The Press. — 1854-07-01 (London, England)

THE PRESS.  that all our public letter-writers would take a hint in this point from Mr. Shirley Brooks. We can cordially recommend to notice, as instructive anti entertaining, this vivid descrip tion of Southern Russia. From a pile of un readable compilations on the same subject we turn to this volume with the aspiration, " 0 si sic amnia ! "  Narrative of a Journey through Syria and Palestine in DM and 1852. By C. W. N. Van de Velde. London : Blackwood and Sons.  TRUTH compels us to say that Lieut. Van de Velde's qualifications as a traveller are not of a high order. The object of his journey was to make an accurate survey of the less-frequented districts of Palestine; and this duty we doubt not he performed satisfactorily; but the descriptions which ho gives of natural objects are neither concise nor striking ; the ground over which ne travels is for the most part exhausted ; and two-thirds, at least, of his book are made up of religious rhapsodies and quotations from scripture, which, however indicative of the writer's piety, fail to interest readers in general. In fact, the style of this work reminds one of a missionary journal, or of letters addressed from abroad to the Record newspaper—a publication which the author frequently quotes. M. Van de Velde, whether from the results of his observation or from religious sentiment, loses no opportunity of casting blame on the Turkish Government. He found fertile districts abandoned by their inhabitants, and left waste and desolate, through the oppression of local tax-gatherers ; travelling dangerous, owing to the prevalence of highway robbery ; a military conscription vigorously enforced ; and a general laxity of administration discreditable to civilised community. Almost the only modern institution of which he speaks in terms of praise is the missionary organisation—whose success up to the present time has not been great—for the conversion of the Jews. Of the societies established for this purpose a full, and we doubt not accurate, account is given. M. Van de Velde sets no value on traditions, and is indignant at the impostures practised, both in Jerusalem and elsewhere, on credulous pilgrims. He also throws considerable doubt on the genuineness of M. da Saulcy's discoveries. His remarks on these two subjects form the best part of his volumes.  Jernittgham. A Story. London : Chapman and  Hall. "JERNINGHAM " is composed of the very wildest ingredients of fiction. It combines all kinds of incidents except the probable, and all kinds of characters except the natural. There are English gipsies and their queen, with her "Madonna-like head and night•black eyes,"—and French conspirators, put in action by Paul Didier,—midnight meetings in leafless forests, and reunions in royal chateaux, with " thousand lamps shedding lustre on gilded saloons." Daft Jem and Will Dirk, the cadger, mix in the maze with the Prince de Conde and Madame de Feuchercs, with her " serpent eyes." A Lord Merivale, of the blaze voluptuous type, is connected with a young adventurer who writes witty farces and brilliant novels. Love and murder, parcels of hank notes and rifle shots, giants, Cornish dwarfs, a bearded beauty of Buenos Ayres, an intoxicated Jewess, and a somnambule, all contribute in some inexplicable way to the development of a story continued for upwards of thirty years, in which the hero (of course) at last succeeds to the estates of his ancestors, and the gipsy queen of "the highest Gitana blood that " Spain could boast" settles sedately down, after thirty years of camp and kettle life and rough usage, into the model lady patroness of a district, where " she lives only to do good ; the rich respect her, " the poor bless her; her existence is benevolence." The whole book is of a phantasmagoria character, with such merits and faults as belong to a collection of the most startling accidents cf life, often strongly portrayed, but jumbled confusedly together. It resembles somewhat those exhibitions of dissolving views in which, according to an announcement before us, a view of Bethlehem melts into a smuggler's cave by moonlight; the holy sepulchre at Jerusalem into the battle of the Nile; the tomb of Absolom into an eruption of Mount Vesuvius; the Crystal Palace into a storm at sea ; and a fine water-mill, with the machinery in action, into a splendid portrait of Queen Victoria surrounded by her Court.