The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-07-31 00:00:00

lovely Duchess of Devonshire, poetess, queen of hearts, and carrier of Westniinster elections—the sweetest of stars in the „-Tacefullest of aristocratic houses. Then the Duchess of Gor don, as fond of power for power's sake, as the other is for per suasion's. Then Warren Hastings and his " elegant Marian," sole eon q ueress ( except her sister in jewelry, the Kingston duchess) of the reputation-loving court samples of Queen Charlotte. Then Miss Farren, an actress, setting a real ex ample of manners to the polite world, and escaping from notice into a coronet. And now the French revolution brings an inundation of emigrants, male and female, preceded by Egalite, Duke of Orleans, who is come to add orgies to orgies at Carl ton-house ; and none of them know what to make of ex-bishop Talleyrand, who represents all parties by turns, and abides for a while in Kensington, as we have seen, confounding all no tions of old French propriety, by abandoning his cloth and his gallantries, and paying his debts. At this strangest of all epochs in the history of the world, there might probably have been seen in these gardens, on one and the same day, in the portentous year 1791, Wilkes and Wilberforce ; George Rose and Mr. Holcroft ; Mr. Reeve and Mr. Godwin; Burke, War ren Hastings, and Thomas Paine ; Horace Walpole and Hannah More (whom he introduces to the Duke of Queens berry) ; Mary Wolstonecroft and Miss Burney ( Madame d'Ar blay), the latter avoiding the former with all her might; and the Countess of Albany ( the widow of the pretender); the Margravine of Anspach ; Mrs. Montagu ; Mrs. Barbauld ; Mrs. Trimmer; Emma Harte ( Lady Hamilton), accompanied by her adoring portrait-painter, Romney ; and poor Madame du Barry, mistress of the late Louis XV., come to look after some jewels of which she has been robbed, and little suspecting she would return to be guillotined. Of a book which affords, and indeed abounds in such passages as those which we have extracted, it cannot be necessary to say much in commendation. The ex tracts speak more eloquently in its favour than any eulogium we could offer ; to speak of it in terms of condemnation would be ungenerous and ungrateful. It has conferred on us much gratification in perusal ; and although it contains many sentiments in which we do not agree, and is redolent of opinions which we repudiate, it nevertheless supplies material for `rave thought, and is full to overflowing with amusing matter. Its effect on the mind is, in a great degree, like sunshine to the material world. it lightens and brightens all around it. Aspen Court ; a Story of Our Own Times. By Shirley Brooks. London : Bentley. This three-volume novel, which does not aspire in any . degree to rank as a work of literary art, is a story full of life and spirit. It appeared originally as a serial tale in Bentley's Miscellany, and during the periodical appearance of its progress in that magazine it sustained the character of its author as a shrewd observer of men and manners, who was also able " at sweet will" to invent tellinc , episodes and draw cleverly effective scenes. In "Aspen Court" we have a very favourable sample of Mr. Shirley Brooks' capa bilities as a tale weaver. The incidents are numerous, and rarely exceed those of easy credibility. His characters are generally well and even powerfully drawn, and the situations in which he places them are admirably selected for showing his skill as a romancist. His hero, Bernard Carlyon, is a young man who makes his way in the world through the agency and exercise of tact and right feeling. While depicting the•darker shades of human character, which he does with success and in good taste, setting aside grossness of every kind, doing little more than glance at abso lute wickedness, and always to reprove it, and strongly exhibiting foibles with a view to their correction. His heroine is a gentle, loving, and ill-mated lady, whose husband is as repulsive as she is the opposite ; but the - heroine and the author will both receive the best meed of justice and of commendation by giving his own account of her, in contrast with the portrait of her reprobate husband. The picture is a well de lineated family group, in which the dark shadows, although powerful, do not entirely obscure the brighter lights of grace and loveliness : HENRY WILMSLOW AND HIS FATED WIFE. She married Wilmslow, and soon found out what was meant by a man's having been toogay. Poor dear, good Jane She struggled with all a woman's noble obstinacy against her con viction that her husband was a good-for-nothing fellow, but the conviction was too strong for her. I shall not annoy you by describing the series of levities, wickednesses, and insults by which Wilmslow forced that conviction upon her. I have shorn what he was in his bachelor days, and I would not have dwelt upon that part of the picture as I did, but that it was to understand the man, and but that by explain lug , his nature while its developments had somewhat mon extenuation, and somewhat less offensiveness, we might escwe from delineating vice and folly when they bad darkened itto crime and cruelty. Her fifteen hundred a year was speedy' wratkdei•ed, with the exception of two hundred. which Wes worth had thought proper. to secure. and to secure in a way which enabled,him to defy all Henry's attempts to get at the principal, and even to resist poor Jane's entreaties, when her husband had compelled the poor g;.rl to ask that this little fund might be given up to him. The rest went as Mint Albreda's allowance first, and then her legacy had gone; and every other sum that Wilmslow could lay hands on had gone. The hardships, privations, and humiliations to which a vicious spendthrift's wife is exposed, came heavily on poor Jane Wilmslow. Sometimes more heavily titan she could well bear ; for she never had the consolation of beng loved, to arm her against all this world's storms, and to be her assurance of another world's peace. And at last, though ntt without a desperate resistance on the poor woman's part, her husband took from her the power of loving him. All was at length over between them, except the marriage link, and Jai.e's never-weakened sense of duty. But there was another lore, which the vain, and vicious, and hardening man could not 'disturb or destroy. They had three children, girls, born in the earliest years of . their marriage. Jane never had any more. To these children she becaine the angel which she would hive been to their father, had his nature permitted it. To tlese children she devoted herself with an unvarying and seiulous affection, which neither his ridicule nor his threats evlr turned aside from its holy course. She could tremble away from his taunt ing presence, and cry her very heart out besidt her bed, bat when she rose from her knees it was to go to tin cot t or assist in the lesson, or arrange the walk, or to work at the little dress, or to do some other kindness at which he had been scoffing. Not that he did not rather like his littlt girls, after his manner. Indeed they were so beautiful, aid of such various beauty, that his vanity and his caprice 6uld hardly but be flattered when he vouchsafed a glance at the group. Nay, he took the trouble to do his utmost to coniteract his wife's teaching, and stooped to occasional fits of aucation in his own school , seasons at which poor Jane's heart was well nigh bursting. It needed not, however, for the visdom of childhood served each child, in turn, better than its loving mother's wisdom had served her. They found their father out, and three more hearts, little, but warm ones, dromed away from Henry Wilmslow. Who could love that vain, noisy, passionate sensualist ? The preceding specimen will serve to show tN style of writing and the powers of dramatic limning pos sessed by Mr. Brooks. Those who wish to become better acquainted with both will find Aspen Count an easy and a pleasant mode of becoming so. His )lots and under-plots are ingenious, and sufficiently hitri cate to sustain the interest of the scenes and the story throughout its whole length, and most of the cha racters are sketched out with vigour and success. - The Life of William Coleper. London : Seeley. The first of a series of small volumes, published each alternate - month, and entitled. " The Library of Chris tian Biography," superintended by th e Rev. Robert Bickersteth. There is, perhaps, no class of literature more truly valuable for entertainment and information than biography ; and when this is of a Christian cha racter, its importance is greatly enhanced. As the proper study of mankind is man, it is best obtained by the lives of good men ; and of the benefit of such teaching we find abundant proofs in the Holy Scrip tures, which contain a series of biographies, and always the most attractive portion to the youthful reader. In reading the lives of others we gain much in exam ples for imitation, as well as for warning. The lessons so taught are tar more impressive than bare precept, and the delight experienced in this kind of study has been evident in all ages. As a solace in trouble, what more efficacbus than a comparison of our own condition with that d those who have endured far more with patience ? And in all we receive the comfort of knowing tie glorious reward which finally results from confiding' faith and duteous submission to the benefi cent lass of our great Creator. The life of William Cowper has been attempted by several writers ; but to do jusice to such a theme the biographer must be able ,o sympathise with the peculiar feelings and appreciate the motives of the subject of his theme—a taskby no means easy, when dealing with so singular a character as William Cowper, who, though the most poiular poet of his generation, according to Southey, ad the best of English letter-writers, possessed extra odinary feelings and opinions onthe subject of religion, vith which his works are mostly identified. To say hat the author of the work before us has been emi nently successful, might be, perhaps, too high a eulogy; but he has certainly surpassed his predecessors in his appreciation of the character of Cowper, and in his delineation of those peculiar phases of thought which lend such a strange interest to the narrative. Cowper was himself his best biographer, and the writer of this work has wisely made use of the materials at his dis posal to furnish a narrative which will be read not only with interest, but. with considerable advantage. He has drawn largely on the copious cor,V by which Cowper best illustrated his own an example of the wonder-working hand While his poetry displays his constant I)„,.el' os i, wisdom and goodness of an over -ruling his . correspondence shows that he almost sissetlro tamed a dread of his own exclusion salvation which he believed to be op , others. He laboured for many years most extraordinary delusion, so: tlia! o f of his conversion is doubted: by 10.5,eiej biographers. In the present work;- point is ably combated, and particular att en 4( to that conversion, at thirty years of age, sc bl p, has himself narrated with such minute de tai l: the whole, we can cordially commend tl'( - 0 careful perusal as a valuable addition t ° , literature, although there are some who take exception to particular views- enulle!V writer in accounting for feelings and' OP in their very nature, were unaccountale- The New. Quarterly Review, awl Literature. No. XV. Loradon::T. The July number of this periodical c , ° ,.. 11 ti support the high character it originally s ea t Its articles are trenchant and skilfullY Do ? while a tone of vigour and manly firm t he most of them, without diverging into t r or verging towards the hypercritical. , f e" feature of this publication, and it is one 0 and advantage, is . the fact that it keep' literature of the day. The reader of th e terly is kept au courant with tho pt labour. In it books are reviewed an, in a style of vigour and, general fair- :)59 , bloom of novelty is still fresh upontheo 4' of literary and critical intelligence, it vi encouragement. Ch o The Martins of Ciro! Martin. By London Chapman and IP The progress of this cleverly-narrr lively and dashing, brisk, and full of dents flow on in a gushing stream and the dialogue sweeps graceft;r; through the maze of' adventure oi tive is at once beset and ornaul!'' continues to rise as the story fici" is still kept in the liveliest suspend Inelif of some of the under-plots, a story, q t ed 11.1. Vet 1, ; ieb d H`-/ - all. c oti t . d ole De Tao. )f t ill , of iv/ 4 11, Hy 14„ w hich v Lied. The l' j A , r 7 . tSt 4,11 on, and to ali, I:41 •ie as f op Uri well as ° 4 11 „bo tr o, Di 'tl 0 1 ; Linpao , of 0 1 ` s rate t ' my P ta ,e Leat h icw id the d f it, ' 1 Nt• an ts• e je l h wills °I 0d 01 , , I wet 1 „ 1 , this 11 or , t of l ive i ptA drat of it 1 / 4 I: ver3 , 1 1:0 N nited ef Pl see c. ff s ° N faVi l ?" 0 k \l te, ' "t 11 thl e bra 14 1 4:1. , ,d to ‘I Nk e for tb ) 1$ c, 00 0 5 ,01 4 w ile a Ira. THE PEARL OF CA ONE fine morning in autumn through the secluded valley of Cai nees, accompanied by the excellent trict, with whom, in the course of I had become acquainted, and bens ble roof I had promised to spell' scenery was wild and lovely how' having expressed my admiration of to know something of the inhabital They have hearts of gold and. my friend. "Many a touching an generosity and self-denial have I them. And, for example, look at 1 ing us." He was a fine-looking fellow, twenty, with a military air, and The lower part of the face was v his dark sunburnt complexion sip long moustaches. I could not s( visor of his cap was drawn down shade them from the light. HL cordial salutation with the curate,4 lowed by a huge white dog, with OP mous paws. The animal belonged to' to the Pyrenees, and remarkable O r ' and faithfulness. "Now," said my companion, as sv, had passed out of hearing, " while will tell you a true story, of which P it two of the principal characters." pd I prepared to listen with attentiou, 0 commenced. lte " Juan Trigoyen was born in t.,410 104 1 mountains, where the peasant has his ing one of two occupations—that of,9o9the hunter. Juan chose the latter, as lei` 50 SUPPLEMENT TO THE LIVERPOOL STAXDAtD .5 ;;1 t