The Press.
London, England, 1855-04-07 00:00:00

APRIL 7, 1855.

The St. James's Medley is chiefly filled with
amusing sketches of travel. In the present number
we are presented with some " Leaves from the Diary
"of a Blind Traveller." The author, in 1844, visited
Russia by way of Denmark and Sweden, and jour •
neyed from St. Petersburg to Odessa. His blindness,
however, rather heightened than disarmed the sus-
picions of the Russian police, for he writes, "They
"supposed me to be either a soi.disant blind spy, or
"else their old friend Mr. Holman once more returned
"to Russia, from which he had some little time before
"been expelled for his extreme inquisitiveness amongst
" the prisoners of Siberia. In this opinion they were
" confirmed when they came to examine my embossed
" books, supposing them to be some kind of despatch
Kin cypher." On the arrival of himself and his com-
panion, the doctor, at the gate of Odessa, a message
from the governor, Count Woronzow, greeted them.
The travellers were astonished, as they had no reason
to suppose that the Count bad the slightest know-
ledge of their arrival. The doctor expressed his
astonishment when admitted to an interview with
the Count. "Ah !" said his Excellency, after showing
by his inquiries that he was acquainted with the
minutest particulars respecting the travellers, " we
" know everything in Russia." "A voyage from Cape
" Town to Suez by way of Madras" is briskly related ;
and "Eight Days on Camel-back" gives a lively
notion of travel in Upper Egyyt. The " Happy
" Family" and "The Westminster Pantomime"
deserve a cordial word from THE PRESS, as showing
mirthful spirit of the right sort.
The first number of the Bombay Quarterly Review
was published in January last. A quarterly review,
published in Calcutta, has existed for some years,
but the subjects treated within its pages have been
exclusively of Bengal interest, while Western India
has hitherto had no fair representative of its wants
and opinions. On these grounds the present Bombay
Review has been started, and, to judge from the
ability displayed in this, the first number, with every
prospect of success. There are six articles, com-
prising lengthened reviews of Mr. Mackay's reports
upon the cotton-growing capabilities of Guzerat,
Thackeray's novels, Erskine's "History of India,"
and Lord Metcalfe's memoirs, with other local sub-
jects. The policy of the review appears to be coin
cident with that of the Company in all Indian affairs,
though the prospectus promises to give only trust-
worthy information regarding the institutions and
condition of the people. In the present number the
review of "Thackeray's Novels" is the best of the
literary articles.

Worlds beyond the Earth. By M. L. Phillips.

London : Bentley.
THE author, in attempting to explain the process
by which our world was created, supposes that the
earth and all the other planets, which he asserts
are inhabited, were originally in a gaseous state,
from which, by gradual condensation, they have
contracted into hollow globes—the form which, he
asserts, they at present possess. Mr. Phillips is a
daring speculator, and to all doubts which may be
raised to his theories, on the ground of insufficiency
of evidence, is always ready with a "Why not?"
The appearance of falling stars, he supposes, in
common with eminent astronomers, to ho produced
by meteoric stones revolving round the earth. Of
such stones we are not without specimens. Certainly
they afford no indication of being fit for the habita-
tion of living thing. But hear Mr. Phillips:—" Can
" such small bodies be inhabited? will he a question.
" Why not? is the answer we must give to such a
" question." We are frequently reminded in reading
Mr. Phillips's book how true it is that the simplest
child may ask questions which the wisest of men
cannot answer. To the difficulty that other planets
have not an atmosphere, and therefore could not
sustain human life, he replies, "Are lungs abso-
" lutely necessary ?" We can, of course, suppose
that the Deity may create forms of life, totally inde-
pendent of all the conditions on which life depends
in our world—all we can say is that life, such as we
know it on earth, could subsist only in connection
with the earth. So far as we know, life ceases at a
-very short remove from its surface; and the utmost
knowledge our faculties can attain is, that some
.great laws which prevail on earth prevail in the
realms of space beyond it. There are few more un
profitable employments for the mind than rash and
unauthorised kind of conjecture, which can rest its
case on no better ground than a " Why not?"

Our Liturgy and its History. A Manual for Church-
men. London : Hope and Co.
A BRIEF, but well-written summary of all the leading
facts connected with the history of our Rook of
Common Prayer. The writer reduces the seventy
primitive Liturgies of the Christian Church to four
leading forms—the Oriental, the Alexandrian, the
Roman, and the Gallican, which, upon the authority
of Palmer and Hooker, he asserts to be the source
of all other forms. The Galilean Liturgy, of great
antiquity, is the one upon which our Liturgy is