The Press.
London, England, 1858-10-23 00:00:00

THE PRESS, OCTOBER 23, 1858.

the casino. In those days, Clementina's lisp or
Euphrosyne's snaky form would have had no
chance against the horny hands of Martha the
bedmaker, or the red rough arms of the plain
cook, Susan. Happy, thrice happy, they who
"dispense with hired servants altogether, and
" perform the necessary domestic offices for them-
" selves." On this point Mr. Barham speaks
with the authority of actual and personal expe-
rience :

Dissatisfied with the prevailing system, I determined to
try an experiment. I bought a few acres near a country
town, and built on them a collage of modest dimensions,
and suited to my purpose. The servants were all dismissed ;
we took possession of our new abode, and hod it all to
ourselves ; as we also had—saving some little assistance
for a few hours in the morning from the hind's wife—all
the household work. The kitchen, with its cheery peren•
nial fireside, and pleasant homely operations, became our
common resort and general eating-room. We had a par-
lour, too, for a sitting and guest room; but it was that
kitchen hearth, that sacred recess, that inviolable adyton
of Hestia, that was the delight of the house. Not to be
tedious, I will only add, that from this time I understood
domestic happiness as I had never done before.

It must not be supposed, however, that a Spartan
regime is recommended to our admiration. Far
from it. The " Lakedaimonians" are branded
as " a stern and ferocious people, strangers to
" domestic happiness, without commerce, liters-
" ture, or arts—the ill-omened art of war alone
" excepted." But we may not waste more time
over this mass of incongruities and absurdities,
which illustrate the common remark that it is
far easier to be a man of learning than a man
of sense. The expounder of all this Philadel-
phian nonsense is evidently a man of consider-
able reading and gifted with good natural parts,
but suffering from a strange obliquity in his
social and political vision. He sees nothing as
it appears to the rest of mankind. The whole
social fabric is unsound and rotten at the core ;
but, happily, the evil is not yet incurable. The
equal distribution of property among all the
children—allowing, perhaps, a double share to
the eldest son—will diffuse material comforts
among all classes of the community, and do away
with the monstrous inequality of ranks that now
disgraces this country. If wars may sometimes
be inevitable, let them be conducted in such a
manner as not to injure either of the belligerent
powers, or to disturb the harmony of nations.
And, as for a future life, if people cannot agree
to one universal creed, let them select for their
own use whatever is most suitable to themselves,
and allow the same license to their neighbours.
Thus the golden ages may be expected to re-
turn, and with them the kingdom of Satan.

A New Classical Lexicon of Biography, Mythology,
and Geography. By Thomas Swinburne Carr,
M.A., Kung's College, London. London: Siropkin
and Marshall.

Tuts volume is one of those aids to classical study
of which the present age is so prolific, but of which
it may not unfairly be asl•ed whether the utility is
equal to the labour of production. The poet Gray
foretold tha decline ► f scholarship from the multi-
plicetion of lexicons ; and certainly the rapidity with
which a certsin amount of classical learning may be
acquired at the present day is neither so favourable
for impressing it, on the memory, nor so conducive to
the attainment of classical elegance as the older and
slower methods. However that may be, we are ready
to admit that Mr. Carr's volume is a favourable speci-
men of its class, and that it undoubtedly fills up a
vacuum in our educational literature. Hitherto the
student had no help to the quantity of proper names
occurring only in prose writers, except such as could
be gleaned from Lempirere and Smithe's Dic-
tionaries and the ordinary lexicons. For names that
occurred in poetry Sharpe's " Nornenclator Poeticus,"
a useful little book, which Mr. Carr does not notice,
was pretty well sufficient. But still there were a
large number of names to which none of the above
works afforded any clue. Mr. Carr has not, only
added to his work fifteen hundred more words than
the most complete of his predecessors, but he has
applied himself to the discovery of the law by which
the prounciation of them was regulated, and thus
enabled the young scholar to decide for himself in
any case where his guide might chance to fail him.
Prefixed to this volume are some useful little sections
in the shape of " The Formation of Gentile Nouns,"
" Declension of Latin Proper Names according to
the Greek," " The Formation of Greek Names of
Persons," itc., which add much to its utility for
schoolboys, and will no doubt be honoured with
their approbation. It is a good book, and we trust
the results of all the labour spent upon it will be duly
recognized.

_______
The Court Journal Register. 1858. London
Thomas.

THE serial of which the first number is before us
supplies a desideratum in the fashionable world
where its value will at once be recognized as at;
authentic book of reference for Court and fashionable
purposes. The contents are varied. We find first a
list of attendance and presentations at Court, re-
printed from the Court Journal, which in this form
will be both interesting and useful as a permanent
memorial of the event. Secondly, the tables of the
Sovereigns, Ministers, and dignitaries of England
and foreign countries, such as are usually to be found
in almanacs, peerages, (17e. But, in addition to this,
there is a great deal of important information rela-
tive to the English and foreign Courts and official
world—the regulations concerning etiquette, prece.
dence, the reception of orders and decorations from
foreign Sovereigns, and, in the form of notes to the
foregoing, some account of the position and privi-
leges of the great personages of the official world,
ambassadors and officers of state—with some
amusing historical information and anecdotes.
It promises to be a very complete work of its kind,
and we shall hope to see in the issue of next year a
notice of the regulations concerning passports. In
conclusion, we should say that it is very agreeable to
find su much information, not easy of access, upon
any one subject in one place, without the labour of
search, and we venture to predict that this work will
prove an acceptable and successful publication, and
will obtain an extensive circulation amongst the
classes it principally concerns.

The Descendants of the Stuarts. Second Edition.
By William Townend. London : Lrngmans.

WE had the pleasure of reviewing this volume in our
journal so recently that we trust its leading charac-
teristics may still be fresh in our readers' minds.
Mr. Townend comes before the world in the twofold
character of a genealogist and a politician. In the
former capacity he i 3 perhaps more trustworthy
than in the latter. Not that we question but what
the faults of the Stuart family have been egregiously
magnified. But Mr. Townend would have done
them more service by bringing his powers of research
to bear upon some of the constitutional questions on
which their reputation depends than by a mere
collection of opinions, however respectable in them-
selves. Mr. Townend's strongest point is the cha-
racter of Queen Mary ; and we quite think he has
brought forward sufticien► evidence against her to
overthrow the fabric of eulogy which Lord Macaulay
has so carefully constructed. In the present edition
some deficiencies in the genealogical department
have been filled up, and the whole work is now
highly creditable to the author's research and dis-

Fallen Heroes of the Indian War. A Poem. By
John Vaughan Williamson. London : Lindley.
TUE subject of this little poem is perhaps the most
interesting part of it, but, us a tribute to the memory
of those " devoted soldiers"

Who, living, saved an empire from its doom,
And, dying, raised an empire o'er their tomb,
the writing of it must, we think, have been its own
recompense. That the author is not deficient in
imagination and feeling is evident, and although
their expression has in this instance been generally
too much cramped by the rhythmical requirements,
yet here and there we meet wits lines so poetical
and pretty that, on the whole, we receivA a favourable
impression of his powers, and readily accord
_all that
he claims in his closing stanza
But, as the 01 to lordly rivers brings
The vassal tribute cf its hidden springs,
So may the murmurs of this simple rhyme
Awake the echoes of a nobler chime.

The Settler's Guide to the Capc of Good Hope
and Colony of Natal. By D. Irons. London:
Stanford.

%Vt.: have here, within a narrow compass and at a
trifling cost, every desirable kind of information re-
specting the British settlements at tho Cape of Good
Hope. The description of the country, its products
and capabilities, is singularly lucid, and apparently
based cn authentic data. It Mr. Irons' statistics be
correct—and we see no reason to impugn their &coy-
racy—the Cap colony possesses advantages for to•
dustrious settlers of no ordinary character. A free
passage and a hospitable reception are of themselves
no trifling inducements, especially when they verve
as the forerunners to a decent competency. .
know of no other work containing such a mass of
intelligence, alike essential to emigrants ana lore-
renting to the public at large.

London: Printed snd Published by ALFIIED Iva, at the ()Meet
1W I Strand, the Precinct of the Savoy, in the County of
Middlesez,on lattudev, the 23rd day of October, 1866.