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    Awft * UtP- Tke mriamx&mti . The Ney ? - J Ymrs Gift . ^;^\^ i ^^ ^^ m Not . ¦ !¦ 1 % « J € lSrlstnias-Bax is com pairati vely , at leist , au old friend , and as such chums precedence ; it boasts , besides Us sixty v * ood-cuts and its invisible or anonymous contributions front Sir Walter Scott , a story of thirteen chapters ,

    *• Garry Owen , or the Snow-Woman , " by Miss Edge worth . Whether the " Lord of Misrule"aud the " Plum-pudding" which precede it , indispose for sound sense and sober morality , or whether Miss Edgeworth herself is to blame , is a difficult point . Certain it is , that her Snow ; - woman does not delight us . In the first place , we think she has chosen a story which does not suit her ; a woman and her children buried in the

    snow and perishing with hunger . It is a mistake to say that Miss Edgeworth has uo talent for the pathetic ; her little touches of feeling are exquisite , and they abound in every thing she has written ; but for the awful , the sublime , either in situation or character , and the powerful representation of passion or overwhelming affliction , we are inclined

    to think she wants imagination . In the present instance , she has described all the circumstances of the discovery and rescue of this poor family , with the minuteness and composure with which she describes spinning-jennies . We do not shudder or hold our breath , we have no fear of meeting the famished mother and her dead and living offspring , when we

    have drawn our on tains and laid our heads on our pillows ; the only impression left on the mind , is the practical deduction that we are not to give too much food when people are starving . Besides this deficiency of sentiment , there is a redundancy of vulgarity in the story ; not the mere vulgarity of language , the " whichsomdevers and

    whatsomdevera and squireens and spalpeaus" of the horse-dealer and the saddler , but the low equivocation and mean , tricks , and the profusion of cunning and inordinate flattery which tine would hardly wish to become familiar to a child ' s mind or ear . It is strange that JVliss Edgeworth , the advocate for an unnatural and almost impracticable seclusion from servants , should trespass against good taste , by introducing her little friends to such conversation . After the

    recovery of the Snow-woman , the children are very desirous that their father should assist her . and especially that he

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    should give her a cottage . Mr * CrOftott ( who is chiefly distinguishable from Mis * Edgeworth-s other fathers by having a name ) replies , that his old tenants and their families have a stronger claim upon him than this poor English-woman . Cecilia then applies to her mother , who had last year been , heard to say , ( about building a cottage , ) " I kuow the way I

    can manage to have money , enough to , do it . " ; Mr . Crofton explains that the cottage in question was built with money which had been designed to purchase a harp , upon which ( we are told ) Gerald fell into a profound silence which lasted till they reached the lodge at the entrance , when opening the gate , he let his

    mother and sister pass , but arrested his father in his passage ; ' * Father , I have something to say to you , will you walk behind ? " It is evident to the reader , and ought to be supposed to be to the parent , that Gerald's little heart is quite full , that his embarrassment is owing to the very goodness which he can hardly fiud courage or words to express ; aud

    what does a father on such an occasion ? " Son , " said he , " I am ready to listen to you , and I will do anything in my power to oblige you , but you must explain to me how I am to walk behind " There is a time for joking and a time for teaching grammar ; it may be well , too , that children should learn to bear

    quizzing for their peculiarities of phraseology and manner ; but ridicule from a parent , when a child comes to confide his little soul , is injudicious and hateful ; it is like rushing to the pool which an angel has troubled , to wash off a few grains of dust . —Mrs , Holland and Miss Mitford have written for the

    Christmas-Box with their usual wise and amiable mediocrity 5 and there is a dialogue on the birds and beasts at the Zoological Society , which will probably entertain , youug readers , though we found it rather lengthy ourselves . The best things in the collection are the professedly ludir

    crous and unprofitable , which it would be unbecoming our gravity to review , ( much more to quote , ) but which are nevertheless exceedingly good , in their own way and place , and well adapted to the genius of the engraver and the de T sign of the work .

    The New-Year ' s Gift , with its delicate steel engravings , and its lady-editor , and its dedication to " her Grace , " is quite a , tasty affair . Parents and teachers may be a little inclined to dispute the assertion , that all the highly-gifted contributors have adapted their effusions to the capacity of children from six to twelve

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    848 Critical Notices .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1828, page 848, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2567/page/48/