The Press.
London, England, 1853-12-31 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

appropriate descriptive verse. getioully couplets
tuaderueatli.

1. This is a collection of about thirty eon
tributions by various authors of very unequal
merit. The book is strangely got up, the
pages are not numbered. and the last, rerhaps
the best, tale in it is not finished. '1 he title
of this story is " The Lychetts." The heroine,
a young lady, whose wealthy parents are in
India, is being educated at a boarding-m.lllOOl
in England. Iler natural good qualities are
in danger of being spoiled by adulation, when
they are restored and strengthened by the
sudden death of both parents, leaving a
younger brother to her charge. Here is the
scene in which she, be fore looked upon as an
heiress. learns first that she is an en Phan, and
soon afterwards a pauper.—
About four o'chick, when the snuslinty 11:i) was eloatling
over. and I felt myself growing dull with despair. httic.lanie
anal running into my bedroom.
" 411, Miss I,yehett. do you 14e0 the cab at alto 41410 E? .‘,lO
there are people in the drawing-room ! And—and—l
heard your fitiine
I trembled 1441 I could hardly *4600. Thu` neXt
haul Made a dart at list laallataa than%
" Miss LVVllett thin Miss stop, pray ! Mrs.
Dangeliehi has not sent for you yet. I lon.' go down."
" I will!" 1 cried (temperately. "'Thee are isane,-1
know they are, and all the Mrs. Daingctiicitis iu the notta
%hall not keep me front un omit father and unither !"
1 ran—how I eau 1111 l t ten—until I found myself at the
draw ing•room door. Mrs. 1 tangerlichl was just opening
it ; at the sight of me she started hack, " Is it you,
child" Go up stairs—go!" But I forced lay way in.
Them were three strange people in that. room. I can
gee them now !---a gentlemiut like a ship's captain—an
Italian ay-lilt—and a little yellow-fneed, sickly boy.
" That is your brother, Eunice. Cm and kiss him.
There !" said Mrs. Dangertleht, in the kindest tone I ever
heard flout her.
The boy turned peevishly from me, and set up It
whimper.
" lint papa and mamma?" I crii 11. all confused and be-
nut' 111 Y papa nounnl3?..
Alio(
!tiny- had I 4.11 s Silk, ill two graves,
On the rock of tit. !Mena!

It is a strange feeling when death first enters the child's
little world, and takes IVAny Mane one %%holt', oinseionNly
or not, it had tacitly Islieved to be itititiovod.
Thus, of the Toils possibilities I loot dreaded with
regard to my parents. it had never mue vont(' jilt,' my
mind that they might die,--die without my ever having
beheld them, or called them by the tM rt.( milers of " father"
and " mother." The blow was so sudden, that for the
time it situated me, mid 1 wiike oat of it a changed
creature. Fnim that thirteenth birthday I was never again
" a child." Even now the whole event often seems
jar
possible and unnatural, and I think of that bans nick in the
Atlantic, whew the Indian ships touch at and the great
Napoleon died. its some happy island in the far-olf seas,
where these my unknown mid never-beheld pitman sit
waiting for Riot and me.
The tale is to be eoncluded in the next
volume, but when that is to appear we are not
told. Historical incidents and natural history
occupy some space in The Charm." The
natural history is well written. The following
is front a description of a tame panther, which
afterwards, when the property of the Duchess
of York, died in England
He became exceedingly attached to the governor, mid
followed him everywhere like a dog. Iris far •*te station
was at a window in the sitting.r“nni, which overlooked the
whole town; there, st ling On his hind legs, Ins fore
paws resting on the b a the window,anti Ftis chin NM
between them, he sea himself with watching all that
was going on. The children wen: also fond of this scene ;
and One di , the pantho.r WAR called—
presence an ineundirance, they unit, d their Orions and
pulled him down by the tail. Ile ont• day missed the
ggiverniw. uud wuudctcd with a 1iti4T14.41 11114 to various
parts of the fortress in search of him ; while absent on
this errand the governor retunied ti, his private 0501115, mid
seated himself at a table to write ; presently he heard a
heavy step come up the stairs, and raising his eyes to the
olven door beheld Sal. At that moment he gave himself
up for lost, fur Sal i tttt nediately sprang from the door till to
his neck; instead, however, of di viewing him, he laid his
head close to the governor's, rubbed his cheek upon his
shoulder, wagged his tail, and tried to evince his happiness.
In a paper on Belgium we are sorry to be
obliged to notice some gross blunders.
Antwerp is stated to be on the left bank of
the Scheldt : it is on the right batik, geographi-
cally. The cathedral is stated to be the
highest building in Europe. It is not near)
so high as Strasburg Cathedral. But the
strangest blunder of all is, King Leopold is
stated to have succeeded Louis, the brother
of Napoleon, in the sovereignty ! Few chit-
, dren of ten years old would be guilty of such
a mistake in the history of Belgium. The il-
lustrations arc, like the text, of varying merit :
Some are good, others very bad.