Since page 218 has been printed off, it has occurred to us, that in the hurry unavoidably attendant upon such writings as ours, we have calumniated a man to whom Greek literature owes the highest obligations, by asserting too roundly, that Henry Stephens derived his knowledge of Sophocles entirely from the edition of Turnebus. It is certain that he made some use of one of the antient editions, as he has printed the Scholia with the additions made to them by Junta in the edition printed at Florence in the year 1522. Our meaning is, that in arranging the text of his Sophocles, and in composing his notes, Henry Stephens used no manuscript, nor any edition except that of Turnebus, with the Scholia of Triclinius which are printed at the end of it. Perhaps it may not be entirely superfluous to mention, that Canter does not appear to have been acquainted even with the edition of Turnebus. The alterations which he has made in the text of Sophocles, may be traced, almost universally, to the notes of Henry Stephens. ART. I. Speech of the Right Hon. William Windham, in the House of Commons, 26. May 1809, on Mr Cur- wen's Bill," for better securing the Independence and Purity of Parliament, by preventing the pro- II. Letters of the Marquise du Deffand to the Hon. Ho- III. The Hindu Pantheon. By Edward Moor, F. R. S. IV. Observations on the Documents, including the Evi- dence heard at the Bar, laid before Parliament, on the Subject of the late Expedition to the Scheldt V. Publications on the Depreciation of Paper Currency VI. Present State of the Spanish Colonies, including a particular Report of Hispaniola, or the Spanish Part of St Domingo. By R. Walton, junior 372 VII. Hephæstionis Alexandrini Enchiridion ad MSS. f- dem recensitum, cùm Notis variorum, præcipue VIII. Hints on Tolération, in Five Essays, &c. suggested for the Consideration of Lord Viscount Sidmouth, and the Dissenters. By Philagatharches IX. Researches on the Oxymuriatic Acid, its Nature and Combinations, and on the Elements of the Muriatic Acid; with some Experiments on Sulphur and Phosphorus. By H. Davy esq, Sec. R. S. &c. THE EDINBURGH REVIEW, FEBRUARY 1811. No. XXXIV. ART. I. Speech of the Right Hon. William Windham, in the House of Commons, May 26, 1809, on Mr Curwen's Bill, for better securing the Independence and Purity of Parliament, by preventing the procuring or obtaining of Seats by corrupt Practices." 8vo. pp. 43. London, 1810. WE E do not often detain our readers with an examination of speeches delivered in Parliament; as, even where there seems ground to rely on their authenticity, the occasional, the popular, and the controversial tone which they naturally assume, ceems to render them unfit vehicles for general and comprehensive discussion, and even unfair exponents of the genuine sentiments of their authors. There are various considerations, however, which induce us to make an exception of the little tract now before us. The subject is the great and perpetually interesting one of REFORM-in the broadest and most comprehensive sense which that term can politically bear :-Not parliamentary reform only, -but every species of change, innovation or attempt at improvement, in our political system, that can be brought about intentionally, and by legislative authority. It is nothing less than the general policy of all such attempts, that is discussed in the work before us ;-and discussed, not upon the narrow ground of the bill immediately in question, or of any limited or temporary con sideration whatever,-but upon general, and often even on abstract principles of moral and political science. Such are the attractions of the subject;-and, second only to them, are those which are held out by the name and the character of the author. The little piece before us, is not only the work of one of the finest geniuses, and most honourable men that the world ever saw, but it is almost the latest memorial by VOL. XVII. No. 34, R which which his splendid talents and manly virtues have left themselves to be remembered. The age which has witnessed the eclipse of the antient splendour and independence of Europe, seems also to be that in which the Heroic Race of Eugland is doomed to become extinct and to perish. The mighty minds of Burke and Fox, and Pitt and Nelson, have been withdrawn, in our own times, from the degraded scene of our affairs; and almost the last star in that great constellation set at the death of Mr Windham ;-a death which has deprived his country of its most perfect model of a Gen leman, and left friends and enemies to deplore that generous and romantic galantry of feeling, which gave a certain chivalrous elevation to all his views and actions ;-those beautiful accomplishments which embellished the whole society in which he lived, that fine and graceful wit, which fascinated those who were most adverse to his principles, and bound, as with a spell, the very men who were most aware of its seductions,-that hightempered honour and unsullied purity which were never questioned even by the calumniating zealots of reform, and emerged unspotted even from their monstrous alliance with the creatures of corruption. A better opportunity, we hope, will soon arise, for attempting to delineate the intellectual character of this extraor dinary person. But it is not without its use, even at present, to dwell a little upon some of its most singular features ;-on the strange opposition which seemed occasionally to subsist between his genius and his opinions-his principles and his prejudices. It is an act, indeed, of essential justice to the public, to endeavour to counteract any errors that may have been spread abroad under the sanction of that respected name ;-to prescribe bounds to an admiration, which can only be carried to excess when it confounds his character and his accomplishments with his tenets; and, above all, to unmask the mean arts of those priests of corruption, who would trick out their idol in his mantle, and shield themselves behind the authority of one, who was not their bitterest enemy only because he could not be persuaded to believe in their iniquities,-who, of all the men that ever lived in the world of politics, viewed public profligacy, and every sort of baseness, with the greatest loathing and abhorrence. Such are the grounds on which we venture to discuss the tract now before us; containing, we have every reason to believe, from internal evidence, as well as from the various accounts that have reached us, a very accurate report of one of Mr Windham's latest and most celebrated speeches. Indeed, we apprehend, there cannot be any doubt that he corrected it, or, in other words, wrote it almost entirely himself, from recent recollection, sisted by the very scanty notes of the newspaper reporters ;--a circumstance |