The Press. — London, England, 1858-10-23 00:00:00

1044 Warming with the contemplation of the unre stricted freedom of the savage, he anathematizes the " propagators of false shame among simple " people." " Ifour own coasts and rivers," he goes on to say, " presented everywhere groups of both " sexes and all ages bathing freely together, it " would, in my opinion, contribute not merely to " the beauty of our landscapes, but to the moral " purity of our people, as well as to their health " and pleasure." This great moral lesson is, at least, being taught to some extent at Marete, Brighton, and Ramsgate, to say nothing of the Serpentine at certain hours of the day, but as yet without sensibly improving the purity of public taste. Nor are we certain that our author's pre scription to insure domestic happiness would be any more infallible in its way than the practice of promiscuous bathing for the abolition of pru dery and the cultivation of chaste and modest thoughts. In the first place, we are to assume that the wealthier classes do not appreciate the real pleasures of " the kitchen hearth, that sacred " recess, that inviolable adyton of Hestia." How can it be otherwise, when "it seems to be their " point, in relation to all their personal and do " mestic wants, to get as much done for them, " and do as little for themselves, as possible " ? A typical man of this order would think it something quite strange and unbecoming to clean his own shoes, to make his own lied, or possibly even to brush his own coat. He would let any one knock at his door hilt a dozen times, rather than go himself to open it. Oa no account would he fetch a jug of water, or a scuttle of coals; nay, there are some who, even when that useful article stands in the room, will still ring for a servant to put the coals on the fire. Such a man will rarely take tools in hand to do a useful job, or needful repair. In his garden, he may perhaps deign occasionally t prune a fruit tree; but like the pampered steward, he will hold that he cannot dig, and to wheel a barrow of dung he would be quite ashamed. If he keeps a horse for his pleasure, you shall not awn catch him giving the animal his c rn; and though he takes pride in his sleek cot, he would not at all like to soil his own hands with the currycomb. When he walks through the town, he would n it, for the world, carry a brown paper parcel, or a basket, ho sever conveniebt it might be to do so; and if, in tre v •Ihng, his bag or portmanteau, though neither large nor he ivy, behove to be carried even fur twenty yards, he must needs call a porter. Perhaps lie sinuses himself with a f.irn ; but he is n.,t the man whom you will find bottling his own plough, thrashing his own corn, or shearing h.s own sheep, any m ire than he will allow his wife or daughter to milk a cuts or make butter. But "the typizal man" is not alone to blame— the "females of the affluent classes" are even more helpless. A " modern lady, of the fashion " able sort," leads the most "idle, frivolous, and " misdirected" life that can possibly be ima gined : It seems to be the law of this ladyship to devolve, as far as possible, every natural female duty on hireling servants. It is but of late years, that society has even come to tolerate a lady mother's nursing her own infant. It would still be profoundly shocaed were a female of this class to perform ant useful working function in her husband's house,—to make the eels, clean the rooms, or dress the victuals. Nay, even at all to superintend these tads., is thought beneath a lady of ronk, anti accordingly a personage milted a house• keeper is provided to relieve her of this last shred of do. 'nestle duty which remained to her. She now sits in glort , the eleg Int deity of tier drawing-morn, worshipped with sufficient state and ceremony, but as inert and useless toward all the proper business of life as the image iu a heathen temple. But eiuce absolute idleness the live• long day is intoleraSle, we may inquire how the fine lady is permitted, by the laws of gentility, to employ herself. In nothing really useful, of course; let her be seen mend ing her husband's shirts, or making a pudding, if she dart. But there has been devised for her an ingenious succession or elegant little titseskillers. She may busy herself awhile with ornamental worsted work, or em broidery; she may then amuse an hour with the last new novel; and another, if she like, at the pianof trte, or in painting a flower; and there is a great and unfailtt.g re source in an interclisnge of calls with elegant acquaintances, whose time is as valueless as her own. Her evenings are sacred to her toilette ; the central hours of night fly swiftly at cards, routs, and operas; and the dull, vulgar lis.nrs of the forenoon my he lost in slumbers, hardly dispersed by the meridian sun,— When sleepless lovers, just at twelve, awake. Why is it, demands our author in the most piteous accents, why is it that " a lady is a woman "spoilt" ? Why can she not dress and wash her own child, make the beds, cook the dinner, and mend her husband's clothes? Sarah baked cakes, Rebecca drew water from the well, Rachel tended her father's sheep, and Eve " prepar'd " for dinner savoury herbs." Not one of those ladies touched the piano, or made wax-flowers, or took lessons in potichomanie, or embroidered King Charles' spaniels on purple cushions, or kept aquariums, or raved . about dear Mr. Buckle" or the divine Mario. And yet their husbands never neglected them for the club or THE PRESS, OCTOBER 23, 1858. the casino. In those days, Clementina's lisp or Euphrosyne's snaky form would have had no chance against the horny hands of Martha the bedmaker, or the red rough arms of the plain cook, Susan. Happy, thrice happy, they who "dispense with hired servants altogether, and " perform the necessary domestic offices for them " selves." On this point Mr. Barham speaks with the authority of actual and personal expe rience : Dissatisfied with the prevailing system, I determined to try an experiment. I bought a few acres near a country town, and built on them a collage of modest dimensions, and suited to my purpose. The servants were all dismissed ; we took possession of our new abode, and hod it all to ourselves ; as we also had—saving some little assistance for a few hours in the morning from the hind's wife—all the household work. The kitchen, with its cheery peren• nial fireside, and pleasant homely operations, became our common resort and general eating-room. We had a par lour, too, for a sitting and guest room; but it was that kitchen hearth, that sacred recess, that inviolable adyton of Hestia, that was the delight of the house. Not to be tedious, I will only add, that from this time I understood domestic happiness as I had never done before. It must not be supposed, however, that a Spartan regime is recommended to our admiration. Far from it. The " Lakedaimonians" are branded as " a stern and ferocious people, strangers to " domestic happiness, without commerce, liters " ture, or arts—the ill-omened art of war alone " excepted." But we may not waste more time over this mass of incongruities and absurdities, which illustrate the common remark that it is far easier to be a man of learning than a man of sense. The expounder of all this Philadel phian nonsense is evidently a man of consider able reading and gifted with good natural parts, but suffering from a strange obliquity in his social and political vision. He sees nothing as it appears to the rest of mankind. The whole social fabric is unsound and rotten at the core ; but, happily, the evil is not yet incurable. The equal distribution of property among all the children—allowing, perhaps, a double share to the eldest son—will diffuse material comforts among all classes of the community, and do away with the monstrous inequality of ranks that now disgraces this country. If wars may sometimes be inevitable, let them be conducted in such a manner as not to injure either of the belligerent powers, or to disturb the harmony of nations. And, as for a future life, if people cannot agree to one universal creed, let them select for their own use whatever is most suitable to themselves, and allow the same license to their neighbours. Thus the golden ages may be expected to re turn, and with them the kingdom of Satan. A New Classical Lexicon of Biography, Mythology, and Geography. By Thomas Swinburne Carr, M.A., Kung's College, London. London: Siropkin and Marshall. Tuts volume is one of those aids to classical study of which the present age is so prolific, but of which it may not unfairly be asl•ed whether the utility is equal to the labour of production. The poet Gray foretold tha decline ► f scholarship from the multi plicetion of lexicons ; and certainly the rapidity with which a certsin amount of classical learning may be acquired at the present day is neither so favourable for impressing it, on the memory, nor so conducive to the attainment of classical elegance as the older and slower methods. However that may be, we are ready to admit that Mr. Carr's volume is a favourable speci men of its class, and that it undoubtedly fills up a vacuum in our educational literature. Hitherto the student had no help to the quantity of proper names occurring only in prose writers, except such as could be gleaned from Lempirere and Smithe's Dic tionaries and the ordinary lexicons. For names that occurred in poetry Sharpe's " Nornenclator Poeticus," a useful little book, which Mr. Carr does not notice, was pretty well sufficient. But still there were a large number of names to which none of the above works afforded any clue. Mr. Carr has not, only added to his work fifteen hundred more words than the most complete of his predecessors, but he has applied himself to the discovery of the law by which the prounciation of them was regulated, and thus enabled the young scholar to decide for himself in any case where his guide might chance to fail him. Prefixed to this volume are some useful little sections in the shape of " The Formation of Gentile Nouns," " Declension of Latin Proper Names according to the Greek," " The Formation of Greek Names of Persons," itc., which add much to its utility for schoolboys, and will no doubt be honoured with their approbation. It is a good book, and we trust the results of all the labour spent upon it will be duly recognized. _______ The Court Journal Regi s t er . 1858. London Thomas. THE serial of which the first number is before us supplies a desideratum in the fashionable world where its value will at once be recogn i zed as at; authentic book of reference for Court and fashionable purposes. The contents are varied. We find first a list of attendance and presentations at Court, re printed from the Court Journal, which i n t hi s form will be both interesting and useful as a permanent memorial of the event. Secondly, the tables of the Sovereigns, Ministers, and dignitaries of England and foreign countries, such as are usually to be found in almanacs, peerages, (17e. But, in addition to this, there is a great deal of important information rela tive to the English and foreign Courts and official world—the regulations concerning etiquette, prece. dence, the reception of orders and decorations from foreign Sovereigns, and, in the form of notes to the foregoing, some account of the position and privi leges of the great personages of the official world, ambassadors and officers of state—with some amusing historical information and anecdotes. It promises to be a very complete work of its kind, and we shall hope to see in the issue of next year a notice of the regulations concerning passports. In conclusion, we should say that it is very agreeable to find su much information, not easy of access, upon any one subject in one place, without the labour of search, and we venture to predict that this work will prove an acceptable and successful publication, and will obtain an extensive circulation amongst the classes it principally concerns. The Descendants of the Stuarts. Second Edition. By William Townend. London : Lrngmans. WE had the pleasure of reviewing this volume in our journal so recently that we trust its leading charac teristics may still be fresh in our readers' minds. Mr. Townend comes before the world in the twofold character of a genealogist and a politician. In the former capacity he i 3 perhaps more trustworthy than in the latter. Not that we question but what the faults of the Stuart family have been egregiously magnified. But Mr. Townend would have done them more service by bringing his powers of research to bear upon some of the constitutional questions on which their reputation depends than by a mere collection of opinions, however respectable in them selves. Mr. Townend's strongest point is the cha racter of Queen Mary ; and we quite think he has brought forward sufticien► evidence against her to overthrow the fabric of eulogy which Lord Macaulay has so carefully constructed. In the present edition some deficiencies in the genealogical department have been filled up, and the whole work is now highly creditable to the author's research and dis- Fallen Heroes of the Indian War. A Poem. By John Vaughan Williamson. London : Lindley. TUE subject of this little poem is perhaps the most interesting part of it, but, us a tribute to the memory of those " devoted soldiers" Who, living, saved an empire from its doom, And, dying, raised an empire o'er their tomb, the writing of it must, we think, have been its own recompense. That the author is not deficient in imagination and feeling is evident, and although their expression has in this instance been generally too much cramped by the rhythmical requirements, yet here and there we meet wits lines so poetical and pretty that, on the whole, we receivA a favourable impression of his powers, and readily accord _all that he claims in his closing stanza But, as the 01 to lordly rivers brings The vassal tribute cf its hidden springs, So may the murmurs of this simple rhyme Awake the echoes of a nobler chime. The Settler's Guide to the Capc of Good Hope and Colony of Natal. By D. Irons. London: Stanford. %Vt.: have here, within a narrow compass and at a trifling cost, every desirable kind of information re specting the British settlements at tho Cape of Good Hope. The description of the country, its products and capabilities, is singularly lucid, and apparently based cn authentic data. It Mr. Irons' statistics be correct—and we see no reason to impugn their &coy racy—the Cap colony possesses advantages for to• dustrious settlers of no ordinary character. A free passage and a hospitable reception are of themselves no trifling inducements, especially when they verve as the forerunners to a decent competency. . know of no other work containing such a mass o f intelligence, alike essential to emigrants ana lore- renting to the public at large. London: Printed snd Published by A LFII ED Iva, at the ()Meet 1W I Strand, the Precinct of the Savoy, in the County of Middlesez,on lattudev, the 23rd day of October, 1866. I