The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-02-19

PoETICAL WORKS OF CHARLES u. HALP'NE.
(Miles O'RiIcyl, with a Biographical sketch,
BY R,bert r. Roosevelt. New York: Harper
s. Brothers. Charleston /: Holmes Book
House.
A better selection from General Halpines
works will, doubtless, be made at some fu-
ture time, when the Jeur d'esprtt which polIt-
ical interest and personal affection now
retain shall have lost their value. II alpine
was an improvisatore, ardent, impulslve
and genial in temper, quick in apprehen-
sion and fluent in speech. With him to
think and speak and write inccssantly; to
dash off puus and poems, editorials and
volumes to adventure upon any kind OF
work, and to use any instrument that came
to hand, scalpel or brief, pen or sword, or
Tyre in a word, if we may be allowed to
make word for the occasion, with him to
.forthput was necessity of nature. Of
course, much that he has written is fugitive
But much will survive. Some of his senti-
mental songs are not unequal to those OF
Morris some of his humorous ones rival
those of Holmes. His thrilling Fenian
songs would be little more consistent IT
they had no denunciations of "rebcls" in
them; but logic was never one of Halpine's
in6rmitics. We look in vain for the
"Epics" which Mr.. Roosevelt promises on
the title page, unless this be q new name
for the ballads in the volume.
ssTHE APOSTLE OF THE NORTH" The Life and
Iabo1s OF the Rev. Dr. Mcdonald. By the
Rev. J. Kennedy, Dingwail. London: J..
Nelson & Sons.
DR.. Mcdonald was the evangelist of the
Highlands. A mighty man in frame, in
passion, in conviction, it seemed to those
who heard him preach that che would bring
"the very roof down upon their heads"
A preacher most intense, he addressed q
people not less enthusiastic than their Gel
tic kindred among the Welch mountains.
He exercised an Immediate, irresistible,
urbounded influence over the wild clans of
the borders. The present work is q bis
tory of his missionary enterprises and sue
cesses. 1t abouuds in anecdotes ilustra-
tive of his methods, his character and the
state of tue people among whom he labored.
The 0ssianic poems we're discovered, in
their substance, by DR.. Mcdonald in the
comparatively little known northwest of
Scotland The volume is beautiful in its
execution.
The CHALET OF REARLs; on TIE WHITE AND
BLACK RIBAUMoNT. BY the Author of The
He otRedcyfe." New York: D. Appleton
20. Charleston John Russell.
The au,her of the 'Heir OF Redc'yffe' is
one of those ladies the fertility of whose
genius fills US with admiration. II requires
no great effort of Imagination to fancy ber
writing books for our grandchildren, as flu
emily as she has fer the last twenty or thirty
years been writing them for ourselves.
Their elements are simple enough, if their
nulsber is confusing. a tile love, tirged
with go dim religious" coloring-a little
High Churchism, inclining now to Ritual
ism, now 20 Ca,hcliciiy, according to the
period of the stery,-a mild catastrophe
here and there acting as q sort Of break
water to the otherwise uuruGl ID flow Of
serene sentiment,-these are tho mate
rials by q judici1us manipulation Of which
the identity Of structure is disguised. The
present story is O historical novel of the
time of the massacre of ST. Bartholomew,
is neither better nor worse than others from
the same pen. We may say Of it-hy way
Of parody on the famous remark of the
s'late lamented" Mr.. Lincoln to the show
man who requested an endorsement of his
panorama,-"for the people who like her
s.books we should say that the 'Chaplct of
"'Pearls' is the sort of thing that such peo-
"ple like!" For ourselves, we have found it
rather dull reading.
How BRIDE WAS Won; OR CHASE AcRoss
THE PANIpAs. BY Frederick Gerstacckcr.
New York: D. Appleton Go. Charleston
John Russell.
Given nothing particular to say, and
three hundred double-columned pages to
say it in-given the smallest conceivable
amount of incident to spread over the larg-
est possible space, and you have as the
result tho present shovel" The book
seems utterly ohjec.less, and the story me-
auders through the pages with the most
delightful indifference to the claims of time,
place and circumstance.