On this page

• Text (2)

  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.

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • 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.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    Simpson , -who felt and declared jus incompetence , according to ] Mr . llusscll . Thence , every episode of the long conflict is pictured in 'its-turn , " until Hie announcement of the Treaty of * Paris allowed llussians , French , English , Turks , Sardinians , and Tartars to roam at will along the Crimean coast , and to revisit the battle-field of the Alma . The tenor of the narrative is sonxewliat different from that contained in the first volume . It is 110 longer the recital of woes and miseries endured by a forsaken and half-famished army , no longer an Iliad of inglorious disasters- —the horrors of war without its epic action . There is less about the Commissariat , and more about the batteries ; less about-the departments at home , and more about the Malakboff and Redan—names already growing dim . We now see a well-appointed army , a railroad , a commodious landing-place , regular arrivals of stores , troops really engaged with the enemy , and not devoting their

    heroism to the endurance of hunger that need never bave been endured , disease that need never have been propagated , or fatigues that need never have been borne . Accordingly , Mr . Russell writes in a gayer vein ; but his criticisms are more confident than before ; his eye lias become almost military . - ; he discourses of oflicers and their grievances us though he were a slighted captain , and of luen and their deserts as though be were a British grenadier . Thus it is that his relation touches so many sympathies ; he enters the circle and faces every individual , class , department , alternately , occupying himself with-the most complex , personal details , at the same time that be is preparing bright colours for his panoramic correspondence . We do not think this correspondence , brightly coloured as it

    is , deserves to be satirized as pyrotechnic or gaudy . It presents a series of tableaux of the day and for the day , which the artist may afterwards soften down , when the entire series lias to be . grouped and frescoed historically , but which certainly carried the English public , in imagination , to the seat of-war , and inspired it with an enthusiasm as great as would have been inspired , in a ruder age , by the ballads of an heroic minstrel . Mr , llussell is bold in the use , of language ^ , and , like most very bold writers , occasionally overstrains his license , and passes . " the climax of meta phor . But even in the violence of his ^ style there is originality and power ; in this description of the Russian ships on fire after the last bombardment there is even beauty fit the sanie time that there is exaggeration : ¦—

    About 2 ; 30 in the morning , , when , she had been an hour or so in her novel berth , a troad light -was perceived in her fore hatchway . The leading steamer on the opposite side in a second afterwards exhibited gleams of equal brightness , and then one ! two ! - three ! four ! five ! - —a ? thovigh from signal guns—the remaining steamers , with one exception , emitted jets of fire from their . bows . . The jets soon became columns of fiairie and smoke—the -wind blew fresh and strong , and the night was dark , so that the fire spread ¦ Nvith rapidity alongr the vessels , and soon , lighted up the whole of the northern heavens . The masts were speedily licked and vanned into a fiery glow , and ¦ th « rigging burst out into fitful wavering ' lines of light struggling with the wind for lif « e ; the yards shed lambent showers of sparks and burning splinters upon the water . The northern works could be readily traced by the light of the conflagration , and the faces of the Russian soldiers and sailors who were scattered about on the face ¦ of the clifi ' slione put now and then and justified Rembrandt . The work of destruction , sped rapidly . The vessels were soon nothing but huge arks of blinding light , which , hissed and crackled fiercely , and threw up clouds of sparks and embers , and the guns , as tliey became hot , exploded , and shook the -crazy hull to atoms . One after another they went down into tlie seething waters .

    And tins , a retrospect on the Alma , is vei'y effective : —; : I could recal that narrow road filled with dead and dying—poor y 6 ung Burgoyne going past ou his litter , crying out cheerily , " It ' s all right- ^ it ' s only my foot ;" " Billy Fitzgerald" shot through both legs , lying up against the wall , and chatting away as if lie had just sat down after a quadrille ; a white-haired field-officer ( of the 55 th ) , -whose name I don't know , badly wounded through the body , who could only moan bitterly , " Oh , my poor men ! oh , my poor men I , they hadn't a chance ; " then tlie river stained here and there with blood , still flowing from the dead and dying who lay oil the shallows and the banks , lined nevertheless by hundreds , who drank its waters eagerly ; the horrid procession of the dripping litters going to the rear of the fight ; the solid mass of Adams' brigade , halted by Lord liaglan ' s orders as it emerged from the smoke of Bourliouk : the Staff itself and the Coinmander-in-Chief , gathered on the rising ground close by ; that ghastly battle-field where so many lay

    in so small a place putrescent with heat and wounds . 3 the grey blocks of Russians melting away like clouds , and drifted off by the fierce breath of battle ; the shriek and rush of the shells from the brass howitzers in the battery , the patter of the rifle , the rattling roll of the musketry , the frantic cheers of out men as they stood victors on tie heights , drowning the groans and cries which for a moment succeeded the roar of battle ; the shrill flourish of the French bugles , and the joyous clamour of their drums from the other side of the ravine , —all came back upon the ear again , and the eye renewed its pleasure as it gazed from the ridge upon the plain where it had befove seen tlie Eussians flying in disorder , with their rear still covered by the threatening squadrons of their cavalry . Then one recalled the spot where one had seen some friend lying dead , or sonic one—friend or foe—whom it were no mercy to strive to

    keep alive—Watkin Wynn , stretched on tbo ground in front" of the trend ) , with a smile on his face—Colonel Chester , with a scornful frown , and his sword clenched in the death grasp—Monde , with tlie anger of battle fixed on every feature—these nnd many another friend in the peaceful camp of Aladyn or Devno rose up as they lived in , the memory . The scowliny Russians wlio glared so fiercely on their conquerors and seemed to hate them even as they supplied thoir wants , then seen for the first time , left an impression respecting the type of the . Muscovite ) character which hns scarcely been effaced tiow that they have ceased to be enemies . I recalled the two days passed as no army oughtto pass two days—on tlie field of battle , amid the dead - —the horrid labours of those hours of despondency mid grief where all should have Icon triumph and rejoicing , and the awakened vigour with which the nrmy broke 4 roin its bivouac on tlio Alma . Mr . Russell has revised and corrected tlie letters in this volume , a nameless artist having added the author ' s portrait , which , we should say , hnol from a photograph , by Fenton .

    Untitled Article

    the pastoral name of Combe , who lias trilled forth some Poems : Lyrical , Affective , and'Dramatic . ( Edward Baines and Sous , Leeds . )—This little bird has a most conceited idea of himself ; and , previous to giving vent to his feelings in song , has chipped his wings , by way of preface , after this prodigious fashion ' : — - The extreme abundance of verses of a quality of more or less respectable mediocrity precludes the authors of such verses -from" any pressing necessity that they should publish their productions . But the very same fact is a continual and urgent reason why the true i ) oet [ that is , why /] , drawing from sources of a deeper and more genial inspiration , ought by all means to bring forward his \ iny ~ \ revelations for tile solace and refreshment of the world . The great difficulty is - for the author of a Tolume of Verses io distinguish truly of himself whether he is a mere dabbler in the shallow waters , or whether he has had access given to him to the fountains of a pro-Jfounder and more pregnant truth . .

    Various portions of the present volume -having existed as manuscript ; for . the space of seven , ten , twelve , and fourteen years , the author has at least this to say for him self , that be has not been hasty in coming to the conclusion that it was his duty to publish . And now in recording the deliberate act of his most matured consideration , lie is not without a conviction , that to some readers , this lilthzeork may reveal toties of a diviner ¦ aiid moremelodious wisdom , and . glimpses ttf ' a deeper and more significant truth such as may to some extent havejiustijied him int / ie act oj' its i > uuZication . And he is not without a belief , that , in the very extravagance which distinguishes the concluding portion of the volume there may be something whicti the age will welcome , even as a rocky and fantastic bluff might be welcomed in the midst of prairie-gardenia of wearisome and interminable luxuriance . ' :

    The first division of the volume thus triumphantly sent into tlie world is called " Passion ' s Progress a Series of Lyrics , in Three Parts . " All these lyrics have a connecting ; chain of obscure story ; but the author , recollecting the unfortunate fate of Tennyson's Maticl , % \\ q story of which was similai'ly indicated by snatches of song , and fearing that he »> ay not get a Dr . Mann to ' vindicate' or explainhis recondite intentions , has undertaken that task for himself , and has prefixed a " Biographic Narrative , " in which lie benignly criticizes and elucidates his own production . After this fashion chirps pur little bird about himself : — In the fourth lyric , we have ail utterance from , the passionate and unfathomable depths of the poet's heart , full of the most -. profound and tender significance . '¦ .. ' ¦ . ¦ ¦ . . Every Verse as it flows seems burdened with the inexpressible and tender sympathy which the grief of our heroine lias awakened in the heart of our hero .

    The same tone of - ' complacent self-admiration is continued through nearly fifteen pages , post octavo . We are told that , "in the fifth lyric ( Fart IX ) , our poet bursts forth into a strain of the most impassioned and intoxicated gladness ; " that , in . the seventh , he " seems to- sob out the very breath of his existence in a parting strain' of the most unbending and / sorrow-stricken resignation ; " that be " wins upon our sympathies ; " that he relieves his feelings with a redundant fluency of illustration ¦; " tlint he gives " a powerful and poetical illustratioit" of something ; that he proclaims ( he truths of religion " to the globe-encompassing Principalities and Powers" " in a strain of sublime and prophetic warning , and , " full of ineffable and holy ardour , hurls down the vain dignities of earth ; , " with a gyeat deal more to thesame effect . But" Mr . ¦ Combe does not seem to be quite aware of his own intentions ; for ho says ' it would ¦ . appear'' '' -troia . the concluding stanza of one of his lyrics that something or other is the case . In the : sixth .-lyric-of Part II ., we are * ' floated away seemingly to the South Seas , " with a lovely but unapproacha-ble island in the distance :- ~

    But suddenly the dreamy image is swept fromour perceptions by tlie blackness of a tropical tornado , the prolonged and ceaseless tumult cf the ocean roars echoing on . ' our senses , and we are left to imagine what new and tragical catastroijhe has burst on . our unhappy hero . However , it all ends pleasantly \ for , in the last lyric , "heaven seems to open on the enraptured imagination of tlie poet , " who is presented to our gaze as victor over Death and Sin , " in " the hallowed inansions of ineffable and eternal peace . " This is surely plagiarised ii-om the conclusion of the pantomime playbills . But the reader shall have , as a specimen , the lyric alluded to as being " full of the most profound and tender significance ;"If thou wert tlrcst in splendour , And I were by thy side ; And we stood before the altar , As bridegroom and jib bride ; Oh , vouldst thou then be happy , My own , my chosen child ; And smile upon me yet again , As once , in youth , thou smiled ? ( Little bird , chirp good grammar , if you please . ) Oh , would thy heart awaken , With long-forgotten gleams Of youth , and love , and rupture , Kememberod but in dreams ? Oh , wouldst thou seek in fondness , And lincl in inc . at last , A refuge and a lmvcu From all the weary past ? Oli ; speak it not in words , love , lint look it with thine eyes : Or if a tour Hliould dim them , Oh , hrcutlic it then in sighs . JJilt if thy heart should tremble , Kre yet . that sigh bo free , Oh , weop it on my breast love , A . nd 1 will weep on thee . " Tlie Fato of' Clarilml , " in the same volume , is apiece of dulness nnd morbid "loom , setting forth how a young lady goes mad because the hero marries her twin sister instead of herself ; Uow both young ludies die sympathuticailly about the same time ; nnd how tho . hero , who has always found himsoIf sorely perplexed by ' t ' other dear charmer , ' feels greatly relieved ia his mind now both of thorn arc ' away ., ' The lost poom of the volume" Tho Battle of the liridges : a Poetical Kxtravaganza "—is . a cumbrous attempt tit a mock heroic story , descriptive of tho commotion supposed to bo

    LATTEK-DAY POETHY . Our table once raoro presents a motley gathering of young singing birds — feeble little fledglings whom avg would fain take to our bosoms and . cherish with something of vital warmth , but whose chirping is so pertinaciously foolish—so full of * very allegations' anil ridiculous self-assertion—( hat we are compelled to discharge our fowling-piocc among them , and bring down a lew for awful warning . Here , now , ibi instance , is a sky-lark with

    Untitled Article

    October 11 , 1856 . ] THE Ii E AD E ft . 979

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 11, 1856, page 979, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2162/page/19/