her Majesty declared her determination to retain her household entirely unchanged. That it was upon this determination that he and his friends had considered it impossible for them to accept office. The public would never believe that no political conversation passed between the Queen and the ladies of her household. "I believe," he added emphatically, "the history of this country affords a number of instances in which secret and improper influence has been exercised by means of such conversations. I have, my lords, a somewhat strong opinion on this subject. I have unworthily filled the office which the noble viscount now so worthily holds; and I must say, I have felt the inconvenience of an anomalous influence, undoubtedly, of this description, and exerted simply in conversations; and I will tell the noble viscount that the country is at this moment suffering some inconvenience from the exercise of that very secret influence." We have been thus minute in collecting all the authentic details of this transaction, with a particularity that may perhaps to some of our readers appear superfluous, because these are not occurrences of mere ephemeral interest. In years to come the records of that memorable week will be anxiously looked for, and we have collected all that can be positively known on the subject. we With suspicions and rumours have not dealt, however well founded the one or general the other. That the Marquis of Normanby was at the bottom of the entire is very generally believed; that he visited the palace during the negociations with Sir Robert Peel, is notorious, for what purpose perhaps never will be known. We are, we confess, inclined to believe that in all such cases the vulgar error is to imagine influences when none are at work. There is a natural disposition to the marvellous in the human mind, which makes us unwilling to admit that causes so trivial as the real ones can decide movements upon which depend the destinies of mankind; and we often look for the manœuvres of a deep po litical intrigue, when, in reality, there might be nothing more than the caprice of an hour or a fit of ill temper, or some of those ordinary failings of mortals, from which not even great sovereigns or great statesmen are exempt. Indeed the history of the world seems to teach the lesson, that causes like these have effected more changes than serious ones; and that the movements of states and empires have far oftener depended on the light and trivial accidents that termined by incidents worthy of their regulate every-day life, than been de effect. We refrain from all comment on these transactions. They are now before the country, and it will judge. The act by which Sir Robert Peel was dismissed is not that of her Majesty, but of Lord Melbourne. It is plain, however, that her Majesty's partialities are strongly biassed towards a faction. Her late ministers have managed this. Round a girl of eighteen they placed their own partisans, and their own partisans exclusively. Every artifice was employed to bias her mind and to pervert her judgment; her taste for amusement and gaiety encouraged and gratified; her vanity flattered by artful and assiduous attentions; her prime minister her intimate associate, the playmate of her amusements, the companion of her retirement, the sharer of her most domestic hours; her mother estranged from her affections, perhaps, ere this, separated from her society; her early friends banished from her presence; and her early and once-loved preceptress forgotten and neglected. Left in the hands of Lords Melbourne, Normanby, and Headford, and the female slanderers of Lady Flora Hastings. The achievements of her late ministry, in bringing their sovereign into thraldom, do them credit. It has been said long ago-" the king of a party is but sovereign of half his people;" what is true of kings is true also of queens, and in this instance, the most painful reflection is, that the excluded half contains most of what is virtuous and influential in British society. CRITICAL NOTICES. Elements of Geology. By Charles Lyell, Esq. In this instructive and interesting little work we have at last found what has long been a desideratum in our library of education, we mean a rational and scientific summary of the present discoveries in that most important branch of natural knowledge, geology, which may, at the same time, be put safely into the hands of the youngest and most inexperienced reader, without exposing his or her religious opinions to the least chance of being outraged by any expressed or implied pieces of scepticism, so common in books devoted to this science. It is not by any means an abridgement of the "Principles" by the same author. The arrangement is totally different, and we think more satisfactory, as well as decidedly more agreeable to the reader. We have rocks classified into four great divisions, the aqueous, the volcanic, the plutonic, and the metamorphic; and these are each treated of with reference to their mineral composition, the included fossils where they occur, and in the second part, to their comparative chronology. The series is a descending one-that is, in each class, the newest formations are first described, and then the less recent. The whole is put before the reader with that eloquence of expression and absence of pedantry for which this author is so remarkable, and which insures the interest of the most extended capacity, while it is within the grasp of the most limited. It is in this manner that science should be sent amongst the young, not as some old worthy describes logic "crabbed and club-fisted," but in an agreeable and popular dress, so as to render a companion who is destined to be near the student the greater part of his life, as little irksome as possible on a first introduction. It is not our intention to enter into the question of geology. It has been, no doubt, and still is, a stumbling-block to many. But as it is a true science, having nature for its object, and truth for its end, it is a fair field for human investigation. Its direct tendency is to elevate the mind, and we are confident its ultimate effect will be to strengthen natural religion. Were we not convinced of this, we should never think of recommending Domestic Scenes in Russia. By the Rev. R. Lister Mr. Venables had many opportunities which Englishmen visiting Russia want, for obtaining admission into its domestic circles. He is connected by marriage with some of the first Russian aristocracy; and it was on a visit to his wife's relations in that country that he obtained the insight into the national manners which he so simply and amusingly describes. We have the country houses of the gentry, their farms, manufactures, (for such are carried on in most Russian houses,) family arrangements, amusements, and pursuits, all laid before us in a plain and unadorned style which bespeaks their truth. The account given of the working of the serf-system will be found interesting to the economist, as also that dreaded and dreadful visitation, the conscription. Mr. Venables, after visiting the capital, plunges into the interior of the country, first to Krasnoe, the seat of his father-in-law, and afterwards through Moscow, to Tamboff, where he passes the winter of 1837. Among the many we have seen we have not met with a more impartial and sensible account of the Emperor, or a more just estimate of his character, power, and resources, than that of Mr. Venables. He collected as much information as he could from those amongst whom he was thrown, and he seems to possess considerable tact in sifting what is true from the mass. At the same time, the book, as its title denotes, is more suited for the drawing-room than the study; and will be found rather in the hands of the litteraire than the politician. We, however, cannot but recommend a work which, professing to be little more than a journal of domestic occurrences, contains many sound reflections on social and political systems, and many lively descriptions of nature and events. INDEX TO VOL. XIII. Adriatic, the Bridal of the, 617 Arthur, Governor, his proclamation, 1 Ballads, Scraps of Hibernian, 752 Bartlett, Thomas, A.M., Life of Bishop -Second Article, 619 Boyne, the Battle of, an Historical Brougham, Lord, and his Calumniators; Browne (Miss M. A.) Twelve Sketches Butler, Bishop, Review of Bartlett's Life By-Ways of Irish History, Chap. XXII. Canada-Narrative by Sir Francis B. Canada, Prospects of the British Empire Lord Durham's Report on, 355 Chalmers, Dr., Review of his Works, 243 - First Second Article, Van Dieman's Colonies of the British Empire, and -Chap. XXXII. Mr. O'Leary's First Corn Laws, the, 337 Critical Notices - Dr. Wordsworth's cine, by Dr. C. Ticknor; Macray's Cross, by Bonn, the High, a Story of the Datura Fastuosa, the, from the German Departed, the, by Mrs. L. H. Sigourney, Dissent, see Prospects of the British Em- Dream, the, by E. C. 613 Dunlop's Drinking Usages, Critical No- Durham, Lord, his Report on Canada, 336 Empire, 1 Expectation, literally rendered from Female Portraits, No. I.-Part first, Fine Arts, the, 112. Francesca da Rimini, a tragedy by Silvio Fraser, J. B., Review of his Winter's Friars of Berwick, the, a Scottish story in English rhyme, 369. Fruits of Observation, Critical Notice of, Garioch, Rev. G., Association, or the Gellert's Tales and Fables, 44. Gilfillan, Robert, Hymn to the Setting Graham, Andrew, the Victim of Illicit Hamilton, Miss E. M., The Soldier, 658 Laudanum, a Sixty-drop Dose of, 267 Lover's Farewell, translated from Justin Loyalty's Last Challenge, 336 M'Leod's Age of Chivalry, Critical Martin, Montgomery, Review of his Maunsell, H., M.D., Medicine considered Moise sur le Nil, from the French of Montgomery, Rev. R.-Critical Notice Normanby, Lord, Ireland under his Ad- Oath [of allegiance] taken [by Roman Ollandorf's Method of Learning Lan- t Palgrave, Sir Francis, the Merchant and the Friar, Review of, 145 Priests, Roman Catholic, in the Interests Queen, Review of Lord Brougham's Railways in Ireland, 376 Rainbow, the, a sonnet, 610 relative to Canada,) 501; Critical Rimini, Francesca da, by Silvio Pellico, Schalken, the Painter, Strange Event in Schiller, Expectation, literally rendered Shakspeare, Review of the Pictorial Edi- Solace of Song, the, by R. Shelton - Sonnets to the late Dr. A. Clarke Stanzas which ought not to have been the House of, at Rome, 322. Reade, John Edmund, Review of his Sweden, Social, Moral, and Political poems, 727 Red Sea, the Passage of the, 660 REVIEWS-Lord Brougham's Letter to the British Empire; Montgomery State of, 693. TALES AND NARRATIVES.-Bridal of |