The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-09-06 00:00:00

REVIEWS OF BOOKS.

The Triplet, a New Dance. By Edgar Webster,
Liverpool: J. Smith.

This handsomely got up piece of dance music
is, by permission, dedicated to Lady Constance
Grosvenor, and comprises "The Grosvenor Galop,"
and " The Sutherland Valse a deux temps. The
measures are lively, and the directions for executing
the figures explicit. It is well printed, and taste-
fully illustrated.
The Man of Sin. _ By the Rev. W. F. Taylor, M.A.

Liverpool: Howell.
During Lent of the present year tliCßev. W. F.
Taylor delivered a course of seven lectures, in St.
John's Church, and these have been published
under the above title. The separate subjects are
diciously treated, under the heads of " The
Demonology ..of Popery," " The Man of Sin the
Son of Perdition,' " The Persecutor," " The
Blasphemer," " The Mystery of Unity," " Satanic
Influence," and " Judicial Blindness." Under
these varied heads the pretensions of Popery are
rigorously scrutinized, and pointedly denounced.
The lectures were received with much favour
during the course of their delivery ; and their
popularity is more likely to be enhanced than
deteriorated by publication. They invite and will
repay attentive study.

Protestant Conversation Cards. Liverpool: Howell,

This may, and no doubt will, by some, be con-
sidered a singular title to what professes to be,
and in reality is, a valuable means of diffusing
among the working classes a knowledge of those
essential points of difference which exist between
the Church of England and the Romish Church.
These Conversation Cards, in the words of their
compiler, the Rev. James P. Shepherd, are "an
attempt to explain and expose the Romish doctrines
and ceremonies, as they now stand unrepealed from
the Council of Trent." The diffusion of religious
knowledge by such means is not new, and the
merit of this application of such means consists in
the directness, perspicuousness, and truth of the
intelligence conveyed. On these points we are
able to afford commendation to the labour be-
stowed in the effort. The intention has been well
realised.

The Illustrated London Magazine August
London : Piper, Brothers, and Co. _

This magazine, of which the present is only the
second part, is got up with much taste in so far as
the eye merely is concerned. Its contents also
Present a goodly array of authors' names, whose
contributions grace, or are supposed to grace, the
32111nber. How far this latter supposition is the
"' learned
affectation.e one, may be leaed from a piece of vapid
pertly put forth by Mr. Horace Mayhew,
,i,,'l_or the title of "Materials for an Autobiography."
—".general tenor of the paper is flippant, silly, and.
contemptible.rit, The tone of its insufferable vulga-
two sp however, can only be guessed at from one or
earlirTfaellsasy. "My mother was very pleased at
a s Mr. Horace Mayhew. " I have
y kuintity of novels." " I have suffered se-
theverel
same patravelling in an English railway." In
wit-
ness the success Mr. Mayhew says, " I hate to wit-
We pretend. nosst of a man who does not deserve it."
tleman's successro,ineasure the extent of this gen-
ial to ponder o,:euut would sincerely recommend
possible, reform hirs his own denunciation; and, if
the of English composition.
We regret to see t
is evidently cornmenl2ages of a serial, whose aim
mission of such ungra(lable, disfigured by the ad-
miss rubbish as that we
have pointed out, and ure to hope for an im-
provement in its future numbers,

The Lw „
The present number will support the charact
of this magazine as a literary serial. Its eon-

7:41 TTi

tents are varied, clever, interesting, and gene-
rally well written. Among its papers will be
found a valuable essay on " Industrial Education."
It is founded on lectures delivered by Dr. Lyon
Playfair, Professor Forbes, Sir H. de la Beche, and
others, besides embracing also a resume of educa-
tional essays, recently published, relative to the
state of artistic and industrial education in Eng-
land and on the continent. Besides this and
other papers of great merit, there is also a
capital contribution entitled " Geology, Popular
and Artistic." By students and amateurs of geo-
logical science, this will be read with interest
and profit. We cannot, however, avoid feeling the
want of those -admirable political articles, with
which, in bygone days, the pages of the Dublin
University Magazine were wont to be enriched.

Illustrated Handbook to Belgium and the .Rhine

London : Bradshaw.
Travelling through Belgium, on the Rhine, and
in Rhenish Prussia, has become such an every-day
occurrence, owing to the facilities afforded by rail-
roads and steam-boats, that a portable handbook
of easy reference has become a land of necessary.
The demand, however, has been well supplied by
the publisher of the celebrated " Railway Guide,"
who has here given all the necessary information
as to routes, hotels, passports, means of travelling,
&c., with a popular description of the various ob-
jects of interest to be seen. The book is profusely
illustrated with maps, plans of the streets in the
various towns, and engraved views of public build-
ings, &c. The latter may not rank high as works
of art, but they are sufficiently distinct to give a
good idea of the objects delineated. The book will
be warmly welcomed by all who travel in the di-
rection described, and from the moderate price at
which it is published, will, no doubt, command an
extensive patronage.

Blackwood's Magazine. Edinburgh: Blackwood.
The number for September opens with an article
on " Scotland since the Union," being a review of
a recently-published "History of Scotland from
the Revolution, &c., by John Hill Barton." The
reviewer, while describing Scotland as " tranquil,
prosperous, and enterprising," sets forth a series
of complaints. They want, he says, more of the
public money spent there, a Secretary of State for
Scotland, and a greater number of representatives
in Parliament. He forgets the old adage, to let
well alone. It may be that, if tt.e demands were
granted, Scotland would not be so prosperous as
she is at present. Ireland has had all these things,
and her Celtic population is almost extinct. " Fo-
reign Estimates of England" is an amusing com-
mentary on a recently-published work by Schle-
singer, a German author of some repute. It is
well that we should sometimes " see ourselves as
others see us." A second part of " New Read-
ings in Shakspere" exposes a number of the ab-
surdities of which Mr. Collier has been guilty in
his volume of alleged emendations, and the expo-
sure is justified on the ground that, "if the glory
of Shakspere be a theme for national congratula-
tion, the purity of his text ought to be an object
of national concern." The critic overhauls the
plays seriatim, and promises the remaining ten in
the next number. One curious fact is, that a word
in the first part of King Henry IV. which has
puzzled all the commentators is made clear by a
reference to. Dick Swiveller's "Marchioness," in
the tale of " The Old Curiosity Shop." After a
humorous story, entitled " The Duke's Dilemma,
a chronicle of Niesenstein," we have a continuation
of " Lady Lee's Widowhood," which has become
something more • serious as
the catastrophe ap-
proaches. "Coral Rings" is an interesting and
instructive description of those wonders of the
southern seas, the coral reefs. The number con-
cludes with an ably-written letter, from Liverpool,
on " The Extent and the Causes of our Prosperity,"
a subject too important to-be passed over in a hasty
notice, but which we shall return to more at length
another time. The writer entertains similar views
to those which we have previously advanced, and
his remarks are well deserving of serious and at-
tentive consideration.

Wanderings in Spain. By Theoppe Gautier

L-ondon : Ingram, Cooke and Co,

This lively narrative, of personal experiences
and wanderings in the Peninsula, is written by a
Frenchman, if we mistake not a Parisian literateur,
and its pages bear testimony to the thirst for
novelty which constitutes so prominent a feature
of the Gallic character. Theatres, balls, masques,
and bull-fights mingle in strange, yet picturesque,
confusion with cathedrals, religious processions,
Moorish architecture, and fantastic carvings. The
following description of varied scenery, travellers
and costume, as witnessed by our author, is artistic
and suggestive :