LTHOUGH various collections of British Ballads have been published, from time to time, since the elegant mind, refined taste, and sound judgment, of Bishop Percy were brought to bear upon the interesting and important subject, no attempt has been made to select and arrange, in a popular form, the best of these Ballads, from the several volumes in which they are scattered, and mixed up with a mass of inferior, or objectionable, compositions. This appears, indeed, to have been almost the only department of our "Polite Literature," to which public attention has not been adequately directed. Yet, without subscribing to the opinion, attributed to high authorities,-"Give me the making of |