The Press. — London, England, 1857-09-05 00:00:00

cilions manner which is so often the accompaniment of a confined understanding he pooh-pooh'd every suggestion which was at variance with his settled ideas. Of the sepoys he had no knowledge whatever, although with respect to them he was always ready to offer a suggestion. of mili tary men in general he had a jealous dislike, which prompted him on every occasion to oppose any plans or suggestions offered by a member of that profession. He was an adept at intrigue, and being possessed (ifs practical knowledge of revenue matters, a plausible manner, an easy address, and considerable influence at the India•house, he had gained a seat in council at an earlier age than was customary. As a practical man he had always been a failure. It was his advice, given because Mr. Halliday pro posed an opposite plan, which delayed for seven or eight months the proclamation of martial law in the Sonthal districts ; and it will be seen that on the occasion of the mutiny at Barrackpore his pernicious influence was always opposed to those pro:npt and severe measures on the execu tion of which the safety of the empire depended. These faults are attributable to the evil action of the school in which lie was trained on a disposition naturally haughty and teipercilious. Had 114 never been a civilian, had he Leen trained to depend cn his own exertions from the moment of his entrance into life, his career would have been more useful to his country and more honourable to himself. THE PRESS, SEPTEMBER 6, 1857. Iu conclusion, our author adds : Such were the men by whom Lord Canning was sur rounded on the outbreak of the mutiny. if they were as a body vain, ignorant, and incompetent, truth compels me to record that they could not have found a softer soil on which to exercise their talents than that imbedded in the nature of the Governor-General. He was a man of excel lent disposition, but weak and vacillating to a degree scarcely to be imagined. It was his great misfortune to be the son of an illustrious man. Qualities were there fore expected front him which he certainly did not inherit from his sire. His abilities were essentially mediocre, and, like many weak men, he almost invariably submitte I his intellect to the influence of the last counsellor who had his ear. He possessed, however, many agreeable qua• lilies calculated to adorn a private station. His personal courage was undeniable, but lie lacked firmness and self reliance to a degree which quite incapacitated him fur his high position. Had lie been surrounded by men possess ing honesty and ability, he would doubtless have taken his tone from them, and under their advice and tuition would have shown himself equal to the occasion ; but, the slave of intriguing and incompetent advisers, the shuttlecock of Messrs. Grant, Beadon, and Birch, he gave an impetus to a mutiny which might have been crushed in the bud. Quits. A Novel. By the Baroness Taut phceus, Authoress of " The Initials." Lon don : Bentley. LEONORA NIXON, the heroine of this story, is the daughter of a Mr. Nixon, of City extrac tion, and a certain Lady Darwin, of aristocratic connections. Her father, having run through all his fortune, has lived principally on the Continent, and brought up his daughter in continental habits. She is left an orphan at fifteen, and, returning to England, is adopted by one of her city uncles, whose heiress she ultimately becomes. She then joins the family of another city uncle, in whose com pany she sets out on an excursion to the Tyrol. Mr. Gilbert Nixon and her cousins are persons bent upon rising in the English world of fashion, and their half-successful efforts, together with the ludicrous middle class prejudice and ignorance of the Pater familias, are made highly entertaining. While abroad they fall in with a couple of wanderers, a Count Waldemar and a Mr. Torp, the latter of whom turns out to be the very person whom Leonora conceived to have injured her deeply on her first arrival in England. The game played out between these two is, we presume, the origin of the title of the story, " Quits." Such is the meagre outline of a very clever and very fascinating story. The plot is excel lent. The accidental meeting of these two people, each of whom had conceived a strong prejudice against the other—their demeanour while ignorant of each other's identity—the gradual approaches to intimacy—the revela tion of the truth, first to the young lady, and later to the gentleman—the growth of a warmer feeling, &c. &c., are all depicted with rare skill, and striking, because unexaggerated, power. Of this department of the work we can only say it is at once both natural and in teresting. The incidents, though uncommon, are so managed as not to seem to violate probability; and we ate kept in suspense about the heroine's intentions up to the last moment. The plot, then, is decidedly very much above the average, but in the con duct of the story the author has unquestion• ably lingered too long on particular portions. The amours and quarrels of the Bavarian peasants become wearisome at last. The characters are remarkably well drawn, but there are too many dummies. Arthur Nixon and Sir Harry Darwin do not help on the story at all, but Leonora, " Torp," and Mr. Gilbert Nixon are capital portraitures. There is one scene, in which the British merchant, in a foreign inn, mistakes a doctor juris for a doctor of medicine, which is highly comic, and of which we subjoin a portion. The horror of the fashionable Georgina, Nora's cousin, is exquisite : Nora did not wait to hear his answer; and no sooner was he joined by his daughter than he approached Dr. X—, and, having bowed in a pleasant, condescending manner, drew a chair to the table arid sat down beside him. imagining he wished to see" The Strangers' Book," the Doctor politely moved it towards him. Mr. Nixon shook his head mournfully. " Can I in any way be of use to you ?" asked the Doctor, in French, vainly endeavouring to suppress a Again Mr. Nixon shook his head, sighing out the words, " English, English:" 876 " My father can only speak Engliali," explained Geor• gins. " Ah!" said the Doctor, leaning on his elbow, and pausing for a moment before he added, " Well, I can speak English. Du you wish me to interpret for you ?" " Sir !" cried Mr. Nixon, with that feeling of relief which only those who have heard unknown tongues spoken around them fur some weeks can experience on again un• expectedly hearing their own; " Str, I am delighted to make your acquaintance!" and with a good-humoured laugh be continued, " When I saw you reading these books full of names to the company I desired my son to find out who you were, and he has just now informed me that you are the celebrated Dr. X—. I know, sir, that men of your profession do not like to be asked for advice when they are travelling for their amusement ; but, as they say, ' Necessity has no laws,' and ' Needs must when the devil drives,' " The Doctor turned to an acquaintance at the other side of him, and muttered between his teeth " Mad, or not mad?—that is the question." "Now the fact is, Doctor," continued Mr. Nixon, " have always been a remarkably healthy man, and though, when our travelling-carriage was being built, I consented to the portable medicine-chest, it was with the firm belief that none of the patent medicines would ever find their way down my throat. Now, my daughter, Miss Nixon, is quite different—she likes medicine, and takes her pill every night regular." " Is it possible ?" asked the Doctor, slowly, and looking with unfeigned astonishment at Georgina, whose face became crimsonl; " is it possible you like eating pills ?" "Papa is only jesting," she answered, in a voice tremu lous from vexation. " Not a bit of it, Georgy. I assure you, Doetor, no apothecary could manage the little scales. or weigh and measure with greater nicety than my daughter; she can make up pills, and—" " Good night, papa," said Georgina, in that distinct, quick manner, which is so very demonstrative of female displeasure. " Stay, Georgy, stay; I have only a few words to say to the Doctor, and then we can go together." She sat down at a little distance, slightly contracting her brows, and biting her under lip, while her father continued, in a low, confidential tone—" You must know, Doctor, that late hours never did and never will agree with me. I like living at the West•end, and being in good society, amazingly; but only those who have been brought up to it, like my son and daughter, can find riding in the park, and dining at eight o'clock, and going to evening swarries, quite easy and natural. I moved too late in life, and can't get used to it, especially the late hours ; so that I often wish myself back again in— in—the street we used to live in, as my daughter says. We knew many pleasant, sociable, people there, who dined at rational hours, and better and more plentifully than at more fashionable places. My father used to dine at five o'clock ; by degrees, to please Mrs. Nixon, we got to six o'clock ; my daughter has brought us on to seven or eight ; and I suppose my grandchildren will dine at nine or ten, as I have done to-day ! But it has disagreed with me, Doctor—disagreed in the most uncomfortable manner. Perhaps the walk up the Alp may have increased me appetite—l may have eaten more than usual ; the fish and the omelettes were good, the beer excellent, but the wine was sourish; all Rhine wine is sourish. Give me the curious old sherry, ever so many years in bottle, or ev,-n Cape, good and clear, such as we used to drink when alone in—in the street we used to live in. Now, Doctor, you see, the late—the second dinner and the wine having disagreed with me, I should be very much obliged to you if you would tell me what I ought to take 0, before I go to bed. " Punch," said the Doctor, who had listened to him 4- with undeviating attention. t , " Punch," repeated the Doctor, nodding his head. •c• 40, 0 / 1 " Hush !" cried Mr. Nixon, with a wink and a geskir, of his thumb towards his daughter, to whom he th•n turned, and affectionately observed, " I say, Geor am keeping yon up a great deal too long; y~ u had better not wait for me any longer;" adding in a, hisper, " Uncommon clever man, this doctor ; he thildsta a I ought to take something before Igo to bed, and just going to prescribe fur me." • The character of " Torp" is Asarvellously truthful. The good and bad po#l6' in the dis position of the genuine Enol4l aristocrat have seldom been more dextrpuslv contrasted or brought out in bolder relEof. His hard ex terior and internal inflammability are admi rably illustrated by his eveoy word and action ; and his apotheosis of common sense, coupled with his own desertion of her shrine, speaks strongly for the author's knowledge of human nature, and English human nature in partictt lar. Leonora is Akthatming anomaly—mascu line and feminine at the same time. In the hands of a less accomplished artist she would doubtless have become strongminded. She just misses that odious virtue, and is a most graceful and delightful personage. The author's style is smooth and pleasant. Her dialogue is natural, and the sentiments appropriate to the speakers. The moral of the tale is good, as showing the utter impotence of the human will in con• trolling the current of circumstance, and how GENERAL LOW. General Low was the only really practical member of the council. Unfortunately he was the oldest, and age and climate had already begun to tell upon his nerves. Never. theless, he was the only man from whom the Governor. General received any real assistance. He knew, at all events, that there ought to be no trilling with mutiny, anti Le advised accordingly. It is to be lamented that he was wanting in the eloquence or power of language necessary to support his views. He could record a minute, but could not make a speech. And it thus happened that he was unable to defend measures, of the propriety of which he was convinced, against the legal subtleties sometimes brought to bear on them by his colleages. MR. PEACOCK. Mr. Peacock was the law member of council, and as such was not expected to be able to deal with purely military Questions. When such matters were debated he generally vacillated between Mr. Grant and General Low, inclining oftener to the civilian. His intentions were always pure, and when convinced of the justice of a cause no special pleading would alter his vote. Unfortunately, his unac• quaintance with soldiers prevented him from comprehend ing the dangers of unchecked mutiny, and he was found, on trial, ignorant of the proper moment to disregard rule and to resort to urgent measures. COLONEL BIRCH. The Secretary to the Government of India in the mili tary department was a man in every way unsuited for his position. Placed early in his career in the department of the Judge• Advocate General, his confined understanding was exerted in mastering the quirks and quibbles of the law. His intellect being essentially shallow, he was unable to take a broad view of any question ; but he would argue for hours, and exhaust all his ingenuity in com bating some petty detail. When Sir Charles Napier assumed the command of the Indian army, Colonel Birch was Judge Advocate. He was rather afraid of Sir Charles's downright character, and at their first interview exerted all his powers to please him. Nu amount of special pleading, however, would go down with the great con queror of Scinde. Sir Charles's bad opinion was, how ever, of this service to Colonel Birch, that it obtained for him Lord Dalliousie's patronage. That nobleman, eager to show his spite towards Sir C. Napier, took the oppor tunity of the first vacancy to appoint Colonel Birch Secre tary to the Government of India in the military depart ment : thus placing him, de facto, at the head of the army in I hdia—giving him a position, indeed, exactly anaiogous to that of tile Minister of War in France. A worse ap pointment could not have been made. Colonel Birch was essentially a sycophant, always ready to give up his own opinion, if by so doing he could curry favour with his superior. lie had tried this plan with Sir C. Napier, but Sir Charles found him imt, and not only felt but showed contrmpt towards him in consequence; he found it an easier task to ingratiate himself with Lord Dalhousie and his successor. lint he was also an ignoramus. He knew nothing of the Bengal army. Many years had elapsed since he had even spoken to a sepoy. lie was ignorant of the composition of the army, as well as of its wants ; Whilst his previous training had so unfitted him for his Post that he could not even write an order without making it unintelligible by excessive quibbling. NB. BEADON. Of Mr. Beadon, the Home Secretary, it will suffice to say that his great idea of policy, the one scheme which lie kept constantly before him, was " India for the Civil Service." He looked, in fact, upon the country as the property of the members of the service, and he legislated accordingly. Indigo planters, merchants, in fact all Euro. peans who were not civilians or soldiers, were discouraged by him. He hated independent Englishmen ; he hated the press, because its motto was " India for the English ;" he hated every one and everything which interfered with his grand idea, and he never lost an opportunity of allow ing that hatred. Under his rule, India would have re rosined in our hands what it has been for the last hun dred years. Its resources would never have been deve• loped ; it would have continued almost like a burden on England ; bit, as a compensation, it would have produced annually a certain sum of money as salaries for the family clique who governed the country. Mr. Iteadon had one recommendation. If he was narrowiniuded and unscru pulous, he was honest He could not " smile and smile, and be a villain." He spoke his thoughts freely and. honestly, and people whilst they hated could not help re specting him—a sentiment never entertained towards his colleague in the military department. I