The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-02-08 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD, TLTESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1853,

they so j
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which is a resuscitation of the almost-forgotten life-
story of Bernard Palissy of Saintes, the famous
potter—than whom no man ever displayed more
worthily the true nobility of labour.—The closing
article is on the "Income-tax Reform," in which
the writer points to the magnitude and difficulty of
the self-imposed task which the parliament and the
people have to fulfil—the task of constructing an
equitable system of direct taxation.

Cocks's Musical Miscellany.

London: R. Cocks

This month's number contains a long article on
ae beneficial influences of

CHEAP CONCERTS.
The cafes cizantahrs of Paris are said to have exerted a
very beneficial influence upon the habits of the working-
men of that capital. There were those who, in the early
,r part of the week, or perhaps on Saturday night, would
d lose all their week's earnings at the wine-shop, by the in-
strumentality of a dirty pack of cards. Many of these
now take their wives under their arm to a cheap concert,
and, with the sober refreshment of a bottle of beer, pass a
tolerably rational evening, finding themselves in no way
less fitted for attending to their business on the following
day. The ordinary wines of the country (which, if un-
adulterated, would constitute a drink by no means in-
jurious) are used by the common people of Paris at their
meals ; but, on occasions similar to those we have been
referring to, the ordinary beverage is bottled beer, effer-
vescent and fresh in the mouth, lt not at all of a nature
to intoxicate. This may chance to be varied by the cha-
racteristic Eau sucre'e (that is, two or three lumps of
sugar in a glass of water), which at any rate can do no
harm. Thus the musical mania really affords a salutary
check to brutal vice and destructive habits. The cafes
chantants may not be unexceptionable ; but we shall all
agree that they are better than the wine-shop with the
greasy cards.

SERIALS FOR FEBRUARY.--The Christian Fa-
ily Advocate (Whyte and Co., Edinburgh) con-
tains nine articles, which, unlike many of the con-
tributions to our periodical literature, are instruc-
tive as well as readable. An appeal is made in
behalf of a religious magazine recently started in
Spain, by an earnest and devoted Spaniard, who
seems well fitted to awaken his countrymen from
their dead condition.—Hogg's Instructor (James
Hogg, Edinburgh), besides a well-engraved por-
trait of Thomas Babington Macaulay, contains a
lengthy biographical and critical sketch of the
distinguished Whig essayist. The most note-
worthy papers are one by De Quincey on " Judas
Iscariot," and a gossipy account of a visit to Eng-
land by the Rev. George Gilfillan.—The Protestant
Magazine (Wertheim and Macintosh, London),
published under the auspices of the Protestant
Association, is a periodical conducted with tact
and talent. The papers it contains are characte-
rised by great depth of learning and thought, and
yet they are put in a form so attractive that they
cannot fail to interest the simplest arid most
ill-
informed minds. The current events of the day in
the world of Romanism are acutely commented on,
and all things are called by their right names.—
The Home Companion (John Bennett, London) is
evidently a most attractive periodical for the young;
and it will occupy a leisure half-hour by the family
hearth, in the interval of more onerous duties, as
well as anything of the kind we know. We would,
however, counsel the rising youth who thirst
after knowledge, to seek to acquire a taste which
will not he satisfied solely with this species of lite-
rary fare.—The Scottish Educational and Literary
Journal (James Hogg, Edinburgh) is more varied,
and not less learned and instructive, than it was at
its advent into the literary world. Hence suc-
cess is more certain. In the literary letter from
London, the Lancashire reader will find some in-
teresting gossip anent our local authors.—The Bul-
wark (James Nichol, Edinburgh) is a publication
which must inspire the Romanist with alarm. The
reading people of England have never been sup-
plied with a monthly publication destined to achieve
greater results than the Bulwark. Its contributors
are learned and pious men, abreast of the days in
which they live, and fully informed as to all the
bearings of Popery. In the present part we have
ancient as well as modern instances of the tyranny
of Rome. One woodcut represents the humiliating
spectacle of King John making over England to
the haughty legate of the Pope; another illustra-
tion is an Irish landscape, showing that " Popery
muffles the intellect, sears the conscience, canon-
izes
rags, fills a land with days of idleness and sin,
and seems pre-eminently to call down the curse of
God upon a people." In an article on the pro-
gress of Popery in America, it is suggested that a
friendly alliance should be established between the
Protestants of that country and Britain, for the
promotion of common measures of resistance and
aggression. A letter from Italy, written by a dis-
tinguished English Protestant, gives a cheering
account of the wonders which the simple reading
of the Bible is achieving in that beautiful but
unhappy land. "In poor Tuscany," he adds, " I
could tell you more of the wonders the Bible is
effecting than it would be prudent to do. I have
good authority for stating the number who have
seen into the errors of Popery, from reading the
Scriptures, at 24,000."

CHARLES DICKENS AND MRS. BEECHER

STOWE.

(FROM THE DUBLIN UNIVERSITY

MAGAZINE.)

Notwithstanding the popularity of Charles Dickens'
works, it is a grave charge against them that they make
no mention of the Deity. This subject has been well
taken up in the following article, the writer of which
points to the much greater popularity of " Uncle Tom's
Cabin," the interest in which is chiefly owing to the

hero's religious convictions :

"" It is a hard thing," says the great Archbishop Ussher,
to bring God into his own world," a truth not to be
denied. John Foster, many years ago, wrote a match-
less essay " On the aversion of men of taste to Evangeli-
cal Religion." We will not call it by this name.
We will have no Shibboleths, nor slay a man
at the fords of Jordan because he cannot accen-
tuate between the Hebrew letters Samech and Schin ;
but we do aver that literary men, unlike Dr. Aiton, keep
back too much from speaking of the great ONE who fur.
nishes 'the stores of their intellect, and in whom are
hid all the treasures of their wisdom, and their know-
ledge. The heathen were not slow to speak of their gods,
who were no gods. Their moral writers drew largely on
their Pantheon, and their more dissolute countrymen
followed their example. The elegant Horace, the Ro-
chester of the Augustan court, could indite odes to Mer-
cury and Apollo, and other deities, and the coarse and
stern Juvenal could illuminate the desolate places, which
he smote and withered with his savage satire, by the
splendour of such sublime passages as the prayer to Jupi-
ter, which commences " Mayne Pater Divum scevos
punire tyrannos." And why not so with us, who bear a
holier name, and track our soul's light from the loftiest
beam of day ? Why neglect the fountain while we
drink, and bathe, and revel in the gushing streams ?
Why stoop for all our colouring to the chalks, and clays,
and ochres of dull earth, while God opens to our gaze his
laboratory of bright tints, and offers all the gold and ver-
million of Heaven to our acceptance ? I would illus-
trate my meaning from two popular authors of the day,
who seem to deduce their " machinery" (as it would be
called in the literature of the last century) from different
sources. I allude to Mr. Dickens and Mrs. Stowe.
We regard the former as a most exquisite etcher. He
is the La Place of novelists, with his infinitesimal accura-
tisms of character and detail ; and there are patches here
and there of green and brilliant light in his darkest pages,
of intense beauty and profound feeling—witness the sun.
rise after the fatal duel in Nickleby; Florence Dombey's
return to her father ; and the death of little Nell, which
no one with a heart-throb in his bosom could read without
abundance of tears.
And thus he seems to stand in his studio, amidst the
varied carvings of his own mind. Here are distortions
fashioned from base fuller's earth, and abortions of de-
graded deformity, like Quilp and Dennis, and Chester ;
and here are statuettes of modest ivory, or pale, delicate
Parian marble, all lovely and smooth, and exquisitely
chiselled, and exceedingly pure, and almost too faultless
for this our poor, frail humanity. And so, when a fai-
lure does come—as come it must—and the sinking of the
knees, and the sorrow-shower flashing from the eyes, and
the shaking and the faltering of the poor frame—and no
man knows its poverty better than Mr. Dickens—where
does this accomplished writer rise and resort to (not al-
ways, but ofttimes) for help, for counsel, or for comfort ?
Why, to an artificial machinery, which is not equal to
that of " the Rape of the Lock," borrowed from stories
which the " nurse has taught," and the schoolboy only
half believed, even to a superintending providence of fai-
ries and shapes, and mediaeval angels, and " The Pre-
sence," and " The Cricket on the Hearth !"
For example, in the last-mentioned tale, which is full
of attractiveness, here is the loving and noble-hearted
husband, racked with strong and strifeful passions, anger,
jealousy, intense affection, indignation and generosity, all
battling together ; and the tempter whispering
beneathwhisper his roof-tree.
ingbrloooofd.,aened
the means at hand, and the offender
with
h The lone
hisemotions,
wr etcli ed one a n
d sitsbeabtys
beaten
the n
tfireo
dustall night,hy
the warringstormy
conflict. And who comes to his wounded, wearied, buf-
fetted soul, to uplift it from the whelming wave ? Why,
the fairies from an old clock-case, they are his counsel-
lors ! Ah ! why is not the man on his knees at yonder
chair ? Is there no God in the wide, bright heaven, or in
the dark earth ? Is there no Saviour to walk these rav-
ing nightwaves of the distracted soul, commissioned from
high heaven to uplift, to comfort, and to soothe the
sons of misery ? Is there no hand engaged to wipe away
all tears ? is there no pro • • the Word of Life—or
is that word itself a lie raise In
Now turn to the prominent character in Mrs. Stowe's
book. Here is a work whose popularity attests its power,
and which has obtained an interest for itself, and an in.

ford University Commission Report" has called
forth a keen article, in which the writer asserts that
the document has" deservedly provoked the strongest
opposition," although it is admitted that many of the
suggestions it contains are " such as we would gladly
see adopted." The remarks are moderate in tone, and
•11 be listened to, we hope, with that respect which
'ustly merit from both parties.—" Palissy
*.ter" is a resume of Henry Morley's new book,