The Liverpool Standard, and General Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-07-04 00:00:00

oid the roc

an the quicksands in which his nobl

ume before us, from a consideration of
preceding observations have too long
d us, and which forms the concluding one
ries of three occupied by selections, we must

Of the

Ever erratic, fanciful, bril-

De Quincey, in this as in the
ier droppings from his pen, seems to delight in
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l teeming digressions—by rambl

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mice, if not wanton prodigality, he revels in a
:uous maze of ready conceits, and piles idea
n idea, and plasters figure upon figure, with a

speriences no check. Like most, if

f his writings, those contained in this
ire lively and sportive, with such a redun-

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light, glowing; and tasteful fancy, they possess
Lerous charms, and will yield delight to many

The Sulta
Brief Memo
Rev. Henry Christmas

f Turkey, Abdul Medjid Khan. A
).1. his Life and Reign. By the
London : J. F. Shaw.

that the people of this country should possess a
well-grounded knowledge of the national and per-
sonal history of the individual and general
resources of Turkey than at the present moment,
when we stand on the entrance to the first battle-
field of a war undertaken in her defence, the dura-
tion and the final result of which no man can with
certainty foretel. The little volume before us con-

veys much information in brief space, and is
interesting on many accounts, chiefly, however,
from the numerous illustrative anecdotes, throwing
light on the personal history, intelligence, and
modes of thought evinced by the Turkish Sultan.
The present state and future prospects of the
Turkish empire likewise meet with a fair and intelli-
gent
consideration, and, as the book is published
at a rate so cheap as to bring it readily within
reach of all classes, its author and its publisher
have laid the public under an obligation of no
inconsiderable value, in thus giving them access to
much valuable and well-arranged information on
points of general discussion and vital interest at
the present moment. From Mr. Christmas' valua-

ble little work we learn many pleasing anecdotes
of the liberality and the impartial distribution
of justice by the chief ruler of Turkey, and are
supplied with intelligence of gratifying acts of
toleration towards Christians generally, and Pro-
testants in particular. The volume is well worthy
of an attentive perusal.

Vestiges of Divine Vengeance; or, the Dead Sea,
and th• Cities of the Plain. By William E.

Tayler

London: Wertheim and Macintosh,

The mysterious and awful nature of the calami-
ties and peculiar condition with which tradition
and physical appearances have invested the locali-
ties treated of under the above designation, added
to the intelligence relative to those places and
events which we find recorded in the sacred volume,
have invested every inquiry into their present and
past history, with an amount of interest rarely

iccorded to such investigations. In Mr. Taylerrs
little volume we have a faithfully compiled epitome
of all which modern research has elucidated in
illustration of the revealed truth. Much informa-
tion of a purely physical character is enriched with
speculations of a religious cast, by Mr. Taylor,
and each is so mixed up and interwoven with the
other,that they reflect mutual light upon each other.

of Ireland and the Irish. By J. G

11Malter

London : John F. Shiw.

For many years it was a common and not an
unfounded complaint that the feelings, habits,
opinions, and modes of life and action prevalent
among the Irish people, were unknown to the
English, and unrepresented in the national litera-
ture of Ireland : some even went so far as to con-
tend that there existed no national Irish literature
in the ordinary acceptation of that term. How
true soever that may have been a few years ago, it
can hardly be charged as either a crime or a neglect
against the present generation, which sees volume
after volume, and tale after tale, issuing from the
press, having for their common object a delinea-
tion of Irish life and manners. That some of
these are unfaithfully rendered, and others unskil-
fully drawn, may indeed be true, and furnish
matter for regret, but at all events their very
multiplicity tells favourably as to the public desire
for information on those topics which throw light
upon the domestic rural life of Ireland. In Mr.
MqValter, the subject has met with a bold and
observant artist, whose pictures glow with life and
animation ; and if the scenes he describes be not
at all times the most flattering to the self-love, or
complimentary to the moral aspect of society as
that is exhibited in his countrymen, the unamiable
appearance of the picture is, we fear, greatly more
attributable to the actual state of matters, physical
and moral, than chargeable to any obliquity of
vision or false drawing of the artist. His tales
bear the stamp of rough-and-ready delineation
prepared by personal observation. They are
graphic and suggestive.