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    Hueent , afterwards Lord Clare—a man of talents , yet not free from 'bombast and alwurdi ti&s /— -were among the associates . Afbera few days ' deliberation , he brought in a bill which permitted American iron , in its rudest forms , to be imported , dutv free ; but now that the nailers in the colonies could afford spikes and large naife cheaper than the English , it forbade the smiths of America to erect any mill for slitting or rolling iron , or any platingforge to work with a tilt-hauimeiv or any furnace . for making steel . ' The restriction / said Penri , 'is of most dangerous consequence to prevent our making what we Want for our own use . ..... It is an attack on the rights of the King ' s subjects in America . * William * Bollan , the ao-ent of Massachusetts , jpleaded its inconsistency with the natural rights of the

    colonists * But while England applauded the restriction , its owners of iron mines grudged to Amet'ica a share of the market for the rough material ; the tanners , from the threatened inaction of the English furnaces , feared a diminished supply of bai'k ¦ ¦ the clergy and gentry foreboded injury to the price of woodlands . The importation of bar iron from the colonies was therefore limited to the port of London , which already had its supply from abroad . The ironmongers and smiths of Birmmghatn thought well of importing bars of iron free , but , from ' compassion * to the ' many thousand families in the kingdom' who otherwise ' must be ruined , ' they prayed that * the American people' might be subject not to the proposed restrictions only , but to such others ' as may secure for ever the trade to this

    The narrative is of unflagging interest . The mighty issues which , great principles were working in the history of the race— -the varied scenes and strange characters traversing those scenes—all give to this history a peculiar charm- . . ' ., Not the least attractive are those pages - where the Indian races and their vast lands are marshalled before us ; and we will conclude this notice with a glimpse at an Indian council . "On the 21 st day of February , af ter a distribution of presents , articles of peace and alliance were drawn up . between the English of Pennsylvania on the one side , and the Weas and Piankeshaws on the other ; were sighed and sealed in duplicate , and delivered on both side 3 . All the friendly tribes of the west were also to meet the next summer at Logstown , for a general treaty with Virginia .

    ' * The indentures had just been exchanged , when four Ottawas drew near , with a present from the Governor of Canada , were admitted at once to the couneil , and desired a renewal of friendship with their fathers , the French . The king of the Piankeshaws , setting up the English colours in the council , as well as the French , rose and replied : ' The path to the French is bloody , and was made so by them . We have cleared a road for pur brothers / the English , and your fathers have made it foul , and have taken some of our brothers prisoners / They had taken three at the . Huron village , near Detroit , and one on the Wabash . ' This / added the king , ' we look-upon as done to us ; ' and turning suddenly from them , he strode out of the council . At this , the representative of the French , an Ottawa , wept and howled , predicting sorrow for the Miamis . t

    "To the English the Weas and Piankeshaws , af ter deliberation , sena , speech by the great orator of the Weas . ' You have taken us by the hand / were his words , ' into the great chain of friendship . Therefore we present you with these two bundles of skins , to make shoes for your people , and this pipe to smoke in , to assure you our hearts are good towards you , our brothers / " In the presence of the Ottawa ambassadors , the great war-chief of Picqua stood lip , and , summoning in imagination the French to be present , he spoke : — " ' Fathers ! you have desired we should go home to you , but I tell you it is not our home ; for we have made a path to the sun-rising , and have been taken by the hand by our brothers , the English , the Six Nations , the Delawares , the Shawnees , and the Wyandots ; and we assure you , in that road we will go . And as you threaten us with war in the spring , we tell you , if you are angry , we are ready to receive you , and resolve to die here , before we will go to you . That you may know this is our mind , we send you this string of black wampum . tf

    ' Brothers , the Ottawas , you hear what I say ; tell that to your fathers the French ; for that is our mind , and we speak it from our hearts . ' " The French colouru are taken down ; the Ottawas are dismissed to the French fort at Sandusky . The Long House , late the senate-chamber of the united Miinnis , tings with the music and the riotous motions of the feather-dance . Now a war-chief strikes a post : the music an * L the dancers , on the instant , are hushed to silent listeners ; the brave recounts his deeds in war , and proves the greatness of his mind by throwing presents lavishly to the musicians and the dancers . Then once more the turmoil of joy is renewed , till another warrior rises to boast his prowess , and scatter gifts in his turn . "

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    MERVYN CLITHEROE . The Life and Adventures ofMervyn Clitheroe . ' By W . Harrison Ainsworth . Chapman and Hall Form or five months ago , the readers of advertisements learned , with some surprise , that Mr . Ainsworth was about to risk the perilous ordeal of competition with Dickens and Thackeray , by publishing his twonty numbers of " Life and Adventures , " the intense interest of which Hablot Browne indicated prospectivoly in his usual mysterious style in an agitated and incomprehensible frontispiece . Mr . Ainsworth has readors ; he has more—lie has admirers . Wliere they exist , wo do not pretend to sayhaving encouutered but three ; but that

    , they do exist , the sale of his works attests . It became an experiment of some interest to him to loarn whether the public of Dickons and Thackeray would accept him . The experiment , wo fear , has not proyod successful . With the fourth number Mr . Ainsworth quits the field . " Unforeseen circumstances arc likely to compel him to suapond for awhile his Pleasant task . " Wo are not in Mr . Ainsworth ' s confidence , and thorcft > ro know not what thoso " circumstances" are , but if failure is one of thorn , wo marvel at the epithet " unforeseen . " It surely required but the

    smallest sagacity to foresee that nothing but failure could follow such hacknind and uninteresting incidents tola in such q . stylo ; and it would have been more frank and manly had tho failure been avowed . For lot the real capo bo understood . Mr . Ainsworth has undoubtedly some of tho qualities necessary to a romance writer . Wo havo the poorest possible opinion of his works , most of which wo havo tried in vain to road ; but against our opinion thoro is the sot-off of success . Whatovor may bo thought of those works , their warmest admirers will novor think of claiming for them any literary merit , any faithful observation of life , any originality of ohoraoter ; style , thought ; observation , and dramatic

    penetration of character , are scarcely aimed at , certainly not reached . Yet , although the absence of these qualities may not be greatly missed by careless readers hurrying through the story , and moved only by " startling incidents "— in the small compass of the two sheets issued monthly readers look for some such qualities , and not finding them , regard their shilling as grievously ill-spent . Hence ; from the first we regarded this venture as a mistake , we remembered the abrupt termination of his * 'Mysteries of London , " arid thought of the exigent public ! To point out the defects of Mervyn , Clitheroewould demand more space than we are disposed to give ; but a few sentences will suffice to characterize the style in which it is written , and our readers may judge from that style what the higher qualities are likely to be . We will not fastidiously dwell on faults of grammar , but confine ourselves to the abiding commonplace of diction which renders the writing intolerable . Penny-aliners are terrible fellows for vulgarizing a language by their incessant repetition of common phrases , and their pertinacity in clinging to bad metaphors ; and it is because they have worn away almost all trace of tho image from the current coin that we throw down in weariness a book which , like Miervyn ClitJieroe , will not simply tell us that men were asleep , but must say they were " locked in slumber , " which tells us that a man was " fond of antiquarian researches , and no mean poet" —which * disdaining simplicity , and seeking for the delicate effects of style , cannot call a fish-pond by any less lofty title than " piscine preserve ; " and only knows the habits of birds as " the pursuits of the feathered creation . " These writers never eat a dinner ; they " partake of a repast , " which is so much more elegant ; they think with Boileau" Quo ! que vous ecriviez , evitez la bassesse : Le style le inoins noble a pourtant sa noblesse ;" and to avoid the undignified , according to them , it is only necessary not to call things by their proper names . Dip where you will in Mr . Ainsworth ' s pages , your eye is certain to alight upon elegancies of expression , such as " when that time expired , he enjoined further delay ; " or on playful remarks such as" Mrsi Mervyn was very hosp itable , but her invitations were chiefly confined to clergymen , and a day seldom passed that one or two reverend gentlemen did not dine with her ; and as these excellent members of society are not supposed to despise the good things of the world , and the dinners at the Anchorite ' s were unexceptional , a refusal was seldom experienced /' Or on some novelty such as " His was the suaviter in modo rather than the fortiter in re" a remark we have met with before . Lest it should seem invidious thus to detach single sentences ( although no man of taste could suffer such sentences to escape him ) , we willjguote a passage which appears to have been written with some elaboration . Read" and judge . "I longed for the time when I should be able to throw a fly and take the speckled trout in some mountain stream . My conversation turned wholly upon fishing ; and I was thrown into ecstasies by hearing of any piscine preserves , and treasured the places in my memory . I have since learnt to dislike the angler ' s art , and , So far from thinking it a « gentle' sport , am of opinion that it is a very cruel pastime : but I had no such scruples of sensibility then . If I gained nothing else by the pursuit , at all events I acquired a love of Nature . I beheld her beauties under many a varied aspect—at morn and eve , amid showers as well as ksunshine . I noted the pursuits of the feathered creation with interest , and listened attentively to their different songs and cries . " The peculiarity in all these expressions we have noted , is the permanent position they occupy in bad writers . One copies them from another in unhesitating good faith . There seems a certain fascination exorcised by inaccurate expressions upon inaccurate minds ; and hence the " damnable iteration" " individual , " " party , " and words of similar abomination . And as with expressions , so with jokes ; their antique badness is the passport to certain minds . By way of example , read this which Mr . Ainsworth with dauntless courage has deliberately written : — " The great boar had lost his curly tail , and the appendage being unaccountably found in my pocket , it proved a great bore to mo . " Do you observe how this joke , the subtlety of which is about equal to its novelty , is flavoured by that curiosa feliciias of expression , " the appendage . " We are content to rest our verdict on the single count of that one joke , and confidently ask tho reader whether an author who could print such a passage was at all in a condition to command readers for a work in twenty shilling parts P

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    PALMERSTON'S OPINIONS . Opinions and JPolicy of Lord JPalmerston , as Minister , Diplomatist , and Statesman , during more than Forty Tears of Public Lifo . With a Memoir . By Georgo Honry Francis , Esq . Colburn . Such is the title-page of a volume , which , issued opportunely , has , no doubt , found ready purchasers in an excitable public . A more attractive title could not havo boon invented—a more judicious momont for publication could wot havo boon chosen ; but it is ono thing to invent a good

    title , another to improvise a good book ; and , m this instance , although tho author has admirably succeeded in tho former , in tho lattor ho has quite failod . " Excerpts from tho Speeches of Lord Palmers ton , with fancy headings , thrown together with as little want of arrangement as possible . By , " &o . &c , would havo loss inappropriately described tho volume . Under tho ploa of impartiality , Mr . Francis abstains from giving us tho timallost scrap of informahpn upon tho courso of public affairs during " more ' than forty years , " other than that contained in those detached passages from ' Lord Palmerston ' s speeches , printod jib hia " opinions and policy . " What might ho not havo donp by a fowjudicious ana more matter-of-fact marginal notes , to fulfil hia intentions , and " assist tho public mind in forming a just opinion" of Lord Palmers ton ' s " character and caroor ! " But he has done nothing of tho kind . Becrinninff with tho year 1808 , vrhon Palmors'ton makes his first

    appearance , we aro carried on from year to year , in regular succession , through a set of distinct , discursivo passages upon various topics , jumblod chronologically together , until wo aro landod in 1851 . Patos alono havo supplied

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    Marcs W , 18521 THE LEADER . 255

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), March 13, 1852, page 255, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1926/page/19/