The Sun.
London, England, 1854-07-27 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Katharine Ashton. By the author of " Amy Her-
bert," " The Experience of Life," kc. 2 vols.
Longman.
Among those who make it their study or their
pleasure to be well read in the literature of the

present day, there are few who do not yield a high
place in their regard to the writer of this story. It
is not to her skill in the delineation of characters,
although they are natural and life-like; it is not
to any remarkable events ; yet they here and there
arrest the attention, that we must attribute her
renown or account for her success. It is from a
higher source and abetter that she derives the interest
that enchains the attention, and the influence that
directs the thoughts. The motives of men's actions,
the effects that ensue from the simplest events, the
power the meanest member of society can exercise
over it, in use or abuse, are all carefully registered
and accurately demonstrated. No imaginary joys
are shown, and no exaggerated sorrows appear.
The light and darkness, the sun and shade of life,
are seen each m its turn. Katharine Ashton has
the same characteristics of style as the -preceding
works, but there are also novelties to be met with.
Colonel Forbes is a character that has not hitherto
appeared in the foreground in any of her pictures
of home-life ; and the evil consequences resulting
from his peculiar mode of selfishness are admirably
shown forth. Possessed of a kind disposition and
a loving heart, with high principles and an unde-
viating sense of honour, he yet rendered himself
unhappy, and caused his amiable and excellent wife
the greatest misery. Indeed, his capricious and
cruel conduct prevented her enjoying that repose
and mental quietude absolutely essential to her
very existence. So as fully to illustrate the
meaning of her remarks, the authoress has depicted
Jane, Mrs. Forbes, as being of too yielding
and passive a nature. In order rightly to
have influenced Colonel Forbes, his wife should
have risen superior to unpleasant scenes, and
have shown herself indifferent to trifling
ebullitions of impatience and vexation. Her
desire to make all things straight created for
her an exceedingly. crooked and rugged road. It
was precisely in this point that Katharine the'he-
roine differed from her friend. She knew the
right, and unflinchingly pursued it. Jane pos-
sessed the calm gentleness and meek endurance
which seem to be saint-like; but Katharine Ashton,
with her spirit of truth and fervour of resolve,
evinced the noble courage which in more exalted or
fortunate circumstances has made glorious the hero
and immortalised the martyr. It was indeed a
bitter lesson—one that might well teach pride its
hollowness, and show ambition its impotence—that
the great man of the world had to learn from the
simple country maiden. With all his wealth and
his power, his high station and his deservedly good
name, with friends among the good, the great, and
and the gifted, he felt himself nothing in the pre-
sence of Katharine. She did not bend to his
grandeur. In outward things he was her superior,
but she knew that to be the effect of chance ; and
while she paid him all due respect was neither
abashed nor afraid. But Colonel Forbes felt that
he was immeasurably the inferior in what his good
sense and accurate Judgment told him was the
true and the valuable in human nature. In pure
and perfect unselfishness, above all things, was the
marked difference manifested. What even the
greatest affection could not persuade him to do in
the least, a high sense of duty enabled her to per-
form to the utmost extent. The concluding scenes
are powerfully sketched. It is but in accordance
with reason that such long existing feelings must
have a difficult and dilatory uprooting. It is face
to face with death that he was first struck with the
awful importance of the life he had been leading.
Suddenly laid on a bed from which he might never
rise again, with all his busy hopes and plans of ac-
tive life fresh in his mind and uppermost in his
thoughts, how strange to contemplate the great
change before him. Jane had seemed dying for a
year, but he was so strong and vigorous that such
a casualty never occurred to him before. Not that
he feared death. He feared nothing, but he was ap-
palled at the vision of his life as it rose before him.
Jane, on her side, saw too late how very wrong
her conduct had been, but her last hours were
soothed by the hope that her mistake had resulted
principally in suffering to herself, and by the pro-
mise of a better spirit having influence and sway
in the life and actions of her husband. Katherine
Ashton had many trials and vexations in her life
previous to her living with Mrs. Forbes. Her
father and mother died rather suddenly, and her
only brother married an old school-fellow and
friend of her youth, bit one who was most uncon-
genial to her in every way. To add to the an-
noyance they were all compelled to reside together
on a small farm that John Ashton had very un-
wicely taken on his foolish marriage. At last, to
complete the confusion and dismay, the little
household was broken up, and the imprudent and
inexperienced young couple set off to Australia to
make their furtunes, as they supposed. Katherine
would not accompany them ; she felt it to be un-
safe and insecure to do so, and she had ties in
England. Many dear friends she had known
from childhood, besides an attachment which,
though apparently hopeless, she could not bear to
give up entirely. Charles Ronaldson she had
known for a very long period, and although he had
seemed strange in his manners at first, and alto-
gether too unpolished and uninformed to be her
equal, he returned after a long absence greatly
improved. Still the barriers her former coldness
interposed between them remained, and for a long
time all was uncertainty and disquietude. She
had a hard struggle with herself to decide
whether or not she would offer herself to be
Mrs. Forbes's maid. It was decidedly going down
in the opinion of many, but then again she was free
to decide for herself, and she was sure of a good ,
position in Jane's household. For Colonel Forbes
himself, although he did not like her, was al-
ways courteous in his bearing—she would have
nothing to apprehend from him. The sequel justi-
fied her ideas of her duties ; all respected her be-
cause she knew how to respect herself. Katharine
Ashton dignified her position; her position did not
dignify her." It was a sweet and sustaining
thought to carry with her through her after-life,
to take into her new home, and remember in her
sorrows and joys, that she iad been the ministering
spirit and guardian angel of one who had claims
upon her gratitude and affection. By the exercise
of her tact and observation much had been effected
in a simple manner • she had procured for Jane
what she much needed, rest, and she had stimu-
lated Colonel Forbes to what was still more essen-
tial, reflection. To have shed peace ou a troubled
soul, and to have rendered blessed the passage to
the grave, to have influenced and inspired one des-
tined for a long career of importance and interest,
to the best and the highest, was not to have worked
in vain. The success that crowned her labours was
not apparent to every one, but the mission was not
the less pure from being undefined in mark and
invisible in goal. It was planned in the solitude
of her heart; it was carried on amid hidden
sacrifices, in prayers and tears; its witnesses
were the " unseen and the eternal;" its results
were not for earth but heaven. It was re-
marked by the authoress in a former work, when
the heroine was seeking to put away all cares, that
" the deep tides of the Jordan can never cease to
flow between the toils of the wilderness and the
rest of the land of promise." This feeling evidently
influences all her narratives of domestic life in all
its details; simple or grand, young or old, mediocre
or gifted—all are introduced as the heirs of suffer-
ing.paththe and
over the home of Ruth and Madeleine in the
country parsonage, o. f Amy Herbert in her uncle's
family, of Gertrude in the failure of her day-dream,
of the Earl's daughter in her father's princely
abode,
and, above all, in the career ofMargaret Per-
cival is the darkness visible. Yet in this twilight
atmosphere the reader may perceive a calmness, a
serenity, a cheerfulness, and satisfaction not often
found in brighter scenes, nor always met with in
what seem the most auspicious circumstances. The
heroes and heroines for the most part make their
first object duty, and the recompence of such en-
deavours is wisely shown to ba peace, and not
pleasure. The motto of Katharine Ashton is,
,c pitch thy behaviour low, thy projects high."
Such is the tenour of the maxims laid down and
the precepts inculcated. There is no selfish sorrow
tolerated, and no repining spirit allowed ; but the
young are instructed how to meet dangers instead
of sinking under them. They are shown that life
is full of troubles, many of which can be mitigated
by patience and perseverance, some of which must
be borne with resignation, and none of which are
so great but that with faith and trust they may not
be robbed of their sting and victory.

Syria and Palestine in 1851 and 185'2 2 vols.

_
By C. N. M. Van de Velde. Blackwood.

Sorry are we to say it, but the impression pro-
duced on our mind by this exquisitely " ,0 '
o.t up,_
work is that of cant, cant, cant—or, to speak other-
wise, of unmitigated religious affectation. Ac-
cording to the title-page, we learn that the writer
of these volumes was lately a lieutenant in the
Dutch Royal Navy, and that he is a Chevalier of
the Legion of Honour. He is evidently a prying
traveller and a garrulous; correspondent. But for
all that we could learn from the text itself, we
might have supposed, not unreasonably, that the
author was a veritable double of the redoubtab e
Praise-God-Bare-Bones. We have already remarked
that the " getting up" of the work, in the homely
phrase of the book trade, is worthy of all commen-
dation. It is so. Binding, paper, illustrations,
indices, typography --all axe wonderfay creditable

both to the skill and taste of those employed on
the Messrs. Blackwooi's. eminent establishment.
The work itself, however, whether as a religious
comment or as a literary production, is, to our
thinking, the very reverse of all this. It is no-
thing less than an elaborated diatribe extending
over upwards of one thousand pages octavo—sneer
after sneer, vituperation after vituperation, against
many millions and tens of millions of believers in
Christianity. Those who do not exactly coincide
with the particular tenets admired by Mr. C. W.
M. Van de Velde are to him literally anathema
maranatha. His own individual belief is the " ear
of corn," or the " stream of water," the one uni-
versally applicable and infallible criterion. Those
who coincide with him are the true Gileadites--all
the rest of mankind, tripping in articulation over
that inexorable shibboleth, are Ephraimites, Pariahs,
Lepers, Idolaters, Outcasts, Blasphemers. Every-
thing good and blessed is, on his side, every-
thing vile and detestable on the side of those with
whom he cannot conscientiously hold communion.
At the close of the second volume there is an
astonishing catalogue of Scriptural quotations—the
holy seasoning sprinkled lavishly through this
enormous mass of sanctimonious uncharitableness.
It savours not to our palate—we must avow at once
—even with the squanderings of that same holy
seasoning. Rather we should say at once, the con-
tinual application to the purposes of sectarian
malignity of those sacred utterances from Holy
Writ appears to us nothing less deplorable than a
deliberate and systematic profanation. The work
is a mistake from first to last. It consists of a series
of slovenly epistles, penned while the traveller, in
1851 and 1852, was journeying through Syria and
Palestine. It affords the reader no new informa-
tion. It strings together a confused mass of old
threadbare particulars, and does this, it would
i at :
seem, only for the purpose of enabling the author
t notcover the
sympathisevarious r eligi
with withth ou:shndom can-
exactly
exceed-
ingly heavypages of fanatical abuse andunmitigated
n.
misrepresentatio
of We ca
cannot for the life of us
believe in a
race
monstrosities. Occasionally, of
course, mankind may be horrified by
the apparition
of some dread abortion. But cases like these are
only exceptional. The
kingdom of the anthropo-
phagi, or men whose heads do grow beneath their
shoulders," has yet to be discovered. Apig-faced
lady does not appear in every generation. The
living skeleton was a creature to be wondered at
once upon a time—but the like of it has never been
heard of since, thank Heaven. Mr. Waterton, it
may be remembered by some, gave as a frontispiece
to one of his charming volumes, the effigy of some-
thing between a man and an ourang-outang, and
which he designated, for want of a more definite
title, a "Nondscript." We don't remember ever
to have heard of a brother or sister, or an aunt or
cousin, of the Nondescript spoken of by our accom-
plished naturalist. An old saying tells us that the
Devil himself is not so black as he is painted. The
traveller who has penned the " Narrative" before
us seems, however, to be of a wholly different
opinion. He appears to have discovered mon-
strosities, and abortions, and horrors, without
number, a whole multitude or nation of anthro-
pophagi. Not, however, in the mountains of
the moon, or among the worshippers of Mumbo-
jumbo ; neither in Central Africa, hard by
the wondrous regions beyond the half-fabulous
Timbuctoo ; nor yet again in the hitherto unpene-
trated wilds of Australia, the domain of the rico-
chetting kangaroo and the vermin-nourished
aborigines. Not there, but in the Holy Land, in
Syria and in Palestine, in the sacred haunts of the
Redeemer, in the village of His birth, in the city of
His death, in the garden of His prayer, on the hill
of His crucifixion. The race of preternatural idol-
aters, the minions of a grovelling superstition dis-
covered by Mr. Van de Vede appear, according to
his record of them, to infest the vicinity of the Jor-
dan and the highways and byeways of Jerusalem !
They are rife near the valley of Kedron, and under
the roofs upon Mount Moriah, and up the acclivity
of Zion, and around the spot pointed out as the
site of the Holy Sepulchre. He does not anywhere
simply insinuate all that by the force of mere reti-
cence. He vociferates it all, letter after letter,
volume after volume, through twice five hundred
pages, of alternate sneering and vituperation. It
is scarcely necessary for us to say, at once, that we
don't believe all this. We are of the opinion of
Little Paul Dombey, when Mrs. Pipchin told him
of the mad bull who eat the little boy for asking
questions. " I don't believe that story. ' We can-
not, of course, help thinking, and believing with all
our hearts, that hundreds, and thousands, and
millions of our fellow-Christians are wrong—but
we cannot conceive it possible that therefore
and because they do not precisely coincide with
us in our religious opinions, that they are for
that reason necessarily monstrosities, pariahs,
lepers, idolaters, Ephraimites, and blasphemers.
Never was any motto more unluckily selected
for a work than the one that here, figures on the
title-page, "We walk by faith, not by sight."
The declaration of Saul of Tarsus to the Corinthians.
It should be exactly the converse of this, according
to the Dutch Lieutenant. We doubt not that the
author of these volumes intended them to be evi-
dence of an earnest love for Christianity. Instead
of this they constitute a voluminous attestation of
deliberate and deplorable uncharitableness.

Temper•: By Emilia Marryat, daughter of the late
Captain Marryat, author of " Peter Simple," itrc.
3 vols. Newby.
It is most probable that many will look with in-
terest on this s Cory on account of the authoress's
distinguished name. It is a first attempt, and a
promising one. The characters are well sketched,
and the conduct and disposition of the hero is given
with a painful accuracy, considering their awful
tendencies. After many slight offences and minor
quarrels and annoyances, Lawrence consummates
the works of Ins,evil temper by killing a friend, who
was also to become his brother-in-law. A most
exciting scene follows, in which he declares himself
a murderer. A trial, of course, takes place, when,
to the horror of his friends, Lawrence persists in
pleading " guilty" to the charge preferred against
him. He is condemned to death, but, by

the strenuous exertions of friends, the sentence is
commuted to transportation. This point in the
narrative is most significant in showing the horrible
effects that ensue from the indulgence of passion.
It carries out the moral to those who may be of
bad temper, but at the same time it, of course, de-
tralts from the pleasure of the perusal. It is to be
hoped that on another occasion the authoibss will
select a subject that will require less awful illus-
trations. The introduction of Lawrence's brother,
Herbert, is a very pleasing digression to the more
stirring scenes in which the hero plays a part. In
the time of the trial, and its consequent miseries,
the calm bearing and resigned composure of Her-
bert was of essential service to all the afflicted
members of the party. On the whole, a useful
lesson may be learned from this record of the
" evil wrought by want of thought" in the control
and governance of " Temper."

SATURDAY HALF-HOLIDAY MOVEMENT.—A mime
rously-attended meeting of the promoters and friends of
the movement for obtaining a Saturday half-holiday in
connection with the wholesale drapery trade was held at
the Guildhall Hotel, on Tuesday evening last. Mr. S.
Westbrook occupied the chair, and, after making a few
introductory remarks, called upon Mr. Lilwall, one of
the honorary secretaries, to read the report, st•f ch stated
that the efforts of the committee had already been
crowned with much success, a portion of the houses now
closing at one ; others (and amongst those some of the
most extensive in the City) at two ; and very few esta-
blishments of any account being kept open later than
three o'clock. The report went on to state that the
committee had been encouraged by the geaeral and
marked courtesy with which they had been treated by
the firms, and that they had no doubt but that all the
young men desired would ere long be achieved. A gen-
tleman, representing one of the leading houses, stated
that their customers had, in numerous cases, expressed
themselves as cordially approving the movement, and
that he had. not heard of one solitary instance of am
opposite character. A resolution was unanimously_
passed, expressive of regret that a large majority of
the persons now liberated at an early hour on Saturdayn
are virtually excluded on that day from the Cseryonl
Palace, by the charge of admission being ss.
reA-5_20 of
resolution was also unanimously passed exP
3,5"
an were
the opinion that the directors of the comp
wishes of
anxious, in their arrangements, to mtrntne
EsenAftS IC
ItethaLteEotri m e
when it opened thtN
part of the week ,-- memorial, em
-
the hi
aveye
st,owould people,another
readilythat
fallthigherhin w i
thc, laa.
ns s.e,aisid,t,
bodyinr, the feeling of the me t s
d eared forwarded to the
shouldbbe immediately refr"Tks haying been passed to
rSh V° 1 ni
5t
h°2 5 ;-
the resolution was to the e
the hon. secretaries and the
Lri
inceu. etPe
na( ceiati e.ciGW
IC.tusLeciirielutenant-General Sel-
directors. After votes of_ ti
chairman,A p efr
u 3 tNi the
E'Dno.iiat meeting
)
separated. ~.
naptohnirdthcalaupsoeinotr:
e gfrollowing officers of high rank
sian army has had the general action the Rum-
put hors de coin a
iwosuenhdneddera,t, Smiloisrtiarliai;
o u Rt
havinguB s I A
N
blltirsiatria discomfitureto.itsff,eetthat at Giurgevo.
foughtG anyh
tfaotrSeSdiliAria ; Lieutenant-General Dreschern,
at Roman ; Lieutenant-General Chruleff,.
ed at Giurgevo (dead) ; Lieutenant-Gene-
ralMarshal
wounded
Anrep-Eimpt, shot himself at Bucharest ; Lieu-
tenant-General Bebutoff, wounded at Giurgevo ; Major-
General Ponoff, wounded at Silistria ; Major-General
Stolpakoff, killed at Silistria ; liajor-General Meyer,
killed at Silistria ; Major-General ,Buterlin, wounded
near Fraeschi,, The name of Lieut.-General Ludera
is not included in the above, although reports of his hay•
ing been severely wounded, and since dead, have been
repeatedly circulated, and are again renewed.
..„
AN . ANTI. SLA.VERT CONFERENCE is to take plow 3"
Maacheste: next Tuesday.