The Press.
London, England, 1854-09-30 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

love of abstract thought, many of his specula-
tions appear exceedingly strange to us, yet his
views are in the main correct and sagacious.
It is his purpose to elucidate the origin and
progress of the Turkish imbroglio up to the
moment that hostilities between the Western
powers and Russia broke out. His work is suffi
ciently remarkable to induce us to give a parti-
cular account of it, though we must guard against
being supposed to endorse his opinions. The
transactions to which he refers have now be

come history, and, whenever truly related, will
constitute a shameful chapter in our Minis-
terial annals. It is impossible to look back
on them without a feeling of indignation at
the weakness, the duplicity, the confusion, and
the blundering they display.
M. Bauer, refining too flu-, says the founda-
tion of the Eastern quarrel was laid in the
eighteenth century, when Fox desired the
alliance of France as the surest pledge of
European peace. He also desired the protec-
torate of Russia ; and the passage quoted here
from his speech of 27th of May, 1803, is
curious, as showing that at that time there
existed, in his estimation, but three States
sufficiently powerful to disturb or to set tle the
peace of the world :
Fox, having learnt that the Emperor of Russia desired
not only to take Malta under his protection, but to extend
his mediation to the affairs of Switzerland, Holland, and
spai,,, spoke on the 27th of May, and conjured the Minis-
ter if they had at heart the interest of their country and
the p we of Europe, to seize this occasion to pluce the
rights of all independent nations and the interests of
Europe under the guarantee and protection of the prince who,
by his power, his character, and his rank, was of all sove-
reigns the most proper to be charged with their care and
the most skilful to protect them. If France," said he,
" meances the smaller States, what other means have you
to restrain her? What resources do you possess within
yourselves? It is only an alliance with Russia which would
give you those means, and, at the same time, the surest
hope of seeing the peace of Europe for ever zonsolidated."
Mr. Cobden, in the author's opinion, may in
advocating the Russian alliance shelter him-
self under the authority of the great Whig
statesman. " Fox a travaille pour lui." But,
Russia having become too powerful by the
results of the war, it was the policy of Can-
ning to raise in England the standard of revo-
lution as the veritable adversary of Russia.
In his celebrated speech on the affairs of Por-
tugal he declared that England, notwithstand-
ing her moderate intentions, might not be
able to escape the necessity of arraying under
her banners the unquiet and discontented
spirits of every country to which she declared
war. It is to the vaunted policy of this states-
man, urges M. Bauer, and not to the political
atheism of Mr. Cobden or the fearful scepti-
cism of Lord Aberdeen, that the existing
crisis is to be ascribed. He justifies this
view by reference to some of those diploma-
tic documents which display in a remarkable
manner the subtle workings of Russian
policy
"It must be acknowledged," wrote Pozzo di forgo in
his despatch of 22nd December, 1526, "that a revolution
is working in men's minds in England : but, as regards
that facility of causing revolutions of which the English
boast, it is infinitely less than they represent. They
may be able to provoke troubles or form conspiracies, but
they will expose their % ictims without being able to de-
fend them, because they have not armies to support them
with, and because those whom they devote to destruction
will fail in either energy or means to help themselves."

It is said here that Canning had so little faith
in the principles he expressed, that, on the
representation of Prince Lieven that language
like his had not been listened to by Europe
since the epoch of the French revolution, he
consented to modify or retract it in a new
edition of his speech.
It is, in our author's opinion, a signal proof
of the solid power of Russia that she has not
only broken up old arrangements in Europe,
but that she has forced the organisation of
new. ones. The empire, he says, with a felicity
of diction hardly capable of being rendered
into our tongue, " qui passe pour l'empire des
" façades et du prestige," has destroyed for
France the illusion of a political autocracy,
and for England the idea that she could be
arbiter of the world. Russia has taken her
part, and the other powers have grouped them-
selves about her.
The success of Russia in 1829 tended
mightily to increase her presumption, and by
natural sequence has led to the present
quarrel. The idea of Metternich to form a

-

SATURDAY,

league against Russia found no favour in
England. It was opposed, not only by Lord
Aberdeen, but by the Liberal party. Sir James
Mackintosh spoke of the danger of guaranteeing
the integrity of the Ottoman territory ; and
Lord Palmerston, insisting upon the mainte-
nance of peace, argued that a Turco•Austriau
policy would only tend to disturb it. The
Russian envoys in London correctly appre•
ciated the state of affairs. "It is from our
" camp," they wrote from London in June,
1829, " that peace must be concluded, and,
" when it is concluded, Europe may be in•
" formed of the conditions. Protests will be
" too late then, and one suffers patiently what
" one is unable to prevent."
It was (as we now know from the conversations
of the Emperor Nicholas with Sir Hamilton
Seymour) through a like belief that no league
could be formed against the designs of Russia
that the enterprise against Turkey was under
taken, and there was a time when it seemed
that the expectations of the Czar would be
completely fulfilled. Lord Aberdeen's Govern-
ment was notoriously hostile to a cordial
alliance with France :
The invariable theme of the Times since the commence•
ment of the discussion was—Russia and France have
excited the contest by tormenting the Porte with their
pressing demands: let them settle their quarrel themselves;
England has nothing to do with it ; she will wait the issue
of their dispute to act as she may think proper, consulting
only her own interests. _ _

M. Bauer imagines that at the time when the
attitude of Russia became more threatening,
and our Ministry, alarmed, drew nearer to
France, that speculations like these passed
through the mind of Louis Napoleon :

He said to himself—The subaltern position of France is,
then, a fact so incontestable in your eyes that you think
you can afford to yield to me the harmless honourof taking
the first step. But it is I rather who will attach you
to my career, and who will compel you to follow me.
Since you cannot deny that, face to face with
Russia, you are reduced to the second rank, you
would take your revenge by humiliating France to the third
rank, and by making her play the part of a satellite of Eng-
land. But I will rather make you the accomplices of what
you call my passion, and will chain England as the satel-
lite of France. You have sacrificed me to Russia on the
question of the Holy Places ; you ere bound to her by se-
cret promises ; and you hope to sacrifice me again to your
engagements. But, by hazardous enterprises continually
renewed, I will occupy you in such a manner that you shall
no more think of traversing my projects by pacific nego-
tiations. You have reserved for yourselves the last word;
but, by the aid of the opposition which is never silent
among you, I will force you into a position so advanced as
to leave 'you no choice, and, profiting by the confusion in
your camp, I, the saviour of France, will finish by saving
England also. The urgent manner in which you solicit
me, in spite of your secret plans and your antipathy
against me—with the change in political relations—prove
that the political system of the West is troubled. Does
not the Anglo-French alliance which you have been com-
pelled to stoop to proclaim in your Parliament prove
that the existing political system does not suffice for the
greatness of the question which has arisen—that no confi-
dence is felt in its solidity—and that the point of gravita-
tion has yet to be found? And it is my pleasure to avail
myself of this alliance that I may become the point of gra-
vitation.
Following up this view, M. Bauer shows
that the French Governinent has on all occa-
sions taken the initiative in the proceedings
with Russia. It was the French Government
which drew up the Vienna note—which first
sent its fleet to Beicos Bay—which forced the
English fleet to pass the Dardanelles, and,
" with the aid of Palmerston's ministerial in-
" sumetion," to enter the Black Sea. Subse-
quently the English Cabinet, without a definite
policy of its own, was forced by France into a
position which admitted of no matured design
or systematic action. The Emperor of France
steadily moved forward in resistance to Russia,
while Lord Aberdeen's Ministry, perplexed,
divided, and uncertain, submitted to be
dragged in his train, her solicitations to Aus-
tria being met with what M. Bauer calls
the mistrust that she has only too well
" merited," and to Russia with anger and
contempt. If it be true that the expedition
to the Crimea has been undertaken solely in
consequence of imperative orders from the
French Government, the fact would furnish a
new illustration of M. Bauer's theory.
We may say that this gentleman does justice
to the accuracy of the information given in om
columns. The assertion of the PRESS, he
says, that Lord Aberdeen had entered into an
engagement with Russia not to regard the
occupation of the principalities as a easus belli,
was proved by the result to be incontestably

SEPTEMBER 30, 1854.

true, and he notices how fully our warning
words, " The star of England pales, something
" ignominious is impending," were borne out
by the publication of the Nesselrode circular.
To the division in the councils of our Govern-
ment, and to the duplicity and weakness of our
Foreign-office, the author traces all the mis-
chief which has happened. Lord Aberdeen
held aloof from France till forced into alliance
with it, and then reluctantly followed its dic-
tation. If M. Bauer may be taken as a fair
representative of the public feeling of his
country, England is regarded in Germany only
as a fearful and tardy attendant on the action
of France.

M. Bauer's brochure has literary merit of a
high order. One of his best passages is a
clever but somewhat forced parallel between
Lord Palmerston and M. Neckar :

Neckar presented himself to France in promising to
crush the monster of financial deficit, and the credulous
people expected him to perform the exploit. England, in turn
boasted that it possessed a hero who would satisfy the,
political deficit—it is Palmerston. Both were heroes of
petty expedients and great promises, destitute of courage
and energv ; both excited the masses without contenting
them, and were too impotent to overcome difficulties ;
both were frivolous, and forced by engagements lightly con•
tracted to raise the storm before which they quailed the
first; both were troublesome to the Court, yet sustained
by it, from respect to popular prejudice; both were dis-
missed by the Court, and recalled to calm the ferment of
the masses ; both equally vain, self• important, bustling,
and dangerous ; both equally penetrated with an idea of
their mission, believing themselves the last saviours of
their country; and both equally destined to augment the
discontent they knew not how to appease, and to raise the
muses they knew not how to govern.

Whatever truth the parallel may possess it
does not hold good as respects the situations
in which the two were placed. M. Bauer has
an exaggerated idea of the momentary clamour
raised against the Court in connection with
Lord Palmerston's retirement. But there can
be no doubt that his lordship's importance as
a public man was finally lost when he con-
sented to return to office under Lord Aberdeen,
and when he further allowed the Duke of
Newcastle to be appointed to the post for
which his partisans loudly declared he was the
only person fit.

Another clever paragraph is on the contrast
between the action of the Porte and the great
European powers :

What a contrast! On one side the energy of the West
exhausts itself In designs and plans which, declared to be
decisive, turn out to be vain menaces, fertile only in
illusions, which, praised as the last safety, tend only to
total defeat. On the other, reserve, absence of precipita-
tion, immobility bordering on apathy, no transactions,—
the maintenance of a formal demand once for all,—an un-
alterable air, and a fixed eye which observes the exhaus-
tion of its adversaries and watches the moment to strike a
decisive blow. Is not this apathy, which disguises energy
of action, the distinctive characteristic of the Oriental
race? This tenacity and constancy which awaits the
moment to act, is it not the particular gift of the Slave
race? Or is it rather the attribute of intelligence and the
recompense which political science receives for those
initiated in it? Does it not prove the truth of the
proverb that knowledge is power, and does it not confirm
the dogma that spirit rules the world? In the extremity
to which the ephemeral diplomacy of the powers had ex-
posed Europe, Turkey, whose patriotism had sanctified her
cause, towards the end of October proceeded to save the
civilisation of the West.

In another remarkable passage he describes
the position occupied by Turkey in the Euro-
pean system :

Europe has need of Turkey in the interest of her repose
and her safety. Hut she is no longer in a state to render
those services which have conferred on her the eminent
place she fills in the political system of Europe. In the
middle ages the Holy See was the universal arbiter which
mitigated the hostile passions of nations by opposing to
them the ideas and interests of universal Christianity.
After its fall the Porte replaced it by curbing the hateful
pessions of the Western nations through the fear she
caused to all, and by the peril with which she menaced the
States which burned to destroy each other. The necessity of
her existence to the political equilibrium has even become
the fundamental dogma of our actual diplomacy. • • •
But it is a great mistake to suppose that the Ottoman em•
pre, without force and without life, may be capable of
making continual efforts, and of sacrificing itself for the
safety of all Europe.

The conclusion at which this thoughtful and
eloquent but somewhat paradoxical writer ar-
rives is, that in departing from the first Vienna
note the powers last the only clue which could
have guided them through the labyrinthine
difficulty, and that Russia will eventually
triumph by maintaining this note which the
Western powers may disavow, but cannot
annihilate.

THE PRESS.

Handbook for Travellers in Ireland. By James
Fraser. Dublin : M'Glashan.
TRAVELLING in Ireland has greatly increased
during the last few years. Railways have,
vastly facilitated excursions even through that
mountainous island, and the disagreeable
incidents of posting over bad roads are now
entirely removed In seven days from Lon-
don and back a person can make without in •
convenience a very pleasant tour through the
best part of Ireland. The objects most wor-
thy of observation are the city of Dublin and
the Lakes of Killarney. In the metropolis of
Ireland the strong features of Irish society
can easily be recognised. There is a sluttish
splendour and an aspiring attempt at magnifi-
cence about the externals of Dublin that seem
faithful representatives of the shadowy yet
aspiring aims visible in the old struggles for
Irish independence. There is a touching air of
decay, also, in the greatest part of the city.
It bears "has been" in its deserted squares,
and its spacious and half-mouldering man-
sions. A decaying city affects the imagina-
tion as if it were an architectural lesson ad-
dressed to the mind's eye, suggesting the
vanities of human grandeur.
With this excellent handbook of Fraser a
stranger can see Dublin easily in a day. It
has one building so classical and yet so ori-
ginal in its beauty that any one with a love for
the higher order of architecture would be repaid
for a trip to Dublin. We allude to the Bank
of Ireland, formerly the old Parliament-house.
Its imposing lines of pillars and its beautiful
portico, and the unrivalled lightness of its
whole appearance, at once airy and magnifi-
cent, are truly admirable. The late Thomas
Drummond, the Under Secretary for Ireland,
scarcely ever passed its precincts without
stopping for a moment or two to gaze upon it,
and utter his admiration of it. Some other
public buildings in Dublin are also well wor-
thy of a traveller's notice. The Custom-house
is a superb structure, of a most palatial charac-
ter, and transports the travelled mind to Italy
at a glance. The grand square in Trinity
College is also very fine; and the view of St.
Stephen's green, the largest square in Europe,
with the chain of the Dublin and Wicklow
mountains forming a distant background, is a
prospect rarely equalled in any city.
These and many other sights can on a
" low-backed car" be easily seen in a day
The best portion of the Wicklow beauties—
the Dargle and Powerscourt domain—can also
be visited in a day ; and the other lions of
Wicklow, not even excepting the Vale of
Ovoca, one greatly exaggerated, though the
lake at Luggelaw is really very exquisite. The
grand features of the Lakes of Killarney can,
also, he seen in one day with perfect ease.
From Ross Castle to the Upper Lake, and
back again, will show a tourist the whole of
that picturesque panorama, which for scenic
beauty defies any competitors in Leicester-
square, and even deserves the puffing of its
Irish proprietors, who in this particular in-
stance have not disappointed the expectations
of an eager public. The territory of guano,
"the cloakroom of the Pacific, is brought
over to us every year in shipfuls. If the
Lakes of Killarney could be passed through
the Encumbered Estates Court, bought out
and out, and then brought round by long sea
to London iu Elgin-marble fashion, and by
an ingenious mechanism put together again
to the west of Belgravia, like the limbs of the
Crystal Palace, we would not then talk, as Sir
James Mackintosh once did, of "the Piccadilly
" highlands towering over the champagne
" lands of the Green-park." Killarney, indeed,
can scarcely be well described. After the late
George Robins saw it he felt dumb for the
first time in his life, and at last exclaimed,
"No one advertisement could ever do it jus
tire! That middle lake, there, would swallow
a whole fount of leaded capitals to itself."
But Fanny Ellsler was more terse and graphic
than the auctiooner in describing nature.
There is nothing in Martial more pointed
than charming Fanny's glancing wonder-
struck at the Falls of Niagara and exclaiming,
" What a row !"
We never read a good description of Killar-
ney, but parts of it have been beautifully
written about by Griffin, in " The Collegians,

931

that best of all Irish novels. Griffin was a
poet at heart, and could soar beyond prose
topics; and his description of Purple Moun-
tain has all the idealising and quick sympathy
with the grand characteristic of genius. After
the Alps most of our scenery iu those islands
appears monotonous and tame ; but Killarney
has certainly a concentration in a small space
of the sublime, the picturesque, and the beau-
tiful, and way be critically commended as the
best illustrations of Longinus in the United
Kingdom. Our Irish fellow-subjects, however,
think too much of the scenery of their country.
It certainly contains much of the sublime ; but
squalid cabins and mean objects often spoil
its picturesque " bits," and its " beautiful"
portions are frequently hidden by cold, driz-
zling mists. It wants the clear atmosphere
and more sustained sunlight that gives to
English scenery many of its charms ; for the
lowering sky of Ireland, while it casts a drear
air of tragic grandeur over the varied land-
scape, becomes painfully mon,- :omits at last.
"Everything in Ireland looks so black," said
an English poet, some time ago, in describing
his travels through it, and we have heard
the same remark made by landscape-painters.
What struck us most in Irish scenery, after
touring through the country, was the great
quantity of bold landscapes rather than the
superior quality of any. We prefer Devonshire
to Wicklow, and we never saw any seacoast
views in Ireland comparable with several in
England. North Wales, as a whole, is finer
than any equal portion of Ireland ; but we
cheerfully admit that Killarney, for its concen-
tration of beauties, deserves its fame.

Some of the demesnes of the nobility in
Ireland are princely residences, though not
k2pt up in the style corresponding with their
outward grandeur. Powerscourt in Wicklow
is a noble place, and is in many respects su-
perior to Mount Edgcumbe in Devonshire.
The demesnes of Rockingham (Lord Luton's),
Loughcorton (Lord Gough's), Shane's Castle
(Lord O'Neill's), Tollymore park (Lord Ro-
den's), are residences of remarkable beauty
and grandeur. Kilkenny Castle, the place
where what Sir Walter Scott called " the
princely house of Ormonde " has resided for
nearly five centuries, is well worth visiting for
its pictures, which, amongst others, contains
the original Vandyke of Charles I. Along the
banks of the sweeping Shannon and the
varied Blackwater are also some very beautiful
seats, which would be regular " lions " if they
were in the neighbourlwod of Dorking or
Reigate. Many of us have admired the beau.
ties of Norbury-park and the adjacent Box-hill
in Surrey, but we saw half a dozen seats in
the Blackwater which can be described only
by an algebraic formula as " Norbury-parks
raised to the nth power," and foremost amongst
them Lismore Castle, the restored residence
of the head of the house of Cavendish. _ _ _

We can praise this guidebook to Ireland
before us as one of the best topographical
works on those islands. It has reached, de-
servedly, its fourth edition. It has several
accurate maps and plans of excursions and
tours. names of hotels, and a vast variety of
statistical illustrations of Irish society. It is
the only book for travellers in Ireland that we
can now recommend. The recent social
changes in that country have made " Inglis "
quite obsolete. The effect of those extraordi-
nary changes is most interesting to contem-
plate, and they have never received a treatment
adequate to their importance. But thin is not
the opportunity for doing so, and we must
conclude by cordially praising, for accuracy
and extent of knowledge, this excellent hand-
book for travellers in Ireland.

John Howard. A Memoir. By Hepworth Dixon.
London : Jackson and Watford.

A NEW and revised edition of this memoir of the great
philanthropist, containing, among much new matter,
some interesting anv:dotes connected with Howard's
varied adventures. Among the more curious of these
stories is one relating to Howard'g almost last act of
supervision at Cherson. Having visited and exa-
mined all the prisons and hospitals of the city,
Howard had made discoveries and given vent to ex-
pressions that seriously alarmed Prince Potemkin,
who determined at length to get up a favourable cue
for this troublesome traveller. Expressing a wish to
visit the hospitals of the town of St. Nicholas, in the
vicinity of Cherson, which at that time were known

932

to contain some hundreds of the sick and Itoiiiided
heroes of a late campaign, Howard was offered a
seat in the carriage of the brigadier-general, a cour
test' that could not be refused :
" When he entered the hospital, his experienced eye at
once perceived the trick that had been played. That very
morning the sick men had been shifted ; the rooms had all
been swept clean • the dungeons were all inviting ; and some
of the patients had been provided with coverlets for their
beds. All was snug and bright, as for a review. The food
was bad, and the rooms were crowded ; beyond these evils
Howard had seen no Russian hospital to compare with this
at St. Nicholas. One circumstance, however, betrayed the
whole deception. Howard was very exact; he had a great
trick of weighing, measuring, and counting. If a gaoler
doubted that his cell was so much below ground, out came
his tapes—if he fancied the allowance of bread was under
legal weight, out came his hand-scales. Before he rode off
to St. Nicholas he had heard, from a safe authority, that
the sick and wounded numbered five hundred men : he
counted those before him, and found them only three hun-
dred. Where were the rest? For the moment he held
his peace, as General Falajef was gone to inspect some
works. But when the party came back, Howard bluntly
demanded to be shown the other patients. What others ?
Had he not seen all? No: he was certain not. On grow-
ing urgent in the matter, Potemkin's physician and several
officers rode back into town, and beat up other quarters.
Howard soon found that his sagacity was not et fault.
' Here,' he says in his notes, I found about fifty such
objects of wretchedness as I had never seen together.
Most of them were recruits in the prime of life. Many of
them were in the last stage of existence. They were lying
on hard beds • they had no linen and no coverlets; they
were filthy beyond bearing, and a few dirty rags hung
about their bodies. The scene became quite dramatic.
" I turned to the officers," says Howard, " and told them
to look on their fellow-creatures." ' He told them plainly
that he had never in his life seen such horrors. "In nu
country that I have visited," he adds, is so little atten-
tion paid to the soldiers as in Russia." '"
The present volume is published in a cheap and com-
pact form, with good type, and in every way well
adapted for popularity.

A Practical Treatise on the Right and Cost of
Redeeming Property Mortgaged to Benefit Building
Societies. By J. H. James, Barrister-at-Law.
London : Butterworth.
Ma. JAMES, in entering fully upon the constitution and
objects of building societies, explains in a lucid
manner the nature and extent of the responsibilities
which a member incurs, and at the same time gives
many practical suggestions on the selection of pro-
perty to be purchased as well as upon the right and
cost of redeeming such property when mortgaged to
the society :

" There is a principle of law," he says, " careat emptor,
which translated into plain English is, ' Let the buyer look
out for himself,' meaning that he must well examine into
all the stipulations by which he is to be bound ; to
thoroughly ascertain the soundness or nnsoundness, the
defects and drawbacks of tho commodity he is about to
purchase, so that he may not have to repent of his bargain
before it is too late. To the member of a building society
whose liabilities commence with the moment at which he
pays the deposit on his share, and end only when he has
made the last repayment required to complete the redemp-
tion of his mortgage, this precaution is indispensable."

Upon the point oiredemPtion of mortgages Mr. James
is of opinion that the rules of many of the existing
terminating societies are either so vague that no
practical construction can be put on them, or so
complex and unjust as to commit a positive robbery
upon the borrower, and he suggests certain stipula-
tions which should more absolutely define the
liabilities of borrowers. His remarks upon the adjudi
cated cases in Chancery and Common Law in which
building societies are concerned bring out the main
points which have been raised, and, with an appendix
of trials, supply a complete view of the law of the
subject as far as yet decided by the courts.

The Real Salt, and Pickackifax. By Francis Francis.
London : Piper, Stephenson, and Spence.
" THE Real Salt" is an amusing squib against those
young gentlemen who will set up for Jack Tars, and
rashly go to sea in yachts of their own purchasing.
The story is not badly told, and the system of sea-
port victimising, so muoh practised upon the simple
yachters who have money but no brains, is very
laughably exposed :
" "The real Salt, who does not know him? Who that
visits our watering-places during the fashionable season
has not remarked his ingenious costume ? Such a pea-
jacket and trousers! such buttons ! such a hat! such a
ribbon and shirt-collar! But when after a few hours' sail,
with a nice little breeze, we see this redoubtable warrior
landing from his own boat, pale, subdued, and silent, with
a decided disinclination for food, and a shuddering at the
faintest whiff of tobacco, we shake our heads and say ' Can
such things be? "
" Pickackifax" is the story in verse of a poor poet put
to many shifts for his livelihood, and meeting with
varied adventures, all of which are told with a facility
of vet sification that is not without merit. Here and
there we meet with bits of pathos and humour, and
sometimes a little satire upon the more prominent
vices and foibles of society, which help to give zest to
the story. It is illustrated by Watts Phillips.

THE PRESS.

.. The Young Ladies' First French Book. By It.

Aliva. London : Hope and Co.
2. d Pocket Vocabulary in English and Turkish. By
William Knight. London : Bradbury and Evans.
1. It is the opinion of M. Alive that young ladies do
not make the progress they should in acquiring the
French language through the want of suitable ele-
mentary books, those at present in use supplying a
mere succession of unconnected phrases or being full
of idiomatic difficulties. To supply this defect (as
lie considers) he has composed the present work,
which contains, first, common phrases, with an ex-
planation of the idioms which occur most frequently
in French ; next, conversations teaching " young
"ladies to say in French, and rather elegantly, what
" they have sometimes to express in English ;" and
then simple narratives, frequently interrupted by the
remarks and inquiries of persons supposed to listen
to them. Exercises, with a vocabulary and conjuga-
tions, complete this elementary book, which is cer-
tainly well adapted to fulfil its purpose, and to bring
the pupil pleasantly forward with ease to the teacher.
It may be confidently recommended as an excellent
first book.
2. The " Pocket Vocabulary of English and Turk-
ish" is a small pamphlet of sixty pages, issued to fur-
nish some of those common Turkish words most
likely to be required by our countrymen in their in-
tercourse with their Turkish allies. The orthography
is so modified as to bring the sound as nearly as pos-
sible in correspondence with Turkish pronunciation.
Each word is referred to the I)ictionnaire Turc-Fran-
cais of Messrs. Kieffer and Bianchi, so that if it be
desired reference may be made to let standard au.
thority. Mr. Knight promises to continue his labour
in future parts till he has supplied a perfect vocabu•
lacy of Turkish and English words.

The Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, and History of
the Conquest of Moxico. By W. H. Prescott.
London : Bentley.

As a consequence of the late decision upon the Fo-
reign Copyright Act, Mr. Bentley anticipates compe-
tition by offering to the public the above popular
works of Mr. Prescott, handsomely bound and in neat
type, at the reduced price of five shillings each. The
author, we see by Mr. Bentley's announcement, re-
tains an interest in the present edition, notwithstand-
ing the great reduction in price.

BOOKS RECEIVED.
BOOKS.
Countess of St. Alban., Hodgson.
Myrilla and other Poems. P. Howell.
Mabbott, Matthews, and Co.
A Voice from the East. Saunders and Utley.
Viator. A Poem. .1. Coventry. Whitaker and Co.
My Comrade and My Colours. Rev. E. Neale.
Trtibner and Co.
Poetical Works of John Oldham. R. Bell. Parker and Son.
The English Prisoners in Russia. Lieut. Royer, R.N.
Chapman and Hall