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Leader (1850-1860), 18th December 1858, Edition 2 of 2, Page 11

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    • LITERATURE, SCIENCE, ART, &c.
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      No. 456, December 18, 1858.] T He Leadee...

      No . 456 , December 18 , 1858 . ] T HE LEADEE . 1379

      Literature, Science, Art, &C.

      LITERATURE , SCIENCE , ART , & c .

      Literary Chronicle Of The Week. —¦—-?—Th...

      LITERARY CHRONICLE OF THE WEEK . —¦— - ?—The Publishers * Circular ( assuredly an authority upon such matters ) solemnly assures us that "the past fortnight lias hardly equalled its predecessor in the production of important books , " and our own experience serves to confirm that opinion . The only book which has achieved anything like a great sale has been a volume of Sermons by Dr . Guthrie , one of the most popular preachers in Scotland . The subscription list to this piece of fashionable theology amounted to not less than eight thousand copies . The other books of importance , during the week have been a pleasant , though , we fear , not over-accurate " Memoir of Beckford , " the exquisite recluse of Font lull , by an anonymous hand , currently reported to belong to him that wrote the "History of Wine , " and is about to trace the mental lineaments of his old friend and fellow-labourer , Thomas Campbell ; two volumes of personal and dramatic gossip from that good-natured and prolific , though not too powerful writer , Mr . Pitzball ; the third volume of Prcscott ' s " Life of Philip the Second , " and some passages from his Autobiography by Lady Morgan . A collection of original and unpublished papers illustrative of the life of Sir Peter Paul Rubens , collected and edited by W . Noel Sainsbury , of H . jVI . State-paper Office , has also been published , as also the second volume of Arago's "Popular Astronomy , " translated by Smith and Grant ; and a volume on " Naval Warfare with Steam , " by Sir Howai-d Douglas . Messrs . Chapman and Hall have published a very ornamental volume on the " History of Bartholomew Fair , " by Mr . Morley , who wrote the "Life of Palissy the Potter , "—pretty to look at , as far as woodcuts and < decorated binding are concerned , but may not ' 1 quite satisfy antiquarian judgments . ' The edi- ^ lions de luxe of the week are three very beautiful ones from Mr . Murray—one an edition of " Childe l Harold , " with a number of exquisite woodcuts by Mr . Percival Skclton ; a new edition of " Lockhart ' s Ballads ; " and an entirely new edition of Wordsworth ' s " Greece , " as beautiful as fine paper and good engravings can make it . Everybody now is talking- of the coming celebration of the Burns' Centenary Anniversary . The projected feasts and festivities are innumerable , and each is to be garnished by its crown of small lite- rary constellations who have promised their at- tendance . Some of the great Scotchmen of the day , Macaulay and Aytoun , will he present at Edinburgh ; Taut the hospitable board of Glas- gow will not be left ungraced , for Alison , Colonel Jaincs Burns , and a host of good men and true have promised to bo present . That at > a $ avftpebu , ohiefest of Scotland's sons , Henry Lord Brougham , denies , however , his presence to all these gatherings , Though Franco will none of him as a citizen , ho yet apes the manners of a French seigneur , and hunts the boar at Cannes instead of encountering thc _ same animal ovor the fair cWnner-tables of his native land . Surely this most oratorical of Scotch- inon owed something to that brother whose intellect God most brilliantly illumined with tho truo spark ofpoesy ! Talking of tho Burns celebration , it is among the on dits in tlie literary world that the directors of tho Crystal X ' ulace , failing to get Mr , Thomas Car- lyle as tho arbiter of their poetical competitor , havo secured the ecu-vices of Mr . Peter Cunningham , A . good and useful man went from among us when Charles-Jean Dclillo gave up his life in pain on Monday morning last . As a professor of French , holding such a multiplicity of appointments that he might havo bcou called a pluralist if lie had not fulfilled them all with conscientious industry and zeal , and as tho author of tho boat grammar and set of French olass-books in existence , M . Dolille will not be easily forgotten . His death , which was not unexpected , loaves open many valuable appoint- iKipnis , such as tho French masterships of Christ ' s Hospital , tho City of London and ' St . Paul ' s Sohools , the Examincrship of Eton , and pthor great public seminaries . Among tho Winter Speeches delivered at St . Paul ' s School on Thursday last , according to annual custom , an ologant tribute to tho memory of M , Dclillo , in the form of Latin

      ( * ' ' verse , from the pen of the head master , Dr . Kynaston , was delivered by one of the senior pupils . The American mails bring news of the suicide of an unhappy man who went by the name of Edwin Dickens , and represented himself as a near relative of the author of " Pickwick . " It appears that after introducing himself as an influential contributor to most of the great papers and periodicals in England , Mr . Dickens failed to obtain sufficient work on the American press to support himself with credit . Reduced to poverty , from which apparently there was no escape , the poor fellow put a period to his career by a bottle of poison , in the upper room of a New York hotel . Mr . Ingram notifies that he is about to move for a new trial , and deprecates all comment until the result be known . Be it so . We have no object but to sustain the dignity and purity of the order to wldch Mr . Ingram belongs , and it is our earnest { hope that he Will succeed in putting a new aspect - upon the business . * The book trade in America seems very brisk , and " piracy thrives and thieves apace , in spite of Brussels Congresses . Of Mr . Carlyle ' s " Life of Frederick ^ II . " 3000 copies were sold in less than a mouth . It ^ must not , however , be inferred that the legiti- c matc home trade is not equally successful . Of £ Longfellow's " Miles Standish , " not less than 25 , 000 g copies have been sold . Of important works forth- s coming we note the long-promised "Critical Die- tionary of British and American Authors , " by Mr . ! q Alibone ,. It is to be published by Childs and v Peterson , and will fill ten volumes in royal octavo . a It is the work of a Philadelphia merchant , and has ; jc occupied him for many years . Judging from the tj specimens which we have seen , it wiil be the most „ , complete work of the kind'in existence , fully equal- ° { ling in utility the " Bibliographical - Biographical fc Dictionary" of Octtinger . We also note a " Col- j . icction of Anecdotes of Love , " by Lola Montes « and a new edition of " Blackstone ' s Commentaries , " j u by the Hon . George Sharswood . cc w y- ) f n e , t s ^ j 1 : \ 1 j i is "

      J N T I « F J \ C F R C V \ G S R ] R \ ...

      j t i « f j \ c f r c v \ g s r ] r \ 1 1 1 i v v c t I t v n I o o n j < tl f < a FOUR MONTHS IN ALGERIA . Four Months in Algeria , with a Visit to Carthage . By the Rev . Joseph Williams Blakesley , Vicar of Ware , Herts . Macmillau and Co ., Cambridge and London . We can readily imagine how , driven at short notice to seek health in the sunny South , Mr . Blakesjey , in whom we have little difficulty in recognising the " Hertfordshire Incumbent" of the Times , came to fix upon a tri p so full of interest to classical , geographical , and military student , as that to a land which has been peopled by nation after nation now obliterated , and has been trodden by the feet of armies from the remotest period of antiquity to the present day . All who remember tho running commentary of the "Incumbent" upon the events of the Crimean war will be prepared to find that neither the campaigns of Scipio , nor the forays of Cavaignac in Algeria have escaped his notice , and that lie has applied singular acumen and industry to the antiquarian researches hourly suggested to him during Ins visit . He seems to have lost little time ; fur . in four months—a spnee soon frittered away in a land without railways or even decent highways—ho made himself acquainted with the province from Bona on its Tunisian border lo Orau on the sido towards Morocco ; visited every French station of importance ; got np the history of the French wars ; traced their military operations ; took a sea- t voyage to investigate < he sicgos and site of Carthage ; < and took notes enough , in tno manner of every-clay < travellers , upon tho nppoaranco and customs of t Moor , Arab , Kabylc , Jew , and Frenchman , to add t tho amusing clomcnt to a work which , independently , ( would bo ii valuable one t t Tho classical failure of tho tour is , of courso , < prominent . So replete is tho province with an- i iiquitios and historical associations , that no scholar i of ordinary attainments could have visited it with- c out having his attention constantly drawn to them ; c and to our author Ihoy of courso wore leading ob- f jcots of intcrost . At Lambcssa , tho Lambcsis of ^ tho Romans and tho site of one of tlioir important t fortified canips , formed probably about a . d . 109 , t and now famous for its " Penitontiary " ho seems j to have made a discovery of marked interest . It t

      \ | clearly appears , from an inscription over a hemicycle or circular settle within the Prcetorium , that a club or association existed among the subalterns of the army for the purchase of steps and the assurance of annuities to its members on their retiremeilt from the service : — The inscription sets forth a resolution to which the members had come , on the occasion of furnishing their club with the statues of the reigning family , and of their tutelary deities ; and the purport of it indicates the possession of common funds of considerable magnitude . It was the practice in the Roman army to allow every centurion to select a sort of deputy , or , as we might say , lieutenant , who , in the times of the Empire , was called his " optib . " It would , appear from the inscription that this appointment conveyed with it some sort of claim . to succeed the chief when a vacancy occurred , but that it was necessary for the claimant to procure aconfirmation to his appointment from some superior , possibly the legate of the province , as the representative of the emperor . Appointments in all ages have involved the payment of bribes , or their successors , fees ; and , apparently in reference to this necessity , the resolution in question determines that every member , on setting out for secm-ing the object of his expectations , " ad spem' suam confirmandam / ' shall be paid 8000 sesterces ( about 62 / . 10 s . ) . If any one reaches the limit of military service , and is discharged , he is to be paid , every st of January , " ring money" to the amount of 6000 sesterces ( 46 / . 17 s . 6 d . ) . Now this phrase is very remarkable , for Septimus Severus , whose name appears on the engaged column of the "Prsetorium , " the very emperor who bestowed upon every Roman solclier the much-coveted right to wear a golden ring , or , in other words , gave him the social status of a gentleman . The " ring money , " therefore , is in fact the pension enabling the veteran to keep up this position . The names of sixty-three bptiones" are inscribed on the pilasters of this hemicycle ; and , as the author says , " nothing could more strongly mark the immense importance which the profession of arms had acquired under the despotic government of the Roman emperors . " At Carthage Mr . Blakesley was < juite in his element . He set himself enthusiastically to the determination of the site of the harbour and the reproduction of the great siege , of which , he says , " the defence of Carthage was in many respects an anticipation of that of Sebastopol . In both cases the assailants were masters of the sea , and at first only of a few points on the land , while the besieged defended themselves by means of fortified camps established in commanding positions outside of the town . " With regard to the former point , it -was the opinion of Dr . Shaw , as quoted by Gibbon , that the port faced the west , and that "tho isthmus , or neck of the city , is now confounded with the continent ; the harbour is a dry plain j and the lake , or stagnum > no more than a morass with six or seven feet of water in the mid channel . " Chateaubriand totally repudiated this theory , and was satisfied that the vast remains still apparent along tho sea-board of the Bay of Tunis accounted sufficiently for the site of both city and port . Without entering into hia arguments , or travelling over ground which Appian , Strabo , Pol y bius , Rollin , » S ! m \ v , Chateaubriand , and De Blnquiore have still left encumbered , wo may briefly say , that Mr . Blakesley is of tho Shaw party , and believes that tho oity stood as it wero upon a broad promontory , connected with tho main land by a kind of isthmus or neck of land two-and-a-half milos across . Tho ancient harbour was , ho is convinced , on the wesern sido of this , and formed a sea-lock of cronfc extont , which subsequent changes havo filled up and converted into a tract of marshy ground . Tho events of tho siogo by Scipio aro compiled into narrative , and common ! oil on by our learned author with groat scholarship nud ingenuity . This division of tho work will bo read by olassical students with pcouliar interest ; political readers will find enough to engage tliom in the sound pohtioal views expressed upon tho colonisation and omigralion and mlniinisl . ralivo systems of Algeria , whilo Iho general reader will find in his pagos no lack of pretty word pictures and anecdotes . Four Months in Algeria would , of course , havo

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 18, 1858, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_18121858/page/11/