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    Nov . 10 , 1 S 5 . 5 . -I THE LEADER . 1085

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    [ ¦ —r——^—— ^ - ' « Lorenzo Benoni , " lie in the personages of the tale . The Italian doctor may take his place ia the gallery of the admirable characters of contemporary fiction His noble independence , his gentleness and patience , his high intelligence , his pure , generous , manly heart , his love for his country , and his constant readiness to sacrifice himself and his own interests for the comfort I and the good of others , contribute to present " Doctor Antonio to us as the beau ideal of a Christian gentleman . Let us add , in ] ustice to the I author , that this noble study from human n ature in its best aspects , is no-I where defaced by exaggeration . The melodramatic rhodomoitadeand sentimental nonsense so disastrously associated with . Italian characters in so many English fictions , cannot , it is delightful to say , be traced anywhere in this novel , from beginning to end . Doctor Antonio appears before the reader in many and various aspects ; but he never once outrages the modesty ot Nature—the simple beauty of his char acter is admirably preserved to the very last . Not less excellent in it 3 way is the portrait of the pretty , modest graceful , English girl . We love , admire , and pity her—she is essentially a character that wins our sympathies at the outset , and keeps them to the end . More than this , she is a recognisable , living reality—we see her and hear her , as we read . Her pretty sayings , her gentle fortitude under pain the gradual growth of her innocent , grateful fondness for the doctor ( touched by the author with the most exquisite delicacy ) , interest us , as the sayings doings , and feelings of a dear and well-known friend . We shall be mistaken indeed , if " Lucy " be not the spoiled child of tlie reader ' s affections , long before he has read half-way through the book . The prejudiced English baronet is hardly so successful . ^ In the earlier part of the story , especially , his failings are the weak points of a purse-proud Manchester manufacturer , rather than those of a stiff-necked English gentleman of old family . He gets more true to nature , however , as he goes on , and becomes more and more subdued and humanised by the kindly people of the village inn . The hostess , her daughter " Speranza , " and the boatman " Battista , " are all master-pieces of humourous truth . No one who has ever travelled in Italy , can fail to recognise them as honest and hearty studies from nature . Equally good , in another way , is the amusing sketch of a respectable English physician settled in a foreign town . Indeed , all the minor characters grouped about " Doctor Antonio "'and " Lucy , " possess the great excellence of individuality . Not an opportunity is lost of making the most of every one of them . The book has its faults , of course ; but they are , we sincerely believe , of a kind that further experience will go far to remedy . A little compression would have benefitted tiie work greatly in many parts , and some more contrast in the incidents would have added immeasurably to its interest . When we have hinted these defects , and have further expressed our surprise that the author—so careful in other points—should not have taken more pains to interweave the political passages of the book as attractively as possible with the main business of the stuiy , we shall have satisfied our critical sense of duty , and may ' address ourselves to the pleasanter duty of calling thereader ' s attention to the excellence of the style in which " Doctor Antonio is written . If it be remembered that the author is a foreigner , the following specimen of his powers of description , in our language , will say more for his mastery of English , * than any set eulogies that his critic could pronounce : — To the north a long , long vista of deep , dark , frowning gorges , closed in the distance by a gigantic screen of snow-clad Alps , —the glorious expanse of the Mediterranean to the south . —ea ^ t and west , range upon range of gently undulating hills , softly inclining towards the sea , —in the plain below , the fresh cosy valley of Taggia , with its sparkling tract of waters , and rich belt ot gardens , looking like a perfect mosaic of every gradation of green , chequered with winding silver arabesques . Ever and anon a tardy pomegranate in full blossom spread out its oriflamme of tulip-shaped dazzling red flowers . From the liaini ? ground opposite frowned mediaeval Taggia , like a discontented guest at a splendid banquet . A little farther off , westward , the eye took in the Campanile of the Dominican Church , emerging from a group of cypresses ; and further still , on the extreme verge or the western cliff , the sanctuary of our lady of the Guardia showed its white silhouette against the dark blue sky . A half fretful , half plaintive , "Now , Lucy , my dear , if you would only put off your enthusiasm till after dinner , " from Sir John , interrupted Miss Daveime ' s silent but delighted survey , a . ml brought her at once to her father ' s side . They sat down to a succulent dinmr , of -which Sir John ' partook with an alacrity and zest highly complimentary to the hygienic qualities of the mountain air . The repast being ovev , Lucy proposed that they wliould take coffee on the terrace , which being agreed to by her father , they immeiliutily wont thither , and Sir John , after sipping hia Mochfl , and paying an ample tribute of ml mi ration to the loveliness of the view , took the Time * from his pocket , / ind pluugfd into its columns . Lucy and Antonio thus left to themselves sat watching in silent wonder the glories of the evening hour . The « ky was bright and limpid as polished steel , save where three lovoly cloudlets , like long near fa of onm / jo guize , hovered initho west . The sun , half hidden behind the brow of the western mountain range , shot through the breaks of the lower hills in front eome of its rays in iiery columns aslant the valley . As the dazzling orb sunk slowly , the zone of shade on tu < i mountain opposite rose with corresponding profjreriS , and , like a tide of dark wat'iiH , chasing before it the broad sheets of light , narrowed thorn by degrees to a purple line , which lingered for a while on the topmost ridges , the last farewell , then vanished with a quivtrt \ Now tho foremost range of the chain resume * at onco tho rigidity of itu outlines , while in the background , behind which tho Him has gone down , i \ oat in a transparent mist of lapis-laz / . uli and pink . Tho » ky in 'ho west isaglorioun furnaw , tlio varm reflections from which bedeck with criniHon tho distant snow of tho Alps , and li ^ ht up tho horizon or the mm . Another moment , tho reddish glare palea and gives wjiy , the shadows thicken in the valley beneath , and the gorges to the north darken and darken apace . The fiery conwealions in the went luive Hoftonod into subdued rosy tints , mid these in their turn , by a hurmoniously graduated hcmIc , fade into a gioiniHh moihtM-of-piarl transparency , which pusneb from grey to azure , until weat and euat merge Into it uniform deep blue , spangled liero and there with a trembling star . " And our beautiful clouds ? " said Lucy . 41 Gone ! " replied Antonio , sadly ; " emblem of many a bright hope , vanishing even as you wati'h then ) . " " But thoy will come ngnin to-morrow , " said Lucy nu'ivelj " , and in so Raying ( the bent her head a little townnla Antonio , tho evening breeze curried some of her golden curls over his lip » , na if offering them to his kins . |

    " Who can tell , " said he , " but that black clouds pregnant with thunder will envelop those summits to-morrow ?" We wish -we could quote , at sufficient length , some one of the many interviews that take place between " Doctor Antonio" and his charming patient ; but we have not space enough to exhibit our author fairly at his best , and must , therefore , refer our readers at once to the book itself . We can , with perfect sincerity , recommend " Doctor Antonio" to them , as a novel which is certain to interest and to please -eaders of all classes . Both as to purpose and execution , it is one of the most genuinely successful fictions that we have read for a long time past .

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    , , , , HISTORY OF PIEDMONT ^ History of Piedmont . By Antonio Gallenga . Chapman and Hall . s Carlyle , in his essay on History , says—" Here , as in a other provinces , there are artists and artisans , men who labour mechanically in a department , ' without eye for the whole , not feeling that there is a whole ; and men who inform and eunoble the humblest department with an idea of the whole , and habitually know that only in the whole is the-partial to bo truly discerned . " In these days of swifc book-making , artisans in history drug the market . | They give us volumes of extracts from reliable authorities , and string together narratives , opinions , and assertions that have no relation the one to 1 the other . The utmost we can do is to hope that such things were ; but ' vain is any attempt to find out their why and because , or to connect the ' deeds said to be done with the men who did them , or the causes that influenced their action ! "' Tis a' a muddle ! " was the conclusion poor Stephen ' Blackpool came to in reference to our social laws . ' 'Ti 3 a * a muddle 1 " we repeat , closing the histories manufactured by the artisan fraternity . Not so with regard to the book before us . Antonio Gallenga has made 1 srood his claim to the title of an " artist" in history . He is an old friend . 1 As Mariotti , his " Italy Past and Present , " " Italy in 1848 , " have proved fertile media of instruction to the English student of Italian attairs . ( Now , the eloquent recounter of Italy ' s glories that were , her wrongs and wrono- doings that are , her chances and hopes that yet may be , stands betore us as the grave historian , the matter-of-fact recorder of the doings and 1 beings of the Piedmontese and their rulers , from the earliest to the present times . Piedmont and the " History of Piedmont" resemble each other . : From a mass of heterogeneous materials the Savoy princes and their historian have wrought out a complete and symmetrical whole ; and this , not by merely cementing the . fragments , but by blending the elements . Looking at the little valley of Maurientte , which formed , eight centuries ago , the sole territory of the first Count of Savoy , we cannot but honour the tact and wisdom with which his successors have brought together and consolidated the different states now forming the compact kingdom of Sardinia , wnose people , sprung from divers races , unite to-day in calling the present heir ot that lon « -lineof pr inces " the Galantuomo . " So in recalling the grim folios of Guichenou , Muratori , Terraaeo , Chiosa , &o . ( chroniclers and genealogists of the different states and only-of a portion of their history ) , which , with some help from modern fragments and collateral writers , is all the material at hand , do we heartily appreciate the three readable volumes on our table , which form the only complete lt History of Piedmont" that exists either in English or Italian . Not that we agree in all M . Galienga ' s opinions ; moreover , we are surprised at the modification and even , alteration of certain views of his concerning people and events . We speak of the material sought out from every corner where it lay hidden , and of tho able manner in which it has been judged to be fact or no fact , and as such set aside , or brought to bear upon tho " whole . " The student who lias been waiting for the continuation of Cibrario ' s " Storia della Monarchist di Savoia ever since 1844 , must read and judge for himself how far this work is capable ot supplying its place . For the benefit of those to whom the History of Piedmont possesses little intrinsic interest , wo will give such extracts as shall show the General tenour of the book , and the author ' s method of handling las subject . The purpose of the work is " to study the causes which led to the lornaation of the state of Piedmont , and gave it stability , to bring the whole past to bear upon the whole present ; to inquire how far the long-continu « d success and advancement of that country has been owing to the mere advantages of geographical position , and to what extent it may also de ascribed to the peculiar genius of its princes , and the rare temper ot ita people . " These three distinct causes , to which Piedmont ' s prosperity may bo ascribed , are carefully kept in view . The chapter devoted to the description of Piedmont , that " State of God ' s own making ; " " Tho barrier which Providence reared up for the defence of Italy , " " which may , perhaps , yet work out tho deliverance of the country , " is sufficiently graphic to make us wish to know something of the people who inhabit it . Scattered among the minutest statistic details arc fresh bits of . scenery and sunny landscapes , that must have been painted under tho olive shadows of Nice or in the noonday mystery of Chiavari ' i * orange groves . Who , that is acquainted with Italian scenery , will not recognise Die following descriptions ?—" Within a diutanco of thirty to fifty miles tho crescent of tho Alps and Apennine , from tho clould-liko summit of Monte Kom to tho pass of tho liocchctta above Gonoas rises clear and vivid , a mountuin range more than four hundred miles in length ; so distinctly sometimes , in tho inellublo purity of that Italian atmosphere , that tho toremoat bluffd and clilffl , here inaen » ibly sloping , there towering loftily over the plain , with their castles , towns , convents , and sanctuaries perched on their crusts , would aimon HCi-m to come within tho roach of tho beholder's hand , although tho uoonwt of . "' ° " tho hill on which tho royal caatlo of ltivoli Htundu—is littlo leaa tliwa eiy l ' t " « a " tho capital . " „ , * * * * " Aa tho sublime region of Mont Blanc in approached , tho Arp « r « H b * dji J" ™ J * majestically eastwards . The Sovereign Mountain ^^^^ J ^ Jff « & owing to the prodigious height of the ridges that ^« ^ ^ J ^ ka of Mont behind those aame stupendous ridgea , tho eternal mid all l > ' . ti ] i ttt lust Monto Velan , Mont Combin , and Mont Oni » , macmlvoiy b nd h J ™ J " , „ , he c , min , _ Hosa isreached-u thoroughly ItuUim mo ^ n ; , ^ J « ° £ » t uni Lombardy !" the very cross in that Alpine diadem , visible to tl » o wuoio

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 10, 1855, page 1085, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2114/page/17/