The Press. — London, England, 1855-01-27 00:00:00

JANUARY 27, 1855. " poore bedesman," according to the increase of the value of money, with the same attention to the strict terms of the grant as was shown by the Baron of Bradwardine, when he pro duced the boot jack to unshoe the chevalier, and perhaps with as much result as the baron accomplished when he found his royal high ness wearing kilts. That the charities of the empire require thorough revision even the House of Commons has been induced to admit, but that revision is far more pressingly required by municipal than ecclesiastical ap propriations, though it pleases a certain class - to ignore all except where the Church can be .assailed. The " Warden" is, as might be expected, the head of a house founded by the much mis used and misapplied charity of a pious me diieval testator. The application of the funds becomes talked of, occupying the attention of a weak-minded local reformer, who, with the usual Roman determination of such gentle. men, ceases his agitation for love of the Warden's daughter. But Mr. John Bold's re pentance comes too late. He has raised the storm ; and the Warden, without attempting any reform, resigns. If the story have " a purpose," it is not answered, for Mr. John Bold and the Warden are equally foolish, the courage of the one and the conscience of the other being of the kind that leaves all things where it finds them. The reformation of such abuses is to be accomplished, as we seek for bodily health at the hand of those who know the complaint, and will by the aid of the patient's own efforts care it. To give such things into the hands of professional reformers is like calling in your deadliest enemy instead of the surgeon. The author of the " Warden" aims at what we cannot but think one of the lowest objects of the novelist—sketches of the peculiarities of Jiving persons. But who can his Attorney- General be? It is not unlikely that the fol lowing is really supposed by Mr. Trollope to •be something like somebody who has held the 'office of Attorney-General; but the only man it describes, as to height and age, must have al ways had the goodluck to avoid ten minutes •of the society of Mr. Trollope Sir Abraham was a tall, thin man, with hair prematurely grey, but bearing no other sign of age ; he had a alight stoop, in his neck rather than his back, acquired by his constant habit of leaning forward as he addressed his 'various audiences. He might be fifty years old, and would 'owe looked young for his age, had not constant work hardened his features, and given him the appearance of a machine with a mind. His face was full of intellect, but devoid d natural expression. You would say he war a man to use, and then have done with ; a man to be sought for on great emergencies, but ill-adapted for ordinary ser vices ; a man whom you would ask to defend your property, but to whom you would be sorry to confide your love. He -was bright as a diamond, and as cutting, and also as un impressionable. He knew every one whom to know was :an honour, but he was without a friend ; he wanted none, !however, and knew not the meaning of the word in other :than its parliamentary sense. A friend I Had he not 'always been sufficient to himself, and now, at fifty, was it ilikely that he should trust another? He was married, in deed, and had children, but what time had be for the soft idleness of conjugal felicity ? His working days or term times were occupied from his time of rising to the late hour at which he went to rest, and even his vacations were more full of labour than the busiest days of other men. He never quarrelled with his wife, but ne never talked to her—he never had time to talk, he was so taken up with speaking. She, poor lady, was not unhappy ; she had all that money could give her, she would probably live to be a peeress, and she really thought Sir Abraham the best -of husbands. _ _ _ _ Sir Abraham was a man of wit, and sparkled among the 'brig'htest at the dinner•tables of political grandees ; indeed, lie always sparkled; whether in society, in the House of Commons, or the courts of law, coruscations flew from ; glittering sparkles, as from hot steel, but no heat ; no cold heart was ever cheered by warmth from him, no unhappy soul ever dropped a portion of its burtben at his door. With him success alone was praiseworthy, and he knew none so successful as himself. No one had thrust him forward ; no powerful friends had pushed him along on his road to power. No, he was Attorney-General, and would, in all human probability, be Lord Chancellor by sheer dint of his own industry and his own talent. Who else in all the world rose so high with so little help ? A Premier, in deed ! Who had ever been Premier without mighty friends? An archbishop ! Yes, the son or grandson of a great noble, or else, probably, his tutor. -- - In another instance, however, as Mr. Trol lope, if he does not name the author, names his characters, we may say that he has touched one of Mr. Dickens's decided shortcomings : Of all such reformers Mr. Sentiment is the most power ful. It is incredible the number of evil practices he has put down : it is to be feared he will soon lack subjects, THE PRESS. and that when he has made the working classes comfort able, and got bitter beer put into proper-sized pint bottles, there will be nothing further fur him left to do. Mr. Sentiment is certainly a very powerful man, and perhaps not the less so that his good poor people are so very good his hard rich people so very hard ; and the genuinely honest so very honest. Namby-pamby in these days is not thrown away if it be introduced in the proper quarters. Divine peeresses are no longer interesting, though possessed of every virtue; bat a pattern peasant or an immaculate manufacturing hero may talk as much twaddle as one of Mrs. Rateliffe's heroines, and still be listened to. Perhaps, however, Mr. Sentiment's great attraction is in his second-rate characters. if his heroes and heroines walk upon stilts, as heroes and heroines, l fear, ever must, their attendant satellites are as natural as though one met them in the street: they walk and talk like men and women, and live among oar Mends a iattling, lively life ; yes, live, and will live tall the names of their callings shall be forgotten in their own, and Buckett and Mrs. Cramp will be the only words left to us to signify a detective police officer or a monthly nurse. On the whole, as we have said, this book is clever, but the description is occasionally use lessly coarse, reminding us of the blemish of the style of a popular writer whose name the author's also recalls. Australia and its Gold Fields. By E. H. Hargraves. London : Ingram and Co. THIS book is made of extracts from a series of lec tures delivered at the Geological Museum some three years ago, and since published, a chapter or two of personal reminiscences which have been paraded before the public already in every shilling pamphlet upon the Australian gold fields, and a few remarks upon the land question, in which personal spleen against the squatters is very evident, pro voked, if report speaks truly, by the opinions ex pressed in the Legislative Council at Sydney by those gentlemen of Mr. Hargraves. The grammatical construction of the volume is tolerably correct on the whole, though marked here and there by the peculiar style of Mr. Hargraves, who, it will be remembered, in one of his reports to the Governor-General of Australia, informed Sir Charles Fitzroy in the following words, that he (Mr. Hargraves) had met the Rev. W. B. Clarke, the geologist, " I am happy "to state that I have met the Rev. W. B. Clarke, " and that me and Mr. Clarke is now the very best "of friends." "Me and Mr. Clarke" continues a standing joke in Australia at this moment. Accord ing to Mr. Hargraves, his expectations when he first discovered the existence of gold at Summer-hill Creek were of rather an extravagant kind. "This," I exclaimed to my guide, "is a memorable day in " the history of New South Wales. I shall be is " baronet, you will be knighted, and my old horse " will be stuffed, put into a glass case, and sent to " the British Museum." He did not think fit, how ever, to stipulate for a greater fixed sum as his reward than 5001. The Legislative Council subse• quently voted him 10,0001., and Mr. Hargraves does not complain, though he thinks he made " a very bad bargain," in trusting his reward to the liberality of that body. The book is cheap, and from the notoriety Mr. Hargraves has attained will probably sell well. He has not been well advised, however, to prefix his portrait to the volume: a better map would have been more acceptable, and less liable to ill-natured remark. A Treatise on the Elements of Algebra. By G. Ainesworth, BA., and J. Yeats, F.R.G.S. Lou don : Ingram and Co. . THIII treatise, which has been preposterously praised by some of our contemporaries, is chiefly valu able for its large and well-chosen collection of examples, and if algebra were to be learned by the solution of problems alone would be a real acquisition to the student. But, besides employing results in the abbreviation of arithmetical operations, the young mathematician must be led from first principles simply and clearly expressed by demonstrations perfectly logical to the results them selves in all their generality, and in this case we fear the present treatise will afford but little assistance. It is far behind many works of much smaller pre tentions in clearness and logical accuracy. Those who measure their advance in a subject by the number of pages gone over in a given time—and most beginners in mathematics are of this class— will find the present a satisfactory guide : it is easy because real difficulties are never fairly encountered, while those who seek even a clear statement of the difficulties which beset the first principles of algebra, and much more those who desire their solution, must go to larger and more expensive works. It is really astonishing to read the slovenly proofs given here of important truths ; and after the publication of elementary works like De Morgan's their admission in a later treatise argues unpardonable carelessness or ignorance on the part of the compilers. The difficulties of the negative sign are not even hinted at,ithe old demonstration of the Principle of Indeter- minate Coefficients is allowed to remain in all its defiance of the laws of logic, and the General Binominal Theorem is proved in a manner which might have satisfied " students of the university " in the dark ages of Hind and Hall, but will, we imagine, be scarcely allowed to pass muster by teachers who have read either Cauchy or lie Morgan. A student might acquire from the present work expert. ness in calculating, but it would be impossible, except he were to take the proofs afforded him here as instances of the method of demonstration which he is not to follow, that he should gain the infinitely more valuable habits of accurate definition and logical deduction from first principles. Who's Who in 1855. Edited by C. H. Oakes, M.A. London : Bailey Brothers. THIS accurate and comprehensive little compendium of influential society has reached its seventh an nual edition. Careful corrections have been made in every department of the present edition, and a sad but accurate obituary has been compiled for the past year up to the Ist Dec. The book is invaluable as a reference, and should find a place in every boudoir and upon every library-table. Introductory Text-Book of Geology. By David Page, F.G.S. London : Blackwocki and Sons. THE advantage of an elementary work like the pre sent is, that it is written by a scientific man, who does not seek so much to render his treatise " easy and popular" as he does to altbrd the student an accurate and intelligible outline of the leading facts of the science, and so prepare him, by a gradual in troduction, for a more advanced and comprehensive study. By adopting this method, and by commencing from the first with a technical treatment of the sub ject., the details of the science are gradually mastered by the student, until he is led, step by step, to a con sideration of the higher laws. This introductory text-book is so clear and correct in its statements and so sound in its principles that we are sure those who go through it carefully will expect pleasure from the more advanced work which Mr. Page has pro mised. Home Stories. By the Brothers Grimm. Newly Translated by Miss Davis. London : Routledge. THESE are the most charming children's stories that have ever been imported for the benefit of our Eng lish boys and girls, and the present translation by Miss Davis does full justice to the original : there is no happy conceit, no funny joke, no pathos or pretty bit of unpossibility that is neglected, and the tales throughout will entertain children little and big, while the many lessons they contain of love, charity, and generosity, are calculated to win a way to their hearts. The volume will be a most acceptable gift to all boys and girls. AMONG REPRINTS AND NEW YEAR'S BOOKS we have to acknowledge, Charades, by Anne Bowman (Rout ledge), in which more point is given to the plot and more liveliness to the dialogue than is usually found in these harmless compositions. The Curse of Gold, by IL W. Jameison (Routledge), a very improbable story, full of ettravagancies. Too Much Alike; or, the Three Calendars (Ward and Lock), another story much of the same quality as the preceding one. Legends of Mount Leinster (Kennedy), a collection of Irish tales well told. Merry Sparks for a Winter Hearth (Hardwicke), some lively, cheerful stories that will help to pass a dull evening at home. The War; or, Voices from the Ranks (Routledge), a compilation and forming a very interesting pamphlet. Prince from the daily papersof the different letters written by the soldiers in the Crimea, well and carefully arranged, Menschikoff's Carpet-Bag (Thomas and Co.), a clever and amusing sketch of the designs of Nicholas, sup posed to have been found among the MSS. in the Prince's carriage at Alma. A Knouting for the Czar (Wright), a rather bombastic effusion in praise of our gallant soldiers, and in abuse of the Russian Em peror. A Letter to Colonel Chesney, from an Officer who has Served in Turkey, reviews the causes of the war, and proposes an immediate suspension of arms to arrange the preliminaries for a general peace. The Wonderful Drama of Punch and Judy (Ingram), in which it is difficult to say whether bad drawing or bad taste predominate—Lobster Salad, Mired by Percy St. John and Edward Copping (Ward and Lock)—a lively series of pleasant tales, in prose and verse : the latter will be remembered as having been sung by me Copping at some of his evening enter tainments in the autumn. The Heir of Selwood, by Mrs. Gore (Routledge), forming the present number of the " Railway Library." The Hunters' Feast, by Captain Mayne Reid, as a number of the "Parlour Library." Two charming children's books by Miss Corner—the one, The Little Play of Mother Goose, illustrations by Harrison Weir; the other, Toles of Animals, illustrated by Alfred Crowqtull and James N orth cote. llMMllliniiimmi