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THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY • EvENINii, DECEMBER 26, 1862

NEW NOVEL BY MR. MAC LiONALD.
On December 29, in 3 vols., printed on toned paper,
DAVID ELGINBR OD
By GEORGE MACDONALD, M.A.,
Author of " Within and Without," " Phantastes,"
Hurst and Blackett, publishers, 13, Great Marlborough-street

them into a condition of so universal welfare and dignity."
With a view of carrying out this idea, the author has, in a
series of admirable chapters, carefully reviewed the history
of this nation, from a religious point of view, and thus
notices the physical condition of the population of England,
the character of the population, God's education of England
for colonial empire, the providential removal of the dangers
of annexation to foreign dominion, deliverance from the
dangers of invasion, and other points beating on those por-
tions of the history of the country, in which the hand of
Providence may be traced.

Hymns for the Church of England. Longman Green,
-

Longman. and Co.
This is a new edition of a volume of hymns, selected with
much care, and well adapted for use in the service of the
Church of England. The great object of the edition appears
to have been to keep the book of hymns in accordance with
the grave tone of holy scripture and the Book of Common
Prayer, and in this view several hymns, which are held as
great favourites in most congregations, have been omitted
from the volume on account of the familiar and frequently
irreverent manner in which the attributes and feelings of
the Deity, and the highest and noblest sentiments of religion
are referred to. Several hymns likewise which were in the
earlier volume have been omitted, and some new ones added
to the collection.

Standard Authors. Smith, Elder, and Co.
The collection of standard works now in course of issue
in a cheap and popular form by Messrs. Smith, Elder, • and
Co., has the merit of beiug printed in a clear and legible
type. We have before us republications of "Young Sin-
gleton," by Talbot Uwynne; " Wheat and Tares : A Lost
Love," by Ashford Owen; and " Arnberhill, a Guilty
Peace," by A. J. Barrowcliffe. These works are well known
to readers of modern works of fiction, who will be pleased
to have an opportunity of obtaining them at a very mode-
rate price, in a compendious and elegant form.

After Dark. By Wilkie Collins. Smith, Eder, and Co.
This is a collection of tales republished in a popular form,
and containing several illustrations. With one exception
the tales have already appeared both in the "Household
Words," and in a collected form in two volumes. The
stories are strung together on a single thread of interest in
the form of " Leah's Diary," the pages of which seem to
fulfil the purpose not only of a framework for the collection
of tales, but also to afford many glimpses of that artist life
which the writer has had so many opportunities of study-
ing. The volume in its present shape can scarcely fail to
receive a very cordial welcome by the numerous friends and
admirers of this popular novelist.

Phanlcon the Adventurer; or, the Europeans in the East.
A Romantic Biography. By William Dalton, London :

S. 0. Beeton.

The Jesuit Fathers Pierre Joseph d'O rleans and Guy
Tachard have furnished the author of this volume with the
bones of his story, his own imagination has clothed them
with flesh and animated them, and here they stand before
us as living figures, taking a prominent part in one of the
most stirring episodes in Siamese history. The moral of
the tale is the futility of all attempts to transplant the reli •
gious institutions of Europe into oriental soil, exemplified
by the failure of Louis XIV. to bring the kingdom of Siam
under the sway of the Jesuits. The hero of the story is
Phaulcon, a Greek by birth, who rose to the highest office
and distinction in Siam, and who was mainly instrumental
in introducing and sustaining the Roman Catholic system
there until he and it fell together. We need hardly say that
with such materials, and Mr. Dalton's lively and pic-
turesque style, the book is most interesting, and its charms
are further increased by a number of chromo-lithographic
illustrations, in a style of oriental splendour.

My Diary, North and South. By William H. Russell.

Bradbury and Evans, Bouverie-street.
The position which Mr. Russell occupied as corre-
spondent of the Times newspaper naturally afforded
him many facilities for becoming acquainted with
the leading men both of the Northern and Southern
States. There are abundant evidences of the desire
evinced by all parties to propitiate one whose letters would
not fail to have considerable influence on public opinion in
Europe. Much of the courtesy and attention shown to Mr,
Russell was due, no doubt, to his own personal character
and ability; but his connection with the leading journal
was not without its effect. The President appeared fully
conscious of the influence of this section of the British press.
"I don't know anything," he said, "that has much more
power, except, perhaps, the Mississippi." This happy
union of personal qualities and professional position enjoyed
by Mr. Russell has resulted in the production of a work
which contains sketches of society in America, North and
South, the like of which have not been published for seve-
ral years past. The extracts from the "Diary" regularly
kept by Mr. Russell, reflect with apparent fidelity the tone
and opinions of American society, and it is not improbable
that when the book reaches the other side of the Atlantic
its author may find himself the object of fierce attacks from
both North and South, for what will be ju-tly considered
breaches of confidence and abuse of hospitality. Mr. Russell
himself evidently anticipates something of the kind, for he
explains that he has been careful to omit many passages
which might cause pain or injury to individuals still living
in the midst of a civil war ; and though there is much ex-
tenuated, he assures us that there is nought set down in
malice. The value of the extracts before us is that they give
us pictures of events passing under the eyes of a very shrewd
and experienced observer during a very critical time in the
history of the country. They are not pictures of America
taken under its best aspect, and no perple would wish to be
photographed and handed down to posterity in the appear-
ance which they present in such an exceptional condition
as that caused by a civil war. The agonies of a politi-
cal revolution, and the horrors of civil war, have exag-
gerated and developed the worst and the best qualities
of human nature. Society crushed by evil passions and
apprehensions, and shattered by violence, presented
its broken angles to the correspondent, who frankly
states—" The America I saw was no more like the country
of which her people boast so loudly than the St. Lawrence,
when the ice breaks up, hurrying onwards the rugged drift
and its snowy crush of crags with hoarse roar, and crashing
with irrepressible force and fury to the sea, resembles the
calm flow of the stately river on a summer's day." The
sketches of society which are given in the Diary will be
read with interest. Here, for instance, is another of the
anecdotes which President Lincoln, overflowing with wes-
tern humour, occasionally indulges. Mr. Russell was a
guest at the White House, and before dinner one of the
members of the Cabinet was remonstrating upon some ap-
pointment which the President had made. Mr. Lincoln,
in reply, said :—" Come, now, Bates, he's not half so bad as
you think. Besides that, I must tell you, he did me a good
turn long ago. When I took to the law, I was going to
court one morning, with some 10 or 12 relics of bad road
before me, and I had no horse. The judge overtook me in
his waggon. " Holloa, Lincoln, are you not going to the
Court House? Come in, and I'll give you a seat. When
I got in the judge went on reading his papers. Presently
the waggon struck a stump on one side of the road, then it
hopped off to the other. I looked out and saw the driver
was jerking from side to side in his seat. So says I,
' Judge, I think your coachman has been taking a little
drop too much this morning.' Well, I declare, Lincoln,'
said he, ' I should not much wonder if you were right, for
he has nearly upset me half a dozen times since starting.
So, putting his head out of the window, he shouted, ' Why,
you infernal scoundrel, you are drunk.' Upon which, pull-
ing up his horses and turning round, with great gravity, the
coachman said, ' By Gorra, that's the first rightful decision
you have given for the last twelvemonth.' " Whilst the
company were laughing the President beat a quick retreat
from the neighbourhood of the Attorney-General.
The chivalry of the slave owners of the South ap-
pears to be very much exaggerated by the friends of
the Southern States in this country, if we may judge by
some of the extracts from the " Diary." When in the
State of Mississippi, Mr. Russell learned some facts on the
subject of the prevalence of the duello ; among others, for
example, he says he was warned against " the impolicy of
trusting to small bore pistols, or to pocket six shooters in
case of a close fight; because, suppose you hit your man
mortally, he may still run in upon you and rip you up with
a bowie knife before he falls dead, whereas if you drive a
good heavy bullet into him, or make a hole in him with a
Derringer ball, he gets faintish and drops at once." Ano-
ther hint which he received from the chivalrous South was
this:---" If a gentleman with whom you are engaged in
altercation moves his hands towards his breeches pocket, or
behind his back, you must smash him or shoot him at once,
for he is going either to draw his six-shooter, to pull out a
bowie knife, or to shoot you through the lining of his
pocket. The latter practice is considered rather ungentle-
manly, but it has been more honoured lately in the obseL v-
anco than in the breach." As to the probable results of the
present contest Mr. Russell judiciously abstains from any
dissertation on the present or future of the great republics,
but expresses himself satisfied that "the Free States of the
North will retain and gain great advent agesby the struggle,
if they will only sot themselves at work to accomplish their
destiny, nor lose their time in sighing over vanished empire,
or indulging in abortive dreams of conquest and schemes of
vengeance."

Waterloo, and the Downfall of the First Napoleon. By
_ _

George Hooper. Smith, Elder and Co.
So much has already been said and written regarding the
battle of Waterloo that it would be impossible to find any-
thing fresh one would suppose. It does not appear that it
is the author's intention to throw any new light upon the
subject, but he thinks that the influence of the writings of
Napoleon and those who have drawn their inspiration from
the poisoned fountain of St. Helena, has been so great, and
that facts have been so much perverted that is desirable to