Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub

number, which consists of 32 pages of letterpress, and four engravings, the publication will be a most welcome one to all who delight in the cathedral antiquities, and who would gaze with no ignorant gratification on the wonders of that world of art which is commonly designated by the not very appropriate title of Gothic Architecture. The historical portion promises to be rich in curious anecdotes. We cannot sympathize in the piety of Edward the Confessor, who prayed the Deity to silence the nightingales because they disturbed his devotions; but, perhaps Sir Andrew Agnew may, at least on Sundays, when he happens to be in our southern country, and the miracle may give him a hint, derived from the wisdom of our ancestors, for his future attempts at Puritanical legislation. There is another miracle in the number, proving the right of English kings to nominate bishops, which may be of use to the Tories in the coming discussions on Church Reform. We hope to be thanked for pointing it out. While even these absurdities are illustrative, and therefore properly introduced, there is a rich variety of matter of a different kind, tending to throw light upon the condition and manners of society through a long succession of centuries, and extracting the materials of knowledge and common good from the vestiges of royal and sacerdotal pomp.

The Pocket Guide to Domestic Cookery. Simpkin and Marshall, 1835. Ir is full of meet directions; its advice is never out of season; it has means for marketers; cautions for carvers; ending in solids for substantials, entremets for epicures, and sops for the sick; and all in so small a compass, and in so pretty a dress, that a lady need not be ashamed to carry the knowledge of the whole cuisine and all its accompaniments in her reticule. It would have been better had it acknowledged its obligation to Mrs. Child's Frugal Housewife,' (a more economical but less portable work on the same subject,) from which it has copied many directions verbatim.

[ocr errors]

Byrom's Short Hand, abridged. 1s. 6d.

A NEAT abridgement of Byrom's popular system of Stenography; a system which is inferior in rapidity to Gurney's, and some others, perhaps, but which can scarcely be excelled for beauty and intelligibility. The editor has been rather careless in the short-hand specimen and transcript; and, by avoiding a little repetition, might have made more use of the small space which he occupies. But he has done enough for any one easily to acquire the art, without the expense of larger publi

cations.

The Historical Keepsake.

THIS is a Series of Original Historical Romances founded on important and interesting Events in British History.' The facts themselves are so well chosen for attracting the attention of juvenile readers, that we could wish there had been no admixture of fiction. The purpose might, we think, have been accomplished without, and the evil obviously attending such admixture have been avoided. Although demurring to the plan,

we cannot but praise the execution. The volume is embellished with fifteen wood-engravings, from celebrated paintings. It is a good present for those who are yet too young to grapple with continuous history or biography.

The History of Greece. By Thomas Keightley.

In this volume, closely yet clearly printed, and in every respect neatly got up, we have just such a History of Greece as our schools needed; and one which we think the author has quite succeeded in rendering as worthy of the man's attention as of that of the boy. It is a summary, but without becoming dry, meagre, or unpicturesque in the narrative, from the attempt at comprehensiveness. The author avows his predilection for a form of society, the Aristocratical, which, in our opinion, can only have fitting and useful place in a comparatively early stage of its progress; but his predilection has not blinded him to the glories of those old Democracies. The division of the history into the three periods, Aristocratical, Democratical, and Monarchical, is too artificial; and the accompaniment of a map would have been a benefit. We hope the author will persevere in his project of a succession of School Histories, which, if executed like the present, will probably supersede, as they will deserve, the trashy compilations and abridgements now so often put into youthful hands for want of better.

The 'Spectator's' Complete Lists of the New House of Commons, &c. Clayton.

The Parliamentary Test Book for 1835. Wilson.

THE first of these publications contains: 1. Complete lists of the Members, the places for which they sit, and their political character, Tory, Reformer, or Doubtful: 2. The numbers polled at every election: 3. The changes which have occurred: 4. Distribution of the gains and losses of both parties. It is reprinted from a newspaper most trustworthy for its accuracy, and distinguished for its diligence and enterprise in the collection and arrangement of useful information.

The Test Book' will afford the means of bringing to book any who may trifle with their constituents, and their own characters. Besides the poll returns, the residences of the Members, &c., it gives extracts from their speeches or addresses, and the votes on the most important questions, of those who sat in the last Parliament. Mr. Wilson has rendered essential aid by this publication, to all who hold the responsibility of the representative to his constituents.

A History of British Fishes. By W. Yarrell. Part I. THIS work is to be completed in fourteen monthly parts, uniform with Bewick's British Birds.' The arrangement followed is that of Cuvier. It promises to be far more complete than any former publication on the same subject; and the clearness of the letter-press descriptions, together with the beauty of the wood-cut figures in this number, are a good pledge of the fulfilment of that promise. Its appearance must gratify all lovers of natural history.

The Faculties of Birds. (Library of Entertaining Knowledge.) We have here a supplement to the volumes previously published by the Diffusion Society, on the Architecture and the Domestic Habits of Birds, which forms, with them, a popular and most interesting ornithology. The peculiarities of the sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell of birds, with their locomotive powers and migratory tendencies, are illustrated by a most entertaining and curious collection of authenticated anecdotes, interspersed with observations of the most celebrated natural philosophers. The series on this subject is appropriately concluded, after a chapter on Instinct, by the Natural Theology of this department of the works of the benevolent Creator.

The Three Pictures; or a Few Words on Church Rates.

By B. H. Draper.

THE first Picture is a scene from the present state of things ecclesiastical; the other two belong to an imaginary condition. We extract the second as a specimen of the writer's humour. It must not be inferred from it that he is not a warm friend of the Voluntary Principle.' The object of his tract is to show the injustice and absurdity of the present system :

First Application at the Parsonage for a Rate to support Dissenting Worship. The Collector enters.

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]
[ocr errors]

T. Well, sir, what is your pleasure?

'C. I called to demand a rate for the support of the dissenting worship. T. Rate! Who sent you?

'C. The claim is authorized by the magistrate.

'T. Indeed! This is something new. We have been accustomed to claim rates of them for the support of our worship, and to seize their goods, if they would not pay them. Truly, the tables are turned.

'C. They are, sir. The Whig ministry, before they left office, made an Act, to gratify their old friends, that Churchmen should pay rates to the Dissenters, for the support of their worship, even as the Dissenters had paid

rates to the Church.

'T. I am astounded; can it be so? Where am I? It is ours to receive, and not to pay, rates.

C. That is what the magistrate said, sir; that since the Dissenters had supported the Church for so many years, it was now come to the turn of the Church to support the worship of the Dissenters.

'T. I shall not pay the rate.

'C. Then I must get a warrant, and make you, that's all!

'T. But I don't approve of their worship.

C. Nor did they of yours, and yet you made them pay the rate.

'T. I never go near their conventicles.

C. But you may if you choose, sir.

'T. I tell you again, that I shan't pay.

C. You know, sir, you have granted many a warrant against the Quaker and Dissenters to make them pay rates.

'T. The case is a different one.

[ocr errors]

Hold your peace, sir.

C. It is the law, sir, that you shall pay.

T. I hate all unjust, tyrannical laws. It is amazing that they should dare even to think of enforcing such a law as this. That a great and affluent Church like ours should support the worship of the Sectarians! Why, it is unbearable!

'C. It is said, sir, that one good turn deserves another. And, as they have supported the Church for ages, the Whigs thought it would be equitable, at least for a few years, to give them a helping hand.

'T. Equitable indeed! If you are not more careful, I shall chastise you for your insolence. I will not give them a farthing. Let them support their own worship. I am for all sects supporting their own worship.

'C. This, sir, was not your mind, when, by your authority, I used to seize on the goods of the Quakers.

'T. Things are altered. Know your place, sir! I shall not be taught by you!

C. I beg pardon, sir. I did not mean to offend you. I only observed, that by your full good-will, I have seized on the Quakers for many years. You know it has been quite a regular thing.

T. How often must I tell you that things are altered? I will never submit to the rate for the support of the Dissenting worship.

[ocr errors][ocr errors]

C. They have submitted for ages to support yours.

T. We compelled them, or they would not.

C. Now they will compel you.

T. But they preach errors.

'C. That is what they say of you. You say you preach the true Gospel; but it is a very different Gospel from that Mr. S. preaches in the next parish. Now, one of you must be wrong, and which is it; you, or your evangelical brother?

T. I cannot pay it conscientiously.

C. So they said, sir; and, therefore, you gave me warrants to seize on their goods. You know I took two bags of wheat, a few weeks since, from Beaulieu Mill, by your warrant, for church-rates.*

[ocr errors]

T. That is true; it was according to law.

C. Well, the law is now altered. The liberal Whigs have given the church-rate to the Quakers and Dissenters. You are not to receive it any longer.

'T. I will never pay it. Why, our churches will be ruined without the

rates.

'C. Why, Sir, their churches are not ruined; and they have paid, instead of receiving them, a great many years. Indeed, I think they have got stronger and stronger, so far from being ruined.

'T. I shall not pay them; so go about your business.

'C. I am about that; you should submit to the laws. You used to say, non-submission was rebellion.

'T. But then the Church had the rate, which makes all the difference. Rates on the Church to support the worship of the Dissenters, are most unreasonable and tyrannical. We won't submit to them.

C. You used to say that these things were right from the Jewish laws. 'T. Yes, if we had the proceeds. The Old Testament dispensation is superseded; and, if it were not, I would not pay. Begone;-John, show this fellow the door!

On a subsequent application, the collector seizes; but, according to our author, the Dissenters decline the proceeds.

This is matter of fact.'

217

NOTES ON THE NEWSPAPERS.

Prospects of Reform.-By the divisions which followed the debates in the House of Commons, on the election of a speaker and on the address, it became evident that the two coalitions, occupying the opposite sides of the House; viz., of Tories and Conservative Whigs, on the one hand, and of Reforming Whigs and Radical Reformers on the other, were so nearly balanced, as to ensure the new Administration the chance of struggling on for a while, and, perhaps, by the introduction of a few popular measures, and a clever system of parliamentary tactics, of prolonging its harassed existence, until some new and more enduring combination of political elements can be formed. For this respite the Tories are indebted to Lord Stanley and his followers. They held the balance ;[and by their own trimming trimmed the Ministerial boat, which must else inevitably have capsized in the first breeze. The apprehension of a final split with this party, and the hope that it might yet assist in the substitution of a ministry, somewhat resembling the last, for that which now exists, seems to have neutralized the energy of the Whig leaders, and through their influence to have restrained the entire opposition from those decisive proceedings which the country had confidently anticipated; neither coalition has yet become consolidated, nor is either likely to be immediately broken up. The Stanleyites labour hard to retain the factitious importance of their present position. The Radicals are loath to lose that Whig co-operation, by which alone there is the chance of unseating the Tories. The Whigs are continually embarrassed by their former acts while in office, and by a regard to the prospect of a return to office. And the Tories, with their usual unscrupulosity, are ready for any expedient by which they may retain, from day to day, the possession of power and place. The result has been that, although the present House of Commons probably contains a larger admixture of intelligence, honesty, and patriotism than has ever before been admitted into that assembly, its proceedings have hitherto shown a deplorable want of principle. The plain and straightforward course would have been a prompt declaration that the powers of government should not be directed by the party to which they had been intrusted. But this could not have been carried. Very well, then, it would have been a good point on which to have been defeated. It would have marked the strife, and dignified it, from that moment as one of principle. The Opposition would have become one of defined views and purposes: it would have been the people against the party. The pretensions of the members would have been brought to an intelligible test; their constituents could not have been mystified; and had the desperate experiment of another dissolution been ventured upon, the results would probably have been such as Toryism and trimming would never have forgotten. That the cause of reform has not been placed in this intelligible and honourable position is not so much the fault of the people as of their leaders. They have not understood, or not felt themselves equal to, the situation in which they are placed. The first notification of the Duke of Wellington's investiture with a temporary dictatorship produced a sensation in the country which, had it been properly directed, would have at once stopped the mongrel species of counter-revolution which we are now undergoing. Had the Whigs taken advantage, a fair and manly advantage, of that excitement; had they renounced their vain attempt, their then detected and exposed blunder, of governing by Tory permission and Court compromise, they might have been borne back at once to office upon the shoulders of the people, as they were in 1832, with a full amnesty for all past disappointments and full confidence for the future. The course which O'Connell tooki n Ireland was that which should have been everywhere adopted. There was but one thing to be done,-to put down the attempt at No. 100.

Apr.

R

[ocr errors]
« VorigeDoorgaan »