The Sun.
London, England, 1861-05-22 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Ice Bound. By Walter Thornbury, author of
" British Artists, from Hogarth to Turner,"
" Every Man his Own Trumpeter," &c., &c.
3 vols. Hurst and Blackett

The motto of this book, "Thrilling regions of
thick-ribbed ice," would lead one to suppose that
he was to peruse some striking sketch of adven-
tures in the Polar seas, and to dwell with mingled
horror and interest on the wondrous deeds and
fearful perils that are achieved and encountered by
daring explorers. The contrary is the case, for this
work is divided into stories that take one here,
there, and everywhere with dashing skill and
dexterous rapidity. A few pages acquaint us with
the fact that the good ship's company are ice-bound,
and to divert their minds they beguile the tedium of
the long winter of the North by composing a
variety of tales and sketches, which are here pre-
sented in a collective form. It must be premised
that the horrible and the startling are the prevail-
ing elements in these pages. It would have been
better if the author had not carried this idea to
such very extensive limits, as those who delight in
such a style must be limited in number, and it is
not doing justice to his own considerable powers of
description to dilate exclusively on such topics.
The first story is called " The Madman's Novel,"
and it is most extraordinary. The plan of the
sketch will be best understood from this passage at
the commencement, where the unhappy man indig-
nantly apostrophises the Governor of Bedlam for
his want of comprehension concerning his identity:
—ci He will not believe that I, John Levinson, of
Banner-lane, was once Gehazi, the physician of
the street of the Pomegranate, in the road leading
to the Golden Gate of the City of Zion." Then
follows an eastern extravaganza, leading the reader
to believe that he is conning the real history of the
Wandering Jew, who is to walk the earth till the
crack of doom. "The Corpse House" is a fearful
tale of a man who seems totally devoid of any
human impulse, and who completes his career by
being summarily executed on his own hearth.
" The Sexton's Brother is in no way more pleasing
inasmuch as the villian of this piece contrives to
bury his brother alive, he however extricates him-
self, and the sight of his victim restored to con-
front him shocks the guilty wretch so much
that he expires in a panic and " was buried in the
very resting place that he had prepared for an-
other." " The Money Banks Field" is a legend
that is more likely to be met with in the regions
of romance than the realms of reality. It tells of
a noble Welsh family who were fearfully impo-
verished, and were rescued from their dreadful
straits through the kindly intervention of a statue
on a tomb indicating the spot under the chapel win-
dow where a treasure of great value was hid, this
discovery restored the family of the Penlyns to their
pristine grandeur. The lines that seem to consign
the chivalric heroes to oblivion—

" The knights are dust,
Their good swords are rust,"
were certainly falsified by the chevalier who re-
posed beneath this tablet, and whose marble effigy
was able to work such wonders. It is satisfactory
to turn to the on] y story in these volumes that ends
happily like the immortal fairy tales of the good
old times, where the wicked are frustrated in
their evil designs, and outwitted in their
iniquitous endeavours, while the virtuous flourish,
and are left in wealth, peace, and every possible
happiness. " The Miner's Tale" is a very interest-
ing sketch of the oft-recorded days of the Common-
wealth. The denouement is ingeniously devised,
and turns on the unexpected return of the King.
Most readers will welcome this pleasant diversity
of a story, that has a satisfactory termination,
after so many that inform us that the wicked or
wretched heroes are blanching upon gibbets, or
being prematurely deprived of existence by cruel
enemies, to say nothing of the one who was not
to know the rest of the grave, after the weary
march of life through the lapse of rolling ages.
The scene in the church is very exciting, and re-
minds one in its eventful nature of the passage
in Rokeby, where the crisis occurred in the sacred
edifice, and the deliverance of the persecuted was
effected. " The Little Black Box" is the longest
tale in the book, and occupies a considerable
portion of two volumes. It is called " a Story of
the Shaftesbury Plot," and relates to the forged
certificate of marriage between Charles Stuart and
Lucy Walters, upon which the Duke of Monmouth's
claim to the succession was founded, and which
was contained in a little black box. This box, as
may be supposed, is a matter of fierce contention,
and the Earl of Shaftesbury, the leader of the
fanatic Protestant party, was greatly concerned in
its adventures. The celebrities of that period are
brought in, and an old Tory Squire and his fair
daughter figure prominently in the story ; which
is, however, very disjointed, and although of
considerable length, brings in so many scenes and
characters that it is obliged to dispose of them
somewhat abruptly. Those who are conversant
with Mr. Thornbury's skill in dealing with such
subjects will readily divine the ease with which
Charles and Prince Rupert, Morgan the buccanner,
Churchill and Claverhouse, Arlington and Shaftes-
bury are made to bear their respective parts in the
dialogue. There is really very little plot, as the story
is rather a succession of scenes than a connected nar-
rative. " The Midnight Meeting "is another tale
concerning our own civil wars. It describes
the secret gathering of a band of Cavaliers in Wales
during the days of the struggle, and their surprise
by a force of Cromwell's adherents. The brave
young son of the old Cavalier chief is killed, and
the little party are allowed by their adversaries to
make a sorrowful retreat. " The Monastery of the
Flowery Plain" is another of those stories of crime
and murder to which our author is a little too
partial. It tells us of the villiany of the Prior of
the convent, who mnrdered his superior to further
a secret conspiracy in which he was engaged. For-
tunately for the rest of the fraternity a second
attempt at murder resulted in his detection and
execution. The dialogues are somewhat too long
in many of the stories, and there is a tendency
to prolixity in the descriptions, but there is much
in them to attract attention, as the incidents are
striking, and the stories range over many ages and
countries.

Journal cf the Workhouse Visiting Society.
No. XIII. Longman.

The value.of this society, as a means of assisting
the most pitiable of our destitute classes, is now
becoming generally recognised, and the
more extensively its principles of action
and system of working are known the more
highly will it be estimated. Complaints of the
inefficiency of our Poor-law system are frequent,
and the negligence and indifference of workhouse
officials is occasionally brought before us in news-
paper reports, which tell us how starving paupers
are refused relief or admittance without compliance,
with a long list of preliminary forms. What be-
comes of these hapless creatures when they are
admitted few trouble themselves to inquire. The
extreme of helpless pauperism is naturally, and, to a
certain extent, justly, associated in our minds with
worthless improvidence and reckless dissipation.
The exceptions to this class, the worn-out servants,
broken-down needlewomen, and even governesses,
the numbers smitten with hopeless disease, and
therefore incapacitated from further labour,
are scarcely thought of. The wretched
fate of Lthose dismissed from hospitals as
incurable, and condemned to linger out
months and even years on workhouse pallets, amid
companions they would have shrunk from in days
of health, their sufferings unsoothed by any of the
alleviations of hospital patients, has hitherto been
overlooked by our philanthropists. This deficiency
is now supplied, thanks to the efforts of the Work-
house Visiting Society, whose excellent suggestions
on this subject we commend to the notice of all who
are sensible of the claims of helpless suffering. The
brief paper* on this topic, which was read at the
Social Science Meeting at Glasgow last autumn,
states the case simply and forcibly. We advise
all who seek farther particulars to peruse it,
since in a few graphic pages it shows us a
startling picture, and also suggests, as
many exposers of abuses fail to do,
simple and feasible plans for relief. any other
excellent projects for the reformation of the unruly
and the education and training of the young are also
set on foot by this society. One of the best and
most practical of these is the industrial Home for
Young Women, which has recently been opened in

* "Destitute Incurables in Workhouses." A paper by
Miss Elliot and Miss Cobbe. Niobet & Co., Derners-
street ; price 2d.

New Ormond•street. The elan of this institution is
to receive girls from the ages of 15 to 25, either taken
from or about to enter workhouses, in order to train
them for service at home or in the colonies, by teach-
ing them the duties of household work in the kit-
chen and laundry, as well as needlework. Many
girls come to tho workhouse from loss of situation
or want of a home. Orphans thrown out
of employment have nothing else to look
to, and the result of a sojourn in the
adult wards is too often fatal to their morals and
future prospects. The advantages such a refuge
would offer to this class would be incalculable,
while the benefits of reformatory discipline
would be added for the unruly or ill-disposed. The
instances cited in the report before ns exhibit most
forcibly the want of such an institution. We trust
that the public will help this work of genuine
charity by supplying employment to the inmates
of the Home. All matters connected with work-
houses are discussed in this periodical, the official
reports, &c., being given in full.

Clever Boys of our Time and how they became
Famous Men: Dedicated to Youths and Young
Men anxious to rise in the World. By the
author of " Famous Boys," and "Heroines of our
Time." Third edition. Darton, Holborn Hill.
It is not surprising that this little work should
have attained so great a success since it is admir-
able in idea and excellent in execution. It points
out to those entering in life how others of their
fellow-men have succeeded in gaining a high place
in the social scale. It also illustrates the impor-
tant fact to speculative and dreamy enthusiasts
that eminence is not obtained without effort, and
that the long line of shining names here met with,
witnesses of the power of self-elevation and the
value of perseverance, had to work before they
won. The epitome of their several careers now
recorded may well illustrate the truth of the lines
of the poet—
" The heights by great men reached and kept,
Were not attained by sudden flight;
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upwards in the night."
In the instances here mentioned the glorious morn-
ing of success dawned on their efforts, and all
aspirants for fame, all votaries of renown, should
mark and learn these stirring pages, which are
adorned by names that belong in many cases to
more lasting annals, and that will serve as models
to the youth of many succeeding generations. In
a former notice we alluded to the chief characters
met with, and it will suffice now to say that the
arrangements are the same. A more interesting
present for young persons cannot well be imagined,
and a better incentive to praiseworthy exertions
cannot be given than the example of those, who,
from poverty and obscurity, have emerged to world-
wide celebrity, and are celebrated for the spirit
that led them on to success, no less than for the
genius that has crowned them with glory.

The Comprehensive History of' England ; Civil and
Military, Religious, Intellectual, and Social. By
Charles Macfarlane and the Rev. Thos. Thomp-
son. Parts 36, 37, and 38 conclusion. Mackie
and Son.

This valuable work is at length completed. Part
38 brings the history down to 1860. The informa-
tion contained in these concluding numbers is, of
course, familiar to all. They contain a sketch of the
Caffre war, the Crimean campaign, and the Indian
mutiny. The general state of society ; the advance
that has been made in science and education, both
literary and moral, arc examined and commented
upon, and the history of the empire generally con-
sidered. AS we have from time taken notice of
this work as it advanced, it is unnecessary to reca-
pitulate. The title page speaks for the information
contained. The illustrations are well executed,
and in all respects great care has been taken to ren-
der the work one of standard value.

the *.Autobiography of a Seaman. By the Earl
of Dundonald, G.C.B. Cheap edition. Bentley.
Now that the nation of shopkeepers have given
an unequivocal proof that they are ready to defend
their shops, and the perpetual bugle of the volun-
teers awakens the martial feeling innate in Eng-
lishmen, the reproduction in a cheap edition of
the life, exploits, and sufferings from party hatred,
and Government injustice, of one of our bravest
seamen will be hailed with satisfaction by the many
who, however desirous to read the gallant Coch-
rane's own account of his doings and his feeling at the
oppression of his enemies, have been debarred from
purchasing his autobiography in the large edition.
That difficulty is now removed ; at a small outlay
one of the most interesting sea novels (for there was
novelty in all that Lord Cochrane did) can be pro-
cured, and the reader may say on closing the
volume, " Verily, truth is stranger that fiction."