The Sun.
London, England, 1861-07-11 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, JULY 11, 1861.

THE SUN.

LONDON, THURSDAY, JULY 11, 1881.

The East Indian Council—through the medium
of the bill now passing through the Legislature—is
to be abolished. Another Legislative Council is,
therefore, of course, to be established in its place.
Already this measure—having been originally in-
troduced in the House of Commons—has passed
through the House of Commons almost without
any modification. It has thence proceeded to the
House of Lords, and on Tuesday evening it was there
read a second time. Not, however, until after it had
been made the theme of an animated discussion, in
which the Earl DE GREY and RIPON, the Earl of
ELLENBOROUGII, the Duke of ARGYLL, Lord
LYVEDEN, the Earl of DERBY, and in the end also
(in a very few words) the Earl of GRANVILLE took
part. The subject matter thus brought under de-
bate was, without doubt, one of the most supreme
importance. It affects, in point of fact, the
rights and liberties of from one hundred and
fifty to two hundred millions of our fel-
low-subjects Asiatics for the most part,
whether Hindoos or Mahommedans, but still, how-
ever alien to us in religious belief or in social
habitudes, in our double capacity as Europeans and
as Christians, our fellow-subjects as we have said,
and—our fellow-creatures.

The necessity for the abolition of the old East
Indian Council as it has hitherto existed for years and
years past at Calcutta was matter of notoriety. Every
one who could look upon it dispassionately, every
one who stood without the magic circle of that
Council, recognised quite plainly the urgency of the
necessity for its abolition. It was worse than use-
less—it was at times, and not at unfrequent times,
glaringly and painfully prejudicial in its in-
fluence upon the working of the complicated
machinery of our Indian Administration
It was the grand political skid at Calcutta ; but it
Was worse than that, for the drag if employed
exclusively as a drag at a moment of great
emergency is not simply an advantage, but one the
value of which at rare intervals is absolutely in-
calculable. The Old Indian Council at Cal-
cutta, too, often proved itself to be a dead
weight, the application of the vie inertia inherent
in which but too frequently resulted in a dead lock,
and this moreover at crises the most inopportune.
Now that John Company has given 'way to JOHN
BULL, now that India is itself but another integral
portion of the stupendous empire owning allegiance
to the sceptre of VICTORIA—the need that had
long ago been recognized, that great need there
was of ridding Hindostan of the intolerable burden
of this vexatious and irritating little Parliament
hitherto maintained under the name of the Legis-
lative Council at Calcutta, became not more clearly
visible than ever—it become absolutely impe-
rative. Hence, the bill for its abolition
introduced this session to the Imperial Legislature
at Westminister by her MAJESTY'S Govern-
ment the Bill already passed glibly through
the House of Commons—the Bill read a second
time in the House of Lords on Tuesday evening.
That old Council is therefore—we have at least
the satisfaction of making sure of this—doomed.
It may be already looked upon as a " gone coon."
The only anxiety yet left us in regard to the measure
insuring to us its immediate destruction being as
to the origin and organisation, the character and
the responsibility of the new Legislative Council
that is to replace it. As the Bill stands
at present the•outline of the proposed substitute
can be regarded as, all things considered, anything
but satisfactory. To " fill-up" judiciously and
wisely the scanty and far from symmetrical
"the there (in that Bill of Sir CIIAPLES
Woob) clumsily sketched•in by the seem-
ingly Prentice-hand of the Indian Secretary of
State, we have 0,4 now, as it happens, to look to the
legislative wisdom and the patriotic exertion of the
House of Lords ! The llouse of Commons having
washed its hands of the difficulty by its precipitate
eomplaisancy in sending the Bill as originally drawn
up with all its manifold offences on its head
unmitigated, almost untouched, to the Upper House
of Parliament ! England can hardly rest satisfied
in this matter, with witnessing the effectual
com-
pletion of the present determination, as some face-
tiouely phrase it, to abolish SirBARNES PEACOCIt--to

sweep out of existence, as-- the bill clearly
undertakes to do, the old obnoxious Council at
Calcutta. We all want to see a proper substitute
ready upon the instant to be erected there is its
place, directly Calcutta knows the old bugbear no
more. That substitute, the Bill as it now stands,
can hardly be said to provide for the future wel-
fare of Hindustan, of a dominion peopled by from
160,000,000 to 200,000,000 Hindoos and Maho-
metans, with a sprinkling of the dominant
race of the übiquitous Englishman. It is not yet
of course by any means too late to have the bill
amended through the wise and patriotic interposi-
tion of the House of Lords, before the measure shall
have been definitively transformed into an Act of
Parliament. There was surely something worthy
at least of consideration in these remarks of
Lord ELLENROROUGH on Tuesday evening : when
the noble earl observed that he was " desirous of
seeing the Governor-General in his Council sur-
rounded by some of the leading rajahs, the Nazim,
and some of the greater zemindars—the representa-
tives, in fact, of the higher classes of the country."
The noble lord adding, " This would be in accord-
ance with the wishes of the native princes, and that
it was only by consulting their feelings, and it might
be their prejudices, that it was possible to retain
power in India." Instead of attempting to do any-
thing of all which the bill now before Parliament
proposes to surround the Viceroy of England with
a Council, the constitution of which cannot but be
calculated to outrage all those native wishes, native
feelings, and native prejudices. Happily it is not yet
too late : and the House of Lords may so contrive
to modify this IEII before it leaves Committee that
it may care rather less for the convenience of the
Viceroy and rather more for the feelings and
opinions of the Indian subjects of the Crown.

What vitality there is in a bold lie. Although
again and again contradicted, the assertion was
reiterated last night that those who desire the
abolition of Church-rates want to deprive Church-
men of the power of rating themselves. In varied
forms of expression this monstrous fiction was
rehearsed by different members.

What a pure invention it is the slightest consi-
deration shows—for Dissenters cannot prevent
Churchmen from rating themselves. Let Church-
rates as they now stand be utterly abolished—and
then what, we ask, is to prevent the Churchmen of
any parish from agreeing to a rate on themselves ?
They may say—yes, but we want compul-
sory powers to enforce it when made. We
reply, you can have them if you please, even when
the legal rate is abolished. It is perfectly compe-
tent to a thousand Churchmen in any parish to
render themselves legally liable for what is now
paid for by a church-rate, so that the proportion
of each person, if refused, could be afterwards re-
covered in the very court selected last night by
Mr. HUBBARD—the county court. A simple con-
tract of agreement might place all the signatories
to it in this position for as long as they pleased.
What Abolitionists object to is that the onus of
objecting should be thrown on the objectors.
Why should the whole parish be
assumed to be liable for the worship, they say, of
one of its sects. You call it,
.by an old unreal fic-
tion, the .National Church, and assimilate its claims
to the national highways ; but along the latter we
may walk, ride, or drive in what vehicle we please.
These churches you confine to the use of the Epis-
copal sect and its worshippers, which are but half
the people. If you allowed the churches, as they
are in some of our own colonies, to be used in turn
by all sects in the pariah, if we might select our
mode of worship in them as freely as we do
our vehicles for the highways, then you might as
fairly ask to make a parish vote for their mainte-
nance. Who ever heard of refusal to pay a sur-
veyor's rate ? If, however, only four-wheeled car-
riages were permitted to be used on them, depend
on it the gig-drivers would soon get up an agitation
that would not be easily put down.
There are two fatal evils of the exempting system
—one that it assumes a high a priori right to tax
the whole community for one creed, which the
other creeds cannot concede. There is nothing in
the combined fraud and violence by which the
HENRYS and CIIARLESES established the Church,
which can morally justify such a pretension. With
the service for CHARLES the Martyr of blessed
memory, all such pretensions should have passed
away for ever. The physical force by which
ecclesiastical matters were settled then, is repu-
diated by all now—Church Rates are but a relic of
all this, and they ought to vanish before the light
of juster views and sentiments. The other vice of
exemption is that in many towns it will, for no
earthly reason, create an infinitude of trouble.
Take towns like Manchester and Birmingham
where rates have been abolished for years—the
minority only is in favour of a rate ; yet that
insignificant minority would be able to lay a rate
under many of these exemption bills, and the huge
majority must all be at the trouble of sending in
notice of claiming exemption, if they are to escape
the rate! The just and always urged objections of
" ticketing Dissenters," merely to give the Church
the prestige of rating the whole land, is, of course,
one never to be got over. Churchmen feel it as
well as Dissenters. If compromise is to be accepted,
we have seen no one which abolitionists can accept
but that of simply abolishing the power to compel
payment of Church-rates, leaving the present ar-
rangements for making and levying one as they
are. The plan is one which has proved very suc-
cessful where it has been tried already, and no
doubethiutrh.
woulde collect a larger sum than ever for
the

Thoroughly as
BULL under the pwerese
seyumtiepeathteisewwhiiethh Mherh.
aTs
subjected, we übßeNen-
yet must say, now the trial is over,
that we accept the verdict as a right one. We
have again carefully perused all
the documents, and
we must acknowledge that lookingat them, and
including the deputation to Lord
PALMERSTON
among the persecutions, we cannot think the case
was one for an action at law. We always thought
Mr. TURNBULL wrong in resigning. We appre-
ciate fully his highly honourable motives for doing
so, but reasons equally honourable, and far
more cogent, we think, required that he should re-
main at his post. If the Duke of WELLINGTON
had resigned when his plans were misunderstood
and his character attacked during the Peninsular
War, he would have failed in his duty to a great
cause, and have made the ignorant and prejudiced
the arbiters of his course. This is what Mr. TURN-
BULL has done. He was in the position to main-
tain the honour and integrity of literary men. It
was his to dare their traducers to the proof. He
had to defend them from the calumnious imputa-
tion that they were capable of literary dishonesty
when responsible to the public, as their master, for
strict and impartial accuracy. Nothing should
have " driven him to resign," though it might
have been more painful to retain than to desert
his post. Had we been in Lord ALMERSTON'S
position we should, as at present advised, have re-
instated him ; but, in justice to his lordship, we
must own that it was a totally different thing not
to reinstate a man who had thrown up his post, and
to turn the man out of it. Mr. TURNBULL placed

Lord PALMERSTON in the position that he must
now affront a large and powerful body to remedy
the wrong a man had hastily done himself. It
might have been noble in Lord PALMERSTON to So
it ; but it could hardly be required of him as a
politician. Had it rested with the Premier as
simply the genial large-minded proprietor of
Broadlands, he would, we are persuaded, have
restored Mr. TURNBULL.
But the question is, was this a case for civil
damages ? and the more we examine it we think it
was not. Mr. BIRD and those whom he repre-
sented acted, we believe, honestly under a panic of
bigotry. There is not in all the charges, which we
think so narrow-minded and unworthy, a trace of
personal malice. There is the odium theologtcunz, of
course, in abundance, but there is no appearance of
malicious libelling. Bigotry, as it so commonly
does, attributed the possibility and probability of
unworthy moral conduct to the creed it hated. It
was Romanism, not Mr. TURNBULL, which was
sincerely regarded as quite capable of literary bad
faith. Whatever libel there was, was really
directed against the opinions rather than against
the man. The appeal was to his published books,
and to his avowed opinions. These it was con-
tended showed him to be a man with a strong
bias ; and a bias to Romanism, the persecutors
held, in accordance with a very current notion,
might lead to any amount of falsification, even to
perjury, " for the glory of GOD and for the good of
the Church."

But all this was simply matter of opinion ; and
up to the time of the trial had been before the only
bar at which opinions should be judged. The opi-
nions of Mr. BIRD and his comrades had been con-
demned by every man whom Mr. TURNBULL cared
about. The damage of less of employment in a post
in which, he tells us, his expenses equalled his re-
ceipts, was a damage caused directly by his own act,
for Lord PALMERSTON would not have displaced
him. And more than this, he was attacked only at a
servant of the public, and on public grounds. On
every account, therefore, we are sorry Mr. TURN-
BULL condescended to take such a cause into such
a court. He obtained, indeed, the highest testi-
mony for his ability in his special department, and
for his general character, even from opponents, but
that is a poor compensation for dragging such a
case before the wrong tribunal.
But while we thus write, let us not for a moment
be supposed to sympathise with at all, much less
to justify, the Protestant Alliance. We blush for
such Protestantism. The Alliance itself cannot be
more hostile, as a matter of opinion, than we are,
to all that distinguishes Popery from other forms of
Christianity. It is wholly alien from all our habits
of thought—not more so, however, than persecu-
tion of Popery. The Alliance will reply that theirs
was not persecution. No, it was not in the style of
Queens MARY and ELIZABETH, who to our minds
were pretty much alike on this point. Mr. TURN-
BULL could not conveniently be hanged, or oven
lynched. But the habit of mind which sees immo-
ralities and crimes unfitting for equal citizenship
in the peculiarities of another creed, is just the
one which has made all the martyrdoms
in the world. Happily for us all, special beliefs
have little connection with morality. Least of all
can the code of morals deduceable from them be
decided by hostile polemics—and still less can per-
sonal moralty be ascertained by the creed to which
a man is born. What we regret is that educated
English clergymen and gentlemen should join the
vulgar multitude in acting on the other supposition.
Be the cause what it may, every man takes his
practical code of moralty and honour from the
country in which he lives, and the circle in which
be moves. And to believe and act on the other
supposition is the very essence of bigotry and per-
secution. In what is vulgarly viewed as Popery
the Protestant Alliance are as Popish as Papists.

LLOYD'S AMERICAN RAILROAD

WEEKLY.

We advise such of our readers as have not yet
seen this remarkable American Weekly to obtain
at least the number for the 15th of last month as a
specimen. That number commences a gazetteer de-
scription of all the remarkable places, towns, states,
rivers, &c., which have any relation to the present
unhappy war there. But the distinguishing feature
of this " weekly" is its map. It is not one of such
sketches as newspapers are frequently obliged to
be content with, but one whole side of a sheet which
opens more than three feet by four, is oocupied by
a large brightly coloured map of all the United
States, so far as raiways extend,—that is from the
lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, and from Pennsylvania
on the Atlantic to Missouri, west of the Mississippi.
It is on the easily measured scale of 30 miles to the
inch. It contains all the railroads, with time-
tables corrected up to every week. The stations
are marked on the map. The information seems
to be very full and complete, and the map is on
such a bold scale that any emigrant or traveller to
America will find with perfect ease the route to
any plaee he desires to reach in this vast territory.
During the war it will be, we presume, the cheapest
and by far the most intelligible guide to the opera-
tions on both sides, so far as they depend on that
new and supremely important element in military
movements—the railways. We cordially recom-
mend it to the notice of our readers.

A Cabinet Council was held yesterday at the
official residence of the First Lord of the Treasury in
Downing street. The Ministers present were Viscount
Palmerston, the Lord Chancellor, Earl Granville, the Duke
of Argyll, Sir G. Cornewall Lewis, Lord John Russell, the
Duke of Newcastle, Sir Charles Wood, the Chancellor of
the Exchequer, the Duke of Somerset, the Right Hon. T.
M. Gibson, Sir George Grey, Lord Stanley of Alderley,
the Right Hon. C. P. Villiers, and the Right Hon. E.
Cardwell.

STORM'S BREECH-LOADING RIFLE.—Among the
many improvements made in firearms of the present day,
one of the simplest breech-loaders we have met with is the
invention of an American. It is at present under the con-
sideration of the authorities. We have examined an Enfield
rite which has been altered from a muzzle-loader to Mr.
Storm's breech .loading patent. The result of experiments
made at Wimbledon with this and the muzzle-loader at 150
yards are as follows :—Muzzle-loader, 20 shots, 23 points;
time, 13 minutes 47 seconds. Breech-loader, 20 shots, 28
points • time 4 minutes 51 seconds. These results speak
for themselves.
IST MIDDLESEX ENGINEER VOLUNTEERS.—
PRESENTATION.—On Friday, the sth inst., the 6th Com-
pany (Wandsworth) of the above corps assembled at their
drill-ground, for the purpose of presenting a valuable tes-
timonial to their Sergeant-major, Welham Garwood. Re-
presentatives of other companies attended to do honour to a
man who seems be universally respected throughout the
corps. After the members had gone through a few evolu-
tions they formed three sides of a square, and Capt. Peirce,
slight
acknowledgment
advancing to the centre, said—" Gentlemen of the 6th
which is to
Company,—A very pleasing duty devolves on me this
evening,
present
oft to
sSergeant-major
r dr, ill Gar-
wood a-
ructor, and though he has already been presented with
one subscribed forby the general body of the corps at head-
quarters, (the beautiful sword he now wears by his side)' I
am sure he will equally appreciate the feelings of our
single company in so unanimously joining together
to give
him a mark of their respect and admiration. I considered
from the first that we ought to congratulate ourselves on
being so fortunate as to get such a man to teach us sol-
diering, and I am happy to find that my expectations have
been more than realised by the progress we have made in
the very short time we have been under his tuition, and
I feel that as every man of my company is actuated boy
a desire to become thoroughly acquainted with all there is
to learn, it will probably become the crack company of one
of the finest of the metropolitan corps, for I believe the Ist
Middlesex Engineers roust eventually rank with the oldest
and best. It is needless for me to make a long speech on
this occasion, and I will conclude by expressing a desire
that we may continuo to work together as we have done
under the same able guidance. Sergeant,-Major Garwood
thanked the company in a short speech expressive of his
determination to leave nothing undone to merit a Continu-
ance of their good opinion ; and after cheers for Captain
Peirce, Sergeant-Major Garwood, and the represented cora-
-1 •
pames, the affair terminated with a march to Putney.

r 5, Nil •NI

PARIS, SULY 11.

The Moniteur of to-day contains a decree, nomi-
nating the Marquis de Lavalette Grand Cross of the
Legion of Honour.

VIENNA, JULY 10.

The following is the textual reply given by the
Emperor to the presidents of the two houses of the
Hungarian Diet on the presentation of the
address

" I have observed with satisfaction the dutiful
readiness with which the Estates and the represen-
tatives of Hungary have met the desire I lately
expressed.

"Entertaining the hope that the Estates and the
representatiyes of the country will receive in the
same spirit the reply which I am about to give to
the address of the Diet solely in the interest of the
country and for the general good of my people, I
will give this, my reply, as soon as possible."

MADRID, JULY 10 (Evening).

A Ministerial circular has been addressed to the
Governors of the Provinces, recommending severe
measures for the maintenance of public order.

THE HOMEWARD BOMBAY AND MAURI-
TIUS MAILS.

The Delta, with the 'above mails, passed Guia,
Lisbon, at 8 a.m., yesterday, 10th inst., and may
be expected at Southampton on Saturday evening.
THE OUTWARD CALCUTTA AND CHINA
MAILS.

The Ce 3 lon, from Southampton, on the 4th inst.,
reached Gibraltar yesterday morning, having expe-
rienced rough weather. She was to continue her
voyage to Alexandria at noon.

LITERATURE.

Under the Spell, By the Author of " Grand-
mother's Money," " Wildflower," Sze. 3 vols.
Hurst and Blackett.
This is a very exciting story, that is most event-
ful, and that cannot fail to attract the interest of
all who peruse it. It is not often that we meet
with so striking a tale as the s one that is here
chronicled. The characters are remarkably well
sketched, and in particular may be mentioned Mr.
Lanceford, This man is an exact impersonation of
those who sacrifice every one and every thing to
the gratification of their own selfish desires, and
after all reap the bitter results of mortification.
The story opens at a critical juncture when Mr.
Lanceford's second wife meets him at a lawyer's to
arrange about a separation. The parting is effected,
and she returns to live with her brother, while he
departs to the solitude of his splendid mansion.
He has three sons, who are very distinct in their
dispositions. Willie, the youngest, the only child
of the second marriage, is the hero of these pages.
Nathan and Edmund are the others. Each was
most strange and self willed. The incidents are
very numerous that are told of their
earlier years, and we trace the selfishness
and love of pleasure in Edmund that had
ruined his father from his youth upwards. In
Nathan there was great ability, he was the genius
of the family; but he was of a strange disposition,
and never ingratiated himself with any one.
Willie the hero was a very superior character ; he
was early trained in the school of self-command,
and the many differences that existed in his family
only nerved him to fresh exertion, and induced him
to make more effort to ameliorate the lot of those
around him. It was through his agency and in-
strumentality that there was any reinstatement of
affairs in the distracted household of the " Limes."
Ho was always the same, kind and thoughtful for
others, and he gained his reward in the blessings
he conferred on many. The description of Ed-
mund's first love affair is very strikingly told, and
some of its passages are ludicrous, while others are
of a grave import. The scene in the church is most
life-like, and displays the skill of representation
that makes things appear before us as if they
actually occurred. Mr. Lanceford was a very
peculiar man, he was just the sort to irritate excit-
able youths with his coldness and indifference. He
behaved in a cruel manner to Edmund, and the
subsequent evil courses to which the youth resorted,
were entirely the fault of his father. The episode
of Gurnett and Prudence is a melancholy one, but
amid the sadness, there is much to interest in their
fixed idea of rectitude. It was mournful to think
that their dream could not be realised of taking
refuge in some retired place, and trying to forget
their late troubles. The effort was vain and at the
very time when they expected to enjoy a temporary
calm, they encountered the being who had brought
the great misery of their, lives upon them. Mr.
Gurnett's sister had left her home and infant
daughter, and since then Abel Gurnett had adopted
the orphan Prudence. By a strange chance Pru-
dence met with this lady, and Mr. Gurnett insisted
on seeing her. To his horror he discovered that the
man for whom she had left her home was his em-
ployer, Mr. Lanceford of the Limes. He never
recovered the shock, although he lived for many
years afterwards. By that strange infatuation which
often possesses people Mr. Lanceford thought he was
atoning for the evil he had occasioned to the family
by employing the services of Mr. Gurn ett for his sons.
Thwarted by his father in his first choice, Edmund
had grown restlqs, and when the neighbours com-
mented on his attentions to Kitty Dornton, the
pretty daughter of the coachman at the lodge; he
in a fit of anger, and to show his spite against his
father, proposed to her. Some time elapsed before
he fulfilled the intention, but he did at last, and
the proud master of the Limes had the satisfaction
of knowing that his eldest son had married his
coachman's daughter. Nathan, the second son, in
his way also subverted his father's plans by taking
to the stage. He had early manifested a talent in
that direction, and began by private performances.
The great success which he gained in these affairs
soon led him on further. Willie, the youngest, was
the only one who at all carried out his father's
views. Here, however, there seemed a spell, and
through an accident in a shooting excursion Willie
was the cause of his father's death. At the last
hour, when his shuiiiiing schemes could no longer
avail him, the proud man acknowledged
that he saw a retribution in the blow coming
from the son of her whom he had so cruelly
wronged. Certainly this erring man was a power-
ful warning to those who are addicted to the same
evil ways, for throughout his whole life he found
all vanity and vexation of spirit, and his death was
wretched. The ghosts of long-past crimes seem to
hover round him, his wasted existence was haunt-
ine his mind, while he was cut off in the midst of his
oareer, in the prime of life. I ears naeir he luta de-
clared to Mr. Gurnett that he had settled what
should be the future of his sons. " The lives of my
children are mapped out, Mr. Gurnett, I have al-
ready told you so." "If the map drawn by the Great
Hand had been unrolled at that moment, as he
stood there in his chamber, the true tortuous map
of those children's lives in the time to come, when
his will should be strong, but his hands should be
powerless, he might have knelt and prayed at that
instant,—he who never prayed I—that such a blow
to all his hopes and pride, and fatherly affection
would be mercifully spared him." The last part of
the story is principally concerning Edmund. He
had soon regretted his foolish marriage with an ig-
norant girl, not suited for him in taste and
education. She was too good for him
in her loving heart and trusting nature,
and the very sufferings she underwent tended to
elevate her. Had it not been for the strenuous
efforts of Willie and Nathan grievous would have
been the result of the new fancy of that selfish
and hasty individual, Edmund Lanceford. Un-
fortunately, he discovered that a great actress was
the lady who had been in her girlhood the object
of his early love. The might of that first real
attachment yet lingered in his mind : it had been
trampled on, but not crushed. He had felt indig-
nant at the hurried departure of mother and
daughter through the instigation of his father; but
when he met again the theme of his early dreams
matured into beauty that morn than fulfilled her
early promise of loveliness, and gifted with tran-
scendant talent, it proved too much for one of his
wavering principles and excitable disposition. Miss
Mernott was of a far superior nature to her devoted
adherent, but the dangers thickened round her
path, and had not circumstances occurred which
roused her to a sense of her position, she might
have been entangled in the snares that were so
speciously concealed. The passage which relates
the events at Marwich is most exciting in its inte-
rest ; and in its skill of delineation and power of
blending varying scenes in a connecting link, it at-
tains a result not often witnessed in novels of this
class. We see before us one of the most eventful
phases that can possibly occur in the existence of
human beings ; there are at work all the passions
that excite and influence mankind. The conclu-
sion of the story is more happy than could have
been hoped for, from the many clouds that have
overhung its course. So interesting a narrative it
is rare to find ; and the vividness with which it is
brought before us, the eloquence which pervades
the descriptions throughout, all impart a vitality
to its pages that renders this work a peculiarly
attractive one. It can be taken up in the confi-
dent expectation that it contains abundant sources
of entertainment, while it displays a striking
representation of life, and brings prominently
before us some characters quite out of the common.
"Under the Spell" is the best of the author's pro-
ductions, and evinces more skill in construction and
energy in description than the earlier efforts. It
is to be expected that it will thus gain a larger
share of attention, and attract the admiration of
those who were pleased with its predecessors. They
will find in these volumes all that can conduce to a
brilliant novel, and those who appreciate superior
talents will rejoice to meet with this interesting
sketch. It is certain to take a high place among
novels of its order, as well for its style as its sub-
jects, for the striking scenes that occur in its nar-
rative as much as for the vigorous manner in which
they are described. The life-like delineation of the
characters who figure prominently in its stirring
pages, also contributes to add an additional attrac•
tion to this excellent work.
A Saunter through the West End.

By Leigh