The Sun.
London, England, 1865-08-17 00:00:00

Warne's Companion Library.

Rutledge The Sutherlands Christine. Three
Novels by the Author of " Frank Warrington."
Frederick Warne and Co.

Daintily fluttering from the press in all the
colours of the rainbow—like so many butterflies of
light literature—we have here three charming stories
by a very popular writer as the first instalments
of the Messrs. Warne and Co.'s COMPANION LIB-
RARY. So much that is trivial has been issued be-
fore now in the form of cheap railway volumes of a
similar character in their external appearance, that
it is really a matter of justice and fairplay alike to
printer and to the publisher of these three radiant
little stories to remark, in regard to the latter
—that is, in regard to the stories themselves—
that they belong to a higher category among the
popular fictions of the day than the majority
of the tales provided for the entertainment
of railway travellers. Rutledge, The Sutherlands,
and for that matter even Christine, each of these
externally attractive little volumes comes to us
freighted with intrinsic excellences auguring very
favourably, indeed, for the futuredevelopment of the
Companion Library thus inaugurated.

Fraser's Magazine.

An unusually good number of Fraser presents
us with a very varied table of contents. First and
foremost comes an article especially addressed to
the politician—an essay on Parliamentary Reform.
It is very well worth reading, if only for its careful
recapitulation and analyses of the various rival
schemes which have been suggested. The subject is,
in fact, in some respects more difficult to deal with
now than in the old days prior to 1832, since there
were then glaring abuses that admitted only of
simple and direct treatment whereas now
there are a multitude of remedies suggested,
many of which are purely experimental. The
writer of the present treatise fully accepts
Lord Grey's recommendation that Parliament
should proceed not by bill but by resolutions. By
this means he asserts the relative strength of parties
would be tested at the outset, and definite principles
of legislation laid down upon which a comprehensive
and enduring Reform Bill might be easily framed.
Whereas the two conflicting elements of cautious
and wholesale reformers cannot, he believes, pos-
sibly work together without some such assured basis.
The writer has evidently considered his subject very
fully and fairly, and while the reader may pro-
bably differ :from his views, he will readily admit
the candour and moderation as well as the
ability with which those views are enforced by
argument. " Shirley," always a welcome contri-
butor, vindicates the memory of Dryden from
the charges rashly brought‘and but feebly sustained
against him. " John Dryden," says the writer of
this essay, " stands in the foremost rank of English
satirists. He is the most forcible and masculine of
English_ poets. For sheer downright intellectual
strength we must seek his fellow among the great
philosophers and divines—not among poets." He
goes on to say that Dryden might lack the finer
and more delicate gifts of the imagination, but that
even in his infirmities he was no unworthy repre-
sentative of English character, " unideal yet manly,
sagacious, affectionate, indifferently honest." He
admits that none of his principles were deeply
rooted, and that he never found timeqo mature his
convictions, but he declares his nature to have been
robust and generous, amiable and impulsive, frank
and forgiving. It is unfair, urges the advocate on the
part of Dryden's severest antagonist, the gifted but
not always impartial Macaulay, to single out Dry-
den alone as censurable for the political violence and
party hatred of the age. Most especially " Shirley"
defends his client from the charge so determinately
brought against him by the great historian of an
insincere conversion. In conclusion, he observes
that in John Dryden's life neither the heroic con-
stancy of the martyr nor the loftiness of the
idealist have any place. But it is the life of a great
man who descended into the arena, who mixed
with the crowd, and drudged painfully for daily bread,
and who in an unhappy age was forced to keep
body and soul together as he best might. That an
evil life had destroyed his manliness, his sincerity,
his kindly heart or natural generosity, he utterly
refuses to believe. An article on " Her Majesty's
Court of Probate" gives very entertaining illustra-
tions of some of the eccentricities of will-making.
The first part of a paper of reminiscences of
the Court and Times of Paul I. of Russia, is inte-
resting from its having been actually written by a
member of that court, a Russian general, who was
of course behind the scenes. He writes English re-
markably well for a foreigner, and gives an animated
description of the consternation excited among the
Russian officers when Paul came to the throne and
insisted on remodelling the Imperial army after the
prim
Prussian fashion, which had so greatly capti-
vated him when travelling in his youth. An article
on " Public Virtue and Lord Westbury," seeks to
extenuate the errors of the late Chancellor, by
showing how much worse some of the proceedings
of his predecessors had been ; but the examples
which are cited would hardly be tolerated in the
present day. A sketch by the author of " Paul
Ferroll," entitled " From an Old Gentleman's
Diary," is pleasantly written ; and the story of
" Gilbert Rugge " is continued with interest. A
criticism on Miss Kate Terry's performance of
Viola shows a nice appreciation of the lights and
shades of the character and of the piece.