from the realms of the condemned. not a sudden or temporary ebullition of anger, that swells up and then disappears in the feelings of generosity and forgiveness. The thirst of sordid gain, shameless in its excess, the intensity of opposition pursued for years with increasing eagerness, and pursued, not for an object of justice, but through sheer malig

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