Sir Bulwer Lytton, for instance, is as great | Grånt White will use many polite formulas as a man of letters can be by talent without of protestation perhaps, which we will with genius. His talent is so great that when equal politeness accept, as they are tenderyou look at it from a distance it almost ed. But it is all there, protestations to the wears the appearance of genius, and so it contrary. We have spoken of his book seems to the multitude. Approach his works very warmly and deservedly, and therefore critically, and they fall to pieces like gaudy he will permit us - permit the present repacks of cards. The closer you look into viewer to offer one or two casual obserShakespeare the deeper he seems, without vations on certain forms of expression which losing the gloss of his brilliant talent and in another edition might with advantage be dexterity. Mr. White's criticisms are in the omitted. English critics would, we appremain well worth attending to. He does not hend, join us in thinking that "the great profess a German "inner-life code of ex- heart of Nature," and "the throb of her egesis," nor does he tie himself to Coleridge's deep pulses," are best left to the imitators, Shakesperian school. But he has read if he has any, of Sir Bulwer Lytton in his Coleridge and Gervinus, and mentions them Strange Stories. Mr. White now and then with respect and deference. Of course it is cultivates a little too much the language of difficult to say anything new about Shakes- our grander school. For example, Ameripeare. But then what Mr. White says, even cans are probably too sensible to stand though it does not always sound new, is Mr. "mute in delight and wonder," or if they White's, seen with his own eyes, and said in do, to say so in those words. "Blazes of his own way. What he says of Shakes- ever-brightening glory" are like blazes peare's style, its English essence, freedom of all sorts, inartistic, and "fitful and lurid from foreign touch, freedom from classicality, grandeur of spontaneity, his supreme unconsciousness, the total absence of the literary element from his work, the absence of purism too, his ready use of all such Romance words as answered his direct purpose, his happy and boundless audacity, his unlimited execution, but execution always subordinate to his still more unlimited wealth of ideas, his easy and almost miraculous mastery over every colour of language, every detail of rhetoric, his perfectly unbridled carelessness in metaphor so that sense be saved, his gentle grace, and that sweetness so ineffable to the human ear which Mr. Carlyle forgot when he invented his modern neo-Babel, all this Mr. White sees, and treats clearly; nor is he blind to Shakespeare's defects.

lights" are to be seen only in Bulwer and our smaller novelists and lesser painters. As a mere matter of critical taste, we do not like the hack combinations of " patrimonial fields," and "humbler husbandmen," "mocking of futile efforts," and "tomes of pretentious title,"" precious children," and " melodious versification," "surpassing beauties," and "unparalleled atrocities." At the same time these are mere matters of taste, which do not affect the substance of Mr. Grant White's book. Many expressions, which among us have passed into the literary cant of the day, may in America seem to be endued with the crusted flavour of classical euphoniousness, as classical euphoniousness ought to be, and must be, in "Old" England. But Old England, busily plying the new paint-pot, and laughing in her sleeve Of course Mr. White's admiration for at her old beaux, is pleased to consider that. Shakespeare is not, nor could it be, entirely old harridan or not, she is younger than separate from a certain love for "Old Eng-ever she was, -in her feelings, at all events, land." As Cicero, reading Sophocles or Ho- if not in her complexion, and means to mer, would think tenderly of Athens, so Eng- be younger still to the end of the chapter. land is no doubt a species of Athens to cultivated Americans already. It is true that England stands to America in point of power in a relation something different to that of Athens to the Rome of Cicero.

From the Athenæum.

But the Americans have unconsciously dis- Legends and Lyrics. By Adelaide Anne counted the difference, and overlooking the lapse of time yet ahead, they look already in imagination back upon "Old England" as a dignified old lady, perhaps dowager duchess, if you will, possessed of some considerable jewelry and old family apparel, and many fine traditions of the old time, but toothless for all that. Well, Mr.

Procter. With an Introduction by Charles Dickens. New Edition, with Additions. Illustrated. (Bell & Daldy.) IT was the fortune of this journal first to call public attention to the collected poems of poet's daughter the finish, clearness, and quiet individuality of which grow, and will grow, on their being returned to.

Their writer has won a place of her own; a place which will last. Having gone minutely through the pages of this new edition, knowing many of the verses by heart, every impression formerly expressed is more than confirmed. The place of Adelaide Anne Procter is in the Golden Book of English poetesses.*

This showy issue of her delicate, thoughtful, devotional verses put forth in a Christmas form, with illustrations which we take leave to think are nearly as unsatisfactory as illustrations can be, is prefaced by a few pages by Mr. Dickens which will live in connection with Adelaide Procter's poems, so long as any sympathy for verse shall endure. Let us take the first and the last of them :

wick. Next day brought me the disclosure that I had so spoken of the poem to the mother of its writer, in its writer's presence; that I had no such correspondent in existence as Miss Berwick; and that the name had been assumed by Barry Cornwall's eldest daughter, Miss Adelaide Anne Procter. The anecdote I have here noted

So

down, besides serving to explain why the parents of the late Miss Procter have looked to me for these poor words of remembrance of their lamented child, strikingly illustrates the honesty, independence, and quiet dignity of the lady's character. I had known her when she was very young; I had been honoured with her father's friendship when I was myself a young aspirant; and she had said at home, If I send him, "In the spring of the year 1853, I ob- in my own name, verses that he does not served, as conductor of the weekly journal honestly like, either it will be very painful Household Words, a short poem among the to him to return them, or he will print them proffered contributions, very different, as I for papa's sake, and not for their own. thought, from the shoal of verses perpetu- I have made up my mind to take my chance ally setting through the office of such a pe- fairly with the unknown volunteers.' Perriodical, and possessing much more merit. haps it requires an editor's experience of Its authoress was quite unknown to me. the profoundly unreasonable grounds on She was one Miss Mary Berwick, whom I which he is often urged to accept musuitahad never heard of; and she was to be ad- ble articles such as having been to school dressed by letter, if addressed at all, at a with the writer's husband's brother-in-law, circulating library in the western district of or having lent an alpenstock in Switzerland London. Through this channel, Miss Ber- to the writer's wife's nephew, when that inwick was informed that her poem was ac-teresting stranger had broken his own cepted, and was invited to send another. fully to appreciate the delicacy and the She complied, and became a regular and self-respect of this resolution. ** She was frequent contributor. Many letters passed exceedingly humourous, and had a great between the journal and Miss Berwick, but delight in humour. Cheerfulness was haMiss Berwick herself was never seen. bitual with her, she was very ready at a How we came gradually to establish, at the sally or a reply, and in her laugh (as I reoffice of Household Words, that we knew member well) there was an unusual vivaciall about Miss Berwick, I have never dis- ty, enjoyment, and sense of drollery. She covered. But, we settled somehow, to our was perfectly unconstrained and unaffectcomplete satisfaction, that she was govern- ed: as modestly silent about her producess in a family; that she went to Italy in tions, as she was generous with their pecuthat capacity, and returned; and that she niary results. No claim can be set up had long been in the same family. We for her, thank God, to the possession of any really knew nothing whatever of her, ex- of the conventional poetical qualities. She cept that she was remarkably business-like, never by any means held the opinion that punctual, self-reliant, and reliable: so I she was among the greatest of human besuppose we insensibly invented the rest. ings; she never suspected the existence of For myself, my mother was not a more real a conspiracy on the part of mankind personage to me, than Miss Berwick the against her; she never recognized in her governess became. This went on until De- best friends, her worst enemies; she never cember, 1854, when the Christmas Number, cultivated the luxury of being misunderentitled The Seven Poor Travellers,' was stood and unappreciated; she would far sent to press. Happening to be going to dine rather have died without seeing a line of that day with an old and dear friend, distin- her composition in print. than that I should guished in literature as Barry Cornwall, have maundered about her, here, as the I took with me an early proof of that num- Poet, or the Poetess.'** Always imber, and remarked, as I laid it on the draw-pelled by an intense conviction that her ing-room table, that it contained a very life must not be dreamed away, and that pretty poem, written by a certain Miss Ber- her indulgence in her favourite pursuits

From the Economist, 9th December.

THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF JUSTICE
TO THE DARK RACES.

must be balanced by action in the real world around her, she was indefatigable in her endeavours to do some good. Naturally enthusiastic, and conscientiously impressed with a deep sense of her Christian IN all these quarrels between the white duty to her neighbour, she devoted herself and the dark races, of which we have of to a variety of benevolent objects. Now, late years had so many. -no year for eight it was the visitation of the sick, that had years having been free of them there is possession of her; now, it was the shelter- one point which is apt to escape European ing of the houseless; now, it was the ele- attention, and that is the economic value of mentary teaching of the densely ignorant; being just. There is probably no one point now, it was the raising up of those who had of politics which involves economic results wandered and got trodden under foot; so wide or so permanent as the relation benow, it was the wider employment of her tween the white and the dark races of the own sex in the general business of life; world. It is probably the destiny, it is even now, it was all these things at once. Perfectly now the function, it is certainly the interest unselfish, swift to sympathize and eager to of the European, and more particularly of relieve, she wrought at such designs with a the English family of mankind, to guide flushed earnestness that disregarded season, and urge and control the industrial enterweather, time of day or night, food, rest. prises of all Asia, of all Africa, and of those Under such a hurry of the spirits, and such portions of America settled by African, incessant occupation, the strongest consti- Asiatic, or hybrid races. Those enterprises tution will commonly go down. Hers, nei- are very large indeed, very much larger ther of the strongest nor the weakest, yield- than the majority even of considerate men ed to the burden, and began to sink. To are at all aware of. It would be very diffihave saved her life, then, by taking action cult to fix a limit to the industrial enteron the warning that shone in her eyes and prises in India — railways, tramroads, works sounded in her voice, would have been im- of irrigation, plantations of tea, coffee, possible, without changing her nature. As indigo, cinchona, and other articles, which long as the power of moving about in the would be certain to pay; but the present old way was left to her, she must exercise limit, the amount now before our eyes, is it, or be killed by the restraint. And so not less than one-fourth our own heavy the time came when she could move about national debt. It is not certain indeedno longer, and took to her bed. All the in our judgment it is more than doubtfulrestlessness gone then, and all the sweet whether an English guide and director of patience of her natural disposition purified labour, a captain of labour (so to speak), paid by the resignation of her soul, she lay up- by a per-centage, would not save expense and on her bed through the whole round of loss of strength in every department of Indian changes of the seasons. She lay upon her effort, whether it would not for example pay bed through fifteen months. In all that both European and native to cultivate rice time, her old cheerfulness never quitted her. in a scientific way in very extensive farms. If In all that time, not an impatient or a queru- it would, of which we have little doubt, the lous minute can be remembered. At length, work ready for Europeans in India alone is at midnight on the 2d of February, 1864, almost limitless, they being required to she turned down a leaf of a little book she direct the cultivation as well as the political was reading, and shut it up. The minister-progress of two hundred millions of men. ing hand that had copied the verses into The field open in China is even greater, the tiny album was soon around her neck, the Chinaman, who is already the most inand she quietly asked, as the clock was on the stroke of One: Do you think I am dying, mamma?'-'I think you are very, very ill to-night, my dear.'-'Send for my sister. My feet are so cold. Lift me up!' Her sister entering as they raised her, she said: 'It has come at last!' And with a bright and happy smile, looked upward, and departed.

It is impossible to add to, still more to spoil, the beauty of this monograph.

dustrious and one of the most ingenious of mankind, needing nothing except a directing brain in which he will confide. The work to be done in that empire alone we mean the profitable work-in railways and canals of irrigation, and tea planting, and silk growing, and above all in inland steam navigation, is wholly beyond any experience we have yet acquired in Europe. Supposing Englishmen and Chinese ready to work together, there is at this moment

in existence within that empire a traffic | cept that the brain will never voluntarily which would supply a system of railways put the hand to torture. Slavery, however, three times as extensive as the Indian, a involves besides this organization which is reproductive expenditure that is of three beneficial, moral and social consequences hundred millions sterling, and a range of which are not beneficial, which are so ininland navigation, open to steamers, as jurious that civilization, after a protracted great as that of the United States. Similar struggle with its own interests and prejuconditions exist in Japan, in Indo-China, in Persia, and throughout Asiatic Turkey, while in Africa every form of tropical cultivation remains to be still begun, and almost every form, from sugar growing in Abyssinia to vine growing at the Cape, will be found to pay. There are, in fact, fields of enterprise in tropical regions greater than all those which we have as yet explored or partially exhausted. Of their ultimate pecuniary value we may judge from the single fact that, while in 1813 the trade of India was not three millions sterling, it now exceeds one hundred millions, and is still, in the opinion of many observers, in its infancy. Supposing China and India to take as many English articles head for head as Ceylon does, English exports to those two countries alone would rise to the immense figure of 250,000,000 sterling, Ceylon in 1863 taking more than ten shillings' worth for each head of her popula

tion.

The one necessity essential to the develop ment of these new sources of prosperity is the arrangement of some industrial system under which very large bodies of dark labourers will work willingly under a very few European supervisors. It is not only individual labour which is required, but organized labour, labour so scientifically arranged that the maximum of result shall be obtained at a minimum of cost, that immense sudden efforts, such as are required in tunnel cutting, cotton picking, and many other operations, shall be possible without strikes or quarrels, and that, above all, there shall be no unnatural addition to the price of labour in the shape of bribes to the workmen to obey orders naturally repulsive to their prejudices. All these ends were secured, it must freely be acknowledged, by slavery. For the mere execution of great works cheaply no organization could be equal to that which placed the skilful European at the top, and made him despotic master of the half-skilled black or copper-coloured labourer below. The slaves obtained only food, could not strike, and were not liable to those accidental temptations to desert work which so frequently impede great operations both in India and Egypt. The relation was almost as perfect as that of brain and hand, ex

dices, has resolved to discard slavery from its working system. A new organization therefore must be commenced, and the only one as yet found to work effectively is, as might have been expected, one based upon perfect freedom. and mutual self-interest. Half-slavery, that is slavery minus its immoral incidents, such as the separation of families and denial of education, does not work. It has been tried in every country under the sun in the shape of convict labour, in India in the form of statute, or as it is there called "impressed" labour, and in Egypt upon a splendid scale as "forced" labour under European chiefs, and it does not anywhere pay well. The dislike caused by the sense of compulsion produces too much laziness, too much cheating, too many revolts, and too many deaths, to be profitable to the State which employs it, even in the pecuniary sense. To be profitable, the compulsion must be carried out logically to its last point, the labourers being treated in all respects simply as valuable cattle. Short of that demoralizing condition there is no half-way position to be occupied by labour in which compulsion does not cost to the nation of course not necessarily to the individual-more than it is worth.

If, however, complete freedom is to be the principle adopted, it is clear that the dark races must in some way or other be induced to obey white men willingly. Without at all affirming or denying any proposition as to the comparative powers of the two colours-a question which will probably never be settled-it is quite certain that for the next hundred years the average black will not catch up the average white, that for that space of time white leadership will save time, power, and money. Fortunately for the world there is no mental reluctance to accept that leadership. Some dark raees, such as the Bengalees, honestly prefer it, as less worrying than their own habit of indecision others, as the Chinese, recognize its superior efficacy-others, as the Africans, accept it as a sort of natural law. They will follow the white unless deterred by some injustice, or failure in honesty, or conduct which they consideroften very foolishly-to humiliate them. To remove the chance of such deterrents should therefore be the object of all wise

legislators, and the easiest mode of remov-] in them good and faithful servants. To one ing them is to enforce justice. It need not negro whom he pointed out to me on his be justice according to English ideas, which premises he paid a dollar and a half a day. are very lenient, and in respect to some He looked upon the whites as the indolent offences are, according to the ideas of col- class in the country." The truth is that oured men, over lax, but it must be sub- justice is the essential element of concerted stantial justice. An Asiatic, for example, and joint action between blacks and whites, does not deny the justice of allowing his and could we once convince the dark races employer to fine him as an Englishman that we meant justice, that while enforcing would, but insists that before he is fined he performance of contract we enforced full shall have committed a fault which he pre- pay, that if we flogged dark skins we also viously knew would be so punished. An flogged white skins for the same fault, and African is not irritated because larceny is above all that we recognized abuse as punpunished with flogging, though an Asiatic ishable on either side, there would be no is, but he wants a fair hearing first. In difficulty about labour except so far as it fact, he wants to be assured that he is sub- arose from the superior profit of the petite ject to a law, however severe, and not to culture. Of course if a Bengalee or a black individual caprice. And, moreover, he in- can get more by digging his own plot than sists that the moment work is done and paid by digging his master's plot, he digs his own for he shall be free of the employer's au- plot in preference, and so does a Belgian. thority, legal or otherwise, and at liberty Every event, therefore, which increases the to do exactly as he pleases, subject only to suspicion of the dark man that he is not to the laws of the land. These two points be fairly dealt with disinclines him to enter conceded, the dark man will willingly or the organization of labour, and he can ganize labour in great masses under the gratify this disinclination more easily than white man. In India, it is well known that an Englishman. The latter wants meat, very unpopular persons who happen to have and clothes, and some modicum of liquor, a reputation for justice can always obtain and is penetrated to the very bone with a labour, when other men much more easy wish to get on, to do something his fathers tempered are baffled, and strict and punc- did not do. The former is content with tual payment is accepted as the first ele- vegetables, does not care about clothes exment in justice. The Indian railways, for cept for adornment - very wealthy men in example, have had, all circumstances con- India, men we mean with capitals of 50,sidered, wonderfully little difficulty in ob- 0001 and upwards, sit at home and in office taining labour. The contractors were gen- nearly naked-regards liquor only as a erally sensible persons, who resolved that luxury, and rather prefers on the whole not wages should be paid as in England, and to get on, to be as his father was before half-savage tribes, quite as capricious as him. The possibility of avoiding work negroes and far fiercer, when they found being great, it is necessary that the attracout that fact, came in to work with docile tion to work should be great too, and to this regularity. It is well known there that in end good pay, certain pay, and equal jusone remarkable instance a tribe bore quietly tice, are absolutely essential. In Ireland, for months a discipline offensively strict men were once found to work for sixpence without a murmur, but departed in an hour a day, because the choice lay between that because one of their number had his face and starvation, but in the tropics Nature has slapped against the rules. It is the same given man the benefit, or the curse, of a peramong the negroes. This very week a cor-petual poor law, a prodigality of food which respondent of the Times writing from South Carolina, after a number of statements unfavourable to black labour, makes this remarkable admission: "A gentleman who has held a leading commercial position in Wilmington for twenty years past expressed a different opinion concerning the negro from any I have yet heard in the South. He had been the owner of slaves and now had the same negroes about him as he had before the emancipation. He had no difficulty whatever with them, and believed that any one who was disposed to pay them properly and treat them fairly would find

of itself establishes a minimum of wages. A Bengalee will not take less than customary wages, whatever his need, because he knows that while the sun shines and the waters flow and the soil steams with its own richness - poverty, however deep, cannot become actual starvation. To make him work he must either be lashed or be treated as to pay, exemption from blows, and language, very much like average Englishmen under decently good employers. It is because events like those in Jamaica arrest the derangement of the only relations between master and man which can exist