The Press.
London, England, 1857-07-04 00:00:00

THE PRESS, JULY 4, 1857.

ate fund, as a suitable contribution to the expenses of the
war?'

" It is a reasonable and a rational question to ask, and
here is an answer to it kn offer was made to raise two
regiments in Canada, and conduct them to the Crimea, to
be commanded by colonial officers, but to be, like others,
under the command of the gen:ral in-chief, whoever he
might be. The offer was returned from London un
answered: it had been addressed to the wrong office. I
will not repeat the indignant comment made on this con•
teniptuous and contemptible conduct ; the offer was not
repeated, and its reception is not forgotten."
We state the fact as we find it recorded by Mr. Justice
Haliburton, and we leave the public to draw its own con-
clusions. All we shall say is, that in no other country in
the wide world would such conduct on the part of officials
be tolerated, and it humbly appears to us that this is a
case which imperatively requires strict and immediate
investigaton. Parliament ought not to suffer it to pass
unnoticed, for by doing so, now that the offence has been
proclaimed, the insult offered to the colonies will virtually
receive its sanction. Let us know the truth. Let the
charge, if rashly made, be contradicted ; but if no con-
tradiction is possible, let us know to which department of
Government the blame of this discreditable transaction is
affixed. We cannot afford to pass it over. We cannot
accept a blundering apology for conduct so utterly
scandalous anddisgraceful. Investigation is a duty which
we owe not less to ourselves than to the colonists ; unless,
indeed, we are infatuated enough to set no value whatever
upon an allegiance " that neither neglect nor indifference
can extinguish, nor reward or ridicule seduce."
In Fraser, we must notice before anything else a
very fresh and graceful article on the sea. The
writer is regarding it purely from the poetic point of
view, and the gist of his paper is a complaint of how
little has been done for it by the poets. He awards
the palm to the Greeks :
Has anything good been written about the sea? Not
much, considering its poetic •alue. Of course when a
man is a great poet he cannot altogether avoid thinking
occasionally of the sea ; and accordingly, from the harps
of the immortals in all ages have sounded here and there
the most precious melodies in its praise. Homer never
speaks of it but with "tender dread," and both he and all
the other poets of old Greece, though they dealt less in
the picturesque than is the fashion now-allays, understood
far better than our modern bards the comparative poetic
interest of the see. 'kr,-::iy(Toc, La, 7rOX4XOSCTAD;,
every Homeric epithet for the sea goes to the heart, and
recalls to the genuine lover of it, with an almost painful
fidelity, some one of his idol's numberless delights. I
forget whose is that delicious Doric hexameter :

Triv ri"Xes Tr's), yXrciimtv 0"TC111, W'l,l (4.0 c E
Think of all the convulsive attempts of our modern poets
and poetasters to express the same or a kindred idea—
think even of 13”,on's " o'er the glad waters of the dark
blue sea," and " the green wave that trembles as it. glows,"
and say whether any of them can equal this. We cannot
express it in English, for that glorious Greek definite
article has here a force triumphant, and all its own ; and
the colour, yxrcdxo;, not green, not blue, but that in-
describable one seen only on the sea and expressible only
by this one Greek word, and the wonderful skill with which
dactyl and spondee are hamlled so as to express the tre-
mulous volitant motion of breeze upon wave—these things
are inimitable in our less perfect language.
aien; xnl TrovivrTipor irvOrti
1107ft.p.WY on,lyrtt, grovrtwv XL/thell'TLVY
913.0 V yiXrtl-thec.
No one could approach, no one has attempted to translate
that. No one,did I say? yes, in the " Christian Year" we
read of " the many-twinkling smile of ocean," and in
a note we are quietly referred to this revii,7l9/hor y;Xescrws,
as if it were fourth the same thing. And so it might be—
to a boarding school miss, but not to the chained Prome-
theus riveted to that pitiless rock, " ringed with the azure "
air, mocked, cruelly mocked, by the multitudinous merri-
ment of that illimitable sea.
The " Doric hexameter" here quoted is from
Moschus, the opening line of a sweet little idyl, in
which there are some other most picturesque
touches.

Oct'xriercre•
Tly
for instance, is wonderful in its beauty and precision.
We cannot agree, however, with what the writer sass
about Virgil. There is a passage at the commence-
ment of the seventh -Eneil, to say nothing of some of
his similes, which show that he must have largely
appreciated that ocean beauty which is here the
subject of discussion. In his enumeration of
modern poets who have written worthily of the sea,
the essayist should not have omitted Keats.

And ocean, too, with All its solemn noise,
Math from thy sceptre passed,
has always struck us as a singularly fine expression.
We cannot quit the subject without reminding our
readers of that exquisite description of the sea in
the seventh chapter of the " Antiquary," which,
though not clothed in metre, is replete with true
poetry. " Notes on Canadian Meters," by Lo:11
Bury, is a velliable article, and it will be useful to
compare it with the colonial article in Blackwood.
Another most opportune paper is on the militia.
"A Day at Beaconsfield " is a very interesting
subject. We do not get quite so many reminiscences
as we expected. but the paper is elegantly mitten,
and seems redolent of waving woods and distant
corn-fields, and the open-air desert and claret of a
famous and genial race :

The neighbourhood of Beaconsfield possesses no features
of striking beauty, but it is not deficient in certain rural
charms. It is richly cultivated, undulating, sod well
timbered; and the coppice and other woods are sufficiently
extensive to he imposing without monotony, and suffi-
ciently broken into masses to give variety and richness to
the landscape. Neat farms, quiet homesteads, and malt-
houses, scattered in every direction, give an air of com-
petence and comfort to the district; and, knowing Burke's
taste for agriculture, and his appreciation of country life,
we can understand that the features which strike, or
perhaps fail to strike, a casual observer, were to him
peculiarly pleasing, and made the neighbourhood of
Beaconsfield well suited to his desire at once for congenial
occupation and for the indulgence of occasional retire-
ment.

The little town presents nothing of interest ; but at the
distance of about a mile, on a road leading in a northerly
direction, stands a dilapidated gateway, opening upon a
road now overgrown with turf, and the wheeltrack only
faintly visible. This road passes through a small park
studded with well•grown trees, and leads to the spot on
which once stood a mansion of some pretension, and
which must have been well protected on three sides by
sheltering woods. Of the house nothing remains. It was
totally destroyed by fire in ISI4, and not a scorched or
blackened brick remains to tell of its former existence.
Its site is only marked by an excavation—the space once
occupied by the cellars and underground offices, and a
well of the purest water. The whole is now covered with,
turf, and a few sheep were quietly crqping the grass
which has grown over the ruins. A range of stabling still
exists, but in a dilapidated state; and a belfry over the
coachhouse still marks the place as having been once a
gentleman's residence. The farmhouse called " Grego-
ries," as in Burke's time, is in good preservation ; and
the estate which once owned the care of one of the most
practical of agriculturists and greatest of men, is now in
the occupation of a Buckinghamshire yeoman.

This domain Burke became possessed of in the year
1768. In a letter to an early friend, he writes :—" I have just
made a push with all I could collect of my own, and th«+
aid of my friends, to cast a little rcot in this country. I
have purchased a house, with an estate of about six hun•
dred acres of land, in Buckinghamshire, twenty•four
miles from London. It is a place exceedingly pleasant;
and I purpose, God willing, to become a farmer iu good
earnest."

Near the spot where Burke's mansion stood is an exten-
sive wood or grove, with walks cut through it in various
directions. It formed a part of the pleasure•grounds, and
was evidently laid out with an eye to beauty and effect.
It is now a tangled wilderness, choked with nettles and
overrun with briars with which the rose still struggles in
wild unregulated growth, and whets fragrant creepers
climb the tallest trees, and year after year put forth and
shed their flowers in unheeded profusion. Laurels that
have long ceased to feel the restraining hand of man
throw their sturdy branches across damp untrodden paths,
and the dense and sombre foliage scarcely permits a sun-
beam to penetrate the gloomy wood. In this once beauti-
ful but now desolate and oppressive retreat, the great
statesman was accustomed to walk, and rejoice in his
temporary escape from the hot atmosphere of politics and
the vexations of public life, tski g, doubtless, occasionally
• complacent survey of his well cultivated fields through
openings in the surrounding trees. Here was probably
the birthplace of many of those grand thoughts and im-
perishable truths that make his works the property, not
of one age and country only, but of all ages and all coun-
tries. Here he held friendly intercourse with those whom
he honoured with his confidence, and here lie poured
forth his soul in passionate and exhausting grief fur the
loss of his only son. Here too in happier days, before the
terrible convulsions of Europe had troubled his spirit and
private sorrows had almost bowed it to the dust, would
assetnble the celebrated characters of the day, its choicest
wits and greatest spirits. Here—

Under the lofty roof
Ut branching elm atar•proof,

Laurence, and Beauelerc, and Garrick, and Fox, and
Wyndham, and Keppel, frequently met in genial com-
panionship. Here " Sir Joshua " would discuss with his
admiring host the highest principles of his art, gaining
rather than imparting instruction in his own peculiar
profession. Here Johnson, with his uncouth form and
awkward gait, indifferent to the beauty around him, would
utter his sententious periods or make the grove echo with
his sonorous laugh. Here too Lord Rockingham often
discussed the interests of the State, and could compla-
cently survey the happiness around him. No visitor left
Burke's abode without carrying with him delightful
recollections of the classic grove in which he had walked
with the philosophical statesman and listened to his
instructive discourse.

All the other papers possess special merit ; and, on
the whole, the present number is a remarkably at-
tractive one.

The Dublin, too, is very good. The recent fine
weather must have inspired the "literary man "
with unusual animation. The best article, on the
whole, is that upon Mr. Kingsley; but there are
plenty of other geod papers suited to all tastes. The
reviews—besides the Kingsley one—are "The Pro-
fessor," Mr. Whitty's " Bohemia," and Professor
Crea-y's " English Constitution." The character of
the Bohemian is thus summed up :

Such, reader, is the British Bohemian—a strange com-
pound, w►th the virtues of the savage and the vices of a
Cockney. Cultivated without being refined, and lawless
without being criminal. Honest, warmhearted, and
hospitable; not so much unprincipled, as without princi-
ples; and not so much immoral, as without morals.

" The Partners," by Mr. Shirley Brooks, begins to
grow interesting ; it is characterised by all the
liveliness and sparkle for which Mr. Brooks's style is
celebrated. A very pleasant paper is one called
"Wood-leaves and Book-leaves," being a review of
some of Mr. Thornbury's recent volumes, in which
that spirited and entertaining writer receives a high
weed of praise, but not mote than he deserves.
In Bentley the principal feature as usual is fiction,
Mr. Costello's story, which opened so well, being a
little dreary in this number; but "The Six Grey
Powders " gives us a dose of the horrible with which
magazine readers ought to be contented, and " A
Fisherman's Letter " is, like all his others, an exciting
sporting sketch.
No. V. of Paved with Gold betrays no falling-off
from the excellence of the previous numbers. We
most confidently recommend this serial to all our
readers, whether their aim be information or amuse-
ment. Mr. Mayhew's personal experience of the
scenes he describes, and the well-known humour
which plays around his facile pen, combine to render
" Paved with Gold " one of our very best periodicals.
The Hampstead donkey' and the Haymarket rat,
together with the human bipeds who derive either
profit or pleasure from those interesting animals,
form the staple of the present number. Mr. May-
hew has evidently studied the donkey-boy under
every phase, and we daresay has wearied the loins of
many a luckless jackass in his pursuit of knowledge.
The following receipt for making a donkey go deserves
to he quoted, in refutation of a popular error upon
that very thorny question :

" And a nice messing you'd a' made of it, if I hadn't
seen you first," continued the Redpole. " Now, look here !
S'pose you was a driving old One•eje, and you wanted him
to gallop, what would be your little game ?"
" Why, shout at him, and hit him as hard I could—give
him with all my might a good feed of ' long oats ' and
' ash beans,' " answered Phi!. . .

This made Mr. Jack Burt sneer with disgust.

"0' coorse you would," he said. " I kno-wed it. That's
like you and your proudness, thinking you know every-
thing. And what would you get? Why, old One-eye
woull stand still and kick at you. I had my hand swolled
dreadful through him."
" What should you do?" asked Phil.
. _

" Now you're coming to it," answered Master Hurt.
"Why, first of all I should give him three or four over his
'ead to let him know who I was."

" Well," asked Phil, " and after that, when he did know
who you was ?"
Why, then I'd give him two or three sharp 'uns on the
top o' the hock to show him who he was."
" Go on," said Phil—" what then ?"
" Why, then he'd git one o' my lefthanders as should
knock him on one side, and another as should knock him
buck again, and send him hopping for two or three yards."
" and what's the end of it?" asked Phil.

" Well, for the minute," added the lecturer, " old One-
eye wouldn't know whether he wiei afoot or a•horaeback,
but off he'd go, regular spanking, first rate.

Phantasmata; or, Illusions and Fanaticisms. By
R. R. Madden, London: Newby.
THESE two volumes are little better than compilation
on morbid manifestations of human nature. The
matter which they contain is more suited to medical
than to general readers, and the style does not make
amends for the motley character of their contents.
We are again treated to an account of " Witchcraft
Monomania," " Maniacal Epidemics," " Monomania
in Convents," and " Tbeomania in Protestant Coun-
tries," and upwards of two hundred pages are
devoted to Joan of Arc. " Phantasmata " cannot be
accepted as a scientific or philosophical performance.
Medical cycloptedias, and wurks on demonology and
on the diseases of the mind, are placed under heavy
requisition by the author. The volumes, from their
unwholesome topics, are scarcely fit fur popular
circulation ; while physiologists would demand more
closeness of reasoning, and more definite conclu-
sions, than are shown by the compiler.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED-JULY '2.
BOOKS.

Chow Chow, being Selection: I;ns a Journal kept in India,
Egypt, and Syria. Vlscounteas Falkland. Two VOl9.

_
Hurst and Hlackett
Shining after Rain, or the Sister's Vow. Two Vols.
Saunders and Otley
The Elements of Drawing. John Ruskin, M.A.
Smith and Elder
The New Dance of Death. Chapman and Hall
Summer Tours in Central Europe. W. H. Dalton
The Modern Scottish Minstrel. Charles Rogers, LL D.
Six Vols. A. and C. Black
Poems. Edward Wilberforce and Edmund F. Blanchard.
Longmans
Explorations and Adventures in Honduras. William Wells.

Sampson Low
Boat Life in Egypt and Nubia. William C. }rime. _

Deeds not Words. M. Bell.

Sampson Low
Routledge

A Popular History of British Crualacea. Adam White.

Lovell Ileeve

PAMPIILFTS

Convocation and the Laity. Y
J.~Ridgway—Repo►t of the
Meeting of she Congress of the Advanced Minds of the World.
Wilson—Right Words abused by Words Wrong or
Misused. J. and C. Mozley.