The Press. — London, England, 1856-07-05 00:00:00

642 assertions, however valuable in themselves, which are all Mr. Chesterton has given us. Had the book been intended as a mere collec tion of stories, it should have been shorter: bad it been intended as a partially didactic work, it should have exhibited better method, and more compact arrangement. We should perhaps not omit to observe that Mr. Chester ton's habit of giving the initials of those per sons whose names he wishes to conceal, appears to us a most unaccountable proceeding. Such initials as Sir W-1. B--e, for instance, though we do not understand them ourselves, cannot long remain a secret to persons versed in this species of literature. If it is really desirable to keep back the names, what good is it to give the initials ? if not, the reader is merel) tantalised for nothing. Of the author's " Revelations "—rather an affected title for these prison notes—one of the best passages is that relating to Sarah Collins : Seldom have the annals of criminal administration recorded a more remarkable specimen of systematic but unreasoning dishonesty than was disclosed in the case of a rich old gentlewoman, who, for the occasion, assumed the name of Sarah Collins—her real name beginning with C. and containing the same number of letters. From all the information I could acquire, her property appeared to exceed 20900/. Committed for trial for larceny, she suc cessfully negotiated for the absence of the prosecutor, and, according to her own averment, she paid for that object 5001. Moreover a designing friend hastened over from Ireland, on learning her apprehension, and to him also she handed 5001., in due course to be accounted for ; a condition which she ultimately found it had never been his design to fulfil. The prosecutor silenced, and all seemingly made smooth for an acquittal, her release would have ensued, but for the stern sense of justice of the late Lord Denman, then Common Sergeant. That learned judge penetrated the scheme of evasion, and resolved to defeat it. Sarah Collins was indicted for stealing lace from a shop counter, and the evidence of the policeman, whom his lordship persisted, notwithstanding the eloquence of counsel, in examining, and the production of the lace, and the officer's detail of all the circumstances, were put by his lordship that, had to the jury with such perspicuous force, _, as he defined the duty exacted by the oath they had taken, a verdict of " Guilty " necessarily ensued; and, after an impressive address, she was sentenced to one year's im prisonment in the House of Correction. There can be no doubt that his lordship, in that case, deserved the thanks of the country, since he had defeated the machi nations of venal wealth, and had purely administered justice. On the examination of her wardrobe, she was found to possess no tinder-linen. A large wash-leather garment served her for a chemise, and amply encased her frame. That unwonted article of female attire was furnished with variens capacious pockets of like material, undoubtedly designed to facilitate the secretion of articles abstracted from shop counters. There was also found in ber pos session a memorandum book, containing a multitude of strange hieroglyphics, together with a mass of legible addresses, all of which proved tb be shops well suited to her devices. She was, in fact, a rare example of the rich and grasping miser. Mrs. Collins had not been long under my charge ere she besought nse most urgently to send for a box from her lodgings, which she averred to contain " papers " of the utmost moment to her interests. After earnest importu nities ou the subject, she wrung from me a consent ; and to the prison, consequently, the box was dispatched ; while the landlord who brought it, and his own bill at the same time, had to defend every item, and fight a severe battle, ere he could procure a settlement of his account. Mean• while, I consi.lerately &Unwed the examination of the " papers," which proved to be of a very strange character. The female attendant, who bad watched the search, be. held a weighty parcel beefily withdrawn and thrust under the garments, then the privon dress, of Mrs. Collins. All further search was forthwith relinquished. and with prac ticable haste the aged prisoner rushed' up ja f tbe infirnma,l where sold and rheumatism had caused, her to be placed, while the attendant hurried to reveal her suspicions to the matron. The matron, with great proniptitude, sent for me, when, to ! those important papers" proved to be a sum of money, &insisting of notes, much gold, and a quantity of Miser, amounting, in the whole, to upwards of 2,6401. ,•. ;,1 , The wens !that ,maned was perfectly dramatic. The horror of the miser at, the,dread of lasing her,treasure— the passionate appeals tu.roe to preserve it for • her—the stealthy approach tosoirdt me, and the stifled whisper— " Take what you like for yomicaelf, but ?spare Me some of it! Don't let it go to Government! "—all indicated intense excitement. She haa learned that a conviction of even a trilling felony (that &Wel' remnant of a barbarous law) involved forfeiture of personal property, and she was in an agotry of alarm and agitation. t paid, as by statute required, to Sir Chapman. Marshall, who was thee sheriff, the eutire amount of the capture ; and thus the treasure appeared to be finally glibilvaed of, and•the affair subsided. The newspapers hail circulated—perhaps exaggerated— Mrs. Collimee wealth ; and, some weeus after - the shore transaction, a letter came addressed to her, impressed with a seal in Which the " blood•red band" was' discernible. The writer wilt don btl'ess ignorant that all letters addressed to prisoners were inspected by the authorities. 1, of course, opened this, ' end found it to be an offer of marriage from a baronet, who tompkoently -seasoned that a change of name alone could expunge the taint and dishonour of to dues an T $t I ncident. In offering his own hand, I was particularly struck with the undertaking to " introduce her to his daughters, who would vie with him in making her home happy." With the letter in my hand I sought out Mrs. Collins, and, presenting it to her, said smilingly—" There, Mrs. Collins, is an offer of marriage for you I" " For me, sir !" she exclaimed, with her usual strong Irish accent, and, seizing the letter, read a few lines—and, muttering some contemptuous words, she indignantly cast it into the fire, seemingly enraged at the temerity of the writer. There was something in the poor old woman's scornful energy that awakened in my mind an involuntary passing respect for her ; and 1 thought that, notwithstanding her avarice and dishonesty, there still remained in her mind some slight consciousness of dignity, which this singular proposi thin had so suddenly tended to evoke. The following statement from so good an authority is satisfactory : I believe it to be a pure fiction to estimate the gains of the begger clique as highly as the public has been wont to assess them ; and the tales of evening enjoyment, hot suppers, and " lemon with their veal cutlet," are mere amusing epicurean tables. On the contrary, according to my observation, the life appears to be a hard one, and the fare attending it the very reverse of sumptuous. The ad. venturer who revels in abundance is the begging-letter imposter. As a collection of stories concerning noted criminals, the volumes are curious, and they are of some value as affording glimpses of the system of discipline which the author found it expedient to pursue. PERIODICAL LITERATTYRE. The National Review (we speak in particular of this July number), avoiding mere essay-writing, is distinguished by critical study and exposition of the chief literary productions of the quarter. The table of contents is attractive, but we must confine our attention to the reviews which strike us most. Mr. Ruskin meets with an able advocate against the attacks (very untair ones in our judgment) to which he has been exposed. It is acutely observed of Mr. Ruskin's apparent inconsistencies that "each state ment is but that side of truth on which Mr. Itus "kin's mind was concentrated for the moment." The fault is that the one side is so handled and dwelt on as to convey an impression that it repre sents the whole case. The new novel of " Perver sion " has its character fairly described:— A more painful specimen of Hard Church libels on men has seldom appeared than the novel of "Perversion." We do not think that there are many of these sketches that may not be in their literal details taken from real life; many of them clearly are either newspaper facts or sketches of personal experience ; bat we do not know any one of the miserable shams which pass in such quick succession before us, from the very heginnin,g up to the 121st page of the third volume, which, if it had been painted by a man deeply feeling the meaning of what he was delineating, would not hare had tither far lighter and more mired colours, or a jar sadder tone. • The novel is A painfta one, and as such we spoke of it several j tVegki iftce ; and its painfulness consists in representing the bttlk of the clergy in such an odious or despicable light, as to go far to justify the scepticism which the book is avowedly written to oppose. The best article in the Review is that on Sir Robert Peel. He is characterised as the " busi ness gentleman," the "proper head of a moderate, "intelligent, half-commercial community." An allusion to Peel as the schoolfellow of Byron leads to a masterly contrast of the two characters : Lln truth, the character of Sir Robert Peel happily fitted him both to be the chosen head of apopular community,im perionsly, bent on his own ideas, and to be head of that community in shifting and changing times. Sir Robert was at Harrow with Lord 13yron, who has left the cha rseteristic reminiscence : " 1 was always in scrapes, Peel never." And opposed as they were in their fortunes as boys and'rnen, they were at least equally contrasted in' the habit and kind of action of their minds. Lord 13yroit's mind gained everything it was to gain by one intense, striking effort. By a blow of the imagination ho elicited a single bright spark of light on every subject, and that was ill. And this lie never lost. The intensity of the think ing action seemed to burn it on the memory, there to remain alone. But he made no second effort; he gained no more. He always avowed his incapability of continuous application : he could not, be said, learn the grammar of any language. In later lite he showed considerable talents for action ; but those who had to act with him observed that, versatile as were his talents, and mutable as his con victions had always seemed to be, in reality be was the most stubborn ofmen. He heard whet you had to say, assented to all you had to say; and the next morning returned to his original opinion. No amount of ordinary argumentative resistance was so hopeless as that facile acquiescence and instantaneous recurrence. The truth was, that he was,—and some others are similarly consti tuted,—anablo to retain shy thing which he did not at any rate seem to gain by the unaided single rush of his own mind. The ideas cof such minds are often not new, very often they are hardly in the stric•est sense original; they really were very much suggested from without, and pre served in some obscure corner of memory, out of the way and unknown ; but it remains their characteristic that ' they seem to the mind of the thinker to be born from its own depths, to be the product of its latent forces. There ATURDAY, is a kind of eruption of ideas from a subterconscions world. The whole mental action is volcanic ; the lava flood glows in " Childe Harold " ; all the thoughts are in tense, if Ung forth vivid. The day after the eruption the mind is calm ; it seems as if it could not again do the like ; the product only remains, distinct, peculiar, indestructible. The mind of Peel was the exact opposite of this. His opinions far more resembled the daily accumulating in sensible deposits of a rich alluvial soil. The great stream of time flows on with all things on its surface ; and slowly, grain by grain, a mould of wise experience is unconsciously left on the still, extended intellect. You scarcely think of such a mind as acting; it seems always acted upon. There is no trace of gushing, overpowering, spontaneous impulse; every thing seems acquired. The thoughts are calm. In Lord Byron, the very style—dashing, free, incisive —shows the bold impulse from which it came. The stealthy accumulating words of Peel seem like the quiet leavings of an outward tendency, which brought these, but might as well have brought others. There is uo peculiar stamp either in the ideas. They might have been any one's ideas. They belong to the general diffused stock of observations which are to be found in the civi lised world. They are not native to the particular mind, nor "to the manner born." Like a science, they are credible or incredible by all men equally. This secondary character, as we may call it, of intellect, is evidently most useful to a statesman of the constitutional class, such as we have described him. He insensibly an I inevitably takes in and imbibes, by means of it, the ideas of those around him. If he was left in a vacuum, lie would have no ideas. The primary class of mind that strikes out its own belief would here be utterly at fault. It would want some thing which other men had; it would discover something which other men would not understand. Sir Robert Peel was a statesman for forty years ; under our constitu- tion, Lord Byron, eminent as was his insight into men, and remarkable as was his power, at least for short periods, of dealing with them, would not have been a statesman for forty days. As an analysis of Sir Robert's character, charitable and complete, the review is eminently skilful. The paper on " American Anxieties " is marked by the tone, too prevalent in our literature, of describing the policy of the United States as utterly unprincipled and filibustering. The London Quarterly has two very good arti cles—one a review of Lavergne's " Rural Economy of England, Scotland, and Ireland ;" the other on " The Cornwall Mines and Miners." Both are nicely written, and afford agreeable and instructive reading. But, on the whole, we fear this Review betrays rather too much of an attempt at academic Methodism—an attempt little likely to prove suc cessful, as genuine Methodism must always depend for effect on impulsive feeling and strong internal conviction. In Blackwood the account of a special embassy in 1698, given with minute and Pre.Rapbaelitist power, will be read with much interest. The author is the very Millais of literature. The account is principally drawn up from a MS. diary of P;.ior of the embassy of the Duke of Portland to Paris. after the peace of ltyswick. The writer describes the whole ceremonial of the French Court in a most elaborate, and at the same time lively, man ner ; and, at is particular moment of a similar special embassy to St. Petersburg, conveys to us an excellent notion of the formalities observed on such occasions by the old regime. Upon reading this curious as well as amusing paper one cannot help reflecting that it is, perhaps, fortunate Mr. Dallas's friend, of the Kickapoo Artillery, lives in an age when the subjects of the freest nation on " airth," however restricted to white ties, are not subjected to such sore trials of temper and patience as the Duke of Portland our mutual ancestors! The "Dispute with America"is a sound article on tits whole, but does not, perhaps, sufficiently dwell upon the absurdity of two nations using threats of war when ever a difference appears to arise. The story of the ,! 4 Atbelings " promises us just such another agree able entertainment as " Zindee." It is fnll of nature. In the " Scot Abroad " we have a most interistlng sketch of John Law, the Missisippi schemer, of elk= the wtiter takes a very favorable view, believing that his project lid not have fair play, and that his ttiaan cial theories were, on the whole, sound. _ Fraser contains two excellent tales, tria A tiki l ex cellent reviews--the latter of Fronde's " History of England" and Cockburn's "Memorials," the former entitled "Lost at Cards," and "An Overland Mail AdVenture." The review of Mr. Fronde is especially well written, impartial, and logical.. The article on De Bazancourt's " Crimean Expedition " shows up that worthy Baron in capital style. It is really dis graceful that such a medley of ill-written, ill-founded gossip should for even so short a time, pass for his tory ; and, as t'hd writer in Fraser well says, for •the French Emperof 'tb have sanctioned such a work, would have been "the one exception to his policy towards this country. The Dublin opens with a critical article on the American question, where we find a quotation which, to our mind, expresses the condition of the quarrel clearly and pithily—ubi ter pulses ego vapulo tantum. The essay on Daniel Defoe isivell written, and con a ins much interesting information ; but why does