The Press.
London, England, 1856-08-16 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

main "historical " element relied on in that
novel. The character of Louis XI. was ably
and artistically drawn, and for its execution
there were all the resources of history and
biography. But though Scott could admirably
depict the Covenanters in " Old Mortality,"
his pen would have failed in giving us a lively
and brilliant picture of the Huguenots, for the
reasons we have already indicated.
Other reasons, also, make the story of the
Huguenots a difficult subject for a novelist.
Polemical life always harrows the feelings.
Au irritating, vexatious, and unsatisfactory
element hangs over every novel, when one
side appears in bright and the other in dark
colours. The characters and incidents seem
as if they were bespoken, lacking the sponta-
neity that is to be found in broad and general
human nature. Besides, the subject is rather
used up. Much moral indignation has already
been expended on the theme. The particulars
are known, unlike the case of those Scottish
contests which Scott first painted to the world
in detail.

The difficulties which we have specified
have not been surmounted by the writer
before us. The characters are all stale, and
there is no fresh conception in his pages. The
landscapes, the climate, the serene sky, and
the wide rivers of France, with its curious
chateaux, the many-coloured costume of the
population, the airy gaiety of the French
noblesse, do not appear in his work, where
from first to last we meet with a plain, sensible
style, which neither sinks nor rises beyond the
conventional standard. Father Antoine, the
cruel Romish priest, and a chief person in the
plot, is not drawn in keeping with human
nature. Thus, we are told:—

Naturally of a stern, unyielding temper, with nerves of
steel and will of iron, intolerance was his birthright and
fanaticism his inheritance.

The bloodstained chronicles of thA Old Testament
were his favorite reading, and from them he drew argu-
ments to sustain the course of Louis against the subjects
ho was bound by every law, both human and divine, to
protect.
He moved with quick and cautious steps, with bowed
head, but his darkly-glancing eyes saw every thing
around him.

All that indicates a hard, stern type of cha-
racter. Yet this personage is also described
as a sort of metaphysical sensualist, his private
luxuries and his voluptuous habits being de-
tailed. His apartments are delineated with
that luxe of style familiar to the readers of Sue
and Dumas ; and the author before us can
describe " interiors " with skill, as the follow-
ing passage testifies :

Within was found the pleasant shadow of trees, the
odour of flowers, and the murmur of falling water from
fountains used to irrigate the shrubbery. An open colon-
nade, supported by Corinthian pillars, extended the whole
length of the building on the side next the garden ; and
after passing through this without encountering any one,
the abbot entered a room of fair proportions fitted up as a
library—for his order cultivates learning and literature
more than any other in the Romish Church.
Massive tookcases, grotesquely carved, were filled with
antique tomes, many of them highly illuminated and of
almost priceless value. A lamp of silver, of au exquisite
arabesque pattern, shed a soft light throughout the room,
and beneath its brightest rays was placed a mosaic table, a
present from the Pope, and a specimen of the rarest work
of the kind which bail then been produced in Italy. An
open missal, the margin of which was enriched with
gems, lay upon it, and the rosary that rested beside it was
of emeralds of the purest water, which flashed back the
flickering rays of light as the lamp swung to and fro in the
night breeze.
Several pictures of rare merit hung on the walls—one of
the Virgin Mar►, with all the sensuous beauty given to her
by many of the old masters, looked out from the canvas
almost like a thing of life.

But Father Antoine cannot people his " in-
teriors " with living natures. the offers us in-
stead waxworks moved by machinery. Thus,
he had a splendid picture gallery :

The walls were covered with pictures representing the
beautiful women of the Bible, and the painters had cer•
tainly imagined among them every• type of loveliness which
the female form assumes. From the fair•haired daughters
of the North to the dusky beauty of the Tropics, all were
there ; and but for the names with which they were la-
belled, the beholder would scarcely have recognised them
as representatives of the Hebrew race.
A passionate admirer of beauty in all its varied forms,
Father Antoine consoled himself for his outward ascetism
by surronnding himself in his hours of relaxation with
shapes of loveliness. which he appreciated as the intelleo
trial and solitary recluse, shut out from congenial compa-
nionship, appreciates his books. They are silent friends
to which he may turn as inclination leads him, and the
priest could gaze on each pictured form without fear of
caprice or coquetry. The fa►r beauty could not frown and

785

utter cutting words uhe turned toward a rival : all smiled
alike on him, and he was oontent.

Then the priest apostrophises some of them
in the following fashion :

" Beautiful and strong soul !" he muttered; " had I met
your counterpart, my heart might have gone forth to claim
its mate, but no woman of mortal mould hive I yet seen
who caused me for one moment to regret my vow of ce-
libacy. Lovely phantoms! creatures of impulse given to
man for his torment, I repudiate ye all, though I worship
the outward garb of loveliness with which the Creator has
invested so many of ye."
He turned to the next picture. It represented a fair
girl with golden hair, and eyes of such soft and dreamy
beauty as might stir the fancy of an anchorite. This was
labelled Jeptha's daughter, and long and earnest was ihe
gaze that dwelt upon it. He turned away with a half agh
as he muttered,

" If those were living eyes, and looked thus into mine,
I might be tempted to forget that I have repudiat. d every
human emotion, save devotion to the cause of my only
bride, the true Church of the living God."

We could understand a sacerdotal Shelley, an
idealist and a priest, thus allowing himself to
feed his intellect in these pictorial raptures
and imaginative colloquies ; but Father An-
toine, on the same page, is represented as
enjoying coarser pleasures. The " gusto of
an epicure" (aud other accessories we need not
not quote) introduces incongruous elements
into the character, and in a similar way
throughout this fietion. Yet there are parts
of it which suggest that if this author studied
character more, he might achieve success. His
style is smooth and finished, and indicates a
cultured intellect; but why does he not apply
tis talents to an American subject, on which
e would have more special knowledge of life?
It is worthy of notice, that the history and
traditions of Protestantism, as opposed to
Roman Catholicism, appear to excite now
considerable attention in the American literary
circles. Some years ago the tone at Boston
and other places upon religion was pointed
towards a cold cosmopolitanism ; but of late
there has been a decided reaction in the States
towards Protestant sentiment and opinion,
and it influences the literature of the Great
Republic. What an extraordinary social con-
trast is presented between the Anglo-Saxous
in North America and the degenerate Spanish
colonists in the southern continent of the
New World !

The Duties of the Parish Priest. By the Rev.
J. J. Blunt, B.D. London : Murray.

No doubt there are persons among the Eng-
lish clergy to whom this work of Mr. Blunt
will prove a useful assistant, but we do not
think they arc many, or such as are likely to
become the brightest ornaments of their pro•
fession. Mr. Blunt is very sound and very
slow. His advice is all of the molt fastidiously
orthodox character. The young curate who
models his conduct upon it will be, we may be
sure, one of the most regular men in the
diocese, his days rigidly divided into "so
many hours" for each sort of work, and his
coat, waistcoat, and shoes all of the most un-
impeachable clerical fashion. We have seldom
indeed met with anything more truly excellent
or more truly commonplace than these lec-
tures. They do not contain a single word we
could object to, or a single thought that is
striking. It is rather an outrage on the un-
derstanding of the clergy to imagine they
required to be schooled after so very super-
ficial a style. Mr. Blunt tells his hearers
what their duties are, but he never• really
grapples with the difficulties they will en-
counter in the performance of them. Let us
take, for instance, the two lectures entitled
" Parochial Ministrations," and " Pastoral
Conversation." Here is a passage from his
remarks on the visitation of the sick :
You have the chance of offering the weightiest admoni-
tions to others through the mouth of their dying friend,
who will be only too glad to do nod service then as v.,u
may prompt him ; and will bequeath at your recommend,.
tion godly precepts for the better government of his holm.
hold, which will live and operate when he is no more.
Yon may thus, for instance, introduce the use of family
prayers under a roof where they were before neglected, or
attendance at the Table of the Lord amongst parties who
had before despised it—an advantage to which to turn the
latter days of an expiring man worthy of the Pastor of our
Church; and better than that of the confessor of old of
whom we read, who would profit by such moments to
remind his victim that the convent owed forty pound
for stones.' You have the opportunity presented to you
for supplying the cottage with a tract or two that may suit,
and even the mansion, with some memento of a warning

786

that should not be left unimproved : the " Devotions " of
an Andrewes, the " Holy Living and Dying " of a Taylor,
the saintly " Poems " of a Herbet, the " Sacra Private "
of a Wilson, the " Christian Year " of a Keble, or the
like, as year di Icretion may dictate. You have the season
for getting within your people more than at any other—
their hearts warm, their disguise or reserve forgotten.
You have the most propitious crisis in which to recom•
mend yourself and your office personally to them, and gain
for yourself an affectionate respect, which throughout your
parochial career will be your joy and your strength. You
have a call for your alms at a time when they are most
wanted, and can be least abused ; always, however, taking
care, whilst doing them, to guard against making the sick
man mercenary in his devotions, and leading him to affect
a value for your prayers which he only feels for your pence.
You have the best of occasions for kindly and discreet
interposition between the parish guardian and the poor
man ; while, on the one hand, endeavouring to abate the
severity of the law in any case where it presses inordi-
nately ; and, on the other hand, moderating the undue
complaints and sullen speech of poverty—teaching the one
party not to grind, and the other not to gr, ap, and thus
mediating advantageously between both. And lastly, you
have a devotional fervour shed over your own thoughts by
these spectacles of mortality, which finds a vent for itself
in your pastoral conversation and discourses from the
pulpit, qualifying you for appealing to men to save their
souls alive with a success which no mere cloistered and
contemplative theologian can command, though he " out-
watch the Bear."

Now, this is all very well. But does any gen-
tleman of education and average intellect
require to be told this? A. little further on,
where he discourses of the state of mind in
which the young clergyman may expect to
find the sick—a topic which should surely call
forth whatever knowledge of human nature
and the human heart Mr. Blunt possesses—
we find nothing above mediocrity.
On " Pastoral Conversation " We have the
following hints :

Now it will often happen, that where the occasion will
scarcely bear religious, it will bear, what I may call, eccle-
siastical conversation ; which latter, again, will frequently
pave the way to the other, and be the best possible intro-
duction to it. I think, therefore, that the pastor will not
be sp.mding such moments ill, if he profit by them to
disperse incidentally, from time to time, and as a path for
it opens itself, a more correct knowle.lge of the theory of
the Churoh of England. It is clear the people at large
are very little informed on this head. Much, indeed, of
the religious strife and contention which one grieves to
see going on (in some degree at present, though in a
greater some time ago) arises purely from this want of
information in the country at large; and though the hints
I have to submit to you on the subject of their initiation
may seem to you very far from recondite, yet I have reason
to believe, from my own experience, that they would not
be superfluous, or that to diffuse them would be labour
thrown away.

It is perfectly true that owing to the defective
historical knowledge of the last generation of
clergy the people of this country are very
ignorant of the theory of the Anglican Church.
What little they have heard about it has been
from Romanists and Dissenters, from whom
they have imbibed prejudices which the clergy-
man now finds it difficult to eradicate But
we cannot think the advice given by Mr.
Blunt particularly judicious, especially for a
young man just entering upon his first cure.
Meu of this sort are usually only too ready to
introduce such subjects, as it is ; and we sus
pect there are but few who could act upon
our author's hints here given without con-
siderable chance of either offending or weary-
ing their listeners.
In the lectures on "The Rubrics and Canons"
and " The Parish Priest as a Churchman,"
Mr. Blunt shows himself in rather a more
pleasing light. He is more completely at
home, notwithstanding his twenty years' ex-
perience of parochial duties; and we are happy
to see sound church views put forward with
so much temperance and reason. We shall
present our readers with one more extract
which we think merits attention. After hav-
ing defined what in his opinion is the true
p.mition of the English clergy, he goes on to
sly :

Bigotry this will be called, I dispute not ; but it is a day
too late for me, when once ordained a minister of the
Church of England, to flinch from this reproach. Bigot
I subscribed myself, in the modern acceptation of the word,
when I signed the Articles, and gave my consent to the
Liturgy : for they it is which enforce every item on which
the charge is founded. Then it WAY I put my hand to the
plough, and I sin now too far committed to look back. I
then condemned the Romanist—witness half the Articles ;
I then condemned the Socinian—witness the Athanasian
and Nicene Creeds ; I then condemned the Puritan—
witness the 6th Article, the 19th, the 23rd, the 26th, the
330 i. the 34th, and the Preface to the Ordination Services.
All of them sincere, no doubt, in their respective sena.
meats, if that were enough. What pretensions, then, have
Ito play the Liberal? I cannot unite in my own person,
labour after it as much as I will, both the Latitudinarian

THE PRESS.

and the Exclusionist. The things are contrary the one to
the other.

The lectures on " The Reading of the Parish
Priest " display a fair amount of learning, but
we repeat our conviction that most men of
parts who had gone through a college course
of training would have found out as much for
themselves; and those who are not so had
better seek other ways of making themselves
useful in their parishes, than by a system of
dogmatic teaching.

The Life and Adventures of J. P. Beck wourth,
Chief of the Crow Nationof Indians. Written

from his own dictation by T. D. Bonner.
London : Sampson Low and Son.
Tins narrative, from the United States' press,
professes to be the life of a person who, having
left his St. Louis home when young for the
Great West in search of adventure, became an
adopted " brave "of the Crow Indians, went
through innumerable adventures, and finally
settled in California, in " one of the pleasant
valleys that border on Feather River." He is
said to be well known to thousands of people
on both sides the Sierra Nevada, and in his
occasional vibits to San Francisco to vie "with
" many prominent residents in the dress and
" manners of the refined gentleman." If such
be the case, he has little reason to be thankful
to the person who has written this biography,
professedly taken from his own lips, during some
months' conversation in the winter of 1854-5
The value of such a narrative, if reliance
could be placed on its literal truth, would
be very great, but its evidences of the manu-
facturer's hand are too plain to be mistaken.
Aceordinr, to the book, Mr. Beckwourth
was born of American parents, in Virginia,
1798. His father had been a major in the re-
volutionary army ; therefore, we presume, of
a respectable class. When lie was about seven
or eight years old his father removed to St
Louis on the Missouri, and it was here that
the future chieftain first made his acquaintance
with the red man. His first introduction to
their peculiar habits was startling :

One day my father called me to him, and inquired of
me whether I thought myself man enough to carry a sack
of corn to the mill. The idea of riding a horse, and visit-
ing town, possessed attractions which I could not resist,
and I replied with a hearty affirmative. A sack of corn
was accordingly deposited on the ha',k of a gentle horse
selected for the purpose, and " Young Jim" (as I was
called) was placed upon the sack, and started for the mill
two miles distant. About midway to the mill lived a
neighbour having a large family of children, with whim
frequently joined in boyish sports. On my way i rode
joyously up to the little fence which separated the house
from the road, thinking to pass a word with my little play-
mates. What was my horror at discovering all the children,
eight in number, from one to fourteen years of age, lying
in various positions in the door-yard with their throats
cut, their scalps torn off, and the warm life-blood still
oozing from their gaping wounds ! In the doorway lay
their father, and near him their mother, in the same con-
dition ; they had all shared the same tate. I found myself
soon back at my father's house, but without the sack of
corn—how I managed to get it off I never discovered-4rd
related the circumstance to my father. He immediately
gave the alarm throughout the settlement, and a body of
men started in pursuit of the savages who had perpetrated
this fearful tragedy; my lather, with ten of his own men,
accompanying them. In two days the band returned,
bringing with them eighteen Indian scalps; for the back-
woodsman fought the savage in Indian style, and it was
scalp for scalp between them.

When about fourteen he was apprenticed to a
blacksmith in St. Louis, with whom he re-
mained five years, at the end of which time
having had a " difficulty" with his " boss" on
the subject of a love affair, he returned to his
father's house, and soon after
,joined an expe-
dition into the Indian country for the purpose
of making a treaty with them about some
mines. This was the commencement of his
wandering life, and to those readers who are ac
quainted with Washington Irving's expedition
to the prairies and Cooper's novels, we may
say that the bulk of this work is of a similar
character,—shooting and trapping being occa-
sionally diversified by fighting of the most
savage character. It was during these wan-
derings that 13eckwourth became intimate with
the Crow tribe, and that he adopted the fe-
rocity and licentiousness, as well as the skill
and courage, of savage life. Witness the
following :

After a residence among them of a few days, I had slight
difficulty in my family affairs. A party of Indians came
into camp one day bringing with them three white men's

SATURDAY 2

calps. The sight of them made my blood boil with rage ;
but there was no help for it, so I determined to wait with
patience my day of revenge. In accordance with their
custom, a scalp•dance was held, at which there was much
additional rejoicing.
My wife came to me with the information that her
people were rejoicing, and that she wished to join them iu
the dance.

I replied, "No ; these scalps belonged to my people ;
my heart is crying for their death; you must not re•
joice when my heart cries; you must not dance when I
mourn."

She then went out, as I supposed, satisfied. My two
white friends, having a great curiosity to witness the per-
formance, were looking out upon the scene. I reproved
them for wishing to witness the savage rejoicings over the
fall of white men who had probably belonged to our own
company.
One of them answered, " Well, your wife is the best
dancer of the whole party; she out•dances them all."
This was a sting which pierced my very heart. Taking
my battle-axe, and forcing myself into the ring, I watched
my opportunity, and struck my disobedient wife a heavy
blow in the head with the side of my battle-axe, which
dropped her as if a ball had pierced her heart.
I dragged her through the crowd, and left her; I then
went tack to my tent.
This act was performed in such a bold manner, under
the very noses of hundreds of them. that they were thunder-
struck, and for a moment remained motionless with sur-
prise. When I entered the tent, I said to my companions,
" There, now, you had better prepare to hold on to your
own scalps, since you take so much interest in a celebra-
tion over those of your murdered brethren." Their counte-
nances turned ashy pale, expecting instant death.
By this time the whole Indian camp was in a blaze
" Kill him ! kill him! burn him ! but n him " was shouted
throughout the camp in their own language, which I plainly
understood. I was collected, for I knew they could kill
me but onoe. _ . _

Soon I heard the voice of my father-in-law crying, in a
tone which sounded above all, " Stop ! hold ! hold !
warriors ! listen to your chief."
All was hushed in an instant, and he continued :
" Warriors ! I am the loser of a daughter, and her brothers
have lost a sister; you have lost nothing. She was the
wife of the trader; I gave her to him. When your wives
disobey your commands, you kill them ; that is your right.
That thing disobeyed her husband; he told her not to
dance ; she disobeyed him; she had no ears ; he killed her;
and he did right. He did as you all would have done, and
you shall neither kill nor harm him fur it."
The old chief gives him a younger and
better behaved girl for his wife ; arid as the
one he (had felled with his hatchet was only
stunned, not killed, he has the happiness of
possessing two sisters to share his wigwam,
with innumerable other wives elsewhere.

A flourishing account is given of " Pine
Leaf," the heroine of the Crow nation:—

In connection with my Indian experience, I conceive it
to be my duty to devote a few lines to one of the bravest
women that ever lived, namely, Pine Leaf—in Indian,
Bar-Ghee-am-pe. For an Indian, she possessed great
intellectual powers. She was endowed with extraordinary
muscular strength, with the activity of the cat and the
speed of the antelope. Her features were pleasing, and
her form symmetrical. She had lost a brother in the
attack on our village before mentioned—a great brave, and
her twin brother. He was a fine specimen of the race of
red men, and bade fair to rise to distinction ; but he was
struck down in his strength, and Pine Leaf was left to
avenge his death. She was at that time twelve years of
age, and she solemnly vowed that she would never marry
until she had killed a hundred of the enemy with her own
hand. Whenever a war-party started, Pine Leaf was the
first to volunteer to accompany them. Her presence
among them caused much amusement to the old veterans;
but if she lacked physical strength, she always rode the
fleetest horses, and none of the warriors could outstrip her.
All admired her for her ambition, and as she still anced in
years many of the braves grew anxious for the speedy ac-
complishment of her vow. She had chosen my party to
serve in, and when I engaged in the fiercest struggles, no
one was more promptly at my side than the young heroine.
She seemed incapable of fear; and when she arrived at
womanhood, could fire a gun without flinching, and use the
Indian weapons with as great dexterity as the most accom-
plished warrior.
I began to feel more than a common attachment toward
her. Her intelligence charmed me, and her modest and
becoming demeanour singled her out from her sex. One
day, while riding leisurely along. I asked her to marry me
provided we both returned safe. She flashed her dark eye
upon mine, " You have too many already," she said. "Do
you suppose I would break my vow to the Great Spirit?
He sees and knows all things; he would be angry with
me, and would not suffer me to live to avenge my brother's
death."

I told her that my medicine said 1. must marry her, and
then I could never he vanquished or killed in battle. She
laughed and said, "Well, I will marry you."

" When we return ?"

" No ; but when the pine-leaves turn yellow."
I reflected that it would soon be autumn, and regarded
her promise as valid. A. few days afterward it occurred
to my mind that pine leaves do not turn yellow, and I saw
I had been practised upon However. to
help her on with her vow, I never killed an Indian if she
was by to perform it for me, thinking that when her
number were immolated there might be better chance of
pressing my suit.
• • • •

When she was by my side in battle, it seemed as if I had
increased strength and courage; when she was away, which

AUGUST 16, 1856.

happened rarely, I felt a vacancy which no other warrior
could supply. There was none bolder than herself, and
she knew it; there were others of greater strength, but her
deficieney in muscular power was more than indemnified
by her catlike agility, and she would kill her man while
others were preparing to attack.

- - The heroine having gained, we presume, the
required number of scalps, is unable longer
to resist the fascinations of the Medicine
Calf (Mr. Beckwourth's Crow-style), and adds
one more to his number of wives :

This was my last marriage in the Crow nation. Pine
Leaf, the pride and admiration of her people, was no
longer the dauntless and victorious warrior, the avenger
of the fall of her brother. She retired from the field of
her glory, and became the affectionate wife of the Medi.
tine Calf.

Of the rejoicings at which Medicine Calf
assisted the following may serve as a speci
men. Two prisoners had been taken by a
trading party, with one Gardner at their head,
who were in league with the Crows :
They had bound them with trap chains, and were in the
act of throwing them into a tremendous log fire that was
burning in the camp. They opened the logs on the top of
the fire, and, swinging the two victims into the flames,
rolled back the burning logs. There was a terrible struggle
for a moment ; then all was still. A blue flame towered
high above the pile, and quickly subsided. My Indians
begged the privilege of scalping them before they were
burned; but tiardner told them he wished to burn them
up clean. " You are going after their companions," be
said, " and you can get plenty more scalps."
" Yes," they replied, " we will get plenty, and bring your
horses hack besides."

I really felt proud of my warriors at seeing them ani-
mated with so true a spirit.

The style of the book is better than the
matter. It has an antique simplicity which
reminds us of " Robinson Crusoe." We only
wish the author had exercised more fidelity or
more discrimination (we surmise the former
quality to he most wanting) in giving Mr.
Beckwourth's narrative to the public.

Fashionable Life; or, Paris and London. By Mrs
Trollope. Three Vols. London: Hurst and
Blackett.

MRS. TROLLOPE has produced a novel of society,
written with much natural ease and pleasantry. She
is partial to heiresses, perhaps for the reason tl at
the power of wealth has a tendency to show forth
the lights and shades of female character, which
she excels in delineating. The heiress in the pre-
sent case finds—a more common case in novels than
in real life—her wealth a burden to her, inasmuch as
it has the effect (again romance is opposed to reality )
of repelling a high-spirited young gentleman who
but for her large fortune would throw himself at her
feet. How it is that she loses this fortune—that her
lover seeks her out in her poverty—that an unex-
pected event occurs just prsvious to the wedding—
these, with particulars of the young lady's experience
of "fashionable life" in the capitals of England and
France, we leave novel-loving readers to discover for
themselves. The talent of Mrs. Trollope is conspicu•
ous in the agreeable manner in which she accumulates
interest round the story of her heroine. The other
characters are well sketched, and most of them can
be contemplated with that pleasure which we derive
from the skilful representation of objects pleasing
in themselves.

The Church and the People. Twelve Sermons. By
Henry Whitehead, M.A. London : Skeffington.
A VOLUME of sermons on such a subject as the above,
from a gentleman of Mr. Whitehead's experience of
the characters of the London poor, could not fail to
be worth some degree of attention. Bat these ser-
mons fully confirm the high opinion we had previously
formed of Mr. Whitehead from his pamphlets and
other writings. Of the present publication, we think
the first, third, fourth, ninth, and tenth sermons are
the best; they are calculated, we think, to go straight
to the hearts of the ignorant, but not insensible,
audience to Thom they are addressed—to bring home
to them the vitality of religion, and the truly merci-
ful, meek, and forgiving spirit of the Christian faith.
Such addresses permeating through the dismal and
crowded &fillings of our London poor must have a
most purifying and softeningkinfluence, blessing
"him that gives and him that takes," and Mr. White
bead deserves our thanks and congratulations on his
efforts to bring the Church nearer to the people.

The Enigma. A Leaf from the Archives of W ol•

chorley-house. London: J. W. Parker and Son.
SAY rather from the scatterings of the Sibyl. It is
an enigma, at all events, that we have been totally
unable to solve. As far as we can gather from the
language, which bears a considerable resemblance to
English, it appears to be intended for a tale, but what

THE PRESS.

the characters are meant for, and what they are re-
presented as doing, we have not yet been able to
determine.

A Latin-English Dictionary. By C. D. Yonge.
London : Bentley.

THIS book appears well adapted to the end
proposed, which is a complete schoolboy's dic-
tionary. We would only recommend that, in a
subsequent edition, more care should be taken to
avoid clerical errors. On opening the book at ran-
dom we have come aeross two or three false quanti
ties, such as the oin origo" and "moderamen "
long—a thing calculated to vcx the soul of school-
boys to distraction.

Continental Economy. By J. Lomax. London :

Layzells.
AN extremely useful little book, worthy the
attention of every person with a 101. note or
more in his pocket, some leisure, and the inten-
tion of taking a continental trip. Tho object of the
writer is to give a list of those continental hotels,
from Paris up the Rhine to Switzerland and Geneva,
in which " comfort and economy" will be found.
This is a distinction in hotels which it is as well
every traveller should remember, for, of all conti-
nental robbers, continental hotel-keepers are about
the worst. The good old days of forests, black mail,
and brigandage, have given way to roads, police,
hotels, and civilisation ; but the result at the end of
our journey is much the same—perhaps the balance
is in favour of mediaeval times, and as modern hand-
books do not supply us with the useful information
given in this shilling pamphlet, this is another rea-
son why it should be in the hands of every tourist.