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146

to those who can see nought but grim features
and black deeds in the mind and
_visage of a foe,
the likenesses will appear distorted or overpainted,
there seems little reason for doubting that, in the
main, the portraits are correct. This remark, of
'course, is applicable only to those limnings which
he had full opportunity of making ; for we cannot,
even for an instant, receive as true the revolting
picture which he draws of the indignities offered
by the English soldiery to the Russian dead.
These we unhesitatingly condemn as the creations
of an overheated fancy, or the distorted repre-
sentations, of a credulity too easily satisfied.

The Autobiography of a Beggar-boy. London:

William Tweedie.

Since the period when 'Goldsmith favoured the
woad with the " History of a Philosophic Vaga-
bond," numerous sketches, real and fictitious, of
the career of wanderers and outcasts, of the
Ishmaelites of society, have, from time to time,
made their appearance, and appealed, sometimes
to the sympathies, sometimes to the affections,
and not unfrequently to the prejudices of mankind.
That these have, in every instance, been attended
with social benefit it would be preposterous to
assert, and it would hardly be less absurd to deny
that, one the whole, considerable advantage has
arisen from the publication of those narratives,
which, delineating the upward career 'of industry
and probity, have traced the progress of aspiring
worth from .penury to wealth and social impor-
tance. Of 'this latter character is the work
before us. It professes to trace the devious path
of a beggar-boy through the varying steps of a
very chequered and unpromising youth, and
very slightly improved manhood, to the afternoon
of a life in which the goal of social respectability,
if not of affluence, has been reached. In doing
-so the reader is introduced to numerous scenes,
in which little of present or prospective good is
to be met with ; but after a protracted struggle
and many misadventures, the really good though
latent and long dormant spirit is evoked, and the
outcast is received into communion with his
more fortunate, though probably not more
deserving, fellow-men.
The narrative, which is conveyed in a series of
etters, is written in a plain and unpretending
style ; its spirit is good, if we except probably a
little of

The devil's darling sin,
The pride that apes humility,

to be found to a considerable extent in its pages.
In a particular degree are we favourably affected
towards this narrative, as, through all its phases,
the wanderer is ever impelled to- look for some-
thing better. While pining in present misery,
and suffering from injustice, he never assumes the
misanthrope, but sets himself in a hopeful spirit
to find out the good which he feels assured lies
'hidden in society.

The Irish Quarterly Review. Dublin : W. B.

Kelly.
The nineteenth number of the Irish Quarterly,
like all its predecessors, breathes a spirit of com-
mendable nationality. Ireland and Irish interests
are its peculiar care, its most lively and inspiring
theme. The feeling is an amiable one, and even
the weaknesses it is apt to superinduce are the
more pardonable from the conviction that—

Even its failings lean to virtue's side.

The present number, though rich in Irish topics,
is nevertheless well furnished with articles of a
more cosmopolitan character. A fairly written
criticism on " Tennyson and his Maud," and
another on " The Poets of America," are its chief
contributions to what may be called general
literature. An interesting continuation of the
" Biography of John Banim" is valuable in many

points of view, and when completed it will form
an interesting chapter of literary history. Among
the various articles in the number, is a long
review of the fourth volume of Alison's History,
of Europe, from the Fall of Napoleon in /9.15,,
to the Accession of Louis-Napoleon in 1852. In
this article the Irish tincture is so lavishly intro-
duced
as to render the compound somewhat
nauseous if not unwholesome. The historian in
discharge of his arduous and ably accomplished
duty, is compelled to discuss the patio vexata of
Irish grievances and Irish wrongs. Sir Archibald
Alison is not an Irishman, and, as it seems, an
established article of Irish faith, that—

Never but by Irish hands
Shall Irish wrongs be righted.

The reviewer is settled in his belief that the
historian was wrong, and must be wrong, in his
mode of treating the subject.
Impressed apparently with this feeling, the
writer severely reprobates the solution. of the
Irish difficulty demonstrated
_by the astute and
philosophical historian. His accusation of Sir
Archibald Alison is ont in which none but Irish-
men can sympathise, and apart from Irish
grievances he seems not only rational but elevated.
in his views. After commenting in favourable
terms upon the great and statesman-like views,
of Sir Archibald upon the present complications,
of European politics, and highly applauding his
enlarged views in reference to the . restoration. of
Poland as the only means for repelling_the march
of Russian aggression, he concludes with the fol-
lowing eloquent