THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION. VOL. XIV, NO. 407.] DECEMBER 24, 1829. [PRICE 2d. CONTAINING ORIGINAL ESSAYS HISTORICAL NARRATIVES; BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS; SKETCHES OF SOCIETY; TOPOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTIONS; NOVELS AND TALES; ANECDOTES; SELECT EXTRACTS FROM NEW AND EXPENSIVE WORKS; _POETRY, ORIGINAL AND SELECTED;_ The Spirit of the Public Journals; DISCOVERIES IN THE ARTS AND SCIENCES; _USEFUL DOMESTIC HINTS;_ _&c. &c. &c._ ======== VOL. XIV. ======== London, PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY J. LIMBIRD, 143, STRAND, (_Near Somerset House_.) ____ 1829 PREFACE Wassailing, prefaces, and waits, are nearly at a stand-still; and in these days of universality and everything, we almost resolved to leave this page blank, and every reader to write his own preface, had we not questioned whether the custom would be more honoured in the breach than the observance. My Public--that is, our readers--we have served you seven years, through fourteen volumes; in each renewing our professions of gratitude, and study for your gratification; and we hope we shall not presume on your liberal disposition by calculating on your continued patronage. We have endeavoured to keep our engagements with you--_to the letter_[1]--as they say in weightier matters; and, as every man is bound to speak of the fair as he has found his market in it, we ought to acknowledge the superabundant and quick succession of literary novelties for the present volume. There is little of our own; because we have uniformly taken Dr. Johnson's advice in life--"to play for much, and stake little" This will extenuate our assuming that "from castle to cottage we are regularly taken in:" indeed, it would be worse than vanity to suppose that price or humble pretensions should exclude us; it would be against the very economy of life to imagine this; and we are still willing to abide by such chances of success. [1] This is not intended exclusively for the _new type_ of the present volume. Cheap Books, we hope, will never be an evil; for, as "the same care and toil that raise a dish of peas at Christmas, would give bread to a whole family during six months;" so the expense of a gay volume at this season will furnish a moderate circle with amusive reading for a twelvemonth. We do not draw this comparison invidiously, but merely to illustrate the advantages of literary economy.