The Press.
London, England, 1857-02-14 00:00:00

To which M'Crie replied with great force :

The people of Scotland, since the Reformotion, have
been always well acquainted with their Bible, and it was
the natural consequence of this that its language should
mingle with their speech, and give a tone to their conver•
se.ion and mode of thinking. This, instead of being dis-
creditable, is highly honourable to them, and has contii•
bated, more than many are aware of, to raise their
eisracter, in point of intelligence, above that of the lower
orders in any other country. Strangers have remarked
the fact, and have been astonished at it, while they were
ignorant of the cause. A ploughman in Scotland is not,
waat he is everywhere else, a clown, according to the idea
which that term usually suggests ; and this distinction he
owes chiefly to his familiar acquaintance with his Bible,
which he has been accustomed to read, or to hear lead,
from his childhood. When he has been so much indebted
to it, why should he be hindered from quoting it, or ex•
posed to ridicule for employing its phraseology, provided
this is done without an intention or a tendency to bur.
'rogue or profane it? With this qualification, we may
assert that the Bible is to the common people what the
writings of Homer are to the learned ; and every person of
good feeling will be as much pleased to hear them adopt.
lag a phrase, or quoting a verse, with propriety, from the
Scriptures, as to bear a person of literature making the
same use of the Greek or Roman classics. By propriety
we mean, not elegance and point, but such justness as may
be expected from persons in their condition. Among the
better informed part even of the English nation, during
the seventeenth century, Scripture language was so far
feom being uncommon, that we find it used very liberally
in both Rouses of Parliament.

There are truth and vigour in that passage,
but there is some fallacy in its application to
the Covenanters. Its remarks rather apply
to the Scotch after the diffusion of general
intelligence in the last century, and after the
long workings of parochial schools. The
reviewer then adroitly turned upon Scott with
reference to the Edinburgh Annual Register, in
which Scott wrote many passages decked with
scriptural phrases, and artfully alluded to the
address to the Prince Regent from the city of
Edinburgh in 1813:

If not intended, it is a striking coincidence that the
" Tales of My Landlord " should have appeared so
seasonably as an antidote to this disposition to puritanical
enthusiasm ; and we can scarcely help suspecting that the
sermon of Ephraim Macbriar, in particular, is a concealed
satire upon the following passage of an Address of the
City of Edinburgh :—" It is with far other thoughts, and
far happier prospects, that we now again lay our duty at
the feet of your Royal Highness, with feelings which can
be likened to none but those of the survivors of the
primeval world, when, looking forth from the vessel in
which they :had been miraculonsly preserved, they per-
ceived that God had clost-d, in His mercy. the fountains of
the deep which He had opened in Hia wrath ; that the
wind had passed over the waters and assua4ed the foie.;
while the reappearance of ancient and well-known moun-
tains and landmarks, hidden so long under the billows of
the inundation, warranted a just and purer conddence that
the hour of its fury had passed away."

All this parrying is very clever. After all, the
truth lies between Scott and his adversary.
" 01(1 Mortality" is not history ;" and we
must admit that those sublime qualities repre-
sented in Burns's "Cotter's Saturday Night"
are not to be found in his pictures of the
Covenanters, who lived in terrible times of
political heat and persecution, when, as Scott
remarks in winding up the description of
Claverhouse (Dundee), the highest qualities,
" - verted b• irty spirit, and inflamed by
'n, are too often combined

1. Lora, and other Poems. By Devon Harris. London : Smith,
Elder, and Co

SATURDAY,

To be saluted by each forest leaf,
And turn the tide into a tide of day.
To thrill the vine•roots, kiss the buds apart,
And touch each erag with glory like a throne.
To paint the rainbow on a round of storm,
And give back paradise to insect worlds.
To tint the snowdrop's page with lines of green,
And pile great beds of splendour in the west.
To call up quires of music with a glance,
And say to waiting myriads, " Up and live !"
To see all earth a gorgeous butterfly
New lighted on a flower of Life's great tree,
Quick ope and shut its wings in rich delight.
To make a morning wheresoe'er he looks,
Aud gaze upon the universe in flower.

Again :

The sun of Homer o'er Hymettus rose,
Charming to amber all the circling hills,
Through the long day the sky was all his own,
And when at eve on Hydra's crest he stood
Baptising Macedonia with his fire,
And flinging from his gorgeous palaces
Great larg•esses of glory, he but looked
As wailing to be once more owned a god.
Of the other poems, several are very good, but
we have no space for any further extracts.
We advise Mr. Devon Harris, for the next
dozen years or so, to make correctness his
principal object ; to learn to avoid confusion
of epithets, and those distortions of thought,
which eau never be poetical, because they
can never be the reflection of any reality.
Mr. Fletcher's poems (2) are not character-
ised by the same ludicrous extravagance which
marks Mr. Harris's. They are much more
simple and natural, and the language more
chaste and lucid. Nevertheless he, too, has
not escaped infection from the extremely loose
style of writing which prevails at present.
One of the best pieces in his collection is dis-
figured by slips of this character
I love her, but not with the love which speaks
As none but a lover dare ;
I love her, but not as one who seeks
To woo, and win, and wear :
Between us there rolls a dark ravine,
Which the future can never fill;
But yet by my soul she is crowned a queen,
I love her—l love her still.
I love her, but not with a love that would seek
In a marble•moulded brow,
In a flashing eye and a tinted cheek,
For a shrine where the heart may bow :
My passion is not like the light that leaps
And dies on the storm•god's breast,
Nor a hectic feeling that ever heaps
The fire of its own unrest.
How can a ravine "roll"? And again in the
last four lines, what is the storm god ? If by
the light that leaps and dies upon his breast
is meant the lightning, we can only say it
might have been much better expressed. We
ought never to be left in doubt of the mean-
ing of a metaphor. Some of the remaining
stanzas of this poem contain some pretty
touches :

I love her, although she can never be more
Than a beautiful vision to me,
A vessel that touched at a desolate shore,
And then swept o'er the fathomless sea ;
And though, when she has gone to the tome of
her heart,
O'er my spirit a shadow will creep,
I will lighten the sorrow and lesson the smart
lty the image I ever shall keep.
I love her, and always the passion will play
With a solemn, beneficent light,
Whatevee the clouds that encircle my day,
Or the stars that illumine my night:
And the only return that 1 ask as the due
Of a love that for ever will beat,
Is a stray thought sometimes for a heart that
rings true,
And a smile when we happen to meet.
" Sweet Sixteen" and " A Bachelor's Reverie„
are both good. They are not very deep, but
they dash along, like a brook over the pebbles,
with such a pleasant, cheerful sound, that it is
impossible not to be charmed with them.
" Pass Onward" is another poem of a graver
stump, which we admire much; and on the
whole we think we may safely recommend Mr.
Fletcher to persevere in the path he has
chosen.
" Queen Eleanor's Vengeance " (3) is de-
cidedly the best poem in the volume which
bears its name. It is a terse and forcible
description of the Woodstock tragedy, iu
which all poets are fully entitled to believe.
It is not free front affectation, and straining
after effect by abruptness of language in lieu

2. Cloud • Shadows. By John William Fletcher. London :
Longrnans.
3. Owes Eleanor's Vengeance, and odur Poem. By W. C.
Bennett. London: Chapman end

' perverted by part
babitual opposittOn

rc
tight
3.
I
)0d
•
• good, but
• extracts.
the next.
!ctness his
confusion
,f thought,
auso they
ality.
, character-
ince which
inch more
wage more
e, too, has.
ely loose
t present.
Lion is dis-
kt'aks
en,
d seek
If
ain in the
od ? If by
his breast
my say it
'ssed. We
the mean-
remaining
me pretty •
Ire
we of
mart
ay
f.
e
that
s Reverie„
deep, but
pebbles,
I, that it is
ith them.
F a graver
nd on the
,mend Mr.
.1 he has
3) is de-
une which
d forcible
agedy, iu
to believe.
straining
tge in lieu
r. London :
a. By W. C.

FEBRUARY 14, 1857.

of vigour of thought. But, according to the
standard we are compelled to adopt in review-
ingeontem porary poetry, it is above the average.
• The Robin " is very pretty ; and " Ufton
Court" deserves praise for elegance and metri-
cal skill. . _

--- -
The last volume on our list (4), the work of
a lady, breathes a spirit of religion which it is
highly delightful to conteinplate, and we sin-
cerely trust may contribute to the domestic
felicity of those to whom it is dedicated. We
have not read it without pleasure, nor, let us
hope, without profit. By passing this general
eulogy, we trust we have fulfilled our duty
better than by examining minutely a produc-
tion which piety and politeness equally bid us
to respect. ---
The Art Journal. January and February.
'THE lovers of English scenery should not fail to
peruse " The Book of the Thames," by Mr. and Mrs.
'S. C. Hall, now publishing in the Art-Journal. The
purpose is to trace the course of our beautiful and
beneficent river from its soarce in a quiet, little-
known valley of Oxfordshire till it joins the ocean.
The relationship between its fount and its termination
is full of all kind of detail than can charm either the
lover of natural scenery or the historic student ; and
in this " Book of the Thames " remarkable localities
of all kinds are not only faithfully described, but
they are picturesquely delineated by the pencil.
Mrs. S. C. Hall contributes some sketches in her own
graceful manner illustrative of living manners and
affections of the people. Our own experience tells
us that there are no more delightful excursions than
to trace the course of rivers—though the numerous
mills and dams that obstruct their course, and the
fences of private property, interpose many obstacles
to such rambling enterprise. " The Book of the
Thames " will smooth the tourist's way, and, if only
as a guide-book to hun.lreds of pleasant excursions
in the immediate neighbourhood of London, we
imagine it cannot fail to be warmly welcomed and
highly appreciated.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.—FEB.
The Egyptians in the Time of the Phat oaks. Sir J. Gardner
Wilkinson. Bradbury and Evans

Eastern Hospitals and English Nurses. By a Ladyyolun7

tern

Hurst and -13Iackett

The Poetical Works of Lord Byron. J. NI umly
Long Vacation Ramble in Norway and Sweden. X. &Y.

Macmillan and Co.
rulisaeria; or A Midsummer Niyhes Dream. Mrs. Pfeiffer.

Lontnnan and Co.
The Parlour Library.—"My Aunt Portypool." T. Hodgson
.simart 'tf Dandeuth. Hon. Mrs. Norton T. Hodgson
Buy Prince.: ; or Scions of Royalty cu off in Youth. John
G. Edgar. I). Bogue
_ _

The heroes of Asgard, and the Giants of .Totiinheim ; or the
Ireek and its Story. D. Bogue
10' Halley, the Irish Dragoon. Charles Lever.
1171,iam Shakespeare Not an Imposter. An English Critic.
Routledge.
Rantledye's Shakespeare. Edited by H. Staunton.
4. c.oeleily of Errors." Rontledge
The Liverpool Year-book for 1836. Lee and Nightingale.

Benson,—Liverpool
Miscellaneous Poems. An Indian Officer. Saunders and

Otley
Ailriee to Young lien, and (incidentally) to Young Women.
Wm. Cobbett. Simpkin and Marshal
The Day* of My Life. Hard and Blaekett

The Hi;lory of the Baltic Campaign of 1854. Earp.
Bentley.

THE NATIONAL REFORMATORY AND itEFI'OE UNION
SoctETY hell its first annual meeting on Wednesday
last, at Wiilis's.rooms. The Earl of Shaftesbury
presided, and in an eloquent address pointed out the
necessity of reformatories as well as industrial
.schools, and stated that this society proposed to
establish a Ship Reformatory' on the Thames, and
also to superintend all arrangements necessary for
the emigration of children. Sir S. Northcote spoke
strongly in favour of " parental responsibility."
Several philanthropic gentlemen addressed the meet.
ing, among others, Mr. Russ' l Gurney, who, by way
of illustration, related the following anecdote of
Lord Eldon :

He recollected an incident that occurred to the great
Lord Eldon, who when a boy had robbed an orchard with
his brother, and the farmer had summoned Lord Eldon's
father as well as the two boys, and the father was fined
3')s. The little boys did not mind that, but their father
did, and be accordingly Bogged them so severely that
they never once thought of robbing orchards again. New,
if on that occasion, instead of punishing the father, the
boys had been committed to gaol, was it likely thst little
Johnny Scott would ever have sat on the woolsack or
administered laws for this kingdom? That was the prin-
ciple required to be enforced now.
The Hun. A. Kinniard stated that in Glasgow eighty
per cent. of those who had passed throu;h the refor-
matory were now doing well. Several resolutions in
favour of extended efforts, and for State interference
to send, at the cost of parents, their vagrant children
to reformatories, were unanimously passel.

4. Lays qf Memory, Sacred and Social. By a liotlAvi and nun.
Loudon: Hunt and Blitokett.

THE, PRESS.

Cation 3ntelligenct.

AYLESBURY.—Sir 11. Bethel!, who had vacated his
seat upon being appointed Attorney-General, was on
Monday re-elected without opposition. In the
course of his address upon the occasion, Sir Rich ant
Bethell, alluding to the great desire for public
economy, said :
Is any one whom I now address desirous that the glory
and the pre-eminence which his country maintains should
be detracted from by an unwise and foolish economy ?
Look at the last war, and you will find that all our want of
preparation was owing to an unwise antecedent policy of
retrenchment. You must look not only to the wants of
the day, but to the future. Every Government is desirous
of retrenchment. But why? Because it is a cheap mode
of gaining popularity. But would you like such retrench.
went to-day as would lay you next year open to the insults
of the other nations of Europe or America?
In conclusion, Sir Richard Bethell said that the great
plans of reform so long proposed and so eagerly an-
ticipated by the public, must be " the work of time,
and take years to accomplish."
HERTFORD.--The Right Hon. W. F. Cowper aD•
peared before his constituents on Monday for re •
election on his appointment as Vice-President of the
Committee on Education. The hon. member, who
was returned without opposition, addressed his con-
stituents at some length upon the income tax
When the Chancellor of the Exchequer placed the esti•
mates before the House of Commons of the expenditure
for the current year, they would see that he would be in a
position to take off the war portion of the income tax ;
and he thought they ought to have had more confidence in
the good feeling of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and in
the experience, prudence, and caution of Lord Palmerston's
Government, than to suppose that the tax would be con-
tinued in its present shape a moment longer than it was
absolutely necessary.
HULL.—Mr. Clay, who in 1852 was unseated for
bribery and corruption, was returned for this borough
on Wednesday last. Mr. Clay, who addressed the
electors at some length, referred to Mr. Disraeli's
notice of a motion for the reduction of the income
tax :--

It occurred to Mr. Gladstone, a man of great ability and
great influence, to say that he should support Mr. Disraeli
in that motion. It occurred to the whipper•in to consult
the gentlemen in the House of Commons, and to ask how
many of them were under a pledge to their constituents,
how many of them were ander pressure from their consti-
tuents, and how ninny were likely to support that motion
fur economy and retrenchment. Now this is a subject
upon which the people have spoken their minds, and
whenever they speak their minds they will see it attended
to. I have no doubt it was found that the pressure upon
members of Parliament from their constituents for relief
from this enormous tax was so great that it was impolitic
to resist it, and that Government would have been left in
a minority. For what was done? Did the Chancellor of
the Exchequer stick to his estimates? bid the Minister
of War say he could not spare a sixpence of the money he
had asked fur? Did the First Lord of the Admiralty say
that it was wholly impossible to reduce the naval ex-
penditure ?
The hon. member declared his political creed as
follows :

The only pledge which 1 will make to you is to support,
not men, but measures. And from whatever quarter good
measures may proceed—whether from Lord Palmerston,
whether from Lord John Russell, whether from Lord
Derby—from whatever quarter good measures proceed,
will support those only which appear to me calculated
to support the two great principles of economy and reform,
calculated to add to the happiness of the country, to the
social and moral improvement of the people, and to the
welfare of the working classes.
EAST SUSSEX.—On Monday a numerous meeting
of Mr. Dodson's supporters was held in the Town-
hall, Brighton. Mr. Dodson, in an exposition of his
political views, declared himself in favour of free
trade, the abolition of the hop duty, and the reduc-
tion of the malt tax. He also stated that he was
opposed to all grants from the national revenue to
any particular religious denomination, though lie
would not support a measure dictated, not by a prin-
ciple of broad national policy, but by religious
animosity. He considered that great reforms were
needed in our legal institutions; that greater facili-
ties should be afforded for the transfer of land, that
our laws on that subject should be assimilated to
those of the United States ; that various antiquated
tenures of land should be abolished, and the eccle-
siastical courts reformed. He was of opinion that
the suffrage should be extended by the admission of
qualifications which would give the right of voting
t,) clerks, skilled artisans, and others, now pre-
cluded by living in lodgings. With regard to
education, he preferred the Canadian system to
that of the United States. On Tuesday a meeting of
electors favourable to the return of Lord Pevensey,
was held in the Brighton Town-hall, Mr. Scott in
the chair. Lord Pevensey, who was warmly re-
ceived by the meeting, stated his political views,
which differed from those of Mr. Dodson principally
on the subject of the Maynooth grant, which his
lordship said he decidedly wished to see repealed.
' He also expressed himself strongly against the open-

163

ing of the Crystal Palace and similar places of
recreation on Sundays.
NORTH LEICESTERSIIIRE.—Mr. Frewen has retired
from the contest. Lord John Manners will be re-
turned without opposition.
SourxAmpxos.—Mr. Weguelin, Governor of the
Bank of England, was returned on Tuesday at the
head of the poll. The numbers were :
Mr. Weguelin 994
Sir Edward Bader 962
Mr. Andrews

GUEENWICIL—Sir Edward Codrington was re-
turned on Tuesday with a triumphant majority,
the numbers being
General Codrington
Mr. Sleigh
Majority for Codrington — 1,334
NEWPORT.—Mr. Kennard has been returned for
this borough. The election took place on Tuesday
last, when the numbers were .
Kennard 271
Seeley 250

WEST KENT.—The nomination fora representative
of this division of the county of Kent is fixed to tnka
place at noon on Monlay next, at Pennenden-heath,
near Maidstone. The pulling will take place in the
various districts on the following Thursday, and by
a recent Act of Parliament, will be confined to one
day only.
DUMFRIESSIIIRE.—Mr. Hope Johnston has been
elected without opposiziou in the room of Lord
Drumlanrig, now Maroais of Queensberry.
BUTESIIIRE.—The Hon. Stuart Wortley has been
re-elected without opposition.
HEREFORD.—The nomination took place on Thursr
day, when the show of hands was declared in favour
of Mr. Clive. A poll was demanded for Mr. Davies.

A CONFERENCE OF THE FRIENDS OF NATIONAL.
EDUCATION was held last week at Manchester. The
main object of the scheme is to obtain from Parlia-
ment a local rate, administered by the local authori-
ties, in addition to the Government grants.
Mr. Cobden was unavoidably absent, but he
wrote strongly in favour of the movement, and
said :

need hardly add the assurance that, when the question
is brought into the house, I will give it my strenuous and
unfailing support.

Lord Stanley wrote as follows
I shall give my humble support in Parliament to Sir .T.
Pakington and Mr. Cobden's bill with peculiar satisfaction,
hoping fur great good, both in the present and future,
from such an alliance for such a purpose. The anhject of
education is not the only one by many on which I think I
see a marked tendency on the part of sensible men of all
parties to draw together.
Various resolutions in accordance with the object
of the meeting—viz., the extension of national edu-
cation, not to provide schools, but to pay a portion of
the expenses of teaching, and the whole expense as
far as concerned those who were destitute—were pro-
posed, seconded, and carried unanimously.
Sir J. K. SHUTTLEWORTH then addressed the meet-
ing. He said this year he happened to know the
education grants, including science and art, would
be 630,0001., and he believed it would reach
1,000,000/. in three years from this time. He did
not think Parliament could long postpone the period
when it must decide whether this great burden,
which was annually increasing, should be localised
cr not. It was a most serious question to entertain.
Sir J. PIKINGTON touched upon the secular and
religious point of the scheme. He said that the
ground they took up was the broad principle of
religious freedom, and perhaps they had adopted,
like most settlements of complicated questions, a
basis as simple as any that could be :
It was merely this, that hereafter every school should
teach religion as they thought right, that there should Le
no interference with religious freedom, that every school
should teach religion according to their particular belief,
with only that one great rule, that great indispensable re-
quirement, that no man's conscience should be violated,
and that the utmost respect should be paid to the religious
scruples of every parent who might send his child to the
school. That was the principle of the bill ; and he
believed it was a bill which every friend of education,
be he the most rigid secularist, or the most religious and
conscientious clergyman, might conscientiously and cor•
dially adopt.

After speaking in terms of regret at the absence of
Mr. Cobden, the right hon. gentleman said that his
object in referring to Mr. Cobden was this—to say
there before the people of Manchester, and speaking
as he now did in public, he knew that he was saying
it before the people of England, that he was ready to
cooperate heart and hand with 11. r. Cobden in the
promotion of this measure:—

He could see no reason why he should not cooperate
with Mr. Cobden, and with those who were opposed to
him in public life. upon this one great question, which
ought not to be a subject of party difference. He saw
strong reasons and motives in forour of this co-operation,
and whether they look to the effect on Parliament, or to
the effect on the country, he was sure the moral effect
would be great, to see men of opposite parties in public