The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-11 00:00:00

LITERATURE,

Cumworth House. By the Author of "Caste."
Three vols. Hurst and Blackett.
"Alisoun Grey—a Love Story," would have been
an appropriate and felicitous title for this novel.
Alisoun Grey, the heroine, is the iife and soul of
the whole work, and the charm of her character
and the interest of her life all depend upon the in-
tense significance attached by both authoress and
heroine to the idea of love. A very simple, gentle,
tender little maiden is Alisoun, the defrauded
heiress of Cumworth House ; but gentle, and
humble, and apparently insignificant though she is,
she eontriN es in process of time to subdue the
most stubborn wills and to soften the most obdu-
rate hearts. But this very charming and very lore-
, able heroine is hardly treated by fortune and by the
novelist. The hero of this love story is one of the
least attractive and least deserving of men. Per.
haps the better to illustrate her favourite love
therry, the authoress intentionally has made choice
of an unworthy object as the recipient of her
heroine's unselfish affections—the sunshine being
equally pure and equally radiant, no matter on what
insignificant or despicable object it may fall. If so,
we cannot but think, notwithstanding the high-
flown idealism of her sentiments, that this celebrant
of love has committed a mistake. Such a heart as
Alisoun's should have been given to a nobler lover
than Launcelot Sturm. The very beauty of her
self-forgetting devotedness degenerates into weak-
ness where the object to which it clings ceases to
command respect, and Launcelot Sturm most assur.
edly cen command respect from no one. After:: his
very shameful vacillation he appears indeed, and, no
wonder, heartily ashamed of himself. He hardly
ventures to show his face throughout the latter por-
tion of the story, the novelist perhaps being aware
that, whatever Alisoun might think, the reader
must be heartily and utterly disgusted with him.
Passing over (under protest) the unworthy object
of Alisoun's affections, we must give her historian
ample credit for the loveable heroine she has intro-
duced to us—so loveable because so loving. Here
is a glimpse of her in early happiness :

THE D.tW OF LOVE.
" I am too happy," she murmured ; "just to be alive:on
such a day, in such a world, would be enough, It is so
beautiful I so be tutiful I And to feel all this beauty
crowned with love I lam happy, so happy—too happy I
It seems as if all were love to-day--as if the sun loved to
shine—as if the earth smiled with love to feel it shine.
Just as my sun loves to shine on me, and I—l smile with
love to feel the shining. God hastens us with joy as well
as sorrow," she said, speaking lower yet. "Oh I how
can I ever be good enough to be fit for all this joy and
love ?"
With keenest intensity she was conscious of the exquisite
sweetness and beauty filling all her senses and all her soul,
touching her as with vague longing for a new sense or
soul to fill with that supe►fluous loveliness.
Never, as it seemed to her, had there been such an even-
ing. Never had the soft south wind seemed so full of frag.
ranee—from ance of flowers, and yet more of fresh opened
leaves touched by the evening dew—never had the song of
birds seemed to her so mystically wonderful, so utterly and
subtly musical—never had her heart risen and fallen with
such delicious happiness, and been so full, over-full, of
love, love—love which brimmed over from her eyes, and
was shed on all they looked on.
Rest there, poor child, pause upon that happiness, drank
in that beauty. Dear, happy eyes, rain down your dew of
joy, and be ready for the shedding of bitter, briny drops of
sorrow. In this world such exquisite moments are but
moments.

In some of the other portraits the skill of the
artist's hand is very visible. Weak and erring
Mr Stonhurst, Alisoun's uncle, is very naturally
drawn. Mrs. Stonhurst is too hard for reality.
Her paragon daughter, Sara, is remarkable for
her "cold sweetness," " She had so often, when
she was much younger, heard it said that she
inherited her father's amiability, that she had, as it
were, grown up in the conscious odour of her
own sweetness." NJthing irritates, nothing
riffi?s, in outward appearance at least, the calm
and complacent Sara. H-r peculiar character is
well preserved throughout the story, and contrasts
well with that of the loving, easily moved and
much enduring Alisouns. The other heroine, Geral.
dine Symthe (whose distorted name is a perpetual
distinction!) is a more natural, and is, in her way
equally unlike her friend and rival Alisoun Geraldine
Smythe, is the daughter of a noble-hearted father and
Alweak and faulty mother, in her " two natures
are contending," and during the struggle the evil
nature, the weak, frail human nature, produces in•
calculable suffering not only to herself but to others.
Adeiheid Sharps (the writer seems to take pleasure
in seleoting names), is too perfect to excite much of
our sympathy or regard. We have no particular
predilection for paragons. Conway Stonhurst and
Gilbert Kaird, Alisoun's cousins, disappoint in the
latter instance, according to the old idiom, " agree-
ably disappoint" our expectations. Gilbert Kaird
improves greatly upon acquaintance, while
Conway degenerates into a mere nobody.
Phe authoress selects him at the close—we do not
know why—of the narrative as the mouthpiece of
tier theory of lova, a theory very beautiful and
Loveable, if rightly carried out. Bat the writer, like
All enthusiasts upon any subject, is carried by her
own ideas to the length of extravagance. Witness,
for example, the following exordium
REAL AND IDEAL.
We have agreed to hok upon the ideal in all things, as
the standard towards which—while conscious that it is un-
attainable—we are always, in all things, to strive. It seems
to me, therefore, in all ways better that we should some of
us, whether men or women, be lost—as the world counts
"lost," and as the angels perhaps count "saved"—in a re-
coil from straining too passionately and beyond our power
at a mark too far above us, than that the ideal standard
should be ignored ; than that we should plant our little flag
upon the level plains of what is common life with common
men—miscalled by such men real life, as if the martyrdom
of any one saint, patriot, or pure enthusiast, had not more
reality because more spirituality than is in the life of the
common herd through ages of material ease and untroubled
mammon worsh:p I--better, I say, that some of us should
fail and fall and perish miserably than that the truth should
be unrecognised, and we all walk, as men blind to all that
is not in the beaten road, safely and softly towards a show
and sham. If those among us who are artists do not hold
there is more life than can bo expressed by m atter, more
than shows and shines upon the surface, things which it is
not those who run may read—if we do not maintain the
reality of the ideal—holding it to be that which is true and
beautiful in the eyes of the All-Perfect—do not maintain
it to be the aim alone, with all the might is in us, worth
struggling towards—such fragments of it as we can grasp,
the only prize worth grappling for—do not hold it to be
the only standard by which to measure ourselves, and so,
whiTo humbled to the dust at our littleness, be enabled, con-
templating greatness, to raise our work above ourselves
and help to draw up our neighbour—if we artists, whether
in life, love, or arc— and they are inextricably commingled
--do not strain towards the ideal, and, by vivid faith, make
it our real, who is to do this? And if it is not for this
God made us what we are, what is our work, and where P
Taken with some reservations, doubtless, Cum-
worth House will recommend itself to many readers,
and Alisoun Grey will win many hearts with the
unconscious charms of her " devoted submissiveness
and tender self•abnegationi'_qualities, says the
author of " Cutnworth House," by one of her cha-
racters, which are no longer essential feminine
characteristics—" the women of this nineteenth
century are striving to rid us of those fond super-
stitions which associated to oar idea of womanhood
the almost exclusive possession in exquisite degree
of such exquisite qualities."

" WHIPPING THE DOGS."—The perish clerk was,
it need not be observed, at least as important an officer in
those times as now ; but he seems to have been very shabbily
paid, his salary in this parish, at least, being only vs. iijd.
per annum. Of this sum a portion varying from 8d to is
or is 4d a 3 ear, was allowed, him for the important ditty of
" whipping the dogs out of the church." It is quite edify.
ing to see with what regularity this duty is insisted on and
paid for. The animals in question are indeed designated (or
rather spelt) very differently by successive churchwardens,
being variously Written as dogs, dogges, doges, doogs, and
d3dges (the latter name, by the way, being probably as Well.
deserved as any) ; and the process to which they wore sub •
jetted' is variously described as whipping, wiping, and
weeping, (words all of them which probably convey some
portion of the truth), But, however described, the thing
continues the same. All else is changed by the great revo-
lutions of the century. The kiag'c arms are set up, pulled
down, and set up again ; the Prayer-Book is taken away,
and once more is reinstated ; the surplice gives place to the
black Geneva gown, and then again returns ; the office

itself of parish clerk is even lost for a time, or shorn
of its functions; but this remained unchanged, and i n
1640 as in 1601, in 1661 as in IGIO, we find in the church-
wardens' books, " To George Fisher (or whoever it may
be) for whipping the dogs for one year, ls."—Eraser's
Oira,qq,cine,

The Acclimatisation Society of Great
Britain.

The monthly meeting of the council of this
society was held at its offices in the Adelphi last
week. Mr H. J. B. Hancock presided. The fol-
lowing candidates were proposed and elected, viz. :
—His Grace the Duke of Marlborough, Messrs.
James G. Fitter, Henry Perring, Thomas N. Font
neran, Thomas Parker Mew, E. V. Roberts, and
J. F. Seaton.

Mr LOWE read letters from the Earl of Pomfrel.,
Lord Abinger, Lord Walsingharn, and Messrs. W.
J. Davidson, J. Broughton, A. W. Hall, C.
Hambro, F. T. Bucklani, T. J. Birch, J. G. Fen.
nell, T. P. Ellis, H. Early, G. W. Horne, Henry
Hancock, Higford Burr, Jackson Gillbanks, and J.
W. Malcolm, M.P., in reply to the circulars as to
the piseicultural apparatus. A committee was then
appointed—to consist of Messrs. Hawkins, Han-
cock, and Lowe—:o superintend such alterations
and repairs in the apparatus as were deemed neces-
sary by the piscicultural director, within limits
then defined.

Mr LOWE announced that, of the pair of Talle•
plias expected by the Flying Cloud, only one had
arrived, the other having died on the passage. A
tine bird had, however, been purchased from a pas.
senger by the same vessel at a moderate rate.
He also announced the arrival of the much-desired
Silurus glanis —a fact which was entirely due to
the public spirit, zeal, and skill of Sir Stephe❑
Lakeman, who had himself brought them a dis-
tance of 1,800 miles from his estate at Kopa-
cheni, on the Argish, a tributary of the Danube,
not far from Bucharest. Sir Stephen Lakeman
had accomplished this entirely at his own expense
and with his own labour. The method adopted for
aerating the water (v:z., a barrel mounted on
rockers, Eke those of a child's cradle) was simple
and effective, and its success disposes of that diffi-
culty which has hitherto been considered so difficult
in fish transport—the aeration of the water by me-
chanical means. These fish had survived a journey
which had lasted 33 days, and they were now in
excellent health and condition at Twickenham.
The permanent acquisition of this fish in England
might now be considered as highly probable. With
a view to spreading them over the country, rather
than of making them objects of exhibition, Sir S.
Lakeman had placed the fish under the care of the
Acclimatisation Society.
The council unanimously voted that the thanks
of the society be forwarded to Sir S. Lakeman, and
that he be elected an honorary member in grateful
acknowledgment of his services.

Mr W, HAWKINS announced the receipt of a
valuable consignment of Canadian wild rice from
the Hudson's Bay Company, and the thanks of the
council were ordered to be returned for that, as well
as for their generous offer of assistance. MrHawkins
also described the construction of some cages, the
erection of which he had superintended, for holding
cartain birds belonging to the society, upon the
premises of Mr Bush, the hon. treasurer.

Votes were taken for transmiting consignments
of birds, &c., to Queensland.
A report by Mr Lupton was read as to the death
of a sherp of the Romanoff breed in transztu to
Australia.

Mr LEIGH SOTHEBY exhibited samples of the
hook-podded pea, grown both in greenhouse and
garden.

The Danish Budget.

CuPENHAGEN, Oct. 8.

The DAnish budget for the financial year, from
April 1, 1865, to March 31, 1866, has been laid be-
fore the itigsdag :
" The income of the country is estimated at
8,722,301 rigedalers—arising out of direct taxes,
4,031,125; indirect taxes, 1,882,150 ; revenue from
Iceland and the Faro Isles, 57,713; and various
items, 3,248,312. locluded in the last-mentioned
sum is an amount of 2,735,000 rigsdalers in 4 per
Cent. State Bonds, not liable to be calLe.d in by the
holder, for the issue of which the GoveTnment asks
authority on account of the outlsy required for
railway works. _

"The expenditure is calculated at 6,161,251 rigs-
dalers, apportioned as follows :—Expenses of the
Rigsdag, 60,000 ; Ministry of the Interior,
3,779,855 ; Ministry of Justice, 989,398 ; Ministry
of E lucati,lii and Public Worship, 395,999; iuterest
on special debt of the kingdom, 468,000; pensions
fund, 162,250; extraordinary expenses, 298,779.
"An amount of 2,400,0000 rigsdalers will be re.
quired during the year for the completion of the
railway system in Funen and Jutland, and a sum of
60,000 rigsdalers is asked for to repair the injury
done by the allied troops to the line in Jutland, the
major portion of which will be wanted to rebui d
the bridge over the Gudenar, blown up by order of
the Prussian general in command,
" The Financial Minister calcul.ates that the
special Danish national debt, which amounted to
8,377,000 rigsdalers upon the Ist April last year,
had reached the sum of 12,576,000 rigsdalers by the
31st March, 1864. The railway works for 1865-
1866 will occasion a further increase of the debt by
2,849,000 rigsdalers."