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some untoward and strained expression , some cold allusion , always come in to show that he is observing and piling up words , but that he is not in communication , so to speak , with the soul of the landscape ; that he lias no real sympathy with the glorious - works and mysterious sounds of nature ; that the sighing of the wind along the mountain side , and the heavy silence of the plain , the rustling of the waves amid the pebbles of a curved and solitary bay , the scream of the petrel , the lowing of herds ; th at ^ he twinkling of stars and the myriad flashes of light and colour over a landscape ; that vast horizons and <> reen nooks , never in reality awaken any tender feelings in his heart . He is more at ease , therefore , in the portions of his work cm
which he seems least to pride himself , when he is not painting pictures but endeavouring to destroy illusions . His account of the monotonous life of Bagneres , though without grace or lightness , and written as if he . was still somewhat bored , is successful as a piece of criticism of manners . We meet here , however , as in twenty other places of the book , the substitute which every serious Frenchman gives his readers for humour when he endeavours to be gay—namely , ridicule of the English . M . Taine , certain of raising a laugh , compares an ancient countrywoman of ours to a cc crooked asparagus , " and accuses her of drinking tea . Nothing , of course , can be more elegant or spirited than this ; but we have seen the same thing five thousand times over . We feel inclined to > ofier a prize for the first French toor which shall not contain similar impertinences .
A pleasant feature in this volume is the reference occasionally made , in a new and striking way , to the ancient legends and historical incidents ' connected with the countries traversed . The story of Pe de Puyane is a ghastly scrap of mediajval annals , and many other sections are almost equsilly remarkable . As the whole book is well written , and the right of its author to speak authoritatively on many points is admitted , we recommend tourists and others to glance at its pages ; but we submit that when M . Tain « leaves his special subjects , he should not endeavour to change his style . Even Voltaire would have been ridiculous had he attempted to paint the teauties of the Upper Alps in tints borrowed from the palette of Rousseau .
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THE PEOPLE'S BLUE-BOOK . The People's Blue-Booh ; Taxation as it is , and as it ought to be . Second Edition . Routledge and Co . Wjth a very unpromising title and exterior , this little hook , like a good kernel in a rough shell , has much that is valuable and interesting in it . The utter neglect of politics , as la science , by the people at large , is greatly to be regretted ; and to it many of our social evils are owing . Were this compendious book only carefully studied , it would go a long way towards educating the political student at least in the broad outlines of social and legislative science , and we earnestly recommend it to all those desirous to exercise their rights and privileges as members of society . The book is divided into three portions—" Taxation as it is , " " Taxation as it ought to be , " and a general review of the subject , entitled , " Concluding observations . " In the first part , in about a couple of hundred pages , the whole system of our present taxation is very admirably condensed ; and a pretty mass of expediency , partiality , and corruption it is . We have not
space to point out the evils engendered by such an agglomeration of ignorance and craftiness , but can only recommend the political student to make himself thoroughly master of it . In the second portion—Taxation as it ought to be—the chief proposition is that 58 ] millions shall be raised annually by a tax of 4 s . in tbe pound , or 20 per cent ., on realized property . Whether this is the best financial scheme that can be propounded in the present state of the nation , this is not the place to discuss , for that is purely a political question of the very highest importance . It is , however , satisfactory to know that the writer is perfectly impartial , and even a selfdenying man , us he is a landholder , and derives his income from landed property . This has been stated in a paper published by tlie Council of the Liverpool Financial Reform Association , and we know it is correct . That the author is an earnest , sincere , and able advocate for the people ' s interest there can be no doubt , and his book is what ho describes it—a " ^ People ' s Blue-book . " Its real object is to expose tlio manifold evils resulting from the present anomalous mode of taxing ; and , secondly , the enormous advantages that would accrue from direct taxation .
Jn justice to tlie author , we conclude with his own statement on this point : — If the people would have ton for Is . a lb ., coffee for 6 d ., sugar for 2 d ., tobneco for 3 d ; the light , wholesome , mid pleasant wines of Franco and the Rhine for 3 d . a bottle , and all the other wines , spirits , mid articles of necessary consumption at prices reduced in the same proportion , they must abolish all customs and excise duties , all income tax , all usscssed tuxes , and nearly all the stump duties , and they must agree to have one tax which will bear equally on nil realized property , and leave every industrious working man in the kingdom to enjoy the produce of his own daily labour , free from all taxation . Reserving our opinion upon ninny of the political opinions put forth in this excellent little work , we heartily recommend it to all who take a healthy interest in public nfl ' airs .
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EDDIES ROUND THE RECTORY . Which t or , Eddies Hound the Rectory . By Owen Vurra . 2 vols . Edinburgh ; James Hogg and Sons ; London : Groombiidgo and Sons . The quaint title of this novel affords no clue to its real character . It is not , as one might assume , a polemical production ; it is something the very reverse of . this , and , therefore , something vastly better . Tuo author evidently possesses a " Iienlthy" mind , cultivated , clogant , full of kuen observation of character , both the good and the bright side , and with a p iquante view of parcnsti < j quality , without a particle of ill-nature . There is no effort at exnggernted caricature , there is no attempt to burlesque the peculiarities of an individual by which ft clnss is brought into undeserved odium , no violent contracts either of tho aupernaturally good and amiable , and the unredcemably vicious and worthless . Tho characters are full oi
life , such as are to be surely found in the walks of society , in which the author has placed the main scenes of the novel . It is just one of those works of which we should be glad to see a larger number produced—proper for the parlour and the drawing-room , in which all classes of novel-readers will find amusement and the cultivated mind something more . The office of the critic is here properly confined to a cordial , and no niggard recommendation . The plot , if we may so term the leading incidents of the story , is mainly to be gathered from the working out of the various characters , which are admirably balanced—the grave , the gay , and the quizzical , alternating pleasantly and naturally . The principal interest centres on the
inmates of the rectory , Dr . Wyndham and his two daughters . Margaret Wyndham , the eldest , we take to be the heroine , a sweet pure-minded girl , who deservedly secures the great matrimonial prize in . Mr . Herbert , the hero , a wealthy semi-misanthrope , made so by early disappointments , but recovered to the business of life and substantial happiness by the combination of charms , accomplishments , and womanly goodness of Margaret Wyndham . The catastrophe—that is , of course , the wedding—is , however , brought about rather too abruptly . The author jnight , we think , have made much more of _ the " situation , " and have accomplished the denoument without calling in the aid of accessories which somewhat mar the reader ' s
interest . But we confess that altogether criticism finds itself disarmed , the merits so greatly preponderate , and the execution generally being so lifeike and talented .
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ILLUSTRATED HANDBOOKS . The Official Illustrated Guide to the South-Eastern Railway and its Branches . By George Measom . Two Hundred Engravings . Published under the authority of the Directors . W . H . Smith and Son ; Arthur Hall and Co . The Official Illustrated Guide to the Northern Railway of France , with Six Days in Paris . By George Measom . One Hundred Engravings , and Map of Paris . Published under the authority of the Directors . W . H . Smith and Son ; Arthur Hall and Co . Practical Through-Routes from London to Germany y Tyrol , Switzerland , § c . To accompany and connect Murray ' s Handkbooks . By an Englishman A-broad . Longman and Co . Great ai * e the mysteries of the book trade . We have here some 325 pages of very well written matter , with apparently the full number of wellexecuted woodcuts for which the title-page takes credit / and all provided by Messrs . Smith for the small charge of one shilling . The author has taken no mere bird ' s-eye or railway-carriage view of the large tract of country
traversed by the South-Eastern , its proper branches , and tbe affiliated lines , but has given a legitimate and an . interesting guide-book in the amplest sense of the word to all that can by any possibility be remarkable in those districts . Each churchy and hall , and ruin , within a walk or ride of any station , brings contributions to the tide of local , personal , and antiquarian knowledge , ransacked from all the local guides and county histories , and harmonized adunguent— -and here we can quite credit the statements of the author—during a long and arduous series of topographical expeditions . To the casual " through-traveller , " whose ideas of the South-Eastern Xtailway are limited to the plunging journey per express from London-bridge to Dover or Ramsgate , and whose experience is never likely to be extended , the Illustrated Guide can be little enough attractive ; but to all who are fortunate enough to be rich in youth and leisure , as well as to those whom , circumstances compel to get the most of pleasure in the least of time , we heartily commend its brimming pages . They will please the pedestrian and the excursionist , not as fellow-travellers only , but as companions and revivers of associations b y the winter fire when the holiday is over , and the worker has returned to his labours . .
The Official Illustrated Gnide , although of undoubted use to excursionists to Paris , is a work of much less scope than that just noticed , and , as a literary performance , not to be mentioned in the same breath . The " six days in Paris" occupy about three-quarters of its bulk , and the information afforded to visitors of tho gay city is , as might be expected , well compiled and interesting ; much pleasanter to read , and infinitely cheaper than the dreary ponderosity of the Galignani . We can have no hesitation in affording it this prominence upon our page at the moment when the swallow flight of travellers are girding up their portmanteaus and fathoming their porte-monnnies .
^ Practical Through-Routes is a selection from such of the continental railway tables as through-travellers hnvo occasion for—said time-tables not warranted immutable . Annexed Handbook highly cn'stallized .
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CLARE THE GOLDSEEKER . Clave the Goldseeker , the Elfin Revel , and other Poe ? ns . By J . G . Watts . Groombridge and Sons . Mr . Watts appeals to our critical sympathies by informing us that once ho carried a knot at Billingsgate as a fish- porter , that he has shaken the knot oflfnnd hits now a fish-stall of his own , finding leisure for " momenta of converse with the ' sacred nine' " Mr . Watts has yet to learn that critics have no bowels—that is , ef compassion—for producers of middling poetry or no poetry , which is an offence to gods , men , and booksellers , and that ; the only pica they can accept as valid for publishing rhyme at all is that the fountain
of inspiration is really situated within the regions of Parnassus . We are sorry to tell Mr . Watts that the volume he has sent us does not contain poetry of the right stamp . Ho quotes Burns as his apology ; but Burns was one of nature ' poetw , who really did converso with the " sacred nine , " whoreus a good dent of Mr . Watts ' a rhyme is due to his recollection , and the " nine" that ho believea ho has conversed with must hnvo been draggle-tailed denizens of the locality where ho Hells his fifth . Seriously , then , although tho volume is credituble as the work of a self-educated man , nnd shows an amount ol talent and observation of life something beyond the common order , our advice to Mr . Watts is to write ns much as liu pleases for his own delectation , but to abstain from print and publication .
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No . 434 , July 17 , 1858 . ] THE LEADER . 691
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 17, 1858, page 691, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2251/page/19/
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