The Press.
London, England, 1855-12-15 00:00:00

'puma

THE KING OF SARDINIA, on leaving this country,
presented some substantial marks of his favour in
various quarters. Snuff boxes, diamond rings, and
p►ns were given to Captain Gordon, Captain Smithell,
Mr. lunning, Mr. Kell', and others ; while among the
crew of the squadron escorting his Majesty to Bou-
logne the King desired that three thousand franca
should be distributed. The most beautiful gift was
a magnificent diamond which his Majesty presented
to Lady Cochrane, the wife of the Commander.in:
Chief at Portsmouth. . .

THE REV. M'CAIRD, of Errol, in the north, has
been honoured by her Majesty by a command to
publish a sermon he delivered before the Queen and
Prince during their late sojourn at Balmoral. Prince
Albert is said to have expressed himself in the
highest terms. The sermon is termed" The Religion
of Common Life."
THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE has, we believe, been
offered the Garter vacant by the death of the late
Duke of Somerset.
SIR CHARLES L. EASTLAKE, P.R.A., and Director
of the National Gallery, has returned from the Con-
tinent, with several newly purchased works for that
Gallery.
MR. J. BERESFORD HOPE has beaded a subscrip-
tion to enable the appeal against Dr. Lusbington's
recent judgment in the Pimlico Church case to be
carried before the Arches Court, and, if necessary,
the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.
3111. JowETT, the Regius Professor of Greek at
Oxford, has been formally accused to the Vice-
Chancellor by Dr. Macbride of Magdalen, and the
Rev. Mr. Goligbtly of Oriel, of holding heterodox
opinions, according to his published works, denying
the doctrine of the Atonement. Since the accusation
Mr. Jowett has signed the Thirty-nide Articles.
MR. JOSEPH STUROE is at present suffering from a
severe and dangerous attack of erysipelas.
MR. Romim, we believe, has resigned the office
of Civil Service Commissioner. Mr. Wickham, late
Chairman of the Stamps and Taxes Department, is
spoken of as the probable successor.

FROM THE LONDON GAZETTE.
Tveiday, Dec. 11.

BANKRUPTS.—WILLIAM THOMAS, Catherine-street, Strand,
Middlesei, publisher—Joan BOND. Ludgate-hill, City, shawl-
man, furrier, and mantle dealer—THOMAS BENNwrr, hlargaret-
street, Cavendish-square, Middlesex, taiIor—RICHARD HUDSON,
Grove Library, Church-street, Hackney, Berlin and fancy wool
warehouseman—THOMAS VASTY and ELWIN HENRY Owax,
Strand, Middlesex, publishers. booksellers, and stationers—JOHN
JAMESON, Honey-lane, 1411 k-street, City, shawl warehouseman—
JOHN HENRY HODD, Brighton, lioemed victualler—JOHN HAY-
WARD COLBORNE, Poole, draper—GEOßGE BUTCHER, Cornhill,
City, Northern-wharf, King's-cross, Middlesex, and Rnardean,
Glotnester, coal end stone merchant—JOHN FULLER SHALLIa,
St. Alban's, straw-plait deaIer—WILLIAM BouRNR, Barnes-place,
Mile-end-road, Middlesex, cahinettnaker—SAMUEL WHLLna,
Giltapur-street, City, leather dealer, and boot and shoe merchant
—SAMUEL DAVIS and THOMAS BRYAN, Birmingham, engineers
and machinlsta—H SSW/ ABIJAH SHILTON, Coventry, trimming
manufacturer and shopkeeper—WlLLlAM SWEET, Tavistock-
street, Stoke, Devonport, house carpenter and builder—JOHN
STEPHENSON, Hogathorpe, Lincoln, joiner, cabinetmaker, and
builder—FßANK J AWES, DrOVIS.Ien, Lancaster, silk dyer.
SCOTCH SEQUESTRATIGNS.—ANnEnsow and Collins,
Glasgow, wine and spirit merchants—JoHN GLEN, Allna, flesher
and cattle and grain dealer— JOHN CARTER. Glasgow, merchant
--Joan TRAIL, Rose-street, Edinburgh, cabinetmaker.

Friday, December H.

BANKRUPTCY ANNULLED.—RonEnT PEARE STEPHENS
abipowner._ Liverpool.
BANE RUPTS.—ROBERT TILORE, picture dealer, 4tr., Great
Russell-street, Bloomsbury—SAmunt. Yawn KEN, soda water
manufacturer, Godmenchester. Huntingdon—Wmaim InsuLL,
eta' loner, DudIey—WILLIAM WATHEN, Upholsterer. B eteford
EDWIN VERDUN &VTR and WILLIAM HENRY GODDARD. Mer-
chants, Birmingham—JAMES WHITTssEit and JOHN ELLISON,
ironfoundere and millwrights, Church, near Accrington, Lan-
cashir eg
SCOTCH SEQUESTRATIONS.— ALEXANDER TURNER-
builder, Glasgow—John DAVIE MARTIN, EPOthertoll, wood mer,
chant, West Ca'der ALEXANDER Dinv, coach proprietor
Regent-terrace, Edinburgh—John ALLAN and Co.. merchants
Glasgow— Duncin 11'NAE, cattle dealer, Shirrabeg, Leggett
Invernomehlre.

THE CONFERENCE OF THE STATES OF THE ZOLL-
VEREIN was to open at Berlin on the 12th. The
representatives of most of the States had arrived.
THE HOUSE or HorE is said to be the banking
firm which has lately concluded a loan with Russia—
Mr. Hope is a resident at Paris—we believe a
naturalised Englishman.
PRINCE PASKIEWITCH is reported to be better, but
without hope of ultimate recovery. The entire
administration of the kingdom is, during the time of
the Prince's sickness, vested in General Count
Krosinski, Flugel-adjutant of the Emperor.
RFAR-ADMIRAL COUNT BOUET WILLAUMEZ has been
appointed to the command of the French naval
squadron in the Levant, and of the expeditionary
corps in Greece, in the man of M. Jacquinot, pro.
moted to the rank of Vice-Admiral.

ADMINISTRATIVE. DUTIES AT TAGAI•ROG have greatly
increased, according to a letter from St. Petersburg,
in consequence of the transports by land occasioned
by the blockade, to ILi .1 tit n (II lit 10
o grovelled to double E pi of the tit Vo

DECEMBER 15, 1855.

f it trat ur t.

The Life of Henry Fielding. With Notes of
his Writings, his Times, and his Contempo-
raries. By Frederick Lawrence, Esq., of the
Middle Temple, Barrister-at-Law. London:
Arthur Hall, Virtue, and Co.
THERE is not enough of originality in the
facts, or of vigour in the style, of this volume
to give it a high place in biography, though it
is a promising VerformaLce from a writer of
little experience in literature. All the matter
in these pages has long been familiar, and the
work is little more than an expansion of the
sketch of Fielding in the charming " Lives of
the Novelists "by Sir Walter Scott. If treated
with more graphic vivacity and critical
acumen than are here shown, the memoirs of
Fielding might be made attractive to a largs
circle of readers. But in general, mere
literary biography, for want of strong personal
incidents, fails to rivet the attention of the
crowd.
Nor can wo entirely concur with the point
of view from which the author regards his
hero. Ho claims too much love for Fielding
the man, while he does not sufficiently discri-
minate the genius of Fielding the author.
While the reverses of Fielding's social life
were most useful in giving a wide knowledge
of the world to the author of "Tom Jones,"
those mischances were far from being neces-
sary. We fear that Fielding must be placed
amongst those instances of men of the great-
est intellect who are woefully deficient in
plain common sense. It is painful to disparage
in any wise so great a name as Fielding's,
but he would be the first to admit (if his
shade could find a voice) that there were
many men of letters whose lives must be re-
garded with more sympathy and admiration
than can be accorded to his. He was a
Charles Surface, brilliant, and full of good
humour, with glowing traits of character, but
prone to excesses of improvidence ; and, like
all persons of that kind who flourished in the
last century, Fielding has got a more lenient
judgment than he merited. It is not a little
strange that the same class of persons nowa-
days are treated with merciless severity.
Blifil in our times has legions of followers.
Woe to a parliamentary Charles Surface sus-
pected, not of tergiversations, but of the
" follies " to which men of the stamp of the
Fielding class are prone. That there is more
necessity for nice discrimination of Fielding's
moral character than has yet been shown may
be seen in a comparison of the posthumoas
verdicts given to the authors of " Tom Jones "
and The School for Scandal. There is a cant of
false sympathy abroad for the " irregularities "
of the genius that shone over a century ago ;
and there is a cant of false censure on the in-
firmities of genius near our times. We have
been struck more than once in society with
the difference of tone taken by the same per-
sons when speaking of " the extravagance "
of " the glorious Harry Fielding," and
when commenting on the same fault in
" poor Sir Henry Bishop—unfortunate man !"
Turning from the character of Fielding,
which must not be confounded with that of
his immortal works, we desire to bring sonic
important considerations before our readers
in connection with the novel-reading world.
Mr. Disraeli incidentally in the course of the
last session alluded to "the mealy-mouthe
" age in which we are living"; and certainly
we have arrived at marvellously finical times.
Vice, corruption, shocking forms of social de-
pravity, abound ; but our current language,
whether of books or men, is the very quintes-
sence of prudery. The influence upon a
public of a popular literature, specially ad-
dressed to myriads of female readers, has
never been considered. " Recollect," said a
great London publisher not long since, " your
" novel must be written to female readers
" For one man there are four women who read
" novels." It is true ; and the consequences
of it may be seen in the deplorable effeminacy
which is beginning to sap the strength of our
English school of fiction. " Recollect, also,'
said another distinguished bibliopole, " that
" novels and all light literature are generally

THE PRESS.

" read aloud—mark that! " Just so ; our
writers of fiction know their aphorisms by
heart, and they cater accordingly. Hence it
is that in poetry and fiction there is such an
alarming tendency to the hysterical. Instead
of human nature in general, the " female
heart " (or a waxwork imitation of it) is con-
stantly before the excited fancies of the novel-
writing tribe. A womanish taste is also
beginning to creep over that portion of the
male world which indulges in the intellectual
aliment of novels. At the rate things are going
on, the formulafor novel-writing must soon be,—
" Do not describe life and the world as it is, but
" only those phases of it which will suit women
" to read about, and treat your characters so
" as that they may be on familiar terms with
" young ladies in teens." The consequences
of this it is easy to anticipate.
Against this weak fashion we believe that
before long there will be an overwhelming
reaction, and that more truth, more strength,
more grasp, more mastery of mental life, and
more enduring conformity with the master-
pieces of literature, will be demanded by a
public overdosed with the grotesque exaqgera
tions of caricature calling itself " comic, and
the sentimental snivelling which is admired
as " pathetic." We have seen vast changes in
the literary history of our times. Not long
since the extravagant admirers of Mr. Dickens
supposed that amongst " popular " novelists
his match never could be found ; yet " Vanity
Fair " (and the highly intellectual readers
who joined their suffrages to the crowd) soon
taught them their error. Then came " Uncle
Tom" (a woman's novel emphatically), with
horrors, babies, and agonies, and a vast
amount of Pickwickian scenes amongst
niggers—and what an unparalleled success !
And this brings us to the question we de-
desire to ask—" How many now-a-days read
" Tom Jones,' and how comes it that there
" are so few cheap editions of it?" The
" democracy " which Tomkins is always talk-
ing of prefers the style of Mr. G. W. M. Rey-
nolds to that of Mr. Henry Fielding, and we
never see it upon the railway stalls. Yet
observe how Gibbon wrote of that extraordi-
nary work :
" The nobility of the Spensers," writes the historian of
of the " Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," " has
been illustrated and enriched by the trophies of Marl-
borough, but I exhort them to consider the Faery
Queene ' the most precious jewel in their coronet. Our
immortal Fielding was of the younger branch of the Earls
of Denbigh, who drew their origin from the Counts of
Hapsburg, the lineal descendants of Eltrico, in the seventh
century Duke of Alsace. Far different have been the for-
tunes of the English and German divisions of the family of
Hapsburgh ; the former, the knights and sheriffs of Leices-
tershire, have slowly risen to the dignity of a peerage; the
latter, the emperors of Germany and kings of Spain, have
threatened the liberties of the Old, and invaded the
treasures of the New World. The successors of Charles V.
may disdain their brethren in England ; but the romance
of Tom Jones '—that exquisite picture of humour and
manners—will outlive the palace of the Escurial and the
Imperial Eagle of Austria."
We do not think the opinion so expressed
by Gibbon to be exaggerated. Fielding was
a thinker as well as a fictionist ; he was a
philosopher as much as a novelist. He could
live a distinguished literary life while confined
to the province of the understanding, anti if
not permitted to seek resources in his
ideality. He had a strictly logical intellect of
the most comprehensive kind, and he could
reason profoundly as well as feel intensely
upon morality. The casuistry of a mere
ethical special pleader he could demolish at a
stroke, but he had an intellect also that could
have unravelled the web of sophistry secundum
art em. Some of our living novelists have
repeatedly attempted the parts of political
writers, but never to the satisfaction of them-
selves or friends. Yet Fielding could unques-
tionably, if living in our times, hold his own
as a masculine and argumentative writer. If
bred to the Church, and under happy aus-
pices, he might have produced volumes of
divinity worthy of being placed on the shelves
with Barrow and South. There was a massive-
ness in his intellect, and a largeness in his
understanding, which we seek for in vain in
other novelists.
And yet how comes it that so few women
now-a-days read " Tom Jones ?" Is it that the
work is real') vicious, that its morality is too
loose, and that it deserves to be branded as
immoral? Or is it that the age is too prudish,

1195

too squeamish, too falsely nice, too absurdly
" mealy-mouthed"? Coarse it certainly must
be rated, according to the taste of these times
but we affirm, without hesitation, that young
boarding-school misses have far more dangers
to encounter while reading of the Marquis of
Steyne and the intrigues of Miss Becky
Sharpe, than in perusing the pages of " Tom
Jones.' There are passages in Fielding's
great work which are gross in phrase and
broad in thought, and so there aro in
Shakspeare. But in neither case is there any
catering for morbid fancies, or dalliance with
prurient imagination. Fielding cannot be
called " a voluptuous " writer ; and the minds
that are allowed to linger over the luscious
love tales of Byron and Moore may be safely
admitted to read our great novelist. In say-
ing this, we suppose that some grandmammas
may be shocked, but we can dissipate their
alarm by assuring them that the young ladies
of this generation are not at all likely to be
fascinated with Fielding. "Eras" and" Little
Neils " would not live in his society, or allow
of a visiting acquaintance. Sense, strength,
keen wit, close observation, classical breadth
of view, were all very well in former times;
but sentimentality and caricature, and fanci-
ful photographs of ephemeral exceptions to
nature, are now deemed to be worth them all
together.
Fielding's popularity, and the phases
through which it has passed, would have been
a good subject for Mr. Lawrence, but he has
not sufficient experience of literature to dis-
cuss it adequately. " Tom Jones" was the
production of a vast intellect, and the brilliant
minds of succeeding ages will always give it
perpetuity of fame, whatever may be its fate
with the crowd.
The most original knowledge conveyed in
this volume before us will be found in the
appendix, which contains the following curious
particulars relating to the foreign translation
of "Tom Jones" :
The Polish" Tom Jones " was purchased for the British
Museum library at the time when a project was enter-
tained of procuring the whole set of foreign translations
of some of our most distinguished authors, such as Shak-
speare, Milton, &c., and in the case of very voluminous wri-
ters, the whole set of translations of some one of their most
conspicuous productions. It was intended, for instance, to
get all of " Tom Jones," " The Vicar of Wakefield," " The
Antiquary," and " The Pickwick Papers." It was thought
that such a collection would furnish an unusually in-
teresting means of comparing the powers and copiousness
of the different languages of Europe—some of them at
very different stages of their progress—and that it would
also supply very good materials for the history of the pro-
gress of English literature abroad. The execution of the
idea was brought to a standstill by the general decrease in
the resources of the library, but 1 now hope it will be
resumed at some not very remote period. It had already
been carried far enough to place on the Museum shelves
an array of translations of Shakspeare into Swedish, Polish,
Hungarian, Italian, Russian, Frisian, German, &c., which
will supply more than one new page to future biblio-
graphers.
To return to " Tom Junes: "—Sopikov in his " Rua-
Sian Bibliography " (in five volumes, published at Bt.
Petersburg. in 1'13.16), mentions translations of many of
the works of Fielding, but not one of them direct from the
original—all either from French or German. The " Tom
Jones " by Kharlamov is from the French. An edition of
it, in four volumes, with plates, was published at St.
Petersburg in 1770-71 ; a second at Moscow in 1787.
There is no other translation mentioned in the subsequent
catalogues of Smirdin and Olkhin. This is somewhat
surprising, as the Russians are remarkably fond of English
novels. 1 see by a new number of one of their periodi-
cals (the Otechestvennitiya Zapiaki for June, 18.55), that in
the midst of the desperate struggle before Sebastopol, the
public of St. Petersburg was being amused with translations
given at full length in that magazine, of Lever's " Dodd
Family Abroad," and Ainsworth's " Flitch of Dunmow."
The Germans, as might be supposed, are rich in trans -
!talons of " Tom ,Tones," but tley do not seem to have
been so early in the field as might have been anticipated.
Hirsching, in 1795 (" Historisch-literarisches Handbuch,
vol. ii. p. 218), speaks of one that had appeared about
thirty years before, which is probably the same as that of
which Heinsius mentions an edition atllamburg, in 1771.
Au entirely, new one, from the pen of Professor Schmit,
was issued at Nuremberg in 1780. The merits of both
appear to have been very scanty, and they were completely
superseded by that of .1. J. Bode (6 vols., Leipzig.
1756.88), which was for a length of time the standard
version. A new one, by Liidemann, formed part of Brock-
haus's "Bibliothek classischer Romane," about 1825 ; and
another, by Diezmann, of the " Itibliothek der alteren
Romandichter Englantls, " about 1810. It is worth
remarking that "Tom Jones" has been reprinted at least
three times in English in Germany ; at Dresden, in 1773;
at Basel, in 1701 ; and at Marburg, in 1814-24. The
last of the three, in five volumes, has " critical and
explanatory notes, and grammatical obaetations, by Kar)
F. C. Wagner."

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