The Press. — London, England, 1858-04-03 00:00:00

group, journeying tranquilly towards Appin Kirk. Fami lies were coming down together into the wider strath, from their green nests among the solitude ; and friendly greet ings were interchanging on all sides, in tha wild tongue which, to his ear, seemed so well stilted to a land of moun tains. The many-coloured liighlacd tartan mixed with the pure white of dresses from the Lowlands ; and that utingling of different costumes in the same group gave in timation of the friendly intercourse now subsisting con stantly between the dwellers of hill and of plain. No haughty equipages came sweeping by. Almost all the assembling congregation were on foot—here and there an old man ou a rough mountain pony—there, perhaps, man and wife on a stronger steed—and there a cart with an invalid, or the weak or aged, with a due accompaniment of children. The distinction of ranks was still visible, but it was softened down by one pervading spirit of humble Christianity. So along to the house of God—the clear tinkle t ro oped they of the hell was heard—the seats were filled—and the whole psalms. Divine service was, at vale echoed to the voice of this time, performed in the English language, and the Kirk was decently silent in sincere and unostentatious devotion Cream. By Charles Reade. Contains "Jack of All Trades" and " The Autobiography .of a Thief." London : Trubner. Tn's title of this work is an expression of the author's belief (which we shall not stop to discsos) that transcripts of actual fact are the only portions which have any value in a work of fiction. " The Autobiography of a Thief" is put forth es the history of Robinson, who will be remem bered as one of the prominent characters in "It is Never Too Late to Mend," and was in tended to have formed a portion of that story. Jack of All Trades" is also autobiographical, :and differs from its companion inasmuch as it describes the career of a man who is simply vagrant without being dishonest, and who is clever, energetic, and self-reliant, without, however, being able to attain the good fortune which generally accompanies these good qua lities. The former of the two tales purports to be authenticated by some middling verses, soden engraved specimen of Robinson's hand writing; but Mr. Reticle in his preface has throws so much dust in our eyes that we aro linable to see clearly whether the materials are really what they profess to be, or if so, how much "cooking" the cream has undergone at the hands of its editor, whose peculiar style is frequently apparent. Could we be sure that we were reading a genuine prison auto biography, we should, unlike the prince in Ihe " Arabian Nights," prefer o:ir cream-tarts •witbout pepper. As it is, we are left to draw our own conclusions from the following : But I think my readers are now ripe for this strange but true story, and I dedicate it in particular to such as will .deign to accept this clue to my method in writing -1 feign probabiliLies ; I record improbabilities : the for mi'r are conjectures, the latter truths : mixed they make a thisg not so true as Gospel nor so false as History : viz., Fiction. IV'iien I startle you most, think twice before you die• believe me. What able deceiver aims at shocking cre dulity? Distrust rather my oily probabilities. They should be true too if 1 could make them ; but I can't: they are guesses. You have seen Thomas Robinson, alias Hic, alias file, Alias late, tinted in water-colours by me : now see him Tainted in oils by himself, and retouched by Mr. Eden. A thief is a man: and a man's life is like those geo graphical fragments children learn " the contagious countries" by. The pieces are a puzzle: but put them together carefully and lo! they are a map. The thief then mapped his puzzle : and I think his work will stand. lii the second story, Mr. Reade's hand is more plainly at work. His hero is born in Seven Dials, and after being a fiddler. a fire work.maker, a journeyman painter, &c., he spends several years a s keeper to a travelling elephant, whose portrait appears to have been suggested by the celebrated animal which used to be exhibited in Exeter Change. Mr. Reade's opinion of the elephant's character is not the popular one : There is a fixed opinion among men that an elephant is a good kind creature ; the opinion is fed by the proprie• tors of elephants, who must nurse the notion or lose their icustomers, and so a set tale is always ready to clear the guilty and criminate the sufferer; and this tale is greedily swallowed by the public. You will hear and read many such tales in the papers before you die. Every such tale is a lie. A man whose death is related " died, not by " any fault of his own, but by the will of God " and through ignorance of the real nature of " the full-grown elephant, the cunuingest, " most treacherous, and bloodthirsty beast " that ever played the butcher among mankind." She travels with five attendants, only one of Whom has the slightest influence over her. THE PRESS, APRIL 3, 1858. The narrator tries in vain to find out his secret, till one day— Not long after this, in one of the American towns, I for- get which, passing by lljek's•shed, I heard a tremendous row. I was about to cull Elliot, thinking it was the old story, somebody getting butchered : but I don't know how it was, something stopped me, and I looked cautiously in instead, and I saw Tom Elliot walking into her with a pitchfork—she trembling like a schoolboy with her head in a corner—and the blood streaming from her sides. As soon as he caught sight of me he left off and muttered unintelligibly. I said nothing. I thought the more. The elephant, in fact, requires the same treat ment as other wild beasts : I observed this man and learned something from him. Besides that general quickness and decision, which is necessary with wild animals, 1 noticed that he was always on the look out for mischief, and always punished it before it came. Another point, he always attacked the offending part, and so met the evil in front; for instance, if one of his darlings curled a lip and showed a tooth, he hit him over the mouth that moment and nowhere else ; if one elonnAted a claw he hi-. him over the foot like light ning. He read the whose crew as I had learned to read Djek, and conquered their malice by means of that mar vellous cowardice which they alt show if they can see no sign of it in you. There are no two ways with wild beasts. If there is a single white spot in your heart—leave them ; for yourlife will he in danger every moment. If you can despise them, and keep the rod always in sight, they are your humble servants; nobody more so. The following are some traits of her " ratioci native " character : It was not her public tricks that astonished me most. The principal of all these tricks is one. An animal is taught to lay hold of things at command and to shift them from one place to another. You vary the thing to be laid hold of, but the act is the same Between our selves, a single trick I have several times caught her doing on her own account proved more for her intelligence than all these. used to put her eye to a keyhole. Ay that she would, e• . • • watch for hours to see what devil's trick she could , • 'lt impunity--she would see me out of the way and then go to work. Where there was no keyhole have seen her pick the knot out of a deal•board, and squint through the little hole she had thus made. A dog comes next to an elephant : but he is not up to looking through a keyhole, or a crack. He can think of nothing better than snuffing under the door. At one place, being under a granary, she worked a bole in the ceiling no bigger then a thimble, and sucked down sacksful of grain before she was found out. Talk of the half-reasoning elephant: she seldom met a man that could match her in reasoning—to a bad end. Her weak points were her cruelty and cowardice, and by this latter Tom Ell,iot and I governed her with a rod of iron— vulgarly ealled a pitchfork. If a mouse pottered about the floor in her stable Djek used to tremble all over, and whine with terror till the little monster was gone. A ton shaken by an ounce. I have seen her start back in dismay from a small feather floating in the air. If her heart had been as stout as her will to do mischief was strong, mankind must have risen to put her down. Almost all you have ever heard about the full grown elephant's character is a pack of falsities. They are your servants by fear, or they are your masters. Two years ago an elephant killed his keeper at Liverpool or Manchester I forget which. Out came the Times: he had pronged him six weeks before; how well I knew the old lie ; it seldom varies a syllable. That man died not because he had pronged the animal but because he hadn't, or not enough. Spare the pitchfork—spoil the elephant. We have confined our extracts to the career of " Djek," as she is really the principal personage of the story ; but the whole advert tures of her keeper will probably be found in teresting enough to prevent a reader laying down the book (which is not very long) till he has finished it. At the risk, however, of being classed with " the anonymous assassin, the " cowardly caitiff of a scribbler who, with no " temptation but mere envy, stabs the great " in the dark and truckles to them face to " face," who is alluded) to in the preface, we must express our opinion that Mr. Reade has somewhat fallen short of the standard by which his previous works have caused him to be judged. Interesting as the stories un doubtedly are, they are not very dissimilar to those which may be read in " London Labour and the London Poor," or to some of the same kind which have occasionally ap peared in Household Words. Had this been Mr. Reade's first work, it would hardly have. made him a reputation. It will not diminish that which he has gained, but next time he must do more if he wishes to increase it. The Statute•book for England, 20 and 21 Vie., 1857. Edited by James Bigg. London : Waterlow and Sons. THIS volume is the first of a proposed new series in Parliamentary literature, but we doubt whether it will answer all its purposes. The judge, the magistrate, and the barrister 331 must have the actual statutes before them in extenso, else they cannot correctly reason on the applicability of certain clauses in disputed cases; and there are abst►acts of the important statutes to he found in some of the existing annual publications. A good popular index, full and close, to all the statutes passed in a session is undoubtedly wanted, and the general public do not make use of the legal publications in which such indexes are to be found ; and even in those cases the public would be little benefited, front the extreme brevity of those indexes. To give copious and intelligible epitomes of the statutes passed in a session is what Mr. Bigg proposes to do. The work is to be pub lished by subscription at one guinea per an num—each subscriber to receive eight hun dred printed piges— and it is a practical ques tion whether Mr. Bigg will find a reinmiera- Live constituency to recompense him for his trouble. We doubt whether M.P.'s or bar ris;ers will find this work of great use. All professional men have a prejudice against epi- Owes in any form, as they are not reliable, and lay persons can easily provide themselves with any particular statute which they may want for reference. Country solicitors, on ac• count of their non-residence in London, would be most likely to find this work of use to them. There is, also, another class of persons who might give support to this publication. We allude to those independent observers of legis lative affairs who like to have data presented to them for their social and political specu lations. The preface to this first volume contains some interesting statements. Mr. Bigg ob serves : During the twentythree years from 1835 to 1857 the expenditure on Commissions for digesting the several Statutes relating to Criminal and other Law has been u follows Charged on Civil Contingencies 1 1841 to 1845....6,238 I 1854 261 1831 to 1839 somoo Voted in Supply, Sc l ,-46 to 1648 —18,61 0 DM to 1851' —15,083 Total WAIT But notwithstanding this expenditure of the public..coney, not a single Consolidation Statute prepared by these Commissions has yet been passed by Parliament. The extent of the Statute• book is enor mously augmented on account of the Parlia ments of England, Scotland, and Ireland having passed three different series of statutes. Mr. Bigg presents the following curious table, as showing the amount of pages in the Sta tute-book PARLIAMENTS OF ENGLAND. Pages Hen. 111. 1225 to 126' el Edw. I. 1275 to 13 , 7 272 Edw. 11. 1307 to 132:, 77 Edw. 111. 1327 to 1376 llB Rich. 11. 1377 to 1397 2Ol Hen. IV. 1300 to 1411 ll4 Hen. V. 14:3 to 1421 BB Hen. VI. 1;22 to 1460 273 Edw. IV. 1461 to 1482 146 }lieu. 111. 1483 Hen. VII. 1485 to 1503 96 Hen.VIII. 1503 to 1515 614 181 110 471 2 ili Phil.FE Elie. . r . a V a l d . 31 1 11 ; 7 1: 4 . 11 t tlt 0 00 1 :50 5 6052 5 3 1 t 0 1557 Jae. I. Cur. I 1625 to 1640 47 Car. 11. 1660 to 15i0 337 da.t. 11. 1685 Will. and Mary l 1688 to 1701 Will. 111. 376 Anne 1701 to 1708 PARLIAMENTS OF GREAT BRITAIN. Anne 1707 to 1713 703 Geo. T. 11'14 to 1 - '6 Geo. TT. 1727 to 1749 4,(147 Geo 111. 1710 to 1800 14,879 I ~962 PARLIAMENTS OF UNITED KINGDOM. Geo.III. 1801 to 14 )0 22,083 Geo. IV. 1820 to 1:.3o 1 1,P,29 Will. IV. 1-30 to Ix'l' Vict. 1837 to 157 21./401 SUNI NI &Mr. Fogland 1223 to 170 . 5,223 Brit. ' dt 1707 to Iroo 19,2A United Kingd. 1 801 to las - 62,140 Toted, 87,321