The Press.
London, England, 1857-10-31 00:00:00

plished gives them such a margin that the
acknowledgment of an error will detract in
nowise either from the admiration not only
this but future generations must feel for the
successful accomplishment—for successful it
will be—of the most difficult and complicated
piece of modern engineering, or from their
gratitude for the beneficial results, obtained
by such patient scientific research, backed by
such patriotic enterprise. We say " patriotic
enterprise," fur even in England 350,0001. aro
not subscribed in a few days for an uncertain
commercial speculation, without some other
motive Were any proof of such philan•
thropic motive of the shareholders wanting it
has been furnished by their conduct since the
failure of the first attempt., scarcely any having
sold their shares.

Not the least interesting portion of this
little book is the description of the manufac-
ture of the cable, in which 332,500 miles of
wire are used enough to engirdle the
earth thirteen times. The central copper
conductor itself is formed of seven wires
twisted. This is next coated with three
distinct layers of gutta percha, then with
one of hemp and tar, and lastly with the fatal
iron wire. For a description of the machi-
nery used we must refer our readers to the
book itself, a perusal (we should perhaps say
a study) of which will well reward the
trouble.

Victoria a•nd the Australian Gold Mines in 1857.
By William Westgarth. London: Smith and
Elder.

BOOKS upon Australia on the average are uninterest-
ing. Whether it is that the writers are too preten-
tious, and disgust us with their Anglo-Saxon cant
and their self•laudation, or whether they treat a dull
subject in a heavy manner, we will not pretend to
decide ; but of all the numerous books written these
last few years upon Australia, with the exception of
Colonel Mundy's " Our Antipodes "—and that was a
little too llippaut—we have had scarcely one accurate,
sensible, well-written book on the subject. Mr.
Westgarth is perhaps the least pretentious and the
most accurate of Australian writers. There is in his
writing a strong fund of common sense and shrewd
observation which is invaluable in a colonial writer,
for we consult a colonial work more for accurate
statement ar d sensible remark than for vivid descrip-
tion or brilliant antithesis. To be sure, if the two
elements can be allied then we have nothing more
to desire, but the first quality in a colonial writer is
accuracy ; and so far we are bound to say that in
whatever Mr. Westgarth treats of he may be relied
upon. His only fault is a tendency to suppress
rather than to exaggerate. He does not frankly tell
us all the miseries that an immigrant must suffer in
Victoria. With his extensive experience of the
colony, he must be well aware that the hardships
and inconveniences of life, and particularly of domes-
tic life, in Australia are very severe, for though indi-
vidually the ills of the country may appear trifling,
yet in the aggregate they produce an amount of
domestic misery that no one in this country accus-
tomed from childhood to the strictest personal cleanli
ness could face without positive horror. Mr. Wust-
garth avoids all these points, and passes rapidly over
the question of climate, which he admits is not
healthy. We are glad to gather from his description
of Australian politics that the land question is iu a
fair way of being settled by compensation to the
squatters. Au reate, his book, though wanting in
careful detail, may be accepted as a very trustworthy
volume upon the commerce and progress of Victoria
in 1837.

The Private Life of an Eastern King. By
William Knighton. New Edition. London:
Routledge. _ . .

WE are glad to welcome our old friends again within
the compass of Mr. Routledge's well known covers.
The King and the barber, the five English gentlemen
of his household, the grave Resident, and the laugh-
ing Nautch girl—man-eater, tiger, and ch..etah—all
come before us again as interesting as ever, their
charms enhanced by various respectable plates. The
more we read these details the less we wonder at the
pride proverbially attributed to the dynasty whose
life they depict. Few of Mr. Routledge's cheap
issues will be, we should think, more popular than
this.

Lives of Good Servants. By the Author of " Mary
Powell." London : P.outledge.

A VERY well conceived and useful little volume,
adapted for presents to young servants, and con-