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Leader (1850-1860), 3rd January 1857, Edition 2 of 2, Page 19, Januaby 3, 1857.] THE LEADER. 19

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      The Mildmayes. The Mildmayes; Or, The Cl...

      sketched by Horace in his Epistle to the Pisos . If this sort of thing be permitted to continue , we shall very soon have popular tales delivered from the pulpit instead of the present conventional method of inculcating impracticable truths . Indeed , -we have already heard of aa ' earnesi' preacher in a fashionable town in the west country enlivening Lis discourse by an adaptation of Moore ' s poem of Paradise and the Peri . It was adduced as . an illustration of the doctrine of good works . The Peri worked out her own salvation . She met with disappointments indeeed , but she persevered ¦ even unto the end , and then "well might she exclaim—and here the preacher threw iip his long arms , strained his eyes towards the ceiling , and . stood for an instant on tiptoe , as if himself about to soar aloft to the azure vault of heaven , or like the winged figures on the water-temples at Sydenkam" Joy , joy for ever ! my task is done , The gate is passed and heaven is won !"

      As some of the congregation , who had previously been dozing , seemed to consider this outburst as an equivalent for the Doxology , aud began to bend forward , tlie preacher quietly added : " It is a pretty story but bad theology . '' He then proceeded to denounce its weak points , as if that had not already been done by the fastidious Fadladeen . But to return to our " muttons , ' the Mildwiayes . The object of this ' serious' novel is to illustrate the inconveniences that may arise if a clergyman hold as an inviolable secret the confession of a crime made at some moment of profound depression . Eustace Mildmaye being summoned to the death-bed , as it was supposed , of Lady Rockforest , becomes acquainted with a crime committed by her ladyship many years

      before , but which has never ceased to -weigh heavily upon her . mind . In fact , she is more than half-mad , as well as wholly vicious . The clergyman , a , man -with an " eminently sweet and placidly beautiful face , " is of a wavering , uncertain character , of the eau sucre ' e variety . He starts and turns pale , and becomes confused , whenever Lady Rockforest ' s name is mentioned ^ but he , dare not Teveal her iniquity , because , being a meraber of the very High Church , " his views upon the saeredness of confession approached very nearly , if they were not identical with , those of tlie Church of Rome . " Owing to this indecision of tlie reverend gentleman , all sorts of dreadful things happen , the least of which is the suicide of a ' ruthless villain . ' The course of true love is diverted for

      a time into tortuous channels , and two young ladies are carried off , without their consent , to Catesby Court , the residence of that terrible ogress , Lady Rockforest . There an attempt is made to force them to marry two reprobates of low degree . One escapes for a time and hides ia a rabbit hole ^ or water-drain , or something of that kind , until she espies a ladder leaning against a fig-tree . By a mighty effort she applies the ladder to the wall , quickly ascends , her chin is on a level with the coping-stone , the ladder slips , it turns , and she is precipitated to the ground . Where she falls there she lies , -with a , sprained ankle , until next morning , when sue is discovered and carried back to her prison . The horrors of that night turn her hair to grey . . "Ha ! what -was that ! what were those ¦ white spots—like frost—all aloner ler hair . "

      " Good God ! Her hair is grey ! " cried Louisa . And so it was . In the agony of her protracted terror Caroline Mildmaye Iiad added another to the well authenticated instances of persons like Marie Antoinette , ¦ whose hair , -under the pressure of intense anxiety and horrible apprehensions , had turned grey in a few hours . However , both the forlorn damsels ore eventually rescued , though one true lover gets his arm pinched in a doorway , and tl \ e other receives two inches deep into his manly arm " the gleaming radiance of a , glittering dagger , " It may be liere remarked en parenthhe that a noun-substantive is always employed throughout these three volumes as a peg whereon to hang one or two adjectives of three or more syllables . The style is of the * ' Did you ever ! Well I never ! " school . Whenever the world seems disposed to wag pleasantly with any of the heroes or heroines , we are told that it is very fortunate they did not know what was next going to happen to them . Ever and anon , after running on as merrily as a marriage bell , a chapter concludes mysteriously with " Who would have thought , " & c , or " Little did lie know , " & c .

      Let one example suffice . The Mildmaye sisters had been enjoying thernfielves thoroughly at a county hall , where they had received very flattering attentions from Lady TJlverston of Longwoods , ' a great lady of fashion , ' and wife of tfce celebrated revolutionary statesman . But they must not be blamed for ' feeling something like extreme female vanity : ' You were yemng , fascinating , and admired ; you were neither stoics nor philosophers , neither were you mere automatons with , mechanical souls . You were -women , young and lovely ones ! Ah ! Cary , knowing what bitter tears of anguish were , ere long , to roll from those lovely eyes , and trickle down those cheeks now flushed -with

      pleasure , I cannot scold you for that toss of your head as you tell Captain Dowling tbflt you arc engaged for the next dunce , and l for the one after that , too . ' And you , piquant , coquettish Louisa ! you , who have assumed such an nirbf greatness in austerely receiving Lord Larimer ' s attentions ! But no ! thou pretty , wilful thing , I ¦ will Tiot road a homily to you ; too soon sorrow is to come upon you , and the world ¦ will hear another aspect to -what it does to-night . Alas I ... Itovel on , sweet , charming , wilful things . I blame you not—I love you wliile I pity . Louisa was probably not aware of her good fortune in escaping the impending honaily . Here is a fragment of one which alone would have overwhelmed her : —

      There are some speculative theologians of a latitudinarian school , who tell m that Hell ia not a place of flame and physical suffering , but that it is . onh / a scene of mental pain . Only mental pain ! Ob . ! dreadful irony I Oh ! niis « rabio trilling of speculators in a closet , ignorant of the anguish of the heart , not sensible of the terriWo throbbings of despair ! Only in « ntul torturo ! " & c . Only mental pain ! Oh ! ye speculative latitudinarians in novel reading , beware of The Mildmayes ; or , The Clergyman ' s Secret . Imagine Ann Jladcliflb writing with an l earnest purpose' Onh / mental pain I Then rend her novel . Oh ! dreadful irony I And if you still full short ia your conception of the Tnforno , you will , at least , never sneer at Q } tfti mental torture I" Oh . !

      The Mildmayes. The Mildmayes; Or, The Cl...

      LOOCHOO , JAPAN , AND POOTOO . Eight Months' Journal during Visits to Loochoo , Japan , and Pootoo . By Alfred L . Halloran . Longman and Co . Me . Haix-okau was Master on board a sloop of war , which lay off Shanghae ia February , 1849 . His book is an account of eight months ' familiar intercourse with the people of the coast , in China , Japan , Loochoo , and Pootoo , —a fragment , in fact , from , a private journal of thirty years ' service in the Royal Navy . It is a small , modest volume , and—which is more wonderful—opens some really new glimpses of manners on the continent of Eastern Asia and the islands thereto appertaining . Travellers are far from having exhausted the Yellow Empire— -with its red paper , painted coffins , silk sashes , bright fans , pavilion-houses , cottage-boats , bald heads , little eyes , ivory , coloured buttons , lamps , pagodas , mandarins , dwarf-footed

      ladies—its quaint , variegated , eccentric life . It is true that one writer continues to say what others have said before him ; but the fault is not with , the Chinese . There are many more things in the realm of rice than all the Orientalists , from Remusat to Mr . Meadows , have told us of . The same remark applies to Japan . We might , indeed , consult twelve works of twelve different authors without adding to the knowledge supplied us by the Catholic fathers , by Charlevoix , or Koempfer , or Siebold , or those other narrators who mixed up so admirably the monstrous with the real . But that would not imply that there is no more to be said of Japan . The historiographer of the American Exploring Expedition lately devoted a huge volume to his Chinese , Loochooan , and Japanese adventures ; yet here is IV 3 r . Halloran , with his brief diary , as readable as instructive , as h Commodore

      thoug Perry had never sailed out of the Gulf Stream , Shanghae , Loochoo , Ningpo ,- Japan , and Pootoo Island constituted his points of observation . In Loochoo , island of yellow hats , purple and flowered silks , ancient idols , verandahs , gilt , varnish , and carving , he enjoyedthe hospitalities of the officials , walked in broad , well paved , and beautifully kept streets , and among trim , gravelled gardens ; at Ningpo he saw a Chinese play ; in Japan took a boat excursion along the coast ; and at Pootoo inspected a , Chinese manufactory of gods and goddesses . Gods and goddesses ., as created in this world , ai'e -usually of simple constructionsimages worked out of a wooden or marble block , the most composite being the Cry 3 elephantine statues of Greece . But , in China , they imitate the pre- Adamite process , and first jointing together a skeleton , proceed literally to clothe it with clay : —

      The skeletons or rudiments of these images were coarsely formed of wood , -witn . rough joints at the Shoulders , elbows , fingers , knees , & c . These were covered with , well-tempered clay ; and the accuracy , rapidity , and ease with which the workmen moulded this material into the foTtns of the various muscles of the human body , ^ yas truly astonishing ; not only displaying their manual dexterity , but leading one to imagine that they must be highly skilled in this department of the science o £ anatomy . In the countenances of two little statues about eighteen inches high , the passions of love and anger were portrayed to the life , although the clay of which they were formed was still quite moist . When their work is nearly dry these godmakera cover it over with a varnish that prevents its cracking , and they continue to do so with several coats in succession , as fast as the preceding one becomes nearly hardened . These josses are afterwards smoothed over by means of various tools made of hard bone , ivory , cr steel , and then are painted or gilt more or less expensively , aa suits the taste of the manufacturers or the finances of the priests , their employers .

      Mr . Halloran's narrative , which may be read in half an hour , is without the usual faults of a- traveller ' s tale—it contains nothing dull , irrelevant , or frivolous .

      Januaby 3, 1857.] The Leader. 19

      Januaby 3 , 1857 . ] THE LEADER . 19

      Humobists. Pictures Of Life And Characte...

      HUMOBISTS . Pictures of Life and Character . By John Leech . From the Collection of Mr . Punch . Second Series . ( Bradbury and Evans . ) — An oldfashioned artist would have intituled this volume the Mirror of Comedy . It . reflects , indeed , all that is comic in town and country life , the humour of the poor , the absurdity of the rich , highbred folly , lowbred pretension , in a manner the wittiest and the wisest possible . All the world ' s stage—epigrams in pencil—is here ; some of the best , indeed , of Mr . Leech ' s wonderful pen-and-pencil satires . 2 > To half-hour in the day , not even the half-hour before dinner , can be imagined tedious to a person of comfortable mind who has within reach these " Pictures of Life and Character , ' and has not looked them through at least a dozen times . Until they become quite familiar , they continue to be surprising . We should say that , as an antidote to ennui no more efFective book was ever published .

      Shadows . By C . H . Bennett . ( Bogue . )—A striking Jitfclc volume , containing a new idea . The artist sketches a figure , and tracing its shadow on the same page , -where it would naturall y , full , in a room , or in a p icture , exhibits , in every case , some ingenious resemblance . Thus , a prim lady with a round hat casts the shadow of n mushroom on a hillock ; the beadle with cocked-hat , of a donkey ; an old dowager , of a parrot ; ii policora . a . n groping into an area , of a cni ; an overfed citizen , of a bullock ; a Puseyite clergyman , of a pump ; and a greedy boy , of a pig . The most remarkable in the series is a sketch of an attenuated sempstress , whose figure , reflected on the wall , in combination with the back of an old-fashioned chair , produces a skeleton . The effect is sometimes exaggerated ; but the designs arc ingenious , and the drawing ; is clever .

      Campbell's Lives Of The Chancellors. Liv...

      CAMPBELL'S LIVES OF THE CHANCELLORS . Lives of tha Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Grunt Seal of England , from the Karliest Times till the licit / n of King George IV . By John Lord Campbell , LL . D . , F . R . S . E . Fourth Edition . Vol . I . Murray , Tun new edition of Lord Campbell ' s Lives of the Chancellors is to consist of ten volumes , in crown octavo , at the moderate price of Gs . each . It will thus form a neat and cheap set for the Popular Library shelf . Lord Campbell employed the long vacation of the present year in carefully revising his great work , correcting various inaccuracies in the text , and en rich ing the notes with illustrations and . references . Aa he dospairs of further improvements , the book is now stereotyped . It was not without a pang that ho

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 3, 1857, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_03011857/page/19/