The Press.
London, England, 1854-03-11 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

varieties ; and all the rest are mere modifications—variations
on the same air. It is thus somewhat difficult to portray
any character purely American, without the risk of dis-
playing characteristics which have been sketched by more
skilful hands. The outside of the man, however, affords
greater scope than the inside; for Americans are by no
means always long, thin, sinewy fellows, as they are too fre-
quently represented.
But the variety of matter in America that
presents itself to a novelist who observes (and
does not merely spin his stories out of books)
ought to supply ample text for Mr. James's
powers of illustration. In the meanwhile we
can recommend " Ticonderoga " for the va
riety of its characters, and the sustained Inte-
-1 rest of its exciting story.

A Visit to Portugal and Madeira. By the
Lady Emmeline Stuart Wortley. London :
Chapman and Hall.
EVEN in these days of easy locomotion, Lady
Emmeline Wortley deserves credit for the en
terprise with which—mostly alone and unpro-
tected, and impelled only by the curiosity of a
traveller—she has visited regions rarely ex-
plored by female tourists. Emulating the
fame of Madame Ida Pfeiffer, she seems bent
on perambulating the whole earth ; and nothing
would surprise us less than to read of the ad-
venturous lady being reported among the last
arrivals in the rebel camp before Pekin, or
" spoken with" crossing the Sahara en route
for Timbuctoo. It would perhaps he ungra-
cious to say that the printed results of her
expedition scarcely repay the pains of the
journey, because the chief object of a tour is
avowedly the pleasure and improvement of
the tourist—the book which usually follows
being only a secondary consideration.
Portugal and Madeira afford no new matter ;
nor does Lady Emmeline's style, though
graceful and ladylike, exhibit such graphic
power as to give novelty to exhausted topics.
The book, however, is readable, and may help
to pass an unemployed hour.

Wellington and Napier. Comments by Sir W.
Napier. London : Westerton.
SIR WILLIAM NAPIER claims the last word in this
quarrel, and we are bound to add that to us he ap
pears to have truth on his side. He complains that
the Duke of Wellington's memorandum condemning
the conduct of Sir Charles was produced at a general
Court of Proprietors, and attempted to be read with-
out comment or accompanying documents, thereby
producing an unfair impression—that the information
on which that judgment was pronounced was both
one-sided and deficient—that Sir Charles received
from Lord Dalhousie private assurances of support
which were afterwards publicly disavowed—and that
the real cause of quarrel arose out of the Gover •
nor-General's over-sensitiveness to the free criticisms
of his military colleague. To give an abstract of this
pamphlet is impossible, for the argument which runs
through it turns mainly on points of detail, the prin-
cipal question at issue being this—" Was the mutiny
" of 1849-50 serious enough to justify Sir Charles
" Napier in acting on his own responsibility ? " The
duke, writing on Lord Dalhousie's statement of facts,
decides " no ; " Sir William maintains the contrary,
and supports his arguments by extracts from Lord
Dalhousie's letters. Of the publication of this private
correspondence its author has complained, whereon
Sir William retorts sharply—" Are men in power to
" urge on their subordinates to important and dan-
" gerous action with private promises of support—
" contradict those promises—and yet be safe from
" exposure? " There is some superfluous, inclement,
and merely recriminating matter ; but, taken as a
whole, Sir William's pamphlet is both an able and a
successful piece of controversial criticism. lie has
confirmed us in our previous belief that Sir Charles
Napier received from Lord Dalhousie something less
than the respect, the support, and the forbearance
which were due to his position and years. Those
passages in which the writer argues against the Duke
of Wellington's judgment may be cited as a model of
respectful yet earnest remonstrance.

Parliamentary Reform Considered under the Views
Suggested by Evidence given before the Election
Committees of 1853. London: Piper and Co.

IF the Cabinet had not been so ready to slip from
their engagements to their Radical followers, and to
reduce the question of a Reform Bill to the barest
contingency, it might have been useful to have set
before our readers some extracts from the present
pamphlet, which, without adopting all its views, we
in the main approve. There can be no doubt) as the

SATURDAY,

writer elaborately shows, that the first Reform Bill
was a party measure, that it has rendered the House
of Commons more corrupt, and the government of
the country more difficult, thus justifying the pro-
phetic apprehensions of the great duke. On the
other hand, it has tended to raise the House of Lords
in public estimation. The writer's analysis of the
classes which at present constitute the corpus of
either house is well worth attention, as also his in-
ferences from this in conjunction with the recent
reports of the election committees. The work is
published in the form of a pamphlet, but almost
amounts to an octavo volume.

The Rifle-Musket. A Practical Treatise on the
Enfield-Pritchett Rifle, recently adopted in the
British Service. By Captain Jervis-White Jervis,
R.A. London : Chapman and Hall.

THIS excellent treatise, id addition to a descrip-
tion of the improved rifle at present in use in the
English army, contains much information relating
to small firearms generally, and the best ac-
count of the composition and manufacture of
gunpowder we have ever read. The author makes
technicalities clear to the uninitiated, and thus gives
the best proof that he has thoroughly mastered his
subject. Rifled barrels were first invented at Vienna
in 1408, but when the spiral turn was first given to
the grooves is not known, although it must have
been soon afterwards, as such weapons were in use
at Nuremberg in 1522. Captain Minie, an instruc •
tor in the School of Vincennes, by no means invented
the improved rifle and bullet: he merely filled up
the hollow at the base of the latter with an iron cup.
That at the time was an improvement ; but the wea-
pon in use in the English army is not the rifle which
wrongly bears Captain Minie's name. When Lord
Hardinge became Master General of the Ordnance he
invited all the leading gunmakers to compete to pro-
duce a model rifle; but the principle of "unrestricted
competition " failed in this instance, and the weapon
finally adopted was made at the Government factory
at Enfield. It combines lightness, length of range,
and simplicity of construction, being, in short, the
best and most useful to be found in any army. The
bullet was invented by Mr. Pritchett, a gunmaker of
the Poultry, and, in the opinion of Captain Jervis,
it is superior to any other now in use. This treatise,
though concise, is perfectly clear, and, although on a
strictly professional subject, not in the least pedan-
tic. With the text and the numerous diagrams, a
person who has never seen a gun or gunpowder
might learn to manufacture both.

Palmerston in Three Epochs. By Washington
Wilks. London : Freeman.
No public man can enjoy universal popularity. Just
in proportion as Lord Palmerston's constitutional
tendencies have earned him the respect of Conserva-
tives, they provoke the hostility of self-duped
Democrats, who accuse him of treachery, as Lord
Clarendon accuses the Russian Government, for not
telling them what they never asked to know. To
this class, apparently, Mr. Washington Wilks
belongs; but it is due to him to admit that if not
convincing in his argument he is generally temperate
in his invective. His principal charge against Lord
Palmerston turns on the fact that the latter began
public life a Tory, and shared, as a subordinate, in
the responsibilities of the Liverpool Administration.
He is occasionally wrong in his facts, and starts
with a blunder, making Lord Palmerston contest the
representation of Cambridge at the age of 19 !
a legal impossibility, further disproved by the date
of the candidate's Firth, which was in 1784, not 'B7.
Other errors occur. The most noticeable thing
about this treatise is the tone of unintended respect
in which the object of the author's attack is treated.
Mr. Wilks confesses that "the general, perhaps the
" nearly unanimous, feeling towards Lord Palmerston
" at the present moment, as for some years past, is
" that to which Lord John Russell, with great
" dexterity, gave aphoristic expression "—namely, in
the celebrated eulogy pronounced on " the Minister,
" not of Austria, nor of Russia, nor of France, but of
" England." He reminds us also of Sir R. Peel's
panegyric, "We are all proud of him." On the
whole, we think Lord Palmerston rather gains than
loses by this attempted censure.

Whitaker's Educational Register for 1854. London :

Whitaker.
Tuts work is destined to become exceedingly useful
as a book of reference. It purports to contain
particulars of the universities of the United Kingdom,
the colleges connected with the Church of England,
the Roman Catholics and various dissenting bodies,
together with a complete list of the foundation and
grammar schools in England and Wales, with an
account of the scholarships and exhibitions attached
to them, &c. &c. Though the work already extends
to 247 pages, and this is the fourth year of it s publica-
tion, so difficult is it to collect and arrange all the

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