THE LITERATURE OF THE ANNUALS—CONTINUED.

WHEN the fact is forced upon attention arithmetically, the number of these ephemera is fairly astounding, and of itself would suffice to mark the manufacturing character that must appertain to the majority. A fortnight ago we dismissed half-a-dozen Annuals, and another half-dozen are now claiming attention.

1. The Forget-Me-Nat. 2. Jennings's Landscape Annual. 3. The Amaranth.

4. The Keepsake. 5. The Diadem.

6. The Juvenile Poetical Library.

1. Excepting the Oriental, whose subject gave it a peculiar character, the parent of the race—the Forget-Me-Not—seems to us as yet by tar the best production of the season. This comes not by in any way changing its old nature, but by carrying An- nual literature to a very respectable height : the prose tales, varied, pleasant, and, except the " Belle Sauvage Plot," not too long spun out ; the verses " rarely wanting their due feet." The " Genie of Wealth," by an anonymous author, is a good illustra- tion of the growing nature of human wants, and the unsatisfac- tory character of every possession save the affections ; enriched, too, with some gems of Asiatic wisdom, though it is deficient in a knowledge of Oriental manners. " The Siege," by JERROLD, is interesting and dramatic, but overwrought. " The Howdie-Witch of Cawdor " is a Scotch tale, by Major CALDER CAMPBELL; hav- ing some of the interest of the " Criminal Trials;' with an atmo- sphere of national manners, and a much greater air of reality than Annual tales usually possess ; but wanting, in its individu- ality, the wholeness and poetical justice of fiction. " Hammer and Nails" is a sea story, of seeming mock mystery in its opening, and of perfect diablerie in its close, but possessing a sort of listless attraction throughout. And the other tales, though of less marked merit, are all readable. Much of the poetry is of the artificial kind ; and, like all imitative goods, may, as the ladies say, " deceive any but judges." As we have often before had occasion to notice, the less known names seem to suc- ceed best ; perhaps because they do their best. Miss BROWN'S lines to her sister on her birth-day, are pleasing in themselves, and made general by one or two touching allusions. "Remember me," by Miss KINGLAKE, is a pretty collection of poetical images ; but the thought is too far pursued, and for this reason appears to want reality, as if the fair writer were rather engaged in collect- ing similes than uttering irrepressible feelings. We will quote

Mrs. AHDY'S

DEATH IN A FOREIGN LAND.

Not long shall this feeble pulse remain, And this failing strength endure; Thy sunbeams, fair Italy, shine in vain, Thy climate can work no cure; And I sigh, when through myrtle groves I roam, By the balmy breezes fanned, " Oh ! why was I sent from my quiet home, To die in a foreign land ?"

They knew I must die ; I remember well,

Their foreboding looks and sighs ; And can Death be charmed by an earthly spell, Soft zephyrs, and azure skies? I would give them all, on the wood to look Where the clustering nut-trees stand, And to gather lilies by the brook That runs in my native land.

I weep not because in early youth

I am called tram this world of care : 1 have humbly studied the Book of Truth, And mourned o'er my sins in prayer ; And I hope through the Saviour, in whom I trust, I may join the blessed band Of holy angels and spirits just, In a brighter and better land.

But my light and vain companions here No calm to my mind impart; Their language is foreign to my ear, And their manners to my heart. Would, when I lie down to yield my breath, My kindred could round me stand ; I think I could greet the Angel of Death If he came in my own dear land!

2. Jennings's Landscape Annual contains a tour in Portugal, by Mr. HARRISON; who, by legends intended to illustrate Por- tuguese character both in the present and the olden time, has varied the narrative of a short journey from Oporto to Coimbra, Leira, and Batalba, with the usual descriptions of scenery, sights, and incidents. He has also aimed at giving more solidity to the Annual by anecdotical notices of the kings of Portugal, and of her leading scholars and other eminent men, chronologically arranged. The result of this novel feature is relief and variety ; and the information imparted gives a more substantial and nu- tritive character to the work than is usually found in this class of publications. At the same time, the biographical sketches are often so brief as to be of necessity dry, and some of the legends want lightness and vivacity. Mr. HARRISON succeeds best in topics of pure facts ; as, for example, in

PORTUGUESE PROVISIONS AND PRICES.

Of the fruits which are purchased in Oporto, and indeed wherever we travelled in Portugal, it may be remarked that the peaches are large, but greatly inferior in flavour to the produce of our English walls, and the pears are good for nothing ; but the melons are everywhere fine and cheap, as are the grapes, which, of the small black cluster kind, are most delicious, and have often proved a grateful addition to our breakfast fate. The apples and plums are very inferior in flavour to ours. Bread is very fair in quality, and reason- able in price. The beef at Oporto is also not to be complained of, but the mutton is small and inferior. In the provinces, what was served up to us under the name of mutton, we believe to have been kid's flesh; and upon one occa- sion, on which our trusty attendant produced, as a great rarity, a "beef cut- let "—we think it was at Leiria—it suffered greatly in comparison with the good English beef-steak, of which, alas! but the memory remained to us.

While on the subject of provisions, we may add that the wine of the pro- vinces, and indeed that drunk by the lower classes generally, is execrable: it is what is termed green wine, and somewhat resembles our small beer.

3. While standard authors are every day becoming more and more compressed, so that we can carry the whole of SHARSPEARE in our pockets and pack up all the British classics in a travelling- trunk, the milk-and-water effusions of contemporary scribes " meander through meadows of margin,"

" In one weak, washy, everlasting flood,"

over the pages of the Annuals. The Amaranth is the name of the last new folio of flowery nothingness, edited by T. K. HERVEY ; whose art, like that of fellow poetasters and prosers of the

homoeopathic school of authorship, consists in dispensing infi- nitesimal ideas ; the tricillionth part of a grain of matter being diffused in a deluge of words. Unfortunately, the practitioners do not complete the process by precipitating the particles held in solution. Now if they would only administer their minute doses of thought in a solid form, the ample tome would dwindle down to the dimensions of one's thumb-nail; and ladies might carry " essence of annual " in their reticules like a scent-box.

The Amaranth, however, is by no means the worst of its class ; though, like the rest, it is richer in names than in contents. A dramatic sketch by BARRY CORNWALL, called " The Cousins," has the spirit and fervour of SHERIDAN KNOWLES. KNOWLES is not himself in a prose tale, "The Coquette," another version of the walz-jealousy on which his play of " Woman's Wit" is founded. DOUGLAS JERROLD, ALLAN CUNNINGHAM, EBENEZER ELLIOTT, JAMES MONTGOMERY, WINTHROP PRAED, and MARY HOWITT, have assuredly not added to their fame by their contributions ; and HORACE SMITH'S "Lines to Queen Victoria," beginning

" ()wen of the nations ! Oh, how young thou art !"

wants but a few heightening touches of comicality to make it a capital travestie of a Laureate eulogy. POOLE has got some fun out of a sketch of " Margate ;" and HOOD levels a volley of puns from his popgun battery at the bugbear of Early Rising.

Of the plates, the less said the better; for a more meaningless, ill-assorted set of subjects, could not have been thrown together by chance. In the titlepage, as the type of the. Amaranth, squats a dumpy old Greenwich pensioner, seemingly sketched from the Toby Fillpot jug of a country alehouse ; visa-vis to whom figures a bread-and-butter school-girl. JOHN WRIGHT'S pretty women are at least healthy-looking ; and " Margate from the Sea," by CHAMBERS, and a Dutch fishing-boat by ALFRED VICKERS, are pretty marine pictures. FRASER'S designs are not worthy of him.. The gem of the prints is a sweet bit of English meadow land- scape—a view in the marshes of the Lea, near Chingford, we opine —a group of sheep on the bank of a pool beneath a pollard-wil- low, with boys fishing and cattle grazing in the distance under a bright sinking sun. The pencilling of the foliage and grass is exquisitely true and delicate, and the serenity and sober freshness of a summer evening steals over the senses as you look on the pic- ture: it is by GAINSBOROUGH, the painter of English pastoral, and is worth more than all the rest put together.

4. The Keepsake is gorgeous, as usual, in scarlet and gold, and is moreover bound by Mr. HANCOCK in a patent way, so as to ex- hibit the extremest verge of the ample margin both of letterpress and plates, and to open easily to boot. It has again reverted to its old management, and again boasts its lists of aristocratic contributors ; high names perhaps being found to he more useful in getting off inferior wares. At the same time, be it said, their wares are as good as the rest of the tribe—not exhibiting perhaps so much of art, but much more of freshness.

One of the best articles in the book is by the person of the highest rank, the Marchioness of LONDONDERRY; who, emulat- ing her Lord, furnishes a description of Moscow—somewhat literal and in the style of a shopkeeper's list, but at least real. In fiction, although Lady CHARLOTTE ST. NIAUR furnishes a very pretty story, the author of " Rattlin the Reefer," and Mr. JAMES, bear away the bell; the one in a semi-comic tale called the " Two Blind Beggars of Segovia," the other in " Mary of Mantua," an interesting little romance with a groundwork of Italian history.

The plates of the Keepsake might be mistaken for a fasciculus of BYRON illustrations. The vignette on the title is a view of the Corsair's isle ; CHALON has given a bewitching portrait of the GUICCIOLI in all the amplitude of her charms ; WESTALL has pictured the noble poet reclined at overflowing length among the ruins of' the Eternal City, like Marius at Carthage—though he is literally overlooking the Coliseum; BENTLEY'S shipwreck scene— a beautiful picture—is from " Don Juan ;" and we have Manfred in two places, kneeling before Astarte, and invoking the Spirit of the Waters; HERBERT'S tableau reminds us of " Beppo ;" E. COW. BOULD has pictured the Rape of the Harem by the Corsair ; and HARDING has introduced in a moonlight landscape another phase of the " Dream." Yet all these subjects are otherwise appro- priated, and illustrate very different stories. A little girl primly seated on the ground, with her knees up and hands crossed, is a pretty piece of nature, by DYCE. Miss CORBAUX'S " beau- ties" are somewhat sophisticate ; but they are homely nature in comparison with " The Reefer" by CHALON—an egre- gious bit of the coxcombry of art. It is the portrait of an aristocratic Middy, with collar enough to furnish a topsail, a shock of hair in a state of elegantly wild disorder, and a pair of eyes that might serve a face of twice his proportions ; he rests with his elbows on the yard-arm, holding a telescope with the air of a sentimental exquisite leaning over an opera-box, gazing with affected rapture at some new dancer : it would be laughter for a month to every ship's crew in the service. The engravings are perfection ; as those executed under CHARLES HEATH'S su- perintendence always are.

5. The depressing circumstances of ill health and the loss of friends, have turned Miss LOUISA H. SHERIDAN'S thoughts into a graver mood ; and instead of a "Comic Annual," she has pro- duced a " Diadem." The chief difference between this and the other publications of the Annual kind is external—the Diadem is folio instead of octavo. It also embraces some French and Italian contributions, as well as an unpublished lampoon on CHARLES the Second by the Duke of RICHMOND, husband to ''La Belle Stuart ;" and some lines of' CHESTERFIELD'S, ad- dressed to GEORGE the Third on his accession, the grossness of whose flattery is hardly redeemed by the delicacy with which it is pointed. At the same time, we must do the courtier justice, and observe that GEORGE the Good had then exhibited none of his supereminent badness: the error of CHESTERFIELD was the com- mon, perhaps the venial one, of giving a young monarch credit for virtue.

The designs are exclusively furnished by Mr. PERRING, who seems to have superseded Mr. PARRIS, and to enjoy a monopoly as a manufacturer of boudoir beauties. The ladies are as tall and taper as their sisters of the " Tableaux," with a trifle less of in- sipidity • but their faces have no greater variety of character than

those of Chinese charmers on a teacup.

6. We have placed the Juvenile Poetical Library, edited by Mrs. ALARIC WATTS, amongst the Annuals, because it is prettily got up, with illustrative plates and green binding, and is well adapted for presents. At the same time, we know not whether it is to be continued annually, or what is the plan of the writer. The book itself-the most important point-contains a well- chosen selection from the modern poets; and in point of intrinsic value and permanent use is worth half a dozen Annuals.