The Press. — London, England, 1853-10-15 00:00:00

Young India Reform party; that it speaks from the beginning to the end the truth that " Itirectnni are not unmindful (4 thuir " ditties "—that every question which volutes before their tribunal i., thoroughly and (lin scientiously 1411141. and examined. and dis cussed : and that. in the mikpirity of eases—iu some of the most important questions of itoli tival government. still the invasion of Mt -4 Seinde—Mr. Tucker's opinion only rellei.ted those of the whole body of the Court. We eilse II ill this place to enter upon eon t ro% ito r ottnent ourselves ; but thus notch we may soy—the perusal of the work left upon oor toitolm stt itnpreroion of respect for the i 1 I iter, whivh W 1 could not toy any 1111411114 ex t 11 1 to those whose proceedings provoked the es'in critique and induced the powerful pro temt. TllO 114111eS which appear on the titlepage it ill seri e aK it r 4 to I 1111111 k filVt/iir, and KiiplOrti ill ills any elaborate commentary Id' our own. Unlike the majority of those ephemeral productions which, pretending to throw light on Indian midterm, have emanated trout t h e 1 1 1 1 'SS, and inundated the metropolis from laimary to lime, this volume, %%lien dis einesion lINK, !ow lent., (lied :essay, 111141 the char ter of I 4 :4:1 stands far back in the past, will remain a pert iiiii lent tenant (If our library-shelf valuable study alike to the student and the statesman. • Mr. Tucker's remarks on the ronstitution of thu Board of Control are mitiiirable; a n d W e appreltend that that section chick contains It Mliggebt 101 l fill' the appointment of II President may 114%1' had Solite in &ter mining the institution of it rernoment xerreffiry xMp ill Cannon-row : It is itnquestionalde Ihe tileiveves l that where large liowera are to be eVereigVil 111011. ttttt 1.1 be • iii list I .•.! 01111 st bi ty mid that there ~humid also be found I experience to rettnlitte their e‘eivii.e. In no esitintry 1. a Isniiwleilge of litralities. s a d of the paiiiiailur.iitliiret matter to be shish with, noire neeesnaly than in where we Ink tieeitlntrilies uud iii%ersitirs ill the relivion. laws, ItMMltes, litiloill4, 1, Mill vitativetri• this punple; while a knoinletlge of all these is only to be obtained by bong experience and a residence 111111011:t 11111111. Tii these premises, without rkivitt,r iire.inible, would °team. that the Itolia Nonni, althiaigh lug great talent anti general kininlialge, is likely to be ile• 'swir l s' in that Inca) mut profewsitautl kilionlialge which are essential to the g.nml goowilikai.lit • . . •- • • 1 Willlillll.l. 1111 i. 111111111144. 10 him muc h i t erem i r , upon 311 ite eitritte ii,eiti1;111112121• Usages llll4l law {.1 1 11 4 .,11 . s lii 111 2 111-I.llld' to 111.1111, years ago, the 1116111 , to M large juigliecc were adjudicated, 'miler eirciiinstances Odell Ktoperireil tii iny life friend Mr. Vilmonstone and Inv: , elf to be Extrain•iliiiiiry and suispicion, ; a garden, and the lug• herr, liming been assigned to at putty who tippeuireil Io us to have no Just claims 111 1111' c iiii,iitte t l flit' 112.01114 111.1112.1 in 1 Ell.gliNll language. a n d 1;1111111 t h at the Court', despond' nn, supported by I 114.111; 101 l !dr. not feeling satisfied. refeireil to the i s t igtii it i d ee d i ll th e Persian language. and there we tomtit that the whole ease hinged upon 211 1.1111110.0114 111111,11.11 tint, the c olt i t tlicitint 11114 hating been :substituted for the pieptisititun "in "; that 1 , 4. the Original deed dint ••••.(1 Illt. garden of the pielteer of —, instruel of the gatilen and thy j igheer. !fere wY liar, n 11eekii111 of the loot! 1111111,4rities f4ottoled ill n mistake which hod eseaped thy notice of the t iovern meld Aloud awl their tinkers. and which lgir Chairs mid own officers, 1 the President and Secretaries id the hail not detected. and uollltl 1112 1141..:41111 W . 11. 1 1,1111 Ih , . VI.;i1:111‘4.. ;11111 VI 11 kill 11 1111.21 ledge of 811 111121 OW% 4atit With the languages. Yet upon the steel :sent of these authorities the d , Ainatiiin of it large property depended. I do not mean to intimuite that such ease, air eidiittion; Nit. I do submit that the usefulness, the vifietettey, and the u►ond influence of the Itoard would he greatly increased by it, commiiiilitig the services of a foi l ,•tionary familiar with the administration of India. I %%mild say that the a pr o intwelit of tit Viee•Presitlent to the Hoard. po,,essing everience and a knowledge of the country, ini6lit he ex• peeled to prichnie the following advantages:- Ist. There would be a responsible functionnry on the spot, to ottleinte for the President, in the event of his less or absence. '2,intly. 'fins funetionary would lie able to collect nnal ar range the necessary materials whenei er 1111 Indi,tu quest. lien was 10 1.113 brought either House of l'arliament by the Piestilent or the Secretaries of the New& :mile. Ile wenn he Mile to assist the President in lik uur_:iitiations with the Chair., and in smoothing 'may th o s,. ,ialieutlties which soma times swear from a 11i111.rilltet• of sittitim between the Board and the Court. Ike would be able to apply his historical pio fessional knowledge lis•neticiall) iu iessisting to r e % i.e the dial, of ilvsvittelie. to ("kin. Other advantages might he pointed out : lint this brief summary msy he Aoind policies* to jiaslify the proposition s loch I bate enturvit to submit. THE PRESS. There is scarcely a topic of any importance, administrative or otherwise, connected with Indian government. which is not touched upon by the author of the "Memorials." The ',An vil& of non interference with the religious prejudices and religious observances of the people of India is as ably enforced us that of int( rferenee with the politieftl and internal government of their princes; awl the large, minded statesman is apparent throughout. We have given ow opinion so freely, in differ ent numbers, on Mr. Kaye and his works, that it may be surmised that the announcement of a coming " Memoir " from his pen was not unwelcome. History and Biography are euu xinx yronas to each other : and the pen which handles the one with ability will doubtless not Ire found wanting when the other is taken in hand. A really well-written " Life," is as valu able as it. is a rare commodity ; and we hail with satisfaction every such addition to our stock of modern biographical literature. Clouded linnoinen. A Niivel. From the French of the Countess D'Orsay. London : Clarke, Becton, and Co. E mune of "D'Orsay " on the titlepage of a novel entitled "Clouded Happiness is calcu lated to attract attention. But we may as well inform our readers that they will look in vain for any private reminiseencea of vanished celebrities. It may be described as French in spirit, and more suited for the Parisian palate than our homelier tastes. Its style is injured by translation ; and our readers had better peruse it in the original if they feel an appetite for social horrors and impassioned sentiments. It displays considerable clever Hess. and the Countess D'Orsay is an adept in the rbetorie of prose fiction. But facility of innguage is not enough for a novelist to rely upon, espeeially when the subject is of the sort suggested by the epigraph on the titlepage :-- ns ont main he ciel 114 nn don Its out smoifert, c'etst one antre inncence; 1k out aimi•. c ; est to !wean du pardon. This text, taken from Lamartine, will intli eate the sttf►ject to our readers. It is a difficult one for a lady to expound in a manner stills factory t,► English "prejudices,' as our Pa risiau friends would eall them. We oaa ► y say, genendly, that the Countess D'Orsay is too declamatory to sway the passions, anti that her dramatis rermaue contain too many w irked character)) for us to rare what h er oines o f them. She decidedly exhibits, however, that amount of literary ability which justifies us in expeeting more finished works from her pen. Novel-writing is an art in itself. and requires careful study and some pme tire before even clever writers succeed iu it. The tln•ee first novels of the late Miss Ellen Pickering (nine volumes!) were unsuc cessful—an instance taken from many in our knowledge of the numerous first failures that occur• in this department of letters. Let the Countess IYOrsay study more, and judieiously avoid the heaping together of too many strong " incidents, and she may, we ron4- dentl• believe, obtain considerable success. Comporot ice Grammar of the Hebrew Lon gunge. By .1. W. Donaldson. London :J. W. Parker and Son. WE have read with much greater pleasure than some former productions the present work by that accomplished scholar, Dr. Donaldson, of Bury School, the more so that we think the sys tem advocated by him.and most effectively car ried out in the work before us, is one which has been long wanted by English scholars. It has been a Colllllloll, nay, an almost universal, com plaint. that the grammar of the Hebrew language was at once so dry and so unlike that of any other tongue with which students. and especially boys, have acquired some familiarity as to make the study of it peculiarly distasteful. It has been long our opinion that this Was mainly caused by the uninviting manner in which almost all the elementary works for the aequirement of Hebrew have been dram n up. There is in many. especially in those of Lee and Ewald, no mall amount of learning, but there has been no attempt to SATURDAY combine the study of Hebrew with that of other languages, with the single exception of that of Arabic, its own eldest daughter. The student has been too often led to suppose that Hebrew was like the Basque or the Illyrican, a solitary and disconnected tongue, and that the comparative anatomy of it could not, as in the case of the Indo-Germanic languages, be ]►ursued with any advantageous results. Nor has this proved the only hindrance. in this country especially, to the learning this ancient tongue : our gntuunar•s have been all con structed, with more or less care, upon those of the .Jewish learned men of the last three CCU turies, and much that is laneiffil, many things which are perfectly useless, have, in conse quence, been crowded into them. The study of the Hebrew language wits ordained to fi►llow by one track, and one only, with about as much sense as if all the gardens were for• ever to be made after the angular patterns of Holland, or of the reign of Louis Quatorze. It was all to be according to one still, stereotyped ti►rm, and all the graceful curves of nature were to be carefully and systematically banished. Dr. Donaldson has, we think, done good service in casting aside this formal system, and in treating of Hebrew in a manner similar to that in which Latin and Greek have hitherto been taught. Simplicity of arrangement is the prevailing feature of this work, and we feel convinced that a competent knowledge of the language may be acquired through his aid in half the time required in order to master the simplest of the old grammars. We have great pleastu•e in recommending this, after some per• sonal experience of the grammatical systems adopted on the Continent as well as in Eng land, as by far the best we have yet met with fin• the promotion of the study of Hebrew at schools, or by young pupils. Old students may perhaps have sonic doubt how far he has supplied some of the sounds of the language in all their fulness, but none skilled in teach ing can question that his grammar is a great improvement on the old ones. Blue Jackets ; or, Chips qf the Old Block. By W. H. 0. Kingston, Esq. London : Grant and Griffith. Tut. titlepage of this volume tells us that its author intended it as " a narrative of the gal lant exploits of British seamen, and of the principal events in the naval service during the reign of Queen Victoria ; " and to a consi derable extent the work fulfils its object. though in rather a desultory manner. Mr. Kingston commences with an account of the naval operations in Syria and China, and then passes on to the suppression of piracy in Bor neo, to which subject he appropriates one third land the least interesting) portion of his vo hune. He then relates the dreary expedition up the Niger under Captain Trotter, and various miscellaneous naval actions in differ ent parts of the globe, describing several ex ploits of personal daring and intrepidity by officers and men, fully entitling them to be called " chips of the old block." He then gives many interesting anecdotes of the African coast blockade, and most readers will find this portion of the volume entertaining, as it is associated with the suppression of the slave trade. The worst part of the book is its too brief review of the North Polar Expedi tion. _ We have examined these details with consi derable interest, for at the present time our " blue jackets" arc naturally objects of much attention. These pages serve at least one useful purpose. in effectually demonstrating that the eulogy of Lord Palmerston upon our marine force as " being able to accomplish any thing within human possibility" is borne out by its acts even during the peaceful reign of Queen Victoria. We see no symptoms of de generacy in a service which can boast of having performed in such dashing style so many ex ploits as arc here recorded. We expected, however, more literary talent in this work. Its author is an experienced and attractive writer. and we think that in many parts of his subject he might have given more vi% id and stirring descriptions. The volume reads as a whole too like cuttings from the London Ga:etec and other newsmen, yet we