The Press. — London, England, 1855-03-10 00:00:00

MARCH 10, 1855. should not have had the much-contested ques tion about the Wandsworth churchwardens of " What is an Esquire? " The compiler of the handbook says that the last proceedings of this court " are supposed to have been taken " in 1631, though there is a case reported in " the reign of Anne of an attempt to revive " the functions of the court." We do not know of any such futile attempt; and the petitioner in the reign of Anne must have been very badly advised not to know that the court was abolished in the second Parliament of Charles 1., on the motion of Edward Hyde, the famous Clarendon, who was then a popular law-reforming barrister. The " Heralds College" is dismissed, and properly, with a few lines. Such an institu tion was once of service in the tracing of descents and the decision of rank, but who ever wishes to see its present mysterious dis pensations of arms need only glance at the armorial bearings of some of " the coming " aristocracy," as blazoned on their carriage panels at a horticultural fête in the Regent's park, and he needs no better illustration of Horace's dolphin swimming in the woods. Old Gwillim, the Herald, would have died of the exhibition. W e can hardly agree with the classification which places the peerage with the " Baronet " age, Orders of Knighthood, and other Hono " racy Distinctions." The institution is only like those with which it is classed in the pos session of title—the others were not created with the same end or purpose, and the legisla tive functions of the peerage are the very essence of its existence. The on guild power of the House of Lords in the Legislature is traceable by record no farther than the origin of the entire Legisla ture, which seems essentially to have existed almost in its present condition --namely, with the assistance of the Commons. The earliest statute is the 15th Edw. 11., where it is declared as law that " the matters to be estab " fished for the estate of the realm and of the " people should be treated, established, and " accorded in Parliament by the King, and by " assent of the prelates, earls, and barons, and " the commonalty of the realm, according as " had been before accustomed." There is cer t tinly nothing here to point out the difference of a taxing power between the two estates. We can hardly think that much useful in formation can be found in mere theories as to the duties of the various branches of the Legislature. That assigned here to the House of Commons would be as little admitted by the Chartists, as the Peers would admit it as applied to the Long Parliament : " It's province is to maintain " the liberties of the people." It would seem that the " Commonalty," generally supposed to be the origin of the present House of Commons, had little right to interfere in legislation, other than by petition, in an earlier history. The old statutes begin " Prayen the Commons," and go on to enact, as though the statute came rather by suggestion from the Commons than with legislative force. The theory that both houses sat together is sufficiently disproved by the fact, that when, in 1283, Edward I. held his Parliament at Shrewsbury, the Lords sat in a castle and the Commons in . a ba rn— an arrangement much mor e suggestive of the Commons being petitioners than legislators . It is certain that the first writ of summons for knights and burgesses, of which we have even a suggestion, is in the forty-ninth year of Henry III.; and th at the true greatness of the House of Commons began to ap pear with the decline of the Tudors, was greatly damaged in p ro g ress by the excesses of the Long Parliam ent, revived again by the fear of popery which pervaded the country after the Restoration, and was finally estab lished at the accession of William 111. Its power and position, and the consequent . cur tailment of the prerogative, make th . e title of " Venetian Constitution" m ore applicable to the nature of our Government than me re names c ould seem at first to ex p ress. There is one cu rious fact incident to the House of Commons , that the clerk of th e house who reads their acts, and the sergeant-at-arms who eff Crown the ectuates th e i r orders, are both appointed by —a remnant of th e same ancient royal power THE PRESS. which once made the approval of the Spoiler more than a mere ceremony. Some useful information will be found in the ecclesiastical portion of this handbook, especially on the much-misrepresented sub ject of the enormous wealth of the Church. We doubt whether, properly, the duties of a bishop can find a place in an official hand book, but we must accord to the ecclesiastical division very sincere praise as a well-condensed account of the Church constitution. The state of the Ecclesiastical Courts is useless to our ju risprudence, expensive and inconvenient to the Church,oppressive to the people, and the fruitful source of scandal in the mouths of those who have no . scruple in representing a state of affairs which is truly the fault of the House of Commove, as the very nature of the Church itself. In one portion of this subject at least an attempt was made in Lord Derby's short Administration to ameliorate the present state of these courts, but by the resignation of the Cabinet it fell to the ground, and since then nothing of importance has been done in the matter. In this department we are favored with the form of the conga (retire, the reading of which certainly justifies Dr. Johnson's de scription, that it is " throwing a man out of a " second-floor window, and giving him permis " sion to fall softly." The origin of the " Cabinet Council" is clearly traceable to Sir William Temple's pro ject submitted to Charles 11. on the fall of Danby, and about which Sir William so pathe tically complains, that a plan devised to ex clude Shaftesbury should have failed so sadly that it added to his power and importance. It is curious to read that the project at the time was denounced as the creation of a new estate of the realm, and was recommended to Charles by the fact that members of the new Council should be of " such substance," that " on a " pinch" they could lend the King 200,0001., which " pinch" Charles no doubt anticipated would very speedily arise. The catalogue raisonnhe of the Chief Minis ter of State is generally accurate and satisfac tory, though the badly-defined limits of duty in the English executive leads to the para doxical result that the various departments are perpetually both interfering and refusing to interfere in the province of each other. The title of " Prime Minister" is one rather col loqually given than actually existing. Lord North, as his daughter wrote to Lord Brougham, w ould never permit it to be applied to him, declaring that it was unknown to our Consti tution, in which all Ministers were equally re sponsible for their advice to the Crown. In fact, however, the statesman commissioned by the sovereign is held responsible for his ap pointees, and is as much a Prime Minister as though he had the office expressed in a patent. The " Irish Government," now reduced to only a few officials, affords a chapter in which, by the way, there is a slight misapprehension as to the viceroyalty. The title of " Lord " Deputy," was only applied to the person appointed deputy to the "Lord Lieutenant " General, and General Governor." It was not an office granted except when a Lord Lieute nant also existed. With respect to the Irish Viceroy's power of conferring knighthood, we believe that it arose when the Lords Lieute nant and Deputy took the field and exercised it, like other commanders, to make bannerets iu time of war, a power exercised so lately as by Montrose almost as represented in Sir Walter's " Legend." A very valuable part of this work relates to the minor public offices—as the State Paper office, the Record-office, &c., to which persons find it difficult to obtain access. There is also a full account of the Colonial Department, the Government of Scotland, and even the Isle of Man. On the whole, " Murray's Offi cial Handbook" is a work much needed, and well executed, fully redeeming the promise of the titlepage. All persons in public life, or who wish to have a correct knowledge of English politics, can resort to it with con fidence and satisfaction. Every Man his Own Printer; or, Lithography Made Easy. London : Waterlow and Sons. A useful handbook to the acquirement of the art of lithography by means of the autographic press, an invention similar but more simple than the litho graphic press. The whole art of lithography is here explained in a few pages and made thoroughly easy to the artist or the amateur. Specimens of pen and ►nk and chalk drawings and engrav►ngs upon stone speak highly for the powers of the autographic press. The chalk drawing is particularly soft and the tints are well rendered, but the line drawings are certainly not equal to those produced by the lithographic press. The Alpha; or, the First Principle of the Hunan Mind. Second Edition. By E. N. Dennys. Loudon : Clarke and Beeton. Is this work strange doctrines are appropriately set forth in startling type, and eccentricities of principle and printing lend mutual assistance to each other. The author attempts to establish the old theory that " Ignorance " is the sole cause of " vice," abolishing in large capitals, and to his own satisfaction, the very inconvenient distinction between crime and error, and removing by the simple machinery of vision (which reveals the doctrines), and a reverie (which confirms them), the great landmarks which moralists and legislators have set up for the safety and protection of mankind. As a specimen of Mr. Dennys' logic, we may quote the assertion that " the number of those crimes committed "in pure despite of right convictions are (sic) " very insignificant in their amount," made in the very teeth of the principle which his work has been written to establish. His metaphysics are fairly represented by the two incidental remarks that" an " inadequacy of knowledge is vice—namely, the " cause of it," in which he inconceivably confounds cause and effect, hitherto pretty generally held to be distinguished, at least, by a difference of time; and that " übiquity, omnipotence, omniscience, " eternity, are not mysteries," meaning, we suppose, that these forms of the infinite are capable of being adequately conceived or imagined. As a sample of his acquaintance with philosophical terminology, he confounds by implication the definitions with the axioms of geometry, and makes " all truths neces sary." Among minor absurdities he gives as a reason for our preference of curves to straight lines, from an iesthetic point of view, the fact, " that man can " not comprehend infinity" (this fact being, by the way, in contradiction to his peculiar views of eter nity, &c.), apparently having no idea of the exist ence of any curve but a " closed" one. Did Mr. Dennys ever hear of a " parabola?" The hook is only of use as affording to the reader a mental gymnastic in the detection and refutation of its numerous , errors and absurdities. A Beginning Without an End. An Allegory. By M. A. E. C. Robert. London : liardwicke. WE were not sorry to discover the end to this begin ning within the moderate compass of 144 large•typed pages. We tear that the earnestness of the writer is after all wasted upon an allegory to prove the im mortality of the soul. Soldiers and Sailors in Peace and as in War. By Herbert Byng Hall, K.S.F. London: Chapman and Hall. SOME pleasant little stories of the two services. The story of the "Bivouac " is evidently written with the purpose of showing how much the man from the ranks appreciates a commission as a reward for his bravery. The stories are well told, and the scenes graphically described, but we are rather surprised that a military man should repeat that old story about " Up, Guards, and at them," which the Duke was heard to deny more than once. The proceeds of the sale are to be given to the Patriotic Fund. Landmarks of the History of England. By the Rev. James White. " The Useful Library." London: Routledge. Mn. WHITE'S " Landmarks," originally given as a series of lectures at the Mechanics' Institute at Bonchurch, are more sketches of persons than periods, written in an easy colloquial style. As en tertaining illustrations of the history of England from the Roman invasion to our own times, Mr. White's volume has fair claims to public favour. PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED. !woad. Nature and Human Nature. Hurst and 111 ftekett . IVorlds beyond the Earth. M. L. Philips. Annotated Edition of the E n g lish Poets, 'Chaucer - .. W. Parker and So o. Vol. J Military Forces of Great Britain. H. B. Thomson. Smith and Elder. Stratford Shakepere. Vol. VI. C. Knight. Hodg e n. History of the War. Sampson Low and Co. Discourses on Lost Things. Rev. J. Cochrane. Hall, Virtue, and Co. Cl ytemnes t r a, and other Poenu. 0. Mere dith. Chapman and Hall. &outl Our Heroes in the Crimea. et: : Wo(fert'.. Boost. W. Irving. The Oakkn Colony. U. H. Wathen. Longman and Co. (I ,'