Transcriber's note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). Small capital text has been replaced with all capitals. * * * * * BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. No. CCCCXXXIV. DECEMBER, 1851. VOL. LXX. CONTENTS. TO THE SHOPKEEPERS OF GREAT BRITAIN, 629 THE JEW'S LEGACY. A TALE OF THE SIEGE OF GIBRALTAR, 648 LIFE AMONGST THE LOGGERS, 669 MY NOVEL; OR, VARIETIES IN ENGLISH LIFE. PART XVI., 681 JOHNSTON'S NOTES ON NORTH AMERICA, 699 THE ANSAYRII, 719 THE CHAMPIONS OF THE RAIL, 739 INDEX, 751 EDINBURGH: WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS, 45 GEORGE STREET; AND 37 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON. _To whom all communications (post paid) must be addressed._ SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH. BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. No. CCCCXXXIV. DECEMBER, 1851. VOL. LXX. TO THE SHOPKEEPERS OF GREAT BRITAIN. GENTLEMEN,--As it is customary for most men about this season of the year, when accounts are balanced and squared, to take a serious survey of the posture of their affairs, and to examine into their business prospects, perhaps you may not consider a few observations, touching the welfare and position of that important class of the community to which you belong, either impertinent or ill-timed. You are aware that, for the last year or two, Her Majesty's Ministers have been in the habit of opening Parliament with a congratulatory assurance of the continued, and even augmented, prosperity of the country. The reason why such statements were made, altogether irrespective of their truth or falsehood, is obvious enough. In a political point of view, they were necessary for the vindication of the measures which Government either originated or adopted. To have admitted that the country was not prospering under the new commercial system, would have been considered by the public as tantamount to an acknowledgment that the policy which dictated those measures was vicious; and that the Whig ministry, if not deficient in duty, had at least erred sorely in judgment. In private life, we rarely meet with that degree of candour which amounts to an unequivocal admission of error in point of judgment--in public life, such an admission is altogether unknown. Failure may indeed be acknowledged when the fact becomes too evident to admit of further denial; but the causes of that failure are never attributed to their real source. Not only the purity of the motive, but the wisdom of the conception, is vindicated to the last. In this case, however, failure is totally denied. So far from being put upon their defence, the Whigs maintain that they have achieved a triumph. Their