The Press. — London, England, 1857-10-03 00:00:00

them on, and the officers exerted theMselves to sustain them ; the men gave a cheer and went at it afresh. The supports or reserves, ordered to follow, straggled up in inefficient order, but were unable to press into the work, as the men in advance, occupying the salient, refused to go on, notwithstanding the devoted efforts of the officers to induce them to do so. Whether it was that they dreaded some secret trap, or some mine which would destroy the whole of them at once—whether it was that the long and tedious siege works had lowered their " morale "—or whether it was owing to the dreadful manner in which their tivision ( the Light, most injudiciously selected to lead ) had been cut up in previous actions—it ?$ a melancholy truth that the majority of the assaulting column did not display the spirit and dash of thorough good soldiers, when assaulting the euetuy. They refused, however, to retreat, and scented to look round for aid ; 1 trembled when I saw no one coming, and looked continually, anxiously, round for the reserves I considered, as a matter of course, would be advanced immediately it was perceived thst the leading columns had failed to carry the position and were cote• mencing to waver. It was in vain, however, to look; our generals had left their reserves about an hour's march in the rear, so that even if our soldiers had charged forwards, as they should have done, they would probably have found themselves comprmnsed, surrounded by the enemy, and immolated, before any assistance could have been brought to them. I had just given directions to the fraction of the working party of WO men told off to tee, which reached the ditch, what they were to do, and was returning towards the salient, when the sad repulse took place. What brought matters completely to a crisis I have never exactly ascertained : heard directly after I regained our trenches that three officers of the 41st, after vainly striving to induce the men to advance, rushed forward together, and were all three shot down like one man by the cross fire of the Russians behind their paradow. This was the turning point, according to this account, of the men's indecision—they wavered and fled. I was near the countersearp when I saw the whole living mass on the salient begin reeling and swaying to and fro ; in a moment I found myself knocked down and lying on my face, with a number of men scrambling over me—their bayonets running through my clothes. I expected to have been stunned and bayoneted, and to have bean left insensible in the ditch, or shot by the enemy before I could drag myself out of it. However, at last I saw an opening, and holding on by my hands and knees, managed to force my way to it through the moving mass, and regain my legs. I ran then as fast ns I could towards our advanced trenches, the grape whistling past me like hail, and the Russians standing on the top of their parapets and firing volleys into the crowd of fugitives. With this extract we must take leave of Major Ranken's interesting memoir. It is a valuable aalition to our Crimean literature, and the ability stamped upon its pages adds another regret for his loss. The Story of My Life. By Lord William Lennox. Three Vols. London : Hurst and Blackett AT the close of this long hot summer, equally destructive to physical energy and critical acumen, it must be no slight relief to the feel ings of• a reader to meet with a book written in the good old style, and utterly destitute of that sly intention of making you " wiser and better" which is so apt to lurk under the seducing exterior of contemporary novels. Lord William Lennox does not trouble him self about the delineation of " moral thought fulness," or any kind of progress towards per fection at all. In the words of a clever parody of " Locksley-hall," lie will talk without a " purpose," easy things to understand, and introduces us to the circles and modes of life which Colonel G. J. Whyte Melville has in Fraser just aban doned for the Crimea. " The Story of My Life" is a tale of the Maxwell and Lever school, full of "fast" life, practical ,jokes, dims, dancing, racing, private theatricals, in short, every kind of lark or peril which is likely to occur in the career of a man about town before he " marries and ranges himself." The " Life " of the titlepage has, therefore, unintentionally perhaps, the same significa tion that it bears in the phrase " seeing life," and comprehends all that portion of the hero's existence in which he is occupied in sowing his wild oats and in preparing for the comfortable humdrum virtuous existence which usually results from the adequate per formance of that operation. Arthur Pembroke, son of Sir William and Lady Pembroke, of Pembroke Ab• hey near Chichester, after being a " limb " in the nursery, a " pickle " in the house hold, and an " incorrigible" at school, from which, of course, he runs away, becomes a midshipman, but, in consequence of an un fortunate prelibation of Portsdown fair, is obliged to try the other arm of his Majesty's service. As a cornet of the Royal Horse THE PRESS, OCTOBER 3, 1857. Guards Blue, ho goes through a variety of adventures, " shaves," and scrapes, all of which are told with vivacity and spirit, and an evident knowledge of the kind of life described, which nothing of course but a tolerably wide ex perience can have given. Prudent persons will probably consider that the worst trait re corded of the hero is his marriage with his tutor's daughter, but may pardon so evil an example on finding that this early indiscre tion is the menus of getting him into numerous difficulties, and proves an insupe• cable obstacle when, at a more rational age, he meets with a girl of a more suitable station in life, whom under other• circumstances he would have been glad to marry. A cornet in the Blues, privately united to a dressmaker, and attempting to enjoy simultaneously all the fun of mess-dinners, theatres, the turf, and general society, not unnaturally absents him- self a good deal from the domestic hearth ; and the lady, with the impulsiveness natural to her class, on the supposed discovery of some marital peccadilloes, sets off inconti nently with her father for the Continent, leaving her spouse to the uncontrolled enjoy ment of his own devices and the prospect of an inextricable entanglement with a young lady who supposes him to be an unmarried man. Having got the hero into this dilemma. we leave him, in accordance with our usual practice, to the curiosity of such readers as may feel benevolently or sympathetically in • terested in Mr. Arthur Pembroke's history, assuring them that they will meet with no lessons of puritanical morality, a good deal of fun, and nothing approaching to dulness. Of course,in a novel which has very little plot, it is rather hard to say where adventure ends and digression begins, and Lord William Len nox is not always perfectly successful in draw ing the line ; but he is generally amosing even when " off the road," and his " notes and queries" on the epoch of forty years since will doubtless be acceptable to those who, like him, look back with fondness to the age when " the play" was a fashionable amusement, when railroads had not superseded spanking teams, and the Black Dog at Bedfont was a shrine of solemn celebration. The hero's scenes of "The Story of My Life" are told so circumstantially that it is not easy to make extracts, and so we must take our leave of Lord William Lennox and his spirited novel, recommending those of our readers to send for it who are either in want of a lively fiction, or who, for statistical purposes, are anxious to be informed how a man may amuse himself when he has no responsibility, plenty of money —or credit—and nothing to do. Reliques of Ancient Poetry. By Thomas Percy, Lord Bishop of Dromore. Edited by Robert Aris Willmott. London : Routledge and Co. MR. WIT.I.MOTT has aimed at producing a popular " Percy " in one volume, and with this view has omitted one or two essays that seemed too anti quarian, and has condensed Bishop Percy's notes and illustrations, adding a biographical sketch of the original compiler of the " Reliques" that pretends to no great literary merit, but is useful for its pur pose. We highly approve of his idea, and see no cause to find fault with his execution of it. It is to be hoped that, by this edition, many who were before ignorant of Percy's " Reliques " may become ac quainted with those ballads that inspired Words worth with some of his happiest ideas, fragments of which glitter with undiminished lustre throughout the plays of Shakespeare, and have received the most sincere testimonies of admiration from others only second to him in the scale of poetry. Mr. Willmott's share in the production of this edition is not such as to call for much acknowledg ment. tie has " derived advice and instruction " from sundr) hooks which promote the intelligent " enjoyment of the Reliques,' " has attentively con sidered, and he hopes modified, the punctuation with advantage to the clearness of expression, and has endeavoured to improve and enlarge the glossaries by consulting such works as "Dictionary of Archaic Phrases," and Wright's "Obsolete and Provincial English." Such labour is the part and duty of an editor, and must not be praised as being more than such on the ground that it is neglected by many for the pleasanter occupation of venting pretentious notes that contain nothing new and no thing relevant. 971 PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED—OcT. 1. DOONS. On the Search for a Dinner. By W. B. Harer. J. F. Hope. Ifoward and Plunkett ; or, Adrift in Life. Two Vol.. Whittaker and Co. Popular Errora Explained. By John Timbs, F.S.A. Kent and Co. PAMPIIf.F.TSI. What is to be done with the Bengal ;fang' Wilson — The Life Boat. rEnioincAts. Frazer's Magazine. Parker and Son—The Train. Groombri Ige—lllackwood's Magazine—Tait's Magazine. Partridge—The Dublin Unieersity. Hurst and Blackett— , . Le Polled. Shnpkin and Marshall—Bentley'e Magazine— Titan. Goombridge—The London (Quarterly. Heylin— The Ladies' Treasury. Ward and Locke—The Art Treasury. Kent and Co—The Irestwinster Review. J. Chapman—The Asylum Journal of Mental Science. Longmans—The ra tion Review. Chapman and Hall Colbura's New Monthly. Chapman and Hall—Davenport Dann. Chapman and Hall—Paved with Gold. Chapman and Hall. THE CAMP AT CHALONS. (From a Correspondent.) CHALONS, Sept. 20, 1R57. I CAME to the camp with the intention of keeping a diary and sending you copies of it from time to time, but I was obliged to abandon my original plan, the rain and general bad weather having for a length of time at first completely paralysed all military manoeuvres, and for that period at least left me nothing of interest to write down. My residence at the camp has, however, convinced me of the superior organisation of the French army to all continental armies in the quality of their arms, in their rnano3uvring, and in the care taken of their health. The experience of the Crimea on all these points appears not to have been lost upon the Emperor and the Minister of War. As to the physical con dition of the troops, it is perfection. The active life they lead, the careful surveillance which presides over all that concerns their food, in short, the precautions of all kinds which are taken, have produced the best results. The sick are less in number than are usually to be met with even in the most healthy garrisons ; and the healthy are active, lively, and highspirited to a degree. And first for the domestic economy of the camp. I particularly noticed the great care taken by the superior officers that the minds of the men should be continually occupied, without encroaching too much upon that sacred period in the twenty-four hours which the soldier likes to enjoy to himself. Intrenchments are thrown up, roads cut, ravines filled in, rough passages levelled, and ditches con structed, and these duties I observed were performed by soldiers of every rank, so that one consequence is that every man is now more or less an engineer and an efficient pioneer upon a pinch. This is certainly a commendable principle, and I think might be pushed farther, say to the extent of teaching every infantry soldier, so soon as he has mastered the platoon exercise, some knowledge of the manner of using field guns. We teach a sailor on board ship the cutlass, musket, and great gun exercise ; why should we not do the same with a soldier? He would be a handier man. Who so handy as a sailor? Bnt, to return to camp. During the heavy rains great fears were enter tained that the low land of the camp would be inundated. The Emperor, after visiting the ground, gave the necessary order to prevent so great an inconvenience. Well, within one hour from the receipt of the Imperial order, this portion of the bivouac, where the Zouaves and light infantry are stationed, was dug up, then smoothed, ditches to carry off the water made with artistic care, and no trace remained of the torrents that occasionally fall there. It is astonishing what 5,000 picks and shovels effect in an hour or two. To make up for the want of a Hippodrome, which the troops had been in expectation of, but of which the expense would have been too great, the Emperor does his best to procure other diversions for his soldiers. Fireworks, races, and athletic exercises occupy the mind and give vigour to the bodies of the men. _ _ The settlers and pedlars who supply the camp are not permitted within its limits ; they have established themselves at the village of the Grand Mourmelon. It is there that the troops purchase not only the trifles that their sous a day enables them to buy, but also such stimulating drinks as have always been in favour with the soldier. In most of the French garrisons, even in the capital, the drinks that are sold by the perambulating settlers are detestable ; in fact, of late they have often had a prejudice influence on the soldier's health. But here, in the Camp of Chalons, that is not the ca ,, e ; a severe surveillance is exercised. A " taster-in-cbief," whose office is coveted by many, is charged to see that no unwholesome or