The Press.
London, England, 1853-05-14 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

And. slight as is this diminution of expendi-
ture, it indicates n Mrther augmentation in the
material prosperity of the country. which for
some years past has been steadily advancing.
Since 1544, when the poor-law expenditure
exceeded 6,150,000/., not less than 1,2,80,000/.
has been saved to the rate-paying Pnblie.
SUltiOlil the statistics in a tabular form :

1 Amount of
Mit. 1,44.1141,r per,
Mxpentled IDeerease in 1,,1, Ile id iii
I::trield f 1 iti...lief ~f 1 each Year , Devrse. 1 ii.,,,, „ml i
~,,,.
1,4
, the purr all Ilan I.ollll4lEcti per ~li 4'ollll/rea
14A,).. Etarbuttl and with the Cent. r„ii. ~;11, ill, pr,..
'^Y• WaleA, Preecate:: !mien. eeiling N 1.01%
Year.
---- - - -
Y
t it. d. s. d.
11448 6.11F41,164 ---- 7 if ...
1819 5,791.91'41 357,101 tril 66i 41 ;
1850 5,395,0t2 397,11111. til 6 1 II
DUD 4,9611,704 4510`115 tett 5 6 ti tit
1852 4,897i565 65,619 I'3 5 ri U 1
!,4 t 1 Si
Ara i 1.
D,erense In 1559. ) 1.263,07t4
a., velar. with In IN i .4 al

And a proportionate decrease has taken
place in the numbers of paupers relieved. There
were in IM3I. 862.000 ; in 1S:12, µ35,000s show-
ing a diminution of 27,000, or something more
than 3 per cent. upon the whole. As regards
their classification it may he said in round
numbers, that the adult able-bodied those
who would work if they could find employ-
ment—fin-in (including women) between one
fifth and one-sixth of the total number It is
significant of the present state of the labour
market that the falling off under this head is
eight per cent. greater than it is upon the en-
tire calculation. It now includes only 137,000.
in lieu of 114.000, the number of the pre-
ceding year, indicating thus a decrease of pau-
perism among the able-bodied to the ammint
of eleven per cent. There is a slight increase
in the number of the insane ; a large decrease,
amounting to fifty per cont., under the head of va-
grants ; and, apparently, some reduction among
the aged and infirm. On these last it is evi-
dent the rise of wages can have no effect, ex-
cept as it may enable their children and other
relatives to restore them to independence and
their homes. The following facts may also be
deduced from the report. The maintenance of
each pauper, taking fixed and casual rharges
together, and striking an average, ought to be
reckoned at something loss than six pounds
per annum, or 2s. 4d. weekly. Assuming, as
we have a right to do, that the scale of living
in the union is the lowest at which health and
strength can be maintained, and taking 1 tt.
per diem as the average remuneration of un-
skilled labour throughout England, we have
this result—that, by the labour of one day and
a half in the week, the operative, whether in
town or country, can provide himself with
the absolute necessaries of life—a conclusion
not wholly unsatisfactory.
In oue respect the Poor Law Report hats dis-
appointed our expectations. Knowing the
eagerness with which vast masses of 4)111. coun-
trymen have sought, and are even now seeking,
the means of emigration, it is difficult to un-
derstand why nearly 140,000 able-bodied per-
sons should be supported in eomparative idle-
ness at the expense of their neighbours, with
Australia and Canada so near. Facilities for
emigration are given by the existing rules of
the board ; but only 3,271 individuals were
found to profit by them in the last year, while
in 11.451 the number did not exceed 1,540. Is
it that the dependence and tluusi-degraalation
of parochial relief tend to repress the energy
of its recipients, or that rate-payers fear
to incur the odium which popular prejudice
might attach to a supposed deportation of the
poor? t 11• that they ore bootie fide afraid of a
want of labour, and choose to suffer a tempo-
porary inconvenience in preference to a pernut-
nent evil ? All these solutions, or none of them,
may be right ; but the fact is noteworthy.
It is not easy to trace out any general ope-
rating muse for the remarkable diserepancies
which exist between the condition of different
counties. The following table, IlloEcoVer, is
deficient in this respect—that it measures the
increase or decrease of pauperism in each
county only by a comparison with the state of
the same county during the year immediately
preceding. A c•anparis44ll with its ascertained
state dining the last five or seven years. though
nnire laborious to the framers of the report.
would have been inure convenient to the pub-

41

lie. Evt'u 41S it stands, however, the table ix
lull of interest :

Th,. retes per NIA. the increase wad tlerretete la the several
colitiLic4 urn ra 11,11. M...--

I St itrAslG per colt.

I 'hirliatul Ol4 York (E. Riding) $ '

. .
I au least vu
I ~. lerlit et.
Eilleolit
MOllltloUtit
..44111
Si Itt .1k
M. /1111‘ 1, k

Mc REAsc. per emit.
Redford 3l 0 \ ford
1101.4. 7ll liittlaiiil ll
I Itlckiwzliam
4 ii....ter
I .I.nis% all
I 1 tutilwrhold ll2 Sul re).
I ),•ii, 4'; :•,itiiiii.x
111, a"11
I 11,1'401 .1•!:: Wilt,
1:,....... -I W.ireeiiter
4 ;10iiei.st.'r
I I i•riiiiril
I I ertforil
I I mit ingilon
hem
M 1 11110,4I.‘
Nt111.0116
NOE111:1111141.411 .4'44
N.W4.111111111...11.11141
Not I ii 4 liiiiit
It. thus appears that. Leicester. Monmouth,
(.'artligtin, and Radnor are the severest mutter-
ers from pauperism ; while perks, Westmor-
land. the Nortlt 'tiding of York, and Brecon
exhibit the most rapid progress. But, its before
observed, these indications may be fallacious,
when lS:c..! is compared only with 114:54. It &ea
out. 444‘4141. M 4 far *ll4 thiS imperfect information
enables us to judge, that tither the agricultural
or the manutiiciitring interest eau show any
marked superiority over its 01111.

1111.V011
I itrillArtilt'll
Will.ivlt
Flint
Mert.,tirtli
NloiltvanclD 2l

The Autobiography of Captain Diyby Grand.—
London : W. Parker and Son.
THIS is the first novel we have met with for a
very long time of it class which was 01103 very
popular, flint. namely, which depended for its
interest upon the adventures, on or oft' service,
of a " dashing Sub." Time was when we were
inundated with books which smelt of powder
too strongly for the peaceful table of a reviewer.
" The Subaltern," "The Hussar," " The Bit on-
ay," " The Connaught. Rangers," " Almiteks Re-
visited"—(that sneh a name should have been
given to a book which had us vivitl an uecount of
two or three passages of Peninsular campaign-
ing as one could wish to read !)—and, bet ter than
all, " Cyril Thornton"; these were hooks iu which
something of a story was made the peg upon
which to hang the writer's experience of HS
it had shown itself' to him in camp and field.
And excellent they were, with their guerrilla
ehieftitina, bewitching senoras, and comic
surgeons or tplartermitsti, thrown in ad libi-
tum, and sometimes eVell with an imprisoned
nun, freed by an impassioned heretic in the
scarlet uniform of " the galliuit —th," capping
the pathos and emitting an excitement unpa-
ralleled in the annals of circulating libraries.
At length the race died away. Every one who
had a personal reminiscence of the war to tell,
and a pen to tell it with, has long since worn
Ilia pen to the stump. 'Mr. Lever, the last and
by no means the worst of the veteran corpm,
is deaf to the sound of the drum, and wakes
but to an Irish howl ; and the popular novels
are those only which are written for a purpose,
and which present us with single-minded
Jesuits and strong-minded perverts, refined
factory girls, or spiritualised niggers.
Digby Grand, however, though he tells a
soldier's story, is forced to draw spun the
piping times of peace for his materials. And
we are bound to say lie does it. with a fair
SUCCCKS. The only son of a baronet of large
nominal possessions and ancient descent, who
" knows his position," Rigby leaves Eton with
his good qualities carefully obscured, and his
bad ones sedulously developed by his early
training, to join a regiment of the line in
Canada. He there signalises himself as a fast
youth, makes love first to a " garrison hack:'
than a /misalliance with whom he is only saved
by the timely discovery of her too great intl.
macy with a " brother" officer, and then to a
pure and highminded young Canadian lady,
Ztfil de Grand- Martigny. Digby soon ex-
ehanges into the Guards, collies home, and,
plunging with recklessness into all the follies
and vices which now-a-days make up !the ex-
' iateuee of a " swell," throws to the winds his.

i -

affection for Zoe as a weakness unworthy of a
man of fashion, and becomes the suicant of
'Mrs. Mantrap—a character, as we shrewdly
suspect, drawn, and closely drawn, from the
life. We extract her portrait and the rebult of
Digby's introduction to her:—

With these words, the good-natured peer brought me up
to a particularly well-dressed lady, who, at first glance, I
could- see was rrepoid, " flounced," mid " got up," in a
flaunter which left nu doubt of her aspirations utter univer-
sal conquest. Notwithstanding a beautifully-rtounded
figure—tf it had a fault, somewhat too embonpoint for her
height—notwithstanding a merry blue eye, a saucy smile. a
skin like alabaster, and a profusion of showery light hair,
my first impression of Mrs. Mantrap was disappoimment
at those charms of which 1 heard so much : and I whis-
pered to Maltby, as we approached, `• Not half see haul..
as I expected, but devilish well dressed." Little did I sus-
pect the fascination which she exercisral over all that came
within range of her artillery. now low, in my ignontuce,
did I estimate the power of the sorceress. Hut I was
doomed, like many a wiser man, to fall down and worship
where 1 came only tee gaze and criticise. Gradually and
insensibly the charm stole over me. Lights wean glittering
and fairy forms were flitting round ; beauty and perfume
steeped my outward senses in I.llillyniritt ; and the brazen
refrain of some waltz eel'Paradise wafted ecstasy to my
soul: and MI I 14011 as one eutnnieeil, leaning over the
chair of that witch in muslin. hid sustaiiimg my part in a
conversation that became every moment more dangerous.
"She don't care for him, the baby-bride !" said Nits.
Mantrap, speaking of a young couple who then passed us.
" Fresh front the nurser.), and in all the first loloom eef
girlhood, depend Nam it she can slam! 110 time from the
world and its • engagements' to waste upon her hushand.
She has not yet learnt to .teel, poor child ! And if her
mamma had told her to 'r a bishop, she womb! have
liked hint just us well. woman must have suffered, Mr.
brand, hefoore she cult really love ; and thoqi if her attach-
meta is fixed upon a -say--{ell one younger than hoTself,
who is day by day making pool his tOoting in that world
which is gliding from her, she is deserving of pity indeed;"
and the blue eyes looked up into mine with it soft pleading
expression thus was im.sistible. the .spry Alitares ehanged
for an instant,
as a Slllooll' Of 1144'11 1111011011 SlllllO 011.1*Iier
brow, investing her with that sorrowing. eletstened beauty
which the hand of Time reserves four those who are no
longer in the early ftesliness yl/11111-64•11111111.1111.1 for all
the dimples and roses of laughing girlhoood. What wonder
that I forgot our aospatintanceship was 1011101'111We 01111trter04
of an honr—that 1 gave myself up to the delirious intoxi-
cation of my position ! and shooting my eye's resolllloy to
all I hail heard of the lady herself—:n runaway match, it
divorced husband, a brother shot in II 11110•1, hush II father
who died of a broken heart—that I talked sentiment deep
end devoted as her own : and towed, in the despicable
hypocrisy of my helm, that •• the lisle Of 01 Silly girl was un-
worthy of a MHO: I np4oke the lost words ill 11 SOllll.lllllll
10111ler WOO 011111 that ill OW it hislolll.ll cunt cvglitiolt
118 AI previously been carried OIL SO VII so as to emote a
1 tidy who was passing to turn her head 1011111•1104 do!
iutpan-
sionevl speaker: with a thrill of shame and maltase
amounting to agony I reetognitted the' massive black hair,
the pale and care-wont features of ZoC de Urand-Martigny.
Zoe returns to Canada. and we hear no more
of her but as Mrs. Broadbelt

Know yon nut
such tenches are but embassies of lu"c.
To tamper with the feelitig4, ere he tiau►d
}:mpi►e for life?
And so, after ►t short liaison with it fascinating
dancer, I)igby finds himself' really in love
with a certain Flora Belmont. He can neither
shake off his embarrassments however, nor
the mode of life which has led to them. His
expenditure is about ten times as great as his
income. His losses at play and on the turf
are overwhelming. His father (lies. The
.'barges created by two generations of impro
videnee render necessary the sale of the es-
tates. and Sir Dighy Grand finds himself lord
of nothing beyond the clothes he stands in.
Now, however. the pluck and self-dependenee
that have so (den pulled an Englisht►mat
through stand him in good stead. He drops
ills useless title. finds employment with an old
friend ►old country neighbour of his own age.
whO has established himself in the city. and
give, up utterly and for ever his former life.
Miss Belt-tiont happens to he that one woman
in a thow,and ult.) looks upon a plighted troth
as upon at marrnu.:e vow, and loves through
ears of separeien f(ar better o• worse: and
Digby grand takes leave of us as he is
upon the eve of establishing his pretty wife in
a suburban villa. with an intimation that he is
making his fortune. and that the present pos-
sessor has not entailed the old family estate.
The best recommendation (tithe book is its truth
—truth Of description and truth ►of thought.
The narrative is even rapid and vigorous.
Captain Whyte Melville,for that is the author's
name, hurries us otf breathlessly from the
heart of a Canadian forest to the middle of
Mayfair; front Apsley-house to ,lem Burns ;
but all that has been done before : the supe-
riority here is that we arc made to feel that

THE PRESS.

the picture is faithful as well as vivid. This
is true as well of the tone of thought as of the
incidents and accessories of his drama. if the
scene is frequently laid at Crocky's, and the
actors are nol►lc or ignoble blacklegs, the un-
skilled reader is not left to infer, as in the
titshionable " novel, that this is at once the
Must proper and most pleasant phase of
• fashionable " lite, nor is the expert preached
at in a sermon tagged on to the beginning or
end of every chapter. Whether Digby is
breaking the bank at the above venerated in-
stitution, or driving back from Lord St.
Helier's Richmond party with Condit, di Iti-
volte, or• sunning himself in Mrs. Mantrap's
boudoir, you arc somehow or another never
allowed or inclined to forget for a moment that
the silly fitol is beggaring himself of every
good gift, and wilfully gathering in disappoint-
ment and misery and ruin. We take it no
young gentleman beginning life in the House-
hold Brigade will read " Digby Grand"
through without abstaining from bills, hells,
and liaisons for a clear week at least. The
book is a little spun out by descriptions which
p►lace old friends iu no new light before us.
If hunting or grouse-shooting come on the
tal►is, they are heralded by a couple of pages
of magazine-writing a piece ; and even a jug
of Badminton cannot be brought in without
the author explaining it to be • that grateful
(-unwound of mingled claret, sugar, and soda-
water." But Captain IVhyte Melville will
learn the necessity of compression, and we
hope to welcome from him another title as
pleasant as Digby Grata"

The Elegies iff Pnipertins, witk English Xiiles.
lty Frederick A. Paley, Editor of ".Eschylus."
%onion .Tohn W. Parker and Son. Cam-
bridge : .Tohn Deighton.
THE edition of " JEschylus" to which Mr.
Paley's titlepage refers his readers left much
room for improvement.
. Formerly he attacked
his author m a spirit of ferocious emendation,
and produced a text distinguished by some
brilliant alterations, but too different from the
ordinary copies to be safely reeommended to
students. His motes, although a valuable
addition to former commentaries, were scarcely
satistiteton- in the absence of other aid. Be-
sides. they were in Latin, which is obsolete ;
and their Latinity was somewhat pedantic.
In Mr. Paley's " Propertius" we recognise
none of these faults. His text is a happy
medium between conjectural licence and over-
scrupulousness. From a note in page 310,
where he renmrks, " How much less successful
conjectural emendation is when applied to the
Latin than to the Greek authors,' we doubt
the sincerity of his reformation ; but, while
his preference for Latin authors lasts, his
discretion may be trusted. His notes are suffi-
ciently full without being tedious, and arc writ-
ten in an easy and attractive style. Perhaps
sometimes the style is more easy than elegant,
as in one passage (p. 10M, where he informs
us that " Creusa, daughter of Creon, King of
Corinth, was the party to whom Creon sent the
fatal robe besmeared with phosphorus." the
advantage of English notes fails to comfort, us
under such a vulgarism. His present editor
very properly stands up for Propertius as a
poet of great beauty and originality, by no
means worthy of the comparative neglect into
which he has fallen. This is not owing to his
real faults of obscurity. lax constructions, or
abrupt transitions : it was natural that those
who considered Pope the standard of English
poetry should set up Ovid as the sole model
of Latin elegiacs. The remarks on this sub-
ject in page xi. of the preface show how much
modern versifiers lose by such tame correct-
ness.

-
The last few pages of Mr. Paley's prefaee will
be read with interest even by those who do
not agree with him either in fearing the decline
of classical scholarship in this country, or in
complaining that Latin is sacrificed to the
more fascinating study of lireek. We may
laugh at the politician quoted in his note, who
declared that a single number of the Times
newspaper was of more real value than the
history of Thneydides ; but it is no laughing
matter to reflect how many of those who med-
dle publicly with education and politics are
entirely ignorant of the value of accuracy in

SATURDAY,

thought and expression, or look upon it as a
pedantic impediment to the progress of their
views. Should such sentiments prevail, Mr.
Paley cannot be tin• wrong in predicting that
eloquence will be less frequent, manners
and social habits less polished, conversational
powers less brilliant."
We cannot. however, agree with his com-
plaint that Latin is unduly neglected for
Greek. Every encouragement should indeed
be given by professorships at our Univer-
sities and other means to Latin philology :
we would have Latin studied more, but not
Greek studied less. It would be unreason-
able not to prefer better authors in a bet-
ter language. The preface before us ad-
mits " that all Roman literature is borrowed
from the Greek ;" and Mr. Paley shows that
Greek is better adapted for " the compr..-
hension of grammatical principles" by em-
ploying it in almost every page of his notes
to explain less definite Latin usages. Nor, in
balancing the merits of the two rivals, should
it be tiwgotten that, whale the Latin language
has been a faithful servant of the Church of
Rome, the critical study of Greek has always
been detrimental to Romanian.
It may be that Mr. Paley's zeal for Latin is
only the ardour of a new attachment. His
Latin philology, though clear, appears not to
be deep. It is probably for want of more ex-
tensive reading that in a note to p. 61 he has
followed the Eton Latin Grammar to teach
CITOr. Fin' the sake of schoolboys we must.
however reluctantly, accuse that venerable
authority of gross fraud. Ovid (Tristia 1. ii.
•,ill describes a sea with swelling waves, and
a sky with threatening clouds : to provide an
example in support of an erroneous rule, the
Eton Grammar has cooked the verse, so as to
make the heaven swell and the waves threaten!
The true rule is to preserve the order in which
the objects were first mentioned : see Zumpt's
Grammar, sec. 700.
We hope before long to have another op-
portunity of criticising Mr. Paley ; and we
especially recommend to his care Catullus,
one of the most beautiful of the Latin poets.
but almost the most neglected, and one
whose peculiar character requires an editor of
unusually good judgment.

Poems. fly Mrs. Francis Watt. Edited by .lames
T. H. Landon, M.A. London : Whittaker and Co.
IT would be hard indeed if a cousin of L. E. L. were
entirely without poetry in her composition. The pre •
sent volume is a testimony to powers which ably
second pure womanly feelings ; and, what is rarer,
even in a lady, robust and patriotic aspirations. Sonic
of her• renderings of Korner are especially spirited.
Take the following, of that fiery phantasm, the famous
" Sword Song" :

• •
" Why in thy 'scnbb,util bounding,
My iron joy art sounding?
w► eager for the foe,
lly sword, why ring'st thou AO?
Hurrah!"
" Within the sheath 1" rattle,
I nerve me for the battle;
With wild and eager might,
I tremble for the tight.
Hurrah !"

Wait in thy narrow bower,
NI y love, 'tis nut thine hour;
Wait but a little space,
Soon comes the wiah'd embrace.
Unrrah !"

Too long the sheath hath bound me,
Love's ganlen blooms around me ;
I feel the rose's breath,
Red with the Imes of death.
Hurrah :"

" So come thou soul of fire,
'thou warrior heart's desire:
Come. sword, where valour calls,
Fen to my titther's halls.
Hurrah:"

It