The Press.
London, England, 1856-09-06 00:00:00

Friday, September 5.

BANKRUPTS.—Joszrn MiLLER, Bevois-street, Southamp-
ton, publican—SAsrust. DAVIS, Bristol, g:otier—EDWARD
PERRY. Fenchurch-buildings, merchan,—Goi,rarr GitsnottY
PIPE, Birmingham, grocer—HENßY JAMES Baowx, Queen's-
buildings, Knightsbridge, cheesemonger—DONALl. M
JOHN M'Kiat, and ROBERT LAMONT, Liverpool, merchants—
Wtmasit Barrrsis Joss Birmingham, gi ocet—SAitust.
Sutra, Northampton, machine maker—WiLmax SMITH, Wat-
ford, Hertfordshire. banker—JAMßS ADAMS, crown-wharf, shad
Thames. millwright—JAMEs THOMAS, Ebbw Vale, Maanotali-
shire, grocer—Pm:it SCATTERGOOD, StApleford, machine maker
—NATHANIEL ELl.lorr. Manchester, oigar dealer.,
SCOTCH sEQUESTRATIONS.—JAMES STEEL and Sows,
Dundee, engineers and iron founders—Ham. and ROBSON,
Glasgow, sewed-muslin warehousemen—Messrs. JAMES and
THOMAS M'Ksswn, Glasgow, oil merchants.

The inquest upon the bodies of those persons
killed in Swan alley last Tuesday was held yesterday,
before Mr. Payne, at St. Bartholomew's Hospital.
The evidence of the different tenants showed that
the house was in a most dilapidated condition, but
they had not complained of it to Mr. Crane, the
landlord. The district surveyor .sid the house pre-
sented no dangerous appearances from without ; it fell
simply from the rottenness of the ends of the joists and
rafters. Mr. Crane, the landlord, said that he had
never examined the main timbers of the house. He
had no notion it was in dang.-r of falling. Mr Par e
summed up, and the jury, after deliberating twenty
minutes, returned a verdict of " Accidental death,"
accompanied with the following recommendation :
The jury earnestly recommend to the Commissioners of
Sewers that they would authorise a special survey forth-
with to he made of all buildings in the city of London,
that from age, or other causes, may be supposed to be out
of substantial,repair.

SEPT. 6, 1856.

;Siteraturt.

Drecl: a Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp. By
Harriet Beecher Stowe. London : Samp-
son Low and Co.

MRS. STOWE'S new tale is of much the same
material and texture as " Uncle Tom " Like
that production, it is various in its matter and
very unequal in its parts. Much of it is
written in the style of such American books
as " Queechy," made up fur the most part of
the peculiar chit-chat and social portraiture of
what we suppose we must accept—from the
general similarity of representation—as a true
reflection of domestic life in the United
States. But there is in "Dred," as in " Uncle
Tom," passages of such remarkable power, as
entirely to separate these works from tile class
to which in other respects they bear so strong
a resemblance. There are whole chapters in
"Dred," as we shall presently show, of intellec-
tual power of the very highest kind that has
ever poured itself into shapes of romance.
The main difference between " Uncle Tom "
and " Dred " is, that while the former was
purely social, the latter, though still relating
to modern times, is in its more serious parts
of a historical cast. The story of " Dred " is
such a one as Scott might have seized on if
he had been born in the United States.
Dred is the son of a slave, Denmark Vesey by
name, who, having obtained his freedom, be-
came the head of a conspiracy in South Caro-
lina for liberating the black population.
Died was a lad of fourteen when Vesey was
executed ; he saw his father die, and was him-
self sold to a distant plantation. But his
nature was untameable ; he struck his over-
seer dead, took to the swamps, and was never
more heard of. In this romance an imaginary
career is shaped out for him, consistent with
the few known facts of his history. Though
the story of Dred is but an episode in the
book, it is by far its most important portion,
the parts in which he appears being written
in a style of masculine eloquence, which is
always in the highest degree impressive, and
often rises to sublimity.
To the author of this book belongs the
merit of being the first to perceive the ele-
ments of romance involved in the very ex-
istence of a slave population in the midst
of a free community in modern times.
It follows, from the state of society in
the southern States, that the two races must
blend and mingle with each other, until acci•
dent, rather than any ri.dical difference in
mental constitution, determines the mighty
alternative of admission into the ranks of
slavery or freedom. The offspring of a
planter by a female slave, perhaps herself a
mulatto of extraordinary gifts, may be equal
or superior to the children born to him in
lawful wedlock. They may even receive the
same kind of education and training, their
earlier years may be festered with the same
tenderness, but they may nevertheless grow
up slaves, denied the commonest rights of
humanity, be liable to be bought and sold like
cattle, and to be overtaskeil, flogged, tortures,
ground to death at the will of a capricious or
cruel master. Such a state of society must
contain within itself materials of romance of
the most striking character, as it is impossible
to conceive any human condition where greater
scope is afforded for unrestrained will on one
side, or for deeper suffering, with all the feel-
ings and passions which the last extreme of
anguish brings with it, on the other. The
immense popularity of " Uncle Tom " was, we
think, principally attributable to its being the
first work of any pretension which skilfully
employed these materials of romance for pur-
poses of fiction, and made the modern world
aware that the slave States of America teemed
with the first requisites of tragic emotion,
pity and terror.

The social sketches in the present romance
are not equal to those in the previous produc-
tion of the author. There are no characters
so original as Uncle Tom and Topsy, and the
book wants the freshness which so greatly
contributed to the popularity of its predeces-
sor. But the narrative is scarcely less ex-
citing, and we think it altogether calculated