In opening the new Free Library at Birmingham on Thurs-
day, Mr. Bright made a very pleasant speech on books,—chiefly on books of poetry, on which Mr. Bright is a really great autho- rity. He has brought to our notice two poets of whom, we are ashamed to say, we never heard,—Michael Bruce, whom he calls " one of Scotland's real but minor poets ;" and Janet Hamilton, of whom he declares that some of her poems might be printed amongst Burns's poems, without any one being able to find out, by any deficiency of intrinsic worth, that they were not Burns's poems. For the rest, we think Mr. Bright gave a little too much attention to Transatlantic literature, though we have always gone heartily with him in his cordial and just appreciation of " Hiawatha," and of Mr. Lowell's " Bigelow Papers." Surely Bancroft hardly deserves to be quoted as the representative historian of the United States, when Motley is not even so much as mentioned. And surely it is a mistake to measure poetry or literature of any kind, considered simply as literature, by the worth of the sentiments or opinions which it -embodies. Bancroft's sentiments were democratic, but his prose was certainly heavy. Whittier's sentiments are noble, and his poetry pleasant, but he hardly wrote any of those books which it adds perceptibly to the sweetness of life to know and love.
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