The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-11-15 00:00:00

REVIEWS OF BOOKS.

The London Quarterly Review, No. 1. London :
Partridge and Oakey.
In the present publication we have a new com-
petitor in what used to be considered the highest
walk of periodical literature. The tone of the new
aspirant is bold, and although it occasionally dog-
matises in a style with which we cannot entirely
sympathise, in many particulars the number gives
token of intended good. In a paper devoted to
Dr. Forbes' " Memorandums in Ireland" we find a
considerable amount of wholesome truth, leavened,
evenalthongh it undoubtedly is, by a spirit of re-
ligious sectarianism. The effects of Maynpoth
training upon the Irish nation and priesthood are
well put at the conclusion of the paper referred to ;
the reviewer after glancing at the fact that, prior
to the establishment of Maynooth College, the
Irish Romanist ecclesiastics, being trained at
French seminaries, presupposed them to be pos-
sessed of a respectable social position ; and by the
elevated tone of secular education and feeling ex-
isting in the French seminaries, and among French
society-, ensured them a certain amount of intel-
lectual culture, and a degree of constitutional
in-
dependence of the Romish Pontiff, and the councils
of the Vatican : he then proceeds thus to glance at
the results of
THE MAYNOOTII ENDOWMENT
The British government conceived that, with these
advantages, they (the priesthood) also contracted those
volitical feelings in regard to England which prevailed
in France at that period ; and that they returned with
principles of dissatisfaction towards the British sovereign
and constitution. They therefore, in an evil day, deter-
mined to endow a Roman Catholic College in Ireland, to
prevent the necessity of sending the youth of the country
to France for their education. The erection and endow-
ment of Maynooth College was the result.
And how has this precious do-evil-that-good-may-come
E3Ttem worked ? and what has been its effect upon the
Irish Catholic priesthood ? In the first instance, so
meagre was the government allowance,
and so wretched
the accommodation, that none but the lowest of the
people would avail themselves of it; and the candidates
for the priesthood were selected out of the hedge-schools,
none being accepted but such as could be depended on for
servility to their ecclesiastical superiors. These were
placed under the most rigid ultramontane discipline and
instruction, being taught to look to the Holy Pontiff as
-their lawful sovereign in all things ; their obedience to
the British sovereign (the heretic) being subordinate to
that due to the Pope. We know this to be the case, be-
cause we have heard it avowed by men of education, as
Yell as by others; and it is practically manifested at
many public dinners, where the health of the Pope is
frequently drunk before, and sometimes to the studied
exclusion of, that of the Queen. It was also proved at the
time of Smith O'Brien's abortive attempt, by the mass of
letters promising him support, from most of the leading
in Ireland ; and the recent extension
a the errant to Maya,-.41, cbqn ryln is„,„ al,. —144-
-worse instead of better. The candidates for the priest-
hood are still selected from the same class, only in greatly
augmented numbers, so that not only are priests educated
there for Ireland, but for England and the colonies, and
the United States of America, and a mass of low-bred
disaffected men are disseminated into every portion of the
British dominions.
The truth of the above remarks is too obvious to
require the aid of argument, and too self-evident
to admit of denial ; yet, in the face of these im-
portant and startling truths, we have men—sena-
tors—Protestant Christians, who are so besotted
by the chicanery of a pseudo-liberalism, as to
advocate and assist in the perpetuation of an in-
stitution so monstrously perverted—so practically
dangerous to our religious and civil liberties, as the
Popish College of Maynooth.

Christianity in China : the History of Christian
Missions, and of the present Insurrection.
London and Liverpool : W. S. Orr and Co.
For long and numerous years it has been a well-
founded complaint among men of business, as well
as among literary men, that almost nothing is
Gown of the history or of the political or social
institutions of the Chinese. It is, no doubt, quite
true that from time to time books have been
written and published purporting to convey
authentic intelligence relative to the past and
resent condition of that immense yet carefully
secluded empire ; but, on examination, these books
have generally been found mere repetitions of each
other, the earliest displaying little beyond acknow-
ledged ignorance on the subjects treated of, the
later remarkable for nothing more than the indus-
try with which the previous ignorance had been
repeated, if we except the absence of that ingenu-
ousness which led the original authors to declare
the very imperfect nature of their information.
For upwards of three centuries the inquisitive
operations of European commerce and the benevo-
lent exertions of Christianity have been directed to
the establishment of the Christian faith among the
-Chinese people, and to an understanding of their
social and commercial laws and customs, with but
little practical effect in either instance ; and we see
ionly slender ground for expecting that much infor-
mation on those subjects will be obtained from the
work whose title stands at the head of this
notice.
It is a readable collection of such scraps of infor-
mation as are to be met with in missionary reports,
in newspaper paragraphs, and in commercial mani-
festoes, arranged with comprehensible continuity ;
-but it is greatly deficient in system, and is des-
titute of generalisation or originality. To those
who wish to possess, in a condensed form, the
chief points of floating intelligence relative to
China and its affairs, which are to be met with in
s great number of isolated publications entitled to
varying degrees of credit, the book will prove a
welcome boon ; but it will not avail much to those
who wish to acquire systematized information on
the subjects of Chinese policy, laws, or social
Customs.

-Benedictions; or, the Blessed Life. By the Rev.
John Cumming, D.D., F.R.S.E. London :
John F. Shaw.
The popularity of Dr. Cumming as an author
, a preacher is too well known and too widely
2lamitted to derive enhancement or to sustain
jury from what may be expressed concerning him
•lin either capacity through the channels of ephe-
Ineral criticism. His success as an eminent teacher
°' Christian truth, and a devoted advocate of the
3.nterests of his Master's kingdom, are fully attested
in the zealous affection of an extensive, intelligent,
nattathed congregation ; while his merits as an
author have been recognised by the extensive and
ha ?oat unexampled rapidity with which his works
e been sought after and bought up. In the
e of such testimony, little remains for us to do
ire3::4l(l stating 'that the work before us is in all
"413ect._ is a fitting companion to its predecessors.
.are admonitions contained in the present volume
fttion nently practical in their tendency and appli-
l'alloLafair specimen of which will be found in the
—ma advice as to the
lf „I'ItaCTICE Or MERCY AND LOVE.
iter
ttawn-°l4(leg;et rid of that selfishness which thinks of
„ ° her's, h,,vngs, however little, and nothing of a
;r1" get what iniev great—which is ever jealous lest it do
efer to itwith ,-I,eserres, and ever afraid lest you do not its due----how eal.`, and that not a little, which it thinks is
ou illustrate :IT could your heart beat, how truly would
Lion christia all history is teaching, that in propor-
floes the desert nity
beginPreads over the mass of mankind,
blossom even as the
'horrid state, which imse.
tn rejoice and the wilderness o
But when we fall into that
Ceram snrne think nothing Perfection of
911 Sciloe••" The ld Ivor carai for zne, and I

care nothing for the world,"—we shall feel it sounds very
grand, but it is very miserable. We know there is no
happiness in any such feeling. There is no help for us
but to love, if we would be happy. Hate men, and you
will be more miserable than they ; love men, and they
will be blessed by your love, and its reflex operation will
bless yourselves also. Look upon the world's goodness
with thankfulness to God-; look upon the world's sins
with compassion and with prayer ; look upon the world's
injuries with forgiveness ; and pray that the Spirit that
builds up the Christian character with all that brightens
and beautifies here below may make you merciful, and
give the benediction now, and the fulfilment of the pro-
mise then—" For they shall obtain mercy." Thus will
you tread one of the fairest paths of the blessed life.
The present volume is published uniform with
the other works written by Dr. Cumming, and,
like them, it is a beautiful specimen of the typo-
graphical art.
The Universal Library; Nos. 23 and 24, contain-
ing the Mutiny of the Bounty and Ritson's
Robin Hood. Loltdon : Ingram, Cooke, and Co.
This very handsome and cheap issue of English
and foreign authors continues to increase its
claims on public favour. Ritson's collection of
poems, songs, and ballads, relative to the cele-
brated Robin Hood, with all the historical notes,
beautifully printed, and besides that tastefully
embellished by clever wood-cut engravings, for
so small a charge as the cost of one number of this
series. Could we say anything further to recom-
mend the Universal Library than that such num-
ber is a fair specimen of the work

Comte's Philosophy of the Sciences ; Translated
by G. H. Lewes. London : Henry G. Bohn.
This is a book of no ordinary pretension ; what
its claims to occupy the position it seeks to hold
may be, we shall be better able to point out as we
proceed, than we can hope to be at the mere thres-
hold of the edifice its author endeavours to rear.
At the very commencement of his work, Mr. Lewes
tells us Auguste Comte is " the greatest thinker
of modern times,—the man whose doctrine is to
the nineteenth century something more than that
which Bacon's was to the seventeenth and eigh-
teenth centuries." Such, indeed, may be the posi-
tion M. Comte is entitled to hold ; but, if so, we
greatly fear Mr. Lewes will do little to either -place
him or maintain him on so honourable and pro-
minent a pedestal. Few injuries are so fatal to
fame as those inflicted by the laudations of inju-
dicious friends, and no hurts are more dangerous
to reputation than those occasioned by indiscreet
adulation. M. Comte is a savan of no inconsider-
able acquirements and merit, and his speculations
are at least bold, if they are not also always charac-
terized by philosophic caution. His philosophy has,
no doubt, been received by a crowd of admiring
followers ; may we venture to express a hope that
they have not all been as indiscriminating in their
faith as Mr. Lewes has been unhesitating in his
praises of that philosophy which he shows himself
by no means well fitted to expound.
The task which Mr. Lewes has imposed on him-
self, that of popularizing a series of very abstruse
and comprehensive theories, is, indeed, a difficult
one, and to have been only moderately successful
in the accomplishment of it would argue capabi-
lities of no mean order, the possession of which it
would be wrong entirely to deny to that gentle-
man. What we chiefly blame him for, is having
permitted himself to be blinded and carried away
by an unreasoning admiration of his oracle. We
can easily understand, and readily sympathise with
a poet led captive by the intensity of his feelings,
whether those feelings lead him to an adoration of
the genius of a brother poet or induce him to an
equally enthusiastic worship of some imaginary
excellence ; but we cannot permit the same lati-
tude of inference and deduction in framing what
purports to be a philosophic essay. It is too much
the fashion of the present day to dignify rhapsodies
with the name of philosophy ; and, although we
feel bound to admit this has not by any means
been the general character of the works published
by Mr. Bohn, in his Scientific Library, we must be
forgiven in thus freely protesting against the pro-
mulgation of ill-considered opinions under the
guise of philosophic cogitation.

The Dublin University Magazine for .Yovember.

Dublin : James IV-I`Glashan.

The November number of this magazine, like
most of its predecessors, contains many interesting
and instructive papers. It opens with a clear
biographical summary of the dashing career of
Patrick Sarsfield, Earl of Lucan, in which the
chivalrous exploits of that intrepiksoldier are set
forth and commented on in a style at once pleasing
and instructive. In this biography the writer
dwells with gratified partiality on the general
bravery and numerous gallant deeds achieved by
the " Irish Brigade," which for a long period cut
so conspicuous a figure in the wars of Europe.
Thc
effusion
ur x.-.,—,_ m„,--ri., ;. fillin.wf Jr a
poetical esion on " The Battle of Lough wi iy,' •
which is in turn succeeded by a curious contribu-
tion entitled " Pig Lore." In the course of this,
which, notwithstanding the singularity of its title,
is an erudite article, the writer glances at and
indicates, rather than discusses, the various in-
cidents of honour accorded to the pig in ancient
times ; peeps slyly at the unmerited disgrace it has
fallen into among certain tribes and people ; refers
with considerable gusto to the " Danmow Gam-
mon," and other similar festivals, once popular in
England, and treats of its universal appreciation
in Ireland in the following strain : I