MEN AND MANNERS IN BRITAIN.
THIS book is a sort of puzzle. It purports to be the notes of a journal kept by GRANT THORBLMN during a sojourn in London, Liverpool, Ediuburgb, and other chief towns; and we expected from its title a sharp, quaint, and biting picture of the defects of English " Men and Manners," as a set-off against the sarcasms of the Tamenee. There is nothing of this kind accomplished, and very lithe attempted : on the contrary, Mr. THORBURN generally delighted with what he sees, and disposed to paint most things in the best light. Where he (or his imitator) censures, he frequently selects such remote objects, or falls into such strange mistakes, that in the one case the remarks fall harmless, in the other they seem too exaggerated to be con- sidered counterparts of Mrs. TROLLOPE'S erroneeus jumpings to wholes from single instances. Where the observations have more of fitness, they relate to points upon which the English are as clear-sighted as a stranger. Well-bred men, for example, have long-blushed for the behaviour of the House of Commons, and sensible men have regretted it : the inferences drawn front the axe which beheaded ANNA Boeever relate to too old a time to be applicable now-a-days; and whatever mistakes superficial and rash observers might make in the back settlements, they could not in large towns have made a parallel blunder to that of con- founding basket-women with housekeepers going to market. Sometitnes, however, a fair hit is made, but it derives no sting from the manner of the writer. His praise is the best part of his book.
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