The Press. — London, England, 1853-07-02 00:00:00

JULY 2, 1853. destitute and idle. The gaol deliveries took place only twice a year ; witnesses, prosecutor. and prisoner being all left in attendance meanwhile : in many instances a severer sen tence than any which the court was likely to pronounce. Reform was greatly needed, and in no respect more than in the utter inefficiency of the existing police. Lord William took up these questions vigorously. Many of his ex periments failed ; against some the directors remonstrated with success ; but the general tendency of his acts was in the right direction. and none of his successors have legislated with equal boldness and success. The two great changes which arts entirely due to him are, the creation of a now Budder Court at Alla habad, and the employment of native judges. In the latter respect his policy has l►eeu fol lowed to some extent by later g►►vernors, but followed with a trembling hand. and in a spirit far less liberal. Nothing can be more illusory than the sham statistics so frequently quoted by India-house advocates on this subject. A mere per-cottage of all causes tried proves nothing as to the amount of responsibility and duty thrown upon native judicial officers. That these officers require careful supervision we believe ; but we believe also that the impu tations cast upon their honesty are in great measure undeserved, and that, where they rest on any fi►undation of truth, the cause lies in the insufficiency of the pay as compared with the power which these functionaries receive. As regards the police, Mr. Kaye's opinion is by no means favourable. He shall state it him self:— About this time a further attempt was mule t►► improve the general efficiency of the machinery of criminal justice, by the elevation of the superior Haiti( e police officer►, known a►" I ►arogaha." Their salaries, which had been inexpe diently low, were now considerably raised. Rut they still continued inadefinate to the required end ; and the depart ment of police still demanded the most vigilant superin tendence (tithe European officer to restrain it front bccom ing a mighty engine of injustice and oppression. Fruu► the very first mar administmtots had contended in vain against this gigantic evil. the evil of a corrupt police—a police eontintudly in league with the greatest erimiteds in the eountry, receiving their pay, sharing their spoils. screening their offences, and probably carrying off i tttt (went men to the magistrate's court, in their stead. From the time when, in 179_, lord Cornwallis, declaring" the estab lishment of an efficient ►llee throughout the country, whereby offenders may be deprived of all hopes of eluding the pursuit of the officers of justice," to be " as essential towards deterring iteople from committing crimes as the slowly and impartial trial of 'Menders when apprehended," had ts ken the mansgement of the police ' etliately into tiovernment hands, we have been endeavouring to secure the services of a well-organised detective force : but con tinually acknowhslging that this very police is the weakest point of our administration. If the remedy haul been as apparent as the disease we sl 11l soon have eradicated the latter. But clime in India was so vast, and its organisation so intricate, that it seemed hopeless to construct out of such materials a police force really effective for the pro tection of the country. The Poetical and Dramatic Works of Sir Edward Lytton Barrer, Bart. Vol. 111. Loudon : Chapman and Hall. Tins volume of Sir Edward Lytton's collected poetry contains the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth cantos of " King Arthur," a variety of miscellaneous pieces grouped under the title of" Corn Flowers," and several of his juvenilia, the latter being curious illustrations of the gradual formation of his carefully-cultivated mind. The poetry of Sir Edward Lytton presents at the same time to the metaphysician and the critic an interesting subject for study and analysis. Displaying all the qualities which have made his name classical, his poems have not produced an effect corresponding to the triumphs he has achieved as the most versatile and artistic of living writers of fiction. Pro fusely endowed with fancy, unrivalled as a mechanician in literary art, and with vast resources as a stylist, he might, ill our opinion, make his poetical utterances more popular and captivating to the general ear. In an age with a multitude of readers, his Muse has addressed herself to that aristoemey of elevated minds who can translate symbols and apprehend subtle meanings and recondite allusions. It has been thought by some that his temperament is not sufficiently emotional for the afflatus of poetry ; but we regard that Opinion as little more than the mere cant of criticism. Vulgar and coarse, indeed, though, THE PRESS. in the worst sense, popular, are the effusions from the inspiration of excitable nerves. There have been great poets and orators who had not a peculiarly excitable nervous system, and it is a vulgar fallacy to suppose that the emotional must largely enter into the mani festations of genius. " You will never be an actor if you play from your nerves," said Mrs. Sithlons to an actor relying on his " emotional temperantent." And yet of all voeations that of an actor might appear to depend most upon nervous sensibility. We think, however, that Sir Edward Lytton has certainly erred in not taking more popular themes. His subjects. as in the ease of " King Arthur," have been fre►luently remote from the aspinttions of our age, anti the atfect ions of the modern British people. Like Wordsworth. he has too often invoked the muse when his mood of mind was not propitious to his visitation, and, even when he avowedly deals with objective nature, he has allowed too large a sway to his own peculi►n• method of viewing human life. Upon a poetical theme, perfectly in harmony with his own genius, we think that he could produce a work that would fitr transcend "King Arthur," or " The New Tinton." He excels most in painting those phases of life where philosophical reflections may be allowed to intermingle with picturesque description. We have often thought that no other poet of modern times could, like Sir Edward Lytton, fill up, tin• instance, those grand outlines for an epic poem on " The Reformation" whieh were found in Gray's papers. On such a theme we should have great expectations from his muse. Limited in our spaee, we eau extract only two specimens front the present volume. What a quantity of thought is compressed in this passage ! TAllxvr AND ovfvtriv. Talent convinces—lienius hut excites; This tasks the n•arson, that the soul delights. Talent front sither jt u lgn o takes its birth, And reconciles the pinion to the onilt ; ienitts unsettles with desires the mind, I 'ontented not till earth lie left ; Talent, the sunshine on *cultured soil, Ripens the fruit, by slow degrees, for toil; I:twins, the sudden his of the skies, (in cloud itself reflects its wondrous dies: And, to the earth, in tears and glory, gii flag's.. in its airy arch the isonip of ! gives all that vulgar critics need— Anil frames a howl-kook for the !hill to read ; fieniiis, the l'ythian of the Itritutiful, 1 AltVeS its large truths a riddle to the eyes profane a veil the Isis svreens. And fools on fools still ask—" what liantlet means?" We have no doubt ithat the pathetic senti• ment with whieh the following lines are in formed has often been felt by many of our readers ItEl'afllllAL OW LETTEIII4 WIIITTEN IN WOUTII. when vaguely thro the autumn hive Donn the pale scenes last view's in surmise'. skies, (tut from the mist the thoughts of snotty days Allot golden youth Were ye, in truth, my thoughts ?—aloong the years Flies hack the wondering and incredulous In the still two:hives of lost hopes and tears Your date mid tale to Mat. Gradual RIIII slow, reweaving link to link, Epowth, and place, imol image it recalls, And (owns the thoughts it never more eau t I him pictures in dim halls! I)im pictures now; and tmee ye breathed and soured, And took your life as loromilly from the sun As if immortals l—sehenissl, aspired, and loved, . . And sunk to rest ;--slerp on ! As a translator from the Greek, Sir Edward Lytton has won well-merited praise. We should rather see his powers applied to original subjects of the kind that we have previously mentioned ; nevertheless we may suggest that a thinslation of the Greek tragedians would be a precious gift to our literature. Sir Ed ward Lytton has all the special aptitude, both scholarly and artistic, required for P4O difficult a function. But on this point we may make some remarks when the volumes containing his dramas shall I►e under our consideration. Lockhart's Spanish Ballads. Tsmdmi : Murray. Jr is very pleasant to see that there is, as in the case of these celebrated ballads, a popular demand for standard literature. As we turn over our old favourites in this half-a-crown edition, we feel l that, while the press is producing much that is low, it is counter acting the evil by also reprinting works in such a form as enables the multitude of readers to be at once cheap and classical in their tastes. This edition has excellent type and paper, and is suited for the pocket. Wandering in the summer season amid Fountain hemlr and I.lisuly groves— Tlio Osiers Willett Isle pitwoou loves," we need not wish for a more delightful companion than a poet who will render in nervous English, like Mr. Lockhart, the romantic hi ge nd s a th e ball a d literature of Spain. Recollecting the superbly -illus. tnited edition of these charming poems, we feel increased pleasure in their being thus made *Teti- Rible to The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral, with a Table of' the Colours of Good and Era. By Fran el% Bacon, Viseotttlt St. Alban. The Two Books ig* Francis ltarms on tiw Prlicience and Advancement of Learning. 1,4,11414 m : Parker and Son. Tut:sr. two volumes appear as portions of a great and useful plan, which the editor states to comprise the " issuing at in►ervals, in a cheap form. some of the chief works of our great English atither?4." The be ginning was well made, some months since, in the publication of a reprint ol''• Booker~ Ecclesiastical Polity," and the series is well continued with the above works of the great father or the inductive philosophy. The volumes are earefidly edited, eapi tally got np, presented in a light., available form, and wonderfully cheap, teen in this ago of cheapness. Companion to the Railway Edition of toot Cau►p bell'x Life of Bartel. London : Chapman tusti Tilts little volume contains a reprint of the well known article published in the E.rosaister on the atlth of I►eceiuber, ltis2, as we presume, by way of a Christina/4-Imlx for I,ord t'ampbell, %lib 114111114.1 on his lordship's mode of dealing with its strictures, which are cuittecingly illustrative of his pretensions as an author. The e.rpoxotre, for we can call it by no other 1111111 C, of his lordship's incompetency is $4l) elaborate, that it might be made the foundation of a quo Ira rro eft) in the tliteeit's Bench to question his lordship's right to meddle with English history. Eureka, No. '2. A Sequel to t Keptol to !dull John Russell's I'ust. bag. I Icfen4l :.I. Vincent. Tuts pamphlet. is it sevond instalment of s4llllO Amble addenda to the Report, of the Oxford 'nix - entity Commission, aml 114 such is respeetfully iloslieated to iii i "from whom alone of the Heads of Colleges no answer was received to any of the com munications qf the Connaission."—lteport, lingo Appendix It. Of the maitre of I licso uddendu, its well its the t-tingullif cifemilstitnecm which they have come heroin' the public, the I'4l4wing passage from the letter of Alf. JCIOIO'S tlesshllueu will sink° for information' : " In that ere 111t.14.11.1l 11111'1'0 ill while wu was in, Inane I'aw•ties 1114111//1 likippiell 11111'~ us the left 1114 . 1 14stlislisi residens was eltstrisil 41111. The 111esm le* they 101 10 . 111111 1111'111 W 1414 poiriligimis, which liming 011.11,41111114 101' 111 e liINWIIIII.III I . lll* 0111' 011 . 41141• iv:N.l64ms, I awl my 1 e1)j1111 , 114 wax 11.11111^slcil 10 set 111111g4 nllllll. 111111 vionliiily isollis•km the issiters as wits lielig alssit, for the 1.111110/141 1)11 . 1.111 to lilt tire4mgmeer 1114 ill j0)14 11111 1:11111i • 111.1111: 1.11 1111. greet Couniervitt iv l'awty 111111 V:1114 emineektud with our 1 imment. While I wos ilewty a 1 ienkimi of Illy 111'111111i1111111% 1111110.11 M 111 111.0111 ill, 111101 Ile 1119)1, Myll Ile, Jeuil:es, if I wils 104 gull IA convert them 4114 k 'llll4 1100 Ulla 11101 11'1 1441 10 that en: gns.ii tier a palmy 141 a lb.' Knowing my From Chawlus to be a SO11)1111111, 111111 a 1111411 as klllloll n 1 hull{ 01' 100, 1001'14C recently hail a sitivatiiin mailer the late liook of %% vitamin'''. I axed hint down to my club that night,fuld sent on 11111 peeper,' in a plate warmer by it young 1" x'° Its w a n d upon UN 1111104.1' KUV 011b4. resilling on en', I Nee at Imee 4tri he was interested, and' Jennies,' says he, "fliomi ilokiments must rum before the l'oblin eye, 1 k1111W)1 1111 11111)111 NIL It ' s 111111 o•re comislin about the Il awk stall Gems, UN kith' my poor 1,141 11‘ tier. I woe poor 41141 Master 'ol4ll at IVarnier . 111711 IV, II 144141111 g and a mailing, and a reading on it, mill I knov44l it 1111 111 1110 111'11111 011 elll 11101 Y. he got it &11u. I Slew 11411,1 ts is bad 14 health and constitution, they causes lowish's; and impairs disgesti (((( , and blew pills in the consiquents.' Says I, Chawles, I aunt sanguinary that these pee:pens is wittli any. thiuk, or theyil louver liven and gone and left till 1 4 , 1 . 4 4. Says he ' Darby me Boy," In all these Inkyries, the part HS they 4114411 publish is tillers 1:111011/4 and interresting then what they brings alum the. public, so lets 104»11. 110 tivac ill 1100 k ing on um over.' %Ve um ov v e, 141111 we 40111114 3111 down a sarmplo which I lutwles sari i 4 missy humus, but moistly about a stibc4nuislon KM was 1111141111:11 respo.et spawting matters 1111141118 Colleolge Clinwles mud self was eyily gratified with *list we read, both been spawling 1144111, and l inewies well acqueented with Ilawksfuil, huveing fornily hail in linage a Toll eif Christ church which had a lionixiiill4 111011101' 1111 %rim actind he'd be kirupted and perwefted by theta wiekud scouts." If the discovery of certain well-known name* among the tritnesseg cited in th© original report hag occasioned any lurprim: to the pensive public s thew