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    sincere love for the poeticand 524 The L...

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    THE SCREW PROPELLER.* OUT of a hundred p...

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    SERMONS.f fllHE Sermons of which this li...

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    * The Screw Propeller—Who invented it ? ...

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    New Poems.F Books Of Verse—Of Respectabl...

    Professor Blackie appears not now for the first time as a Scottish poet ; but , having- matriculated in a former volume , more closely connected with his Greek professorship than the present , now claims mastership in his vocation of minstrel . It is not a light thing that he claims ; not the mere merit of being a singer , but the honour that waits on the learned bard , one who can rule the spirit by which lie is possessed . Not every one can do this . It requires habitual selfgovernment , and perfect control over the materials and the forms of poetry . The stamp of the cultivated man is on these pages . Not only have we Goethe ' s fine and difficult poem on the Metamorphosis of Plants beautifully translated put of the German into English Elegiac with

    verse ; but we have an original poem , written in German ^ accuracy and spirit . Again , Goethe ' s aforesaid poem is translated into Latin verse , and is accompanied with a constellation of original Iifttiu poems ; and here and therein the volume we have versions from Horace occasionally scattered ; and-in other poems classical allusions occur of that nice character which shows the scholar s intimacy with ancient authors . Let us , however , not be misunderstood , as if the work were a learned elaboration , devoted to the past , and swearing by heathen gods . Far from this , the sentiment of the present day and of Scottish nAtionaltity is most strongly pronounced . The first book of poems ( for the collection is divided into five books ) , relates to Scottish history and the reformation ot religion . It commences with a motto from

    Burns" The solemn League and Covenant Cost Scotland blood , cost Scotland tears ! But faith sealed Freedom's sacred cause ; If thou ' rt a slave , indulge thy sneers . " It is precisely in the spirit of these four lines that all Mr . Blackie ' s poems on this subject are written . " The Martyrs of Scotland are his unending theme . Patrick Hamilton , Margaret Wilson , and Jfargaret M'Lauchlan ( underthe title of " The Two Margarets " ) , Barnes Renwick and Walter Myln are his heroes and heroines . The last forms the argument of a blank verse eclogue , worthy to pair off with some of Wordsworth ' s pastoral tales . He has also "A Song of Cardinal Beaton , '' whose assassination he justifies , both on the this

    grounds of right and expediency . We think he is wrong m , and that political assassination ^ so far as we have had experience of it , has Only led to new difficulties that have deferred the hour-of freedom . We think that Brutus , though " the noblest Roman of them all / ' made a fearful mistake ; and such , we think , was Shakespeare's opinion , who is ~ npt over-ready to admit political excuses for crime > particularly that of murder . His tendency ^ lies all the other way . Thus , on the page of history , there-is extant such an excuse for Macbeth ' s murder of Duncap , but the poet never once admits "It into the dialogue of his sublime tragedy as an apology , and only once slightly and remotely alludes to it as a motive , dismissing it as soonas suggested —• *^( The Prince of Cumberland ! that is a step On which I must fall down , or else o ' erleap , For in my way it lies \" Such ah opinion , however , is evidence of Mr . Blackie ' s strong -feeling-on-the subject ; , and , indeed ,, the terms are strong in which it is expressed . Cardinal Beaton ' s " taking-off" was , he tells us , not a murder ; no , it was only " a just retribution for wicked deeds . " That it might be , yet a murder : for so Providence not seldom works . However , ho further justifies it , as " being politically a ¦ wise act / ' and this he also states , that «? no impartial thinker can doubt . " Now , it is the impartialiliinker who will naturally doubt of it j and the partial thinker only who will be likely to form an extreme and one-sided estimate . " In the eye of Heaven , " exclaims Professor Blackie , " Beaton was a traitor and a murderer . He murdered Wishart , and if he was murdered himself afterwards , he Jbad no more right to complain than any other mortal who has been made to feel the eternal justice of that text , Whoso sheddeth man ' s Hood , by man shall his blood be shed . The talk , " continues the Professor , " about Law and Legitimate Axjthobity in such cases , mny nmuse the shallow and console the coward , but it has no meaning 1 to the consistent thinker . Those who talk with a pious horror of assassination ought to bcnr in mind , that when wolves in sheep ' s clothing exercise open force over the sheep , there is nothing for the faithful shepherd but to use secret force when opportunity offers . The magistrate has so right to bear the sword in support of injustice ; nor do cardinals enjoy any sacred privilege to dye their stockings purple in the blood of just men . " So far Professor Blackie on political assassination ; which we regret to see so justified , and by swell authority , in days when again the fight of freedom is likely to be fought , and when every thing depends on the patience and prudence of the combatant . Any excess of the sort so patronised by our Edinburgh Greek professor would , under present circumstances , be worse' than a crime—it would be a blunder . His much-loved Protestantism needs not such over zealous and indiscreet advocacy . Truth has a language of its own , and in its lexicon the word assassination is not to be found . It is time that Professor Blackie should chasten and subdue the more passionate tendencies of his muse , and find in the purity of the ideal appropriate subjects for imaginative clothing . For these , too , he has the requisite genius and , we think , the ambition . " Cecil Home" contains some truly good descriptive and lyrical poetry . The writer lias music and meaning in his lines and stanzas , which , in the selection of diction and gracefulness of cadence , have seldom been excelled . Similar commendation may be bestowed on Mr . Fulford ' s songs , whioh have a spiritual signification thnt adds to their worth , and marks him as a meditative writer , who will exert a beneficial influence on bis reader . The poems of Mr . Winter

    are posthumous . They betoken a sincere love for the poetic , and considerable skill in the weaving of verse ; butthe promise ^ shown in them , and a previous version of Goethe's " Hermann and Doro-Ihea , " retnaiHS 110 ^ with the beauty of the half-blown rose-incapable of decay or increase . Mr . Thurston ' s metrical narrative is not without merit , but the treatment of his subject is immature , and his verse not always correct or melodious * The verse-book of Qninton Bone is mainly occupied with one poem , called " Valley Farm / ' showing much descriptive power and Lme ' thosThe Smaller are inferior . Mr Hayes verses

    pa . poems are marred by occasional carelessness He has ¦^^•™ £ ™ - edly , but seems impatient of correction . Mr . Hiller s lyrics are mainly national , and are full of an American , spirit , which will doubtless commend them to an American pubhe . xww nc There is much genuine poetry in Mr . Barm by s ^^ try of Spring . " The poem consists of twenty-five cantos , of about thirty lines each on the average , and in these particular « f *™ f f "g ™? are described—some the picturesque , and some the sentimental ;

    but in both the beautiful is predominant . ,- * . « . mu-nu Mr . Sandarsis anew poet , but with a command of rhythm which marks him as a young writer of promise . His volume appears Jo be composed of fragments of a larger poem . We can therefore ^ only guess at times at his meaning ; but we learn enough to see tbat it is always a poetical one , and that hereafter he may do something which the world will not permit to perish .

    Sincere Love For The Poeticand 524 The L...

    524 The Leader and Saturday Analyst . [ June 2 , 1860 .

    The Screw Propeller.* Out Of A Hundred P...

    THE SCREW PROPELLER . * OUT of a hundred persons on board a steamer at any time who are there for pleasure or for business , how many ever think ot asking , who invented the Screw Propeller ? and even were theyall to pufthe question , it is doubtful if the captain himself could ^ satisfactorily answer it . About an invention so useful and so new , however , there should , we think , be no doubt whatever . Far back in antiquity we are not surprised to find that the origin of a thing tades uito uncertainty or total obscurity , but we may reasonably be not a little astonished , that almostwithin the recollection , of everybody now living a great and , important invention is a subjectrot dispute and error . We know that the nation has been benefited byv the invention , that our trade and commerce at home and abroad have increased by it , but who is the individual who has personally profited as the ingenious inventor of the Screw Propeller ? # _

    This question ought to be easily answered , JJhe patentee is . Mr . Smith , and he , it appears , has reapedThe honours aiid the rewards of the invention ; But is he not the inventor * Mr , R o bert Wilson says no , and his arguments in support of his ^ own claim to the invention appear to be so strong and conclusive , that until we hear both sides of the question we can scarcely suspend our judgment He says , " This invention , as the most suitable for propelling sliips of war and other ocean steamers , I now for the first time publicly claim as inyow » , andl am confident J shall be able to establish , Kv vMAnutoed documentary evidence , that I not only invented , and

    tested in the sea before Committees of the Highland Society and S © ciety ^ f ^ Ai < ts 7 ^ utr-a ^^ in my power to introduce the screw propeller , for ocean navigation , long before Mr . Smith , the patentee , had even his attention directed to the subject ; and that the screw might have been adopted in the navy as early as 1827 , to the saving of millions of the public m ' cannot follow Mr . Wilson through the process of evidence and testimony by which he establishes his claim to the invention , the reader

    but must content ourselves with simply referring , or any one interested in the matter—and who is not interested in seeing justice done to those to whom it is due?—to the little work upon the subject of his claim . We may , however , mention the singular fact , that the French represent M . Sauvage , of Havre , as the inventor of the screw propeller . M . Sauvage derived no pecuniary advantage from the adoption of the invention in France ; and he , within the last few years , became so poor that the Emperor , having been informed of his position , undertook to provide for him . However , amid all rival and conflicting claims to the honour of the invention , we think Mr . Robert Wilson puts forth the strongest .

    Sermons.F Fllhe Sermons Of Which This Li...

    SERMONS . f fllHE Sermons of which this little brochure is a keen and diserimi-•*¦ nating examination are no indistinct utterances , no halffinished articulation . The author knows what he means to say , and he speaks out with a freedom and an emphasis not to be mistaken . Ho labours to make himself understood . The drift of his two Sermons is to set aside the idea of Atonement by Propitiation . He maintains that " there is not a word in the Bible about the punishment due to our sins being inflicted by ajust God upon His own Son ; " that Christ only " shared our sin in the eense of it , in sorrow for it , in a vicarious confession of it , and in the miserable consequences of it ; " and that God can forgive without requiring any punishment on ^ account of the breach of His low . .

    * The Screw Propeller—Who Invented It ? ...

    * The Screw Propeller—Who invented it ? With Illuatrations . By Robert Wilson . Glasgow : Thomas Murray and Son , + The Atonement by Propitiation . A Fragment of the Argument in reply to Two Sermons published by the Rev . John Llewellyn Davies . M . A ., Rector of ChriBtohurch , Marylebone . By tho Eev . OnAnLES Hhdbrt , M . A ., Officiating Minister of Brunswick Chapel , Marylebone . London : NUbet ! and Co .. 21 . Bernera Street .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), June 2, 1860, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_02061860/page/16/