The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-01-18 00:00:00

VICTORIA IN TliE HIGHLANDS

(FROM " POEMS: SACRED AND MISCELLANEOUS," BY HENRY
GRA ZEBROOR, OF LIVERPOOL.)
Deep in the stillness of a Highland glen,
Far, far removed from common haunts of men,
Where rocks o'erhanging, ninnacled and bare,
Seemed lightly poised, or floating in mid-air,
And mountains rose, till many a fleecy cloud
Wrapped round their lofty summits, as a shroud :
A female form stood, pensive and alone,
With eyes upturned, as if her soul would own
A Godlike presence in the silent air,—
An awful majesty abiding there!

She felt her nothingness !—tlie mighty hills
Paid her no homage I—and the dried-up rills
Would sparkle not, nor flow at her command,
Though called the Queen of this, and many a land

Her heart confessed 't was good, 't was very good,
For her to be alone,—where none intrude,
To turn the soul, with heavenward sail unfurled,
Away from God, and back into the world.

She knew full well the glitter of a court,
The gaudy pomp, where mighty ones resort,
Fit not the spirit for that peace serene,
And holy calmness of a higher scene.

Nor did she seek, in that lone hour, to hide,
That human power engenders human pride,:
And, in her halls, whence adulation springs,She might forget her Chief—the King of Kings!

A fitting spot—by nature's wall hemmed in,
The world shut out, with all its load of sin ;
The heavens above, beneath the verdant sod,—
For earthly Queen to commune with her God !

Two specks descending from the rocky height
Appeared, as eagles swooping in their flight;
At length drew near the husband and the son
To claim a smile from that beloved one.
Her smile was ever sweet, but on that day
It seemed illumined by a heavenly ray,
A ray rejoicing in its own release;—
'T was the reflection of a soul at peace I

LITEPATURE.

BOOKS FOR REVIEW, &c.—Books, New Prints, Music, &c.
intended for review, may be left at Mr. C. Mitchell's, Red-
lion-court, Fleet-street, London, addressed " to the Editor
of the LIVERPOOL STANDARD," when they will be forwarded
and receive attention.

Poems : Sacred and Miscellaneous. By Henry
Grazebrook. Liverpool: Deighton & Laughton.

Outwardly the volume before us is " a thing of
beauty"; and to the poet who has here collected
the thoughts of a cultivated mind and the pious
impressions of a God-loving soul—as well as to
his numerous readers—we trust the book will prove
" a joy for ever." The fact that it is inscribed, by
permission, to the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of
Chester, is in itself a guarantee that the work seeks
to achieve a good purpose. It would further indi-
cate that the execution is at least above mediocrity,
and in some measure worthy of the author's aim.
And the hope naturally enough excited by the
dedication will not, we believe, be disappointed by
a perusal of the contents, whether that perusal be
confined to the first department, which is allotted
exclusively to the poetical illustration of Scripture
texts, or extended to the pleasing miscellaneous
poems which follow. Mr. Grazebrook apparently
writes with fluency and ease ; and, what is of higher
import, he enforces the fervency of a loving spirit
into all that he writes. And so, as he speaks the
real language and embodies the genuine emotions
of a human soul, his utterances will assuredly
awaken a kindred chord in the hearts of his readers.
Mr. Grazebrook merits especial commendation for
the correct and elegant manner in which he has
pourtrayed in verse the scenes of the Bible. He
draws near to the hill of Calvary and approaches
the Sepulchre with a holy awe; and in striving to
delineate the events in the life of our blessed Lord
and Saviour, he ever preserves the severely simple
grandeur of the New Testament narrative. To the
lovers of the sacred muse we cordially commend
the volume of our townsman.

Guizot's History of Representative Governments,

London : H. G. Bohn

Among the many valuable services which Mr.
Bohn has rendered to the reading public of Eng-
land, there are few of more importance than the
publication of a translation of this excellent work,
which forms one of the series known as " Bohn's
Standard Library." It is true that the author is a
Frenchman, but he is one of the few of that nation
who is imbued with constitutional principles, and
whose administration as a statesman reflected a
lustre on the reign of Louis Philippe. In the work
before us he has traced the rise of representative
governments in Europe from the earliest times,
showing the peculiar changes which took place from
the decay of the Roman Empire and the incursions
of the Northern Germans, through the various
succeeding revolutions resulting in our own times.
In the latter part he has confined his attenion to
England, France, and Spain; and in giving a sy-
nopsis of their respective histories, treated of those
changes in government, and their causes and effects,
which have in general been passed over by ordinary
historians. In his comments upon this subject,
unlike the majority of French writers, he does full
justice to England, while he admits that in his own
country the struggles for constitutional freedom
which animate every country in Europe have been a
failure. In his sketch of this country he traces
many of our institutions from the ancient Saxons
and Normans, and throws much light on the
doubtful question of the origin of Parliaments,
though we should be rather inclined to accept the
theory of Lord Erskine, that our present House of
Commons is the virtual representative of the an-
cient Barons of England. He combats the absurd
dogma of Rosseau, that " No one is bound to obey
laws to which he has not given his consent," by its
absolute impossibility, as, in order to constitute re-
cognised authority, the wills of the minority must
submit to those of the majority. He might, how-
ever, have gone further, and stated that man, in
order to escape from a tyrant majority, has in every
well-constituted government surrendered his own
will to that of a third power recognised as the
sovereignty. We obey Queen Victoria, not be-
cause she was made so by the will of the majority,
but by right of succession ; and we elect represen-
tatives, who have a share only in making new laws.
The student will here find much valuable informa-
tion on the history of England, as well as of France,
and a highly-important study for serious reflection.

The Church of England Quarterly Review. London

Painter.

As there are many subjects in connection with
the Church which require more deliberative dis-
cussion than is usually accorded to themes of less
moment, so the dignity of a Quarterly Review is
more suited to such subjects than to most others.
There are many questions suited neither to the pul-
pit nor the newspaper which require such a me-
dium, and even controversies of a theological cha-
racter are better conducted when they come before
the public with the gravity which usually charac-
terises the pages of a quarterly publication. The
Church of
the England Quarterly Review has been be-
forepublic for above sixteen years, and has done
much service in directing public attention to im-
portant subjects, and also in restraining the exube-
rance and exposing the fallacies in which pam-
phleteers are too often prone to indulge. The num-
ber just published opens with an article entitled
" Was Peter Bishop of Rome ?" being a review of
a recently published work by T. C. Simon, Esq.,
under the comprehensive title
tMheissoiroin-
and Martyrdom of ;tilsie
Peter
ginal text of all the passages in ancient writers
supposed to imply a journey from the East ; with
translations and Roman Catholic
sign comments, show-
ing that there is not the least in antiquity of
the alleged fact, nor even of there
having been
.a
of this
tradition to that effect." The valuework
in the proof which is afforded of the utterabsencetii
of all truth in the statements upon which
Church of Rome grounds its title to supremacy, and
this the author has shown from indubitable testi-
mony. The actual poverty in the English Church,
and the necessity of doing something more effectu-
ally than hitherto has been done for the support of
the poorer clergy and their families, is shown in a
succeeding article, most of the facts quoted being
taken from the reports of the " Poor Pious Clergy-
man's Society," established in Birmingham chiefly
through the philanthropic exertions of bliss Lamb.
An article on " Crime and its antidotes" shows by
official returns the increase of crime in this country,ish
notwithstanding the extension of education. This
the writer attributes not only to the inert mass of
ignorance, and the want of a really ;
religious educa-
tion where instruction is affordedbut alsoto the
and
inefficiency of the detective force,
the uncertainty of punishments, which varya t
ma-
terially in extent and severity according to
position of the judge who passes the sentence-
.
On On this point we quite agree with the writer ; and
believe it would tend materially to the improvement
of our criminal judicature, and operate beneficially
in the repression of crime, if offences were more
clearly defined, and punishment awarded without
any chance of mitigation or remission. The writer
of an article on " Progress during the last half
century," attributes most of our present immunity
from evil to the improvements in science and the
labours of literary men, promoted by the general
peace which has prevailed for nearly forty years.
Without undervaluing these advantages, we may
remark that on such a subject much may be said
on both sides, Witfi no wish to justify the horrors

of war, we cannot forget that Rome, in common
with other empires of antiquity, obtained their
greatness by war and lost them by peace. One of
the most important articles in the present number
is on "Auricular Confession," suggested by no less
than five recent publications on the subject. The
writer, from a host of the highest authorities, proves
incontestably that the Romish doctrine of Auricular
Confession is as false as it is modern ; that it is
altogether a Romish practice ; and our church is
snccessfully vindicated from the charge of teaching
or sanctioning it. He also exposes the misquota-
tions and false conclusions of the Rev. Prebendary
Gresley, who has written to defend the practice.
We can cordially recommend this article to the
serious attention of any churchman who entertains
any lingering doubt upon the subject. After a
paper
on
" Elementary Education," a subject on
which it is still difficult to arrive at a satisfactory
conclusion, we have a lengthened notice of " The
Life and Writings of St. Paul," by the Rev. W. J.
Conybeare, and the Rev. J. J. Howson, M.A.,
Principal of the Collegiate Institution, Liverpool.
The reviewer highly praises the work of Messrs.
Conybeare and Howson as very valuable, and says

" To such persons as desire to possess an appropriate
memorial of the labours, and an elaborate but clear expo-
sition of the writings, of the most illustrious of the Apos-
tles, we can cordially recommend the work now before
us. We have not attempted to give an abridged outline
of the contents; for we had not the heart to mangle
by giving piecemeal that which is so complete and sym-
metrical as a whole."
And, further on, the reviewer says :

" We have only to say that we have derived more in-
formation concernijig the history and writings of St. Paul
from this work than from any other we can name."

A notice of Thackeray's " History of Henry
Esmond, Esq.," from which we have quoted on a
previous occasion, is followed by an article on
" Rome and Liberty of Conscience," showing, what
few in this age would be inclined to dispute, the
intolerance and cruelty of Papal Rome. We quote
the concluding remarks of the writer :

DANGER FROM JESUITS

" The world is rife with Jesuit- machinations—they
meet us in the highest and the lowest places. Between
the plans of mighty monarchs which affect the peace and
prosperity of millions—the counsels which organise a
systematic persecution against all liberty of thought and
action, and the subtle missives of discord which find their
way to our firesides and bring social misery to our homes,
there is in the present day a real and significant connec-
tion not to be overlooked. They are under the influence
of the same active agency, and that agency is in the ser-
vice of a church which aims at universal power. She has
entered upon a struggle which must, sooner or later, end
in her own destruction, or in the subversion of all which
honest and Christian men hold most dear. It is therefore
the duty of every conscientious Protestant to watch with
jealous caution each step which she takes, that he may
ascertain how and where she strikes."

An article on " The Fourth Estate" we should
have been inclined to look on with favour, but it is
so tinctured with hyperbole that we must pass it by.
"The Derby Administration and its Opponents" is
treated in a Conservative spirit, the writer very
probably foreseeing much mischief to Church and
State from the Tractarianism of the Peelites in
combination with the levellers and agitators with
whom they are allied. The number concludes with
a long list of notices of new books.

The Christian Family Advocate. Edited by Cathe-
rine Ponsonby. No. VIII. Edinburgh : Wm.
Whyte and Co.

The number for January begins a new volume of
this excellent serial—one of the most hopeful of the
quickly-increasing class of publications devoted to
the unsparing exposure of Romanism, and the ad-
vancement throughout the world of sound evange-
lical religion. The papers, whether in prose or
rhyme, are animated by an all-pervading desire to
promote piety and intellectual culture in the family
circle; and the fair editor must, therefore, have our
best wishes for the success of her praiseworthy un-
dertaking.

Hogg's Instructor. Edinburgh : James Hogg.
Among the many periodicals of the day which are
published at a low price, this one combines much va-
luable information with entertaining tales and anec-
dotes suited for those who read only for amuse-
ment. It has now been published under the form
of a new series for about five years, and maintains
its well-earned popularity. The part for January is
embellished with a well-engraved portrait of that
able historian, Sir Archibald Alison, Bart., and
contains several articles well deserving perusal,
among which we may notice " The House of Com-
mons," " Napoleon the Little," " The Advertise-
ment," " Commercial Excitements and Commercial
Crises," &c.

The Dodd Family Abroad. London : Chapman

and Hall

Mr. Lever's amusing serial has reached its fifth
number, and the racy humour of the Hibernian
epistles runs freely as ever from the pen of the
veteran novelist. A quiet vein of wit pervades
every line from Mr. Lever's practised pen, and in
" The Dodd Family Abroad" there is a scholarly
tone, coupled with an intimate knowledge of all
classes of society, which preserve the delineations
of character from degenerating into caricatures.
Mr. Lever's novel may not be so popular as one
issued by Mr. Dickens, but it will be relished quite
as much, if not more, by the refined reader. The
following are extracts :

A RELIGIOUS FRAME OF MIND.
Mrs. D. had fallen into that peculiar condition which is
natural to her whenever she finds a place stupid and un-
exciting, and which she fondly fancies to be a religious
frame of mind ; in other words, she took to reading her
breviary, and worrying Betty Cobb about her duties ; got
up for five-o'clock mass, and insisted upon Friday coming
three times a week. I could bear all this for quietness'
sake ; and if fish diet could insure peace, I'd be content
to live upon isinglass for the rest of my days.