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    j&Bm& ijiiszz.i tme JLm&PEJR, ago

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    A BATCH OF AMERICAN BOOKS. The New Pasto...

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    MY COURTSHIP AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. My Co...

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    Law. Keports. The Common Law And Equity ...

    Heath Bennet , Mr . H . Cadman Jones , Mr . James Willis , Mr . "William Hackett , Mr . George French , and 'Mr . A . A * Doria , are responsible for the several Equity Reports ; Messrs . R . J . Corner and Edward Sykes for the Queen's Bench ; Mr . W . F . Finlaison for the Common Pleas ; Messrs . J . B . Dasent and Douglas Brown for the Exchequer ; Mr . P . C . Gates for the Exchequer Chamber , the Bail Court , and the Court of Criminal Appeal ; Dr . Spinkffffcr-the Ecclesiastical and Admiralty Courts ; Mr , J , W . M . Fontxljwraue for the Court of Bankruptcy ; and Mr . G . H . Reed for that disagreeable place , the Insolvent Debtors Court .

    J&Bm& Ijiiszz.I Tme Jlm&Pejr, Ago

    j & Bm & ijiiszz . i tme JLm & PEJR , ago

    A Batch Of American Books. The New Pasto...

    A BATCH OF AMERICAN BOOKS . The New Pastoral . By Thomas Buchanan' Read . Triibner and Co . Lectures on English Literature . From Chaucer to Tennyson . By Henry Reed . Triibner and Co . Gosatde Espana ; or , Going to Madrid vid , Barcelona . Triibner and Co . A Long Look Ahead ; or , the First Stroke and the Last . By A . S . Roe . Triibner and Co . You Have Heard of Them . By Q . Trttbner and Co The New Pastoral i 3 a poem in blank verse . Mr . Thomas Buchanan Read takes the rural poets of England for his models , mingling the familiar and natural style of the present day -with a little of the florid and artificial manner of Thomson , and the school of poetry which he represents . The

    scene of The New Pastoral is in Pennsylvania , and the descriptions of natural objects are interwoven with ; a love-story , and varied agreeably by the introduction of rustic characters . Mr . Read is , in no sense of the word , an original poet , either in form or idea . But he has the minor merits of an elegant fancy , a fine ear , and a careful hand ; and there is a certain quiet attractiveness about his poem which oug ht to rocoinniend it to all readers who are willing to accept musical versification and graceful thoughts , without ' looking too exactingly for vigour of style and originality of idea besides . The Lectures on English TJterature have a strong claim on our respectful sympathy , for the volume in which they are contained is published under very melancholy circumstances . The lecturer , ; the late Mr . Henry Reed , was Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature in the University of

    Philadel p hia , and was one among the three hundred passengers who perished in the shipwreck of the Arctic steam vessel . We have in the little book before us the first instalment of the Lectures which the Professor delivered at Philadelphia , edited and published by Mr . William B . Reed , out of an affectionate desire to enlarge the public knowledge and perpetuate the memory of his brother ' s literary acquirements . Under these circumstances , even if the Lectures proved to be of little value in themselves , we should hold it a duty to-speak of them ' with the utmost forbearance and gentleness . But it is pleasant to find , on reading them , that they call for no special indulgence at our hands . Standing on their own merits , they claim warm and _ honest approval from us , as the productions of a refined , gentle , and justly-judg ing mind . The book is in every way a most creditable contribution to the Library of Critical Literature ; and we shall be glad to find , in some future day , that its success has encouraged the editor to publish fresh selections from his brother's manuscripts .

    It is no very agreeable transition to turn from Mr . Reed ' s sensible and agreeable pages to the unspeakable vulgarities and flippancies in the volume of Spanish travels which stands third on our list . If the author had possessed any delicacy or good taste at all , he might have written a genuinely lively and pleasant book , for he shows traces , here and there , of that quick and comprehensive observation which is the traveller ' s best gift . But his manner as a writer is so inveterately coarse , so absurdly conceited , and so obtrusively and offensively careless , that it is impossible to read six consecutive pages of his book-anywhere without feeling tempted to throw it into the fire or the waste-paper basket . The coarseness of this " author , especially lnrthe passages which touch in any way on women , is quite indescribable . Take this as-one specimen out of many : —

    • Everything , ; at last , was tumbled into the boat , , and stowed away—men , women , trunks , boxes , bags , and umbrellas . I was so seated as to have one of the latter articles , i * elonging to a very nervous native , playing , at intervals , the amusing part of a-catapult againBt my right flank . But to distract my attention from these attacks , I had , on = the side nearest my heart , the most graceful little Valcnciana I ever came in oontact with . At the very first pitch of the boat , after leaving the steamer , she began to xding to me as for dear life . Another pitch—and if it had been for dear love , she could not have grasped my arm tighter . One more—O frailty , thy name is woman—the left leg of my trousers was ruined for ever . Cloak , trouser , and boot , all deluged by a cascade from lips which , a moment before , seemed to have been made

    only for kissing ! . What does the English reader think of that as . a specimen of the facetiousness of a fast Yankee ? The passage suggests one rather curious consideration . We Eng lish are accustomed to be considerably rated by-tourists from the other side of the Atlantic for wanting that gallant and . delicate consideration for women which is said to be the most remarkable social virtue of America . Remembering this , and remembering also that the quotation just made ( one example among many of the special coarseness to which we arc now referring ) is from an American book , which is itself a reprint of articles that originally appeared in one of the first and foremost of the American Magazines , wo are , to say tho least of it , a little astonished at the stylo of writing , which wo are fairly justified in setting down , from the facts just statedas a successful stylo in America . la England , such a

    , passage as that above extracted , if it could have proceeded from any decently-educated Englishman ' s pen , would have been struck out oj any Magazine article by any Magazine editor ; and if it had been restored in a republication , would have been marked with a " Query" by any respectable printer ' s reader , and condemned as ruinous to the character of the book with the reading public by any intelligent English publisher . The lowest " Gtmt" writer among us would not venture to make merry on tho subject of'a sea-sick-woman , before tho ungallant English public , as tho successful Yankoo traveller makes merry—first in Putnam ' s Monthl y then in Cosas de Espa 7 ia—hofoTO the gallant and delicate American public . Strange , is it not ? Can it bo barely possible ( as some explanation of an apparent anomaly ) that in this mattor of tender consideration towards women , stohd

    John Bull possesses -the : genuine . spirit ; while smart Brother : Joaataan -disp lays the empty outward-form ? Is this , . after all , the real-state of the case ? Weare prejudiced enough . ourselves tofeela strong suspicion that it is . ' Our fast Yankee ^ has one ' merit at least—he has written a short book , which it is possible , with skipping and some occasional feelings of disgust , to readtothe end . But the next author— -a novelist—is determined ^ not to let us off" easily . He gives us four hundred and forty closely-printed pages , devoted to the telling of the most unexceptionably moral and most intensely dull story that we ever remember attempting to read . As critics , we have-nothing whatever to say on the subject of A Long Look Ahead , except that , not being able by any means to see our way through it , we heartily

    wish the " . Long Look" had been a little shorter . As readers , we found the characters ihsupportably wearisome from their excessive virtue , their excessive tendency to laugh heartily without the slightest reason for it , and their excessive prolixity in the way of solemn talking to each other about nothing at all . It may seem an over-confident assertion to make , but we most obstinately and absolutely disbelieve that it is possible for any human being to read this book through . It is a positive curiosity of quiet , well-intentioned , wholly-unmitigated dulness . We feel drowsy even with thinking and writing about it . Morphine and Poppies should have been its title , and the Mansion of Eternal Repose the publishing-house from which it was issued to the world .

    You Have Heard of Them , by Q ., is a book of mangy gossip about famous authors , artists , and actors , by a Gent . In the introduction to his small , " scandalous chronicle , " Q . takes occasion to say that he cares little for criticism . He need not care at all ; for , on this side of the Atlantic-at least , we will venture to say that he will not be criticised . Judging by certain passages in which the Gent gossips fatuously about himself , we have reason to fear that he was once connected with the English press . It is delightful , after- making that deplorable discovery , to see that Q . ' s mangy little book is published in America , and to find that his impudent little Preface is dated " New York . " Far be it from us to criticise him in any hostile spirit . As English journalists he has laid us under the deepest obligation—by removing to the opposite side of the Atlantic . Only let him stop there , and we shall never cease to think with gratitude of our mangy little Q .. '

    My Courtship And Its Consequences. My Co...

    MY COURTSHIP AND ITS CONSEQUENCES . My CourtsJi-i j ) and its Consequences . By Henry Wichof . We have already noticed the Nichof , Wichof , or . Marshall affair . We now have the volume in our hands , and a more repulsive display of reckless vanity , presumptuous pretence , and naked coxcombry we never encountered . The work is rendered more odious by an artificial character of naturalness , and a mock candour . Mr . Henry Wichof , Nichof , or Marshall , invokes justice at the bar of English opinion , in a manner likely enough to secure for him a justice , but not that which he seeks . He tells the story of his for the ab

    own loveSi In February , 1851 , a trial took place at Genoa , - duction of Miss —— ——— , of Portland-place , London ; and Mr . Wichof , who figures as the accused , was condemned by a Genoese judge to fifteen months imprisonment . It is from this judgment that he appeals to the British public , as well as from the calumnies that have followed that judgment . He first saw the young lady in 1835 ; she then lived with an aunt , and for several years he frequented the house . At that time Mr Wichof was attached to the American Embassy in London ; _ and he is as careful to make the p ublic his confidant in his bonnes fortunes in diplomacy , as he is in those of a more tender character . The engaging manners of the vmmo- ladv . and her"hi < rhlv-cultivated intellect , left impressions so deep and

    pleasing that occasional absence from England , and a return to the United States fould riot-remove them .- All the loveliness ofAmerica paled befgro Portland-place . In the spring of 1851 , as lions come back to the fountains , Mr . Wichof came to draw his quarter ' s salary from the Foreign Office ; and hearing from a mutual friend that the young lady was residing in London , and alone , having lost her relatives , Mr . Wichof seized the occasion to renew his old acquaintance , jilting the fair of the West . He does not fail to remark that Miss Gamble was beautiful when he first knew her , and that time had left its traces ; but she remained as mentally gifted as ever , and we are led to the impresssion that his suit was not unwelcome . It must bo tcrminatedunAa

    remembered that we have only Ids story , and that his story criminal condemnation ; but the tale is curious , if it were only to be taken as the anatomy of feeling on one side , —an analysis of the ideas in the mind of a gentleman of forty coquetting with a lady of forty , and supposing that he is engaged in a game where the other side is equally intent upon concealment . In his account , the courtship is nothing less than a struggle between the amour-projyre of the two—the Yankee being desperately afraid of being outwitted by a woman 1 In this surprising apprehension he confesses to the cowardice of endeavouring to outwit her , lest she should outwit him . At last ho makes up his mind "to pop the question , " and after beating about the bush without beimr able " to screw his courage to the sticking point , no

    writes a letter filled with his aspirations . . , There is something very amusing in this timidity , couched as it is , nice tup whole volume , in language up to tho standard of tho slang p hrases which we have quoted . Conscience makes cowards of us all ; and the astounding cosmopolitan " gent" who is superior to every delicate reserve—wlio tramples down tho secrets of foreign office and society—who has resolved to outwit , if not to coerce , tho woman that lie has in his oyc-who *™™ " <* even to publish allusions to her personal appearance ; yet trembles boioro her — lAcoany innocent Paul who cannot find , the eourngu to o , » tho question" to his Virginia ! On tho . lay after writing us letter , he "" wives L answer , declaring , in due form that their acquaintance must end In nlnv . v , 5 n , r „„ , ! nlmARt ? f . lirfiRtanillff despair , tllO loVCl' WlltCS tO _ Ill 3 lft < lV tUO that shall start

    howhkr ^ noun ^ ment he by the next . tram urj « without his breakfast . " This specie * of moral compulsion ti 11 nphe , , a * it has often done , and a note from the lady readmitted him to £ "icad presence . Tho Chevalier now confeiwes that - ho tried the inflience of * fittlo neglect "—« " for ladies don ' t like to bo forgotten , - " and so ho did not

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), April 21, 1855, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_21041855/page/19/