The Sun.
London, England, 1865-03-14 00:00:00

LITU.ATURE,

A Famous Forgery. By Percy Fitzgerald. One
Vol., pp. 246. Chapman and Hall.

The eccentricity of this book is something to us
quite inexplicable. How a conspicuously clever writer
like Percy Fitzgerald could have selected such a
theme as this to comment upon, simply passes our
comprehension. The author of " Never Forgotten"
—the inimitable serial story now, during many
weeks and months past, adorning the pages of Mr.
Charles Dickens's weekly periodical of All the Year
Round—the author of that singularly original
fiction—the creator of Captain Fermor, of Mr.
Romaine, of Miss Manuel, of Major Carter, of
Young Brett, of John Hanbury, of the cast-iron
father-in-law of the hero of the tale, and of crowds
of other all but living and breathing entities, there
massed togetherin those vastly entertaining chapters
of " Never Forgotten "—Percy Fitzgerald, a name
henceforth (in remembrance, that is, of " Never
Forgotten") always right welcome to us on any
title-page, has certainly obeyed the oddest freak of
his eccentric fancy in setting himself down to the
task of writing the history of so disreputable a
rascal as Dr. William Dodd, of notorious memory.
The Life of Sterne, we could very well understand
his writing. But—The Life of Dodd ! For—the
" Famous Forgery" of which the particulars are
here given at very considerable length, and with all
kinds of minute detail and circumstantiality, is no
other than—as the sub-title of the book at once ex-
plains—" The Story of the Unfortunate' Doctor
Dodd." In place of " unfortunate" read disrepu-
table, and you will be far nearer the mark, to our
thinking. In testimony of which, only read the
story as it is here set down for our especial
edification by this celebrant of the Maca-
roni Parson ! Mr. Fitzgerald has penned other
odd and whimsical books before now—instance this,
" The Rev. Arthur Hoblush," and the fiction en-
titled " Bella Donna"—but of all his odd and
whimsical books, this is, beyond a doubt of it, the
very oddest and whimsicallest. The person whose
career and character he has herein undertaken to
describe, is—when we come to examine him, whether
carefully or cursorily, it matters not which—
so utterly contemptible and odious at every
turn of his career, in every phase of his
character ! His very uxoriousness is something re-
volting. His very piety is nothing less than nauseat-
ing. He is so unctuous alike in his devotions and in
his affections. And, all the while, the man is such an
ineffable combination of the bore and the twaddler !
That he was an unmittigated scoundrel in the
way of dishonesty, the most notorious act of
his life demonstrates quite conclusively and
beyond the reach of any possibility of con-
tradiction. But what good purpose can pos-
sibly be; served by the relation of his sayings, and
doings, and (worst ogall) his scribblings—just passes
the reach of our conjecture. Beholding Doctor
Dodd, as we are now enabled to do very distinctly
indeed, through the lens of Mr. Fitzgerald's
biographic narrative, we can only marvel how it
could ever have come to pass that a sturdy, sterling,
sagacious moralist like old Samuel Johnson, could have,
found even in the depths of his profound philanthropy
the smallest incentive to interpose in behalf of a
sleek and sanctimonious vagabond like Dodd. The
wretched man's nature had about it nothing, seem-
ingly, in any way akin to the nature of Dr. John-
son. One would have said that between the two
there was not discoverable anywhere the faintest
reason or plea for the mere pretence of a sympathy.
And really and truly, and quite frankly to put it,
now that we have turned the pages of this
extraordinarily painstaking record of the canting
mediocrity of the notorious Forger, Dr. Dodd,
sprinkled as this record is only too abundantly with
fragments of the blank verse, the very blank verse
of " The Unfortunate"—we regard it as an inex-
plicable mystery that such a man as William Dodd
should have found during his life a champion like
Dr. Samuel Johnson, and so many years after his
death a biographer like Mr. Percy Fitzgerald. That
crowning honour, however, the Macaroni Par-
son has here received. The narrative, as
originally penned, appeared, as the readers of
the Dublin University Magazine will very well re-
member, some time since, from month to month, in
the pages of that able periodical. It has now been
issued from the press separately, in the form of this
goodly volume alluringly entitled "A Famous For-
gery." Admirably although the materials have been
put together by the cunning hand of the
author of " Never Forgotten," those materials
themselves are, for the most part, al-
most entirely worthless. Recognising which
fact very vividly—and it is impossible to read two
chapters of the book under notice without recog-
nising it—we cannot but regret that a writer as
gifted and accomplished as the creator of Captain
Fermor should have condescended to assume to him-
self the office of being Dr. Dodd's biographer.

Can You Forgive Her By Anthony Trollop.

No. XV. Chapman and Hall.

This March instalment of Anthony Trollope's serial
story about the Vavasours is chiefly remarkable for
its record of the fact that Mr. Palliser demonstrates
hnt in her interests, the ambition
the depth of his forgiving affection forhis wife, Lady
oGflehnicsorliaf,e_bytshacericficianellorship of the Exchequer !
The Duke of St. Bungay, coming to him with the
offer of that vacant post, finds Mr. Plantagenet
Palliser in the midst of a profound domestic cala-
mity. Lady Glencora and her husband haye
arrived at a sort of an explanation imme-
diately before the arrival of the Duke—who comes
simply as an emissary from the Prime Minister to
place within reach of Mr. Palliser's acceptance the
dream of his life, the Chancellorship of the Exche-
quer ! Conscious that the only safety for Lady
Glencora lies in immediate absence froth England,
so as to put her out of the way of the wiles of that
dissipated Adonis-cousin of her's, I3argo Fitzgerald
—Mr. Palliser declines the proffered seat in the
Cabinet ! The ruffianly George Vavasor gets
deeper and deeper into the mire of his dirty diffi-
culties. How these are to end it is impossible to
conjecture. Now and then we almost look for the
sensational effect of some diabolical murder to be
perpetrated by the hand of the hon. (very hon.)
member for Chelsea.

The Headless Horseman. Part I. By Captain
Mayne Reid. Chapman and Hall.

A Strange Tale of Texas, the author of " The
Scalp Hunters" calls this newly-commenced sixpenny
monthly serial story of " The Headless Horseman."
And it certainly promises to prove a stranger story
even than The Strange Story of Sir Bulwer Lytton !
Looking at the mere cover of the tale, as it has been
been touched into startling terror by the pencil of
the draughtsman and the steel cutter of the wood-
engraver—one seems to recognise that wild
moonlit waste of the Texan prairie-what?
Well, Somebody's Nightmare ! Literally, Some
Body's Nightmare ! The Headless Horseman
awfully mounted upon his destrier—sitting bolt up-
right in the saddle—headless ! The meaning of the
spectral vision is as yet, of course, incomprehensible.
One:can only repeat that it is surely—Some-body's
Nightmare ! On that wild waste of the prairie it is
that—the Headless Horseman having just flitted
momentarily across the scene in the Prologue
and then vanished there it is in the
midst of that vast solitude of the desolate
prairie .of Texas that the principal characters of the
story here commenced, are introduced to the
reader. And, backed as they are, simply, as one
may say, by the sky, they are brought
out to view• all the more vividly by reason
of there being no background whatever. We look
forward pleasurably to a little better acquaintance
with Maurice Gerald, the Mustanger, the hero of the
tale, and with the heroine of it, Louise Poindexter.

Her Majesty forwarded yesterday, through
Sir Charles Phipps, an annual subscription of £5O to the
Royal National Lifeboat Institution. _

The three ships forming the Turkish squadron
under command of Admiral Edhem Paella left Ply-
mouth Sound on Sunday morning for Constanti-
nople. TheY will call in the Tagus for fuel, of
which the flagship, the Kossova, consumes large
quantities. While in Plymouth this ship was sup-
plied with an Armstrong gun from the Royal Arse-
nal at Devonport,

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAM.)

SPAIN.

MADRID, MARCH 13.

The Finance Committee of the Congress have
decided that 25 per cent, of the proceeds of the
sale of the Crown domains shall be remitted to the
Queen immediately after the passing of the bill.

FRANCE.

PARIS, MAncii 11.

The Illoniteur of this morning publishes the
speeches delivered by M. Schneider and M. Rouher
at the grave of the Duke de Morny yesterday.
M. Rouher reverted in his speech to the words of
the deceased, that liberty could only be established
peacefully by a sincere harmony between the
Sovereign and a moderate Assembly.
Bo URSE, March 13.—The market is rather active,
with an upward tendency in quotations. Threes,
for the Account, are now at 67fr. 75c. Mobilier
were very firm at 872 fr. 50c. In Railway Shares
there is a moderate business doing, without change
in prices. The market was somewhat heavy towards
the close. The following are the last prices :-
42 per Cents 94 60 Italian Loan 64 75
Do. end month — Do. end month 64 75
3 per Cents. 67 75 Ditto Threes —
Do. end month 67 75 New Mexican
Credit Mobilier ... 871 25 Russian —
Do. end month ... 868 75 Austrian
Bank Shares 3502 50 Spanish Threes ... 45
Cr3dit Foncicr 1285 Home Debt —
Roman -
RAILWAYS.
Cash. - Acct.
Orleans
Northern lOl7 50 1016 25
Lyons and Mediterranean 950 ... 950
Southern 5BO 580
Western 542 50 ...
Eastern
Sardinian 305 ... 303 75
Austrian
Lombard 545 ... 547 50
North of Spain 298 75 ... 298 75
Saragossa 370
Ditto to Barcelona 165

PRUSSIA AND AUSTRIA.

VIENNA, March 11.

" We are in possession," says the Presse, "of
interesting details as to the contents of the Austrian
answer to the Prussian conditions despatch.' The
Prussian demands have received not a merely tem-
porary reply, as most of the communications assume,
but, as we are informed, a definitive answer in the
note that left here on the sth inst. This note, how-
ever, consists of two separate despatches, both bear-
ing the same date and forwarded to Berlin the same
day. The first and shorter despatch declares
in a perfectly friendly ' yet measured tone,
that Austria is compelled to characterise the
Prussian demands as quite unacceptable, because,
in their present shape, they cannot but appear in-
compatible with the indispensable pastulate of the
establishment of a really sovereign new Federal
State as well as with a series of other arrangements
based on Federal right. The despatch expresses
the conviction that King William himself, who has
given so many brilliant proofs of undeviating Fede-
ral fidelity, will be the more disposed to appreciate
the reasons which have rendered it the duty of Aus-
tria to decline compliance, because that Power is
now, as previously, ready to recognise the interests
of Prussia to the fullest extent inside the strict limits
of Federal right, and to extend the most compre-
hensive and willing consideration to further proposals
upon that basis. The second despatch contains the
detailed explanation of the motives for refusal, and,
till puttin g forward Federal right, adduces reasons
for the impossibility of complying with each sepa-
rate demand.

" We doubt considerably," is the comment of the
Presse, " whether this retort, cleverly drawn up as
it must be admitted to be, will be received with dis-
favour in Berlin. It will be said in that capital that
if nothing is to come of the demands made in the
Prussian despatch of Feb. 23, then beyond all
means let nothing come. No choice would then
remain save annexation, as in the interests of
Germany' Prussia must take up a firm position in
the Duchies. All the world knows that the Crown
lawyers are seeing to the removal of legal obstacles
to annexation,"

THE CIVIL WAIL IN AMERICA.

(From the Times' Correspondent.)

NEW YORK, Feb. 28.

While the Northern journals of all shades of po-
litical opinion, with one exception, are rejoicing at
the surrender of Charleston and Wilmington, and
expatiating triumphantly on what they describe as
the " strong Union sentiment" displayed by the few
poor white people and infirm negroes left behind in
the desolate streets to receive the conquerors, a veil
has been suddenly drawn over movements of far
more vital importance. General Sherman is plung-
ing through the Carolinas at the head of 50,000
men, cut off from all communication with his Go-
vernment, except such as he hopes to establish by
force of victory ; and the Southern press has been
officially requested by General Lee to convey to the
public no whisper or hint of his movements, lest the
enemy should derive advantage, and be enabled in
case of his weakness, to send him reinforcements,
or provide the means for his escape. The command
has been implicitly obeyed, and thick darkness
shrouds all the latest movements of the adventurous
invader. All that is known of Sherman in the North
is that, after taking possession of Columbia, Beau-
regard retreating before him, he had advanced on
the road to Charlotte, and that a greater soldier
than Beauregard had been appointed by Gen. Lee
to oppose his future progress. It was held in the
South, and is admitted in the North, that the long
series of reverses which have culminated in the loss
of the Atlantic cities originated in the unfortunate
supercession of General Joseph E. Johnstone by
General Hood. The restoration of General John-
ston, who is thus brought face to face with his old
opponent, is consequently confessed in the North as
tending to equalise the conditions of the struggle,
and to render the task before General Sherman
much more arduous and protracted than it would
have been if he had to deal with an engineer Gene-
ral such as Beauregard, or a mere fighter such as
Hood. The probability is that these well matched
antagonists will meet in decisive battle, and that the
first news of the result will be received from the
victor.

The situation is critical both for the North and
South. Neither of them can suffer a severe reverse
without perilous consequences. The defeat of Sher-
man would retrieve all the recent ill fortune of the
Confederacy and inspire the people with renewed
hope and energy; while it would cool Northern en-
thusiasm, or replace it by despondency, such as that
of August last, when the Democratic Convention at
Chicago pronounced the war to be a failure, and
looked for no greater virtue in a Presidential candi-
date than an earnest desire of peace and a strong de-
termination to concede it. On the other hand, the
defeat of Johnstone would enable Sherman to effect a
junction with Grant on the Appotomax, and compel
the surrender of Petersburg and Richmond, thus re-
ducing the force of the Confederacy to the sole army
of Gen. Lee, and dealing on the South the heaviest
blow and sorest discouragement, next to absolute
ruin and subjugation, that it would be possible to
inflict.

Mr. Hugh M'Culloch has accepted the Secretary-
ship of the Treasury. In the case of any other man
the appointment would have excited but little curio-
sity. As Mr. Fessenden was a dilution of Mr. Chase,
the new Secretary would have been looked upon as a
dilution of Mr. Fessendon. But Mr. M'Culloch
enters upon the scene under different auspices. He
is, what few Americans are, a sound political econo-
mist. He has studied the philosophy and theory as
well as the practice of finance. To read his letters
and treatises any one who did not know that he was
an American might imagine be was an Englishman
or a Scotchman who had never embraced the delusion
so prevalent on this side the Atlantic, that as the re-
sources of America are not half developed it is com-
petent to American statesmen to run riot in wild ex-
periment, and set at defiance the dearly bought expe-
rience of older communities. Mr. M'Culloch is, as
far as his published opinions testify, a worthy sue-