The Press.
London, England, 1853-11-26 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

to ask him as to the description of pc sons
alluded to:—
I% there an idle patriot here,
Whose pocket feels mwommon wen
Who dunks "a neat." if not too dear.
Would bring him through another year ?
let hin► wear the while* ooekiwle,
And learn the +Touter', Ithist'ring trade,
"l'is of such Mud' a inimber's made :
tilt, let him join the Brass Brigade'
Who feared to speak in Fortr•Eight,
lint slunk within the Castle gate.
And bowed and begged among the great,
A hungry spy with out.tn•tehed plate ?
COMP, let his wear, ..te.
Who's skilled to act as pamphleteer
Egliiihni or grim Napier.
And wheel about the coming year
II Aberdeen new
Oh, let /ma wear•, Ae.
Who fumed about the Foreign Soo."
let bring++ fat SIMMS here ou " Spte
Who tia the Tenants' Rights eau about,
Yet (41111 detitultiug farmer, ?
lot him wear. Ae.
Who cants and roam about •' the rhumb,"
Yet leaven his country in thy• lurch
Who. for a pinee when on the search.
Would shirk the ease of blaekguard Itirelr
t'o • let him wear, ite.

The following " Election Rhymes " are
funny, though I►erhaps Mr. C'ul►t►uck will not
think 14 :-

Elector-11110 comets here ?
'anolitlitti.--A I;lli:ether.
Elector—What du )ou Neat?
•andi.late--Your %tote, nth dear'
Kleetor---%Vlture's tittr u k ► ?
I.anilitinto— in itt imeket.
Elector—Where's your piwket
I 'oppoek's 1„7.,1 it.
get out, you stupid hliMkhead '

There is too much imitation of the himh
brogu►r ill many of these verses; ►uul a great
fink in their composition is the frequency of
the lowest slang words. " Tom Clibb's Me-
morial to Congress " is an example to be
shunned rather than followed by writers of
comic verse.

Lettersof the hlnelini, aid Visits to their Prisons.
By the Misses Senhouse. London : Nisbet
aml Co.
DR. STY.ANE had netuy prepared his work
entitled " The Madiai' for publication, when
a proposition was made, through the Protestant
Alliance, that to his work these letters should
he added. Thatproposition was etalditi4mally
accepted, but, as the condition could not be c 4 n
plied with, these letters and Dr. Stenne'a work
have appeared separately. But the pecuniary
object of both is the same, viz., "to raise
" money to form a fund for the support of the
" Madiai." In lstio-51 the bigotry of Boman
Catholicism in Tuscany awoke. Captain
Pakenhatn was expelled from Florence on a
charge of Protestant propagandism. Attend-
ance at the Swiss Protestant chapel Was pro-
hibited to many Florentines. MM. Geymonat
and Malan were expelled for reading the bible
to Italians ; Count Pietro Guiceiardini and
some friends were exiled for six months for a
similar offence ; finally, the Madiai became
the victims of persecution. Francesco was
the SOIL of an Italian farmer, and had been a
courier ; Rosa had been a servant in families
of distinction in England. She was some
years holder than her husband. As there is no
reference to children in the work before us, we
suppose they never had any. Both were
Roman Catholics, even after their marriage in
mature age. His faith was first shaken by this:
having confessed that, in compliance with
medical advice, he had eaten meat in Lent,
the priest told lout •• that for this offence lig
" was dtunned in body and soul. Itosa under-
stood English ; lie did not ; and. as 31.) ltlllian
bibles were in circulation, she mail a ehapter
Out of the English version and explained it to
him every evening. This, added to "the open
" and shameless profligacy of the priests." ended
in that abjuration 4•1 the religion of Rome which
led to the incarceration of the Madiai, their
trial, their sentenee,—his of fifty-six months'
imprisonment with hard labour at N'olterra,
hers of forty-five n ths' imprisonment in the
Ergastolo at Lucea,—the interference of uni-
versal Protestantism in their behalf, and the
reluctant pardon wrung by moral force from

713

the Grand Duke. Of this petty potentate
and tyrant the Madiai, in all their sufferings,
had never spoken one word of disrespect or
complaint. " But alas ! the Prince who had
the lives and liberties of his people at his
disposal was himself subject to a cruel task-
" master. and was under the absolute
donriva-
tion of Papal Rome." Franeereo, some after
his arrival at Volterra, was taken ill and re-
moved to one of the infirmary eells, where he
seems to have been well treated : and Rosa, at
Liven, "sat' humanely received by the
director of the prison, and also by the Sisters
" of Charity. who have the care of the female
"prisoners." the too became ill, send NAB 1111 t,
on the sick list, iu consequence of which she
had better fare and wits more comfortable. At
!awes the Archbishop and the Dowager
limtol fuehess of Tusenny visited her.
Rosa, writing of her husband. pimp, " They
" tell me be has n window in his eelf, but when
" it mins, or is roll, both door and window are
" dosed ! Oh ! no one eon 111U1101W tllO
" sufferings of a prisoner who has not
experienced them.' Surely there is SUMO
error in this. 'fhe letters commence from her
arrival at Ergastolo, and are filled chiefly with
accounts of what she has to eat, her health,
and the prisoners she hears or sees. They
are quite unstudied. In one of them she
says. " 1 return to my letter for a few moments
" only, as 1 expect some 011 C 50011 to rub Illy
back, which is so weak that 1 eannot walk
" twenty minutes." Then the following sen-
tence begins "My screamer is quieter." She
is referring to a woman whom she has men-
t' vsl long before. Apparently she had
plenty of good things to eat :

I had a little Jelly left, of some that Mons. Colombo
lorotight nor, mud I sit( it 10 her, sines. which she has been
1.11/4111% I regret it was au little. Another woman has as
lout a rough, mid is now ill Whitt' 111111141 ever
leaving it. 'floe poor prisoners are like children ; Weenie
I give white loved, 11l %ahem chicken when I loos. it, I.
others a lust oof cake, I, others roasted *alder; of all I have
I giie my you may imagine, 14111.0 I hie on the
go.nrrositv of those deur enult's who voini. to see me. To
thoooe who are well I rend sly boiled meat, and when I do
not take wine, I say, give it no those who tire here for
mill thole are two ►uah r that renitence.

The Archbishop again visited her, and, in
coin t•rsation, remarked that " ' Uncle Tom's
Cabin ' was good, and that he had read it." It
is • proscribed by the Pope. On the Irtth
March. 045:1, the Madiai were officially in.
formed that their sentence was commuted to
perpetual exile from Tuscany, and they were
released. This eolleetion of their letters has
a front impieee of their likenesses. Ft•anecseu
scents an honest, sensible man, of fitly-fiutror
fifty-five years of age; his hair is grey. Homes
hair is concealed by a headdress : there is a
falling in about her mouth that gives her an
old appearance. Her vountemmee, though
pleasing, wants the frank, open expression of
her husband's. The conclusion we draw front
this book is, that the Madiai were well treated
by the prison audit trines, and that for the
persecution they endured the weak tyrant of
finical)), is not so notch responsible as is
Home and the spirit of Boman Catholicism in
general, whose instrument he was and whose
behests he obeyed.

The Yffittort Voyageurs: or, the Roy !teeters its the
Nfwth. 11 s'apt ails Mayne Ite id. London:

Hogue.
Tula is II continuation of a former work, "The Boy
limiters," by the Mame within.. In this the voyageurs,
four brother'., ake a long voyage through the fur
countries, in the course of which they meet with a
number of exciting and surprising adventures. Hero
is one. Prairie wolves have I►unted a wounded wapiti
deer into a thicket, from the edge of which they recoil
in terror :

"At find the I tent attrilmteil thin strenve conduct it/
their own ',usenet , mid the smoke of the camp; but s
mimic:it's reflection convinced them that this could not lie
the reason of it, as they were all well arimainted with the
toenaie of the prairie wolf, said bad flier witnesaill s
similar exhibition before.
" They had no time to think of the wolies just then.
The latch aas the train attraetion, and, culling to each
..tiler tee aitrrioniel the thicket. all font started in different
olireetions. In • eimple of minutes they hail placed them.
~elves at nearly eine( distances around the copier, and aloud
watching eagerly for floc reappearance of the. wapiti.
" Afarencoo was now sent no. This wiesl4l main start him,
and all four stood with WHIR rocked and ready. Het. before
the dog hail made three lengths of himself into the thicket,
a loud snort was heard. followed by • strettele and the
stamping of hoofs, and the neat mouivut the Wapiti cam

714

cashing through the hushes. A shot was larval—it WH.4
the crack of Lucien's small rifle--hat it had noised, for
the huck,was seen passing onward anal outward. All 11111
round to the side lie had taken, and had a full ►iew of the
animal as he hounded oft Instead of running free. as
before, he now leaped heavily forward, anal what wits their
astonishment on seeing that lie rarrjed aunNuv tttt isnot upon
hie bark !

"The hunters entilil homily believe their 01444, but there
it was, Run• enough, a brown shaggy 11194,4, lying Hut along
the shoulders of the wapiti, and clutching it with bu x..
spreading claws. Francois cried out, ' A lountlier !' mud
!land at limit believed it to he a bear, but it woos hardly
large ruough for that. \ oilman, however, who loot Ikea
more in those parts where the animal is fouml, knew it ut
once to be the dreaded ' wolverene; "

The deer jumps into a lake. The author says, " lie had
" hopes, no doubt," that by this means lie could es-
cape the wolverene. But we may remark that a
wounded deer always takes to the water whenever it
can : the water refreshes it, and when Captain Reid
says it " had hopes, no doubt," he is committing the
fault of introducing in a work intended to amuse awl
instruct boys some of those controvert el and unsettled
questions which are connected with the loftiest and
most difficult subjects that can oreupy the mind of
man. More explicitly, in another place, speaking of
a swan swimming down a stream, expanding his
wings to catch the wind, he says :-
- - - •

" Ih you think that he was not aware of this advantage
when he started in the race? Ito you 'oppose that these
birds do not think 9 I fur one am satisfied they
look upon every one who prates about the noi/isi/ of these
creatures as 111 ehilosiplier of a very old school indeed.
Not only does the I.,m•at avian thillk, hilt AO dines pair parrot,
and your isiping bullfinch, and the little canary that hops
on your thumb. All think, and mown and judge."

The objection of the philosopher of the very old
school that birds and beasts do not possess reason, be -
cause they do not improve and progress, has, ►re
think, never been answered. In another place the
author goes out of his way to stamp with his appro-
bation the theory which " The Vestiges of Creation"
Mal written to establish :

" lie pointed tont, moreover. how the structure of the
different kinds of preying binis, suel► us the size and films
of the wings and tail, as well as other pans, weir in each
kind atlapteol to its peculiar tussle of lootnating its prey ;
and then then. Ilnl/4e a oils/11,40n its to whether this
adaptation should he considered a effuse or an dreel.
Lucien atteceelled in convincing Isis companions Ihui the
strueture was the effect and not the CIIIII4I. of the habit, for
the young naturalist was a firm loo.lievcr in the changing
and progressive system of nature."

In that strange book, "Adventures of M. Violet,"
which we consider t►► have a substratum of truth,
many incidents are related strongly tending to
prove that brutes have reason ; so also the argu-
ments and instances in " Vestiges of
Creation" In many minds satisfactorily demonstrate
that. organisation is developed according to the exi-
gencies of conditions. Rut, because arguments can
be urged in favour of such theories, it is no reason
why such subjects should be introduced in a bock
intended for the young. ltut to return to the wapiti
and wolverene. Both are killed, and the latter"sinks
"to the bottom of the lake." Is Captain Mayne !kid
mire he is correct in this? Will any dead brute sink
in water? is he, too, correct when he speaks of the
black bear, fr►►m the tine coat of which " the shako of
" the grenadier "is made? In common parlance
shako is limited to tl►e hats of the line, 3:e., and
does not include the "bearskins." Again, he makes
the voyagenrs sit in the canoe `• from stem to bow "
let him ask any nautical man. and we think he will
discover that does not n►can stern. Itut to
conclude—the book contains I; I pages ; it has several
pretty good illustrations, and is well enough written to
attain the object the author had in view—viz., to
*Rinse boys. and at the same time give them s►m►e
instruction iu natural history.

The Future of the Homan Roer,to be Ebeted throno
the Agency 11 Deported Spirits. lly Hobert Owen.
London : Effingham Wilson.
WitAntvEn others may think of them, Mr. Owen
I►eliectso that his opinions, it' acted on, would benefit
the human race. The sincerity of his faith he has
attested by KU expenditum of nearly 100,000 L, in
endeavouring to carry out his views pnu•ticetlly.
They partake of the nature of those of thidwia and
Shelley, anti are founded on a conviction that co•
operation, Mateo(' of competition, is the law which
ought to govern human affairs. As a corollary to
this, it would follow that property should be
held in conunon. These are some of the (nits
from which Mr. Owen proposes to relieve us by
taking away our " money, the root of all

" Poosessoto of what oils called the largest antosints of
private property ore esosti 111 l sithject annoyaisees of
various their endeavours. to protect it front being
enernuehed upon lsy thieves, robbers. lars)ers, ur govt ni•
mists. local or general, and can never lie althorn fears of
private or pliblie ditniuution of it. Thev 1111 l st always. too,
he on the alert to see that their own depein are not
idarating t loan.