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666 THE LE^ ^ P JE^^ ______Jj^^^ j^^ 10^...
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MAIN DRAINAGE ENGINEERING. A Letter to t...
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LA.TTER-DAY POETRY. It is no light task ...
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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.
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The Siege Of Delhi. The Chaplain's N~ Ar...
greater part of the « iege . To quote this passage will , we feel sure , give him pleasure : — Father Berirand , a . pattern Roman Catholic priest , whose services have been justly wcogniaed—not by the Government , perhaps ; for judging by its acts , the clergy , and p * rt 5 ca ] arly th * t more self-denying portion of it belonging-to the Roman Cat holi-c Church , seem to have been regarded as a necessary inconvenience ; bat by his own Vicar Apostolic , Dr . Peraico , in terms not by any means too flattering , considering bia labours in camp—was in this respect iu a much worse predicament than m yself . He lad infinitely smaller allowances , and infinitely fewer comforts thau I enj oyed , but an e <} ual amouut of labour . This excellent man—and surely I may venture thus to designate him , without risk of offence to any , except the most bigoted—lived as sparingly as a hermit , wbile he worked as hard as an English dray-horse . If Government should overlook this good man and his extraordinary services , his own lock : never can and never will : those services anl that self-denial will live in the recollections of the army as long as a single man survives to tell the tale .
And like the rest of us , too , the priest militant has a lee fie esprit de corps about him . He is wondrously attached to the Rifleman and the Ghoorka , who seem , by the way , to have been as ' * thick" together as the Zouave and Highlander "before Sebastopol . He lias an impression that the field ¦ fo rce has been ill treated about prize-money ; that G-overnmont have done neither wisely nor well in neglecting to decorate the Sirmoor Battalion ; and lie takes it hard that the achievements of Delhi have been effaced from the pullic mind by the more recent capture of Lucknow . Upon the question of the breach of faith with the army , said to be in-^ vblved in the Indian Council ' s repudiation of General "Wilson ' s promised prize-money , we are neither competent nor anxious to enter ; but at a time -when all that concerns the self-respect , content , and honour of our ai'mies should be interesting , we will conclude our notice of the tc Clerk ' s Tale" in his own words
•;—Ure I take my leave of Hindoo Rao and its distinguished defenders , and touch on other and more general subjects , let me pay a parting tribute of respect to the services 4 > f . the Sirmoor Battalion . Upon every occasion , and wherever opportunity has presented itself , I have never forgotten-. to say a Jcind word , and a true -word , for .-the Rifles ; and sure am I that the gallant officers and men of this most distinguished of 4 uL her moat gracious Majesty ' s regiments , in or out of India , would not thank me if I emitted to devote it space in this work as a distinct and direct record of the services ¦ of that regiment , vithwhich , from first to last , they have been most intimately connected in military operations ; and of which regiment , from Major Reid downwards
, I lave heard them express themselves in terms of boundless admiration . . ... . Nothing was easier at this time than for them to have followed the pernicious and ' prevailing example of the Bengal axmy . The lives of their European officers -were -completely at their mercy . They not only spared , but protected them to the utmost of their power , when no other protection was at hand . I believe , indeed , no amount of praise would tse spent extravagantly upon the gallant Ghoorkas of the Sirmoor Battalion , who determinately cast in their lot with tbeir English masters , willing to ¦ altare with them whatever Heaven might please to determine— -fortune or misfortune . .........
A . General Order ( No . 1544 of 1857 ) provides , among other things , that every native commissioned and non-commissioned officer and soldier -who has formed part of itlie garrison of Lucknow shall receive the order of merit , with the increase of pay Attached thereto , and shall count three years of additional service . This is only an adequate recognition and reward for the fidelity of a comparatively few soldiers , fe & ongiag respectively to the 13 th , 48 th , and 71 st Bengal Native Infantry . Therefore I say that justice demands that , at least , a similar act of . favour and distinction . should be extended to every man of the Sirmoor Battalion ; concerning no one of whom Hae lowest and faintest whispers of suspicion of any kind have ever been Iseftrd . "With reference to the comparative public estimation of the two successes —if such they can be called—we have only space for the few last words of the author's comments : —
But if , in addition to these considerations , we take into account tbe relative amount of hard fighting at both places , the character of the enemy , ttie nature and extent of las attacks , tbe interests , larger or smaller , which depended upon success , and the consequences , more or leas important , that must have followed in the event of a defeat , -then Luoknow cannot approach Delhi by a very lone-way .
666 The Le^ ^ P Je^^ ______Jj^^^ J^^ 10^...
666 THE LE ^ ^ P JE ^^ ______ Jj ^^^ j ^^ 10 ^ 85 ^
Main Drainage Engineering. A Letter To T...
MAIN DRAINAGE ENGINEERING . A Letter to the Vestry qft / ie Parish of St . George ' s , Hanover-square . By John Leslie , one of the Representatives of the Parish at tho Metropolitan Board of Works . Charles WesUrton . Although * we are committed to the 'opinion that no more wordy , useless , disappointing public body than the Metropolitan Board of Works was ever constituted to make itself ridiculous , mistake its functions , impede the progress of business it was created to forward , we hrve some pleasure in noticing Mr . Leslie ' s pamphlet , evincing , as it does , a degree of aptitude far the consideration of the subject , and of zealous and energetic study , ¦ whi ch , we think , are unequHlled among his colleagues . The majority , the very large majority , of the Board have always seemed to us incapable of graroing an engineering question in even the faintest manner . Mr Carpnwel , the patent agent , and Mr . Wright , of Westminster , who is . we believe ,
» pracwiu mecrramc , are certainly as able as Mr . Leslie to criticise ( if not to -draw ) , report , plan , and Bection ; but to the loudest talkers of the assembly ^ ncmeenng is vom ^ Ann heathen Greek—it is a nightmare . You may take your member of the Metropolitan Board for an airing through over * nd round the drainage question , bat , with few exceptions , he must bark ¦ S ^ rJ ?^ ^ 1 ?*? the < l aeBtion 8 of finance , the magnificence and xiKhts of " thu » board , " the oppression of her Majesty ' s Government , the pressure of rates in general upon his own peculiar Buncombe , and the propriety of supporting ™ f . " enS 1 * . ? , * ° . * " Board" in everything against every - body , lie will hsten—if he is too tired to talk—but he witl not under-• atand : and if he would , ho cannot . Tho trouble that such a man as we understand Mr . Leslie to be to such a party of evasuves may well be con-« we * -for our author is , physically , too large a party to be snuffed out , too good-humottredto bo put out , too well up in the subject to be pumped dry-in an hourVdebate , or to be satisfactorily met upon fair ground at all by the general body . Ho will not be induced to run effhis scent after mte " * ad other vertry matters { though he is great enough upon these a times )
but hurls his hurricanes of figures and interjections at the head of cli-iim or engineer , or whoever for the moment may be selected for h \ s viot until the dawn of reason—which comes seldom , there to pass the efflux " ™ ' of time , or the emptiness of benches give him warning that he may leave ff conscientiously , or talk to himself . ' ¦ ¦ ¦ And now , as Mr . Leslie ' s constituents , the ratepayers of St . George '* Hanover-square , will not go to hear-him . at the Metropolitan Board of Talk ' he . invokes Mr . Westerton ' s aid and appeals to them in tbe present pam ' phlet , and puts Messrs . Bidder , Hawkesley , and Bazelgette unon the p « m " neenng gridiron of black and white plans and sections , bastes them with unpleasant difficulties , and dredges tliem , as in his orations , with notes of admiration and " small caps . " The Report of the above-named euwineei " is Mr . Leslie ' s text , and the moderation wlich has confined him to only fifteen pages , is , considering the fertility of the subject , and the knowlorW
and vivacity of the critic , trul y surprising . The adoption of . the said R ° . port "b y said Board has given rise , says he , to a great crisis in the M . B . of W—— deeply affecting the sanitary condition of fhe metropolis . But to this we emphatically demur . We do believe that the Board ' s own existence is in a critical state , but that its disease or death can seriously affect the sanitary condition of London we have not the remotest apprehension . The outfalls B and B * , projected by Mr . Bazalgotte , adopted by the Metropolitan Board of Works , rejected by the common sense of the entire public who are competent to consider the matter , and again brought forward by Messrs . Hawkesley and Bidder , meet with Mr . Leslie ' s very lound censure as being what he calls " elongated cesspools . " Of the pumping station at Chelsea , which will be necessary if it be resolved to lift the western sewawe
to tLe level of the rest , Mr . Leslie also disapproves of , as well as of the alternative deodorizing propositions . He of course has a little scheme of his own , which is deserving of fur more consideration than it is likely to receive at the hands of his friends and colleagues , but which is certain not to have escaped observation in the proper quarter , and , if original—for in these days it is hard to say that aught is original—will , 5 n the fulness of time , be appropriated or spoilt , as has been done before now , by some scheming "referee , " possibly without thanks or acknowledgment . He proposes the abolition of gully and ventilating gratings , the great means by which the road dirt and mud are swept into sewers ; to have all surface cleansing dealt with by scavengers ; all surface rainage and storm waters allowed to find their natural access by surface drains to . . the river , which , absurdly enough , all parties unjustly endeavour to despoil thereof ; and the separate collection and discharge of the sewage proper . This last should add but little to the weight of daily water supply of the metropolis , and to carry it clear away no more than a 10-foot sewer faliinir 2
feetDermue would , according to Mr . Leslie , be necessary . As compared with tlie colossal imaginings of Messrs . Bamlgette , Bidder , and Hawkesley , this seems to involve a saving between Putney sind the sea of perhaps 2 , 000 , 000 ? . This is so startling an economy , and . so plausibly put forth , that , without expressing any opinion upon the engineering merits , we are glad , so far as we ^ ay , to assist in making known to the parishioners of St . George ' s that their public-spirited representative has placed himself in communication with them through the medium of the press .
La.Tter-Day Poetry. It Is No Light Task ...
LA . TTER-DAY POETRY . It is no light task that we undertake in toiling through the heaps of poems which constantly lie on our table . The day-dreamings of fever—the faint , half-conscious visionariness of convalescence , when all objects have a look of unreality and ghostliness—are the only conditions of ordinary experience to which we can compare the state of mind produced by the morbid nvutterings of poets who have enough power to produce some sort of effect , yet not sufficient to conceive clearly or bring forth healthily . A little volume now before us—The Strawberry Girl , with Other Thoughts and Fancies in Verse , by H . M . Ratlibone , Authoress of " The Diary of Lady Willoughby" ( Longman and Co . )—lms something of tlie character
iustindicated , but can also boast of better elements . The first of the poems in this volume contains some very pretty pastoral writing , and a feeling for nature pervades most of Mrs . Rathbone ' s verses . Sweetness of disposition , womanliness , a strong sense of religion , and occasional pathos , are qualities which , in Mrs . Rathbone , alternate with weakness and superfluity ; and we must object to the prevalence of a melancholy , dreamy tone in most of the poems . How is it that our lady poets are always so provokingly lachrymose ? Why cannot they see the sunshine as well as the rain ? The lady whoso work is befoi'e us can , however , really affect her readers to tears , us iu the poem called The Village Funeral , which is strongly felt and delicately expressed . It is supposed to be addressed by a sick girl to her mother , nntlin it are these two lines , tho piteous truth of which must be felt by all who have thought or suffered : — So mauy die , and all goes on Just as it did before ! The poem called The Slinoiern / Girl was suggested b y Sir Joshua Reynold's charming picture so called , a woodcut of which stands before the title-page . Primula : a Book of Lyrics . ( Hardwicko . )—The anonymous author of this volume exhibits richness of fancy , picturesqueness , and romance , and some very beautiful passages are scattered over his pages ; but we note great vagueness and want of purpose , an absence of reality and substance , and a too frequent resort to that habit of mumbling about the mysterious and the ghostly to which we have already alluded as characterizing tho minor poetry of the present day . The author seems to be greatly fascinated by legends o-f water spirits and of calamities on rivers and aeaa . There is an uxcess of this ; but some of the passages arc very striking , and have n touch of * the music of the " humming waters . " Tho reader may judge for himself from tho subjoined specimen : — Melusina . would not chant of might Rut the still rivers , and of what may bo Lock'd in tua deep , illimitable ) eca .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 10, 1858, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_10071858/page/18/
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