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Leader (1850-1860), 5th March 1859, Edition 2 of 2, Page 13, THE THREE PATHS. The Three Paths. By Her...

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      Facts, Failures, A2*D. Frauds Facts, Fai...

      had ample opportunities of studying the subject noon which , he professes to write , and yet he does Sttlfi more thaii throw together , without even common cditoral revision , the - reports of trials , civil and criminal , connected with the most prominent frauds of the last ten years . We want no " money-article" writer of long standing ^ to come from the depths of the City and parade that information before us , which We already possess on our newspaper file , under the taking heading of " revelatio ns , financial , ' mercantile , criminal . trot out the threadbare

      It is no " revelation" to , well-used , andperhaps ill-used figure of Mr . George Hudson , M . P ., and tell us , at this time of the day , that he paid dividends out of capital , and had a < rOod deal to do with oiu- early railway system . There is no mystery about the high level bridge . at Newcastle-upon-Tyne , the docks at Sunderland , and the seemingly permanent membership of l ^ xrhament , to which ^ they seem to have given rise . There ^ is no mystery about the disastrous chairmanship of the Eastei-n Counties Railway , and the first committee of invest . iwatio . it in the matter of the York , Newcastle , and Berwick line , of which Mr . Horatio Love , the present chairman of the Eastern Counties Railway , was the mover and originator . What tnvsterv there may have been in Mr . George

      Hudthe Crystal Palace Company , and Mr . Leopold Redpath six times that amount from th 0 Great Northern Railway ; and that Colonel Petrie Waugh is striking the light guitar somewhere in the Pyrenees , having abstracted the whole of the paid-up capital of the London and Eastern Bank . . If readers of City histories wish to have the already published but scattered details of these notorious " facts , failures , and frauds , " collectedm one volume , they well do well to purchase Mr . Evans's book ; hut if they look for any fresh information upon these cases , drawn from long personal observation , gathered by great industry , or derived from peculiar and private sources , they will be grievously disappointed .

      son ' s o-reat influence with members of Parliament and others , in whose hands rested the granting or refusing of railway bills , Mr . Evans is unable to clear up any more than the least experienced City man amongst us . . It is no " revelation" to tell us once more the familiar story of Walter Watts , the felonious clerk in the Globe Insurance Office , who turned theatrical manager at the Olympic and the Marylebone Theatres , and general man about town , with the money of his employers . It is a " revelation" however , to inform us that he abstracted seven hundred thousand pmmds ( sic p . 78 ) from the banker ' s

      balances of the company , before he was detected , as Mr . Evans , or his publishers , will probably find before the volume reaches a second edition . As some little unwillingness was shown by the Directors to make public the exact amount of their loss , and the result of the examination which they empowered Mr . Coleman , the accountant , to make of their books , it may be that our author is -determined to arrive at an unknown quantity , by starting from a known quantity of almost fabulous amount . When the contradiction comes , as come it must , we do not think the company will own to a loss exceeding the sum of seventy thotisand pounds .

      Considering the recent disclosures in the Court of Bankruptcy and elsewhere ^ in re the late banking firm of Messrs . Strahah , Paul and Bates , it is no " revelation " , to tell us that they broke their backs as proprietors of the Mostyn Collieries , where they lost upwards of one hundred thousand pounds , and us creditors of the Messrs . Gandills , contractors , who to drain , some lake ( it must have been lake Bullion ) , drained them of four hundred -thousand pounds . T / luit Messrs Strahan , Paul and Bates , were convicted and sentenced to penal servitude for fraudulently disposing of property held in trust , is a faqt that is known to every junior clerk and warehouso boy in the City . ¦ .. What wo should term the hqlter-spoltcr transactions of Messrs Overlcnd and Co . —we bog pardon , Messrs . Overcndand Co . —with Davidson and

      Gordon , and Joseph Windlcs Cole , receive no new lights from the pen and experience of our mysterious City historian . He can only tolls us that a great swindle was effected , which wo know before , and then pass on to fresh fields and pastures new . Theso fresh fields and fresh performers ara the late Mr . John Sadleir , M . P ., and tho Tipjpomry Bank ; the Royal J 5 ritinh Bank , with its originators ' and its destroyers tho Crystal Palnoe Company , and their forging transfer clerk , William James Robson ; the Great Northern lifiilwiv , and Mr . XjeopolU Rodnath j tho bullion robbery on tho South Eastern nd

      Railway , with Plorco , Agar , aBurgess , and " Jim tho Penman ;! ' and finally tho London and Eastern , qv , as it should bo called tho Kcnwington and Dorset Clay Banking Company , and tho bold , fraudulent transactions connected with it of Colonel Pefcrio Waugh . Wo are told by Mr . Evana , in his " revolutions , " that Mr . Saclloir oommittod suicido , and that tlio Tipnorary Bank atoppod payment 5 that ; tho British Hank closed it . B doors umlor tho inaubi of ftn Ironworks , andn ship ownor-dobtoi ' -nHMubor-of-Pavliamont director ; tiiatMV . W . J . Rulnou .. tulo something a little uiulor thirty thouauml pound" ) iVom

      Xra4fi7. March 5, 1859.1 The Leader. 301

      xrA 4 fi 7 . March 5 , 1859 . 1 THE LEADER . 301

      The Three Paths. The Three Paths. By Her...

      THE THREE PATHS . The Three Paths . By Herbert Grey , M . A . 2 yols . Hurst and Blackett . Mr . Gket writes well , and when he has had more experience he will write better . He belongs toa school , we suspect , that places itself beyond criticism . It is the transcendental—the super-sentimental—the aesthetic—or something of that sort ; the school that loves to make reflexions on life , rather than to depict life . To our taste this school wants manliness ; and yet there are uninistakeable evidences that Mr . Grey thinks and writes in a manly style , whenever he is inclined to shake off

      the trammels of those teachers to whose teaching he lias evidently relinquished his literary idiosyncrasy . He eschews old names and fames , deposes them ruthlessly from their pedestals , to elevate more modem immortals to their vacated . places . Take this sentence as a key to Mr . Grey ' s mental bias : — " May we not rejoice that , as painters , moralists , and satirists , Fielding and Smollett are replaced by Thackeray and Dickens ? " To this dictum we modestly beg to demur . We confess to

      a settled preference fur those " founders of threefourths of the novel-writing race of the present generation . It is difficult to discover the connexion between the title and the execution . Where the " three j > aths " are to be found we are at a loss to understand ; or , if they are to be found , we cannot understand to what they were meant to lead . But " The . Three Paths" is , nevertheless , a good novcl-r-the production of a " scholar and a refined 1 nan , and its perusal will yield both pleasure and profit .

      The Mvgazines

      same philosophical and interesting manner with which the readers of his former works are so well acquainted , and the conversation which 1 follows the essay is brilliant and illustrative of the subject , The pages of Fraser have not , for a long time , been graced with so delightful a contribution , "The Shark" forms the subject of the natural history article this month , which is of average excellence Captain Whyte Melville appears to us more at home in delineating the manners of our times than those of our ancestors ; " Holmby House , " nevertheless , goes on with spirit . An exceedingly witty , gossiping article on " Venice , " the mysterious story of " Scliloss , Eishausen , " a review of " Muirhead's Life Of Watt , " and a learned paper on Greek literature , make up the number . * . ¦

      TAiT ' s .-T-The articles are various in this number , and , of course , the leading one is upon Keform . It bases its urgency for a genuine reform in our representation on the extravagance and inefficiency of the present governing system , and makes out a strong case . It states that four millions of money have been wasted on the navy ; and that a hundred thousand deaths a year take place for want of proper sanitary legislation . The other articles are miscellaneous and entertaining . Tub Eclectic Review ;—The most important article is that on the " Limits of Religious Thought , " taking for its text Mr . Mansel ' s book ; the most interesting is that on the " Times of King George III . " — taking Walpole ' s " Journals , " , just published , as its basis . The article on the " Newspaper Editor " is scarcely uncoloured .

      Le Folet for March . —The fashions seems a little modified ; but crinoline has the honour of a poem , showing its origin . The plates are as pretty and bright in colour as ever . Bonnets the same ; cloaks longer . The Virginians . By W . M . Thackeray . No . 17 . —In this number Harry ' s war achievements and George ' s love are developed , together with ' the performance of the tragedy , with success ; and thus the lingering tale winds towards a conclusion . ;; Bavexpokt Duxx . By Charles Lever . Part XX . —This very . life-like , spirited story is fast drawing to a conclusion . Some important events are revealed in this" number ¦;_ but we will riot spoil the reader ' s pleasure hy stating them . ,

      ivixiGHT'a POPULAR HlS . TO . RY OF ENGLAND . Part XXXVTII : —This number is occupied with Marlborough ' s Blenheim campaign , and the union with Scotland . The portraits are those 0 / George I . and George II . The Englishwoman ' s Journal . No . 13 . —The dozen articles in . this magazine are of average merit ; some are of practical value , as that upon " The Training and Employment of Nurses , " and " Fashion versus Health . "

      Kingston ' s Magazine for Boys . No . 1 . — -This is anew candidate for the favour of Young England , issued by Messrs . Bosworth and Harrison . The editor is the author of several popular Christmas books , viz ; , " Mark Seaworth , " " Manco , " " Ulue Jackets , " Sec , and has thus proved he is well ( Calculated to cater for boys . It is very nicely illustrated by woodcuts , after designs by Harrison Weir , & c . The article on " Fanoy Pigeons" wilL bo highly popular . ' . _ . _ Part Ifl

      ' Wokks oi » the llisv . Sidney Smith . . — Contains several pf the witty Kcvorond ' s contributions to the Edinburgh Review , and , amongst others , a celebrated one on " Anastasius . ? ' . Tub Art Journal for March . —The Engravings are excellent this month ; . comprisiiig a Mother and Child , after Van Eycken ; and a Landscape , after G . Aohonbacli . Tho sculpture illustration is Marshall ' s Statue of Jonner . liouTLKi > oE ' s SiiAKfcfU'U . vnH . Edited by H . Staunton . l ' arts XXXV . and XXXVI . — ' 1 'lils double number contains tho conclusion of " Luar , " and the whole of " Coriolunus , " with thy usual amount of Notes and extracted Commentary . The Editor has bestowed tho utmost caro on tho notos , fully fooling the

      THE MAGAZINES . Bi . ACKivoOD . —Excellent throughout the number . ' Chalons , or the Camp , " is a pendant to " Cherbourg" — the one a standing naval , the other a military , menace . The writer has looked at the matter from a national and liberal point of view , and in his graphic narrative has furnished the British public with materials of a suggestive arid premonitory character . " Clothes and Scarecrows " bo studied with advantage by the " Brummels" of the minute . One part has our special approval ; that in which the writer condomns the relic of original Scotch poverty and barbarism—the indecent " kilt . " An Englishman paraxling sans culottes through the stroots of London , would deservedly havo to expiate this offence against public decency by a visit to tho treadmill ; why should Scotchmen

      be exempt from similar consequences , on the fulso and nonsensical plua . of the " nationality of tho costume ? " It' Scotchmen will show their semi-civilisation , let thom at least confine their fancy to thoir own localities . Tho " Turks at Kalufat " promises to bo a very amusing artiolo . Tho " Castes and Creeds of India " will assist tp opon tho evos of tho British public to one , and not tho least , of the difTicultios of tho India question , Tho " Luck of Ladysmero" is tho commencement of an historical talo , very good as far as it goos . " Ifaly ; hor Nationality lind Indopimdenco " is a compendium of the case of Franco v . Austria , and throws much light on . tho complications of tho voxod quostipn of Italian nationality . " Napoleon III . and Kurojio , " is a tronolmnt und soarclxlng article on tho futuru of Franco ,

      Titan is dtitorminod this month tp make tho charge ofhoavlnofis iaipDssiblo . Tho bulk of tho articles uro unmistiikpably intondod for light reading . This avUI croato no objoution on tho part of the friends of this Horial—on the contrary , wo think it will provo a roconmioudivtlon . But in what class of light roading must wo phvco tho vulgar and silly article , " All tho BllQvsBit ?" FuAai : it . —Tlio nambor opens with i \ n admirablo nappr fl'om tho ptm of Bli * . Hulna , enliiloij MVar j mi Kmxy and Convoraatlon j" and 1 h one , wo uro told , of i \ now sorlos of his delightful " Frionda In Counull , " tho publloutlon of which ho has pumiiUod to bo luitlclimlcd . Tlif uubjyot in uun sidy rod in tho

      responsibility of oditing thi . s tromendous r > luy . Iho Artist ' s illustraUons to "Coriolanus" uro numerous , but not particularly oharncstoviitlt . , « s in avoiding tho hook-uosod idea of the Hoinuii ( vulgar enough ) , ho has given rathor a Grecian look to lua hero . The Woman Huter \ or , TruetttftlFeigned T . oxw , a dramatic Talo . By Captain A . F . ClajJ . J ^^^ Uni >» k this titlo wo havo a talo well iiniiKlncd and artistically told , and cerlalnly oonvoyliix a moral . Mordaunt , tho horo , in iuiroducod to Hio readers notico , yountf , and In lovo , un onthu » ia 8 tic admirer and believer In woinun . Harriott J 4 iuringtou , t » u object of his attachment from his eurlioHtyoai \ s ( a beautiful aroaturo , wpolle . l by pduoatiiHi , and a worldly mother ) , onuivuuH liornolf to Mordaiuit , 'tli < jUB'l » li « Jr HgnrL is in the kouuliiff of an unprincipled roua rLunglcy ) . Mr . Timothy Truman , Morduunt ' s unolo , an oucontrlc but >\ i » rthy o \ d bueholor , undortakoB to break oil tho

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), March 5, 1859, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_05031859/page/13/