The Sun.
London, England, 1865-08-26 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

The Isthmus of Panama. By Chales Toll Bidwell,
F. R. G. S. British Vice - Consul at Panama.
One vol., pp. 419. Chapman and Hall.
Like Punch's famous advice to persons about to
marry—" Don't !"—is Mr. Bidwell's counsel to
would-be visitors to Panama. "He who visits the
isthmus of Panama," he tells us, " must not aspire
to great enjoyment, intellectual or physical, present
or future. The attractions of the place to visitor or
traveller are few indeed." " Those are," he adds,
" more fortunate who may study the country by
their own firesides." To such Mr. Bidwell here
presents a most attractive history of an unattractive
place. " Would that I could write," he exclaims,
in his introduction, " as the Panama newspaper
boasts to do--

For the cause that lacks assistance
For the wrong that needs resistance,
For the future in the distance,
And the good that I may do !"
We are glad to find Panama so well off in the Press
department! Without aspiring to similar excel-
lence, the author of this elaborate volume has, by
the help of a light and pleasant style, well selected
extracts from Irving, Warburton, Prescott, and
others of the best writers on Columbus and America,
added to copious and authentic informa-
tion respecting the Panama of the present
day (gathered from his own experience as vice-
consul at Panama), furnished the reading
public with a very delightful book on a
somewhat unpromising subject. During a recent
visit to England, the writer (fresh from Panama
himself) was astonished and amused at the ignor-
ance of his countrymen upon that, to him, familiar
topic. " One gentleman, a member of Parliament,
inquired, with perfect innocence, whether Panama
was one of the Northern or Southern States of
America, and how it would probably be affected by
the unhappy quarrel between the States !" With
Mr. Bidwell's volume, in easy access at the library,
no such ignorance need any longer be lamented.

Characters and Criticisms; a Book of Miscel.
lanies. By James Hannay. One Vol., p. 323,

Nimmo.

The articles in this volume are singularly various
in character, and all of them, as the author's name
may testify, sufficiently interesting and attractive
in manner and material. Plutarch and Thackeray,
Sir Ralph Abeicrombie and Lord Amberley, Cap-
tain Speke and Tom Duncombe, we cite as a few
specimens of the diversified character of the bio-
graphical criticisms, while among papers of a dif-
ferent class are " a Letter to an Administrative
Reformer" (breathing a spirit somewhat akin to
Lord John:Manners's too famous lines on " The old
Nobility"), Dutch Presbyterianism," " the Scottish
New-Year's Day," " Changes of Name and Sur-
name," " The Irish Abroad," " The Scottish Sunday
Question," and many more than we can enumerate.

While the political opinions advocated by Mr.
Hannay will not find favour with all readers (our-
selves among the number), his agreeable style, and
the interest of the subjects he has selected, render
his book an agreeable acquisition to the Travellers
Library.

Ihe History of a Bit of Bread ; being Letters to a
Child on the Life of Men and Animals. By Jean
Mace. Translated by Mrs. Gatty. 2 vols.
Saunders and Otley.
Taking a Bit of Bread for his theme, M. Jean
Mace has, in a series of interesting letters, initiated
the children of France into all the mysteries of anato-
mical nature, both with regard to men and animals.
The first volume is devoted to man, and describes
all the marvels of the human form—the hand, the
tongue, the heart, &c., with chapters on atmo-
spheric pressure, animal heat, the composition of
the blood, &c. Vol. 2 gives similar elaborate and
interesting information regarding the various mem-
bers of the animal kingdom, from mammalia
to fishes and reptiles, to which is sub-
joined some particulars on " the nourishment
of plants." M. Mace's work has been adopted by
the University Commission at Paris, among their
prize-books, and has reached an eighth edition.
Mrs. Gatty has introduced it in a most pleasing
and attractive manner to the English Public, and
the two volumes, which are issued together or
separately, will, we doubt not, prove instructive to
the youthful learner, Although written in the
form ,of " Letters to a Child," both the subject
and the mode of treatment are far above the
understanding tid appreciation of any children
worthy of the name. As the Teetotaller refused to
drink his friend's health at the expense of his
own, we are inclined to think that any un-
happy precocious infants to whom this Bit of
Bread may be prematurely administered will
assuredly become acquainted with the mysteries
of the physical organisation of man and the in-
ferior animals, to the manifest deterioration of
their own. To our thinking children had better
illustrate by example rather than demonstrate in
theory the great laws of nature,—physical orga-
nisation and animal vitality.

THE REFORM LEAGUE.—The executive committee
of the above league met at their rooms, 8, Adelphi-
terrace, Strand, on Friday evening last—Edmond Beales,
Esq., president, in the chair. The minutes of the last
meeting having been confirmed, the secretary read the cor-
respondence from Glasgow, Neath, Grantham, Notting-
ham, Brighton, Chester, Southampton, Poplar, Plaistow,
Plymouth, Bishop-Auckland, and Calne in Wiltshire. The
secretary brought up a preliminary report of the sub-
committee on the conference, containing suggestions as to
the time when the conference shall be held, persons
eligible to attend its sittings, the principal topics to be
discussed, a plan of organisation, the public demonstration,
and the deputation to the Prime Minister. Some discus-
sion having taken place on the above suggestions, the re- I
port was referred back to the sub-committee, to be presented
in a more complete form at the sitting of the council. In
accordance with a previous notice of motion, it was re-
solved—That the secretary present a weekly account of
income and expenditure to the executive committee. It
was:also resolved—That secretaries of branch associations
be instructed to secure halls or rooms for weekly lectures,
under the auspices of the league, and to make such other
arrangements as may be necessary for their success. A list
of lectures to be furnished on application to be secretary.
The secretary reported the opening of a new branch at
Paddington on Wednesday evening last, and successful
arrangements with the Nottingham Reform Union.
MR. SALA IN GLASGOW.—Ulysses has yielded to
the syrens. Despite the pious horror with which
Scotland has hitherto regarded the poets and philosophers
of Hampstead Heath, we learn that she has invited ono of
the cockney school to teach in one of her own temples.
What would Christopher North say to the following para•
graph which we quote from the Reader f—" Mr. G. A. Sala
will deliver three lectures at Glasgow, towards the close
of September and the first week of October, on Three
Phases of Civilisation : the United States, Mexico, and
Algeria.' Knowing, in common with the rest of news-
paper readers, that Mr. Sala had recently been photograph-
ing the people of America in the.midst of war,' Mexico,
and Algeria, the directors of the Glasgow Athenaeum ven-
tured to suggest those countries as the subjects of the
lectures. This was readily agreed to, with the addition
of the general title given above. We understand that these
lectures are to be delivered exclusively in Glasgow."
NEW MODE OF PREVENTING THE COW DISEASE.—
An Edinburgh paper says :—"We may mention that a cow-
feeder in Thorneybank, one of whose cows was yesterday
observed to have gone off its food, was at once despatched
to the slaughter-house and killed !"