The Press. — London, England, 1855-10-13 00:00:00

In our day, the reception of ambassadors at Constanti nople is a most undignified affair. They go when they like to see the Sultan, and they do what they please in his presence. They (or some or one of them ) lecture him as though he were a culprit, and he answers with fitting humility, every nerve twitching with the bitter sense of his fallen fortunes. I never saw anything so touching as one audience. I would as soon have been present at the ceremony of administering the rod to a weakly boy, or the application of the cat-of-nine-tails to a sickly soldier. I felt a sensation of sincere pity, almost of national humi• liation, when I (among a crowd of some thirty or forty tinselled nobodies, who all scuffled in a disorderly manner into the presence together) witnessed the vulgar and shameful scolding by which a Christian ambassador thought proper to insult the mild and helpless prince who now sits on the tottering throne of the Eastern Ca3sars. There was small bowing or reverence there ; and the Court of the Sultan might as well have been a bear garden. We should have felt hesitation in quoting these passages but for the far more virulent attack on Lori Stratford in a recent number of the Times. Should the rumour of his recal be well founded, he will doubtless feel it due to his own character to make his case public as soon as he can do so with propriety. There are many amusing anecdotes scattered through the volume. The opening of ambas sadorial correspondence is an old grievance : The French Ambassador of the day once made a com plaint to the feeblest and worst of English Ministers (the Duke of Newcastle), that the despatches sent to him from France had been not only opened, but were actually for warded on to him sealed with the royal arms of England! "It was in consequence of a mistake at the Foreign office," replied the duke, laughing at his infamy as a good joke. The opening of despatches is looked upon as such an infinite jest in some of the petty States of Germany, that not long ago a certain Minister found that all the de spatches he received through the post for some time in variably reached him sealed with the official seal of one of the German post-offices. He remonstrated with the ministerial worthy with whom he had immediately to deal. " Que foulez foam," returned the latter agreeably, " c'est l'habitude." Considering that the author is presumed to be anonymous, he claims more credit for his unsupported statements than is likely to be accorded to them. In our judgment he would have done better to have spoken more openly or to have kept silence altogether. PERIODICAL THE New Quarterly, as a review of the current literature of the quarter, and not a quarterly volume of ponderous essays, bids fair to compete success fully with its elder brethren. In its hundred and odd pages it contains an admirable résumé of the works of the last three months. History, travels, poetry, fiction, and science are all fairly represented, while theology is not forgotten, nor miscellaneous works neglected. The reviews are lightly and cleverly written, the selections excellent, and the number full of entertainment. After the hard, heavy reading of the other Quarterlies it is a relief to turn to tha light, fluent pages of this Review. In the present number the opening review upon " Maud" is just and critical in its tone, the writer con• sidering the poem a failure. Acimitting that there is great power in the conception and some passages of beauty, yetihe conception " is often weak, " and frequently confused," while the beauty of the fine passages is as frequently destroyed by false versification. We have little difficulty in assigning this paper to a young poet of distinguished promise. We must make room for some admirable remarks on the claptrap about the war which the Laureate has been so injudicious as to admit into his poem We must, however, advert with censure to one of the chief characteristics of the poem—one very unworthy of Mr. Tennyson. We mean a certain sort of catchpenny claptrap, derogatory, in the greatest degree, to the dignity of pure art, and destructive of all ideal beauty, which has been permitted to deface the whole aspect of the present poem. It may be pardonable in cheap tailors to entrap the public attention, and popularise their vulgar abomina tions, by forging nicknames out of great public enthusiasms or great national calamities, and foisting upon the market Sebastopol hats, or Crimea capes, and Bucharest boots; bat such awiudlings of our sympathy by false pretences are not the part of a great poet. During forty years of peace, in which art has flourished and science progressed—of which, indeed, his own works have not been the least noble result—Mr. Tennyson has had ample and frequent oppor tunities, if he thought fit, of denouncing such a state of things. Has he done so? Why, in his bucolic aspira tions, the wildest dreams of the Peace Congress have been exceeded. His poem of the " Morte d'Arthur" closes with these lines:— Arthur is come again With all good things, and war shall be no more! In his " Princess," his hero, though living in barbaric times, is made to express the desire that " the old god of war himself were dead." In his " In Memoriam " he hears the Genius "sg the death of war;" and his poetry Ilitaughesi Is with inspiting proolamations "boo Il THE PRESS. " the Parliament of Man," and " the federation of the world," &c. Suddenly, the national cant about peace changes to a warlike ardour; Mr. Bright and his friends become highly unpopular ; schoolboys learn eloquence in denouncing the Czar; the much•despised barrack-lounger changes cigars for scars, and shows himself a hero. Mr. Tennyson, in consequence, turns his ploughshare into a weapon of offenee, and flourishes it about in a fright ful way. ' It is time," we are told, that Peace, " that old, hysterical, mock-disease, should die ; " for it is Full of wrongs and shames Horrible, hateful, monstrous, not to be told. The Czar is "a giant liar," and— Jack at his sie•house door Is as full of hes as a Czar. This is mere rant. It is as weak to contemn the blessings of peace, because we are at war, as it would have been to despise and deny the grave and dread necessities of war, because they had enabled us to enjoy forty years of peace. There is an atheism in both extremes of belief. In striking contrast with Mr. Tennyson's present warlike fervour, we take some lines from "In Memoriam," on the ring-bells of the new year : Ring out false pride in place and blood, The civic slander and the spite ; Ring in the love of truth and right, Ring in the common love of good. Ring out old shapes of foul disease, Ring out the narrowing lust of gold, Ring out the thousand wars of old, Ring in the thousand years of peace. Ring in the valiant man and free, The larger heart, the kindlier hand; Ring out the darkness of the land, Ring in the Christ that is to be. We fear that the Laureate's predictions of the bene fits to be derived from war will be as little realised as his anticipation of the " thousand years of peace." The review on the "Ferns of Great Britain," in the present rage for those plants, will be found full of information, containing notices of all the leading works upon the subject, and many valuable hints upon the books to be read and those to be avoided. The reviews of " The Newcomes" and the "Noctes " are both clever and critical. Murray's and Beste's " Travels in America," Seymour's "Black Sea," and Duncan's " Year in Asia Minor," meet with favorable notice. The summary of French and German lite rature is ably sustained, and one of the best reviews of Dumas' "Roman dine Femme," appears in the present number. The Dublin opens with a review of the win., in which the plan of the campaigns is criticised, the tone being taken from General Klapka's late stric tures upon the war and its management. In the remarks on the Baltic campaign a correct estimate is given of the bombardment of Sweaborg Of the bombardment of Sweaborg we confess we are not inclined to form so favorable an opinion. It was an incon• sequential and useless operation, not calculated to enhance the general estimation of the daring qualities of our seamen ; while its results in the exposure of the bad quality of the ordnance employed, and the deficiency of its supply, cannot but lower the character of our administration in the eyes of the world. Had it, indeed, been possible to take or to destroy that ancient Swedish fortress, the moral effect of the blow might have been incalculably great. As it wag, the enthusiasm of the Swedes was raised to a high pitch by the sound of our guns, only to be lowered again by a reac• tion of disappointment at its small signification, which will throw another obstacle in the way of their so far over coming their fear of the giant of the North, as to permit of their adhesion to an active league against his aggressive tyranny. The object of the war, the Dublin asserts, is not so much the balance of power and the security of the Ottoman empire as the " humiliation of Russia." With possession of the Crimea the object of the war it is declared would be gained. "The Dramatic Writers of Ireland " is continued, and the present chapters include sketches of the dramatic works of Moore and Maturin. For light reading we have two or three chapters of the " Fortunes of Glencore," in which a wealthy, selfish diplomatist is cleverly sketched. For critical review one of Owen Mere dith's poems must not be passed over. It is critically and well written, and passes a high en comium upon the first effort of this young writer : We think he has, beyond any doubt, established his claim [as a poet] ; and we believe he will yet take a high rank. He has all the elements necessary for success—a quick fancy, and good imaginative power, combined with the more solid gifts of intellect, the faculties of reflection and reasoning. He has, too, a large measure of what all true poets have—a perception and love of all beauty, natural and moral ; to these are added a singularly happy and vivid ability for description, and a fine warmth of feeling ; nor is the mechanism of his art wanting in rich felicitous language, at times, too, very vigorous. The criticism, we hear, is ascribed to Mr. Lever, and Owen Meredith it is now well known is the nom de plume of the promising heir of Sir E. Bulwer Lytton. Tait, in fulfilment of its intention expressed in the last number of reviewing the works of some of our most eminent anglish authors) sommenoss with a SATURDAY, brief review of those of Sidney. If such a subject is worth treating it is worth treating well; and we hope that the promised notice of Spenser will be mure in accordance with his merit and the honour due to the English literature of that period. " Reading Raids " contains some clever critical sketches of Mr. Kingsley's works, while the " Life of Swedenborg " includes many curious and original anecdotes connected with that singular man. About a month previous to his death he clearly predicted the day and hour he should die, and as the day ap proached he sent for a Swedish clergyman and took the Sacrament:— Before he engaged in the solemn ceremonial, he pro tested the truth of all he had written. Afterwards he again mentioned the day on which he should die; and the servant in her simplicity said, that he seemed as pleased as she should have been it' she were going to some merry making. On Sunday, the 29th of March, 1772, his powers all ac tive and clear, the maid and mistress were sitting by his bedside, when the clock struck. He asked what o'clock it was. They answered " Five." He said, "It is well-1 thank you—God bless you," and in a moment after his spirit gently and peacefully passed away. It seems unjust to condemn Swedenborg as a mad man. He was a man of an extraordinary imagina tive power, acted upon by a powerful intellect highly cultivated ; but that he positively first anticipated any of the great discoveries of modern philosophers we can scarcely believe. Swedenborg was a man who wrote upon every possible subject iu philosophy and science, and, with such an imaginative mind as he possessed, it is not impossible that he should here and there have touched the limits of modern dis covery. But this is always the case before great discoveries. Vague writers long before Newton's time anticipated points of the " Pnncipia," but it re quired the master-mind to shape their indefinite views. Swedenborg may not have been mad, but be had no control over his imagination, which ran riot in rhapsody and dreamy mysticism. The Watchman. By J. A. Maitland. London : Routledge. A TILE of New York life, with the moral object of showing us that virtue and honesty are the only sources of happiness and success in life, while vice and immorality lead to failure and disgrace—an ex cellent view of life, but not necessarily the correct one. The story, intended as a companion tale to " The Lamplighter," is made up of the most common materials. The hero, a foundling nurtured by " The Watchman "—who is the virtuous poor man, striving with difficulties and overcoming temptation—goes to sea and is supposed to be lost, till at the end of the volume he turns up as a rich Calcutta merchant, full of virtue and hard cash, returns to New York, and of course marries his benefactor's daughter, who proves to be a model of beauty and constancy. In the interval several characters are introduced, all with the same purpose in view—the honest prosper, and the rogues die early. PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED. BOORS. Posthumous Sermons. Rev. J. Watt. B.D. Hatohard. English Roots and the Derivation of Words. E. N. Hoare, A.M. J. W. Parker and Son. The Hand Place-Book Edinburgh : Blackie and Son. The Tribes of the Caucasus. Baron Von Haxthausen. Chapman and Hall. Familiar Words, as Affecting the Conduct of England in 18515. Triilmer and Co. The Poetical Works of Lord Byron. A New Edition in Six Vols. Vol I. Murray. The Lances of Lynwood. J. W. Parker and Son. Report of the Cholera Outbreak in Westminster in 1854. J. Churchill. Works of the Rev. Thomas M'Crie. Part 11. Life of John Knox. Blackwoods. An Essay on Intuitive Morals. Part I. Theory of Morals. Longmans. Love's Provocations. Cuthbert Bede, B.A. Ward and Lock. The Origin and Progress of the National and Industrial Schools. Masters. A Few Stray Verses. A Spirit of the Cam. Bosworth. Inverse Elementary Tactics of Cavalry. A.B.C. Do. Tracts for the Present Crisis. 1, to 19. Administrative lieformers, What have they done! A Letter to S. Morley, Esq. Effingham Wilson. The Life Boat. Charles Knight. The True History of Alexander, John, and Patrick. Glasgow: M'Nair. A History of the Dissenters' Marriages Bill of 1855. Hull Terrell. Theobald. The IVest of Scotland Magazine. Glasgow: Murray and Son. Macphail's Edinburgh Ecclesiastical Journal. Simpkin and Marshall. M. Swan; the Civil Governor of Madrid, died in the capital on the Bth instant. Bator; DE BOURQUEHEY, French Ambassador at Vienna, who arrived a few days back in Paris on short *it, has spin returned to his poste