The Press.
London, England, 1854-07-29 00:00:00

attiesiastical.

PREFERMENTS AND APPOINTMENTS.
The Rev. Dr. Hannah to the Wardenship of Trinity College,
Glenaltuonti.
The Rev. J. P. Billing, M.A., to the Curacy af finish Episcopi-
cum-Langport, Somerset
The Rev. J. Marshall, M.A., to the Curacy of Tong, near Shift'.
nal.

VACANCIES.
The Rectory of Newtown Hamilton ; in the gift of the Arch
bishop of Armagh.
The Curacy of Rotherfield, near Tunbridge Wells; in the gift
of the Rev. It. Gream, M.A.
The Curacy (temporary) of Butleigh, near Glastonbury; iu
the gift of the Rev. W. F. Neville, M.A.
The Assistant• Chaplaincy of to House of Correctvn at Pres-
ton ; worth 1001. a year.

The King of Greece receives regularl remittances
from Russia, quite in the pensioner style. A Greek
house in Paris manages the business. With this
money wholesale corruption is carried on.
Lord Medwyn died in Edinburgh on Tuesday last,
at the advanced age of seventy-seven. He was
called to the bar in 1799, raised to the bench in
1825, and only resigned his judgeship in the end of
1852.
THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH COMPANY held their
half-yearly meeting at the offices, Lothbury, on
Tuesday. Since the last meeting, the wires had been
constructed on 13 different railways, and there web()
now in progress 3,869 miles of new wire. A dividend
was declared for the half year at the rate of 7 per
cent. per annum.
THE MANCHESTER LOCAL COMMITTER in aid of
the forthcoming Paris Exhibition have decided to
apply for 3,000 square yards of space for the exposi-
tion of the textile fabrics, being exactly one-third of
the entire space allotted to British produce and
manufacturers.
MRS. MOORE, the widow of Colonel Moore, of the
InnisUllings, who perished in the burning of the
Europa transport, has, at the especial desire of the
Queen, been appointed apartments in Hampton-
court Palace, and has also the highest pension
awarded, 2001. per annum.
Six CANDIDATES are already in the field for the
representation of Canterbury, whenever it shall
please the House of Commons to permit the writ to
be issued. The following is the list :—Sir W. Somer-
ville, Bart., the Hon. George P. Smythe, Mr. C.
Purton Cooper, Q.C., Mr. C. M. Lashington, Mr.
Lennox Butler, and Mr. Auchmuty Glover.
THE LATE GOVERNOR OF MONMOUTH GAOL, a per-
son named Barrett, was placed on his trial at Oxford
Assizes on Wednesday. He was charged with
forging the names of various tradesmen to receipts or
acquittances of their bills against the county, and
with embezzling the sums of 971. 10s. Bd. and 1001.,
the property of the inhabitants of the county of Mon-
mouth. The prisoner pleaded guilty. His counsel
urged in extenuation that he had incurred debts to
the amount of 9001. in improving the gaol, and thus
fell into embarrassments that tempted him to com-
mit the crimes of which he was charged. He was
sentenced to fifteen years' transportation.
THE beneficial results to the growing crops have
been occasioned by the fine weather of the last few
few days, and the agricultural reports contained in
the provincial journals speak in very cheering terms
of the harvest prospects of their respective districts.
The Russian organ in Berlin announces, under the
head of the "Anti-Russian Press," the seizure of a
Wurtem'eurg daily paper, called the Observer, for an
article offensive to the Emperor Nicholas.
Mr. Mechi had his annual " at home," on Wednes-
day last, when he invited a number of friends, con-
nected with agriculture and science, to meet him, and
inspect his farm, which was never in more splendid
condition than at the present moment.
Captain Craigie has completed his full number of
volunteers (1,500) for the naval coast service to be
raised in Scotland.
An order has been issued allowing the troops in
the East to wear the moustache, and the beard also,
if they please.

Ambrose the Sculptor. An Autobiography of Artist
Life. By Mrs. Robert Cartwright. London
Smith and Elder.
THERE is more of love than of art in this poetical
romance. As the hero is a sculptor, his adventures
are mixed up with his professional l►fe; but the in-
terest of the story turns chiefly on h►s passionate
attachment for two women and on the jealousy of
the one who becomes his wife, as circumstances
throw him into close communion with her lovely and
generous rival, not, however, without the wife's know-
ledge and sanction. Neither plot nor sentiment is
of the pure, elevating tendency which we desire in
fiction, but many of the incidents are beautifully told,
and the tragical catastrophe is powerfully desc►ibed.
The "lesson" at the close of the book Feems imper-
fect, as it should have been directed to the necessity
of strictly keeping feeling in subjection to duty,
rather than of showing that suffering may be the
arent of power and of great works.

JULY 29, 1854•

yittraturt.

History of the Byzantine and Greek Empires,
from 1057 to 1453. By George Finlay,
Honorary Member of the Royal Society of
Literature. London : Blackwoods.
WE have no small reason for congratulation
on observing the success of our English histo-
rical school. Its vigorous growth is one of
the most marked facts in the higher literature
of our age. Nearly every department of oar
rative has found its appropriate author. If in
poetry or moral philosophy the present age
cannot boast of many great bards or deep
thinkers, it is certain that no previous period in
our national progress could point to so many
contemporary historians with performances
deserving high applause.
To be ranked with the best historians of the
day Mr. Finlay has just pretensions ; but he
is not a " popular " writer. He thinks, appa-
rently, that the Historic Muse should be
painted with a severe countenance, as if con-
temning rhetorical frippery and ingenious
artifices. We judge by his style that he is
deliberately averse to following the example
of those historians who have unconsciously
intruded upon the province of the novelist ;
and we think it is likely that his mind has
gone too far in its antagonism to showy models
of composition. It is certainly very difficult
to attain in narrative the golden mean between
a dry and declamatory style. Good taste for-
bids the severely cold, as much as it recoils
from the extravagantly florid.
The history of decline is, for obvious rea-
sons, not the most promising for a historian's
pen. Byzantine annals are not intrinsically
interesting, for the events recorded in them
were not directly progressive in moral impor-
tance, and the Eastern civilisation must be
pronounced unsuccessful. They do not pre-
sent those enduringly-attractive features which
rivet attention, like the ancient Greek and
Roman records. We feel, in short, that we
are perusing the history of failure on a great
scale, and, though instructive for example,
there is always something cheerless in the
spectacle of degeneracy.
In his present volume, concluding the whole
work, Mr. Finlay traverses about four centu-
ries within the compass of less than seven
hundred pages. He does not take the tone of
a mere commentator, but preserves through-
out the style of narrative, never allowing his
pen to stray into the devious paths of the
essayist, or to linger lovingly upon topics sug-
gesting speculative dissertation. Mr. Finlay
indicates the absolutism of the Byzantine
government as a potent cause of its decline.
Referring to the policy of Leo VI., Constantine
VII., and Romanus 11., he says :
The emperors themselves must be held responsible
for the decline of the imperial administration in the
Byzantine empire. The Basilian dynasty, which ruined
the political edifice, was an inferior race of men to the
Isaurian princes who repaired it. Basil I. was ignorant
of civil business, and ill-fitted by education to appreciate
the value of the system of which accident constituted him
the head. Leo 1., Constantine VII., and Romanus 11.
never appeared as leaders of the Roman armies. It was,
therefore, not unnatural that these princes, alarmed by
the repeated rebellions, seditious, and conspiracies of the
great officers of state and commanders-in-chief, should feel
extremely jealous of the territorial aristocracy, which had
secured to themselves the possession of the highest
posts in the government of the empire. In order to
avoid the danger of entrusting the nobility with official
power, these emperors established a board, consisting
of their own private secretaries, which controlled the
acts of the ministers of state ; and they gradually filled
the highest offices in the administration, as well as in
the court, with persons belonging to their private house-
holds.
One of the strongest arguments against ab
solutism, considered solely with reference to
the executive, is the difficulty of finding a
succession of imperial rulers fit to bear the
toils of state. Rarely does history tell of a
Mazarin following a Richelieu, and the rule
applicable to al solutist ministers is even more
marked in the case of irresponsible sovereigns.
On the other hand, in aristocracies there is a
wide field for selection, and a fair chance for a
supply of adequate administrators. The fol-
lowing remarks on "governing by clerks" are
extremely interesting just now :
The practice of conducting public business through
the medium of a cabinet of private secretaries led to many

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THE PRESS.

evils. Councils of the ministers and great officers of
state were laid aside, and the authority of established
usages and systematic rules was diminished. Each
minister and general received his orders directly from the
emperor, and communicated with the imperial secretary
charged with the correspondence of the particular depart-
ment to which the affair in question might relate ; and,
consequently, subserviency to power became the surest
means of advancing the fortunes of all public servants.
Wealth was attained and ambition was gratified by afiected
devotion to the person of the emperor, by mean servility
to the court favourite, and by active intrigue among the
members of the imperial household, much more surely
and rapidly than by attention to professional duties or by
patriotic services.
Several illustrations from the modern his-
tory of Europe could be adduced to exemplify
the evil of governing nations "through the
" medium of a cabinet of private secretaries ;"
and in a period when we are threatened with
the creation of a gigantic bureaucracy it is
interesting to observe how the philosophic
historian traces the decline "f the Byzantine
empire to the fallacy of confounding the func-
tions of statesmanship with the duties of mere
secretaries.
When four centuries are discussed in a
single volume, we cannot expect that the
writer should give us detailed pictures, or
delineations of courts and cabinets. In com-
pressed narrative Mr. Finlay excels, and he
studiously avoids treating of questions which
have been explored by other historians. Thus
we find him avowing that " the influence of
" the Crusades on the civilisation of Europe
offers too wide a field
" ere► for cursory notice " (pp. 113-14) in his
volume. We could have desired, however,
that he had treated the subject of manners
at greater length, and that he had more deeply
probed the question of the deterioration of the
Greek character. We recollect how Gibbon
particularised some of the incipient signs of
degeneracy in the character of Constantine,
and social manners are extremely illustrative
of the mode in which institutions are accepted
by a people. Mr Finlay's remarks on the
general causes of Byzantine decline are careful
and judicious, though his analysis might be
carried even further. He lays most stress on
the corruption of the administration by igno-
rant and venal courtiers, and on the cousoli
dation of arbitrary power in the Basilian dy-
nasty. Possibly he attributes too much to
the union between the Greek Church and the
Roman Administration ; yet, as it is the best-
written passage in his volume, we extract
a passage marked by broad views and unaf-
fected writing:—
The twelfth century did much to improve the condition
of the Western nations, but nothing to improve that of the
Greeks. The consequence was that the arbitrary power of
tie Byzantine emperors was exercised without any civil
or ecclesiastical restraint; for the Greeks repudiated every
principle of civil liberty, and every ecclesiastical declara-
tion in favour of the rights of humanity, as heretical and
revolutionary innovations introduced by the popes to fur-
ther their own ambitious projects. It must be remem-
bered that the Papal Church was at this time often
actively engaged in defending freedom, in establishing
a machinery for the systematic administration of justice to
the people, and in impressing men with the full value of
fixed laws for the purpose of restraining the abuses of the
temporal power of princes. In short, the Papal Church
was then the great teacher of social and political reform,
and those who scorned to listen to its words and study its
policy could hardly perceive the changes which time was
producing in the Christian world. The Byzantine Greeks
immediately rejected the idea of progress; the Papal
Church would have fain arrested the progressive impulse
it had given to society a century or two later. The Greeks
prided themselves on their conservative, or, as they called
it, their Roman, spirit. By clinging superstitiously to
antiquated formulas, they rejected the means of alleviating
the evils of a ruinous political fabric, and refused to better
their condition by entering on paths of reform indicated by
the Western nations, who were already emerging from
their social degradation. While the rest of Europe was
actively striving to attain a happier future, the Greeks
were gazing backward on what tbey considered a more
glorious past. This habit of appropriating to them-
selves the vanished glories of the Roman empire, or of
ancient Greece, created a feeling of self sufficiency
which repudiated reform in the latter days of the
Byzantine empire, and which has ever since retarded the
progress of the modern Greeks in the career of European
civilisation.

This passage has no notes from Mr. Finlay,
though it would require comment. " The
" religious hatred" of the Greeks "towards
" those " who acknowledged the Papal supre-
macy is of deep significance in Christian his-
tory, as showing how earnest was the resist-
ance against the arrogance of Popery long
before our modern "Reformation " was heard
of. The object of the Papal Church in fur-

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711

thering " the progress " which it would after-
wards have retarded might also have been
more plainly indicated. History shows that
that Church has always been ready to adopt
either aristocracy, or democracy, or bureau
craey, or any other political form most con-
ducive to its passing convenience and fixed
purpose.
On the whole, Mr. Finlay's work deserves
warm praise as a careful and conscientious
performance. General readers might desire
that their taste for " interesting " details
should have been provided for by the author.
But the judicious and the scholarly will ad
mire the severe abstinence that imparts a
Doric severity to this manly and most credit-
able historical performance, which must confer
no small distinction ou its author's name.

Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands. By Mrs.
Harriet Beecher Stowe. London: Low and
Son.

HE must be a sour critic who would take up
this book ungraciously. Mrs. Stowe was de-
lighted with her reception in England. She
was received with kindness and sympathy by
the religious world of all denominations, from
the Primate of England down to Mr. Sherman,
of Surrey Chapel ; was hailed with one of Mr.
Rogers's blandest smiles and one of Mr. Ma-
caulay's best miniature essays; was an equally
welcome guest at the board of her Quaker
friends and at the Lord Mayor's state banquet;
lunched with the Duchess of Sutherland, and
drank tea with two thousand of the good people
of Glasgow ; found friendly faces gather round
her wherever she moved or sojourned ; and—the
not least certain sign of popularity—had her
carriage followed (especially in Scotland) by
crowds of urchins in the streets, crying, " Hoo-
ray ! hooray ! That's her ! Look at her cowls!"
She had even the pleasing duty of acknow-
ledging the liberality of publishers, who pre-
sented her with sums from the profits of
" Uncle Tom" to which she had no legal
claim, and beheld a solid proof of the esteem
in which her work was held in the thousand
sovereigns displayed on a salver at the Edin-
burgh meeting—the produce mainly of a
penny subscription collected among the hum-
blest of her admirers.
It is no wonder, then, that she saw English
life on its " sunniest " side, or that her book
should reflect the gratification she experienced.
Besides, she seems to be of a kind and grateful
nature, personally unassuming, easily pleased,
and quite free from that irritable susceptibi-
lity often the attendant of literary fame. In a
word, she c'ime here in a pilgrim-like spirit of
reverence and love, prepared to acknowledge
how deeply she was indebted to the merits of
her ancestry.
Yet the book is not the kind of work which
we expected from her pen, and, on the whole,
it had better have been left unpublished. It is
all surface—a mere daily record of movement
and sight-seeing—most space being given to
those topics which she was certainly least
capable to judge of. She has great talent for
the observation of society, but none for art;
and it is provoking that, while we haNe here
page after page given to the expression of her
raw judgment on the great artists of the world,
we have scarcely a sketch of the actual life we
thought her so well fitted to describe. Her
health was delicate; and perhaps the sleek,
comfortable friends in dissenting parsonages
and Quaker villas, to whose guidance she
seems to have implicitly trusted herself, might
have thought Dulwich Gallery, Exeter-hall,
and the Rev. Mr. Binney's soirees the places
best calculated to show off social England to
advantage. These very respectable people,
who conceive that the highest spiritual beati-
tude is to be combined with the utmost bodily
comfort—who fancy that there is no harm in
indulgence apart from excitement—that turtle
may be blamelessly washed down with water—
may have wished to present our society to her
from their own point of view, and delight her
with the aspect of the little well-ordered
charity-school sections of humani under

itr ity
their own peculiar care, kept, like their villa
gardens, in admirable trim, not shocking her
feelings with a view of the wide waste which
in all our great seats of industry proves that