The Press. — London, England, 1854-01-07 00:00:00

JANUARY 7, 1854. and nominating candidates. Now, persnal influence, where it depends on private character and conduct, is the most valuable safeguard we have against an unwise choice of representatives, and the most perfectly organised party is generally that which holds most estreme opinions. Both these objections seem fatal. The third method is called by the writer the " Cumulative Vote "—a name which accurately describes its nature. By this system each elector is allowed to possess as many votes as there are representatives to be chosen by his constituency, with leave to give them all to one candidate, or distribute them at will : This plan of voting has the recommendation of giving to each elector a very perfect power of expressing by his votes his exact opinions us he finds them best represented by one or more of the candidates. The single vote does not so effectually accomplish this object. We will take the instance of a large and important constituency, having four representatives, for which seats, in the event of a contest, there would probably be six, seven, or eight candidates. Atter each elector has been called upon to listen to the opinions and judge of the fitness of so many claimants for his vote, he might feel many justifiable reasons for wishing to Note for more than one candidate. The cumulative vote would enable him to voto for one or for more as he pleases, without incurring the loss entailed by the present mode of voting, where a plumper counts only as one vote ; so that, in a constituency having four representatives, an elector giving a plumper vote ,loses threelourthe of his voting power. And whilst under the present system parties are con stantly hampered by the less enlightened of their voters, who are anxious to exercise to the uttermost their electoral privileges, and will by no means be content to resign their double vote, and give a plumper to the right man, but will rather cancel their own act by voting on both sides, thus frequently compelling their party to bring out a second candidate, and so endanger the return of the first ; the cumulative vote, allowing the same amount of weight to each man's voice into whatever scale he may please to throw it, removes his temptation to a course which is both mischievous and contrary to principle. An additional recommendation of this plan is its tendency to exalt personal above party claims. Suppose three members to be eligible for a county or borough : there arc six candi dates, three Liberals against three Conserva tives ; the mere partisan on each side will of course divide his three votes between the three claimants equally ; but the more reflecting and independent elector may very probably prefer to secure the return of some one whom he respects, comparatively indifferent to the fate of the other two. This is a wise and rea sonable discrimination, and as such merits encouragement. The political importance of representing minorities needs no comment. The unrepre sented are necessarily discontented; hopeless of realising their views in practice, they carry them theoretically to an extreme length ; whereas the prospect of success would at once lighten grievances, and foster a spirit of conciliation. Again, the tendency of popular movements everywhere is to go too fast and too far—to disregard all difficulties in the first fervour of enthusiasm, and when that is cooled to aban don projects as lightly as they have been formed. Whatever retards, without wholly checking, the action of the popular will—what ever gives time for deliberation, for discussion, for calm second thought—tends to make repre sentative government more stable, and thus to strengthen and support it against the great coming struggle. Handbook of Familiar Quotations. London Murray. A STRONG reaction has decidedly set in against the frequent use of quotations in writing and speaking. Even when made with readiness by persons of research and extensive acquisitions, scraps from various authors give a motley ap pearance to the style. Occasionally a good quotation is suggestive, but nearly all the truly great writers have been sparing in their use. The " fashionable" novelists of the se cond class have been the great sinners in the frequent commission of quotations, ill-chosen, and ill-spelt ; and even ladies' maids have taken to talking a leash of languages, like the heroines in Lady Morgan's novels. The present volume can scarcely he called " a handbook of familiar quotations." The se lection is made almost entirely from English, and we miss many a well-known saying in everybody's mouth that ought here to find a place. The use of such a work at all is very pea- THE PRESS. tionable, unless for mere amusement. We saw a goodly company, not long since, who were all versed in French plays and Italian operas, puzzled at the question, " In what play occurs the exclamation, What will Mrs. Grundy say? " Hero the puzzled fair ones might at once have learned that it was from a fa vourite drama of their grandmothers—Morton's Speed the Plough—now rarely acted on the London stage. In fact, this little work might be found a help at round games, and its pre sence just now is not unseasonable. It would puzzle many not versed in political reading to know where Mr. O'Connell s " Derby Dilly" quotation was taken from. Tho compiler hero marks it from " The Poetry or the Anti- Jacobin," rightly pointing the place in the " Loves of the Triangles "—which he attributes to the pen of Mr. Calming. Wo have heard it disputed whether Mr. Canning wrote that par ticular poem, but the compiler might have sup plied a note as to who used the quotation first. The history of its getting into the mouth of Mr. O'Connell (who was very little versed in poetical literature) is not a little curious. There was a well known wit, a member of the Irish bar, who condescended to follow Mr. O'Connell as one of his " tail " into Parliament —the late Mr. Dominick ltonayne, the mem ber for Clonmel. He was a very clever epi grammatist, and wrote and said a great many ►ood things in his day. Knowing in 1835 that Mr. O'Connell was going to speak in a debate just at the period of the fatal " Lichfield house compact," Mr. Ronayne showed Mr. O'Connell the quotation in a work containing fragments of Canning's speeches anal writings, but Mr. O'Connell did not at first think that there was any point in it. Afterwards, how ever, he brought it out in debate, delivering it with his customary humour, and• the phrase was caught up by the mouth of faction just as afterwards the words of Lord Denman's judg ment—" a delusion, a mockery, and a snarl.' So whimsical and trivial are often the origin ating circumstances of popular quotations. There is another line of Mr. Camping's, taken from " The Friend to Humanity " Story ! Lord bless you! I have none to tell, sir. This quotation has got much familiarity from Sir Walter Scott's repeated use of it in his novels. But there aro some more of Mr. Can ning's which are frequently quoted, though we do not find them cited. hero. Out of the 212 pages in this little volume, Pope occupies nineteen ; nor are we surprised at the space given to him by the Compiler, when we rseol lect how proverbial many of his couplets have become. Shakspeare has had sixty-four pages allotted to him, more than a quarter of the volume. We would have prefeired the omis sion from a work of this kind of the text from Holy Writ, which, as " Quotations from the Old and New Testament," the compiler has given to the extent of only eighteen pages. But we cannot rely upon the judgment of the Compiler. We suspect that he is too young in years for the execution of a work of this kind, which would be best performed by an author having thirty years' familiarity with the current literature of the ago. Several of his lines cannot be called " quotations." Thus, under the head of " Pope " we find him printing : All forms that perish, other forms supply Ity turns we eatch the vital breath and die): Like bubbles on the sea of matter borne, They rise, they break, and to that sea return. These lines, from the " Essay on Man," have not the popular currency of " a quotation." We find only four taken from "The Dunciad," no reference being made to the admirable line Sleepless himself to give his reader sleep. Or to the witty one Downwards to climb, and backwards to advance ! Only four are given from Sheridan, and but one from Burke ! Dean Swift has but three quotations assigned to him ! The Compiler leaves out of Goldsmith's humorous (but in correct) character of Burke one of its most noted lines : And thought of convincing, while they thought of dining. Under " Cowper" we find him citing the lines in which the poet referred to the then recent decision of Lord Mansfield : Slaves cannot breathe in England ; if their lung- Receive our air, that moment they are free. They tread our country, and their shackle* fall. 17 We recollect Mr. Croker warty years ago, in criticising au "uncorrected" edition of " Cur• mu's Speeches," taunting the orator with hav ing taken his famous passage of " The Slave " in his address for Hamilton Rowan from the above-cited lines of Cowper, which are only interesting from their connection with that oft-recited passage. Under "linty "we find ten quotations selected from the " Elegy " alone, and the compiler's selection iu this in stance is perfectly just. We have seen per sous of considerable scholarship sorely puzzled on being asked to mune the poem In which occur the lines : was love that taught bluff Harry to be wise, And gospel light first froiu Hole3ii'r (yes. They could not find them in the coinmonly published editions of Gray. Thu compiler of this work should have gone into the literary history of that striking couplet. Gray had meditated a poem on the Reformation, and had filled up its argument, in itself a very curious piece of philosophical thinking. After his death there was found iu his desk, written on a scrap of paper, what Horace Walpole calls " an admirablo verse" : Anil gospel light first floA/i'd from ltoleyti's eyes. But Walpole cites the line erroneously, wh irs WitS Still better, and ran. iu the original llldllU script Autl gospel light first dawned frum eyes. What exact authority there is for the first lino of the couplet wo do not know, as have seen it differently printed in various editions of Gray. But the Compiler puts it down thus.— When love could teach a nionanth to be wise, And gospel light &at dawn'd hum flulien's rye*. The grammatical connection between these lines is not sufficiently close to please the fas tidiously-correct judgment of Gray. How the verse with " blutillarry " (as we first quoted it) came into popular circulation is not a little remarkable. Turning to another quotation, we have seen sonic ripe English scholars at fault for the original of tho line : Throw lint a stone, the giant dies. The Compiler copies from (;reen's poem, "The Spleen," the following verses : To cure the wind's wrong bias, spleen, Sumo recommend die bewling-grevii, Sums hilly walks ; all, vim-rise. Threw bet a stems, the yiunt dies But enough of this volume, which may have amusement, and even utility, for some readers. We may add that it is very neatly printed, and that it has the adva►►tage of a very good index. It may be most advantageously enlarged in its future editions. Poetical Works of John Dryde►►. Edited by Robert Bell. ♦'ol. I. London : J. W. Parker and son. IT would be premature to discuss Mr. Hell's merits as an editor of Dryden until he has completed his task, but we may mention as preliminary to a duty which will devolve upon us hereafter, that the present volume contains some incdited letters of the poet himself, and of Honor and Ann Dryden. Its publication is an instalment of • complete annotated edition of the English poets, a desideratum as yet unsupplied, and of which we shall watch the further pursuit with interest. Its preten sions to "typographical elegance and economy of price" are obvious. For such a volume we have hitherto paid double the rice at which this is published and we cordially hope that the taste, liberality. and enterprise employed in its production will be remunerated. A Naturalist's Rambles on the Devonshire Coast. By Philip Henry (fosse. London : Van Voorst. DEvossiima is certainly one of the most delightful parts of England. Apart from the loveliness of its seacoast scenery, many of its internal views (and we have travelled nearly the greater part of it) almost equally deserve the notice of the lover of the picturesque. It has many historical associations, as its ancient castles testify, and not a few memorable events (amongst others, the landing of King William) have occurred w ustlithin ita borders the The DCYOIIi4OIO, alao, jy boast of ■ 1