At Brighton, Miss Brunton has a still wider range of characters to sustain; she is much admired by the fashionable visitors of that place, and the Prince of Wales has each summer commanded her benefit; an honour which, we understand, had never before been conferred..

We rejoice when public merit and private character, when professional talent, and correct manners, correspond with each other. They cannot be more amiably united than they are in the person of Miss Brunton.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF

LUMLY ST. GEORGE SKEFFINGTON, ESQ.

Concluded from p. 79.

DOVER, which, from the earliest time, has been considered as the

66

key of the kingdom," presents many objects of interest. Its ancient castle, and that cliff, which Shakspeare has enrolled upon the records of fame, stand prominent. But other objects (almost innumerable) court the contemplation of a poetical and elegant imagination. These, added to the polite attentions of the inhabitants, were inducements sufficiently strong to detain the object of our present memoir some time longer than he originally intended to remain.— Mr. Skeffington has been often heard to acknowledge the civilities he received from the inhabitants of Dover.

On the 6th of the following December, Mr. Skeffington produced, at Drury-Lane theatre, his legendary melodrama of "The Sleeping Beauty." This piece has obtained the greatest popularity. High as the public ideas were raised, by the report of its singularity and excellence, their expectations were completely gratified. The basis of this performance may, it is true, rest on an old story, but the superstructure and the order are all new, striking, and eccentric. They furnish proofs of elegant taste, original genius and poetical refinement. The ladies, in particular, would be accused of ingratitude, were they to look coldly on the Muse of Mr. Skeffington, who has put into the mouths of his two enamoured knights, Aldibert and Oswin, speeches and panegyrics which would have done credit to Oron dates, or any other hero of romance. As an evidence of the merit of the Sleeping Beauty, it has already run upwards of thirty nights. It will remain a stock piece. We understand that Mr. Skeffington has a tragic drama, and a comedy, in the hands of the Drury-Lane

managers. To the time of their appearance we look forward with anxiety and pleasure.

Before we close our brief account of a gentleman who excites in every rank of persons so much interest and attention, it inay be reasonably expected that we should give some general account.— Those who best know him declare, that, in point of temper, he may be equalled, but not surpassed. As to his manners, the suffrage of the most polished and polite circles in this kingdom have pronounced him one of the best bred men of the present time, blending at once the decorum of what is called the "vieille cour," with the careless gracefulness of the modern school: he seems to do every thing by chance; but it is such a chance as study could not improve. In short, whenever he trifles, it is with elegance, and whenever occasion calls for energy, he is warm, spirited, and animated. Let it be further added, that he is a zealous friend and supporter of the theatres and the performers, evincing, on every occasion, an ardent inclination for the encouragement of merit.

Thus gifted, in person, birth, and talents, it will not appear extraordinary that he should, in his turn, be governing the fashions, and establishing the mode; though we cannot help observing, that considerations such as these should be below his notice. We have of late heard of a new colour of his introducing, which is distinguished by the name of the "Skeffington brown;" but we should be much better pleased if, instead of a colour, however brilliant, he had given us another sample of his literary abilities.

In the conduct of this gentleman there are some traits which are particularly apparent; first, his uncommon ardour in friendship; and, secondly, his condescending and free manner to inferiors and servants. It is also a fact well ascertained, that he was never known to say, even in the most remote way, a disrespectful or unkind word of any person.

SELECT SENTENCES.

OUR UR pleasures are destroyed by the most trifling things:-and may be compared to beds of flowers, amongst which some will undoubtedly be crushed-and one crushed flower is sufficient to disquiet us.

WERE the two sexes to appear always in their own faces, one might guess at the movements within, by the motions without. But

as the majority put on faces, as well as cloaths, for public view; it is therefore, with the majority, a difficult matter to be well acquainted.

WEDDED pairs, who have opposite dispositions, and are perpetually squabbling with each other, make one think of the union between the swallow and the snipe. The first, says the fable, was never pleased in winter, the latter was never displeased but in

summer.

THE trifling train of female sparklers may be compared to the dew-drops which glitter in a May morning, and spread their colours to the solar rays, but which are scattered by the air. They both charm while they last, but they are only the charms of a moment.

REMARKS

ON THE

RESPECTIVE INGENÚITY OF THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH In Arts, Manufactures, and Knowledge.

A REMARKABLE spirit of carefulness and superintendency has for a long time characterised the genius of the French government.Its watchfulness and solicitude is not confined to administration and police, but extends to whatever may be conducive to public utility: yet, with all the advantages necessarily arising from this unremitting circumspection and attention, they are not arrived at that prodigious variety of inventions and improvements which afford so agreeable, as well as surprising, an entertainment to the foreigners who resort to England. From the commonest observer, to the keenest and most vigilant scrutiniser into things, there seems to be a concurrence of opinion, in such as are unprepossessed and disinterested, that no other country produces so great a number of expert individuals in the various branches of business they profess; and that the necessary and useful arts are in general no where so well understood and practised as in England.

The impartial and candid among the French themselves, acknowledge this, without hesitation, and often expatiate upon it in a style that proves how intimately they are convinced of the superiority, in these matters, that England so justly claims over France.

In agriculture, and in rural knowledge of every kind, they are not comparable to the English The aspect of the land throughout France, proves this beyond dispute. It is a science wherein the inhabitants of this island stand unrivalled. England has long been styled the garden of the North; but it may now be justly called the garden of Europe.

Neither is their dexterity in arts and manufactures to be ranked on the same level of perfection to which we find them both carried in England. An avowed preference is given every where to the work of English artificers. Whatever proceeds from their hands, bears a stamp of nicety and neatness to which the handicraftsmen of foreign parts are, in general, utter strangers. This, however, is a fact better known to and experienced by the English who go abroad, than by those who remain at home. Whatever is imported of that nature into this island is prepared with the utmost accuracy, in order to stand the test of the most curious and critical examina tion. It is wrought, therefore, with a solicitude and exactness that are by no means usual in the common run of their manual performances, which are very coarse and unpolished, in comparison of the productions of our workmen.

In England, the implements of the most ordinary and vulgar trades and occupations are, by impartial people, and even by such as would willingly depreciate us, if they could, acknowledged to be finished with a compactness, and almost a delicacy of workmanship and execution far surpassing those made in other countries; where, if their tools and instruments are barely fit for use, it is commonly all their makers aim at.

Were we to examine the numerous institutions of all kinds that have been gradually and successively established in France, during the progress of the last and present centuries, with the laudable view to forward and assist the cultivation of arts and manufactures, we shall not find them effecting more, if, perhaps, so much as we have done, on the whole, without such help.

Painting, sculpture, and engraving they have hitherto excelled us in, from the greater demand for those productions, in a country where they are encouraged by the spirit of its religion, and diffused, therefore, with a greater latitude than where the gratification of curiosity is their only dependence. In all other respects we fully cope with, and in many we manifestly go beyond them. Voltaire, in his Letters on the English Nation, compares us to the irregulars

of an army, who cannot be expected to perform such expert feats as disciplined troops. This comparison is founded on the want of those ordinances and regulations in our learned societies, that keep, as it were, more closely embodied, and conscquently in better order, the institutions of that sort in France.

But, with all due deference to his authority, and allowing there may be less of order and regularity in the formation and arrangement of our literary bodies, than there is among those of his own countrymen, one may still venture to defy him to cite any greater names among the members who have to this day composed the Academy of Sciences, than have appeared among the fellows of our Royal Society.

With regard to depth of reasoning, and enquiry into abstruse and intricate matters, the French do not, in general, equal the English. Few of their writers are as profound as ours, and we much exceed them in the number of excellent compositions on subjects of this nature.

In this department of literature the English may challenge the supremacy. All Europe allows it. The many celebrated names that could be cited on this occasion, have reflected the highest honour on this nation, and raised it to the summit of reputation throughout the learned world, for true wisdom and sound philosophy.

We may dismiss the subject by observing, as an illustration of what has been asserted, that the best logical treatise in the French language, is l'Art de Penser," the art of thinking," a work that appeared during the brilliant æra of Lewis the Fourteenth, and was supposed to be the joint production of several of the first geniusses of the time. It is certainly a most valuable performance, but notwithstanding the universal applause it deservedly received, and the high esteem it justly commands over all France, and wherever it is known, though framed with exquisite judgment and accuracy, it is on the strictest and most favourable examination, but an elementary treatise, when compared to the essay on the human understanding. Though clear, solid, comprehensive, yet, in the united opinion of the most able and judicious readers, it is not to be mentioned as bearing any adequate proportion to the depth of disquisition displayed in that treasure of equally sublime and useful knowledge, flowing from the masterly pen of our English philosopher.