The Press. — London, England, 1853-07-30 00:00:00

JUDY 30, 1853. The increase of Australian emigration is, of course, due to the gold diggings ; whose influ ence operated inure strongly during the first three months of 1832 than at any former or subsequent period. Among the self-support ing or unassisted class of emigrants the die roportion between the sexes is remarkable. During the entire year nearly 45,000 persons went out in this way ; 32.000 being males, and less than 13,000 females. In consequence of this disparity, " single men, not being mem bers of a family, or families in which the " sons outnumber the daughters," are no longer assistod by the Board ta go out. On the other hand, the emigration of single women is encouraged to the utmost. One curious result has been produced by the gold mania. In ordinary times, of two colonists anxious for a free passage, the stouter and hardier is us a matter of course preferred ; but not so now. The best qualifi cation for a servant or labourer is his unfit ness to work at the diggings. It is safer, argues the colonial employer, to hire workmen who can do only half a day's work than work men who will not even do that. The first question asked in respect of a hired hand is, not " How can he work ? " but " How long will he stay ? " Accordingly, to provide against this tem porary and anomalous state of things, a con siderable number of persons were helped out of a class who at other periods would have been deemed unfit for Australian life—weavers, .flaxdressers, and the like. It seems, however, that the experiment of transforming English operatives into antipodean shepherds has not answered ; for this exceptional emigration is discontinued, after a trial of only a few months. During the height of the now subsiding gold mania, the pressure on the Emigration-office is described as extraordinary. At one time 18,000 applications for passages to Australia demanded replies. The average of letters re ceived exceeded 700 for every working day in the week. And, in proportion as these requests multiplied, the dif fi culty of granting them in creased. Freights rose from 1.0/. to 23/. ; and, though in some degree diminished, they are still enormously high. Of the Australian emigration, Victoria has absorbed by far the greater part. The popula tion of that colony in March, 1831, was 77,345; to which 57,000 and upward have been added in the single year 1832. Yet wages have not fallen, though a considerable propor tion of the new-comers are physically unfit for that most laborious and unhealthy of all occu pations—gold-digging. As regards the condition of the labourer in this country, it is noticeable that the commis sioners expressly deny that in their belief any material increase of wages has been produced by emigration. The absence of Irish innni gration, the existence of general prosperity. improved methods of fimuing, and cheapness of food, are represented us the primary causes. But we must observe that this absence of Irish immigration is itself a result of t h e exodus, which has thus indirectly, if not directly, affected the condition of both countries. Space forbids us to enter on the West Indian question ; but from the report it seems clear that coolie anti Chinese immigration. espe cially the former, are producing results which, though slow in their operation, will ulti mately relieve much of the now existing dis tress. Great credit is due to Sir J. Pakington for his services in this particular. The Life and Death of Silo* Barnetarke. A Story of the Seventeenth Century. By Talbot Gwynne. London: Smith, Elder, and Co. THE theme whereon this book is written is one to which there is neither beginning nor end. The contrast between avarice and cha rity—the antagonisms that grow up, unsus pected and spontaneously, between the selfish money-grubber and the pious philanthropist — have formed a subject for the romaneist from all times past, and will form it for all times to come. On such text the earliests moralists discoursed ; the primeval bards improvised ; the first novelists expended their eloquence THE PRESS. and their imagination. And upon the self same topics, we venture to prophesy, will a remote posterity of writers and readers seve rally lavish their pains and their sympathies, even until the last " library has erased its eir eulation, and the latest longo-post-futurum publisher of '"rhe how " has issued the ultimate hotpressed octavo from his over loaded shelves. For the topie, like Shalt speare's genius, is " not for an age, but for all time." And so long as the thing exists —varying maybe') in phase, but the same in nature—so long will novel-writers endeavour to work it usefully and profitably, just as while the moon continues to rule the night no dread of plagiarism or of ridicule will prevent unfledged poets front apostrol►ltising the " chaste goddess ;" or, while youthful pulses beat hot and higlt, all the hequeses in the world cannot stifle the sonnets which lovers will insist on inditing to their mistress' eye brow. Upon a subject thus perennial Mr. tiwynne has composed his new romance, whose date it has pleased him to fix about the time of the Great Rebellion—we really don't know why. So tar as the outline of the tale goes it would have synnuetrised as well and better with the era of the South Sea scheme, the railway mania, or our own July instant than with the selected period of Cromwell's lronsides and the (heat Plague. Aliter visa►*, how ever•, to the author, and accordingly we have an old world-period assigned to his story, with sundry old-world settings in the way of style and typography wherewith to supply its dresses and decorations. In this idea of put ting a rococo frame around a picture whieb be longs to no age at all Mr. tiwynne has had many predecessors. Th►e " Lady Willoughby's Diary" wa►s the first, and Mr. Thackeray's " Henry lismonde" the most distinguished, of the class. For sue imitator in the same line nothing eau justify hi►s presumption but suc cess. and we are forced to conti.tes that the pre sent author has not succeeded. Removing his scene from the present century, he has failed to seize and depict the characteristics of the past. Following in the tracks of certain eminent, and therefore trite, exemplars, he has fallen de plorably short in that attempt at imitation where something approaching, at all events, to equality with the well-knownoriginals could be alone tolerable. Thus we find that the titular hero of the book is described as a " merchant" with all the low, safe, penny-turning character of the dealers in the present day, whose every risk is covered by insurance ; stud whose cargoes are safely consigned, per steamer, to markets where they are commercially certain of ar riving at a prescribed date, and selling for a fixed and modentte modicum of profit. Yet, with these wholly modern propensities for safety and certainty, Silas IZarnst,r•ke is *mule the merchant of a period when " merchant adventurer" wets the title of the whole Owes —when mercantile transactions we-re really "enterprises," involving hazard, requiring knowledge, and necessitating the possession of an open, generous, liberal spirit, such as in formed the tireshams and Italeighs of old, and all whose avenues to distinction and wealth would have been remorselessly shut to the mere sordid take-care-of-your-pennies usurer, such as Mr. Gwynne has described his hero to be. Again we have extracts from a diary sup posed to have been kept. by this same hero, and in which the Castlenmine finds dishonour able mention ; and are shown glimpses of the Plague. In the former there is a weak endea vour to imitate Pepys the inimitable ; in the latter st few pieces are passed off from time Defoe mint, all the coin front which, sterling as they are in value, beau• a private mark that renders the attempt at smashing peculiarly perilous. Through the whole, the tricks that have been practised in order to give the mo dern painting a gloss of antiquity are ttetected at it glance. We recognise not merely the pla giarisms in the design, but the brown varnish whieh has been spread, by way of disguise ment, over the canvas. This assumption of fictitious antiquity, with its supposed qutaintnesses and crudities, has become a frequent and offensive ruse among modern litterateurs. Rarely used, and exe- cute(' with eonsummate knowledge and tart, it may be, and has been, rendered a must effective medium whereby the contemporary generation can be brought face to thee and m►nd to mind with their aneestors. Our consciousness of its value as an embodiment for literary art has rendered us inure sensitive to the degradation it has undergone in the hands of pretenders, and has induced us to offer this protest against the herd of imitators who, like Mr. Owynne, so thoroughly - work out " the idea, that it be comes too hackneyed and threadbare for those better-endowed writers who might have turned to real account its goodly and golden possibi lities. It is provoking to see a good idea spoiled through rash and incompetent hand ling. Still more does it provoke us to see a writer such as Mr. Owynne, who evinces the possession of some orig►nal talent, condescend to enact the part of spoiler. The Adrentares of a Lady its Tartary, Thibet, China, and Kash►nir, through Portions of Territory never before visited by European ; with Journey fr►n► the Pu►jaub to Bombay, Overla►d, rid the famous Caves of .junta a►d Ellora, a Histo►y of Kashmir, and an :Would of the Mshobleshwur and Neil gherry Mountains, the Sanatoria of the Bombay and Madras Presidencies. Hy Mrs. Hervey. Lou don : hope and Co. THE best put of tins hook is its title. The authoress passed some two years in the Kashiniriatt a►d Tibc Mtn mountains, seeing strange sights, traversing din triets little visited, a►d running not a few risks of various kinds. Here is good material for book making, but unluckily Mrs. llervey has not the gift of description. !ter narrative is diffuse, a►d her word • sketches leave behind no clear impression. We have looked in vain ter a passage to extract which might give a favourable idea of the style. C'inOsitins ► u s English Opium Enter. London • - Sunpkin and Mantball. TH►S IS a half-crown reprint of a brilliantly-written, but in some respects except ble, work. In spite of the efforts of its gifted author, it belongs to morbid literature; and, in our age, there is only too much unwholesome genius in the world, working through the printing-press. It wants that air of reality which swift or Defoe would have imparted to such a theme, and is more like what Wilford would have written, had he added opium-eating to the other eccentricities. Yet it is certainly difficult to lay down, as its style, if not its story, is enchaining in its interest; and every page is impressed with the strong marks of a mind of mature power, dashed with much that is quaint and whimsical. Of opium-eating it may be stud with truth, that in sorrow it begins, anal in morrow it ends; and it is a fault in this work that the pleasures of opium are described too vividly, and that the hideous anguish of sub sequent reaction is not strongly enough depicted. Perhaps, if the horrors of opium-eating were de lineated with closeness of detail, it would he difficult to find readers. fleeing, therefore, that this brilliant, but painful, volume seems destined to popular circa latitai, we must enter our caveat against it, as being open to some serious objections. But the eloquence of its composition is undeniable. Cobden Considered. Ity Alfred B. Riehard►►. With a new Ilistorieal Pref►►ce. London : Bally Itr►thers. THIS energetic attack on Mr. Colslen has gradually swelled from the size of an ordinary pamphlet to nearly the dimensions of all octavo volume. To some research and considerable controversial acumen Mr. Richards unites the merits of sustained vivacity and earnestness. We would criticise some portions of his treatise. but that the interest of the controversy has diminished. It has been said jocosely that for "a man of talent to sit down to write, an answer to Mr. Cobden's pamphlet was like calling out the Lord Chancellor to disperse a washer woman." The majority of persons already look upon Mr. Cobden as a f-Teohl, and will contentedly resign him to an adversary as vehement and better informed than himself. A Satire for the Aye. "The Transcendentalists." By Archer Gurney. London : Bosworth. can coincide in the general purport and animus of this attempt without identifying ourselves with smile of the reflections upon individuals which it contains. Though, in common with our contem poraries, we defer to the " conventions" of our order, we consider that those conventions are quit. 1