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 by Messrs. Chatto and Windus, in a handsome quarto volume, at the price of a guinea and a half. The several portraits were accompanied by the original page of matter by, and supplementary "notices" by myself. Three portraits, with memoirs (Hallam, Thackeray, and Maclise), not previously included, were added; and a short memoir, without portrait, of the Rev. Francis Mahony. This costly edition has been long since exhausted; and copies are already ranked among scarce books. It therefore seemed that the time had come for a reissue; and this in cheaper form, and with such modifications as experience suggested. The context of Maginn, - brilliant as it undoubtedly was, contained much that was hasty, illiberal and purely ephemeral; and, it was thought, might be omitted, at least in its substantive form, with advantage. All of it that seemed worthy of republication has been incorporated, with due indication or acknowledgment, in my own "notices," or "memoirs"; and these have been entirely rewritten, and extended to more than four times their original dimensions. Moreover, a portrait of Mahony ("") has now, for the first time, been given. Thus, with these additions and improvements, the assertion seems justified, that the present volume should be regarded as a new book, rather than as a new edition of an already existing one.

In reviewing their labours in the Magazine, at the conclusion of the first decade of its existence, its conductors, turning from pen to pencil, thus advert to the novel graphic feature of their serial:—"We commenced a Gallery of 'Illustrious' Literary Characters in the month of July, 1830,—commenced, we own, in m.ere jocularity and, trusting to his well-known good-nature and long-tried good temper, selected Jerdan as our opening portrait. There was nothing in what we said that could annoy a man for whom we had so sincere a regard; and we found that the idea pleased. We continued it, therefore, until we published no less than ."

Next followed an analytical account of the "Gallery," together with some justification of, or apology for, the choice of subjects, concluding with the remarks:—"We closed our series of portraits, principally for lack of sufficiently attractive materials, but are ready to revive them at any time, if we think the public requires us to do so. It will be a valuable present to the future Granger; even as it is, the collection is in no inconsiderable demand for the purpose of illustrating books of contemporary literature, such as the works of Lord Byron, Lockhart's Life of Sir Walter Scott, etc. In another generation it