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    Dec. 7, 1850.] QL%t ftegftlt* 879

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    rOPUL.AR LAW. A Popular Lecture on Law, ...

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    The Ladder Of Gold. The Laihler Of Gold....

    written fb" monthly publication , it has none of the disjointed and capricious construction which that form usu illy necessitates . The central figure and the central purpose are never forgotten . The rise and progress of Richard Rawlings , as he steps from the ground to the top of the ladder , Mr . Bell keeps for ever before our eyes ; and this artistic construction gives an interest to the story which otherwise it would want .

    He has chosen for his theme a story somewhat analogous to that of the ex-Railway King . He has shown us the miserable drudge rising into the successful speculator—the gigantic railway lord—the worshipped high-priest of mammon—the speculator made unscrupulous by success , and finally hurled from his giddy eminence into poverty once more , from which once more his energy rescues him . It is not a satire on George Hudson . With excellent taste Mr . Bell has not only eschewed the cheap success of " scandal / ' he has also drawn a portrait in all

    respects differing from that of the railway magnate . How easy it would have been to make merry with the vulgarities and peculiarities which those who crowded round Hudson , like sycophants , were so eager to report like dastards—as if in revenge for their own subserviency ! But in taking the subject from actual life Mr . Bell has had the good feeling to create his own hero for it ; and wisely . His Richard Rawlings interests us , in spite of some bad traits ; and the author is able to ' * point his moral" with all the greater effect , because we feel that he is not dabbling in scandal , but is dealing with humanity as

    an artist . Besides the story , there is a charm in the book in its geniality , its observation of life , its touches of philosophy , and pleasant style . In the literary qualities one may expect to find the experienced author superior to novelists in general ; and , therefore , there are no unreadable pages in the three volumes . Yet there is less of mere writing in the book than we usually find . The remarks are well placed and well expressed ; the descriptions not too abundant . An occasional touch of the manner of Dickens , in the descriptive passages , mars the effect ; and we cannot

    compliment him on another unconscious imitation of Dickens where Dickens is far from agreeable—we mean in perverse cacophony of names : Sloake , Pogey , Crikey Snaggs , Lord Crickerley , & c , are doubly offensive , being neither tolerable to the ear nor to the understanding , and throwing an unreality into the scenes where they appear . On this subject of names , also , let us note the strange inadvertence of his selecting ' « Costigan" for his whisky-loving , good-hearted Irishman , at a time when the greatest living novelist had made all England familiar with a " Costigan" no one will forget . These are small matters ; but they affect the reader .

    In the Ladder of Gold we recognize the experience of a man who has observed life . It is not the production of a circulating library . And yet from the very truthfulness of many scenes we are made painfully aware of the exaggeration of others . The nearer a representation approaches reality the more objectionable become all departures from it . In a rude sketch we take no notice of faulty proportions ; in an elaborate drawing they are eyesores . We laugh

    at absurdities in a riotous farce , which m a comedy would call forth indignant hisses . To cite but one example , we ask Mr . Bell to read over again the scene where Lord Valteline and Mr . Pompey Wagstaffe come to Rawlings to borrow money , and then answer whether he thinks that such a scene ever took place in the nineteenth century . Insolence far greater has been shown , but in a softer manner . It is not the matter of the scene so much as its

    representation that we object to ; tho manner is common enough in novels , but only met with there . But we must not fall into a strain o f objection , or wo shall be contradicting the general imp . ession we have received , and desire to convey , which is unequivocally that of pleasantness . Were our library table less burdened with books demanding notice , we could fill some columns with charming extracts ; such as this on IlOAnUKD JIESBNTMBNT .

    " The subtilty that enters into resentments built upon minute points and hoarded trifles , is not easily penetrated by ordinary observers , and is scarcely intelligible to people of large and comprehensive views . There are individuals—not a very numerous class it is to be hoped —who have an extraordinary power , when it serves the occasion , of calling up , out of a lifetime of kindly intercourse , a miraculous collection of small slights and

    offences , utterl y forgotten by everybody else , if they ever had a real existence , and getting up out of them a plausible catalogue of grievances , which they make it appear that they had borne with exemplary patience . In instances of this nature , however , it generally happens that the grievances are never disclosed till some fortunate opportunity arrives when they can be made use of advantageously , the meek virtue upon which they had been inflicted continuing to bear them with a smiling resignation up to the moment when it can turn them to a profitable purpose . " Ox with little aphorisms carelessly thrown into the current , such as this on

    HABIT . " Habit is a great tyrant with lean , lonely people , when their lives become contracted , and their sympathies narrowed to a solitary point ;" which is a truth very finely and powerfully expressed . As we mean you to read the book we do not intend forestalling interest by an analysis of the story ; and will close this meagre account by an extract from the opening chapter , which , will give you a " taste of its quality " : —

    " It was mid-winter ; and a heavy fall of snow , depositing itself in all manner of odd nooks and crannies , and leaving sundry parts of the variegated architecture standing up bare and black , was rapidly converting the housetops of a little town on the eastern coast into a chaos of unintelligible shapes and shadows . If the moon could have penetrated the haze which intercepted that heap of human habitations , it must have been considerabl y perplexed to pick out from the confused mass the outlines of the familiar eaves and fantastic gables of Yarlton .

    " Down in the narrow , zigzag streets , the snow was playing the same pantomimic tricks upon window-sills and shop projections , and up entries , and gateways , and blind alleys . Wherever there was a corner that took the wind's eye , it was blockaded by the besieging drift , which swirled upwards in fierce eddies to the chimneypots , round which it danced and leaped like mad . Old porches , here and there , looked like sheeted sentryboxes pitched against the dark background of the houses .

    Crazy wooden lamp-posts were crowned with queer white caps , tied under the chin of the dim light in ragged knots . Grotesque forms , resembling fragments of cats and baboons , were squatted on the swinging sign-boards ; and the Golden Canisters , and Red Boots , and Original Hats , which advertised the marine public of Yarlton where the best articles in their respective lines were to be obtained , had put on a wild sort of masquerade , like gorgons and griffins glaring upon you through a

    mirage . " There were that night in many great mansions blazing fires and loud revelry , all in-door comforts being wonderfully enhanced by a sense of triumph over the storm which rages outside in the window-panes , but cannot find entrance ; and there were also on the bleak highways , and in the ruts on the skirts of villages , many torpid and famished wretches creeping for shelter under

    walls and hedges , and trying to sustain the life heat till a new day should open upon their wretchedness . But the contrast of extremes does not always touch us so keenly as the strata of mixed existence that lie between wealth and poverty , in which the struggle to keep out the wolf that howls on the threshold is a hundred times more wearing and wasting than downright pauperism , which goes straight to its refuge in the charities of the world .

    " Towards the extremity of the main street of Yarlton branched off a small row of houses , inhabited for the most part by the wives of sea-captains and mates of vessels , who , in the tedious intervals of grass-widowhood , while their husbands were absent on long voyages in the China seas , and other remote quarters of the globe , solaced their loneliness by letting lodgings , principally to single gentlemen . From the number of little bills on the shutters , and an occasional display of hardbake and dusty apples , piled up pyramidically in the windows , it might be surmised that the dwellers in Trafalgar-row did not consider the humblest speculations beneath their attention . Yet , notwithstanding these signs of unobtrusive indigence , the place had a retired which be

    and genteel appearance , might , perhaps , ascribed to a board at the entrance exhibiting the words , ? No Thoroughfare , ' the opposite extremity being boarded up with a notification , addressed in vain to tho enterprize of the Yarltonians , that the mysterious space within was to be let for building . This circumstance , although it kept out the public traffic , was nevertheless attended by some inconvenience to the inhabitants , as the aforesaid boarding was the favourite resort of the little boys of the neighbourhooil , who used to take an inscrutable delight in peeping through the chinks at the heaps and hollows of earth beyond , where some projector had dabbled in the building lots , and , for want of capital , left his foundations unfinished . With this exception , however , the only invasions to which Trafalgarrow was exposed were from wandering organ-prrinders , puppet-shows , and dancing monkeys—a class of entertainments largely patronized by the seaboard

    population . , ^ . "In a little parlour in one of these houses , on the night when the snow had the streets all to itself , and nobody was out of doors that could help it , sat two persons at a table ; a man about thirty years of age , but looking much younger , by virtuo of a round , freshcoloured face , beaming with a soft and passive expression , and a woman , his junior by three or four years , but whose pale , lank features and fretful eyes gave her the appparance of being at least ten years older than her companion . This deceptive aspect of youth or age is often a matter of temperament . Some people , Heaven help us , are bora old .

    " The considerate Muse of this true history drops a veil over the scanty supper , which lay untouched on the table between them . If or will she make an inyeutory of the furniture , although it might be done with a feir scratches of her pen , except that she thinks it necessary to record that there was a cradle in one corner , with an infant in it ; and on the opposite side a dual-functioned piece of carpentry , which served as a settle in the daytime , and as a bed at night , supplying us at once witht the etymology of that ancient article called a settle-bed . There was an open cupboard , disclosing imperfect and rather disorderly lines of cups and saucers , and other bits of ware elimmerine behind th «» m ; and the walls

    were adorned with half-a-dozen prints of sky-blue sailors , brandishing huge cutlasses heroically in the air ; a fancy sketch of Sally in our alley / dressed in a chip hat with streamers , a long puce-coloured sash , short petticoats , like a ballet-girl , and a bunch of flowers in her hand ; a ship in full sail upon an ocean of mellow-green billows ; and a portrait of Mr . Incledon , in the act of singing ' The Storm , ' painted up to the eyes with a round blot of scarlet , that slightly infringed upon the collar of his jacket . In spite of these gay works of art , the room had a penurious and dismal aspect . There was not much fire in the grate , but luckily the grate was small , and favoured the diligence with which the kindlyfeatured man from time to time repacked the embers to

    keep them together . " * It ' s gone ten , John , ' observed the woman , with a furtive glance at the table . " ' Only a few minutes , ' replied her companion ; * wait a little longer . ' ** Perhaps Haggles is worse to-night , ' she rejoined . " Wait a bit , and we shall hear , Nan . Lord bless us , how the wind does tear at that scrap of paper , though the shutters be fastened up outside . '

    " Ah ! just like you . All the Peabodys are the same . As long as you can keep out the cold , and get a scramble of something to eat and drink , you'll never trouble your head about doing anything for the family . ' *•« What would you have me do , Mrs . Peabody ? demanded John , taking a little courage , and looking at his wife through the flame of the candle , which he was not sorry stood between them . « " Do ? What every man does that has a wife and child , ' replied Mrs . Peabody , ' You know we haven't had a lodger now for upwards of six weeks , except cousin Richard : and how do you think we can maintain ourfour week

    selves and pay our rent out of his shillings a- , and the trifle you pick up at the wharf ? Now , if anything should happen to Raggles , Richard will be thrown out of employ , and we'll lose that , and have to keep him most likely till he gets another berth . ' " ' Sufficient for the day , Nan , ' returned Mr . Peabody , who was going on with that exemplary axiom , when he was cut short by the lady . . " « Sufficient for the fiddlestick , ' she broke in ; 'Id like to see the day when we ' re to have sufficient . You're an idle man , Peabody j and I ' m always telling you that you ' re a fool , but it ' s no use . You get down talking to people of a morning , instead of trying to earn something ; and I have to face all the worry at home to keep the house over our heads . "We owe money to everybody , and it was only a week ago that I sat up all night with Mrs . Muggs' baby in the measles to keep her off me a

    little longer . ' •«« Well—well , ' replied'Peabody , in a soft and deprecatory tone , ' who knows but we'll have a bit of luck by-*" Luck ? ' replied Mrs . Peabody , her thin face becoming apparently more thin and pinched than before ; ' waiting for a bit of luck ! A bit of luck , Peabody ? What do you mean by a bit of luck ? ' And this latter interrogatory was uttered in a sort of scream which bore a painful resemblance to a laugh . "

    Dec. 7, 1850.] Ql%T Ftegftlt* 879

    Dec . 7 , 1850 . ] QL % t ftegftlt * 879

    Ropul.Ar Law. A Popular Lecture On Law, ...

    rOPUL . AR LAW . A Popular Lecture on Law , its Origin and Results . By Thomas Turner , oi the Middle Temple . F . JsJaworth . We should like to see many popular lectures on the law , pointing out the present evils of the English , system of procedure , and showing how the people may assist in producing a speedy and thorough reform of its glaring defects and absurdities . Mr . Turner in his pamphlet speaks of the uninviting nature of the subject . As long as ho can only give tho reader an idea of the utter unintelligibility pervading the theory and practice of the English law Been by the vision of the common observer , and with difficulty pierced by the long-practised eye of tho profession , he cannot expect lectures on the law to be popular . The only popularity to be gained is by insisting on the necessity of reform , showing the benefit to be gained by good , cheap , and simple law . When the law is reformed , popularity may be given to tho subject opened to the comprehension of everybody . Law , regulating the transactions between man and man , of

    all subjects ought to be the most popular , and in its origin was uddressed to the people . In its results , it has become most obscure to thoso -whom it was intended to prevent from offences and protect from , crime . It has fared as its comates , religion and morality ; tho simplicity and purity of tho original has become disguised by the scribes , lawyer * , and pharisees of every age . Tho words of the law of Moses were rend in the audience of the poople . The Chinese Government considers itself obliged to read to the people periodically the criminal code , in order that

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 7, 1850, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_07121850/page/15/