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Leader (1850-1860), 10th July 1858, Edition 1 of 2, Page 666

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      greater part < rf the siege . To qw > te this passage will , we feel sure , give him pleasures—Father Bertrand , a pattern Itoman C 3 tholie priest , whose services have been justly ieooguisa « d—not by the Government , perhaps ; for judging by its acts , the clergy , and MrtTcalarly that more self-denying portion of it bslonging to the Roman Catholic -Church , seam to have been regarded as a necessary inconvenience ; bat by his own Vicar Apostolic , Dr . Persico , in terms not by any raeana too nattering , consid erlng iia labour * in camp—was in this respect iu a much worse predicament than m yself . He had infinitely smaller allowances , and infinitely fewer comforts than I enj oyed , t > ttt an equal amount of labour . This excellent man . —and surely I may venture thus to designate him , without risk of offence to any , except the most bigoted—Jived as sparingly as a hermit , while he worked as hard as an English dray-horse . If -Government should overlook this good man and his extraordinary services , his own ftock never can and never -will : those services and that -self-denial will live in the recollections of the army as long as a single man survives to tell the tale .

      And like the rest of us , too , the priest militant has a leetle esprit de . co ' rps about him . He is wondrously attached to the Rifleman and the Ghoorka , who seem , by tlie way , to have been as " thick" together as tie Zouave ^ and Highlander before Sebastopol . He has an impression that the field force has been if ! treated about prize-money ; that Grovernment have done neither -wisely nor "well in neglecting to decorate the Sirmoor Battalion ; and iie takes it hard that the achievements of Delhi have beea effivced from the public nrind by the more recent capture of Lucknow . Upon the question of the breach of faith with the army , said to be in-• volved in the Indian Council ' s repudiation of General Wilson ' s promised prize-money , we are neither competent nor anxious to enter ; but at a time ¦ when all that concerns the self-respect , content , and honour of * our armies should he interesting , we will conclude our notice of the ' . ' * ClerVs Tale" in iiis own words : —

      Ere I take my leave of Hindoo Rao and its distinguished defenders , and touch on ¦ other and more general subjects , let me pay a parting tribute of respect to the services of the Sirmoor Battalion . Upon every occasion , and wherever opportunity has presented itself , I have never forgotten to say a Jeind word , and a true word , for the Rifles ; and sure am I that the gallant officers and men of this most distinguished of ¦ all her most gracious Majesty ' s regiments , in or out of India , would not thank me if I omitted to devote a space in this work as a distinct and direct record of the services of that regiment , with which , from ~ &nt to last , they have been most intimately connected in BQilitary operations ; and of which , regiment , from Major Held downwards , I have heard them express themselves in terms of boundless admiration . . . . . . . .

      Nothing was easier , at this tune than for them to have followed the pernicious and prevailing example of the Bengal army . The lives of their European officers were -completely at their mercy- They not only spared , but protected them to the utmost » oT their powery when no other protection was at hand . I believe , indeed , no amount ¦ of praise wtrald be spent extravagantly upon the gallant Ghoorkas of the Sirmoor Battalion , -who determin&tely cast in their lot with tteir English masters , willing to ^ 8 oare with them whatever Heaven might please to determina—fortune or misfortune . ......... A General Order ( No . 1544 of 1857 ) provides , among other things , that every native commissioned and non-commissioned officer and soldier who has formed part of Aha garrison of Lucknow shall receive the order of merit , with the increase of pay . attached thereto , and Bball count three years of additional service . This is way an adequate recognition and reward for the fidelity of a comparatively few soldiers , belonging respectively to the 13 tb , 48 th , and 71 st Bengal Native Infantry . There-Ibre I say that Justice demands that , at least , a similar act of favour and distinction should be extended to every man of the Sirmoor Battalion ; concerning no one of whom the ' lowest and faintest whispers of suspicion of any kind have ever been

      tWMd . - ¦ • . . ¦ . ¦ ¦ ¦ •¦ _ ' ¦ ¦ : ¦ With reference to the comparative public estimation of the two successes —if such they can be called—we have only space for the few last words of the author's comments : — - But if , in addition to these considerations , we take into account the relative amount ¦ of bard fighting at both places , the character of the enemy , . the nature and extent of bis attacks , the interests , larger or smaller , which depended upon success , and the Consequences , more or leas important , that must have followed in the event of a defeat , iibtui Luokuow cannot approach Delhi by a very long way .

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      MAD * DRAINAGE ENGINEERING . A Letter to the Vestry of the Parirh of St . George ' s , Hemover-square . By John Leslie , one of the Representatives of the Parish at the Metropolitan Board of Works . Charles "Weaterton . Aithoij « w vee are committed to the opinion that no more wordy , useless , disappointing public body than the Metropolitan Board of Works was ever ¦ constituted to make itself ridiculous , mistake its functions , impede the progress of business it was created to forward , -we have some pleasure in tiotiotng Mr . Leslie ' s pamphlet , evincing , as it does , a degree of aptitude for tke consideration , of the subject , and of zealous and energetic study , ^ r irioh , we tttak , are unequalled among his colleagues . The majority , the very Urge majority , of the Board hav e always seemed to us incapable of graspihg an engineering question in even the faintest manner . Mr .

      Caroattel , the patent agent , and Mr . Wr * ght , of Westminster , who is , we believe * practical , mechanic , are certainly as able as Mr . Leslie to criticise ( if not to ¦**?)* *« portrp"w » r -and section ; but to the loudest talkers of the assembly engineering is -wow * than heathen Greek—it is a nightmare . You may tafce your member < rf the Metropolitan Board for an airing through , over 4 » d . round the drauiage question , but , with few exceptions ; he must hark * t ?! r ^?*! p T . ?*? * ° < l « 8 kionB of nnanoe , the magnificence and rights of" tfc . s boar * r th « oppression of her Majesty ' s Government , the prSfure of rates in general upon his own peculiar Buncombe , and the propriety of ^ pporiinnf the "<» gmeer to thi * Board" i * everything against everybody . Hfi will listen ~» f Ue is too tired to talk-but he wifl not under-^ S ££ * £ ? La l ie ^ ^ V * "" » P" ^ « vasiv « i may well be conoetved-fbr our author is , physically , too large a party to be snuffed out < wy in an hows debate , or to be satisfactorily met upon fair irround at all SftSZZ \^ t ^ rt - ' ° - indUCed ^ ™ o& hi ^ Kcifate " s » d other vestry matters ( though lie is great enough upon these at times ) ,

      unpeas , ges , as in his orations , with notes of admiration and " small caps . " The Report of the above-named engineers is Mr . Leslie ' s text , and the moderation which lias confined him to only fifteen pages , is , considering the fertility of the subject , and the knowledge and-vivacity of the critic , trul y surprising . The adoption of the said Import by said . Board has given rise , says he , to a great crisis in the M . B of W— deeply affecting the sanitary condition of the metropolis . But to this we emphatically demur . We do believe that the Board ' s own existence is in a critical state , but that its disease or death can seriously affect the sanitary condition , of London we have not the remotest apprehension The outfalls B and B * , projected by Mr . Bazalgette , adopted by the

      Metrolant difficultiesand dred them but hurls his hurricanes of figures and interjections at the head of cliain or engineer , or whoever for the moment may be selected for his vi . t ' until the dawn of reason—which comes seldom , there to pass the efflux !™' of time , or the emptiness of benches give him warning that he may leave oft conscientiously , or talk to himself . And now , as Mr . Leslie ' s constituents , the ratepayers of St . George ' s Hanover-square , will not go to hear him at the Metropolitan Board of tall- * he invokes Mr . Westerton ' s aid and appeals to them in the present nan ' phlet , and puts Messrs . Bidder , Hawkesley , and Bazelgette upon the en < n neering gridiron of black and white plans and sections , bastes them with

      politan . board of Works , rejected by the common sense of the entire public who are competent to consider the matter , and again brought forward by Messrs . Hawkesley and Bidder , meet with Mr . Leslie ' s very sound censure as being what he calls " elongated cesspools . " Of the pumpin g station at Chelsea , which will be necessary if it be resolved to lift the western sewage to the level of the rest , Mr . Leslie also disapproves of , as well as of tbe alternative deodorizing propositions . He of course has a little scheme of his own , which is deserving of far more consideration than it is likely to

      receive at the hands of his friends and colleagues , but which is certain not to have escaped observation iu the proper quarter , and , if original—for in these days it is hard to say that aught is original—will , in the fulness of time , be appropriated or spoilt , as has been done before now , by some scheming " referee , " possibly without thanks or acknowledgment . He proposes the abolition of gully and ventilating gratings ., the great means by which the road dirt and mud are swept into sewers ; to have all surface cleansing dealt with by scavengers ; all surface rainage and .. storm waters allowed to find their natural access by surface drains to the river , which , absurdly enough , all parties unjustly endeavour to despoil thereof ; Hurl thfi apnamtn fnWoni \ nn cimrl rJicnlicir- r *^ nt' + !¦ >*» r ~ m « r . ~ -. «~ . ~~« .. r l'l .: n l «_ i . *» w vv ** % / # uiowuiHgv iixtsvTvns liO

      , — : . "" w ^ . ^^^^*»^« . ««^ a * ««»>«« v »* .. ^> c ^ invum xUID u should add but little to the weight of daily water supply of the metropolis , and to carry it clear away no more than a 10-foot sewer falling 2 feet per mile would , according to Mr . Leslie , be necessary . As compared with the colossal imaginings of Messrs- Bazalgette , Bidder , a » d Hawkesley , this seems to involve a saving between Putney and the sea of perhaps 2 , 000 , 000 / . This is so startling an economy , and so plausibly put forth , that , without expressing any opinion upon the engineering merits , we are glad , so far as we ^ may , to assist in making known to the parishioners , of St . George ' s that their public-spirited representative has placed himself in communication with them through the medium of the press .

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      LATTER-DAY POETRY . It is no light task that we undertake in . toiling through the heaps of poems ¦ whi ch constantly lie on our table . The day-dreamings of fever—the faint , half-conscious visionariness of convalescence , when all objects have a look of unreality and ghostliness—are the only conditions of ordinary experience to which we can compare the state of mind produced by the morbid mutterimgs of poets who have enough power to produce some sort of effect , yet not sufficient to conceive clearly or bring forth healthily . A little volume now before us—The Strawberry Girl , with Other Thoughts and Fancies in Verse , by H . M . Rathbone , Authoress of ie The Diary of Lady Willoughby" ( Longman and Co . )—has something of the character just indicated , but can also boast of better elements . The first of the poems in this

      volume contains some vcryvpretty pastoral writing , and a feeling for nature pervades most of Mrs . RathboncV verses . Sweetness of disposition , womanliness , a strong sense of religion , and occasional pathos , arc qualities which , in Mrs . Rathbone , alternate with weakness and superfluity ; and we must object to the prevalence of a melancholy , dreamy tone in most of the poems . How is it that our lady poets are always so provokingly lachrymose ? Why cannot they sec the sunshine as well as the rain ? The lady whoso work is before us can , however , really affect her readers to tears , as in the poem called The Village Funeral , which is strongly felt and delicately expressed . It is supposed to be addressed by a sick girl to her mother , find in it are these two linos , the piteous truth of which must be felt by nil who have thought or suffered : —

      So many die , and ull goes on Just us it ( lid before ! The poem called The Slawheny Girl was suggested by Sir Joshua lleynold ' a churming picture so called , a woodcut of winch stands before the title-page . Primula : a Book of Lyrics , ( Hardwicko . )—The anonymous author of this volume exhibits richness of fancy , picturesqueness , and romunce , and some very beautiful passages are scattered over his pages ; but we note great vagueness ami want of purpose , an absence of reality and substance , and iv too frequent reaort to that habit of mumbling about the mysterious and the ghostly to which we have already nlluded as characterizing tho minor poetry of the present day . The author seems to be greatly fascinated by legends of water spirits and of calamities on rivers and seas . There is an oxcoss ol this ; but some of the passages are very striking , and have a touch of the music of the " huinnaing -waters . " The reader may judge for himself from tho subjoiuod specimen : — Melusina would not chant of anght Hut the still rivers , mid of wlint may bo Lock'd in tho < leen , illimitable soa .

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      eea thie leadeb , [ n . o , 433 , jui , y 10 ; ib& 8 .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), July 10, 1858, page 666, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2250/page/18/