The Press. — London, England, 1854-03-11 00:00:00

many characters, he gets rid of them by trap door artifices, or he makes them follow the example of the things revealed by the micro scope in a drop of water, and destroy each other. In short, if cleverness of construction was enough to win renown as a novelist, Mr. James might compete with the first of his class. Or, if he would write slowly, medi tate much, and search for originality, he might produce two or three tales of more real lite rary value than the long array of his popu larly successful but never fascinating perfor mances. Yet, though we remark upon his defects, we must not be understood as wishing to dispa rage Mr. James's undoubted talents. Though his writings want the glow of genius, and though he never invents, it is a fact beyond controversy that he is such a master of the mechanism of novel-writing that he can enlist and sustain our attention. His reflections have the justness of thought resulting from a knowledge of the world, both theoretical an d practical ; his morality is unexceptionable ; and he has the resources of a stored intellect, wherewith to supply both colour and design to his plots. " Ticonderoga " shows that this vigorous author is not yet fatigued. In many respects it is one of the best of his recent fictions, and we are happy to record that it does not com mence with a description of " two horsemen," and that the self-denying author in these three volumes (as a Peelite theologian would say) "has put a constraint on his concupiscence for describing thunderstorms. The title of the volume tells the nature of its contents. Its time is 1758, and its dramatis persona are taken from American colonists, English officers, and the Indians. It has local colour and some historical fidelity, and as a novel will reward perusal ; but it is too evident that the writer wishes to supply the place left vacant by Mr. Cooper. It begins with the previous reflec tions of one leading a secluded life in the forest, and who thus writes in his journal : Among the minor trials of faith, few, perhaps, are more difficult to contend against than that growing conviction which, commencing very soon after the holiday happiness of youth has been first tasted, becomes stronger every year, as experience unfolds to us the great, dark secrets of the world in which we are placed—the conviction of the general worthlessness of our fellow-men. A few splendid exceptions, a few bright and glorious spirits, a few noble and generous hearts, are not sufficient to cheer and to brighten the bleak prospect of the world's unworthiness ; and we can only re concile to our minds the fact that this vast multitude of base, depraved, tricky, insincere, ungrateful beings are the pride of God's works, the express images of his person, by a recurrence to the great fundamental doctrine of man's fallen state, and utter debasement from his original high condition, and by a painful submission to the gloomy and fearful announcement, that "strait is the gate and narrow is he way, and few there be that find it." If man's general unworthiness be a trial of our faith and of our patience, the most poignant anguish of the torture is perhaps the keen conviction of his ingratitude and his in justice—not alone the ingratitude and injustice of indivi duals, but those of every great body—of every group—of so called friends, of governments, of countries, of people. Vainly do we follow the course of honour and uprightness ; vainly do we strive to benefit, to elevate, to ennoble our fellow-men ; vainly do we labour to serve our party, or our cause, or our country. Neither honour, nor distinction, nor reward, follows our best efforts, even when successful, unless we possess the mean and contemptible adjuncts of personal interest, pushing impudence, crooked policy, vile subser viency, or the smile of fortune. Here am I, who for many arduous years laboured with zeal, such as few have felt, at sacrifices such as few have made, and with industry such as few have exerted, to benefit my kind and my country. That I did so, and with success, was admitted by all ; even while ethers, starting in the career of life at the same time as myself, turned their course in the most opposite direction, pandered to vice, to folly, and even to crime, and trod a flowery and an easy way, with few of the difficulties and impediments that beset my path. And what has been the result? Even success has brought to me neither reward, nor honour, nor gratitude. On those who have neither so laboured, nor so striven, whose objects have been less worthy, whose efforts have been less great, recompenses and distinctions have fallen thick and fast— s Government's patronage—a Sovereign's favour—a people's applause. And lam an exile on a distant shore ; unthought of, unrecompensed, unremembered. There is pathos and something of the tone of poetry in those remarks, addressed to the melancholy of the human heart, that fountain of sympathy perpetually drawn upon by the writers of ages. Mr. James, however, should endeavour to give us an American tale of our own times. He remarks truly enough The types of American character are very few—much fewer than the American people imagine. There are three or four original types very difficult to distinguish from their lismow THE PRESS. varieties ; and all the rest are mere modifications—variations on the same air. It is thus somewhat difficult to portray any character purely American, without the risk of dis playing characteristics which have been sketched by more skilful hands. The outside of the man, however, affords greater scope than the inside; for Americans are by no means always long, thin, sinewy fellows, as they are too fre quently represented. But the variety of matter in America that presents itself to a novelist who observes (and does not merely spin his stories out of books) ought to supply ample text for Mr. James's powers of illustration. In the meanwhile we can recommend " Ticonderoga " for the va riety of its characters, and the sustained Inte -1 rest of its exciting story. A Visit to Portugal and Madeira. By the Lady Emmeline Stuart Wortley. London : Chapman and Hall. EVEN in these days of easy locomotion, Lady Emmeline Wortley deserves credit for the en terprise with which—mostly alone and unpro tected, and impelled only by the curiosity of a traveller—she has visited regions rarely ex plored by female tourists. Emulating the fame of Madame Ida Pfeiffer, she seems bent on perambulating the whole earth ; and nothing would surprise us less than to read of the ad venturous lady being reported among the last arrivals in the rebel camp before Pekin, or " spoken with" crossing the Sahara en route for Timbuctoo. It would perhaps he ungra cious to say that the printed results of her expedition scarcely repay the pains of the journey, because the chief object of a tour is avowedly the pleasure and improvement of the tourist—the book which usually follows being only a secondary consideration. Portugal and Madeira afford no new matter ; nor does Lady Emmeline's style, though graceful and ladylike, exhibit such graphic power as to give novelty to exhausted topics. The book, however, is readable, and may help to pass an unemployed hour. Wellington and Napier. Comments by Sir W. Napier. London : Westerton. SIR WILLIAM NAPIER claims the last word in this quarrel, and we are bound to add that to us he ap pears to have truth on his side. He complains that the Duke of Wellington's memorandum condemning the conduct of Sir Charles was produced at a general Court of Proprietors, and attempted to be read with out comment or accompanying documents, thereby producing an unfair impression—that the information on which that judgment was pronounced was both one-sided and deficient—that Sir Charles received from Lord Dalhousie private assurances of support which were afterwards publicly disavowed—and that the real cause of quarrel arose out of the Gover • nor-General's over-sensitiveness to the free criticisms of his military colleague. To give an abstract of this pamphlet is impossible, for the argument which runs through it turns mainly on points of detail, the prin cipal question at issue being this—" Was the mutiny " of 1849-50 serious enough to justify Sir Charles " Napier in acting on his own responsibility ? " The duke, writing on Lord Dalhousie's statement of facts, decides " no ; " Sir William maintains the contrary, and supports his arguments by extracts from Lord Dalhousie's letters. Of the publication of this private correspondence its author has complained, whereon Sir William retorts sharply—" Are men in power to " urge on their subordinates to important and dan " gerous action with private promises of support— " contradict those promises—and yet be safe from " exposure? " There is some superfluous, inclement, and merely recriminating matter ; but, taken as a whole, Sir William's pamphlet is both an able and a successful piece of controversial criticism. lie has confirmed us in our previous belief that Sir Charles Napier received from Lord Dalhousie something less than the respect, the support, and the forbearance which were due to his position and years. Those passages in which the writer argues against the Duke of Wellington's judgment may be cited as a model of respectful yet earnest remonstrance. Parliamentary Reform Considered under the Views Suggested by Evidence given before the Election Committees of 1853. London: Piper and Co. IF the Cabinet had not been so ready to slip from their engagements to their Radical followers, and to reduce the question of a Reform Bill to the barest contingency, it might have been useful to have set before our readers some extracts from the present pamphlet, which, without adopting all its views, we in the main approve. There can be no doubt ) as the SATURDAY, writer elaborately shows, that the first Reform Bill was a party measure, that it has rendered the House of Commons more corrupt, and the government of the country more difficult, thus justifying the pro- phetic apprehensions of the great duke. On the other hand, it has tended to raise the House of Lords in public estimation. The writer's analysis of the classes which at present constitute the corpus of either house is well worth attention, as also his in ferences from this in conjunction with the recent reports of the election committees. The work is published in the form of a pamphlet, but almost amounts to an octavo volume. The Rifle-Musket. A Practical Treatise on the Enfield-Pritchett Rifle, recently adopted in the British Service. By Captain Jervis-White Jervis, R.A. London : Chapman and Hall. THIS excellent treatise, id addition to a descrip tion of the improved rifle at present in use in the English army, contains much information relating to small firearms generally, and the best ac count of the composition and manufacture of gunpowder we have ever read. The author makes technicalities clear to the uninitiated, and thus gives the best proof that he has thoroughly mastered his subject. Rifled barrels were first invented at Vienna in 1408, but when the spiral turn was first given to the grooves is not known, although it must have been soon afterwards, as such weapons were in use at Nuremberg in 1522. Captain Minie, an instruc • tor in the School of Vincennes, by no means invented the improved rifle and bullet: he merely filled up the hollow at the base of the latter with an iron cup. That at the time was an improvement ; but the wea pon in use in the English army is not the rifle which wrongly bears Captain Minie's name. When Lord Hardinge became Master General of the Ordnance he invited all the leading gunmakers to compete to pro duce a model rifle; but the principle of "unrestricted competition " failed in this instance, and the weapon finally adopted was made at the Government factory at Enfield. It combines lightness, length of range, and simplicity of construction, being, in short, the best and most useful to be found in any army. The bullet was invented by Mr. Pritchett, a gunmaker of the Poultry, and, in the opinion of Captain Jervis, it is superior to any other now in use. This treatise, though concise, is perfectly clear, and, although on a strictly professional subject, not in the least pedan tic. With the text and the numerous diagrams, a person who has never seen a gun or gunpowder might learn to manufacture both. Palmerston in Three Epochs. By Washington Wilks. London : Freeman. No public man can enjoy universal popularity. Just in proportion as Lord Palmerston's constitutional tendencies have earned him the respect of Conserva tives, they provoke the hostility of self-duped Democrats, who accuse him of treachery, as Lord Clarendon accuses the Russian Government, for not telling them what they never asked to know. To this class, apparently, Mr. Washington Wilks belongs; but it is due to him to admit that if not convincing in his argument he is generally temperate in his invective. His principal charge against Lord Palmerston turns on the fact that the latter began public life a Tory, and shared, as a subordinate, in the responsibilities of the Liverpool Administration. He is occasionally wrong in his facts, and starts with a blunder, making Lord Palmerston contest the representation of Cambridge at the age of 19 ! a legal impossibility, further disproved by the date of the candidate's Firth, which was in 1784, not 'B7. Other errors occur. The most noticeable thing about this treatise is the tone of unintended respect in which the object of the author's attack is treated. Mr. Wilks confesses that "the general, perhaps the " nearly unanimous, feeling towards Lord Palmerston " at the present moment, as for some years past, is " that to which Lord John Russell, with great " dexterity, gave aphoristic expression "—namely, in the celebrated eulogy pronounced on " the Minister, " not of Austria, nor of Russia, nor of France, but of " England." He reminds us also of Sir R. Peel's panegyric, "We are all proud of him." On the whole, we think Lord Palmerston rather gains than loses by this attempted censure. Whitaker's Educational Register for 1854. London : Whitaker. Tuts work is destined to become exceedingly useful as a book of reference. It purports to contain particulars of the universities of the United Kingdom, the colleges connected with the Church of England, the Roman Catholics and various dissenting bodies, together with a complete list of the foundation and grammar schools in England and Wales, with an account of the scholarships and exhibitions attached to them, &c. &c. Though the work already extends to 247 pages, and this is the fourth year of it s publica tion, so difficult is it to collect and arrange all the