The Press. — London, England, 1857-11-28 00:00:00

THE PRESS, NOVEMBER 28,1857. 1162 attachment to Germany, and the firm for whom he was working. There is also in the office a certain Herr von Fink, a young man of high birth and great expectations, or, as he puts it himself, " heir " of the largest store of train oil in the world," whose father has placed him with Herr Schroeter to steady him. A quarrel between him and Wohlfart ends in a firm friendship, and through his means the hero gains an entree into polite society, meets the lady of his dreams, and becomes her slave. In the meantime the baron, her father, has fallen into the clutches of Ehrenthal, and has been in duced to raise money, establish sugar facto ries, which fail, and generally complicate his affairs. While Ehrenthal is plotting to gain possession of the nobleman's estate, Itzig is carrying on a counterplot for the same pur pose, and between the two the victim becomes hopelessly involved, and, to add to his mis• fortunes, loses his sight. At this juncture Wohlfart comes to the rescue. He gives up his situation, and undertakes the management of the baron's property. He and the family retire to a half-ruined Polish castle which the baron has been swindled into purchasing by the representations of Ehrenthal. A Polish insurrection breaks out, and as they aro pre paring for a siege, Von Fink opportunely appears, and with his aid and that of his fol lowers they succeed in holding the castle until relief comes. All this while Anthony has been enduring daily indignities from the pride and petulance of the baron, whose misfortunes have soured his temper. Nor has he to sup port him that love for Leonora which he at first entertained. The feelings of Loth have by this time cooled down to a calm brotherly and sisterly affection, and Anthony, finding Fink not indisposed to relieve him of his duties and his mistress, returns to the capital, partly to search for some missing documents which compromise the Baron Rothsattel's honour, and partly to have a last interview with tha sister of his former master, the Frau lein Sabine, who he discovers is the real occu pant of his heart. He is received at first coldly by the merchant, who looks upon him as a lost sheep, but ultimately reinstates him in his good opinion on learning the true his tory of the past. Anthony busies himself about the recovery of the baron's papers, which he discovers to have been stolen at the instigation of Itzig. The latter, baffled and terrified at the prospect of detection, makes away with his accomplice, and in attempting to escape from the police is drowned, some what melodramatically, at the very spot where he committed the murder. The stolen deeds are recovered, and Anthony's chivalrous labours being now at an end, he prepares to start afresh to seek his fortune, unconscious of Herr Schroeter's feelings and intentions towards him. We give the denouement in the words of the author : Sabine put her hand into a chest, took out two books bound in green leather with gilt edges, and laid them on the desk. She took Anthony's hand, and with trembling voice, said : ' Come, pray look at my" Debit and Credit." ' She opened the first book. Under artistic flourishes stood the words : `By the help of Uod, the secret book of T. 0. Schroeter.' Anthony started back : ' It is the secret book of the Firm,' be exclaimed; ' this is a mistake." 'lt is no mistake, I wish you to look through it,' said Sabine. ' That is impossible,' replied Anthony ; ' neither your brother nor you seriously wish it. God forbid that any one should touch this hook, except the heads of the Firm. So long as a commercial house exists, these leaves are for the eyes of none but the master, and at his death fur his nearest heirs. Whoever looks in this book, learns what no stranger ought to know. and with respect to it, the truest friend is a stranger. As a merchant and an honest man I dare not grant your wish.' Sabine held his hand fast. ' Nevertheless, look at it, Wohlfart,' she said, ' look at 'he title.' She opened it again, In this book T. 0. Schroeter is written,' she passed her hand over the leaves ; ' there are only a few empty pages, it ends with the last year.' She opened the cover of the second book, and said : ' This book is empty, but it is another Firm : what is written here?' Anthony read : By the help of God, the secret book of T. 0. Scbroeter and Co.' Sabine pressed his hand, and said in a low voice : ' And you, my friend, are to be the new partner.' Anthony stood motionless, but his heart throbbed •iolently, and the colour rose to his cheeks. Sabine still held his hand, and he felt her kiss upon his lips like a soft breath. Then he put his arm round the beloved one, and they held each other in a mute embrace. The door opened, the merchant stood on the threshold. * /lola the fugitive fast,' he cried out ; ' Yes, Anthony, for years I have been longing for this hour. Ever since you knelt by my couch in that foreign country, and bound up my woun , l, I have cherished in my heart the wish of uniting you for ever to our life. When you left us, I saw with indignation my fondest hopes destroyed ; now we bold you, wanderer, in the pages of the secret book, and in our arms.' He embraced the lovers. ' You have chosen a poor partner,' said Anthony, as his new brother pressed him to his heart. ' No, my brother, Sabine has acted like a wise mer chant. Property and wealth have uo value, either for individuals, or for the State, without the sound qualities which give life and movement to the dead metal. You bring to the Firm your youthful energy and tried judg ment. Welcome to our house and hearts.' _ Beaming with delight, Sabine held both hands of her be'rothed. ' I could hardly bear seeing you so silent and sorrowful. Every day at dinner when you removed your chair, I felt as if I must fly after you, and tell you that you belonged to us for ever. You blind creature not to have seen what was passing in me, and yet Leonora's bridegroom knew it all. He ?exclaimed Anthony. ' I never spoke to him about you.' See here,' cried Sabine, taking Fink's letter out of her pocket. It contains nothing but the words, " Loving friendship, Frau sister-in-law." ' Again the happy Anthony embraced his love. Von Fink of course marries the Fraulein Leonora. In fact, in this disposition of the characters at the close lies, as we imagine, one of the morals of the story, if morals are in tended. Herr Frey tag seems to be one of those stanch supporters of social order, a fun damental dogma of whose philosophy it is that the happiness of the terrestrial ark is best se• cured by pairing off its inhabitants, male and fe male," after their• kind." Had the aristocratic Von Fink marriel the burgher's sister or Wohlfart the daughter of the Baron Rothsattel, as seemed probable at the commencement, it would have been a contravention of this law, notwith standing the merits of the hero and the poeti. cal justice of such a finale. We do not anticipate a sensation caused by the appearance of " Debit and Credit" in English, but that it will have a fair share of popularity we have little doubt. From the outline of the story and the extracts we have given, it will be seen that it is not deficient in interest or in power, and we may add that, as a picture of German life and manners, it is excellent. The History of England, from the Earliest Times to the Peace of Paris, 1856. By Charles Duke Yonge. London : Rivingtons. WE have here a stout book, containing up wards of eight hundred pages, and holding as much matter as is usually minted in two large octavo volumes. It contains a full and flow ing narrative of the chief events of English history, and it is not a mechanical or servile compilation. The mind of a writer is visible in its pages, and the subjects are discussed in an independent tone. The style, though deficient in closeness, is easy and natural, and occasionally rises into eloquence. It is a meritorious effort to supply the public with an intermediate book between the dry epitomes of Pinuock and the large editions of the standard historians. Fairness of spirit is its highest intellectual merit. We would infer that the author is mildly Conservative, but he never allows his prejudices to warp his narrative. Sometimes he escapes from difficult questions by evad ing them. His account of the progress of the Reformation, for example, is deficient IR fulness, even with the limits assigned by the author to his subject. The point is not strongly brought out that, if Germany intro duced, it was England established the Refor mation ; and on many questions where vigorous thinking is required the author is rather tame and languid. Still, however, he has attained his chief object iu giving a good popular ac count of the history of England. He has prefixed a full table of contents, with a good chronological arrangement ; but he should have added an index of names and subjects, which would have increased the value of his volume. In pronouncing upon the characters of the chief personages in English history, Mr. Yonge speaks out frankly. He thus writes of the execution of Mary Queen of Scots : Elizabeth had shown herself revengeful and merciless ; she was now to show herself contemptible. Always a dis. sembler, she now outdid any scene of hypocrisy that has ever been recorded ; not scrupling to ruin her too faithful secretary in order to keep up a pretence which imposed upon no human being. She put on mourning for the death of Mary as her cousin ; she wrote a long letter to King James, in which she called heaven and earth to witness that she had never dreamt of consenting to his mother's 'teeth. She could not deny that she had signed the fatal warrant, but declared that she had never authorised Davison to take it to the council ; and for this offence she threw hint into prison, and caused the Star Chamber to inflict a fine on him, which reduced him to beggary; yet scarcely two months afterwards she created Hatton her chancellor, post for which he had no earthly qualification, but which he was supposed to owe partly to the address with which lie had induced Mary to appear before the commissioners, though that was not his original introduction to, nor was it believed to be his strongest hold on, the favour of his mistress. It is not a little curious that historical re search in late years has decidedly darkened some of the most repulsive features in the moral characters of both Queen Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots. Fraser Tytler's most laborious researches have unquestionably con firmed by new evidence the charge of gross hypocrisy to which Elizabeth was always liable; and the masterly history of the Scottish Queen by Nliguet has convicted Mary, by almost irrefragable evidence, of complicity i n the crimes of which her partisans have always asserted her innocence. Of the mean con duct of James 1., the author writes:— That no one in any way connected with Mary's affairs might escape their full share of disgrace, James contrived to exhibit almost as much baseness as Elizabeth herself. He had indeed, when he heard of the sentence passed upon his mother, sent ambassadors to Elizabeth to remonstrate against such an invasion of the rights of nations and of sovereigns, but one of his envoys, the Master of Grey, is believed to have betrayed his trust, and to have assured Elizabeth that she would find no difficulty in pacifying James after the event. If he did, he proved a true prophet. James did, indeed, affect a decent indignation for a day or two, recallel his ambassador from England, and refused to admit the English envoy to his presence, but in that feeble display all his wrath evaporated. It was in vain that his nobles put on mourning ; that Lord Sinclair appeared at his court in complete armour, telling him, with natural high spirit, that that was the proper mourning for the mur dered queen ; that others with similar feelings urged him to take up arms; and that even the Scottish Parliament, a body not generally over respectful to their sovereign, assured him of their willingness to spend their lives and fortunes to enable him to revenge her. He speedily began to repent of the boldness of his first measures, so inconsistent with the incurable cowardice of his natural disposition ; to cal culate the chances of success if he should engage in war; the risk of injuring his prospect of succession to the English crown if he should offend Elizabeth ; and finally accepted her apologies, and renewed as friendly an inter course with her, showing himself equally destitute of shame, of affection, and of courage. The reign of Charles I. is one of the best written in the volume, and its recital of events is full in matter, and is drawn up with a large and candid spirit of appreciation of the qualities shown by the Cavaliers and Roundheads. We still want a thoroughly English account of the whole civil war from the accession of Charles to the death of Cromwell. Lord Macaulay is pitiless to the King, and extravagantly exaggerates the cha racter of Cromwell. We had recently to comment on his character, and we may applaud the excellent tone in which this author has treated of the Protector. His account of him is too long for extract, but Mr. Yonge in the following passage closely states the reasons why Cromwell should never be held up as a patriot, nor why, as some assert, his statue should be set up in the Palace at Westminster:— As a ruler we must recollect, in the first place, that, till the last year of his life, his power was an undisguised usurpation. His original assumption of the protectorate was a compliance with the petition of a few persomi, not authorised to express any opinion but their own ; it rested simply on force—that is, on the support of the army ; and the sanction latterly given to it by the Parliament was a mere farce, for a body so elected, and so winnowed of all members obnoxious to him, had no right whatever Li be considered as speaking the sense of the nation. Nor did the manner in which he exercised his power at home make any atonement for the means by which he acquired it. It is true that his project of a legislative union between the three kingdoms was a wise design, and the alterations wh ch he made in the representation were (or the most part well•imagined and beneficial ieforms, but in other retireds his government was an unmitigated and merciless tyranny. For a long time, in proportion to the brief duration of his sway, he governed without a Parliament, raising taxes by his own authority, imposing heavy penalties on a largo class of his subjects in the same illegal manner. By his high court of justice he put to death a great number of persons whom be studiously deprived of a fair trial, and even sold free-born Englishmen for slaves, an atrocity un exampled in any other country in Europe. - - Dryden in his bitter satire on Shaftesbury (" The Medal") expresses, as we think, what