stories, carries the writer backwards and forwards | With the accustomed economy of his entire sysfrom place to place; and compels him to deal with tem of prose-spinning, too, he applies this invena set of actors in one who are necessarily ignorant tion in minute, as well as large, instances-inof what is doing, at the same moment, in another. fusing its genius throughout his style. The very These separate links of the tale have, of course, to first sentence, in the very first description in these be afterwards connected; and this is done in the volumes informs us that "a certain county in works of others, either by assuming the necessary England cannot exactly be called a midland county, communication-or by letting us know that it was because at one point it comes within a few miles made, without going into the terms. Mr. James of the sea." It is in a spirit somewhat akin to will not throw away matter in any such manner. that of this last contrivance, that effects are occaAfter having gone through a series of events with sionally produced which strike us with the sense ourselves, supposed to be lookers-on, he repeats of an imposition practised, already mentioned as them in our hearing for those who were not. Men generated by another of the author's ingenuities. recapitulate to each other what we already know After giving some pages at the very outset of his to have passed, instead of being supposed to do so volumes-when our attention is particularly en-knit together their separate threads of narrative gaged, because we desire to know the parties and before our eyes-and, so far as this particular book positions with which we are about to deal to an is concerned, in as coarse and bungling a manner elaborate description of a certain nobleman, he has as we remember to have seen such workmanship no remorse in presenting us with the following performed. Thus, we have the same portion of non sequitur:-" Now, doubtless, the reader may the narrative two, and occasionally three, times imagine" (doubtless, indeed,) "that, because we over. Nothing but the very productive character have introduced this noble lord before any one else of this contrivance could, we should think, have to his notice, and have spoken of himself and his reconciled the author to its awkwardness; but in dwelling somewhat at large, we intend to make his system that becomes a most important element, him one of the principal characters in the story, whatever its defects, which adds a third or fourth and introduce him frequently upon the stage. But to the raw material of his volumes. such is not at all the case. You have seen him, The last and greatest of Mr. James' discoveries dear reader, and you will never see him again." in the way of resource, however, returns to the Dr. Kitchiner's prescription for dressing a salad original field of Description-and throws all such suggests itself at once :-very particular directions minor contrivances into shade. When Mr. Pitt are given as to the preparation of the ingredients discovered the window tax, he was considered to-followed up by the final one to throw the prehave carried taxation to its most transcendental pared mixture out of the window! point; because, however all other forms of impo- Such is the loose, rambling, incoherent, unsition might be crippled by man's evasion or self- meaning style in which a popular novelist thinks denial, a certain portion of light and the air which fit to entertain (we dare say Mr. James would is its accompaniment, is essential to the mere even call it instruct) the public! Anything that existence of the human plant; and it was a tri- can fall from his pen is supposed to be, by virtue umph of the financial imagination to intercept the of its origin, good enough for the purpose; and elemental provision as it came direct from heaven, Art is held altogether below the necessities of a and "excise" a nourishment which is indis- writer of so many books as Mr. James. We will pensable. A new world of resource was opened not dwell, in the presence of these more serious up to Chancellors of the Exchequer. Pitt was charges, on mere grammatical slovenliness; such the Columbus of taxation, and the window tax his schoolboy errors were sure to follow in the train America. Expatiating in a region less sublime, of a literary truancy like this. Nor will we dwell Mr. James' discovery is as boundless for his pur- much upon the story itself-far more reprehensible poses; and we see no reason why, by its means, than all the rest. "We have led the gentle he should not complete his project in favor of his reader by the hand," says Mr. James, "all about distinguished friends by a book per man. His new the little town of Mallington, and the paths in that and most ingenious application deals with objects, neighborhood. If we had been the surveyor of alike sensible and speculative, no longer by their the roads for that district, we could not have laid positive, but by their negative qualities-describes them out with greater accuracy." Perhaps so; them not by properties but by the absence of them. nay, it is too true; their tracing is laborious Now, whatever any particular object may be, enough: but we fancy the surveyor of the district there are so many things which it is not, that we must have laid them out with greater clearness, or see scarcely a limit to this mode of dealing with a lost his place. The issue of Mr. James' multisubject. The hint appears to have been taken, no plied and minute descriptions is, to create, at doubt, from an Irish form of direction to a party length, a maze, in which the reader can by no inquiring out some place or abode-whose elabo- effort see his whereabout, and wanders vainly ration has often been quoted as having a whimsi- about, like the babes in the wood, till he gives it cal relation to the negative result. The formula, up, like them, from very hopelessness. So, also, as our readers are aware, is something like this: with the incidents of the tale. Situations are com"You know the house that stands somewhat plicated and events return upon themselves, in the forward in the middle of the street, with a bow attempt to get the effect out of their number which window, three chimneys-one with a pot on-a the author cannot communicate to their kind; till brass knocker on the door, and a crack in the we lose the sense of where we are in the storycentre pane of the middle first floor window?" and, in a fit of indifference, at last give up the "Yes! I know it perfectly."-" Well, that's attempt, and let the author lead us about where he not it!" Accordingly, Mr. James gives long will. We know not if he will think it a compliaccounts of what happens in some cases, for the ment to be told that he has thus obtained involunpurpose of informing the reader that it does not tarily another mystery to add to the many which happen in the one before him-doing so, be it he has sought. Be that as it may, however, this observed, in pure and gratuitous speculation.confusion of situation and incident, mixed up with. 52 these commonplaces of sentiment, will be full of | All weave on high a verdant roof, attraction for circulating-library readers; and yet That keeps the very sun aloof, this writer has not a chance at an entanglement Making a twilight soft and green, Within the columned vaulted scene. against the literary parent of "Susan Hopley.' Of the less exceptionable characters we shall say Sweet forest odors have their birth nothing, (which is just what they demand,) beyond From the clothed boughs and teeming earth; earnestly recommending Mr. James never to be Where pine cones dropped, leaves piled and dead, seduced into trying his hand at the facetious again. Long tufts of grass, It is inconceivable how a man of sense, as Mr. and stars of fern, James is, can have been betrayed into folly so like With many a wild flower's fairy urn, A thick elastic carpet spread; a schoolboy's as the production of Lawyer Quatterly. But the worst remains behind. On the Here with its mossy pall, the trunk present occasion Mr. James has descended into the Resolving into soil, is sunk; vicious school of " Jack Sheppard;" and nowhere There, wrenched but lately from its throne, have its immoralities seemed grosser than in his By some fierce whirlwind circling past, page-from the coarseness, yet feebleness, of the Its huge roots massed with earth and stone, One of the woodland kings is cast. drawing. Never did slang sound so vulgar as in these volumes, because so impressive and uncharacteristic: never has the face of ruffianism Above, the forest tops are bright looked so dirty, because never so pale. Murder, With the broad blaze of sunny light: robbery, and seduction are the staple of the book; But now a fitful air-gust parts and look only the more hideous in their masques because Mr. James has not succeeded in making any one of them speak its natural language. How long are the public to feed on garbage like this? How long are the growing thirst for what is knowledge, and taste for what is beautiful to have no better representative than such works in a favorite branch of our literature? How long are we to appear before the stranger by such literary ambassadors as these? How long are such things to be called literature at all? While the popular mind is awakening to hear, never was the popular teaching which speaks by fiction at so low an ebb. The passion for literary fame has yielded to the mere love of literary reputation (which is not the same thing;) the self-respect of genius to a cold calculation of gain. The taste for the high and pure is exchanged for a sordid ministry to what is corrupt in feeling and vicious in instinct. It is of the class, not the individual, that we are speaking Is the literary conscience extinct amongst our novel-writers? Have they deposed Art? But the principle of redemption lies finally in that under-current of improvement which we have described as going on; and which, if it did not finally purify the literary atmosphere to which it is exposed, must itself perish. The two conditions cannot much longer coëxist; and we have faith in the latter, because it is the healthy one. An idle, vulgar, unmeaning literature like ours of to-day must give place to something higher and nobler, before the better sympathies and purer cravings that are abroad :-and such a work as Mr. James' " Step-Mother" is, we think, calculated to help on the welcome change. now. A FOREST WALK. BY ALFRED B. STREET. A LONELY Sky, a cloudless sun, A wind that breathes of birds and flowers, Traced by the browsing herds, I choose, The screening branches, and a glow Whirrs to the sheltering branches near ; press, THE WORLD IS NOT SO BAD AS IT IS BELIEVED that town to London. Having settled with the TO BE.* "house," therefore, we took up a position in front of the "Crown," to be ready to mount the first I VENTURED this observation to my companion coach from Bath. In those days stage-coaches over an excellent breakfast in the travellers' room were in their glory; and several, whose destinaat the Crown Inn, Devizes. He was a veritable tion was the metropolis, changed horses at Devizes "traveller," arrived late the night before; but I daily. But, for a reason which I forget, coach had been such by courtesy only, while making after coach came up, and not a place, outside or in, this inn my head-quarters for some preceding days, could be obtained. My friend bore the arrival and devoted to antiquarian researches in the, neighbor-departure of the fully-loaded vehicles with true hood. "No," said I, in answer to a remark traveller-like equanimity; but my—yes, I confess which I thought too depreciatory of men in gene-it-my ill-humor grew with every disappointment: ral," the world, in my opinion, is not so bad as it is believed to be." "The world," replied my new acquaintance, "I think a very wicked world. It shows its wickedness by its suspicion. It trusts nobody; and why? Because it knows it is not worthy to be trusted. And so, as I expect it will place no confidence in me, I place no confidence in it. Trust no man any farther than you can see him;' that's my maxim." 6 and when the last day-coach was gone, and we were left without another chance until the evening, I had so little of the traveller's heart remaining in me, as to turn a deaf ear to the suggestion of my brother in misfortune-that the best way to fill up the time would be by " dinner and a bottle." To tell the exact truth, I employed the intervening hours in a spiritless inspection of some relics of early Norman architecture possessed by the oldest church in the place, taking a solitary snack at a I was provoked by this to relate a little "inci- small road-side inn, in preference to a good meal dent of travel," which, occurring to myself not with fair companionship at the "Crown." My above a week before, had proved, to my own satis- conscience smote me for this, when, on returning, faction at any rate, that the world will sometimes I saw my friend already at his post, on the spot we trust those whom it does not know. I had reached had so fruitlessly occupied in the morning. I Salisbury after dark, and all the shops were thought too that his greeting was not quite cordial. closed. Notwithstanding, I presumed to knock But almost immediately the evening coach drove at a bookseller's opposite my inn, and beg to be up; it had room for both outside; and as we sat allowed to purchase a "guide" to Old Sarum and together I took an opportunity to say that vexation Stonehenge, as it was my wish to employ an hour at the imagined possibility of being kept another or two in recruiting my knowledge (then wholly night at Devizes, when it was of great consederived from reading) of those interesting antiqui-quence to me to be in London early the next day, ties, the better to enjoy a personal inspection of had rendered me not "i' the vein" for good felthem the next morning. The worthy tradesman lowship. The excuse was accepted; and our talk was "out of the guide," but would with pleasure was cheerful until we had passed, as daylight was lend me a book-a portly volume, and with plates, which, he assured me, contained all the information I required. Surprised, I stated that I was only at the naming where the coach had set me down-for a night, and should quit in all probability soon after daybreak. "That," he said, "need make no difference; you can leave it for me at the inn." Even my desire to make a proper compensation for the loan was not acceded to, on the delicate ground that, as the books did not "circulate," he, the bookseller, was ignorant of the proper charge. As I told my story, methought the traveller's eyes opened wider; and when I had done, he was so rude as to give the lowest possible whistle. But, apologizing, "I'll believe you," he said; "though it's the strangest way of turning stock, I ever heard of. Not very likely to make fifty per cent. of his money. Well, people are not always awake. But I say still, Trust no man any farther than you can see him.'" Long before our conversation had proceeded thus far, we had, I should think, equally arrived at the opinion, that two persons could hardly be more unlike each other, in their whole turn of mind and pursuits, than were my companion and myself; he entirely devoted to business, and I the rather given to literature; he a keen man of the world, and I-an antiquary. But, nevertheless, we got on surprisingly well together; and our discourse, I am persuaded, gave a zest mutually to our breakfast. It appeared that we were going the same road; though he only as far as Reading, and I through failing, the great barrow of Silbury, which my restored companion seemed interested to learn was not, as he had always supposed it to be, a rather considerable natural hill. When informed, however, that this same barrow was a work of the ancient Britons, and might boast an antiquity of at least two thousand years, he hoped he should be allowed to "tell that again with some discount." But now a new unpleasantness began to be felt by one of us. It was early summer; and, for a brief week's excursion, I had not thought of an equipment adapted to a night-ride through almost frosty air. My friend observed my deficiency; and remarking that, as a traveller, he was very differently provided for, proposed to invest me with a most capacious box-coat, which, he said, he could perfectly well spare, having another topcoat and a cloak besides. I demurred to the offer, since I should be only the worse off for having accepted it when he got down at Reading. "But my coat need n't get down at Reading," was his reply; "here's a card of our house in town; you can forward it when you arrive." The conversation of the morning flashed through my mind, and I hardly repressed an exclamation of astonishment. What! the traveller, the man of business, and of the world, confide a coat that must have cost seven or eight pounds, and which, as I had seen in the daytime, was still in excellent condition, to a perfect stranger, to one whose name even he did not know, and as to whose whereabouts "in town" he made no inquiry! As I donned with thankfulness the comfortable habiliment, having first deposited my card with its owner, I could not avoid repeating, "Trust no man any farther than "Pooh!" said he; "safe as the bank at Salisbury." He shook my hand *From a pleasant little volume, entitled Literary Florets, by Dr. Thomas Cromwell, consisting of short pieces in prose and in verse-" the products," according to the author, "of moments calling for no more important you can see him." employment." London: J. Chapman. 1846. 54 heartily when he alighted at his destined hos- | of the tumult, when they came forth, without any WHERE SHALL I spend Eternity?—A lady had written on a card, and placed it on the top of an hour-glass in her garden-house, the following simple verse from the poems of J. Clare. It was when the flowers were in their highest glory. "To think of summers yet to come, To think a weed is yet to bloom From dust that I shall be !" The next morning she found the following lines, in pencil, on the back of the same card. Well would it be if all would ponder upon the question -act in view of, and make preparations for an un known state of existence. "To think when heaven and earth are fled, That I must die no more! O! where will then my portion be? Banner. CORRESPONDENCE. [Parts of Mr. Walsh's letters from Paris to the National Intel PELIGOT, an eminent and very learned chemist, The volume by Amedée Renée, which completes Sismondi's History of France, continuing it to the convocation of the States-General, in 1789, has won the sanction of competent critics. Sismondi is charged with having pronounced sentence under an unfair republican bias, on the monarchs EASTER AT CONSTANTINOPLE.-A correspond- who had done the most for the grandeur and politent of the London Daily News, quoted in the Eng-ical unity of France, and yet having dealt too lish Churchman of May 14th, concludes a description of the Easter services, in a church at Constantinople, with the following singular picture : severely with the revolutionary governments. In fact, Sismondi was a rigid moralist-a conscientious inquirer and writer. Hence, he spared neither king nor demagogue. His history does not reach the revolution; his ideas of it are merely conjectured from his moral reflections and judgments, and his essential character. More reliance is to be placed on his narrative than any other, prior or subsequent. The twenty-nine volumes are too much for readers of this day; the plenitude of the work will prove its misfortune. Dumas, the first of French chemists, has just issued the eighth and last volume of his Chemistry applied to the Arts, and the fourth and last of his Organic Chemistry. Lisfranc's work on La Méde cine Operatoire has already been translated into German, English, and Spanish. "The throng was great; yet there was room to move about. I was struck by the picturesque confusion which prevailed among the crowd, the variety of costumes, and the expressions of the wearers. I saw nothing in their deportment which reminded me that I was in a church, except the reverent bearing of the poorer and simpler sort, the rustic pilgrims who had poured from their wild villages, to be present at the solemnities. The citypeople talked about in groups, swaggered up and down, climbed up into pulpits, crowded the pulpitstairs, sat, swinging their legs, sheathed in embroidered greaves in the window-benches, lounged, and stared, and fluttered their fustanels, twirled The Courrier du Havre discusses the British and their mustachios, and fired their pistols. I was prepared for this singular custom; but I cannot French intervention in Rio de la Plata, with facts describe the strange effect which these profane re- and opinions like those of the able writer in your ports had in the midst of all those sacred and sol- Democratic Review. Sir Robert Peel's subterfuges emn symbols of devotion, leaving behind them a are roundly exposed and censured. Due stress is heathenish smell of gunpowder. Now, a fire-arm laid on the danger and insufficiency of the plea would crack off at your ear, now, at a distant cor- that the prolongation of the struggle between Buener of the church. An order had been issued to nos Ayres and Montevideo injured French and However indecent British trade-as if most wars did not affect comprohibit this strange custom. the practice appears to our notions, it is extremely merce in general. By the same logic, if France ancient, perhaps coeval with the use of gunpowder and England should quarrel and fight, the whole of among the Greeks. They paid accordingly but the rest of the trading nations of the world might comlittle attention to the prohibition. A kavass, how-bine to assail and cripple one or the other, or both. ever, had introduced himself into the church in disguise, and marked with a piece of chalk the jackets of all he found discharging, or armed with pistols. This unfortunate being was detected in making his chalk signs. A dreadful row instantly ensued. He was beaten on the head with pistols, and after getting half killed was kicked out of the church. The doors were closed, and no one was permitted to enter who did not answer to the salutation from within, Christ is arisen.' Neither, indeed, was any force used on the part of the body of kavashes placed outside; but, at the end of the ceremony, they made prisoners of the ringleaders ་ La Presse of the 4th instant has a long and inter- may even prove the most considerable. Hence, and Mehemet Ali hardly forgets the dénouement England's projects of colonization in Paraguay, or catastrophe of his reliance on French protecwhich cannot be accomplished unless the naviga- tion before and at the period of the battle. I refer tion of the Parana and its tributaries be free. you to the printed accounts of Ibrahim's imperial What she therefore fears most is competition, either honors and splendid excursions. He eclipses, with political or commercial. You thus may understand his suite, the Moorish magnifico, whose costume her enmity to Rosas, and her measures of violence and retinue delighted the public gaze. Mr. Jomard, to open the interior for her free access. It is a of the Institute, is to accompany me, next week, master stroke to have involved France in the strife on a formal visit to Ibrahim, "the Conqueror;" -to render the odium common to them, though the that I shall be able to describe graphically his fruits of the outrages would not be in anything highness, and the sumptuous hospitality of the like an equal measure." Mr. Brent's protest is government. described as an important document, which had produced a great effect. 25 April. I have gone through the number of La Revue des Deux Mondes delivered yesterday. The first article, on the kingdom of Lahore and the Sikh war, is from a writer of authority (Count Edward An official report states the number of political de Warren) on India affairs. He concludes that refugees in France, last year, to have been twelve the fate of the kingdom is sealed by the terms thousand two hundred and three, of whom seven which the British imposed and can enforce. Nothousand seven hundred and seventy-eight were thing else in La Revue claims immediate notice, supported by the French government. Nearly four except some advices from Mexico recorded in the thousand Poles are included in the latter descrip- political chronicle. Paredes, according to them, tion. About a thousand Poles supported them- was pledged to the support of a monarchy in Mexselves. It may be conjectured that the chief busi-ico. "We have seen," say the chroniclers, "a ness of the great majority was the prosecution of memorial from Santa Anna to the three courts of schemes of insurrection in the north. The thou- France, Spain, and England, in which he offers to sands of Italians and Spaniards were employed in put himself at the head of an expeditionary army the same way for their respective countries. This to plant monarchy on the Mexican soil. He places is very serious work for the governments north all his influence and resentments at the disposal and south, and naturally causes France to be re- and for the service of a foreign dynasty. He has, garded as the revolutionary furnace. we know, made overtures to Paredes." You may, I ween, without dread or the least danger, suffer the Mexicans to try a king, and any European dynasty to try the Mexicans. Neither might be envied if the experiment were feasible. Didot advertises at length Mr. Prescott's History of the Conquest of Mexico, translated into French by Amedée Pichot, in three volumes octavo, price eighteen francs with an account of ancient Mexican civilization and a life of Cortes. Our exports to Great Britain and her dependencies, observes the Journal des Debats, are double what they were ten years ago. They now amount to one hundred millions of francs, while the consumption, in France, of British products does not exceed twenty millions. The British money directly spent in France is incalculably more than the French spent on the other side of the channel. Our numberless British visiters are not perhaps aware how much of the welcome which they experience even at court is due to the consideration of that kind of shower in which Jupiter descended into the lap of Danaë. his arm. 2 May. For a fortnight past our heads have swarmed with princes, pachas, marquises, lords, and right honorables of every notch. Viscount Palmerston left us on Tuesday last, surrendering our capital to Ibrahim Pacha, whom he beat out of Syria. The Viscount made himself the eastern lion, and played his part skilfully. His manners and pretensions ingratiated him with the heads of the government and the dynastic circles. He entered the chamber of peers with the Duchess Decazes, wife of the grand referendary, most complacently leaning on Ibrahim Pacha's journey from the Pyrenees to this capital was an uninterrupted ovation. Here, he enjoys a royal residence, and a royal welcome, and feasting such as might seem due only to the Sublime Porte. The ambassador of the Turk would present himself at the Tuileries simply as the vassal of his master. At the grand dinner with which Marshal Soult regaled him yesterday he gave this toast: "To France, protectress of Egypt." The British government will feel no jealousy nor apprehension. Ibrahim remembers how he was forbidden, on the field of Nezib, by a French express, from marching to Constantinople; 5 May. On the subject of Ireland, there is abundance of the most instructive and impressive information in all the discussions on the Coercion bill, in the letters of the commissioners in Ireland, of the London Morning Chronicle, and the Daily News. I margined for quotation several passages of the letters; but, truly, the details of wretchedness are so harrowing that there would be a sort of cruelty in the act. Distress and Crime, Fever and Famine, placed at the head, are weak introductory phrases. The calls it a strait waistcoat for a people raving present Coercion bill is the eighteenth. The Times from starvation. The best part of Sir Robert Peel's speech (27th ultimo,) on the measure is this apostrophe: "I, for my part, think that one of the evilsexcuse me, I know you distrust the feelings of Englishmen on this subject; I can only declare for myself that I lived for six years in that country, and that I left it with every feeling of good will for the people of Ireland-excuse me, therefore, if I say, that one of the evils of the country is, that you rely too much upon the powers of the executive government. [Loud cries of hear, hear.] You always say the government ought to interfere-the legislature ought to pass this measure, or it ought to pass that. Believe me, you have it in your own power; the landlords of Ireland have it in their own power to effect immensely more good than the legislature ever can. my firm belief that if you would meet togetherabsentee as well as resident proprietors-that if you would meet together and consider what are the real evils of the country, and what are the real obligations imposed upon you, the landlords, you would benefit the country more than the legislature could do. I speak of your rights; but when you, armed with the legal powers, turn out the resi It is |