The Sun.
London, England, 1858-11-15 00:00:00

LITEI?ATURE.

The Edinburgh _Review. No. CCXX.

An extremely elaborate paper occasionally
prosy, but more frequently sparkling and anecdo-
tal—leads off the Whig Quarterly just pub-
lished with a consecutive history of the " Granville,
Portland, and Percival Administrations." It is in
continuation of the article given in a previous num-
ber at the turn of the winter 1857-1858—in refer-
ence to the Ministerial changes between the resig-
nation in 1801, and the death in 1806, of the
" Heaven-born Minister"—Mr. Pitt. The present
contribution to our administrative annals termi-
nates, of course, at the murder of Spencer Percival,
on the 11th of May, 1812, by the ruffian Belling-
ham—an event immediately followed by the erec-
tion of a commemorative monument to the dead
Premier in Westminster Abbey, by the award of an
annuity of £l,OOO to his eldest son, of another an-
nuity of £2,000 to his widow, and by a sum of no
less than £50,000 to be distributed among his child-
ren. Remembering that some of the greatest re-
forms effected of late years have been secured not
only under, but. by Tory Administrations, it is ra-
ther amusing to notice the supercilious phrase we
have italicised in the closing sentence of this paper,
here subjoined :

"In the meantime, the Whigs, led by Lord Grey in the
Lords and by Mr. Brougham in the Commons, had during
these administrations been the steady advocates of sound,
enlightened, and liberal principles, with respect to retrench-
ment of expenditure, taxation, currency, education of the
poor, colonial slavery, religious toleration, mitigation of
punishments, amendment of the law, and parliamentary re-
form ; and, on their accession to office in 1830, they com-
menced a series of practical measures which have been
continued to the !present day; which the interposition of
Conservative Ministries has not been able to interrupt; and
which, on the whole, have been crowned with greater suc-
cess than even their authors had ventured to anticipate."

The measures of reform " not interrupted " by
Conservative Ministries, including among them the
repealof the Test and Corporation Acts, the passing
of the Act of Catholic Emancipation, the gradual
,reform of the tariff, and the final repeal of the
Corn Laws—all these being, in fact, the achieve-
ments, not of Whig, but of Tory Governments. The
next article—being a treatise upon Criminal Pro-
cedure in Scotland and England—revives to recol-
lection the extraordinary trial in the July of 1857
of Madeleine Hamilton Smith, accused of having
murdered by poison Pierre Emile l'Angelier. The
review of " Birch's History of Ancient Pottery"
opens with these curiously suggestive observations :
" There are few things which we are less accustomed to
associate the idea of permanence and indestructibility than
with any kind of earthenware. Crockery seems made to
be broken. The earthern jar in the fable is the very type
of fragility; and we have all had painful experience how
rapidly theplates of our best dessert service and our prettiest
tea-cups disappear; how surely, even the most careful
housemaid will, on some unlucky day, find her mistress's
favourite china ' come in two in her hand.' And yet, de-
spite of housemaids—whom we take to have been of much
the same slay in all ages—there is scarcely any record of
past civilisation so permanent, hardly any sign of the habi-
tation of ancient races so indelible, as the remains of their
pottery. The explanation is simple. It is indeed easily
broken, but not easily destroyed. The fragments remain,
because no one cares to gather them up. They are thrown
aside as worthless ; they cannot be melted down like gold or
silver, or burnt into lime like marble; they do not oxidize
or decay under the influence either of the atmosphere or the
earth ; and there they lie, neglected and forgotten by succes-
sive generations till they attract the eye of the antiquarian
in some distant age. All visitors to Rome will remember
that a considerable hill—the Monte Testaccio—is composed
of nothing but broken earthenware ; and the site of ancient
Alexandria is covered to a great depth with the accumu-
lated fragments of pottery of all ages, from the foundation of
the city downwards. In this country there is hardly a spot
once occupied by the Romans, which has not yielded with
more or less abundance the red Samian ware, characteristic
of that people ; while the much more ancient sites of cities
in Italy—cities that had perished long before the Romans
rose into power, and of which there does not now remain one
stone upwi another—are still identified by broken pottery,
the infallible indicator of bygone civilisation."

"'Binocular Vision" is the theme and title of a
charming scientific chapter, proving beyond the
shadow of the shade of a doubt the validity of Pro-
fessor Wheatstone's claim to be regarded as the in-
ventor of that exquisite little optical contrivance
known as the stereoscope. The following is the
emphatic close of the reviewer's argument

"Sir David Brewster has claimed for himself to be the
first to apply photography to the stereoscope, for the pur-
pose of obtaining accurate binocular representations of liv-
ing persons, sculpture, architecture, and landscape scenery.
It had never been proposed,' he affirms, 'to apply the re-
flecting stereoscope to portraiture or sculpture, or, indeed,
to any useful purpose.' But we have before us ample evi-
dence that Professor 'Wheatstone had made all these appli-
cations long before Sir D. Brewster's invention of the lenti-
cular form of the stereoscope ; and photographic pictures
adapted to the reflecting stereoscope were sold, to our own
certain knowledge, by London opticians, as far back as the
year 1845. Not merely, therefore, as having originated the
idea on which every form of the stereoscope is based, but as
having carried out that idea in the construction both of the
reflecting and refracting forms of the instrument, as having
developed all its most important applications, and as having
furnished a theory of its operation which, if not entirely
complete and satisfactory, is based, we are satisfied, on the
only sure foundation—the full recognition of the share which
the mind has in the interpretation of visual sensations,—we
have not the slightest hesitation in affirming that Professor
Wheatstone is entitled to all the honours which the scien-
tific world can award to the discoverer of a new principle in
philosophy, and to the gratitude of the general pubhc for
the large addition which has be/in made by his ingenuity to
its sources of enjoyment."
, " The Earls of Kildare" are celebrated by another
critic in a courtly essay upon the history of the
Geraldines. " Mr. Gladstone's Homeric Studies "
, are then weighed in the critical balance by a ripe
scholar, who admires and appreciates with admir-
able discrimination the learned labours of the
ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer, now on his way to
the lonian islands as Lord High Commissioner
Extraordinary. A butterfly is next broken upon
the wheel in a brief review by the Edinburgh of
the ephemeral story of " Guy Livingstone." " The
Slave Trade in 1858," and a note in answer to Mr.-
Froude's reply to a former review' of his History,
complete the current number of the Edinburgh.

3fackenzie's Book-keeping for Solicitors. Bvo. pp

156. Law Times Office.

An admirably concise and easy system ofbook-
keeping for solicitors and others is here presented
in the form of a compact volume, penned by one
who can write with great lucidity and draw upon
a large experience. Mr. Mackenzie, the author of
this useful and reliable work—a work destined, we
believe, to be henceforth accepted in his profession
as an authority—is a solicitor himself, and has en-
joyed the advantage of superintending the employ-
ment of this familiar system of his own during the
better part of half-a century in the offices of some
of the most respectable firms in our metropolis.
Prefixed to the explanation which forms the pith
and marrow of the work are some extremely accep-
table observations upon single and double entry,
and upon the general principles of book-keeping,
together with a few remarks upon the history of
accounts and book-keeping, besides an explanatory
introduction. Appended to the whole is an exposi-
tion of commercial and monetary terms, in which
O. meaning of every word in general use in the
commercial world is elucidated—sometimes, cer-
tainly, it appears to us, rather superfluously, as in
the instance of cash, coin, balance, &c.---though, at
others, very graphically, as in the case of invoice,
freight, demurrage, &c. Supplemented to these are
other pages containing observations on accounts,
remarks on the subject of interest, &c., and a variety
of useful arithmetical and tabular memoranda.
Altogether this little volume is one which may
well claim a place upon one of the handier book-
shelves in the offices of both our merchants and
solicitors.

Agricultural Chemistry; By Alfred Sibson. Rou:

ledge-.

This work gives a familiar explanation of the
chemical principles involved in the operations of
the farm. It is written by Mr. Sibson, the first
assistant in the laboratory of the Royal Agricul-
tural College, Cirencester, and has a preface by Dr.
Augustus Vordcker, Professor of Chemistry, which
highly commends the treatise. It will interest the
scientific student as well as the practical farmer,
and will be found both interesting and useful to a
large class of readers.

The Law of Wills Executors, and Administrators.
By W. Holdsworth, Esq., Barrister-at-law.
Routledge.
The Useful Library.of Mr. Routledge has just
included a particularly useful volume. Many per-
sons may wish to make a will or have occasion to
prove one, and have to fill the office of executor,
without caring for the expense of legal advice.
This little volume gives them a barrister's directions
for one shilling, certainly an unusually moderate
charge, and it is written in a plain and practical
style. At the end a collection of legal forms of
wills, codicils, directions, and declarations are
added, which will be of much practical value. The
work is both cheap and comprehensible, two quali-
ties not often found in legal matters.

Nature and Human Nature. By the Author of
" Sam Slick." 1 Vol. Hurst and Blackett.

This new edition of " Sam Slick's" popular work
will be an acquisition to the lovers of fun and
humour. Mr. Justice Haliburton's writings are so
well known to the English public that no commen-
dation is needed. The volume before us has another
recommendation in the fact that it is the first
volume of a new series to be issued by Messrs.
Hurst and Blackett, which is intended to form a
standard library of cheap editions of popular mo-
dern works. Each work will be comprised in a
single volume, price five shillings. The one before
us is very handsomely bound, illustrated by Lecei,
'and the paper and type. are excellent. It is in
every way suited for a library edition, and as the
names of Messrs. Hurst and Blackett warrant the