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    March 15, 1855. j THE LEADER 257

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    A BATCH OF SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. We here gro...

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    Thomas Baikes, Esq., At Labse. Jl Portio...

    are " respectfully dedicated" by his editor to " H . I . M . Napoleon III . " The Reform Bill is carried : — At last this awful question is settled . Lord Grey announced in the House that he had received assurances which enabled him to congratulate the country on the success of the bill . He had the means of carrying it unimpaired in all its branches ; but he did not say whether by creation of peers or secession of the opposition . Mr . Hume , the member for Middlesex , and most vapouring radical in the House , has shown that courage is not amongst his peculiar virtues . He in the most " uncalled-for manner wrote to the constituents of Mr . Horatio Ross , member for the Scotch burgh Arbroath , Aberdeen , & c , that he had deserted his duty to . them , stud was become lukewarm in the cause of reform : Mr . Ross instantly wrote to him , that he was a malicious liar , and demanded a recantation or satisfaction . The cautious demagogue submitted to the insult , and retracted his expressions , in a letter -which Mr , Ross will be -well justified in publishing . . And the Tories are in terror : —

    The Tory party , —whose apprehensions for the future are most desponding , who think that a complete revolution is near at hand , and thab property must every day become less secure , —are glad to retrench their usual expenses and are beginning by economy to lay by a poire pour la soif . Those who have money at command are buying funds in America , 6 v ha Denmark , which they think least exposed to political changes . Those who have only income are reduced to retrench ; but all seem impressed with the idea that they cannot long depend on their present prosperity . The Duke is mobbed on the 18 th of June : — I atn even glad that the brutes have singled out this very day to exhibit their malicious vengeance ; that they may show to all Europe what monsters the Radicals really are . Mark the senility of the generalisation . En route we pick up an epigram composed after M . Dupin had delivered the oration in which he said that Louis Philippe could speak every language in Europe : —

    II parle Italien , Anglais , Russe , Saxon ^ jargon Souabe , II e * corche aussi le Francais , Mais il ne pense qu ' en Arabe . ; Thomas Raikes had a delicious way of patronising men of letters : Tuesday , October 2 . —Theodore Hook is of the party here . Hook is an author ; he has written Say i ngs and Do i ngs , the farce of Killing no Murder , & c . He is an editor , the chief compiler of John Bull , a wit and a wag . The old woman in Athlone had a keener style : — Old Lord Castlemaine was extremely rich , but a miser . One day he was stopping in his carriage to change horses at the inn at Athlone , when the carriage was surrounded by paupers , imploring alms , to whom he turned a deaf ear ; and drew up the glass . A ragged old woman in the crowd cried out , " Faif > an' it ' s no use ; ' * but , going round to the other side of the carriage , she bawled out , in the old peer ' s hearing , " Plase you , my lord , just chuck one tinpenny put of your coach , and I'll answer it will trate all your frinds in Athlone . "

    We have one more picture of Talleyrand in private life—Lord Sefton is the visitor : — He was ushered into the dressing-room of this celebrated octogenarian , who was under the handB of two valets de chanibre , while a third , who was training for the mysteries of the toilette , stood looking on with attention to perfect himself in his future duties . The prince was in a loose flannel gown , his long locks ( for it is no- wig ) , which are rather scanty , as may be supposed , were twisted and crepus with the curling-iron , saturated with powder and pomatum , and then with great care arranged into those snowy ringlets which have been bo much known and remarked all over Europe . His under attire was a flannel pantaloon , loose and undulating , except in those parts -which were restrained by the bandages of the iron bar which supports the lame leg of this celebrated cvl dejatte . Mr . Raikes , who prophesied the ruin of England by the Reformers , believed in second sight : —

    It is now about fifteen months ago that Miss M , a connexion of my family , went with a party of friends to a concert at the Argyle Rooms . She appeared there to be suddenly seized with indisposition , and though she persisted for some time to struggle against what seemed a violent nervous affection , it became at last so oppressive , that they were obliged to send for their carriage and conduct herhome . She was for a long time unwilling to say -what was the cause of her indisposition ; but , on being more earnestly questioned , she at length confessed that she had , immediately on arriving in the concert room , been terrified by a horrible vision , which unceasingly presented itself to her sight . Jjt seemed to her as though a naked corpse was lying on the floor at her feet ; the features of the face were partly covered by a cloth mantle , but enough was apparent to convince her that the body was that of Sir J Y . Every effort was made bv her friends at the time to her mind b

    tranquilliae y representing the folly of allowing such delusions to prey upon her spirits , and she thus retired to bed ; but on tho following day the family received the tidings of Sir J- Y having been drowned in Southampton River that very night by the oversetting of his boat , and tho body was afterwards found entangled in a boat cloak . To which is appended : — Here is nn authenticated case of second sight , and of veiy recent date . Some amusing illustrations of King ¦ William ' s character are given : — Sunday , 6 £ h . —The other day a large party dined at the Pavilion . Among the guests was tho American Minister . The King was seized with his fatal habit of making a speech ; in which ho said , that it was alwaye a matter of serious regret to him that he had not been born a free , independent American , so much he reepeoted that uafciou , and considered Washington tho greatest man that ever lived . The next is not so amiable : —

    At the loveo a considerable sensation was created the other day by his insisting on an unfortunate lieutenant in tho navy , who had a wooden log , kneeling down to feiss hands : it was impossible ; but tho sovereign would not concede the point , and tho other was obliged to hobble away without going through the ceremony . ° The following , though not new , may he fresh to some readera : — They have hired a French cook for tho Oarlton Club from Paris , who lived formerly with the Duo d Esoars , premier mattre d'Mtel of Louis XVIII ., and who probably made that famous pAtd de eaucieaons which killed his master . It was served at breakfast at tho Tullerica to tho king , who with tho duko partook so voraoiousl y of it , that tho former was attacked with a dangerous fit of indigestion , irota which lio with difficulty recovered , and the latter absolutely died from tho excess on tho following day . One of tho French journals , remarkable for its

    foceties , announced' the event in the following terms : " Hier sa Majesty trea Chr & ienne , a e * te" attaquee d'une indigestion , dont ML le Due d'Escara est mort le lendemaiu . " Describing the first meeting of the Reformed Parliament , Mr . Raikes calls Cobbett " a bone-grubber . " Yet he objected to * ' personalities . " Like many of the sayings here preserved , the following is not at the beginning of its career ; but it falls in freshly in a note commencing , " Mr . Coleridge is dead : " — . > There is little prospect of his place being soon supplied in the literary -world . His conversational powers were very great . On an occasion when the doctrine of the Sacramentaries and the Roman Catholics , on the subject of the Eucharist , wasin question , he solved the difficulty at once , by saying , " They are both equally wrong , — the first have volatilised the Eucharist into a metaphor , the lasb have condensed it into an idol , "

    In these journals Mr . Raikes was accustomed to make entries from newspapers . The practice was not without its utility . A novelist may take advantage of this macaronic artist : — The extraordinary composure with which , even a painful death may be contemplated is exemplified by a criminal who is under sentence of execution for a murder in one of the prisons of Munich at this present ; time . He has made with crumbs of bread and a sort of macaroni several figures illustrating the scene in ' which he will quit the world . He has figured the instant when the executioner having cut off his head , is holding it up to public view . A Franciscan friar his knees is at the side of the headless corpse ; near the priest is an invalid with a -wooden leg selling a true and full account of his judgment and execution . And naturalists may he glad of this : —

    The Nuremberg Gazette mentions that last year a Polish gentleman caught a stork on his estate at Lemberg , which he released , having previously fixed round its neck an iron collar with the following inscription : Scec ciconia ex Polonia . This year the bird has returned , and been again entrapped by the same individual , who has found its neck ornamented -with a second collar , but made of gold , and thus inscribed : India cum donisi mittit ciconia Polii . The bird has again been set at liberty for further adventures . And this :- — ' On the 10 th inst a wild goose was shot on a moor near Dantzig , with a brass collar round its neck bearing the following inscription in Dutch , —Juis te Soak by ZutpJienin QuelderlawZ 1800 , which may be taken as evidence of the long life of the wild goose . When the diarist moralises , it is in a style which Mr . Macaulay ^—not weindicates as " peculiar drivel . " Between England and France , he says , the trial has been . that of depth versus diffusion :

    -England escaped the convulsion , but nofc the contagion ; the sparks that rose so near fell in the waves thatguard our isle ; but the air was heated , and the glow breaks out ; everywhere the proud spires of our sacred edifices rose up as paratonnerresy but though they averted the flash , they could scarcely divert the commotion . With the new century , therefore , a new scene opened on us ; it found us deep in the struggle—the cause / was sacred , our altars and homeswhen other nations , were worn with then ? woe , England ever watchful at the trembling helm , her greatness grew with , the madness of the gale , her bosom hung on the wings of the storm ; it was a glorious sight , all looked to her confidingly , many loved her sincerely , her features were strongly marked , her barriers staunch and stern . By Mr . Raikes' " set ' Beau Bmmmel was familiarly remembered . The " Journals " remind us of an exquisitely cool thing written by the fop to a friend in the depth of his reverses : — » I heard of you the other day in a waistcoat that does you indisputable credit , spick and span from Paris , a broad stripe , salmon colour and cramoisi .

    The volumes are abundantly amusing 3 but , as with the diaries of Pepys , the writer gains nothing by the publication . The difference between Pepys and Raikes was , that Pepys was a maundering rogue , while Raikes , in all senses of the word an honourable man , maundered more woefully .

    March 15, 1855. J The Leader 257

    March 15 , 1855 . j THE LEADER 257

    A Batch Of Scientific Books. We Here Gro...

    A BATCH OF SCIENTIFIC BOOKS . We here group together six scientific works which demand a notice from u but which are not of a character to furnish separate articles likely to interest the general reader ; and our observations will be understood solely as addressed to persons likely to be purchasers . We have already borne testimony to the excellence of Professor Miller ' s Elements of Chemistry , of which the second part , containing Inorganic Chemistry ( 8 vo ., J . W . Parker and Son ) , is now before us . It is essentially a working book , meant for the laboratory , not for the library , The exposition ia lucid , the examples well chosen , the diagrams numerous . There is little originality either of view or discovery ; but a good digest of -what is known must be indispensable to students ; and . this , as the latest , is worthy of its

    place among the few good works our language possesses . The third part , which will embrace Orffanic Chemistry , will shortly appear , and we shall take that opportunity of offering a more detailed criticism . O the Manual of Zoology , by M . Milne Edwards , translated by R- Knox , M . D . ( I 2 mo ., Renshaw ) , we wish Dr . Knox had permitted us to say nothing but what is complimentary . The work he has translated and abridged ia well-known to us , and its snle of 30 , 000 copies has made it well-known to a largo public ; and if Dr . Knox could have been induced to confine his labours to simple translation , the English public would have felt their gratitude unmixed . He has not been so content , He has made this admirable little

    book the occasion for some unseemly displays of vanity and ignorance . Ho cannot resist trumpeting his own claims , Ho calls attention to " nay ' vast experience . " M . Milne Edwards " is my most esteemed friend . " Zoology must be introduced into university education because it ia " my favourite pursuit . " The text of Milne Edwards must be interrupted in order that the reader should learn how the eminent do Blauiville was " my friend . ' * Who cares ? Who is Dr . Knox , and what has he done , that the pages of a handbook of zoology should be made an advertisement of Hia personalities and his friendships ? He sneers at English anecdotic and quasi-popular books of zoologists from which " all elevated , and . correct views ol ncicncc are excluded , and in which tho masterly labours of Boffon ant Cuvier , the profound views of Goethe , Okcn , and Bpix can scarcely be recognised . " Of course , in thus sneering , Dr . Knox is perfectly familiar witl

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), March 15, 1856, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_15031856/page/17/