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Leader (1850-1860), 11th June 1859, Edition 1 of 3, Page 717, Untitled Article

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    • LITERATURE.
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      Untitled Article

      ? - mHE delightful stories , " Scenes of Clerical Life , " JL and - " Adam Bede , " have been made the subject of what we can only designate a very impudent attempt at deception—indeed a stronger term , considering all the circumstances of the case , might not inappropriately be applied . Messrs . Blackwood have found it necessary to write to a contemporary to the effect that " those works are not written by Mr . Liggins , or by any one with a name like Liggins ; and if any person is receiving charitable contributions on the ground of being the author of the said

      works he is doing so under false pretences . " They add that the author is known to them , and subjoin si note from " George Eliot , " says " it is the more painful to me that Mr . Liggins , or any one else should be receiving charitable donations on the ground that your treatment of me lias not been suflij ciently liberal , because I , for my part , can only wish that every author had equal reason to be satisfied ¦ with his publisher . If those benevolent persons who persist in attributing the authorship of the worlcs in question to Mr . Liggins will induce Mr . Liggins to write one chapter of a story , that chapter may possibly do -what my denial has failed to do . "

      The obituar . y of the week contains the name of a gentleman well known and greatly esteemed in tlie literary world , Mr . Charles Oilier . From the Z > a £ Iy JYetos we quote the following brief account of his career : — " Those who are acquainted with tlie literature of forty . years ago will learn with regret the death of Mr . Oilier , the original publisher of all Shelley ' s poems , -with the exception of ' Alastor' the posthumous works ; of the first volume of Keats ' s poems ; of several of the writings of Leigh Hunt ; of the collected edition of Lamb ' s works ; and of many other productions of celebrity . M > . Oilier was the friend of all those celebrated men ,

      for whom , he acted as their business agent ; and has been the means of introducing to the public many remarkable writers of a later day . He was also himself an author of unusual powers , though an extreme diffidence in some measure concealed them . But his domestic tale ' of Altham and his Wife , * was recognised by Sir Walter Scott in an incidental allusion in the pages of the Quarterly Review ; his romance of Inesilla ' received the praises of Shelleyr Leigh Hunt , l ) r . Croly , and others ; and his fine critical powers in all departments of art were known to many . He died on Sundtvy at the age of seventy-one . "

      We have also to notice the decease of Mr . Warne of Hie firm of ltoutledge and Co ., who was as much distinguished for his amiable disposition as for his literary judgment . The world of art , too , has sustained a great loss in the death of David Cox , our great water-colour landscape painter ; he had attained a great nge . The Literary Gazette announces that a scientific fund is to be inaugurated shortly on a similar plan to the Literary Fund . It is under the consideration of tlie Royal Society at the present time . oelltf

      At Paris the proprietors of the Librairic Nou announce that they will publish every Saturday " sixteen quarto pages of poetry , " by M . Mory , descriptive of "La grandc vpopio militairequi so prepare en Italic . " The prospectus dwells particularly on the fact that the muse of M . Mory will always bo inspired by the very latest news from the seat of war . The first number or " Premier Chant" of this poetical psriodical , entitled "Napoleon en Italie , " appeared on Saturday last * Sir John Bowring is preparing for the press an account of his late visit to the Philippine Islands , in her Majesty ' s steamer Mngicionne , with speoisvl reference to the ports of Lamboango , Iloilo , find Saul , which have lately been opened to foreign commerce .

      Untitled Article

      J-IFK AXl ) MHKItTV f > T AMRKTCA i OR , SKETCHES OF A TOl'U IN TJIN UNIT KD HTATKS AND CAW ' ADA , liilW-a Hy Clmr'os Muckiiy , LJ ,, D ., F . S . A . Ii » ti vola ., with Tun 1 lliiHtnitlon » . — Smith , ICldcr , initl Co , Thh departure of' Dr . Mackay , tho popular poet , Jbr tho United Statois in 1857 , and tho reports that wore received of kin progress , and his reception as a lecturer on Hong-writcrs , himseli" one of the . most eminent of his day , were topics of considerable interest at tho time , Ilia return also , "was welcome both to hit ) frienda and tho public . It was to bo expected that ho would take notes of whot ho witnerfriud on hin tour ; ay , and print them too . And hero wo indeed have them , choicely printed , in t » vo volmiK'n , lavishly , illustrated with ten tinted engraving . Dr . Muckay has looked on the United fStatow with bin own eyes , and has fonnod his

      opinion of them from personal inspection . Hewent out with a favourable impression , of . the people , and returned with a better . America has in him an intelligent observer , and a friendly judge . Dr . . Maekay does not appear in" these pages as a painter of character , a popular descriptionist , or a captious traveller ; but as a politician who was solicitous to understand the working of American institutions . He says much of them , little of himself' and little of individuals with whom he came into contact . But he treats at large of things and customs and celebrated scenery , and the progress of society . He is full of details , however , of the voyage out , and the effect on shipboard of the storm which met them on their passage ; and spares not , when he arrives at New York , to condemn the late Rev . Sydney Smith for describing Broadway as inferior to Bond-street . He contends for its

      superiority . " Bond-street ! quotha ! " he exclaims : — . " Bond-street is no more to be compared to Broadway for beauty , extent , life , bustle , and wealth , than a dingy old farthing of the reign of George III ., to a bright new sovereign of the daj's of Queen Victoria . There is no street in London that can be declared superior or even equal , all things considered , to Broadway . It is a street sui generis , combining in itself the characteristics of the Boulevard des-It-aliens at Paris , and of Cheapside or Fleet-street in London , with here and there a dash of Whitecliapel or the Minories ; and here and there a dash of Liverpool and Dublin . It is longer , more crowded , and fuller of fine buildings than the Boulevard des Italiens ; it is as bustling as Cheapside , and , more than all , it ¦

      has a sky above it as bright as the sky of Venice . Its aspect is thoroughly Parisian . Were it not for the old familiar names of Smith , Jones ^ and Brown over the doors of the stores and warehouses , and the English placards and advertisements that everywhere meet the eye , the stranger might fancy himself under the maximised government and iron . grip of Napoleon III ., instead of being under that of the minimised and mild government of an American republic —a government so ihfinitesimally light in its weight , and carried on by persons so little known , ihat strangers in ' this ; , the " Empire State , " as itjs called , and even the citizens themselves , are scarcely more cognisant of the name of the Governor , than a Londoner is of the name of the High Sheriff * of Flintshire or of the ' -Lord Lieutenant of Merioneth .

      " England has given names to the people in Broadway , but France and Continental Europe seem to have given them their manners . Flagstaff ' s on the roof of every third or fourth house , banners flaunting from the windows , a constant rat-tat-too of drums a 3 detachments of the militia regiments ( and very fine regiments they are , and very splendidly accoutred ) pass to and fro , all add to tlie illusion ; and it is only the well-known vernacular of the city of St . Paul's , spiced occasionally with tlie-still more piquant vernacular of the city of St . Patrick ' s , that brings the cheated fancy back to the reality , and proves to the Englishman that he is among his own people . ......

      " Were there anything like uniformity in the design of its long lines of buildings , Broadway would be one of the three or four most magnificent streets in the world . Even without any general designfor each man builds exactly as he pleasos—the street , in hs details , surpasses any single street that England or the British Isles can show . Prprn tho Battery facing tho sea , where Broadway has a very ignoble commencement , to Trinity Church , thorc is nothing remarkable about it ; but from Trinity Church , of brown stone , with its . elegant spire , to Grace Church , built entirely of white marble , a distance in a straight line of nearly three miles , and thence on to Union-square and tho statue of

      architecture , but the general effect is not striking , from the total' absence of plan and method , alreadyalluded to , and which seems to be inevitable in a country where every man is a portion of the Government and of the sovereignty , and considers himself bound to consult nobody ' s taste but his own . But this peculiarity is not confined to * America , or St . Paul ' s-churchyard would riot be what it is , and the noble proportions of tlie cathedral would not be marred as they are by the too close proximity of the hideous warehouses that have been gradually piled up around it—monuments alike of commercial pride and bad taste . Brown stone edifices rank next in size and number to the marble palaces ; and a few of cast iron , with elegant Corinthian pillars , add to the variety of architecture in the Broadway . Conspicuous among the edifices that give its most

      imposing character to this busy and beautiful street are Stewart ' s dry-goods store , the iron palace of Messrs . Haughwoot and Co ., such hotels as the St . Nicholas , the Metropolitan , the Laffarge 3 louse , the St . Denis , the Clarendon , the New York , and the Astor House . The last-mentioned was . sonic years ago the boast and pride of New York , and the wonder of strangers : but the city has outgrown its southern limits , and stretched itself far away into the north and northwest , and neAv hotels like the St . Nicholas and the Metropolitan have dwarfed the Astor House in size and eclipsed it in splendour . The St . Nicholas makes up from 500 to 700 beds , and the Metropolitan nearly as many . Both of these , as well as the others mentioned , represent the magnificent scale on which tlie New Yorkers do business , as well as "the' more than Parisian publicity with , which families eat and drink and pass the day . " Dr . Mackay , of course , as a poet , was bound to describe Niagara . He has laboured hard to say something' "' smart" upon it , and , if not new , to be at least original . . Hehas succeeded eminently , where it was difficult not entirely to fail , lie dwells much on the fascination which the vision of the mighty waterfall exercises over the spectator's mind . It also , he says , bewilders the senses of its toa passionate . admirer . Dr . . Mackay had not , owing to the season of the year , the advantage or disadvantage of a guide , and was therefore left to . form his own conception .

      " Thus I had Niagara all to myself . It was ray own dominion ; and 1 ruled over it unadvised , untroubled , and undirected . I discovered its beauties gradually as best I could , and made my way from place to place with as much of the true spirit of discovery and adventure , latent and stirred within me , as moved the first white man who ever gazed upon its marvels . And , instead of narrating how and in what way I saw them , let me , for the benefit of any

      future travellers who may read these lines , explain in what sequencos of grandeur and beauty they should explore the stupendous scenery of the river ,, the islands , and the falls , so as to reach the climax where the climax should be naturally expected , and to go on , from good to bettor , and from better to best in one grand and harmonious crescendo , and thus extract from it a music of the mind sufficient to make even the sublimest harmonics of Beethoven appear tame and common-place . "

      The following remarks contain an obvious but magnificent truth : — " In a distance of three-quarters of a mile the Niagara River gallops down an incline of fifty-one feet . Such a bubbling , boiling , frothing , foaming , raging , and roaring as occur , in that . magnificent panorama , it was never before my good fortune to see or hear . Were there nothing but tho sight of these Rapid * to repay tho traveller fur his pains , it would be worth all tho time and cost of the voyage across tho Atlantic . It was like looking up a mountain of furious water to stand upon tho bridge and gaze towards tho torront . 1 will not call it angry , though that is tho epithet which first suggests itself . Anger is something sharp ana of will

      short , but ' . this eternal thunder is tho voice a - ing obedionco to unalterable luw . There i » n <> caprioo or rago about it ;—nothing but tho triumphant song of gravitation , Hint Jaw of laws , wlitcji maintains tho earth in ' perpetual harmony with hoavon . On the aide of tho "City" woro sovora mills for flour , corn , and pupor , which had borrowed an exterior thread from tho mighty web of waters to Jiolp in performing tho operations of human industry . But these scarcely marred tho effect of tho scone , and woro to " some extent useful in affording a contrast of tho littleness of man with tho ineffable groatnoss of nature . The builders of tho bridgo , taking iirivantago of tho havoc imulo by tho waters in days gono by- —perhaps flvo hundrod thousand years niro—supported It partially on a groat rook , lifting

      its head h few foot abowo tho foam } and standing ac this iJoInt , ' 1 counted tho blots scattorod on cither Ohio , and Btrotohing downwards , to tho very brink of tho fall . JUoqldua Gout Island , ubyut a mllu in

      Washington , Broadway offers ono grand succession of commercial palaces . Formerly—and perhaps when Sydney Smith wrote—the houses woro for tho most part pf brick gaily coloured , with hero and there a house of brown stone or granite . But tho brick is in gradual process of extirpation ; and whito marble—pure , glittering , brilliant , without spook or flaw—is "rapidly taking its place . Tho St . Nicholas Hotel , ono of tho most sumptuous buildings in Now York , is a palaco of whito marblo , with upwards of ono hundred windows fronting Broadway . To tine

      right , and to tho loft , and in front , aro other palaces of tho same material , pure as Parian—larger than tho largest warohouso in St , Paul ' s-churcliyard , and devoted to the sumo or similar purposes ; some for tho wholosalo , but tho grout majority for tho retail , trado . ' Dry gyoda' or linondrapors stores compoto with each other in t ] io uso of this costly stono j and such has boon , and is , tho rago for it , that in a few years lionoo a house of any other material than marblo , granito , or iron will bo tho exception to tho rule in Uroadu-ny and in tho main tlioroug hfhros loading from it to tho oast ami tho west . Most of those buildings , taken eopimitoly , aro lino specimens of

      Untitled Article

      LITERARY NOTES , TSTC .

      Literature.

      LITERATURE .

      Untitled Article

      LiTEKATUiiE ] THE LEADER . 717

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), June 11, 1859, page 717, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2298/page/9/