Captain EYRE has returned to England, and asks, on the above grounds,
that he be reinstated in command of his ship. It would be absurd to
refuse so just a request. His defence could not well be more full unless
he were to strengthen it with an alibi. If Mr. SOLOMON PELL still
pursues the practice of the law, Captain EYRE should at once employ that
eminent barrister to prove an alibi for him. His justification would
then be too conclusive to admit of question.

* * * * *

CRITICISM OF THE PERIOD.

[AFTER THE MANNER OF THE "NATION."]

Milton's Paradise Lost.--The demand for a new edition of this cumbrous
piece of blank verse, proves what we have often said, that the want, in
CROMWELLS time, of a literary journal of the character of the Nation has
had a permanent effect upon literature. Had we been in existence when
that obstinate and pedantic old Puritan wrote, we might have suppressed
him. Still, there is no knowing what women and children will not read.
While MILTON'S lines certainly measure generally about the same length,
it is preposterous to call by the name of poetry what could be written
in prose with so little modification. It is true that the same objection
might be applied to HOMER and SHAKSPEARE. The former has the advantage
of being written in Greek, so that very few people can read it.
SHAKSPEARE has a popularity that is partly accounted for by the low
taste of the people who have gone to the theatre to hear SIDDONS rave
and GARRICK declaim, or who will persist in admiring MACREADY and BOOTH.