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Leader (1850-1860), 13th December 1856, Edition 1 of 2, Page 1194, Untitled Article

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      religion , Mr . Phillips was a . Calvinist , and l > elieve < l that the Holy-Scriptures were the inspired word of God ; while Mr . Parker , rejecting all creeds and disowned by all sects , held the Bible to contain only the wisdom of fallible men , and claimed for himself and for future sages the possible power of improving thereon . Mr . Phillips was a lawyer , hat he seldom appeared in the courts ; Mr . Parter > yas a clergyman , and , though -without a church aad esch&wiug the holy sacraments , preached constantly to a large but shifting congregation . Mr . Phillips excelled hi oratory , Mr . Parker was a greater master of the pen . The former studied wen , the latter books . Mr . Parker had a wider reputation— Hurope had heard of him ; hut those who knew both would have forsaken him to hang ; upon the lips of Mr . Phillips . Mr . Parker had secured his triumph -when he had uttered liis speech ; Mr . Phillips found his chief satisfaction

      in the accomplishment of the end at which his oratory was aimed . Mr . Phillips had the garb and gait of a gentleman ; Mr . Parker , as he moved along with stumbling steps and prone looks , had the aspect of a recluse student . In their physical characteristics , they differed not less than in mental and moral traits . Mr . Phillips was a person of commanding height and elegant proportions ; Iris features -were cast in . the Roman , mould , his head was rounded and balanced almost to the ideal standard . A ruddy complexion , fair hair , and eyes of a sparkling blue , showed him . to be of the true Saxon race . Mr . Parker , on the coatrary , -was of inferior stature and ungraceful form ; he had the face of a Diogenes , and his massive head , capacious of brain in the frontal region , was not symmetrically developed . He had an atrabiliar complexion , dark hair , and large , dark eyes , that looked forth from behind spectacles with a steady , unwinking gaze .

      There axe few readers who will not be interested in this description . In illustration of English oratory , the Messrs . Griffin ( London add Glasgow ) have published a second series of Speeches of Eminent British Statesmen during the Thirty-nine Years' Peace , containing Lord Brougham ' s matchless appeal to theJH . ou . se of Peers on Negro Emancipation , and some of the best speeches delivered , on various occasions by Mr . Macaulay , the Earl of Derby , T > aniel O'Connell , Mr . Shiel , Lord Palmerston , Sir Robert Peel , and Lord Xyndhurst . An excellent manual for geographical students has been compiled by Mr . William Hughes , — The Trectswy of Geography , Physical , Historical , Descriptive , and Political , containing a Succinct Account of Every Country in the World , Preceded by an Introductory Outline of the History of Geography ; a Familiar Inquiry into the Varieties of liace and Language

      Exhibited by different Nations * and a VUw of the Relations of Geography to Astronomy and the Physical Sciences . It-was designed and commenced by Mr . Samuel Maunder , -who possessed an uncommon aptitude for the preparation of manuals , the Biographical , Historical , Scientific , and Literary Treasuries , the Treasury of Natural History , and the Treasury of Knowledge . Some deficiencies might be pointed out , which detract from the practical utility of the volume ; but it is , upon the -wholev a satisfactory work of reference . A work of another kind , very unsatisfactory , is , Louis Napoleon and theBonaparte Family' ( Trubner ) , by Henry W . De Puy . It is a ragged compilation composed of fragments appropriated from various histories , and thrown together without art , and even without common care-Mr , Samuel Eliot ' s Manual of United States History from 1492 to 1850

      ( Trubner > r is an American book of a higHy creditable character . " VVe have met with no outline of the kind so complete , so dear , so simple . It might be advantageously adopted in English sctools . Special illustrations of New World history are contained in the History of Immigration to the United States ( Triibner ) , an elaborate volume by William J . Bronvwell , of great interest to those who have watched the progress and decline of the Know-Nothing organization . Other useful manuals are , Elements of Modern History , by Alexander IV Tytler , Lord "Woodhouselee , fourth edition £ A . and C . Black ) , continued to the end of the Russian war ; and The Student' s Handbook of Mediceval History from the Fall of the Western Empire to the Close of the Fifteenth Century ( Griffin and Co . ) , edited by Isaiah McBurrey , with Dissertations on the State of Europe and on the Feudal System , by Colonel Procter . This is a -very meritorious volume . The Life

      of Sir William Pepperell , by Usher Parsons ( Triibner ) , is a curious specimen of biography , detailing the career and achievements of the hero Louisbirrg , " the only native of New England who was created a baronet during our connexion -with the mother-country . " Mr . Thomas T . Lynch sends in a second edition of h . ia Lectures hi aid of Self - Improvement addressed to Young Men and Others ( Longman and Co . )< Mr . Lynch is chiefly known , as the author of " The Rivulet , " about -which every possible question was raised" whether it was an evangelical poem ? whether it was not an evangelical poem ?—all but the obvious inquiry , whether it was a poem at all ? We should say that Mr . Lynch writes better essays than verses . I \> r scholars of different classes we have the second part of Mr . C . I ) . Yonge ' s admirable English-Latin and Latin-English Dictionary ( Bentley ) , a second edition of The Science of Arithmetic : a Systematic Course of Numerical Reasoning a ? id

      Computation , with Exercises , by Dr . James Corn . well and Mr . J . G . Fitch ( Simpkin , Marshall , and Co . ) , and a beautiful little volume called The € olden , A . B . C . ( Trubner ) . A Dictionary of Commercial Terms , with their Synonymes in various Languages , has been compiled by Mr . Alexander Faulkner , and published at Bombay ( L . M . D'Souza ) . The latest additions to Mr . Bonn ' s very useful Libraries ate—two volumes of Foster ' s Essays , edited by Mr . J . E . llyland , of Northampton , and a volume of Defoe ' s Works , containing the " Adventures of Duncan Campbell , " a «' Voyage Round the World / ' &c . l y ° With these miscellanies we must announce a work of large pretensions , The Text of the Old Testament Considered : with a . Treatise on Sacred Interpretation , and a Brief Introduction to the Old Testament Hooks an-d the Apocrypha , by Dr . Samuel Davidson ( Longman and Co . ) . —This is a massive octavo ? olume , the contents of which would fill a middle-age folio . Dr . Davidson , aa many of our readers are probably aware , is the author of a learned treatise

      on UibUcal Criticism , and of a work on Hermeneutics . We cannot undertake to review his elaborate book , and must content ourselves-with notifying its appearwace to the students of sacred literature . At the same time , we may mention . » Letter to the Vice-chancellor of Oxford on the Present State of Ideology % n the Vniver $ itiet and the Church of England , and on the Causes of Existing Scepticism md Infidelity , b y Clevicua ( Oxford : Hammans ) , ana bundafr the Rest of Labour , by A Christian ( T . G . Newby ) . —ihe MisceliiTJLv ? ° ^ tablo ' , 7 aryin 1 B from P ^ arifchmetic . awl from theology to fireside romance , have thus been disposed of . '

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      H 94 * > ^>_ Il ^ Saturday

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      ORACLES FROM THE COLONIES . The Rise and Progress of Australia , Tasmania , ami New Zealand . ByAii Fn-lM ™ Author of '' Commercial before Military Glory " " Sketches of Si t ai 1 ' Scottish Scenery , " " A Traveller ' s Diary , '' « Five Drama ? &c . &c S * ^ D . P ., the Engjishman who pretends to give in the present volume ™ account oi the Rise and Progress of the finest and richest of our < £ + L Oceanic colonies , commenced his literary career as a poet But thoZ v * would none of his inspirations . The fate of his earlier poetic J , ? i therefore , prompted him to try his hand at prosc-- \ vritin < r . Could wp 7 overawed by a . pompous list of works achieved—a list supported bv i «!

      „ Vnnnt / lftis r » f f » vr » f 1 i"iin' »« mul r . nnlrl mn K « ; . v-. ^ . . ^ . 3 .- i . , V ' . ll j " JeSC ~ - comitatus of five dramas—and could we be imposed linon by the "i ^ nmr . ? - of a -fifth thousand , " we might perhaps bo brought to mtSS claims which 13 . P . sets up , and admit the pretensions which inflate V « volume . . " If two voyages round the world in prosecution of the desicm 1 ' exclaims our sea-roving Englishman , " excessive toil and porson-il incori venience in collecting materials , and strict impartiality , and a-rMd ; i ( 2 hcrenro to truth in the execution ,- —if such features in the character of * a " work hive any claim on public favour , the humble artist may reasonably antlcinate some little return for his past labour . " These are the grounds upon which our author claims for himself a pre-eminence of respect , and boWa + n \ , allowed to constitute himself Sir Oracle . ° ° ?

      Had his pretensions been less absurd , had he not so consequentially thrust his merits forward , liis book might have deserved a paragraph of mere announcement . But when an author is found proclaiming Ms infallibility aad extolling his claims to authority , we have a right to investigate closely his credentials . We have done so in this instance , and arc bound to confess that the hubbub about '"two . voyages round the world in prosecution of l // c tlesir / n " and a " jifth thousand , "is but a . repetition of the " parturient Monies ¦; " atidtliat so far from tLe book bein g impartial , it is in every page blemished with party prejudice . The writer has evidently been received at " Government House , " and inhaled the perfumes of the Court drawing-rooms ; has shaten hands with the small F . Peels of office , talked on colonial subjects with salaried secretaries , and been taught to regard the rough and unwashed citizens , the democracy of this Anglo-Australasian empire , as a hotted of conmptibn , disaffection , and crime .

      veracity is not always to be expected even , from travellers . However , we are invited to repose implicit confidence in the correctness of D . P . ' s impressions about colonial lnatters and manners , habits and costumes , demoralization and democracy caught en passauL But who is ready to trust to a photographic drawing taken from a raihvay carriage pushing on at tlie rate of sixty miles an hour ? And who -will put faith in the accuracy of D . P . ' s notes , taken during a brief sojourn in our distant colonies ? But D . P . brmgs with him statistics—official statistics . The following copy of a letter from the Colonial-office is to ' * satisfy the reader of accuracy on that head : ' - — . ' — . ' ¦ - - ' ; ' ; \ ' ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ' ¦" . . ¦ ¦ ... • ¦ ¦ - . .. , ¦ ¦ ¦/ ' ' \ ¦ : ' ¦ ' ¦ ¦ ' .:. ' . ' ¦ ¦ . ¦ ¦• ' . : - ¦ ; Downing-street , 29 th Dec , 1854 . Sir , — -I am directed by Sir George Grey to fonvaxd you the enclosed letters of introduction to the Go-vernora of Victoria , New South Wales , Van Daemon ' s Land , and Nevr Zealand , in compliance with tile request contained in your letter of the 19 th inst . ^ Signed ) SA > r . WiuTiiitKAu .

      Who dares doubt the ' infallibility of Governnient statistics or official declarations ? " An Englishman , " being introduced to a governor , is ncccssarilv " accurate on that head . " According to our author , Victoria , the first colony described in his volume , had ^ in 1852-o 3 attained the acme of speculation , criiiie , excitement , and disorder . The magnetic influence of gold had attracted thither the scum of the earth , and , like the wand of Circe , converted the new comers into monsters of colossal dimensions . Gambling , drunkenness , strife , pillage , murder , are some of the mild features which characterized the society of Melbourne at this epoch , whilst every kind of wickedness and

      extravagance was prosecuted with impunity , the police and magistrates . "being intent on making their thousands per Qiein . " A little hell upon oarlh ; " " a city of rioters , gamblers , and drunkards ; " " . crowded den of human iniquity , " are terms intended to convey to the reader a faint idea , of tlio . capital of the Yurra-Yan ' a under the first impressions of our author ; and though his second impressions modify his earlier views a little , what , ho pathetically asks , can be expected from a state where " the better the form of existing government , the more abusive and malignant will be found those fiery demagogues who envy in others the honesty they want themselves , mid who merely aspire to place for emolument , and to power with a view to create or perpetuate . on an extended scale the abuses they decry ?" . ' . We need-not inquire the source of this evil , the cause of this demoralization . For

      ourselves , we were led to suppose it was the temporary excitement caused by the discovery of gold that aided in producing this state of tilings . BiitD . T . kindly takes out the key and opens hid cabinet of curiosities lor us himself . It is that the people of the present generation have had their minds polluted , their morals corrupted , and their talents partially if not wholly perverted ^ by a mass of impure matter which , during the greater part of the last thirty years , has been vomited from the disorganized bowels of nn unhealthy press as wholesome food fur / in vnHqJUoicu ' . people . '" That is to say ,

      certain bowels vomit a people ' s food . Then follows n list oi' publications which arc D . P . ' s aversion , and which he objects to have placed in tlio bands of emigrants . Amongst these figure prominently Sunday newspapers and novels—not that we are to consider him altogether as an " advocate Sov the total . extinction of nil works of fiction . " Itfo ; has he not written , lias ho not published Jive dramas f "J'is true they were unnoticed , '' . sullenly plunged , and slowly sunk , " but what of that ? Ink and type still perpetuate the deed , although the tragic u Englishman" luis undertukcu to be a Colonial cicerone .

      D . P . ' s ideas of politics arc no less sage than his views of other matters . ** Half the grievances of the world , " according to him , " are fc ntiinental grievances ; " men don't really sufler , they only imagine they suficr . Governments know much better how to rule than people know how to be ruled . " The trashy harangues of some low popularity hunters , those mercenary scribblers-who would readily sacrifice a people's morals or a country ' s g 0 ( Kl

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 13, 1856, page 1194, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2171/page/18/