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

THE PRESS.

reflective philosophy, and "The Story of the Cam-
paign" comes almost too late, as the narrative is not
yet brought down even to Inkermann. But the nar-
rative is well and carefully written.
One of the most striking paper•. in the Dublin Uni-
versity is that entitled "Foreign Crime and Cre-
dulity," which selects a few striking cases from the
judicial annals of France. The writer remarks, that
while crime and folly are simply despised with us,
they meet with much congenial sympathy abroad :

Taken, of course, with due allowance, the great cha-
racteristic of British crime and fully is stupidity ; that of
continental crime and folly is vivacity. With is, the cri-
minal and the dupe are commonly the stupidest of their
kind—the one a clownish lout, tit for nothing but killing
sheep, snaring partridges, or robbing gardens; the other,
a gaping servant-maid on the look out for a sweetheart, or
an ignorant peasant cast into the huge streets of the me-
tropolis, where he finds everything so wonderful that he is
ready to accept any tale that may be told him. Amid the
town-bred portion of the knavish community this observa-
tion applies with more modification, but it is true in prin-
ciple notwithstanding. On the Continent, on the other
hand, the knave, even in the country, is commonly a man
whose lively cleverness has caused him to disdain the or-
dinary ways of getting a livelihood, or whose physical
strength has given him a superiority which tempts him to
an unrestrained use of the wild passions of the continental
character. As for the dupe, he is usually a person of ex-
alted imagination, who looks out for miraculous occur-
rences, or who has thought so long on the wonderful and
the unknown, that they have become to him a reality, and
he is ready to lend a willing ear to any absurdity in his im-
patience to grasp them.
" And hence," concludes the writer, " amidst all the
" boasted enlightenment of the age, not one folly has
" disappeared, not one credulity has been anni-
" hilated ; and crime, so far from diminishing, has
" doueled or trebled within the last few years in the
" most important States of Europe." The first part
of a new tale—" The Lichtensteiners ; or, Convert-
Makers "—promises a romantic love-story of the Re-
formation. The " Educational Experiments in Ire-
land" is an able review of the National system of
education as hitherto pursued in Ireland, and of its
failure as compared with the system of the Church
Education Society. "How shall we deal with the
War?" and " The Session Extraordinary" are both
well written. The former, after noticing the general
faithlessness of Austria, and the mistakes which the
Government have hitherto made in the conduct of
the war, observes that
There are but two methods in which a war with Russia
can be conducted. The invasion of the interior, and the
destruction of her strongholds, is one ; to array against her
the liberal force of European feeling, is the other. The
experience of the great Napoleon should be final as to the
possible success of the first of these. The same policy,
the same resources, the same snows and ice that over-
threw the grand army are yet in waiting for its successor.
Let us not adventure upon so hopeless an enterprise. The
conquest of the Crimea, the occupation of St. Petersburg,
would be fatal events to countries constituted like our
own ; but in Russia such defeats would be as nothing.
Should we lay Sebastopol in ruins, the Czar would point
to it as an evidence that we dared not rebuild it. Should
we date a despatch from the Neva, an imperial ukase
from Moscow would proclaim that city the capital of the
empire. lieu! sirs, let us hope to weary out our enemy.
This policy is his own. It is in the protraction of the
war, its terrible sacrifices, the wounds it inflicts on home
happiness and family affection, the injuries to the cause of
civilisation ;—it is on these he builds his hopes of subduing
ns ; and here, indeed, is the one solitary point in which
barbarism is an overmatch for civilisation. Aggressive
war on Russia must always prove unrewarding, even where
its success has been complete. The wealth of the country
is not of a kind to be assailable by forced conscription, nor
are the material resources such as could be profitably em-
ployed by the conqueror. Our true hope in such a struggle
as we are now engaged in must lie in arraying against our
enemy the whole force and strength of liberal opinion in
Europe ; banding together in a holy leagi the states who
cherish the sentiments of liberty and thoughts of civilisa-
tion ; evoking the extinct nationalities of Finland and
Poland; and raising, if need he, the vast populations of
dissatisfied Germany to assert their freedom.
The other paper, very aptly, compares the present
Ministry to a sluggard, who, being "too late," has
run himself out of breath to overtake his lost oppor-
tunity, but, panting and exhausted, fails to recover
his position, and is compelled to own himself in a
desperate strait; and then concludes with an earnest
exhortation to the Government to throw themselves
heartily into the work of carrying on the war to the
utmost damage of the enemy, " irrespe 3tive of theories
"of free trade, economy, or mock humanity." We
have also the first part of a series upon the dra-
matic writers of Ireland, in which some interesting
facts are detailed relative to the lives and writings of
Wilson, Brady, Nahum Tate, Brunel, Boyle, Swift,
Congreve, Farquhar, and others. The review of
" Hamilton's Edition of the Collected Works of tithe
-
geld Stewart," is a pleasantly-written notice of the
career of the great Scotch professor.
In Fraser, among many good papers, will be found
one upon "The Latest Acquisition of Russia," which
deserves much attention. It appears that for many
years Russia has been silently extending her
dominion in the neighbourhoodav of the sea
the
of
Okotsk ; and that, ing at length passed

19

rugged and difficult chain of mountains which
form the boundary line between the Chinese
empire and her own Asiatic possessions, she has
appropriated the valley of the Amoor, a noble river
with a course for 2,240 miles, commands its naviga-
tion by several steamers, has collected ships-of-war
in the harbour at its mouth, and, finally, has began a
system of fortification of that harbour which will
threaten soon to rival Cronstadt or Sebastopol! The
acquisition of this enormous tract of country, above
1,000 miles in length, and in some parts as much as
500 miles in width, proves in a remarkable manner
the steady and consistent aggression of Russia.
"England," concludes the writer, "demands Minis-
" tars who will oppose the designs of Russia with alt
" their energy and intellect." The other articles are
amusing. "Field Sports in Foreign Lands " glances
at some recent books of travel by sportsmen ; a paper
on the Crimea reviews in a military spirit the cam-
paign of 1854; " Alectryomania " reviews the princi-
pal varieties of poultry ; there are more "Dutch
Ballads ;" a tale under the taking title of the " Hos-
pital Nurse ;" and a review of the "Ten Days' Ses-
sion," which very illogically praises the Government
for all they have done, but admits that they bungle
whatever they undertake.
The present number of Bentley's Miscellany is
remarkably spirited. " The Winter in the Crimea"
is written with practical knowledge of the severity
of that clime ; but, unfortunately, the information it
affords only tends to confirm the opinion that, what-
ever has been done for the benefit of our army upon
those bleak heights, has been done after the time it
was required. There are also the fist four chapters
of a new novel, "The Spendthrift," a tale of the last
century, by Mr. Ainsworth, in the style which has
made the author so popular as a romancist ; several
light, amusing articles, a biographical notice of the
late Mr. Lockhart, and a review of Waller and his
works.
With an abundant supply of genuine magazine
literature and amusing stories in Colburn's New
Monthly, we have yet two or three sound papers of
graver interest, and, in p.1.-ticular, that upon Turkey,
in which the governor .it, revenue, and resources of
that country are reviewed in a lucid and instinctive
manner. The writer appears to consider that the
Turks, on the whole. have progressed equally with
other nations, a view, we are afraid, hardly borne out
by any practical experience which we have yet had
of our allies. "The Elopement" is a gcod story of
the war, and "Wanted, a Wife " a lively little extra-
vaganza.
The Art-Journal commences a new series with
the enterprise which has raised this publication to
so high a place in our periodical literature. The
plates of the Royal Gallery of Art will be published
in this journal after the subscribers' copies have been
taken and the plate been cut down. In the present
number Reynolds's Duchess of Devonshire and
Stanfield's " Mount St. Michael" are given. The
whole collection will be published in the journal in
the same manner as the Vernon Gallery was pub-
lished previously. It is a remarkable evidence of the
good faith observed towards the subscribers of this
journal, that in no case in the engravings of the
whole Vernon collection was there disappulntment as
to the appearance of the promised plates in their due
order, except in one instance, when the engraver was,
alone to blame. and Mr. Hall had used every effort
to insure punctuality without success. The present
number of the Art-Journal is very attractive, both
for its letter press, steel plates, and wood-engravings.
The first number of a new periodical, The Literary
Mail Coach, presents a favourable appearance. The
papers are written in a semi-satirical tone, the pro-
fessed aim of the periodical being to afford enters
tainment, avoiding serious or political subjects.

The Old Chelsea Bun house. 'A Tale of the Last
Century. By the Author of " Mary Powell."
London : Arthur Hall, Virtue, and Co.
A pleasantly-written story of the manners of the
earlier portion of the last century, affecting the style
of the period and exhibiting a facsimile as to letter-
press of the better-printed class of books of that time.
There is more ingenuity than utility in such exercises
as these imitations. Certainly the period chosen for
the " Old Chelsea Bun-house" is not one affording
much information as to manners or public events; on
the contrary, we are disposed to think that there
never was a time which even the contemporary
novelists ventured to treat with less real knowledge of
the actual manners and habits of the higher classes.
There is a suspicious conventional sameness about
their descriptions of the " Lady Bettys " and the
" Lord Dukes" which lead rather to the belief that
one lay-figure had set for them all than that the
writers knew much of the classes they undertook to
paint. Of the book before us we can say that,
quantum valeat, the author has succeeded in
giving as fair a picture of the period as any of the
authors of the five-Volume novels of the time, with this
additional merit that the picture is evolved by means
of a pretty story of domestic life.