The Press.
London, England, 1854-05-13 00:00:00

MAY 13, 1854.

It was a common practice with Haydn, like his Grace of
Norfolk, to order a dinner for the or six, and then eat the
whole himself. He once ordered such a dinner to be
ready by a stated hour, at which time he alone appeared,
and ordered the repast to be served. " But where is the
company ? " respectfully inquired the headwaiter. "Oh !"
exclaimed Haydn, " / am de gompany ! "
From these specimens our readers may
judge that the book is an entertaining one.
Dr. Doran has brought together a vast amount
of curious details, and, though his book makes
no pretension to medical science, yet his
sportive allusions and sensible hints are per-
haps as likely to prove useful in restricting ex
miss, and indicating the path to health and
longevity, as books of more pretending but less
lively character.

The Dodd Family Abroad. By Charles Lever.
With Illustrations by Phiz. London: Chap-
man and Hall.

THOSE of our readers who dislike the bustle of
the stage may, thanks to Mr. Lever, while
tarrying at home, have an opportunity of
amusing themselves with a Hibernian ex-
travaganza, in which the Dodds burlesque the
character of the Irish gentry on their travels,
in the style of " screaming farce." Fastidious
readers, indeed, will be apt to decry the his-
tory of the Dodds as too absurd, and those
blessed with good memories will hint that
" Harry Lorrequer " has taken to repeating
himself. For our parts, we have laughed at
the Dodds, and we do not suppose that the
author had any other design than to set his
readers giggling, like a literary " Mr. Merry-
man." There is nothing new in the style of
the book. It exhibits talents with which their
lively and versatile owner might do much
more. The perusal of Mr. Lever's novels is
like a kind of literary steeplechasing. He
drags us along at a tremendous pace, in a
neck-or nothing style, of composition : never
stopping, like another novelist, when a diffi-
culty presents itself, he clears it at a bound,
and comes in with his reader and himself
panting at the last panting page. We are
afraid that it is now too late for Mr. Lever to
adopt a higher style of composition, and we
must only accept his boisterous humour and
laughable caricature as we find them.
In " The Dodd Family Abroad" the reader
is often reminded of " The Adventures of
Humphrey Clinker" and Tom Moore's
'Fudges.' We are made to feel that we have
laughed before at the same kind of droll situa-
tions, ridiculous mistakes, confounding sharp
ere with statesmen, and mistaking ladies with
tine clothes and sullied fame for specimens of
"female aristocracy." To criticise the charac-
ters or the incidents in this style of writing
would be like looking for genteel comedy at
the Adelphi. We shall give one or two speci-
mens of the kind of persons described in it.
Our readers will probably recognise the ori-
ginal of the following picture :
She is Spanish, by the mother's side; "Las Caldenhas,"
I think the name, whose father was a grandee of the first
class. Her own falter was the General Count de St.
Amend, who commanded in the celebrated battle of Aus-
terlitz in the retreat from Moscow. I'm sure, dearest,
you'll be amazed at my familiarity with these historical
events, but the truth is, she is a perfect treasury of such
knowledge, and I must needs gain some little by the con-
tact.

I am at a loss how to give you any correct notion of one
whose universality seems to impart to her character all the
semblance of contradictory qualities. She is, for instance,
proud and haughty, to a degree little short of insolence.
She exacts from men a species of deference little less than
a slavish submission. As she herself says, " Let them do
homage." All her ideas of life and society are formed on
the very grandest scale. She has known, in fact, but one
"set," and that has been one where royalties moved as
private individuals. Her very trinkets recal such memo-
ries ; and I have passed more than one morning admiring
pearl canines with the cipher of the Czarawitsch ; brace-
lets with the initials of an Austrian archduke ; and a dia-
mond cross which she forgot whether it was given her by
Prince Metternich or Mehemet Ali. If you only beard
her, too, how she talks of that " dear old thing, the ex
King of Bavaria," and with what affectionate regard she
alludes to " her second self—the Queen of Spain," you'd
feel at once, dearest Kitty, that you were moving amidst
crowns and sceptres. with the rustle of royal purple beside
and the shadow of a thronely canopy over you. In one
sense, this has been for us the very rarest piece of good
fortune ; for, accustomed as she has been to only one
sphere—and that the very highest—she does not detect
many little peculiarities in papa's and mamma's habits, and
censure them as vulgar, but rather accepts them as the
ways and customs among ordinary nobility. In fact, she
thinks the prince, as she calls papa, the very image of
L'Pozzo di Borgo;" and mamma she can scarcely see with-

THE PRESS.

out saying " Your Majesty," she is so like the Queen
Dowager of Piedmont.

Miss Mary Anne Dodd, in a letter to Miss
Boolam, of Ballydoolan, describes how she was
coaxed by the lady just portrayed to smoke
her first cigar:—

I accepted the invitation, and, after exchanging my even-
ing robe for a dressing•gown, hastened to the chamber. I
could scarcely believe my eyes as I entered ! She was
seated on a richly-embroidered cushion on the floor,dressed
in Turkish fashion, loose trousers of gold•sprigged
with a small fez of scarlet cloth on her head, and *jacket of the
same coloured velvet almost concealed beneath its golden
embroidery ; a splendid scimitar lay beside her, and a must
oostly pipe, in pure Turkish taste, which, however, she
did not make use of, but smoked a small paper cigarette
instead.

" Come, dearest," said she, " turn the key in the door,
and light your cigar: here we are at length free and happy."
It was in vain that I assured her I never had tried to
smoke. At drat she wouldn't believe, and then she actu-
ally streamed with laughter at me. "One would fancy,"
said she, "that you had only left England yesterday. Why,
child, where have you lived, and with whom?' I cannot
go over all she said ; nor need I repeat the efl'orts I made
to palliate my want of knowledge of life, which she really
appeared to grieve over. " I should never think of asking
your sister here," said she ; " there is a frivolity in all her
gaiety—a lightheartedness, without sentimeut—that I
cannot abide ; but you, ma chore, you hate a nature akin
to my own. You ought, and indeed must, be one of us."
We are also presented to another personage
in this book—a certain Mrs. Gore Hampton.
She figures oftener in the story than is either
agreeable or improving. Mr. James Dodd
thus describes her :

Our progress was slow, for the crush was tremendous ;
but, as we went, her recognitions were frequent. Still, I
could not but remark, not with women. All, or nearly all,
her acquaintances were of, I was going to say the harder,
but upon my life I believe the real epithet would be the
softer sex. They saluted her with an easy, almost too
easy, familiarity. Some only smiled; and one, a swim-
drel,—l shall know him again, however,—threw up his
eyes with a particular glance towards me, as plainly iks
possible implying, " Oh, another victim, eh ?" As for the
ladies, some stared Mil at her, and then turned abruptly
away ; some passed without looking; one or two made
her low and formal curtsies; and a fewput up their glasses
to scan her lace flounce or her lappets, as if they were
really the great objects to be admired. At last we came
to a knot of men talking in a circle, Sound a very pretty
woman, whose jet-black eyes and ringlets, with a high co-
lour, gave her a must brilliant appearance.

The dramatis persona of this burlesque is
composed of English swindlers, Irish fools,
and continental impostors. His countrymen
have often complained of the gross injustice
done to them by Mr. Lever caricaturing them,
and we once heard from the Conservative
benches of the House of Commons an eloquent
commentary on the injury done to the Irish
character by novelists of this school. It is
possible, however, that the evil is greatly over
rated ; but of one thing we are very certain.
that English readers a►e getting rather tired
of farces being offered them for novels ; and
in his future performances we think that Mr.
Lever ought to aim at variety along with his
vivacity, and introduce us to more rational
company than he compelled us to travel with
in " The Dodd Family Abroad."

The Modern Mystery; or, Table• Tapping. By

- -
J. G. Mac Walter. London: Shaw.
A SMALL, cheap book, exhibiting learning,
argument, and humour. The author believes
that many of the phenomena of spirit-rappings,
&,c., actually occurred, and have been truly
described. With much industry, he brings a
ludicrous collection of these cases together.
From the following it will be seen that Faust
on Walpurgis Night was scarcely in a more
exciting situation than was the Rev. Mr. Ham-
mond, of Rochester, U.S., when visiting a
family favoured by spiritual manifestations.
He says :
In the meantime the demonstrations grew louder and
louder. The family commenced and sung the "
spirit-
song " and several other pieces of sacred music, during
which accurate time was marked on the table, causing it
to vibrate ; a transparent hand, resembling a shadow, pre-
sented itself before my face ; I felt angers taking hold of
a lock of hair on the left side of my head, causing an incli-
nation of several inches, then a cold deathlike hand was
drawn designedly over my face, three gentle raps over my
left knee, my right limb forcibly pilled, against strong re-
sistance, under the table, a violent shaking, as though two
hands were applied to my shoulders, myself and chair up-
lifted and moved back, and several slaps as with a band on
the sides of the head, which were repeated on each one of
the company. During these manifestations • piece of
pasteboard, nearly a foot square. was swung with such velo-
city before us as to throw a strong current of air into
our faces, a paper curtain attached to one of the windows
was rolled up and enrolled twiet, a lounge immediately

449

behind me was shaken violently ; two small drawers in
bureau played back and forth with inconceivable rapidity;
a sound resembling a man sawing boards and planing
them was heard under the table ; a common spinning-
wheel seemed to be in motion, making a very natural buzz
of the spindle ; a reel articulated each knot wound upon
it, while the sound of a rocking-cradle indicated maternal
cares for the infant's slumbers. I felt a perfect selfposees•
sion, except a momentary chill when the cold hand was
applied to my face, similar to a sensation 1 have realised
when touching a dead body.

After mentioning many peculiarities attend-
ant on these spiritual mauitestations, such as
that the spirits like to be civilly spoken to,
and that " all excess of politeness is never
" thrown away " upon them—that one gentle-
man, doubting the veracity of the raps, put
the spirit on its oath, and swore it to the
truth of its statement—describes the modes
of rapping :

Now the alphabetical order of rapping is not only well
known, but its tediousness has been experienced and
commented upon in many a daily journal. The progress
made in this roundabout manner gives some 240 letters
in an hour. Consequently, as the method is difffise, and
time is exhausted, the most momentous revelations—
none of the remotest consequences have as yet been re-
corded—can never be made unless the communion can,
like chapters iu a serial, be "continued iu our next."
Whilst, by another and an improved method,

these letters are spelt with immense rapidity for the
most part, and the words, as spelt, are called out ; and it
is said that an expert penman would be puzzled to follow
the dictation when the " steam " is really ou.

The author then proceeds to account for the
many singular manifestations of a latent power
which have unquestionably occurred ; and ho
adopts the theory of Mr. E. C. Rogers, who
credits the existence of a newly-discovered physical agent,
" distinct from electricity, but closely allied with animal
magnetism," and which is identical with the ud or (tyli°
force of Baron Reichenbach This force can be traced in
two distinct forms of operation ; one is totally independent
of a presiding intelligence—the other exhibits the phe-
nomena of intelligence ruling and guiding it. It thus be-
comes prevision—intelligent clairvoyance--acts at a dis-
tance through matter and space, and thus produces all the
phenomena that have been attributed to direct spiritual
agency.
We are led on by a series of the nicest deductions through
a whole mass of attested physical phenomena, in which
electricity can be clearly discovered as primary causation,
until we arrive at that point where the hue divides the in-
visible and the impalpable from the material and the
actual—that transition boundary where spirit and body
blend, where the one becomes in a manner the other, and
the positive characteristic* of both are undistinguishable
and undefinable by any technology yet invented.

We have been much pleased with this little
work ; and, if any one should think that learn-
ing and logic are misapplied in dispelling a
delusion so absurd, let him remember that
spirit-rapping in America counts its believers
by hundreds of thousands; that a newspaper,
lately described in the Pawls, well supported
and respectably conducted, is devoted to it ;
and that this exciting delusion has been
followed by a great Increase of insanity
amongst our naturally excitable transatlantic
cousins.

The following, with which we close, is, says
Mr. Mat:Walter, only
a type of an enormous multitude of equally deplorable
cases. The superintendent of the Hospital for the Insane
in Indianopolis, Indiana, says, in the report for 1M52
" An elderly gentleman, who had previously enjoyed
good health, now an inmate of this institution. was living
in peace and harmony with his family until the ' spirit-
rappers ' visited the neighbourhood. He attended their
exhibitions and believed their revelations ; but, unfortu-
nately for the old gentleman, it was revealed to him by one
of the mediums' that his second wife. with whom he was
then living, had caused the death of his formercompanion.
The old man believed all to be a direct and truthful reve-
lation from the spirit world, and from that hour his
domestic happiness was at an end. Sleep forsook him
and be became a maniac, whieh be still continues to be,
with but dim prospects of recovery."

RECENT RELIGIOUS TRACTS.
WE must be cursory in our notices of the numerous
tracts that have recently appeared. In The Jews,
their Past History, and Future Prospects (Seeleys),
Lord Arthur Hervey reviews the chief events in the
annals of the Jewish nation. The Dead Sea, and
Its Explorers (Freeman), forms the third number
of a new cheap series called "The Library of
Biblical Literature." It is illustrated with en-
gravings, and epitomise" the knowledge to be found
in recent works on the Dead Sea. Papery in the
Third Century (Triibner) exhibits some literary
cleverness. It is an attempt to represent a Roman-
ist writing an "epistle" and preserving consistency
with his Church, while he uses scriptural language ;
the endeavour, of course, resulting in logical in-
congruity and historical contradiction. God's
Providential Care of Children (Seeleys) is a sermon

to the primitive inhabitants of Russia—Cos-
sacks, Calmucs, Tatars, Bashkires, and the
like. The strongest case of Muscovite misma-
pagan:Lent really attested on competent evi-
dunce is that of the Calmuc, or Eleute, tribes.
They had served Peter the Great as faithful
allies, and sent 30,000 soldiers to aid Elizabeth
in her war on the Crimea. These things were
done while they yet possessed a certain degree
of self-government under their own
on the death of the chief of these, in 1724, the
Czar took occasion to draw the reins tighter,
putting a viceroy of his own in supreme com-
mand. The result was a general feeling of
discontent, which continued unabated during
half a century, and in 1771 caused a national
migration to China. Except the Mormon
movement in our own time, modern history
has scarcely an example of an organised exo-
dus on such a scale :
On the bth of January, 1771, 70,000 families withdrew,
under the conduct of the khan Übakha, taking away with
them by force the Russian Captain Dudin and a hundred
soldiers. They were attacked by Cossacks and Kirghis
on their march, lost a great many men, fought their way
through, the Russian General Tautenberg not pursuing
them from Orenburg. They were plundered by Turkoman
and Tahtar tribes ; they lost 20,000 families on a journey
that continued fur eight months ; arrived notwithstanding,
though half starved, on the Chinese borders at Ily, in the
year 1772, and were received by the Emperor of the
Celestial Empire with pride and pomp. In order to pre.
serve the remembrance of that eveut, which reunited the
Mongol race under his sceptre, the Chinese Empemr erected
a monument, with an inscription in the four languages of
his dominions. Only 15,000 families remained in Russia,
which were detained by the extraordinary circumstance of
the Volga not being frozen over.
The Russian Government endeavoured to represent the
case in a light less unfavourable for themselves. They
laid the blame on Chinese intrigues, on the embassy of
Tulichen, who, in the year 1724, was sent from Pekin to
Aiouki ; but a mere invitation to go back to China would
not have availed, nor would it have taken fifty years for its
accomplishment. Kichenski, the Pristaf, had abused his
power. From that time too the power of the priataf was
limited, yet the Kalmucks did not regain their own admi-
nistration, and the committee, who reside at Astrachan, and
preside over the affairs of the whole country, consists of a
Russian president, two Russian judges, and two Kalmuck
deputies.
The book closes with a dissertation on Rus-
sian parties, including sketches of Menschi-
koff, Orloff, and Nesselrode. Here is a portrait
of the first, but we do not vouch for the re-
semblance :
the present Minister of Marine, Prince Menshikoff, is
Nicholas's Falstaff, and is known for his play upon words.
" What do you think of my ministry ?" asked the Czar of
him once. How is it to succeed r answered Menshikoff,
" with one long arm (the name of Dol,gomuky, Minister of
War, signifies long arm) and one with only one arm
(Bibikoff, Minister of the Interior, has lost an arm) ?
Adlerberg (Court Minister) is not amiss, but hie mien
(Mina is the name of his mistress) does not please me."
A French girl in an equestrian troop obtained the admi-
ration of all Petersburg by her skill in horsemanship.
Called to the palace of the Grand Duke Michael, she suc-
ceeded in breaking in a vicious horse, that nobody could
ride before. "Absurd!" cried Menshikoff, " I will also do
the same," and, forgetting his age, he also mounted, but
was thrown, and broke his legs, so that he was for a long
time obliged to keep his bed.
When the Duchess of Leuchtenberg, whose conduct is
subject to suspicion, gave birth to a son who was called
George, Menshikoff said, " Leuchtenberg has got the
George (a Russian order for bravery) without having been
in action."
He obtained a name in war by taking Anape ; at Varna
an exhausted ball rolled over both his feet when he was
taking a pinch of snuff.
He has talent and ambition, ambition perhaps more than
talent. You may see him sometimes in Petersburg on
horseback in naval uniform, with white hair, sallow face,
tuid a soldier's moustaches.
And the veteran diplomatist against whose
advice the present war has been undertaken is
thus described :
Charles Albert, Count Nestelrode, was born in 1770, on
board an English vessel in sight of Lisbon. His parents
were Germans in the Russian service, and, as there was no
Protestant minister in the vessel, he was baptised accord-
ing to the Anglican rite. England, therefore, may claim
the honour of reckoning him among her citizens.
Pope Gregory XVI., anticipating a visit of the count to
Borne, said, , I must be watchful of M. de Nesselrode ; he
combines four or five different nationalities." The rela-
tions of the Russian minister are Westphalian counts and
• the reason why he
Ile was intended
.4d to him one day
and the count entered
Paul, therefore, was
he happened to
Count Stiiselburg,
the Hague, and
. to write French
Pit•gallet`. He has never
'1.4 to write his name

Lions of the Russian minister are Westphi
counts of the Holy Empire, and that is tl-
has constantly refused Russian titles. 1
e nav . The Emperor Paul I. salt
diplomatist, and t
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