The Press. — London, England, 1853-10-22 00:00:00

OCTOBER 22, 1853. Only a very few lines are assigned to the treatment of " Auricular Confession, - and s weral other questions are discussed with similar brevity. In his exposition of the Athanasian Creed" the author follows Water land. and we cannot do better than extract a passage from this portion of his volume ate specimen of his general style : We may observe that this creed c o nsists, in a grea t measure, of negations. It was manifestly drawn up for the pinvose of contradicting of excluding certain heretical opinions, which were at the tinie in circulation, respecting the doctrine of the Trinity, and the union of the divine and human natures in our blessed Lord. At the present day, therefore, it may well be found obscure by the unlearned, who are without the knowledge o f those heresies. By some persons, it 114 thought not only obseure, but presumptuous; because, as they say, it attempts to penetrate inscrutable mysteries: whereas it is itself a pro. test against the presumptuous definitions which haul been nlready hazarded : and it is only for the purpose of rebut. ting them that it haerecourse to any positive statements of doctrine. No one is qualified to understand, MO 'h less to criticise, the tenns of thisereod till he has informed himself of the religious controversies which were rife at the time when it was 001111100 Cd. it low been said, that we do not wisely to retain in Our puddle serviecs a forninlary which, to a great ponion of our people, is unintelligible. But to this it may be replied, that we cannot sa fely lay aside a bulwark which has been instrumented in protecting the Church against a set of opinions at sine time very prevalent, and even now by no means extinct. On the whole we may commend this work ; but it could be greatly improved by the addition of footnotes with exact references, and with sonic critical remarks on the different authors cited. Notion de la Monnaie. Par M. Wilhelm Paris : Guillaumin,Rue Richelieu, 14. Tiff: author of this tract, while contending that the precious metals do actually, as money, possess in a very high degree permanency of value, conceives that the existing monetary system of the world is so theoretically vicious (as shown in its perturbations) as to demand a complete change. By the institution of banks fin• the deposit of property and securi ties, he would issue notes, representing the value, or part value, of such property and, to guard these notes from depreciation, he would have the property they represent valued every three months, and the depreciation, if any, made good by a payment from the owner, or by a sale of the property. In other words, he would establish colossal pawnshops, the " ticket;'—or note of deposit issued by the bank,--eireulating as money for so much value as it bore on its face. The project strikes us its one of the wildest ever put forward by those gentlemen—not renowned for the so briety of their speculations—the monetary reformers. Some of the statements of M. Lipke seem as open to question as his reason' ing. Ile asserts that la Californie et l'Anatralie lirrent enaen►Lle, ent•iron swam d'or par mois tine la terre entiere en produisait aatrefoia pendant 11114 . actin e. A violent exaggeration ; as the total produce of the new discoveries cannot be valued higher than between two and three millions monthly, while the produce from other parts of the globe must be taken at six to eight millions yearly. He proceeds to say that &eat tin fait ~ s piiemieni ineontegtaide p..' la valenr de l'or, maim*. l'ett Ili•e'oll\el•t1's, 161 risitit "llll►'l' HU $ iii. l'ne haulise izeoi•rale des prix. ce sympteme gni avid faase re eunnait►r ipie la %Alcor de Fur et de targent mit WWI, iri.kaamod /as preapalie. Miolliotetny it must require a great in crease in the general stock of gold existing in the world to effect any marked change in prices, but that there is a tendency towards a rise at present can hardly he denied. This tendency, or action, however, will probably be met by such a modification of social arrange ments as individuals or bodies are capable of making for themselves. When the principle is understood, the action itself may proceed with comparatively little inconvenience, more especially as it must primarily be favourable to industrial interests. NEW NOVETA. 1. Alderman Ralph. A Novel. 2 vols. : PP, 312-29-1. London : Routledge and Co. 2. Hope, n Stfiry of Cheirereil Life. By Alfred W. ('ole, Author of "The Cape and Kaffirs," &e. 3 vols. London : T. C. Newby. 'CHe first, of these cleverly-written works belongs to a berieb of novels, lately published THE on a particular plan. that is worth noticing. The three-volume system of novel-publishing had many absurdities. It was unreason ably expensive. and. as we firmly believe, in many eases it impeded the circulation of works of merit by unknown authors. It also threw the whole novel trade (to speak ill of " the Row " ) into a few hands, and it was attended with a variety of other evils too numerous to detail. ('heap literature and the serials " helped to injure the old and beng-established system, as country readers. for a few shillings. were able to supply them selves with abundance of fietions. Other causes. however, simultaneously contributed to damage the' old system of " Three rots. sree. tit 11*. M. It would seem that certain pub lishers took to underselling each other, and established, in one or two instance's, an organi salient throughout time eottutry, by which pro piietors of circulating libraries could supply themselves at greatly-reduced prices, on con dition that they would take a fixed quantity of novels, whether good or bad, an they were pub lished by certain parties in London. This was a mere trade arrangement, which did not come before the public eye. but which has been gradually effecting at great change. the results of which upon authorship it will be very difficult tee determine. It would appear that both authors and pub lishers were for some time puzzled how to meet this revolution in the novel trade. The fietionists feared that they should turn from fancy to fact, and become journalists, or tra vellers, or essayists the omnibus. The publish ers dreaded lest they should make no know money out of the distresses of lovelorn dam sels and the adventures of alkiecomplisheel heroes. The great Minerva Press interest threatened to totter to its fall! The difficul ties of the publishers in encountering the minis would not have excited any more sym pathy in the general public than the trouble's gtf any other class of capitalists but for the (net of the connection between authors and publishers. Messrs. Routledge, we believe, were the first, in point of time, to adopt a system equally remote from the old plan of " three vols. at 11. l ls. (hi." and the cheap plan of shilling publication. They have got up a series of original novels, in two volumes, at the price of eight shillings a net; and it is supposed that such a system will allow au thors, in the case of works of merit, to obtain fair copyright prices. Mr. Bentley, also, ham, within the present month, totally altered his system of publication, and has reduced his prices to one-third of the previous charges for his novels. What the effects of these trade revolutions will be upon the supply of original fiction may lee fairly tested by the novels of the next twelve months ; and, at the com meneement of the winter, we allude tee these fleets as being not without importance, not only to the writers, but also to the reeederee, of novels. "Alderman Ralph " Is a description of life in the parish of Willowaere, seen from a humorist's point of view, describing old types of character, with many quaint devices. and applying curious tracery of style tee embellish homely matter and give novelty of semblance to familiar things. Before one has read two chapters it is evident that the writer has been a diligent reader of the later novels of Sir Edward Lytton. It is a work of fiction vastly beyond the average, and displays literary versatility and fluency of composts, that will be likely tee command great success with more practice. The merit eef the work is its frelill -11(448 and easy vivacity mingled with its fantas tic portraiture of common life'. The titleptige is no unfitting precursor to the vedittnes, 1111(1 we will copy it : Alderman Ralph ; the History of the borough and Corporation of the Borough of NVillownere. NVith all shout the Itriage and the Itan.net, the SIM: , 104441 and the I :ma Scholar, the Toltkecper and his loam:bier, the Fiddler and his Virtues. the Law y er and his Rogueries, awl all the rest of it. Hy Admit liornhok. Student by his wan Fireside, and sensing his Scig)bours shell ha, can secure the Ana-chair in the Corner. The subject neither of this quaint novelist ix " boreapilt life," and the antav•an ism be tween the worthy burghers alto frequent the parlour of a eerntin Wliestsheat Inn at Willow mere, and bit Nigel Nickeni, a aeighbeuring F)93 baronet, claiming right to a toll on a bridge across the river Slowtlow. Parochial perplexi ties are humorously exaggerated ; and tho hearttlut tering!' of May Wharton, a very eharining heroine, gnu•ethlly dcre►•ihril. We Flo not like the nomenclature of this novelist._ It is too literally allegorical. Thus we mo i l o f Jack ,ligg the tiddler, Nicholas Baekstitch the tailor. Gregory Nlarkpenee the tollkeeper, and so on ; but. as a whole, " Alderman Ralph" exhibits the presence of qualities which are, to Sily the Jena of tLrnt, promising. While in " Alderman Ralph" eoinmon life is invested with intuit of the ideal, ordinary in eidents tieing whimsically depicted, in " {lope " the author evidently aim. at eXNet Itor tntiture of every-day existence. " Hope ' is emphatieally the produetion of a very clever Pith'notear. Mr. Colt. has that impressionable temperament which gives natural vivacity to a writer. and ellllbleS 111111 without effort to in fuse a joyous. cheerful tone into his deserip.. tions of the world. In aiming at the sparkling, he sometimes attains only to the smart; but there is a sprightliness in all his descriptions that excludes the impression of dulness. A sketcher. rather than a painter. he will have to observe more closely and think more calmly before he ran fully attain the literary successes of which we believe him to be capable. Ile has great power of seizing boll of the salient • is in external life, and producing a vivid series of etching,' of the masquerade of exist : he deseribem rather than invents, and writes of certain types of life nailer than cut bodies any of them in his light and animated style. But. the blemitthea that criticism must indiente vanish before this writer's main merit of readability. In " Hope " lie takes hold of us at. the very eommencentent of his " chequered " story. and whoever has perused the first twenty pages will be mire to read to the last page of the last volume. It is rarely, indeed, that a first. novel is so Interesting to a, reader as we have found " !lope," even on a critical perusal of its pages. In its commencement we are introduced to the life of an adventurer, and to some most graphic descriptions of a certain clam* of Lontltbn society. We am constantly reminded of " Fit/I)4lmile Papers" published in Proser's llfogazime, and written by Mr. Thackenty, and we may illus trate the raciness of Mr. Cole's style lay a few extraeth. Ilere is a description of Bean street, Soho, that is both true and graphic:— Cireckstreet Is one which mutt purrle every refleethu pedestrian that passel. through it. What lily dark, osnioky, lage, setni-reportable 'lenses it hoe? Whitt are they like inside 7 Who !hes in them ? we I'llll imagine the old-fashioned broad staireast.—the chimney pit. 4.4.4. half way up 1., the cute ualosisly high tall ridding doom—the fel - ideated gabled mouldings of the walla and the shiottera—the woni•eaten theirs—the wainsefits 41 paint, deal, Aye feet high—atoll the high, loam* wlndoaa, with a thick crust .1 I.4ng undisturbed li,i darkening their slender pence. We can fancy them his 11i5114.41 with old Ca. l'arkey earpeta show pettenia are 114.16•11101 %I/414., high-backed deers, /II iii l otly coma, and FIP roniettely uneomf.ortable, venerably 04114 a, with their kg* bulging I alit lit the lost hi am into a kind of stumpy beg ; 41144gy moreva curtains, that 010 e were dial., but are now a fresh coffire colour; old 441atioilelirre of rusty brass, with a few little ilistinotel-shaped pieces at glass knout/ in oniamental fes toons on them ; anal little r 441111.1 alllTaall in 1 . 1111111.11, that /glee were gilt, muck up even allalve the hill chi 1pi4.4.44, noel siwneon,l4.4l lay an eagle, Min whose benk hung* a chain with a hall at the end of it. All this we ran imagine ; but who liven amidst all these ghostly memorials of aria. age'/ We. 'haft knew, ti gh we hite to fancy it So only miserly old 34. w nioney•lendern, ancient Chancery lawyers, and venerable spinsters, who hate the world -1 % 1 0 1 . 1 ' 4 g fresh, or beautiful, would be sou monstrimply out of 1111311 . 1 . in 10101 a hienlity. " jingle gentlemen" will, no doubt, benefit by the perusal of the following paragraph, ale scribing a small subn r.ban square : A f4.iv of the whitlows have neat little bills in dein with funoisinllapartiotenta - inseribeil on them, and most of dm etiollslis the additional notification that the apartment% are " for singly gentlemen." who, let apartments have * strong ',satiably to single gentlemen : they dont dine at home —they don't lock anything up--they never recolleet how much tea they len in the canister—they 004 (loin pitiable at " extra., " in the bill—they are f•erfectly {tannest of any nequaintanee ant. the price esirrytot 44 bread, meat, tea, 44r auger—they don't make fiats " if the rooms are not diosted—in abort, they are cella) "done for " in every seamy 41 that very c o noprebennive etpressien. Frank Nugent, the hero, oik be c oming a tWier, with a certain Fanny Marsden, and the followiug desatiptios of the feelings of a pair of 110 V kV* Ia adiotioai ESS.