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Leader (1850-1860), 15th January 1859, Edition 2 of 2, Page 15, MILDRED NORMAN. Mildred Korman. By a Wor...

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      The Quaktjsrlies. Tub Wkstminbtkii Ubvie...

      and ordinances , and to delegate the power of making the latter sometimes to Ministers , sometimes to local executives , sometimes to municipalities . / lb

      of the Army Medical Commission replies , , at length to an excellent paper by Mr . F . G > Neison , which appeared in our columns , and properly advances the necessity of recognising and cultivating military hygiene as a science . The number also comprises a medical paper on V Anaesthetics , " reviews of " Oarlyle ' s Friedrich II ., " "Sp iritual Destitution in England , " " The Religious Policy of Austria , " and " Kecent Cases of Witchcraft . " The British Quartkkly Review . —This number | 3 rich in articles of interest to " reading men . " The first in order— " Physical and Moral Heritage , " though bearing an uninviting title , treats learnedly , yet pleasingly , of hereditary vices , virtues , and

      -qualities , and maladies of body and mind . The passage on the hereditary results of intoxication is a startling one . " Bblingbroke" is a political sketch of merit , and the paper on " Russian Serfdom " the enfranchisement movement , which affects fully a third of Russia ' s population , throws more valuable light on a subject that has hitherto been sparingly noticed in this country , though it has more than once been treated in our own columns . A sound critical article upon Professor Masson ' s " Life of Milton , " of which the first volume follows the poet no farther than his thirty-first year , leads us to imagine that the complete work will be a valuable contribution as well to historical as to

      biographical literature . " France and * England " comprehends a sketch of the French Bar , with remarks on its leading ornaments and their independence . This is followed by a history of the recent massacre of the French press , a well-written though intemperate diatribe against the Imperial regime , and . a review of the Montalembert case . Some sound observations on our own colonial and domestic policy conclude the paper . The reviewer advocates reasonlike wiser

      able extension of the franchise , but , . , is puzzled to say what extension . He hopes for a razzia upon the rotten or pocket-boroughs which still encumber the parliamentary roll , and that the country will not a second time be deluded into strengthening territorial power at the expense of the other classes . The number ends with a good review of " Carlyle ' s Friedrich II ., " in which that writer is gravely censured for faults in style , philosophy , and Frederick-worship .

      No. 460, Jantjaby 15.1859.1 Tsb Leadeb, ...

      No . 460 , Jantjaby 15 . 1859 . 1 TSB LEADEB , 79

      08,992,0137. Then To Be Supplied. The To...

      08 , 992 , 0137 . then to be supplied . The total amount ( which has been since increased for additional lines and additional works ) is equal to half our national debt , enough , according to recent calculations , to pay off the entire debt of the French empire , and leave a surplus nearly equal to the combined debts of Austria and Russia , and to the debts of all the European states put together . , More than one hundred and thirty millions of persons travel over these railways in a year , so that 3 head this

      the cost and outlay of about J . a on number of passengers , will thus be found to have been necessary to provide them with this accommodation . The railway system , almost endless in its ramifications , may be in some measure comprehended from the fact that , independently of shareholders and persons employed in the manufacture of iron and other materiel necessary to their construction and working , there are 133 , 000 paid officers and servants attached to the existing companies , including directors and auditors .

      " Before 1840 , " writes Mr . Moor , the author of the -work under notice , " there was no general legislation relative to railways . " " Railways , " he continues , ¦ " had been previously established , and to some extent regulated by the special acts authorising their construction ; and in 1838 , provision was made for making such and future railways available for the Post-office service ; " but it was not till 1840 that it Was considered " expedient for the safety of the public to provide for the due supervision of railr ways , " by a general law , so far as that end could then be accomplished by it . " The insufficiency and imperfections of this and others of the earliest statutes passed through the growth of the railway system are sufficiently shown by the extent and nature of subsequent legislation , which affords also at the same time ample evidence of the rapid expansion of the system . "

      The large number of special railway acts to which reference has been made have therefore been increased by the various statutes which in relation to the general law of railways have been necessarily and wisely passed since 1840 . Having in view the large number of statutes now in existence , the variety and repeated alterations of railway law , and being practically compelled to deal ; with the difficulties consequent upon them , the

      author ( who is also Secretary of the Dublin and Wieklow , and Kingstown Railways ) has produced the present publication . His modest and well-directed aim is not to discuss the provisions , policy , or operation of , the law , but to Furnish a convenient means of access to its enactments , rather as a book of reference , more especially tor those immediatel y and practically connected with Railways , and a guide to their statutory duties , obligations , . and responsi-. bilities .

      To the persons interested , and their name is legion the volume is of great utility . The labour and care with which the public statutes have been arranged and annotated , and an elaborate and explanatory Index superadded , fully evince the deep and practical interest which the author has taken in the subject . We cordially recommend the volume to the profession and the public . The statistics of railways introduced into the work , and . which have been slightly glance , read at first sight like marvels . They are not , however , more marvellous than the system , which now , by a simple but effective application of a scientific principle , literally annihilates both time and space , and brings tho ends of the earth together .

      RAILWAY LAW . A Handbook of Railway Law . By Arthur Mooro . W . H . Smith and Sons . Railways , the railway system , and its interests have become of . vast importance to the country , both nationally and individually . From the old tramways previously existing for about fifty years , and those only suited for goods , cpal , and other mineral traffic , it was so recently as tho year 1826 , when the ^ first company , incorporated by the , Act 7 Goo . IV ,, c . xlix .

      for constructing a railway for general traffic ( the Liverpool and Manchester ) , was established , that the germ of tho now gigantic network of iron spread over the area of tlio United Kingdom , and extended to almost every part of the world , was initiated . This line , tho first completed one , about thirty-two xnilos in length , was opened in September , 1830 * the event being rendered doubly memorable by its being tho first completed railway in tho empire , and by its attendant fatality in the loss of Mr . Huskiason , one Of our moat distinguished statesmen .

      In tho thirty-eight , years from 1821 , when the first act of tho Stockton and Darlington lino was passed , to 1858 , inclusive , railway legislature may bo said to liave originated and to havo been continuously devolopcd , no loss than 1686 special railway note having boon passed in that period . Of those , 1-248 ¦ were for railways in England and Wales , 279 for Scotland , and 159 for Ireland . Nearly in the same period thp oxtont of railways ha

      s increased from 32 miles to 9116 miles , and open for traffic alono in tho United Kingdom at tho oncl of 1857 , besides nearly one-fourtli of tho lattor number » n course of construction or nnthorlsoil . Tho amourit of capital invoBtod in those undertakings has inoroaseu from 1 , 692 , 600 / . ( tho capital on amalgamation of tho present railway from Llvorpoolto Manchester above noted ) to tho vast aggrogate of 377 , 767 , 007 / ., authorised to bo raised up to let January , 1857 . Of this sum 308 , 778 , 894 / . nod oeon . actually raised at that dato , lwvvhig only

      Frede R Ic K The Great And His Merchant....

      FREDE R IC K THE GREAT AND HIS MERCHANT . Frederick the Great and his Merchant . Two vols . From the Gorman Translation . IJy Lady Wallace . 1 < . Bentley . This incidents are founded on fact ; wo havo verification by numerous foot-notes , which , afford us extracts from works of recognised authority . The Berlin banker Gotsohosky was a celebrated character in Prussian history during the Seven Years' Wnr . In the form of a novel , we have placed before us the leading events of his brilliant career and disastrous ending . Wo learn tho services he rendered to the groat and powerful , tho substantial benefits ho conferred upon his country , and tho genoral ingratitude ho eventually reaped . Tho love story woven into tho history wo presume is intended to relievo tho dry ness of biographical narrative . Tins novel is quite worth a pluoo in our circulating libraries .

      Or Topographical Pedantry, The Author Ta...

      or topographical pedantry , the author takes his reader by the hand at St . Paul ' s , and parts company with him at St : James ' s . Between these parallels lays that portion of the metropolis which , in days gone by , was-wont to be designated " The Town " par excellence , and which is yet so esteemed in most circles of wit and taste . He has charmingly focussed his lantern ' s gentle ray upon : the nibfet remarkable characters arid events associated with ' the precincta

      of the Cathedral , Fleet-street , the Strand , Lincoln ' s Inn , Co vent-garden , the Playhouses , Leicestersquare , Whitehall , and St . Janies ' s Park . As his magical slides follow one another , we are introduced in turn to the fair , the brave , the witty , and the wise of the past , whose spirits—we almost think as we read—must still delight to haunt the beloved purlieus where the once loud echoes of their mortal footsteps have long been fused into the din of successive generations . '

      Turning over at random the leaves before us , we meet the names of Lord Herbert of Chesbury , Ben Jonson , Nell G wynn , Lord Essex , the Kit-Cat Club , Abraham Cowley , Pepys , the two Villierses , Mrs . CentlivTe , Lord Craven , and the Queen of Bohemia . These have all in their day been " people about town . " They have passed from the flesh , it is true , but , thanks to Leigh Hunt , the reader may yet look for many a pleasant quarter of an hour in their company .

      THE TOWN , Tho Townt i (« Memorable Characters and F . uents . By Leigh Hunt . , , v & initli , Elder , anil Co . Tnia now anft remarkably cheap edition of Leigh Hum ' s ' . delightful gossip about , Tho Town will not fall to meet with tho . largo patmnago it deserves . Glftod with a degree of observant power that falls not to tho lot of every man , impregnated with graceful illustrative loro , aud oloar of' antiquarian

      Mildred Norman. Mildred Korman. By A Wor...

      MILDRED NORMAN . Mildred Korman . By a Working Man . Longman and Co . We wish we could persuade ourselves that this work was really written by one of the labouring classes , or what we understand to be a ¦ " working man . think there is sufficient internal evidence to warrant us in saying that , although 3 fildred Norman may not be by a professional literary hand , it is certainly the production of some one in . a higher grade than that of the artisan class . The first chapters of the work pleased us the best . They led us to expect we should have reliable revelations of the inner life of the poor man ,, his trials , home privations ^ and worldly , or rather social , troubles ; but the end disappointed us .

      John Norman , the cobbler , and his two daughters , Mildred and Mabel , are well sketched , and . trite , in the main , to the life . So are some of the scenes and characters in Petticoat-lane , rather over-coloured , however , but quite in keeping with the introductory chapters , and with what we at first conjectured was the object of . the work , But after the tale departs from its original path , and enters upon the well-explored regions of melodramatic incident , the special interest subsides into one of a common-place character , and the conclusion brings something very like a disappointment . Mildred has a religious turn . She talks and acts Scripture with the . unctioa pf a Methodist preacher . Mabel becomes the victim

      of a missionary , and attempts suicide . She is rescued by a family named Morris , who are about to emigrate to Australia , and who on hearing her pitiful history , induce her to accompany them . Mildred , on the sudden death pf her father , comes into a large property in low lodging-houses in the neighbourhood of Petticoat-lane , left her by a stranger , her landlady . Mildred assumes the lady of fortune with rather too much readiness . She visits her tenants , and , in particular , a low fJhieves' publichouse ; and here , we are told , she was so horrified at the language and scenes she ¦ witnessed—although the one and the other must have been thoroughly

      familiar to her all her life—that she directs her agent to refuse a renewal of the lease , and to shut up the house . There are several other parts of the work which want the charm of verisimilitude ; we also think tho religious element is rather too prominently , and certainly , in some cases , inefficiently , introduced . Let " tins writer , if he . be a " working man , " confine himself in future worksfor it ia not likely this will bo the last—to his experience of his own class , or that class which wo are apt to -consider as constituting the lowest rank of working life , and then wo may promise ourselves ami the public something striking , original , and instructive .

      Japan And Iikr People. Japan And Hur Peo...

      JAPAN AND IIKR PEOPLE . Japan and hur People . My Andrew . Stoinmotz . With numerous Uh ^ tmiloiid . Koutlcdgo and Co . Rkcf . nt cvont * havo brought Japan and her social wonders prominently before tho English public . Tho lato treaty has turned commercial attention to this Boehuloil quarter ot tho globe , and wo may be sure , wherever the British merchant succeeds in planting his foot , that mystery and oxclusivonoss will speedily disappear . Mr . Steimnet . z docs not , conceal thp foofc that his book is only a-compilation . Ho has anticipated tho public appotlto for farther and iullor information relative to Japan , her people , her institutions , mill her peculiarities ; ho has , with much putienco and labour , collected tho oldest ana tho num » 6 works , uud has condonsod their spirit ; into

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 15, 1859, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_15011859/page/15/