The Press. — London, England, 1854-12-02 00:00:00

1146 interesting bit. It is not much safer balanced on the double top of the towel-horse. The best arrangement, on experience, is a long drawer, pulled out and turned up on its edge. With respect to the book, it is my own negli gence to blame if I have not got one ; but I have been so destitute of anything to read that I have even unfolded pieces of newspapers, in which different things in my portmanteau have been wrapped up, and studied the Gazette of weeks ago ; or an honourable member's speech, whose name had been torn off ; or the list of distinguished personages whose corns had been cured; or sonic unim portant French news—" the greater portion of which ap peared in our impression of yesterday "—until heavy eyelids warned me to put out the candle. I had no book this Christmas-eve night. I could have gone down to the book shelves, but I did not care to disturb the house creaking up and down stairs ; and so I hunted about the room, and at last in the drawer of the dressing table I found • local railway guide. It was not a very promising pamphlet. Even Bradshaw flags in sustained interest if you read it through continuously : unless it be that you marvel at that wonderful map, occasionally intro duced amongst the advertisements, of the position of a particular London hotel, where you turn round to the right into Oxford-street, and to the left into Cheapside, and cross over the way to the London-bridge terminus, and walk out at the back-door into the Regent's-park. On Christmas night he had to perform a rail way journey, and had to undergo that greatest of all modern nuisances the waiting some hours in dead of night at a station for a train could not settle down well to my hooks. I took up Dumas' charming story, and thought of the alliance, and what a fool Margot's husband must have been not to have suspected the real state of affairs with La Mole ; and then I turned to the " Life of Grimaldi," and felt great sympathy with " the painted mountebank," as my worthy old friend H. sometimes calls me when he wants to pull down my public conceit. The book put me in mind of London, and what a to-do was in all probability then going on at the theatres, for there is not much rest the night before Boxing day. The scene-painter was eating his plum-pudding — if he got any—in the painting-room, served up with spots of tinsel and dabs of Dutch metal ; the " property-man " was revelling in piles of roast beef, salmon, geese, carrots, sausages, and sucking-pigs, but they were all made of canvass and sawdust, and papiermitche ; and the car penters were sawing and tacki og, and swearing on the stage, amidst such a shower from above of hammers, and gas tongs, and ripping -chisels, and centre-bits, that a rain of cats and dogs would have fallen as soft as a Scotch mist by comparison. Our wag, like the needy knifegrinder, has no story to tell, but has written a clever graphic paper from experience of a very common place incident. A "Second Chapter on Auto graphs," by Mr. Charles Hervey, supplies some curious passages of literary anecdote. The following notice of a letter from Foote to Garrick deserves the notice of all collectors of anecdote -- I pass on to an interesting letter addressed by Foote to Garrick from. Dublin. In it he alludes to his having been nearly "reduced to ashes by reading in bed, that cursed custom ;" adding " so you see, my dear sir, no man can foresee the great ends for which he was born. Macklin, tho' a blockhead in his manhood and youth, turns out a Wit and a Writer on the brink of his grave ; and Foote, never very remarkable for his personal graces, in the decline of his life was very near becoming a toast." This amusing epistle concludes with the following pretty compliment to his correspondent's wife: " Yon may assure Mrs. Garrick that flattery is not one of my failings, anti that she has the merit of making me constant and uniform in perhaps the only part of my life—my esteem and venera tion for her. Among the best of the tales we are inclined to place " My Sister's New Governess," by Mrs. Abdy, an admirable example of the nouvellette. Miss Power has shown much taste in her selec tion of literature, and proved herself a fitting successor to her gifted and accomplished rela tive, the Countess of Blessington. The plates are pretty but the animated and graceful portraits will, we fancy, be generally esteemed as most acceptable. 3 The " Court Album" contains the por traits of eleven distinguished ladies of our aristocracy. Many of the faces in this gallery serve admirably to show the superiority of truth to fancy in portraiture. The radiant sweetness of Lady Bertha Hastings, the hand some good-temper of Miss Goodlake in her riding-hat, the serene intellectual beauty of Lady Harriet Hamilton, the finely-sculptured beauty of Miss Heneage, and the bewitching pleasantry of Mrs. Gardiner, are among those expressions which no invention could hope to rival. Most of the portraits are from drawings by Hayter. The book is bound to form a hand some ornament for the drawing room table. Leaves from the Diary of an Officer of the Guaras. London : Chapman and Hall. THEsz sketches of the Peninsular war (from W 1812) have already appeared in the THE PRESS. pages of a magazine, and are now offered to the public in a collective form. They ar•e dedicated, we see, to the brigade of Guards now serving with Lord Raglan, and, as they describe some of the past achievements of this glorious corps, they will probably prove accept able, not only to those younger heroes who are anxious to share the hardships and the honours of the Crimea war, but to all whose enthusiasm is roused by the fresh glories which have so lately encircled our gallant Guards at Alma and Inkermann. Written in a lively, graphic, entertaining style, a capital idea of campaigning life is obtained from them, and although there is perhaps but little novelty in the description of events which so many able military men and historians have fully narrated, yet there is a freshness in personal recollections which is at all times welcome. Some of the anecdotes ar•e new. Here is one about an amateur that shows how little Lord Wellington valued such gentlemen : During this campaign we had many amateurs, or T.G.s as they would be called in modern phraseology, whose curiosity far exceeded their cognisance of military position ; one of these found himself suddenly one fine morning in the midst of a French instead of an English out-picket. Although arriving early, and quite unexpectedly, he was politely requested to remain and make a sojourn with them ; he pleaded his non-combative qualities, protested "qu'il n'etait pas du tout, du tout militaire," laid great stress upon his love of the peaceful, the beautiful, the pic turesque ; that he was a mere wanderer to see the country and the war, and assured the French officer he was " purement un amateur." He who had charge of the Gallic outpost, ho waver, was incredulous and uninfluenced by such sophistry, and could not understand such a fine drawn distinction in so doubtful a predicament ; besides, our unlucky countryman had adopted a military costume, — a blue coat, cocked hat, and sword,—which rendered his belligerent appearance more complete, and his peaceable pretensions less credible. Although later in life (tempura mutantur !) he might have declared himself one of " Bright and Cobden's own," at the time all his protestations were in vain. To the head-quarters of the enemy's army he was sent a prisoner. Not long previous to this a French lieutenant-colonel had been taken by some of our people. When our unfor tunate traveller reached his destination a flag of truce was sent to Lord Wellington from the French marshal, saying that they had taken a prisoner, calling himself an amateur ; that the marshal did not clearly comprehend what that name implied, as they had none such in their army ; but if Lord Wellington would exchange him for the lieutenant-colonel lately taken from them, the marshal would return the amateur. Lord Wellington is stated to have answered that he was " much obliged to the French commander for the proposition, but he begged he would keep him." There has lately been a great outcry about the barbarity of the Russians in firing upon the mêlée of British and Russian after our light cavalry charge at Balaklava. Though the fire of artillery upon friend and foe alike cannot be excused, yet that such occasionally is the fortune—or rather the " accident "—of war we read here in the account of the battle of Fuentes d'Onor. A sudden dash of the French cavalry had taken a picket of Guards (about a hundred rank and file) in flank and rear, and were cutting them down in detail when " Lawson's guns came up and, opening " with grape on the French cavalry, mowed " them down, destroying at the same time " many of our own infantry, mixed up as they " were in the mêlée with the French cavalry." A characteristic anecdote is related of Wel lington which we do not recollect to have seen before : One day I met there Mr. Sydenham, a friend of Lord Wellington, lately arrived on a visit to him. In the course of conversation at table, this gentleman expressed his satisfaction at Lord Wellington's apparent good looks and health, and added : " With the details you have to think of, the numerous affairs, both political and diplo matic, you have to provide for, added to the military responsibility yon have to bear, I cannot conceive how you can sleep in your bed ?"—" When I throw off my clothes I throw off my cares, and when I turn in my bed it is time to turn out," was Lord Wellington's short and characteristic reply. " Our Veteran " " fights his battles o'er again" with energy and clearness, and des tribes the accidents and incidents of his experience with considerable skill. Hence his " Sketches of Campaigning Life" will be read with interest, more especially as in many respects they curiously contrast with the events which up to this time have distin guished the great military enterprise of 1851. Travel Thoughts and Travel Fancies. By Henry Strickland. London : J. W. Barker and Sons. "Ir is it very ensy thing to write a book," Mr. Strick land tells us in his preface, and, after stiidying thii SATURDAY, ease with which Mr. Strickland has filled 160 odd pages, we are inclined to wish that he had found it a somewhat more difficult matter. The journal reads like an attempt to carry out the burlesque style of Charles Lamb, but the imitation, as South said of extempore preaching, contains "little wit and no learning at all." There is a wide distinction between what Southey called " pure, involuntary, unconscious nonsense," and what the late Charles Mathews used to extol as "clever nonsense," but of this distinction Mr. Strickland, perhaps happily for himself, has evidently not the slightest conception. Useful Hints to Young Men holding Government or Mercantile Appointments. By John Vanden bergh. . . . MR. VANDENBERGH lays down RS a rule that integrity, industry, and perseverance are the true virtues of a mercantile life. Our success in life depends, he tells us, chiefly on ourselves. " Those will mostly " meet with encouragement who mostly deserve it. " No one will be interested in your welfare unless ha " finds that you are interested in his—none would " be so mad as to invest you with fresh responsibili " ties if your listlessness and inactivity proclaim yuu " unequal to probationary duties." The sixteen pages of this tract are full of good precepts and sound advice—none the less valuable for having, for ages past, been stamped as sterling sense—adapted for general circulation. The Fortunes of Colonel Torlogh O'Brien. London : Routledge. AN animated story of the time of James IL, detailing the general adventures and misfortunes of that un happy monarch in Ireland, but more particularly the roving life of a colonel of one of his dragoon regiments. As a historical romance it has the merit of sustained interest and a bold style of portraiture. Mirth and Metre. By Two Merry Men, Frank E. Smedley and Edmund H. Gates. London: Routledge and Co. A SERIES of ballads and legends written in the Ingoldsby style, and although inferior to those famous compositions in power an'l versification, yet not without some considerable merit of their own. The parodies upon " Locksley-hall," "Evangeline," and Poe's "Raven," are cleverly and closely written, PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED. BOOKS. Howse of Baby. Chapman and Hall Manua! of Civil Lair. E. R. Humphreys. Longman and Co, First Steps in Economic Botany. T. C. Archer. Reeve. Popular British Conelwloyy. U. B. Sowerby. Do. Popular History of English Mosses. R. M. Stark, Do. Annotated Edition of the British Poets.—Cluracce. J. W. Parker and Son. The Quiet Heart. Blackwood and Sons. The Rise and Progress of Christianity. lt. W. MaCh ryas.a PedruLETS A Nation Iratching for Tidings. C. J. Vaughan, 1).1). J. W. Parker and Son. Balloons for Warfare. H. Co.rwell. Wesle3. The Colonial Almanac Black. Educational Prospects of St. Thomas Charterhouse. Longman and Co. Sonnets of Cambridge Life. . Mud. Macmillan and Co. Harbours and Towns of the Crimea. M. Gore. Ridgway. Common Schools of Massachusetts. Do. A PAPER-MANUFACTURING COMPANY has been es tablished in Western India with respect to which the Bombay Telegraph, after alluding to a recent meeting of the shareholdors, says :—" A gentlemen of con siderable chemical attainments is to be engaged for the purpose of testing the pulp-producing properties of both the aloe and the plantain tree ; and we learn that Government has taken a warm interest in the enterprise, and will most probably grant a site for the works either at Callian or Tauna. There can be no doubt as to the ultimate realisation of this scheme." Tag STOWE ESTATES are to be sold by auction in January next, the annual rental on the faxnis being about 10,0001. Five hundred trees in the gardens and park are condemned, and will soon be felled. The house property in the town of Buckingham will also be sold. l'he mayor and a deputation from the council have waited un Lord Chandos, at Wootton, to arrange about the purchase of the Town-hall and its appurtenances, when it was offered at 1,2001. As the council have no funds they may possibly raise it on security of the borough rate , or a few s p eculative persons may purchase it as a profitable investment. THE GOVERNMENT on Tuesday purchased 18,009 . buffalo robes from the Hudson ' s Bay Company fog die lire of the army in the East: likii, I .