The Press.
London, England, 1854-02-18 00:00:00

NEW NOVELS.

Reginald Lyle. By Miss Pardoe. London :

Hurst and Blackett.
The Star Chamber. By W. Harrison Ainsworth.

London: Routledge and Son.
To enter upon the merits or the shortcomings
of two such well-known writers as Miss Par-
doe and Mr. Ainsworth would be a work of
critical supererogation. Our readers are as
well aware as ourselves that Miss Pardoe ex-
cels as a literary mechanician, and that, though
she fails in inventing character or creating pa-
thetic interest, she can, with the help of her
animated style and practised talent, succeed
in engaging the attention. Her present ven-
ture is in some respects rather superior to her
former fictions, and is not below the average
of what pass in circulating libraries for " good
novels." Her pen is as fluent and vivacious
as ever, but she lacks the brilliancy of Mrs.
Gore, and silo can stand no comparison with
the writer of "Jane Eyre." Nevertheless we
may recommend our readers to place " Regi-
nald Lyle " upon their lists for their " lending
libraries." But we cannot repeat that counsel
in the case of "The Star Chamber." It re•
minds us of an engraving from a well-worn
plate. " Newgate-Calendar " incidents are re-
lated with the rhetoric of the transpontine
drama ; and even the headings of the chap-
ters—" Poison," "Counter-Poison," "The Stone
Coffin," " The Old Fleet Prison," &c. &c.—seem
stereotyped for that Surrey-Theatre school of
fiction now happily on the decline. We have
had more than enough of such writing, and
we do not wish for more specimens of it,
especially when its style is as stale as the
remainder biscuit after a voyage to the anti-
podes.

An Examination of the Law of Church Rates. By
Watkin Williams. London: Ridgway.
A LEGAL argument to prove that "in law no parish
" is, or ever was, bound to keep its church in re-
pair ;" that the majority of ratepayers have always
possessed the right of opposing a rate, which right
is now affirmed by the decision on the Braintree
case. As no one is likely to dispute a decision in
which, after many years of doubt, the highest legal
authorities have concurred, the adducing of fresh
reasons in its support appears superfluous. Mr, Wil
hams contends for the abolition of the power now
enjoyed by a majority of enforcing a rate on the dis-
sentient minority ; in other words, he argues against
the existence of church rates as a compulsory tax.
His language, however, is moderate ; and he rests
more on technicalities than on grounds of national
policy. The best part of the pamphlet is a note, in
which the often forgotten distinction between tithes
and rates is insisted on :
" I trust it will be clearly seen that the arguments in
these letters do not apply to the question of tithes; still I
suspect that the fallacy of looking upon tithes as a tax
(paid by the tenant farmer, or virtually by the proprietors
of the soil) is very prevalent. Yet the tithes are clearly
not, in any sense of the word, a tax. The tithes are abso-
lute property, and the proprietors of the soil can in no
sense be said to pay them out of their own pockets. The
proprietors of the soil in paying tithes are merely paying
that which does not and never did belong to them. The
landed proprietors have no better right to the tithes than
the tithe proprietors have to the rest of the profits of the
land.
" If the Legislature were to commit so unconstitutional
and illegal an act as to deprive the present tithe proprietors
of that property, it is quite clear the proprietors of the soil
could not make out either a moral or a legal right to the
possession of the tithes. Such an act of plunder could
scarcely be perpetrated except. in a revolution, and if it
were to occur the tithes would probably be appropriated
to the support of some other religious denomination, or
else to defray the 'public expenditure in lieu pro Cantu of
taxes."

The Theology of Table-turning, Spirit-rapping, and
Clairvoyance, in Connection with the Antichrist.
By the Rev. N. S. Godfrey, S.C.L. London :
Seeleys.
THIS is another of those strange productions with
which Mr. Godfrey has either instructed or amused,

SATURDAY,

and certainly astonished, the world. From it we
learn that

" questions have been answered by rapping' by the
following articles, a carpet slipper, a heavy shoe, cups
and saucers ( china), tumbler glasses, egg-cups, plates, a
flat brass candlestick, a hair sieve, a piece of cheese, a tea.
pot (metal), a small flour barrel, a large beef bone, a jug,
a loaf of bread.' "

This power of " rapping out" Mr. Godfrey attributes
to Satanic agency, and, if pride of intellect be an at-
tribute of Lucifer, the following instance counte-
nances the theory :
" In another case I went into a room where some expe-
riments were being tried. Before I went in a young lath.,
after vainly endeavouring to get the table to rap out the
signature of a letter laid upon it, remarked, ' Oh, he's a
stupid, ignorant fellow.' To the astonishment of all it im-
mediately rapped out, lam not a bad scholar."'
Mr. Godfrey, in a letter to the Bishop of London,
says he believes table-turning to be foretold in the 1
Timothy iv. 1, but the "evil spirits" there spoken of
are represented as "commanding to abstain from
" meats"; but the "large beef-bone" demon clearly
had a predilection for animal food, and, if Mr. God-
frey had read further in the same chapter, he would
have found an injunction to "refuse profane and old
" wives' fables," and would have learnt that " bodily
" exercise proliteth little," and this knowledge might
have saved him the severe labour, which he says he
underwent., of bounding about with one table for six
consecutive hours. Mr. Godfrey concludes with a
pun. Mr. Close, of Cheltenham, published a pam-
phlet on this subject, of which the title is " The
Testers Tested"—Mr. Godfrey suggests an emen
dation, "The Testers Tested by a Testy Man," to
which we will add that, if instead of "The End"
which finishes the volume he had substituted "Close,"
his punning capacity would have further exemplified
the purport of his publication.

Who shall Make the Law Makers ? A Question, with
Answer Attempted. London : J. H. Smith.
A PAMPHLET of fifty six pages. The author is an
original thinker, and says clever things in a quaint
manner, occasionally reminding us of Carlyle. His
opinions are not those of any one party, though some
of them have a Conservative tendency :
" Property is on the whole a fair test, since its conserva-
tion is so manifold a duty of government. A man without
property must wait patiently to show what are his claims
upon political consideration. The penniless statesmtuilike
will not be many, and their exclusion will be much their
own fault. While the franchise is not too high, it will be
reached by simple act of working for living. Once for all,
no feasible reform can undertake to educate for leaders of
the people, such as care nut ' to maintain good works for
necessary uses.' We cannot afford to open a ragged school
for statesmen, nor would such discipline be at all hopeful
of good. There may be geniuses lying under hedges (Idr.
W. J. Fox, if we remember, once referred to such) who
might be caught at night, as boys cauh sparrows, asleep :
such might with care be trained to grow up M.P.'s, and
provided each with 3001. a year for qualification and main-
tenance."
The author thinks some reform necessary, and hero
is the principle on which he would proceed :
" The places to be newly enfranchised should be just
like those which are et&ned ; there is no inequality be-
tween north or south, east or west, urban or rural, to be
redressed. We would u.ultiply, all our varying constituer.-
cies, taking them just as they stand in the map, without
inquiring who is the owner or employer in the neighbour-
hood, nor who blows the theological bellows. An expan-
sion of the existing element is preferable to the substitu-
tion of any new one; we do not hope for a Letter House of
Commons than that which forced Elizabeth to surrender
the monopolies."
And in an appendix be makes in detail practical sug-
gestions for carrying out his views. The pamphlet
is worth reading.

Our Cruise in the Utuline. By the Captain. London:

J. W. Parker and Son.
ANOTHER amusing description of a pleasant journey
made by three Cambridge men, by way of Dieppe
and Rouen to Paris, and thence to the Rhine, return-
ing through Belgium. Their travelling titles were,
" the Professor, the Captain, and the Doctor." Of
their academical status we are not informed, but
fancy the first had attained to the dignity of a degree,
whilst his companions were still at that delightful
period of life when, if "sorrow sits upon the brow,"
a horse, a gun, a boat, or the glance of a blue eye,
would scare the " dusky " fiend away. The mode of
travelling they adopted was only not original because
two precedents for it existed. The whole distance
from Paris to Cologne was accomplished in a light
outrigger, along the rivers and canals of France,
until the Rhine was entered, between Basle and
Kehl. The exertion to reach stopping-places was
only equalled by the desire to leave them ; there-
fore no new observations are made by the travellers ;
but the work is amusing. For instance, when the
boat had been hauled ashore,
"when once in the court, and safely laid on her keel,
the jabber began, for as many as could had accompanied

FEBRUARY 18, 1854.

her into the yard, and almost distracted ns with the number
and variety of their questions. The noise they made was
deafening. One would come, aud, having his question
answered, retire again, and commence a magniloquent
discourse to those near him, taking our answer for his
subject. The imagination of the natives of St. Jean de
l'Osne is extremely fertile, one word being enough for
them to make a tale or even write a history. The Pro-
fessor was informing some ladies that we had crossed the
Channel in a steamer; an imaginative bystander instantly '
caught the word rapeur, and away he hastened to inform
his friends that the three Englishmen had crossed the
Channel in their little boat, having exceeded in speed the
fastest vapeur. The worthy Professor also mentioned that
on our way we had i.topped at St. Cloud, and that the
Emperor had offered prizes to be pulled for there, tte.
This was transformed into a rumour that the Empe►or.
hearing of our adventurous expedition, had himself pre-
sented us with a handsome gift at. St. Cloud, end that in
addition to this we had won no end of cups and gold medals
on our way. All these and many other similar rumours were
confirmed by the Doctor's everlasting oui to all their in-
quiries. Had the question been, lto you not always make
your boat leap over the bridges you meet with en route?'
the g►►llible inquirer would have been met with the same
invariable oui, out, strengthened, perhaps, by affirmxtive
nods."
It is thus throughout. The boa', the whole boat,
and nothing but the boat, is the hero of the book.
There are several illustrations, which the Captain
says "can hardly fail" to please. They may please,
but they are not good.

Gibbon's Roman Empire. With Varionun Notes.

Vol. 11. London : Bohr.
Tnis is another volume added to Mr. Bohn's series
of British classics. A reprint of Gibbon was much
wanted, and the present is excellent in many respects.
The type and paper are good; the text follows the
best, that of the quarto, edition ; the notes added are
by Guizot, Wenck, Schreiter, and Hugo. This, the
second, is perhaps the most—if, indeed, there is a
most in that great work—interesting of the six vo-
lumes which will complete " Gibbon's Roman Empire,"
as it contains the foundation of Constantinople and the
chief part of the reign of Julian. "An English Church-
man," whose name is not disclosed, though strangely
enough the preface states" a distinguished one," is the
editor. Mr. Bohn's series of cheap standard works
now extends to nearly three hundred volumes. The
benefits be has conferred upon literature are gene-
rally acknowledged. We are therefore sorry to see
in the preface a tone of asperity in alluding to cer-
tain remarks which are not specifically set forth.
Mr. Bohn's works are themselves the best answer he
can give to disparagers.

1. Reflections from Nature, S:c., and other Poems.
By Richard Harris. London : Pickering.
2. The French Revolution. A Poem. By Joseph
Monier. Canto 11. London : Bosworth.
3. Nuge : the Solace of Rare Leisure. By the Rev.
James Banks, M.A. London: Hardwicke.
1. The author of the first of these little volumes tells
us that he has " only recently finished his schooldays."
This the verses themselves sufficiently indicate ; but
one short poem on "Time" is better than such ju-
venile attempts usually are, and is the best in this
book, which is published by subscription.
No. 2 is an avowed attempt to imitate "Don Juan,"
from which poem the author regrets that he cannot
transcribe whole stanzas, for the very excellent rea-
son that

any fool may tell a single line
Of 13yron's noble poetry from mine !
The second canto of " The French Revolution" is ab-
surd from the first line to the last.
No. 3, "Nugre," is correctly described by its title.
The verses generally display taste and feeling, and
are such as may gracefully occupy the idle hours of
a gentleman of education. Yet they are not poetry:
they possess the form and the colour, but the heat of
the sacred fire is wanting. As Mr. Banks, who is
head master of Ludlow Grammar School, invites cri
ticism "from which he may gather wisdom," we will
point out that the. fourth verse of " The Warrior and
the Poet" feebly expands a thought of Horace, which
had been nobly rendered by Swift in these four short
lines:—

Virtue, which the poet's care
Has not well consigned to fame,
I.ies like, in his sepulchre,
Some old king without aname.
This Mr. Banks diffuses into six commonplace lines,
beginning—
For what is the hero by bards unsung?
The same poem contains other similar blemishes,
but we admit it is about the worst in the volume.
That called " Cadwallon ap Madoc" has many pretty
One of those persons termed " wicked
would say that the "Nugfe" and "The
lolution," conjointly, furnish an additional
conjugal felicity and the poetical tempera-
incompatible ; for, whilst the latter is to
ent possessed by Mr. Banks, he dedicates
first to a friend, and only secondly to his

THE PRESS.

wife; but Mr. Monier, who has not an atom of poetry
in his soul, dedicates the fruit of his labour unre-
servedly to his better half.

Geological E.tcursions Round the Isle of Wight and
the Adjacent Coast of Dorsetshire. By Gideon
Algernon /dentell, Esq., LL.D., F.R.S.,
London: Bohn.

Tilts, the third, edition of Dr. Mantell's well..
known and valuable work der:ves a melancholy
interest from the circumstance that since the second
appeared the scientific world has had to deplore the
loss of the author. A supplementary chapter which
he added to that edition has been preserved intact in
this; but as geology is a science which, depending a
it does perhaps more than any other on an accumu-
lation of facts, is continually and rapidly advancing,
the present volume would be imperfect if it was not
something more than a reprint of Dr. 31antell's
work. Accordingly, the further progress of geological
research down to the latest period has been traced by
a friend of the lamented author and added to this
book, which enjoys deservedly a high reputation.

1. Electoral Facts from 1832 to 1853. By Charles
R. Dod, Esq.
2. Adams's Parliamentary Handbook. Edited by
Edward Morton, Esq. London : Adams.
1. The first edition of this useful work was published
in the early part of the year 1852, but, the general
election in July of that year rendering a second edi-
tion necessary, we have it now before us. A detailed
notice of a book the utility of which is so generally
recognised would be superfluous ; but we may men-
tion that the particulars of the last general election
are interwoven with the volume in their proper
places, instead of being added in a supplementary
chapter. The electoral facts comprise every lopic
essential to a knowledge of the various constituen
cies of the kingdom ; even the politics and amount of
sale of the newspapers in each place are given. Mr.
Dod's book may, to some extent, furnish data for an
estimate of the results of the new Reform Bill.
2. This pretty little book, having a flexible cover, can
easily be carried in the pocket. It contains all the
usual information about the members of both houses,
their families, connections, and political opinions.
Whenever the last are explained at great length
hon. gentlemen are their own historians. We thought
Sir Benjamin Hall's description long until we saw
Mr. Oliveira's, whilst Mr. Allot' !occupies more space
than either. The editor says he has aimed at strict
impartiality, justly remarking that in a work of this
nature it is a condition essential to success.

1. Orr's Circle of the Sciences. Nos. 6,7, and 8.
2. The Family Friend. Nos. 84, 85, and 86.
3. The Home Companion. Nos. 5,0, and 7.

London : Orr and Co.
Ar.t. good in their way. We are glad to see useful
knowledge supplying the place of tales in these cheap
publications, except where the latter, which is rare,
are possessed of solid merit. An engraving of Pens-
burst in No. 5 of the Home Companion is well exe-
cuted.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.
BOOKS.

The Carafe:4 of Maddaloni. Naples under Spanigh Do-
minion. Bohn.
Dante. By Wright. Ditto.
A Year with the Turks. By W. W. Smyth. J. W. Parker
and Son
Kelke's Family Prayers. Cox.
Reminiscences of a Retired Physician. Routledge.
The Money Lender. By Mrs. Gore. Ditto.
The Grand Ilomish Policy. Sermons. By J. H. ; urney.
Seeleys.

PAMPHLETS.
Who shall make the Law Makers! Smith.
Plea for a Colonial and Missionary College at Cambribge,
addressed to his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Hy J. It. Crowfoot, Hi). Hiyingtons.
Colonial and International Postage. By H. Derecourt,
Crawley.

The Big Bully of Europe and the Blasphemous" Te Deum."
By C. W. S. Collingridge.
Minutes of the. Resignation of Sir Charles Napier of the
Command of the Indian Army. Murray.
Two Letters to the Marquis of Dalhousie on the Best
Policy to be Pursued at Pegn. By M. F. Crisp.
Maulmain, East Indies: Ranney.
Sir E. Bearer Lytton's Speech at the Leeds Mechanics'
Institution. Routledge.
National Education with Religion, and without Rates.
W. F. Wilkinson, M.A. J. W. Parker and Son.
Decimal Coinage. A Letter from W. Brown, Esq., M.P.,
to F. Shand, Esq., Chairman to the Liverpool Cham•
Ler of Commerce. Ridgway
Speech of the Right Hrn. Lord John Russell in the House
of Commons, Jan. 31, 1854. Ditto.
Petition Presented by W. D. Seymour, Esq., M P., on
Behalf of the Carnatic Stipendiaries to the House of
Commons in the Session of 1853. Odell.

~.....s _L

int Vranta.

DRURY LANE THEATRE.

163

IT would seem from the Drury. Lane playbills that
Mr. E. T. Smith, flushed with the success attending
the perpetual blazes of triumph which crown his
ettbrts, has determined upon fighting a pitched battle
with Mr. Kean for the possession of the chief place
in the favour of the Tragic Muse. However this may
be, it is clear that Mr. Kean and Mr. G. V. Brooke
are now fairly contending in the same arena, and we
shall therefore take an early opportunity of com-
paring the respective merits of these two eminent
tragedians.

~.

Mia

illiiii

passages.
"wags" wo
French Revs
proof that c
went are in
some extent
his work fir