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    nexion with tho cardinal ' s life , from the mass of fiction which surrounds them » and has succeeded creditably in the attempt . He has produced a very useful book , remarkable for the moderation and impartiality of its tone throughout , and offerings plenty of solid information to the reader , in a straightforward unobtrusive way . Mr . Robson ' s faults are mostly faults of what the painters term " execution . " He wants grace and variety in his style * asrd shows little dramatic feeling as a narrator . There are two ways of relating even the sternest and most uncompromising facts—one way makes them amply instructive to the listener ; the other makes them interesting as well . The Art of Harrowing in the latter manner is the High Art of History ; and this Mr . IJobson lias yet to acquire .

    We hav e * two Books of Travel on our present list . One— A Yacht Voyage to Iceland ( Hall , Virtue , and Co . )—is a very nice little hook for railway reading * unafiectedly written , and containing some pleasant information on a subject which still has the merit of comparative freshness to recommend it . The other work , sent by the same publishers , is of greater pretension , is entitled Travels on the Sliores of the Baltic ^ and is written by Mr . S . S . Hill . To readers who want to be anwsed , we caunot venture to recommend this work . It is written in the sotex , jog-trot , Gruide-book style—starts unrelentingly ¦ with the appearance of the sea from the Thames—and ends with some very sensible and serious , but not particularly new , reflections on Religion and the Tomb . Readers , however , of " thoroughly well-regulated minds , "

    only want to c , may salely . s . xne s * ' Travels" led him to Denmark , Norway , Sweden , and Russia , as far inland ns Moscow . He appears to have been indefatigable everywhere in collecting useful information—historical , political , and statistical ; he is a very attentive , though not at all aa amusing observer—and he evidently takes the greatest possible pains to be correct in everything that he relates , from , the first page to the last . To the class of readers just indicated this will be recommendation enough ; and they will find , on referring to Mr . Hill ' s book , that he has fairly and full y deserved it . Of the eight worksof"fiction now on our table , the best by far is Mr . Samuel Sidney ' s collection of stories and sketches , entitled Gallops and Gossips in the Bush of Australia ( Jjoaagman ) . This ia really an interesting ^ tnd excellently-written little volume . Mr . Sidney ' pictures of Australian

    life are represented with' rare vivacity , clearness , and dramatic power . His story of Htmting a Wild Horse is the most vivid and exciting description of a chase that we have read for many years past . Equally admirable for freshness of interest and power of-writing , are u Two-Handed Dick , " the charge of the Bull , and tho fight with the Bushranger . The greater part ; of Mi * . Sidney ' s work originally appeared in the columns oi Household Wordswhich is guarantee enough for the literary ability of the book . Some stories end sketches on English ground are worked in , rather clutasily , at the end of the volume ; the " Gallop for Life . " being among them . Few readers of Household Words can have forgotten with what interest , they perused that -striking narrative of a hairsbreadth escape , on its first appearance in print . We were glad to Tenew acquaintance with , it ; and are happy to have an opportunity of recommending the volume in which it appears to readers of aft ages and degrees . It -would afford us great satisfaction to be able to say as much of another ¦ work of fiction , the scene of which is laid in Australia . Clara Morison •( Parker and Son ) is the production , we are told in the preface , of a young lady -who has resided for some time in Australia , and who has not had an ¦ opportunity of subjecting her book to a final revision . Under these circumstances we have nothing for it but to slmnk from our critical function , and to let Clara Morison pass , without subjecting her to any very close examination . INot to be too serious and severe , then , the story has an air of local fidelity , and shows here and there traces of delicate , womanly observation . There is much pleasant " prattle" about marrying , and dressing , and young gentlemen , agreeable and otherwise , in the book ; and though we cannot say ths * t it is at all likely to take firm hold of the public at large , we think it very well fitted to please young ladies in general . To these most charming portions of the population we beg ( with best love and respects ) to introduce Clara iWbnson- —a young Scotch lady , whose acquaintance , we hope , they will be all delighted to make . What members of the reading public will be glad to make acquaintance with Jcrninffhant ? a Story in Two Voltoms- ( Chapman and Hall ) , we cannot possibly predict . Four times hnvo we sat down to > this book and read with all our might , and four times have we arisen from it without the most distant notion of what it was about . The action in the first volume goes backwards and forwards , and veers about from England to France in the most bewildering manner . The characters , ao fur as we have been able to get acquainted with them , arc an outraged g ipsy queen , a , henpecked innkeeper , a cold-blooded nobleman , a youth of ancient race in depressed circumstances , a French conspirator , and a French coquette , with minor personages , such as spies , gipsies , sharp rustics , groggy sailors , &c , &e ., &c . These characters , it must be understood , are all ia the First Volume . About the Second we know nothing . Our breathing beqwue u slightly stertorous , " and our whole condition " highly comatose" as soon as wo opened it . Having failed in this way in the performance of our critical duty , we will not venture to decide whether Jern ' mglmm ia a good book or a bad book . Other people may be able to understand it , and read it through—we have fnilcd to do cither" the one or the other .

    Tiihury Noao ; or , Passages in the Life of an Unsuccessful Man , by the Author of . * ' l > igby Grand" ( Chapman and Hall ) . Such foolishly farcical names as " Tilbury Nogo" and " Digby Grand" prejudiced us a little against this novel at tho outset ; but we read on patiently , nnd found .. that there wore better things in it than the title-page seemed to promise . Th « atory ia of the " sporting" kind , and ia really amusing in an extravagant way . Tho author has tho first great recommendation of being thoroughly acquainted with tho Ufo that lie depicts . To any thinking and feeling man it » a about aa vapid , cruel , and b » ao a Ufa as can bo looked at nnyvvhoro under the canopy of heaven . Buli if it in to bo displayed in books and to furnish material for amusement to readers , t , he " author of Digby CJrund" is ussuredly the right man . to describe it . Reality runs through oven the most oxnggciwtod parts of tlixu novyl . The socnea nvo evidently taken from real places , tho events from circumstancea which really onco happened , tho persona from

    characters in actual life . This genuine merit , and the endless flow of good spirits on the part of the writer , carried us through the story from beginning to end . If the author only knew how little sympathy we have with swells and sporting- men , he would accept the admission in the preceding sentence as one of the greatest compliments we can possibly pay him . The Last of the Old Squires ( Longman ) , is dated 1854 , but is , as to form and external appearance , quite an ancient book . It is printed in oldfashioned type on paper of old-fashioned thickness ; is written in an oldfashioned style , and peppered thickly in every page with quotations from old-fashioned writers . As to substance , the work may be fairly described as a sentimental amplification in prose of the song of " The Old English Gentleman . " Being ourselves of a radical turn of mind , we cannot feel that the social system of England sustained any very irreparable loss when The

    Last of the Old Squires was removed from . it . We very readily admit that the hearty old gentleman was brave , hospitable , and generous to the people immediately about him ; but we cannot forget that , as to all the rest of the world , he "was also one of the most useless , obstinate , and unreasonable human beings that ever existed . For centuries past , all the little trumpery privileges vron , by the mob ( to which we belong ) have been won in spite of the old squire . He always stood in our way and tried to stop us , unless we happened to be attached to his estate , and to own him . for lord and master , tinder these circumstances , we cannot feel any poignant regret at his loss , or any sincere conviction that it would be for the advantage of England , in these modern days , if his race were revived , among us . At the same time , we have no prejudices against a book -which commemorates his virtues , although we fail to see them ourselves in any

    very striking light . " The Last of the Old Squires" is feelingly , though not at all vigorously , written . The whole heart of the author is in his subject ; and that is a great and genuine merit in any writer on any topic . High Tories ( if , with the exception of Colonel Sibthorpe , there are any now left in the land ) will find this work full of interest . Landed proprietors of ancient race will he delighted with it , frog * the first page to the last . People in . general who , like ourselves , do not possess a foot of land , and never had a . great-grandfather , will not consider it particularly interesting . But the reading world is , as to taste , a sufficiently disunited community ; and " The Last of the Old Squires" will , no doubt , find a special publie of its own to appeal to , even in these turbulent " latter days" of Radicalism and Eeforna . -

    The three remaining works of fiction on our list may be briefly dismissed . The Mj / sterioxis Marriage , by Miss Sinclair ( Clarke , Beeton , and Co . ) , is a cheap reprint . We are All Low People there , by , the author of " Caleb Stukely" ( Routledge } , originally appeared , with the two stories that follow it , in Blackwood's Magazine ; the last tale , called " The Freethinker , " being taken from Balzac ' s Messe de VAthee , without a word of acknowledgment on the part of the author of " Caleb Stukeiy . " Tales of Ireland and the Irish , by « f . G . MacWalter , are published as original productions , but bear a strong family likeness to Irish stories by other authors . The writer is fiercely Protestant in his . manner of treating the characters of Papist priests , and has a second series of stories in preparation , " constructed on the same principle as those in this volume , but somewhat more elaborately worked out . "

    In concluding this notice , a word must be said in commendation of two books which we may class under the head of Miscellaneous Literature . Australia as a Field for Capital , Skill , arid Labour , by John Capper ( Stanford ) , seems a very useful little guide-book for emigrants , and has an excellent map of Australia , showing the position and extent of all the Gold Fields hitherto discovered . Sketches and Anecdotes of Animal Life , by the Ifcev . J . G . Wood ( Routledge ) , though put last on our list , has a very high place in , our estimation . The anecdotes , which are admirably collected and delightfully told , refer to wild as well as domestic animals . This sort of reading has always had great attractions for us ; and we sincerely thank Mr . Wood for giving us much interesting information , in a very pleasant form , on the subject of Animal Life .

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    BOOKS ON OUR TABLE . The Theorv and Practice of Landscape-Painting in Water-Colours . By George Barnard . Part I . William S . Orr and Oo . The Land We Live In—a Pictorial and Literary Sketch-book of the British Islands . Part III . "Willhun S . Orr and Co . Healthy Homes , and TToto to Make Them . By William Bardwell , Architect . Dean and Son . popular Lectures on Astronomy . ¦ By tho late M . Amgo . Translated , with notes , by Walter K . Kelly , Esq ., B . A . Fourth edition . Gcorgo ltoutlcdgo and Co . Schamyl and Ch'cassia . Edited , with notes , by Kenneth E . II . Mackenzie , F . S . A . George Routlcdge and Co . To Mont Blanc and Back Again . By Walter White . George Rontlodgo and Co . Chemistry , Theoretical , Practical , and Analytical . By Dr . Shcridnn Muspratt . William Mackciuuo .

    Songs of the Present . Clarke , Beeton , and Oo . Tides of Ireland and the Irish . By J . G . Mac Walter , F . K . S . L ., &c John Ftirqulmr Shavjr . Th& Sultan of Turkey ,- Abdul Aladjid Khan . John Farqubar Sh * w . Tho lialhs of France , Central Germany , and Switzerland . By Edwlu Loe , Third edition . John Churchill . The Bachelor oftha Albany . By tha Author of tho " Falcon Family . " Chapman and II » D . The Flitch qfXucon ; or , tho Custom ofDunnww . By Wllliiun Harrison Ainsworth . George lioutlcdgo and Co . Trevheii /; or a Cycle in the World's Destiny . A I * ocm in six Books . By Joseph Longl , ind . SaunderaandOthsv . The Haymakers'' Histories . Twelve Cuntos in Terza Jiima . Hy Kuthor . Gcorgo Boll . Travel * vh the Shore * of ' the Baltic , exkndvd to Moscow . By S . S . Hill . Arthur Hall , Virtue , and Co . The History of the . Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire . By Kdwurd Gibbon , Es ( £ . With Notes by Punn Milmnn and l \ . ( . hmot . Vol . 111 . John Murray . Pastinq Clouds ; a Talc of Florence . A J'l , < , / . Longman , Brown , Groen , and Longmans . I ' ucms ' bj / Matthew Arnold . Second Edition . Longman , llrmvu , Green , and Longmans . Critical and Historical Essays . Contrilmtrd to tho Edinburgh Review by tho ttigUt Honourable Thomus B « bhigton Miu-milny , M . I ' . Longninn , Brown , Groen , ana Longmans .

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    Jujly 8 , 1854 . ] TEE -LEADER , 643

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), July 8, 1854, page 643, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2046/page/19/