Yesterday and To - Day. By Cyrus Redding. Three vols. (Newby.) —The
announcement of this work as a sequel to Mr. Redding's "Fifty Years' Recollections, Literary and Personal," appears to us to involve a certain misconception, either of the object of the volumes before us or of that of their predecessors. The very title of the former work proclaims it to be a record of its author's actual experiences during his unusually long literary career, while we are expressly informed that the present book is "an attempt to give a history of the internal rather than of the external man." Accordingly, at least one-half of the volumes before us consists of statements of Mr. Redding'a opinions on val1011B subjects, chiefly of a literary nature, some of which are reprinted from different magazines, while others appear for the first time on the present occasion. It is a pity that Mr. Redding should have been blind to the fact that while the
usual length of his literary career must impart a peculiar interest to his personal recollections, it can hardly be expected to confer any special value upon his opinions on literary or political subjects. Occasionally, however, he does favour us with anecdotes respecting some of the numerous people with whom he has been intimate ; and these portions of his book will be read with considerable interest. Captain Marryat, Curran, Sir C. and Lady Morgan, Colbrun, and Leigh Hunt, are among the individuals of whom he gives us the most detailed recollections. It is not a little singular that he has something to say to the disadvantage of nearly everybody he mentions. Thus, Maaryat was "sour and intolerant," and "he had no objection to push to the utmost anything which would promote his personal advantage, without reflecting 'Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself ;' " Moore was "rightly charged with a want of sincerity ;" Leigh Hunt was a most charming man, but it was impossible to rely on his 'word; while Colburn is accused of having acted with downright dishonesty both towards Mr. Redding and Lady Morgan. If Mr. Redding's work were reduced by judicious omissions to not more than half its present bulk, it would. be a very fairly readable and amusing book.
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