HARPER & BROTHERS HAVE RECENTLY PUBLISHED FOUR YEARS IN GREAT BRITAIN. By Rev. C The following are a few of the literary notices that have been taken of this production :— "Mr. Colton's work contains much valuable statistical information with regard to the revenue, expenses, church establishment, and taxation of Great Britain, which he has collected with exemplary diligence. He has described with enthusiasm and with effect the extreme beauty of the country, the magnificence of ancient edifices, the perfect order and admirable taste of the country seats, and the gorgeous spectacle of the king's levee and the queen's drawingroom."-American Quarterly Review. "Mr. Colton gives us the best description we have seen of O'Connell." "When he comes to Lord Brougham, he introduces a long and pompous description of a scene between him and Mr. Canning; a passage which on a former occasion decorated the pages of this journal. Mr. Colton's own description is a hundred times better." "Mr. Colton describes his presentation to the king, and the joys and sorrows of that courtly mob. In the queen's drawingroom he was most struck with the Duchess of Kent, mother of the Princess Victoria. He describes her as a woman of noble bearing, and most graceful and attractive manner."-North American Review. "FOUR YEARS IN GREAT BRITAIN combines the rare qualities of a sketch book and a book of facts. It has enough of the former to enchain the attention of youth and the most superficial readers--to gratify the glowing imagination of the sentimentalist; and enough of the latter to make the work almost indispensable, as a record of various and important information on British society, manners, statistics, politics, statesmen, metropolitan and rural customs, &c." "Mr. Colton has given us a work, which develops no ordinary talent-entertaining to one class, instructive to another, interesting and useful to all."-Knickerbocker. "We take leave to recommend this book to all such as like to have useful information blended with entertainment in what they read. The writer was long enough in the country and among the people he describes, to acquire facts correctly, and form just opinions, and his candour appears to be very great. His accounts of men and manners generally are clever and amusing; and he has shown much skill in the selection of such topics as will be most likely to combine novelty and interest to American readers."-New-York Gazette. "The general strain of remark in these volumes is grave, and their tendency salutary to the cause of truth and virtue. The pages of our author cannot be perused without leading us to think and feel." "The picture which these volumes unfold of the church of England, is a work of no ordinary merit. We thought ourselves prepared for a statement of the enormous wealth of the establishment; yet the development was astounding. . We must accede to Mr. Colton the palm of having taken all pains to attain a just conclusion. He was not ignorant of the difficulties attending this subject. He has furnished us with the means of estimating the expense; and with the scrutiny of a Bentham, he has compared the wealth of the English church with the revenues of France, Spain, and Rome, and calculated the expense of Christianity in different countries." "Mr. Colton, in our view, betrays neither scantiness of knowledge, nor narrowness of view." "Our critics must do their part towards rendering every traveller an Irving in manner and a Colton in matter."-Literary and Theological Review. "We perceive that the public press, as well as common rumour, universally speaking in terms of decided and strong approbation of Mr. Colton's work. The attention it has excited, and the commendation it is receiving, are, perhaps, unrivalled for a work of the kind, in the space of one week after its publication."-New-York Observer. "Of FOUR YEARS IN GREAT BRITAIN we have heard but one universal expression of approbation. Indeed, its pleasing and unaffected style, its simple and unpretending relation of facts and impressions, and its short and pithy descriptions, render it agreeable to every reader; and to an American the adventures and opinions of a countryman in and with regard to Old England, must be peculiarly interesting. Its sentiments on religion, and particularly with regard to church establishments, are gratifying to a Christian and liberal-minded community-and the politician may gather from its details of British resources, politics, and jurisprudence, much useful information."Brooklyn Advertiser. "Let those who want to know what Great Britain is, from the throne down to menials of the lowest condition, what are the fruits of her monarchy, her aristocracy, her church and state-let those who wish to have set before them lively and graphic pictures of society, of men, of manners, of things, so as to see them without the trouble and expense of going abroad-let those who are fond of travelling with the traveller, of seeing with his eyes, of hearing with his ears, and of enjoying with him the agreeable things of town and country-in England, Scotland, and Ireland-read this book. did not think so much could be said of Great Britain which we did not know. Mr. Colton has made it all a fresh and new story. It is a contribution for which the public will thank him."-National Intelligencer. We "This work bears intrinsic evidence of candour. Yet it is to be observed, and much to the author's credit, that to spy out the nakedness of the land has by no means been his object. If he saw much to censure, he has good sense enough and gentlemanly feeling, to know that censurable points are not the most interesting materials whereof to make a useful book. An entertaining book he has assuredly made-eminently so."-New-York Times. Colton's "Four Years in Great Britain." iii "Mr. Colton seems to have possessed such excellent judgment in finding out scenes and objects worthy of a traveller's attention-so much tact in avoiding the hackneyed and commonplace-and he describes what he saw with such vivacity; and more than all, he has so many personal anecdotes to tell of his own adventures among beggars, and coachmen, and landlords, and peasants, and gentlemen and ladies, and he tells them with so much point and good humour, that the reader feels as much at home with him as though he were an old acquaintance. One thing we like him for especially; and that is, for giving such copious details as he does of scenes, and persons, and classes of society, out of the common routine of travellers in England; and this, of course, is to be ascribed in a great measure to the length of time employed in picking up his knowledge. Four years in England are enough to furnish materials for a dozen volumes; it may easily be conceived, then, how richly two volumes must be filled, where such an ample stock of recollections existed. In a word, we like Mr. Colton's book, and we think all other readers will like it too."-New-York Evening Star. "We have looked through these volumes with a deeper interest than we had anticipated in opening them, and we lay them down with the impression, that they are destined to exercise a most salutary influence on the state of public opinion in this country-an influence never more needed than at this time, when the criticisms of British officers on half-pay, curates wanting parishes, female speculators who have failed in making their fortunes among us, as well as actresses who have succeeded, have nearly frightened the timid, the thoughtless, the vulgarly genteel, from their propriety, and driven them to the conclusion that there must be something wrong in the very constitution of society on this side the Atlantic, or there could not be so great ado about it. To all such we urgently recommend the perusal of Mr. Colton's book, with the confident anticipation that it will afford a radical cure for their diseased fancies. The author has returned to this country purely and exultingly an American. On the great questions of liberty and absolute political equality as contrasted with monarchy and aristocracy-entire freedom and non-interference in religion as contrasted with a union of church and state-he is in heart and soul, in judgment and feeling, with his country and her institutions; and his convictions are expressed with a manliness which contrast most forcibly with the ignorant and volatile gossip, the small witticism, and the gross outrage of domestic privacy and confiding hospitality, which have characterized the herds of English works on America. The vein of seriousness in which the whole is conceived will not impair the pleasure even of the habitually thoughtless, while it will heighten the confidence of all in its statements, and their respect for its conclusions."-The New-Yorker. "This pleasing book reminds us sometimes of the simplicity of Goldsmith's Vicar, and sometimes of the sensitiveness of Sterne. Mr. Colton has much too that is solid and discriminating in his sketches; and his style and character unfold so agreeably, that one feels, at length, as if in converse with a friend."-Southern Rose Bud. Decidedly the best, most sensible, and entertaining description of English scenery, manners, antiquities, distinguished men, and political peculiarities, that has ever been published, in this country at least, is a work in two volumes, by the Rev. Calvin Colton." New-York Commercial Advertiser and Spectator. |