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Leader (1850-1860), 22nd October 1859, Edition 2 of 2, Page 18

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      Th« E»Inii U«Gh Review (No. 224) --Among...

      hare not bfefore read it , to which , tke review is a good introduction . That either Mr . Bain or the reviewer adds much to our accurate knowledge of the mental phenomena , we cannot ' assert . On some ppints' both have contributed ^ -as in treating of " belief , " another name for the state of consciousness , whatever it be , which immediately- precedes action—to increase prevalent confusioni To both , howevery the public is indebted for putting very prominently forward , and showing in some detail , that spontaneous muscular exertion—the . immediate consequence of life , of pleasure , or * pain—is the origin of all voluntary power , including the motion of our limbs , and of all the vast knowledge which thereby comes into the minds of all the generations

      of men . This is a most important principle , stated long ago by Darwin , now very clearly stated and illustrated , and worthy of being always remembered . If this spontaneous result of life , of pleasure , or pain besuffieient to provide , in conjunction with the senses all the furniture of the mind—if to it as a guide the Almighty trusts all his creatures at all times , surely the human lawgiver may trust to it , and leave his unfortunate and tortured subjects in maturity , as he must leave them in infancy , to find their way to ¦ welfare by the spontaneous or naturally ordered results of life . To discuss such an important subject is appropriate work for a quarterly journal , and is veiy ably done by the Edinburgh , as -well as by the author reviewed .

      Another subject treated of in the Review , which could only find its way into , the journals for the multitude through the pages of more carefully prepared and elaborate productions , is what are called the Grafitii , or writings on the walls of houses in Pompeii ,. and other buried Roman cities . "Porson used to say , " to quote the reviewer , "that more of the every-day life of the Athenians was to be learned from a single newspaper such as ours than

      from all the comedies of Aristophanes . " What the newspaper would have told of . the higher and more educated class , a few specimens-bf what Mr . Mayhew describes as " patter' * literature would disclose of the street life of the ancients ; but highly as we should prize a Pompeian street-ballad or broadsheet ; we cannot help thinking that , at least as regards the outdoor life of the population of Pompeii , these wall-scribbjings afford by no means a bad substitute . "

      The merit of first calling attention to these important scribblings is due to Dr . Christopher Wordsworth ; but they have lately been closely examined , ' and one been found at Home , pf peculiar significance , by Father Garucci . Of his interesting labours in this interesting field of antiquity the Beriewer gives an interesting accou * nt . His few extracts and'Comments bring before us the domestic life of bheJElomans more distinctly than the most elaborate chapters of Gibbon , written only for this . purpose . u JChey fully conflrm , if they do not darken , the hateful impressions regarding Pompeian morality , which were produced by the pictures , images , and other relics of the city brought to light by the earlier explorations , " The article is full of information , and will be read and studied .

      A writer in the Review has obtained possession of a diary of a visit to England in 1775-of ( the Rev . Dr . Thomas Campbell ) an . Jrishman , that has been found in New South Wales ,-and of which , as he eupposes ^ his to be the only copy on this side of the equator , he gives copious extracts . Now illustrations of the characterof Samuel Johnson and his contemporaries are always welcome , and the reviewer has done a great service to the reading public by making this book known , and by the information he supplies of the author .

      The notices of Sir Emerson Tennant'e " Account of Oeylon , '? of Senior ' s " Travels into Turkey a , nd Greece , " of Carlyle ' s " Frederick the Great , " and Thackeray ' s «• Virginians , " of the " Correapondance ine'aite of Madame du Jpeffaud , " of the War in Italy , and of the " Secret Organization of Trades , " are all very good articles , but did not require months of study to produce them . Both Sir Emerson Tennant ' a and Senior ' s books h , avo already been ' ** gutted , " and the reviewed articles differ from those of minor periodicals , chiefly in their length , No penny-a-rljlner , however highly paid for the puff ,

      hand which fells Mr . Carlyle as with , a sledge hammer is like that of a rival historian . Baron Macaulay , in a toWering literary rage , is the only , person we are acquainted with ,, capable of inflicting such a merciless chastisement as . Edinburgh Review con t ains on one of its old contributors . Whoever may be the writer , we are grateful to him for the slashing . Latterly Mr . Carlyle has used his great powers only to depreciate modern life , as relative to past barbarity , and make a jumble of the English tongue . Mr . Thackeray ' s ' « Virginians , " , is described as " neither antiquarian nor historical , " as " having no plot , " and the author as misapplying his power ** to a hybrid sort of composition between history and

      fiction . " With such writing , literature is now obviously overdone , and tliis article in the Edinburgh may lead the way to a very necessary curtailment . Everything relating to the manners of the French , or rather the Parisians , immediately preceding the great revolution , has an interest , and the reviewer ' s notice of Madame du Deflaud , and the extracts he gives from the Duchess de Choiseul ' s letters add to our information of that period . It has been well said by Dumas , that the ' singular state of domestic morals which then existed amongst the upper classes in France was due to primogeniture , which made each nobleman paritcularly anxious about the heir to his . titles and estates , while he was regardless of the paternity

      " Shakspearran literature " is the subject of the next article , dpropos of Mr . Staunton ' s edition This paper is much better than the first , but it deals with the old commentators , and is , therefore of little interefit . Nor can we say more of M ; Guizot's " Memoirs " which give rise to a twaddling essay . Mr . Brayley ' s " History of Surrey , " however , has produced an antiquarian sketch , indicating much research . The Physical Sciences , and their Connexion , also command deliberate investigation . Tennyson ' s Idylls are * reviewed in a vein of candour and approbation and the critic ' s remarks extend to the poet ' s general works and his progress ; but the whole affair is objectionably desultory . Mommsen ' s " History of Rome " occasion some sensible observations . English Field Sports , Alpine Travellers , and the Court of Lewis XV . have also a share of attention .

      of all the chevalier ' s and abbe ' s who came after the firstborn . Such a system , could it have been continued , might have led to the extinction of society ; but society was preserved in France as it is preserved elsewhere , by the respect which the monogamist multitude cherished for marriage and the paternity of other offsprings than the eldest sons . The reviewer ' s notice of the " Secret Organisation of Trades , " though extremely severe on the leaders of the strike , as despots and intriguers , and on the workmen as dupes , is on the whole a calm historical account of their organisations . It gives , very appropriately , some useful Information on one of the most mportant questions of the day . No secret

      brganisation can be defended ; but for one thing unnoticed by the reviewer , the workmen on strike are worthy of honour . They feel the evils of beingalways a prey to extreme poverty and to unjust degradation , and they manfully , if ignorantly and erroneously , try to help themselves and better their condition . If they fail by the means they employ they will be no worse than the whole French nation , which tried and failed to get rid , by revolution , of the many evils which preyed on it . They will be no worse than the Italians who have for ages been unsuccessfully struggling for freedom . They will be a great deal better than the middle and mercantile classes

      Of Europe generally , who feeling , or pretending to feel , a horror of war , have not , on two occasions lately , as they might , stopped the progress of the military power . The error of the workmen is only a specimen of the common ignorance of individuals , of classes , and of nations , of the " great natural laws of human society / ' which the reviewer recognises , but which are quite as much and continually set at defiance by the aristocracy and the middle classes , as by the workmen . The present number of the Review is superior to most of its predecessors of the last few years , though no art can now replace it and the quarterly journals in thedominating position they formerly filled .

      Bentley s Quakxerlt Review ( No . III . )—We have before remarked that this review " means mischief . " This is a sort or meaning much needed in reviews now-a-days . They are wont to compromise all manner of offences on the peace-at-all-price system . Bontley is determined to speak out . " Honest men speak out , " and honest reviews ought to do the same . This is the spirit which so many denounce as mischievous—the feeble souls who think that truth is not to be spoken at all times and places , and who seldom find it convenient to speak it at all . Let us encourage Bentley , therefore , in such needful mischief-making ' . Does the present number parry out the pledge P Let us see .

      First and foremost , there is an article on " France and Europei" What appears at present a peace , is but an armistice . That is the critic ' s opinion . His bias is shdVn in the phrases— * the dull , but wellmeaning despotism of Austria , " . ' and . " the clever and selfish despotism of France . " Nevertheless , he is compelled to confess that the governments in Rome and Naples were atrocious ; and that for the existence of those governments Austria was responsible ,

      though not for their crimes . Nor is Austria yet expelled from Italy—she still reigns over three millions of Italians , and if the treaty of Villafranca had been carried out ^ they would ruJe Tby the hands of , dependent ) princes over" about throe millions more . Clear enough it is , this 1 , article must have been written some few weeks , ' ago- ^ even within the last day oxvifcwo the < prospect has improved . Nay , day byday . ' » tj ! nai > roveskian < j . iweare . » flrai 4 . that quarterly reviewing ] on ,, politics must always be aiday behind the fair ..

      could possibly exceed the fulsome and nauseous praise which the reviewer bestows on Sir Emerson Tennant's compilation . The article on . the Italian campaign is confined to the military incidents -with which the reading world has already been made familiar by , the newspapers . To refresh the memory , this recent history may be read with advantage . ,. jBk « r CarlyJle , who , ia . said tp sweat-with- agony as he produces his tortuous sentences , is -very properly cpMeiaaned for his truly , absurd attempt to make the JSrp ^( b ; eli ^ ve ' ' that the , truculen ^ , and , fceaotted mori-^ J ^ ity ., of ,, kingship , Frederick / VOTwn , was an & B | retfttaj ; t )^ u % and iO ,. heroic man . ? His history of fflfir ^ P ^^^ w ^ ii !*' ' ! 8 ^* ' ^^^^^ as , " ft « on-, <^ MW 9 ? c ^ p ^ of aUihfttaWBtory ought not to he . " ^ WWWwiMWft thct ; arlMe . wa know not . ; but the

      Ij8% The Leader. [No-500. Oct. 22, 1859

      Ij 8 % THE LEADER . [ No-500 . Oct . 22 , 1859

      Historical Magazine ^No. Ix). — This Ame...

      Historical Magazine ^ No . IX ) . — This American journal progresses favourably , and among its " Notes and Queries" are some that are Curious , both in regard to question and answer . The feature , borrowed from English example , is doubtless a good one . Comprehensive History of England ( Blackie & Son ) . —Parts XXIII . and XXIV . carry the reader to the reign oi George III . and the year 1769 . They * are profusely and elegantly illustrated .

      Erin-Go~Bragh ; Or Irish Life Pictures. ...

      Erin-go ~ Bragh ; or Irish Life Pictures . By W . H . Maxwell , author of " Stories of Waterloo , " " Wild Sports of the West , " " The Bivouac , " & c , & c . In 2 vols . —Richard Bentley . Irish Life Pictures ! The Irish people are the richest in natural humour of ai > y country , and photographs of Irish life as it was ten or twelve years ago , awakens in us many feelings . "iErin-go-Bragh" is what the title implies—pictures of Irish life , and such pictures ot Irish men and manners that few writers but Maxwell could have sketched . Though not unable to write a long story , Maxwell ' s best tales are those that might be Avrittea ; at one sitting . There is always truthfulness in his pictures , and though most of these are of a humourous kind , some are blended , as in the " Stories of Waterloo , " with a genuine pathos peculiar to himself . In his longer

      works of fiction he appears to us to get spent and tired of his subject before he can get through it , and the consequence is , he often loses the thread of his narrative . This is painfully the case in "My Life , " and " Brian O'Linn , " but he excels in little episodes of real life , where he has been an eye witness . Consequently , they do not all tell favourably towards his countrymen .. Though many of the sketches in the volumes before' lis are reprinted from " Bentley ' s Miscellany , " contributed when that pu blication was in its palmy days , they will be quite new to many of the present readers of periodical literature . These sketches were considered by the late Doctor Maginn to be such truthful traits of his countrymen , that he collected them in their present form , and wrote a biographical and critical sketch of the life and writings of Maxwell , which is prefixed to the work .

      The New and ihe Old ; or California and India in Romantic Aspects . By J . W . Palmer , M . D ., author of ' ? Up and Down the Irrawaddi \ or the Golden Dagon . " - —Sampson Low and Son , This volume contains a collection of sketches and stories collected by Mr . Palmer during his rambles of professional life in India and California . Mr . Palmer was one of the first persons attracted to California by the news of the discovery of gold in 1849 . Doctors were then at a premium $ " half the population ill , and fees enormous—two ounces ( of g old ) a vieit , medicine in proportion—a dollar a

      grain for quin ine ; and a dollar a drop for laudanum . From his position the doctor had opportunities of having many little romances illustrative of the manners and , customs of a people collected from nearly every quarter of the globe , front which the writer of "Up and Down the Irrawaddi , " might have written a very interesting book of travels . The volume before us is not very remarkable s tpe sketches are very slight in form , and arc not such as throw much light on the senii-biirbarous life lea py the emigrant to . California in the early time of tne gold discoveries . From the title—which ia imposing enough—we expected a better book .

      Illustrations to How to Work the Microscope . By Lionel Bealo , M . B ., F . R . S . — -John Churchill . Herb are twenty-eight ,. plates , all of the greatest utility j and with the excellent work which they have been engraved to illustrate will supply too student with ample means and materials for investigation . Journal of Mental Science ( No . 31 . ) Dr . BucknM has this month , besides the rogular official matter , presented hie readers with two Important papers--one on " Psychology , " by Dp . J . Stevenson Busnnan , and tho other on « The Correlation of Mental and Physical ; For ce , pyDr , Henry Mauduley .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 22, 1859, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_22101859/page/18/