The Press.
London, England, 1857-01-03 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

toe form the subject of the rhyme. A stolen
kiss beneath the bough will be none the less
sweet should a belief grow up that the plant
has been consecrated by fairy rites. We must,
however, confess to some sympathy with the
paterfamilias of this book, who was found fast
asleep at the conclusion of the story.
We had intended to include several volumes
of travel, books on art, and miscellaneous pub-
lications in this general notice, but we find
they must stand over till our next issue.

The History of Modern Europe. Continued
to the Peace of Paris in 1856. By Wil•
Liam Russell, I L.D. Four Vols. London :
G. Routledge.
WE do not in general admire the practice of
writing continuations of this kind. There is
usually nothing in the nature of histories to
render this form needful. Hume's History
terminated admirably at the Revolution of
1688 ; and the same event furnished an equally
good starting-point for a new work. Russell's
letters, commencing with the fall of the Roman
empire, and terminating with the Peace of
Paris, in 1763, if pushed on only nineteen years
later, to the Peace of Versailles, in 1782, would
have had an appropriate conclusion, for that
event is the proper closing scene of the
eighteenth century. At the French Revolu-
tion the curtain rose on an entirely new
drama, with new scenery, new properties, and
new actors, and demanding, as it obtained, the
services of a new historian.
When, however, annals are abbreviated, it is
obviously convenient—as in the case of
chronological tables—that they should be pre-
sented in a continuous shape, and that a
single work should he made available for
purposes of reference instead of several.
From its comprehensive character, Russell's
history of Europe is well suited to serve as a
skeleton work, and the continuation, by who-
ever written, should, with some regard to the
general style of the original history, be directed
mainly to the concise narration of leading
facts. In the present edition, continued to
the Peace of Paris last year, we think it should
have been stated how much of the continua-
tion is new, and how much is only rewritten.
The last six years form the only entirely new
portion, as the edition of 1850 brought the
history down to that year. From the Peace of
Amiens in 1802 down to the last-mentioned
date the work has been entirely re-written.
The character of Lord Castlereagh, as given
in each edition, will be a good subject for
comparison. In the former we find :
To say that be had no talent would be a false assertion;
for he was a ready speaker and an artful debater; bat we
may truely affirm that he had nut a strong and compre-
hensive mind. was far from being a masterly orator, could
not argue with force or perspicuity, and was deficient in
that learning which, though it may not be deemed abso-
lutely necessary for a statesman, serves at least to adorn
and dignify his charac'er. As a member of the Cabinet
he had so entirely renounced his youthful zeal in favour
of liberty that he was ready to support and vindicate every
act of Ministerial tyranny or rapacity, and every encroach-
ment on the rights of the people.
In the present volume the passage stands
thus :
To say that he had no talent would be to dl him injus-
tice; he was a ready speaker and a tolerably skilful
debater. But he wanted a strong and comprehensive
mind, such as could grasp the destinies of the nation and
wield its energies with the hand of a master. He was far
from being an expert and able orator, nor could be argue
with force or perspicuity. In short, he was a very unfit
person to become the successor of Chatham, Foz, or Pitt;
and his public conduct can only be viewed as one con-
tinued crime against the Constitution and liberties of his
country. His decease is consequently dated as the com-
mencement of a new epoch in the British Government.
As a member of the Cabinet he had so entirely renounced
those liberal sentiments which he once held, and which
ate still fondly cherished by the great body of the V
that he was ready to support and vindicate every act of
Ministerial rapacity, and every encroachment on the
rights of the people.
The reader can now judge for himself of the
method by which Mr. Rontledge's volume has
been swollen to its present bulk. Lord Castle-
reagh hardly requires any vindiqation by us
from this imitation of a vulgar ittvective. It
is enough to remind our readers that to the
lofty courage and parliamentary energy of
Lord Castlereagh we are deeply indebted for
the triumphant conclusion of the war. That
he alone recognised the wisdom of the Duke
of Wellington's policy, entered with zeal into

17

that great man's designs, and smiled at un-
popularity when purchased by au adherence
to his conviction. These are hard facts sus-
ceptible of demonstration, against which the
small chroniclers of the hour may knock their
heads for ever without inflicting any more
damage than they receive themselves.
Of the last portion of the narrative (1850-56) it
is only necessary to say that it fairly registers
facts and events, and that, from its industry
and intelligence, it attains that standard
measure of utility by which the worth of such
compilations must be estimated. We subjoin
two extracts, which are fair specimens both
the style and thought which prevail in this
volume :
There can he little doubt that the Czar Nicholas was a
man of wonderful ability, and almost unexampled perse-
verance. The manner in which he fortified various por-
tions of his extensive dominions, and drew out the
resources of his country, do infinite credit to his ability.
If to Peter the Great be accorded the honour of having
first given form and feature to the fragmentary empire
which he received from his predecessors, it must in
justice be admitted that Nicholas had raised an immense
superstructure upon the foundations left by his renowned
ancestor. Under his rale things have not stagnated. lie
had been hard at work for thirty years, and the hostilities
consequent upon his violation of the independence of the
Porte show what be had in that time accomplished. He
not only made strongholds, built fleets, and collected im-
mense stores for naval and military warfare ; but be in-
fused life and animation into the national character. He in
some measure elevated the minds of his serfs ; he taught
them to look upon their country as something better than
a dreamy abstraction ; to aspire to universal empire, and
to believe that the sceptre of the world was their it ightfu
inheritance. His enthusiasm and perseverance, directed
to nobler ends, would have rendered him a real benefactor
to his race. Yet as a soldier he made himself felt, nor
could the vacancy caused by his sudden removal be easily
filled up. If we do not admire the character of the man,
we cannot deny his ability, nor seek to conceal the wonder.
ful influence he possessed over other nations, as well as
over his own subjects and slaves.
Many people vainly imagined that the death of Nicholas
would lead to an immediate peace. They forgot that he
was not. like the first Napoleon, acting according to the
promptings of his own ambitious inspirations; but that, in
seeking to establish himself at Constantinople, he carried
out the hereditary policy of his race. That scheme of
aggrandisement, which created general consternation and
horror, owed its origin to no sudden or evanescent enthu-
siasm; it is the destiny solemnly bequeathed to the
Mescovite rulers by one of the founders of their greatness
and renown. They look forward to the day when they
shall extend their sway to the luxuriant shores of the
Mediterranean Sea, as confidently as the Jews of old
waited for their entrance into the promised land. That
auspicious event is to lift them to the dazzling heights of
power, to fill up the measure of their ambition, to place at
their command the empire of the world. No Russian em-
peror will entirely renounce that claim. He may, from
prudential motives, keep it in abeyance for a season ; but
he dare not abandon it altogether. It is the most sacred
condition on which he holds the seeptre; and the Czar
would as soon think of denying his existence as that
which he deems his birthright. Russia could only be
humbled by disaster, and accept honourable terms of
peace after defeat. The secession of a new sovereign
might have rendered the matter less difficult of accom-
plishment; but even Alexander would not surrender the
arrogant claims put forward by his father until Sebastopol
had fallen.

The following remarks on the polico are
creditable to the writer's good sense :

Daring the session of 1854, an act had been passed by
which all public•houses were required to close at ten
o'clock on Sunday evening. This measure, and a bill
brought into the House of Commons by Lord Robert
Groavenor, during the session of 1855, for the suppression
of Sunday trading, caused a great deal of excitement.
Opponents of both measures summoned meetings in the
parks on several successive Sabbaths, at which thon,ands
congregated, and Sunday legislation was very strongly de-
nounced. The police, being ordered to put a stop to these
demonstrations, were accused of having acted with an ex-
cess of zeal. Into whatever errors the police may hays
been tempted, journals of influence and respectable
citizens were certainly not justified in joining in the outcry
against these preservers of pablic order, as it rendered
them unwilling to interfere on other occasions for the pro-
tection of life and property. Probably the police did, in
certain instances, act with undue severity ; but, in their
endeavours to disperse these illegal assemblages, the pro•
vocation they received should be taken into account. They
are an object of hatred to all the bad characters in the
metropolis. who gladly avail themselves of any opportunity
of bringing them into i 1 odour or disgrace. An inquiry
into the conduct of the police was ordered, and the ob-
noxious beer bill amended ; and thereupon the agitation
gradually subsided. Sir Benjamin Hall, in defiance of
the general wish of the community, commenced that
system of Sunday music In the parks which may be re-
garded as a first step towards the introduction of the sun•
tinental Sunday into England.
The literary summaries of the author are so
brief as not to allow of discrimination, and
for this reason they would perhaps have been
better omitted altogether. The frequent ex-
tracts introduced from contemporary publica-
tions ought certainly to have found no place

18

in a close compilation. The information they
give should have been embodied in the narra-
tive.
These defects, however, are, we 1 clicve, not
so much inherent in the author himself as
generated by the nature of the work he has
undertaken to perform. He appears to have
much talent for lucid narration, and to be by
no means deficient in reflective power. But
both have been marred by the rapidity with
which it was necessary for him to write to
bring down the history to so late a period.
He who thinks in a hurry ruins his reflective
faculties, as certainly as he who eats in a
;furry ruins his digestive organs. We, of
course, can only speak of books as we find
them, but the writers of such as these hardly
get fair play. The style of their performances
must be leniently judged, as we have no right
to expect more than a bare record of facts.
This volume embraces, as will be seen, all
the most interes+ing events of the forty years'
peace. The Roman Catholic Emancipation
Act, the Reform Bill, th. Repeal of the Corn
Laws, the Revolutions of 1$ Is, the Great Ex-
hibition, and the Russian War,—all these are
treated in business-like style, and the earlier
ones with commendable perspicuity.

California, In-doors and Out. By Eliza W,
Farnham. London : Sampson Low and
Son.
CALIFORNIA presents an exhaustless theme for
tourists and travellers. its variety of life, its
extraordinary characters, and its social
aspects, seem always fresh, just as Spain ever
imparts some literary vivacity to the dullest
tourist who ever slept in a posadu or smoked
a cigaretta in the native country of Gil Bias.
This American work before us is remarkable,
even in Californian literature, for "the expe-
riences "of its writer. Its commencement is
most startling :
There are few more difficult and disagreeable tasks than
the vindication of one's-self against charges and accusa-
tions so vague that i is impossible to put them into a form
in which yea will be yea to them, and nay, nay. I had
determined, in writing this little volume upon California,
to give no heed to the vulgar slanders that heralded my
emigration hither, and to obtrude no relation of the trials
that attended the wearisome voyage.
The one came from a coarse, but perhaps, in many
minds, an honest misapprehension of one of the best
endeavours of my life ; the others grew, m my case, as
they have in thousands of similar ones, out of the oppor-
tunity possessed by a brutal and tyrannical nature, to
indulge itself in paining and wounding to the utmost one
which it could neither assimilate nor approach.
A strong-minded woman !" cry some of our
readers ; and certainly Mrs. Farnham hail to
endure much, by her own account. The cap-
tain of the ship and the authoress did not
agree. At. Valparaiso the captain refused to
take a servant of Mrs. Farnham without a
passport ; altercation seems to have ensued ;
the lady said that she would go on shore to
get one from the consul, and off she went,
leaving on board her two children and their
governess, " Miss Sampson" (happy designa-
tion) ! Let the authoress tell what fol-
lowed :
I passed hastily down the ship's side, and we pulled
ashore. We stopped but a moment at the consulate, but
long enough to get a note to the intendente and learn that
the miscreant had no authority whatever to demand any
paper, and that the very moment before going into the
boat to go off, he had promised Mr. Samuels faithfully to
do nothing to annoy us in regard to this matter.
At the intendente's office, which was directly in our way
hack, we were told that the captain had said that he hated
me, and meant to play this trick upon me ; and although
the gentlemanly official assured me, in broken English,
that I had no business with a passport for the woman, he
gave me a slip of paper written hastily upon, which pro-
cured it for inc at an office two or three doors from his
own ; and when I had paid all and borrowed three or four
dollars front the gentlemen who accompanied me, I had a
sine le shilling left in my pocket.
In twenty-five minutes from the time we landed we
were again on the mole, with all that was required. In an
hoar and fifteen minutes from the time we left the ship's
aid we were well out in the harbour in a four-oared boat,
Pulling around the point, whither, the men at the water-
side informed us, the ship had proceeded. I could not
altogether repress a certain heart-chill when I saw she haul
left tier moorings in that short space of time; hut Lieut.
E— was so firm in the belief that he had only shoved
out of sight to startle and annoy me, and I felt the dread
that struck me to be so nearly an impossibility, that until
we cleared the point, and looked full out to sea, I did not
really doubt that a few minutes more wonld place me
beside my children.
At this moment I can see that vessel as she looked in
the distance. as plainly as these black lines on the white
page before me—her grey sails and ropes, her paler spars

0,;- Act, the Refori
Laws, the Rev,
hibition, and
treated in bus
ones with con
. California, In
Farnham.
r Son.
,
it CALIFORNIA pr
tourists and t
extraordinary
i:' aspects, seem
3., imparts sorm
tourist who e
.•• a cigaretta in
.'-- This America
even in Cali.
riences " of it
most startlin
There are few
the vindication c
Lions so vague tt
.e• in which yea wi
determined, in v
to give no heed
' emigration hitht
t ic that attended th
' r The one can
minds, an lion
endeavours of i
they have in the
tunity possesse
.1. indulge itself it
% . which it could t
•
A strong-r
readers ; ani
endure mire
tain of the
agree. At I
• take a sell
• passport ; i
the lady sa
get one fn.
leaving on
k governess, '
tion) ! Le
, lowed :
I passed ha
....
~ \ ashore. We i
long enough t
the miscreant
paper, and th
boat to go off,
do nothing to
At the lntei
back, we were
me, and mean
kf. the gentlemat
• that I had no
gave me a ell
cured it for
own ; and wlt
dollars front t
single shillini
werel'i againts.e.
of
t•
la
, , boor and fiftt
aid ~ we were
Pulling arottr
side informe
altogether re
left 'ter moot
E— was a,
out of sight
that struck r
:1 we cleared tl
;
i . " really doubt
beside my el
.. .:, At this m
the distance
page before