The Press.
London, England, 1855-12-08 00:00:00

PERIODICAL LITERATURE.

Is Blackwood the concluding chapters of "Zaidee"
are exceedingly beautiful. This writer possesses the
rare power of being both rhetorical and natural at
the same time ; and we think the scenes in which
Zai:iee is recognised by the different members
of the Vivian family have never been surpassed.
The article on "Simony" is a terse and lucid state-
ment of a question much misunderstood by the
public. It clearly establishes the fact that in the
early centuries of Christianity this term was applied
exclusively to the traffic in spiritualities—the
giving money for ordination or consecration—but
never to the purchase of the benefice. The cause of
its being afterwards applied to the latter is to he
sought in the early nature of lay patronage. This
gave to the patron an absolute right of presentation
independent of episcopal institution; and it was
against this system that the great battle was fought
and won by Hildebrand and Becket. We cannot

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follow the author of this article through his various
arguments on the modern state of the law, nor
are we wholly sure that we agree with his pro-
posed remedies; but his historical outline of the
subject is valuable and well timed. The most strik-
ing article in the whole number is that on "Our
Rural Population and the War," in which the diffi-
culties we have experienced in obtaining recruits
meet with startling explanation :

The cotters and yeomen—the free tillers of the soil, the
essence of our rural population—are gone; and a thin race
of hirelings and vagrant workers is what we now find in
their room.
This is the text of the article ; and all nations and
all times are taxed to furnish their illustrations. A
wry remarkable passage is one relating to China;
but we prefer to give our readers another, which
comes more directly home to the business of the
day :
- - • -

Who but peasants have won the most striking victories
of modern Europe? It was the hardy peasant-proprietors
of Switzerland, fighting for their free homes, that again
and again overthrew the chivalry of Austria and the bold
lances of Burgundy. It was not the mountains, but the
healthy life and independent proprietorship of the people,
that made the Tyrol so long an impregnable country to the
French. And who was it that won Crecy, and Agincourt,
and Poitiers, but the free yeomen of England,—the race of
small proprietors, whose bold hearts and stout arms made
their country redoubtable abroad, and whose rustic abun-
dance and cheerful hearts then made England what it was,
" merry England!" England then beat the world with her
bowmen, for no other country at that time possessed the
class from which such stout " experts" could be drawn.
The softening of the feudal system in England centuries be-
fore any such relaxation took place on the Continent, allowed
of the growth of those peasant-proprietors; and so se got
the start of modern Europe iu this matter, and in a hun-
dred ways reaped the benefit. But now England hu
atandoned the position. Having been first up, she is now
resolved to be first down. The present aspect of these
islands in relation to the rest of Europe is not a pleasant
one as regards the future. The eastern half of Europe
(namely Russia), still thralled by a gigantic feudalism, has
not yet reached the era of small holders and peasant-pro-
prietors, but will reach it,—Germany has entered it,—
France is fully in it,—Britain is past a I
The article will be welcome to all alarmists, though
we think it would be easy to suggest other reasons
why recruiting in our agricultural districts is not so
brisk as could be desired. Still to obtain recruits at
the rate of a thousand weekly is not very desperate
work after all.
" Friends in Council Abroad " is the first article
in this month's Fraser. It is a very long paper, ex-
tending to nearly twenty pages, and we are doubtful
bow far it will add to the author's reputation. As we
see there is a great deal more to come in the next num-
ber of the magazine, we shall wait till then to dis-
cuss it a t length. " The Monktons of Wiucot Abbey "
comes to rather a sudden termination. The story is
written with that singular command of the hor-
rible which distinguishes Mr. Collins, and seems
to point him out as the legitimate successor of Mrs.
Radcliffe. "The Political Press of America" is a
capital article, and evidently written by one whose
acquaintance with American journalism is of native
growth. Our classical readers will enjoy the following
anecdote
The classical tongues fare, if possible, still worse.
There is no end to the tricks played with them. Dauiel
Webster was fond of quoting certain Latin authors, parti-
cularly Virgil, whose Yneid he had, in familiar phrase, at
his fingers' ends. On such occasions it rarely happened
that a single newspaper (by no means excepting those of
Boston) reported the quotation accurately, and, as error is
prone to variety, the various rea'lings wers not numusing
to compare. Once he cited the well-known line from the
episode of Nisus and Euryalus :
Adsum qui feet; In me, me conserthe ferrum.
The reporter of the Herald (which paper must be con-
fessed to have a " bad preeminence " in ignorance of this
sort, though the Tribune sometimes runs it very bard)
supposed the latter half of the orator's quotation to be a
translation of the former half, and accordingly it appeared
thus next day—
Adsum qui feet; he or me (sic) must perish.
The quotation, by-the-bye, is itself incorrectly given
by the writer. The review of Mr. Lewis's "Life of
Goethe " is a good critical performance ; and we
are glad to see that some of those eccentricities
in morals to which both tioethe and his biographer
seem indulgent are treated with well-merited

censure.
The Dublin opens with an article quaintly and
prettily called "Holly and Ivy," which seems in-
tended as a sort of Christmas offering. It contains
some very musical verses, and some still more musical
prose. Here is a sample
To our thinking, the ivy is one of the loveliest leaf-robes
with which the bountiful hand of Nature has decked our
fair world. It would be no inappropriate emblem of the
great Christian grace of Charity. See how it creepeth now
along the ground, and doth not vaunt itself; and if it
raises Welt upwards, it is not that it behaveth itself un-
seemly, but rather, in love and fidelity, clinging :o some
aged tree, or hoary ruin, to which it has ministered through
the long sears that are gone, holding to them in their age
and weakness, as it (lid in their youth and itirrngth--liing-
,
suffering, and kind, and loving; hiding and healing all the

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