The Press. — London, England, 1855-11-10 00:00:00

1078 kind of revelry ; how many generations of her gay cour• tiers to a royal residence where courtier arts are not ; how many generations of her toilsome tradesmen to the place of silence, whither no gain can follow them! How time hath swept over her, age after age, with its consuming wave, swallowing every living thing, and bearing it away unto the shores of eternity ! The sight and thought of all which is my assurance that I have not, in the heat of my feelings, surpassed the merit of the case. The theme is titter for an indignant prophet, than an uninspired sinful man. And again of the same subject : But come, at length, it will, when Revenge shall array herself to go forth, and Anguish shall attend her, and from the wheels of their chariot ruin and dismay shall shoot far and wide among the enemies of the King ; whose desola• tion shall not tarry, and whose destruction shall be swift as the wing of the whirlwind—hopeless as the conclusion of e:ernity, and the reversion of doom. Then, around the tiery concave of the wasteful pit, the clang of grief shall ring ; and the flinty wretch who, in life, repelled tender mercy, shall now find the door of spurned mercy for ever barred; and the soft and gentle spirit which dissolved in voluptuous pleasures, shall now dissolve in weeping awrows and outbursting lamentations. Aud the gay glory of time shall depart ; and a sportful liberty shall be bound f)r ever in the chain of obdurate necessity. The green earth, with all her blooming beauty and bowers of peace, s'iall depart. The morning and evening salutations of kinsmen, and the ever-welcome voice of friendship, and the tender whispering of full-hearted affection, shall depart, for the sad discord of weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. And the tender names of children, and father, and mother, and wife, and husband, with the communion of domestic love and affection, and the inward touches of natural instinct—which family compact, when uninvaded by discord, wraps the live-long day into one swell of tender emotion, making earth's lowly scenes to breathe of Heaven itself—all, all shall pass away ; and, instead, shall come the level lake that burneth, and the solitary dungeon, and the desolate bosom, and the throes and tossings of horror and hopelessness, and the worm that dieth not, and the fire that is not quenched. Many a Felix must have trembled at this awe inspiring discourse of righteousness, tempe rance, and judgment to come. One of the most intimate friends of Irving was the present Mr. Henry Drummond, at whose residence at Albury park were held the famous Albury-park Conferences on the re ligious condition of the Jews. It is recorded of Irving that at one of these meetings, " rising from his chair and standing before the " fire, he soliloquised aloud, It is a sore " trouble to the flesh for a man to have more " light than his brethren.' " The results of these conferences have been published by the eccentric host in three volumes, entitled " Dialogues on Prophecy." At this period of his life Irving was living in Claremont-square, New-road, and the only glimpse of his domestic habits is to be found in Dr. Chalmers's diary, who came up to be present at the opening of his friend's new church in 1827. From the extracts given by Mr. Wilks it seems that Irving was a sociable and agreeable companion. He was a profound admirer of Coleridge, and said to Chalmers, who objected to the poet's obscurity, " you " Scotchmen would handle an idea as a " butcher does an ox ; for my part I like to " see an idea looming through the mist." The doctor expressed an opinion at this time that his prophecies and the length of his ser vices would unship him. The point at issue between Irving and the Scotch Presbytery was this : Whether Christ's flesh had the grace of sinlessness and ineorruption from iti proper nature, or from the in dwelling of the Holy Ghost.—P. 202. Irving maintained the latter, and for this he was, as we have seen, excommunicated by his Church in the year 1833. But in 1830 he had adopted that belief which has made him most notorious to the public at large. We mean a faith in the revival of " the gift of tongues." This was first claimed by some ladies at Port Glasgow. But Irving, when he heard of it, at once signified his acceptance of the doctrine ; and the existence of such a power became a leading article of faith with all that class who now began to be called Irvingites. The account of his trial before the Presby tery is highly interesting, but we must refer our readers to the work itself for a perusal of it. There cut be little doubt, we think, of the ustice of the sentence. Irving had now become a mere enthusiast, and his claims were quite inconsistent with ecclesiastical discipline. The subsequent construction of his Church is curious. One of his followers was moved by the spirit to become an apostle— a position apparently equivalent to that of Ilimi... THE PRESS. bishop—and by him Irving was reordained an angel or priest on the 6th of April, 1833. Of Irving's system Mr. Wilks seems on the whole to approve ; but we doubt if he has examined its origin very deeply. He discusses the question which has been sometimes agitated as to whether Irving would have become a Roman Catholic, and decides it in the nega• tire. So far we agree with him ; but we think it probable that if he had lived some five or six years longer without going mad he would have ended his days in the communion of the Church of England. It was the absence of vitality in her which made Irving what he was ; but in the very same year which wit nessed his separation from the Presbyterians began that wondrous revival of Church princi ples which, though pushed into extremes by many, has been as an anchor of salvation to more. Here both Irving and Wesley would have found a place of rest, and let us hope that many future Irvings and Wesleys may. PERIODICAL LITERATURE. THE author of " The Newcomes" has this month furnished much food for the reviewers. We have two articles on Mr. Thackeray now before us, but written from very different points of view, and with very dif ferent powers. That in the North British is light and clever, though with perhaps rather too much straining at effect. But, at all events, it recognises Mr. Thackeray's position as the leading ethical teacher of the day, and the very great services he has performed to society by abolishing that imaginary line between absolute virtue and absolute vice which has been so much insisted on. The writer's remarks on Mr. Thackeray's female characters are admirable, and likewise those on his style, about which there is one very happy touch The chief fault of his ordinary and own style is also the fault of Fielding's ; namely, a habit of winking the eye, as it were, at the reader, as he goes on. - The latter part which relates to Fielding is even better than the first; and the differences, and the reasons of them, between Tom Jones and Arthur Pendennis are capitally portrayed. The essay on "Cabinets and Statesmen' turns on the question of how far Cabinet union is any longer desirable or ne ces.iary. The reviewer thinks that there is no neces sity for Ministers now to be all agreed on all points; and certainly such has not been the practice in former times. A return to it would, at all events, insure the possibility of our having more able men in the Ministry than we can have under the present system. Yet we doubt how far the power of the Crown would be found adequate in these days to support such a mode of government. It is a very interesting question, and well worth the consideration of politicians. Tait contains several papers that will be found amusing by the general reader. "Literary Diver sions," comprising this month a review of Dr. Doran on " Habits and Habit-makers," is a clever summary of a kind of compilation for which we con fess that we have no very profound regard. We shall have a work upon London dust-holes next, chal lenging admiration for its antiquarian lore, and may hap its wit. The essay on Thackeray (the other one to which we have alluded) is just an emanation of that purblind morality which was universal twenty years ago, but is now we hope on the wane. But though we most distinctly decline to take any part in the contest which has been so long waging on this subject, we must beg leave to correct the author of this article on his use of the Anglicised term "simious." He has chosen to speak of Mr. Thacke ray as the prince of the simious school. Does the gentleman know what the word "simious " means? This admirable epithet was first introduced by Sydney Smith, and applied, we are sorry to say, to no less exalted a person than Lord Palmerston. " That " simious parasite," says he, " who is always grin " ning at his (Canning's) heels." Now, it is per fectly clear that the word was used here in the sense of buffoonish—a capering, grinning animal, whose imitative powers are but a small part of his pecu liarities. Subsequently the term has been used by critics to distinguish that school of comic writers who earn a livelihood by making jokes at so much a piece, by contorting their intellects as a monkey con torts his carcase for the nuts and gingerbread; but apishness and imitativeness are not coextensive terms, as the writer of this article appears to imagine. The best article, perhaps, in the present number of Bentley is "Ins and Outs of Paris," but the number is not a first-rate one. " Aspen Court " is being con tinued, but we are half afraid our London readers will find no novelty in it now. The story of " The Roadside Inn," though well told, is deficient in the • merit of novelty. SATURDAY, 1. Metropolitan Local Management Bill. By Toulmin Smith, Barrister-at-Law. London : H. Sweet. 2. Practical Proceedings for the Removal of Nuisances, sc., under the Nuisances Removal Act, 1855, and by other Course of Law. By Toulmin Smith. London: H. Sweet. - - - - I. This is a highly useful and not altogether un entertaining work. It is a complete manual of paroc hial procedure, contains all the latest informa tion on the subject of boards and vestries—their duties and their power—with an ample explanation of everything that relates to rates, taxes, and the means of enforcing them. No householder, with this little work oefore him, need be at any loss in regard to any one of these knotty points. The author's remarks on sewerage and the duties of the commissioners are very curious and interesting. 2. An equally valuable contribution to our stock of parish information. Nuisances, it appears, are divided by the act into four heads :-1. Nuisances immediately connected with human dwellings and occupations. 2. Corrupt or unwholesome food. 3. Ditches, drains, watercourses, and sewers. 4. All nuisances at common law. This latter meaning anything that is in any way hurtful or inconvenient beyond the amount of good produced by it, as " a perpetual ringing of bells, or keeping a pack of "noisy dogs." The various remedies for all these are stated with clearness and precision, and we need hardly say that in the present state of the metropolis any one who throws any additional light on this sub ject is entitled to public gratitude. A Glossary of Military Terms. By J. S. B. London : Longmans. Inverse Elementary Tactics of Cavalry. By A. B. C. London : Bosworth. Two elementary works excellent as far as they go, and intended for the use and study of junior officers. " The Glossary of Military Terms" may neverthe• less be safely included among the purchases of that inquisitive person the General Reader, for it renders the full meaning of those military terms so con stantly met with in correspondents' letters from the camp. It is an exceedingly useful little manual, for, in addition, it contains a careful table of the ranges, weight, and size of iron and brass ordnance, as well as comparative lists of the rank and pay of naval and military officers. "The Manual of Cavalry Tactics" is more a pro fessional work, and appears to have been written by a thorough master of the subject, in a clear, concise, and accurate style. PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED. BOOKS. Brewer's Historical and Geographical Atlas. Longmans. Cross Purposes. A Novel. Catherine Sinclair. Three Vols. Bentley. The Daughter of Night; or, A Poor Girl's Fortuna. S. W. Follow. Ward and Locke. Conversational French Phrases. H abersak. Theobald. Brief Memoir of the late William 11. Bartlett. William Beattie, M.D. Rickerby. Historical Sketches of Statesmen. Henry Lord Brougham, _ . _ The Life of Henry Fielding. Frederick Laurence. Hall and Virtue. The Alpha : A Revelation, but No Mystery. Edward N. Denys. H. G. Clarke. The Life of Jeans D'Albert, Queen of Navarre. Two Vole. Hurst and Blackett. Eastern Experiences. Longinans. Memories. A Poem. George Thomas Thomason. Bell and Daldy. The Ear in Health and Disease. Wm. Harvey, F.R.C.S. Renshaw.. Platonic Phikbus. C. Badham, P.D. J. W. Parker. On the Claims of the Roman Church. Sandiaon Robins, M.A. Longmans. FICRIODICALLS. Tail's Magazine. Partridge and Oakey. Evangelical Christendom. Ditto. The Illustrated Magazine. Warde and Lock. Harry Cuverdale. Virtue and Co. 4rt•Journal. Ditto. The Amateur; or, Our Magazine. Hope and Co. Bentley's Miscellany. Bentley. The West of Scotland Magazine. Hall and Virtue. The War Almanac for ISM. H. G. Clarke. PAMPHLETS. Testimonials and Statistics in Reference to the Working of the Pubtic•house Act. Tracts for the Present Crisis. XXXIV. and XXXV. SILVIO PELLICO'S CORRESPONDENCE will shortly be published at Turin. All those who are in possession of letters of that eminent writer, and wish them to appear in the collection, are desired to send them to M. G. Stefani, at Turin. AN EXPOSITION, according to the Vienna journals, is in contemplation in that city for 1859. It is even said that the plan of the building has already received the approbation of the_Emperor Francis Joseph.