The Sun.
London, England, 1853-10-03 00:00:00

LITERATUBE.

MAGAZINES FOR THE MONTH.

Blackwood.—An elaborate criticism on " Uncle
Tom's Cabin" opens the new number of Blackwood
for October. A pleasant review of one portion of
Thackeray's " Lectures"—that relating to Swift—
closes it. Maga contains, moreover the concluding
chapters of the serial novel called " Lady Lee's
Widowhood." It comprises also the third and
final instalment of " New Readings in Shakspere,"
being an allusion to Mr. Payne Collier, a commen-
tary on a commentator. Besides these contribu-
tions, we find likewise in the autumnal specimen of
our dear Old Ebony just published—a note in re-
ference to some of the former portions of the paper
last mentioned—an imaginary scene in blank verse,
entitled " Right Divine," as obscure as it is ex-
travagant—an agreeable notice of Lady Louisa
Tenison's roving in Castile and Andalusia, a notice
hight for the nonce " Rail and Saddle in Spain,"
and a practical effusion by H. G. K. (query King-
ston ?), headed " The Wanderer." Blackwood
comes forward rather late in the day as a critic
on the celebrated anti-slavery tale by Mrs. Harriet
Beecher Stowe. But the tardiness of the review
of " Uncle Tom's Cabin" is made up for, as we
have intimated, by its elaboration. The reviewer
entertains towards the authoress of that remarkable
work the most cordial sentiments of admiration.
He declares it to be his deliberate opinion that
" Mrs. Stowe is unquestionably a woman of
GENius," and he puts the word, as we have done,
in capitals, by way of imparting emphasis to his
panegyric. He acknowledges the book to have
been " singularly successful," as who could help
doing ? He considers its reception in England and
America to be nothing less than a " sudden phe-
nomena in literature." Nor can epithets of
this character, as applied to " Uncle Tom's Cabin,"
be viewed as in any manner exaggerated, remem-
bering the profound and electrical sensation the
story made in both hemispheres almost immedi-
ately upon its first appearance. Translated into
almost every living language, reprinted in edition
after edition, so that copies of the book were rapidly
multiplied by millions, dramatised, illustrated,
bathed in the tears of " both sexes, high and low,
young and old, literate and illiterate, vulgar and
refined, phlegmatic and excitable," talked about
and written about everywhere—no wonder that
an intelligent reviewer like the writer in Black-
wood, was compelled to admit to himself before
reading " Uncle Tom's Cabin," that "it must
possess something remarkable." Satisfied of this
before opening the volume, he sits down to its
perusal for the first time as recently as " within the
last month." Consequently, while every one
else was carried away by a prevailing and con-
tagious enthusiasm, he contrived to preserve his
equanimity throughout. He enters the critical
chair, therefore, as he himself observes, altogether
" uninfluenced by the past excitement." His esti-
mate of the merits and demerits of the tale acquires
for itself, consequently, the value of one formed
without bias or predilection. The general public
must needs, therefore, turn with a more pleasurable
confidence to the weight of the judgment thus pro-
nounced with the authority of Maga upon the most
suddenly popular fiction that was ever printed.
And that judgment, the conscientious admirers of
" Uncle Tom's Cabin" will be gratified to find is—
most favourable. The benevolent purpose of the work
in the first place is warmly and genially eulogised.
Its literary excellence is then taken into considera-
tion. "We imagine," says the critic in Ebony,
" we imagine that no person of genius can read.
Uncle Tom's Cabin,' and not feel in glowing con-
tact with genius—generally gentle and tender, but
capable of rising with its theme into very high re-
gions of dramatic power." It is elevated praise,
but praise eminently well deserved. There-
upon, having considered the work in its
entirety, the reviewer takes into account one
by one its constituent portions, its incidents, its
characters, and its moral. Already we have said
that the moral of the book is the subject of the
earnest encomiums of the Blackwood contributor.
Its incidents he cannot help feeling are most of
them clumsily strung together. But in speaking
of its characters, he finds himself enabled to
write in the most fervent terms of commenda-
tion. Topsy he regards, of course, as the " gem "
of the narrative. Miss Ophelia however, strange
to say, seems rather more of a favourite with him
than the amiable St. Clare. The former he appears to
consider more true to Nature, and the latter
false not only to it, but even to art. Numerous
others among the fictitious personages introduced
in this " ower true tale," are apparently, no less
than Miss Olivia, great favourites with the re-
viewer in Blackwood—among them shrewd Black
Sam, merry old Aunt Chloe, frank-hearted Master
Shelby, angelic little Eva, George and Eliza Harris,
honest Cudjoe, and kindly Rachel Halliday. Con-
trasting with these, naturally, we meet with indica-
tions of loathing to the monster Legree, and dislike in
the mind of the critic towards Mrs. St. Clare, per-
haps yet more than to Haley, and Marks, and Loker.
Reference is particularly made by the writer in
Maga to the victims of the execrable slave system
in America, as here depicted with a masterly pencil
by Mrs. Stowe—foremost amongst all, of course,
poor old Uncle Tom, not forgetting one Prue, and
especially commending the portraiture of Cassy,
contrasting wildly with the sweet and gentle face
of Emmeline. Of Cassy, the reviewer says, " she
occasionally reminds us of some of the greatest pas-
sages in Greek tragedy." Topsy, however, as al-
ready remarked, is the critic's favourite of favour-
ites Topsy, as he here describes her—" Mrs
Stowe's chef d oeuvre—the inimitable Topsy—a true
psychological curiosity." Altogether, this critical
chapter on the merits and demerits of " Uncle
Tom's Cabin" will be examined, we doubt not, with
curiosity by the readers of Maga, and that curiosity
we feel satisfied will be repaid on its perusal
among the majority by a sense of satisfaction. The
reviewer of Mr. Thackeray's " Lecture" on Swift,
it may be observed by the way, writes, for the
most part, genially of that incomparable delineator
of a past race of humourists.

Fraser .--A curious historical paper promises, in
at least one more instalment, a deliberate vindi-
cation, to some extent, of the " Morals of Queen
Elizabeth." The present portion of the argument
is remarkable for the cool discarding of the famous
letter discovered by Dr. Murdin, and penned by
Mary Queen of Scots to Elizabeth, as a document
lacking proof of its authenticity. It matters little
to the writer that this letter was accepted by a pro-
found authority in regard to the genuineness of such
manuscripts, like Dr. Lingard ; it scarcely weighs with
him one jot that, as he confesses himself, " there
are grave difficulties in the way of admitting it to
be a forgery." Miss Strickland has challenged its
authenticity—and for what reason ? Because she
cannot find it in her heart to believe that Mary could
be so indelicate ! Besides the letter is a rather
formidable difficulty in the way of glosing over the
morals of Queen Elizabeth. Therefore it is at once
coolly set aside as preposterous. And that being
done, Lord Campbell is soundly rated for pre-
suming to introduce it in his Life of Hatton. After
this evidence of want of candour in the reviewer,
we must acknowledge that we look with _but
little interest to the continuation of his argument in
reference to the morality or immorality of Queen
Elizabeth. Several other chapters are given in the
October number of Regina, in continuation of
" Emily Orford," now the unrivalled heroine of the
magazine, " Hypatia" having disappeared from the
pages of Fraser to reappear elsewhere as a separate
publication. In the present instalment of Fraser
we find some charmingly quaint lines, " Who is
She ?" translated from the Spanish of Quevedo.
Of the humorous vivacity of the verses, take the
following stanzas as testimony
"In every law-suit which by man
Is set afloat,
Put miracles apart, we can
Smell petticoat.
In each a woman figures—maid,
Wife, widow, as may be ;
Then nothing ever need be said
But, Who is she ?
Adam lost his Paradise,
'Tomas Eve's tripping •
Some hidden thing beguiled her eyes,,
Or fig or pippin
From whence the author of our woes
Is plain to see ;
And all creation groaning knows
That it was she.
"If you should trace where once was Troy,
Ashes and sand,
And think of Grecia's guileful joy
And ruthless band,
Let your stern judgment 'twixt the two
Suspended be,
Until Homerus answers you—
Pray, who is she ?"
Nothing can be more admirable than the terms
in which the incomparable author of the " Essay.
on Man" is eulogised by one of the critics of Re-
gina, in a review oddly enough headed " Alexander
Smith and Alexander Pope." Although the former
obtains but small commendation from the contri-
butor for what he has already accomplished, he
nevertheless receives from his anonymous Mentor
kindly and earnest encouragement. At least, that
is to say Mr. Alexander Smith is promised success
by aser on two or three simple conditions—such
as, for example, that he shall utterly reverse his whole
poetic method, " whether in morals or aesthetics,
leave undone all that he has done, and do all that
he has not done." Mere trifles ! But then
Mr. Smith is; in this way, by no means insulated
from the rest of his contemporaries—Fraser here
again .•-• terating a conviction that it has already
expressed more than once, " that with the excep-