The Sun.
London, England, 1861-04-08 00:00:00

T_ ^!'

new currency system for India as expensive, in-
convenient, and defective in detail, totally erro-
neous in principle, and ruinous as to its probable
effects.

CT:ammo, we presume, would say—for Armaged-
don. Amy one can see, as the phrase is, with half-
an-eye—for no good, for the inevitable crash that
is certain to come sooner or later. Besides—apart
from the significant fact, of this general and con-
tinucus armament by sea and by land, this reor-
ganisation of military discipline and reconstruction
of maritime forces—there is the glaring fact,
visible to all those who care to glance in its direction,
that the very basis of European Tranquillity (as
last arranged by the agreement of the assembled
Powers of Christendom) has been destroyed. The
Treaty of Vienna, the treaty of 1815, has long since
become nothing more valuable than so much waste
paper. The great principle, unheard of at the
epoch of that treaty, the principle of non -interven-
tion, has been accepted and proclaimed by the
leading States of Christendom. The rights of
nationalities are allowed, and when successfully
vindicated upon the field of battle are recognised.
No further talk now of so-called Holy Alliances
among the despots of the earth—Unholy Alliances,
for the purposes of putting down this and that
nationality and of setting up there, at the pleasure
of the despots, this and that sovereignty. Italy
resolves upon accomplishing her independence
through Unification—and have we not in the past
few months recognised the actual realisation of

An ex-M.P., deprived by the folly of some
constituency of the advantage of publishing
his views by a motion and a speech in the House
of Commons, has resorted to the Imperial method
of a pamphlet.* He thus offers to us the only
possible compromise of the Church-rate question !
He acknowledges that there is something which
looks rather dogmatic in claiming such high
ground for his proposal, yet he is too confident
of its justice to admit anything of arrogance, in
saying to Church/non, my plan, gentlemen, or
abolition is the alternative—choose which you
will have.

To Dissenters the only bribe to compliance is that
the:Church is strong enough, as late divisions prove,
to keep the question open for an indefinite time.
He seems to us, however, to overlook one fact
—the fact that the more belligerent and energetic
Dissenters by no means wish to bring the Church-
rate contest to a close. The Liberation Society
acknowledges that the subject was forced upon
them as a practical one, which they could not
neglect without displeasing their best supporters ;
but that the longer the Church retains so easily
assailable a privilege as that of compelling persons
to pay for its worship and the repairs of its
temples—so long as it enables every Dissenter to
attack it 'annually in every parish vestry—so
much the better for the abolitionists, not of the
Rate only, but of the Establishment itself. Aboli-
tionists might like a victory, as all engaged in
a contest do, but we are confident from what
we have seen in their own writings that the
opponents of State Churches would inwardly
lament their own success. Church obstinacy for
a good grievance is their strength, and the
ex-M.P. will we expect find, that Dr. FOSTER,
Mr. MIALL, and other leaders in the Liberation
Society, will reject his plan and insist on simple
abolition, well-knowing that the latter will not
be soon conceded, and that thus they will retain
their parish battlefield, because the Church retains
her Rate.
But what is his plan ? The very simple one of
leaving the whole machinery for laying a rate
exactly as it now stands, but taking away the
power to enforce it. There is to be no labelling of
Dissenters, no exclusion of them from the parish
vestry, no notice whatever to be taken of, them as
Dissenters, but whoever pleases is to be at liberty
to refuse to pay the rate when the collector calls,
and there is to be no penalty for the refusal !
A Churchman would ask—of what possible use,
then, is the formalityof summoning a parish meet-
ing, and going through all the legal :formalities,
if no one is bound to conform to the decision of the
majority ? But we certainly think that the right
thus to convene the parish, and to continue a
practice which has such a long prescription in its
favour, would be no small advantage to the Church.
It would, and this is what Dissenters would much
dislike, exhibit the Church as the National Church
by the nation, giving to it the power to assemble
the parish or district in which it stood. Though the
State would withdraw compulsory powers in regard
to the rate, it would not withdraw the parochial
position indicated by the right to summon a meet-
ing, nor would it throw off whatever bond Church-
rates may constitute between the national Govern-
ment and the Church.
Then, again, with regard to the amount collected,
we are inclined to think it would be quite as much
as by the present system. Allowance would be
made when the rate was laid for probable refusals ;
the greater part of the Church-going parishioners
would merely wish to know the proportion fairly
belonging to them, and would assuredly pay it
not the less willingly because they could not
be coerced to do it. It would be a point of honour,
when the law did not compel others to pay for
their worship, to: pay for it themselves. If, fre-
quently, straitened means caused any to refuse the
small amount, others better off would more than
make it up. The power of habit, the shame of
being known as defaulters in less worthy men,
but far more generally, the pleasure felt by all men
in doing their fair part towards any common object,
would leave the Church but a slight loser. Indeed
we fully believe that the better temper in the
parish, and the growing liberality of persons not
acting under compulsion, would more than make
up the present total of the rate ; indeed, the only
difficulty would probably be, where a clergyman
well deserved to have all expenses thrown on him-
self and the few who abetted him. When, for
instance, he defied his parishioners by making a
Protestant service as Popish as he could ; or when
his temper got him into quarrels with the parish ;
or when as in the case of Mr. CHEESE, his own
slice of parish good things was large enough for
two, three, or four good clergymen. " Let the
parson pay," would probably be the cry in such
cases—and, so it ought to be.
Our ex-M.P. may justly plead that none of the
plans yet proposed as compromises have ever
united the Church Rate party. The objections to

the day-dream of so many patriots, poets, princi-
palities, generations ? The triumphs achieved
by the Italians, we may rest assured, will—must by
necessity—prove con tageous. Besides the Italians,
there are the Poles. Besides the Poles, there
are the Hungarians. Besides the Hungarians,
there are the Wallachians, the Moldavians, the
, Transylvanians clusters and clusters of na-
tionalties between the Euxine and the Caspian.
The combustibles are lying about on all
hands in profusion—ready, at an instant, to start
into a fury of conflagration. And there are
" signs of the times," even at this moment, so
easy of perusal that " those who run may read"
them—" signs of the times " full of significance.
What is the meaning, let any one ask, of GARI-
BALDI'S visit just no to Turin ? The Hero of
the Neapolitan War of Liberation would never,
at such a juncture, quit his dignified retreat in
the isle of Caprera for a mere idle excursion.
How about that sale of the Farnese Palace at
Rorie ? How about FRANCIS 11., late King of
NAPLES, selling that palace at Rome to his
Imperial Majesty NAPOLEON 111. ? Does that look
very like a preparation on the part of the latter to
withdraw his troops from the Eternal City ? How
about the situation" of affairs just now at
Warsaw? Do those affairs look very pacific ?
And, as to Venetia, we may be certain Austria has
never concentrated an army of 200,000 men there,
to be beaten very easily out of the strongholds of
the Quadrilateral ! Particularly so long as old
BENEDEK can try his hand at emulating the
veteran glory of old RADETZKY ! As to
Hungary—have not some of her bravest sons been
getting their hands " in" again, in the way
of hard fighting, during the last year or two at all
the more seriously contested struggles in the Roman
Peninsula ? Besides, common sense tells us that a
man like KOSSUTH does not remain perfectly
quiescent during ten or twelve years together, and
then go so far as to get his paper currency in readi-
ness—without having good reason to know that he
is at length once more upon the brink of some grand
opportunity. If there is otherwise noticeable at
this moment among the various Powers of Christen-
dom an appearance of calm and imperturbability,
it is but the deadly and ominous lull preceding the
first burst of the hurricane.

Cortes.

The International Exhibition of 1862 is now, as
he majority know, in active preparation. The
site for the new Metropolitan Crystal Palace has
not only been selected, but there, upon that chosen
site, the foundations of the future structure been
marked out, and the building labours
_have been
there already commenced. It is a significant cir-
cumstance, moreover, this time, that the locality
hit upon is no longer a certain portion of one of
our great parks. The Exhibition will be opened
—not in Hyde-park. It will simply overlook the
grassy expanse whither its predecessor, The Ex-
hibition, the wonder of a year, attracted to
itself sightseers from the two hemispheres.
Consequently the next Crystal Palace, the Crystal
Palace for 1862, so soon as the Exhibition in whose
behest it will be re-erected, shall in due course of
time have been brought to a close—the Crystal
Palace of 1862, unlike the Crystal Palace of 1851,
will not have to be destroyed, and " like the base-
less fabric of a vision leave not a wrack behind !"
So far, so good. That the necessity for its removal
will thereby have been dissipated, we may rejoice ;
for it is to all intents and purposes so much money
saved. But then the spot upon which it will
be built is, suspiciously enough, the very spot
upon which H.R.H. wished to gather together
in spite of the nation, in spite of the House of
Commons, the Art Treasures of the United King
dom. The National Gallery was to be bodily
carried off to South Kensington. "ALBERT'S Folly"
was to swalloW all the paintings, all the sculptures,
all the collections—the Turner Gallery, the Ver-
non Gallery, the Sheepshanks Gallery--every
bequest, large and small, good, bad, and indifferent:
and to jumble them altogether without taste in that
hole in the corner between the Gore and Brompton !
Leaving to the Industrial Academy their present
"coign of 'vantage" overlooking the so-called Finest
Site in Europe ! Now, while we are preparing a
building for the Exhibition of 1862, let us take care
that we are not at the same time for the sake merely
of carrying out a nonsensical whim of H.R.H., con

"labelling Dissenters" are unanswerable, both those

advanced byDissenters themselves and those brough

forward by Churchmen. Charging estates by
landlords is repudiated by landlords, since they
will not diminish the slight control which
the vestry confers on the parishioners over the

vagaries of the:most crotchetty class of men in the

world. Dissenters he hardly seems to think of as

determined objectors. We shall be surprised, how.

ever, if they be not. Partly because they will, as

we have already observed, dislike the aspect of
Church Supremacy implied in the authority.to

strutting a trap for the National Gallery at South
Kensington. The projected building may be
all very well as displayed to view in the litho-

summon a Parish meeting; but also because they
will think, and we fear with too much truth, that
in a great number of parishes, the Dissenters will

graphic print* published by 11r. GOVER-but it
is against the site chosen for it that we wish to
protest—not against it, however, as the site of
next year's exhibition, but as the future site en
permanence of England's National Gallery.
For the National Gallery we could not
have a better site than the very one the
wretched structure now called the National
Gallery, oconpies. Let that site be still retained—
for that purpose—and for that purpose exclusively.
It is the Royal Academy we want to have removed
thence, as (while there) a public nuisance and a
flagrant interloper. Compel the Academy to

be compelled by fear of their superiors, though nol

by fear of the law to pay the rate as before. We

expect, therefore, should the proposal ever come

before the public, that the reply of Dissenters will
be, "we are willing the Churchwardens should

have powers to make voluntary collections from the

congregation, or to levy a small charge on the sit
tings for regular accommodation, but we canno.

agree to their making a voluntary rate on the

parish. The distinction is, indeed, very fine ; we

have, as yet, seen no plan which gave the slightest
hope of its competing with simple and unconditional
abolition ;. and, if this scheme has any chance, it
will be from its great simplicity, and from its hardly
doing more than enable the Churchwardens, legally,
to resort to voluntary contributions in the same
_ _

move OR"—anywhere else—it matters nothing to

,he public Where. Let them move on, we

say, for example, to Burlington-

House, Piccadilly. But compel them we would to

move on somewhere. And then—Gone the Royal

mode in which they formerly obtained them by
compulsion.

Academy—Rebuilt be the FaQade of the present

- -
in Trafalgar-square --and we
unsightly edifice

* The only Compromise possible in regard to Church
Rates. By a former Member of the Rouse of Commons.
London : Murray. 1861.

could not in all London or Westminster find a

better Spot anywhere for the National Gallery.

The International Exhibition, 1862. Projected from
:he official Drawings, by Captain Fowke, R.E., a coloured
ithograph, published by H. C. Gower, April 2, 1861.

If war is still doubtful—there can be but little
question, we should think, at this moment that
Peace is ult.nu precarious.

The last advices from Algiere .t.te that cue erects
er the long drought are now happily disappearing. At Oran,
Mascara, Tiaret, and Other parts, where the greatest damage
had been clone, the rain continued falling on the 29th ult.,
and with every prospect of its lasting some time. Accounts
from Mostaganem state that the rain had fallen heavily
there and in the neighbourhood, and had produced an ex-
cellent effect on the crops,

Look—almost anywhere—over Europe, and the
preservation of tranquillity is there visibly trem-
bling in the balance.

It is many years since the nations began to arm
more and more resolutely and systematically, Dr,

THE SUN, -LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, APRIL 8, 1861.

L E T NEWS.

LITERATURE.

No Church. By the author of " High Church."
3 vols. Hurst and Blackett.
Many readers may remember the former work
by this author, which set forth in a striking man
ner some of the peculiarities that distinguish a
certain class of religionists. The present work
advances a step in the same line, and with equal
vigour exhibits the danger of those who have no
decided principle of faith at all. Inasmuch as the
theme admits of the author taking a wider scope
and a higher range, so this work is more complete
in its characteristics, and more powerful in its ten-
dency to impress and actuate. One great advantage
in the form of the narrative is that the object is not
over-worked, or forced upon us in reiterated phrases
and multiplied forms. The first volume is occupied
with the heroine, who is an attractive maiden, and
interests greatly from her very isolation at first, and
her cruel persecutions afterwards. She is seen at
the commencement of the tale in the gloomy and
dismal precincts of a priscn, called to stand by her
mother's deathbed—that mother one totally devoid
of all that could in any form rob death of its sting,
and lead captivity captive, as many a prisoned
spirit has done before in the consciousness that
earthly fetters will be for ever left behind, while
the enfranchised soul will find before it eternal
freedom. We gladly quit the wretched scene for
the beautiful spot that was Bessy's next sojourn
for some years in the cottage in the mountains of
Wales. The within did not, however, bear affinity
to the without, for her uncle was a Methodist of
the strictest style, hence the elastic nature of the
young girl was strictly kept down, and her bound-
ing spirit forbid to fly. All things in Matthew
Davis's household were compressed, circumscribed,
and confined in the sternest and most
uncompromising rules, and all happiness was of
course banished. Nevertheless there was peace
and there was comfort in that mountain home, and
in the long lapse of after years, when the shade
that then hovered over her had turned to blackest
and deepest darkness, did Bessy mournfully sigh
over the vanished calm of those days at Aberogwin.
A sad day arrived when Bessy's father returned
from foreign lands; he was a dreadful man, one of
the most hopeless style that can exist, with no
good qualities to emerge occasionally from amid the
hosts of evil ones, and with no better feelings to
impress than the bad ones which were reigning
triumphant in their dark rule of mischief. This
tyrant dragged away the unhappy child from the
sheltering roof of his brother-in-law, and forced her
on to her dreadful fate. It was a sudden change.
Bessy woke to her old life as she thought, and
behold that life was vanished for evermore. By her
bedside stood her cousin Mary, who announced to
her that the strange man she found on the hills was
her father, and in a few hours he would come to
take her away. This threat was fulfilled in a cruel
way in a very short space, and she had hardly time
allowed her to say good by to her uncle and cousin.
" Mary whispered a blessing over her, and then let
her go, from that time never to return, the path
that seemed so straight winding ever by the purple
mountain, and the rustling stream, or under the
grassy slope from which the larches sprang so
green and straight, and pointed heavenwards,—
turned sharply, suddenly, from that quiet home,
and wound along the deeper steeper way, the end
of which was lost in the surging crowd of troubled
human life. Such sudden changes happen to more
homes than Matthew Davis's—to more lives than
Bessy Calverton's, the eunshine on the rest of many
wayfarers for a little while, and the blue sky
shadowless above them, and then the sudden blight
across the landscape, and then the tiny figures
dotting it—units in the great mysterious sums
God works by myriads—sinking here and there,
or struggling upwards still to the bright light and the
better times that have been swept away from
them." There is a fine passage in'," The Caxton's,"
in which the hero exclaims, after commenting upon
some great change in his destiny :—" I knew that
it was my youth and its poet-land that was no
more, and that I had passed with an unconscious
step that never could retrace its way into the hard-
world of laborious man." So it was with Bessy
Calverton, for she had lost whatever her early years
were to know of spring, and the winter of her
existence began at once as she met her father. She
was an enthusiastic child, and loved the beautiful
associations of her early home; to be taken from the
majesty of nature's solitude to the horrors of her
new habitation, was indeed a transformation as
sudden and startling as those on the stage. The
"El Dorado,"Dick Calverton's abode, was a public-
house of the lowest and vilest class. There passion
reigned and riot revelled ; there were concocted
the dark schemes to which the love of greed and
gain will draw men to risk their liberties. There
was other work not so amenable to the laws of earth
perhaps, but which would weigh far heavier against
their accounts in the balance of another world.
There was a place for a pure young girl, fresh from
a mountain home, and reared under the scrutiny of
a primitive Methodist. Her days and nights were
passed among sights and sounds of horror, amidst
dreadful men and women still worse—" children
of night, and heirs to the devil's black legacy; a
deadly crew, whose sense of right was drowned in
Lethe years ago, but whose capacity for wrong
remained awfully immense; and Bessy watched
and wondered, and prayed against the dangers
that even she could see around her. Poor prison
flower, thrown back amidst the reckless erowd from
which she had risen. Will use become second
nature with this child, too ; or will the guardian
angels of such children keep her still within the
shadow of their wings ? angels who might be born
of the earnest prayers whispered by the Methodist
girl amongst the Aberogwin mountains. " The
passages which relate Bessy's adventures in this
house of night are most exciting in their interest
and most characteristic in their construction. They
are not long in detail although long in duration,
for five years elapsed before she escaped. The
attention becomes painfully aroused at the last, and
the reader experiences a feeling of relief when the
fearful precincts of the El Dorado are left behind.
Lotty, the sister of Bessy, is a strange girl, who,
under happier auspices, might have done better.
One redeeming point in her disposition was her
attachment to her young sister, and the energy
and enthusiasm with which she devoted
herself to her preservation proved that there was
mach good naturally in her character. Mr. Par-
stol is one of the best described persons met with,
he was entirely wrapt up in his scheme for the
benefit of those entrusted to his care. It was
through his agency that the unfortunate prisoner
escaped from the snares that surrounded her. After
her departure from the abode of her father Bessy
met strange adventures, and one curious circum-
stance was meeting again with Stephen Speckland.
Just before the fatal day when Dick Calverton
came to disturb the quiet of Aberogwin, there had
been for a wonder a visitor at the quiet cottage.
A young man who was travelling by had stayed
some little time, and had delighted Bessy by his
wonderful fairy tales. To her amaze she
found that his family, of whom he had told
her so much, lived close by the place that
Mr. Parstol had fixed upon as Bessy's temporary
sojourn. The various members of the Speckland
family are well described, and it is with these that
the argument of the story lies in the designation
of the No Church class. Bessy Calverton had been
taught her lesson of faith in a cold and rugged
school, but she had imbibed the true principle, and
when through new arrangements she went to dwell
in the house of the unbelievers she was of esssen-
tial service to them. Hugh and Stephen were very
different in their dispositions, and were often in
capable of understanding each other. The unfor-
tunate complication of events that arose in conse-
quence of Bessy's engagement with Hugh are very
ably narrated, and the conclusion was the natural
sequence of such mistaken and misguided actions.
They were all well disposed, but, as is here stated,
"it was one step from perfect truth, and
from such a step evil must follow in due course."
Stephen soon had cause to be thankful for the
instruction Bessy Calverton had induced him to
receive, for he faded away in a lingering disease,
and his last hours which were troubled by the
vision of his projects on earth all melted away,
and those he was so attached to plunged in disap-
pointment, were cheered by the brightness of the
new day opening before him whose promise could
never deceive him, and whose glory could never
grow dim. After much difficulty and many disap-
pointments Hugh and Bessy were again engaged,
and the second time they were both grown wiser,
and thus bad a better prospect before them of
braving the world's rough way in confidence and
trust—confidence in each other, since they had
tested their sincerity by time and distance,
and trust in that Power which had
guided them so wonderfully.
guarded and
Few could have passed through greater perils
than the young heroine had to encounter in the
course of her life, and Hugh Speckland, the
strongman with his upright mind, and his fear-
less spirit, had been in still greater peril. lur he
had been in spiritual darkness ;—,ead of tem-
poral, and the light Nea:..,li shone for Bessy
through the shg'l-"'s of her blackest days of
most ;_.....:eent doom was not in the dwelling of
Hugh—and outward prosperty did not bring
inward peace,. This work is the result of
thought and care, and the author may be well
satisfied with the effect, inasmuch as he has sent
it forth a masterly sketch of human character.
and a striking exposition of some momentous
uhases of social life. It also demonstrates, in p
forcible in inner, the dangerous state into which
some of the wisest and most learned have fallen,
and the errors with which they have deluded them-
selves. It stands out from among every-day

TELEGRAPHIC INTELLIGENCE.
ITZEHOE, APRIL 7, EVENING.

The Committee of the Estates have concluded
their examination of the Danish proposals in refer-
rence to the Budget.
The report of the Committee will be discussed in
the Estates to-morrow.

It is asserted that the eonclusions of the Com-
mission are to the following effect :—That the
Estates cannot treat the Budget in the manner pro-
posed—namely, that the Assembly should merely
make proposals, and that the Government should
decide thereon.

BERLIN, APRIL 6.

In to-day's sitting of the Chamber of Deputies
Baron von Schleinitz expressed, in the most ener-
getic and distinct terms, his disapproval of the pro-
ceedings of M. Schlippenbach with respect to the
clandestine correspondence between General Bosco
and the citadel of Palermo.

The Minister said that he had applied for authen-
tic explanations on the subject, and would take the
necessary steps.

TURIN, APRIL 6 (Evening).
In to-day's sitting of the Chamber of Deputies
the following order of the day, proposed by Signori
Terrearsa and Mazani, was adopted :

" The Chamber, taking into consideration the de-
clarations of the Ministry that the law shall be
strictly executed, and being confident that the
Ministry will take the most suitable measures for
hastening the administrative unification of the pro-
vinces of Naples and Sicily, and insisting on the
immediate publication of the measures of public
safety promised by Government and on the execu-
tion of public wurks, passed to the order of the
day."

TURIN, APRIL 6.

In to-day's sitting of the Senate, Signor Rocca
announced that on Tuesday next he should put an
interpellation to Count Cavour respecting the affairs
of Rome.

The Opinione of to-day gives a denial to the
reports that the Government intends to issue a
forced loan.

PARIS, APRIL 6.

The Patrie of this evening says :—" The report
that a French naval division had left for Syria is
completely &he. The squadron of evolution, com-
posed of three divisions, will leave Toulon in the
second fortnight of April, in order to execute ma.
naevres on a large scale on the open sea."

VIENNA, APRIL 7.

The Turkish blockading squadron has arrived
before Antivari.

MADRID, APRIL 6.

The Duke and Duchess of Montpensier have left
for England, on account of the illness of their
mother, the ex-Queen Marie Amelie.

The committee charged to examine the press
Laws have presented the project of a new law to the

NAPLES, APRIL 7.

The Duke of Cazaniello has been arrested on
account of two letters he had received from Francis
11. Several members of a Bourbon committee,
among whom are Ruggiero and two priests, have
also been arrested. It is rumoured that an impor-
tant conspiracy has been discovered, in which five
bishops are said to have participated. The indig••
nation against the reactionists is general. Perfect
tranquillity prevails.

WARSAW, APRIL 6.

The demonstration which took place on Thursday
night before the picture of the Virgin was repeated
yesterday evening.

The crowd again dispersed without being inter-
fered with by the military.

The cause of the prevailing agitation is the sup-
pression of the delegation of citizens for the main-
tenance of public order.

PESTH, APRIL 7.

In yesterday's sitting of the Upper House Count
Apponyi in his opening speech announced the
abdication of King Ferdinand and the accession of
Francis Joseph, and said that it was the sincere
wish of the King that the rights of Hungary should
be maintained.

Prince Esterhazy, in most touching terms, paid
a tribute of respect to the memory of Count
Bathyany, who was executed for high treason in
1849, and held up the patriotism of that martyr
as an example for others.

Count Zichy demanded the formation of a Hun-
garian Ministry. The demand was supported by
the majority of the members.

In the Lower House official documents relating
to the abdication of King Ferdinand and the acces-
sion of Francis Joseph were laid on the table.

AGRAM, APRIL 7

The imperial eagle has been replaced on all the
public offices. The garrison was stationed in the
public squares on the occasion. The city is tranquil.

romances and common-place fictions as a bright
example of talent, and a shining witness of trutn ;
thus it furnishes an illustration of what may be
effected by an earnest desire to carry out an elevated
purpose. An ably -written novel may do more
than many suppose to exhibit any marked or
striking tendency of the age, and this evil here
denounced is one that especially demands our
notice and calls for our fixed attention. "No
Church " may, therefore, be recommended to the
study of all who appreciate an excellent work,
and no fair judging critic, and no admirer of
earnest and impressive language will be disap-
pointed with the result. It will, in all probability,
attain a great success, which it certainly merits
in an eminent degree, and the numerous readers
of werks of fiction may rejoice that they have
here met with one that may induce them to
think, while it fascinates by its attracting inte-
rests, and elevates by its superior tone of senti-
ment.

The Dictionary of Useful Knowledge. .4—F.
Houlston and Wright.
This is a companion to the Dictionary of Daily'
Wants, and promises to be a most admirable and
compendious work of reference. History, geo-
graphy, mythology, chemistry, architecture,
natural history, and science, besides general infor-
mation of every kind are found among its contents.
It deserves to be considered what it professes to be,
a work of reference in which every name or
subject of interest is included, the essence of each
subject given, and facts recorded with accuracy."
And truly, at the present day, it is difficult
to, overrate the value of such a work
of reference to the imperfectly educated.
The outbreak of war, or some sudden change
of dynasties or rise of nationalities, tura
the public attention to some particular question and.
all connected with it is an object of interest, but
how few of those who read the news and occupy
themselves with public affairs have any acquaint-
ance with the names of men and places which are
suddenly all important. As the editor remarks in
his preface, few English readers knew of what they'
were reading in the days when Sinope and Sebas-
topol, the Pruth and the Sea of Azoff were first
brought under discussion. As the preface observes,
it is only by means of works like the present that
the thousands who are engaged in constant occupa-
tion can at all keep pace with the general growth
of knowledge.

The Dictionary of Daily_ Wanly. By the editor of

" Inquire Within." Houlston and Wright.
We have often had occasion to notice this eater lent
little serial during its progress, and are glad to see
it now satisfactorily completed and• forrsting a
handsome volume. It is a complete fao',,otum 011
all matters of domestic reference, and the list of
authorities consulted in its compilation may inspire
the most doubting and inexperienced with confi-
dence. Its information is most comprehensive in
its character, including all matters of practical
utility, and we are not surprised that it has already
obtained so wide a circulation. Household receipts
form a large portion of its contents, while medical
and legal articles are also inserted. The whole
contents are arranged alphabetically, and are thus
available fcr immediate reference. The style is
clear and simple, and all complicated directions and
unnecessary technicalities are scrupulously avoided.
No household should be without this useful work,
which, having been issued in twopenny parts, is
placed within the reach of all.

The _English Cyclopcedia of Arts and Sciences.
Conducted by Charles l'aight. Part XXVI.
Bradbury and Evans.
The number before us extends from "Sand" to
" Ship," and discusses several topics of interest and
importance. We have often noticed the high cha-
racter of this Cyclopcedia, which bears traces of the
skill and experience of the originator of the famowi
Penny ( yclopeedia, who is not yet weary of his
efforts to disseminate sound and useful knowledge.
The work in question fully maintains his reputa-
tion as an editor, and the eminent and learned
band of auxiliaries which he has collected in his
service testify to his determination to keep faith
with the public.

Plain Truths Plainly Put. By Newman Hall,
LL.B. Nisbet and Co., Berner's-street.
This little volume contains ten sermons, which
were, with one exceptions preached in St. James's
Hall and the theatres of London on the occasion of
the special services. They are impressive and
vigorous discourses, which dwell on the main truths
and fundamental doctrines of religion, and speak
of them with force and simplicity. They are excel-
lently adapted to the audiences for which they were
intended, and are suited besides to a much larger
circle, since there are few readers of sermons 'who
would not find it more profitable to study the
practical truths here inculcated, than to bewilder
themselves with controversial subtleties.

MISCELLANEOUS MAGAZINES.
Good Words maintains its character for high
moral purpose, interesting reading, and pleasant
variety. There are several short and excellent
sermons, besides a story of domestic life, many
sketches and articles on miscellaneous subjects. We
are not surprised at the rapid popularity it has
attained.--The Eclectic gives us this month a very
interesting number. There is an article on one of
the most touching and pathetic of 'Mographies, that
of Wiliam Cowper. The writer has evidently
ready sympathy with his sn'oject, and writes with
feeling and perception. This essay will well repay
the reader for its perusal. Macaulay's last volume
is criticised at some length, and there is a very
attractive paper on the memoirs of the late John
Brown, D.D., of Edinburgh.—The National Maga-
zine has several entertaining papers. The rival water-
ing places, Brighton and Boulogne, are discussed in
prose and verse. There are several stories begun, con-
tinned, and completed, descriptions of travel, and
miscellaneous articles, The Parliamentary sketch
draws a portrait of Sir Charles Wcod.-7 he A ssur-
ance Magazine discusses some important questions
relating to life assurance, and records the proceed-
ings of the Institute of Actuaries. The questions
proposed at the annual examination are given..—The Quarterly Magazine of the Odd
_Fellows is
adapted for general circulation, and has many
well-known names among its contributors. 4, Our
Dressmaker" is a mournful little sketch, which tells
the
oet tale
is
unusuallyo of many
attractiveand
this
m laboriousont .
vaend s.
pre_
L e
sents the votaries of fashion with a collection of
very desirable engravings, which cannot fail to
fascinate all who would shine forth in resplendent
costume at this brilliant season of spring. This
magazine is quite unique in its way, and the best
that has appeared for some time, ever furnishing
in a pleasing form something gay and glittering
to amuse and instruct the elite of society, and.
those who follow in their wake in a simpler mode.
Cassels still continues his office of educator for the
people. His history of England and Popular
.Natural history are both able and instructive,
while the Illustrated Family Paper and Ladies'
Treasury are quite equal to the average of light
serials, and are offered at a very moderate price.—
Cassells's Illustrated Family Bible is printed in
excellent type, has copious explanatory notes and
numerous illustrations. It is admirably adapted to
family reading,—Newton's _London Journal of Arts
and (%ciences has an article on the New Patent
Law of the United States.

DREADFUL 0212viBirs ACCIDENT IN
IRELAND.

DUBLIN, SUNDAY.
A life destroying accident occurred about nine
o'clock last night at the canal bridge which separ-
ates the township of Rathmines from the city of
Dublin. As an omnibus was passing over the
bridge the horses became restive, and before the
driver could gain any control over them they
backed the omnibus down the slope they had just
mounted, round the parapet, and into the canal
loch, where there was at the time about 12 feet of
water.

The omnibus, unfortunately, contained about
dozen people, not one of whom, so sudden was the
accident, had any opportunity of escaping; and as
a considerable time elapsed before the water could
be drawn off and proper assistance obtai.ed, eight
persons perished. The others we'd resuscitated
with difficulty. It is said that
the driver's reins
broke when the horses been to struggle on the
bridge, -which, if tr•=,
accounts LI some degree
for an otherwic
inexplicable occurrence. It is
also states that the driver's back was broken.
A,„,dgst those drowned was a little child; and all
the deceased belonged to respectable families. The
melancholy event has caused great excitement 112
the city, and no omnibuses ran on the route to-
day.

iThe Belgian Moniteur publishes a aotification front
the Chamber of Commerce of Brussels to the effect that as the
exports of Belgium to the Scandinavian countries, Denmark,
Sweden, and Norway, are only about 2,500,000 fr. a year,
though the total of the imports made by them is
300,000,000 fr., it is proposed, in order to extend Belgian
trade, to lave exhibitions of specimens of Belgian produc-

tions at Stockholm and Copenhagen towards the end of the
present year ; and accordingly a meeting of manufacturers
and tradesmen is summoned to make the necessary arrange •
recut*.