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Childe Harold Corrected.—Before Byron is dismissed, I must speak of one of the strangest misprints that perhaps has ever occurred, for it was committed without being discovered by the author—sensitive as we know he was—or by the public, who have for years admiringly quoted the lines. The stanza which follows the one last cited runs thus:—

“Thy shores are empires, chang'd in all save thee— “Assyria, Greece, Rome, Carthage, what are they? “Thy waters wasted them when they were free, “And many a tyrant since;—”

A skilful critic was very recently reading this passage, and when he came to “Thy waters wasted them” he paused. Wasted what? Where is it on record that the Mediterranean sea has wasted the shores that surround it? What part of the coast—European, Asiatic, or African— has been overwhelmed by the tide and then left desolate? The ruins of Tyre are still a landmark; the rock of Salamis still overlooks the wave; the site of Carthage remains. Tyrants may have wasted those shores, but the waters never. There must, then, be some mistake. Could the critic have access to the original manuscript? It was produced and examined; and, as much to the surprise of all present as, I dare say, it will be to the public, the faulty line ran thus—

“Thy waters washed them power when they were free, “And many a tyrant since.”

The MS. of another of Byron's poems rectifies a misprint which has been allowed to pass current in all the hitherto published editions of his works. It occurs in the Prisoner of Chillon:—

“And thus together, yet apart, “Fetter'd in hand, but pin'd in heart—.”

For “pin'd,” read “join'd,” which completes the antithesis.—Dickens's Household Words.