The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-10-11 00:00:00

REVIEWS OF BOOKS

Blackwood's Magazine. Edinburgh : Blackwoods.
It is always a labour of love to notice a magazine
which, confessedly at the head of our periodical
literature, maintains its position so ably and so
well. The number for October commences with a
review of " Uncle Tom's Cabin ;" a work which
the writer acknowledges to have read only within
the last month. He admits many faults of con-
struction in the story, but highly eulogises the
genius, piety, and good intention of Mrs. Stowe, in
her celebrated book ; of which the gem, in the
reviewer's opinion, is the character of Topsy.
Speaking of another character, Cagey, he de-
scribes her as " a being whom we did not suppose
Mrs. Stowe, with all our trust in her previously-
exhibited powers, equal to conceiving and sup-
porting. She occasionally reminds us of some of
the greatest passages in Greek tragedy." Praise
from such a source, and it is not spared, must add
to the already wide reputation of the authoress.
—The charming story of " Lady Lee's Widow-
hood" is brought to a conclusion, after the approved
fashion, though it seems to have required several
glaring improbabilities to accomplish it.—The
third part of the notice on " New Readings in
Shakspere" completes the review of the several

alterations proposed by the MS. commentator,
ushered into notice by Mr. Payne Collier. It is a
merciless onslaught on the daring hand—for whose
occupation the writer has no sympathy—when he
was " paring and pruning the darling of the uni-
verse." We agree with the reviewer in most of his
conclusions, but must take exception to his expla-
nation of the following passage in " Antony and
Cleopatra," where Caesar says :

" But you are come
A market-maid to Rome, and have prevented
The ostentation of our love, which left, unshown,
Is often left unloved."
The meaning of which the reviewer conceives to
be—love which is left unshown is often left un-
returned. A far more obvious interpretation is,
that where love is left unshown, it often ceases to
be felt. In the tragedy of " Macbeth," Act IV.,
scene 1., he gives the MS. commentator credit for
altering, " Rebellious head, rise never" into " Re-
bellion's head." It is an alteration with which
we have been familiar long before the old corrector
was brought to light.—A paper, headed, " Rail
and Saddle in Spain," is a sweeping, though de-
served exposure of the perfidy and dishonesty of
the Spanish Government, and a caution against
embarking any money in Spanish Railway schemes.
There is no political article this month, and the
number concludes with an able vindication of the
character of Dean Swift, from the unjust and un-
charitable aspersions of Mr. Thackeray, in his Lec-
tures on " English Humonrists."

Chambers' _Edinburgh, Journal. Liverpool : Orr.
The part just published is one of the best which
has yet appeared, notwithstanding the long and
popular career of this well-conducted periodical. It
contains several highly-interesting articles, both of
entertainment and information, of which not the
least curious is an exposure of the secrets of some
of the apparently unintelligible advertisements
which have appeared in the Times.

The Dodd Family Abroad. By Charles Lever
No. XIV. London : Chapman and Hall.

The adventures of this erratic Hibernian house-
hold continue as full of frolic and courted mishaps
as ever. The manoeuvring blunders of the
mamma, the little more skilful fishing of the
daughter and son, and the half-knowing, "half-
blind perversity of the father, afford materials for
as nice a milange as the most enthusiastic lover
of light literature could desire. The illustrative
etchings are, as usual, clever and characteristic.

Tice Comedies of Aristophanes. A New and
Literal Translation. By William James
Hickie. Vol. 11. London : Henry G. Bohn.

On the English student of the Greek classics,
few greater boom can be bestowed, by any means,
than by furnishing him with literal translations of
the standard Gree authors, and more especially of
the dramatic poets. In the dramatic poetry of
Greece, the machinery and language employed
have so little in common with the same appliances
of the English drama, that a thorough comprehen-
sion of the meaning, and even an approximate
appreciation of the former is to a common English
scholar a matter of considerable difficulty and great
labour. By the intervention of such translations
as this, the concluding volume of which is now
before us, much of this labour is spared and
nearly all the difficulty obviated. On the first
volume we felt warranted in bestowing a warm
and approving welcome, and we are glad to find
that this, the concluding one, sustains the charac-
ter of the first. The present volume contains
"Lysistrata," "The Thesmophoriazusw," "Frogs,"
" Ecelesiazusw," and " Plutus ;" and, as in the
preceding volume, the translator, in addition to a
literal English rendering of the text, furnishes us
also with copious readings from the best German
and other commentators ; besides giving parallel
illustrative passages from Greek and other poets.
In short, the translation and its accompanying
notes display much scholarly attention and a ready
understanding of the author, as well as familiarity
with the elucidatory remarks of the best commen-
tators. It forms a highly creditable addition to
the valuable series published by Mr. Bohn under
the denomination of the " Classical Library."

The Universal Library. Nos. 21 and 22
London : Ingram, Cooke, and Co.

The two parts just issued of the very hand-
some and comprehensive series published under
the. denomination of the " Universal Library "
maintain its character for cheapness and elegance.
They contain " Bacon's Essays, and Locke on the
Reasonableness of Christianity ; " together with
" The Neighbours," " The Twins," and other tales
by Frederika Bremer.

Izaak Lakadam. By Alexander Dumas. Part I.

London : Vizetelly and Co

This is a romance from the fertile pen of Dumas,
the wonderful Parisian feuiltonist, whose speed
and eccentricities of composition have formed
themes of admiration to the literary cognoscenti of
Europe. The scene of the story before us is in the
vicinity of Rome, and its period the latter half of
the fifteenth century. It contains some striking
and characteristic events, enriched by accompani-
ments which in an ordinary romancist would be
called elaborate ; but, if we are to credit the tales
we are told of the facility of romantic creation pos-
sessed by Dumas, we must consider them as little
better than artistic make-weights, hastily snatched
up by the author, and thrust into the scale with-
out premeditation or arrangement. The scenes
and incidents are generally dashed off with
much spirit, and are in a high degree suggestive.
Among those incidents is a competition of archery,
in which Izaak, a sort of nondescript pilgrim, plays
the principal part, with the most perfect coolness
and indifference, beating his competitors in a man-
ner much similar to that of Locksley in the cele-
brated archery competion at the tournament of
Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Ivanhoe, to which trial, in-
deed, the scene bears a considerable resemblance.
How the story may turn out is, of course, diffi-
cult to say; the field it proposes to traverse is a fertile
one, and from the opening it promises well. It is
beautifully printed, and illustrated by two exceed-
ingly clever wood engravings.

The Three Presidencies of India. By John
Capper, F.R.A.S. London : Ingram, Cooke,
and Co.
Pew books are more likely to be generally
fular, or have greater chances of extended use-
-01. lnai eki, than a succinct and well-digested history
a.
At the present time, when it is felt
.by
Lii,,Parties that the resources of the vast empire
possessed by Great Britain in the East have
scarcely received even the rudiments of their de-
velopment ; and While crude schemes for the future
government of that great empire have been foisted
on the people of this countryi a means of forin
some estimate of the course hitherto pursued,m and the progress made in rendering our Indian territory
and its productions available for British uses, is

once t

The qualifi-

cations required for the task of pioducin.o. a book
which shall supply such a means will not readily
be found united in one individual ; and it is no
disparagement to either the talent or the judgment
of Mr. Capper to say he does not fulfil all the con-
ditions requisite to the production of such a work.
One qualification, however, of no mean order, he

does possess. From a protracted residence in the
last, and from having had practical opportunities
of studying our oriental institutions, and of can-
vassing their immediate operation, he is entitled
to be heard and attended to as an intelligent
witness ' • and if we are sometimes compelled to
receive his testimony cum notce, as one whose
conclusions have been biassed by the prejudices
inherent in the position he occupied, we are never-
theless called on to admit that he displays very
considerable knowledge of the subjects on which
he treats. In his preface he lets the reader into
the secret of his feelings in respect to

OUR MA/CitOEMENT OF INDIA

A country, the greater portion of which has been in
our possession for three-quarters of a century ; whose
commerce has remained stationary during the last eight
or nine years ; whose inhabitants pay in taxes half as
much as is collected in Great Britain and Ireland, and
yet annually consume no more than one shilling's worth
of British goods Der head, or one-fourteenth part of the

CI a
value taken by the inhabitants of Chili and La Plata ;
whose entire roads receive no greater outlay than is spent
upon the streets and highways of one of our large towns ;
upon whose education the annual sum of three farthings
per family is disbursed ; where railroads, under the
fostering care of the Court of Directors, have progressed
at the rate of fifteen miles in fifteen years ; within whose
colleges, maintained by a Christian government, the
Holy Scriptures are a contraband thing—the name of the
Saviour a forbidden sound, heard but in stealthy whispers ;
such a country as this cannot be an indifferent object to
Englishmen in the nineteenth century. Nor is it. India
has but to raise her voice, and she will be heard by a
people to whom a cry for justice was never yet raised in vain.

The case put by our author in the above extract
is a strong one, and, even allowing a little for
overcolouring in the picture, enough remains to
call for serious inquiry and deliberation. To aid
us in that inquiry, and also, we are afraid we must
add, to sway us in that deliberation, the book now

before us has been written. In it the subject of
India is taken up for consideration, under four dis-
tinct heads, namely, its historical, its political, its
physical, and its moral aspects ; the whole being
prefaced by a brief introductory sketch of the na-
tural history of India. The divisions of the sub-
ject are judicious, and, in most instances, it is no
more than bare justice to admit that they are
treated with candour. The historical portion of
the subject, particularly in its earlier periods,
though highly interesting, we must dismiss with
brief commendation.

Much has been said in condemnation of the
anomalous powers enjoyed by the East India Com-
pany, and no small amount of eloquence has been
expended in demonstrating the evil tendencies of
the capricious application of those powers in re-
pressing the commercial spirit of India. One well-
authenticated illustration of such caprice, and its
baneful effects, is worth a shipload of arguments,
and among others take the following :