THE GEORGIAN /ERA.
Is a happy attempt at a biographical novelty. The grand period of the Four GEORGES is the most distinguished and remarkable space of time of equal length in the history of England's rise and progress; and the greatness of the events had a corresponding greatness in the character and numbers of those who acted in them. The Georgian zEra is a biographical compilation in four volumes, only the first of which is yet published ; in which it is proposed to give an account of every remarkable person who has appeared within the limits of the age that may now be marked by the name of the first four Monarchs of the house of Hanover. The Lives are arranged in classes,—such as the Church, the Senate, the Royal Family, &c.; and appear to be compiled with industry and talent. We have examined several; and though we have de- tected errors, on the whole we are inclined to record a very favour- able judgment of the execution of the design. Impartiality and fair- ness seem to be the editor's characteristics; which, with the exertion of a great deal of industry, and ordinary common sense, are qualities calculated to produce a work possessing claims to the notice of the general reader. As a book of reference, our readers should be in- formed that it embraces the living as well as the dead; and in the. classes of the Royal Family, the Pretenders and their adherents, the Church, the Senate, and Dissenters, the present volume con- tains every name of eminence that was distinguished publicly and generally before the demise of GEORGE the fourth. The volume is very closely as well as handsomely printed, in columns ; and contains, though not in appearance large, an enor- mous quantity of matter. It is graced with a vast number of little portraits, in a very curious style : there are in each por- trait-page a batch of some sixteen or twenty heads, which, front the similar expression generally assumed, would seem to have been just knocked together, and to have taken to the bottle to heal their wounds. The page of Bishops is a libel on the Church. Indeed, the whole reminds us of the clownish amusement of grin- ning through a collar for a prize.
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