But the Cuts—­the pictures—­of which it would have been more juvenile to have spoken first.  These are from the pencil of our “right trustye” friend and excellent artist, Mr. W.H.  Brooke, whose horses, coaches, and dogs excite so much mirth among the young friends of the MIRROR—­for, in truth, Mr. Brooke is an A.M.—­an associate of the MIRROR, and enables us to jump from Whitehall to Constantine’s Arch at Rome, shake hands with the Bears of the Zoological Society, and Peg in the Ring at Abury.

The Christmas Box cuts are all fun and frolic—­the tail-piece of the preface, a bricklayer on a ladder, “spilling” a hod of bricks—­the Lord of Misrule, with his polichinel army—­the Boar’s Head—­a little squat Cook and a steaming Plum-Pudding—­the Bee and Honeysuckle—­Major Brown with a Munchausen face—­the Bear Pit, Monkeys’ Houses, and Horned Owl, in the Zoological Gardens—­and the Parliament of Animals, with the Elephant as Chancellor, the Tortoise for “the table,” and Monkeys for Counsel—­the groups of Toy Soldiers—­and the head pieces of the Cobbler and his Wife—­all excellent.  Then the Cricket and Friar, and a pair of Dancing Crickets—­worth all the fairy figures of the Smirkes, and a hundred others into the bargain.  These are the little quips of the pencil that curl up our eye-lashes and dimple our faces more than all the Vatican gallery.  They are trifles—­aye, “trifles light as air”—­but their influence convinces us that trifling is part of the great business of life.

Now we are trifling our readers’ time; so to recommend the Christmas Box for 1829, as one of the prettiest presents, and as much better suited to children than was its predecessor—­and—­pass we off.

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Here our motley-minded sheet finishes, and we leave our readers in possession of its sweet fancies.  Its little compartments of poetry and prose remind us of mosaic work, and its sentimentalities have all the varieties of the kaleidoscope.  To gladden the eye, study the taste, and improve the heart, of each reader has been our aim—­feelings which we hope pervade this and every other Number of the MIRROR.

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Number 340 of the MIRROR contains the Notices of the Literary Souvenir, Forget-Me-Not, Gem, and Amulet, and with the present Number forms the Spirit of the Annuals for 1829.

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Printed and Published by J. LIMBIRD, 143, Strand, (near Somerset-House,) London; sold by ERNEST FLEISCHER, 626, New Market, Leipsic; and by all Newsmen and Booksellers.