The Press.
London, England, 1854-08-19 00:00:00

SATURDAY,

the Reformation has ever exhibited such a
contemptible decline.
" The Moral Results of Romanism" prefixed
to Mr. Seymour's volume is published sepa-
rately, and is well worthy of attention as a
statistical testimony against Popery.

The Works of Samuel Warren, D.C.L., F.R.S.
Vole. 11. and 111. " Ten Thousand a Year."
London: Blackwoods.
AIdONGEIT the numberless anomalies in the
position of literary men in this country, per-
haps the most remarkable was that which, up
to the rise of Mr. Warren's popularity as a
writer, compelled an advocate to choose be-
tween his predilection for literature and his
practice at the bar. The old school of atter-
nies—the men of one idea—were as much
wedded to precedent in the employment of
counsel as in the drafting of a mortgage-deed.
Eldon, they said, never wrote a work of imagi-
nation; Blackstone had the good sense to
bid " farewell to his muse ; " and Lynd-
hurst had never blundered into poetry
except, according to a newspaper paragraph,
when he gave a young lady an orange at the
dancing. school. For these reasons they con-
cluded that a profession which in its just
exercise requires the most accurate knowledge
of the workings of the human mind could not
be safely pursued by one who in a novel dis-
played that, intus et in cute, he knew mankind,
or was acquainted with much of that inex-
haustible science called knowledge of the
world. Eloquence, they argued, was some-
thing which " the leader" must exhibit ac-
cording to the number of " guss " marked
upon his brief. It never once seemed to them
that true eloquence must be a combination of
imagination with the power of stating and com-
bining facts and incidents, the use of imagery,
the display of passion, the flashing of wit, and
the wielding of humour. These qualities
were assumed not to exist where they in fact
might most reasonably have been expected to
be found—in the writer of a novel or a poem.
This style of judgment, however, is rapidly
passing away.
Mr. Warren, unlike several other literary
lawyers, was known by his writings in the
current literature of the day before he became
known in his profession, and might, with more
propriety than Talfourd, have adopted the
line of Pope—
"I left no calling far this idle trade."
The secret of the success of his early con-
tributions to Blackwoods Magazine was
probably the air of life-like truth which
appeared in the detached tales of the " Diary
of a Late Physician." Many fancied they
could recognise characters or recal the
memory of some family incident as they read
Mr. Warren's descriptions or were interested
in his plots. But the " Diary of a Late
Physician," like most collections of short
stories, did not afford an adequate notion
of the author's power. The book be-
fore us, " Ten Thousand a Year," is the
work of Mr. Warren by which, if he produce
no greater, he must take rank as an author.
" Ten Thousand a Year" is full of observation
of human life and powerful painting of
passion, whether ambition, avarice, or revenge.
The work is a picture of almost every class of
English society, extravagantly coloured and
exaggerated no doubt, but still preserving a
sufficient• similarity not to shock by un-
truthfulness, or to lead us to fancy that what
we read must be impossible. There is always
a certain interest about the burlesque in
fiction. When it is done with ability it ex-
aggerates peculiarities or incidents so skilfully
that one can identify the private individual
and the public character, or recognise the
characteristics of an age and class, or the
popular " folly as it flies." If this grain of
truth be not preserved the satirical novel
becomes an extravaganza, with the further dis-
advantage that the reader opens it with
warning that the entertainment is to amuse
only from its absurdity. In " Ten Thousand
a Year " Mr. Warren has succeeded to a great
extent in observing the conditions we have
mentioned. That such a man as Gammon
may have existed—nay, that such a character
is perfectly natural, no one can doubt; yet the