The Press. — London, England, 1858-03-06 00:00:00

act iv., where Oulita makes her confer- the princess, is one that rivets the to the page. But the general effect is and, with the above exception, we know passage that would be a great success the boards. _ characters are carefully distinguished. icro, a scholar and philosophic Reformer, ably portrayed. The contrast between secluded literary calm of his ordinary life - lie impetuous temerity with which he awards Oulita displays close observance uman nature. The princess, also, is a • study; but whether her conduct at the quite consistent with Russian social rms may be doubted. the whole, we cannot go so far as to say • Oulita" is unworthy of the author's Alen : but we do not think he will make success in dramatic literature as alone to satisfy him. Although, therefore, we followed him through tragedy with some acation, we cannot take our leave of him the usual complimentary phrase, that we soon to meet him there again. ntroduetory Lecture to a Course on the Principles and Practice of Civil Engineering. Henry Conybeare, F.G.S. London : onge and Crighton. Ire glad that Mr. Conybeare has published interesting lecture in the form of a pam containing as it does many hints, valu at all times, but particularly so now, as plies to India, by way of illustration, of the " principles that should regulate complete system of ways of internal coin inication," the chapter on which is one of lost instructive in the lecture. ime of these principles require only to be Inciated to command our immediate assent. ',nstance,--that the system should form a ,lets whole; that each road composing it sh,uld be specially adapted to the nature and iount of traffic it has to carry, as regards and relative perfection ; that each road Id be carried into execution in its proper of sequence. Western India is pointed , exemplifying the essentiality of system the failure in result of the publio works expenditure of the last twenty years . According to parliamentary returns (obtained on Mr. motion), such expenditure during the ten years ing 184,5.46 amounted for the Bombay Presidency to During the last ten years the rate of expendi - public works has notoriously increased, and we therefore safe in taking the expenditure of the Presidency on public works durit.g the last twenty . from 800,0001. to 1,000,0001. sterling, exclusive of expenditure on railways. the case of Western India, the exigencies of the case -- especially intelligible. A peculiarly rugged chain of mountains ran parallel to the roast, at an average distance miles, and completely shut out the productive pro of the interior from the points of export. t " had to be done " first of all was evidently to this mountain barrier by great trunk roads, and so the extensive and productive districts behind them, t a farthing should have been spent on works in (erior until this first desideratum had been accom- up to the present time, that large expenditure of . twenty years on public works has not afforded to commerce of Bombay a single trunk road, economi practicable throughout for wheeled carriages tra p the Ghauts, and tapping the producing districts them ; and the large sums spent have been abso without result, either in increasing the amount of exported from Bombay or in diminishing the cost conveyance from the interior to the coast. Under present system, the public works executed by Govern cost the country above one hundred per cent. on the `construction in engineering superintendence alone, in England the charge is always under five per and on the Continent usually under two and a half cent. Works of this class can seldom be productive complete, and Government works in India seldom are ipleted within a single generation. Large. sums are dissipated on tho construction of discontinuous of road scattered over the interior, but no arterial ---;-ation is ever finished out of hand. The . defect of the system is, in fact, the same that Archbishop Whately has pronounced to be the prominent of the female mind, a want of totality. greatest public work undertaken by the Indian anent, beyond all comparison, is that of the lloab the north-west of Bengal, a work intended both irrigation and navigation. It is estimated to cost a and a half sterling, and for which purpose 50,0001. has been voted. As a means of navigation it will le no return till completed, and at the rate of 50 , 0001 . it will take thirty years to complete it—thus in a loss of ono million sterling by interest on un- Produtire capital, to my nothing of waiting thirty Team se. 3, act s ion to ' reader tc tam e, an of no pa( upon tlo The cl The her( is very a the sec!' and the acts tow of hums clever st last is customs On th that " C reputati such a s ought tc have fol gratifies with the hope so introdue Prime] By F Yong( WE are this int phlet, c( able at he app] some of " a corn " munic the mos Some enuncia For inst complet should I amount cost an should 1 order of to as e by the expend] Accordi Ewart's n ending it 390,2761. tore on p ARP. be t} Bombay I years at fr the expen In the were expel ntountains of fifty mi vinces of t What " pierce thit (lip" thi and not the interic 'dished. Yet, up the last is the comm tally prac versing th behind tht lutely witl cotton exp of its cons the preset went coat cost of co► whereas it cent., and per cent. till compli completed uaelessly scraps oft line of cot radical de Archbisho failing of The gr Govern►ns Canal, in • for irrigat million an a year has produce ni a year it Voicing al Productly4 THE PRESS, MARCH 6,1858. for the advantages which it promises. In the hinds of private enterprise, the work would be completed in two y ears. Mr. Conybeare argues—and we are disposed entirely to agree with him—that in I ndia as in America the main arteries of the system of communication must be railways, and that " it is the business of Government to see that " such railways convey the staple produce of " the more distant districts at a minimum " cost per ton per mile." He would prefer that public works should be carried out by contract, on account of the facility private persons have of obtaining in the market all kinds of labour, the science to plan the work, the practical knowledge of the overseer and inspector, and the mere manual labour, which under proper superintendence is capable of producing a result wonderfully greater than when ill directed. The plan of having one engineer-in-chief to plan great works, and another to carry them out, which is adopted by all private enterprise, seems to have been tried in India and to have been given up in consequence of ill success resulting from jea lousy, the persons employed being of the same service and too nearly the same rank. The labour of a soldier with the spade is calculated as but one-fifth ;that of a trained navvy, so great a difference does skill make even in this. Mr. Conybeare enters at length into the question of what are the qualifications essen tial to the exercise, in the most effective manner, of the calling of the engineer. These lie tells us are three in number—natural aptitude, scientific training, and practical ex perience, no one of which will, by itself, suffice to make an engineer, though the possession of any two of them, in a tolerably high degree, will make a very serviceable one ; the union of all three being essential to the practice of engineering in the most effective manner. The necessity for scientific training is be coming daily more acknowledged, and public education is suiting itself to the demand. But though the King's College in London; Glasgow University, and the Irish Colleges aro doing good service, Mr. Conybeare informed his audience, young officers fresh from the mili tary colleges, that " the majority of civil en " gineering students still enter on their course " of pupilage in practice. without any adequate " scientific training; and have, therefore, " fewer advantages on commencing their " course of practice than Addiscombe and " Woolwich have already given to you." If this be the case—and we see no reason to doubt it—there must be something radically wrong in the system of promotion in the scientific corps, which prevents any officer from rising to eminence at all to be compared to that reached by many who get a worse start in the race. Efficiency is indeed secured, but we do not see that that need in any instance to be sacrificed, were some means taken to encourage officers possessing superior ability. It seems incredible that in the nineteenth century all officers of the scientific corps of a nation like Great Britain should be debarred from any command, even of a brigade. Yet so it is. the very last mail from Calcutta in forms us that General Dupuis. of the Royal Artillery, has been sent back there, and will probably return to this country, because a general of a scientific corps cannot be per mitted on the general staff. We know of but two exceptions that have ever been made to this rule--viz., General Wilson, of the Bengal Artillery, who accidentally became senior officer before Delhi; and Sir Fenwick Williams of Kars. General Chesney, R.A., was indeed chosen by the Duke of Newcastle to command the Turkish Contingent, but one of Lord Pan mure's first acts was to annul an appointment furnishing such a dangerous precedent. The London Joint stock Banks. By James Knight. London : Richardson Brothers. A CAREFUL analysis of the working and resources of the London joint-stock banks. The name of Mr. James Knight is a sufficient recommendation for the accuracy of the tabular statistics. The "Joint stock Bank " question will soon become a leading currency question, and those who desire to compre hend the constitution of these banks, and to learn upon what points further legislation is advisable and necessary, we cordially recommend Mr. Knight's able and important pamphlet. X 35 DIVINITY. I. Memoir of the Rev. George Wagner, late Incum bent of St. Stephen's Church, Brighton. By J Nassau Simpkiuson, M.A., Rector of Brington , Northamptonshire. Second Edition. Cam bridge : Macmillan and Co. 2. Religion in ;Common Life. By William Ellis. London : Smith and Elder. 3. Apocalyptic Sketches. By Dr. Cumming. New Edition. Vol. I.—" Things that were." Lon don : Hall and Virtue. 1. WERE this little work an entirely new one, we should not feel it necessary to accord it a lengthened notice in our columns. We trust that we respect earnestness and devotion wbereser they are to be found ; but we do not honestly believe that the re cord of a career like Mr. Wagner's is calculated to be of any real utility to the Christian world. His mind was in an unhealthy condition, unless his bio grapher has conveyed to us a very untrue impression of him. And even were it not so, we cannot approve the practice of laying bare the most secret devo tional emotions of the human heart, and withdrawing the veil which Nature bids us interpose from man's innermost communings with God. not easily forgiven Are those who, setting wide the doors that bar The secret bridal chamber of the heart, Let in the day. This is equally true of the spiritual union between a religious man and the Deity. We are not of those who think that religion itself should be kept in the background, as if it were a thing to be ashamed of, or that the fact of a distinguished man saying his prayers, if told with propriety, may not produce a good effect; but when a man is all prayer and no thing else, the force of the example is lost. 2. Of the great ability displayed in this volume, there cannot, we think, be two opinions. Nor is the design, with one deduction, otherwise than laudable. Mr. Ellis endeavours to demonstrate the force of the ordinary obligations of life through the medium of their utility to the individual. The course of his argument leads him through many of the most diffi cult questions of political economy, which he illu strates in a popular and familiar style ; and as an example of the best mode of reaching uneducated minds, his work Is likely to be very useful to the class for whom he tells us it was composed—i.e. :— One of my objects in giving the course of lessons in which this little book originated was to assist in qualifying the probable future teachers. legislators, and rulers of mankind for the performance of the responsible duties awaiting them. And J am not without hope that Mr. Caird and others similarly engaged will more than excuse, will welcome with cordiality this effort of a layman to co operate with them in their mission of inculcating the knowledge and practice of religion in common life. We have said that Mr. Ellis's design was laudable, with one deduction. That, however, is rather attri butable to the period than to himself. Tte religious instruction of independent teachers generally comes to us in a onesided Corm. The spiritualists super sede the moralists, to be in turn supersededby them. Faith and good works are alternately poirtsd to as the fruits of religion, and future happiness and pre sent as the rewards of virtue. It is only in Ile doc trines and ritual of the Church that these *to are made one, and it is only, in our opinion, by adhering closely to the spirit of tier creed that the " rdigion of common life " can be inculcated without detriment to vital articles of Christianity. This may seem a hard saying, but if we accept Christianity we aeept many such. The cardinal point of Mr. Ellis's teach ing is, after all, only the old proverb, that honsity is the best policy ; and, even with all his admirsble illustrations, it can only be placed before his audietze in the shape of a general rule, to which their dab , experience furnishes them with some real exceptiois and many apparent ones. We all know the tea dency of uneducated or half-educated minds to pre fer the particular to the universal ; while it must be admitted that the success of one unsteady man pro duces a far stronger impression than the success of twenty steady ones, if for no other reason, simply because his career is more diversified, picturesque, and fertile in those incidents which appeal to the vulgar imagination. Here is the fundamental diffi culty with which we have to contend when seeking to convey moral maxims through a merely practical medium. Here then it is that religion steps in and supplies an additional motive, which may perhaps turn the scale. We find ourselves on the threshold of an amazingly interesting subject, and this warns us to draw in our rein ; but we thank Mr. Ellis for the thoughts he has suggested to us, as well as for the clever manner in which he has carried out his own idea. . 3. This is not the time or place to review Dr. Cumming. We can only say that this edition of his works appears nicely got up, and will no doubt be welcomed with avidity by that divine's numerous admirers. 1