The Press.
London, England, 1854-01-07 00:00:00

JANUARY 7, 1854.

On comparing the first and the present edi-
tions of this valuable work we observe that a
great number of new woodcuts have been in-
troduced, and, though the larger and earlier
copies may be more suited for the library, for
utility and recent information the present edi-
tion is preferable. The price is now brought
within the reach of those who wish to limit their
expenditure. We may add, that there are not
less than five hundred woodcuts in the present
cheap edition of this meritorious contribution
to Oriental archaeology.

Letters on the Condition of the Working Clauses of
Nassau. By T. Twining. London.
Tani little pamphlet is valuable in itself, and still
more so as being the first of a projected series of
which the aim is to inform the English people re-
specting the physical, social, and intellectual state of
working men in other European countries. It is
printed for distribution among members of the So-
ciety of Arta, having originally been intended to ap-
pear in the journal of that institution. Mr. Twining
avoids controversy, dealing solely with facts, and ap-
proaches his subject with the advantage of a special
training, having taken an active part in the proceed-
ings of the Labourers' Friends' Society. The various
topics dealt with are primary education, special or
technical teaching, earnings of various trades and
classes, and the ordinary expenses incurred by fami-
lies in each class. Some remarks of a more general
character follow ; and, small as is the size of the
work, it contains more matter than many elaborate
volumes of travel or general description. Why do
not more tourists follow Mr. Twining's example—
select a subject, one of which they know something
previously, and confine their publication, if not their
observations, to that ? The time is quite gone by
when "Recollections of a Continental Trip," "Rides
through France," "A Summer in Germany," or the
like, could be either sold or read ;• but real observers,
who can think as well as describe, writing briefly,
and concentrating their energies ou a few topics, re-
main as scarce as ever. The field is wide, the har-
vest profitable—why are the reapers few? In Nassau
the German educational system is carried out to the
fullest extent. Elementary schools are provided in
every village at the public expense—all children be-
tween the ages of six and fourteen must attend these,
unless receiving education elsewhere—so that utter
ignorance is impossible. Regular attendance at the
school is insisted on, and enforced by a fine levied
on the parents in case of failure. Reading, writing,
arithmetic, with some knowledge of geography and
natural history, are the studies chiefly pursued. The
teachers receive only from 101. to 00/. yearly, according
to seniority—a miserable pittance, which they eke out
by following other trades. Nevertheless, the system
appears to work well ; and diversity of religious opi-
nion ,Nassau being nearly equally divided between
Protestants and Roman Catholics, with a slight pre-
ponderance of the former) is no bar to its success.
Secondary or special teaching is less attended to. A
rather elaborate plan of apprenticeship prevails—the
journeyman must travel before he is admitted to
practise as a master—and this final step is not reached
without his undergoing a professional examination,
and passing through various legal formalities. The
earnings of tradesmen vary from 501. to 1001. yearly
in the towns ; the rural districts are poor, and trade
seldom flourishes among a scattered and hard-living
population. Operatives, if " masters," that is, if
having regularly graduated in their trade, earn from
3s. to ss. English daily, journeymen from 10s. to 3s.
weekly, with board and lodging added. For unap-
prenticed and independent labourers from Os. to 3s.
weekly is considered remuneration sufficient. The
food consumed by workers is less substantial than in
England, yet not complained of : provisions are cheap,
wine and beer both in use, lodging good and not ex-
pensive. On all these points ample details are fur-
nished by Mr. Twining.

A History of Greece, from the Earliest Times to the
Roman Conquest. By William Smith, LL.D.
London : Murray.
THIS plain yet handsome volume is intended for the
use of schools. It contains more than six hundred
pages, and is illustrated by a hundred wood en
gravings of famous Greeks, of celebrated landscapes,
and of the exquisitely graceful and stately remains of
the matchless architecture of Greece. Some of the
temples are, in the drawings, restored. Besides the
views of great buildings, exact tracings of particular
walls, with the shape of the stones, are given, so
that we may from them obtain an accurate know-
ledge of Greek masonry. There are also maps,
plans of places famed in story, and of battles ; and,
ass the majority of these various illustrations are the
work of Mr. George Scharf, they are executed with
care, and are excellent of their kind. The habits
and manners of the Greeks in their every-day life

THE PRESS.

are described, and (we extract from Dr. Smith's pre-
face :—)

" Considerable space has been given to the history of
literature and art, since they form the most durable evi-
dences of a nation's growth in civilisation and in social
progress. A knowledge of these subjects is of far more
importance to a pupil at the commencement of his classi-
cal studies than an acquaintance, with every insignificant
battle in the Peloponnesian war, or with the theories of
modern scholars respecting the early population of Greece;
and, as it cannot be expected that a schoolboy should
read special treatises upon Grecian literature and art,
these subjects find their appropriate place in a work like
the present.
" It is perhaps hardly necessary to observe that 1 have
i availed myself of the researches of the eminent scholars,
both in this country and in Germany, whose writings have
thrown so much light upon the history of Greece ; but the
obligations I am under to Mr. Grote require a more
peuti-
cular acknowledgment."
The style is easy, clear, and concise, and altogether
this is a superior schoolbook.

Correspondence on the Education of the People,
Social and Moral. By Lieut.-Colonel William
Pottinger. London Ridgway.

AN attempt to trace the brutal propensity of our pea-
santry to wife-beating and murderous assaults on
females up to its source in the juvenile habits of the
offenders. Colonel Pottinger, " after eight years of
observation and experience,"finds that such outrages,
on a smaller scale, are exceedingly prevalent among
children, and proposes to have them noticed and
punished in the National Schools. It is not easy,
however, to see how the schoolmaster is to interfere
in quarrels which take place out of his official cog-
nisance ; and Colonel Pottinger's argument may be
turned against himself. He contends that men com-
mit these acts of violence because they have been ac •
customed to them as boys : it would be quite as
reasonable to infer that boys commit them because
they have seen their fathers and grown-up neigh-
bours do the like. There is in this respect some de-
ficiency of logical sequence ; anti the foundation-fact
on which his whole case rests needs further corrobo-
ration. Colonel Pottinger's intention, however, is
good, and the execution, so far as it goes, unobjec-
tionable.

Sermons. By Josiah Bateman, M.A. London :
Seeleys.
THESE sermons were preached at Guernsey during
a visit made to that island in search of health. The
congregation to whom they were addressed requested
their publication, and they merited the compliment.
Popular in tone, but avoiding flashy eloquence, they
are pithy in matter and practical in their exhorta-
tions. We liked, especially, the discourse entitled
"Bright Spots in the Bible," preached on Romans
xii. 9-13 ; and also on "The Power of Prayer,"
Exodus xvii. 2. The preacher's theology is that of a
sound scripturalist.

The Turkish Alphabet. Designed by R. B. Brough,
and drawn by H. G. Hine. London: Bogue.
IN this pantomimic contribution to the Eastern
question there is geniality combined with drollery.
Though not likely to find a place on the drawing-
room tables of her Majesty's Ministers, it will be not
the less intelligible and welcome to her subjects.
The state of the Eastern question is well represented
under Q, and the fancy portrait of a Hospodar is
pre-eminently Wallachian.

Who's Who in 1R54. (Sixth Year.) Edited by C.
H. Oakes, M.A. London : Baily Brothers.
Tms little volume of reference to English social
notabilities is dedicated, by permission, to the
Duchess of Sutherland. It gives a list of Peers,
M.P.'s, Privy Councillors, the members of the Orders
of Knighthood, Queen's Counsel, general officers,
&c. &c. But no details or particulars are given
about them, and it has the considerable defect of not
afibrding the addresses of the members of the
Legislature.

Selections from the Writings of Lord Byron. By a

Clergyman. London : Murray.
lir.nE we have two volumes of extracts from the
poems, diaries, and correspondence of Lord Byron,
bound together in one. The selections have been
made very judiciously, and with considerable amount
of literary taste. All the characteristic "bits" in his
letters have been taken out., and we have in a small
space given to us the brightest passages which came
from that extraordinary man. In general we are not
partial to volumes containing the "beauties" of an
author, fur we dislike the fragmentary method of ex-
hibition; but the selections befote us have been
made sn skilfully, that the volume is removed from
that category to which " Howard's Beauties of Lite-
rature and all such ill-chosen scrapbooks beh•ng.

19

In looking through the prose extracts it is impossible
not to be struck with the power of the writer. How
different is the incisive style and glowing force of
Byron's casual remarks on London society from the
triviality and monotonous Boswellism of Moore's
diary ! This volume is, altogether, the beat selection
of en author's "gems" we know.

.1 Dozen Ballads for the Times, about Church Abuses.
London : T. Bosworth.
IF Mr. liorsman ever thmws his speeches iuto
rhyme we should imagine that he was the author of
this little series of ballads, which originally appeared
in the Daily News. The following advertisement is
prefixed to oue of them called " St. Simon and St.
Jude":— _ _

" Surrey.—A sporting neighbourhood:
Advow•sou to be sold:
Eight hundred souls: the shooting good :
Incumbent sick and old :
Thousand a•year and surplice•fees:
(A curate gets all done :)
Ity order of the assignees:
At Giurowity's: at one'"
The description of the curate reminds us of pm is of
Schiller, as translated by Sir E. Bulwer Lytton :
" Devoted, modest, purr, and kind,
And bountiful on means too small,
A gentleman in heart and mind,
With Christian courtesies to all,
Forth on his mission every• day,
To combat wrong and comfort right,
The humble curate goes his way,
And makes his track a stream of light."
The type is of that antique kind with the long a,
like f, which Mr. Thackeray's " Esmond " made
fashionable. The verses are good, and the views
they Express those of Mr. Horinuan.

A Shillingsicorth of Magic. By J. H. Anderson (the
Great Wizard of the North).

IT would be unreasonable to expect from a profess-
ing and practising wizard any full revelation of the
contrivances by which his cunning feats are accom-
plished. He knows better than thus to spoil his
own vocation. The reader, therefore, who would ex
pect to find included in the present shillingsworth
any elucidation of the mystery connected with the
lady's disappearance from under the extinguisher,
the development of several bushels of flowers from
the crown of a hat, or the production of a brimming
glass globe and gold fish out of nothing, will be de-
servedly disappointed. The little volume in ques-
tion contains a collection of parlour conjuring tricks
and chemical surprises very effective iu proper time
and place, but the majority of which have been long
since described in the "Endless Amusements " and
"Boy's Own Books" of a generation which has out-
grown its childish predilections.

Britain's Wreck; or, Breakers Ahead. London:

Houlston and Stonetnan.
A TRA( T which expresses a desponding view of our
social and political prospects ; well-intentioned, and
probably a fair exponent of the impressions of a class
which is worthy and respectable.

20

tion rather loosely put together, anti is evidently
written in haste, and up to the last moment. It con-
tains, indeed, reference to the news received in Lon-
don so lately as the 28th ult. Its tone is, however,
lofty and earnest ; and the writer denounces with in-
dignant eloquence the mingled pusillanimity and in•
capacity of the Aberdeen Government. The critical
miscellany appended to the number, in which the se •
'acted "books of the quarter" are classifid and
grouped under the title of " Contemporary Litereature,"
forms one of the most valuable features of the Review.
Nowhere else, indeed, can we find so copious an ac-
count of current foreign literature, or one written
with a fuller knowledge of the authors and works
flourishing contemporaneously among our continental
neighbours One failure, indeed, we notice. In his
brief account of the " INlemoires de Bilboquet," lately
•iblished in Paris, the writer does not seem aware

THE PRESS.

A of Wler's Poems "is the c article
of thenEvlEW Dublin" University Magazine for this month.
By " Waller" our readers must not understand the
poet of the seventeenth century, but the bard of the
nineteenth, who, under the name of " Slingsby," has
written a quantity of miscellaneous verse, of varied
degrees of merit. He is a man of undoubted abili-
ties, with a remarkably versatile mind, a practising
barrister at the Four Courts, Dublin, a suitor in the
bowers of the Muses, a ripe scholar, with consider-
able research, and a sentimental religionist ! His
political and unavowed articles would, if collected,
prove him to be a most pungent and formidable
essayist, who, in years gone by, has done excellent
service in the cause of Irish Conservatism. The
other articles in the University are not particularly
interesting ; and it is not one of the best numbers d
this periodical.

SATTJRDAY,

are sufficiently diversified in subject, and many of
them piquantly written. Under the pseudonym of
" Sir Nathaniel" the writer of a series of sketches of
American authors devotes some pages to another
transatlantic celebrity, Mr. Donald Mitchell, also bet-
ter known abroad as well as at home by his "nom
de plume" of Ikey Marvel. Of this series we are
told by the editor himself that it " excited so much
" attention and gained so favourable a reception in
" the United States." The "Record of tbe Gold Fever,"
though written upon a subject which is getting some.
what worn, contains a graphic narrative of the suffer-
ing and disappointment too often experienced at the
diggings by those whom the gold fever takes thither
without the personal qualifications and intellectual
disqualifications almost indispensable to furnish
forth a successful " digger." Mr. Dudley Costello
continues his series of French historiettes, of which
we cannot say much. His stories consist chiefly of

published in Paris, the writer twee XIV& rma.,..• ........ a
that the amusing work in question is a mere squib, ---
intended solely to burlesque the egotistical "Me- Tait has eight articles besides the "Political Regis- old jokes put into a French dress, and anecdotes
moire" whereof M. Veron has issued the first two ter" and notices of literature. The first, on " France cheaply gleaned out of the Parisian newspapere. In Vs
of (as he threatens) a long series of pretentious vo- and her Commercial Relations," is perhaps the most present specimen the " difficulties" of M. Alexis
ki.rogere. in London are thoroughly hackneyed ; and
lumen.
---...,. important. It appears that aM. St. Fee h, who
.the principal incident of the hero's career is bor-
wae employed in the customs in France, has lately
lowed without acknowledgment from M. We 's
Tire new-year's number of Blackwood is character- written a work, and dedicated it to the head of that
recently-published book, " Les Anglais chez eux."
iced by more than wonted solidity. Eschewing, as a department, in which he "professes to elucidate the
matter of principle, the fleeting trivialities which Principles "of the fiscal system of France from 1791
Ainsworth's Magazine opens the year with a fair
most of our southern monthlies so eagerly app m- to 1831. The results of his labours are seven con
collection of miscellaneous papers, chiefly consisting
piste, Ebony supplies his readers with more cited? ns, of. which this is the last : of novels,. ,o,r
_,novelettes, presented whole or "to be
substantial fare. Thus, in the present number, n"'l o consider as a principle that in all treaties to he
continued. Their peculiar character or individual
egotiated with England must of the conditions which she
we have papers entitled " The Past and Future'
will propose are those which we ought to avoid." purpose it is not easy to describe, but they appear
of China," the " Painter in Persia "—based upon The Emperor has, we are glad to say, without a upon the whole tolerably readable.
the " Voyage en Perse," undertaken at the instance treaty reduced the duty on coal and iron to the equal
of the French Government, and related by M. Flan- benefit of France and England. In combating the THE number of the Art-Journal (new series, No. 61)
din, an attaché to the French Embassy in Persia— restrictive views of M. St. Ferreol the reviewer for January contains three principal engravings of
the "Narcotics we Infuse," and the "Aberdeen quotes that author's own book. Referring to the Goodall's "Raising of the Maypole," Gibson's " Hy•
Cabinet." Among these the article on China is pe- lerlin and Milan decrees, and the English orders in las and the Nymphs," and Stothard's "Vintage,"
culiarly interesting and suggestive. A review of council, he illustrates the impossibility of restraining with subordinate illustrations of the progress of art-
Landor's new work, " The Last Fruit off an Old the expansive and penetrating energies of corn- manufacture, examples of German artists, an engrav-
Tree," contains a critical estimate of the author's coerce by the following novel instance of "Dutch ing of the " Pieta "of Michel Angelo, &c. ,ke.
piece and influence in literature, written in a jai- courage":—
clone and yet friendly spirit. Mr. Candor has, to George Cnakshank's Magazine. Edited by Frank
" A Dutch captain declared that if profit were to be made
our knowledge, never been weighed more carefully
lb a voyage to hell he would sail thither, although his sails E. Smedley. No. I. London : Bogue.
or judged more leniently than by his present re- aLid eburnt.„
THE great George is liberal of himself in this new
viewer. Some additional chapters of the Scotch The article gives a clear concise, account of the enterprise. "The Tail of the Comet of iftrie eis an
novel commenced in the December number, " The
tariffs of France from that of Colbert in 1664 down elaborate performance; "The Seat of War" is
Quiet Heart " constitute the only ingredient of an
' to the present period, as
'English
the present and
imaginative character for which Blackwood has foundwell conceived ; and the gentleman with the Turkish
recent state of French and exports and im- pipe in the centre of "The Narcotics we indulge in"
room this month. ports generally. In the amount of British exports is a good similitude of the artist. George is fortis-
for 185 S-3 we remark a considerable error of the nate this time in having obtained the cooperation
Fraser opens the year creditably in some respects. press. For the first. eight months of 1853 our exports of an editor who is himself an apt and readable con-
The article on Dr. Veron's " Memoirs" is amiss- are said to be thirty-eight millions :it should be fifty- tributor. A paper on r Magazine Contributions" is
rug'— eight millions. The second article is a tale of caustic anti amusing.
" Rossini, we are told, lives like a bon bourgeois. Ile American life ; the third attacks the biographical
has married Mlle. Olympe Pelitoier, who never calls her mania, and threatens that, Bentley's Monthly Review for January, 1854.
husband meshing but mon inimortel. The establishnient "if the evil continues to be undiminished, we shall lay London : Piper, Stephenson, and Spence.
of Rossini at Florence is competed of eleven servants, hold of the first offending biography that comes across our
and three women au service tie Madame. There is a path and lay bare its every deformity." Tins clever little miscellany this month concludes
vaunting and ev • g carriage, and an open landau for Will this check the evil? Listen to eloquent words its papers upon " Early Foreign Preachem." It eon-
the service of Mine. Rossini. The maestro makes his that were written of the life and tragic death of
rances out the tains also an article upon Maca
difficuulaylties . The
of follgeneraowing
visits on foot like Louis Philippe, with an umbrella under unhappy iiaytion : "
his arm. Every season Rossini goes to take the waters at " the heart and life of man addressed to man there application at this season :
Monte Catini, less, he says, for himself than for his dog. " will always be enough, and more than enough. " THE EDITOR'S SANCTUM. CURTSTNAS EVE.—PrObeIII,
Itoseitii: says N'ermi, with true underbred snobbishness, „ The same strong human sympathies that crave to the Editor, surrounded by books and papers, mod smiting
' entertains an affection full of conipinisance for the Arch-
" know prompt also to reveal. Vanity will not furiously. Ato s
i heard at the door, altieli preeently
bishep of Floreuce.: Now, though Mai mcee the archbishop, opens, and the office potter enters,
.tottering under an Me
is a famine() per la musics, who ngs buffo as well as " refrain, passion will not be silent, conviction will
mense leather sack, which he deposits heavily on the door.
eerie, yet the csondeeeension is on the part of the church- " speak ; anguish, which has bled in silence, will
" Editor : ' What is the meaning of this ?'
man, eighty seven years old, and not on the part of the " utter at last the long-suppressed cry, if not for "Porter : ' Only some more books, sir, sent in for notice
composer, whatever be his age. Rossini, we are told by " justice—if not for pity—yet for relief, 'as the this month?'
Venni, ' has lust completed the nurchase of the Palazzo " beast crieth expansive, not appealing ' ; and the , " The editor stares for a moment hard in the porter's
Pucci, which has cost him 400,0110 francs, in addition to " echoes of humanity will catch It up anti respond to face, then, with an exclamation which we shall not here
which 6n,10) francs are to be allocated to furnish the ti it as they do now to this wild reproachful voice repeat, snatches hie hat, lushes past the man (liteielly
apartment of his pear wife, as he calls her. " startling us from the tomb." A paper on what is tumbling him over his load), and darts out of the office!
A professional opinion of the doctor is thus called "The Shottisham Case "is perhaps, after " [He was traced to the next cabstand, whence, it was
cited : France, the most interesting. Elizabeth Squirrel, a asserted, he had gone off at a bantbgallop towards the
girl who was dumb, blind, deaf, mesmeric, magnetic, Great Northern Railway, and, we regret to say, he has not
"The doctor thinks diseases of the spinal marrow mach
cataleptic, poetic, enthusiastic, ttc. itc., about since been heard of. As 80)11 as he returns to his. duty
more common now than heretofore. lie alludes to theevery effort will be made to induce him to pay attention to
cases of Royer Collard and M. d'Orsay, and attributes the eighteen months ago, said site had lived without the contents of the ssek._sus.Editer.l,,
disease to much smoking. Dr. firetonnetut, of Tours, Was eating. The reviewer is indignant with those who
called in (he writes) for a celebrated personage (Louis doubt it. Some years ago one Bernard Kavanagh
Our Friend. A Monthly Miscellany, designed for
Napoleon), who complained of exhaustion and eliervation. got his living by living without eating. He was
' Von smoke twelve or fifteen Aga,* a day,' said he ; ' smoke caught buying bacon while performing at Reading, All Classes. London :J. F. Shaw.
less, mat your symptoms will disappear.' " and committed to prison. A habeas corpus was Tee object of this miscellany is be>t illustrated by
The recantations of " Young Germany" are new moved for, and the return made to it was in effect the prospectus which accompanies this, its first num-
li to magazine.readers, and an antidote to the renewed that he was committed for buying bacon which it ber. It promises to include
raving's of John Mitchel, &c. The review of "Bristed's eras believed he wickedly intended to eat, upon which " Plain, moral, theological, and social articles ( suggested
Life at Cambridge" contains some interesting per- he was discharged. if Bernard is now free and by current events) ;an original religious tale (to be regu-
sonal reminiscences of the author by an old fellow- single, he might marry the girl Squirrel, and the lady continued), embodying valuable information, and le-
collegian. "ti allinaceana" is a learned and attractive young couple could live upon nothing. The rest of plete with amusing incidents; reviews of book., etc.; a
biography of some celelnsted wan ; an historical remote
paper, apparently by the same cuisinier who has pro- Tait is of ordinary merit. The notices of books are
blamer ; biblical illustrations ; practical sketches in
sided such an elaborate first course of fresh and salt just. science and arts ; industrial gleanings; a stunt moral-
waterfish in filmier numbers. In another article in the bearing story ; notes of a naturalist ' • monthly memorial (of
same breath, however, Fraser tells us that Lord Pal- Collnirn's New Monthly Magazine commences its distinguished men recently dead) ; a dated s'unimary of the
merston's answer to the Presbytery of Scotland was hundredth volume, and completes, within a month chief events of the month, accompanied by a lively end
brave and all but universally approved, and takes credit or two, the thirty-third year of its existence. The pointed commentary ; a collection of useful scraps; Sri-
for its own courage in adopting the opinions of a arrival' of this epoch is made the occasion for a plea- tome of correspondence ;an ecclesiastical report, tt C.
, presumed overwhelming majority. An article on sant and melancholy retrospect of its past career— The work will tie conducted in accordance with the pelt
' Derhyism," with which the number concludes, is melancholy, because of the long muster roll of con- evangelical principles enunciated by the divine volume,
one of the many signs of the hysterical frenzy into tributors who have ceased to adorn its pages or the and in perfect unison with the spirit of our Establiebed
which a sense of their precarious position has re- literature of their country, beginning with Elia Chtivel""
cently thrown the Radical Peelites. As a specimen and ending with Hood and Barham ; pleasant, be-
J
of dishonest statement and pure priggishness we cause the editor can still enumerate a band of living The Journal
gimp kin l of Industrial
nd M Prog
arshall.ress. London
could wish nothing better for the Conservative party friends and collahorateurs, and can point to the
than that it should be read and ridiculed as widely issuing number of his magazine as a proof of con- Tem is the first number of a new periodical. The
as possible, tinuekl vigour and success. The papers it contains editor is Mr. William R. Sullivan, chemist to the
t
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