The Press.
London, England, 1853-12-17 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

great favourites in all the metropolitan choirs;
and the single chants are unusually good.
We conscientiously recommend this book to
the notice of our readers: it is so cheap
that no church choir ought to be without a
copy.

Tht Lift qfa Racehorse. By John Mills. London :

" Field " 1 office.
TIW, is an amusing amplilicat• of an old idea.
The same theme was brwtly handled by I)ibdin at
the close of the last century, in his " High-nettled
Racer," which ha', been turned to account by the
" Arundines Canii." The style of this brochure is
easy and nnatPenl, and the author is evidently ex-
perienced in men and manners; but there must have
been more talent than honesty in the composition of
those who furnished Mr. Mills at first hand with the
information lie has detailed to the sporting public.
The uremia of the turf and racing circles had better
lan kept secret. /I“ping, and inwttosing, and selling,
and paistkd bits, are terms of an which it would be
as well were not fully explained with practical illus
trations. hi England we are too fond, in imitation
of French models, of parading vice more promi
neatly than virtue. In the present ease, !lam
Dale, Ned the Jockey, Jack `wiggle, Slippery Mo,
Tom Shybird, and Samuel Ilitchem, nre un-
mistakable portraits; but, as we cannot spare the
services of our respectable publisher, just at present,
we must decline, by quoting what is said concerning
them, to suhjecting him to the chance of an impri-
filliMellt fior libel. There is one slight sketch which,
from its undeniable accuracy, we wig insert :
" A tall, gentlemanlike INTSIon. although dIVSKeII most
strangely in a !oink and white broad-stripiA shirt, in the
from of which were two i 111 l 'tense gold mid enatmellvd
lorooelle, of mounted meehorses. Low Ilan his head a
shaggy white Ismer but was squeezed, and his neck was
totally &visid of anything bearing the smallest resemlllanee
to a cravat. A snuffeoloured cutaway coat, light waiseoat,
and silvery drab knee breeches awl gnitetw—the latter
purposely Li) unfastened to crease about his ankles and
fret, and exhibit a white silk stockite; of the finest texture
—eomplettsl the Cost of one who has long since gume
and left his chair Imo ecupirol.-
Pooh we saw him the other day at Cheltenham,
looking as well as when he patted his mare's neck tOr
winning the Oaks, two days after that injudicious
riding had extinguished her chance of carrying out'
the Iberby.

Scenes fy. Country Lit?. Ity E. Jesse. London :
M lirray.
.1.11 a new and revised edition of Mr. jeSSeS
Mull known and interesting work on country life.
The alterations are considerable; the Tales of Country
Lite are omitted, and many new fuels and circum-
stances relating to natural history are added. The
latter are in the form of rough notes, printed as they
were written at the time, but all interesting and in-
structive to the observer of nature. The following
si Id be widely known. Captain Fitzroy, who
eonn ttttt idea the Beagle in her surveying voyage,

"tells us that he profited much by 'asserting the flight
of bleats when out tar sight of I J I. Ile thinks that land,
especially smolt islands or reefs, limy be discovered in
consequence of watching the partiettlar kinds of birds,
said noticing the direction in which they tly in the even-
ing, ahead sunset. 'rhos. after n severe gale of wind, he
was in doubt whether those re to islands, called the
Keelings, were to the east I.l' west. Ile was inclined to
steer eastward, %alien a nuitils.r of gannets flew past the
ship towards the west. He immediately steered after
them and early next morning saw the Keelinga right
ahead. Ile says. that generally speaking, if there is land
within fifty miles of a vesselt, its existence will be indi-
caned. and the direction in which to look for it will be
plitited oath, by lairds. Ile elaseixed Pique tern, however,
itloxitt 1"0 miles from any known hurl. and this fact may
help to show within what limits the sprennitiee of those
birds should be considered to indicate the vie' • of

A similar circumstance. we believe, assisted Colum-
bus on his first voyage. when near, but, not in
sight of. land. By the permission of Mr. Gould,
some extraordinary facts are related from his work
on Australian birds. The satin anti spotted bower
birds make beautiful bowers of feathery grass,
ornament them with shells, white bones, .(c., in
front, and then run through them playing. A
speeies of jungle fowl, callcd the fah calla, does not
sit on its eggs, but
•• collucts together an immense heap of decaying
vegetable lustier as a depository for its eggs, and trusts to
the heat cogendere•d by the process of decomposition for
the hatching them. Mr. 4;1,18141 says. that the heap em-
ployed ti a• this purl ese is eollected by the birds dating
sevend weeks previously to the period of laying; that it
varies in moss from two to four eartloads, anti is of a per.
feetly pyramidal to The construction of the ruoaud is
not the work of out. pair of birds, but is effected by the
united labours of several; tl►e saute site appears, from the
great size and the entire decomposition of the lower pars.
to 14'111,0114A to for severed years ill StltTeS%itin; the birds
adding it fresh supply of materials on each occasion, pre-
viously to laying their eggs."

SATURDAY;

But the Zoological Gardens now bring most of these
wonders to our doors: the little calf hippopotamus
which Hemet carried struggling in his arms to the
boat far up the White Nile is now a good-humoured
monster, weighing more than two tons. What the
Zoological Gardens are to the eye Mr. Jesse's book
is to the mind—a very interesting collection of facts
relating to natural history.

The Tretherbys—Father a►►d Son. By John Lang.
London: Chapman and Hall.
Tuts is a reprint from Fraser's Magazine of a clever
sslies of papers, in which the author describes his
Indian experiences. Though very sketchy in its
manner it indicates considerable talent, and it is

certainly very readable. In style it belongs to the
imitators of Mr. Thackeray's school. We are intro-
(Weed to a set of persons who illustrate the wrong
side of human nature. While we read we fancy our-
selves enveloped in the smoke of cigars, and that we
hear the roll of the billiard balls. The author could
do more if he chose. lie etches cleverly in acids;
and we think that he is equal to giving us a social
picture of the "fashionable " phases of the life of
the English in India. It is a description of life that
has never been well portrayed, and it abounds in the
contrasts and vicissitudes in which novelists delight.
Its realities are, however, not within the range of
experience possessed by our professional writers,
mums and it therefore re ; midepieted.

Wages ►ritlrout Stoppages. ltd J. Briggs. Lenclou :
l'avey.

Tut: author of this work is an attorney. The
work consists of denunciations of the truck
system, and a reprint of the well known act of
Parliament against it, together with expositions of
law from which we learn that the Court of Queen's
Bench and the author differ in opinion. Reflections,
moral and religious, are interwoven with the text,
and Scripture is quoted, of which the following is an
instance. We are being told of a stockinger whose em-
ployer had not paid him as much as he wanted for
his work, and for that wrong he thus touchingly
,forgarr his hard-hearted master:—
'• I thought of my work. and of the night before, when
he shrove me from his door, but still 1 forgave him, and
went home. I also ha►e a Bible, I opened it, and there
read, " nab. nor mull ihol mirth him nrighbttne's rerriee
r•iNwul trogex urul girelh hint tint for his work; he fiholl IN
buried with the burial ni nit us.., drawn and cast forth beyond
Me !laical 4.lrrmsulent: "

The pamphlet begins and ends with one and the
same sentence eulogistic of lawyers. Its object is
obvious.

The Lores of an Apothecary. London: Chuie,
Becton, and Co.

Awe Li.- NV I; ITT t ale, recounting the fortunes in love of
John Godwin. an apothecary. He breaks the faith
he had pledged to pretty Jessy, and transfers his af-
fection to the bold and dashing Sybilla, whom lie
marries:. To check an incipient cold in the head he
covers his curls with a nightcap, and' Love's young
dream " begins to vanish in Ow morning light :

'• Romance judiciously shakes hands and loos with
lovets when they shakehands with their friends upon re•
turtaing from the altar. Romanee knows no more of theta
On any consideration except that f • years after might
be seen, gambolling in sportive innocence upon the lawn
of a sweet cottage in one of those valleys for which the
county of is so remarkable, two fairy-like beings.
The one. a noble looking boy of some three years old,
beau's a striking resemblance to that Leonard St. Aubyn
whom and the other is a witching girl, a gushing thing
of some year and nine months, who promises to prove a
no mean rival of the lovely and accomplished Seraphine,
her mother. 'My own wile ' says St. Aubvn, as, with his
anti thrown tenderly about her waist, he calls her attention to
the beautiful scene betore them, 'My wife !my own ! Be-
hold those sweet buds ! And, yet, methinks, they are not-
half so beautiful as the parent rose!' ' 0 Leonard,' Leo
mint, I fear you are as sad a flutterer as 14 old ! The
End. That is all Romance knows about it."
This book is well written, with here and there
some satiric power. There is another tale, " The
Shining Ladder," in this little volume of IIPS pages.

Ihme Pictures. Loudon: Clarke, Beeton, and Co.
A TUT, by Mrs. M. A. Benison, for the first time,
we believe, published in England, in which American
society and manners are sketched with a vivid life-
like touch. A country b:auty marries a gentleman
who is both wealthy and an ornament of the fashion
able world. That world in America comprises many
honourables, spends much money in stores, and
luxuriates amidst " rich but fast wilting roses."
The husband is ruined in the middle of the book,
but at the close the curtain falls on "a happy
family." The tale is written in the form of a
journal.

DECEMBER 17, 1853.

L'hc reurres Daughter. London : Clarke, Beeton,

and Co.
Tuts tale, by the Rev. W. P. Seargill (a reprint 1, opens
in London in the year 1754). It comprises a vast
Nariety of incident in England and abroad. The
key to the whole is the wicked uncle, who dying
from remorse, the nephew come: into his property,
and all ends merry with a marriage bell."

The Shot in the Ege,aml Adventures with the Texan
Rifle Rangers. By C. W. Webber. ;Shilling
Books, No. IV.) London : 11. Vizetelly.
PERSONAL adventures in a wild country and among a
lawless race such as were the dwellers in '.'emts in
the year lm:in naturally assume a melodramatic
character of somewhat intense dye. The series of
tales collected in thi3 work before us hy no means
fall short in intensity. They are tilled with thrilling
incidents and grim personages, wonderful escapes,
atrocious crimes, and reckless enterprises. Designed
evidently for the lovers of "strung writing " on the
other side of the Atlantic, Mr. Webber's brief ro-
mances seem likely to find an audience capable of
appreciating them in England also. The volume is
issued among the series recently commenced by Mr.
Vizetelly under the title of shilling books." It is
needless to add that it is well got up and printed in
readable tpe.

Politieal Fly Sheets. No. 1.--I'aliiierstisll anti
Russia.

A REPRINT from the Neer York Tribune., imputing
to Lord Palmerston systematic itida.retice, to the
cause of Poland, and collusion with I:ussia.

Indisputable Cob-Fare Indicator. Ct•vreeted Edition.
London : Eyre and Williams.
THE new " Cab Act " has produced a multitude of
distance maps, fare tables, and indicators, arranged
on various plans, for the purpose of promptly set-
tling the disputes which were sure to arise, and have
arisen, so abundantly between "cabby and his em-
ployers. The " Indicator" is one of these, and
possesses the recommendation of cheapness and por
tability, without presenting anything special in the way
of system or arrangement. Correctness is, however,
the principal requisite in a work of this nature ; and
the present edition, we observe, is said to be " cor-
rected " on its titlepage. Upon our first dip into the
contents we discovered the following discrepancy :
"Angel to Chester-square, 25." "Chester-square to
Angel, 2s. lid." Both entries, we presume, cannot be
" correct." Whether there are more specimens of
similar accuracy we have not searched far enough to
say.