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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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lirtieh effort ? Mr . Jones apparently means " the miftttfenee will be seeiUVrthont rttucsh eftort on the part of Ms hearers . " His titifinishefd works have many Such sentences . Even his finished works are disgraced l > y them . Iii his carefully prepared lecture we find such sentences as these : — " The forms and modes of distributing the produce of their lands fcnd labour , adopted in the early Stages of a people's progress , " , " " Inlooking at the different nations Of tne world , we find them assisting ^ the industry oftheir actual population by Very different quanti--feies of such accumulated wealth . " The different nations of the world are identical -with the " actual populations , " so that one can in no sense be said
to assist the other . Nations and actual populations are different names for the same things . We must say straight out that we never met with a book in which language was used with so little thought as to its customary meaning . As the work is put forth by the Master of Trinity , it is , we presume , one of the class of works , which he informs vis the " Syndics of " the Press belonging to the tJniversity ' Cambridge take on themselves the expense of printing . " They printed thus , Mr . Jones ' s Essay on Rent . This is the mode , then , in which the * renowned tJniversity of Cambridge expends its great revenues on incorrect thinkino-, expressed in incorrect language .
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DICTIONARY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE . A Critical Dictionary of English Literature , and British and American Authors , Living and . Deceased ; from the Earliest Accounts to the Middle of the Nineteenth Century . By S . Austin Alliborie . Vol . I . pp . 1005 . Philadelphia : Childs . and Peterson . London : Triibner . 1859 . It is no national shame upon us when we admit that the work before us has no equal among books of the same kind , compiled by English editors ; because Mr . Allibone confesses , arid if he did not eonfess it would be obvious , that he has made a free use of the labours of Watt , Lbwndes , indeed ,
of every bibliographical work of importance that has ever been published , either in England or America . The list of works referred to , given in the introduction , contains many hundreds of names ; and , indeed , it . must be clear to any one who will give a moment ' s reflection to the matter , that that , 'which is after all ( with no disparagement be it said ) only a compilation could not be put together without a careful and industrious collection of materials from all imaginable sources . For this reason it cannot be said that because Mr . Allibone has done more than his predecessors , he is therefore greater than them . A child may stand upon ' the Brxoulders of his ancestor and say that he is
taller than grandpapa ; and it is clear that whatever credit may be due to Mr . Allibone ( and that is no slight measure ) , arises entirely from the judgment with winch he has selected his materials , and the industry with which he has arranged them . * \ Ve certainly entertain no more exalted idea of his labours when we learn from the prospectus that " the volume contains . ¦ upwards of two millions of words , " arid that " in bulk , of typographical matter it is equal to thirteen volumes ( 470 pages each ) of Putnam ' s edition of Irving ' s works , or about fourteen volumes of Prescott'a , Bancroft ' s or Hallam ' s Histories , 8 vo .: " yet we d , o feel a great deal of
respect and admiration . for the industry of an editor who can compress within little more than a thousand pages very fairly complete notices of . not less than seventeen thousand different authors , whoso initial letters range between A and J , and of all of whom biographical particulars aro given , nnd some at very gi'ont length . Tims , wo find on opening the volume at random , that more than three double-column , closely-printed pages are given to Beaumont and Fletcher ; a' page and a half to Fox ; a page to Sir Matthew Iiale ; a page and a half to Gilbert Burnet ; three pages and a half to
Bentley , the scholar ; five pages and a half to Byron ; seven pages to Lord Bacon ? whilst the American authors are not neglected , since Edward Everett haa three pages and a half ; Bancroft two pages 5 and Washington Irving nine pages and a « W . Those tire , of course , exceptional oases ; but HSwhr Tyill serve to give some idort of the core with • rtjnoh . theVork has been executed . JPwThtvpa the nnoHt complete work of vefereneo of this kind which has been published in Europe during tltolipist ipri years is the " Bibliographioal-Biographi-Oal Bib ' tibmary , ' " * by Oottinger . That , however , woi *
constructed upon a different plan : the names of celebrated persons were given , with the nature of their celebrity ; dates of Irirtb . and of death briefly noted , and then a list of all the works ( so far as the editor could collect them ) containing any information respecting the person named . This work , however , which took the range of all imaginable celebrities , only contained about 25 , 000 names ; whereas this volume of Allibone , which is confined to authors of England and America only , and which has only such as can be alphabetically arranged between A . and J , gives , as we have stated before , 17 , 000 names .
It niay , perhaps , be asserted as an unexceptional fact , that the first editions of all such works as these must be necessarily imperfect . They are only to be rendered otherwise by constant correction and the slow accretion of facts ; and so vast is the field of literature—so brief the life of man—that without the assistance of those criticisms and corrections , which the publication of the earlier editions always bring to an author , no work of this kind could ever come within any reasonable distance of perfection . Haying so much to work upon , and engaging the aid of such careful guides as Watt , Lowndes , and Chalmers , Mr . Allibone is pretty safe , so far as their labours are concerned : it is Only when he comes to the more familiar , and therefore less understood regions of contemporary
literatiirej that his authority is not quite so . Although lie had the biographical section of Knight ' s Cyclopaedia , and " Men of the Time " ( not a very reliable authority , it must be admitted ) , to guide him , there are omissions under the head of English literature . Glancing over the pages , we miss many such modern names as Sydney Dobell , Pierce Egan , John Clay , the " old Gaol Chaplain , " Stirling Coyne , Robert" Brough . Scores of others might be named . Still , it is wonderful what a mass of material has been got together , and what small reputations have not been forgotten : to the smaller of these fry , " Men of the Time" would , of course , liberally assist the editor for never surely was there a work in which so many flies were carefully enclosed in amber , very much to the bewilderment of the unwary student .
From the observations which we have offered , Our readers will perceive that we have taken some pains in examining this book ; and , after liavjng done so , we can conscientiously declare that , taking it for all in all , it is the best and most convenient book of the kind extant>—the only one , in fact , which affords the kind of information which it contains . Its price , though , of course , not very small , is low enough to place it within the reach of moderate collectors j and it is a proof of the H consideration in which it is hold in America that the sale is said to exceed already 12 , 000 copies .
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THE BROAD ARRQW \ The Uroad Arrow , being Passages from the History of Maida Gwynnham , a Lifer . By Olive Keeae . 2 vols . ¦ •"" ' London : li . Bentley . It is a pity these volumes were not submitted to the correction of some judicious and experienced friend before publication . . A good deal of the improbable would have been . omitted ; the leading incidents would havo been mad , o more consistent with probability , and the style would have been prunod of that redundant affectation and sentiment which so largely disfigure the work . It required a good deal of tact to deal with convicts and convict life ; that tact has , to a certain extent , been
wonting : but nevertheless thero is much power evinced in the handling of the leading passages and personages , and much insight affbraod into convict life and treatment in tlio penal colonies , We hope the pictures of severities to which convicts aro subjected aro overcharged ; wo fear , however , there is ifcoo much truth at bottom , and wo fool assured that xnany of the scones in the colony aro not more efforts of imagination , but nave their foundation on facts and personal observation . The plot of " The Broad Arrow" is full of improbabilities . A
beautiftil , haughty , and well-educated girl , falls a victim to a gay , shallow , unprincipled military adventurer . She commits forgery under his instruction . She ia taken up on that charge and on another false charge pf clnld-murder . To save her paramour she voluntarily submits to trial for the deeper offence of child-murdor . She is found guilty on oyidenoo that would not havo satisfied even a Welsh jury , and is condemned to die . A ropxieve ih obtained by her seducer , and the punishment is
commuted to transportation : for life . From this point we gain an insight into convict habits and discipline ; this being perhaps the main design of the authoress . Certainly this portion of " The Broad Arrow" is the most readable and probable portion Of the work . The trials and sufferings of the guiltless Maida are well detailed : but we stumble upon improbabilities throughout her career . Her seducer marries ; this comes to her knowledge ; she does not seek the redress of an injured and innocent woman—she calmly puts up with her fearful lot , and writes home to inform the reprobate who is the
cause of her unmerited sufferings that she will keep silence on one condition only , namely j that he remains faithful to and treats his new wife with tenderness . Of the death of Maida and the remorse and end of the seducer we shall say nothing as they but add to the catalogue pf improbabilities , all of which , as we have already said , . ¦ mi ghjt have been modified or avoided by judicious revision . There is some very good writing , and , what is rarer , some novel situations and characters , which redeem the work , and will probably cause it to be popular with that class of readers who like strong sensations .
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Rose-coloured Spectacles . A novel , in one volume by Mary and Elizabeth Kirby . * James Blackwood . This is a pleasant novel . It refreshes us somewhat in the manner of a fireside evening , after tossing on the ocean , or travelling through dangerous localities . We have home scenes and domestic characters , and the lady authors have shown themselves quite up to their subject , arid beyond'it , in some respects . Take the character of Laura Melville , for instance . She
is far out of the common run of novelists' heroines , and we are almost inclined to quarrel with the literary twain for marrying her to a common-place-lifee young spark as Arthur Rosenburgh . Such a clever , loveable , lovely , and downright heiress of a rich miser was worthy of the most stalwart , finelychiselled featured , manly -minded monster of perfection to be found on this or the other side of the Atlantic . We hope to see something more from the dainty pen of these clever writers .
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BOOKS RECEIVED . The Unitarian Pulpit . No . 24 . E . T , Whitfield . Cassell ' s Pojntlar Natural History . No . 1 . Cassell , Petter imd Co . 2 'he Finunces of Great Britain Considered . By Reuben Browning . Richardson Brothers . Reuben Sterling , a Tale of Scottish Life . By Samuel A . Cox . In 3 Vols . T . C . Newby . Handy BooJi on the Law of BariMiuj . By W . J , Lawson . Effingham Wilson . A Tour in Dalmatiit ., Albania , and Montenegro . R . Bentley . Moore ' s I ? 'ish Melodies . Koh . 0 and 10 . Longman and Co . Woodldgh , in 3 vols . Hurst and Blaekett Communing * upon Daily Texts . { Sampson Low and Co . A Statistical View of American Agriculture . Triibner and Co . The North American Review . No . 188 , Sampson Low and Co . The Fine Arts in Italy . E . T . Whitneld . A Volume of Smoke . A . Hall , . Virtue , and Co . A Simple Interpretation of the Revelation . Tnllant and Co , Beaton ' s Dictionary of Universal Information : Parts 1 to 0 . W . O . Bolton . That ' s it . Hpiilaton nn J Wright . Who was Sold at the Buhbloton Election . W . Kent TheNw Apostles s or , Iroinalsm . Jus , Blackwood . Don Patquale i Lo Serenade ( Miwie ) . toon and u > .
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Cotton Suri'Mr . —The adaptability oi Austra la nnd South Africa to tho growth of cotton pi tno most useful , na well as the finest qunliiioH , isi plttoo « beyond doubt , by tho samples now at Munc lostor oj cotton recently grown inthoso loeulitos . / "o ^ fg Supply Reporter ( issued by tho Manchester A »«» tion ) of Saturday , publishes furtlior correspondence rSvod i ' vom botli ilieao oolonloB . The Oovornopof Sydney , Sir Willlftin ipenison , takes iv stro » 8 flPJJ sonal intereat in tho auostion of promotJ « 'B t » o « u » tivution of opttonln Australia , and b \ Qut . -bovovnm Soott , ofNtttal , iadolnff all in liis power ^ »[}» JJ the same object at tho Cape . Private no olu n " and oultivatprs In both counlrius uro twrnjntf t ««« attouilou to cotton culture , and wo loan »» «" labourers have boon engaged to commence oultl > aii ° H at RocUlmmpton , In Australia .
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S ^ ; ¦ f : IIS 1 / B A IB B , } No . ^ 74 , Aa ^ it > 23 , 18 §^ .
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Leader (1850-1860), April 23, 1859, page 526, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2291/page/14/
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