Workhouses are moral pesthouses, for the encouragement of idleness and profligacy, where at a great charge to the public, a host of outcasts are reared and trained for a career of misery. For these costly and demoralizing establishments, which the English poor dread even more than imprisonment or transportation—for
"That pauper-palace which they hate to see,"
we would fain see substituted a district or county colony, where every able-bodied human being out of employment might find work and subsistence.—Quarterly Review.
BEWICK, THE ENGRAVER.
The Duke of Northumberland, when first he called to see Mr. Bewick's workshops at Newcastle, was not personally known to the engraver; yet he showed him his birds, blocks, and drawings, as he did to all, with the greatest liberality and cheerfulness; but on discovering the high rank of his visiter, exclaimed, "I beg pardon, my lord, I did not know your grace, and was unaware I had the honour of talking to so great a man." To which the duke good-humouredly replied, "You are a much greater man than I am, Mr. Bewick." To which Bewick, with his ready wit that never failed or offended, resumed, "No, my lord; but were I Duke of Northumberland, perhaps I could be."—Mag. Nat. Hist.
FRENCH DRAMA.
Voltaire, as a dramatic writer, studied only to complete what is called stage effect; and with him, moreover, originated the contemptible practice, now so prevalent in France, and once so much in this country, (and which the Irish triumvirate justly call 'blarneying John Bull,') of flattering the passions, and pouring incense on the high altar of popular vanity.—Foreign Review.—Nearly all Colman's comedies have this glaring weakness, although some allowance should be made for the strong excitement amidst which they were first produced on our stage.