The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-02-21 00:00:00

REVIEWS OF BOOKS.

A Brage-Beaker with the Swedes ; or Notes
from the North in 1852. By W. Blanchard
Jerrold. London : Nathaniel Cooke. •
The handsome volume, for which the above
stands as the quaint title, is a cleverly arranged
narrative of the observations and. experiences of a
lively and intelligent traveller, who, without
dwelling too tediously upon either the enjoyments
or the inconveniencies attendant upon an extensive
and protracted journey in the regions of the "cold
and frozen north," imparts his knowledge with a
lively and graceful air of good-fellowship. In the
course of his sojourn, Mr. Jerrold saw much, and
has obviously noted no little of the social and
domestic habits of the Swedes ; of their artistic
Oulttre, and their literary institutions. Their
political and mercantile arrangements have also
occupied his attention ; while the natural features
of Swedish scenery, and the atmospheric influences
dependant on its boreal locality, have all been
shrewdly canvassed in the inquiring and observant
mind of the author. Before entering the Swedish
territory, on his way from England, our author
passed through a part of Denmark, and of course
visited Copenhagen, in which he saw and inspected
much that is possessed of more than a merely
passing interest. The following are his reflections
on inspecting
THE CITY OF COPENHAGEN, AND ON ITS BOMBARDMENT.
Copenhagen is, to give my first impression of it, a pic-
turesque city ; the Amagra costume is full of colours ;
the ships lie alongside the canals in the street, and form
floating market-places ; the squares are noble, the houses
tall and stately ; the shops are picturesque, resplendent
with brilliantly-coloured goods ; a taste for art seems to
show itself in every street ; the genius of Thorwaldsen
presides everywhere—he is worshipped, ay, as devoutly as
any Lord Eiderdown at Eiderdown. Yet Denmark is, in
no sense of the word, a democratic country ; rather, I
should say, in temper and thought, aristocratic to the core.
The Danish skull, according to my friend Professor Ret-
zius, of Stockholm (if I remember his lecture rightly), is
one of the worst in the world. Though not phrenologi-
cally good, yet, I say, I think the Dane is constitutionally
an aristocrat. I speak from observation, not from history,
and without caring to intrude upon the reader my opinions
upon the relative advantages Of aristocracy and democracy.
But I will say that I liked the Danes, admired the tone
of their sentiments, the enthusiasm in their souls for
things noble and good, the warmth of their friendship to-
wards individual members of a nation that cast its merci-
less missiles into their homes. There are men, I thought
(as I walked about the streets), in this busy, happy city,
who can remember seeing Nelson, followed by the mur-
murs of the populace, make his way to the palace of the
rrince Royal, and there endeavour to bring him to the
terms proposed by Admiral Parker. These terms were,
that Denmark should cease to belong to the confederation
of neutral powers ; that her ports should be freely opened
to English vessels ; and that a British force should be
stationed in Denmark to protect her from the vengeance
of her former allies. The reply of the prince was princely
—he would sooner be buried in the ruins of his capital
than consent to this base desertion. That year [lBOl, not
1807, as erroneously printed in the text. Nelson was
killed in October, 1805] was a terrible year in the history
of Denmark. Even now the Danes talk, lam told, with
darkened expressions, of the 2nd of September, when the
English fleet opened its murderous attack upon the city.
[Another anachronism here inanifests itself ; the bom-
bardment of Copenhagen took place on the 2nd of April.]
Sixty hours incessant bombardment ; the sky raining
shells upon these noble towers • three hundred buildings
laid in ashes ; and then a capitulation that made every
brave Dane gnash his teeth with rage. The British fleet
took possession of twenty-five ships of the line, sixteen
frigates, and fifty smaller ships, and left the Danes power-
less to oppose their authority in the Baltic.
From the inaccuracies pointed out in the above
extract, it will be seen that our author requires to
be carefully watched in his statements of fact, and,
in particular, that his dates and numbers must be
taken cum notee. His delineations of scenery,
and descriptions of manners are not liable to the
same objection as his historical narrative unques-
tionably is. Take the following description of
A SCANDINAVIAN FOREST
The chirp of the birds is heard at a great height. It is
March, and we are reminded that about this season of
the year the black bear, having sucked the thick part of
his paw throughout the winter, and taken no other kind
of nourishment, issues from his den in quest of more sub-
stantial faze. This reflection, unpleasant at first, is soon
dispelled by the marvellous variety of the scene. Life, in
a thousand forms, is busy about you. Pussy is changing
her winter coat of white for the grey of summer ; and the
fox is quietly speculating upon the hen who is sitting
under your neighbour's shed. Say, after a quarter of an
hour's scramble, we emerge into an open space, and are
surprised to find a busy band of people at work. On in-
quiry, we shall learn that we have surprised the workers
of a maple-sugary. In these noble maples about twenty
holes have been bored, and are bleeding into a trough !
Hereabouts, in kettles over brisk fires, this maple blood
is being prepared for human purposes. Well, we pass on,
leave behind us graceful rows of silver maple, that look
like fairies' wands planted amid the stunted grey oaks,
and overshadowed by the majestic butter-nut trees, rear-
ing their lofty heads eighty feet from the earth, sheltering
the flowery dog-wood. On the rising ground shoots the
tall and slender canoe-birch, surrounded by black spruce
and hemlock, and enjoying for a splendid neighbour the
yellow birch, with a stem like a shaft of gold. This
kingly timber disdains to shoot out a branch at less height
than forty feet from the earth. From this splendid tree
comes that subtly-scented oil from which Russian leather
obtains its peculiar odour. Here and there we come
across a specimen of the iron-wood tree : individuals of the
white and red elm families rearing their lofty crests some-
times one hundred feet from their roots. There are
varieties which enliven a scramble in an American wilder-
ness; but in a Scandinavian wilderness the solitude is
awful, is grand, but is not beautiful. It does not tend to
raise the spirits ; it does not exhibit Nature in her holiday
dress, but rather in " puritanic stays,"—stern and un-
bending, and without apparent tenderness.
Among the topics touched on by our author,
and handled with vivacity and skill, are the in-
cidental traits of national and individual character,
which he encounters in his Scandinavian pilgrim-
age ; and these he hits off with taste and skill.
The book is an amusing one, and is possessed of
much freshness; the subjects treated of in it lying
out of the general tourist route, both the scenery
and the people described being but little known to
book travellers.

Baths and Wash-ho_use_sl By George A. Cape,

jun. London : Simpkin, Marshall,Marshall,and Co.
This very handsomely got up volume is from
the pen of the secretary to the Lambeth Baths
.ad therefore comes
and Wash-house Company, n
before us with the prestige of having for its author
a gentleman acquainted with something more than
the mere theoretical working of the bath and wash-
house system. Mr. Cape goes somewhat ela-
borately into the subject of baths as these existed
in ancient Rome and among the Etruscans. He
is eloquent on the advantages to be derived from
personal ablutions • and shows from well-digested
data that baths and wash-houses, besides being a
great public convenience, may be made self-
supporting, or, indeed, prole as commercial
speculations—that they, by promoting cleanliness,

promote order, lessen pauperism, diminish vice,
and improve the health and morals of the lower
orders. In Mr. Cape the bath and wash-house
movement finds a zealous advocate, and his work
has obviously been got up with care and skill.

The Works of the Rijht Son. Joseph Addison.
With Notes by Richard Hurd, D.D., Lord
Bishop of Worcester. London : Henry G. Bohn.

The prose works of probably no other-English
author would meet with so general and so deserved
a welcome as those of Addison, the sTeat purifier,
if not the father, of our best moral literature. In
his essays are united the natural ease and un-
affected grace of an almost perfect English style ;
at his hands virtue is ever arrayed in spotless
purity ; in his pages she ever wears her most
winning smiles, and is at all times decked in the
roseate hues of health and radiant beauty. No
mawkishness of affected sentiment pervades her
footsteps : no meretricious tinsel lends a borrowed
lustre to her sway, while her teachings are replete
with wisdom. Much has been said in our own
day as to the benefits conferred by cheap litera-
ture, and lavish are the praises bestowed on those
who claim to be its originators ; those encomiums
are, no doubt, to a great extent, deserved, but
while the memory of Addison is cherished, and the
undisputable success of the Spectator, in its penny
numbers, remain indelible in the history of English
literature, the Useful Knowledge Society, and its
imitators, of every tribe and calibre, must give
place in parading their claims on the consideration
of a grateful people. Must we, at the bidding of
these egotistical worthies, ignore the whole of that
delightful series which, under its collective name
of " the British Essayists," has, for nearly a cen-
tury, formed one of the most glorious boasts of our
literary wealth 2 • and which, under the directing
genius of Addison, of Johnson, of Goldsmith, of
Mackenzie, and other giants, meted out its intel-
lectual riches in penny modicums ? Must we bury
in a wilful oblivion the claims of these great
masters to make way for the celebrities of " Brum-
magem" science, and the advocates of cold Utili-
tarianism ? Assuredly not ; and we rejoice to see
a publisher of taste and enterprise like Mr. Bohn
undertaking the production of a collected edition,
in an elegant and cheap form, of the earliest and
best disseminator of cheap literature. The edition
of Addison's works now under notice is to consist
of four volumes, the first only as yet having
reached us ; it is devoted to his poems and plays,
the least popular portion of his works ; to his essay
on ancient medals, and his observations on Italy.
The three succeeding volumes will, of course, be
enriched with his matchless fugitive essays, in-
cluding the imperishable " Vision of Mirza." The,
editorial portion of the series has been entrusted
to the Lord Bishop of Worcester, whose labours
will be chiefly confined to the task of revision,
together with explanatory and correctional annota-
tions. The work, when completed, will be a valu-
able one, and we wish it every success.

The Protestant Magazine. London : Wertheim

and Macintosh.

This earnest guardian of Protestantism continues
its useful efforts for staying the progress of Popery.
The first paper of the February number is devoted
to an able exposé of the danger to be apprehended
from the threatened " Endowment of Roman
Catholic Chaplains in Government Prisons." It
opens by a brief but telling history of the move-
ment since its first insidious promulgation in 1838,
till the present bolder advance of its pretensions.
We can only find room for the following