The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-10-25 00:00:00

A saint in glory, thou

Bright one, farewell !
We meet on earth no more

—Ascended to thy rest

But Faith points out a union ever blest

When mortal griefs are o'er I

Liverpool, October, 1851

HENRY GRAZEBROOK

REVIEWS OF BOOKS.

Me Church of England Quarterly Review

No. lxviii

London: W. E. Painter

The contents of the October number of this well-
-conducted periodical are varied and generally of
grave importance. The first paper is devoted to
the consideration of " The Holy Eucharist," in
-which the doctrines of Archdeacon Wilberforce con-
nected with that subject are examined at consider-
able length. The next matter taken up is the
stirring question, " Why has the Papacy so far
succeeded ?" This article is founded on three
small publications recently issued, one from the
Pen of the notorious Dr. Newman, one by Mr. J.
W. Allies, and one by the Rev. H. Smith. The
'principal object of this paper, in examining the
arguments of the three gentlemen named, is to point
'out the difference in essentials between the true
Protestant Church of Christ and the Church of Rome.
in doing so, the writer shows that the chief ground
vsf Popish success has been the adoption of portions
of Christian truth, the virtues of which have been
sufficient, to float through the storms of time and
contention, the enormous mass of heresy and error
which has been engrafted on and hung around them.
Ile insists on the necessity of a clear understanding
4)f the differences and distinctions existing between
-these as indispensable to a successful attack upon
the R omish system, in order that our missiles may
'Le rightly directed. The paper is well written,
and will repay an attentive perusal. A notice of
the life and opinions of Ulrich Von Hutten occupies
'the third paper, which is followed by a readable
critique on Atherstone's " Fall of Nineveh," and
another on Palliser's " Life in the Prairies." In
a paper entitled "Alchemy and Gold," the probable
effect of the gold discoveries in California and Aus-
tralia is discussed with calmness and intelligence.
The paper is founded on a series of letters by P. J.
Stirling, in which the probable consequences of
those discoveries are carefully examined. The
reviewer, after displaying much research into the
arcana involved in the political bearings of the
subject, concludes an ably-written and deeply
interesting paper with the following valuable obser-
wations on

THE VALUE OF OUR AUSTRALIAN CONNEXION

Already the effect of Australian wealth is being sensibly
felt here in the shape of import and export, besides the
continual amount of specie sent over. The great and in-
creased consumption, rendered greater by the late enormous
:tide of emigration, has increased our exports to an in-
credible extent ; and we have used what of Australian gold
there was at handin payment for the raw material, without
s.fear for any deficiencies to be met. It is still in the pas-
toral and the agricultural wealth of this great country
-that we must look for that stability of manners and of
comfort always the concomitant of pursuits that are local,
lasting as the years, and dependent on seasons, and not on
discovery. We might have converted our able-bodied
pauper population, at the cost of the keep here, into cus-
tomers there ; and given to broken men, ease, esteem, and
self-respect, now bending beneath the iron rod of a hope-
less cankering penury. Men could not, or would not, go
forth in sufficient numbers, till the discovery of gold
created an inspiring stimulus ; but because out of evil
rood may come, so out of this craving for immediate
wealth, and because so many realised the wish, and thus
justified the eagerness of a general hope, the best may yet
be augured; because, if ever the "diggings" cease to an-
-ewer expectations on a limitless and extravagant scale, the
_plough and the crook, corn and cattle, sheep and wool,
-will prove another and a nobler mine ; and the prolific
capabilities of Australia, uniting their resistless and
aneasureless treasures—animal, vegetable, and mineral
together—will distribute more equally and more equita-
bly a wealth which all shall share and labour for ; and,
-while envy at the success of one can scarcely exist, con-
.entment is certain to be there, and contentment is the
Zasis of true happiness. Within this last month our ex-
ports have amounted to three millions and a-half more
-han they were at the same time last year; and nearly
twice as much more has been imported as at the same
period in 1852. Consumption in every article of food is
on the increase. Wages are greater, and more money is
expended. as a consequence. It is gratifying, as well as
.significant, that the great bulk of the exports to Australia
are home manufacture—the produce of our own artizan
industry. As their numbers increase, so will the demand,
and a new and continually enlarging market opens a fresh
field for commercial enterprise and promises a reciprocal
prosperity. We have many tangible proofs of this latter.
If the violence of the gold fever does not leave behind it
other consumptive seeds than the first passionate rush—
Ile eager avidity and the desire disappointed or insatiate
--let us be contented and thankfal, and hope for the best.
'lt would be ungrateful to create an imaginary evil, since
-the remedy must be just as hypothetical. Meantime, the
progress of Australian matters requires close watching ;
and we trust that the Government at home will not stop
short in the policy, that prompted it to abandon the un-
wise plan of sending felons and convicts among enter-
prising colonists and honest men.

Besides the papers enumerated in the October
mumber, there are several essays of varying degrees
Hof merit, and a series of excellent summary notices
iof new books.

Me Handbook of Foliage and Foreground
_Drawing. By George Barnard. London :
Ingram, Cooke, and Co.

The author, artist, and compiler of this book is
teacher, and, judging from the work before us,
practical and judicious one. His directions are
Main, comprehensible, and easy of application ; his
mexamples and initiatory studies useful to the pupil,
pleasing to the eye, and so graduated in the ad-
-vancing steps of artistical tuition, as to form in-
.teresting as well as valuable exercises. Altogether
the book is tastefully got up, cleverly illustrated,
and of a generally prepossessing a character.

Memoirs of Thomas Chalmers, D.D., L.L.D.
By the Rev. W. Hanna, L.L.D. Edinburgh
Thomas Constable and Co.

The great and deserved popularity enjoyed by
Th. Chalmers during his life, and the many in-
teresting scenes in which he performed a con-
zpipous part, naturally cor_fer upon his memoirs
=lmportance rarely accorded to the worldly move-
inents. of a Scottish clergyman. To a fervid ima-
gination, Dr. Chalmers united reasoning powers of
MO ordinary strength, and his course through life
-was marked by such a straightforward honesty of
_purpose, and single-minded simplicity of character,
as gained him the esteem of all parties. From
lhe prominent position he long occupied in the
Church of Scotland, and from his extensive con-
nexion with Scottish theological literature, Dr.
Chalmers was necessarily placed in personal com-
munication with most of the leading men of his
;day, including politicians, theologians, and scientific
its well as literary men ; and his memoirs abound
with interesting anecdotes arising out of his inter-
course with most of the men of mark who figured
Zuring, his protracted and busy public career. The
marrative of those circumstances and events which
constituted his public life is carefully and well
-written by his son-in-law, Dr. Hanna, evincing as
it does the tenderness of private friendship mingled
-with the responsible duty of the biographer, Nv:th-
ant an undue admixture of either ingredient. This
ludiciousness of management, combined with the
interest of the narrative itself, has contributed to
Tender the work a highly popular one ; and its
publication in the present cheap form cannot fail
-to render its sale very extensive. Success as a
commercial speculation is deserved by its beauty
.nd cheapness ; as a literary work, by its excel-
lence ; as a home companion, by its intrinsic worth
.as the life-record of a good and great man.

.Fitz-Alwyn, the First Lord Mayor. By Miss
E. M. Stewart. London : Ingram, Cooke & Co.

The present, which forms the sixth volume of
the City Tales, completes the series. Fitz-Alwyn
is a tale of the Drapers' Company, and is prefaced
1y a brief historical notice of the origin and pro-
gress of the company. The tale itself is illustra-
live of city life at an early period of the company's
14, stenee, which is supposed to have commenced in
32, The adventures and incidents are spiritedly
KT; the volume,.
like its predecessors, is taste-
will vji and illustrated, and the series
"n a handsome set for birthday or holiday
presents.
e .Poultry -keeper's Guide. By J. M. Moffatt.
A convenient. and
London : Dean and Son.
Ton fancier, containing
f intelligible hand-book for the
relative to the rearing. useful information
:and breeding of fowls.

,ocial benefi

we have c
which mu:

Leral adoption of

dways

M.D., F.R.S

and -practice, we have been at the same time
debarred from sympathising with many of its
advocates, on the broad ground of the intem-
perance manifested in their declamations, and the
false looi c involved in the violent denunciations of
all who do not assent in the fullest degree to their
overstrained conclusions. Not a few of those
gentry who are noisy declaimers at what are called
" temperance conventions," or " teetotal confer-

ences;" claim our attention, and seek to engage
our sympathies, by demonstrating that, in their
unregenerated days, they led lives from which
respectable men would shrink with loathing ; and
that they were addicted to habits which it would
be a libel to impute to even the brute creation.
Such ill-prepared advocates are, at the best, clan-

gerous aids to any cause ; and it is a vain effort
in men to claim credit for a principle which neces-
sity alone has driven them to a late, and, after all,
only doubtful, acquiescence in. Apart altogether
from the lack "of that charity which speaketh no
evil," so generally characteristic of teetotal ha-
rangues, the majority of tracts and essays which
have emanated from parties countenanced by the
promoters of the movement have been so filled with
overstrained eulogia of their own doctrines, and so
loaded with invective against all who hesitate to
receive their assumptions of fact, and to concur in
the deductions sought to be established from them,
that sober-minded inquirers have been repelled
from any intercommunion with their authors, have
been taught to look with suspicion on their abet-
tors, and with repugnance on the cause they seek
to advance. In Dr. Carpenter's work we are glad
to recognize a better spirit, and with it we hail
what appears a quiet, truthful, and philosophic
advocacy of a great and good principle, which, dis-
passionately followed up, and expounded in the
same persuasive, yet modest style, cannot fail to
produce highly beneficial results. This excellent

Work is, indeed, a scientific and systematic inquiry
into the physiology of temperance, and the phy-
siology and pathology of drunkenness. These im-
portant subjects of inquiry he divides into seven
heads, and discusses them under form of the fol-
lowing propositions on

THE EFFECTS OF ALCOHOLIC ACTION

I. The action of alcohol upon the animal body in health
is essentially poisonous, producing such a disturbance in
the regular current of vital action as, when a sufficient
dose or succession of doses is administered, becomes fatal.

IT. The consequences of the habitual excessive use of
alcoholic liquors, as proved by the experience of the
medical profession, and generally admitted by medical
writers, are precisely such as the study of its effects in
poisonous doses would lead us to anticipate, various
diseases being thus induced in the organs whose actions
are peculiarly liable to derangement from the presence of
alcohol in the system.
111. The habitual moderate use of alcoholic liquors has
a tendency to produce morbid actions in those organs espe-
cially acted on by them, which ultimately manifest them-
selves in various chronic diseases of advanced life.

IV. The preceding conclusion, as to the remotely inju-
rious effects of the " moderate" use of alcoholic liquors, is
borne out by the comparative rapidity with which similar
results develope themselves in tropical climates.
V. The capacity of the healthy human system to sustain
as much bodily or mental labour as it can be legitimately
called on to perform, and to resist .the extremes of heat
and cold, as well as other depressing agencies, is not
augmented (as commonly supposed) by the use of alcoholic
liquors ; but, on the contrary, their use under such circum-
stances tends positively to its impairment.
VI. Although there are certain exceptional cases, in
which occasional or even habitual recourse may be had to
alcoholic liquors with apparent advantage, the number of
cases in which permanent benefit is gained by their use is
much less than is generally supposed, their effect being
rather to palliate the results of departures from the laws
of health than to antagonise or remove their causes, and
any temporary increase of power being usually purchased
at the expense of a greater subsequent diminution in the
capacity of exerting it.
VII. Whilst the habitual use of alcoholic liquors, even
in the most moderate amount, is likely (except in a few
rare instances) to be injurious rather than beneficial, great
benefit may be derived in the treatment of diseases from
the medicinal use of alcohol in appropriate cases.

Having so stated his propositions, he goes on to
show that to ensure the efficacious operation of the
" temperance principle," experience has taught
that total abstinence is the only safe and certain
means, and on this ground he advocates, and con-
vincingly advocates its adoption, by the intelligent
and influential classes, as the most potent and
efficient means of enforcing the precept. In the
course of his inquiry the doctor discusses the
subject of intemperance in its various social and
frequently appalling aspects. Like most writers
on the subject he dwells at much length on its
baneful influence as an incentive to crime. His
investigations under this particular head of inquiry
are hardly, in our estimation, so satisfactory in
their results as they are on some other of the points
considered. His data in this instance are generally
derived, directly or indirectly, from the criminals ;
and all experience goes to show how very little
reliance is to be placed on the :declarations of
such parties. fn most cases they are lamentably
ignorant and unprincipled, yet generally pos-
sessed of sufficient cunning to perceive the re-
sults intended to be arrived at by their interro-
gators, which their own unscrupulousness, and an
innate desire to palliate their crimes, leads them at
once to humour and to gratify by all manner of
self-accusations, but the right ones. There can
exist no reason for doubting that a large amount
of crime originates in intemperance ; but there are
also grave reasons for believing that it receives
even more than its due share of blame in respect
to that great social evil. The effects of intem-
perance, in producing a mentally degenerated
offspring, is a phase of the social malady which
was not likely to escape the observation of so
earnest an inquirer and so acute a reasoner as Dr.
Carpenter ; and he cites instances in corroboration
of his views as follows :

DRUNKENNESS CAUSES MENTAL DEBILITY IN THE

OFFSPRING,

The drunkard not only injures and enfeebles his own
nervous system, but entails mental disease upon his
family. His daughters are nervous and hysterical; his
sons are weak, wayward, eccentric, and sink under the
pressure of excitement, of some unforeseen exigency, or
the ordinary calls of duty. On this point, however, the
most striking fact that the writer has met with, is con-
tained in the report on idiocy lately made by Dr. Howe to
the legislature of Massachusetts. " The habits of the
parents of 300 of the idiots were learned ; and 145, or
nearly one-half, are reported as known to be habitual
drunkards." Such parents, it is affirmed, give a weak
and lax constitution to their children, who are conse-
quently, "deficient in bodily and vital energy," and pre-
disposed by their very organisation to have cravings for
alcohol stimulants ; many of these children are feeble and
live irregularly. Having a lower vitality, they feel the
want of some stimulation. If they pursue the course of
their fathers, which they have more temptation to, and
less power to avoid, than the children of the temperate ;
they add to their hereditary weakness, and increase the
tendency to idiocy in their constitution,—and this they leave
to their children after them. * * * * There is every
reason to believe that the monomania of inebriety not
only aggravates, and renders more deleterious, whatever
taint may exist in the individual ; but that it vitiates or
impairs the sources of health for succeeding generations.
The doctor is eloquent and convincing in showing
the debasing influence of inebriety upon the moral
constitution ; he is equally effective in demon-
strating it to be productive of physical weakness, as
that is evinced in a diminished power of sustain-
ing or resisting injuries caused by disease or acci-
dent. With much success he combats the opinion
that the moderate use of alcoholic stimuli is bene-
ficial to the system, by showing that its frequent
application even in small quantities is not only
unnecessary for the maintenance of bodily and
mental vigour, but is unfavourable to the perma-
nent enjoyment of health. In a very interesting
section of the work he examines and dissipates the
popular ideai of such stimulants being required in
certain conditions, or at certain periods of life. In
conclusion, we are glad to have at last met with a
declared advocate of total abstinence from intoxi-
cating liquors, who bases his advocacy on calm
inquiry, and enforces it in a systematic manner by
rational views unfoldedwith temperance of language
and modesty of demeanor.

Yankee Humour, and Uncle Sam's Fun.
London : Ingram, Cooke and Co.
This volume of transatlantic humour contains a
large amount of mirth-provoking grotesquerie. It
is prefaced by a protracted and somewhat heavy
introduction from the pen of Mr. W. Jerdan. The
illustrations, eight in number, are clever, though
so much overstrained as to border on caricature.