The Press. — London, England, 1853-12-24 00:00:00

810 The writer has pursued most extensively a system of in fpury, sad the result has been that in the of ver ) nearly all those iwmins alto have been observed battling nobly with the tremendous difficult of extteme p4lverty, and maintaining a degree of miler, clea n liness, and cod. a %Attu after spiritual life, only to bo seemed by great and incessant exert , it has been disesneresl that in very nearly all the eases the ',soh -4 had in .v llUth Idt some National, or Iniosh, or other charity ,chart. Our author reekons that in his iiihtriet Clerkenwell "not more than one-third of the " adults can read at all, and no t .e than " one-sixth Coll read tolerably." The propor tion of those who can write is, of course, 1111141•11 smaller. The utter ignorance of the Men 111141 women whom he undertook to teach was not always easily detected, it being their habit to assent to all that was said, as though with full comprehension. Moral tuul physienl degrada tion, as might be expeeted, go together. In Bethual-green the average age of gentlemen residents was ascertained to be •11, that of the working population only M. Of this early mortality great part arises from neglect and insufficient maintenance in ittlititey ; much Mao from intemperance, which is itself a re sult of foul air. foul water, and want of proper food. The deficiency of accommodation 11)r the very poor is likewise a most serious evil. Metropolitan improvements sweep away whole districts of misentble !poises, and replace them by others of a better claims. But these latter are of emirs(' unavailable to the ejected tenants of the rookeries, who are thus turned adrift into the streets, unless some special provision be inside for their reception. 1111 r. Vimilerkiste's work contains two vain able chapters on " Intemperance" and " The Criminal Population," results of the for mer may be summed up ill a small compass : I hare studied this saltjeti intensely fur many years— phymilologically, mentally, and the lowest depth of this curse to I'm nation, and to the world, I Mal I hare yet to &theta. )'min all I 11111 . 4 , 11 . 1141 and seen. lam compelled toe - eille with the generally-received opinion that we are et the most drunken people on earth. This view is supported by individual in stances and statistical details—by the fact that MOM public-houses exist in I.ondon slouc— hy the statements of Lord Slisftesbury. as Chairman of the Commission of Lunacy, that. three-fifths of the insanity existing in this estuary is created by intemperance—and by the well-known eitlenhition that a larger sum is paid away annually for strong drinks than the entire public , revenue of the country. The autlnir argues strongly for "total abstinence" ass the only efficacious remedy ; yet iteknow itsiges that of those who hike the pledge many rs.inisio, and that promises made in moments of s , xeitenasitt ?mil enthusiasm are not always to be relied uteme, As respects general morality, the state of en tire '):lasses in Lonibm may )w regarded as one .4' repressed rather than refiwined number of bad characters of both sexes known to the 'mice, says Mr. Vanderkiste, exceeds itotoll. Profeshig thieVt'sare rarely reclaimed; their best I' l lllllee is in gaol, where and teaching are coupled with an enforced sobriety. But to make prisons avail able as reformatory institutions there must be, during confinemest, a careful classification of pffenders, HMI t which IS 'veer MOM 11111101illIlt tome provis' for employing them on the e xpiration of their sentence. Many a fl`loll left gaol full of resolutions of amendment who has subsiluently yielded, less to tempta tion hi the ordinary sense of the word. than to the sheer necessity whirl% drove lino haek t o erhne, in the absenee of honest employment. It. is noteworthy. as bearing OH this subject, that the period of life at whirls the grmtest strount of crime is committed falls between I . end years, nearly one-lom•th of the en thr rriu,inal population being c o mprised within those limits of time. 'raking the na tion generally. we find that only one-tenth of its inhabitants at any given period fall within those years. In this single statistic is com prised ra 1014111' VOllllllt` of traehing. What might not be done for offenders still so young, And how long might not the consequent de (Tense in our criminal returns become? space fails us for hirther extracts ; but the work itself is worth perusal. THE PRESS. Once arm. a Time. By Charles Knight. Lon- don: Murray. EvEnvainot has a kind word to say of Mr. Knight, and verily, if we were commentators on Shakspeare ourselves, we eould not find it in our hearts to say a harsh thing of one with so many claims to the friendly regard of the public. Honourably known in literature by his own meritorious writings. his mune is " popu lar" in the worthiest sense. lie was the first to give readers books that were both cheap and good, as distinguished lioni that flood of " cheap and nasty " literature which vulgarises iu place of elevating, and corrupts instead of refining. Many of his opinions may appear to us heterodox, but he has never intruded them with sectarian rancour. We will not, however, be satisfied with him until he gives us some noire of his own personal recollections. The publiention of that periodical in which limed, and Maeaulay. and so ninny others, showed their youthful powers, must have many agree able and curious anecdotes worth narrating. Several of these papers have alrea►ly nl►- peared in House/mid 11 - ords and other I►ublica tions. They may be classed on the huukshelves along with " Essays and Anecdotes." Some times they are critical, and occasionally they are fanciful. Often instructive, they are ge nerally amusing, and they lire never dull. The parts of them which we have read with most pleasure was his own original gossip about " l tld Windsor," and his graphic pic ture of the good old King. From his "1 irst Stel► into the World" we take the following I►icture of a journ n ►list fi,rty years since:— In ti11 . ..011y 1).11 I stepped for a misidli or two out Of OW little world in wide!' I had liven living, to come Mee to fare with great public things. I hail it friend who was the editor IMO daily 111.1111/11111 . 1's, 111 1 1111 l -Mug and an evening. What It wonderful 1111111 I thought him ! I see him 101 w, as I often saw him, sitting in his lack office. in it dingy ilressing•gown and mishisrn beard, d a shing oft' his leader t'or the evening paper. At twit o'clock he dressed. and he kindly took the yiiittli 11'11111 the CI iiiiitly with him fur a walk through the Strand, and along tite null in the park. The park wits a queer itufashioneil !dace then, with 11 11/11g dirty pond where Charles ii. fed his ducks—no Omani ions—no gravelled walks—iiii gas lights. lint we walked happily enough ; and kind friend told fnnlly Irish stories, and instable anecdotes of Mr. slierithui and Mr. l'isingailoy, with whom he belisti.il 1111 intimacy, Yet, isf the real lift. 1014 suit 111' knew sty little, although he wag the editor of two daily papers. To edit a paper then was not very difficult. Many of the thousand complicated social and eonune reiul q u estions that have grown up during slur long peace were then scarcely known. Pinta• mental y reform wits a 1111'11111. If the war was blamed, no one (gash' uphold Napiiiisin. The tome of the piper %%114 settled by the toil e isf the party. There were very nirely expresses from great provincial towns—mid their local intelligence 'nosily hit to their own jour nals. Intertiffirse with foreign states Was almost impossible, except thrsiugh the I iliveniniclit messengers; mid they went mid came at the cost of seto,n l L tua d re d PIMMIS journey. My gussil friend's intellect was not gictitl tasked. W rem we lind taken our aalk he had a comfortable dinn e r ; dnitik a bottle of port. sistilet . .s two ; laud it nap in his chair midistmited by they havkitry.coaciirs in the Strand; at nine o'clock strolled down to the House to know what " 14 going wrote his morning lender, mod went to bed in ter, &went time. We prefer those portions of Mr. Knight's authorshil► which deal with fiu•ls rather than fancies. His imagination. though active, is deficient in vividness. and some of his " pic tures" arc wanting in the magic of illusion. But he is certainly both an interesting and instructive writer. Rditke's Ilidory of &Trio. Translated l,y Ms% Alexander Kerr. To which is added the Slaw Provinces of Turkey, rhietly froth the French of Cypriot Robert. London: 11. iLltohn, THE accomplished lady to whom we are indebted for the jpresentation of Professor Ranke's wok on Semis to the English public k fairly entitled at this appearance of a new edition to withdraw those ex pressions of mistrust which accompanied the edition of Isll. A general consensus of critical opinions has since teSlitiell to the fidelity and elegance of her translation, while events now transpiring invest her performance with i ncreas i ng interest and importance, The present volume con.. tuns the addition of a sketch of the insnmeetion in Bosnia, with an account of the I'4lave Provinees of Turkey, chiefly, as its titlepage describes, from the French of eyprien 'Robert, the Professor of sla v e Literature in the College of France. To this appropriate combination is appended an inde x , which the former volume wanted, and which extends to twenty pages. SATURDAY The Knot 0 . To-day, and a Hand to Undo It. London : Seeleys. A Pitorosii. to encounter the propagandism of Rome in England by the creation of a Church Reriral society on comprehensive principles and au elaborate scale. The details of its proposed organisation are set forth at considerable length. The style of th e book is succinct and eloquent, and its publication opportune as an evidence of increasing vigilance and au earnest of the growing zeal with which Pro testantism is preparing to encounter its foe. l'arliamentary Aforno. A Letter to Richard Free dom, Esq., on the Re-distribution, Extension, and Purification of the Elective Franchise. By a 14:rising Barrister. London: Ridgway. Ties pamphlet is evidently the well-considered pro duction of a gentleman whose opinion is worth having- and, though too sweeping in its proposals for the disfranchisement of old and the substitution of new constituencies, is in many other respects adapted to explode the pretensions of a clique to tinker the representation in accordance with their democratic tendencies. We may quote, for instance, the following on the intended extension of the franchise in counties : " I will now proceed to the extension of the snBi•age in comities, where 1 shall he more laid. It is a mistake to suppose that our fonlathers ever intended the county filmehise to be in any way analogous to that of boroughs. I should not allude to this were not proposals constantly made to reduce the qualification in counties to the sante amount us in the boroughs. To do this would altogether destroy the equilibrium MO wisely established between pro. petty 311111 hcis. originally all the freeholders who attended the count• court voted for knights of the shire. Cut upon a petition of the House of Commons, wade A.ll. 1 13(1, the statute Is Henry 0, e. 7, limits the election to freeholders isissessing foily shillings. The same statute made it necessary that the knights elected 10110111 d be resident in the comities for which they we►Ye returned, which provision was, however, finally repealed by the I 4 lico. 3, The principle of its being essential to tt comity voterto ha►e am interest in the land was recognised even in the alteration made by the ltefarw Hill, which admitted copy holders, long leaseholders, and yearly tenants to the amount to the privilege of voting. We do not find in any scheme of reform advanced by N. nu, or the more zealous refitment of that pe►iod, any proposal to confound the counties with the boroughs in one common plan for ex tending the suffrage. ( See 11) yin's Political Papers, tol. iv , p. l Vt.) They appear always to have recognised and vet quieseed in the constitutional rule of a qualification in the countiea distinct front that annexed to the boroughs, not from any superiority of the one over the other, for a mem ber of Parliament when once returned for any place what ever, however small, has a vote as powerful and influential as that of him► who represents the metropolis of 011rettnntry, lint because' the knights were supposed to represent a different class of men, viz., those engaged in sgricultmal pursuits." Errors in India and at Howe. Ty William David Braid. London: T. Scott. Tins pamphlet, though written with fair average ability, comes too late to be of service. The interest excited by Indian affairs was never more than tem porary, and has now again given way to the accus tomed apathy and torpor with which such subjects are received. Sir C. Wood's bill is law, and, until it breaks down in the working, there is little use in re newing the war so lately susperded. Mr. Braid, however, possesses a knowledge of his subject which may render him hereafter a useful champion. Ile has brought to light at least one grievance overlooked among the variety of topics treated in last summer's desultory debate, and it is best stated in his own words '' lu inquiring into facts let us commence with the con dition of the liyots. The pivots are the cultivatma of the soil, and tire compelled to pay shut is called a water fee, levied by the 4 invernment for the repairs of tanks to pre serve the 1114 . 1t1P4 of inigntion. To this water fee there is no complaint. Hitt when the tanks have for years fallen into th , l'HY- slid lir e "litter e d "WIC" , it isno r ma l to "1414 that strong warmers will exist II hen the Ryon+ Mid that the money paid as a water fee is n o t auvli e d to the putp4.se fur which it is collected, and that they are compelled to do nearly all the repairs at a further expcuse, that is to say, independent of the tax the pivots are forced to make these repairs out of their omit pockets within a small outonut of the east of putting the tanks in use. When the means of irrigation are obstructed, aslant' inlay occults when the floods of the monsoon 'Vil l a choke and till up the channels with sand. the Ryots are forced to leave their habitations, and travel many miles :•, dear out the channels. without I-vet-hilly. any emolument. Upon their indicating an amitill1111Cl• tof a refit-al to go, a heavy tine is indicted. and, notwithstanding the payment of the fine, they tire than comisdleil to pureed to the distance and perform the work, II gh they have to pay for additional labour at biome in eonsequenee of their absence. The Tek• silthus Who conduct this business are invested with magi?, feria! authority. and lit their pleasure take the IlyAs from plaee to place, far distant from their thaws, using theta tt alt !ve i n oevetity. until the poor Bytom bututilititely buc• mull to their dogmatical commando."