The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-12-06 00:00:00

LITERARY: NOTICES.

.beatit's Destruction, and other Poems, by I'. J. Ouseley
Editor (lithe Leicester Conservative Standard. Lon

don : Whittaker and Co. Bvo. pp. 348.
There is much pleasing poetry in this volume ; but
'higher praise than this must be accorded. Many of the
ideas are original, and they are all expressed in language
at once energetic, chaste, and classical. We are chiefly
delighted with the descriptive poems.- some of the meta-
:phors contained in these are very striking and appropri-
ate. The versification throughout is very correct, and
tthe numbers harmonious. Our readers will find a speci-
men in our " Poet's corner" of this day.

-A Topographical. Statistical, and Domestic llistory of
France. by Mrs. Jamieson. London : Edwards.; 1836.
12mo. pp. 568.
We have in this truly entertaining book a description
•of what France was, and what she-is, in all her relations,
'political and domestic. The revolutions which she has
•undergone, are here faithfully and dispassionately
narrated; and the various changes, imperceptible in
-their operation, but visible in their effects, which her
people have passed through, are here minutely and ac-
•curately traced to their sources. In addition to this, the
volume abounds with valuable statistical details, illustra-
• tive of her various resources, her population, her mari-
time and military forces, and the productions of her soil.
We know of few volumes more suitable than the one
before. ns for a present to a young friend. Several beau-
tiful wood cuts are scattered through its instructive
- Tages.

The New Statistical Account of Scotland. No. 12.
Containing part of the County of Ross and Cro-
marty, with Maps, and part of the County of F'orfar-
shire, Nov. 1836. Edinburgh : Blackwood, Bvo. pp.
382.
- If this valuable national work does not command a
'very extensive sale among our Scotch friends in Liver-
pool, we must be constrained to confess that they do not
-possess as much of the amor patria as we are disposed to
give them credit for. A more ample and exact descrip-
tion of every portion of their native country cannot be
obtained. The accuracy of the details with which this
'work abounds, is sufficiently vouched for by the circum-
stance, that the information which it furnishes is not de-
-lived from any previous compilations, but from the un-
doubted authority of the ministers of the respective
parishes, or from some eminent literary character, well
acquainted with the localities of the particular division
about which he treats. As the work may be unknown to
many of our readers, we will take the liberty of briefly
-recapitulating the principal objects included in the gene-
: ral plan laid down. The profits resulting from its pub-
lication are to he applied, we believe, to the use of the
," Society for the Benefit of the. Sons and Daughters of
the Clergy i" and the whole work is placed under the'
superintendence of a committee of the same society.
The parochial division is adopted throughout, subordi-
nately to a general division into counties. Each Num-
- berts accoinpanied by a Map, beautifully executed by
Lizars, The information collected is ranged under the
several heads of Topography, Natural History, Civil
History, Population, Industry, and Parochial Economy.
In its statistical details—which are very copious—the
tabular form is preserved, wherever it is found practi-
Cable. This, while it exhibits every
,particular in the
-clearest and most intelligible manner,gives the work a
scientific appearance. We need scarcely add that we
are glad to find the character of the publication 'so ably
sustained in its progress towards completion, and that we
sincerely hope. the support which it receives is commen-
surate with its intrinsic merits, and with the benevolent
design for which it is undertaken. ,

Examination of, and Observations upon, Mr. Black-
burn's Defence of the Conduct of the New Town
Council of Liverpool, in connexion with their recent
efforts to deprive the children of the poor of Instruc-
tion from the unmutilated Bible. By Alexander
Watson, Esq. Liverpool : Ingram. 1836. pp. 86.
Our enlightened, liberal, and dispassionate Mayor
took occasion, the other day, to denounce moat gratui-
':tously the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, cha-
racterising them as the abodes of superannuated bigotry
and consummate stupidity. For this very violent and
Quixotic attack upon these venerable seats of learning,
we were at a loss how to account for some time ; but
when we recollected the lacerating chastisement which
Mr. Watson, a distinguished ornament of one of these
•decried institutions, has inflicted upon the motley group
of reforniers over whom our said Mayor has to preside,
we discovered a reason for the extreme sensitiveness
manifested by his worship. The pamphlet before us
may well cause such men to.hate our universities. The
-subject is handled by Mr. Watson in an able, a gentle-
manly, and a scholarlike manner. We give the follow-
ing extract as a further illustration of the point dis-
cussed in the last letter of the Rev. H. M'Neile :
" I now proceed to notice the particular selections known un-
der the name of Scripture lessons, adapted to the use of
:schools, recommended bv•the commissioners for the educa-
tion of the poor of Ireland." These are the lessons adopted by
the town council of Liverpool for the use of the schools under
their patronage. „The first thing which occurs to me is the na-
ture and extent of the information contained in these volumes.
These substitutes for the bible consist of an account of the crea-
tion of the world, a partial history of the life •f our blessed Sa-
viour, and of the lives and doings of his immediate followers and
apostles. Now, these facts are matters of history rather than of
religion. True, these historical documents are very interesting
—are taken from the bible, and therefore may be called scrip-
tural education ; but do they not relate to times and circum-
stances of which mention is made no where else ? They con-
tain information about religion, but they do not contain reli-
gious information. They contain few statements of doctrine,
and are destitute of a judicious summary of christian practice.
If they are conspicuous for one thing ratherthan another, it is
the facilities they afford fur conveying to the youthful mind un-
settled notions on religious matters, in all cases where the pri-
vate judgment is not over-ruled by the haughty and uncompro-
mising authority and influence of those who so impiously lord it
over God's helitage, in the garb of Romish priests. These new
lesson books are eminently calculated to nurture and cradle all
in scepticism and indifference, who are not victimised by the
popish priesthood. Flow different are they from the scripture
extracts, which, in days now no more, the teachers were wont
to hold in one hand, while the bible was in the other. The se-
lections formerly in use in the corporation schools record the
miracles, display the parables, and unfold the christian practice
'of the divine preacher on the Mount of Olives. They were, in
truth, the gradual eteps by which the young christian was en-
abled to mount with ease, and take tip his abode in the temple
-of truth. They svero but so many foretastes of the rich and
heavenly fruit which blossoms in such luxuriance in the spi-
ritual hden of revelation. They contained no bewildering
parade of learning. They did not set before the young and de-
licate child the unripe fruit of the tree of knowledge. But
knowing that strong meat was fit only for those of large growth,
'they were composed of carefully chosen and easy selections
from the simplest and most interesting traits in the gospel his-
tory. In fact, they were the sacred truths of the bible, in books
not too large or ton cumbersome fur the infant's hand, end the
highest gnerdon offered to recompense his ambition was fhe ar-
rival of that day when he, like the more advanced scholars,
;should have the privilege of reading the same truths out of the
biibleitself. How different is this from the conduct pursued by
'the commissioners and their copyists, the town ccroncillors of
,Itiverpeol. They omit the simplest portions of gospel truth,
and encircle what they do admit with a cumbersome machinery
abstinse annotations. Were these books intended for sin-
Inycr critics, the case would be rather different ; but compiled,
a.
.5 the 7, professedly are, for the use of the Irish peasantry, the
think le preposterous and absurd—not to use a harsher term."