at probably no writer in America has
more ample material for such a work as he has undertaken. He proposes a
series of some half-dozen volumes on the subject.

* * * * *

MR. FREDERIC SAUNDERS, an industrious literary antiquary, is publishing
in the _Methodist Quarterly Review_ and the _Christian Recorder_, a
series of pleasant reminiscences of the great lights of the church in
England, in the last generation. Among his papers that have appeared are
entertaining sketches of Edward Irving and Dr. Chalmers.

* * * * *

"THE DUTY OF A BIOGRAPHER," is very justly described by a writer on this
subject in the last _Democratic Review_. They certainly managed these
things better in the days of king Cheops, but biographies would still be
written truthfully and to some purpose if there were more honesty in
criticism--if the mob of people who fancy they may themselves sometimes
be heroes of such writing, did not for their prospective safety denounce
every _post-mortem_ exhibition of infirmities; or if to the creatures
most largely endowed with the means of hearing, slavering were not more
easy than dissection.

ASTONISHING ADVENTURE OF JAMES BOTELLO.

WRITTEN FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY MAGAZINE

BY W. S. MAYO, M.D. AUTHOR OF KALOOLAH, ETC.

To an author who has been accustomed to deal with the startling and the
marvellous in the way of incident and adventure, nothing can be more
amusing than the confident opinions of critics and readers as to the
improbability, and frequently the impossibility, of particular scenes
which often happen to be faithful descriptions of actual occurrences. In
this manner several passages from "Kaloolah" and "The Berber" have been
indicated by some of my many good natured and liberal critics in this
country and in England, as taxing a little too strongly the credulity of
readers. Among such passages, the escape, in the first pages of the
Berber, of the young Englishman, by jumping overboard in the bay of
Cadiz, and hiding himself in the darkness of the night beneath the
overhanging stern of his boat, has been particularly pointed out. Now,
if this was pure invention, it might be safely left to a jury of yankee
boatmen or Spanish _barqueros_ to decide whether the incident was not in
the highest degree probable and natural; but being literally founded in
fact, it is perhaps unnecessary to make any such appeal. There may be,
h