The Press. — London, England, 1855-08-11 00:00:00

THE PRESS.. This volume is in ever) respect handsomely pro. duced, and, from its engravings and illustrations, always beautifully and delicately executed, is likely to become a text-book for both architects and tourists. To both classes we can honestly recom. mend it. Philip Courtenay ; or, Scenes at Home and Abroad. By Lord William Lennox. London : Hurst and Blackett. " PHILIP COURTENAY" is one of those narratives in which the author, under the guise of fiction, sets forth realities of life, and relates particulars of his own personal experience. Many characters in this book will at once be recognised as having played a conspicuous part in London society in their day, and the scenes and incidents introduced are so clearly drawn that, without pretending to give them a " local " habitation and a name," we feel sure that they are essentially real, and have most likely come under the author's immediate observation. In the first part of the narrative Lord W. Lennox seems to have drawn from the recollection of his own early days. Courtenay's visit to the theatre and introduction to George Frederick Cooke, his initiation in military life, his reminiscences of Canada and the United States, his transactions with horse-dealers and money-lenders, his part in private theatricals, with many other passages, read like transcripts of per sonal experience. In the portions of the narrative plainly f►ctitious, the author's pen is still fhcile and amusing. Courtenay's love and its unfortunate ending are described with mingled humour and pathos in chapters which remind one of the novelist style of Theodore Hook. It is one merit of the volumes that they idealise manners and customs now to be ranked among the past, as Irish hospitality, electioneering humours, and stage-coach travelling. The chapter dedicated to the latter subject is a clever essay. The author, contrasting the coach with the rail, looks back with fond regret to the former:— Who that remembers the box-seat with St. Vin cent Cotton, Stevenson, Charles Jones, Apperley, the Walkers, Peers, Snow, Jack Adams, W. Moody, Bramble, Faulkner, cum multi+ aliis of noble and gentle blood, can forget the jest, the repartee, the story, the laugh, that went round to be guile the laughing hours? Then as we drove through the towns, villages, and hamlets, the " shooter's" merry-keyed bugle attracting hundreds of bright eyes to get a sly peep at the passengers; then the momentary stop for changing horses, during which a glass of ale was quaffed and a c►gar lit ; then the stand up lunch at the bar of some clean rural wayside house, with a blooming Hebe at the bar, dis pensing draughts of nectar, in the shape of home-brewed malt, cold without, hot with, purl, bitters, hollands, or the more refined beverages of sherry and soda, newts, perry, or cider. The narrative has the bustle of adventurous and high-blooded life throughout, and will be all the more esteemed by the novel reading public that it combines the attractions of social romance with tho actual experience of an English gentleman who has seen life under widely-varied aspects and in its gayest colours. The History of England and Wales—The History of Ireland—The History of Rome—The History of Greece—Scriptural History Simplified. By Miss Corner. London : Dean and Son. A NEW edition of these little elementary works speaks well for their usefulness, and for the estimation in which they are held by teachers generally. Miss Corner's school books and histories bid fair to super sede all others of the kind in use, and with reason, as the authoress has not only consulted the highest authorities for her subjects, and taken her historical facts from Neibuhr, Grote, Arnold, Thirlwall, and Smith, but relates what is most authentic in history in a style at once agreeable and concise. If ever the "dry bones" of history were made enter taining to children, they are so in these little nooks, as the narration is pleasantly, diversified with descriptions of the domestic manners and habits of the people at certain periods, how they lived, dressed, and died. In the histories of England and Ireland the narration is brought down to 1851 ; and in the present edition, published at an extremely mode rate cost, a concise chronological table, with a copious list of historical questions, are added. All the books are illustrated with maps and engravings, and are well printed and bound. 767 sure an abstract from the Oxford chronologica tables, and we presume that in mere matters of fact it is tolerably accurate, though, by the by, we see it stated in one place that Cardinal Fleury was the Minister of Louis XIV. A good index greatly facilitates reference, and synchronical tables show at a glance the contemporary sovereigns in Europe at any given period. Practical Illustrations of the Principles of School Architecture. By Henry Barnard. London : Trtibner and Co. AN elaborate pamphlet upon a very important sub ject—the art of building a school-house, which should be properly ventilated, and upon such a plan u should tend to perfect the system of education, both mental and physical. The author is the superin tendent of common schools in Connecticut, and may hence be supposed fully capable of exposing the deficiencies of national school-rooms generally. He treats the subject in a thoroughly practical manner, and illustrates his plans by numerous diagrams of everything required in a school, from the ink well to ground plans and transverse -sectional elevations of the building. On the whole, the pam phlet is so practical in all its details, and appears to be written with so thorough a knowledge of the sub ject, that we strongly recommend it to the notice of all school officers and educational societies. The Fairy Tales of the Countess D'Aulnoy. Trans lated by J. R. Planebk. With illustrations by J. Gilbert. London : Routledge. A WORK that should be welcome to all play-goers, as containing the originals of those delightful extrava ganzas with which Mr. Planche's name has been so long connected. The stories themselves contain a fund of innocent humour, and sly satire upon the ceremonial of the French Court, and present almost as much food for laughter to the old as to the young : for the latter it is, indeed, the most complete guide to fairyland which has yet been invented, and th• peculiar humour of the original has not, we think, lost anything in Mr. Planche's hands. It is in some respects, of course, better brought out in a prose translation than in those metrical versions for which the Lyceum was so famous. In three words, it is a " very pretty book ;" and as we are not likely for some time to see a renewal of those beautiful representa tions, it is something at least to have the elements of their fascination so faithfully presented to us. PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED. BOOKS. Outlines of Moral Philosophy. Dugald Stewart. Dublin : Hodges and Smith. Pignadar ; or, Three Days Wandering in the Lonills. Alethea E. Longman' • The Poetical Works of Monk, Akenaide, and John Dyer. Edited by the Rev. Robert Aris Nellinott. Routledgs. Woman's Devotion. A Novel. Hurst and Blackett. Married Life of Rachel, Lady Russell. M. Uuizot. _ Bosworth. The Benefit of Christ's Death. Churchill Babington, H.D., )•'.L.3. Bell and Daldy. The Isthmus qf Suer Question. M. Ferdinand De Leseepe. Longmana. Stanford's New Guide to Paris and the Paris Exhibition. Stanford. The Lives of our Heroes of the Crimea. George Ryan. J. Field and Co. Nodes Atnbrosiane. Professor Wilson. Vol I. Blackwood,. Poetical Works of Samuel Butler. Edited by It. Bell. Vol. I. J. W. Parker and Son. Law Maga...Re. Martins q/Cro' Martin. West of Scotland Magazine. No. IT. Glasgow : Murray The Petition of Dr. Peithman, LLD. Perceval. the Battles of the Crimea, with Other Poems. Mrs. Alfred Hayward. Port Hope, Canada West : J C. Ansley. Bank qf England Charter Act, 1844, and the Manchester Commercial Association. Seeley. Gilbert's O f ficial Guide to the New Newspaper and Book Acts, and Warrants. Gilbert. Mormonism : its Blessings and Advantages. Address at the Anniversary Meeting of the Royal Geographical Society. Earl of Ellesmere, K.G., D.C.L. Clowes end Son. Finances and Trade of Canada,lB:ss. W. Cayley, Esq. Ridgway. Our Village; or, a History of Erith and ifs Neighbourhood. Hope and Co. A Day on the Downs, Berks. Ditto. Peace Popery, Puseyism, and Church of Eng- Ditto. WIITIIUer WIICLIMI uy 61/111C cut/alum, au au...a a cora-a... ..a. , - - may not save enough to allow of the use of the best kind of the books are illustrated with maps and engravings, Our Village ; or, a History of Erith and its Neighbourhood. red brick for the general face of our walls. and are well printed and bound. Hope and Co. At the present day there is, I think, absolutely no one - A Day on the Downs, Berks. Ditto. point in which we fail so much, and about which the Compendium of Chronology. By. J. H. Jaquener War in Peace ; Popery, Puseyism, and Church of Eng- world in general has so little feeling, as that of colour. landism. Ditto. Edited by the Rev. John Alcorn. London : Long- Ditto. Our buildings are in nine cases out of ten cold, colourless, The Amateur; or, Our Magazine. insipid academical studies, and our people have no con- mans. Our West Indian Colonies, "Jamaica." H. B. Evans, M.A., ception of the necessity of obtaining rich colour and no A FRESH addition to a class of school-books the name CS. Effingham Wilson. sufficient love for it when successfully obtained. The of which is legion. The peculiarity of this " Corn. Condition and Prospects of Canada in pendium " is that it is thrown into the form of a dic- -1854.. . task, therefore, and the duty of architects of the present The Palace al Westminster and other H i stor i cal Sketches. day is mainly that of awakening and satisfying this feel . . , W. D. Arnold. J. W. Parker and Son. ing; and one of the best and most ready vehicles for doing tio nary, instead of being cast in a tabular shape, House of Lords, July 27, 1855 . Rid g wa y . the year standing first, and the events by which it Religious Liberty Bill. Lord Brougham's Speec h in the this exists, no doubt, in the rich coloured brick so easily manufactured in this country, which, if properly used, may was distinguished following immediately after. The Confirmation of Admiralty Mismanagement. W. S. Lind- become so effective and admirable a material. information contained in it appears in great mea- say, Esq. M.P. Effingham Wilson. AUG. 11, 1855. The first number of the new series of the Mer chants' Magazine merits attention. The opening article upon " Banking" is written with considerable ability, and alludes, as might be expected, to the case of Messrs. Strahan and Co. The proposition lately made by private bankers to exhibit the secu rities deposited in their hands from time to time is held to be one not at all proving solvency, nor likely to prevent frond where fraud is intended ; but that they should publish periodical balance-sheets is very fairly proposed as the best means of proving their stability. An article upon the " Late Commercial Treaty with Siam " stirs up the English merchants to follow cut the advantages offered to them, or they will be speedily ousted by the Americans in those seas, for among other things at Bangok Sir John Bowring found an American missionary station! The reviews of the Money Market, information on ex change, statements regarding the great staples of trade, and all colonial and domestic mercantile infor mation, will be found in the first number of this con tinuation of one of the most useful commercial pub lications printed. The third part of the Journal of the Statistical Society contains a curious estimate of the mortality arising from naval operations, in which it appears that about 1 in 10 may be fairly taken as the pro portion of wounded who died of their wounds in the naval engagements during the last war, while in the army the proportion was lin 8. It is singular that the average of loss in actions between fleets and squadrons and in attacks upon land defences, should be precisely the same, though Sir William Hoste's famous action off Lissa carries off the palm of slaughter in all modern actions-212 men per thousand engaged being the loss he sustained; while Algiers, in 1816, only caused a loss of 147 and Copenhagen of 118 per thousand. It will be curious to note the increase of mortality which any future naval war will probably cause from the advance in the science of gunnery, increased weight of metal, and improved projectiles. Other subjects of statistical and commercial interest will be found in this number. Brick and Marble Architecture in Italy. By G. E. Street, F.S.A. Copiously Illustrated. London : Murray. THIS book is the result of a tour of architectural observation in the north of Italy, and forms an excellent proof how much profit and pleasure any man may derive from a holiday tour when he has a definite object in view. Mr. Street travelled through Italy with the intention of studying the pure school of middle age architecture, and • of determining how far the first principles of art were developed by the Italians, and how much farther these true principles were worked out in the south than in the north of Europe. In pursuance of this design he points out the peculiarities of the development of the pointed architecture in Italy ; that the perpetual use by the Italians of the round and pointed arch in the same work is neither " harmonious nor satisfactory; " that in Italy brick and marble were commonly introduced in decoration and in construction; and, finally, that we in selecting a style of architecture should be " guided by it in all we do, not to the forgetfulness " of the glories of our own land, but to the develop " ment in a forward direction of what we inherit " from our forefathers of that architecture which " after a lapse of three centuries we now see on all " sides reviving with fresh vigour from its temporary " grave, and which requires only prudence and skill "on the part of its professors to make even more " perfect than before." Mr. Street's book, though marked by great professional knowledge, is not one merely for the architect ; his exquisite drawings of the different churches and cathedrals and their *details of ornament are accompanied with a practical and lucid review of the pure style of Italian archi tecture, its beauties and defects, its advantages and errors. Such a book as this opens to us fresh sources of knowledge, by pointing out peculiar beauties in art not obvious to the common observer. In reference to the use of bricks in building, Mr. Street's opinion is in favour of red bricks, and, founded upon special principles, it is well worth the attention of our architects : Before we use those detestable•looking dirty yellow bricks in which London so much rejoices, we ought to consider whether by some economy in other respects we may not save enough to allow of the use of the best kind of red brick for the general face of our walls. At the present day there is, I think, absolutely no one