The Sun.
London, England, 1860-02-15 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

he Earl's Cedars. By the Author of " Smugglers
and Foresters," &c. 2 vols. Booth, Regent-
street.
These volumes present a complicated story, which
contains some dark scenes of life. Some of the
persons met with have a very real appearance
about them. Duncan Geddes, the keeper, is an
excellent sketch ; in his strong character and se ere
style we seem to trace some remnants of the old
Covenanters. As is often the case with such men,
sorrow and disappointment hardened him the more,
until he looked upon all around with uncompromis-
ing sternness. There is also something worthy of
notice in the wild recluse, Matthew. It was his
tales of wondrous travels and voyages that first
created the desire for roaming in the mind of
Charles Frankland. As he wandered about the
beach, this strange individual would descant on his
long past days, and tell how, when at the age of his
auditor, he had " crossed the line, and seen the
southern cross dip down beneath the water in
another hemisphere." This was the learning that
Charles prized. " What was the cold teaching of
books, compared to the simple words that came
from lips which had given forth a wild shout, when
at last, after unnumbered perils, the vein of virgin
gold was found ?" As might have been supposed,
after such thoughts in youth, the energetic hero
lost no time in seeking adventures abroad ; but he met
with the most romantic ones at home. Near to bis
father's house was the stately domain of Lord St.
Lo. It was called the " Cedars ' from the magnificent
trees, that were its glory and its pride. The circum-
stances connected with the family to whom the
estate belonged were most peculiar, and the house-
hold of Doctor Frankland was mixed up in their
ffairs. Lady Honoria is wild and fitful in her
moods, but one cannot help sympathising with her
in the many sufferings she underwent in conse-
quence of the persecutions with which she was sur-
rounded. The stepmother was inimical enough to
have belonged to the old tales that abound concern-
ing that class of relations, and for a time indeed
her direful plots seemed to succeed, at last how-
ever, the retribution that so often overtakes the de-
vices of the cunning, and confounds the machina-
tions of the crafty fell upon that deceitful woman.
In spite of all her manoeuvres, she lived to see the
son of one of her step-children inherit the property.
Among the many who flit across the scene, Captain
Fairfax is one of the most pleasing. He is a good
representative of his class and displays many of
those qualities that have long distinguished the
British seaman. The pictures of home-life that ap-
pear in the first volume are pleasant to dwell upon,
and far greater serenity reigned beneath the hum-
ble roof of the country practitioner, than under the
grand dwellings of the Earl of St. Lo. The con-
flicting cireumstances of the latter portion of the
tale are very ingeniously disclosed, and the " Earl's
Cedars" is altogether a very eventful story.

The Comprehensive History of _England; Civil,
Military, Religious, Intellectual, and Social.
Illestrated. tarts Ito 26. Blackie and Sons;
Glasgow, Edinburgh, and London.
The inhabitants of Great Britain may, without
national prejudice, or exaggerated vanity, be per-
mitted to claim for the history of their empire a
degree of interest and importance second to the
annals of no other state or nation, ancient or
modern. Reaching from our own eventful epoch,
when England is foremost in the march of progress
and leading the van of civilisation, back to the
shadowy days of early legend—
" Beloved as fable, yet believed as truth,"
the rcords of our national achievements are inse-
parably interwoven with the rise and progress of
modern Europe. Even before emerging from the
gloom of barbaric ages we can recognise some of
the spirit of our later days. Caractacus and
Boadicea proved themselves no unworthy antago-
nists for the victorious Romans, while few of the
gorgeous Csasars could bear comparison with our
English Alfred. Coming down to the days when
our national existence had assumed a more definite
form, what thrilling episodes we encounter. Every-
where we see the same dauntless spirit, loyal and
self-sacrificing to the death where it embraces
a cause, be it ever so hopeless ; inflexible and
invincible where its freedom is at stake.
We cannot proceed far in the history before we
come to the sturdy barons of Magna Charta while
the Scotch struggling in early ages for their
national existence, and later on for their freedom
of worship, though defying successfully the tyranny
of the English, prove by that very defiance their
kindred spirit. The annals of the Civil War,
grievous as such a calamity must ever be, are not
without their redeeming touches. The chivalrous
devotion of the gallant cavaliersaipholding a failing
cause, the unbending determination of the resolute
Puritans, unflinching in their sense of duty, may
each show, among crowds of time-servers and self-
seekers, brilliant names and noble characters
that do honour to their nation and their age.
The changing scenes of the history bring us down
through many eventful years till we reach the
climax of naval, military, and political glory at the
beginning of our century. Now the giants of those
days have passed away into history, leaving their
humbler successors in less stirring times to reap the
fruition of their labours, and to carry out those
great principles of civil and religious liberty which
the tread of contending armies kept from full de-
velopment, though it could not exterminate the
seed. After a long interval of peace and
domestic improvement Europe seems threatened
with a return of storm and convulsion. We can
hardly hope to escape altogether from the strife
and turmoil around us. It is well then that in
this anticipation, the men of the present should
learn from the errors and achievements of the men
of the past, and study the foundation and develop-
ment of their national greatness. The importance
of a fuil and accurate knowledge of the history of
our country is now becoming universally recog-
nised. It is not a mere rote knowledge of names and
dates and the outlines of a school epitome, or cate-
chism that is required,but a thorough comprehension
of the individual features of each successive epoch, a
familiarity not alone with the names but with the
characters of the great men of the time ; a sense
of what was the nature of the principles contended
for in our social struggles ; a perceptien of how the
opinions and doings of one aye acted upon another,
of what was the extent of the influence exercised
by education and literature and the gradual ad-
vance of the people in political knowledge ; a
right view of the onerous position held by England
among the nations of our day, and of her responsibi-
lity to God and man for her use or abuse of her
opportunities and power. We have much pleasure
in directing the attention of those who wish to
acquire this invaluable knowledge to the work
before us, which is now approaching its com-
pletion. Commencing with the earliest traditions,
it gives a full and comprehensive account of the
history of England, as viewed in its civil, military,
religious, intellectual, and social objects. A work
combining the civil history of a nation which has
wrested its freedom alike from despots 'end demo-
crats ; the military records of the people who have
struggled successively and successfully with the
whole of Europe, the religious annals of the greatest
triumph of the Protestant Reformation, the intel-
lectual achievements of the countrymen of Shakes-
peare, Newton, and Bacon, and the social progress of
a self-governing community may well be called a
comprehensive history. Nevertheless, all these pro-
mises are fully and fairly kept. 'rho various branches
are carried on simultaneously in different chapters ;
the style is clear and copious, enriched by nume-
rous extracts and quotations. The following pas-
sage, taken from the early announcement of the
work will give the best view of its plan and pur-
pos

" The history of a country is not exclusively impressed
upon its battle-fields. These, indeed, are the great land-
milli' that first arrest the eye, and over which the popular
feeling is most delighted to linger. The deliverance of a
land from thraldom, and the heroic deeds through which a
small nation has become a great one, are, indeed, of para-
mount importance, and should therefore be duly commemo-
rated. But the adaptation of a people for these achieve-
ments, although a silent and unobtrusive, has also been a
most essential process; and its record is to be traced, not
upon the heaving surface, but in that under-current of
progress by which the people have been borne forward—by
which they have been taught the full value of national free-
dom, and the best modes of securing it. But hero some one
else than the successful soldier has been at work, and some-
thing else than mere military training. The wise and the
good, who carried on that improvement, and made each
generation better than the preceding, are a country's verit-
able heroes—the progress of that improvement is its real
history.
"But while these are truths so obvious that it seems
almost impossible to overlook them, history, as It has
hitherto been written, has been too exclusively devoted to
military achievements and political movements without
reference to that moral and intellectual progress by which
a
its
country emerges from barbarism into civilisation,
and
in
people become intelligent, happy, and free.
Thisocca-
sions, historical writing has often been felt,pand, °h two defectistories of
attempts have been made to
our own country as they ought to be written The The first of
these was Dr. Henry's well-known
voluminous
un-
finished work ; the other the "Pictorial History
of but
Eng-
land," which was an improve‘mPenicttoonri the plan of Henry.
In the present work an attempt ha
upon both ; and the plan whicht hass been made to improve
been followed for that
purpose we shall now proceed. specify.
In the Comprehensive History of England,whmilielitdaurye
preponderance has been allowed to the civil and
annals, constituting, as
they do, the most distinct and ilia-
portant part of the
story of the People narrative, specia,eloatlte fenotioEnnhgalad, a
has been
given to present a
well as of England itself —of
of the state of religion and the
progress of social refinement, as well as of conquest and
political aggrandisement. Moro particularly, the following
subjects have been grouped together in two sections, and
suitably detailed at each important period or epoch of the
history :—the state of religion—the industrial condition of
the people, and their agricultural and mercantile progress
—the dress, distinctive habits and customs, and the general
aspect of society at each step of transition—the progress of
literature, science, and the fine arts; and notices of those