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Leader (1850-1860), 22nd January 1859, Edition 2 of 2, Page 11

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      , Y 0 , 461, Jaktiauy 22, 1859.] ^ _T H ...

      , y 0 , 461 , Jaktiauy 22 , 1859 . ] ^ _ T H E I , E APE JR . ___ ______^ 0 ?_

      Literature, Science, Art, &C

      LITERATURE , SCIENCE , ART ,

      Titerary Chronicle Of The Week.

      TITERARY CHRONICLE OF THE WEEK .

      Little Has Been Talked Of In Literary Ci...

      Little has been talked of in literary circles during the past week but the Burns celebration , and the preparations over the country are so vast and various as almost to give warrant to a fear that the business may be slighfly overdone . Tt is pleasant to notice , however , that instead of hunting for Lords and Right Houourablcs to preside at the different festivals , a certain fitness of things has been observed : the craft to which Burns belonged has not been forgotten , and literary presidents and literary guests have been eagerly sought for by the different where Sir Archibald

      committees . At Glasgow , Alison is to preside , the list of guests invited aud expected includes the names of Monckton Milnes , Samuel Lover , Professor Nichol , Judge Haliburton ; , and Sir David Brewster , whilst the Liondon press will be represented by Mr . Shirley Brooks , and Mr . James Lowe , the editor of the Critic . The lists at Dumfries , AUoway , and Edinburgh , arc not less full . Lord Brougham has written , excusing himself from attendance , but the chair kept vacant for him will be filled by Lord Ardmillan , one of the Judges of the Court of Session . In

      London there will be great doings ; the Caledonian Society designing a dinner at the London Tavern ,. Robert Marshall , Esq . * the president of the society , presiding . Another dinner is projected at the Guildhall :.. Hotclj Gresham-street , over whicli Mr . James Hannay , the Scotch novelist and essayist , will preside . At . the Costal Palace they are accumulating all manner of relics and properties of the poet , autographs of all kinds , a statue by Thorn , the Taylor and Nasmyth portraits , the escritoire upon which lie wrote " Tarn O'Shanter , " and a . lock of his hair , with another of " Bonnie Jean ' s . "

      Perhaps the most welcome , book of the week has been " Passages from My Autobiography , " by Sydney Lady Morgan ( Bent Icy ) ; a book filled with interesting and pleasant gossip and much information . Miss Gcraldine Jewsbury ' s novel , " Right or Wrong " ( Hurst and Blackett ) , has also attracted attention . Among the rumours of Paternoster-row comes one that Lord Campbell has been unbending his legal mind by commenting upon Shakspcare , and that he has written a book pointing out the bearing of all the legal passages in the dramatist . The story

      that Shakspcai'c served some period of apprenticeship in an attorney ' s office isnot without plausibility , and certainly gives a more reasonable explanation of the fact that his writings arc thickly strewn with legal allusions than by adopt ing Miss Delia Bacon ' s theory , that her great namesake had a hand in their composition . This branch of Shukspcarean lore has been treated to a small extent by a Liverpool attorney , Mr . William Itushtou ; but there must bo still left much to do for a mind so docply stored with law as Lord Campbell ' s . Lot us hopo that the indefatigable Chiof JuaLico will bo more accurate us a

      commentator than as a , biographor . Mr . Cobdcn also , profiting by tho leisure afforded him by tho ingratcs of tho West Riding , lifts boon troualaUng a work on the " Gold Diacovcrios , " by liia friend M . CJiovalior , tho l'Vcnch economist . Tho wprk is intondod to * trace the operation of the gold discoveries of Australia and Onlifornin upon ilie monetary system of Europo , nnd hos already acquired a continental celebrity . The odition -will also rcooivo a new value from tlno ucldilion ° » ft preface and notes by Mr . Cobdon . An important work by Mr . Potor Lund Simmonds , the author of " The Curiosities of Food , " ana eomo curious aud . valuable statistical works ,

      deserves mention . It is upon " The Trade and Commerce of London . " From the prospectus before us some faint idea may be gathered of the immensity and importance of the work . The Shipping and Carrying Trade , Trade in Fibres used in Manufactures , Provision Trade , Trade in Metals , are among the headings of the chief divisions . It will appear in monthly parts , the first to be issued on the 1 st of Februarv next .

      Messrs . Hurst and Blackett announce among their forthcoming publications " Memoirs of the Court of George IV " ., " fr ° original family documents , by the Duke of Buckingham , in two volumes ; " Occola , "by Captain Mayne Reid , in three volumes , with illustrations by Weir ; a new novel ; entitled " Creeds , " by the author of " The Morals of Mayfair ; " and , new works by the author of . " John Halifax , " Mr . James Hanuay , and the author of " The Discipline of Life , " & c . be

      Among the Paris items of gossip may mentioned the curiosity excited respecting the expected publication of Benjamin Constant ' s letters- to Madame Ite ' camier , whose family , however , have interfered , and Madame Colet lias not been able to give them in the feuilletou of the Presse . Some letters by George Sand on the death of Alfred de Mu-ssef were also talked of as . likely to be introduced to print ; but this lady , who numbers among her other gifts a knowledge" of law and a love of litigation , stayed the progress of knowledge by the hands of a hui & sier .

      Among the literary promises of works "looming in the future , " is one of some " Memoirs of Robert Iloudin , " the conjuror , in two volumes—a work likely enough to be amusing in its way . We have not heard Avhat value Houdiu has . set upon his literary performances , but we are sure that it ought to be at least equal to that of Barnum ' s lectures on humbug and money-making , whicli their author rates at so high , a sum that be has refused 1200 / , from Mr . Koutledge for the exclusive right of publishing them in England . The First President of the Court of Cassation , a

      gentleman who boasts the extraordinary name of M . Troplong , has lately published a remarkable , criticism on Glttck ' s " Armide , " in the Revue Contemporaine , proving that the bard of " Ion" is not the only lawyer who can spare time for wooing the Muses , A capital story respecting this exercitation is going the rounds , of the frequenters of the famous § alie cles Pas Pcrdus , the Westminster Hall of Paris . According to the legend , a solicitor who had heard of the article before its appearance in print ( for it had been much talked about ) , fell hito

      the mistake of supposing it to be already published , and happening to have an audience of the First President , he began a string of fulsome compliments upon the merit of the criticism . " You have read it , then ? " asked M . Troplong . " Ten times at least , " replied he of the unblushing cheek . " You must be a very clever man indeed then , " rejoined the judge , " for the article will not appear for live days . " ' The executors of the poet Btfranger are collecting his correspondence for publication , The Monitoitr announces the foundation of a now bi-monthly

      review , to bo entitled the Revue Europeenne—most plainly a device to oppose the during , though fottered ' lisvuo ( fcs l ) eu , v , Monjos . It will , of course , be entirely under Government influence , and the name of M . Grimier do Oassngnrtc is confidently mentioned in connexion with tho editorial chair . The hist item of continental news is that Professor Hollor has discovered , in the library of Count Tjmn , ut Tetsohon , a precious oodox for the history of music , which dates from 100 J-, and contains , on n hundrod and sixleon pages of pnrchmont , a comlete

      p course of music as it was known in the eleventh century . Tho valuo of this discovery is , of course , entirely dependent upon its authenticity , with regard to which musicians look doubtful . Tho obituary of the . week includes a fow names of literary interest ' . Mrs . Wordsworth , tho widow of the poet , died at Rydal on Monday , tho last of a family circle whfoli at onoo included some of the brigh tost and moat genial of minds . ---LadyGeorgiana Wool ft '; u < le Stanhope , also derives alitorary intorest from tho performances of hor husband , the loarnod and oooontrio missionary to Bokhara .

      - Descriptive Ethnology. Descriptive Eth...

      - DESCRIPTIVE ETHNOLOGY . Descriptive Ethnology . By R . G . Latham , M . D . Two vols . 8 vo . Van Voorst . " The proper study of mankind is man , " not only the anatomy of his . mind and I ^ ie functions of has body , but no less so the difference of habits of thought ,, of language , and of formation itself , as exhibited in the various tribes of which the great family of man consists , and which are scattered over the face of the globe . Throughout the whole human race " the chain holds on , but where it ends , unknown , " and to track its course ,, aud to connect its links , is the proper office of ethnological science .

      Of Man , what see we but his station here , From which ' to reason , or to which refer ? National affinities are best traced by the affinities of language , aud the intimate connexion of matt with the soil he inhabits and the language lie speaks , is the most important of all aids to enable us to trace and define each of the many ramifications into which mankind has spread , showing to a certain extent how much , in all nationality is but the creature of circumstance , and man ' s "knowledge measured to his state and place . "

      The chain which connects all these races together is a circular one , and it is difficult to find its beginning no less than its end . Hence Dr . Lathanl wiselvbegius his book without one word of ^ prefac e , without an attempt at -introduetion . The first volume is devoted to Eastern and Northern Asia , and to Europe , and the first chapter to the Bhot Group . What does that name indicate ? Ethnologically speaking it has a wide signification . h little known in its naked formit is

      Thoug , common enough in its altered shape . It is the Bull , ih Ijultistan , the But , in Butan , the Bet ,-it Thibet . Sometimes we hear of the Bhooteeas , sometimes of the Ji / ioti \ -as , In ethnology it comprises the Little TLWaus , the natives of Ladak , the Titans of Ti 6 ef Proper , and the closely allied tribes of Butan . This tract of land is likely to become one of great interest to Europeans in consequence of our recent treaty with China . Let us see what its natural surface

      presents to our view : — The Tibet of the ordinary maps is too much of a table-land , plateau , or steppe . This is because it is imperfectly known ; being a land under the dominion of the Chinese , and jealously protected against European exploration . Where enterprising travellers have actually penetrated , it has- ^ to compare great things -wi th small—been found to resemble the dales of . Yorkshire and the lake district rather than the sandy levels of Hampshire and Norfolk . It has presented long and narrow valleys , and even gorges on the branches of great rivers . It has presented the level alluvia ; of drained lakes , pre-eminently numerous in Ladak aird elsewhere . It has determined the industry of the inhabitants to a true and characteristic form of

      agriculture , for whoro water is scarce and irrigation necessary canal after canal , watercourse after watercourse , has . to be constructed , and these are to be found up to the verjr limits of the inhabited part of the Himalayas . Even when we follow the course of tho Bramaputra , where w « can follow it , the difference is wily one degree . There ia at ill the river between its rocky and elevated banks . There is still tho . tract of alluvial and cultivated soil . The only difference is that tho belts of cultivation are wider as the stream of tho river grows stronger . If these be omitted in tUo mans it ia because they have not been described , not boeayec they aro non-existeut . Nevertheless some portion of the phot area is what the ordtr nary representation * make it—actual etoppo or tableland , with . the manners and customs of Tartary and Mongolia to mutch .

      Here is a field for the explorations of another Eothcn , " or subject for another From PalUmaU to Lassa . Wlmt an opening for railway speculation and electric telegraphs ; what a market ior Manchester , JVinninjrlmm , nnd Glnsgow ; and more than nil , what i \ hind lor English travellers , wlioro passports rmniot nocilcd , dounniers do not overhaul fuggiigc , unil gendarmes aro unknown ! And what if th ' oro arc at pivseut dangers and diflioultics in the way ? So nuioli grout or our mission to ovoroome thorn ; bo much inure need of tho spread of civilisation , by lnciins ol' ^ eoininevce and enterprise , to bring such a 'favoured land -into communion with o \ u > 8 , olvos . its front ibis avc with Hindostnn and Cashnioi-o—shawls and Ro ^ cnt-stroot— -with Little I 3 ok-Imra and tho iulldcl distriofs of Kuflr-isian . l » ero is Lassn , too , with its palaoo , 807 foot high , roaolung

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 22, 1859, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_22011859/page/11/