The Press. — London, England, 1857-05-23 00:00:00

MAY 23, 1857. With the same light, easy pen does M. de Saint-Hilaire touch upon the architecture of Egypt, describe the Pyramids, and detail the events of his tour. And he is by no means superficial ; for, though his subjects be few, yet in his treatment of each he exhibits a certain amount of diligent investigation, and distinctly explains his views. The book would have been more comprehensive if he bad taken the machine of Egyptian govern ment and society entirely to pieces, and given us a more elaborate exposition and a few solid facts upon the working of the religion, laws, finances, industry, and population of the country. But it would bo a manifest injustice to M. de Saint-Hilaire to omit all mention of the real object of his book, which is to advance the cause of the Suez Canal scheme. The question he pronounces to be settled—the capital only is required to carry out the project; and as M. de Lesseps and other gentlemen are at this mo ment lecturing throughout the country for the purpose of pushing the scheme, it is worth while to look slightly into their arguments. This is an age of wealth and speed. We make or lose our money faster, and take shorter cuts than our grandfathers to fortune, to gaol, or to our journey's end. The Suez Canal is a case in point. Certain eminent Frenchmen, acting upon the suggestions of the First Napoleon, have determined to confer upon the world the benefi t of a short cut by canal to Suez, the Red Sea, and thence to India. The arguments in favour of it are, briefly, that it is practicable at a cost of 8,000,000/. ; that it shortens the voyage to India by 7,000 miles — a material consideration under the prospect of a rapidly-developing Eastern trade ; and that a canal along the same route existed in ages gone by. We believe ourselves that there is very little doubt of the practica bility of the scheme; but then we apprehend the difficulties in detail and expenses are far beyond the estimate,—at least we can only ,judge by the comparative cost of similar works. Take, for instance, the projected piers. It is proposed to run out at both sides of the canal two piers, 3,800 and 2,700 feet long respectively. Now, who that has watched the construction of similar works will be disposed to accept the modest estimate of M. de Saint- Hilaire as the final cost of these projec tions? Why, the breakwater at Cherbourg, with everything in its favour, has taken sixty years to construct, and cost sixteen millions of money. No breakwater, under the most favourable circumstances of ready material, was ever yet built under half a million a mile, and the material for these is to be found, not on the spot, but to be transported from all quarters of the Mediterranean. Then, again, the bottom at Suez and at Pelusium is sand or mud. That is not a substratum upon which you can safely calculate that you will erect so many feet of stonework and no more. You will have to sink thousands of tons of stone before your substratum acquires the requisite solidity. But, to leave the practical difficulties of con struction, to say nothing of the shoal water and sandbanks at Pelusium and its lee shore, and the heavy gales blowing dead on the coast for two-thirds of the year, will the passage be suitable for sailing-ships ? Cer tainly not. A sailing-ship from the English Channel will get to the latitude of the Cape sooner than she could hope to reach Pelusium. Then the winds of the Red Sea are of that re gular and satisfactory nature that, as some one somewhere said, for one six months of the year you can't get in, and for the other six months you can't get out So that for our sailing-vessels the passage will be use less. Indeeo, it is adulated that to steamers the proposers of the Canal scheme look mainly for their profi t,and the question of steam versus sail. ing;vessels is not yet decided, for long voyages, in favour of the former. Again, M. de Saint- Hilaire admits that a vessel would make no more voyages to India in the lyear by this Passage than at present ; then where lies the great advantage of the canal to us ? Looking at it from a purely commercial point of view, the question to consider would seem to be, as at the Isthmus of Panama, whether a rail road will not suffice to answer all purposes of trafAc? 111 r. Stephepson, tho enginper, ap. THE PRESS. peared to think so, for he declared the canal scheme next to impracticable, and devoted all his energies to the construction of the railroad. Whether the scheme would ever pay seems open to doubt. Five thousand tons of shipping daily passing through is taken by the projectors as the lowest estimate for profit. But apart from its commercial advantages, there are great political considerations in volved in the construction of this canal. It is absurd to say that its use shall be limited to commerce. One main advantage of the canal to us would b in placing India within a few days' sail of our Mediterranean fleet and gar risons. If this right be conceded to us, it must be conceded to other nations; and it is a question for the consideration of England whether India, under her present exceptional system of government, should be placed within such easy reach of the political in fluences of Europe. The Last Judgment. A Poem in Twelve Books. London : Longmans. THE extraordinary literary popularity gained by the late Rev. Robert Montgomery has pro bably tempted the author of this volume to aspire to the fame of being accepted as a poet. We readily give him credit for being a con scientious Christian and a well-meaning sub ject of Queen Victoria, but we cannot praise his poetry. The subject is truly woeful, and an attempt to describe it, unless with the sub lime imagination of a Milton or a Dante, must inevitably end in—words. This author has a large stock of them, and at times he shows command of versification. He has adopted the heroic couplet of English verse, and its clinquant would mar even Miltonic power ap plied to such a theme and treated at such length. We suspect that Homer (secundum " Mr. Pope") is the great exemplar on which this aspiring versifier has modelled his style. The invocation records the lofty ambition of the author : Revealing Spirit !—Thou whn didst of old To favour'd Seers far-distant scenes unfold, Disclosing to their rapt prophetic gaze The brighter visions of more glorious days— Now that those glories shine displayed to view, Unfold fresh wonders, open vistas new: And open Thou mine eyes, with glance sublime To pierce the veil which shrouds the end of Time, And gaze, undazzled, on those scenes of dread Which 'rime's great consummation shall outspread. My tongue unloose; my glowing lips inspire; And all my soul afflate with heavenly fire. On wings of ecstasy, empower'd to dare Sublimest heights, my soaring spirit bear, While I attempt, 'midst scenes and worlds unknown, A flight as lofty as th' eternal Throne. And in a direct appeal to the Divinity lie pro ceeds in strains with much piety of sentiment but with no poetry of thought:— To Thee, Most High ! I dedicate the song: Deign to accept. To Thee alone belong The praise and glory of each virtuous deed, And thought sublime or pure. From Thee proceed All good and perfect gifts. If thou dost bless, This will insure. and far transcend, success. Though all be dark, Thou canst transform to light ; Though ali be weakness, Thou canst change to might. Then take the instrument Thyself bast made, Direct, restrain, enlighten, hallow, aid : So shall the work not wholly thwart Thy will, Nor fail some heavenly purpose to fulfil : Imperfect ever, though divinely blest; For human works are human, at the best. All that is worthy Thee alone is Thine, And all that's worthless or imperfect, mine. The awfulness of the subject forbids us to treat this poem with any levity. Many pas sages remind us that the author has read Milton, and many more show that he does not understand the distinction between sounding verse and sonorous poetry. Hero is one of his best passages : The trumpet sounds. Angelic chiefs are seen Speeding their flight celestial ranks between ; Their squadrons forming, marshalling their train, And spreading, in vast phalanx, o'er the plain. Till that long column, broken up and changed, Appears in mighty circle re-arranged : Christ in the centre. throned ; while round him stand Of Cherubim a bright majestic band; Then seraph choirs, with minstrelsy divine, And highest archangelic legions, shine ; Princedoms, dominions, thrones, and heavenly powers, And angehhosts, fresh from celestial bowers ; With those who in created worlds abode -I'lanets and stars, which with their presence glow'd ; Unnumber'd hosts of every rank and race, All bright and fair, and deck'd in heavenly grace; 509 In circles vast, extending far and wide, Yet spreading still, like ocean's boundless tide ; While, bordering the whole, a tuneful band Of harpers, from all worlds, united stand ; And cherubs tall, sustaining banners bright, The mighty circle fringe with dazzling light. Before the throne their crowns archangels fling, And, prostrate, heaven's high hosts adore their King. Seraphic choirs take up the grateful song, And all assembled worlds the strains prolong, Till from the centre to the outmost hound Of that vast circle, notes of worship sound. There are many more composed in the same style of emphatic verbiage. We are painfully reminded of the scene in the Critic by the fol lowing passage, which, by way of description, tells the reader of the things not to be seen in the other world : In that fair world no noxious weed shall blow, No poisonous plant, no deadly ti pas grow. No lion fierce shall through the forest rove, Nor prowling tiger fright the peaceful grove. No scorching sun its fervid rays shall cast ; No freezing cold, no chilly northern blast ; But one mild genial lustre from on high, Beneath the inter and ecliptic sky. No pestilential vapours shall arise, No thunders roar, no lightnings pierce the skies; No wild tornado, with resistless force, Shall sweep along destruction in its course; No storm, no tempest by its fiery breath Shall devastation spread and doom to death ; No drenching flood relieve the expanded cloud, No mists the hills, nor fogs the vales, enshroud : But gentle dews shall silently distil, Refresh the earth, and swell the purling rill ; While fragrant breezes from their balmy wing Though all the air Sabmean odours fling. We cannot help recollecting, after this hurri cane of " noes," of Shetidan's burlesque, and especially of tho line, The Spanish fleet be cannot see, because 'tis not in sight. In the last page of the twelfth book we read verses like these : Bliss—bliss celestial—through each spirit thrills— Expands the soul ; the soul, expanded, fills ; Expands ; is filled ; again, expanded, grows ; And, as it still expands, still overflows. Unspeakable, ineffable, untold, The bliss they feel, the wonders they behold. Unutter'd yet those joys by mortal tongue, By earthly Bard yet unexpress'd, unsung; " Enough" will cry any reader who deF,:res to examine the epic pretensions of this author. Should he again address the public itt verse, we advise him to take English subjects,within the bounds of sense and reflection, and to confine himself to detailed description of actual nature. It is beyond his strength of wing to soar into the regions of the unknown. NEW NOVELS. 1. Darchester Towers. By Anthony Trollope, Author of " The Warden." London : Longmans. 2. Nightshade. A Novel. By William Johnston, M.A. London : Bentley. 3. Below the Surface. London : Smith and Elder. 4. Glenwood Manor house. By Esther Bako- well. London : Hall and Virtue. THE talent for sketching clerical peculiarities seems to abide in the Trollope family. Strong sense is the prevailing characteristic of the present author, and he consequently looks with no great favour upon the extravagances of either extreme theological school. But it is inevitable that a mind of this texture should find the affectations of ultra-High Churchmen less offensive than those of their antagonists, and that in his heart he should rather lean towards that good old school of divines who produced our standard Church literature, and who united to learning and scholarship the accomplishments and high bred courtesy of English gentlemen. The public are, perhaps, beginning to discover that the gradual disappearance of the so-called "high and dry" school of clergy is not an un qualified advantage to the Church. Their "highness" was perfectly Protestant, and their " dryness " had plenty of the milk of human kindness. Such, at all events, seems to be the opinion of Mr. Trollope, who, in " Bar chester Towers," has exhibited types of the high and dry, and the low and uncta --- will not readily bo forgotten. His st, many respects P. continuation of Warden." Mrs. Bold is the heroine, MS ln LIIV opus, that tory is in if " The ine, and