FUGITIVE PIECES.
IN our notice of the Juvenile Souvenirs, we omitted to praise a little piece by Mrs. JADIESON, in the Christmas Box : it is called " Much Coin, much Care ;" and, in a very different way from Mr. CROLY, if he be the author of the Tales of the Great St. Bernard, shows the " Woes of Wealth." The broad humour of these scenes in small, indicates a dramatic talent, which this lady (the authoress, we believe, of the Diary of an Ennuyt(e) would do well, both for our satisfaction and her own, to turn to account. A cobler is overwhelmed, and his domestic happiness overturned, by the present of five pounds : the scenes both before his good for- tune and after are worthy to be thought of with Mrs. JORDAN'S Nell.
Mr. LEITCII RITCHIE has published a collection of prose pieces, which show a considerable portion of talent of the lighter order. His Irish stories are spirited and clever, more especially the one called " Shelah's Dowry." We should, perhaps, say more of this book, as well as of poor HENRY NEELE'S Remainst, did they not chiefly consist of reprints from the Albums and Magazines of the
day. HENRY NEELE was a poet by the force of mental disease. He
• Tales and Confessions. London, 1828. Smith, Elder, and Co. t Literary Remains. London, 1528. Smith, Elder, and Co. had some play of fancy. His: industrious habits ruined him : had he been as idle as the generality of poets, he never would have aggravated his mental malady into that state which brought on the act of self-destruction. But he unfortunately took to severe study, and puzzled his brain with a kind of bastard history-writing, for which he was wholly unfit. There is little merit in the Ro- mance of History—that is to say, little of the merit of talent. The• author evidently strove hard to do justice to himself, and his sub ject, and his publisher; for he seems to have been a conscientiaus and upright young man. There is therefore reading and industry; but both continued for too short a time to give merit simply as a book of research.
As a minor poet, NEELE must he placed upon a level with some very old and respectable authorities : he left several little pieces of great and happy completeness. His name will outlast several existing brilliant reputations.
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