The Press.
London, England, 1854-10-07 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

Minister of War expressing a desire to see me. 1 pro-
ceeded at once into his presence. He again congratulated
me on my release, and added, that his Imperial Majesty
had ordered him to present me with a sword, which he
trusted would not be unwelcome from its being Russian, as
they had not an English one to give me in place of mine.
He hoped it would serve as a memorial of the treatment I
had met with in Russia; and concluded by observing that
he had no doubt I should speak well of them and assure
my countrymen that they were not suck barbarians as the
papers had represented them. He shook bands with me,
making use of some kind and complimentary expressions,
in which " mutual esteem and regard " predominated,
and said that I should be duly informed of the Emperor's
decision as to the route by which I should return to
England.

If only for the sake of appearances, the
Emperor might have carried his magnanimity
farther. it is pitiful to retain a few of the
Tiger crew still in captivity, on the plea that
Euxine and Baltic prisoners cannot be ex-
changed against each other. We are obliged
to Lieutenant Royer for his narrative. It
will amply satisfy curiosity on one unhappy
incident of the war, but we are afraid it will
create an impression that the "first lieute-
nant " has more of the unsuspicious Jack Tar
in his nature than of the shrewdness requisite
to pierce through the deception with which,
for intelligible purposes, it was the object of
the Russian Government to surround him.
The volume is neatly produced, at a low
price, and will no doubt meet with an exten-
sive sale.

1. Tke Pride of Life. By Lady Scott.

2. Leweli Pastures. By the Author of " Sir
Frederick Dement."
Routledge and Co.

WE class these novels together, as, though
very different in style and Eubject, they are the
most agreeable and natural domestic tales we
have lately met with, and, in point of merit,
the best original fictions of their kind which
Mr. Routledge has issued. They arc both
stories of the day, and reflect modern society
and manners ; but the first is principally occu
pied with the gay life of town, and the second
with country scenes and incidents. We are not
aware who Lady Scott may be, but she writes
with taste and ease : her portraiture of cha
racter, if not very decisive, is skilfully indi
cated and perfectly free from exaggeration ;
and her story, except in instances to be pre-
sently noticed, flows on with the natural
current of truth itself.

In the principal male figures she has taken
an opposite view of character to that generally
supported by novelists. The light-hearted,
gay, careless Felix Wynn, though not equal
to great sacrifices, or to defy conventiona 1
usage, proves himself to be disinterested,
tender, generous, capable of cherishing a last-
ing attachment, but not sufficiently sus-
ceptible to suffer from the excess of violent
passion, in this respect resembling the John
Smith of a recent novel, whose name, person,
age, and character seemed to typify mediocrity
of the best class. Mordaunt Evelyn, on the
other hand, is sensitive, passionate, and
proud; reserved, but ungovernable ; with most
of the faults and few of the virtues of that
thin-skinned nature which, without high in-
tellect or great feeling, is apt to degenerate
into mere selfishness. These young men are
friends. They are struck at the same moment
with the exquisite beauty of a young girl who
is studying as an artist. She is poor, and her
family distressed. One gentleman buys her
works at a handsome price, and thus relieves
her family, and gains for her patronage; the
other toys with her till his passion passes self-
control. Felix Wynn flies temptation, Mor-
daunt Evelyn ields to it. His family is ex-
cessively proud and high: it is necessary that
he should make a wealthy alliance to maintain
his station, but his passion is too strong fur
resistance, and the young girl becomes his
wife.

In fiction, as in real life, the most charming
histories are produced by the passion which,
if selfish, yet subdues all baser selfishness,
and makes great sacrifices to attain its
object. When this love is justified by worth,
and sustained with heart and energy, and
when from resulting happiness and prospelity
the world is forced to confess that what it re•
garded as folly was in reality prudence, the

953

romance terminates exactly as we could wish.
But more often, we fear, the passion proves
transitory, and the sacrifice is regretted ; and
it is this aspect of a love match which Lady
Scott delineates. Mordaunt, however, does
not treat his wife harshly : she is gentle and
accomplished, and ho has no reason to be dis-
satisfied with her; but he dreads her rela-
tives, and he is exacting, and he frets at his
straitened income. The trials of his wife's
career at this time are represented with great
fidelity to nature, yet with dramatic force and
colouring. She has to submit to many mord-
ficatious from her husband's high family, who
receive her with an ill grace ; and the little
slights and wrongs by which she is made
miserable, and her affection for Mordaunt
weakened, are touchingly told. The social
scenes and characters of this part of the book
are very effective. But, after all, there is some
obscurity about her birth, and the narrative
suddenly drops from the reality of an estab-
lishment in Curzon-street into that maze of
mystery in which novel-manufacturers delight.
All this part of the story is, we think, a mis-
take ; and we like as little the contrivances by
which she is turned into a lady of rank and
noble fortune as we do the adventures which
relieve her from her husband—now pitiably re-
duced in circumstances—and enable her, after
a long widowhood, to wed into the peerage.
The tale is worth a better conclusion, and we
hope, when the authoress writes again, that
she will have the good taste to rely more en-
tirely on her power to please by adhering to
truthful incident. On the whole, we have
been greatly pleased with "The Pride of Life,"
and are satisfied that novel-readers will thank
us for bringing this one to their notice.
2. " Lewell Pastures " is in quite a different
vein. The action is entirely in the country.
A young gentleman retires in disgust front the
gay world when the brilliant girl he adored
forsook him for his elder brother, and devotes
himself to the improvement of a small estate
he possesses in a wild and sequestered dis.
trict. The characters here, removed from
social influences, assume decided and, in some
cases, grotesque shapes of humanity. They
are not like the ordinary personages one
meets with in the country, but they have sit
the appearance of real living men and women
nevertheless. The incidents of the book par-
take of the same out-of-the-way character,
resembling in this respect such fictions as
"Wurthering Heights" rather than the exces-
sively commonplace portraiture of Miss Austin.
Nothing can be more unpromising for ro-
mance than the commencement of this narra-
tive. The hero who tells his own tale is
situated in a desolate house, with a barren
country round, and has for his near neigh-
bours only a miserly, brutal, old landowner,
with whom lie soon falls into dispute about
right of way, and a couple of poor maiden
sisters, who, through long seclusion, have
quite lost sight of the world and its ways, and
scream at the view of a man. But even these
characters engage us. Sir Jasper Egremont
has strongly-marked qualities, and the poor
ladies, Pope and Pagan, with their queer ideas
and habits, move equally to laughter and pity.
Then, after a time, the scene opens, and the
lovely, shy, nunlike Grace Egremont, the old
man's granddaughter, whom he will never ac-
knowledge; the bewitching Edith Erskine, with
her concealed love—guilty, yet pure ; the
wealthy, vulgar widow, and her ever-careful
maitre d'hotel; with men of ardent pessions
and desperate nature, appear upon the stage.
The mansion of Sir Jasper is burnt down, and
the old man dies. The perplexity of his heir,
as he fancies himself, who comes into posses-
sion of large property, but all involved iu
various degrees of entanglement, is humo-
rously described :
" I can't—no, really, believe that Sir Jasper has beau hi
considerate enough to die without putting things in wipe
for me. It is so horribly seltiab and inconvenient Id
no conception what it wan to have one's house burned
down. Yon don't know what a nuisance I have found it;"
Malvern said, in a tone of great dissatisfaction. " Now r
protest, Harry—you won't believe it-1 dare say you an
envying me, and 1 do think the old fellow might have re-
membered you in some manner—but not happy. I
am so hipped and bothered, yon can't think bow it worries
rue, not knowing where the old sinner has locked up his
nioney. There's monstrous little in the beak, this
land's nothing superfine--at least, 1 don't think so. Ota
the whole, I'm uncommonly disappointed. It is not at all

R

I

954

the kind of thing that suits me. There is such a great
deal of trouble ! lam not equal to it."
• • • •

" I'll be hanged if I think it is a gentlemanly way of
leaving one a property !" he said, with great warmth.
" Why could he not have agents and stewards to whom one
might apply, to know about the estates ? I can't make
out what they bring in. If there were a good round sum
in the bank, that might be very useful. Why could not he
have his money in the funds ?—or in railroads !-1 can
make out about the shares in the line ; though I
don't suppose I shall turn them to much account, and it's
not a good time for selling. At all events, they will fetch
nnething. They must go if nothing else is forthcoming.
There are those horrid iron-works ! What on earth can such
a man as I am do with them ? and the woods have been cut
for the fires till there is not a tree worth ten pounds
among them. It's a perfect nuisance to come into such a
property."
The narrative is written in a quiet style, and
the reader is commonly left to conjecture the
romance of the story from the occurrence of
ample incidents plainly told. We do not re•
collect any novel since "Jane Eyre" more likely
to grow upon the public than this tale of
" Lewell Pastures," as it is very original and
very attractive.

PERIODICAL LITERATURE.

THE London Quarterly opens with a powerfully-
written article upon the sceptical literature of the
soi-diaant Spiritualists of the day, more particularly
referring to the works of Francis Newman and
Theodore Parker. A quiet hut able defence of Chris
tianity introduces the subject of this new phi-
losophy :
"By what name they would choose to be distinguished
we cannot tell. No one would stigmatise them as Itation-
alists,' unless themselves should loudly insist upon the
n true. They cannot be called ' Catholic,' for that term is
not due to the professors of a heterogeneous jumble of all
p )ssible and impossible mythologies,but is justly restricted
to those who profess that Christian faith which is in itself
cl .finite and consistent, but, in its adaptation to the nature
aid necessities of all men, equal and universal. Nor are
they strictly to be called eclectic,' for though their creed
I ; a singular compound of all religions, philosophies, and
i 'fidelities, it is certainly not put together on any known
p inciple of reason or taste. The most prominent feature
of this new form of infidelity is its assumption of religious
a titude, and even a profession of Christianity itself. .
In the twofold character of sceptic's and religionists they
n Aurally seek a double refuge, that, when put to rout by
Atheist or Christian, they may find appropriate shelter and
defence. If the Materialist charges on the one hand with his
secular philosophy, and challenges them to surrender the
notion of a God and a future world as figments of superstition,
those gentlemen put their hands upon their hearts and
whine endlessly about the beautiful intuitions of the reli-
gious sentiment. If the Christian, hearing these admis-
sions of a spiritual world and moral sense, claims a
hearing for the doctrines, miracles, and divinity of Christ,
Viey throw back their heads with a slight action of scorn.
an! beg to be considered as men of 'rational' ideas and
clinmon sense. It is no use to remonstrate against such
II grant inconsistency. They continue to abuse Christianity
for its assertion of truths which reason alone was never
able to demonstrate, and to assume, in spite of reason and
without pretence to revelation, the existence of virtues and
divinities of every kind, which the Materialist naturally
holds up to laughter and derision."
The principles and pretensions of this sceptical
philosophy are met by the reviewer with earnest
argument, though at this time of day Christianity
can have nothing to fear from either the skilful so-
phistry of Mr. Newman, or the open scepticism of
Mr. Parker. There never was a time when either
had less chance of misleading the public, from the
complete refutation which in numberless shapes has
been given to the errors they attempt to revive. The
scepticism which doubts everything may secure itself
from defeat by ignoring all knowledge, even to prin-
ciples of reasoning land the " cogito, ergo sum " of
Descartes ; but such scepticism as that professed by
Mr. Newman is, as Mr. Rogers, in his eloquent
" Eclipse of Faith " and " Defence"—both following
in the track of " Butler's Analogy"—most elo
qnently and convincingly shows, completely untenable.
The history of the brothers Newman, both able and
we are sure sincere—the one, to speak plainly, an
infidel, and the other a monk—deserves, and no
doubt hereafter will receive, special notice, if only
as illustrating the vanity of intellectual specula
Lion wan destitute of reverence and puffed up
with an opinion of its own infallibility. The
articles upon " Travels in Abyssinia," " Types of
Mankind," "Jerome Cardan," and the "Methodist
Episcopal Church in America," appear to be written
with competent knowledge. The sixth article, upon
the" New Educational Measure for India," claims some
- reviewer, misled by
. Sir Charles Wood's
received, is disposed to
scheme confessedly
the existing means of
rest ebb, than in the
nil machinery. The
, through which instruc •
what is to be gained by

THE PRESS.

teaching the natives their own languages, and encou-
raging them to study the superstitious lore of the
Sanscrit, Persian, or Arabic languages, we cannot un-
derstand. Even the London Quarterly doubts the
"political wisdom of such a plan," and admits "that
" every English book a Hindu reads is an advance
" on all he knew or thought before, tends toward
" European modes of thinking, and so far is a pre-
" paration for future progress." Then why not en-
courage the study of English literature? But, so far
from doing so, the present educational plan positively
abolishes and reduces the various scholarships and
exhibitions in the English colleges already existing
in the country, compels instruction in the lower
schools to be given in the vernacular tongue, though,
to be sure, in the higher schools English may be
used, but yet the preference is to be given to the ver-
nacular. We must remark upon the inconsistency
of the reviewer, who at one page doubts the pont].-
" cal wisdom of cultivating any other language, in a
" country like India, than our own English," gives two
or three pages of anecdote and proof in support of
this view, and then remarks that the " Go-
" vernment, with a wisdom that cannot be too much
" commended, is anxious to direct great attention to
" the vernacular tongues that the English and
" vernacular are the languages to teach when two can
" be taught; when but one, the vernacular of course."
If we wish to Europeanise the intellect of India, we
can only do so by the establishment of our own lan-
guage through every branch of trade and professions.
In a paper on " Recent Roman History " the reviewer
considers that Providence has yet something in store
for Italy :
" History teaches us that political convulsions have
always either preceded or accompanied great religious
movements, and Italy will be no exception to the rule. Her
recent internal throes are not only evidence of the deca-
dence of Papal influence upon the minds of the people;
they are the wild struggles of a blinded giant towards the
light Meantime the sympathies and prayers of Chris-
tians will attend their career—a country whose inhabitants
possess in a pre-emineut degree some of the finest charac-
teristics of humanity, and whose history can claim the
records of two civilisations, can never be viewed with in-
difference by the rest of the world."
In the last article, on the Crystal Palace, the reviewer
is strongly opposed to any Sunday opening :
" The moment Sunday becomes a day of pleasure it
ceases to be a day of rest. Let no man deceive himself or
dupe the working classes. Before the Crystal Palace had
been open seven years on Sunday the weekly rest of a
London editor, reporter, clerk, shopmau, postman, or
artisan, would not be worth more than that of his brethren
in Paris. If one exhibition is good so is another. All
sorts would rush in at the gap made by the Crystal Palace."
This consideration is of great weight. All trade may,
in one sense, be said to minister to amusement.
Regent-street is pleasanter to walk in when all the
shops are open and decked out with their merchan-
dise than when they are closed. We are strongly in-
clined to think that the working classes are, above
all others, interested in keeping the Sunday as free
as possible from the ordinary avocations of the week,
even when they take the form of amusement.
The first and most voluminous article in Black-
wood is the continuation of the notice upon the dis-
pute between Whewell and Sir David Brewster, as
to whether other planets besides our own are inha-
bited or not. Wo have not space here to enter into
the merits of the arguments produced on either side,
but would observe with all humility to both Mr.
Whewell and Sir David Brewster that no argument,
no supposition, no inference, no conclusion that can
possibly be drawn will, in the present state of' human
knowledge, either prove or disprove the question. We
cannot agree with the "plurality men " that,
" wherever there is a sun there must be a planetary
"system, and that wherever there is a planetary sys-
" tem there must be life and intelligence." These are
but mere assumptions, not proofs :
" And this is the way," remarks the reviewer, " in which
it seems we worms of the earth feel ourselves at liberty to
deal with our Almighty Creator. dogmatically insisting
that every scene of existence in which He may have dis-
played His omnipotence is but a repetition of that parti-
cular one in which we have our allotted place ! As if He
had but one pattern for universal creation! Only one
scheme for the peopling and dealing with infinitude ! Oh!
that the clay should thus think of Him that feshioneth it !
Forgetting, in an exulting moment of blindness and pre-
sumption, his own awful words, ' My thoughts are not as
your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. For as the
heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher
than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.'"
There is one thing to be remarked, that the first
astronomers of the day do not dispute upon these
points : they know that such things are neither easy,
and perhaps not necessary, to be positively deter-
mined by mere inference. The other articles are rather
solid than amusing, with the exception of the con-
cluding letter upon Spanish politics. Speaking of
Christina's departure from Spain, " Vidette " is of opi-
nion that it was the best way to get rid of her, for they
soon found in Madrid that,whatever probability there
was of the Queen-Mother intriguing abroad, there was
a certainty that she would be dangerous at home, for
the palace was already becoming a focus of intrigue;

SATURDAY, 1

and the reactionary party, having their old protec-
tress to lean upon, were so active that the Govern.
ment were forced into thrusting her out of Madrid
and of Spain at the same time, even at the risk of a
revolt of the people, who thirsted for her punishment.
Of the ultimate fate of Cuba " Vidette " has little
doubt, unless England and France interfere. He is
inclined to think that its sale to the United States
would, on the whole, be an advantageous arrange-
ment for Spain.
Colburn's New Monthly, among a number of plea-
sant papers, notices Dr. Veron's fourth volume of
memoirs, which supplies some amusing anecdotic
gossip about Rachel and Louis Philippe. Speaking
of the King's remarkable condescension to the
bourgeois of Paris, the writer observes that

" Tallemant des Riau% relates that a Spaniard, seeing
King Louis XIII. take off his hat to several persons who
were in the court of the Louvre, said to the Archbishop of
Rouen, who was by his side, What ! does your King take
off his hat to his subjects? "Yes,' replied the archbishop,
'he is very civil.' Oh,' said des Reaux, ' the King my
master knows much better how to keep his place : he only
takes off his hat to the consecrated host, and that very
much against his will.' "
- - - -

Dudley Costello's " Abduction of Lady Caroline
Caper " is a laughable account of a fashionable
elopement. The other articles afford agreeable
light reading.
The Dublin University Magazine has a varied
table of contents. The " Biographical Sketches and
Anecdotes" revive some characteristic incidents in
connection with great names. A pilgrimage to the
land of Leix and Ossory gives an absurd description
of hotel-lodging as it is to be found at Lanark during
fair time. In the present chapters of "Mosses upon
Gravestones " we have a clever dissection of a
" manage de convenance ;" and later there is a pas-
sage which displays an intimate knowledge of the
nature of men :

" There are some characters that love once, and only
once. Others there are whose heart breaks by little bits;
of such the last love is generally stronger than the first.
Have you ever observed men, mature in thought and pas-
sion, over whose soul most of the great griefs of human
life have already passed, suddenly, in their middle life, fall
with a terrible earnestness in love with a mere schoolgirl,
some child whose soul has yet scarcely begun to bud into
consciousness ? And have you marvelled greatly that these
grave gentlemen should be tripped up thus quaintly, after
all their serious experience, by the tricksy blind boy-god?
To me the wonder is intelligible enough. This passion is
their last link to youth : if that snaps, they must fall back
upon old age at once. No boy falls in love with a mere
girl—rather will he waste his heart's first flower and fra-
grance upon some hackneyed woman of the world, that can
help him in the difficulty of a first emotion. It is not so
with these men. They love to reproduce their own youth
in that of another, and taste once more, and for the last
time, its old-remembered sweetness. The old sentiment
comes back to them with all its delicious and tender ex-
travagance, and, gathering up the full sum and strength of
manhood's ripened capacities, sheathes itself in the anguish
and strange beauty of last hope."
The passage is equally true of the love—for there is
such a thing—of middle-aged women. There are
several reviews in the number, one upon a late spas-
modic tragedy, and another on Milman's " Latin
Christianity."
The first paper of Fraser is on Sir B. Brodie's
" Psychological Inquiries." Speaking of mental la-
bour, the writer instances
Cuvier as having been usually engaged for seven hours
daily in his scientific researches, these not having been of
a nature to require continuous thought ; and Sir Walter
Scott as having devoted about six hours daily to literary
composition, and then his mind was in a state to enjoy
lighter pursuits afterwards. When, however, after his mis-
fortunes, lie allowed himself no relaxation, there can be
little doubt, as Eubulus observes, that his over-exertion
contributed, as much as the moral suffering he endured,
to the production of the disease of the brain which ulti-
mately caused his death.
"One day, when he was thus exerting himself beyond
his powers, Sir Walter said to Captain Basil Hall, who
also suffered and died from disease in the brain,
" How many hours can you work ?'
" Six,' answered the captain.
" ' But can't you put on the spurs ? '
"' If I do, the horse won't go.'
"' So much the better for you,' said Scott, with a sigh.
' When I put on the spurs, the horse will go well enough ;
but it is killing the horse.' "
The fact is, it is as impossible to lay down rules for
the management of the mind as for the manage-
ment of the body. In the paper on " The
Turk and His Future" it is surmised that the
Moslem's regeneration is not so easily to be ac-
complished as some believe. The Ottoman nation-
ality is religious as well as political, and so little
moral improvement seems ever to accrue to those
Turks who have had the advantage of a foreign educa-
tion that they appear but too frequently to lose their
old virtues of truth and honesty for a questionable
intellectuality. In a second paper on "The Russian
Army " the writer displays much inner knowledge of
the whole system and materiel of the Muscovite
force, and demonstrates the bard facts that exist to
prevent the marching of the half million of bayonets
which it has been said the Government has always

little notice at. our hands. The
the interested approval which
India education despatch has rec
regard it favourably. But the
oxisists more in the revision of tl
education, which are at the low
adoption of ant• new education
• 'macular languages are those th
Sion is to be conveyed; and who