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Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-01-03 00:00:00

REVIEWS OF BOOKS.

ther unknown to the French. Hence they can die for
liberty, but they cannot live for it."
The length to which our extracts have extended
precludes the possibility of devoting much space
to commendation of the work ; this we regret the
less, as the quotations given will speak more
favourably of the style of thought and of expres-
sion which characterise the volume, than could be
conveyed in eulogy, however pointed. The sub-
jects of remark are varied and happily chosen ;
their merits and peculiarities are fairly, as well
as freely, discussed ; and the volume, while in-
dicating with artistic terseness the " Lions of
London," and how they may be seen, is also
useful in enabling us

" To see—ouraelres as others see us."

It is altogether very tastefully got up ; is embel-
lished by cleverly illustrative designs, cleverly
engraved ; and it is published at a remarkably
cheap rate.

The Works of Apuleius, 4-e. A New Translation.
London : H. G. Bohn.

Apuleius, author of " The Golden Ass," which
forms the principal portion of the present volume,
was an African by birth, and partly, at least, by
blood. He was a native of Madaura, an inland
town of Africa, and lived about the commence-
ment of the second century of our era. He was
a voluminous writer ; a man of varied and pro-
found learning, an orator, a wit, and a satirist.
In point of fact, from what we learn of his history,
he was what, in modern parlance, would be styled
a " fast man upon town :" his town, however,
being a pretty extensive one, embracing as it did
a large portion of the oriental empire of Rome.
In his Metamorphosis, or Golden Ass, many—and
among others, Bishop Warburton—have professed
to discover a deeply-considered theological inten-
tion ; while others, quite as numerous, and of
no inferior critical acumen, have failed in per-
ceiving in it anything bel and the cleverly-com-
pounded conceits of a man of lively imagination,
no great purity of taste, and a considerable reck-
lessness of purpose. The volume before us, which
is one of Mr. Bohn's Classical Library, contains,
in addition to " The Golden Ass," " The God of
Socrates," " The Florida," and Apuleius' cele-
brated " Defence," or " A Discourse on Magic,"
of the practice of which imaginary crime he was
accused. It also contains a metrical version of
" Cupid and Psyche," and Mrs. Tighe's " Psyche "
It is a handsome volume, and forms a valuable
addition to our English translations of classic
authors.

Launterings in and about London. By Max
Schlesinger. The English Edition by Otto
Wenckstern. London : Nathaniel Cooke.
The volume before us is a very readable one,
and it abounds in such pictures of the metropolis
and its vicinity as have, in reality, a claim to be
ranked among our national peculiarities. On its
title-page it is adorned with two patronymics un-
questionably Teutonic in their origin, although,
judging from the style of the book, we incline
to the belief that, like Garrick's farce, " 'Tis
English, English, sirs, from top to toe," and
that the German is merely intended to give a
race to a series of sketches dashed off with truth-
fulness and vigour. At the conclusion of the
volume, in a sly, bantering way, one of the corps
de plume, Dr. Keif by name, is made to point out
the sins of omission, as these are to be experienced
in the perusal of the saunterings. In censuring
those omissions, he says :
"Not a word of your dog and rat fights. Not a word
on the manifest incompetency of the majority of your
sculptors and painters. Not a syllable of your unequalled
musical barbarism. Not a word of the stupendous prosti-
tution—of the dirt—the dissoluteness -- the bestiality, in
the lower Thames quarters and the borough. No detailed
descriptions of your gin-palaces and sailors' saloons —your
learned. professions—the intricacies of the law—medicine
swamped in charlatanism—the narrow-mindedness of
your aristocracy, and the snobism of your middle classes :
all these matters are altogether left out."
Although it must be admitted that some over-
expenditure of sarcasm is evinced in the above
catalogue of omissions, it cannot be denied that, in
not a few of the instances, the hits are well planted.
The author of these " saunterings," if sensitively
alive to the plague-spots whose appearance indicate
the direful nature of our social maladies, is also
conversant with those healthier indications which
mark the vigour of our moral and mental consti-
tution. Take the followinc, remarks on the relative
positions of the court, and popular circles in Eng-
land and France.
PUBLIC MORALITY IN ENGLAND AND IN FRANCE.
"We are now in Downing-street; and, however gloomy
the appearance of that street may be—perfidious and
egotistical as the Downing-street policy may appear to the
Continentals—which, by-the-bye, proves its popularity
here—we can, at least, say in its favour, that it has,
within the last twenty years, been less open to corruption
by means of money and female politicians, than was the
case on the other side of the channel, in the country of
"la gloire," of blue skies and " unutterable somethings."
Of course the reunions are less interesting ; there is not
so wide a margin for intrigue; the ambition of roturiers
is kept within the limits of decency; the fair sex, with
all its followers and appendages, is confined to a narrow
sphere of action, and these are the reasons why—just as
in other matters—English politics have a more sober,
business-like, respectable, and tedious appearance than
politics in France. It is really miraculous that, in a
country which is governed by a Queen, and one who in-
herited the crown at an early age, there has never been
made mention of Court and other intrigues, which in-
fluenced the conduct of public affairs. Say it is merely by
accident ; say that such accident is partly owing to the
coldness of the blood which runs in the veins of English
women ; or, if you please, think of the olden times, when
the women of Whitehall made history in as shameless a
manner as any women in the Tuileries or Versailles. No
matter ! It has been reserved for the lath century to
create a Woman's Court, which excludes all love intrigues.
Such a thing is impossible in France; and if possible, the
French would not believe it, nor would they put up with
it. A government without female interference, quarrels
and corruption ! Monstrous, at least to the French, who,
rather than live under such a Government, would choose
to live in au austere Catonian Republic.
" The respect for public decency, which in England is
sometimes carried to a ridiculous length, is, nevertheless,
of great use, for the morality of the Government, corrup-
tion, indeed, is an important item in English electioneer-
ing tactics; money and drink are lavished on the voters;
but this corruption, however shameless, is confined to the
lower classes. Honourable members, who are very
pathetic on the neglected education of the people, think
very little of treating all the inhabitants of their borough
to a preposterous quantity of drink, in order to ensure
their re-election. But the corruptors themselves are not
so corruptible as the men who for the last ten years—for
it is not necessary to go back to an earlier date—held the
reins of the government in France. The poor are now
and then bought in England ; more frequently they are in-
timidated • but in France—the very French confess it—
all are venal, from the highest to the lowest. lam not au
admirer of corruption in England ; but I like it better
than I do corruption in France. If rottenness there
must be, it had better be partial and one-sided, than a
general corruption of the body politic.
" Certainly the small English boroughs, with their
electioneering tactics and venality, are disgusting ; but
still there is some difference between the treating and bri-
bing the peasants and small shopkeepers, and that nauseous
corruption of all classes of society, which is so prevalent in
France, more particularly since the reign of Louis Philippe.
In England the polling days have, from times immemorial,
been days of feasting, drinking, and fighting for the lower
classes. The want of political cultivation, ignorance of the
important questions at issue, the indifference, and, in many
instances, the brutality of the lower classes, make it a
matter of small moment to them whether the barrel of
beer, from which they drink at an election,is the gift of cha-
rity,or the devil's retainingfee. No hustingswithout speech-
ifying—no polling-place without swilling. The witnesses
who have been examined by the election committees have
generally confessed that the candidate, according " to the
old established custom," behaved like a " gentleman"—
that he treated the electors to ale and gin, shook hands
with them, gave them money, and hired brass bands for
their special gratification. A melancholy proof this, of
the neglected condition in politics and morals of the lower
classes in England.
" But far more saddening is the spectacle of corruption
which France has exhibited these many years past. It is
not the rude and uncultivated mass, which sins from
ignorance of its own abandoned condition; corruption there
extends its sway over the educated, the learned, the wealthy,
the refined. It is the despotism of a cynism of venality,
such as the world never saw since the days of the Roman
emperors. The French aristocracy, the army, the bour-
geoise, the church, and the press, are all in the market.
Eloquent morality solicits corruption with the most im-
pudent eagerness, and drives the hardest bargains. In
France corruption has become the fashion ; it is the law,
the essence of politics, and it has almost become a necessity
for the attainment of even honest purposes. The poison
pervades all the organs of the body politic; and ever since the
commencement of the first revolution, the Frenchnation has
been convulsed, and caused convulsions among the neigh-
bouring nations. But never at any one time—no, not among
all her changes—was there a single period, however short,
in which personal liberty obtained that respect which it
commands in England ? And although this fact is on
record, and though it cannot be contradicted, yet there
are German admirers of France (the majority of
them know nothing of France, except the boulevards
of Paris), who believe that the French are the chosen
people of liberty, the prophets of the nations, and martyrs
for their political salvation. True, the history of France
is instructive to those who take a warning from it. True,
the French are a chosen people ; indeed, they are chosen
to sound the trumpet of war into the ears of the nations.
But there never was any fortress save one, which was
conquered by the sounding of trumpets—Jericho, in the
land and the age of miracles. Singleness of purpose, and
honest perseverance, these alone can in our days ensure
the victory of great principles. But the sons of France
have always been strangers to those two qualities; and
the glory which these can give, they have never coveted.
They care not for substantial liberty, for it not only gives
rights but imposes duties also. Freedom 'is a treasure
which requires the most anxious care; he who neglects it,
loses it. France obtained it three times, and thrice she
lost it ; and now the French say again—" Ca ne durera
pas." But, it is to be hoped that the phrase will be flung
back again, whenever they shall take it into their heads
once more to sound the trumpet of alarm to the countries
of Europe.
" England, with all her political and social blemishes,
has at least come to this, that any danger to thonal
liberty of her citizens may almost be consideered persas an
absurd impossibility, while the French, are, as yet, so
ignorant of the rudiments of national liberty, that they
still wish for a strong government ; that is to say, one
which centralises all the resources, and absorbs all the
powers of the state. The various parties are all agreed on
this point ; they differ only, with. respect to the person
who is to preside over this strong government." The
Legitimists vow that that person must be a Bourbon ; the
Bonapartists claim the right, as they have established the
fact, in favour of a scion of the great Emperor ; and the
Republicans are eloquent in praise of ere fist: govern-
ment; but every one of these partisans reserves to himself
a large prospective share of the loaves and fishes, which,
as all the world knows, are entirely at the disposal of a
" strong government." The ambition of free self-
government, which characterises the English, is altoge-

Boys and their Rulers ; or, What we do at

School.

London: Nathaniel Cooke.

A lively and amusing brochure, in which the
freaks, frolics, enjoyments, struggles, and pas-
times of school-boy life are vividly delineated.
The adventures, narratives, and descriptions, are
in a great degree made to turn upon and exhibit
the " sayings and doings" at Christ's Hospital ;
many interesting particulars connected with the
domestic and scholastic routine of duties in that
important establishment are given with much spirit.

Church of Scotland Magazine and Review. No.
VIII: Edinburgh : A. C. Moodie ; Liverpool :

W. Thomson.

This periodical, hitherto but little known in
Liverpool, is one which, from the general talent
exhibited in its articles, must be hailed as a wel-
come addition to the theological literature of the
Scottish Church, by those who are members of her
body. The number opens with a paper entitled
" The Church of Scotland, and the work she has
to do." It is directed in a great measure to vindi-
cate the Church of Scotland from the charges
brought against her by the various denominations
of Scottish dissenters. At the commencement of
the article we find the following picture of

DISSENTING MOVEMENTS.

One might almost suppose that these sectaries had dis-
covered it to be a Christian duty to confess everybody's
sins but their own ' • that humility and retiring modesty
had been expunged from the catalogue of Christian vir-
tues ; and that to secure the world's esteem and applause
was the only thing a Christian church ought to labour
after. And, as if all this were not sufficient to indicate
sectarian zeal, and foster the sectarian spirit, other means
for the purpose, still more objectionable, have been re-
sorted to of late years. The pulpit has been perverted
into a rostrum, from which ecclesiastical demagogues may
assa 1 the character and pervert the motives of better men
than themselves ; and God's own Sabbaths have been pro-
faned by being made the chosen season on which itinerant
lecturers, notorious for their exploits on such occasions,
may expatiate on the charms of voluntaryism. All this is
melancholy enough in a religious point of view, but is per-
fectly characteristic of our Scottish dissent. Our sectaries
are never at ease unless when emitting a testimony. The
public must at all times know they are Dissenters, and
why they are so. Strange infatuation They act as if
their denominational crotchets were the very essence and
marrow of the Gospel, and are not a whit wiser than the
child who shades his eyes from the sun, and thinks the
while, that that little hand of his is bigger than the great
luminary of the heavens."

While the above temperate reproof is adminis-
tered to the professors of dissent in Scotland, we
cannot disguise from ourselves the general applica-
bility of its censure in respect to many of the most
obtrusive forms and particulars of sectarianism, as
that is to be met with nearer home. This, the first
number of the Church, of Scotland Magazine
which we have seen, impresses us favourably, both
as regards the talent which it displays, and the
dispassionate tone it manifests in the various ar-
ticles it contains.

The Chemistry, of Common Life. By J. F. W.
Johnston,M.A. Edinburgh and London : W.

Blackwood and Sons.

The plan of this work, the first part of which is
before us, appears admirably arranged. It seems
intended to be eminently popular and practical in
its nature, the first part being devoted to the che-
mistry of " The air we breathe and the water we
drink." From the simple and popular mode in
which the subject is treated, and the well-known
celebrity of Professor Johnston, the work must
prove both successful and useful.

_Kidd' s Journal. London : William Spooner.
The number of this journal for December main-
tains the place the publication has long enjoyed in
public estimation. Its contents embrace miscel-
laneous reading of a pleasing and instructive kind.
They are devoted to a wide variety of subjects, are
generally distinguished by good sense and good
taste, and are well suited to excite a desire for
knowledge, no small amount of which is also con-
veyed in its pages.

Liverpool and Isle of Man Almanack, for 1854.
This will be found a very useful repertory, con-
taining, as it does, much minute information
relative to the tides and navigation of the Mersey
and the Irish Sea and Channel. It is published at
a cheap rate by It. Fargher, Douglas, Isle of Man.

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