The Press.
London, England, 1855-01-06 00:00:00

specimens of the Father of English Poetry.

Knowledge is Power. By Charles Knight. London:
Murray.
Tilts beautifully-printed and profusely-illustrated
volume is another contribution to useful and agreeable
knowledge from the well-known pen whose labour
has been so various and so valuable as to make its
owner almost a candidate for Goldsmith's epitaph.
The work is described as, " A View of the Productive
"Forces of Modern Society and the Results of
" Labour, Capital, and Skill." Beginning with a study
of man in the most helpless condition, Mr. Knight
conducts the reader through a long series of illus-
trations of the appliances of progress as supplied by
knowledge, and the expedients of political economy
arising out of accumulated wealth and skill which
are calculated to add continually to that accu
mulation. The tone of Mr. Knight's political
economy is thoroughly wholesome. His examples
and descriptions are various and his deductions
clear and just. Indeed, whether to pass an hour for
the sake of amusement, or for the more solids pur-
pose of philosophy, the book will be found one of its
author's most pleasing productions.

Remarkable Sieges. From Constantinople, 1453, to
Sebastopol, 1854. By Henry Ottley. London :
Ingram and Co.
THESE " Remarkable Sieges," though offering in no
instance much resemblance to the operations against
Sebastopol, yet show the obstinate and desperate
tenacity of defence usually offered by besiegers to
vastly superior forces, even when the place has been
completely invested. Rhodes in 1522, with its small
garrison, resisted for six months the 150,000 soldiers
brought against it by Solyman, and Haarlem in
1572-3 kept the Spaniards at bay for seven months,
and after all obtained fair terms, which were, how-
ever, treacherously broken. The facts collected here
naturally suggest the lamentable inadequacy of the
Crimean expedition to accomplish its purpose. A
passage quoted from the sieges of Sir John Jones is
applicable to the existing struggle :—" Sieges have
" frequently been undertaken without fully investing
'the place, and even with the side open by which
" supplies could be most readily received, and the
"result has invariably been a very protracted or suc-
" cessful resistance." It is to be recollected that in
this case the allied commanders never contemplated
the siege of Sebastopol, for which their forces were
manifestly inadequate, and even to the latest dates
the operations have been but a preparation for a
grand attack. The question now is, will that attack
be made, or will Sebastopol be formally invested ? In
the latter event, Mr. Ottley, who shows much intelli-
gence in his little essay on siege operations, supposes
that an army of not less than 200,000 persons would
be required. These sketches extend from the siege
of 'Constantinople in 1453 to the battle of Inker
mann ; they are judiciously compiled, and form a
good shillingsworth of instructive reading.

do Essay upon the Philosophy of Evidence. By
Watkin Williams. London : Ridgway.
Mn. WILLIAMS'S acute tract is well worth the atten-
tion of those who take an interest in metaphysical
disens•ion. though the views enforced are not
remarkable for novelty, yet the work is rendered
valuable by the clearness of the statements and the
copiousness and excellence of the illustrations em-
ployed. The subjelts treated are—" The Ground
of Induction," " The Idealism of Berkeley," and " The
Theory of Cause and Effect ;" an application of Mr.
Williams's views to the subject of clairvoyance, and
its theoretical improbability, concluding the essay.
The doctrine o:* Hume and Brown with respect to
the causal nexus is adopted by the author, and
Whatkley's reduction of all reasoning to the syllo-
gism (in contradiction to Locke) rejected, though
Mr. Williams appears to us to have been betrayed
into an overstatement of the functions and value of
the syllogism.