Praed, it has always seemed to us, was the cleverest writer in his
way that has ever contributed to the English periodicals. His fugitive
lyrics and arabesque romances, half sardonic and half sentimental,
published with Hookham Frere's "Whistlecraft" and Macaulay's Roundhead
Ballads, in _Knight's Quarterly Magazine_, and after the suspension
of that work, for the most part in the annual souvenirs, are
altogether unequaled in the class of compositions described as
_vers de societie_.--Who that has read "School and School Fellows",
"Palinodia", "The Vicar", "Josephine", and a score of other pieces in
the same vein, does not desire to possess all the author has left us,
in a suitable edition? It has been frequently stated in the English
journals that such a collection was to be published, under the
direction of Praed's widow, but we have yet only the volume prepared
by a lover of the poet some years ago for the Langleys, in this city.
In the "Memoirs of Eminent Etonians," just printed by Mr. Edward
Creasy, we have several waifs of Praed's that we believe will be new
to all our readers. Here is a characteristic political rhyme: