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    A BATCH OF SCIENTIFIC BOOKS . We here ^ roap together six scientific works which demand a notice from u but which are not of a character to furnish separate articles likely to interest the general reader ; and our observations will be understood solely as addressed to persons likely to be purchasers . "We have alread y borne testimony to the excellence of Professor Miller ' s Elements of Chemistry , of which the second part , containing Inorganic Che ~ mistry ( 8 vo ., J . W . Parker and Son ) , is now oefoie us . It is essentiall y a working book , meant for the laboratory , not for the library . The exposition is lucid , the examples well chosen , the diagrams numerous . There is little originality either of view or discovery ; but a good digest of what is known must be indispensable to students ; and this , as the latest , is worthy of its

    place among the few good works our language possesses . The third part , which will embrace Organic CAemwfry , will shortly appear , and we shall take that opportunity of offering a more detailed criticism . Of the Manual of Zoology , by M . Milne Edwards , translated by B . Knox , M . D . ( 12 mo ., Renshaw ) , we wish Dr . Knox had permitted us to say nothing but what is complimentary . The work he has translated and abridged is well-known to us , and , its ai \ le of < 3 O , (| 0 O copies has made it well-known to a large public ; and if Dr . Knox cowld have been induced to confine his labours to simple translation , the English public would have felt their gratitude unmixed . He has not been so content . He has made this admirable little book the occasion for some unseemly displays of vanity and ignorance . He

    cannot resist trumpeting his own , claims . He calls attention to " my vast experience . " M . Milne Edwards " is my most esteemed friend , " Zoology must be introduced into university education because it is " my favourite pursuit . " The text of Milne Edwards must bo interrupted in order that the reader should learn how the eminent de Blainville was my friend . " Who cares ? Who ia Dr . Knox , and what has he done * that tbe pages of a handbook of zoology should be made an advertisement of his personalities and lua friendships ? He sneers at English anecdotic and quasi ~ popular books of zoologists from which " all elevated and correct views of science are excluded , and in which the masterly labours of Buffon and Cuvier , the profound views of Goethe , Okcn , and Spix can scarcely bo recognised , " Of course , in thus sneering , Dr . Knox is perfectly familiar with

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    faceties , announced the' event in the following terms : " Hier sa Majesty tres Chre ' tienne , a 4 t 4 attaqu ^ e d ' une indigestion , dent M . le Due d'Eacars eat mort I 0 lendemain . " Describing the first meeting of the Reformed Parliament , Mr . Raikes calls Cobbett a boBe-grubber . " Yet he objected to " personalities . " Like many of the sayings here preserved , the following is not at the beginning of its career ; but it falls in freshly in a note commencing , " Mr . Coleridge is dead : "There is little prospect of his place being soon supplied in the literary world . His conversational powers were very great . On an occasion when the doctrine of the Sacramentaries and theRoman Catholics , on the subject of the Eucharist , -was in question , he solved the difficulty at once , by saying 1 , " They are both equally wrong , — the first have volatilised the Eucharist into a metaphor , the last have condensed it into an idol . "

    are " respectfully dedicated" by his editor to " H . I . M . Napoleon . III . ' The Reform Bill is carried : — At Ia 3 fc this awful question is settled . Lord Grey announced in the House that he had received assurances which enabled him to congratulate tbe country on the success of the bill . He had the means of carrying it unimpaired in all its "branches ; but he did not say -whether by creation of peers or secession of the opposition . Mr . Hume , the member for Middlesex , and most vapouring radical in the House , has shown that courage ia not amongst his peculiar virtues . He in the most uncalled-for manner wrote to the constituents of Mr . Horatio Ross , member for the Scotch burgh Arbroath , Aberdeen , &c , thai he had deserted his duty to them , and was become JLukewarm in the cause of reform : Mr . Boss instantly wrote to him , that he was a malicious liar , and demanded a recantation or satisfaction . The cautious demagogue submitted to the insult , and . retracted his expressions , in a letter which Mr . Ross will be well justified in publishing . k And the Tories are in terror : —

    The Tory party , —whose apprehensions for the future are most desponding , who think that a complete revolution is near at hand , and that property must every day become less secure , —are glad to retrench their usual expenses and are beginning by economy to lay by a poire pouv la soif . Those who have money at command are buying fuaids in America , or in Denmark , which , they think least exposed to political changes . Those who have only income are reduced to retrench ; but all seem impressed with , the idea that they cannot long depend on their present prosperity . The Duke is mobbed on the 18 th of June : — I am even glad that the brutes have singled out this very day to exhibit their malicious vengeance ; that they may show to all Europe what monsters the Radicals really are . Mark the senility of the generalisation . En route we pick up an epigram composed after M . Dupin had delivered the oration in which he said that Louis Philippe could speak every language in Europe : —

    II parle Italien , Anglais , Russe , Saxorijijai'gon Souabe , II ecorche aussi le Franeais , Mais il ne pense qu ' en Arabe . ; ' Thomas Raikes had a delicious way of patronising men of letters : Tuesday , October 2 .- ^ Theodore Hook is of the party , here / Hook is an author ; he has written Sayings and Doings , the farce of Killing no Murder , &c . He is an editor , the chief compiler of John Bull , a wit and . a wag . The old woman , in Athlone had a keener style :-

    —Old Lord Castlemaine was extremely rich , but a miser . One day he was stopping in his carriage to change horses at the inn at Athlone , when the carriage was surrounded by paupers ,-imploring alms , to whom he turned a deaf ear , and drew up the glass . A ragged old woman in the crowd cried out , " Fait , an' it ' s no use ; " , going round -toy the other side of the carriage , she bawled out , in the old peer ' s hearing , " Plase you , my lord , just chuek one tinpenny out of your coach , and I'll answer ifc will trate all your frinds ia Athipae . " We have one more picture of Talleyrand in private life—Lord Sefton is the visitor : —

    He was ushered into the dressing-room of this celebrated octogenarian , who was under the hands of two valets de cliambre , while a third , who "was training for the mysteries of the toilette , stood looking on with attention to perfect himself in his future duties . The priuce was in a lodse flannel gown , his long locks ( for it is no wig ) , which axe rather scanty , as may be supposed , were twisted and crepvs with the curling-iron , saturated with powder and pomatum , and then with j ^ reat care arranged "into those snowy ringlets which have been so much known and remarked all over Europe . His under attire was a flannel pantaloon , loose and undulating , except in those parts which were restrained by tbe bandages of the iron bar which supports the lame leg of this-celebrated cut dejatte . Mr . Raikes , who prophesied the ruin of England by the Reformers , believed in second sight : —

    It is now about fifteen months ago that Miss M , a connexion of my family , went with a party of friends to a concer t ot the Argyle Rooms . She appeared there to be suddenly seized with indisposition , and though , she persisted for some time to struggle against what seemed a violent nervous affection , it became at last so oppressive , that they were obliged to send for their carriage and conduct her home . She was for a long -time unwilling to say what was the cause of her indisposition ; _ but , on being more earnestly questioned , she at length confessed that she had , immediately on arriving in the concert room , been terrified by a horrible vision , which unceasingly presented itself to her sight . It seemed to her as though a naked corpse was lying on the floor at her feet ; the features of the face were partly covered by a cloth mantle , but enough was apparent to convince her that the body was -that of Sir J Y . Every effort was made by her friends at the tito her mind b

    me tranquillise y representing the folly of allowing auch delusions to prey upon her spirits , and she thus retired to bed ; but on the following day the family received the tidings of Sir J— Y having been drowned in Southampton River that very night by the oversetting of his boat , and the body was afterwards found entangled in a tout cloafc . To which is appended : — Here ia nn authenticated case of second sight , and of v « ry recent date . Some amusing illustrations of King William ' s character are given : — Sunday , 6 th . —The other day 0 . large party dined at tine Pavilion . Among the gueste was the American Minister . The King was seized with has fatal habit of making a speech ; in which he said , that it was always a matter of serious regret to him that he had not been born a free , independent American , so much he respected that nation , and considered Washington the greatest man that ever lived . The next ia not so amiable : <—

    At the loveo a considerable sensation was created the other day by his insiatinK on an unfortunate lieutenant in the navy , who had a wcoden leg . kneeling down to Jti 38 hande : it was impossible ; but the sovereign would not concede the point , and tho other was obliged to hobble away witihout going through tho ceremony . ° The following , though not new , mny bo fresh to some readers : — £ hoy have lured u French S pok for the Oarlton Club from Paris , who lived formerly with tho Duo d Escarfl , premier maitre d'Mtel of Louis XVIII ., and who prebahly mode that fwnoue pOU de sancieaon * which killed his master . It waa eoryed at breakfast ab tho Tuilories to the king , who with tho duke partook ao voraciously of it , that tho former won attaoked with a dangerous fib of indigestion , from whioh ho with difficulty recovorod , and tho latter absolutely died from tho exoesa on tho following day . On © of tho French joutooIb , remarkable for its

    In these journals Mr . Raikes was accustomed to make entries from newspapers . The practice was not without its utility . A novelist may take advantage of this macaronic artist : — The extraordinary composure with which even a painful deafchlnay be content plated is exemplified by a criminal who is under sentence of execution for a murder in one of the prisons of Munich at this present time . He has made with crumbs of bread and a sort of macaroni several figures illustrating the scene in which he will quit the world . He has figured the instant when the executioner having cut off his head , is holding ifc up to public view . A Franciscan friar on his knees is at the side of the headless corpse ; near tae priest is an invalid with a wooden leg selling a true and full account of his judgment and execution . And naturalists maybe glad of this : —

    The Nuremberg Gazette mentions that last year a Polish gentleman caught a stork on bis estate at Lemberg , which , he released , having previously fixed round its neck an iron collar with the following inscription : Mcbc ciconia ex Polortia . This year the bit'd has returned , andbeen , again entrapped by the same individual , who has found its neck ornamented -with a second collar , but made of gold , and thus inscribed : India cum donis miitit cicmia , Polis . The bird has again been set at liberty for further adventures . And this : — On the 10 th insfc a wild goose -was shot on a moor near Dantzig , with a brass collar round its neck bearing the following inscription in Dutch , —Jwis te Batik byZutpTieninQuelderland 180 Q , which inay be taken as evidence of -the long life of the wild goose . When the diarist moralises , it is in a style which Mr . JMFaeaulay—not weindicates as " peculiar drivel . " Between England and France he says , the trial has been that of depth versus diffusion —

    England escaped the convulsion , but not the contagion ; the sparks that rose so hear fell in the waves that guard our isle ; but the air was heated , and the glow breaks out j everywhere the proud spires of our sacred : edifices , rose up" paraionnerres ; but though they averted the flash , they could scarcely divert the commotion . With the new century , therefore , a new scene opened on us ; it found us deep in the struggle—the cause was sacred , our altars and homes- — when other nations were worn with , their woe , England ever watchful at - the trembling helm , her greatness grew- with the madness of the gale , her bosom hung on the wings of the storm ; it was a glorious sight , all looked to her confidingly , many loved her sincerely , her features were strongly marked , her barriers staunch , and stern . By Mr . * Itailces * " set" Beau Brummel was familiarly remembered . The " Journals " remind us of an exquisitely cool thing written by tlie fop to a friend in the depth of his reverses . ' s-7-I heard of you the other day , in a waistcoat that does you indisputable credit , spick and span from Paris , a broad stripe , salmon colour and cramoisi .

    The volumes are abundantly amusing ; but , as with the -diaries of Pepys , the writer gains nothing by the publication . The difference between Pepys and Raikes was , that Pepys was a maundering rogue , while Raikes , in all senses of the word an honourable man , maundered more woefully .

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    March 15 . 1856 . j THE LEADEH 2 S 7 1 ' - ' ¦ ¦ ————— ^ ¦ " ^¦ ^— i ^^ — ¦ ^ i ^ W ^ m

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), March 15, 1856, page 257, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2132/page/17/